It’s my fifth blogiversary! Wow.

Thanks for all your support over the years!

1623 posts, 1316 comments, and 200,553! visitors over the years.

Some definitions:

Blog: n. a weblog. v. to write on a weblog

Post: n. an article. v. to publish an article or a comment on a blog.

Comment: a comment on a post. The blogger may comment on a post, but most commenters are not the blogger. Some commenters are bloggers in their own right, at the same blog (as in a group blog) or at their own blog. Some bloggers write at more than one blog.

I hope you continue to enjoy my posts on my blog and I hope you’ll continue to post comments here as well.

Many thanks to Chris at A Large Regular who was one of the first, if not the first to add me to his blogroll.

As I watched some of the G20 protests I noticed something.

G20: Riot police were out in force in Pittsburgh.

G20: Violence was anticipated and expected.

Tea parties – 9/12: People may have shouted now and then, but otherwise everything was peaceful.

Tea parties – 9/12: Police presence was normal for crowd control (and the crowd didn’t really need any controlling).

G20: Lots of masked people.

Tea parties – 9/12: I didn’t see any masks.

Tea parties – 9/12: Lots of children as parents knew they were safe.

G20: No children. That’s a good thing. If there were any children there, the parents should be charged with child endangerment.

G20: Arrests.

Tea parties – 9/12: No arrests that I know of.

It’s the first day of Fall.

The autumnal equinox is at 5:18 Eastern time.

I’ve heard that one can stand an egg on its end right at the equinox (both Vernal and Autumnal). But Snopes says no…

Happy Autumn!

There is a way to do it anytime. Put about half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of sugar or salt on the counter, table, or a plate. Make sure it’s in a little mound. Cover with a napkin. Put the egg on the napkin covered mound. Adjust as necessary. The egg should stay up and you can Amaze Your Friends!

So, President Obama is open to signing a bill that will help newspapers.

Bad idea.

We already know what happens when the government “helps” out in an industry.

I can just see it now:

“We bailed you out so now you have to abide by the rules we set.”

Bye-bye first amendment.

The Little Guy’s bike was stolen sometime overnight.

But the perp might have thought they weren’t exactly stealing since they left something in return.

Almost the same bike. But not quite.

The Little Guy’s bike was over a year old and had a few dings as is usual for a bike a seven- and eight-year-old boy has been riding for around 15 months.

The bike looked like this with normal wear and tear:

Tony Hawk Sypher bike

What was left in its place had no tires (but the rims had been ridden on), no reflectors, no pegs (there are four, two on each axle), and the bolt to hold the seat on was missing. The frame was also really banged up.

This was just so bizarre. They left a doppelganger in its place. It wasn’t our bike, stripped. It was a completely different bike of the same model. Like they thought we wouldn’t notice.

I had called Toys”R”Us to see if they had kept any serial number data on the bikes they sold, but they don’t. I didn’t really expect they did. The manager I spoke with said that once, when he was a kid, someone came into their back yard, stole their Weber Grill, and left a pair of Brewer’s tickets in its place.

The complete list of 2996.

Paul Pansini:

From a profile published in the New York Times on 8/11/2002

Paul Pansini

World Trade Center

His Presence Is Everywhere

Paul Pansini

Paul Pansini loved the excitement of being a firefighter in downtown Manhattan, but his days off meant a great deal, too. Firefighter Pansini, 36, took his son, Paul Jack, now 7, and his twin daughters, Anna and Claire, now 3, everywhere when he was not working. “He was brave enough to even take them to the store,” his wife, Janice, recalled.

Since Sept. 11, the family has, in turn, felt his presence everywhere. “I feel him definitely in my house,” Mrs. Pansini said. The family lives in his childhood home in Tottenville in Staten Island. When they moved there in November 1994, the couple almost tore the century-old house down.

Now she is glad they did not. In Tottenville, they are surrounded by family members who keep his presence strong, including his sister, Loretta Halpert.

Lake George was Firefighter Pansini’s favorite spot in the world. This summer, as Mrs. Pansini packed for their annual vacation to the lake, Claire asked if they were going to meet Daddy there. “I’m blown away by how much they remember him,” Mrs. Pansini said. “I don’t think he knew how much he meant to so many people. He was a very comical person. The love of my life. People keep coming up to me and saying, `I miss him so much.’ ”

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Our thoughts and prayers go out every day to Paul’s friends, family, and coworkers at Ten House. Six men were lost that day from that Firehouse.

Click either picture to embiggen.

Last night President Obama said:

But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits, excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers.

Excuse me, but profits come after overhead.

This is what happens when one’s only experience with budgeting is non-profit.

With a non-profit budget, if one doesn’t spend all of the money in the budget, one may face a decrease in the amount of next year’s budget. Non-profit and governmental budgeting seems to actually discourage cutting waste and saving money. People feel that they’ll lose in the future if they save today.

For-profit businesses only gain from cutting waste and saving money. There’s more profit to reinvest in the business, more profit to share out with stakeholders.

President Obama put profit at the head of the “overhead” list.

with which to control the masses.

And we have had crises coming at us fast and furious. Some have been around for a while, global warming climate change for example, some are newer, but all are urgent, urgent, urgent.

So we have a list of crises that have to be solved last week, if not sooner:

• Global WarmingClimate Change
• Auto Industry
• Housing Crisis
• Mortgage Crisis
• Banking Crisis
• Insurance Crisis
• Health Care Crisis
• and probably more that I can’t think of off the top of my head…

So many crises. In fact, there have been so many things called “crisis” that the word has lost its meaning.

I wasn’t near a Whole Foods today, but I was last Tuesday.

I was slightly concerned that there might be evidence of heads having exploded when I came back out, but everyone seems to have survived.

I was concerned because I had parked (legally) a big-a$$ GMC Yukon XL in the handicapped spot right in front of the store. Add to that, retired military plates, stickers to allow entrance to the naval base, and a front seat full of youth applications for Cub/Boy Scouts.

I was in the market for Greek yogurt, so that was one reason to be in the store. The other was to counter the boycott due to CEO John Mackey’s WSJ editorial.

It was the second time I had been in a Whole Foods, the first time was a long time ago and I can’t remember if it was the same store or one somewhere else. I liked the store, but it wasn’t easy to go up and down the aisles since the center section aisles were on a slight angle and didn’t quite line up with the aisles that were perpendicular to the back wall.

The cheese selection was just beautiful. The descriptions of each cheese were very informative, including what kind of milk and rennet were used in the manufacture of the cheese and a bit about it’s flavor and uses.

The bread department had a whole section of gluten free bread items (really neat for family and friends with celiac disease).

There was a beautiful salad bar and hot food bar.

I ended up leaving with my yogurt, a package of baby salad greens, a loaf of ciabatta bread, and a package of Method flushable bathroom wipes in the eucalyptus/mint scent.

On the front wall, readable from the check-out lines, was this value:

Creating wealth through profits and growth.

That is the only way wealth can be created. And it can be created. There isn’t only so much wealth to go around. There is an infinite amount available to be created. Our pie isn’t only “so big” so we have to take part of Mary’s slice so Fred can have a bigger piece. Our pie can be made bigger so Mary and Fred can have a piece that’s as big as they want to work for.

There wasn’t even any bird-doo on the truck when I left.

I’ll go back again if I’m in the area (20 miles away) and have time.

And they expected, what? Human bone found at Glenwood-area cemetery

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Health insurance should be out of the realm of your employment, except as for a pre-tax dollars benefit perhaps.

President Obama talks about how we’ll be able to keep our insurance if we like it. What if I don’t like the plans that my employer offers for me to choose from and I don’t want the ‘public option’?

Health insurance should be available like auto insurance, home/renter’s insurance, and life insurance. You should be able to get the exact coverage you need, rather than one of two or four ‘one size fits all most’ plans through your employer.

If State Farm, Allstate, Geico, Progressive and others were able to offer health insurance, there’s your groups. If health insurance weren’t tied to your job, you wouldn’t be stuck in a job you hate for insurance benefits that you need. If you are between jobs, the insurance won’t really cost you more – or at least not nearly as much more as COBRA coverage currently does.

Update: Dafydd at Big Lizards has similar thoughts on insurance, more thoughts, and better written thoughts…