Sick of Petty Bickering

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Jonathan Creekmore

In a story by Michael Memoli regarding the debt limit fiasco, a quote of Speaker John Boehner occurs stating the following:

“This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem, and I think it’s time for him to lead by putting his plan on the table — something that Congress can pass,” [Boehner] said. “When’s he going to lay his cards on the table?”

I disagree a bit with this. First off, while departments of the Executive Branch are spending the federal budget, ultimately, the Legislative Branch has the exclusive power to appropriate funds. While the President has to submit a budget to Congress, Congress is responsible for creating a budget resolution which specifies different levels of funding over budget functions. Even then, money still is not authorized to be spent unless it is part of a mandatory program, but must instead wait for Congress to pass an appropriation bill to give the authorization. So, based on everything I have read, all the President can do is say “I would like to spend this amount of money.” It is up to Congress to actually give the President the authority to spend it.

Now, I can possibly agree with Boehner about Obama needing to lead by putting a plan of his own on the table. Without being privy to seeing what is going on in the debt limit negotiations, I really do not know whether Obama has put forth a plan or not. However, a certain amount of the blame for the lack of leadership really has to be laid on the leaders of the House and Senate for not being able to come together and compromise on something.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Posted in Economics, Politics | 1 Comment

Modern-Day Great Compromiser

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Jonathan Creekmore

Is there a modern day equal to Henry Clay? Every week, I watch several weekly news shows, mostly focusing on politics, in addition to the numerous political blogs and magazines that I read throughout the week. Every week, I see the Congress become less and less willing to deal with difficult problems that are in front of it. Lately, the petty squabbling is keeping Congress from even performing its most basic duty, such as passing a budget, as reflected in a letter from many GOP Senators to Harry Reid in May of 2011.

In this political climate, is there no opportunity for a Great Compromiser to rise up like the proverbial phoenix? Over and over again, Henry Clay helped to broker deals that held the Union together when things were looking exceptionally grim. Perhaps that lies at the crux of the problem. In all three of those crises, an immediate threat to the integrity of the Union was present. These days, our Congressional Representatives and Senators seem to be more concerned with simply getting re-elected and pushing the budgetary problems to the next Congress than coming together on the polarizing problems.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Posted in Economics, Politics | 2 Comments

Five Fingers: Day 2

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Jonathan Creekmore

Well, I was not necessarily planning on doing one of these updates every day, but today was a different experience wearing the Vibrams Five Fingers than yesterday was. First off, while my feet were still sore, it was not nearly as bad as yesterday was. Second, I began to feel the calf tightness about halfway through my walk this morning, instead of not noticing it until driving to work. On the whole, I think feeling that calf tightness earlier is a good sign, because that means I am changing how I walk while wearing the shoes and exercising muscles that I have not exercised a lot in the past.

From a subject point, it is interesting to be able to feel the ground underneath my feet while I am walking. Granted, that is a much nicer thing when I am walking on grass or asphalt than on concrete, but it is still an interesting sensation.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Posted in Life in General | Leave a comment

Sourdough

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Jonathan Creekmore

I do not know if it was reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals or In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, but recently I got it in my head that I wanted to learn how to bake bread. So, I did a little research on the web and found a site describing how to bake sourdough. So far, it is not going too badly. After a couple of weeks preparing my starter and trying to get a free day on the weekend to work on it, I finally was able to attempt my first loaf of sourdough bread on Sunday.

It was not too bad. I mean, it was definitely kind of flat and dense — I realize that I did not let it rise nearly long enough — but it definitely had the flavor of sourdough. Next week, I think I will focus more on patience and try to give it more time to rise. Hopefully, getting started on it before 8:30am will help with the patience bit.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Posted in Life in General | 2 Comments

Five Fingers: Day 1

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Jonathan Creekmore

Yesterday I mentioned that I was trying out a pair of Vibram Five Fingers for exercising. I wanted to give my first impressions of the shoes. First off, the clerk where I bought the shoes highly recommended them, but she did warn me that it would take a bit of time to get used to them and to only wear them for short periods of time in the beginning. Boy, was she right! I spent 20–30 minutes walking this morning in them and my feet hurt, mainly due to blisters. I did not realize how much I would need to toughen my feet up, since I walk around the house barefoot all the time. So, it will take me a bit of time to get my feet built up to the point that they do not get sore after a bit of walking. On the plus side, while driving in to work this morning, I felt a bit of a burn in my calf muscles when I was pressing in the clutch to shift gears. That burn was new, so I guess the Vibrams are working my calf muscles in a way that they have not been worked before — which is exactly what they are meant to do!

So, blisters aside, my first impressions of the Five Fingers is mainly positive. I am looking forward to toughening up enough that they do not hurt my feet and will continue updating with my progress.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Posted in Life in General | Leave a comment