Giuliani Party Seeks $9.11 Per Person

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The International Association of Fire Fighters accused Republican Rudy Giuliani of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because a supporter is holding a $9.11-per-person fundraiser for the presidential candidate.

I was listening to the Real Time with Bill Maher podcast this afternoon, and during his monologue he brought up the flap over the Iranian president’s visit, and his stated desire to place a wreath at Ground Zero.

I’m really bad at retelling jokes, but the gist of it was that we weren’t going to let him exploit 9/11 for political reasons, because that was Rudy’s job.

I laughed, but it was one of those laughs where I felt a little guilty. On one hand, Rudy’s campaign makes me a little sick, but on the other, I’d pick him for president over the Iranian guy.

The thing about this story is it chips away at that guilt.

When the backlash started, Rudy’s spokesperson said it wasn’t the campaign’s idea. Apparently it was the brain-child of two rogue volunteers who printed up the invitations. The thing is, it’s too damn easy to imagine Rudy’s campaign was involved. It’s essentially the basis of his entire campaign.

I like to think I’m pretty good at staying away from petty name calling (most of the time), but the more I hear him speak, the more I think he’s nothing but an opportunistic prick… more so than usual for a politician.

What would you do?

Imagine you had two young children in your house… say ten and two. Now imagine you went to brush your teeth, you noticed your toothbrush was wet, and you knew it shouldn’t be.

Is there anything your children could say that would put your mind at ease?

Adam’s favorite youtube video

Bad salesman, BAD!

Guess what boys and girls! I had copy machine training today! Can you think of anything more exciting? Watching C-SPAN maybe?

Before I went I told some folks I knew I was leaving my shoelaces and belt behind… for my own safety. Oh, and it was everything I thought it would be. We had the corporate rep in, telling us all the latest in copy comedy. One thing did stand out though (besides the hedgerow growing on his upper lip), his comment about their 24/7 tech support.

“Yeah, there’s this lady that calls our help desk all the time, to learn how to do things on the machine. She’s on a first name basis with our support staff.” Somehow, this doesn’t seem like something he should have been admitting. Why didn’t he just say, “yeah, this thing’s a complicated mess. YOU’LL be on a first name basis with our support staff too!”

Oh goody.

After sitting through the training, I can see why she’s calling all the time. The thing IS a complicated mess. Think of the hardware equivalent of Microsoft Word. Personally, I stopped listening when he said it could do something called “the lateral stitch.” Sometimes you just need copies. Doesn’t a good salesman want more than just this sale, but the next one too? If we buy/lease a spectacularly complicated machine for our simple copy needs, aren’t we more likely to be dissatisfied, and look elsewhere for the next one? Sure, you might get a little more on this sale, but don’t you make a LOT more on repeat business?

Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t try to make a living in the business world.

Already

I didn’t expect this until high school. Beth pulled a late night, last minute school project throw together tonight. If you’re keeping score from home, that’s a fifth grade, last minute project.

We like to think we’re good parents. I knew she had “homework” that was due tomorrow. Somehow I didn’t catch on to the significance of this one being assigned a couple days ago.

Ranks of child soldiers swell again in Congo | csmonitor.com

A friend of my wife’s parents is a priest from Congo. He came here shortly before the civil war began to become a pilot and study airplane mechanics, in order to serve the needs of his people back home. Since the war began, his parents, his siblings, and his bishop have been killed. He’s been waiting for the day when it is safe to return.

This story is sad enough all by itself; but I read it and realized it’s been a ten year wait.

Ranks of child soldiers swell again in Congo | csmonitor.com:

Kitchanga, Congo – The prisoners are huddled in a classroom, on display for journalists visiting the rebels led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda. The setting is appropriate, because half of these soldiers are boys who should be in school but have been pressed into war.

“[T]hey told us we were going to fight the Tutsis,” says Bahati, speaking in the presence of a rebel intelligence officer. “I’m 14, but there are many boys younger than me. It’s hard to know how many died in battle, but I saw two who died.”

Nowhere has the use of child soldiers been as pernicious as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But in the past three years of relative peace, militia groups as well as the Army were starting to send their adult soldiers into an integrated Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the FARDC, and to send their child soldiers home to their families. But a recent bout of fighting – a tangled conflict of local ethnic militias, Rwandan rebels, and the Congolese Army – is putting that progress at risk. Untold hundreds and even thousands of young boys and girls are being forced to rejoin the fight, or to fight for the first time in a war that few of them understand.

Father Denis with Beth on her sixth birthday.

A gift of weather

Every year there’s one morning in early fall (or occasionally late summer) when I go out to my car on the way to work and notice something different. Either the air is a little dryer, cooler or both. It’s not usually a big difference; just the barest of hints, a little promise that the long summer will eventually end. That morning came yesterday, and it was a nice surprise. It heralds my favorite time of year in Florida… the time of year when we start to enjoy the outdoors again.

There wasn’t a whole lot of gift giving yesterday, especially with the big computer purchase coming earlier in the week. I’m not complaining. A new computer is a great birthday surprise… even if we were planning to get one later in the year anyway. Still, a pinch of cooler air on the first day of birthday season* made it nearly perfect.

The high is only supposed to be 87 today! If I close my eyes and ignore my calendar it could feel more like November than September, with the holidays close by, the kids getting excited (infecting me with their enthusiasm), and the first blasts of cooler, Arctic air just around the corner (though quite a bit warmer by the time it gets here).

Most of the next four or five weeks will be back in the 90’s again, but it won’t be long before cooler air brings all of our yearly visitors with it. We’ve turned a corner.

I love this time of year.

*Me, two sisters, mom, dad, my son, a nephew, a father-in-law, a brother-in-law, and an aunt all have birthdays between now and the third week of October; and that’s not counting anniversaries. If you have a large family that may not sound like a lot, but that’s almost everyone in my small family. I guess January was a particularly fertile time in my family.

Leave it to my father

He says I’m a perfect square today. It took me a while, and I have the benefit of knowing what today is.

I’m six squared today.
(Dad’s an engineer, and we grew up with a lot of math in the house.)

My dad is always good for a “huh?”

… followed by a nice chuckle.

News Corp ready for ‘prickly’ chat with Apple – Macworld UK

Like I need another reason not to like News Corp. Now the awful Aussie and his minions want to get nasty with my favorite computer maker. According to an article in Macworld, News Corp is counting on a rough re-negotiation with Apple over selling their TV shows on iTunes.

Peter Chernin, President of News Corp, courtesy of Macworld UK:

“But let me say this, we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”

No offense, but Apple does have a little experience determining what price people will pay for certain things. You might have heard a few of them… the iPod, the iPhone, the Mac. How much retail sales experience does News Corp have?

Maybe I’m being too picky. They’re obviously good at what they do (no matter how despicable I find their news operations). But do those successes offer any lessons for selling content directly to consumers? They make movies… but don’t theaters have discretion to set prices for tickets? (Actually, I don’t really know the answer to that one. I just assumed they did, since they seem to be different in different places.) They sell newspapers, but aren’t they largely supported by advertising (rather than price per unit)? They have a news channel, but they give that baby away on basic cable (supported by fees from cable companies and ad revenue).

Listen to me… the guy with no business experience whatsoever.

Overheard this evening, in a home near me

“Come on Beth. This should be easy.”

“Maybe for you it is. You graduated from college. This is homework at my grade level.”

Sometimes kids can be infuriating and hilarious, all in the same sentence. You may find this exchange neither infuriating nor hilarious… in which case I can only trot out the “you had to be there” line.