So, police in New York have arrested a father and son for stealing granite tombstones.

Everyone, including me, is puzzled as to the motivation for stealing something like a tombstone. But with a little imagination, maybe we can get to the bottom of this.

Top 5 excuses for stealing tombstones:

5. Trying to save money on materials for the new countertops that Ma wants in the kitchen.
4. Putting in a new sidewalk, and ran out of pavers.
3. Reinforcing their zombie-proof shelter with something the zombies will recognize.
2. Needed to weight down the back of their truck for the winter so they wouldn’t spin out and go into the ditch
1. Trying to get to hell on a scholarship.

Well, I was 2 and 2 this weekend in the wildcard games. Not too good. Glad I’m not actually putting money on these things.

I’ll have my picks for this weekend up soon.

I know several people who are given company cars as part of their job. Most are in sales or customer service in one form or another. They use the cars as part of their day to day work, and then take them home and use them as a second family vehicle in the evening and on weekends. I haven’t heard anyone say that their employer objects to this.

One of these friends has to pay a small amount for his company car. His employer has fallen on hard times, and in order to recoup some cash, asked their employees with company cars to kick in a little if they wanted to use them after hours. It’s not free anymore, but it’s significantly less than a car payment, insurance, and upkeep on a personally owned vehicle.

Recently, the Louisville Metro government has run into some fiscal problems. In order to cut some expenses, non-critical personnel have been forced to take days off, some programs have either been cut back or cancelled, and the mayor has asked that police officers who take their cruiser home pay a small fee for the privilege. The fees were $100 a month if the officer was just going to take the vehicle home and use it, or $160 a month if the officer was going to use the car to work for another employer. In the past, there was no charge for either case. The mayor may be trying to use these payments as a disincentive for the police to take their cruisers home, thereby saving on wear and tear on the vehicles and possibly to save gas.

Several police officers’ children go to Girlie Bear’s school. They use their cruisers to bring their kids to school in the morning and/or pick them up in the afternoon. I guess they have been using their cruiser as a second car. I have no problem with this. The more officers who drive their cruisers around at all times means more police visibility, and hopefully that is some deterrent to crime.

I have also seen other officers use their cruisers after hours at jobs, such as pulling security at an event or directing traffic for a church. Again, no problem, and for the same reasons. If a police officer can make a few extra bucks and make my community better doing it, good for him or her.

But the police union, and apparently the rank and file officers, have rejected the new requirement for a nominal payment. From what I can see, their main objection is paying anything at all for something they’ve always had for free, and a legal argument that the mayor is changing their work environment without proper notification.

I can see both sides in this, but I tend to come down with the city on this one. Yes, the police have been able to take their cars home at no cost in the past, and they do a public service just by being seen in them, but the Mayor is asking them to help out the city and try to cut costs. $100 or $160 a month is nothing compared to a car payment, insurance, and upkeep on a Crown Victoria. And it’s not a permanent requirement. When things get better, I’m sure that the payment will be waived.

As for changing their work environment without proper notification, I have to ask if the use of a company car was part of the last police contract. If it’s not, can the union argue that this is a change of work environment or benefits?

Come on guys, help out the city here. I respect the dangerous, boring, and hard work that y’all do in every environment and weather situation that Jefferson county can throw at you, but the money has to come from somewhere. Every other department in the county has taken some pretty deep cuts, and I’d rather see a side benefit like a company car get tougher for you than things like equipment and training for police officers get cut.

Guys,

Saw this and wanted t0 pass it along. I can’t imagine a young child missing their pet over the holidays.

If you can help out, it would be great! 😉

The baby is eating a piece of toast, I have a nice cup of decaf, some non-stale Christmas cookies, and the Cartoon Network is having an all day Looney Tunes marathon.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Well, welcome to 2009.

We welcomed in the New Year trying to get some sleep with a teething baby. He’s currently snoozing away his evening of frivolity.

Since we and our hoped-for New Year’s Eve companions are all overcoming colds of some sort, we decided to put off partying until this weekend.

Since I took a look back yesterday, I’ll make a couple of predictions for the new year now.

1. The price of oil will rise significantly this summer, but will not reach record levels again. OPEC will continue to fuss about how the loss of revenue is ruining their chances of building yet another golden castle in the desert, but selling a commodity that isn’t in as much demand as you’d like it to be will do that to you time and again.
2. The economy will continue in its tailspin for at least the first two quarters of the year, but things will start to look better before the end of the year. During the continued downturn, the Federal and State governments will continue to try to stem the flow of blood so that there isn’t a general uprising of us, the unwashed masses. Unfortunately, their pouring of money into the open financial wound will start inflation ticking up quite sharply. I don’t think we’ll see the inflation of the 70’s again, but it won’t be good. Sometime in the 4th quarter, the Fed will start hinting about raising interest rates, which will cause the new, slow recovery to slow even more.
3. The housing market will finally reach bottom. Consequently, those who have good jobs and good credit but don’t make 6 figures will finally be able to find both a decent house in their price range and a loan that doesn’t put the whole national economy in danger.
4. At least one of the Big 3 automobile manufacturers will either be absorbed by another company, or go out of business altogether. President Obama will have to explain to his UAW constituency why he was unable to protect their employment-for-life rights.
5. A major natural disaster will occur in the United States, and President Obama will be quick to point out how his ineffectual reaction to it was better than President Bush’s ineffectual reaction to Hurricane Katrina. Citizens will again be reminded that if they wait for the government to help them in an emergency, they’re going to be waiting a long time. Those who choose to be prepared for said emergency and have the means to take of their own will be castigated in the national news for not waiting for the government handout that will take too long to come. Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. And FEMA is a couple of days inland.
6. Iran will get the bomb. They will demonstrate it with great fanfare, and will immediately start production of atomic weapons for export to the highest bidder in either money or ideology.
7. US casualties in Iraq will continue to decline, but casualties in Afghanistan will continue to rise. The anti-war groups will have to decide if they want to attack the president they helped put in the White House. Kind of like trying to decide if you want to tell the “virgin” you met at the club she gave you the clap.
8. President Obama will start off with very good approval ratings, but these will steadily decline until his is almost as unpopular as Congress. Yes, it will get that bad.
9. The Republican party will go through much soul searching, and will decide that it’s better to be electable than right. The race for the center will continue, and we will all lose.
10. The Republican minority in Congress will have a hard time defending their right-of-center stands, and will not stand in the way of most of President Obama’s agenda for his first 100 days. Remind me again why I vote Republican?
11. In local news, UK will finally get its act together and beat UL in both football and basketball. The religious war in the Bluegrass over these two teams will continue as it has since time immemorial.

Well, we’re into the playoffs.

I’ve been able to watch quite a few games this year (yeah DVR!) and this has been a really enjoyable season. Lots of good close defensive games, and a minimum of drama.

Detroit sucked the zub kabir this year, but they did it in a historical way. No-one will ever forget this season in Michigan.

The Cowboys didn’t make the playoffs. Heeheeheeheehee

The Bronco’s also didn’t make the playoffs, and reacted by firing Mike Shanahan. This came as quite a surprise to me. He’s a good coach, and 8 and 8 isn’t that bad a record. Hopefully Mr. Shanahan will find another team and show up Denver.

Brett Favre and the Great Mangini didn’t make it to post season this year. My guess as to why Mangini was fired is that he told management that he could go all the way if he got Favre. Favre of course signed a contract that gave him his weight in gold and jewels, so not making it to the playoffs doesn’t look so good for him and everyone in the Jets leadership that wanted to bring him on board. I predict that Favre will finally retire and mean it this year.

Of course, my Raiders didn’t make it. If you watch the Raiders to watch victories, you need to stop hitting the pipe. People will start to think you’re slow.

Here are my predictions for Wildcard Weekend:

Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers – Indianapolis will pull this one out, but it’s going to be close. I think that these teams are almost evenly matched.

Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins – Miami will stumble here. Baltimore will win this one running away.

Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings – It pains me to say this, but I see the Eagles taking this one. They’re on a roll.

Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals – I see Atlanta taking this one. No real reason. It would be interesting for the Falcons to do well without Vick and then when he gets out tell him to go somewhere else.

So there you are. We’ll see how I do on Monday morning.

Well, 2008 is in its last hours.

It’s been an eventful year.

First of all, we have a new baby. Baby Bear is fast becoming a participating part of the family, and having a new member of the group keeps us on our toes.

Next, Girlie Bear started living with us full time. That alone would have made this a great year.

On a non-personal note, the country went through the most contentious election I’ve ever seen. Even though I don’t agree with the result, I hope we can remember how to get along and work together. We’re going to need it. The Zombiepocalypse is just around the corner in 2012, and we haven’t even begun to dig trenches around the neighborhood and fill them with oil.

The price of oil has been the highest anyone has ever seen, and now it’s at almost historical lows. I’m not sure I like that large a swing. Extreme changes in markets result in extreme reactions and consequences. If OPEC and the other oil producing 3rd world crapholes cut production too much, it’s Road Warrior in Kentucky, and how is that going to help us get ready for the zombies?

The war in Iraq is finally looking better, not that anyone is giving the troops and President Bush much credit. I expect that the new administration will start drawing down our presence in Mesopotamia quickly after they take power. My hope is that I won’t be seeing a withdrawal ala Vietnam 1975. A lot of blood and treasure will be wasted if we withdraw too quickly and the government we’ve propped up in Iraq collapses.

The war in Afghanistan, well that’s another matter. My guess is that any forces that are taken out of Iraq will be re-directed to Afghanistan. Hopefully, we will be able to stabilize that area a bit more. Western powers have been able to bring peace and order to this area since Alexander, so I’ll probably be talking about this next New Years Eve.

The economy this year has taken the biggest gut punch I’ve seen in my lifetime. A lot of the trouble seems to be that no-one in the past few years seems to remember that it’s not a good idea to make loans that the recipients have no way to repay. Funny, I seem to remember that one from finance classes in high school almost 20 years ago.

Anyhoo, hope y’all had a good year. Thanks for stopping by and have a great New Years Eve.

A young man in New York has earned each and every one of the merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America.

He earned his first 62 in five years. To put it in perspective, I only earned 5 merit badges in the 3 years that I was a Scout.

Congratulations for a lot of hard work!

H/T to Phil over at Random Nuclear Strikes.

My home state of North Dakota has had a significant drop in the number of murders statewide this year. 2 murders in a state, even one as sparsely populated as North Dakota is pretty darned good.

And I need to do some reading on the gun laws back home. Got to know what I’m getting into when I convince my employer to put the next datacenter in Minot.