Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
 
People Cannot Self-Regulate; Please, Government, Regulate Me
I guess that's the message from this poll:
    Ninety-one percent of Americans believe sending text messages while driving is as dangerous as driving after having a couple of drinks, but 57 percent admit to doing it, a poll released on Tuesday said.

    The Harris Interactive survey commissioned by mobile messaging service Pinger found 89 percent of respondents believe texting while driving is dangerous and should be outlawed.

    Even so, 66 percent of the adults surveyed who drive and use text messaging told pollsters they had read text messages or e-mails while driving. Fifty-seven percent admitted to sending them.
Please, mama government, save me from myself!

A good follow-up question would have been to ask how many obeyed the speed limits, existing laws designed to regulate behavior while driving, to determine how many of those people we could expect to heed new laws about texting while driving.

Oh, never mind.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:18 AM   0 comments
Monday, August 06, 2007
 
Ailing Retail Development Holds No Lessons
In St. Ann, a municipality in northwest St. Louis County, its sales tax mainstay is not providing the tax revenue it used to:
    When Northwest Plaza gets a cold, St. Ann sneezes.

    Northwest Plaza is ailing right now, and St. Ann's finances are following suit.

    The city depends on sales taxes from the shopping mall for a big chunk of its revenue, and sales at the mall have been on a steady decline since 2000.

    "We are extremely sales tax driven," said Mayor Tim James. "When that money goes on hiatus, which is what we are hoping, and not gone for good, it really shakes things up."

    Since 2000, the city has reduced its work force to 92 from 112 and has begun charging residents for garbage pickup that used to be free. But so far, the city has kept up appearances. Potholes are being fixed, and the streets are being patrolled.
Ah, yes, the facade of providing core government services instead of blowing scads of cash on a water park that won't break even on an annual basis (like so many of your neighbor municipalities are).

So what is the lesson about this that municipal leaders can learn? Partnering with land developers in crony capitalist schemes to increase your sales tax revenue and then spending that sales tax revenue as though it will continue to grow infinitely might put you into trouble when those sales taxes decline?

Nah; the lesson is thank goodness you're not fools like those people in St. Ann!


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:50 PM   0 comments
 
That's a Dig, Right?
Deep within this New York Times article lamenting that having only a couple of million dollars doesn't make you nutso rich (a point of view with which I agree, actually), we get this bit of commentary with which I don't:
    David Koblas, a computer programmer with a net worth of $5 million to $10 million, imagines what his life would be like if he left Silicon Valley. He could move to a small town like Elko, Nev., he says, and be a ski bum. Or he could move his family to the middle of the country and live like a prince in a spacious McMansion in the nicest neighborhood in town.

    But Mr. Koblas, 39, lives with his wife, Michelle, and their two children in Los Altos, south of Palo Alto, where the schools are highly regarded and the housing prices are inflated accordingly. So instead of a luxury home, the family lives in a relatively modest 2,000-square-foot house — not much bigger than the average American home — and he puts in long hours at Wink, a search engine start-up founded in 2005.

    "I'd be rich in Kansas City," he said. "People would seek me out for boards. But here I'm a dime a dozen."
Speaking on behalf of those of us in the middle of the country, please stay on a coast.

I don't know who's more of a self-important twit; the journalist writing the story, or the mcmillionaire.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:45 PM   1 comments
Sunday, August 05, 2007
 
Anger Is Not Zero Sum
Workplace anger -- who wins?

Anger is not zero sum; that is, if everyone is angry, it doesn't mean that one person is winning and another person is losing. An angry tide raises all boats, and it makes them run in ship-shape fashion.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:15 PM   0 comments
Saturday, August 04, 2007
 
Top People Whose Voices I Wished I Had
  1. Morton Harket, a-ha

  2. Iva Davies, Icehouse

  3. Geoff Tate, Queensrÿche

  4. Ronnie Dunn, Brooks and Dunn

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:36 PM   3 comments
Thursday, August 02, 2007
 
Right Hand Called, Left Hand's Phone Was Busy
You know what those of us with credible city experience call this:
    Police were at a loss to explain why thieves removed the license plates of 32 vehicles in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood in the city's West End over the last few days.
A slow night.

And special good kudos for this insight that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
    "This is the first I've heard of anything like this," Sgt. Al Nothum, spokesman for Troop C of the Missouri Highway Patrol, said of the rash of license plate thefts.

    "Maybe the thief is taking the plate to get to the tab later, but then, why not snip the tab off instead of taking just as much time or more to unscrew the plate?"
Wholly guacamole, the stunning ignorance on display here is twofold:
  • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs to the Highway Patrol for a comment? Of course the Highway Patrol hasn't heard of this. Stealing license plates/tags is a local offense; you would call the City of St. Louis police department or whatever municipality you live in when you discover someone in the Central West End has stolen your tabs

  • The state Highway Patrol is obviously unaware that the Missouri Department of Transportation recommends putting the registration tabs in the center of your license plate these days specifically to prevent people from cutting off the corners of license plates if the registration tabs are there.
Cut crisscrosses in your registration stickers, the thieves will snip the corner of the plate. Put the registration stickers in the middle of the plate, the thieves will steal the plates. Got any more good ideas, public officials?


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:50 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
 
Someone Hit a Double down the 20 Yard Line
MADD offers comments on Amtrak offering booze to high end rail customers:
    Mothers Against Drunk Driving questioned whether $100 in free alcohol was too much.

    "This sounds like a lot of credit toward possible overindulging," said MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse.
Considering that the overindulgers would be riding a train, I think MADD is out of place here, but kudos to CNN for finding political opposition for a business/travel story.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:52 PM   1 comments
 
Press Leaks Invasion Details
Apparently, the press cannot keep its mouth shut regarding the United States' covert incursions and invasion of a sovereign nation:

O, Canada! More Americans Heading North: The Number of Americans Moving to Canada in 2006 Hit a 30-Year High

Our citizens cry out for more wait times for medical services!


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:19 PM   2 comments
 
Congratulations to the New Hall of Famers
Hey, congratulations to Tony Gwynn on making the Hall of Fame.

I see my rookie baseball card is now worth like $10. Let my retirement commence!

Well, at least I only traded a couple commons circa 1986 for it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:08 AM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."