This morning I saw a bicyclist get pulled over by a well-paid public servant because he (the bicyclist) wasn’t wearing a helmet.
I had to wonder how some laws get passed in the first place.
If the government’s concern was really for your safety,
rather than for the lagging sales of bicycle helmets,
they would require you to take a course
wherein, just like karate,
the first thing you are taught is how to fall properly.
Then there was the guy who was soooo dumb….
[audience] “How dumb was he?”
This guy was so dumb that he Scotch-taped chickens to his body before going outside,
because he’d heard that he’d stay warmer if he dressed in layers.
…
I apologize.
My only concern is that
if the economy
doesn’t turn around
soon,
we’ll no longer
be able to afford
to pay farm owners
to
not grow food.
Honestly,
I don’t think
there’s any aspect
of the illegal immigration
problem
that can’t be solved
with a big
honkin’
catapult.
I heard on the radio tonight that the Kentucky legislature wants to pass a law stating that, American flags purchased by government agents in Kentucky would have to be made in America.
My first thought was, “Hallelujah! It must be spring, a clue acorn has sprouted.” Sure, it’s mostly a symbolic gesture, but if our own government isn’t willing to make the occasional nod towards patriotic behavior, then who can?
When President Obama says we will “avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism” I hear “We are not going to encourage the creation of any new American manufacturing or jobs”.
Maybe he *has* to say such things to keep the world economies stable. But the unhealthy thinness, the one-dimensionality of American economic infrastructure reserves, is one of the reasons we have proven so vulnerable to economic fluctuations. And there are other issues as well, as noted by H. Ross Perot:
Manufacturing is vitally important for this reason: without the ability to manufacture, the US cannot defend itself. Manufacturing is important because it provides the greatest number of high-paying US jobs. These are the types of jobs that US workers need if they are to buy a house, build a retirement nest egg, and create a better future for themselves.
Manufacturing is our history, it is in our very soul. Our country did not really begin to grow until we started manufacturing machines that made manufacturing machines. “Protectionist” or not, we need to bring manufacturing back to our country. To quote Perot again:
“We cannot defend this great country unless we can manufacture,” he said. “Can you imagine what would happen if we had to go to the rest of the world and ask for materials?”
Apparently it was circulated via email about a week ago; Ian forwarded me a copy and I parsed it into the database and updated the query page.
It’s messy data from a programmer’s standpoint, but I’d written an interface some time ago that not only eliminates most of the typing but enforces some consistency among things such as telephone numbers and bodybuilding class orders.
The smart thing to do to make this all a lot easier would be to have the promoters _themselves_ update their show information through a similar interface, as well as keeping their contact information and the list of venues current.
Once the data is clean, publishing via print/Web/PDF/whatever becomes cake.
So while my version is a little cleaner and, as mentioned before, *searchable*, it still must not be mistaken for the officially published schedule available on the NPC Florida Web site.