Tea Party is the First Meta-Political Party

Creativity happens when a person is saturated in a topic, and then relaxes doing something else.  I spent last night listening to all the election hype on the news.  Then this morning I dabbled in bringing up a Drupal Content Management System, thinking about meta-objects when configuring a new website blog.  And then I wandered off to shower and start the day.  Poof! The idea arrived.

The Tea Party party claim is that they do not advocate any specific political party.  They claim they are not a political party.  And I realized they were serious that they didn’t care what party you belong to so long as you agree on certain isolatable issues such as more government is not the answer.

If the Tea Party tunes their identity, and learns how to lay ~over~ other parties, they will succeed in becoming the first META-party.  I first learned of meta-topics when I read the book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.  A meta-topic is a topic that lays over a similar topics.  In the music of Bach, he often wrote fugues where a rhythm or pattern is applied over the rhythm or pattern.  That’s meta-music.

Applied to the topic of today (Election Day 2010), the Tea Party may become the first party above parties.  In other words, both the Democrats and Republicans can do their job and do it toward their goals with a smaller footprint and lighter touch.

Now I admit, some things don’t fit within others well.  For example, in the group of “plants” you’re not likely to find any “square corners.” Some things don’t fit together.  So I’m not sure how many Democrat will ever identify as being for less government.  However, what I realized is there is no reason this has to be true. Government is how things are done, but even a hard core Democrat might agree that they are more concerned with what is done.

This proposal plays well into the modern world of custom cars, a bazillion variations of the iPod Nano, etc.  We all have cars, we all have mp3 players.  Having one, or not, is no longer the issue.  Even the IRS, collecting you for past-due debts will leave you with one car.  It’s assumed that this is a way of life.  The special difference is which type of car or which type/color of mp3 player you have.  In the realm of Content Management Systems, I don’t thing the exact underlying engine is important.  Instead, how you theme and color and configure your CMS creates your identity.

In a similar way, maybe we can have Democrats and Republicans, but in different colors.  You can be a Tea Party type or a non-Tea Party Democrat or Republican.  It’s a concept that might stick with the people of the nation.

Posted in Spirit & Heart | Leave a comment

Southern California Desert Sunrise

Nothing beats the colors of the sky over the dry desert air of southern California. The dry air of summer mixes up with the Fall weather fronts and creates unbelievable colors and contrasts. None of the photos are “photo shopped”. The image is directly off my Nikon D90 camera, without any retouching. The full-size image is even more dramatic.

SoCal sunrise

Enjoy! If you wish, upload your favorite picture with a short story of why it means something to you. Some other pictures studying light and contrast and shapes can be seen on my Facebook photo album.

Posted in Spirit & Heart | Leave a comment

USB to Serial Adapter – Lost with the name John

GPS peak altitude

GPS altitude data over the continental divide

I was holding onto my circa 1998 serial-port computer to talk with my GPS, but finally I purchased a USB to serial cable to transfer flight and travel profiles from my Garmin eTrex GPS. Ever since I logged the precision of a GPS receiver sitting on my kitchen table, I’ve been interested in logging events to see what they look like in 2D and 3D GPS plots.

The USB to serial converter cable was to be the answer to continue my hobby with newer computers. Yea.. well… USB ports are not serial ports – never will be. The claim is that my cable works with XP, Vista, Win7, and Mac. The website even offers some Linux drivers. After 3.5 hours of messing around with drivers, I still have nothing but a yellow exclamation point on my Windows Device Manager. I fared better under OSX, however that driver GUI appears to be dedicated to a serial modem and no other type of connection. Besides the GPS software I have only runs under Windows.

The package came with a nice big CD-ROM and easily available web page support. A few web reviews said it worked with Garmin GPS units. Because my small netbook doesn’t have a CDROM, I visited the manufacturer’s web site. The web download was some monstrous .zip file with some 7-14 different cross-labeled drivers with varying revisions. Each driver was labeled for different OSes, and one OS had multiple driver choices. This is worse than trying to find the phone number for your friend “John Smith” in New York!

A few years back, I gave up having my phone number unlisted. Instead, I started listing it under the name John Smith. It immediately becomes lost in the crowd, giving a lot better protection than actually trying to unlist your name. Nobody will ever find you as 1 of 1000 John Smiths. That’s the way it felt trying to install the correct driver. Having 17 different drivers is no better than having no driver. What a mess.

Update 11/2/2010 – I called the cable company to see if they could help. Phone number was disconnected and forwarded to a new number.  Multiple busy calls and finally got through.  Helpful secretary sent me to helpful techie guy.  Yup, I tried all the zip files of zip files inside zip files.  After reading file names of each driver, he asked me to try another zipped up in a .rar file.  I had not done this because I didn’t have a .rar unzipper.

As he waited, I downloaded a copy from the Internet, installed it, and unpacked the .rar file.  This had no executable installer.  Instead, in the control panel of Windows XP SP3, I right clicked to update driver and then manually pointed toward the files that had been inside the .rar.  I had to manually choose that folder three times as it looked for individual file names.

When the driver update dialogue finished, I rebooted and plugged in just the USB/Serial cable.  No more yellow exclamation points :-).  I set up for 9600-N-8-1 on COM3 and the EasyGPS program had no trouble talking with my Garmen eTrex Vista.  Yea!

Footnote: Garmin firmware upgrades from v3.70 to v3.80 went flawless through the USB/Serial capable. Update to new Americas Marine POI Database also went without a hitch using this cable.

Posted in Computers | Leave a comment

Car Insurance – “Storage Coverage” is not

About 6 months ago, I put a vehicle into storage with my insurance company because I don’t drive it during the winter. With only comprehensive coverage in case a tree falls on it or a roof caves in, the cost went way down.

A month ago, I had a car go non-operational and it looked like a long fix. I put the car into storage coverage while it was not driven. A few days ago, I received the new declaration page of my policy and strangely, it still had medical coverage and liability coverage. What gives?

I called the company and started asking questions. Well, it turns out that “storage coverage” doesn’t mean “storage” any more. It means “lowered to state minimums”.

I pointed out that insurance is to cover against risk. If my car is not being drive, how can it cause any medical damage or liability? It is an inanimate object just sitting there. I asked what risk I am paying for.

The best answer they could come up with is “risk against the state sending you a notice of a fine”. Eeee gads. Even car insurance is going socialized. I don’t WANT to buy that coverage. I am your customer! The state has not sent me a fine at any previous time I’ve done this. Additionally, a state has no jurisdiction of the vehicle is not used on public roads. And believe me, a non-op vehicle is not be used on roads. Additionally, exactly how do they know if I do or do not have insurance coverage, anyhow? Are YOU telling them? Why are you sharing my private insurance records with the DMV as a part of day-to-day operations?

There can be no requirement to insure a vehicle that doesn’t even have a requirement to be licensed. This sounds like insurance company BS.

Posted in Finance | Leave a comment

Obamacare – What is the Value of Your Life?

Well, I’ve wondered for a while. With the rationed health care, I’ve been wondering how much the government will spend to keep a person from dying. Let’s call it the “COLA-adjusted yearly value of avoiding death”. For fun, spell that out. The irony is deep. The Cost of LIVING adjusted value of avoiding DEATH.

For the first time I’ve seen the number published. Page 21 of September 21,2009 National Review. (Drum roll…) $45,000.00. Not bad, I guess. It could have been lower. Some people seem worth more than that, some less. Like A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, where “all the children are above average”, I imagine most people are worth more than this average. Of course, I’m sort of on the high side.

In the pursuit of managing health, we’ve drifted to managing health care. And in the process, we’ve really become rather sick. Sick in heart and spirit. A key point surfaces on page 20 of the above article. It’s National health care. And so comparisons are done nationally. If we spend more money on Harriet in El Paso than Francine in McAllen, then we have to fix it. Why does this require a fix?

I’m a State’s-rights kind of guy. What’s wrong with different states being different? What’s wrong if different cities are different – cost more or less in any given way? It gives folks a chance to live where they want to. If you want subsidized life and that kind of lifestyle, go live in that state. If you want something else, live in a different state. Such is a character of life. Such is the character of freedom. Isn’t that what this country was founded on? Freedom, not sameness. Who said everybody has to be the same?

National health care plans require national comparisons. Why is this good? Show me what moral compass or religion advises adherents to compare themselves to everybody else and make sure they get as good. Actually, in this area I agree with Rush Limbaugh when he says a lot of leftish or socialist programs are not about making everybody feel equally good; it’s about making sure everybody hurts as bad.

Posted in Finance, General | Leave a comment