What Really Brought Down U.S. Airways Flight 1549

A "Little" Insight

I had dinner with my “little brother,” last night. I put it in quotations because he is not my biological little brother. I am part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization and it has been an amazing experience for me. I recommend it to anyone who has some extra time and wants to make a difference in a kid’s life.

But back to dinner. We went to Chili’s because he had never eaten there before. Kind of hard for us to imagine isn’t it? Our conversation began with stories from his week at school (he is 12 and in 7th grade). His stories are always entertaining because it reminds me of when I was in middle school. I hated middle school. The problems seemed so huge then but seem so miniscule now. After he told me that his football team went undefeated, the conversation took an interesting turn to politics. I was very excited to hear what point of view a 12 yr old Mexican boy had on the election.

I must preface this by saying that my little brother is no ordinary 12 yr old. He is ridiculously smart and his opinions and observations are remarkably mature for his age.

He asked me who I voted for and why. He then told me about the mock election that they had in his class and what he noticed. Two things he said were particularly disturbing to me:

1. He told me that his teacher had told them that Bush was wrong to take us into Iraq and there was evidence that Iraq had nothing to do with 911 and so on. Whether you agree or not is not the issue I have with this. The issue is that their young minds are so malleable at that age that they soak up everything the teacher says as gospel. I believe that it is the teacher’s duty to be completely unbiased in his/her dealings with the children.

2. He told me that there were two fellow classmates whose opinions on the election bothered him. One girl in his class wore a McCain shirt to school on Election Day. He asked her why she liked McCain. She replied that it was because he was white and looked like her grandpa. Another classmate said he liked Obama. When asked the same question, he responded that it was because he was black. I wonder where they got this undeniable reasoning. Their parents, maybe?

My little brother told me that those two children bothered him because he thought the candidate should be chosen based on what he stands for and not their race (I told you he was mature). When I asked him what he thought differentiated the two, he conceded he did not understand the specifics but that taxes and healthcare were a big part of it. HE IS 12!

He told me that he voted (in his mock election) for Obama. He said it was a tough choice because he thought both candidates would be good for the country, but he chose Obama because he wanted to see what it would be like to have a Democrat in the White House. There are so many adults in this country that lack the maturity of this special 12 yr old.

If you think you can’t learn anything from a child, you are mistaken. My little brother has taught me so much in our short time together and I can’t wait to see what else he will teach me.

Shortly after, he told me how he scared his brother by putting a snake in the bath tub with him. Good to know he’s not too grown up yet.

Chris Fowler on Lubbock

In the picture below, you can see Chris Fowler with his mouth open in amazement. He talks about it in this article. You have to scroll down a bit.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=fowler_chris&id=3686294

Pretty much sums it up...

Wreck'em Tech!

I am a graduate of Texas Tech University. I loved my four eventful years there and often wish that I was still in the dusty, out-of-the-way place. This past weekend, when I made the pilgrimage back to the Hub City for the Texas Tech vs. Texas football game, I got a refresher course on why I love Lubbock so much.

Geographically, there is nothing good about the West Texas town. It is far from any other city. It is so flat that you can watch your dog run away for three days (I know, it’s an old joke but I still love it). The dust storms will leave your teeth grinding sand and have you scraping dirt out of your ears for days. But all of this has been well documented and it makes Lubbock unique. Dealing with this makes you a good Red Raider, just like arrogance makes you a good longhorn and annoying traditions makes you a good Aggie.

This past weekend, I saw the most spirited group of students/fans that I have ever seen. Words really can’t describe the atmosphere in Lubbock. Excitement radiated from the face of every Tech fan. I think we all knew we were about to witness something special. And witness we did! Since my friends and I could not scrounge together the $300 necessary to watch the game from within Joes AT&T stadium, we settled for the next best thing. We posted up in our old favorite bar across from the stadium. That is where my 10 best friends and I watched history. You may laugh, but it really was history for Texas Tech. In the moment that Crabtree stepped across the goal line, Tech emerged as a nationally recognized football program. I found myself drenched in beer, being carried around the bar by an inebriated fellow fan, screaming at the top of my lungs. This is certainly a memory I will not soon forget.

I haven’t written anything in a while and while I don’t think this post really captures the excitement of this past weekend, I wanted to document it. I am planning on posting more frequently going forward and I should have one after this weekend's game against Okie State.

Wreck'em Tech!!!

Definition of Greed

There is an article on Forbes.com today that really pissed me off. The title of the article is "Inside the World's First Billion-Dollar Home." This home, which is actually a 27 story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai, is not going to cost a billion dollars. It is going to cost $2 billion. The owner of this testament to the insatiable greed of man is Mukesh Ambani, head of a petrochemical company in India. He is reportedly worth $43 billion and is the world's fifth richest man.

If anyone can justify to me why someone needs a $2 billion house, I welcome their comments. This family of 5 would apparently be cramped on anything short of 440,000 square feet of living space.

Given the current food crisis in much of the world today, do you think that this man could have made the ultimate sacrifice and only built a $1 billion house and given a billion to charity? Of course not. Why save lives when he could shit on a gold toilet? Do you know how many people $1 billion could feed? Me either, but I bet it would buy a shit-load of rice for the poor in Africa (or his home country of India for that matter).

Now I am sure that Ambani is involved in numerous charitable activities (or at least he should be), but there is simply no way you can justify building a house that costs more than the GDP of 30 countries in this world.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/104984/Inside-the-World

What has the world come to?

I am all for thinking outside the box. I am no economic genius, but it appears to me that everyday there are economic indicators coming out that contradict each other on the direction of the economy. One day we are almost out of the hole and the sun is shining and the next day we are staring into the abyss wondering where the bottom is. Well one article has finally found the answer.

Porn. Porn has traditionally been one of the most economically inelastic industries there is. Think about it. When we start heading for a recession, sales of higher end electronics decrease, Starbucks suddenly finds itself having a hard time selling high-priced lattes, and more people head to Wal-Mart and CostCo for groceries. But when the economy is in the crapper do men decide to stop whacking it to porn and decide to take a nice bubble bath and spank it to an old memory? I think not. Porn is a non-substitutable good. Or at least it was…

An article by Peter Bart in Variety says:

The drop in porn rentals and sales is worrisome on several fronts: Till now, porn has been a recession-proof business. Further, with the country already in a dispirited mood, the fact that porn has gone limp may indicate a true plunge in consumer confidence.

DVD porn is down between 10% and 30%, depending on which nook and cranny of the business you scrutinize. Joy King, executive vice president of Wicked Pictures, and a smart analyst of the business, says the smallest dropoff is in "couples-friendly porn" -- films that embrace something of a storyline. Women account for roughly half of this audience, making their purchases in lingerie boutiques and toy stores (no, not kiddie toys).

This, in my book, is a sure indicator that we are in a recession and that it is only going to get worse. If the ordinary man is too worried about pinching pennies that he can’t sit down with some lotion, a paper towel, and new copy of Harry Twatter then we are all doomed.

Read the article (its pretty funny):
http://www.variety.com/VR1117984246.html