Author: Sammy G

A Constitutional Amendment that is being debated in the Senate today and that is expected to come up for a vote this week, would add these 53 words to the Constitution:

“Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

I know we’ve talked about this before, but since there’s now a Senate floor debate, and possible vote, it seems pretty relevant. I think it’s absurd that my congressional reps are being hounded by the White House to pursue amending the constitution over something like this. Really a great way to spend my tax dollars.

Recently, I’ve been reading up on the ancient Roman civilization. Bush reminds me so much of the imperial dictators like Caligula and Nero. Only, Bush can’t outright order people to be killed. At least, not in his own country. Imposing laws that limit human rights and personal freedoms is outright ridiculous.

Sammy G

So in the middle of the big move, Weed calls me, and makes some off-hand comment about how my fingers will hurt by the end of the day.

Weed, how right you were. I can barely type, much less open and close my hands into a balled fist. My forearms are gone as well.

10 hours of moving boxes, and we’ve only just begun!

Sammy G

Although I’ve moved 11 times since 1991, I have never moved into a house as an owner.

Any suggestions for the move? Tips and advice from those that have something to share? Greatly appreciated.

Sam

I started to think about having kids last weekend. And I realized that the reason for having kids is basically to force them into a career track with high potential for earning a lot of money so that I can retire earlier than I would if the kid had failed in life by ending up a bum like me.

The NFL league minimum is $760,000.

My theory is to cut the umbilical cord, put Sammy G, Jr. behind a tee, and to start kicking field goals. How many kids grow up wanting to be a field goal kicker? Low competition, low injury rate, high pay. Gary Anderson has been in the league for over 20 years, still kicking field goals.

All my kid has to do is start practicing early in life, for at least an hour a day. Who else grows up wanting to be a field goal kicker? This is a position for which no one has to even be in shape. Slim competition to make it to the big leagues if you start them early enough. Walk on the field, kick the ball 50 yards straight, walk off the field, collect paycheck, give half of it to Dad.

What if we started a field goal kicker’s clinic? DUDE. We get Caleb, Joey and G Jr. to start working out at our own summer clinic. Show people the amazing results: here’s how your kid can become a wealthy dynamo and set you on your way to early retirement. What do you need to start a clinic anyway? Field, ball, goal posts, leg machine. Check.

Unless I’m missing other high wealth careers that would be easier to get kids into?

Get In Groove, Sammy G

No sooner do I discuss the absuridty of bundled pay-cable programming than the USA Today reports that legislators will outline plans for a bill to order channels a-la-carte. Any bill wouldn’t get put into play until the next session, of course, but it’s interesting to see Capitol Hill get behind the notion.

McCain is quoted for his leadership position on the bill, saying it could cut down annual cable subscriber costs as much as 50%.

Let’s see what everybody would order if a la carte was available today!

Sammy G:

-The Weather Channel -C-SPAN (currently provided at a discount I believe, as it’s operated by a cooperative effort of the major cable networks) -The major networks -ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN NEWS, and future rights to any derivative ESPN channel that would be created or broadcast anywhere in the world, even if it’s just a 24-hour weightlifing competition -FOX SPORTS (British football rules!) -TNT -Bravo -CNN, CNN Headline News, CNBC

And, I am surprised to announce…

-HGTV, because I am now a home owner and Design On A Dime is such a killer show concept.

I went to my first major metro city council meeting yesterday. Overall, my impression was that, 1) these people are professional blowhards, and 2) nothing gets decided on in meetings. I could see where every agenda item had been previously discussed and the council session was a formality in which prepared statements were issued by concurring and dissenting votes.

Did I mention they were blowhards? Professional, salaried blowhards?

The purpose of this longwinded missive is to show my frustration over publicly elected officials voting their own interests rather than voting for what the voters ask.

The reason I attended the council session was to watch the introduction of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants get quickly referred to a committee. Did you think the council would actually openly discuss their views on the matter, unrehearsed, council member-to-council member, making a stand and possible decision on a sensitive subject that has no doubt been on their minds for some time. Do not be a fool. OF COURSE they aren’t going to outright state their opinion. Not with the members of the media there hawking for off-the-cuff statements to turn into a luscious front page story in which Minneapolis council members are painted as unsensitive public health slayers. No, instead, the council quietly usher the smoking ban to several committees, where it will no doubt be fattened with political stagnation and slaughtered before it can ever rise up for actual ratification.

Actually, there had been a good amount of press coverage regarding the issue. Last week, 6 of the 13 Minneapolis council members called a press conference introducing the ordinance to ban smoking. Media had been informed. Public had been teased. And the public responded. Apparently, all 13 council member offices were flooded with calls, the large majority of which asked for a smoking ban. Yes, actual voters called in. Asking for a ban.

How do I know this? Because I called each council member’s office. And their assistant gave me the council member’s stance on the issue. So, they all have a stance. The all have a position. But they won’t discuss it at the council meeting. Especially my council member who is against the ban because he thinks patrons will flee the city and go to surrounding areas that allow smoking.

www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ward13

This dude is either thinking in a fat, Upper Midwest, whitebread bubble or is getting influenced by a local hospitality industry sweetened with supplier support dollars from Big Tobacco. But he is not alone. Other council members follow this link of thinking.

This reason is absurd. The hospitality industry wants them to believe this fallacy. Look around the country: where has a ban on smoking hurt a large city? NYC and Boston citizens aren’t running from the metro to other cities that offer smoking. There is no precedent or data that shows a ban to destroy the local economy. Patrons aren’t going to run from Minneapolis to St. Paul. In fact, more people will go out to Minneapolis nightclubs & restaurants and spend more money. People are waiting for this ban to become a reality. Remember? They all called in to say so?

Most importantly, recent medical studies show that the elimination of smoking in public places reduces heart risk in metro areas (ACC 2004). There is, however, no stastical evidence from the hospitality assocation that shows how a smoking ban depresses their revenues. A vote against a smoking ban demonstrates that my council member cares more for a dollar sign than the long-term health of citizens.

Plus, there’s been talk over the government’s role in restricting how businesses serve their customers. But who was skeptical when Minnesota became the first state to ban smoking in the private workplace? No one seemed skeptical when the government forced private airlines to ban smoking in their planes for health reasons. The government has also forced private hospitals to ban smoking in public areas for health reasons as well.

Here’s what I don’t get (my overall point): the majority of constituents are in favor of a ban. Is it not my council member’s representational duty to carry out the wishes of voters? Voters understand the issue and are aware that the long-term health effects outweigh any unfounded assertion of commercial loss.

Aren’t these council members supposed to listen to their voters and execute?

I can think of a couple strategies for attacking my council member, because direct face-to-face isn’t going to work. I tried this yesterday when I approached him at the council city meeting break. He said, “You and I just see differently on this issue.” He made this point clear when he voted against sending the issue into committee!

(Because I’ve been scolded before for issuing vulgarity on this site I will refrain from calling my council member a SMUG PRICK.)

My strategy is to create a loosely legitimate new neighborhood task force called the Linden Hills Against Smoking and to start calling around the papers detailing how my council member is for cancer and disease and heart failure and cancer while his constituents have asked him to ratify a ban.

Word up.

Get in Groove, Sammy G

EDIT by matthew: Linked.

One of my good friends up here was recently caught stealing cable (oops, sorry Matt, INFRINGING cable). He figured out how to splice some box on a telephone pole and concoct some funky wiring and divert signal to his house. This guy also had help from an electrical engineer.

The Weed rationale: why should he pay $45 a month for 100 channels of programming when he only wanted ESPN? Infringe it!

Control is assertable in markets in which technical competence, access or concealment is not available to the consumer.

The general public doesn’t know how to splice cable. The general public doesn’t know how to steal satellite. The general public doesn’t know how to steal the reel before it hits the movie houses. The economics of the media business is built on control and detection.

I think the decline of the control stems from the frailty of the distribution model. They choose to use the casette and CD media because it’s cheap. It’s also replaceable and repeatable by the consumer. You can’t enforce the economics of the business because there’s a loss of control.

I foresee a future in which music labels become entertainment wholesalers that license catalog to consumer electronics hardware and service fulfillment providers. These providers will operate as clearinghouses of multiple media banks and service delivery to the home through “smart boxes” that are interactive. I’m not sure if this box will be a computer. I’m not sure that the personal PC interface will even be the same! Thus, I think that as it gets harder and more expensive to build celebrity, the economics of recorded music won’t show enough yield to warrant the investment into a stable of artists for a direct-to-consumer distribution model. Instead, music firms will become production houses that work to populate broader media channels that own stronger control.

Get In Groove, Sammy G

I just finished reading this incredible book called “When The Music Stopped” by Bernie Woods. The book is basically his memoirs of the big band era during his stint as the music editor of Variety. Although the book was written in the early 1990’s, you can practically feel yourself sitting in the front row of the Hotel Astoria listening to Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra playing the 1940’s sound.

Anyway, another one of Woods’ chief motives in writing the book is to espouse his disgust at the deterioration of musical talent, chiefly blaming rock and roll.

At the start of the book, you get that “why don’t you shut up and stop whining old-timer” feeling. But his point hits home for me because I think some of this is true. I think it lends credence to the argument that recorded music product quality is falling while other forms of entertainment are improving.

Anyway, the book was great because it looked at an era of music from almost 70 years ago, a time when every facet of the production and performance was broken up amongst varied outstanding professionals.

Still trying to find a similar book about Opera somewhere…

If anybody out there plays the stock market, I would start shifting your 401(K) into companies that manufacture tinted glass for cars. Because we all know how many people are out there driving around while watching pornagraphy.

This is so hilarious.

Apparently, a growing number of motorists are outfitting their cars with DVD players and are driving around while watching porn. “Dirty Driving” is already getting outlawed in several states. This became a big issue when a woman saw another car playing porn in the in-car movie system. Here’s an actual quote from her…

“I was very shocked and surprised,” says Holden, 41, of Olive Branch, Miss., who still has a difficult time talking about what she saw about 18 months ago. “I just could not believe that people had the audacity to do that.”

Still having a difficult time after 18 months?!?! Baby, you need more than a law, you need something battery-operated and a week alone.

Anyway, a bunch of states are now enacting laws that prevent people from displaying obscene films, even though 38 states already outlawed in-car projectors that are visible to the drivers.

Who are these people playing dirty movies for? The kids in the backseat? And who the heck is looking into other cars, watching neighboring screens, as they’re going 60+MPH down the road?

At this time I would like to state, for the record, that I have never been featured in a pornagraphic movie that was released for commercial distribution.

I’m the dork that likes knowing how to use all the latest and greatest tech toys.

Matt, I notice the “Allowed HTML tags” at the bottom of the blog entry box. I’m assuming this gives us the ability to manipulate font, hyperlink, etc. Can you put a tutorial somewhere on barnson.org to teach us how to use this as well as other blog features? List it under the Resources area perhaps.

Thanks amigo!