SWEEP!

A preview of summer here in Boston was a welcome way to end out April. 87°F today!!

And I saw the Red Sox beat the Yankees AT FENWAY 16-11. Not spectacular defense overall but you can't beat that batting! Grand slam by Varitek to turn things around..... priceless. The crowd was deafening and it was one big party.

And then tonight Ellsbury stealing home to help the Sox get the sweep! It doesn't get much better than that.

Anyway... time to go back to work, after a weekend that was too short.

Dying Motherboard

My PC is having a tough time, and is in the PC hospital currently. Because of this expect the sparse blog posts to continue for some time.

Meanwhile enjoy the fruits of the chosen one's labor which will surely save us from financial ruin and supply us with thousands of jobs. It is a good thing the white house oversight committee is working hard!

Pawtucket using stimulus money for skateboard park

Stimulus money to build skateboard park (Minnesota)? Waste or public investment?

$578,661 for Union homeless questioned
"The Town of Union is getting $578,661 in federal Recovery Act funding for a homeless problem that may not exist within its borders."

Stimulus Package Includes Millions For The Arts

Green Stimulus Money Costs More Jobs Than It Creates, Study Shows
"Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs, and only one in 10 of the newly created green jobs became a permanent job, says a new study released this month. The study draws parallels with the green jobs programs of the Obama administration."

A promising sign

I was glad to see this be a headline article on MSNBC this evening. I was also pleased by very sizable turnouts in several locations, namely Atlanta, San Antonio, and surprisingly NYC.

Anti-tax ‘tea parties’ being held across U.S.

What needs to be stressed isn't "lower taxes", but rather fiscal responsibility. Obama's fiscal budget is disastrous, and makes anything W put out look down right prudent. What makes this extra irritating is that part of the reason that Barack and the Democrats came to power is that naive Americans forgot that they will out spend the GOP. America, Newt and the GOP ran the congress during the latter Clinton years when we had surpluses. And even in the poorly managed Hastert years under W, the congressional budgets and deficits were on decline until after 2006 when the Democrats took over, and they sharply rose.

The stimulus should have gone to creating jobs, not lining the pockets of special leftist leaning interests and expanding government. You need a bigger economy first to fund a bigger government or the people will end up suffering as a result.

It is time to say no more failed bail outs. It is time to put an end to pork. It is time to stop throwing money at every problem. It is time to end the crippling entitlement mentality in this country. It is time to establish fiscal responsibility. It is time for a smart stimulus, one that really creates infrastructure for the future rather than an increased debt burden.

Extremism

This is the word that Obama is now trying to paint onto capitalism, the free market, small government, and traditional American values. Like Bush before him, Obama is now abusing the power of government to push his own idealistic views, but in a manner that all of us should be frightened with... but sadly too few of us care about.

Unfortunately much of the media is on his side.

CNN:
Right-wing extremism may be on rise, report says
from article: Though the nine-page report said it has "no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit "could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."
To drive the point home, CNN uses pictures of flags with swastikas and mentions that there "could be antisemitism".

Also from article:
"It cites proposed restrictions on weapons as likely to increase membership in extremist groups and expresses concern the groups might try to recruit veterans."

So they are going to use this to support revoking the second amendment, and try to tarnish our military veterans at the same time. (Veterans of course trend Republican) Quite the way to say "Thanks for your service".

Next on the agenda for Obama and company, paint the Teaparty protests as the work of "Extremists".

Tea Party Protesters Gird for Possible Liberal Backlash

From Article:
"Some believe ACORN, which has been under scrutiny for accusations of voter fraud, is preparing to crash some of the tea parties. But ACORN says it is only helping to organize dozens of rallies on the same day in support of President Obama's first budget.
"This is the first we've heard of these so-called 'tea parties.' And, frankly, a bunch of small get-togethers by fringe conservative activists dedicated to simply saying 'no' is of little interest to us," said ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring."

The same ACORN which will be conducting our next U.S. census under the unbiased leadership of Rahm Emmanuel.

London Photos

OK, I know the blog has been rather pitiful lately..... my apologies.

I took a business trip to London recently and I had a day for sight seeing. I tried to take full advantage of it along with several of my coworkers, and here are a few of the things I saw and experienced along the way. The London eye is below. I didn't get close to it, or go on it, although you could see it at many parts of central London and Westminster because it is just so big.
Here of course is Big Ben, attached to the British Parliament building. This is actually in Westminster not London. Essentially it seems like all the same city, much in the same way that Cambridge seems like part of Boston.

The Moorish looking church is actually a Catholic church called Westminster Cathedral. I peeked inside while they were having mass. It was huge, and very dark inside. It appeared covered in soot, or even burn marks perhaps. The Latin incantation was happening as I was there, and the air smelled strongly of max. It being palm Sunday, the green leaves were used as decorations as well as having been passed out to the parishioners, however it seemed many of them had somehow found their way onto the floor. Perhaps this was part of their ceremony, but I don't recall that happening in mass growing up, but then we seldom had the Latin mass either.

The statue of the lion faces some government buildings near Westminster abbey.

The large Gothic cathedral is none other than Westminster Abbey, where the royalty are coronated in Great Britain.

Below is a nice shot of Parliament and the London eye peeking over the roofs of some office buildings. To give you some perspective of its size, the Thames river, a terraced walkway and a couple of streets are between the building and the London eye.

Next is Westminster Abbey from a side entrance. Check out those flying buttresses!

This is Buckingham Palace (home of the Queen). Here we waited over a 1/2 with a few hundred other tourists for the changing of the guard. A police officer came out eventually and told us that the Palace web site was incorrect and that the ceremony was not performed at the anticipated time until after Easter. People were actually not as grouchy having gone through this as I would expect them to be.

We did get to see a simple "changing of the guard" outside of St. James Palace, which apparently was once home to Princes William and Harry, and where Charles has an office.

We picked up lunch at an old pub called "Old Shades" in Trafalgar square. Mmmm mmmm! Fish N Chips! This was pretty good stuff! The green stuff is "mushy peas" for an explanation see the link. I thought they were actually pretty tasty. Short of them being "bull testicles" or something, I was going to eat it if it was part of the regional experience. I of course went for the malt vinegar on the fries, and the fish was thick and lovely.

St. Paul's Cathedral, I managed to sneak inside again even though they were having service, and got scolded when I tried to sneak a picture (without a flash of course). It was gorgeous, unfortunately it was a Sunday so I didn't get to explore churches as much as I normally would have appreciated. I wanted to climb to the top of the dome which is supposed to have some spectacular views but was closed. A coworker of mine was inspired by the site of the church to begin singing the "feed the birds" song from Mary Poppins. He has a 4 year old daughter.

Here is the Tower of London castle. Site of many executions, amongst them the wives of King Henry the 8th.








And Tower Bridge, inspiration for that silly little London Bridge song.

And here I am striking a cheesy pose. If I had a bottle of Old Spice aftershave to hold up to the camera perhaps it would be complete.

Turkey Sandwiches

With some Dijon mustard and a nice salad. This was the nice supper Kate had for us tonight. She also prepared tomato slices with fresh mozzarella basil, soaked in balsamic vinegar. (Jens, thank Marija for that!!! She made it for us when we visited and it was a tasty treat!)

I don't have much to write so I'm just going to post this article, then proceed to do some ironing and start packing my suitcase.

Chicks are smart, scientists confirm
Study reveals baby chickens aren't just cute — they are also math whizzes