Friday Fish Wrap: October 29, 2010

When we asked for the check at Peg’s Glorified Ham ‘n Eggs (South Meadows) this morning, I knew it was going to be an alright day. And, I’m not talking about the fact that Dean Heller, R-NV was there. No, when Mr. Maven asked for the check, the server replied that our bill had been taken care of. Huh? Yes, she said, we had a ‘secret admirer’.

Whoa. “Quick. Take a look around! Who do you see?”

The only person I could make out was a guy I used to run into while serving on the Nevada State SAR (Search and Rescue) Board. Naw. Not him. I didn’t know him that well anyway.

Was it Dean Heller. Not unless he remembers that email I sent. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I’ve still gotta recommend Peg’s out here on South Meadows Parkway. They were slammed when we got there. Breakfast crowd on a Friday sorta holiday. It’s Nevada Day. Why folks take Nevada Day off still puzzles me. I never got it off at the uh, environmental consulting firm. Hint.

My CIA-HydePark,NY grad nephew is a serious ‘front of the house’ man and executive chef with a big restaurant chain, so I know some of the challenges of  keeping a place running smoothly when everything could be going to hell in a handbasket. The guy who runs that South Meadows version of Peg’s is an artist, and has a staff that has been well trained. They all have a clue. He was directing bus service to various tables like an air traffic controller at JFK - “4 and 2, no, 2 and 2. Get it going” referring to getting tables set up for the next customers. Four tops and two tops.

That’s why waits at even the busy times aren’t onerous. The service is efficiently spot-on and friendly. I like that.

Well, plus the food of course.

This takes me to what I’d like to be doing other than political posts after the election is over - except for the crying. As in get serious about being more food/restaurant centered, with the politics being a bit more on the sideline. At least that’s what I hope for. I’m a meddler and can’t generally contain high umbrage and outrage, so it could all go off the rails. I’m going to try.

Hey- here’s another true Republican tipping to Harry Reid:

Yerington, NV Mayor Doug Homestead sums up the situation in the Reid-Angle election: “The choice in this election is clear.  You can side with the experience and leadership that Senator Reid brings to the table, or you can side with the dangerous, radical agenda of Sharron Angle.  I hope you join me in doing the right thing for Nevada and vote for Senator Reid.”(Mason Valley News, op-ed) 

If you’re not from Nevada - or are new to the state - let me clue you in. There ain’t any Liberals in Yerington. Nice folks there. Had lots of cool friends there over the years. But they be very Republican. They don’t go over to the Harry side lightly.

I think part of the most discouraging aspect of this election was seeing just how easily people I know and respected can be led to think that slogans and talking points, with a large splash of viral (in the worst ‘typhoid mary’ sense of that word) email are a good substitute for thoughtful, critical discourse - armed with facts. I don’t mean Glenn Becks facts. I refer to facts that can be corroborated with actual evidence from impartial, authoritative sources.

Here’s the latest (an excerpt):

USA, free enterprise companies at their finest, not socialism.

 Far be it for our President and his America bashing administration to publicly congratulate (let alone even mention) AMERICAN ingenuity and AMERICAN PRIVATE ENTERPRISE for its part in the miracle rescue of the Chilean Miners.  Nor does our current government/media seem to have the slightest concept of the value in public relations that American’s plain old love of our fellow man brings.

Schramm Inc. of West Chester, Pennsylvania built the drills and equipment used to reach the trapped miners.

Center Rock Company, also from Pennsylvania, built the special percussion drill bits used to reach the miners.

UPS,  the US shipping company,  delivered the 13-ton drilling equipment from
Pennsylvania to Chile in less than 48 hours.

Crews from Layne Christensen Company of Wichita Kansas and its subsidiary
Geotec Boyles Bros. worked the drills and machinery to locate and reach the
miners and then enlarge the holes to ultimately rescue them.

(Blah, blah, blah - list of more companies) 

The hearts of people all over the world were touched by the dramatic rescue of these miners.   It would seem appropriate to allow the world to know the part the American Private Enterprise System contributed to the happy outcome  For some reason, our Administration seems to prefer to stay mum on the subject.  The bastards!!

Yes, I applaud those companies that helped free the Chilean miners, too. Funny thing, though, I hadn’t heard Obama or anybody in his administration say anything negative about American enterprise, the free market, American innovation or ingenuity. Where do these people get this stuff?

I know where they DIDN’T get it - the mainstream and usually credible press.

Here’s what I found from the Seattle Times:

( Maven has edited for brevity)

“WASHINGTON —President Barack Obama on Thursday congratulated officials from NASA and several U.S. companies for their role in this month’s rescue of 33 miners trapped underground in Chile.

In public comments earlier this month, Obama said the rescue had captivated the world. He also commended everyone involved, including a NASA team that helped design the capsule that was used to bring the miners above ground one at a time.

Jim Stefanic, operations manager for Geotec Boyles Bros., S.A., a drilling company, said they had a “very good chat” with the president.

“He congratulated everybody on this great rescue mission down there,” Stefanic told reporters outside the White House after the meeting. Stefanic said Obama also told them he was “very proud that we were down there doing this job and rescued all 33 miners alive.”

Geotec Boyles Bros., S.A., is a U.S.-Chilean company based in Santiago, Chile.

Other drilling companies represented at the meeting were Schramm Inc., of West Chester, Pa.; Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa.; and Layne Christensen Co. of Kansas City, Kan. Also attending were representatives of Philadelphia-based Aramark, a professional services company.”

Hmmm. That took me about one minute to find that. Obama publicly congratulating the American companies that helped with the rescue effort. Doesn’t sound like bashing at all. What do you think?

I mean, Obama even gave the NASA guys medals - how much more should he have done?

The Atlanta Constitution Journal also seemed to know about Obama doing everything except kissing these executives on the lips - I guess it all got around, except to a few true-believers here in Nevada.

Ard and Bill, you know who you are. Why not do your homework next time - before hitting that forward button -  and so, quit looking foolishly out of touch? Now, there’s a thought. Jeeze, the one guy flew a 747 for a giant world wide airline, the same ‘airframe’ that fell into Long Island Sound just a week later in 1996. He testified before Congress. You’d think …. nah, don’t go there.

But see, it has nothing, nada to do with ‘IQ smarts’. It’s about being intellectually lazy. It’s about wanting important and complex issues boiled down to easily swallowed bullet points. I’ve been a fan of Edward Tufte - the arch enemy of the powerpoint, for a long time. Tufte is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design and he simply says that reducing complex information to bullet points all too often obfuscates, confuses and otherwise fails to inform.

Apparently, that’s what the TeaNuts/GOP prefer. To be bamboozled. They do not seem to value critical thinking, civil discourse or the other attributes of higher learning. Perhaps this is why they - and Sharron Angle - are so eager to defund things like the Department of Education.

The creepy part is that once you point out how they’ve been mis-led - bamboozled - they go right on repeating the same fallacies. Is there a Doctor of Psychology out there who would like to address this? Shelley?

I’m talking about ‘intelligent’ folks, here, not the unwashed rank and file TeaBag idiots. Doctors, dentists and airline captains. They worked damn hard to get to where they were professionally, and then they just …. just, quit thinking? Quit questioning? I mean, is it even reasonable that the POTUS would not want to honor the companies that saved the Chilean miners? Does that even make sense?

I think I want another glass of wine.

Oh, if you haven’t read Tufte’s seminal essay “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within” you should. It’s sorta, kinda required reading among the circles that matter. Taking one of his courses would absolutely rock if you want to present complex information in the best way possible.

“I will answer those questions when I’m the senator.” Sharron Angle

Whoa! Sharron Angle isn’t letting anything out of the bag until AFTER she’s elected queen of that undiscovered planet out past Pluto:

She doesn’t have to tell Nevada’s electorate a damn thing until ….. until….. that message comes in from her handlers, through the tinfoil helmet.

Where does this woman get off? She’ll let us know her views after the election? WTF? This is the kind of shirking, coward that TeaNuts want to represent Nevada?

Yup. Just like my friends that seem a bit daft … half a bubble off when it comes to the intellect. They’re so worried about the ‘guvmint coming to get their guns’ and the UN, and the Black Helicopters, One World Guvmint, and, and those GAYS!!!!!!! AND ILLEGALS!!!!!!!!!!!! that they have lost all touch with reality.

Which might be right where some people want them, if a certain video I saw today is to be believed - and I’m not sure it is.

I was reminded by a fellow blogger that I have some credibility in the blogging community, so I’ve decided not to post the videos in question. It could be a huge hoax. However, the whole idea is that large corporations in this country don’t give a rats’ ass about Sharron Angle, but they do care about getting rid of the last vestiges of credible, sensible Congressional representation that might not agree with their agenda. So with the blessing of the Citizens United SCOTUS decision, they are free to ‘donate’ tens of millions to get rid of the likes of Harry Reid.

Anonymously. Get rid of the guy who thinks, who questions. Put the bat-shit crazy lady in there. They can control her.

That’s not the way our democracy can survive. So. What’s the answer?

VOTE.

That’s an honor you do for yourself - as a citizen of the United States - and to the Founders who risked so much. It’s an honor you pay to the women who couldn’t vote. It’s an honor you pay to the African-Americans who couldn’t vote.

Along with the vote, also comes a responsibility to think. To question. To challenge your deeply held beliefs and assumptions.

That’s all your country asks of you. That’s not much at the end of the day and yet it’s everything.

-maven

Update on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 20:39 by mavenandmeddler

If there was another reason to avoid McDonalds, here it is from Huffington Post:

“WASHINGTON — There may be something rotten at McDonald’s — and it’s not a year-old Happy Meal.

The owner of a franchise in Canton, Ohio enclosed a handbill in employees’ paychecks that threatened lower wages and benefits if Republicans don’t win on Tuesday.

“As the election season is here we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future,” reads the letter. “As you know, the better our business does it enables us to invest in our people and our restaurants. If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected, we will not. As always, who you vote for is completely your personal decision and many factors go into your decision.”

The note ends with a list of candidates McDonald’s believes “will help our business move forward.” It names Republicans John Kasich for governor, Rob Portman for Senate, and Jim Renacci for Congress. With the letter was a biography of Renacci.”

Can you spell V-O-T-E-R  I-N-T-M-I-D-A-T-I-O-N?

Ah, just another reason to support Republicans. Right?