Opinions Archives - Page 18 of 30

DirecTV or not DirecTV (or Netflix is in the wings)

I received an email today from DirecTV listing the current pay per view offerings for this week and saw a movie that Michelle said she wanted to see. OK, OK it’s Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru”, call me a wuss but I’m gonna enjoy it too.

So I went to my Tivo to set it up to record and I noticed a new flag on the confirmation screen indicating that the PPV movie will expire at Noon tomorrow. Since I seldom watch a movie I’ve recorded in even the same month I recorded it much less the next day, I was somewhat perturbed.
So I went to the DirecTV website and looked this up and can see that my recording will probably last for a long time provided I don’t view it. Once I begin playing the movie, the clock starts ticking and I will have 24 hours within which to finish viewing.
There are plenty of movies that I will start to watch and then decide to finish days or weeks later. I don’t have an issue waiting to see the ending and I can remember the beginning well enough that I don’t lose anything across that gap.
What I have now is my satellite company (or, more probably, the content provider behind them) dictating how I will view my recording.
One of the reasons I use PPV is for exactly this freedom. Renting a movie from a Blockbusteresque source comes with the explicit contract that I need to return this item in a day or a week depending on popularity. But PPV has always been more ephemeral than that and the added flexibility (plus the lower cost and avoided trip to the store) have always been of great value to me.
Continue reading DirecTV or not DirecTV (or Netflix is in the wings)

General American sentiments and empathy concerning the kneejerk bailout plan.

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”…

This was forwarded to me by a friend, I don’t know where it comes from, but I can understand where the sentiments behind it come from.

Subprime Crisis – explained

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.

The Last Laugh – George Parr – Subprime – subtitulos
Uploaded by erioluk

My Yearly Rate of Return

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…

Register to vote, and then go do it.

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.

Three Dollar Cafe Jr. Fries – Excellent Plus!

French Fries 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.

Anxiety-detecting machines could spot terrorists

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).

Completed my Biennial Review – Why don’t we do this for automobiles?

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.

Cloverfield – Wow

I finally had a chance to watch “Cloverfield” after having recorded it on my Tivo ages ago.

All I can say is… “Wow”.

The hardest thing about watching that movie was the constant movement of the camera used to simulate someone using a hand-held video camera for THE ENTIRE MOVIE. Fortunately, after watching two years worth of videos shot by my mom when she was in Morocco from cars, in souks and bouncing around the various Atlas mountains, my stomach (and middle ear) were already steeled for such videography (sorry mom!).

I *loved* the attempted character development and I really appreciated the novel approach to having us be just one more character in the movie. I also liked that there was absolutely no attempt to explain what the monster was or where it may have come from. All we had was confusion and some snatches of CNN-style coverage on a TV set now and then to offer some up to the minute scenes of what is going on.

Of course I would kill to have the battery life that the little camera in this movie had 🙂

Even though I’m not much of a film noir kind of guy and there are plenty of loose ends at the end of the film, but I really enjoyed this film from end to end.

Excessive force in protecting one’s guests and property?

Gatecrashers flee whip-wielding dad – National – smh.com.au This reminds me of Canada’s idiotic “Excessive Force” laws whereby, should an attacker enter your home, you somehow need to assess the weapon(s) they are using and are not permitted to use weapons to defend yourself that are too superior to theirs.

In America, and I’m sure it’s the same in Canada and Australia too, it has been shown over and over again that police have absolutely NO OBLIGATION to protect you or your family or your property. This is one reason why the occasional officer who actually does put himself at risk is quite properly issued a commendation or other award as is appropriate. No, the police force’s obligation is to report on the incident, perhaps establish a buffer zone to try to contain a situation and to be the agent to pursue criminals after they have been identified after the fact.

Not to mention the fact that the officers are seldom present when an attack is taking place.
I’m not slamming police officers here, I have the greatest amount of respect for these people who put their lives on the line every single day. But this is simply not something that they are under any obligation to do for us.

As I see it, someone who is illegally on someone else’s property, especially when they are in a home when it can reasonably be expected to be occupied, forfeits any and all rights…. to everything. Any amount of force that a homeowner feels they need to exert to secure their own and their family’s and guest’s safety or even to secure their belongings, is the right amount of force.

The ninnies who come up with legislation demanding that Joe average should have to be concerned for an intruder’s well being either live privileged lives or simply don’t grasp the fact that your average homeowner has neither the experience nor the information at their disposal to take any other action except the one that is most likely to work.
Sitting in an armchair after the fact, second guessing the homeowner’s decisions is a luxury reserved for those not so threatened… and who are still alive.

I’m so thankful for the sensible “Castle Doctrine” laws that many U.S. states are adopting and wish my friends in the UK, Canada and Australia could get their nanny states off of their backs.