The Golden Compass: "My books are about killing God"

Perhaps you have seen the previews for the new Nicole Kidman movie titled The Golden Compass; I was planning on seeing it until I learned about the author who wrote the books the movie is based on. The author, Philip Pullman, who is an atheist, has been quoted as saying "My books are about killing God."

This movie is the first of three in which the entire point is to "kill God" in the minds of children. I've talked to a friend who has actually read all three of the books and he has confirmed to me the message of the trilogy. Apparently there really isn't much in the first or second book that would give away the true intentions or would be overtly offensive, but it is in third book where the message is driven home: God and Religion are the enemy and they need to be destroyed.

I see no reason to help this movie become a box office hit so that the way is paved to make the second and third movies.

Technorati Tags: The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman

AJP Trial Bar Watch: Oklahoma Brief

The American Justice Partnership has just released their Trial Bar Watch Volume 4 (pdf) covering the Trial Bar’s efforts to defeat legal reform in several states including Oklahoma and Texas.

Oklahoma’s legal reform struggles continue, marking the state as one of the most high-profile “front line” states in the struggle for substantive legal reform pitting the highly motivated and increasingly active business and medical communities against a powerful and aggressive trial bar. Despite a lagging state economy and growing medical access crisis, which can be traced in large measure to the extremely hostile lawsuit environment, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry (D) remains an avid opponent of reasonable legal reforms that would protect jobs and improve health care delivery in the state.

The paper underscores the need for a republican/pro-reform majority in the Senate, but what we really need is a Governor that will support reform. I’ll be looking for a pro-reform gubernatorial candidate in the next Governor’s election.

The review of Oklahoma is interesting enough, however it is in the review of Texas where I found the most fascinating part of the paper. (emphasis added)

The neighboring state of Oklahoma has experienced difficulties in enacting substantive legal reforms to address a growing business and medical crisis. Meanwhile, Texas has experienced a boom in medical community growth due to legal reform, with areas of the state once critically underserved by specialists and general physicians now experiencing significant improvement for patient access. The Oklahoma trial bar has openly invited the Texas plaintiffs’ bar to utilize its court system, while Texas has returned the favor by receiving Oklahoma physicians who are relocating to the more favorable liability environment – and lower insurance rates – of Texas. This development alone makes Gov. Perry a legal reform hero, joined by a rule-of-law Supreme Court that has protected the laws as enacted rather than re-writing them to benefit the trial bar.

Again, the need for a conservative pro-reform Governor is highlighted.

For further reading, check out my post describing how Oklahoma Trial Lawyers are ruining the business climate in Oklahoma.

Technorati Tags: Oklahoma
Texas
Trial Lawyers
The American Justice Partnership

Canidate Match Game

I recently found a game on USA Today's website called the Candidate Match Game. This 11 question quiz takes your answers and presents you with the presidential candidate that most closely matches your answers.

After taking the quiz the game told me that Thomson was my closest match, which is refreshing because that is who I was planing on voting for in the primary.

Just for fun, I re-took the quiz, but this time I answered the questions with what I consider to be the absolute worst answers, and the candidate that had the closest match was Kucinich.

(via Commander Kent)

Technorati Tags: Election 2008
Fred Thompson
Dennis Kucinich

Happy Thanksgiving

Blogging live, less than a mile from Plymouth Rock, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving


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Pligrim
Plymouth Rock

Together Has Power, Don't Run Alone

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Team Hoyt

Android or Openmoko

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I want an Openmoko phone. Openmoko is an open source, Linux-based, platform for smart phones. The first of which will be the Neo 1973. The idea of a completely open phone excites me, but also this Neo 1973 also has all the features I’ve been wanting in a phone: hand held computer, wifi, touch screen, GPS and obviously a phone.

I have also been watching and waiting for the possibility of a gPhone, or Google Phone. Many had speculated that Google was developing their own iPhone killer and that we could expect them to release their hardware in 2008. As it turns out Google was developing an open source, Linux-based, platform for smart phones just like Openmoko. The Google platform is called Android. Google has not presented me with sufficient details on Android to make me want to dismiss Openmoko; however what does interest me, and what Android clearly has that Openmoko lacks is wider backing. The only hardware manufacture behind Openmoko is FIC, while Android has the Open Handset Alliance. OHA is a group of hardware developers, software developers, and wireless providers that will back Android.

One if the OHA members, HTC, has announced that we can expect an Android phone as soon as the second quarter of 2008. As it turns out the Neo 1973 will also be available in its final form around the same time. So it looks like those of us who are anxiously awaiting an open Linux-based phone will have a decision to make sometime around the middle of 2008, Openmoko or Android, or both? It occurs to me that if I like the Neo hardware better but prefer the Android OS, it might be possible to buy the Neo and install Android. I guess I’ll have plenty of time to save my pennies while I do my research

Technorati Tags: Openmoko
Android
Neo 1973
FIC
HTC
Open Handset Alliance

Test Your Vocabulary, Feed the Hungry

FreeRice.com allows you to do both at the same time. Using advertising revenue, this site donates 10 grains of rice for each word you get right in a test of vocabulary. I played for a while and donated 600 grains of rice. My wife, whose vocabulary surpasses my own, donated 4200 grains of rice; so between us we donated just over a quarter of a pound of rice. (assuming a grain of rice weighs 30 mg)

Anyway, it’s kinda cool...I had fun. I hope our vocabulary rice doesn’t end up in the hands of some warlord somewhere!

(via DownloadSquad)

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vocabulary
hunger
charity

You Mean I Have to Pay For Internet Access At Starbucks

While on Thanksgiving vacation in Indiana I thought I’d pop over to Starbucks to get a coffee because I had this wicked craving for a pumpkin spice latté; and I decided I’d bring my laptop so I should surf the internet. Perhaps I’m behind the times, but I didn’t know that they wanted you to pay for the internet access at Starbucks. I figured the 5 bucks I dropped for a coffee, and the buck-50 I paid for a cookie would be enough for the pleasure of free internet; but I guess I was wrong.

I’ve surfed the internet for free at Shades of Brown, DoubleShot Coffee Company, and several other non-descript coffee houses. I guess I just figured that Free Internet access and Coffee went together. Luckily for me there was a Panera Bread Company next door with free internet. I might feel bad about using their internet without being a customer, but I bought a sandwich at Panera yesterday…at a different…Panera…in another state... Yeah I know it’s a stretch, but there was no way that I was going to pay for Internet access at a coffee shop.

Speaking of Panera, I’ve found a replacement for my usual sandwich, the Bacon Turkey Bravo, the new Chipotle Chicken sandwich.

All-natural pepper-mustard chicken, smoked bacon, smoked cheddar, tomatoes & ancho-chipotle spread.

I recommend switching the bread from French to the Tomato Basil bread from the Brovo…it’s awesome.


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Panera
free internet

Chili Time 2007

Over the past several years I’ve have been perusing the perfect chili. I hope I’m getting a little closer each year, and this year I think is no exception. So with out further adieu, here is my 07 chili.

1 lb beef stew meat.
1 package of beef short ribs (aprox a pound)
1 purple onion
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
2 cans of stewed tomatoes
1 small can of tomato sauce
3 chipotle peppers
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
16oz of beef broth or stock

• Oven-braise the short ribs with the roughly chopped bell peppers and onions and garlic, and one cup of the broth.
• When the ribs are tender, separate the meat from the vegetables and left over broth.
• Put the meat in the fridge overnight.(won’t be used until the next day)
• Place the broth and vegetables into a food processor or blender and puree.
• In a large pot add the rest of the broth, the pureed vegetables, and the tomato products.
• Add the cocoa and chili powder.
• Finely chop or puree the chipotle peppers and add.
• Slowly cook the stew meat in a large pan for at least an hour, add the salt and a little chili powder.
• Add the stew meat and slowly simmer the chili for a couple of hours. ( cook at least until there are no visible tomato chunks)
• Add the butter.
  
• Remove from heat, cool, and place in the fridge.
• The next day, re-heat the chili.
• Shred the ribs and add to chili.
  

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Tuesday Night's Street Meeting

Last night I attended one of the several town halls concerning Tulsa’s streets. They presented a video that is based on the PowerPoint presentation that Bates linked to a few days ago. I was very impressed with the information they presented.

They presented a brief history of Tulsa’s streets which I found extremely interesting since my knowledge of Tulsa only goes back to 98 when I moved here.

I was particularly fascinated by these three slides that put in perspective just how big Tulsa really is and how many roads we have to maintain.



After defining the problems with street construction, maintenance, and repair they presented a brief history of taxation in Tulsa. This slide, summed up for me why I’ll always be against the idea of a county sales tax

The City of Tulsa’s portion of the sales tax rate has remained the same for the last quarter century. During the same period, the State and the County have added more than 3.517¢ – or more than 41% of the current sales tax burden in Tulsa. Citizens have seen their taxes increase significantly. The City of Tulsa, which is responsible for providing most of the basic services, has maintained a constant tax rate, yet has been viewed as the problem. We need to educate voters. Every time the County or the State increases the sales tax, it adversely affects the City of Tulsa’s image, since we don’t improve basic services, and it limits our funding potential to do so.

They outlined the 6 possible funding options that could be used to raise the money necessary to fund our streets: Sales Tax, Property Tax, Income Tax, Fuel Tax, Impact Assessment Fees, and County/State Funding.

I think they might have a tough time passing a sales tax or property tax. The income tax is probably the worst idea as it would kill economic development and get a lot of people voted out of office, which is why I think they were pretty dismissive of that option. They didn’t really go into a lot of detail on the Assessment fee option and I get the sense that they were also fairly dismissive of that idea. What seemed to be the most promising option was the State Funding option. There is currently a push to get the State to return ½ a cent in sales tax back to the cities. Tulsa would use that money for streets and it wouldn’t raise taxes. It doesn’t look like this option would completely meet our needs, which is why I would in theory support a Fuel Tax to help make up the difference. This largely depends on how it would be implemented, but I like that idea much more than I do the idea of a sales tax or property tax increase.

After the presentation I brought up my concern that certain city polices needed to be addressed in addition to the funding, namely the City’s bonding requirements, and the City’s requirement that 50% of the workforce come from Tulsa (or more accurately the Tulsa area). City Street Director Paul Zachary politely explained to me that he thought I was wrong and that neither of these issues are really a problem. With regard to the bonding requirements he said that they protect Tulsa and in fact have recently been used after three contractors had gone bankrupt. With regard to the 50% rule, he suggested that the local contractors had been polled and they were confident that there would be no problem increasing the amount of work to the maximum amount of Tulsa’s bonding capacity, which is 150 million dollars ( currently we are using 60 million of that capacity). When I asked why it was that 3rd penny projects were only getting one bidder or sometimes no bidders he suggested that perhaps the projects in question were not street projects, and that he thinks that there really is no issue meeting the Tulsa’s maximum capacity for street construction. I hope he is right, and I am wrong. The good news is, if I’m right, it won’t take long to figure that out, and in theory it shouldn’t be a big deal for the City Council to correct either one of these issues.

Regardless of the hurdles we face, I got the sense from this meeting that we will be able to overcome whatever stands in our way in achieving great streets in Tulsa. It is clear that after years of neglect, our streets are now a top priority. Just as Tulsa solved the city wide flooding issues in the past, we will do what it takes to get the streets fixed. I strongly urge you to try to attend one of the remaining meetings; I found it to be very informative. However, if you can’t attend, the video presentation will be available on the council website. I’ll post the link as soon as it’s up.

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Vietnam/Iraq Wall Update (2)

It has been a while since my last comparison of the Iraq casualties with Vietnam casualties.




There are 58,169 names on the Vietnam War Memorial. According to the DOD there have been 3858 deaths in Iraq. So my Iraq wall is now 6.6% the size of the Vietnam Wall.

This time I thought I'd also compare the number of wounded. The number of servicemembers who were wounded in action in Vietnam is estimated at 304,000. The number of servicemembers who have been wounded in action in Iraq is 14,338.

Technorati Tags: Iraq
Vietnam
death toll

Fixing Our Streets Requires More Than Money

The Tulsa City Council has been hosting town hall meetings to discuss the issue of street repair, replacement, and rehabilitation. There are five meetings left:

Monday, Nov 12th, 6:00 p.m., at Webster High School.
Tuesday, Nov. 13th, 6:00 p.m., at Memorial High School.
Tuesday, Nov. 20th, 6:00 p.m., at East Central High School.
Monday, Nov. 26th, 6:00 p.m., at Washington High School.
Monday, Dec. 3rd, 6:00 p.m., Hardesty Library.

I have not yet had the opportunity to attend any of the previous meetings but I plan on going to either this Monday or Tuesday’s. I have a feeling that they will be primarily discussing funding, but I hope is not the only issue on which they focus.

While serving on the City’s Sales Tax Overview Committee, I have learned about two major issues, other than funding, that seriously threaten our ability to fix the streets. It is my opinion that unless these two issues are addressed, no amount of money in the world will be enough to fix our streets. At the heart of both issues is supply and demand. We have a high demand for street repair but a low supply of the available work force required to complete those repairs.

The first cause for this is the City’s strict bonding requirements. Only a handful of the larger local contractors can meet the City’s bonding requirements for large projects. As a result, the smaller contractors are unable to place bids for some of those larger jobs. While the bonding requirements are in place to protect the City from risk, perhaps we might reexamine and restructure these requirements so that smaller contractors might be able to bid on larger jobs without placing the City in undue risk. Alternatively, perhaps we should try to break larger jobs up into smaller pieces so that smaller contractors can share the workload.

The second cause surrounds the City’s requirement that at least 50 percent of the workforce come from Tulsa. While this is a nice sentiment, I think it sacrifices our ability to have great streets at the expense of protecting Tulsa jobs. The supply of Tulsa workers is limited, and since every contractor in town must have at least 50 percent of their workers from Tulsa, they are not only competing for contracts but workers as well. This is not helped by the fact that the migrant workforce in Oklahoma is dwindling. No contractor from out of state could come in and place bids for our contracts because there is no way they could meet the 50 percent rule, even if they could meet the bonding requirements.

Forget a new street initiative; we are having a hard time completing the work we already have on our plate. I have heard about projects that go out for advertisement without receiving a single bid. I have also heard of projects that only receive one bid, so much for competitive bidding.

If we want a new sweeping street initiative to fix all of Tulsa’s streets then we had better deal with these two issues first. The amount of work before us is insurmountable without more workers and contractors to do the job. I’m way more concerned about these two issues than I am finding the money required to do the projects. I have great confidence in our elected official’s ability to figure out new and inventive ways of taxing us.



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Tough Luck Connor, Aqua Dots Have Been Recalled

This kid freaks out when he opens his present to find the much sought-after Aqua Dots. Unfortunately for him, Aqua Dots have been recalled because they metabolize into GHB (the date rape drug) when swallowed. Sorry Conner...thats some tough luck.




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Does Tulsa Have a Graffiti Problem?

Over the past several months, I've started to notice some high-visibility graffiti here in Tulsa. Even my my three-year-old noticed it. Just last night she asked about some graffiti under the 41st street bridge that crosses I-44. "Why is it colored under there?" she asked.

I took about an hour and drove around my part of Tulsa and took pictures of graffiti, most of it high-visibility graffiti. To see a larger version, click on the picture which will take you to Flickr. I have also geo-tagged each photo, so after you go to Flickr, you can also click on the map link for each pic and see where the graffiti is located.





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graffiti

Call Me!

...well, actually leave me a message. I signed up for a new Google service called GrandCentral. It gives me one permanent phone number which I can use to manage my other numbers. Right now, I have it set up so that when you dial this number, it automatically rings all my other numbers (home, work, cell) and whichever phone I pick up is where the call is routed. Cool huh?

One of the other cool features is a call me button I can add to my blog (look to your right). I have this set up to leave a message instead of actually calling me. So if you want to leave me a message,or give me a tip, or tell me how much you hate me, or whatever; click the call me button and GrandCentral will connect you to my voice mail.

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Pretend Time

Five-year-old to the three-year-old: While putting a blanket on her head pretending it is a veil, "I'm having a baby so I can get married."
Me: "Uhh no, you have to get married first and then you can have a baby."
Five-year-old to the three-year-old: "Okay, I'm getting married and then two months later I'll have a baby."
Me: "Uhhh, no it takes nine months to have a baby so why don't you get married and have a baby nine months later."
Five-year-old to me: I'm just pretending...it's just a story."
Me: "Let's pretend you get married first and have a baby nine months later."
Five-year-old to me: "I'm going into the other room so I can pretended however I want!"
Me: "Ohh man..."

Technorati Tags: parenting
pretending

Walk Score

I first learned about the idea of walkability from Batesline.com; since then Michael Bates has written several posts and columns focused on or at least mentioning walkability. According to Bates, "Urban planners talk about the importance of 'walkable' neighborhoods, with homes, shops, and workplaces in close proximity. Walkability is more than sidewalks; the sidewalks have to lead somewhere useful."

That is where WalkScore comes in. This site takes into account where the sidewalk leads to and determines a neighborhood's "walk score."

I used the site to calculate the walk score of my neighborhood in East Tulsa and it got a score of 46 out of 100, or "Not Walkable" which they define as "Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must."

A word of warning however, It looks like WalkScore only takes into account what facilities there are to walk to, not what it is actually like to walk there, "We'll be the first to admit that Walk Score is just an approximation of walkability. There are a number of factors that contribute to walkability that are not part of our algorithm: street width and block length, safety, pedestrian-friendly design, topography, public transit freeways and bodies of water, and weather."

Despite that caveat, I think its a cool site, if for no other reason, to tell you what is in walking distance from your house.

Technorati Tags: walkability