So I Went to Church and Voted

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This is my third election since moving to North Carolina and I still find it weird that my polling place is a church, and coincidentally it's my church.  Obviously it doesn't bother me in the least; I'm quite comfortable there, but I wonder how it feels for anyone in my voting district who may be Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Agnostic or some other -ish/-ist/-ic?  I'm not sure how I'd feel if the polling place was in a pagan temple, but I'm pretty sure I'd rather be in a school or library.

Anyhow, there was literally no line when Celeste and I entered the church, nor when we left.  I was the 907th voter tallied by the voting machine some time after 2:00 this afternoon.  Back in '04 I stood in line for 45 minutes to register/sign in and another 45 minutes to actually cast my vote.  You may remember that was a slightly contentious election too.  Me thinks the heavy early voting really helped keep the crowds down.  I didn't blog my '06 voting experience, but I remember it going smoothly, which is no surprise since it was one of those 'tweener elections that get about 20% turnout.

BTW, I split the ticket as always.  Some Democrats, some Republicans and one Libertarian.  It felt good to spread the wealth.

This Will Shock Celeste: Apparently I’m a ‘Doer’

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BlogTypelizer
I heard about this site called Typealizer that gives you a Myers-Brigg type score by analyzing your blog.  So I tested it and apparently I'm a "Doer" or in the Myers-Brigg vernacular I'm an ESTP.  Click on the image to the left to see the results.

While most of the description does seem to accurately depict me, I think that anyone who knows me would disagree with the whole "doer" moniker.  I'm more of a "think about doing" kind of guy, unless of course the doing helps me avoid real work.  I'm great at doing things like avoiding yard work, avoiding chores, avoiding washing the car, etc.  If that's what they mean then they're dead on.

Think You Know the Third World? Think Again

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Below is a fascinating presentation by Dr. Hans Rosling at the TED conference in 2006.  It's fascinating for two reasons: First, it debunks a lot of the pre-held notions most of us have about the third world. Second, his presentation of the data is absolutely mind blowing.  Not a lot of bells and whistles, just really compelling and easy to grasp.  It's worth the 20 minutes to watch it.

Now There are Three That I Know Of

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I've had a Google Alert set up for "jon lowder" for a while now, and usually it doesn't return anything other than a blog post I've written or something related to work.  Every once in a while I do get alerts that cause me to sit up and pay attention.  One came last year when I apparently hit a home run in a high school baseball game in Oklahoma or some such place.  Ends up there's a high school kid who's a pretty good athlete that shares my name.

This morning I got an alert that I'd lost my job.  Of course that perked me right up and I quickly clicked through to the article referenced in the alert.  It appears that there's another fella with my name who's about five years younger than me and living in Colorado.  He lost his job over the summer and he was being interviewed on CNN about the presidential election.  So, while I feel for my namesake I'm glad to know that I have my job for at least another day.

Live from the Courthouse

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I have jury duty today and it's just a bucket of laughs.  Interesting thing, though, is that the Winston-Salem Journal's local columnist Scott Sexton is in the same jury pool with me.  There are two cases today and a bunch of us got called into the courtroom for a drug trafficking case.  Luckily my name wasn't one of the 18-ish that were called to fill the 12 spots on the jury.  Sexton's was, though, and it offered a little comic relief when the assistant DA asked everyone questions like, "Do you know anyone in law enforcement?" or "Do you know anyone in the District Attorney's office."  FYI, the DA accepted Sexton but the defense attorney dismissed him.  What a surprise, huh?

Now I'm back in the jury waiting room.  We won't be excused until either the second case has it's jury selected or 5:00, whichever comes first.  At least they have free wi-fi here.

While walking back from lunch I ran into an older gentleman who was looking for the early voting location.  It's a couple of blocks from the courthouse, but I couldn't really help him because I still don't know downtown Winston-Salem like a native.  We ended up asking a street vendor and he pointed the gentleman in the right direction, but during our stroll the gentleman and I figured out that we both spent the majority of our lives in the metropolitan DC area. He'd mentioned that even though he'd grown up in Winston everything had changed during the 50+ years he'd lived in DC. We compared notes about our neighborhoods (he lived in NW DC, and I lived in Northern Virginia) and agreed that it had changed for the worse. 

I thought it was kind of cool that two people with a common background (if you negate the 30 years difference in age) met each other in the course of fulfilling their various civic duties.  It really made my day.

How I’ve Come to Hate Elizabeth Dole

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Below is a video I created to show how many robocalls and direct mailers we've gotten from various politicians over the last few weeks.  The vast majority of calls came from or on behalf of Elizabeth Dole, and they're all negative.  I have no idea what she's like as a person, but after the last two weeks I can tell you that I hate her guts as a politician.  What's interesting to me is that we haven't received one robocall from a Democrat, but a lot of the mail came from Democrats.  Anyway, enjoy:

John Daly Passed Out Drunk at the Hooters in Winston-Salem

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JohnDalyMugshot
Pro Golfer John Daly, Mr. Grip It and Rip It, got sloshed at the Hooters on Hanes Square Circle and passed out in the restaurant.  The EMTs and police were called and after Daly refused to go to the hospital and the police realized he didn't have a ride they took him to the drunk tank for a 24-hour sober up session.  I have to ask: what was Daly doing in Winston-Salem? It's a great town, but it's not exactly a tourist mecca.  Also, how did he end up at Hooters without transportation?  I'm guessing whoever drove him there ditched him, but who knows.

Really sad.  I remember watching him fight a case of horrible DTs during one tournament and then watching the profile of him on 60 Minutes when he said that he was under control because he'd cut out hard liquor and was a beer-only guy now.  I guess that isn't working so well. 

Bellwether for Newspapers. Anyone Want in On the W-S Journal Dead Pool?

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The Christian Science Monitor is leading the way to what is probably going to be the future for most daily newspapers:

'Christian Science Monitor' To Cease Daily Publication
Signaling a fundamental shift in the publishing industry, The Christian Science Monitor
today announced plans to shift from daily to a weekly print publishing
format. In turn, the national newspaper plans to invest heavily in its
Web presence.

"We're the first national paper to
switch to a web first strategy," said John Yemma, editor of the
newspaper, which is more than 100 years old and has won seven Pulitzer
Prizes. "We need to make it first rather than secondary, so we can make
it more of a go-to destination."

Anyone want to start a dead pool for various print dailies?  Not that the whole shebang will die, just the daily printed version.  I'm going to go short on the Winston-Salem Journal and say that they have 18 months before they take similar action.  They may not go to printing once weekly, but I can easily see them down to Wednesday through Sunday by then. 


Cuban: Entrepreneurs are the Future

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I'm a fan of Mark Cuban's, and not because I think he's a great sports franchise owner.  I like him because he speaks his mind, and he shares his thoughts with the world via his blog.  Here's a great example:

You can cut taxes for 95pct of Americans and raise taxes for the
rest. You can cut taxes for businesses and retain the Bush Tax Cuts.
You can increase or decrease the capital gains tax 5 or 10pct either
way.  Under both programs the deficit for the country will increase, 
we will borrow and print more money.  5 or 10pct variance either way,
given the big hole  our economy is in wont matter.

The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this
country.  We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest
in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their
ingenuity and come up with a new idea.

Its always the new idea that re energizes this country.  Industry,
manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc,
each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of
living. Tax policy has never done that.  The American People have.

Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what
tax rates are. Bill Gates didn’t monitor the marginal tax rate when he
dropped out of Harvard and started MicroSoft (btw, it was a ton higher
than it is today). Michael Dell didn’t wonder what the capital gains
tax was when he started PC’s Limited, and then grew it into Dell
Computer.  I doubt that any great business or invention started with a
discussion or even a consideration of what the current or projected
income or capital gains tax was or would be.

It doesn't hurt that I often agree with him, but even when I don't I appreciate his putting it all out there.  It's almost as much fun as watching him get all the other NBA owners' panties in a twist two or three times a season.

Where’s the Bailout for the Policy Holders?

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David Hoggard is a small business owner in Greensboro who also happens to be a blogger.  He recently posted his insurance costs for the last year and asked how it is that insurance companies need a bailout.  Here are the numbers:

  • Life insurance -  $7,548.00
  • Personal Disability -  $2,830.00
  • Health policy -  $8,100.00
  • Homeowners – $1,349.00
  • Personal Umbrella – $550.00
  • Personal Auto – $3,098.00
  • Worker’s Comp – business – $31,689.00
  • General Liability – business – $2,687.00
  • Inland Marine Cargo – business – $2,847.00
  • Fire and Casualty – business – $365.00
  • Auto – business – $5,650.00
  • Additional Liability – business – $565.00
  • Unemployment (Fed/state) – business – $2,165.00

All told, that is a whopping $69,443.00 paid to insurance companies by me and my little business within just the past twelve months.  And they are the ones in need of a bail out??????  Puleez.

Now add the amount in bailout money we individual taxpayers are on the hook for and you'll get the true number.  If all were right with the world the people who perpetrated this mess would end up wearing bracelets and eating institutional food for years to come, rather than being allowed to scurry to their 12 bedroom second homes to lament the fact that they're now worth millions instead of billions.  Obviously it ain't gonna happen.

Meanwhile to pay for this fiasco the true business builders in this country, like Hoggard, will be facing premiums and deductibles in the future that will make today's numbers look positively reasonable by comparison.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!