There was a time when I was a boy when America set the standard for manufacturing excellence. "Made in Japan" was synonymous with cheaply made trinkets. Now Japan is synonymous with manufacturing excellence and American manufacturing, with the Dodo bird. Made in China, made in Mexico, made in Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam...have replaced made in America. And along the way, millions of good-paying American jobs have been turned into Chinese ones. All in the name of lower prices and bigger profits. Americans are addicted to low prices. We are like crack addicts, struggling in crappy jobs or with no jobs, lured by the high of affordable stuff. But like all crack addicts our high comes at the expense of our health and well-being. Oh, and Happy New Year. Today would have been my mom's 86th birthday. Mom died in 1988 after a long series of medical problems. She was just 64. Happy Birthday, Mom. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

My best to you and yours! Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

This is the red flower on the left in the top photo. Not everyone has hibiscus blooming at Christmas. One of the few advantages of living in the desert. If you are like most of us, you have a vague idea of where things are, geographically speaking. Especially East and West. New York is East, Los Angeles is West, Chicago is kind of in the middle. North and South orientation is a different matter. Hooterville is situated at 32 degrees, 13 minutes N latitude. We are down here in the left corner of the country, 60 miles or so from the Mexican border. Pretty far South, you might think. The entire state of Florida and most of Texas lies father South than do we. Hooterville is at the same latitude as Dallas, Texas, Montgomery, Alabama, Savanna, Georgia, Charlestown, S.C. and San Diego, California. For about six months of the year, the weather is pretty nice out here. For the other six, it sucks. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

Maybe blogging is a waning thing. I know I'm getting fairly lazy about it. Or maybe it is just the time of the year. "Father, it has been five days since my last post." "Bless you, my son. What do you have to confess?" "Uh, I just told you." "Oh." It's funny how there are always unintended consequences to the best intended plans. Especially, when it involves the government. Years ago, a federal judge ordered the Hooterville Unified School District to provide a fairer shake for Hispanic and black students in its schools. Plaintiffs convinced the courts that schools needed to be desegregated. Our segregation resulted from housing patterns. In part, those housing patterns were tied to the social sins of the past. Minority children lived in minority neighborhoods and attended neighborhood schools. So, in 1978 we got a desegregation order, along with a fat tax increase to fix what ailed the schools. Magnet schools to encourage more diverse student populations, smaller class sizes and more ethnic programs. Last year that tax brought in $64M to the district. But last week a federal judge decided that the district no longer required federal supervision and released the district from the order, although they get to keep levying the tax. So what has the thirty years effort meant for the district? More integrated schools or better achievement? Nope. Hispanic and black students lag Anglo students in the district's own measures of achievement. Non-Hispanic white students have become the minority. Declining Anglo birthrates and rising Hispanic birthrates are a factor. But so are white flight, black flight and Hispanic and Asian flight, away from HUSD and toward private and charter schools. Lots of bright students and their involved families have dumped HUSD for something better. As of the first of December, non-Hispanic white children made up only about 29% of the district's students. Lest you be fooled into thinking this represents our overall population, it does not. Hooterville is about 56% non-Hispanic white in population. Non-Hispanic white kids are a majority in only 10 of 67 elementary schools, in 3 of 21 middle schools and 5 of 21 regular and alternative high schools. Unfortunately, schools reflect the society in general. Those who can afford to buy the best do and those cannot, accept what is available to them. After 30 years and $800 million dollars, Hooterville Unified Schools have become the school of last resort for poor children. Cure poverty and you will cure the educational system. Without that, you're wasting your time. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

We took the little boys to see A Christmas Carol on Saturday. It was in 3-D as you can probably guess. In Hooterville, if you want to shop at a high-end retailer like Tifany's, you have to trek up into the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, to a la dee da place called La Encanta. We made the trip today on rumors that they had an upscale Target store there. Not true. I did get a picture of the Mountains up close. It has been raining today and is clearing out now. Jack-a-Loon got himself a stuffed moose (reindeer?) that squeaks. He carries it everywhere with him and for the first 15 minutes he had it, he was afraid I would take it back. He would run out the dog door with it every time I stood up. Oh, and don't let on to Mrs. Sneed that he is laying on the couch. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

While Arizona continues to sink into the giant financial black hole we have created for ourselves, our legislators argue about the important matter of texting while driving. Don't get me wrong, texting while driving is a bad idea. But a law outlawing it is pretty much unenforceable short of police checkpoints to review the recent texting history of random drivers. So what's the point? How about laws outlawing eating, drinking, putting on makeup, reading, fiddling with the radio or any of the hundreds of other things that take our minds off the task of driving? I propose a law that makes ten o'clock and two o'clock hand positioning on the steering wheel mandatory under law. At least the cops can see that. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most people who cause traffic accidents don't do it on purpose. It seems to me that whether you kill someone's Aunt Harriet because you are texting or because you zoned out and didn't see the red light, you get about the same result. Trust me when I say the the authorities will figure out something to charge you with, either way. Then the lawyers will sue your pants off. Interstingly, as cell phone use has grown in the US over the past 20 years, traffic fatalities per 100,000,000 miles driven have fallen year over year. Last year, they hit their lowest in over 40 years, 1.27 deaths for every 100,000,000 miles driven. Statistically, that is one death for every 26,000 trips driven between New York and Los Angeles. Granting that correlation is not causation, it is not unreasonable to conclude that cell phones actually make driving safer. Just kidding. Here's something else. At the hardware store we get paid by check every other Friday morning. My buddy, the Seafood King, tells me that paying retail workers through direct deposit is more trouble than it's worth, because they tend to be a flaky bunch, bank-wise. Present company excepted, of course. What this means is that I have to go to the credit union and cash my damn check. I could drop it in the night deposit, I suppose, but I don't really trust that so much. Do you know who else goes into the bank to deal with an actual teller? People who can't keep track of what they spend and want someone to argue with about their overdrafts. This morning two of these knuckleheads managed to tie up all four teller windows with their hijinks. One guy, and I'm not making this up, said, "I just put $20 in my account." Does a person making $20 deposits really need a checking account? Really? The other joker was some sort of building contractor who kept taking one call after the other on his cell, while two tellers tried to make sense of his banking disaster. That is until someone in line, who may or not have been me, muttered, "For God's sake", kinda loudly. Evidently taking the hint, he began telling callers that he would call back. And the best news is that he didn't wait around to pummel me outside the bank. I'm waiting for my credit union to start letting people scan checks into their account from home. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

According to the weather guys, we are getting a big winter storm this evening and tomorrow. They are expecting about a half inch of rain tonight and snow above 5000 feet. Casa Sneed is located at 2600 feet above sea level. Being a skeptic in most matters, I'm taking wait and see attitude. The last few times we have been warned of inclement weather, we got none. It has been cold and windy today, though. You may recall my dog, Jack the Jerk. Actually, that is unfair to jerks. I've had to get two baby barriers in order to keep him where I can see him, when he is in the house with me. The barriers keep him out of the kitchen and dining room. Jack has the annoy behavior of taking things off of the counter tops. It is not like we keep food on the counters or anything that he can actually eat. He just pulls off whatever he can find. Why he needs a toaster is beyond me. Whenever the little jack-a-loon manages to get into the dining room, he pees on the rug under the dining room table. Mostly he goes out the dog door to relieve himself, but for some reason, he goes on the rug when the opportunity presents itself. Thank goodness for these biological pee removers. Anyway, I'm hoping that keeping him in sight when he's in, will cure his confusion over where the yard is located. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

An example from the files of "You just can't figure some folks out". A fellow came in yesterday to buy two eight-foot long pieces of PVC (plastic) pipe. He said he is teaching a fitness class with something called slosh tubes. He needed the pipes to build his props for the class. Evidently, you fill an eight-foot piece of 4" pipe two-thirds full of water and then try to exercise while holding the tube. The water sloshing back and forth in is supposed to build your "core". "Core" is the latest in gym-speak, in case you wondered. Seems over the top to me. Oh, and he took the pipe home on his bicycle. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

Forget everything you think you know about torture. Waterboarding? Ha! Child's play. If you want to the world's most heinous terrorists to give it up, lock them in a building with Christmas music blaring all damn day. If we could figure out how to pipe Jose Feliciano singing Feliz Navidad into Bin Laden's cave, he would crawl on hands and kness to turn himself in. It has only been 1 day and I'm already on my last nerve. Since I like to spread the pain around, here is a dose of my least favorite Christmas atrocity. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky