Marc’s Musings Reality from Marc’s point of view!

The last time we saw legislation so ill-fitted to the ideals this amazing Constitutional Republic was when that most heinous piece of trash legislation called (ironically) “The Patriot Act” was cobbled together and dumped in representatives laps with no time for them to review the outrage contained therein. Nobody could not vote for something with that name.

It seems that capitalism is now without risk for those with the right “leverage”…

Posted under Opinions

Forwarded to me by my brother. This tongue in cheek interview goes a long way toward explaining the subprime crisis, notably the terrible excess of greed, lack of judgment and twisted incentives that lead to this issue.

Posted under Amusing, Opinions

I just checked my 401(k) statement and it tells me that my yearly rate of return for the year to date is…

-22%  (!)

It almost makes me wish I’d blown it all on household electronics.

All those forecasts - “We’ll use the conservative model of 7% growth per year” - aren’t looking all that promising at this point.

I’m taking the advice being sent to me by all those incredibly wealthy folks who run the various brokerages and I’m “staying the course”.

Am I just being foolish? Should I just stop investing in my future and join the majority?

Sometimes I wonder…

Posted under Affluenza, Opinions

This is a pretty good idea. The stars just bring up the issues and aren’t pushing their personal agendas beyond actually getting you off your sorry behind and getting you out to vote.

I don’t usually put much stock in what actors have to say on the issues as they’re often not terribly broadly educated and the ones with the clout to get heard seem to be rather cloistered and somewhat detached from the world that most of us live in. But this campaign hits the nail on the head.

Be sure to educate yourself on the issues that are important to you. Your individual vote may seem meaningless. But if you throw away this opportunity to express yourself, then you are just one more drone in a sea of drones who are willing to accept whatever government is thrust upon them. And there is simply too much of that going on.

Check out this video:

Then head over to this site here and register yourself to vote if you are not already registered.

For my county the deadline is by October 6 so there are still 2 more days left. Hopefully it’s not too late for you.

Posted under Opinions

Beefeater fries are among the most difficult to do right. They’re either too cooked (burned) or limp and soul-less. But the Three Dollar Cafe Jr. (located on Old Milton Parkway about 1 1/2 miles East of Northpoint Parkway) always gets them right.

Notwithstanding the fact that their Wings (boneless wings for me thank you) are excellent too. But when I get a hankering for absolutely, consistently great fries. This is where I go.

Posted under French Fries, Gastronomy, Opinions

While this is pretty cool technology the reality is that technology doesn’t solve problems. It is only a tool that must be wielded along with an arsenal of other tools that include judgment, common sense and thorough training.

I believe that there is a huge part of our culture today that craves the “simple solution”. Apparently anything complicated is deemed beyond the ken of your average person and certainly well beyond the abilities of the TSA if the anecdotes coming from airports across the country are to be believed.

The same drive that has folks flocking to churches and believing that everything you need to know is accommodated in one, not particularly easy to read (and poorly translated) book combined with an increasing emphasis on multitasking (read: being scatterbrained) leads us to look for solutions to our problems that do not involve actually having to think or reason, but just follow rules (or beeping screens in the case of the machine above).

Posted under Opinions

I’ve been shifting around my priorities lately and finally took the time to do my biennial flight review.

For this review I elected to use a Diamond DA-20 as I’m intending to use this type of plane much more often on future flights. Also, it’s a stepping stone to the DA-40 and my local flight school has two of those at a reasonable price.

This is really a great idea, every two years, to be legal to fly, you must sit down with a flight instructor for an hour and then fly for about an hour in order to demonstrate that you still know your procedures and that you know what you’re doing.

I think, if we were to adopt a similar system for automobile currency we’d have a LOT less foolishness and carelessness on the roads. I think folks are *way* to cavalier in their approach to driving. Being forced to stay current - as well as to come up to speed on the laws as they constantly change - would be a good thing for us all.

There needs to be some kind of accountability linking people and their care or lack thereof back to the folks who made it possible to be on the roads. Having one’s name endorsing someone’s driving certificate should offer some incentive to ensure that at least some of the basics have been reviewed with that driver.

Obviously, the bloated and ineffective system used by the DOT for driver examination would be useless for this endeavor, but a privatized system of folks who would administer these tests and held accountable for their approvals seems like it would make a lot of sense.

Posted under Aviation, Opinions