I'd like to thank Vice President Biden for giving me an easy cover while emceeing the Diamond Awards last night for my day job. I started the evening by saying "My main goal tonight is to not pull a Biden."
If you haven't figured it out by now my modus operandi is to set an exceptionally low bar and then crawl over it.
If you live in a cave and haven't heard the (newest) Biden blurt here it is:
Did you know that in North Carolina you can sue the other woman (or man) if your spouse is cheating on you? Believe it or not you can, and it can even work. A woman just won a $9 million verdict against the younger woman with whom her husband was fooling around. From the story:
On Tuesday , a jury awarded Cynthia Shackelford money for alienation of affections, criminal conversation (legal speak for adultery) and intentionally or recklessly causing severe emotional distress.
North Carolina remains one of a few states that allow someone to sue the person who interferes in a marriage — called alienation of affection. More than 200 such cases are filed statewide in an average year, according to the Rosen law firm in Raleigh.
Shackelford, 60 , now of Raleigh , sued Lundquist in 2007 , charging that the younger woman’s affair with her husband ruined their marriage.
Generally I don't care how people observe their faith. Want to stand on a street corner and shout about it? Fine by me. Want to clang cymbals or speak in tongues? Fine by me. Want to pronounce your faith to everyone within shouting distance? Annoying, but okay. That said, this post by a minister in Lewisville really bothered me when I read it. It starts:
We need your help. A couple in our church has been sharing Jesus with a woman who is near death in Hospice. Her name is — —-*. She is a Buddhist and if she dies without Christ, she will go to Hell. Will you please take a few moments right now and pray for — to receive Christ?
* I wasn't comfortable using her name in this post.
I do understand that he and the members of his flock mean well, and I also think they sincerely believe that they're endeavoring to save this woman from an eternity in hell, but man I cringe when I think of someone who is in the final stages of life, who is likely in extreme discomfort, being proselytized and told that her own religious belief is going to condemn her to hell.
Personally I think they should pray for her just as they should pray for the well being of anyone, but I don't buy the need for the deathbed proselytizing. I used to get a similar feeling when I had some pretty heated debates with the (very conservative) principal of my Lutheran high school. He just couldn't convince me that God would condemn any good person to hell, no matter their faith. I guess that's one opinion I haven't changed at all over the years.
I know this comes as a shock (not) but in today's Wall Street Journal it's revealed that of all the schools in this year's NCAA tournament field Wake Forest is the greatest underachiever over the last, oh, 25 years or so. Basically Wake is to March Madness what Ryan Leaf was to top NFL draft picks.
Today I attended the Linking Winston-Salem luncheon and part of the program was a plea to support the Winston-Salem effort to get Googled. Winston-Salem is a little late getting started with its public push, especially when you compare it to Greensboro's weeks old effort, but I guess it's better late than never, and since I live in the Winston-Salem burbs I'm happy to see them going for it.
On the other hand thanks to my job and my long-time interest in the Greensboro blog community I've also been invited to participate in their various Google-wooing efforts. Typical of Greensboro they've been working out the kinks in public, but they seem to be making decent headway.
I've been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that I can't be the only one who's in this situation. I'm guessing that since this isn't an election I can vote for as many municipalities as I want, but I'm also guessing that Greensboro and Winston-Salem could be missing an opportunity. Wouldn't a consolidated, regional effort for the Triad make a lot of sense to Google? I haven't studied the requirements in depth so I don't know if this is even an option, but if it is I can think of a lot of compelling reasons for a Piedmont Triad effort:
That's just three positives off the top of my head, and I'm sure that there are people who will let me know if I'm all wet, but I still have to ask if a joint effort has even been contemplated?
I do realize that Google's basic info page says "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people" and that even if you combined only Greensboro and Winston-Salem you'd be awful close to the upper limit so the entire Triad would obviously exceed it. Still, if Google's going to wire multiple mid-sized cities wouldn't it be of interest to them to do a couple in close proximity for purely logistical reasons? And if that's the case wouldn't it make sense for the various players in the Triad to throw in together to make a really, really compelling case with Google? Just askin'.
Before I start let me please ask one thing: family and friends who know me well, please try to keep the snickering to a minimum as you read this. Here goes.
One of the requirements of my day job is working with our finance committee to figure out how to manage the association's money. Cash management is a given for any company, but like many non-profits we have emergency reserves that we have to manage and make sure they will indeed be there for a rainy day. (The thought of me managing emergency reserves is what probably has my family and friends snickering since I'm the same guy who in college, and the ensuing years until marriage, managed his checking account via ATM. If there was money there I took it and if there wasn't I just shrugged, wondered where the hell it had all gone and resigned myself to eating peanut butter until the next payday arrived). The association's bylaws limit what we can do with the reserves so there's really not a lot of thinking to do. We just have to find the best possible return in money market funds or CDs and we have to make sure they are structured so that they're fully insured. Here's the rub: CDs and money market funds currently have rates that range from zero (that's right, nada) to one or two percent. Unless inflation stays that low then our money is effectively losing value as it sits in the bank.
All that's to say that if you have financial reserves with which you need to play it safe then you're going to have to accept break even as a good deal for the time being. Along those lines Fred Wilson has a very pertinent and must-ready post here.
Quote of the day comes from Tax.com:
In America most income tax scams do not involve lying, cheating, or stealing. They involve hiring lobbyists and engaging in practices that are perfectly legal.
I've been watching Madhouse on The History Channel (for excellent reviews of the show see KT's reviews at Esbee's blog) and I do enjoy it immensely, but one of my fears is that my friends and family in other parts of the world will think that the Madhouse crowd is representative of Winston-Salem in its entirety. Fec offers his own evaluation and I have to say that the first and last sentences of his second paragraph kind of sum up my worries:
I stayed up last night and watched the History Channel’s Madhouse chronicle of W-S Bowman Gray stadium modified racing. The series portrays our area in the worst possible light.
The shows are highly effective cautionary tales of men who refuse to grow up and the families they neglect. It is a cogent primer in abnormal behavior. The soul-crushing pastime of habitually racing on a track too small to pass renders the participants beyond their already limited capacities to maintain composure. It’s Jerry Springer on wheels.
I have nothing against the Madhousians, and in fact the culture reflected in Madhouse is one of my favorite things about the Winston-Salem area, but you have to remember that just a few miles away from Junior Miller and his K'ville Mafia live grown men who wear loafers with no socks to the pool at FCC. If that doesn't say "I haven't grown up" I don't know what does.
Official disclaimer: I see nothing wrong with going sockless, but why drag your loafers into it?
If you ask me "Why is having a vibrant downtown important" I would probably reply, "Well, it just is." It's always seemed intuitive to me that a healthy and vibrant downtown is essential for a metro area, but I've never really been able to quantify my rationale. Thankfully I can let the folks at Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership do it for me:
Dutch Olympic gold medalist speed skater Sven Kramer provides the best start to an interview in recent memory.
Befuddled 