around the world – part 43.1 (driving to florida)

Anna Maria Island - Tortuga Inn

Every year, after months of cold and darkness, and just prior to the first signs of spring, thousands of Canadians suddenly abandon their homes and head south to the Caribbean, Florida, Mexico and so on.  And this year,  Junior was no exception.  Even with what has been a mild winter by any measure, Junior and family found themselves joining the mass migration of Canucks south at Spring Break. 

In some moment of sheer lunacy, I determined that it would be a good idea to drive.  Perhaps it was the mild shock of air fares, or some crazy idea that it would be ‘fun’, but at any rate by 6am early friday we departed our house and began our two-day journey. 

For those of you contemplating the drive, I can attest that the advice of my colleagues and friends has turned out to be quite accurate.  You should budget two long days of driving – planning a minimum of twelve hours on the road, factoring in another two or more hours of stretches, meals and pee breaks    A couple of colleagues, real pros at this, strongly advised going hard the first day – up to 18 hours(!) such that the second day is easier.  No doubt they all have teenage kids who can entertain themselves.  Anyone travelling with two small children must invest in a portable CD player.   This wonderful invention, I am sure has prevented the untimely demise of an untold number of children.   

In the end we opted for a more or less balanced two days of about 12 hours driving each – although due to somewhat inclement weather on the first day, we actually did not accomplish half the distance, stopping just past Roanoke Virginia.   Mind you once we joined I77 in North Carolina, we managed to progress at a much faster rate and had we not encountered a traffic accident on I75 near ocala,  would probably have made it in to our destination before 715pm.  As it was we arrived at 8pm, and collapsed into our beds.

and in circus news, obama snags the big prize

Oct 12 2009:

-8.   Oops – that didn’t work at all…..

…today is the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama. The award seems to have had little impact on public opinion among likely voters.  His total approval was at 49% just before the award was announced and it is at 49% today.

There does seem to be a slight increase in intensity.  Since the prize was awarded, the number who Strongly Approve of the President’s performance has increased by three percentage points and the number who Strongly Disapprove has increased by five. The number with strong opinions on both sides is at the highest level in a month.

While the award has had little impact on the President’s ratings, skepticism about the Nobel selection process has grown. Fifty-eight percent (58%) now see politics in the process, up from 40% a year ago.

And the previous awards to Yasser Arafat, Jimmeh and the Goracle were entirely free of ‘politics in the process’?

—————–

Oct 11 2009: 

Update:  His One-ness has just been awarded the 2010 Stanley Cup – That was easy.

——————

Oct 10 2009:  

Now that Obama has been awarded* the Nobel Peace Trinket,  the mc-chimpy bushitlers must be gnashing their tooth into dust.   Barely 10 days in office** and the committee had their man.   Apparently, simply saying that you are going to heal the world and keep on saying it often and loudly until enough fools believe you was sufficient to be awarded the bauble.   Mind you, it’s not as if he has actually closed down gitmo, or withdrawn troops from Iraq, prevented the dinner jacket from acheiving his nuclear desires, solved world hunger, secured the olympics for the mob, or delivered socialised health care to the peasants – but hey, IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE….

I suppose even those who do persist in resisting the one could be forgiven their skepticism. After all, even mr hope-n-change has adopted the distinctly warlike habit of dropping the odd PEACEFIRE missile or two on occasion.

In the meantime the ungrateful and unwashed hordes have not rewarded*** his one-ness with a deserved bounce in the polls.  What does a man have to do to get some love?

Of course, junior, as a world renowned ‘hater’, ‘disbeliever’, AGW denier and all round obamaskeptic would be expected to sneer; (he has also been known to offer unguarded applause when well deserving targets are scattered into environmentally friendly and biodegradable bits), so in the interests of balance please let me offer my congratulations via Iowahawk:

Dear   BARACK OBAMA  :

Congratulations! On behalf of the selection committee, I am pleased to announce that you have been named a 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of your tireless efforts to   STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY AND COOPERATION    .

I am also pleased to tell you that as a winner, you have been pre-approved for membership in the Nobel Peace Player’s Club, offering exclusive money-saving benefits available only to laureates like you. Please take a few minutes to look over the enclosed enrollment materials. At only $299.95 per year, I’m sure you’ll agree that membership is a bargain at twice the price! Here are just some of the benefits you’ll receive:

• A handsome 14-karat gold membership crest badge to display proudly on the grille of your limousine or official state aircraft
• A framed, hand-calligraphed certificate (add $19.95 for gold leaf)
• Special discount shopping bargains for for you and your family
• Great travel packages to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
• Listing in “Who’s Who of Global Salvation” ($49.95 per copy)
• Great coupons for Olive Garden, P.F. Chang’s, Six Flags Theme Parks, and more!

Plus, you’ll receive the exclusive Nobel Peace Player’s Club GoldCard entitling you to discount air travel and 5-star hotel accommodations from Kyoto to Darfur. But don’t take our word for it! Listen to these testimonials from some of our current members:

“My career as an international peace activist means lots of air travel — and dealing with pushy Zionists and rude natives. With my Nobel Peace Player’s Club GoldCard, I finally get the respect I deserve – and it makes getting through Gaza airport security a snap!”
– Jimmy Carter, 2002 Laureate

RTWT

——————————–

*Advice to Norwegian Nobel Committee – Stop huffing the North Sea gasoline, you’ll find it makes appreciation of the situation a little clearer….like how about the succesful candidate actually having achieved something other than simply being elected.

**Nobel nominations deadline: 1 Feb 2009.  Inauguration 21 Jan 2009.

*** To be fair, lets wait until next week to see if any of his aura has transferred to the proles.

changeometer

presidential approval index sept 14 2009

While I might like to beat a man when he’s down as much as the next guy, might there be a second life for obamacare yet?   A seven point improvement since the last time we checked….

He wouldn’t be the first politician to suck back, reload and wait for the polls to improve before launching the next round of marketing….

gubmint motors (your tax dollars at work)

Well, well.   I think that 16% ownership stake in General Motors is going to take a little while longer to ‘pay off’.    Sales volume at the General is off by 20% from the same period last year as folks continue to shun the ‘pelosi mobiles’, while sales volume at Ford (which in case you need reminding – didn’t require a bailout) are up by 16%.    Great pick Dalton and Stephen.  I, for one am happy I picked up FoMoCo at $1.22 in December 2008.

ht 

Brands and companies are both displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 26 selling days in August 2009 and 27 selling days in August 2008, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in the average daily sales rate for each brand/company.

Brand	Volume %	8/09	8/08	DSR*%	DSR 8/09	DSR 8/08
Kia	60.38	40,198	25,065	66.54	1,546	928
Subaru	51.51	28,683	18,932	57.33	1,103	701
Hyundai	47.01	60,467	41,130	52.67	2,326	1,523
Audi	25.77	8,057	6,406	30.61	310	237
Volvo	24.78	5,826	4,669	29.58	224	173
Pontiac	23.35	29,921	24,257	28.09	1,151	898
Ford	21.25	161,369	133,088	25.91	6,207	4,929
Honda	15.21	151,814	131,766	19.65	5,839	4,880
Mazda	12.09	26,542	23,680	16.40	1,021	877
Volkswagen	11.35	24,823	22,292	15.64	955	826
Toyota	10.94	202,196	182,252	15.21	7,777	6,750
Porsche	8.69	1,526	1,404	12.87	59	52
Mercury	8.19	9,080	8,393	12.35	349	311
Nissan	0.17	97,580	97,417	4.02	3,753	3,608
Suzuki	-5.46	5,749	6,081	-1.82	221	225
Jeep	-6.11	22,041	23,476	-2.50	848	869
Mini	-6.55	5,111	5,469	-2.95	197	203
Mercedes-Benz	-7.54	17,112	18,507	-3.98	658	685
Chevrolet	-9.16	168,130	185,080	-5.66	6,467	6,855
Dodge	-15.80	52,562	62,422	-12.56	2,022	2,312
BMW Group	-21.30	24,343	30,931	-18.27	936	1,146
Lexus	-21.82	22,892	29,281	-18.81	880	1,084
Chrysler	-23.50	18,619	24,337	-20.55	716	901
BMW	-24.47	19,232	25,462	-21.56	740	943
Mitsubishi	-25.95	6,813	9,200	-23.10	262	341
Infiniti	-30.19	7,732	11,076	-27.51	297	410
Acura	-36.21	9,625	15,089	-33.76	370	559
Lincoln	-38.43	5,874	9,540	-36.06	226	353
Smart	-44.59	1,418	2,559	-42.46	55	95
GMC	-45.15	23,145	42,194	-43.04	890	1,563
Buick	-51.71	8,612	17,833	-49.85	331	660
Cadillac	-55.01	6,931	15,405	-53.28	267	571
Saturn	-58.41	8,479	20,385	-56.81	326	755
Hummer	-64.03	777	2,160	-62.64	30	80
Saab	-67.80	484	1,503	-66.56	19	56
COMPANIES
Ford Motor Company	16.99	182,149	155,690	21.49	7006	5766
American Honda	9.93	161,439	146,855	14.16	6209	5439
Toyota Mo Co	6.41	225,088	211,533	10.50	8657	7835
Nissan North America	-2.93	105,312	108,493	0.80	4050	4018
Chrysler Group LLC	-15.43	93,222	110,235	-12.18	3585	4083
General Motors	-20.19	246,479	308,817	-17.12	9480	11438

no one to blame but themselves

Updated – Aug 28 2009:

Oops.  Either it’s time to buy newspaper stock on the theory that it can’t get much worse, or maybe its all over.

Newspapers’ financial woes worsened in the second quarter as advertising sales shrank by 29 percent, leaving publishers with $2.8 billion less revenue than they had at the same time last year.

It’s the deepest downturn yet during a three-year free fall in advertising revenue — newspapers’ main source of income. The magnitude of the industry’s advertising losses have intensified in each of the last 12 quarters.

The numbers released Thursday by the Newspaper Association of America weren’t a shock, given the dramatic erosion mirrored the advertising losses that the largest U.S. newspaper publishers already had reported for the April-June period.

Still, the statistics served as a stark reminder of the crisis facing newspapers as they try to cope with a brutal recession and advertising trends that have shifted more marketing dollars to the Internet.

___________

Aug 21 2009:

As far as I am concerned the parochial print and TV news media can’t die off fast enough.  Recently a couple of news items have highlighted for me exactly why journalists are out of touch with the real world – a complete lack of professionalism, disregard for fact checking and suppression of news:

First off:  last week much of the shrieking on both left and right concerned a black man who attended a Health Care

crazy?

 rally in Arizona openly carrying an AR-15 rifle, and pistol holstered at his hip.  All legal, no threatening gestures made towards anyone in the crowd or anyone else for that matter.   In fact judging by the demeanor of those around him, they certainly didn’t perceive him to be a threat least of all to themselves.    CNN posts:” Obama at risk from gun-toting protesters?”  MSNBC then aired cropped video  footage of the same man yet cast him as a white man (36 seconds in), while the talking heads go on about how racist angry protesters might take a shot at Obama. 

not crazy? never happened?

Apparently the MSM’s memory hole has obliterated any recollection of  the New Black Panthers openly sporting shotguns at the 2000 Republican Convention in Houston TX.   Where was the concerned pontificating about crazy militias (isn’t that what the Black Panthers are?) endangering the safety of GW?  What?  There wasn’t any?   In last weeks ’reporting’  there wasn’t even a semblance of impartiality – no mention of similar events – as if the armed protests by the (presumably liberal) Black Panthers had never occurred.    

Matt Welch at Reason Online summarises what is happening…..

Meanwhile, I can predict the kind of “hate” that will escape attention by the new desk. It’s the kind that assumes, lack of evidence notwithstanding, that we are always–but especially now that liberal Democrats run the country–on the verge of a race war. It’s the kind that takes a surface look at current events, luxuriates in historically ignorant alarmism, then proclaims that America itself is “delusional,” “irrational,” “hysterical.” You can’t get away with hating a (Democratic) president’s policies, or even a single policy, but hating on the country as a whole for failing to get on board? Well, that’s just journalism!

Secondly:  The sound of insects chirping as the MSM with the notable exception of the Wall Street Journal suppresses or at best ignores a ‘good news’ story coming out of the west bank via the International Monetary Fund.  It would seem that Palestinians living in the West Bank have won the economic lottery (real wage increases of up to 24% [!] and economic growth of 7%), whilst those lobbing rockets from the Gaza strip have not.  Or is it perhaps because security measures put in place by the Israeli’s have put an end to suicide bombers originating in the West Bank, coupled with a desire by Palestinians to get on with their lives, leaving the wreckage which is Gaza to the fascist Hamas?   Hmm….

I smell a rodent of unusual size….

bucket list – 02

Visit the Grand Canyon.

on the bucket list

not the change you were hoping for…

Hmm.. again with the squiggly green line going in the wrong direction…..

was this the change you were looking for?

The wheels on the bus are falling off…..I think that little green squiggly line is not supposed to be trending downward. Maybe it’s because as VDH says:

“Obama spends more money on himself than did Bush. The liberal Congress has a strange fondness for pricy private jets. Those environmentalists and racialists who lecture us about our ecological and ethical shortcomings prefer Martha’s Vineyard and country estates to Dayton and Bakersfield. Offering left-wing populist sermonizing for others while enjoying the high life oneself is never a winning combination.”

——–

Related:  Even during the depths of their sponsorship salad days the Lieberals didn’t quite have the gall to slather party logos all over their efforts, however down south things are looking a little too much like it’s all about me…….

The cult of personality continues.

signs of the apocalypse

We are doomed……

best sentence(s) I read today

I don’t normally care too much about what goes on under the congressional approvals process of administration appointments – I don’t have a dog in the fight as they say.  However lately all you see on the news (esp here in KC) is hand-wringing about the prospective US supreme court nominee…

There’s a charade going on in Washington. After people finish playing it, an accomplished lawyer and jurist will be appointed to the highest court of the land. Being accomplished won’t be the sole reason for her appointment. Accomplished people abound in America. If appeal court judge Sonia Sotomayor is elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court, it will be because of her flaws as much as her virtues.

Judge Sotomayor will get the nod because (a) she’s a Hispanic woman, (b) she believes that being a Hispanic woman makes her more qualified to judge matters than people who aren’t Hispanic women, and (c) she’s prepared to deny under oath that she believes what she believes….

RTWT

around the world – part 39.1 (middle of everywhere)

July 18 2009:

Downtown KC

Recession?  What recession?   If there is trouble in the heartland, it sure is difficult to tell.   I am not denying that things have fallen off a bit, but perhaps all of the gnashing of teeth and rending of cloth seen and heard on big media these days is because the downturn is being felt mostly on the coasts and in the manufacturing states.   Here in KC, with acres of parking lots, sweltering heat, platoons of SUVs and pickup trucks conducting tailgate parties there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of a bust.

Once again Junior finds himself on the road, only this time for three weeks(!), enjoying the sights and sounds of Kansas City.  More to follow….. 

How to get there:

By air from YYZ on AC 8029, a cramped regional jet, about two hours into MCI.  Collect bags; out to the curb to board the shuttle to the central car rental centre, and then off to the hotel. 

Here’s some UFI on MCI:  the good citizens of Kansas City would dearly love the airport code to be changed to KCI – and indeed on the highway signs, it is referred to as such, but the official airport code remains MCI.  When it was built, it was known as the Mid Continent International – hence MCI.  Additionally the letters K and W are reserved as the initial letters for radio and television stations and despite lobbying by city officials, KC has been refused permission to change the airport designation.

around the world – part 36.2 (kennedy space center)

piloting the 'whale'

March 29 2009:

Hard on the heels of Human Achievement Hour, and with Edward the Corgi at the wheel, Junior and colleagues piled into the ‘whale’ and headed east into a light rain towards the Kennedy Space Centre.   Armed with one dollar bills and a small ransom in coin we bolted from toll plaza to plaza, inefficiently adding our highway ‘rent’ to the Florida state treasury in terrifically short intervals and, arriving eventually at our destination, home to the spaceport and not coincidentally a quite entertaining tour experience.

I can state categorically that NASA has built a first class destination, simultaneously aimed at both youth and adults alike.   For those of you with small children – given the considerable amount of time spent queuing for tour buses, I would recommend waiting to visit until kids are in the 10 – 13 age range, as the centre is not optimised for little kids.  However, most kids should find the Shuttle Launch Experience to meet the  ‘son et lumiere’ quotient necessary to qualify for the cool factor.  Already planning for the two fierce creatures.

....light this candle....

I think, though (unless you are present for an actual launch), the Apollo/Saturn V Centre must be considered the main attraction.  Complete with a Saturn Rocket, slick multimedia presentations, Apollo 11 control room and much more, this center captures in one place the complete history of mankind’s greatest achievement.  You can’t leave here without being impressed and just a little bit in awe at the audacity of those who to hurtled into space on top of a rocket guided by computers with less capability than exists in your cellphone.

 

Next:  Warbird Museum

around the world – part 36.1 (kennedy space centre)

March 29 2009:

brute force and will in 360 feet....

around the world – part 34.1 (virginia)

22 Feb 2009: 

Here we go again, not so much around the world as exploring a nearby neighbourhood.   This last week found junior and a colleague in suburban DC, holding down the fort (and at times a bar stool) at the Westfields Marriott.  Mostly painful meetings, however not without opportunity to explore DC a little.  The last time I was in this part of the world was a lifetime ago as a high school student burdened with the ‘too cool’ ennui that likely prevented me from enjoying the experience. 

Cool visitor tip – The Canadian embassy occupies a prime location on Pennsylvania Avenue (accessed by vehicle from C street) and they allowed us to park our rental car on site while we wandered around the mall for several hours – your tax dollars at work!

7.3 – change you can measure – the global corruption perceptions index

With George W. out of the way, and change you can believe in upon us now perhaps it is time to take a step back and have a peek at transparency international’s corruption rankings – particularly as TI

welcomes the strong and critically important signal sent by American President Barack Obama’s declaration on his first day in office that “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

I take it that from his statement Mr Obama intends to distance himself from what is supposed to have been the  venal administration of his predecessor – except that the new president seems to have been the beneficiary of a very consistent rating courtesy of the outgoing administration.   Hardly Zimbabwe then.  So despite the frothings of the weirder side of the political left who would have you believe that the departed Bush presidency operated in near constant abrogation of the law – it turns out not to be true.  In actual fact, in the TI ratings from 2001 to 2008, the USA sat between 20th to 16th place out of 180 countries surveyed with a low of 7.2 (2007) and a high of 7.7 (2002) – by comparison, Canada ranged from 9.0 to as low as 8.4 during the same timeframe.  

In other words, hardly corrupt, no significant change in the ratings and yet…..

In four years where will the Obama administration stand?  With his roots in the Chicago Democratic machine, initial indicators are not looking too good……