Miscellaneous Observations

I don't get soccer.  The blown call against the United States confuses me.  I understand mistakes.  They make them all the time in Major League Baseball.  A rerun will show that a guy was safe when he was actually out.  That's just the way the game is played.  But this soccer call was different. It's like a baseball player hits a home run and the umpire calls "Strike Three!"  Maybe the rule is that the goal counts unless the referee has money on the other team.

I have been waiting for Barbara "Band-Wagon" Boxer to make an appearance on the Gulf.  She has made a career out of a simple 2-step process.  Step 1: Wait for something bad to happen. Step 2: If it appears to be popular to speak out against such an event - do so.  Here is her basic script, regardless of the situation: "I am going to get to the bottom of this.  This is a wake-up call."  Sorry Barbara, your sun has set.

I am not a fan of Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman.  Not because they are women (although I think Meg may secretly be a man) or because they are Republicans .  There is just something about them that I don't trust.  However, they may be the best people for the job.  I am a big fan of business people entering politics.  They know how to get things done.  Carly took a lot of big risks as the head of HP but she got stuff done.  This is a departure from your standard politician who has his or her own 2-step process.  Step 1: Get elected by promising whatever people want to hear.  Step 2: Don't fuck up.  This means they hold onto their jobs by not taking risks - also known as "not getting things done."

BP screwed up.  Now let's move on.  I have not heard them say "unfair" or "no" to anything since this has happened.  They are pouring money into trying to make things better without complaint (aside from the famous "I want my life back" comment).

So, why are we still beating up on them long after the point has been made?

I'm glad I asked.

BP screwed up because we let them screw up.  It's that simple.  Every industry out there has rules to follow; rules they would rather ignore but can't.  The off shore oil thing was different.  There were no rules so they were free to take risks.  Let's face it, BP is not evil, they just made a bad bet.  They put it all on red and spun the wheel.  When it came up black, they got caught.

We are picking on BP because our government is telling us to pick on them.  So long as we blame someone else, we won't notice that our politicians allowed this to happen.  They all took money to look the other way.  They all jumped on the Drill Baby Drill bandwagon.  They all failed to act until it was too late.

Yes, BP screwed up.  They are paying up without a word of complaint.  But, if God spoke up and said "Let he amongst you who is without blame cast the first stone," it would get quiet awfully fast.

I hear the new Toy Story movie is the best one yet.

The Big Lebowski is one of the most overlooked movies of all time.

Robin Hood Sucked.  Russel Crowe, another whose sun has set.

Jim

Pardon my accent

I am currently in Biatorbagy, Hungary; my other home.  I have been here for about a week.  I thought I would talk a little bit about the differences between here and there (there being my home in California).

The first thing you notice right away is that nearly everyone speaks Hungarian.  This is an impossible language and I sometimes think they are just making up words as they go along.  For example, the word(s) for "to sightsee is nevezetessegeket megteleni. I can spell it but I can't say it without hurting myself. The same word in Spanish is probably something like El sightsee-o.  Spanish is easy.

The food here is great.  Lots of soups, salads and stews.  Most everything has paprika on it.  Paprika is to Hungary what tortillas are to Mexico.  Here is a picture of a breakfast I had at a place I spent the night at near Lake Balaton.

I typically spend my days working out of my home office while my wife is at work.  This time, I didn't bring any work so I am writing.

There are a lot of things to do around here.  Movies hit Budapest about the same time they open in the States.  I walk the dog through the village for about an hour every day.  If you like old things, you only need to go a few blocks to find something older than the United States.  The nearest castle is probably about 5 miles away.

Shopping here is just like any other modern country.  They have huge malls and neighborhood markets and everything in between.

I get all of my news from Europe CNN since it is the only English speaking channel.  Here, the news is about BP and the World Cup.  California's women politicians have been mentioned.  Every now and then they accidentally play a highlight from a baseball game.  About 90% of the news is about this guy that killed a girl in his hotel in Peru.   Obama is always on when he has something to say.  The world loves Obama.  He has completely turned around how the rest of the world views us.

I had to go online to see how the voting went.  I was glad to see the proposition allowing PG&E to run the state was defeated.  PG&E spent 46 million on this proposition saying they "did it to protect our taxes."

I am heading home on Monday.  Off to Ohio on Wednesday for a couple of days.  The next week I am in Grand Rapids.