May 2008

From Cincinnati Enquirer: $196 million ticket sold in Amelia

AMELIA – A single ticket sold in Amelia is the winner of the $196 million grand prize from the latest Mega Millions lotto drawing.

Lottery spokeswoman Marie Kilbane said Friday night that the ticket for was bought at Main Street Wine & Spirits in this Clermont County village.

Wow, someone in my hometown of Cincinnati has hit it big!

To put it in perspective how hard it is to win the jackpot, this was the first winning Mega Millions ticket sold in all of OHIO since December 1, 2006!

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are: 1 in 175,711,536.

The odds of getting struck by lightning twice in a lifetime are: 1 in 9,000,000.

This is a classic article from the NYTimes.com about how candidate George W. Bush would lower gasoline costs!

Article referenced in DaringFireball: Political Capital

From NYTimes.com: THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE TEXAS GOVERNOR; Bush Would Use Power of Persuasion to Raise Oil Supply

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was
president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of
personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing
nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

”I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the
spigot, to increase the supply,” Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican
candidate for president, told reporters here today. ”Use the capital
that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and
convince them to open up the spigot.”

Well, the Saudis clarified today, the amount of political capital that George W. Bush has built up.  Zero, Nada, Zippo!

Asked why the Clinton administration had not been able to
use the power of personal persuasion, Mr. Bush said: ”The fundamental
question is, ‘Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign
policy?’ ”

He went on to suggest, as he did in answer to other questions, that voters should simply trust him.

”I will be,” he said in answer to his own question about whether he
would be a successful president. ”But until I’m the president, it’s
going to be hard for me to verify that I think I’ll be more effective.”

Trust him.  Aaaaaaaaaah!

Mr. Bush dismissed Mr. Lehane’s comments, saying, ”It’s
frankly the type of politics people in America are sick of, this kind
of finger pointing, calling names and trying to divert attention.”

Well, we’ve had 8 years of finger pointing, calling names, and trying to divert attention.  And yes, we’re still sick of it.

From the NYTimes.com: Bush in Saudi Arabia to Make Oil Plea

With the price of oil hitting record highs, President Bush will use a private visit to King Abdullah’s ranch here Friday to make a second attempt to persuade the Saudi government to increase oil production so that American consumers can get some relief at the gasoline pump.

When Mr. Bush was last here in January, a similar request caused him some embarrassment. The president asked the Saudi oil minister to increase production, and was publicly rebuffed. He then took up the matter with the king, but the conversation did not get very far.

From NYTimes.com: Bush Rebuffed on Oil Plea in Saudi Arabia

This is a total embarrassment, that the President of the United States goes into a country, hat in hand and gets totally rebuffed.  This is the legacy of our failed energy and foreign policies.

UPDATE: Jeff Ruby’s Tropicana has announced that it’s closing in June.

I was at Jeff Ruby’s Tropicana at Newport on the Levee last night meeting a friend.  It’s salsa night at Tropicana on Thursdays, so I’ve been there a few times over the last six months.  My friend and I agreed that the decor is really looking dated and the place is starting to get a little rundown looking.  The business seems good, so it seems like they could afford it, but it seems like Jeff Ruby has his eyes somewhere else.  You always hear about Jeff Ruby as a great restaurateur, but great restaurants are built in the details.

The bar chairs in particular are a ratty mess.  It’s a real embarrassment- I wouldn’t even let someone over to my place if I had a chair that looked like that, let alone charge someone $8.00 for a drink. Here’s a picture of one chair, but a lot of them look like this:
Here’s a picture of the decor.  Kind of cheesy looking.  Sorry for the quality of the photos, it was pretty dark for the iPhone.

Today, as I was driving to work, I saw gas at $3.77 a gallon- what a bargain!  So, I was posed with this dilemma, should I tank up even though my tank is only a third empty or should I just fill up on my normal schedule?  I decided to tank up, filling my car with less than 5 gallons of gas, but still costing me over $18 dollars.

Psychologically it felt good to take advantage of “cheap” gas, but in the end I think I saved only around $.60 based on yesterday’s rate of around $3.90.  It’s funny how your behavior changes when faced with rising gas prices.

I noticed the last time I purchased gas, that there’s a sign that says that there’s an automatic $50 cutoff limit for Visa card purchases for gas.
A year ago, that wouldn’t be a problem, but now fifty dollars buys you less than 13 gallons of gas at $3.90/gallon.  That’s less than a full tank for me.

The cutoff was either not turned on or not working on the pump I used as you can see below.  $61.83.  Yikes!

From NYTimes.com: McCain: Troops May Be Home by 2013

Reading the text of McCain’s speech, I’m reminded of the South Park episode with the Underwear Gnomes.  The gnomes stole underwear from kids because it was part of the plan shown below.

None of the Gnomes knew what Phase 2 was.

McCain in his speech sees a future through his leadership where we’ve:

Won the war in Iraq
Osama Bin Laden captured or killed
Inflation is low
World food crisis is ended
Reduced obesity in kids
Reduced dependence on foreign oil

And a lot, lot more.

To me, it fits the Gnome plan as follows:

Phase 1: Elect John McCain
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: War is won in Iraq, Economy is roaring, Obesity is conquered, etc.

Lots of nice Phase 3 stuff here.  But is there a Phase 2?  It’s clear in the Bush Administration, there was no Phase 2.  I’m not certain if McCain has a realistic Phase 2 either, especially for Iraq.  Or Inflation, or reducing obesity in kids.

I know it’s the nature of politics that we’re voting more for the person than a concrete plan.  All the candidates have lacked specificity in their Phase 2, especially for Iraq.  I just am extremely skeptical about anyone claiming that we can somehow “win” the war in Iraq in the traditional sense that McCain is claiming that we’ll be able to do in 5 short years.

Text of McCain’s actual speech.

From NYTimes.com: Knife Skills: Creating Feasts for the Eyes

The pictures in the article and the slideshow are amazing. 

Slideshow Playing With Food

From ESPN.com: Henin retires on top of rankings after early-season slump

I’ll always remember her one handed topspin backhand, probably the most beautiful shot in tennis, Men’s or Women’s.  She got every once of her body into the shot and could with any woman in the game.  I wish I could hit the ball like that!

Harry Wu, human rights activist, spoke yesterday at the University of Cincinnati about his experiences as a prisoner in China.  Mr. Wu spent 19 years in labor camps even though he had never committed or formally charged with a crime.  He was considered a “counter revolutionary” and was imprisoned for speaking out against the government.

Today, Mr. Wu is the executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation that was established to spread awareness of the prison labor camps and has since expanded its focus to:

– from the Laogai Research website
“to document and report on other systemic human rights violations in China, including public executions, organ harvesting from executed prisoners, the coercive enforcement of China’s population control policy, and persecution of religious believers.”

Harry Wu spoke extensively about the prison system and how products that we buy today are still being manufactured by prison labor.  Products that are being sold in Walmart come from prison factories.  Walmart is shielded from this by buying through trading companies that “certify” through documents that the products are not being manufactured by prisoners.  However, all certification documents in China are relatively easy to obtain and really don’t mean anything.  That’s why we can get food that’s contaminated or paint that has lead in it.

The prison labor is used to create products for almost every industry- electronics, heavy manufacturing, and consumer goods. 

Many of the prisoners are convicted criminals, but there are political
prisoners amongst them sent to labor camps for “re-education”.

Mr. Wu also spoke about the executions that take place.  China does not give out the numbers of prisoners that it executes per year, but Mr. Wu believes that it could be in the range of 10,000 to 20,000.

China is the second leading country in organ transplants.  Approximately 95% of all organs transplanted in China are from executed prisoners.

Mr. Wu then went on to touch on the Bodies the Exhibition.  He continually raised the point that if all the bodies were Jewish or African-American, what would we think?  He showed pictures of executed prisoners that were taken by a former assistant to the plastination factory in China.  Mr. Wu was told that the assistant knew that the bodies were from executed prisoners and that they were given free or purchased for $30-40 dollars.

Mr. Wu thinks that while he believes and is interested in science, that we need to remember that these are human beings.

My Reactions:
1. I was surprised by how much prison labor is still being used to manufacture products.  Companies and the American public don’t seem to be aware of the situation or don’t care about it enough to do anything about it.  Companies like Walmart only seek documents that allow them to deny any involvement.  This is just akin to looking away.

2. Based on the questions asked during the Q&A, the general public in Cincinnati is NOT aware about a lot of the undisputed facts surrounding the Bodies the Exhibition that is being shown at the Cincinnati Museum Center.  The bodies there are not donor bodies, but bodies of un-consenting individuals.  It has been shown that some of the bodies at the exhibit may be executed prisoners.

The Museum Center is just like Walmart in the sense that they have chosen the lowest standard of ethical behavior.  They don’t seek the truth of the situation amidst the allegations.  This is a cash cow for them and they’re willing to look away.  They have plausible deniability and beyond that, they don’t really care what the actual situation may be.

3. We are the land of the free, but we really don’t appreciate the freedoms that we have.  We certainly do not do enough to help others around the world.

4. The interesting thing about Harry Wu’s 19 years in prison was a question into how he was able to survive that long.  His answer, “I don’t know”, is kind of an amazing one.  In the movies, it’s a dream, something that motivates you to survive.

5. Watching Harry Wu playing with a small child at the event was touching.  Can you imagine how 19 years in a labor camp would change you?  Life and freedom certainly seems much more precious.