The Yearly Rotation of the phone books

Fairpoint Communications delivered my new phone book today.  So, the new book goes on shelf by the office phone.  Last year's phone book in the office goes to the kitchen phone.  Year before last phone book in the kitchen goes to the workshop in the basement.  Old work shop phone book goes to the trash.
   Why, with just me living in a small house , I have three wired phones is a good question.  But I do.

Japan Woodworker

A catalog, delivered in the mail, in time for Christmas.  Full of tools.  I like tools, most guys do.  But the prices in this catalog are completely outta sight, even viewed as fancy Christmas gifts.  $200 for a straight razor, set of wood chisels for $1600, those clever Japanese pull saws for $300. 
   Nice stuff, much of it in the black iron, hand forged by blacksmiths look, which isn't as pretty as the stuff from Lee Valley which is all machined, polished, chromed, and generally sharp looking.  And not quite as expensive.  

Smearsville

That's what they are doing on TV this election.  Countless smear ads, accusing candidates of doing unlikely things, voting for awful things, voting against good things.  Mostly Democratic, although not all. 
   Strangely enough, the smears are kinda wishy washy.  Never a specific, never a real name or date, not even a bill number that one could look up.  I can see how they might speak to true believers, but anyone of ordinary sense will be suspicious of such vague and outrageous accusations. 
   Not sure if I understand the strategy behind such ads.  It is a truism that 40% of the voters are yellow dog Democrats, and 40% are rock ribbed Republicans.  These voters will vote their party, no matter what.  The 20% independents control the election and they are the voters your advertising needs to reach.   These smear ads may delight the yellow dog Democrats, but I don't think they will speak to independents. 
   And, there is a heluva lot of money flowing into this here mid term election.  Yesterday the mail brought me 5 by 7 four color postcard for Rebecca Brown (Democrat running for NH state rep from my district).  That kind of mailing is pricey, few rep candidates have the money.  She didn't have that kinda money two years ago.  Wonder where the cash came from. 

Lying to the Prosecutors

A Massachusetts court just convicted a buddy of the Boston Bomber of "lying to prosecutors".  Pretty wimpy.  This buddy was accused of cleaning up evidence left in Tsarnov's dorm room, including a computer.  Since Tsarnov himself ought to be standing trial for first degree murder, the buddy ought to be charged with accessory to murder, or conspiracy to commit murder. 
  Far as I am concerned, lying to prosecutors should not be a crime.  Prosecutors ought to prosecute on evidence, and testimony, not confessions squeezed out of defendants upon threat of long prison terms. A perp has a right to try and get off by telling the prosecutor/cops  anything he can think of.  If the perp is guilty, the prosecution needs to present real evidence to that effect. 
  Plus, "lying to prosecutors" is something that you can pin on anyone.  Just grill 'em long and hard enough.  Sooner or later the suspect will contradict himself.  Nobody can keep their story straight for ever.  As soon as the suspect makes a slip, charge him with lying.  That's real judicial fairness that is.  Just like they have in Russia.
  And, it's been a long time since we bagged Tsarnov.  When do we bring him to court?  Why are we frying the little fish instead of the big one?   Especially as the little fish were just trying to cover for a buddy.  Which ain't right, but it is understandable. 

ISIS Cool

That's what the TV newsies are talking about.  They are saying those three school girls who ran away from home to join ISIS, and were arrested in Germany, had been watching ISIS video's on the 'net and thought the ISIS fighters were way cool, and would marry them.  And those two Canadian shooters were "self radicalized" by watching ISIS recruitment videos on the 'net.  And the ax murderer who whacked a pair of NY cops got that way by too much websurfing. 
   Is this really true?  What I see of ISIS is a bunch of repulsive terrorists.  The TV newsies are telling us that ISIS is as cool as Rudolf Valentino in Son of the Sheik.  Used to be that America defined what was cool for the entire world.  Blue jeans, hot rods, rock 'n roll, Elvis, Humphrey Bogart, CB radio, Jimmy Dean, Hollywood westerns, Marilyn Monroe, America defined cool. 
   Let's make that work for us again.  Some Hollywood output showing America as hard working, virtuous, and successful and Islamic terrorists as dirtbags would help.  Some good pop music, even country and western, about young lovers, separated by deployment to Iraq.  Some consistency from the political leadership, even just calling terrorism terrorism, rather than workplace violence.  America is the land of Madison Avenue, lets put some flacks to work. 

Gridlock. Is the top problem facing voters??

That's what the TV newsies are saying this morning.  And it happens not to be the case.  When I hear a pol or a newsie moaning about gridlock, I hear a guy who doesn't have the votes to pass his pet project.  He lacks the votes 'cause he didn't campaign hard enough, or there are a lot of voters who dislike his pet policy, or it's a bad policy to start with.  That's what democracy is all about.  Laws passed by a razor thin majority are undoubtedly bad laws.  A good law will attract a solid majority. 
   And, we have a lot of gimmicks built into our system designed to prevent "the tyranny of the majority".  For serious issues, like amending the Constitution, we require a supermajority, just to make sure that the minority can stop things it dislikes.  It is not right to allow a 51% of the voters to pass a law that 49% see as anathema.  The Senate rules allow the minority to demand a supermajority to pass anything. Harry Reid managed to trim that back a little bit and there was a nation wide outcry.
   Remember that politicians always vote their district.  If the voters back in the district have an issue they care about, the politician has to vote that way, otherwise he won't be their pol for long.  A number of Democrats who voted for Obamacare found that out last election.  "We will remember in November."
   So, when you hear a pol whining about gridlock, remember that you can reduce gridlock by voting for his opponent.   

Put 'em on paid leave, 'cause you can't fire 'em.

Fox has been running pieces about the 57,000  Federal civil servants who are drawing pay but not coming into work.  That's a lot.  People like Lois Lerner, who ought to have been fired and prosecuted two years ago is still on the payroll, but she doesn't come into work. 
   The root cause of this problem is a civil service HR system that makes it impossible to fire a civil servant, no matter what.  We caught a couple of 'em stealing parts out of the base warehouse.  We prosecuted, obtained a conviction, but we couldn't fire 'em.  That was forty years ago. 
    The country would be better served if upon genuine cause, and concurrence of a reasonable number of supervisors, a civil servant could be fired.