The SoapBoxers

George Will is a big baseball fan. He also writes on other topics.

In the midst of a semi-related topic on another site, once again I saw someone bring up the old stereotypes – sports fans are dumb.  They have no interests outside of sports and just lay on the couch watching football and eating Cheetos.

Clearly, the stereotype is exaggerated.  However, there are certainly a lot of people who consider sports fan to be intellectually challenged.  I’m won’t argue that every sports fan is a member of Mensa (although I know some who are), but it’s also not true that all sports fans are dumb.  Are there some sports fans who are also dumb?  Sure.  But find me any self-selecting group of several million people that doesn’t have a few dim bulbs.

The sports fans I come into contact with on a regular basis are pretty bright.  Our resident sports writer, Johnny Goodman, has a degree in Economics and History.  He now works in a different discipline.  We work for the same employer (different offices) and the feedback I hear is that he’s very much in-demand for his expertise.

Martin Kelly is an aerospace engineer who has worked on NASA projects.  Frequent reader Evan is a lawyer by day and tech writer by night.  My good friend Lazy Man, despite the name, is a successful entrepreneur.  I talk baseball with my dentist.  My wife is a CPA and also a big fan of the St. Louis Rams and Iowa Hawkeyes.

Nearly every writer on The Soap Boxers is a sports fan to some extent (although I believe Kate’s level of interest is fairly low).  Obviously, all of them have interests outside of sports, since they write on other topics.  Issues such as legalization of marijuana, drilling for oil in ANWR, the morality of torture, and how to become a more effective writer.  Personally, I have a lot of interests outside of sports – among them computers, forensic science, paleontology, and world history.

To cast the net further, look at George Will and Nate Silver.  Both are very well-known in the world of politics.  The New York Times once called Will “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America” and Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com had millions of fans before the New York Times decided to license the site for their own use.  Clearly, these are two bright guys.  They are also big sports fans.  Will has written two books on the subject (Men at Work and Bunts) and Silver developed the PECOTA method of projecting future performance of players (currently used by Baseball Prospectus).

My point?  Don’t assume that someone is dumb just because they happen to be a sports fan.  In return, I won’t assume that you are dumb because you like Dancing With the Stars or scrimshaw.  A person’s leisure interests provide flavor to their life.  Leisure is supposed to be fun, not work.  So if your idea of a good time is kicking back and watching a game, don’t feel any guilt – just do it.

“You’re choosing $50 lightbulbs,” Senator Rand Paul said. “Nobody understands that in America.”

There has been much discussion about Philips winning a $10 million award (the L prize) for affordable lighting – for a light bulb that costs $50.  Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  Even with a 25,000 hour productive life, the bulb would cost far more than a bunch of incandescents that do the same job, right?  This seems to be a commonly held belief – but it’s wrong.

I believe that Senator Paul is correct, and this concerns me.  I believe that he is correct that many people don’t understand how a $50 light bulb could be a good thing, and I feel that this stems from a failure to understand some basic math and science concepts.

There are two factors in the total cost of ownership of a light bulb.  With a standard incandescent bulb, the cheap part is the bulb. The far more expensive portion is the electricity to power the bulb.

Cost Comparison

Let’s compare costs over a 25,000 hour lifespan :

 
I used the high end of the life for the incandescent bulbs (rated at 750 – 1500 hours), but even with this, you’ll have used 17 bulbs during the life of one of the Philips LED bulbs. So we’re comparing a $50 bulb to $8.50 worth of incandescents. OK, incandescents are still $41.50 cheaper, right?

Then we get to electricity usage. Assuming 10 cents per kWh, the $50 LED bulb will usage $25 worth of electricity. The incandescents will use $150 worth of electricity.

Total cost for the $50 LED bulb: $50 for bulb + $25 for electricity = $75

Total cost for incandescents: $8.50 for bulbs + $150 for electricity = $158.59

Now do you see why it might make sense to buy the “expensive” bulbs?

Criticism of the LED Bulbs

Here are some of the comments I hear about the LED bulbs:

If I break a bulb, it’s $50 instead of 50 cents.

Seriously, how many bulbs do you people break?  I’m 36, and I’ve broken one in my entire life – and it was a bulb I was removing.  If bulb breakage is a common problem, you might want to be a bit more careful.  Also, since LED bulbs are solid state, they are more resistant to shock and vibration – less likely to break.

There’s mercury in LED bulbs.

No, there isn’t.  You’re thinking of compact flourescent bulbs.

If I can’t recover the cost of an investment in 2-3 years, it’s not worth my time.

Anything that doesn’t have a ROI north of 33% isn’t worth your time?

Which would you rather have:

• Product A recovers the cost of the initial investment in 18 months and has a life span of 24 months.
• Product B recovers the cost of the initial investment in 4 years and has a life span of 10 years.

Obviously, product B is the better choice.  It takes longer to recover the investment, but it keeps saving you money for a longer period of time afterward.

The lighting is of worse quality

Honestly, I really don’t notice a difference between incandescent, compact flourescent, and LED.  Some people do.

If I sell my house or remodel, I won’t get the full savings from the bulbs.

Fair point.  It’s important to note that the break even point from the example above is 8300 hours, so even if you only have the bulb for half the life, you come out ahead.  In any case, I suspect that you have a number of bulbs in your house that are fairly resistant to remodeling efforts – perhaps the laundry room or garage?

If you sell the house, you may be able to use the existence of LED bulbs as a selling point.

These bulbs won’t last 25,000 hours

Possible.  If I had to bet, though, I’d bet that they come awful close to it.  If they even average half the estimated useful life, they still save money.

There will be cheaper bulbs next year

This is true – most likely, the cost of LED bulbs will continue to fall.  Should you replace now or wait?  The critical factor is how much you use the bulb.  If you have it on 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, that’s 2920 hours.  You’d save 146 kwH per year, for an annual savings of $14.60 (based on the 10 cents per kWh – if your cost is higher, the savings is more).  Use the bulb an hour per day, and the cost savings is  $1.83 per year (but, in theory, the bulb would last nearly 70 years).

It’s also worth noting that the Philips 10 watt LED isn’t the only game in town.  There are cheaper options, even from Philips.  You can currently buy a 4 pack of 12.5 watt, 800 lumen Philips LED bulbs for less than $100 (below) – half the price per bulb.  In fact, the total cost of ownership of the 12.5 watt bulbs will be less than the total cost of ownership of the 10 watt bulbs.  You’ll spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 – $10 more for electricity, but save $25 on the bulb.

A couple of points in closing:

Often, green choices cost more.  With the LED bulbs, you can save money at the same to you help control dependence on foreign energy (since the energy saved in lighting can be used elsewhere).

While much of the criticism of the bulbs pertains to their use by consumers, industrial use of LED bulbs are a big part of the cost savings.  The city where I work recently replaced bulbs in city parking garages with LED.  Not only is there cost savings from the energy usage, but it also reduces the maintenance of replacing the bulbs.  LEDs are also a popular choice for traffic lights, where extended bulb life can make the streets safer.

In recent weeks, there has been much outrage regarding the full body scanners and pat down techniques currently in place at airports across the country.  Last week, I took a step away from my generally (but not always) pretty liberal point of view to argue in support of speed cameras.  This week, I once again side with the government on an issue.  Don’t expect this to become a trend …

I do expect some tomatoes to be thrown my way – so don’t be shy about sharing your opinion.

First of all, lest anyone jump to wrong conclusions, I certainly don’t support all of the actions of the TSA.  If pat downs are crossing the line into the area of sexual molestation, then this is CLEARLY wrong and those who are using the name of the TSA to perpetrate criminal acts should be prosecuted.  I also take exception to small children being separated from their parents during the pat down process.  My general rule of thumb here is going to be that anyone who can’t vote has the option of having a parent with them during the process. 

My friend Lazy Man is in disagreement with me on this issue, writing recently in opposition to the full body scanning and pat downs (and a couple of days ago, The Angry Squirrel also chimed in on the topic).  Lazy makes many arguments that I agree with, and I’m guessing that he will agree with some parts of my argument.  The difference is that we place different weights of certain factors.

In his article, Lazy Man makes this comment: “I understand the need for security, but I believe our right to privacy trumps that.”

Let’s look at this in detail.

Our right to privacy

Which right to privacy, exactly?  There is, of course, no explicit right to privacy outlined in the constitution, although various amendments are generally interpreted in a way that suggests this right – something that has been backed up by a considerable amount of case law.

However, the right to privacy is really not at risk here.  The TSA cannot force you to undergo body scanning or a pat down.

Of course, if you refuse, you won’t be allowed to board the plane.  Note that you aren’t being deprived of your right to privacy – you’re simply being deprived of your “right” to board an airplane.  Guess what – no such right exists.  You can fly or you can decline screening – your choice.

While the issue at airports is front and center these days, the fact of the matter is that when you buy an airline ticket, you are entering into a contract.  In exchange for a seat on the plane, you pay a sum of money and agree to other terms.  I don’t have an airline ticket in front of me, but I suspect that being vetted by security is part of the fine print.

Odd that you’d need to give up a right as part of a contract?  Not really.  That’s often the very point of a contract.  Sign a contract to play Major League Baseball?  Guess what – you’re going to have to submit to drug testing and you’ll be bound to a particular team for a number of years (note that for many jobs, you have to submit to drug testing even if your employment is “at will” – a case where you don’t even have a contract).  Want to open a restaurant?  Prepare for inspections by the department of health.

Privacy trumps security

Go through a full body scan and the worst thing that happens is that your privacy has been invaded.  Yeah, that’s bad.

Get on a plane with people who haven’t gone through rigid security screening and the worst thing that happens is that you can die in a firy crash when a bomb explodes.  That’s the worst kind of bad.

I wonder how many people who complain about invasion of privacy still want terrorists to go through body scanners or pat downs.  Ah, there’s the trick … sometimes the wolf can wear sheep’s clothing. 

What this really boils down to is your privacy on one side of the equations, and hundreds of lives on the other side.  The equation is similarly unbalanced for every passenger, as any one person can result in everyone dying.

Kids should be exempt

I’ve seen suggestions on many sites, including The Consumerist, suggesting that very young children be allowed to pass through without screening.  After all, a three year old can’t possibly be a member of a terror cell.

While this is true, the sad fact is that it is not uncommon for parents to use their children as “mules” to unwittingly transport contraband from place to place.  If a drug smuggler can use a baby, then why not a terrorist?

I’m the parent of two young children.  Nonetheless, I think that children should have to go through screening the same as anyone else.

What’s next?

This isn’t to say that what’s in place today is the perfect solution.  Let’s once again look back at Lazy Man’s article, in which he says “There is talk about having the computer only showing outlines of the body and potential foreign objects. Considering that the technology that we have with facial recognition is a million times more complex this should be able to implemented in a couple of weeks.”  I’m definitely on board with anything that minimizes the risk to privacy while still maintaining the same level of security.

[Editor’s note: on occasion, we delve into topics that touch on Islam.  In the past, some of our writers have made an attempt to explain how Muslims may feel about issues.  However, when writers of a Judeo-Christian background do this, we don’t really have the proper background for it – we’re outsiders.  If we truly want a Muslim point of view, then it makes sense to actually ask a Muslim.

Recently, I asked my friend Z if she knew someone who would be interested in writing an article.  Z is a typical modern American woman in many ways – she loves to shop, is devoted to her husband and young son, and is a member of the Facebook generation.  I am hoping that this article, written by Z’s husband ZZ, will allow people to place a human face on Islam.]

What does Islam mean to me?

Here is some background and reality check before I get into, “what does Islam mean to me? We have been hearing that Islam is the religion of “peace”, but current global situation doesn’t help us to believe that. This is absolutely true for the individual who solely relies on media. However individuals who have a little bit of awareness of Islam wouldn’t agree with that. The biggest take away from Islam is, Islam never allows hurting anyone, never allows any sort of suppression, it always encourages helping others out regardless of caste/religion/race. This is huge; let me repeat this regardless of ANY CASTE/RACE/RELIGION. Think about that, in today’s modern western society we are still struggling on those three elements pretty much every day in and day out under “discrimination” and yet Islam mentioned and cleared those centuries ago.

Moving along, the actual definition of Islam is “to Submit” meaning submit yourself to one God or in Arabic “Allah”. Having said that, individuals (Muslims & non-Muslims) define or explain Islam based on their own knowledge, experience, interaction or perception which sometime is misleading and away from the “true” definition of Islam. Unfortunately, today’s media is not helping to identify the “true” Islam as well.

Regardless, Islam is still the same as it came hundreds of years ago. It’s the followers who make things too complicated. I always say don’t blame religion, blame “followers”. Let me try to explain this further, the fundamental difference between the “true-right” followers and what I called “mislead” followers is that, those mislead individuals don’t know and most of the time don’t want to understand the fundamentals of the “true-Islam”. It’s due to the fact that there are predefined misconception against the “true-Islam”.

Subsequently, the fundamentals of the true Islam is in this sequence; Quran, Prophet Mohammad’s actions & sayings along with the actions of his immediate families. If any Muslim misses any of the above sequence will ALWAYS be misleading and couldn’t be a true follower of Islam. So in order to understand Islam one has to do some research instead of watching 9 o’clock news— funny isn’t?

Furthermore, Quran verses are always connected to Prophet Mohammad’s sayings & his actions (which sometimes are elaborations of Quran verses) and actions of prophet Mohammad’s immediate family resulting in the True Islam, OR in other words the simple and basic formula of following the true Islam is:

Quran + Prophet Mohammad’s actions & sayings + Actions of Prophet Mohammad’s Immediate families = TRUE ISLAM!!!

So technically, person who take ONLY Quran is not justifying and following the “true” Islam because following only the Quran is not sufficient and in fact it causes confusions and misleads the followers.

I’ll explain why those three are in the sequence and why one can’t ONLY follow the Quran some other time.

Having said that, one doesn’t have to be a Muslim to understand how Islam continues after death of Prophet Mohammad and how prophet Mohammad immediate families showed the world, how to live forever with dignity and kept the Islam alive.  Even non-Muslims researchers recognize this connection. There are thousands of examples on that, but few of those are as follows….

Mahatma Gandhi
– “My faith is that the progress of Islam does not depend on the use of sword by its believers, but the result of the supreme sacrifice of Hussain (A.S.), the great saint.”

-I’ve learned from “Husain” (A.S) how to be oppressed yet victorious.

Dr. Radha Krishnan
“Though Imam Hussain gave his life years ago, but his indestructible soul rules the hearts of people even today.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
“Imam Hussain’s (A.S.) sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of righteousness.”

• Husain (A.S) was the grandson of Prophet Mohammad.

Like any other religion, Islam teaches about peace, non-violence, patience, meditation, helping others and encourage to do good deeds in one’s life. There is one famous saying of Prophet Mohammad’s – regardless of race/religion/caste, if your neighbor is not happy with you, God will not be with you. This means Islam dictates that one should keep peace all the time.

Look around you – you’ll find your neighbors, co-workers, employees, relatives, and family friends are the followers of Islam and most of them are good law obedient citizens and have been a part of U.S melting pot for years. And this is what true Islam means to me…  

Now, let’s compare that to “Taliban” or “Al-Qaida” (handful of people) and see if their actions are close to what I mentioned above, or not? In fact do their ANY ACTION come close to what I mentioned above? And the answer is “NO”. Now the question is WHY??? … and the answer is very simple. It’s because they don’t follow the “sequence”.

Taliban is nothing but a culture. Let me give you a simple example, it’s like a cult group. Same as what David Koresh had, they have their own believes and fundamentals. Taliban have their own believes, culture and fundamentals. By the way they followed the ancient culture.

The recent fight between “mislead” Muslims (“Taliban” or “Al-Qaida”) are rest of the world is the fight of two civilizations…and of course there is a political motivation and some “hidden” agenda and forces who escalates them and financing those “misleading” forces … which is not hard to find, as they say, follow the money trail you’ll find the answer.

At the end, I’ll leave this up to you all— what you all think, which Islam Prophet Mohammad and Prophet Jesus would have left for their followers …

Lately, the hottest news topic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (where I work) is the existence of speed cameras.  These are unmanned cameras that take a picture of speeding cars.  You then get a ticket in the mail.  There are a lot of people very upset about the cameras – why?

The cameras are there to make money, not for safety

Many people complain that the city cares more about the revenue generated by the cameras than about improving safety.  An interesting aspect of the speed cameras is that they are installed by a private company at no direct expense to the city.  The private company then takes a cut of the fines.  This model is popular with cities, because they don’t to carve out budget items for the installation and maintenance of the cameras.  It’s popular with private companies because a lot of people speed, allowing them to make good money.

I agree that the positioning of the cameras could be better from a safer perspective.  There is one camera each in the northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 380.  While you’ll never compare I-380 with New York City city traffic, it is nonetheless one of the more heavily traveled routes in the state.  There are some curves that can be dangerous if you’re going too fast and not paying attention – it would be nice to see the cameras a bit closer to them.

However, it’s worth noting that a local TV station analyzed tickets that were handed out, and it appears that the threshold is 12 miles per hour over the speed limit.  If the threshold was just a few mph over the limit, I’d be more swayed by this argument.  As it stands, I think there is a dual effect – there is some increase in revenue and also some increase in safety.

There’s nobody watching, so I shouldn’t get a ticket!

There are people who feel that their rights are violated because there’s not an actual human police officer operating a radar gun to catch them speeding.  The logic is that they don’t have a sporting chance against the camera.  Well, I think that’s the logic, anyway.

This is an argument that I dismiss out of hand.  If you burglarize a store and get caught on the security video, it’s perfectly OK to use this as evidence of the crime, right – even though you weren’t caught in the act.  Why would speeding be different?

It’s not even possible to accuse the city of being sneaky with the cameras.  Everyone knows exactly where they are.  If you’re not sure, you can go online and find out.  There are mobile speed cameras – and their locations are broadcast on the news.

In some locales, people have fought these tickets with the “it’s not me driving the car” defense – including the guy who donned a gorilla mask to avoid having his face captured by the camera (how safe is that?).  In Cedar Rapids, the tickets issued by the cameras (well, actually issued by a human after reviewing tapes) are issued to the registered owner of the car, not necessarily to the driver – similar to the way parking tickets work.  If someone else was driving your car, you need to make them reimburse yet.  On the flip side, the ticket doesn’t go on your driving record because of due process issues.

Where Do I Stand?

I doubt this is going to be a surprise.  Although I’m as guilty of speeding as anyone else, I also believe that municipalities have a perfect right to use every tool at their disposal to enforce laws.  If you’re exceeding the speed limit by 12 mph, you’re simply going to take the risk of a few tickets.

The local news spoke with one woman who managed to get 14 tickets in the span of a few months, at a cost of around $1000.  Again, this is in spite of the fact that everyone knows exactly where the cameras are.  She commented that she has changed her driving habits, and now always set cruise control.  That’s not the safest thing in the world, considering the amount of merging traffic, but it’s probably safer than going as fast as she previously did.

This weekend marks the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One.  Yep, the final Potter book is being split into two movies (part 2 due next July) in an effort to maximize revenue.

Honestly, this really isn’t the genre for me.  My favorite writers generally stay in the mystery and suspense genres (although the Preston/Child books swing a bit into the paranormal).  When I get tired of those writers, I have a backlog of classics to catch up on.  Quite honestly, the wizards, witches, and vampires that currently capture the attention of society are really not my cup of tea.  I haven’t read any of the Potter books, and was quickly bored when I saw one of the movies on TV.

Logically, then, you probably think that I’m not a fan of Harry.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

As disinterested as I am in the genre, I am thrilled to see young readers picking up a book – any book.  If the Harry Potter tomes are the gateway books to Shakespeare, Dickens, and Block, then J.K. Rowling is doing society a great service.  Just as interesting is the fact that many adults are getting into Potter – cracking open a book instead of spending time in front of the TV.

Even television – which I occassionally refer to as the “idiot box” has come into an era where there are many educational shows gaining in popularity.  I’ve always been a fan of crime shows (NCIS is my current favorite), and there are a ton of shows on TV that delve into the science of forensics (albeit sometimes in a sensationalistic fashion) as well as the inductive reasoning techniques used by detectives – techniques that can be quite valuable in solving real-life problems.

The upshot of all of this is that the old stereotype of smart people being “squares” and “not cool” is starting to erode, as smart characters take the lead in many popular books, movies, and television shows.  Anything that causes kids to have a positive view of education is a good thing, in my opinion.

The story behind the Harry Potter story is also interesting to me.  J.K. Rowling wrote the first book while on government aid and after beating back clinical depression.  How’s that for a Horatio Alger story?  The money that England spent on Rowling was pretty well spent – imagine how many millions she had paid in taxes over the years!  Additionally, Rowling is involved with a number of charities in Britain.

My buddy Lazy Man took a break from thrusting his lance into Mona Vie to take aim at another product, Protandim from LifeVantage.  After a spirited (and a bit strange) debate, one of the supporters of the product took the unexpected leap to the “the IRS is a scam” argument.  At which point, any credibility he had was completely gone.  The whole idea of the IRS not having the right to collect taxes is a myth propagated by a small segment of the population.  The IRS has actually debunked a variety of bogus arguments on their web site, citing relevant case law so that you can look it up if you decide not to take their word for it.

Last week, I read a story about a man who took his computer into a repair shop in 2004 and ended up with a $6 million bill (it’s actually true – here’s the article from the New York Times).  The unethical shop owner told the victim (Roger Davidson) that there was indeed a virus on his computer.  Later, he told Davidson that the source of the virus was found on a hard drive in a remote part of Honduras.  Even worse, it was part of a plot by Polish priests affiliated with Opus Dei – they were trying to infiltrate the US government!  Again, I remind you this this actually happened – it’s not some new Dan Brown novel.

Several years ago, I overheard a lady in the new row of cubicles talking about the unfortunate death of her grandmother.  As it turns out, since nobody else’s name was on her grandma’s bank accounts, they money went “in to the state”.  I nearly did a facepalm as a realized that the grandma had died “intestate”, that is, without a will.  In those cases, the assets are distributed to heirs according to the state’s law of intestate succession.  In general, the closest living relatives get the assets.  You do not simply forfeit your assets to the state if you die without a will.

It seems that people have lost their BS detector at some point.  It’s actually pretty sad, since there are a lot of resources to use when debunking myths.  The venerable Snopes debunks pretty much anything – and is a great site to browse even when you’re not in debunking mode.  Some people quibble with the question of whether or not political debunking sites like FactCheck are unbiased, but the fact of the matter is that they will at least give you a starting point for reasearch.  Want to do your debunking in front of the TV – MythBusters.

I’m not suggesting that you automatically assume that everything is a lie – but take things with a grain of salt.  When you hear something that sounds absolutely incredible, do a bit of research before believing it – even if you hear it from your mom.  In the case of the man with the computer virus from Honduras – take a step back and get a second opinion!  If you take a moment to do a bit of research, you’ll find a multitude of tools that can help you debunk or affirm an argument.

There are some people who would suggest that the ever-present nature of technology is tearing apart the very fabric of society.  Indeed, it can be disturbing to see teens hospitalized with texting-induced carpal tunnel syndrome.  Really, though, technology is not all bad.  In fact, the internet is contributing significantly to our daily lives – perhaps even saving society!

Keeping In Touch

As a result of an ever-increasing number of people attending college, more people find themselves moving away from their ancestral homes as they market their specialized skills.  22 year old kids end up moving hundreds, or even thousands of miles away – often without a support structure in their new town.

Without technology, it would be pretty easy to lose touch with old friends.  Today, there’s really no excuse.  You can just shoot off an email to a friend, and they’ll respond when they get a chance.  Unlike phone calls, time zones don’t matter.  Keeping in touch with a friend halfway around the world via phone can be tricky because of time zones – not to mention extremely expensive.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with a lot of friends from my younger days.  I can see pictures of their kids, news about their promotions, and more – with just the click of a mouse.  Additionally, I get a chance to see sides of people that I didn’t realize existed – particularly true regarding people that I wasn’t overly close to in high school.  Sure, there are distractions like Wordscraper (which I play) and Farmville (which I don’t), but really, it’s all about the people.

Friends With Common Interests

Now, more than ever, it’s easy to meet people with common interests.  I have a wide variety of interests that include (but are not limited to) sports, writing, and forensics.  It can often be difficult to find others who share these interests at the same levels.  This is particulalry true with baseball, which I follow with a fanatical passion.

When I find people who share these interests with the same intensity, I make an effort to stay in contact with them.  Increasingly, many of these people are friends whom I know only from the internet.  I have never met them in “real life”, nor have I talked them on the phone.  They are nothing but a string of emails to me.

Expose Yourself

I abdondoned my fiction writing for about a decade, largely because there really wasn’t a good way to get feedback.  I’d write some stories, but then what?  Show them to a handful of close friends?

With the explosion in the popularity of blogs, it’s incredibly easy to put your writing (or artwork) on display for the world to see.  With six billion people in the world, there is a decent chance that someone will enjoy your work.  It’s incredibly easy to get started.  For the quick and easy setup, go the Blogger or WordPress.com and you’ll have a blog within minutes – at no cost to you.

Want a bit more control over your site (with a bit more cost)?  Go to a web host like Dreamhost, register a domain, pick a hosting plan, and you’re good to go.

Never has it been easier to reach an audience.  The great thing about the internet is that readers place imortance on the message itself, with few pre-conceived notions about the author.  I could care less if you are the son of doctors or ditch-diggers – if you write an interesting anlytical piece about baseball, I’ll read it.

Collaborate

The Soap Boxers has 16 official writers.  One of these writers does not actually exist in real life, but is just a fig newton of my imagination.  Another of them is me.  Of the 14 others, I have met four of them in person.  I have long friendships with Crunchy and Phil – friendships that orginated in “real life”.  I knew Squeaky from work.  I became acquainted with Bob over the computer – and, although I consider him a good friend, I’ve only met him a handful of times (always at the same pizza joint in the town that houses my company’s corporate headquarters).  I’m actually meeting Martin for lunch later today (we work a few blocks from each other).

The others?  I wouldn’t know some of them if I bumped into them on the street.  I know most of them from before the days of The Soap Boxers, but that’s not true of everyone.  Zarberg writes an article every month, but I didn’t know him until last fall.  He’s a friend of another of the writers (nope, I haven’t actually met our mutual friend, either).

In the “real world” it would be unusual for such a motley group to come together in one organization.  But in today’s world, it’s realitively easy for this group of writers to come together and create a collaborative work – albeit with wildly different components.

Dog Poop

There’s a “lady” in my neighborhood who takes her dog for walks.  This is hardly unusual – there are a number of folks in the neighborhood with dogs.  This person stands out because of her unwillingness to clean up after her dog.  I’ve spotted the dastardly duo on neighbors’ lawns a number of times, but never in time to pop my head out of the door to remind her of her duty.  On occasions, there have been droppings on my own lawn, and while I don’t have concrete evidence to prove who the poopetrator is, I have a very good idea.

I’m not a “dog person”, but I have nothing against dogs.  What I do dislike is having dog poop on my lawn.  If I wanted dog poop on my lawn, I’d have a dog.  If you’re going to have a dog, you need to be accountable and clean up after your dog.  Even if this isn’t against the law in your town, this is just basic common courtesy to your neighbors.  Don’t be surprised if you gain a very negative reputation and that your neighbors become hesitant to pitch in when you need help with anything.  You show a complete lack of respect for their property – why should they lift a finger for you?

Bristol Palin

When the next season of Dancing With the Stars kicks off, the dace floor will feature luminaries such as Kurt Warner, Florence Henderson, and Bristol Palin.  For the last couple of years, we have been privy to the love/hate relationship between Bristol and Levi, with occasional commentary from Bristol’s mom.  Allegations have been made that Levi was trying to extend his 15 minutes of fame and would do anything to stay in the spotlight.

That might be the case, but Bristol is hardly staying in the shadows.  For a few months, she was working as a receptionist at a dermatologist’s office.  More recently, she has found more profitable work.  She travels around the country promoting abstinence.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with spreading that message.  The $15,000 – $30,000 fee she receives for each speaking engagements also helps build a college fund for Trigg.  Bristol also appeared on an episode of The Secret Life of The American Teenager.  Now, Dancing With the Stars.  What next – a regular gig on The View?  Is this a family trying to lead, or a family trying to achieve fame?  I was recently discussing Sarah Palin with a staunchly conservative friend of mine who commented “she’s not the leader of MY party.”

Privatizing Social Security

The last item might lead you to believe that I’m a hard core Democrat, but this isn’t the case.  I do lean left on quite a few issues, but I’m an unaffiliated voter who also agrees with Republicans on a lot of issues.  One of these issues is privatization of Social Security.  When Bush proposed this, I aligned myself with him and supported the idea – at least at a high level.

Those who oppose privatization – including lobbyists such as AARP – point to downturns in the market and suggest that those nearing retirement age could have lost substantial portions of their nest egg if they had invested in the market.  This is true – but it’s worth noting that you don’t need to invest in stocks to beat the return of Social Security.  Take a look at the rates of return for Social Security, according to a document on SSA’s web site.  The important table is table 1 (the second table in the document).  If you’re younger married couple at the medium earning level, you’re looking at a rate of return around 2.5%.  In comparison, 30 year treasuries are currently yielding upwards of 3.5%.  Is Social Security safer than treasuries?  Of course not –  both are backed by the US Government.  Essentially, the risk is the same.

NCAA Tackles Jeremiah Masoli On End Around

This one falls into the category of things that no longer grind my gears.  After being kicked off the Oregon football team for off-field transgressions, star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli transferred to Mississippi.  Generally, players who transfer must sit on year before they are allowed to play again (the year off doesn’t count against their eligibility). 

There is an exception that allows (but does not force) the NCAA to grant a waiver (making the player immediately eligible) if the player has completed his undergraduate degree and enrolls at another school in order to pursue a graduate degree in a major not offered by his old school.  This was the case with Masoli.  He is enrolled in the Parks and Recreation graduate program at Ole Miss – a degree not offered by Oregon.

Yesterday, the NCAA denied Masoli’s request for a waiver, saying that this type of waiver is intended to avoid hampering a student-athlete’s academic pursuits, rather than a way to avoid a punishment levied by his old school.  Good call, NCAA.