This is a post I had initially written in 2007, but never published. It’s germane to a new post I’m working on, so enjoy!

PUBLIC NOTICE OF EMAIL BANKRUPTCY

Public Notice is hereby given that wadE is declaring Email Bankruptcy. If you are an Email Creditor wishing a reply in full of an Email sent to wadE at his work email address, please be advised that he has filed the proper papers to legally have no obligation to respond to your email hereforeto.

Under and by virtue of the Power of Email Bankruptcy proceedings, wadE has freed himself of the bonds that tie him to his work computer all day long answer emails from various morons and buffoons.

A public auction of wadE’s half written draft replies will occur in the near future. Until such time, do not send any emails to wadE as he is currently under the protection of Email Bankruptcy Law.

That is all.

Seymour B. Butts III Esq.
Attorney At Law
Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe LLC
12 Old Alabama Road
Roswell, Georgia 30076

Along the lines of a couple of books by Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food & The Omnivore’s Dilemma) that I’ve been reading lately, here is a opinion article from the Strib that caught my eye.
The myth of cheap food.

So I was reading an article in the Strib today about a murder in Minneapolis’ north side. Generally reading about a murder doesn’t signify good times, except when I caught that it was the city’s 5th homicide of the year. Only the 5th? This time last year? Sixteen. Crime tends to trend with bad times… and we all know last year was a rough year. Maybe this is another sign of better times on the way?

Interesting post in the Times’ technology blog today about the rate at which our technology devices keep getting faster, or increasing their capacity, while physically shrinking. I particularly like this paragraph:

“Let’s stop for a second to take stock of the wonder of all this. The last flash memory card I bought for my camera held two gigabytes (16 billion bits). It cost me $6. And somewhere inside it is something that is counting electrons 40 at a time. An electron, in case you forgot your high-school physics, has a radius of 2.8179 × 10−15 meters. In layman’s terms it is pretty much the smallest thing you could ever count.”

Love it. Facebook, Flickr, Blogging, The Wii… all things that nobody* (*more or less) was doing even five years ago. What will we have in 2012?

Sadly I am not the least bit surprised about anything found in this article stating that the US in in the midst of a Narcissism Epidemic. Check it out…

Michele Bachmann isn’t as venomous as Ann Coulter, but the fact that the Sixth District here in Minnesota voted her back into office is frightening.

Bachmann’s latest is harping on a story from 2006 and trying to loop in Keith Ellison (MN’s 5th Districts representative, who is democrat, and the first Muslim elected to Congress).

Bachmann has become a darling in conservative circles and a rallying cry in left-leaning circles. I personally find her embarrassing and reaffirms some of my thoughts on those who reside in the northern edges of the Twin Cities.

However, there is one item in this article that really caught my eye:

“Later in her interview, Bachmann didn’t disagree with the host’s assertion that Ellison ‘is heavily involved in what amounts to a talent search for Muslims to fill jobs of some importance in the Obama administration.’
…
Jauert said that Ellison has ‘encouraged people of all faiths to get involved in government, to apply for jobs’ and that as part of that effort, assembled the résumés of several young Muslims.”

Replace “Muslims” with “Christians” or “Jews” in those paragraphs above, and I think people would be up in arms about it. I notice that Ellison’s spokesperson says that Ellison is encouraging people from all faiths, but he’s “assembled the résumés of several young Muslims.” Has he assembled the résumés of any young Christian or Jews… or Native Americans, or Hindus? I didn’t think so…

We here at SP have lamented at the continuing career of Sid Hartman before. I did it just about 3 years ago. Wade did it more recently.

This time though, Sid has really gone off his rocker as he can’t believe the Wild GM Doug Risebrough was fired.

What makes this one especially funny is the Strib’s other curmudgeon of a sports columnist thinks the move was long past due.

I think I’d pay good money to see a cage match between the two of them.

Interesting article in today’s news about a man who is suing the Yankees for being tossed during the singing of God Bless America. It’s a typical he said/he said, but what caught my eye was this quote: It [singing of God Bless America] was discontinued in some cities the following seasons [after 2001] but remained a fixture at Yankees games, at which security personnel and ushers use chains to block off some exits while it’s played.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090416/ap_on_re_us/bba_yankees_lawsuit_3

Really interesting article on livescience.com today. The gist of it is that during puberty the brain takes stock in all of the connections it has made since birth, and those that aren’t used very much get trimmed and removed.

This process would help explain a myriad of things… like why teenagers are so damn stupid. But seriously, the possibilities that come out of this research are boundless.

You hear comments in science like: “we know more about the surface of Mars than we do of the ocean floor”; I’d like to add “the human brain” to that list. It’s the source of who we are as a race today, and we know so little about how it works.

I understand why people are upset over the bonuses that were given out at AIG. But really, in the grand scheme of things, this is a distraction.

These bonuses were contractual. Yes, you can argue that Congress should have prevented these from being given out when the approved the money the first time, but they didn’t… in the words of Dan Barreiro: “GET OVER IT!!!”.

Also, while 165 million dollars is a lot of money, it’s nothing compared to the 170 Billion dollars AIG has received. If my St. Zero math is accurate we’re talking about less than one-tenth of one percent of the money.

Lastly, do we really want Congress to become a tool of taxing retribution? Any time they don’t like something they’ll tax the hell out of it? I’m actually a realtively liberal person, but I don’t like these moves, and I don’t think the American people do either. If the Republicans could get their act together and put a muzzle on Rush and Dick, they’ve got a good chance to make up some ground in 2010.

Let’s put this aside and focus on some real issues… is that too much to ask? Thanks much!