JonLowder.com

If You're in a Drought You Should Call Me

If you live in an area that's experiencing a drought you really should

consider hiring me to take a business trip to your area. I truly have

a gift for bringing wet weather with me. Today I'm bringing the

remnants of a hurricane with me to Atlanta. In November. In June I

brought a flash flood with me. To Vegas.



Put it this way: if I was an astronaut they'd find water if they sent

me to the moon or Mars.

Forsyth County's Chances in Prayer Lawsuit are Looking Pretty Dim

I've made no secret of my disagreement with the Forsyth County Commissioners' stance on prayer before County meetings, but I'm bummed that they have pursued the legal case to the point where they are set to lose in court and I'm hoping that we taxpayers aren't going to be on the hook for legal fees.  We've been assured repeatedly that we won't be, but I think we've all learned our lesson with the downtown ballpark so I don't think we should take those assurances to the bank just yet.

Not Remotely Funny or Cool

Someone sent an envelope containing baby powder to Rep. Foxx's office in Clemmons and caused quite a scare for one of her staffers.  As someone who lived through the whole anthrax thing in DC (my company was served by the postal facility that had to be decontaminated about 8 years ago, which meant we got some crispy mail for a while and any time we had a "clumpy" envelope everyone got a little nervous) I can tell you that if this was intended as some kind of joke then it's not remotely funny.  For that matter, I don't care how much you dislike a Congress-critter, this is a reprehensible way to try and make your point. 

The Question is "Whose Energy is Being Conserved?"

Every weekday I get an email from West Forsyth H.S. that contains the school's daily announcements.  In today's announcements I found this:

1. Dr. Martin has stated that in an effort to conserve energy, school offices will be closed the day before Thanksgiving and all of Christmas Break.

FYI, Dr. Martin is the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools' superintendent.

 

Seriously, am I the only one who finds this lame?  I'm not sure what the normal protocol is for the school system during the holidays, but if they normally keep their offices open the day before Thanksgiving and all of Christmas Break, and if the school system's office employees are not getting paid for those "energy conservation" days, then they ought to just call this what it really is: a furlough.  On the other hand if the office employees are going to be paid for those "energy conservation" days then they ought to call it what it really is: a paid holiday.

 

On a side note, someone at the school is getting entrepreneurial.  Here's the next announcement:

Parents, Teachers, and Students begin your Christmas shopping today from 4:00-7:00 in the 300 building. Pampered Chef, Thirty-one, and Premier Design Jewelry will be here!

My Apologies

Something weird is going on between my del.icio.us account and my blog. I'm getting lots of updates from del.icio.us each day when it's only supposed to update once per day.  Not sure what the issue is, but sorry for the weirdness of late.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

links for 2009-11-06

• CNN Report Has Me Wondering if We Need to Wear Bike Helmets for Everything
  I'm telling you if they don't stop doing medical research we're not going to have anything left to do that can't somehow kill you or at least bring you serious harm:

  "For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.

  Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."

  
  
  (tags: weird interesting)
  
  
• 
  
  Yes! Weekly: Faith and Politics
  
  
  Keith Barber pens an article that looks at the intersection of faith and politics in Winston-Salem.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem politics religion)
  
  
• 
  
  Winston-Salem Construction Costs per Square Foot Lowest in Survey
  
  
  In this Reed Construction Data survey of 25 cities Winston-Salem had the lowest construction costs per square foot in four categories (hospitals 2-3 stories, hospitals 4-8 stories, nursing homes, apartments 8-24 stories). Honestly I'm trying to figure out where the apartment buildings over 8 stories are in the city.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem commercialrealestate)
  
  
• 
  
  Interesting Info from Donor's Choose Challenge
  
  
  For three years Fred Wilson has done a great job of raising money through the Donor's Choose Bloggers challenge. In this post he shared data on how much money was raised each year and from how many people. What I find interesting is that the amount of money is relatively flat from year to year ($18,538 in 2007, $17,029 in 2008, and $18,824 this year), but the number of donors increased dramatically this year (92 in 2007, 80 in 2008, and 205 this year). While it would be great to see the amount-per-donor at the same level as 2007 with the higher number of donors in 2009 I think that's unrealistic in this economy. In the long run I think that having the higher number of donors will be a positive because when next year rolls around there will probably be more donors coming back and if times are better then the dollars-per-donor average will go up and it's a long-term win for Donor's Choose. I'm wondering if the same trend is happening with other non-profits?
  
  
  (tags: nonprofit)
  
  
• 
  
  AVC: Throw the Bums out
  
  
  I'm in general agreement with Fred Wilson:

  "It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."

  
  
  (tags: politics government)
  
  

Virginia Foxx Tweets Question: "Will govt-run healthcare require monthly abortion premium?"

Virginia Foxx just posted this on Twitter:

Will govt-run healthcare require monthly abortion premium? @GOPLeader has details: http://bit.ly/zvl8F

What's interesting to me is that when you click through to the link she references and read it there are links that would seem to be intended to prove John Boehner's assertion that a government run health plan would require all subscribers to pay "abortion premiums," but the link that should go to the reference material detailing the supposed required premium instead goes to another webpage with a quote from Boehner.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be an assertion that is very similar to the forced euthenasia crap that was being thrown around over the summer. From where I'm sitting the GOP strategy is:

• Pick one hot-button item out of an immense and complex bill
• Intentionally misread the language, or at least take it out of context, to make a fiction-based assertion about the bill
• Blast it to your frothing constituency
• Hope that the accumulated weight of the multiple assertions can eventually bring down the bill

Stay tuned to see if that's the case.  What bugs me about this approach is that it distracts people from the "meat" of the health care debate.  I have no problem with people disagreeing with each other on the fundamental issues like whether or not it is the proper role of the government to provide an alternative to private health insurance, whether or not there should be programs like Medicare and Medicaid, etc. I do, however, have a very big problem with people using deceptive tactics like these to try and defeat a bill rather than arguing about it on its merits.

BTW, convenient timing of this release, what with the Tea Party event on the Hill today wouldn't you say?

links for 2009-11-05

• CNN Report Has Me Wondering if We Need to Wear Bike Helmets for Everything
  I'm telling you if they don't stop doing medical research we're not going to have anything left to do that can't somehow kill you or at least bring you serious harm:

  "For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.

  Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."

  
  
  (tags: weird interesting)
  
  
• 
  
  Yes! Weekly: Faith and Politics
  
  
  Keith Barber pens an article that looks at the intersection of faith and politics in Winston-Salem.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem politics religion)
  
  
• 
  
  Winston-Salem Construction Costs per Square Foot Lowest in Survey
  
  
  In this Reed Construction Data survey of 25 cities Winston-Salem had the lowest construction costs per square foot in four categories (hospitals 2-3 stories, hospitals 4-8 stories, nursing homes, apartments 8-24 stories). Honestly I'm trying to figure out where the apartment buildings over 8 stories are in the city.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem commercialrealestate)
  
  
• 
  
  Interesting Info from Donor's Choose Challenge
  
  
  For three years Fred Wilson has done a great job of raising money through the Donor's Choose Bloggers challenge. In this post he shared data on how much money was raised each year and from how many people. What I find interesting is that the amount of money is relatively flat from year to year ($18,538 in 2007, $17,029 in 2008, and $18,824 this year), but the number of donors increased dramatically this year (92 in 2007, 80 in 2008, and 205 this year). While it would be great to see the amount-per-donor at the same level as 2007 with the higher number of donors in 2009 I think that's unrealistic in this economy. In the long run I think that having the higher number of donors will be a positive because when next year rolls around there will probably be more donors coming back and if times are better then the dollars-per-donor average will go up and it's a long-term win for Donor's Choose. I'm wondering if the same trend is happening with other non-profits?
  
  
  (tags: nonprofit)
  
  
• 
  
  AVC: Throw the Bums out
  
  
  I'm in general agreement with Fred Wilson:

  "It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."

  
  
  (tags: politics government)
  
  

Don't Worry, Be Happy

For some reason I've been in a great mood today despite coming across a litany of not-so-positive economic news.  To wit:

• Commercial real estate pros say no recovery until 2011 
  "The fourth quarter 2009 LoopNet Pulse Poll said the number of respondents that think commercial real estate transactions will rebound in 2011 jumped to 46 percent, compared to 13 percent in its third quarter survey.

  And 50 percent said they anticipate a rebound in 2010, which is down from 66 percent in the survey taken in the third quarter."

• Foundation giving likely to fall 10% 
  "When the year wraps up, foundation giving likely will be down by more than 10 percent. The Foundation Center predicted a fall of 8 percent to 13 percent earlier this year.

  The Foundation Center, a New York City organization supported by nearly 550 foundations, also predicts that foundation giving will decrease even more in 2010."

• Bankers slow hiring, cut costs
  According to a survey of chief financial officers and senior comptrollers conducted by Grant Thornton LLP, only 20 percent said their company will increase hiring in the next six months while 55 percent said executive bonuses will be trimmed.

  Only 40 percent believe the U.S. economy will improve by the first quarter of 2010, compared to 49 percent of financial officers across all industry sectors. The majority of bankers, about 53 percent, expect the economy to come out of the recession in the second half of 2010.

What the hell, we're all gonna die eventually anyway.  As the song says, "don't worry, be happy!"

links for 2009-11-05

• CNN Report Has Me Wondering if We Need to Wear Bike Helmets for Everything
  I'm telling you if they don't stop doing medical research we're not going to have anything left to do that can't somehow kill you or at least bring you serious harm:

  "For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.

  Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."

  
  
  (tags: weird interesting)
  
  
• 
  
  Yes! Weekly: Faith and Politics
  
  
  Keith Barber pens an article that looks at the intersection of faith and politics in Winston-Salem.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem politics religion)
  
  
• 
  
  Winston-Salem Construction Costs per Square Foot Lowest in Survey
  
  
  In this Reed Construction Data survey of 25 cities Winston-Salem had the lowest construction costs per square foot in four categories (hospitals 2-3 stories, hospitals 4-8 stories, nursing homes, apartments 8-24 stories). Honestly I'm trying to figure out where the apartment buildings over 8 stories are in the city.
  
  
  (tags: winston-salem commercialrealestate)
  
  
• 
  
  Interesting Info from Donor's Choose Challenge
  
  
  For three years Fred Wilson has done a great job of raising money through the Donor's Choose Bloggers challenge. In this post he shared data on how much money was raised each year and from how many people. What I find interesting is that the amount of money is relatively flat from year to year ($18,538 in 2007, $17,029 in 2008, and $18,824 this year), but the number of donors increased dramatically this year (92 in 2007, 80 in 2008, and 205 this year). While it would be great to see the amount-per-donor at the same level as 2007 with the higher number of donors in 2009 I think that's unrealistic in this economy. In the long run I think that having the higher number of donors will be a positive because when next year rolls around there will probably be more donors coming back and if times are better then the dollars-per-donor average will go up and it's a long-term win for Donor's Choose. I'm wondering if the same trend is happening with other non-profits?
  
  
  (tags: nonprofit)
  
  
• 
  
  AVC: Throw the Bums out
  
  
  I'm in general agreement with Fred Wilson:

  "It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."

  
  
  (tags: politics government)