Random Leakage #12
It’s been a very long time since I’ve done one of these Random Leakage posts. It’s about time to bring it back, since I’ve got a few random subjects to discuss.
Daylight Saving Time
Original image from Primer Magazine
Simply put, we need to, as an entire nation, do away with Daylight Saving. While I understand it’s original purpose and it does allow summer nights to stay light past 8pm, the myriad of steps to go through the changes – even those that are automated – are too much. Settings on each device, phone and computer have updated without issue MOST of the time [alarms on an iPhone are this year’s “ooops” moment]. In this day and age with modern electronics, and with all of the software algorithms and settings, it’s a lot to keep on top of.
Arizona and Hawaii seem to go on without the twice yearly change and I certainly think it’s time we did away with it.
Proactive, not Reactive
I was reading about an upcoming change at all US airports on Monday (that’s tomorrow) that bans all ink and toner printer cartridges. Let’s see… where have I seen these actions before…. hmmmm…..
Oh I remember. A shoe bomber gets on a plane and now we all have to remove our shoes and have them scanned. A London terrorist plot is failed due to liquid explosives and now we can only take 3 oz liquid containers that all fit into a quart size Ziplock bag. Not to mention nail clippers [which are now allowed], box cutters, screwdrivers and anything else that some bad guy used on a plane. All banned.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all about being protected and I certainly understand not wanting to enable the copycats that want their fame and recognition. But can’t we find a way to be more proactive about this? I mean, we’ve got some smart people out there that could find better and easier ways to offer protection for those of us that are just trying to get from one place to another without having to feel like we should have left everything but a t-shirt, jeans and boxers at home. I think enough of us are just wanting to see some smart decisions made, not just “another item on the banned list” memo because of recent acts. Then maybe the TSA will be taken a lot more seriously when it comes to airport security and safety.
GOP In The House
Original image found over on True News From ChangeNYC.org
So last week was election day. And the House side of Congress has now shifted to a Republican majority. The Tea Party cheered this victory. So what can we except? What should we expect?
From what history has told us about what we can expect, big business will continue to get bigger. Their tax cuts will continue to increase, yet job creation will be minimal. Mostly still being blamed on the economy. Wall Street and the banking industry will find themselves with less restrictions on how they can make money. Tax cuts for those that only know how to count in billions will make their comeback. And the stock market will get cautious and see it’s 40% percent climb in the last 23 months revert to a downward slide.
What should we expect? Big businesses should be using their extended tax cuts to hire more people, filling the jobs that they cut during the bad parts of the economy. The economy has improved, not a lot, but enough that these large corporations should be willing to beef up their staff as they make smarter decisions.
Fiscal responsibility should be the GOP’s number 1 task. But given how much money the publicly-silent Koch Brothers dumped into both winning and losing candidates – not to mention how much personal money was spent [Meg Whitman parting with some of her eBay nest egg], will this congress know how to manage the money? And how much of the payback will be to these multi-billionaires that are expecting something in return when it comes to passing bills or rolling back changes that affect their business?
I honestly would love to see this GOP-led congress make some changes. Instead of “Hate Obama” and riding the coattails of division, I want to see them turn this economy around in less than 2 years. It was one of their mantras during the campaign season, turning people against a Democratic-controlled Congress for not being able to. I say we should expect it from these guys. They were mad as hell and wanted to take their country back [err.. preferably forward]. C’mon GOP/Tea Party… prove all of us liberals wrong and you might gain some legitimate fans, not just a bunch of spelling-challenged mouth breathers to put you in office.
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DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME MUST DIE!
DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIIIIIIIIIIIIEE!
DIE DIE DIE!! Oh to be in Hawaii where we wouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit.
I strongly agree with all of this.
Well, except I kind of like it getting dark really early. My kid thinks it’s sooo late and goes to bed easily. 🙂
Aside from my dislike for DST, I don’t mind the sunny later into the night. But I don’t have kids at home anymore. Just me wanting to drink more in the warm summer nights.
I am not a fan of daylight savings time. It makes no sense that we still do this.
Agreed. No sense at all, given all of the reasons why it implemented in the first place.
Down with DST!
As for what the GOP may do, it seems unlikely that they’ll do much of anything for the next two years. The only things I can see happening are compromise issues coming down a bit more on their side. First and foremost, the extension of the Bush tax cuts has been stalled by the Dems wanting to exclude the top brackets and the Pubs wanting to include all brackets. It seems slightly more likely now that the Dems will blink first. Off the cuff, and with no real insight, I’m guessing that the President wouldn’t veto such legislation, presupposing that the Senate doesn’t allow a bunch of extra cuts to be included.
On the other hand, I think it also increases the chance that they fail to extend the cuts at all, ironically putting “truth” to the GOP claims of Obama raising taxes.
Of course, given historic timetables, they’ve got a whole year before they really have to get the tax cuts extended, so a lot could change between now and then. Not knowing our tax rates for next year is going to make budgeting that much more interesting. I really should update my budget as if the tax cuts aren’t extended and just shunt the extra cash into a savings account to cover any extra taxes.
Honestly, I don’t think the GOP really expects to accomplish anything over the next two years other than putting a complete halt to any further change by the Dems. Their real aspirations are on hold for 2012, so every action they take during the next two years will likely be explicitly for the purpose of improving their chances in 2012. Oh, right, that’s what they’ve been doing for the last two years as well.
I think you are correct in your assumptions, regardless what my hopes are. The idea that they will be lame ducks for 2 years, pining their hopes on what 2012 may bring makes sense.
And really hoping that middle class tax cuts stay. While it’s not been much, I’ve noticed the nice increase in my paychecks since they’ve been in place. Much better than a $600 one-time check.
I hate Daylight Savings!! I would much rather we abolished it. Arizona hasn’t imploded yet without it.
Yes, that’s true for Arizona, at least in the way they haven’t had to reset their clocks twice a year.
We certainly haven’t imploded without it. But that didn’t stop some of my devices helpfully “assisting” by changing the clocks anyway. Like my iPhone. Thanks AT&T.
I saw your tweet on that. Seems odd that AT&T can’t have an Arizona time zone setting. In fact, they shouldn’t even have had to change anything.
Another reason for the other 48 states to get rid of DST.