Google's Blogspot

Google offers a blogging service.  It is free of charge.  Like all free services it is worth precisely what you pay for it.

The Grand old Party

The GOP leadership's visceral aversion  inter alia to closing loopholes in the tax code such as those which enable Warren Buffet to pay less in income taxes or permit General Electric to get a tax refund despite substantial profits, leads one to believe that they have degenerated into the party, "Of the wealth; by the wealthy; for the wealthy."

The Party of Lincoln

The aborrence of the Republican Party leadership of any kind of regulation of financial markets and total absence of reason with respect to raising the debt ceiling demonstrates once again that it represents government of the wealthy, by the lobbyists, for the money changers.

A Man of Principle

     The Saturday, May 28, 1994 issue of the New York Times reported the execution by hanging of Charles Rodman Campbell, 39. The report stated, "Mr. Campbell was convicted of murdering Renae Wicklund, her 8 year old daughter, and a neighbor, Barbara Hendrickson, in 1982. He slashed the throats of all three nearly beheading the child. He had been imprisoned in 1974 for raping Ms. Wicklund and was on a work-release program at the time of the slayings. Prosecutors said he had murdered Ms. Wicklund and Ms. Hendrickson for testifying against him at the rape trial."

     In the state of Washington condemned murderers may choose lethal injection as an alternative to hanging. Mr. Campbell refused to choose on the grounds that by so doing he would be violating his religious principles. It is comforting to know that he wasn't a completely depraved individual. Perhaps he would have made a choice had the Biblical method of public stoning been an option.

Neologisms

Fartitude: n, the demeanor to be maintained when one’s companion is severely flatulent.

Gismoid: n, A small useful device with no moving parts.

Frustacean: n, a lobster unable to find a mate.

Gadgitation; n, the state of mind of a person who has just acquired a new PC or Blackberry or similar item.

Gmail is Free

Google’s Gmail is free, has virtually unlimited storage and the user interface is well designed for efficient mail handling. There is, however, a slight catch. Because it is free, it has no support. If trouble occurs, the user is directed to a Q & A site where he becomes involved in a seemingly endless regression. A further recourse is a forum devoted to the particular glitsch. These forums have upwards of 100,000 entries apiece. The worst problem though is the refusal by the login page to accept a password. This has been a recurring headache. The protocol for resetting is a time-consuming nuisance. Far more serious is the sudden inability to reach the login page. Instead of the login page I get a site inviting me to try Gmail. That my Gmail account is active is attested by the fact that mail addressed there does not bounce. To solve that problem I skipped the forums and retained professional help. It was to no avail. Yes, Google is free, but that is too high a price.

Salmonella

The full-page advertisement by America’s Egg Farmers in the August 25th NY Times suggesting that eggs be cooked so that both yolk and white are firm implies that eggs may well be salmonella contaminated.    To eat scrambled or soft-boiled eggs is to play chicken with your health. The necessity for much tighter regulation of the industry is obvious. The use of the British protocol for elimination of salmonella from all poultry products should be mandatory. 

Egg farmers want the same rights are hog producers, all of whom sell pork which is trichinosis infected..