Biffster’s World

I know that George W. likes to refer to himself as The Decider, but I think he is more The Contradictor. Or perhaps it is The Obfuscator. Whichever way you want to put it, Bush continues to mislead  the American public, even while being investigated for more nefarious deeds. For example, Bush decided to blame Congress for our current economic woes:

“Many Americans are understandably anxious about issues affecting their pocketbook,” Bush said in a White House news conference, held outdoors in an unseasonably cold and windy Rose Garden. “They’re looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action. Unfortunately, on many of these issues, all they’re getting is delay.” (via Yahoo! News)

Fortunately, some of the Democrats in Congress have realized they have absolutely no reason to put up with such crap from the most unpopular president in the history of the nation. Senator Harry Reid rightfully fired back:

“His call this morning for Congress to act is disingenuous at best,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of Bush. “Whether on energy policy, the housing crisis or our many other economic woes, this administration and its Republican allies in Congress offer nothing but the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place.”

It was, of course, pure hubris on Bush’s part to try and blame Congress for the current economic state. But that wasn’t the worst part of that news cycle. Instead, it was probably the best news coverage that the Bush administration received in the last week of April. The most damning - and the least covered - was a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that the Bush administration has been purposefully working against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! Ayup, that one was hard for me to believe, too:

So apparently the Bush administration was not happy with castrating the EPA by turning it into an Orwellian department working against the protection of the enviornment. Instead, they also added unnecessary, informal roadblocks to any real work that migh’ve occurred at the EPA.

WTF?

Tags: dumbass

Anytime that my original hometown Trinidad, CO is in the news, I cringe. There is never any good news from the area picked up in press from the bigger cities here in Colorado. Never, ever. Trinidad only hits the radar when something really bad, or really stupid, happens.

This time around? Turns out it was both, of course. Apparently, a teenage boy was shot in the head while playing Russian roulette. No, seriously! The boy’s brother and mother had been toking on some weed in their car. Their mom noticed that they had a gun, and told them something along the lines of, “have fun, you two, just take all the bullets out of the gun before someone gets shot in the head.” The siblings decided it would be more fun to leave one bullet in the gun and play a little Russian roulette. The results were, at least, not tragic.

Now the best part of all of this? The family called the police and said that a masked man was the actual trigger person. Apparently they thought that the Lone Ranger didn’t like the boy’s skateboarding skills. Or something.

I tell you, there’s a reason that I don’t do pot!

When now-Governor Bill Ritter was running for office, he promised to make a number of changes in Colorado, centering around education, health care and renewable fuels. We’re about four months into Ritter’s first term, and we are already seeing a couple of major initiatives on Ritter’s part, including:

College scholarships funded by the oil and gas industry: This is a very interesting initiative: basically this would recoup the tax credits given to oil and gas companies, and use that money for a few specific purposes. 60% of this money (or around $120 million a year) would be used to fund scholarships. This has to be approved by voters, but it sounds damned good to me.

The state budget for 2008-2009: Ritter’s first budget has some very interesting and promising allocations. The most encouraging of which is an increase of alomst 10% for higher education, increases in both the Chidlren’s Health Plan (enough to cover an extra 11,000 children) and programs for the developmentally challenged.

All in all, I am loving the way that Ritter is already trying to implement his campaign promises here in Colorado. Things are going to be very different - and a whole lot better - in just a few years.

This is something that I run across sometimes at work: extremely defensive people. A very good friend of mine at work is one of my favorite people to be around. But she is kind of exhausting to be around, too, because she is a Highly Defensive Person. Especially when she is tired or stressed. As much as I like talking to her and spending time with her, I feel like I have to walk a tight-rope, watching everything that I say to make sure that I don’t trigger a defensive reaction. Exhausting… yeah, that’s a good word.

So I was reading an article on Beliefnet about how to protect one’s self when around a highly defensive person. This was very interesting, since I had never heard the term “highly defensive person” (HDP) until I read that article. And I know won’t be able to forget it. It’ll always be in my noggin’. The author, Martha Beck, describes an HDP thusly:

But defensive people don’t think like humans. They think like reptiles. I mean this literally. Beneath the elaborate neural structures that mediate our subtle social interactions, we all possess what scientists call a reptilian brain. This ancient biological structure, which evolved in reptiles, isn’t capable of nuanced emotion or logical thought. Its primary driving force is fear. Two fears, to be specific.

I think that calling people reptiles goes a little above and beyond - and might just have a little touch of meanness to it - but the general gist of the analogy makes sense.  And definitely seems to apply in my case. However, I have to disagree with Beck’s statement that one can’t have a “functional, trusting, relaxed, mutually satisfying human relationship with a highly defensive person.”

Well, okay, maybe not the relaxed part.

But the rest seems possible. Our friendship is functional, I trust her implicitly and she mostly trusts me, we both seem to be satisfied with the outcomes of our friendship. I do admit that I wish she could be more relaxed at times, but other than that, it’s good.

Beck’s advice is to do one of two things: either put up a strong emotional shell, and resist the urge to respond defensively to the HDP, or to stand up to the attack and defuse it. That actually isn’t a problem for me. I am one of the most patient people that I know. [grin] I especially have patience when it comes to my friend. 98% of the time, I either don’t have the urge to defend myself from one of her defensive attacks, or am able to easily deflect it. Every now and then she throws something my way that gets through and either hurts or gets a crabby response out of me, but that is rare.

So I am obviously a defusing type of person. I am able to do that most of the time with my buddy. Listening, acknowledging what is said, and reminding her that, in the big picture, everything is all right. That’s how I withstand the storm. It seems to work very well for our friendship.

This has turned out to be a much longer post than I meant it to be. I was looking for information at handling people to pass on to my successor here at work, and this article piqued my interest.

Wow! Starbucks is going to change the way they make coffee? And the way that their stores are set up? That is actually very cool. Though it won’t change my main beef about Starbucks: they make it far too easy for me to spend too much money there.

[grin]

Highlands Ranch mom arrested in prostitution sting - The Denver Post
A Highlands Ranch mother has been arrested on suspicion of prostitution and child abuse after authorities received complaints that prostitution might be occurring at the woman’s home.

The suspect is identified as Sheri Sims, 39, who lives in the 10000 block of South Cedaridge Court, said Deputy Cocha Heyden, spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

First off, I am actually kinda surprised that this kinda thing would happen in my area. Domestic assault, sure. Sexual assault, probably. But prostitution? That seems like something that Highlands Ranch folks would head over to one of the other suburbs for. Or head into the city. Prostitution seems like something one would want to keep far from one’s home.

Second - and I am aware this will sound like a racist statement, but it really isn’t: why couldn’t the woman be white? Out of the 90,000 people living in Highlands Ranch, there’s like 35 of us who aren’t white. Having a non-caucasian do something like this can (and probably will) reinforce racial stereotypes here in the Ranch.

“We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember that, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change…

“We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. And they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come…

“Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can seize our future….

“And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can.”

Vote Obama

So Bill Farr attempted to tell a joke, and ended up making a racist statement which offended most everyone in the room (from the Rocky Mountain News):

William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this years award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, “I have a telegram from the White House.” Then he added, “They’re going to have to change the name of that building if Obamas elected.” Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adams Mark Hotel.

My question is: how dumb can a person be?

I often feel sorry for Bill Ritter. As wonderful as it is that he is now the Governor of Colorad, he inherited a few major messes from the Bill Owens administration. One of the major messes regards the state’s computer systems. These projects cost state taxpayers millions of dollars and ended up being scrapped:

Gov. Bill Ritter has ordered sweeping changes in an effort to halt Colorado’s dismal record of buying expensive computer systems that don’t work.He issued an executive order seven weeks ago that begins to centralize control over the state’s scattered computer systems and gives unprecedented authority to a single technology executive, State Chief Information Officer Mike Locatis.

Under the previous Owens administration, the state contracted to spend $325 million on five new computer systems that were unable to: pay welfare benefits on time, pay road crews overtime, track voters or unemployment benefits, or issue license plates.

Bill Owens had no problem allowing contracts to a variety of vendors, spending taxpayer money with little-to-no regard to whether the projects were needed, whether they would actually work. No nods were given towards due diligence. Owens simply believed that giving tax dollars to private corporations would automatically yield good results. It seems to be a classic oversite by the whole neocon movement, and Owens embraced it, hook, line and sinker.

Fortunately, Bill Ritter is much more level-headed about this. He allows that many of the projects are needed, but should be done right. He has hired Mike Locatis - a man with a great resume and a lot of experience in consolidating computer systems for major entities. In the end, we’ll end up with a good system that’ll save us money. And Ritter will prove again that government cannot just feed money to private enterprise, but must hold private enterprise responsible.

The following is an article I posted to the co.general newsgroup on Usenet, in response to a couple of posters complaining that providing universal health care would unfairly force people who didn’t want to to pay for health care for those who can’t afford it:

Try to follow the bouncing ball here: A poor person has a heart attack and
is taken to an emergency room. He gets treatment, but can’t pay. The
hospital loses money, and to recoup that it raises its rates. Insurance
companies have to pay more money to the hospital, so they raise their
premiums for members.

Now theoretically, people who can’t afford medical care only go to the
emergency room, and theoretically only when they are having major medical
problems. So theoretically, the costs that they are passing on are quite
large.

Instead of doing this, if we had a health care system that would provide
options for those who can’t afford private insurance, they could get
treatment and preventive care that would keep them from having to go to the
ER. The total cost would be less than what we are seeing now.

You seem to believe that society in general isn’t already footing the costs
for providing health care to those who can’t afford it. We are. If you have
health insurance, just look at how much your premiums, copays, and
out-of-pocket expenses have gone up over the last decade.