Heaps & Barrels: Edition 1
January 19, 2008
TOP OF THE HEAP
Runner-up:
The internetI’ve never done a true blog until now, where I can express my opinion, and allow others to agree or disagree with that opinion. I thought coming up with a blog that points out a couple of good news or personal items, combined with a couple of rotten items, would be something interesting to write about once in a while.The internet has also been my lifeblood for about a decade now. I have been working as a software engineer for 18 years, and my most prosperous years have been during the prominence of the internet.
I am also convinced that, when unrestricted by governments, that the free flow of information afforded by the internet will increase freedom around the world. Oppressive governments tend to restrict information, and the internet makes information easy to obtain. It is up to the individual to disseminate and scrutinize such information.
Top of the Top:
Fatherhood
Let’s start on a good note here — I was married for over 13 years before I was blessed with a child. The story I like to tell people is that when my wife took one of those home pregnancy tests and it came up positive, I told her that she was dreaming and come back to bed. Well that dream did indeed come true, and my kid is the most precious girl on earth.
Having a child of my own has definitely changed my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s cool to have perfect strangers come up to you when we’re in a restaurant or a store and compliment us on how cute or how well-behaved our daughter is.
As a scientist, I’m fascinated by her growing awareness of herself and her surroundings.
Are there challenges? Sure there are, but fathers have it easier than mothers, starting at conception! Being a daddy is most definitely at the Top Of The Heap.
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Runner-up:
President Bush’s $145 billion stimulus planThere’s no doubt the economy is slowing down. Some legitimate organizations believe the U.S. is already in a recession, while other agenda-driven organizations, led by the mainstream media, have been saying for years that the U.S. is in bad shape in order to shape opinion.One item that is causing the U.S. economy to slow down is the high gas prices we all have had to pay for the last four years. Money paid at the gas pump means less that can be paid for other expenses.
More recently, credit is now harder to obtain, due to irresponsible lending practices during the big housing boom earlier this decade, combined with the raising of interest rates. This is affecting consumer spending at all levels.
Now that it’s an election year, President Bush obviously wants the Republican party to remain in the White House and pick up seats in Congress, so he has proposed a $145 billion stimulus package composed of $100 billion in tax “rebates” and $45 billion in business tax breaks.
Here’s the problem: these “rebates” have been done before and proven not to stimulate the economy, this is straight deficit spending, the rebates will be given to those not paying federal income tax, and the rebates will not be given to people making “too much” money. In other words, this is a horrible waste of money, and is classic pandering during an election year.
What should have happened is more comprehensive tax reform, both at the corporate and individual level, should have occurred while the Republicans were in control of Congress. Instead, the President and Congress were spending money like it grew on trees. This stimulus package and its true intention, a vote-buying scheme, is a runner-up to the Bottom of the Barrel.
Bottom of the Bottom:
Kirk Mellish, WSB-AM Meteorologist
WSB-AM is one of the premier news-talk stations in the country, flanked by nationally-syndicated hosts Neal Boortz and Clark Howard. So how can such a station carry nationally-syndicated disgrace Michael Savage and employ fraudulent weather-caster Kirk Mellish?
Kirk Mellish reads the weather for Atlanta news-talk station WSB-AM. He predicts the weather in terms of a “Mellish Meter.” Nobody knows how that meter reading is calculated; one would have a better chance of figuring out what a Wang Chung is.
The Atlanta area had a snowstorm and subsequent icing this past Thursday. For days and even hours before the storm hit, his prediction was light rain and that was all, citing his own “models.” He went on to state this was his hardest forecast in 10 years. Most other meteorologists had forecast light snow and a gradual warming overnight to light rain. We ended up with about 1/2 inch of snow at the Atlanta airport, about 1 inch just north of the Perimeter (I-285), and 3-4 inches in the mountains, all occuring until midnight, then rain after that as the temperatures climbed above freezing.
What puts Mellish at the bottom of the barrel? He had the nerve to state the weather had turned out exactly as he predicted, by citing the light rain during the morning rush hour. Not only that, other WSB-AM talent propped him up as a great predictor of the weather (which included Boortz, who claimed that TV meteorologists routinely copy Mellish’s forecast. Sorry, not buying it). Blind arrogance, combined with inaccuracy, puts Mellish at the Bottom of the Barrel.
