Google Tablet: A Good Thing If Done the Right Way

This report from ZDNet discusses the Google Tablet rumor. I haven't been really interested in getting a tablet so far but if Google is serious about a Google Tablet and does it right, then I would have to take a really serious look at putting one on my Christmas wish list since I am wrapped up in Gmail, Google Apps, Picasa, Blogger, and just about everything else Google on the web.

Google Tablet: A very good thing done the right way | ZDNet

Charles Barkley, IT Ringer, in CDW Ad Campaign

If you have been watching the NCAA tournament like I have, then you no doubt have seen the CDW commercials featuring Charles Barkley as an IT (not I/T) Ringer in a new ad campaign.

This video ties it all together for you. It is less than four minutes long and sort of fun to see the entire story. And Charles finally gets his first title. (Sorry to spoil the ending.)

I hope this doesn't lead to more competition from ringers like Charles for the real I/T jobs.

Charles Barkley...Ringer: Barkley CDW Commercial: CDW.com/Barkley

The Old Lakota Was Wise

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too.


- Chief Luther Standing Bear

60 Minutes: Stuxnet Represents The New Warfare

If you have not seen this CBS 60 Minutes feature on the Stuxnet virus, invest 15 minutes to watch it here at this ZDNet link.

This is a sobering report of what could be another chapter of letting the genie out of the bottle, another Pandora's box.

60 Minutes: Stuxnet represents the new warfare | ZDNet

On Taxes, Obama Could Learn from the British - Washington Examiner Editorial

This editorial from the Washington Examiner covers so many points of basic economics, but it is refreshing to read them again. Those who insist that we have to raise taxes on the top earners "to be fair" don't have a clue about either economics or even human nature.

I have said it before and I will say it again. I am not interested in what is fair. I AM interested in what works and what we have now isn't working.

Here is the link to the editorial copied below it in full.

Examiner Editorial: On taxes, Obama could learn from the British | Washington Examiner 

"British Finance Minister George Osborne understands a paradox in tax policy that President Ronald Reagan grasped decades ago, but eludes the Democrats now crafting President Obama's agenda of tax hikes and spending increases.

To be sure, Osborne's attempt to cut taxes on the wealthy was met with derision from the British Left. 'After today's budget, millions will be paying more while millionaires pay less,' said a leader of the British opposition party in Parliament in response to Osborne. This reaction was not unlike the one offered by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to the budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Carney called it 'essentially a shift of money from the middle class....to the wealthiest Americans.'

But Osborne's tax cut is actually an attempt to increase tax revenue and get the wealthy to pay more. He told Parliament this week that Britain's 50 percent tax rate had backfired -- it was driving wealthy people and their accountants to find ways to avoid paying the taxes. '[The 50 percent rate] raises, at most, a fraction of what we were told, and may raise nothing at all,' he said.

Reagan explained this phenomenon in 1985. 'Every time in the past when a government began taxing at a certain level among people's earnings, trust in government began to erode,' he said, paraphrasing a historian. 'It would begin with efforts to avoid paying the full tax. This would become outright cheating, and eventually a distrust and contempt of government itself until there would be a breakdown in law and order.'

Maryland recently discovered how tax hikes on the rich can backfire. When the state raised taxes on millionaires in 2008, millionaires ended up paying 22 percent less in state taxes. Why? The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of millionaire filers in Maryland fell by 30 percent, with more than one-third of those changing residency to other states. An independent study found that a billion dollars of Maryland's tax base simply moved elsewhere.

President Obama has spent months constructing his fiscal policy -- and campaign platform -- around a tax increase on millionaires that he says will help ensure 'fairness' in the tax code. Obama wants a 30 percent minimum tax rate for individuals making $500,000 or more and couples making $1 million combined.

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released a study last week reporting that Obama's tax principle, known as the Buffett Rule, would at best raise $47 billion over the next 11 years. That's enough money to fund the federal government for about a week, in exchange for untold damage to job creation by small businesses that pay taxes at the individual rate.

Obama will never embrace anything like the Ryan budget, but he could at least take a cue from the British and start behaving in a serious manner on tax policy. It is time to put sound tax policy ahead of populist ideological gimmicks like the Buffett Rule."

Nebraska Hires Tim Miles - CBSSports.com

It remains to be seen if Nebraska will become competitive in Big Ten basketball. Former Coach Doc Sadler paid the price for failing to win as so many coaches do when expectations are not met.

I would love to know how many coaches when contacted by Nebraska to interview for the job as Nebraska Men's Basketball Head Coach said "Thanks, but no thanks." My feeling is that it was several. I still think that the expectations of Nebraska alumni and fans are not realistic if they expect to become a Big Ten basketball power. I think they need to adjust them to hoping to become competitive.

With all those reservations I think Nebraska ended up making a good hire with Tim Miles. I am sure he was way down on their wish list, but he has a strong track record. I become familiar with his ability to build a program and coach when North Dakota State stepped up to Division I and joined the Summit League at the same time as IPFW.

North Dakota State and IPFW actually played a home-and-home series the season before they joined the Summit League. But upon joining the Summit League North Dakota State immediately become a conference power to be contended with so much so that he was hired by Colorado State where he succeeded in making them relevant and getting them to the NCAA tournament this season.

I am not sure that Tim Miles can do the same at Nebraska, but I am not going to bet against him. And I think his background and career make it more likely that he can succeed at Nebraska than some of the bigger coaching names that were originally higher on Nebraska's wish list.

And yes he is on Twitter as @coachmiles.

Nebraska hire Miles has message for fans: 'We're going to come through' - CBSSports.com

Obamacare’s Rewriting of Contract Law - The Washington Post

George Will discusses some of the arguments that the Supreme Court will hear regarding Obamacare, but he focuses on this one.

"Hitherto, most attention has been given to whether Congress, under its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, may coerce individuals into engaging in commerce by buying health insurance. Now the Institute for Justice (IJ), a libertarian public interest law firm, has focused on this fact: The individual mandate is incompatible with centuries of contract law. This is so because a compulsory contract is an oxymoron."

"In addition to duress, contracts are voidable for reasons of fraud upon, or the mistake or incapacity of, a party to the contract. This underscores the centrality of the concept of meaningful consent in contract law. To be meaningful, consent must be informed and must not be coerced. Under Obamacare, the government will compel individuals to enter into contractual relations with insurance companies under threat of penalty."

I guess it makes sense that one cannot agree to a contract if one is forced into the contract and does not have the option to not agree to the contract. That makes sense logically but unfortunately logic and common sense seem to have so little to do with so many judicial decisions these days that rest more and more on political beliefs and not on what the Constitution says.

Obamacare’s rewriting of contract law - The Washington Post

Yes I Miss Gus Johnson

I enjoy the drama and excitement of the NCAA Basketball Tournament so I try to catch as many games as I can.

I saw a note that last night's North Carolina victory over Ohio University was the first overtime game in this year's tournament. I immediately recalled how overtime games and buzzer beaters seemed to follow Gus Johnson around in prior years and thought again how much I regret that CBS and he could not reach an agreement for Gus to call tournament games again this year.

This is the first NCAA tournament without Gus since 1996. At least we got a steady diet of Gus Johnson doing play-by-play for a lot of Big Ten Conference games this season on the Big Ten Network.

But if you are having some Gus Johnson withdrawal during this year's NCAA tournament as I am, here are some of his signature calls from Bleacher Report.

I watched the Xavier-Ohio State game in 2007 in its entirety. It was a tremendous game and Gus added so much more to my enjoyment of it so it still remains my personal favorite.

What is your favorite Gus Johnson moment?

Obama’s oil flimflam - The Washington Post

Charles Krauthammer makes point after point about our nation's incoherent energy policy being foisted upon us by our current administration. Energy costs flow through every product we buy so it isn't just the cost of gasoline. Everyone's budget is stretched and disposable income is reduced threatening this feeble economic recovery.

As I have asked before how many jobs must be lost, how many companies must go out of business, and how many families must have their dreams for a better life shattered before someone who understands economics and the way the real world works becomes in charge of our economy and our energy policy? What we have now clearly is not working.

"Yes, of course, presidents have no direct control over gas prices. But the American people know something about this president and his disdain for oil. The “fuel of the past,” he contemptuously calls it. To the American worker who doesn’t commute by government motorcade and is getting fleeced every week at the pump, oil seems very much a fuel of the present — and of the foreseeable future.

President Obama incessantly claims energy open-mindedness, insisting that his policy is “all of the above.” Except, of course, for drilling."

"But the event that drove home the extent of Obama’s antipathy to nearby, abundant, available oil was his veto of the Keystone pipeline, after the most extensive environmental vetting of any pipeline in U.S. history. It gave the game away because the case for Keystone is so obvious and overwhelming. Vetoing it gratuitously prolongs our dependence on outside powers, kills thousands of shovel-ready jobs, forfeits a major strategic resource to China, damages relations with our closest ally, and sends billions of oil dollars to Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and already obscenely wealthy sheiks.

Obama boasts that, on his watch, production is up and imports down. True, but truly deceptive. These increases have occurred in spite of his restrictive policies. They are the result of Clinton- and Bush-era permitting. This has been accompanied by a gold rush of natural gas production resulting from new fracking technology that has nothing at all to do with Obama."

"Obama says of drilling: “That’s not a plan.” Of course it’s a plan. We import nearly half of our oil, thereby exporting enormous amounts of U.S. wealth. Almost 60 percent of our trade deficit — $332 billion out of $560 billion — is shipped overseas to buy crude.

Drill here and you stanch the hemorrhage. You keep those dollars within the U.S. economy, repatriating not just wealth but jobs and denying them to foreign unfriendlies. Drilling is the single most important thing we can do to spur growth at home while strengthening our hand abroad.

Instead, Obama offers what he fancies to be the fuels of the future. You would think that he’d be a tad more modest today about his powers of divination after the Solyndra bankruptcy, the collapse of government-subsidized Ener1 (past makers of the batteries of the future) and GM’s suspension of production — for lack of demand — of another federally dictated confection, the flammable Chevy Volt."

"Who do they think they’re fooling? An oil crisis looms, prices are spiking — and our president is extolling algae. After Solyndra, Keystone and promises of seaweed in their gas tanks, Americans sense a president so ideologically antipathetic to fossil fuels — which we possess in staggering abundance — that he is utterly unserious about the real world of oil in which the rest of us live."

Obama’s oil flimflam - The Washington Post

Painter Ponders What Could've Been with Mizzou - News-Sentinel.com

After seeing Missouri play a number of times the last several weeks I admit I questioned if there have been times Matt Painter wonders what might have been had he taken the Missouri job last year.

Tom Davis discusses the thought that has crossed my mind in today's News-Sentinel.

That speculation has dampened somewhat with Missouri today becoming only the fifth #2 seed to lose to a #15 seed. But if Matt Painter was the Missouri head coach, I bet they would have played more aggressive defense today than they did and things might have been different for them.

Painter ponders what could've been with Mizzou - News-Sentinel.com

Peggy Noonan: America's Real War on Women

I enjoy columns by Peggy Noonan on a wide variety of topics and I am not surprised that she has weighed in on this issue.

"There is a war against women. It is something comparatively new in our national life, and we have to start noticing it.

It is not a 'Republican war on women.' It has nothing to do with White House attempts to paint conservative efforts to protect religious liberty as a war against women's rights to contraceptives. That is a mischievous fiction, and the president's polls this week suggest it isn't working. Good.

But the real war is against women in American public life, in politics and media most obviously, but in other spheres as well. In this war, leaders who are women are publicly demeaned and diminished based on the fact that they are women. They are the object of sexual slurs, and insulted in sexual terms. The words used are vulgar, and are meant to tear down and embarrass."

So why are some people demonized for these insults but others like Bill Maher continue virtually unscathed? I think Peggy answers that question.

Peggy Noonan: America's Real War on Women - WSJ.com

Bad or Worse in Afghanistan? - National Review Online

What to do about Afghanistan? Victor Davis Hanson reviews why we went in and what has happened since to boil it down to an either-or decision.

"The president should either put Afghanistan on the front burner, quit apologizing, seek diplomatic and military continuity, spell out to the people exactly what our aims and methods are, assume the role of commander-in-chief, cease all talk of withdrawal, and define, as it could be defined, “victory” — or simply get out, declare a teleprompted  hope-and-change-style victory, and not put Americans in harm’s way in a war that was more a 2008 campaign trope than a serious conflict to be won, as Americans joined the Russians, the British, and the Macedonians who all decided that short-term victory, occupation, and reform cost too much, given what might be gained in Afghanistan."

Bad or Worse in Afghanistan? - National Review Online

Coffee Is an Essential Benefit Too - WSJ.com

Coffee and fitness club memberships and massages and yoga classes and salad bars too. What's not to like as long as we (think we) don't have to pay for it.

From Allysia Finley's open letter to President Obama:

"Dear President Obama,
Can you believe the nerve of employers? Many of them still seem to think that they should be allowed to determine the benefits they offer. I guess they haven't read your 2,000-page health law. It's the government's job now."

Allysia Finley: Coffee Is an Essential Benefit Too - WSJ.com

Butler to the A-10? - ESPN

From the blog of Andy Katz on ESPN.com:

"1. Butler has expressed interest in joining the Atlantic 10 and replacing Temple, according to multiple sources. The Bulldogs are intrigued by the major media markets and, of course, the increase in competition with Xavier, Saint Louis and Dayton among others. The A-10 will lose Temple in the fall of 2013 and must add a quality basketball program. "

It Butler moves to the A-10, where will the Horizon League go looking for replacement(s) and how would that affect the Summit League and IPFW, both now and for the long term?

3-point shot: Butler in the A-10? - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN

Pat Knight's Rant Triggers Lamar's Run to NCAA

Pat Knight received a lot of publicity for his post-game press conference rant against the senior players on his Lamar team on February 24, most of it negative about how he crossed the line going beyond what is appropriate.

If you haven't seen it check this out for proof that this one didn't fall far from the tree.

Pat Knight Has Epic Rant About Lamar

And what is the outcome of all this? It appears that Knight did exactly the right thing, exactly what was needed to spark Lamar to the Southland Conference tournament championship and its automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. (The Southland Conference, by the way, is where Summit League perennial power Oral Roberts is headed beginning next season.)

Lamar rolls into NCAA tournament to stay red hot since Pat Knight rant

Bob Kravits of the Indy Star blogged about this situation and how his reaction to it has changed over the last two weeks.

On Lamar and Pat Knight’s rant…

I think everyone in any position of authority should draw a lesson from this. Set high expectations for kids and hold them accountable. That is the way the real world works and we owe it to them to best prepare them for a world that is becoming more and more competitive internationally. We give too many participation ribbons to those who just show up.

It's Hard To Work When This Face Is Staring At You

How can I be expected to get any work done in my cube at work during March when this face is staring at me every single minute from my March calendar? Every time I walk in my cube at work and see this face I want to leave immediately and drive straight to Animal Care & Control to adopt another kitty cat.

Thanks For the Memories Peyton Manning - ESPN

This ESPN column by Rick Reilly is hands-down the best commentary that I have seen written about the Colts releasing Peyton Manning, although I think he overdoes the Indianapolis small city tag.

"That Super Bowl win was classic you. Every day that whole week, you made your center, Jeff Saturday, spend an extra 15 minutes snapping you balls you'd soaked in a bucket of water. "It might rain," you said. So when it did, and Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman looked like he was throwing greased watermelons, you looked like you were throwing rocks.

Fourteen years in the league and the worst we can say about you is that you made a lot of castor-oil faces and your helmet left funny marks and one time you laid into your "idiot kicker." Fourteen years and you didn't sext anything, wreck anything or deck anybody."

"I have no idea how much time and money you have to give to a hospital to have it renamed in your honor, but they did that for you in Indianapolis. Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent. Says a lot." 

"Hell, you even tipped great. The other night, in North Carolina, you left an extra $200 on a $740 check that already had an 18 percent tip in it. According to my abacus, that's 100 percent class.

Lastly, thank you for the way you left. Always thought you'd go out as a Colt, and go out the way you wanted, but if it had to end this way, "I truly have enjoyed being your quarterback" is as good an exit line as I've heard. You made it sound like it was an elected position, an honor, a job where you knew people were depending on you. You were right."

Thanks for the memories Peyton Manning - ESPN

Obama vs. Israel: Priority No. 1? Stop Israel. - The Washington Post

Our President certainly makes it hard to figure out whose side the US is on. Is the US with our democratic ally who is threatened by an adversary who is acquiring nuclear weapons, who denies the Holocaust, and who threatens to wipe Israel off the map? Or is the US assisting Israel’s adversary who has been waging an undeclared war against us for the last 30 years that we fail to recognize and call it for what it is?

Our President's policies make it hard to figure out what his priorities are and whose side we are on. Charles Krauthammer helps figure it out.

"So what is Obama’s real objective? ‘We’re trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel,’ an administration official told The Post in the most revealing White House admission since ‘leading from behind.’

Revealing and shocking. The world’s greatest exporter of terror (according to the State Department), the systematic killer of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, the self-declared enemy that invented ‘Death to America Day’ is approaching nuclear capability — and the focus of U.S. policy is to prevent a democratic ally threatened with annihilation from preempting the threat?" 

I cannot imagine the pressure on the leaders of Israel. But I know that I tend to take people at their word and the words of the Iranian regime leave no doubt to their intent. Should they carry out those threats, I also have no doubt who is next on their list to be wiped off the face of the earth.

Obama vs. Israel: Priority No. 1? Stop Israel. - The Washington Post

Matthew Tully: Distasteful jabs at U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar Cheapen Indiana's Political Process

Matthew Tully of the Indianapolis Star (@matthewltully on Twitter) makes some observations about the tenor of the Indiana Republican Senate primary contest.

"If there's any doubt about whether there is a complete lack of shame in politics these days - or a win-at-all-despicable-costs mentality - just look at the cynical, depressing attacks on U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar.

Lugar's main crimes seem to be his embrace in these dysfunctional times of a sense of civility and a belief in actually getting big things done. Of course, he also holds a Senate seat that Democrats and more strident Republicans would love to occupy.

So, as the May primary approaches, Lugar's Hoosierism and just about everything else have been attacked by the hyperpartisans who dominate politics these days. It's sad."

I agree with the author that you can disagree all you want on policies and issues, but can't we have a reasonable and reasoned debate? This is a critical election which can play a significant role in the Democrats hopes to retain control of the Senate if a combination of events sends a Democrat to Washington in what is now Lugar's seat.

"I've talked to rank-and-file conservatives who thoughtfully argue why Lugar should be replaced, and Democrats who like what their candidate, Rep. Joe Donnelly, has to offer. They talk about votes and policy. That's what this election should be about. But it's not. From those with the campaign cash to spend, it's been cynical and mean.

To Lugar's professional critics: If you want to defeat him, that's fine. Offer your ideas and wage your campaign. With your silly attacks, however, all you've done is remind many of us of why we like Lugar so much."

Matthew Tully: Distasteful jabs at U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar cheapen Indiana's political process

Republicans Can Stop Obama One Way Or Another by George Will in The Washington Post

George Will sounds less than optimistic about the eventual Republican nominee for President winning the election in November. But he makes a case that there is still important work to be done in preparation for 2016.

"But conservatives this year should have as their primary goal making sure Republicans wield all the gavels in Congress in 2013.

If Republicans do, their committee majorities will serve as fine-mesh filters, removing President Obama’s initiatives from the stream of legislation. Then Republicans can concentrate on what should be the essential conservative project of restoring something like constitutional equipoise between the legislative and executive branches.

Such a restoration would mean that a reelected Obama, a lame duck at noon Jan. 20, would have a substantially reduced capacity to do harm. Granted, he could veto any major conservative legislation. But such legislation will not even get to his desk because Republicans will not have 60 senators. In an undoubtedly bipartisan achievement, both parties have participated in institutionalizing an extra-constitutional Senate supermajority requirement for all but innocuous or uncontroversial legislation. This may be a dubious achievement, but it certainly enlarges the power of a congressional party to play defense against a president."

"Beginning next January, 51 or more Republican senators, served by the canny Mitch McConnell’s legislative talents, could put sand in the gears of an overbearing and overreaching executive branch. This could restore something resembling the rule of law, as distinct from government by fiats issuing from unaccountable administrative agencies exercising excessive discretion."

Republicans can stop Obama, one way or another - The Washington Post

GM Squeezes a Lemon | NYPOST.com Editorial

This earlier blog post Overcharged - The Washington Post discussed the challenges being faced in the marketplace by the Chevy Volt. Things have not gotten any better for the Volt in the last couple months as this editorial in the New York Post points out discussing GM's decision to idle the Volt production line to reduce the inventory of unsold Volts.

"Since putting the car on the market in December 2010, Chevy has sold fewer than 10,000 Volts in the US. And an estimated 20 percent were sales to government.

Considering that Government Motors — er, General Motors — planned to produce 60,000 Volts this year, including 45,000 for the US market, it looks like “realignment” is the least of it.

Blame that on the $40,000 base price — and its batteries’ nasty habit of catching on fire during testing.

But that hasn’t stopped Team Obama from pouring taxpayer money down the GM Volt well — as much as $250,000 for every one that’s been sold, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy."

Chevy suspends production of the Volt and temporarily lays off 1,300 workers — EDITORIAL - NYPOST.com