Well, a good friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this nasty little controversy, and I couldn’t resist making a few comments!  I’m being told that there is more to the story then what appeared in the Kirkland Reporter’s article – and I don’t disbelieve that statement – but there is enough information in this story to really get me wound up (pardon the pun!)

I’ll let you read the story to get and analyze the details so that you can draw your own conclusions – however – I will say that the real losers here are the kids!  Little League is supposed to be one of those healthy activities that keeps kids out of trouble.  Looks like it isn’t working – and more importantly – the parents clearly get themselves into trouble too! (Can you say attorney fees, at the very least?)

I was in a vanpool a long time ago, and I’ll remember a conversation with a mom who had kids in Little League, she was telling stories about how the parents would get riled up (the woman I knew volunteered as a scorekeeper/statistician) and cuss and swear and have temper-tantrums over the “unfairness” of the record keeping, etc.  I was generally quiet during those conversations, but my mind always went back to the same point: The kids certainly aren’t learning anything about sportsmanship or civility. Now this story.  I’m glad I never played in Little League if this stuff is true.

Take a look at the Little League logo:

The three key words: CHARACTER COURAGE LOYALTY

Somewhere along the line the kids and the parents seem to have forgotten those 3 simple words.  I personally believe that building good character requires good leadership, something the parents didn’t seem to be doing a good job of.  The kids involved will never forget the day this all happened – and the baggage they will carry around will probably shape many of their interactions later in life. Shame on the parents for allowing this problem to develop.

Its just a game folks.  Raising kids isn’t.

Mom arrested after Little League game goes foul - Kirkland Reporter

I’m particularly concerned about all things aviation related.  Why?  Well, the thought of any airplane crashing is scary (whether I’m in it or on the ground underneath it) and second, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some awesome people who fly planes and I have seen how seriously they take the responsibility to protect the traveling public.

The Continental Connections Flight 3047 that crashed February 12th near Buffalo, NY is of interest because it is starting to appear that the cause had everything to do with pilot/co-pilot error and nothing mechanical. So how could a professional make such fatal errors? Read on!

My personal belief is that the problem is far bigger than what it appears at first glance.  When a big airline, like Continental, hires or contracts with a small regional/commuter airline to run the smaller routes, they do it because it costs them too much to operate that route.  (Outsourcing/Contracting – by it’s very definition – is generally undertaken to LOWER costs.)   The contractor gets smaller planes, and hires crew members that are paid less (outside of a normal union contract with the “parent” carrier)  because they fly smaller planes, and God only knows what else is procured at a lower cost.

When you read the story at the link below – you find out that among other things the co-pilot, who lived with her parents in the greater Seattle, WA area, commuted to NY for work!  Oh, why did she live at home?  Could it be that her pay was just over $16,000 last year!!!  In fact, during the NTSB hearings, the transcript released shows that the co-pilot was also talking about how she wouldn’t know how to handle icing on the wings, etc.  So here we have a noble young lady, put on a plane in poor weather, after a grueling cross-country trip, earning the kind of pay reserved for Burger King part time employees and the plane crashes. YIKES.

My personal belief is that Colgan Air, which operated that doomed Continental Connections flight back in  February, should be ashamed of themselves.  Flight crews should be paid a respectable wage whether they are flying 40+ people in a turbo-prop or 100 people on a single aisle jet.  Colgan, based on some of the testimony in the NTSB hearings, should also be ashamed of failing to fully train crews so that they know how to react to cockpit warnings (like the “stick shaker”) and, more importantly, train a co-pilot on how to deal with ice – since the reality is a co-pilot should be able to take over from the pilot in any circumstance in the event it becomes necessary. For the co-pilot to verbalize her concerns about icing conditions to the pilot tells me she didn’t have the experience she should have had to be flying paying passengers around.

I’ll avoid commuter airlines as much as possible.  They truly scare me.

Low Pay, Pilot Fatigue Linked to Doomed Buffalo Flight - News- msnbc.com

Irony is a quirky event: you never know when to expect it, but when you see it, you have to laugh.  I follow the news, occasionally, from Alaska by reading the Fairbanks and Anchorage newspaper websites.  A nice short story in the Fairbanks paper made me do a double-take and then laugh heartily.

It appears that there was some sort of lottery in Alaska, and the beneficiary of that lottery was a group called STAR – Standing Together Against Rape.  That seems innocent enough right?  Sure.  But the story goes that the winner of the $500,000 jackpot had volunteered to give $100,000 of his winnings to that charity. WOW that’s quite a gesture.

Not surprisingly the charity has revealed that it never received the donation, as promised.  I suppose the lottery winner realized that the $500,000 reduced to $350,000 after taxes didn’t leave him much to work with.  So far so good, right?  You’d think that alone was newsworthy.  Here’s where the irony comes in.

The winner of the lottery, Alec Ahsoak, as described by the newspaper is a “convicted sex offender.”  I don’t know the exact details of Mr. Ahsoak’s conviction – but suffice it to say it is quite ironic that someone convicted of some type of sex crime a) bought a lottery ticket to benefit a rape group, amazingly b) won the grand prize and c) promised to donate some of his winnings back to the charity and then ultimately never did! That’s irony – for sure!

newsminer.com • Promised Alaska lottery gift undelivered

File this in the “it’s news to me” category: Radio stations DO NOT pay royalties for playing artist’s songs!  So after the “stink” the RIAA made about web radio stations NOT paying royalties (and forcing them to do so) they now are saying it would be unfair to make traditional radio stations do the same!

Please – are you kidding me?  Why should a web radio station pay and a traditional station not?  Hey folks, times are a changing, and using an old phrase: “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander!” Can someone explain the logic of this to me?

Bono: Radio Should Pay for Songs, Like Web Does - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

One of my favorite online publications to read, The Wall Street Journal, recently sent me a notice that it was time to renew.  Fair enough, it’s been a year, and for the quality of the publication I don’t mind spending money to read it.  So I read through the notice a little closer and realized that the renewal cost was $197!  That’s right, almost $200 for the privilege of reading the Journal!

I felt insulted.  First off, the website is NOT free of ads.  You still run into them everywhere on the site, and frankly if I’m going to pay anything for a site, I want it to be ad-free.  Secondly, with the depth of information on free websites, how can they possibly charge that much?  Finally, when I queried their customer service about the high rates and whether there were any options I received an e-mail that seemed almost robotic, if not plain insulting to the intelligence of a WSJ reader:

As of February 1, 2009, the price of an annual Wall Street Journal Online subscription has increased for renewing subscribers.

Rising operational costs force us to charge a bit more for your annual subscription. WSJ.com not only has most of the content in the WSJ newspaper, but many additional online-exclusive features. Over half the site is online-only content produced by more than 60 dedicated WSJ.com editors.

WSJ.com is really a great value. For around 40 cents a day* - WAY less than the price of a cup of coffee - the work of the finest news organization in the world is at your fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Way less than a cup of coffee?  PLEASE.  Now if they want to lower the cost back to the wonderful price I first paid a couple of years ago of $79 I can completely justify that.  I’m going to express my disdain by simply not renewing.  Hopefully Murdoch & Company will begin to get the message.

The State of Washington, has attempted over the years any numbers of ways to increase taxes.  Just yesterday the sales tax increase went into affect for Sound Transit.  A King County resident can expect to pay 9.5% sales tax now on most purchases (food excluded, of course.)

Now hear me out: sales tax revenue grows with general inflation – so theoretically the increasing costs of government are compensated for by the fact that the cost of goods is going up, resulting in higher tax revenues.  Add to that scenario that the population is constantly growing, and revenues on a natural basis continue to go up (likewise the demand for government services goes up.)  To me, it seems, like we have a natural balance here.

So, what irritates me about taxes is once they start, they DO NOT STOP, and they continually get bigger and bigger.  I can remember when sales tax was about 5.5% – so what has that additional 72% increase in sales taxes done for us?  I’m not sure!

The article below talks about a income tax on the ‘wealthy’ of “just” 1%.  Yeah, right – first off – 1% will start to go up, and more importantly, what was “wealthy” today will be tomorrow’s upper middle class!

I guess I can understand the legislature’s predicament – and the need for revenue – but why can’t government plan and “save” money for emergencies?  We had a rainy day fund, but it was a fraction of the billions needed to balance the budget.  We need to change the way we run government in this state and actually build reserves for the times we need it.

Washington State voters – think twice before you open this box – once that “tax bug” escapes there will never be a repeal – and, yes, it will grow in size and scope!

Politics | Key senator working on state income-tax proposal | Seattle Times Newspaper

Two thoughts on this story: 

1) Can you imagine what people will do to avoid paying to use a restroom on a plane?  I can see cups and bottles aboard the airliner being “recycled” for human waste purposes.

2) This quote from the Ryanair spokesman, referring to the company’s chief executive, is telling: “Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and while this has been discussed internally there are no immediate plans to introduce it…”  Hmmm… let’s see, I have a choice of flying with an airline that has a CEO that, “makes a lot of this stuff up…” or, maybe, an airline that is a little more organized and thoughtful?  Since I am flying in an aluminum can at 35,000 feet, guess what I’ll choose!

Restroom ransom? Airline mulls toilet toll - News- msnbc.com

OK I think we’re all used to the Nigerian “scams” that we hear of from time-to-time.  You know, those situations where the relative has died, and they need your help getting the estate (money) moved?  I think there is one where you cash the check and send them the cashier’s check – only to find out later that the check you got was bad?  The common denominator is always the same, some uninformed consumer trying to “help” someone out.

So the story linked-to below is just too hard to believe – but it involves an institution we are supposed to trust.  Citibank, one of the nation’s largest banks.  Apparently a gentleman from Nigeria conspired with others to create false documents so convincing that Citibank would follow the instructions and begin wiring money all across the globe, as a result of a request from the National Bank of Ethiopia.  I’ve included a picture of the poor victim – NB of E.

Now I understand consumers, with little education, might be tricked into one of these frauds – but the “victim” here is Citibank.  Now I don’t know the last time you ever tried to wire money from you personal account, but having done so on at least one occasion within the past few years, AND having worked at a bank myself, I can tell you that banks are skittish about wiring money.  Why?  Because once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Two interesting tidbits to ponder as you consider the story:

1. This fraud was detected, not by NB of E or Citibank themselves, rather it was by some of the wire receiving banks (banks of the criminals) who, apparently, couldn’t complete the wire because the information they had was incomplete (e.g., they couldn’t figure out what account to put the money in.)  Thank God for dumb criminals!
2. At the end of the story, it mentions that Citibank has “credited back” the “lost funds” to NB of E.  OK, I would hope so, Citibank made the mistake!  Of course, what they don’t say is how much Citibank ultimately “lost” … because wires are wires… and although legally they might be able to seize the accounts of the fraudsters… it won’t be automatic or assured (is the money even still there?)

So for everyone out there wondering why banks need bailing out – here’s another one.  They can’t even verify that wire transfers that exceed $25 million are really authorized.  Now you know how those “risky” loans got made! 

Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank - NYTimes.com

When this country finally comes to terms with the fact that people do want to enrich themselves, either directly or indirectly as a result of “who they know” and “what they know,” we can then figure out how to make sure it is done with disclosure and doesn’t cross ethical lines of reasonableness. Until then we cannot overlook things like the nomination of Leon Panetta to be the next director of the CIA.

Word is coming out that Mr. Panetta took a “couple” plane trips on a corporate jet owned by EduCap, a private student loan company that has contributed to some “non-profit” activities run by Mr. Panetta and his wife. Mr. Panetta and one of EduCap’s founders, Catherine B. Reynolds, both serve on Zenith National Insurance Corp.’s board as well. How cozy is that? Mr. Panetta, serving as President Clinton’s Chief of Staff, undoubtedly made friends in the student loan lobby after the Clinton administration pushed higher education tax breaks, etc.  Those kinds of friendships last years and surely pay “dividends” just as long.

Former Senator Daschle, nominee for the Health and Human Services Secretary, was similarly linked to EduCap and plane trip(s).  Mr. Daschle, however, ran into a bigger problem – unpaid taxes – and that ultimately de-railed his nomination, so I doubt we’ll ever really know the extent to which he was(is) befriending the student loan lobby.  Thankfully his tax mis-hap helped us understand his relations with the medical lobby to whom he most certainly would have been thinking of while engineering a “better” system for us.

Obviously the President’s staff check the backgrounds of these individuals, and yet, we still manage to see stuff “dug” up about what could be conceived as conflicts of interest.  One suggestion for change: pay our senior leaders amounts that encourage them NOT to need to sell themselves to the highest bidder after leaving office.  As an example, the President of the United States is paid $400,000 annually, a far cry from what any top executive at a Fortune 100 company would make.  Consider that the cabinet members are paid considerably less, it is easy to understand why the temptations facing people leaving public service to make a quick buck here and there is so widespread.

Hearing on CIA nominee Panetta slated - UPI.com

No, I’m not talking about that old TV show, which by today’s standards seems idyllic.  I’m talking about this woman in California, who, apparently used fertility services to conceive and carry to birth EIGHT babies.  WOW.  That in and of itself would be newsworthy.

My personal belief is that society and government get too involved in what people do, but even I have limits.  From what I have read, we have a mother of six who decides she wants another child.  Call me crazy, but that seems to be scary itself, but add to that the fact that the mother lives with her mother and is unemployed you wonder.  Oh, but wait, she apparently uses some type of fertility services and ends up with OCTUPLETS.  That’s right EIGHT newborns. 

Who is going to support these children?  Clearly she is going to need a village to do it, both emotionally and financially.  I’m sure we’ll be helping (as taxpayers) to get all 14 children she is responsible for through school, etc.  Is that fair?  If I knowingly make a choice to have children what level of responsibility do I have to take in order to raise those children?  Can I impose my will to procreate on society in general?

The ethics and morality of medicine is an area I wish I had more time to ponder and comment on.

My final thought: We require people to have driver’s licenses to drive on our roads, is it time to have “birth licenses” and validate that you are capable and equipped to bring another life into this world?

Birth of octuplets rattles fertility experts - Los Angeles Times