THE PAPER

A funny little guy came to my door selling the Orlando Sentinel a few weeks ago. I stopped getting the Sentinel in 2004 when they endorsed John Kerry. Two salesmen have been to my door prior to this one and I sent them away. The last dude said he was just trying to save me money with coupons. The new guy offered me 13 weeks of Wed, Fri, and Sun for 50 cents a week and I took it. I figured it would be nice to read the CALENDAR section again and the movie reviews and show times, not that I have time for the movies. That crazy Commander Coconut is still at it though he moved to the end of the section.

It use to be fun to read the Sunday travel section, but it's all wire stuff now. The sports section has a columnist that thinks referencing Paris Hilton in a college basketball quip is witty. But the previous salesman was right about saving me money on the coupons. I bought these corn/rice chips with a coupon that saved me more than a week's subscription. Decline can be great for the pocketbook, but I won't miss the paper when it finally folds. Or I should say I won't miss it once my 13 weeks introductory offer ends.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I know of several Obama supporters from last year who are mostly apolitical, but the country was going down the tubes with President Bush and something had to be done. Now here you have Obama following almost all of the Bush policies and on top of that spending us into an economic collapse, and we have silence from last year's critics. It was like Bush's presidency was some big reality show and now that he's voted off the island everybody is safely back to their superficial pursuits until the new season begins in four years.

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I've been reading THE FORGOTTEN MAN by Amity Shales and I recommend it to my Junto brethren. I doubt a better book on what caused the Great Depression will ever be written. The short version is that Hoover started us off with the Smoot-Hartley tariff act that made prices climb and hurt the poorest people and Roosevelt spent the 1930s experimenting so many ways that investment capital was afraid to take any risks, because the rules kept changing. The author surmises that without government action it would have been a mild recession and been over in a few years, but it instead stretch until 1942.

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Baseball season without dad is tough. Without him convincing me that the Yankee acquisitions will be fruitful I am left to consider them objectively and get depressed.

REACTIONS TO THE NEWS

My first experience with John Updike was the short story "A&P" that Dude and I read for Momberger's class. It was on the strength of the short story that I eventually read the four Rabbit novels. The main character is a kind of lazy slobby lothario and yet you kind of root for him just the same. Baseball fans should enjoy his piece on Ted Williams. I read that a few years ago.

I'm not sure why I stopped with the Rabbit novels. It may have been the shock of seeing him kill off Rabbit in the last book. I think the main reason is that the descriptions of his other novels didn't seem all that interesting. But then again, the Rabbit novels didn't seems to interesting either until I read them. I have some more short stories sitting around and I wonder if it will be motivation to read them or if Updike will just drift away in my consciousness. Rick Rookhiser has a few suggestions.

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James Taranto likes to point out how the media loves to identify Republicans in ethics violations while ignoring the party when the person is a Democrat. Recent example has the Chicago Sun Times identifying a busted Prostitute as a Registered Republican while comparing the case with Governor Elliot Spitzer, a man with no party.

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Glenn Reynolds has some fun with this one:

HOPE AND CHANGE? New, Transparent WhiteHouse.gov Forgoes Press Briefing Transcripts? The obvious explanation: Bush wanted transcripts online because he expected the press to filter what he said. Obama doesn’t want transcripts online . . . because he expects the press to filter what he says.

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This takes a little more time to read, but it explains why the proposed stimulus is not a good idea.

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Joe Torre's revenge book comes out Tuesday. Here is the NYT review. Am I alone in thinking that a tell-all book is a little unbecoming a guy like Torre? I understand that he is angry and I agree that the Yankees were foolish to treat him so poorly, but what about George Steinbrenner's biography made Torre think that he would be different? George fired Yogi Berra the first month into a season.

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UPDATE: An Item that will interest Steve. Asimov's Foundation series is coming to the big screen.

The studio plans to develop the film for Roland Emmerich, the director of the cataclysmic sci-fi movies “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”

WHEN BENNETT WANTED POWELL

I met Bill Bennett in November of 1995 at a book signing in New Orleans. It was actually a convention but I snuck in because I learned that Bennett was there. He was nice and posed for pictures that I no longer have. I asked him why he wasn’t running for President and he said that General Powell was the man. I shook my head and said no you are. He and Jack Kemp of Empower America were behind that draft Powell movement that went nowhere. I was a big fan of Bennett back then. He was a fixture on pundit shows and he called into Rush all the time. Less than a year later I would sour on him when he got behind Lamar Alexander, a Republican that has always annoyed me.

Although I have tried, I have never been able to get through one of his books. He’s much better in an electronic format and he’s certainly good on his daily talk show. I’m tempted to call into the show on Monday morning and ask how he feels about Powell now. But I don’t think I want to call so badly that I’ll be up at 6am.

Remember back when liberals hated Powell the warmonger? I use to read stories about how he was elevated to NSC and to the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs simply to be a token black Republican. I think one article said he was promoted ahead of 17 more qualified people. It didn't work to have the most powerful black leader be a Republican. He didn't become admired on the Left until Bob Woodward made him the voice of reason in the Bush White House. Now the media can love him fully.

It seems pretty obvious that Powell wants to rehabilitate his reputation post Iraq War. What other reason is there to endorse Obama besides the obvious identity politics part of it? Maybe it’s a combination of the two, but the reputation part is certainly a factor.

I know a guy who was his tour guide for a few days during an event and he said that Powell was more arrogant than any of the famous actors he has toured, not at all personable with anyone. When he told me the story I started looking for it when I saw Powell on television and he does seem all business. I wonder if that is the real reason he never ran for President. He couldn't take the glad handling and pancake breakfasts. It's hard to imagine the country electing a president who took himself too seriously. Rumsfeld has taken all the real hits in the war and he doesn't seem to care. A guy as deadly serious as Powell minds a great deal.

Powell insisted on being Secretary of State. He didn’t want any other cabinet post although he would have seemed to make a natural Secretary of Defense. Dan Coats lost the Defense job because he was wary that Powell would try to control the Pentagon from the State Department. Rummy was the result of needing someone who could stand toe to toe with Powell. So you could certainly argue that the Iraq War or at least the way it was run would have been different if Powell had taken the job. And you could further argue that anything that Powell finds distasteful about the Iraq War is the result of his demanding the other job.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM MOMENT

I had to return something at Best Buy tonight and I was already in a sour mood of sorts. Sir Saunders called me on the way and he told me about his grandmother’s funeral and it sounded like such beautiful event with much love. It improved my mood just talking to him which is usually the case. We were still on the phone when the Best Buy door guy tags my return with a sticker and I head to the line.

As I get closer to customer service I see that no one is at any register, then coming up on my right is a guy with a big Bose box. As we both get closer he speeds up to try and beat me there. Now I’m on the phone and only half take in what’s happening. Steve and I are discussing whether we can go biking Saturday and still make niece Maddie’s first birthday party. So as this guy tries to beat me to the line, by instinct I speed up to and beat the guy to the register.

He says to me, “I need to sit this on the counter” so I move up a few feet and continue with Saunders. Not long after a girl comes to the register and helps him. He doesn’t say anything. Saunders, I think, can tell that I’m distracted and we end the phone conversation.

I'm sure most people would have said nothing, but you know me. So I said, “Hey, why did you cut in front of me. You said you wanted to sit your box on the counter?”

He said, “I was here first.”

I said, “You were behind me.”

He said, “She already had my paperwork.”

The cashier said not a thing during the exchange. And even though he was a bigger guy than me, he sheepishly left on the paperwork line and hustled to the door.

Looking back, the way he tried to get ahead of me makes sense if he was worried about being in an awkward position, because he was mid-transaction, and no authority figure was present to vouch for him.

I’ve been in similar situations before. I wait my turn in line and when the customer service person returns he/she decides whether to bring me to the front of the line. I don’t take it for granted that I am next when the only other person in line has never seen me. He could have set his box on the floor and waited for her to return.

More importantly, if you ask a person to let you sit something on the counter and then it looks like you took that opportunity to jump the line, the answer isn’t I was here first, but you apologize for the misunderstanding and then explain. And I think that was the uncomfortable part, his having to explain the situation to a scary stranger. This wasn’t some kid, but a guy around 40 years old and he looked successful.

That's what makes this story interesting to me. He's too proud for a humble explanation and yet a part of him acts like he did something wrong and he needs to defend himself. He's lost without an authority figure.

CHEATING DEATH

Based on how the person died, or at least the popular legend of how s/he died, match the person with the object most likely to have prevented the death:

1 - Greek dramatist, Aeschylus
2 - Astronomer, Tycho Brahe
3 - Gangster, Al Capone
4 - Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra
5 - Chemist, Marie Curie
6 - Distiller, Jack Daniel
7 - Actor, James Dean
8 - Croc Hunter, Steve Irwin
9 - President, Thomas Jefferson
10 - Author, Virginia Woolf

A - urinal
B - steel toed boot
C - radiation suit
D - snake bite kit
E - anti-diarrhea medicine
F - protective hard hat
G - life jacket
H - underwater shark cage
I - penicillin
J - seat belt

How did you do? Check the comments for the key.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

1. Thanks to the "Juntoboys" for inspiring me to continue my research on Prisoner Re-Entry. I am now writing a proposal with a collaborator I found at the University. We are putting together a research project to study some of the ideas I developed and test them for effectiveness. This is very exciting as this will likely turn into funded and publishable research.

2. I've been reading a lot lately about Neuropsychology (a new and growing field). Particularly I am currently reading research on The Neuropsychology behind Paranormal Experiences. This field was evidently pioneered by Michael A. Persinger, Ph.D. who also invented a crazy contraption called the "God Helmet." The God-Helmet introduces ultra low frequency pulses of Electro-Magnetic energy into the temporal lobes of the brain. This device is devised so that it will induce religious/paranormal experiences in those who wear it. Among reported experiences are the feeling that someone is watching you, feelings of oneness, feelings of being pulled from the inside, fear, anger, joy, and a variety of other emotions. Persinger believes that stimulation of the temporal lobes is what causes mystical experiences as well as Alien abduction reports. I've got the plans for this helmet and am currently building one for my own experiments.

3. I've been tasked with teaching more diversity courses now. Apparently my students love my "refreshing right wing approach" (as one student evaluation put it) to diversity areas such as Cross cultural psychology, Psych of Women, and Psych of Racism.

4. What if McCain asks Barak Obama to be his Vice-President, which was earlier suggested in this blog by "E" I believe. Would that collapse the ends of the Bell Curve (ultra right conservatives and ultra liberals) creating a new coalition of moderates, independents, and the like? Are we in for a major political transformation of the cultural landscape? All pundits seem aghast.

5. If social intelligence or emotional intelligence is a valid construct, then evidently there must be Emotional Genius'. If so, what would they look like? What would an Emotional Einstein be like? Would they be master manipulators able to inspire or corrupt or whisper and control at will? Sounds like a cool power. Perhaps that is what the great leaders and politicians were.

6. The recent book "Love and Sex with Robots" is quite fascinating. I've been waiting for the Robot Women and Flying cars all my life. This books central thesis is that as robots become more and more human like, we will eventually begin using them for intimate practices as well. It makes sense since the average Joe/Jane uses a computer and a variety of mechanical aids currently to enhance carnal pleasure. It would be nice in some ways because the Robot Woman would not nag, nor divorce, nor spend you into bankruptcy. It's all very interesting. I suppose the sophisticated enough Robot woman could be intellectually stimulating (since she would have a internet enabled brain and therefore access to the sum total of human knowledge) plus physically arousing since presumably some basic psychology tests could discern the exact physical type you would be interested in. Human women may be jealous at first or not allow this at all (just as many now rally against Porn and such) while others would view the Robot Woman as simply an appliance and would likely welcome this addition which could help "fill the void" between love making sessions and thus help curb her Human Husbands desire to cheat. Since the Robot Woman would be learning enabled and adaptive, she would continue to get better with each session and could create both variety as well as become a teacher to the human couple or even live-aid for the ultimate "threesomes."

A FEW THOUGHTS

The Writer’s Strike

I think the WGA made a mistake dealing with Letterman separately. Jay Leno was in no way going to stay off the air with Letterman on, union or no. I saw Colbert, and Kimmel tonight and I don’t think any of these shows really miss the writers. In fact, for Colbert a loss of writers means the most annoying segments are gone. Rush Limbaugh does 3 hours a day with no writers and a small research staff. How did it become the norm for these shows to have 10 scribes?

Al Michaels

I keep thinking about what Dennis Miller said on his radio show last summer. Miller said that Al Michaels doesn’t eat vegetables, in fact, Al’s wife hasn’t seen him eat a single vegetable in the 35 years she has known him. That’s a large amount of food not to eat. I guess tomatoes and avocados are fruit so that helps a little, but maybe he won’t eat those either. No Peta campaigns for Al.

Dem VP

Maybe I blogged this earlier. I’m too lazy to check. I think the Democrat nominee has to pick a strong national security running mate. It’s the only thing lacking in their resumes. This is what Bush did when he picked Dick Chenney. I think Hilary has already chosen Wesley Clark in her head. Obama needs a tough guy more than she does. An interesting darkhorse is that General that bungled Iraq, Richard Sanchez. He can blame the whole thing on Bush like every other Democrat. E’s recent theory that McCain could land there does make sense. He’s never showed loyalty before so why now?

Heath Ledger

With Lohan, Spears etc. in and out of rehab, Ledger takes us by surprise. No tabloid told us that this guy was drug dependent. So much is made of the young Hollywood lifestyle and how that leads to tragedy, but what if it’s the other way around. Maybe people who are emotionally or chemically unstable are lead into showbiz because they need to fill that emptiness with public adulation.

Like Dude I have seen 3 of his movies, but only one in common, A KNIGHT’S TALE. I enjoyed 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, a high school version of taming of the shrew. I also saw Mel Gibson’s PATRIOT which is entertaining enough despite the historical inaccuracies, length, and script problems.

What really got me was the photo of Heath with his 2 year old daughter clutching his leg. She held on tight like she was afraid to lose him. Ten other guys can play the Joker, but that little girl only has him. That thought may not have occurred to me a few weeks ago.

SECRETS AND MORE


Trish uses SECRET deodorant. The ad campaign from my childhood was “strong enough for a man but made for a woman.” I saw a TV ad for Secret today and it said “Secret, strong like a woman.” What? The original meaning was that men smell like oxen and their deodorant has to be strong. The secret behind SECRET is that it’s strong enough for a man, but made for people who shouldn't stink as much, but just might. I can’t help but think that someone must have decided the original wording was offensive because it implied that women weren’t “strong.” But what does it mean to be "strong like a woman?" It’s like saying, “Sensitive like a man.”

Unless something has happened elsewhere in the country where women have taken over chopping wood, mowing the lawn, and bench pressing, I just don’t see the point. Can women be physically strong? yes. Can men be sensitive, yes. But that’s not how you associate those attributes, because each is less so than the other. Other similar examples would include “sweet like cheese”, “angry like a priest”, and “erudite like an uncle.”

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The Left is always down on corporations, but I think we libertarians have been the first to notice that corporations are adhering to political correctness at an alarming rate. Other than making money, there are very few things that corporations do anymore that are overtly right wing. Still, they are evil and greedy and heartless. Years ago when the union guy (I should do an entire entry on him sometime) was trying to recruit me I saw him sitting in our cafeteria with his boss, the VP of the local. I introduced myself and asked why the union gives 98% of their money to Democrats. Because Democrats have traditionally supported the working man etc. and corporations are greedy and we need someone on our side. But what exactly are we getting for our money considering that our CEO is a Democrat? So, ah how long have you worked here . . .

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Back in graduate school, my professor of American politics was a Democrat. I think he worked for Carter at some point or was somehow connected to that circle. He made the case in class one day that it didn’t matter if the United Nations was ineffective, a point I suppose he was ceding, because having a forum to keep the discussion open is valuable. That crosses my mind often when I’ve had it with the U.N. I tend to think that his 1994 analysis was dead-on in a cold war world. But in a world of rogue nations and terrorists I think the United Nations is becoming a barrier to solving problems. The organization is outmoded because it’s chartered on the idea that everyone is reasonable. Sting was right that the Russians loved their children and it turned out they loved them enough to surrender to Reagan. But today’s villains don’t get that channel. There is no Whitehouse hotline to Osama’s mountain cave or Saddam’s palace. The U.N. cannot be effective in bringing them together for meaningful dialogue. What they can do is get a group of nations together to disagree about strong action and since they have somehow become the only arbiter of international law, we become the rogue nation for being sober and decisive. I don’t know how we’d be any worse without them.

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The FAIRNESS DOCTRINE is irksome, but with the rise of the Internet and Satellite Radio, the biggest victim will be AM radio. So many small stations became profitable simply because Rush Limbaugh was worth listening to.

The government once split up the Hollywood Studio System that produced, distributed and shown pictures under one umbrella. What if movie theatres had to balance their product with an equal number of pictures of opposing view? A Clooney movie about McCarthy runs next to a film about Kennedy botching the Bay of Pigs while spooning some mob mol. A Stone movie about the CIA’s assassination of JFK runs next to a film about how the de-funding of the CIA led to 9-11.

Have you ever seen HBO produce a conservative documentary? It would irk them no little to have to start producing them.

What’s really great about the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE debate is how the Left fears actual political speech, but will consider every verbal and even nonverbal vulgarity to be fully protected. We right-leaning individuals have for so long expected movies and TV to be slanted that we laugh it off under most circumstances. We’re so use to having to defend our views we’ve become good at it. They just cover their ears and chant “la la la la la” until they can reach the tuner.

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And what happened over at NBC? Jack Welch’s legacy is not in the news division. Covering the Live Earth concert, NBC said that it didn’t consider climate change a political issue. Wow. That’s what we mean when we say liberal media. There was a time when fighting our country’s enemies wasn’t a political issue. The only thing beyond question these days is misapplied science presented in the form of a church revival.

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David Beckham is Becks. Prince William is called Wills. Is that a common British nickname idiosyncrasy or do they only speak plural about larger than life characters?

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Back to talk radio, Walter Williams guest hosted Rush on Friday and I had to run to my afternoon appointment and I didn’t get to listen to any of it. What a big disappointment. He doesn’t host often and I always look forward to it. He’s brilliant and as a bonus Thomas Sowell nearly always comes on with him for 30-60 minutes to talk issues. You never see Sowell on TV or only hear him on radio when Williams is the host. It’s almost worth breaking down to order Rush 24/7 just to hear Williams do his thing. With my luck, he doesn’t archive the guest hosts.

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I owe this blog movie reviews going back to early May. They are mostly written, but I have 2 or 3 to go. Maybe later this weekend.

CHARITY AUCTION

I had an interesting weekend. A pal who works for Verizon scored six tickets for the Roger Waters show at the Verizon amphitheater in Irvine. It was a horrendous 200-minute drive through Friday rush hour traffic to get there but it was fun to get out and do something different. It was a strange mix of young and old at the concert. There were some guys pushing sixty who were wearing ties and cell phones as if they drove straight from work.

We were still walking to our section (the lawn) when the show was about to begin. I ducked into the mens room where the line was seven deep at every urinal. Waters took the stage and plucked out the first few chords of "In the Flesh" from THE WALL. A moment I will never forget is dozens of men, young and old, singing along while they stood ass-to-belly in the bathroom - "So ya thought ya might like to go to the show..."

I sat on the lawn with my pals for the first set which was comprised of early Pink Floyd favorites and some latter day solo stuff. People were up and down and coming and going and more than once I got my hand stepped on, so I decided to stand during the rest of the show. After a break, Waters came back and played the second set which was DARK SIDE OF THE MOON in its entirety. This was what I came for and I wasn't disappointed. The music and effects sounded just like the CD - only with a faux David Gilmour lending vocals. The wailing on "The Great Gig in the Sky" was note for note. The encore consisted of a handful of songs from THE WALL. The whole affair was kind of surreal - with men peeing through chain link fences and women puking on themselves; the venue was outdoors so people were smoking liberally and mostly it was not tobacco that I smelled. The drive home - same distance - took about 70 minutes.

Saturday night, Marci and I were invited to a charity auction to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Burbank. Marci's coworker serves on the board and organized the event. It was "black tie optional" so I wore the suit that I bought for my sister-in-law's wedding last year and Marci wore a swanky dress. We already had $50 invested in a babysitter and weren't planning to spend very much, if anything, at the event.

Before dinner, there was a silent auction in which you bid on paper and can see what the highest bid is at any given time. We got into the spirit and bid on three items. The one we didn't win was a two-night stay at some cool looking cabin near Yosemite. There were three different photographers who had donated family portraits and for reasons unknown to me, they were priced at three disparate price points: $500, $350, and $150. First we bid on the $350 because we came upon it first and the top bid was only $130. Then we reneged on that bid when we discovered that the $500 studio was in Woodland Hills as opposed to Pasadena. We bid $165 and took it. I don't know why the prices were so different but even though we paid more, it seemed like we got the better value. The other one for $150 we discovered just as the silent auction was about to close. It didn't even have a first bid for $30 for whatever reason so we decided to stick with the other studio. Not only do we help the boys and girls of Burbank but we've been overdue for a family portrait and have paid it lip service for years, and now we've actually got a session on the books. The other item we bid on was for $150 worth of food and fun at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim. That's just the kind of thing I'm looking to do with the kids this summer so I paid $75 for top honors.

At dinner, I was seated next to the single lesbian and her brand new adopted baby. She was in her late forties and gave me the whole story about how she began the adoption process with her partner years ago after seven years of being unable to get pregnant. She was willing to take any baby that came her way and she wound up just a couple months ago with a white baby born of a college girl who had hidden the pregnancy from her folks. The baby is beautiful and healthy and it's really a triumph of the adoption process that people are able to score some good ones without resorting to the black market. There was one other baby at the event which I had assumed was accompanying grandma and grandpa until I saw baby suckling on grandma's booby. A little tidbit I noticed about the lesbian mom is that when she held the baby and gave it a bottle, she then initiated a conversation with Marci who was on the other side of me, and she completely ignored the baby during the feeding process. One thing about having a baby sucking on you boob is that you never feel closer to another human than when you are nourishing your little guy. Even the grandmotherly mommy was staring deeply into her baby's eyes during the process which is the natural instinct. It made me wonder if I was witnessing one of those nurture versus nature moments on how adopted kids get screwed.

After dinner, there was a paddle auction in which you bid by holding up the paddle at your table with your unique number on it. Before this event, my only experience with auctions were baseball card auctions from Pensacola with Tom. My all-time favorite auction moment isn't even my own, but is when Roger Thornhill shouts out "How do I know it's not a fake?" in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. There was a volunteer auctioneer to kick off the bidding for the first item, which was a little yorkshre terrier puppy. The excitement in the room was incredible with the auctioneer doing his thing and the bidding coming from all four corners of the room. The dog wound up going for $1200 to the emcee's wife who outbid the lady who sang during dinner.

Most of the other items for auction were travel packages. The final item was a three-night stay at some rich family's Lake Arrowhead home. Kim, the lady who organized the event was seated at our table by this point and when the bidding stalled at $1200, she looked at Marci and me and said "are you in?" I hadn't even considered on bidding on this package but I gave it the quick once-over and saw that it was a four-bedroom house with all kinds of amenities. I gave Kim the "we're in" response and her paddle went up. She wound up taking it with a $1400 bid. So, that last one cost us nothing out of pocket up front but come August we will pay Kim $350 for three nights of luxurious communal living with a family of our choice and another of her choice - Kim comes solo. Fellow Junto Boys are invited to become that family if you get yourself out here in about six weeks.

BEN SAYS

In the spirit of Junto, I should start quoting some Ben Franklin.

From Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1739:

A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds
If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds.

SICK OF: THE CONSTANT ANALYSIS: Every little thing no matter how insignificant has a full airing out in the 24 hours new cycle. I don’t care how many U.S. attorneys were fired and I don’t care what Gonzalez has to say or what Schumer has to say. This is not a real issue but just something to talk about. I’m not sure there is any news. I haven’t heard any for a long time and I don’t seem to miss it.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF: RICKY GERVAIS: The American version of THE OFFICE is the only sitcom I watch and yet it lacks all the subtlety and British nuance that made the original so entertaining. I just finished watching both seasons of EXTRAS and Gervais is funny again, albeit somewhat cruder than American TV fare. His stuff is politically incorrect and sometimes surprising in its vulgarity, other times funny in its simplicity.

SICK OF BUD SELIG: This guy should run for Congress where his duplicity and influence could be absorbed into a system of gridlock.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF: NETFLIX: Now I can have every movie in print on my doorstep in 2 days with no late fees. I read once that today’s American lives better than any 19th century nobleman. Netflix allows me to live as well as any 1930s studio mogul.

SICK OF: THE AIRPORT SCREENING SYSTEM: Anyone who sees an old lady being searched at the airport while Ahmed moves briskly though asks either consciously or unconsciously, “Are we really at war?” The administration’s unwillingness to profile ethnicity makes the war seem unserious. You don’t have to search every Middle Eastern man, but is there any reason for a half-ass search off Mildred other than to send a message that we play no favorites? The media’s effectiveness in disparaging the war was easy because Bush created a soft middle by not making the tough decisions domestically. This seems to be a war that we’re willing to lose if it means that we have to hurt some feelings.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF: WAL-MART: It might not be the most pleasant shopping experience, but I don’t care for shopping in general, and Wal-Mart is inexpensive and they have everything. The lines may be longer than at the expensive place, but think of it as a job and they’re paying you to be there. I bought an alarm clock last week for $5. Air conditioner filters for half the normal price. Other stores have had to become more efficient to compete with those prices so even if you have never stepped into a Wal-Mart your life is better for their existence. If you're poor, Wal-Mart has done more to raise your standard of living than any government program. When you walk through the door, imagine punching a time clock. When you walk out, figure how much money you just earned for your time. And remember, money saved is tax free unlike money earned. Also, offering someone an at-will job is not victimization no matter if the elite critics wouldn’t like to do the job themselves.

SICK OF: HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATIONS: They purport to be the savior of your property, but they collect money to make you do more work. It’s like the inmates taking up a collection to pay the warden. I got a letter from my old Home Owners association months after I sold my house threatening me if I didn’t immediately pay my late association dues.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: HDTV: I’ve seen more football this past year than the previous 5 years combined. A simple up-conversion DVD player ($100) boosts movies to a level where you can easily ignore Blue Ray and the latest expensive fad. I don’t miss going to the movies anymore because the effort doesn’t always seem worth it unless I can see more than one film for my hassle.

SICK OF: THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE: Understanding one another is the hallmark of progress. In our society today, anything perceived as remotely offensive gets re-defined so that we don’t quite know what we’re talking about. The imprecision of our language is supposed to make people feel good, but is that a worthy trade-off for not understanding one another? Ask the man on the street to explain the difference between undocumented worker and illegal alien and they won’t be able to tell you that they’re the same thing. They must be different because he knows what an illegal alien is. The new term does nothing but give someone a standing they don’t actually have. With time, the new terms will catch-up and become pejorative too. “Undocumented workers” will at some point be as vile sounding as “illegal alien.” Eventually we’ll have to revert to grunting so as not to upset people’s sensibilities.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: THOMAS SOWELL: Read any of his books and they’re direct and eye-opening. You’ll be surprised at how much he can teach you on any subject. His column yesterday cuts to the heart of what we’ve been complaining about in this thread. He speaks of why he can no longer stand talk shows:

If either a guest or the host has a pointed question that cuts to the heart of the issue at hand, the first thing the person on the receiving end is likely to do is sidestep the question, saying something like "That's not the real issue" -- and go back to expounding his prepackaged talking points.

All that you learn from watching these kinds of "debates" is how clever some people are, how fast on their feet, and how big a supply of rhetoric they have.

SICK OF: RIGHTS: We have a right to everything as long as someone else is paying for it. What we don’t have a right to are those basic things in the constitution like speech, religion and fire arms. If you’re not a citizen, and not wearing a uniform of a national Army, and you’re caught killing Americans you will no doubt have more rights in the United States court system than a guy in the panhandle who gets caught dumping fill dirt on some swampy land in his backyard.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: FRIENDSHIP: They make the good thing better and bad thing easier to deal with.

E FOLLOWS SUIT

Great premise, Sir. It got me thinking and I created a list of my own. Dude and Manny?

SICK OF: Talk radio and the so-called political debate shows. The only place to hear real debate anymore is on C-SPAN and PBS. Everything is prepackaged talking points and no real exchange of ideas.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: eBay. I know, how old school. I still enjoy the whole notion of the global garage sale. It seems I cannot think of an item so obscure that someone doesn’t have one for sale on eBay.

SICK OF: Blaming the white man. This is a corollary to Sir’s observation that every sitcom makes the white dad the doofus. I am glad that my collegiate studies primarily involved reading the classics, because the sociology, psychology, history, film studies and anthropology classes all made sure I came out blaming the white man. White men have been the source of much wisdom, accomplishment, and cultural and economic advancement, not simply much misery.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: Excitebike 64. I am definitely not in the “early adopter” segment of the technology curve. Someone gave us an old Nintendo 64 console and a dozen games, and this motorcycle racing game has captivated my family for months.

SICK OF: TV generally. 40 channels, then 60, then 80, then 180, and still nothing to watch but Fresh Prince.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: Nutella. The chocolate hazelnut spread is good on anything except fish.

SICK OF: Fat. But until I enjoy exercise more than I enjoy cookies, I will have to live with it.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: Painting. We splashed some bold colors up in our son’s room and now I am looking at every wall with a fresh mental palette.

SICK OF: The 2008 presidential campaign. It seems like the frontrunners have been campaigning for years and we’re still six months removed from any real action. I am already tired of Hill and the Big O and McCain and Rudy, whose messages are so polished, and mostly empty, that I dread the thought of hearing them repeated for another year or more. Throw Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes and Newt and Fred Thompson into the mix to liven things up, I’m beggin’ ya. But with the front-loaded primary schedule that requires half the electorate to vote by this time next year, it costs too much now for a candidate to compete, since they have to compete immediately on a national scale. The process now guarantees that only a big corporate candidate can win the presidency and limits my chances of hearing anything interesting or provocative from any candidate at any time. And don’t get me started on McCain-Feingold.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: RealClearPolitics.com. Who am I kidding? I eat it up. I want to stop and I can’t. I can’t. (sob)

SICK OF: Blaming the government. Government is not set up to solve our problems, it is set up to spend our money. Spread the word.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: Baseball on the radio. I don’t care who’s playing, I just like the sound of baseball.

SICK OF: Wintry mix. I drove three hours in second gear last Friday night through a horrible mix of rain, sleet and snow. After each winter weather event I ask myself why, with all the wonderful sunny places in the US, I live in Pennsylvania. Someday I will not.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: 24. It’s what every man wants to watch: action, suspense, testosterone, intrigue, fighting, gratuitous violence, beautiful women, dark meeting rooms, situational ethics, quick pacing, gunfire, explosions, sneaking around, mysterious technology, plot twists, insubordination, and the good guy beats the bad guys, all on DVD with a pause button, no commercials and no week in between jolts.

SICK OF: Controversial marketing. The hyper-salacious stuff, yes, but not just that. “The Passion of the Christ” got lots of free PR, whether by design or not, from the Jewish organizations that protested it. A few years later we have the Cartoon Network shutting down the city of Boston with suspicious devices hanging from bridges and in public spaces. Yesterday, an outcry regarding blood-spattered billboards promoting the new Elisha Cuthbert horror flick. Any news is good news as far as the marketing department is concerned, and controversy makes news. We haven’t seen the end of this trend by a long shot.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF: juntoboys.blogspot.com. Please post!

AMERICAN THINGS

I resent the weekend of nothing between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It makes the game itself seem like inconvenience to those planning the pageantry, entertainment and product awareness. They’re icing us like the opposing coach calling a time out right before the crucial field goal.

The playoffs had a lot of exciting games, especially the week before the championships where all four games were close to the end. Indy’s big comeback last week created a fire to see the big game to decide everything, but knowing we had a two week wait I have watched nothing on the match ups. They’re too much like the endless trailers we see for anticipated movies months in advance so by the time the film arrives at the theatres it already seems old.

Last week’s playoff games seem a month old now and by next week when they get around to playing the game, I’ll be at a party surrounded by a majority of people that can’t name both quarterbacks. I’ll enjoy the party for the social reasons and the football part will mostly be lost. I suppose its success when you create a sporting event that transcends the actual sport. It means a lot more money for your business and greater exposure for your athletes. But as a fan the event so overshadows the sport that you don’t always get that feeling of completion. Then contrast the Super Bowl with the following week’s Pro Bowl that hardly even registers as a sporting event despite the best players playing the most popular American sport.

I love watching Steve Sabol’s NFL films because it’s like watching past Super Bowls for the first time. You hear the players talking and you feel the tension that comes in late game situations. Key players are interviewed about the thinking of crucial plays. No mention of wardrobe malfunctions and funny Coke ads. And its not that those things aren’t fun, but I wish they could somehow have all that stuff the day before the game since the people anticipating those things are usually talking during the action anyway. Or better yet, A real genius would have found some way to attach the pomp and circumstance to that meaningless Pro-Bowl and let the real fans enjoy the big game.

I don’t mean to make this a big complaint just an observation. I’ve watched more football this year than I have since 1998 when I had the NFL package and was involved a fantasy league for the last time. My disappointment with baseball coincided with a new HD TV which is the perfect platform for watching football. I forgot how much I liked football to the point where I watched both college and NFL every week.

Football occupies an entirely different place in my brain from other sports like golf, tennis and baseball that I played much more. Whereas I feel baseball’s steroid policy ruins the legacy of the game, I expect football players to be genetic lab creations designed to crush skulls for my enjoyment. Someone else can worry about the long term health of people that have already decided that walking like a cripple at age 30 is a fair trade-off.

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Last week Mickey Kaus compared Bush’s handling of Iraq with that of illegal immigration. The whole post is intriguing and worth reading. His worries about the Bush amnesty plan mirror mine, although I haven’t been able to articulate it this well.

The equivalent disaster scenario in immigration would go something like this: "Comprehensive" reform passes. The "earned legalization" provisions work as planned--millions of previously undocumented workers become legal Americans. But the untested "enforcement" provisions (point #5) prove no more effective than they've been in the past--or else they are crippled by ACLU-style lawsuits and lobbying (as in the past). Legal guest workers enter the country to work, but so do millions of new illegal workers, drawn by the prospect that they too, may some day be considered too numerous to deport and therefore candidates for the next amnesty. Hey, "stuff happens!" The current 12 million illegal immigrants become legal--and soon we have another 12 million illegals. Or 20 million. As a result, wages for unskilled, low-income legal American and immigrant workers are depressed. Visible contrasts of wealth and poverty reach near-Latin American proportions in parts of Los Angeles. And the majority of these illegal (and legal) immigrants, like the majority in many parts of the country, are from one nation: Mexico. America for the first time has a potential Quebec problem,** in which a neighboring country has a continuing claim on the loyalties of millions of residents and citizens.

The wage problem in particular is not really being addressed by those who say that we need these workers to run the economy. Democrats that are trying to push a $2 increase in the minimum wage have been all but silent on the lower than minimum wages paid to the illegals. That would seem to be in direct contrast to the union mentality of these people, but it’s a great strategy if you’re trying to create a large underclass to permanently vote Democrat. An amnesty will legitimize a number of workers that have the skills to earn minimum wage, but it will also create an unemployment among those that cannot. They will go from cheaply productive workers to wards of the state with legal rights to be here feeding off government services.

The way around this would be to have two separate tracks of people entering the country, people that go through the process to become citizens before employment and cheap labor that can legally work here without a path to citizenship. That segregates those people that seek to become “Americans” for reasons of sharing a culture and identity and those people that are more interested in the economic benefits of work. We need both types but nothing says that both types must be treated the same.

The two tracks process allows immigrants to decide which they value most, American culture or economic opportunities. Rather than have a bunch of pundits speak for them they can speak for themselves. The two tracks brings less risk of creating a big underclass because the guest worker track simply sends non-workers back without government responsibility.

Do you know how hard it is for an American to get a job in England, France or Italy? Ours would still be one of the most liberal work policies in the world without the responsibility of cradle to grave social services.

GREAT WEEK

It was really a delight to see art by Steve followed by E's poetry. The sharing of our talents is an inspiration. I have done neither activity for a while and seeing your works is a great motivation. Steve's, for instance, has a larger voice than any of his previous works, I think. E's poem showed me a gutsy combination and wit, wisdom and human truth.

And then Steve outs with his comprehansive post of career crimainals and his program that I have never heard him explain in depth. It's on the short short list of the greatest things ever posted on this blog.

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January has been a big movie month for me. I'll have as many reviews this month as I normally have for two months. Trish and I make it to the movies so infrequently that last Saturday we devoted ourselves to a triple header -- PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, THE QUEEN, and CHILDREN OF MEN. It timed out just right so that we only had about ten minutes in between movies. In addition, I've seen a bunch of DVDs, including one of the few left from the SIGHT AND SOUND poll that I hadn't seen.

I don’t really blog from work not quite knowing if I can justify it even thought I use it as a writing exercise to get ready to work on things that are pertinent. Now that I have a chance, I’d like to share something that I ran across this week. It comes from the Volokh Conspiracy, which might be the most cleverly simple blog name on the net, with honorable mention to Instapundit. The blog is UCLA Law Professor Euegene Volokh’s group blog. I wish I would have thought of it first and named this the Junto Boys Conspiracy.

The post by Jonathan Adler is book review on the REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE by Chris (I’ve got a cold in my nose) Mooney, which Adler says is misleading because while Mooney’s examples of Republican politicalization are true, the book all but ignores an equal number of Democrat examples which are just as demonstrative. It also ignores how the institutional process of government plays a role.

UPDATE: One of the best examples of the politicization of science by the "left" — and one of the few that Mooney acknowledges — is the treatment of agricultural biotechnology, and the decision to subject such products to more stringent regulatory review than those developed with other methods. This policy has no scientific basis, as the National Academy of Sciences has stated many times.

Another example would be claims by environmentalist groups that pesticide residues on foods pose a significant cancer risk, a claim which the NAS has also rejected. A third would be seeking endangered species listings for the purpose of halting development. A fourth would be efforts to claim asthma incidence (as opposed to asthma attacks) are related to outdoor air pollution, when there is no data to support such a claim. A fifth would be the EPA's second-hand smoke study, which a federal court found was driven to reach a predetermined result. A sixth would be claims that the "precautionary principle" is a "science-based" approach to risk, when it acutally reflects a normative policy judgment about how to weigh and evaluate risks. A seventh would be the compounded conservatisms that are embedded into many agency risk assessments, such as those conducted for the federal Superfund program. An eighth would be molding "ecosystem management" to satisfy non-scientific normative preferences about how land should be managed. And so on.

Some of these occurred within the Clinton Administration, others were the result of interest group action and occurred at other times. Overall, however, one can only claim the Clinton Administration never abused science for political reasons if one wasn't paying attention. Examples beyond those mentioned above are easy to come by. Here are two from Ronald Bailey:

In 1993, Princeton University physicist William Happer was fired from the Department of Energy because he disagreed with Vice President Al Gore's views on stratospheric ozone depletion. In 1994, President Bill Clinton rejected the finding from the Embryo Research Panel of the National Institutes of Health which declared that the intentional creation of human embryos for genetic research was ethical. Clinton simply banned any federal funding for such research.

Like anything that has public policy implications, science has become politicized by everyone trying to shape America to their own prejudices. This was inevitable the moment that scientists started accepting government money for research. No free lunch for science. But even outside the government where private grants allow for scientific research, so many times the findings reveal exactly what they money wanted them to reveal.

Does anyone think that Sierra Club money won’t make a case for more conservation and Exxon money won’t make the case for the benefits of drilling? The media has a way of covering conservative pushes as medieval thinking and liberal goals as enlightened when they both derive from a worldview rather than disinterested data.

The danger is that we still tend to think of science as a group if disinterested men trying to find objective evidence to lead them down the trail to enlightenment. Those men do exist somewhere, especially when they’re goal is to create a device to solve a specific problem. I contend that they are rarely to be found in the public arena where science is a career first and shaping findings to a particular bent is more advantageous for funding and prestige than simply tinkering around for truth.

The leftwing theft of science has harmful lasting implications. Remember that conservation use to be a conservative issue, and there was scant opposition to things like cleaning up the rivers and air. With the book Silent Spring, the leftwing realized that the environmental movement was a perfect vehicle for pushing socialism. Chemicals that are effective and perfectly safe in small quantities are frequently challenged and even banned because a mouthful is poison. The ban of DDT causes about 50,000 deaths from malaria in the third world each year. But bird eggs are saved.

If the Republicans lose voice on science America will spend precious money each year on socially acceptable science rather than things backed up by hard data. Every ten years we’ll be shifting our focus from making the world cooler to making it hotter. Al Gore has already championed both ideas in the last 20 years. Businesses will be made to constantly change their means of production to satisfy the current prejudices and they’ll have even more incentive to move their plants to countries not covered under things like Kyoto. Our economy and our freedom will suffer.

If we agree that science needs objectivity to serve mankind, can anyone tell me if that is still possible under any type of government funding? If so, how?

PEOPLE JUST AREN'T INFORMED

That's what I heard a guy say at the table next to ours at Steak and Ale Friday Night. We were out shopping for Christmas dinner and stopped by to let someone else cook. Next to us was the 25ish everypundit who was holding court next to a guy and a girl his age and a man that could have been a tagalong father. Our pundit was talking at a level that he obviously wanted others to hear. You see, Bush mislead the American people and now we're losing this war in Iraq. If more people were informed about this then Bush would surely be impeached. Nobody is watching CNN.

I said, "Trish, are you listening to that guy? This is why Bush's approval numbers hover around 20%."

Now I showed great restraint in not saying anything. Decorum means letting blowhards be blowhards and that's probably why so few people have confronted my bombastic public opinions. Speaking up won't change anyone's mind, but the urge to do so is still deep within me. The audacity of public confrontation is fun because you can feel the adrenaline the moment you decide to speak the first word. The mystery of what someone might say if confronted makes it all worth it.

In this case, he probably had a little speech prepared for a direct confrontation. But what might he have said if I commented, "I voted for Bush. But I thought the war would be over by now." He'd probably reiterate much of what he said prior. If I followed up by saying, "What's it like over there now?"

Would he fall into the trap of telling me how it is or would he say he doesn't know? If he presumed to tell me how it is, I could simply point out that he doesn't know anything but what some newsman told him. CNN, the same news organization that admitted that it failed to report the whole truth during Saddam's reign for fear of losing their credentials? Al Qaeda has openly admitted beating the Republicans in the 2006 election through their use of the media. E's recent post about Santorum sums it up. If we had the current casualty-focused media during World War II we would have been forced into a settled peace with Hitler instead of unconditional surrender.

But the real question is whether or not to speak up in these situations. The answer lies in the ratio between how much fun it is as the time and how many frowns it will produce from the wife the rest of the evening. Just that look in my eyes brought a begging Trish that I say nothing. After all, it is Christmas.

THE DVD WAR AND A CRIME STORY

A few weeks ago I ordered an Up-converter DVD player from Amazon.com.

While Blue Ray and HD DVD compete to win the format war, Samsung and some others are producing Up-Converter DVD players that take the normal DVD resolution and boost them to HD quality. A few weeks ago I purchased the Samsung DVD-HD-960 that boosts the signal to 1080p, a standard that my television supports, but broadcast hasn’t reached. Due to some circumstances that I will get to in a minute, I had to settle for the 860 model they sell at Best Buy instead. That version raises the picture to 1080i or 720p.

The first movies I tried were old favorites Rio Bravo and The Maltese Falcon. They both looked great, especially Rio Bravo shot in widescreen. You could really tell a difference. I would highly recommend Samsung’s up converter to anyone with a HD ready TV. It looks so good that I don’t really know if buying the new formats is really worth it.

The 960 that I originally wanted wasn’t easy to get at any of the local stores. Best Buy carries the item on their website but even there it is listed as sold out. I was lucky to find it at Amazon.com $30 less than Best Buy with free shipping, but I had to wait ten days for delivery, which I decided was reasonable.

The item was delivered to my door at 4:32pm on Thursday November 30, and although I was home by 5:30 it was nowhere to be seen. My neighbors on either side were gone, but the suspicious construction workers across the street had a clear view to my house. Only a few weeks ago, workers from that very site were "suspected" of breaking into a house whose alley faces the pool they were working on. My neighbor on the Architectural committee for the Association said that there has been a rash of thefts, especially appliances after installation.

I emailed the warranty lady at Transeastern (The builder) asking who I should contact. She said she would get back to me with the answer. A phone call to the main office and then to the builder gave me the name of the construction manager. And I left a message asking what contractors were working across the street at 4:32pm that day. I’m still waiting for an answer. The other lady didn’t get back to me either.

The property manager for the Homeowner’s Association suggested I write a letter that he would pass on to the board. I wrote one on Monday and when I received no answer I followed up by writing a second one on Thursday. The gist of the two letters was that Transeastern isn’t policing the people who work here. The second letter brought on a call by Gale from the builder’s office transcribed here paraphrased a little but the essence in tact.

GALE: Mr. Stamper, there have been an awful lot of emails going back and forth and I thought I should call so we could clear this up.

TOM: Back and forth? I still haven’t had an answer to any of them.

GALE: I’m here to answer. Unfortunately, thefts are common during this time of year. I live in a real nice section of Metro West and I have had packages stolen from my front door. You need to let the police handle this.

TOM: There was a break in here recently attributed back to the same construction site. And my neighbor on the Arc committee tells me that numerous things have been stolen from houses during the construction process. And that the chandelier in that very house was stolen last week.

GALE: Sir, thefts at construction sites are common occurrence.

TOM: I’d like to have copies of all the police reports you filed for thefts here.

TOM: I’m not going to gather those up for you, sir.

TOM: How many there have been then?

GALE: This is not our responsibility. We can’t just go accusing our contractors without evidence. You need to file a police report and they can do an investigation.

TOM: Let’s say that the contractors are perfectly innocent. Why not ask them if they saw anything? Tell me who they are and I will ask them.

GALE: Listen, sir, that’s entirely inappropriate. You can’t just call the contractor. You need to file a report with the police.

TOM: How many convictions have you had for the all reports you’ve filed?

GALE: It’s very difficult to get convictions for theft because you have to catch them in the act.

TOM: So you people consider theft just a part of doing business. It may be for you, but for me it’s a matter of personal safety.

GALE: Call the police, sir.

TOM: What do you know about the people working here? If I went across the street and shot photos of them, could you identify them?

GALE: We hire contractors and they hire their own people.

TOM: So how do you know if the people working here have criminal records and are in this country legally.

GALE: House construction is the last handmade product in America and we build houses the same way every builder in town, the same way yours was built. ( I can tell that I’ve been put on speaker phone)

TOM: So you are not interested if the people working here have criminal records or are in the country legally?

GALE: We do not hire anyone that we know to be illegal.

TOM: (using the wise knowing voice) But you don’t ask because you don’t want to know.

GALE: Don’t put words in my mouth. I’m going to have to hang up on you if you continue talking to me this way.

TOM: Put words in your own mouth then. How would you describe the process in which people are screened to work here?

GALE: Be careful, you’re on speakerphone and I have a whole group of people here listening to this.

TOM: Fantasic. Any one you sitting there tell me whether you ask the contractors if their people have clean records and are in this country legally.

(CLICK—She hangs up)

She began in a very condescending tone referring to me as “sir” in that way that people do when they’re trying to gloss their superiority. She would have loved me to use one curse word so that she could hang up on me. I just clung to the Socratic method and she was so flustered in her voice that she hung up not wanting to directly admit what the accidentally admitted indirectly.

I wrote another letter yesterday summarizing the phone call and pointing out that making contractors sign affidavits saying that their people have clean records and are in the country legally would be of minimal cost, pass the liability to contractors, and ensure that far fewer criminals would have the legal right to stand around in this neighborhood gawking at the residents and their property.

I hit two political issues in the letter pointing out that John Lindsay, Ed Koch and David Dinkins all said that crime in NYC was a way of life and nothing could be done and then Rudy Guliuani proved them all to be fools. As citizens we have the obligation of preventing crime before the fact.

I also said that business is always complaining about over-regulation and taxation and yet here you are punting your problems to the overworked police when your own policies are causing the problem.

Then I did the Rush Limbaugh being absurd to demonstrate absurdity. I asked the board if they would be comfortable with the current policy if the people working here knew when their houses were vacant during the day. If so, then please send the names and addresses of all the board members and Transeastern Employees with their work hours and I will gladly deliver it every morning to the construction site.

STAY TUNED. . .