The SoapBoxers

Today’s story, Realty Bites, should not be confused with the similarly named technology column, Reality Bytes.

My progress on the end-0f-quarter long story has stalled a bit, due to minor illnesses and a toddler who hasn’t been going to bed on time.  Hoping to be finished by next Friday!

Realty Bites

Mark Salas sighed as the front door bell dinged. The Morgans could definitely count punctuality as one of their strong traits. Mark had hoped that perhaps just this one time the Morgans would forget about their appointment with him.

The Morgans were, ostensibly, in the market for a house. Mark had shown them nearly every house than anyone had put up for sale recently. At first, he had made an attempt to pick out the houses that seemed to be the best fit for them. However, over time, they had simply run out of houses that fit their criteria, and thus Mark had become less selective.

In the course of twenty seven months, the Morgans had made 107 trips to his office and Mark had shown them 304 houses. Mark really should have pawned them off on a junior associate long ago, but he had a soft spot for them. Mark wasn’t completely sure if they would ever buy a house, or if their hobby was house hunting. After a year of working with them, Mark had suggested that perhaps they might be interested in having a house built to their specifications.

“No, no”, they had exclaimed. “That would take far too long.”

Mark perked up a bit when the Morgans entered his office. Kari Morgan had brought him a plate of her world famous chocolate chip cookies. Mark had a Cookie Monster mentality when it came to Kari’s cookies – “Cookie! Cookie! Me want cookie!”

The trio headed to the parking lot and jumped into Mark’s Explorer. Mark was going to show the Morgans three houses today. The houses were just a few minutes from each other, so at least they could knock them out fairly quickly and Mark could return to work and focus more of his energies on customers who actually bought and sold houses.

Like many before it, the visit to the first house started out very well. Kari Morgan loved the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and Scott Morgan liked the fact that the lower level had a large bonus room that could easily be turned into a workshop for his woodworking.

The house had a large master bedroom, and the attached master bath had a whirlpool tub. Kari Morgan’s face lit up when she saw the whirlpool tub. The large walk-in closet and his-and-hers sinks added to the allure of the master suite.

They walked through the rest of the house, and the Morgan seemed to be finding a lot of positives in the house. They liked nearly everything about the house. The large windows allowed a generous amount of sunlight into the house, the three stall garage left plenty of room for a lawn mower and gardening supplies, and the large backyard had plenty of room for gardening. Scott Morgan was even pleased with the variety of birds that were attracted by the trees in the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, Mark had been down this path before.

“So,” he asked, cautiously. “What do you think.”

“We like it,” replied Kari.

“But?”

“No buts,” said Scott. “We’ll take it. Let’s go back to your office and draft an offer right away.”

Mark had to make a concerted effort to refrain from pumping his fist in celebration. He had managed to find a house that the Morgans wanted to buy! He was actually going to make a commission on the people that his co-workers mockingly referred to as “The Impossibles”. To say that he was on cloud nine was an understatement. This cloud definitely went up to eleven.

“We’ll want you to sell our old house, of course,” said Kari. “We’d like to get $300,000 for it. We think you’re just the man to get us top dollar.”

In that short moment, Mark dropped down to at least cloud four or five. He was facing the unpleasant tasks of convincing the Morgans that their own house was worth, at best, 75% of their asking price.

Today, we welcome another member to the staff of The Soap Boxers.  The Crunchy Conservative is a longtime personal friend of Editor-in-Chief Kosmo.  She will be writing conservative articles for the Political Observers feature.

Hello loyal readers of The Soap Boxers. You may be wondering about my name, The Crunchy Conservative. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I am a college educated, twenty-something mother of two boys from Iowa. I have my Bachelor of Science degree in English, emphasis in British Literature and Creative Writing. And I lean to the right, politically speaking that is.

I was nicknamed Ann Coulter while working at the Iowa State Daily as a conservative opinion columnist. I think it was intended to be an insult. I took it as a compliment.

I have worked on many political campaigns ranging from local city council to Communications Director for a US Senate race. I also volunteered for Bush 04 and the McCain campaign.

So where does the “crunchy” come in? Well, I am passionate about breastfeeding, baby wearing, and co-sleeping. I’ve even dabbled in cloth diapers.

I maintained my household, a full time job and a toddler while my husband served in Iraq. And I’m opinionated and strong. And I’ll let you know it. And I hope you enjoy reading my contributions to The Soap Boxers.

A Health Care Plan I Can Believe In

I’ll admit it. I’m a nerd. I spent a weekend reading the 1000 page healthcare bill.

I’m highly irritated that our representatives are willing to vote on a bill that they have not read. If I can do it while doing my usual weekend duties (laundry, cleaning) AND nursing a 6 month old who is going through a growth spurt, I’m sure they can take time to read something they are going to vote on. Isn’t that why we send them to D.C?

Our Commander in Chief seems to be a big fan of Thomas Jefferson, therefore, I think in this instance, it is fitting to quote him. “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Wise words Mr. Jefferson. Well informed. How does one become well informed? Well, how about reading what you’re voting on!

Public Option? No. No way. No how. Again, let’s see what Mr. Jefferson thinks about that. “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Cease to exist. Pretty strong words.

I’ve seen too many people leech off of the system. It makes me sick. I am working 40+ hours a week and paying full price for daycare for my children while other parents get to enjoy watching their children daily and stay at home (while I pay them?). It’s not right and it’s not fair. And now they want me to pay for their healthcare too? What’s the point in working anymore?

Personal responsibility and a dash of pride.

Do you want to take care of yourself and your children? Or should the Government do it for you? Now here comes the Conservative mixed with the Crunchy. You chose to do the action that created the child. After conception, the child is a child, not a choice. You care for the child while it’s in the womb, giving the baby nourishment and helping it grow, so why discontinue that after birth?

An article I read in Mothering magazine showed how breastfeeding can boost the National Economy and decrease the burden on our health system.

http://www.mothering.com/breastfeeding/how-breastfeeding-boosts-national-economy

Nursing by Numbers: How Breastfeeding Boosts the National Economy By Olivia Campbell Web Exclusive, April 2009

In 2001, the USDA concluded that if breastfeeding rates were increased to 75 percent at birth and 50 percent at six months, it would lead to a national government savings of a minimum of $3.6 billion. This amount was easily an underestimation since it represents savings in the treatment of only three of the dozens of illnesses proven to be decreased by breastfeeding: ear infections, gastroenteritis, and necrotizing enterocolitis.
…
The AAP says each formula-fed infant costs the healthcare system between $331 and $475 more than a breastfed baby in its first year of life. The cost of treating respiratory viruses resulting from not breastfeeding is $225 million a year.
…
The multi-study report estimated that breast cancer rates could be cut by more than half if women increased their lifetime breastfeeding duration. The National Cancer Institute reported the national expenditure on breast cancer treatment in 2004 was $8.1 billion, meaning extended nursing could save upwards of $4 billion a year.
…
For the national Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), supporting a breastfeeding mother costs about 45 percent less than a formula-feeding mother. Every year, $578 million in federal funds buys formula for babies who could be breastfeeding.

The health benefits of breastfeeding alone is what motivates many families to feed their babies breastmilk, but the individual costs of formula (quoted as anywhere from $700 to $3,000 per year) also has a huge impact on family budgets. 

Let’s think about it. Decreased risk of breast cancer for the mother, healthier babies AND 578 Million in Federal funds saved on formula alone. But what do I know. I only breastfed my oldest until he was 2 1/2 (night nursing after age 1 ½ ) and am now nursing baby #2. I have also noticed that my children are healthier and smarter, I believe, partly due to breastfeeding. The bond that nursing mothers have with their children is something that Enfamil could never produce.

Take responsibility for your health and for your children’s health. It would save everyone money, it would produce healthier people and maybe even more emotionally adjusted children. Children who bond more with their parents are more likely to be well adjusted adults.

So here’s my health plan. Encourage breastfeeding. Stop the formula subsidies. Make the mothers on public assistance feed their own children. If a woman physically cannot breastfeed (which is only about 2% of women), a doctor’s note would be required to obtain formula.

This is a healthcare plan that I can get behind. And it didn’t take 1,000 pages to do it!

Do you own a USB key? Have you ever emailed a file to yourself? Ever deal with the frustration of going to access a file and then realizing it’s on another computer? Those days can now be left behind. I bring to you Dropbox.

Dropbox is a tool I have used for quite some time since it was in its early beta stages, and have found it very useful and thought perhaps I should share it with you. Dropbox is a software that syncs your files online and across your computers. You just install Dropbox on all of your computers, and practically like magic you can access any files you save to Dropbox through any of those computers. It keeps all of your files in sync, when you save a file on one computer it’s as if you saved it on all of them. This gives you the ability to work on any of your computers and have access to all of the files you need.

This syncing also in turns creates a perfect back up utility. The 2 gigabytes of storage that comes with a free account is more than enough for most people to store their important documents, but more space is available with paid plans. Every time you save a file in your Dropbox it’s saved on their server, so it something drastic happens on one of your computers you can easily access files in your Dropbox from another computer or from that same computer once you have got it working once again.

In addition to keeping your files in sync across multiple machines, Dropbox also keeps a history of your files for you. Dropbox can help you undo changes you saved to a file or even undelete a file you deleted by mistake. On more than one occasion I’ve accidentally saved changes to a document that I didn’t mean to save and then exited the program I was using. At that time the programs undo history becomes useless, but with Dropbox I have been saved. By default, they keep 30 days of history on your files, but you can enable it to unlimited with their “Pack-rat” option.

Not only can you use Dropbox to keep your files in sync across multiple computers, but you can also use it to share your files with other people. You can easily share files or entire folders with Dropbox. There’s even a nice feature that allows you to share your photos (or other images) as a photo gallery. Simply put the folders you want to share in your Dropbox and invite people to those folders. You can even create a public url for your files to share specific files within your Dropbox. I use this feature in Dropbox for projects at work to easily share files and documentation with other people I work with.

Overall, I love Dropbox and I thought you might too, so I felt it’d be best to share. I use it both for business and personal uses. It replaces having to worry about email attachments, USB keys, and backup software. It’s all there in one nice and, in most cases, free package.

I have a guest article on Life, Laughs, and Lemmings. Hop over and read the article (about my growth as a fiction writer) and take a look at the rest of Sami’s site while you’re there.

No, this won’t be a story about the hoops that teams from “Non-BCS” conferences must jump through in order to gain entry into the BCS games.  While I dislike this inequity – particularly now that computer analysis allows us much greater insight into strength of schedule than in decades past – but this is an issue that many others have raised, and I will let them continue their worthy crusade.

My concern is about the inequity amongst the BCS conferences themselves.  There are six conferences whose champions have automatic berths into the BCS – the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC.

Three of these conferences – the ACC, Big 12, and SEC – end their season in a battle of the titans (otherwise known as a conference championship game) in which the winners of two divisions face off to determine who the best team in the conference is.

I love watching conference title games because it means seeing two great teams face off, and gives a good glimpse in which teams might be peaking at the end of the season and which teams might be cooling off a bit down the stretch.  The conference title games are also a financial windfall for the conferences.

Two other conferences play a round robin conference schedule.  One of them is the eight team Big East conference.  With just eight teams, a round robin is really the only reasonable schedule.  This conference has changed considerably from the Big East of the past, having lost Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College as members (replacing them with South Florida, Cincinnati, and Louisville).  The current configuration draws criticism as being too weak to deserve an automatic berth in the BCS. 

The second conference that plays a round robin schedule is the Pac 10.  The conference has, of course, ten teams, meaning that they play nine conference games.  There is a strong likelihood that the conference will dump the round robin schedule in the future, as an informal poll of coaches showed that six coaches were opposed to the round robin schedule and four were in favor.  The reasoning behind dumping the round robin?  To allow teams on the cusp of bowl eligibility to replace a Pac 10 rival with a cupcake team on their schedule.

This brings us to the one team that has neither a conference title game nor a round robin schedule.  This is the Big 10 conference, which has, of course, eleven teams.  Big 10 teams play eight conference games, meaning that they avoid playing two conference rivals every season.  My concern is that this could allow two undefeated Big 10 teams to end up in the national championship game, simply because they were able to duck each other during the regular season.

Does this sound far fetched?  Let’s turn the calendar back to 2002.  At the end of the regular season, Ohio State and Iowa were both undefeated in conference games.  Ohio State was 13-0 and headed to the national championship game.  Iowa had tripped 36-31 in a game against Iowa State during the non-conference game early in the season.  If Iowa had been able to make it through the non-conference schedule without a loss they would also have been in serious consideration for a spot in the title game.  (Note: an undefeated Miami was the BCS #1 team that year heading into the title game, so in all likelihood, one of the Big 10 teams would have been left out of the game – but the possibility would have been there).

I am strongly opposed to the possibility of settling a conference title in the national championship game.  If two teams from a particular conference emerge as the two best teams in the land, I’m OK with that.  But don’t leave open the door for two strong teams to duck the most difficult team in their conference en route an undefeated record.

I am calling for the BCS to change the eligibility for the BCS title game to allow only teams from conferences that decide their champion on the field – either via a round robin schedule or a conference title game.  This would force the Pac 10 to retain their round robin schedule and force the Big 10 to either add a conference title game (which would necessitate adding a twelfth team) or expanding the conference schedule to ten games (allowing only two cupcakes per season instead of four).  After all, if you’re not sure who best team in the conference is, why should we crown one of your teams as the national champion?

The Heene Hoax

On Thursday, much of the country was transfixed on a weather balloon floating across the Colorado sky.  A six year old boy had apparently climbed into a box that was attached to the balloon and untethered the balloon, allowing it to float at heights of up to 7000 feet.  Authorities were alerted, and news organizations quickly volunteered the services of their helicopters to track the balloon.  This was a Big Deal.  When the balloon landed, little Falcon Heene was nowhere to be found.  Everyone feared for the worst.

Then, amazingly, the boy was found, safe and sound.  It appears that he had been hiding in the attic.  The family began to make the rounds on TV until a slip-up by the boy made people wonder if this was in fact a hoax.  This family had been on Wife Swap – were they trying to get another fifteen minutes (or more) or fame?

On Sunday, authorities said that charges are expected to be filed.  It is expected that those charges will include a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report as well as felony charges of conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (by causing the kids to make false statements to the police), and attempting to influence a public servant (I’m not exactly sure what this refers to).

In addition, the Heenes may find themselves on the hook for the cost of the search.  I certainly hope so – it doesn’t seem fair to have the taxpayers foot the bill for their publicity stunt.

Big Ben Strikes Back

In July, Andrea McNulty sued Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, claiming that he had sexually assaulted her.  The lawsuit sought $440,000 in damages from Roethlisberger and $50,000 in damages from Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, where the woman worked (and where the incident was alleged to have occurred).

It is certainly possible that an athlete would rape a woman.  In fact, in a lot of cases, I would give the women the benefit on the doubt.  However, in this particular case, I didn’t feel that she was believable.  The fact that a co-worker filed an affidavit claiming the McNulty bragged to her about the incident was not the reason for  my opinion.  Obviously, it is possible to buy the testimony of witnesses.

The main reason why I don’t believe Ms. McNulty is because she never filed criminal charges.  Perhaps I’m missing a key element here – if you wanted to see the perpetrator punished, why wouldn’t you file a criminal complaint and have them put behind bars?  After all, you wouldn’t want this to happen to someone else, right?  I can understand someone not filing charges if they didn’t want the rape to become public knowledge – but McNulty then turned around and made it public knowledge by filing the civil suit.  These two pieces don’t seem to fit together.  Perhaps I’m missing some important information …

Something that was immediately noticed by many people was the fact that Roethlisberger, in his denials, never said that he didn’t know McNulty or that he didn’t have sex with her.  He only said that he didn’t force himself on her – which left open the possibility of consensual sex.

On Friday, the other shoe dropped.  Roethlisberger counter-sued McNulty for extortion, abuse of process, and defamation of character.  Big Ben’s version of the events (supported by the affidavit from McNulty’s co-worker) was that  McNulty seduced him, and that the sex was consensual.  I’ll report further developments in these two cases.

Perhaps there’s a lesson here.  Don’t have sex with strangers.

Note: I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea here.  I definitely believe that rape / sexual assault is a very serious crime and that the punishment should be severe.  I simply don’t believe that a rape occured in this case.

The final chapter was finally written in my saga with HSBC.

On Friday night, I made  a quick trip to get some over-the-counter medications at the drug store and some groceries at the grocery store.  My HSBC card was declined at both places.  (Why did I try at the second place after it was declined at the first?  Just in case the problem was related to the store).  When my wife (primary cardholder) informed HSBC, she was told that this was due to a problem the Mastercard was having during this timeframe.  This may indeed be correct, but I’m unable to find any news stories about this.  Did anyone else experience problems with Mastercards being declined on Friday night?

In any case, this was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.  We decided to cancel the card.  It did take a bit of effort for my wife to convince the HSBC rep to actually cancel the card.  We received a notification on Saturday that the account had indeed been closed.  A big sigh of relief as we put this behind us.

We were running quite a lot of purchases through the card in order to take advantage of the cash back rewards (while paying off the full balance every month, of course).  I suspect that HSBC would consider our level of use to be rather substantial.

For those of you who didn’t read the original article, here’s a recap of the chronology.

• I do some research and find the HSBC Weekender card, which features 1% cash back on all purchases and 2% on all weekend purchases.  This sounded like a great deal.  (And, in fact, it was.  Redeeming the cash rewards was pretty easy).
• My wife signs up for the card and then does additional paperwork to add me as a second card holder.  This means that she gets her card before I get mine.
• My wife activates the card via the 1-800 number.  She attempts to use the card later that weekend and to her great embarrassment, it gets declined.  Why?  Because there was some sort of a problem with the automated authorization system.  (Note: this isn’t listed in the earlier article because I had completely forgotten about it).
• We begin getting calls from telemarketers.  The telemarketers appear to be shy and won’t tell us what they are actually calling about.  This was very bizarre.  We wouldn’t have bought the product or service anyway, but we couldn’t get them to tell us what they were selling.  We were getting a LOT of these calls before calling and complaining a few times.
• HSBC had a security breach (many accounts affected) and had to issue new cards (with different numbers).
• My new card had my name wrong (first and last names transposed).  The HSBC rep seemed to have considerable difficulty grasping the problem and the implications.
• After getting the new card, I try to use the automated authorization number.  This doesn’t work, and I get kicked to a live operator, who tries to sell me additional services while she is activating the card.  Bear in mind that I am speaking to her after a series of THREE problems by HSBC (security breach, wrong name on card, automated authorization failure).
• In April, we were at the mall for our weekly trip to Target and a few other stories.  As we make perhaps the most predictable purchases in the history of the world, HSBC’s fraud alert gets triggered and our card gets locked, causing it to be declined.  These purchases were so predictable that anyone armed with a copy of our past statement could have probably predicted them.  Suspicious was definitely not the word I would use to describe them.
• Five months pass.  Spring gives way to summer, summer gives way to fall.
• I am contacted by someone from the Executive Office of HSBC.  He appears to be genuinely concerned.  It has been five months since we have encountered any actual problems, but I’m happy to work with the if it means fewer troubles for other HSBC customers in the future.  He forwards my case to someone in customer service.  They leave an answering machine message to let us know they are on the case.  Later, they call and ask to speak to me.  Unfortunately, I am temporarily unable to answer the phone, and my wife is unable to focus on the phone call (busy with our toddler) and tells them to call back another time.  Alas, there is not another call.
• Finally, on Friday, the card is declined again and we cancel the card.

The day had finally arrived for Andrew McCormick.  Hours earlier, the sponsor of baseball’s All-Star game had officially announced what had been long rumored – they would be giving away free tickets, accommodations, and travel for ten lucky winners.

Andrew sent off an email that would reach millions of people across the country.

Dear Kosmopolitan Bank customer:

Earlier today, Kosmopolitan Bank, in partnership with Major League Baseball, announced a very exciting contest for our valued customers.  We are giving away sets of four (4) All-Star game tickets, hotel accommodations, and air travel to ten lucky winners!  The grand prize winner will throw out the first pitch at this year’s All-Star game.

To enter, simply visit the contest web site at www.kosmopolitanbankcontests.com.

On behalf of all of the employees of Kosmopolitan Bank, I would like to thank you for 75 years of patronage.  I hope to see you at the game!

Sincerely,

J. Robert Dobbs

CEO, Kosmopolitan Bank Holdings

The web site was not affiliated with the actual bank, of course.  Andrew had spent much time copying many visual elements from the bank’s actual web site.  Visitors to his site were greeted by a page that looked identical to the bank’s official site.  On the first screen, the visitors were asked for their mailing address (so that the tickets could be sent to them if they won) and their birthdate (must be 21 years old to enter).  After filling out the initial screen, they were directed to a second screen.  The second screen asked the visitors to verify that they were indeed a customer of Kosmopolitan Bank.  The screen asked for the visitor’s credit card number, but of course did not ask for the expiration date.  Asking for the expiration date raised too much of a red flag, and really, it wasn’t necessary.  It was child’s play to run the numbers against an authorization program to determine the correct expiration date.  After all, the number of dates was relatively finite.

Andrew sat down at the table and made himself a ham and swiss sandwich.  Certainly, it would only be a few minutes before the first numbers came dribble in, but he wouldn’t be able to project the extent of his harvest for at least an hour or two.  In his early days as an information broker, he would sit, transfixed, at his computer, waiting for the first couple of numbers to be sent to him.  He had gained much wisdom in his old age, however, and the twenty five year old Andrew had the patience to attend to other tasks while the process ran.

Andrew flipped on the TV.  COPS was on again.  It was one of Andrew’s favorite shows – he was amazed at how dumb some of the criminals were.  Andrew finished his sandwich and watched the law enforcement personnel put an end to the chase by surrounding the vehicle.  The guy staggered out – clearly drunk or under the influence of drugs – and suddenly found a dozen guns pointed right at him.  Andrew chuckled.  What a moron.

When the show ended, Andrew channel surfed until he found a baseball game.  He didn’t particularly care about either team, but one of the pitchers had a no hitter through five innings, so Andrew left the TV on the game.  It was bad luck to switch channels when a no-no was in progress.  The pitcher carried the no hitter into the eighth inning.  It was broken up by a clean single to center field – amazingly, the runner was then thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double.  Andrew chuckled again.  The morons were out in large numbers tonight.

Andrew deserted the game and went back to his computer.  He already had 5,617 numbers.  This was a good yield.  Base on the trending analysis for his previous projects, he estimated that he would gather about 65,000 numbers before authorities shut the site down.

Andrew sent a coded message to his client.  They quickly negotiated a fair price for the numbers.  Andrew and the client had a great working relationship.  Andrew’s data always contained a very high percentage of valid numbers (because his sites looked very authentic), and the client accepted the fact that a certain percentage of the data would  be bogus – people who figured out the scam and entered false data.  Some guys could be a real dick about the bad data, but his client knew that it was the nature of the beast.

Exhausted from the day’s activities, Andrew crawled into bed and fell asleep – dreaming of newer and bigger adventures.

In the United States, there are many endangered and threatened animals which the public knows much about. The Gray Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Black Footed Ferret, and so forth. All of these animals fall into the “charismatic megafauna” title: big, furry animals that look good on a postcard. Unfortunately, there are constant battles being fought for other lesser known and lesser loved species One of these animals is the American Crocodile. Yes, that is correct, there is a native Crocodile in the United States.

The American Crocodile ranges from the coastlines of the northern portion of South America, throughout Mexico and Central America and to the Caribbean islands. There is also a small remnant population struggling to survive in the Everglades of southern Florida. Since the appearance of Europeans in Florida, the crocodiles (and alligators) have been killed, and their habitats destroyed. It is estimated that at one time, the American Crocodile numbered in the tens of thousands, but today somewhere between 500 and 2,000 survive. These ferocious carnivores survive in the brackish, coastal waters along the southern third of the Florida coast, but their habitat is dwindling in both size and quality.

Crocodiles share geographic space with their relative, the Alligator. Over the course of crocodilian history, the Alligators became more adept at handling more habitats, and the Crocodiles were relegated to the coastlines where they found success in the mangrove swamps and brackish streams. American Crocodiles have nearly the identical diet to that of Alligators with the exception being that Crocodiles will make marine animals prey items. The physical differences between the two species are well notated and easily found with a simple web search. The main issue haunting the Crocodile is how its habitat, compared to that of the Alligator, is being protected.

Coastal, brackish areas in Florida are under constant assault not only from human intrusion, but from pollution. Many of the mangroves in Florida are dying because of increased pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. This directly affects the Crocodile as they use the cover of the mangroves to breed and build their nests. Agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River delta is wreaking havoc across the Gulf and water tests show that the pollution trail reaches as far as Puerto Rico. As people in and around the state continue to push Florida to its physical limits, the Crocodile will be one of the first large animals to feel it.

People ask questions like, “Why is the Crocodile even important? The Alligator is there.” These questions are simple to answer if a person is willing to accept a few notions: 1) The natural world is essential for our existence. 2) Humans live within the natural world, not above it. The Crocodile’s role in the ecological balance in Florida is well documented. They are the top predator in their habitat and provide the typical benefits any top predator does. Just like the wolves in Yellowstone actually increasing the health of the Elk populations, Crocodiles have much the same effect.

The bigger picture is that the United States has been blessed to be the home to 1000s of unique species, and the biodiversity in places like southern Florida is one of the nation’s greatest natural wonders. If our society continues on the current path, we may eventually lose jewels like the American Crocodile. The tragedy of this is best describe with the following analogy: How great would a zoo be if it had only 10 types of animals on display? And what if every zoo had the same 10? This is the drastic end of the direction society is going. With habitat destruction and degradation, species’ populations are being fragmented and destroyed. Soon, there may be nothing left but lands with few, if any, native animals.

The Crocodile is a poster child for these issues. While rarely seen in the wild, the Crocodile is there, surviving in the brackish waters of southern Florida. Hopefully, it will still be there for our children’s children. Take the time to do some simple research on our native habitats and species and what you can do to help them survive. Whether it be donating a small sum, making minute lifestyle changes, or imploring your congressman, being stewards of our national treasures is a responsibility we all share.

We are happy to announce the debut of a new feature, The Political Observers. Writers from each side of the political spectrum will share their views in the column, which will appear on Thursdays. Zarberg kicks it off today.

Health care seems to be the dominant story on the news these days, and for very good reason:  the changes being proposed will have some sort of impact on the vast majority of all American citizens.  Since I have spouse with a chronic disease, and I’m government employee for a state that now has the worst rated state health plan in the US, I’m paying pretty close attention to what’s going on. 

One thing in particular that caught my attention about my current health plan is a penalty that will go into effect in 2010 that says if you smoke or are obese you will get dropped from the 80/20 plan to the 70/30 plan.  This means that your health plan will pay 10% less of your claims if you smoke or are obese.  Since I don’t smoke and as an average height American male am only 165 lbs, I don’t fall into either category so my first thought was, “great, I won’t be penalized.”  Ever the optimist.  I didn’t think much of it after that until one of my co-workers pointed out that they’re applying the stick rather than offering the carrot.

The bleeding heart in me says rather than give them a punishment, offer them incentives they can’t refuse to lose weight.  The capitalist in me says hit ’em where it hurts if they’re costing the system, and hit ’em hard.  I’m still mulling over which part of myself I agree with more.  On the one hand, people who are already in shape will not have anything change, other than the standard increases in cost.  On the other hand, what if those obese state employees are genuinely trying to lose weight and simply don’t have the body type or biological makeup?  Interestingly enough, I have a co-worker who if this plan went into effect today, would be considered obese and not eligible for the lower cost plan.  He was vocally upset about it when first informed, but now has used this as an incentive to join a gym and work out 2 days a week.  He’s already lost 10 lbs, and is a shining example of exactly what the state health care plan wanted to achieve with this.

But what about those smokers?  I’ve never smoked more than a cigar on New Year’s with some friends, so I don’t know how addictive nicotine is but based on the large sums of money being made by stop smoking programs and patches and gum and so forth, I’m sure it’s pretty darn addictive.  Will 10% be enough to get them to kick the habit?  I’d rather see something where if they start a doctor-approved plan to stop smoking and it succeeds, the insurance company picks up the tab.  If they fail, the smoker pays. 

In the end, the part of me that is bitter about how broken the current system is will win out over the capitalist and bleeding heart parts of me.  I have a wife that continues to struggle with her health and we’re paying thousands a year above and beyond our health care plan while CEO of our not-for-profit health insurance company just gave himself a $3 million bonus.  We’ve been giving the health insurance companies the carrot for so long, they could stand to have a little stick applied to where it hurts them.