Debt.

Don't miss Paul Krugman's column today about debt and the deficit. His message: the situation isn't nearly as bleak as you may think.

2012

     Heading now into the new year...and as usual for me, I find it hard to believe it is 2012. The 20's always sound like something out of a Scifi movie (perhaps the influence of 2001 A Space Odyssey?).
     It will be a Presidential election year, either the end or a second term for President Obama. And perhaps I have been paying a bit too much attention to politics? Google tell me:

You've read 61 articles about Politics. That's 6 times more than most readers, and it earns you a Platinum badge!

     Oh my! And of course that only counts the ones I read through their news gathering site.
     Most folks pay scant attention to politics, and after the do-no-business year in Washington, and the Immigration debacle here in Alabama, it's no wonder.
     Yesterday I found myself embroiled in an online back-and-forth with former high school classmates over a religious issue and I was amazed how quickly it became a name-calling match! As I wrote to them, now I remember what I didn't like about hosting talk radio shows.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Happy New Year! Tim

WARNING!

There are reports that some decorations being put away for the year....

Are making a run for it!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Consumer Wars on the Eve of 2012

The WSJ has a story about the increasing number of customers fleeing expensive cable TV plans, or at least negotiating their own rates downward. From the article:

Although cable operators don't widely market it, a federal law requires them to allow consumers to tack on premium channels such as HBO or Showtime for roughly $17 a month, even if they only have the most basic cable package.

     Really? In my last negotiating session, I spent time arguing with the agent about the benefit (to customers) of cafeteria pricing..letting us select what channels we want and paying only for them. I told him I wanted basic plus one HBO and one SHOWTIME, but was told that wasn't possible. He insisted it would be more expensive for customers. Hmmmm I'll have to look into that Federal regulation to quote it next time around.
     Related: by now I'm sure you've read of Verizon's capitulation of it's $2 a month fee for customers who pay online without setting up an account or who pay by phone. I loved the tortured language used by the CEO to make the announcement that they were listening to customers:

"Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time."

     How many suits and lawyers does it take to say we screwed up? About a hundred, if that's the best writing they could agree on.
     And Verizon isn't alone...as I've blogged about before...AT&T charges a $5 fee if you want to pay your bill by phone using an actual real-live person. How is that not discriminatory against seniors, who may be more likely to need assistance with the complex bills companies use these days?
     Add the bank's retreat from their monthly debit card fees and the lesson for 2011 is this: Social media is teaching companies how quickly their customers can turn on them.

The Most Ridiculously Priced Stuff

     There are a number of articles and lists like this one on the web that list the most overpriced things we buy.
      Curiously*, the one linked to above omits the top item on many other lists: printer ink. One site estimates the ink cartridges costs the equivalent of $64,000 a gallon!

     Other lists also include mattresses. In fact I found a site devoted to that one topic: how not to get ripped off buying one!

* maybe not so curious. It is an AOL page, and AOL is owned by....Time-Warner, which owns, well, so much stuff that it's not possible to figure out if there is a conflict of interest in their ink page.

A Leaf Drives in Montogmery

     I met the owner of the only all-electric car in Montgomery today...at least she's pretty sure that's the case. She had to buy it in Auburn at the Nissan dealership there after a wait of a couple of years. The local dealer has not had any to offer to far.
     I learned long ago to be careful about any news story that includes a superlative...best, oldest, only...so if someone else does have one, my apologies.
    The owner runs a committee that promotes, appropriately enough, planting trees in the Capitol City!

  

A N.Y. Times Oops

     I thought something was up when the NY Times emailed and offered a special 50% off rate if I would not cancel my home delivery subscription. 

    Continue your subscription and you’ll keep your free, unlimited digital access, a benefit available only for our home delivery subscribers. You’ll receive unlimited access to NYTimes.com on any device, full access to our smartphone and iPad® apps, plus you can now share your unlimited access with a family member.†

     First off, I haven't had a subscription to the NY Times since...well, even when I lived in Manhattan I didn't have a subscription. So then I figured it was a scam, or perhaps their email list was compromised.  But there was no stern warning, or suggestion that I click on a link and provide my credit card info to a guy in a hut in Nigeria.
     Turns out I, and 7,999,999 other folks had received the message by mistake. It was supposed to go to just 300 people. Oops.
     But thanks for the offer anyway.

The 1% Don't Give a Crap

That is not the title of the Bloomburg article out today, but it may as well be.

The wealthiest Americans have had it, and they're not going to take it anymore.

Really.

Hour(s) Lost

     We're used to losing and gaining an hour when we switch from Daylight Savings to Standard Time (and back) each year. But in Samoa Thursday night at Midnight, they'll lose 24  hours.
     Chief editor, speler speller-guy and supporter of charities Jay pointed it out to me.
     Samoa has decided to move to the other side of the nearby International Date Line (which always sounded to me like a bad game show name). They'll go from 12:00:00 PM Thursday to 12:00:00 AM Saturday. So long Friday!
    NPR explains why here.

[PLUS: There's also a plan being proposed elsewhere to change the calandar so your birthday would always fall on the same day of the week, as would all of the holidays. And an extra week would be added every 5 or 6 years to make it work!] 

The Mall of Ameriterror

 

     It doesn't take much, really to kill a Mall.
     Some fear, and an alternative will do it.
     That's what emptied out the Montgomery Mall for a decade, leaving it to be twisted soon into some kind of city-controlled combination police and fire station cum church + other stuff.
     Maybe.
     Eventually.
     The events in the early 2000's that helped bury it started with young people, some fighting, a police riot force surrounding the property, blocking all goers, and fear.
     Now the Mall of America in Minnesota has had its own fright session...bigger, naturally, than anything that happened in Alabama's Capitol. The Monday night events come (of course) with their own homemade shaky cell video, making it all seem bigger and worse, like something from that fake/real-looking witch movie.
     Was it just an out of control flash mob having fun? A mass-robbery attempt? A glimpse of an unhappy future? Kids looking for a rumored free concert?
     Doesn't matter really.
     Because all it takes to kill a mall is an equal measure of fear and rumor and overreaction and lack of communication (MOA management issued its first statement about 9:00pm. An eon in social media time.)
     Alternatives like buying online next time. Or a new Mall down the highway.  

The Right To Work Un-unionized

     Forbes Magazine includes an interesting piece that tries to answer this question: How do German firms manage to build more cars than U.S. companies, while paying the autoworkers in Europe twice what they pay workers at their U.S. plants? And they're profitable to boot!

Quiznos

  I don't much care for restaurants that force you to make too many decisions just to order. If a menu is overwhelming, it just feels like more work than it's worth to order!

    Quiznos has always been like that to me. Too many kinds of items, and too many sizes and combinations of those items, prepared in too many ways. I'm exhausted by the time I get through the process!

    Now comes word the Quiznos chain is close to bankruptcy.

    I've never managed or even worked in a restaurant, so what do I know! But perhaps a simplified menu might have helped? 

Er, NASA.....

     ...are you really, really sure you want to continue sending U.S. Astronauts up on Russian ships to the International Space Station? At the rate their space agency is failing to launch correctly, it's only a matter of time.
     Pieces of the most recent failure dropped on a street named for the Russian Cosmonauts.    
     I know, if we were to ask the NASA head that question at a news conference, he would assure us that everything is just fine.
     But at home, where nobody can hear him...he has to be thinking WTF?

     Bring back the shuttles! At least the US had 133 successful ups and downs with them.

[UPDATE: on 1/7/12, a Voice of America blog raised some of the same questions, but they got in touch with folks who should have the answers. Here's the blog entry.]

Under The Tree (NOT). The Nay-pad

     I was asked if I would like an eye-pad for Christmas, and I said no...vaguely wondering if, deep down, I really did want one?
     I have an admitted anti-apple bias (the opposite of the pro-apple cultish and slavish affection some folks exhibit, and just as acceptable), but even if I did not, I have just not been able to figure out what I would use an eye-pad (or any pad) for!
     This morning: The the L.A. Times to the rescue. No, not explaining why I should have one, but a columnist who feels the same ambivalence as I!
     Anyway, the pads are another chapter in the subscription economy that I try so hard to avoid. Pads and a billion other products try to force you to continue buying things assoiated with the main purchase.

• This is the best razor in the world...buy it for just $5 (but the blades will be $6 each for as long as you use it!)
• Just using a mop on the floor is not good enough, but this great cleaning devise (and buy our overpriced pads for it forever!)
• The eye-pad is the next best invention in the world (and you have to continue to spend money for "apps" and subscriptions from then on!)

No thanks. I'd rather not quarter and dollar myself into bankruptcy, though I can assure you, there are many aps for that.

Media Noise

     On this eve before The Eve, there's the usual amount of noise being broad and narrow cast, though I suspect only the deepest die-hards are paying much attention to the media babble or the media rabble.

     Do you care that kind-of-bizarre Ron Paul spouted some racist and paranoid nonsense to sell a newsletter thirty years ago?
     ...that Kim Jon ll is changing the weather from beyond the grave?
     ...that the pigeon is as smart as chimps when it comes to understanding math?
     ...that for a family hit by a home invasion in Montgomery, it was the third time?
    

     I could go on. But let me just suggest you take a deep breath and relax for the weekend. Best wishes to each and everyone of  you! In this case, no news is good news.

Tim

Are North Koreans brainwashed, or just plain stupid?

     Millions of North Koreans have starved to death in famines resulting from the policies of the "ruling" family, yet the people go blindly along, now busy adopting new fantasies about them, believing them somehow "divine". If ever there was a regime worthy of toppling, it's them.
     South Koreans seem to be astute businesspeople, well versed in arts and language, science, food production and sports. But a stone's throw away it's a Stone-Age blind obedience to a demi-god.
     Then again, we have candidates for the U.S. presidency who say they are answering a divine calling by entering the race, and people will vote for those "Dear Leaders" too.

EPA vs Power Plants

     The EPA is out with it's long expected rules limiting the release of mercury and other toxins from coal-fired power plants.

     Coal-ash is only one of the problems resulting from burning all that coal to produce electricity. And some health experts say what goes out the smokestacks is much worse that what falls to the bottom. At right is the cleanup of the TVS coal Ash spill three years ago tomorrow.
     Alabama Power and other Southern Company subsidiaries have lots of coal-fired plants, six in Alabama, and had battled against the regulations for decades.

.4 % growth in Alabama Population

     The Census Bureau out with data showing the population gains and losses by the states between 2010 and 2011.

     Texas is proclaimed the population winner (I guess these would be people who live to inhale smoke 24/7?) while Alabama showed minimal growth...4/10 of a per cent. Perhaps those fleeing "illegal" immigrants hurt our numbers?
     Michigan and a chunk of other Upper Mid-West states lost population...that might be all of those unemployed folks fleeing the Rust Belt? Despite Alabama's new status as a car-manufacturing magnet, the former Detroit residents aren't coming to Bama. That may be because of the difference in their (former) union jobs and the new (very-much non-union) jobs here.
     Look at the map..the light-green-shaded states had the least increase, while the dark-green-shaded states attracted the most new folks.

     (More maps here.)

   It's interesting that, except for Mississippi (TGFM), Alabama is surrounded by States that had better population growth in 2010-2011.
   And those folks going to Washington State can't have seen that new TV series The Killing, in which it rains rain and blood 24/7.

   Coincidentally, United Van Lines is out today with their own annual migration study, based on the number of people moving to and from various states. Their study agrees Alabama is...flat, but North Dakota is losing folks. So go (or come) figure.

WIRM

What It Really Means: This sign is promoting a carpet cleaner, but there are thousands of other like it in the right-of-way across Montgomery. And what they are really saying is this:

...we don't much care about the looks of our community. We'll put up this litter-on two metal sticks anywhere...we'll keep your carpets clean but your streets dirty!

      Where you find one of these, others soon pop up. And they are illegal! Ironically, a top city official told me the biggest violators are non-profit groups. One had a sign advertising an event right near the commercial sign shown above, and ever more ironically, that non-profit is located in a beautiful setting where signs like this are banned.

[WIRM is a regular feature of this website. It's an effort to point our the less-than-obvious message some signs and other things send.]

By age 24, what percentage of young Americans have been arrested at least once other than for minor traffic offenses?

41% !!!

reports ABC news.

And What Will YOU Do Next Weekend?

Survey by the religion polling company PRRI shows more people will watch It's A Wonderful Life than go to church:

Americans who celebrate Christmas do so in a variety of ways. Among Americans who celebrate Christmas:

* More than 8-in-10 (83%) say they typically watch Christmas movies like “It’s a wonderful life” or “A Christmas Story.”

* Roughly two-thirds (66%) report that they usually attend religious services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Roughly 6-in-10 (59%) say they sing Christmas carols as part of their holiday celebration. Only about 1-in-4 (26%) say they light advent candles.

* Roughly equal numbers say they read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (43%), the famous Santa Clause poem, as read the biblical story about the birth of Jesus (40%) as part of their traditional Christmas celebrations.

Another poll result provided by The Montgomery firm Anzalone-Liszt shows historic low opinions for Congress (11% approval) so lumps of coal for all of them!

MMMM # 180 Size Does Matter!

     This is a reproduction of the Doonesbury from a week ago or so in The Montgomery Advertiser.
     I saved it to illustrate the incredibly shrinking newspaper cartoon. I've tried to make is as accurate in size as possible.

     Honest: can you read Doonesbury without zooming (a feature my eyes lack)? I included a portion of Foxtrot below it for comparison.

     I've worn glasses since 8th grade, but my corrected vision is close to 20/20. and the captions have shrunk to a size where they are unreadable!

     As newspapers have diminished in income over the last few years, they've gotten narrower too, to save ink. That's forced editors to squeeze stuff in, but if readers can't read it, what's the point?

     I'm  sure the Advertiser gets lots of complaints about Doonesbury's content anyway---way too liberal here in the Deep South---so just eliminate it if it's going to shrink to microsize anyway! Or attach plastic magnifying lenses each Sunday!
     Is this another step toward the inevitable elimination of newspapers in printed form?

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this website. My editors have insisted I take next Monday off, thinking my eyesight and temperment might improve. So the MMMM will be back on 2/2/12.]

Appeals Court Rejects Mail Bomber Walter Leroy Moody Jr.

On Friday, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal by Walter Leroy Moody, the man convicted of assassinating U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Vance in 1989. The judge was killed, and his wife seriously injured, in their Mountain Brook, Alabama, kitchen when the judge opened a package disguised as a Christmas present. Moody remains on Alabama's death row. The Friday decision came, perhaps coincidentally, exactly 22 years after the killing. This video tells the story of the murder, investigation, and arrest.

Geographic Misadventure

     I'm  not sure what I did before GPS, other than get lost a lot. The service is a blessing, even if it does sometimes send us around the world to get around the corner.
     I couldn't find a copy of it to include here*, but back in the day there was a distorted cartoonish map of New York City that made it appear the city was 99% of the United States. The rest of the world to the west was compressed into a sliver of land. It may have originally be a New Yorker magazine cover.

    It came to mind this morning when I heard about some event occurring in New York in which the woman being interviewed on the radio said visitors were expected from all of the city Boroughs, New Jersey and even Connecticut!
     I've heard news reporters express the same astonishment, saying such and such a person had traveled to Alabama all the way from California, as though that's another planet, as opposed to a State a few hours away.
     Everything is relative.
     Some people are coming to Alabama all the way from New York today to march from the Alabama State Capitol to the Governor's Mansion in protest of the Immigration Bill. I can only hope they've brought their passports.
     And a promo: I'll be anchoring the news on CBS 8 (6:00 and 10:00) and FOX (9:00) tonight, and we'll have coverage of the march and the rest of the day's news.

* (See comments)...here's a link to the map I was talking about, and it was a New Yorker Cover! Thanks Trent!