PSoTD

When I was a little kid, I received on my birthday a cheap hard plastic all-in-one General Electric portable record player, the kind that I had to tape a nickel on the arm so it wouldn't skip on records. I thought it was WAY cool, nobody else in the neighborhood had their own record player, as because it was portable, I could take it over to friends and we could listen to music outside as long as there was an outlet.

Apparently it was so cheap that none survived to the digital photo age, I can't find a photo of one online anywhere. And mine is long, long gone.

Anyways, after I received the record player, the word got out to relatives that for gifts, 45 records were the thing to get me. Imagine the fun of receiving 45 records in 1969 from family members that have lived their whole lives in Indiana, and are in their 40s at the time. Was it possible that any of them could give me something timely, current, of the times?

Not really. But a relative (who shall go nameless) actually gave me this 45, which at least was from the time.

Of course, I hated it. I was not then, and not now, "into country". And it was 1969/1970. What was I listening to at the time? At 10, I was tuned to the top 100 played on WERK AM radio in Muncie. The Archies, Tommy Roe (Dizzy was a favorite 45 of mine in the neighborhood), Creedence Clearwater Revival, Zager and Evans...

Remember those Archie records you could cut off the back of cereal boxes? Oh yeah, those sounded great...

Anyways, I probably hadn't listened to that Henson Cargill's "Skip a Rope" for almost 40 years before I did this morning. And after listening to it, I gotta wonder - what kind of gift is that to give to a 10 year old?

Wow, Noam Scheiber can't think beyond the shiny.

Another thought: a tax credit for people who live in small towns and work over 30 miles away. A "preserve small-town small-town America" tax credit. You argue that high gas prices threaten the viability of small-town life for many commuters, and that we have an interest in preserving these communities. Of course, you do risk the pandering problem here...

What Scheiber is really pointing out is the lack of good jobs in small towns. Seriously, do we want a tax policy that pays for commuting over 30 miles? Does he really think that gas prices are the big threat on small towns?

Scheiber's right that Obama should put some tax credit specifics out for consumers who pursue transportation efficiency. How about credits for using mass transit? How about a bicycle purchase credit? Let's not think of ways to provide incentives to USE gasoline, but think of incentives to save it.

Time to give Friedman a cheer. The idea is the stupidest kind of pandering - and implies that voters are pretty damn stupid. Supporters of both McCain and Clinton should be both disappointed and insulted.

Do you welcome any contact from Public Relations (PR) firms or any corporation to provide information, offer comment or suggest people you might be interested in talking to?

Woden's happy.

Probably.

"CSI" co-star Gary Dourdan was arrested Monday for possession of narcotics and dangerous drugs, police said. The 41-year-old actor was found asleep in his car by the Palm Springs Police Department, authorities said.

An officer saw Dourdan's car parked on the wrong side of the street with the interior light on and someone sleeping in the driver's seat at approximately 5:12 a.m. Monday, according to Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

The officer described Dourdan as disoriented and possibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The officer arrested Dourdan after locating suspected cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia. Dourdan was released on $5,000 bail at 10:30 a.m. Monday. A court date was not immediately scheduled.

Get back to me when Chris Matthews feeds hungry people for three decades.

Not a shocker.

And anyone who's a Countrywide client - we have a "regular" mortgage through them, and have for a dozen years - has probably noticed an onslaught from Countrywide in an effort to get people to refinance and/or restructure their mortgage, or borrow additional money. Every piece of crap we've gotten from the company makes absolutely no sense for us to pursue as a loan recipient, but makes sense for Countrywide to pursue, particularly in the style and volume of the advertising, only if they are truly desperate to generate revenue.

In some ways it makes me uncomfortable to have Countrywide as our mortgage company. I'm wondering when I'll see a counterattack by another mortgage company along the lines of - "Feeling nervous about Countrywide? Looking for a mortgage company you can trust?" - that will be custom delivered to those who have Countrywide mortgages.

My earlier post was obviously not serious. My honest opinion is that there is too much debate that is deferred to a "superior judgment" and that adding more religious figures into the fray will just exacerbate that.

On the other hand, I'm all for public debate which reveals religious leaders to be just, well, people. Thoughts convert into acts, and those actions may show a person to be good to the point of being worth the individual choice of following that person's example - but that doesn't give that original person a pass on every thought they have, nor should it give the follower a pass to not think about separate issues about the "leader".

Americans, in general, seem too docile in their thinking about religious leaders, and grant them status based on their visibility as opposed to their activities. If events such as the Reverend Wright episode lead Americans to have a bit of self-realization about that possibility, I would see that as a good thing.

Apparently balloon sales are already taken. Maybe pest control!

Whoever are the leaders of the local religious institution that the following people choose to attend, I would like to see the RWSL* applied to them.

Chris Matthews
Nedra Pickler
Tim Russert
Wolf Blitzer
Charlie Gibson

Oh, and of course, John McCain.

Apparently this is the new cool thing in political reporting. So spread it around!

*Reverend Wright Scrutiny Level

Obama addresses his former pastor's comments.

“I think certainly what the last three days indicate is that we’re not coordinating with him, right?” Mr. Obama said. “He’s obviously free to speak his mind, but I just want to emphasize that this is my former pastor. Many of the statements that he has made both to trigger this initial controversy and that he’s made over the last several days are not statements that I’ve heard him make previously. They don’t represent my views and they don’t represent what this campaign is about.”

“Some of the comments that Reverend Wright has made offended me and I understand why they offend the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign.”

Obama has said enough about this for me. Hell, I wouldn't want to be held accountable for that Delltones youtube just because I blog here!

Moving on...

Kinda seems like Subway Restaurants have squeezed Jared Fogle out of their marketing theme. Now it's all about FIVE DOLLAR FOOTLONG, who, I guess, used to be a cheap porn star.

Hey, there's a dozen Subway stores for sale in Pennsylvania according to this.

Apparently Reverend Jeremiah Wright has announced his candidacy for President or something like that.

Pat Robertson didn't get this much attention when he arose from the dead. He did, didn't he?

This time, the U.S. Postal Service Kiosk. I wonder what will happen with this space - it has a slab for something more than parking.

Pasties for Progress?

There seems to be a regular news drum beat about saving money - stop going to coffee shops.

yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip

Whack-a-Mole must bring out the worst in people.

Generally thought of as a kid's paradise -- with its trays of pizza, abundance of video games and rides -- Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant on Union Deposit Road is increasingly frequented by Susquehanna Twp. police.

And they're not there for the pizza.

This year, officers have been to the restaurant eight times for calls about disorderly conduct, assault and theft. Last year, officers responded to 18 calls there.

"We at the police department are disturbed at the amount of calls and arrests at a location that's designed for kids to have fun and eat pizza," Chief Robert A. Martin said. "And we're going to continue to arrest anyone who is disorderly and engages in fights at that location."

The number of calls at Chuck E. Cheese's has increased from 11 in 2005 and nine in 2006, Martin said. Many of the incidents stem from parents acting inappropriately and not respecting each other, he said.

Two weeks ago, police broke up a fight involving 20 people.

When I was a teenager - back in the 1970s - jobs were hard to come by, besides working as a busboy or dishwasher in a restaurant. Old times have returned.

Dan Mills wanted to spend his summer working construction and learning how to build timber-frame structures.

Instead, the Maple City teen expects to bus tables at a local restaurant while hoping that at least some of the 20 job applications he's fanned out will come through. But he's not overly optimistic.

"I think for people around here, it's kind of difficult," Mills, 19, said of the region's job market for teens. "Every place I went was a 'no'. It was absolutely impossible."

Mills isn't alone. Teenagers across Michigan face an increasingly tight job market this summer, according to labor analysts from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

The state's unemployment rate for youths ages 16-19 hovered around 21 percent for the past two summers, and conditions aren't expected to improve for 2008. The state's teen summer job outlook will be released in early May.

Michigan's teen labor force totals more than 300,000.

Mills, who will be a junior at Grand Valley State University in the fall, still hopes to gain some work in the construction business, but expects it would only be through an unpaid internship, due to a significant slowdown in regional building activity.

"If I want to get experience in construction, I'm not going to get paid for it," Mills said. "It's a pretty big blow."

I wonder if we'll see an increase in teen-related "boredom" problems, such as vandalism.

Teenagers across the country already are struggling with higher prices for gasoline. Now it could be harder for them to find summer jobs, although the outlook around Houston appears much brighter.

Nearly half of U.S. companies that typically hire a lot of teens, such as retailers and restaurants, report that they don't plan to take on any seasonal workers this year, according to a recent survey of 1,100 hiring managers by SnagAJob.com.

And of those that do plan to hire, 64 percent of them plan to just take back the teens who worked last year, said Cathy McCarthy, senior vice president of marketing at SnagAJob in Richmond, Va.

A handy link in case anyone else out there will need to do this someday.

Did you ever wonder if Michael "Gap Tooth" Strahan or Peyton "Peanut Head" Manning could sing country music? Here's the answer ....

I'd love to see a debate like this. Cut the bozo talking heads out of the deal. The candidates take responsibility for both the questions and the answers. We should get better topics than Rev. Wright and the Weatherman Underground. And if we don't, we'll know exactly who to point the finger at.

Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up the rhetoric Saturday in their increasingly heated primary battle as she issued a new debate challenge and he complained of a race that's largely been reduced to trivia while working families feel economic pain.

Clinton took the debate dispute to a new level, challenging Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator, Lincoln-Douglas style.

"Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions, we'll set whatever rules seem fair," Clinton said while campaigning in South Bend.

Do it!

Can we please end it now, for the Reds? I was ready to pull the plug before it started.

I did not know this... we should be swimming in butter.

The Land O'Lakes Carlisle Butter Plant, located in Mt. Holly Springs, PA, is the largest butter plant on the eastern seaboard, producing more than 400 thousand pounds of butter a day. The plant also manufactures powder and condensed milk products. Opened in 1978, the plant serves as a balancing plant for milk produced in the Mid-Atlantic region, capable of handling six million pounds of milk per day. The plant began processing butter for Land O'Lakes in 1980 and formally became part of the Land O'Lakes system when Atlantic Dairy Cooperative merged with the cooperative in 1997.

Do you remember this one from those crazy Eighties?

Hard times in Central PA, I guess.

A thief with a green thumb dug up and stole three bushes that had been planted in the first block of Terri Drive in South Middleton Twp., Cumberland County, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday, state police said.

It isn't wise to damn your own candidate with faint praise by claiming he/she is better than Dick Cheney. Example: Clinton's new campaign strategist:

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, held a conference call with reporters and called Hillary "one of the most secretive politicians in America today" — a striking personal charge in the era of Dick Cheney.

I hope these trees thrive in our yard.

Airlines? Real Estate companies? Retailers? NOPE.

Since January, the most-represented industry for public companies filing for Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection might surprise you. While the recent spat of airline and retail filings has generated a lot of press, these are not the most frequent filers in the public company bankruptcy arena. Instead, telecommunications is the current winning industry--with five public company petitioners, according to BankruptcyData.com--a Boston-based website that tracks business bankruptcies.

Interestingly, there are several well-represented industries among the 2008 public filings. Most notably, there have been a total of four manufacturing and three each of automotive and oil & gas bankruptcies thus far. The two industries receiving the greatest press--retail and aviation--list only one public Chapter 11 filing each.

When sorted by total pre-petition assets, the industry reporting the highest figure is construction: home building goliath TOUSA, Inc. (TOUS) listed $2.8 billion. Manufacturing filings came in second with $1.7 billion, and the bronze goes to the restaurant industry with $1.4 billion.

Your spouse may discover you've been reading this blog.

I don't know about EVERYTHING, but I think there's a lot of merit in this post by The Cynic:

I have always felt that you can tell everything about a person by playing basketball with them.

How much do they shoot?
Do they set screens?
Do they rebound?
Do they box out?
Do they help on defense?
How fast do they get down on defense?
Does their man beat them down the floor?
Do they make the extra pass?
How do they react when they miss or make a bad play?
Do they play hard when they are losing or winning?

Not many sports show a lack of effort like basketball. If one player is not doing their job, the other four suffer greatly.

I sense that three word description in my biography someday soon.

Too hot hot tub!

photo by chrismurrayyy

Era of cheap food ends as prices surge

I hope nobody took this advice seriously. It's ridiculous to include blogging as one of the "10 hottest emerging careers that you might not know about" - people need to be serious about how they make their living.

Bloggers: Just 10 years ago, blogging would have sounded to most like a verb relegated to video games. But now, freelance writers, marketers, Web designers, finance professionals--even tea-drinkers--can draw people from around the world to read what they're thinking. Businesses are catching on, which is why they'll often hire people to blog about their products, and some bloggers can actually sell ads on their personal blogs. Are your personal thoughts worth paying for? They are, especially if you have education and a unique voice. Top bloggers can make six figures, and a handful are said to make millions.

Or maybe I'm just saying this so there's less competition for my millions...

Got a sample Quattro four blade disposable razor from Schick in the mail the other day. I'd always wanted to try one but never felt like blowing five bucks on a throwaway. After using it for a week, I have to say it was nothing special. The Quattro gave a slightly smoother shave but not worth the extra dough. Sorry Schick, I gotta save my money for gas!

Sadly, I only became aware of Sean Costello upon his death at age 28 a couple weeks ago.

Here's your top blues record of 2008. You can close that category out now.

The Hess Gas station wasn't very busy, but it's becoming quite universal, the end of pumping sound of signs, groans, and grumbling. The lady next to me was pumping up her Expedition, and I could have swore I heard her mutter "just don't look" when she finished.

Until the next votes, for the next two weeks the most important voices belong to superdelegates and contributors. We can expect the campaigning to get more nasty now. Both candidates are in somewhat of a death-spiral for the party now, looking to taint the other enough to win enough delegates to fulfill their current plans. Indiana and North Carolina are about to enjoy for two weeks the depressing emptiness of it all that Pennsylvania got to endure for six weeks.

There are two groups that can decide to step in and say that enough is enough, and that damage is occurring to the party, if they feel the time is right - superdelegates and contributors. Superdelegates can do so by coming out for Obama in droves in the next two weeks, making the math for Hillary so unlikely that she recognizes she has to rein it in. Or contributors can simply not give to the Clinton campaign for the next couple of weeks, drying up her resources and giving a clear signal to the voters that they see it as over. But it would take a significant action - or inaction - to prevent this from continuing to impair the Party's chances in November.

Failure of either of things to happen is a green light to even dirtier campaigning.

I hope to achieve it tonight.

Jay Newton-Small at Swamplands likens the Obama-Clinton primary battle to "Groundhog Day".

Whatever the reason a lot of Democrats are getting nervous that the race is dragging too long and it could start to hurt the party. Like Bill Murray, they want out of the time loop, and maybe, like Murray (and I realize I'm probably pushing this analogy past its limits here) they just need to fall in love.

My analogy is "Jane, stop this crazy thing!"

BTW, do you have any idea what Republican received the most votes yesterday in Pennsylvania?

It looks like it was Tom Corbett. Nearly 150K more than McCain.

Now that the primary is over, I have two suggestions for Obama's campaign:

Get rid of those youth radio ads. I voted for Obama, but they actually creeped me out. Too much cult of personality feel to them.

Talk economy, but bring Iraq into it, and how the judgment of going into Iraq is hurting our economy today. The notion that voters rank Iraq 4th on issues in this election at this point is based on two things, in my view:

Fatigue about Iraq news in general.
Fear about the economy - the personal sense of how I may get hurt.

Iraq has been a disaster for the United States in so many ways, including economic. Regardless of the fatigue, there needs to be a point drawn about America needs to spend its human resources and borrowed dollars in more effective ways when the economy is at risk. Obama needs to do a better job of framing this.

I like the Smithereens a lot, and Graham Parker's a long-time favorite. Nice combo on Behind the Wall of Sleep.

Cancer drugs sticker shock.

Drug prices are a growing issue for every disease, especially for people who are uninsured. But cancer sticker shock is hitting hard now, as a list of more advanced biotech drugs have made treatment rounds costing $100,000, or even more, no longer a rarity. Also, patients are living longer, good news but meaning they need treatment for longer periods. The cost of cancer care is rising 15 percent a year, Lichter notes.

Note to states with primaries remaining - the past seven weeks were not uplifting campaigns. They weren't particularly nasty, either. Mostly, they were just vacuous, specious, and eventually mind-numbing. I'm less happy with both Clinton and Obama as candidates now than I was in early March.

Not good.

Even less happy with the national news media, which I guess shouldn't surprise me. If there's an institution that needs reform - that needs term limits - it is the national news media. About the only good thing to come out of the entire coverage by the news media on the campaigns the past 7 weeks was the loud and omnipresent bashing that ABC took for their pathetic effort at a debate last week. Of course, the news media took aim at the two front men and didn't realize that those men were merely brinksmanship examples of the media's activity for years in campaigns, but perhaps it's a start.

Note to Democratic Party - the past 7 weeks of campaigning have not been uplifting or illuminating. They have been a turnoff.

Has anyone been able to believably explain the long-term benefits of leasing the toll collection and management processes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a 75 year period?

Whatever happens, there's absolutely no way that this should be approved in June, with so little sunlight so far being spread on the proposal.

Will there be a "Rock of Love 3"?

Hillary and Ed Rendell called me last night.

I'm going to miss all this personal attention after tomorrow. Boy, did Florida and Michigan screw up!

I like the idea of a basketball lover being in the White House.

Our house received two different Hillary Clinton for President mailers on Monday. My wife and I are both registered Democrats, but for some reason, both mailers were addressed to her. Funny.

Fill in the blank: I would rather _________________________ than be subjected to another half-thought from John Fund.

and worth a read...

The early kin to elephants were amphibious.

The Harrisburg Brewers Fest is June 21st. I've never been, and this sure sounds like a softball tournament weekend date for our daughter to me, but it sounds like fun.

What if the Presidential Statues of Washington came alive!

Starvation is going to get worse. It's not like we all don't know this - there's pressure on the cost of food for a variety of reasons, and change has to occur on the individual level in order to stop the trend. Somehow, we have to go to the grocery and keep this in mind, and consume accordingly. I'm as bad as anyone on this, and articles like this are important for me to recognize how wasteful I am in consumption. Must change.

I am not anonymous. I am pseudonymous. There's a difference.

DCup is spreading the word of Utz.

This kind of looks like one of our contributing bloggers.

I use inkJETS Printing for various business and other printing projects, and am very happy with their work. They've opened up a shirt printing business as well, and I wanted to give them a plug. They're in the Carlisle Pike in the strip mall behind the Five Guys.

Anyone that has gone to CSU Sacramento knows the Guy West Bridge. I don't know why I thought of it yesterday, but I did. Maybe because I've probably walked across it a couple of thousand times in my life, when I lived in an apartment across the river from Sac State... good ole' University Gardens.

And there's a nice Flickr photostream here of the bridge.

I know, I'm not Catholic, but what possible "news" reasoning could there be for both CNN and MSNBC to televise the Yankee Stadium Mass today?

I wonder if Benny Hinn, Thomas Monson, Frank Page and others are curious how they could get such coverage, also...

Thanks to Atrios.

I reject the idea that one should pick a candidate based on some imagined preferences of other voters.

I wonder how the newspapers are being impacted by the downturn in the real estate market. Today's Patriot-News had an 8 page real-estate section, with very few of the large panel realtor company ads that are bought to highlight multiple properties by the realtor. Now we're in April, and in Central Pennsylvania this is supposed to be the prime time for marketplace activity.

Back on January 6th of this year - mind you, still in the downturn, but earlier, and at what is usually a very SLOW time for real estate activity, coming off the holidays and during a time where bad weather is expected - there was an 10 page real estate section in the Patriot-News. And there was twice as many of the big panel ads.

I haven't seen anything on the impact on newspapers yet from the real estate marketplace downturn, but I'm sure it's happening.

This batting stance isn't for everyone.

(No, not anyone from our league, even)

Could not have asked for a more beautiful day to begin our son's baseball season yesterday. Sunny. 83 degrees! Slight breeze to keep everyone from getting TOO hot.

Mothers posing naked for calendars appears to be fading in popularity...

Women in a Spanish village who posed almost naked for a calendar they hoped would fund a leisure centre for their children have been left with huge debts after they failed to sell enough copies.

"It was an erotic calendar by the firemen of Bilbao that gave us the idea," one of the women, Rosa Garin, told AFP Thursday by telephone from the village of Serradilla del Arroyo in western Spain.

The seven mothers took the photographs themselves, posing virtually nude in the local swimming pool, the tourist office and the bakery last November.

But only 1,500 of the 7,000 copies of the 2008 calendar were sold, at five euros each, and they are now in debt to the printer, who is threatening to take them to court claiming 18,000 euros (29,000 dollars) in damages and interest.

Save it for later.

Not really.

For those of you that will be pushing, shoveling and raking mulch on this fine spring weekend, here's an idea that will look appealing halfway through your job...

I didn't even think there was such a thing as a mulch blower.

The Ninth Annual Country Classic, with events for runners, joggers, walkers, and cyclists, takes place on May 3, 2008, in Washington Borough.

We had dinner at Carley's in Harrisburg last night to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Very good, we really enjoyed the asparagus in brandy and cream sauce, we'll return. But they do need to fill out the details on their web site.

Weather-wise we couldn't have asked for a nice evening to be walking around downtown Harrisburg...

The last Don and Mike Show aired last Friday. I guess you'd call them B-Team shock jocks. Syndicated out of WJFK in Washington they were broadcast on fifty-or-so mostly mid-market stations. I'd been listening here in Harrisburg since around 1990. I believe I heard them the first time on 93.5 FM but most of the last twenty years they've spent on AM talkers, ultimately finding a drive-time home on 1350 out of York. No signal up here after dark.

Don's wife was killed in a nightmare car crash outside of Ocean City in 2005. She was an integral part of the show. Incredibly, Don went back on the radio in less than a month. His first show back was simply heart-wrenching. He was always willing to bare every emotion on radio. That's a large part of what made the show great.

But he never really made it back emotionally and has now decided to hang it up for a while. Mike continues on. His solo show is different but has been unexpectedly good in the first week. (1350 AM 3-7 PM)

Here's the song Don chose to open their last show. Perfect as usual.

5:15 PM - Forster and Front Street, Harrisburg.

It's likely to become a popular topic of discussion for the near future.

An accident this morning in Cumberland County is causing headaches along the Carlisle Pike. Around 9:15am a dump truck and a tanker truck carrying fuel collided in front of the Cumberland Valley School District Complex. As a precaution, the district's administration building was evacuated, but students at the high school are not in any danger. Classes are going on as scheduled, but there will be no outdoor activity.

According to John Bruetsch, the Cumberland County Public Information Officer, the tanker was carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel. At this time they are not sure how much of it spilled into a nearby storm drain. Both hazmat crews and members of the Department of Environmental Protection are at the scene to do soil samples and water testing.

The Carlisle Pike is closed from Rich Valley Road to Locust Point. Cleanup is expected to last several hours.

Here's the deal - the election is on the 22nd. By that night, we're going to know the results. At that point, there will be a major effort to either establish the result as a big surprise for the candidates, or as expected.

We all know what both Obama and Clinton will want to do with the results. We also know that the polls have been all over the map this campaign season, and the idea that one reporter thinks she can establish the goalposts is laughable. I suspect the result will be an eye-of-the-beholder result, especially if it's in the high single digit advantage for Clinton. Both candidates will have polls that will allow them to spin it their way, and the electorate will still be unsure what it all means.

I think there's a more interesting question - will there be another big negative "news" triviality bomb dropped this weekend on one or both of the candidates? What are the odds?

This seems alien to me.

Ali Riaz has 126 friends on his Facebook account. Ten of them are his employees.

Riaz does not mind befriending his staff members online - as long as they initiate the process. "I don't want to impose," said Riaz, chief executive of Attivio, a software company in Newton, Massachusetts. "Everyone has a different definition of what is personal and private. There is a line there, but it's a wiggly line. Whenever you are in a power position, you have to be careful."

Networking sites like MySpace and Facebook introduce people to new friends and expand their cybercircles of pals. But they are also introducing people to a sticky etiquette issue that is becoming more common: What if your boss wants to be your buddy?

That can be an awkward intersection for people who try to keep their personal spaces and their workplaces separate. But as professional and personal worlds increasingly collide online, it is becoming harder to escape the boss's reach after hours.

Here's why this is sticky - Facebook asks for the employer. If a participant enters that information online, it makes it easy for the employer to find such employees on their service. If the employee is actually using the employer as a way to define themselves on Facebook, they are displaying their behavior on Facebook as one of a company's employee, and opening themselves up for contact by other employees of the company, including the boss.

Facebook doesn't give users the option of putting in their profession WITHOUT their employer. If Facebook would do this, it would help out in this arena. As a former boss, I think the rule is pretty easy to figure out - no initiated contact of employees through Facebook that do not list their employer. Employees need to have their space away from the office. So give it. Employees should figure out that if they display their employer's name on their profile, the employer may be interested in what is being posted. It's that simple.

Sounds like it's hard to get ahead with this job in the Postal Service:

Rural Carrier Associate

Work Site of Job: Clark County, Forest County, Langlade County, Lincoln County, Marathon County, Oneida County, Portage County, Taylor County, Vilas County, Waupaca County, Wood County - Marshfield Area, Wood County - Wisconsin Rapids Area

Pay: $17.51 Per Hour

Duration/Hours Per Week: Full-Time/Part-Time, 0.1 to 40 Hours Per Week

Shift/Work Days: Mornings, Afternoons and Weekend Shift. As scheduled.

Monday through Saturday.

Number of Openings: 5

Minimum Requirements of Employer:

Education: High School Diploma/GED Equivalent Required

Professional Licenses/Certifications: No Licenses or Certifications Requested

Vehicle: Required, Mileage reimbursement available.

Drivers License: Type: Class D - Regular (Auto, Light Truck, Moped) Required Endorsements: No Endorsement Requested

Age: 18 or older Required

Experience/Qualifications: Experience: Applicants must have a valid state drivers's license, a safe driving record and at least two years of documented driving experience.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Job: Rural carrier associates are non-career employees who service on a rural route. They sort, deliver, and collect all classes of mail up to 70 pounds, along a rural route using a vehicle. Rural carrier associates provide customers on the route with a variety of services, including selling stamp supplies and moneys orders. They must generally provide and maintain their own vehicle, but are given an equipment maintenance allowance.

I guess I just found it curious that the United States Postal Service is requiring that mail delivery employees actually use their own vehicles.

Hey, I don't write it. I just cut and paste this stuff!

In perhaps the hardest hitting news story of the day, Kanye West has ‘fessed up to being obsessed with big breasted women.

The mammary-fixated hip-hop star even proposes a theory for his penchant for ladies of the buxom variety.

He tells New York magazine: "I have liked big tits ever since I was a kid. I was breastfed for too long I think. It messed me up."

I've heard that when people are bitter, they often cling to big tits. They can mess you up.

Good grief, haven't heard this song in decades.

Atrios points out that a lot of bloggers seem to be saying that Obama had a rough night last night. Frankly, I don't think the debate is going to play out that way. I think the audience, in general, is going to weigh the Symbiotic Dipshittery coming from the news media and how it impacted the questions last night, and walk away with a general sense that regardless of how the candidates responded, there was almost nothing right in how that debate was run.

I say now that the debate was at worst a wash for Obama. Clinton may have a slightly better performance on some of the questions, but it's hidden in the glare of the craven moderators of ABC, who long to be seen important in the context of Washington's Hollywood Expose crowd.

Just what is needed after watching ABC news "debates".

First of all, why would any Democrat really care about Bobo's review of the debate? He's going to support McCain in the general editorially anyways, so of course he's going to find ways to trash the candidates.

But his review of how to moderate a debate? I disagree with this premise:

I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent. The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities.

I don't think that's it at all. I think the journalist's job is to dig for information that will be of use to the public, and in a political debate, of use to the public for their participation in civic decision-making. That could be what Brooks is describing, but only if the areas of exploration are of value.

Brooks is stressing technique over everything else in the debate, and I guess I just don't think that's the top priority for most Americans. Most Americans want content - technique is secondary to the delivery of the goods. To the degree of delivering content, ABC failed in an appalling way. ABC deserves an F, but a very special F, the kind where you have to go back and take the class over again in order to participate in the final project, because they not only ran a debate where they didn't understand the most important premise, but they did it on perhaps the final debate before the nomination is determined. ABC could not have picked a worse time to be this horrible.

Search as I may, I don't see either of these two men wearing flag pins! TRAITORS!!!!!

Clearly the worst this year, maybe of all of them. Why? Because of the moderators, and their questions. Last night revealed one obvious item: Charlie Gibson is a horrible, horrible hack.

And here's a framing subject I think should be pushed back on - this notion that the middle class earns up to $250K per year. Please. According to the 2006 U.S. Census, only the top 1.5% of households made $250K or more per year. Only the top 5% made $167,000 or more. What is so middle about that? A tax increase on somebody making $200,000 or more is NOT a middle class tax increase.

Predictions.

Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets.
Dallas Mavericks beat the New Orleans Hornets.
San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns.
Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz.

Lakers beat the Mavericks.
Spurs beat the Rockets.

Lakers beat the Spurs.

As opposed to the East, I'm not very confident about these picks. The Mavericks are a hunch. In the first round, the predicted loser could end up winning the series and I wouldn't be surprised - except for the Nuggets. Denver is not going to beat Los Angeles. If Rafer Alston doesn't come back quick, I think Utah will end up beating Houston.

Some music from The Angels...

Another shot of a mall, slowly losing stores...

It's bad when the parking lot has plenty of room for trucks.

You see these signs all over the Pike...

Not sure how I missed this, but worth posting:

Some state legislators don't like all the TV commercials from Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans. State Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, complains Highmark Inc. runs TV spots "relentlessly" in his western Pennsylvania district.

He wonders why, given Highmark already dominates the health insurance market in that part of the state. He also wondered if the cost of the commercials, which include health-related public service messages, are counted as part of the Blues' social missions.

Blues plans -- Pennsylvania has four -- are nonprofits, and must fulfill a social mission in return for non-profit status.

The subject of the ads came up this week as legislators questioned Anita Smith, CEO of Susquehanna Twp.-based Capital Blue Cross. Smith said the commercials aren't counted as part of the social mission.

She also defended the need for the Blues, who compete against major for-profit insurers including Aetna and HealthAmerica, to promote their brand. And the public service spots, such as those encouraging kids to eat healthy and exercise, can eventually lower health care costs by reducing obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses, she said.

Smith appears in many of Capital's ads. "The talent comes cheap. They don't pay me for it, and they don't pay the little blue guy," she said, referring to her "Blue Man" co-star.

That seems misleading. Is Smith trying to say that she isn't being paid for being the public face of Capital Blue Cross? If not, why does she do it?

As for the blue guy, doesn't somebody get paid to create him?

Will predict the West when the seedings for the first round are set.

Boston beats Atlanta
Detroit beats Philadelphia
Orlando beats Toronto
Washington beats Cleveland

Boston beats Washington
Detroit beats Orlando

Detroit beats Boston