millennica

I've heard good things about Costa Rice and Panama City. Though Costa Rica is supposed to be overrun with lower-class Disney types these days. I saw some pictures of Panama City recently and thought it looks quite interesting, and massively more developed than I thought it would be.

I am writing from Panama where I am currently visiting, at the moment in Panama City. This is my third visit. A trip from Panama City down the Pacific Coast to see the beaches is easy to make as is a trip to the Atlantic side which is only 50 miles away and can easily be reached in about an hour on the recently completed highway that goes from the Pacific to Atlantic sides of the country. In addition to Panama City, a trip to David, a city to the north is worth a visit, mainly because it is a jumping off point to Boquete and other places in Chiriqui Province that are much smaller, are in the mountains ( a non active volcano, Volcan Baru is located in this area), have beautiful landscapes and flora. Bocas del Toro, an archipelago very close to the Costa Rican border is also worth the visit, particularly if one likes to surf and scuba dive. There are regions worth visiting in Panama, but the ones described above are the most popular.

Texas Couple Accused of Shooting Man, 2 Kids

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: May 8, 2009

Filed at 4:53 p.m. ET

HOUSTON (AP) -- A couple is accused of opening fire and wounding four people -- including a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl -- who they mistakenly thought were trespassing on their property.

The victims, who were off-roading near a residential area about 40 miles northeast of Houston, were struck with shotgun bullets late Thursday after stopping their vehicles near the Trinity River so the children could go to the bathroom, said Liberty County Chief Deputy Ken DeFoor.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/08...d-Shooting.html

I currently live in California and having been to both cities, I'm not surprised to see Stockton, CA and Modesto, CA on the list of the 10 most miserable cities.

My biggest savings will come from having purchased all new energy conserving appliances, which saves me 10.00 per month in electric bills. I also installed a new furnace which has a 92% efficiency rating instead of the 50% efficiency rating on my old furnace. I'm hoping that this will result in a lower gas bill.

As far as cutting back in other areas, this is difficult as I was already more frugal that is probably warranted.

Until 2003, even though my taxes were complicated, I did the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil, because I was too frugal to pay to have them done. Beginning in 2004, I started using Turbo Tax which has made the process so much easier because not only don't I have to worry about calculations, but the previous years' taxes are automatically uploaded.

I prefer airports that can easily be reached using public transportation. For this reason, the airports I like in the US include Boston' Logan, New York's Kennedy, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and DC National. I like others because they are easy to navigate. Oakland and Hobby are two that I like.

In the Caribbean, I like Tocumen the airport in Panama as well as the airport in St.Maarten/St. Martin because both are small and easy to navigate.

Nothing

Interesting, but I'm not sure the word "influenced" is correct there. Your genes and your paycheck don't decide how you vote -- your brain does that. People make choices in the voting booth, their choices aren't made for them by how old they are.

If you think the word influence is inappropriately used in the article, I'm sure the reporter would be glad to hear from you. While I don't want to get into a semantic argument with someone whose handle is "editor" the word influence applies to a force exercised and received consciously or unconsciously. So as much as people make choices with their brains, they are often subtly influenced by other factors, at least that's what cognitive psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists argue. Of course, it's possible that you are correct and they are wrong. But I believe that is a debatable proposition.

Someone I met when I was visiting Houston mentioned this site.

For anyone interested in a more complex analysis of the voting patterns on Proposition 8 within the city of San Francisco, today's issue ( 14 November 2008) of the San Francisco Chronicle published an article worth reading. Other information--interactive features, photos-- is available for within the article.

For all the talk of San Francisco values, a Chronicle analysis of how the city voted on the state's same-sex marriage ban shows a city geographically divided on the issue - and voting trends that turn San Francisco's typical political spectrum on its head.

One in 4 San Franciscans voted in favor of Proposition 8, far fewer than the 52 percent who voted to ban same-sex marriage statewide. But a closer look shows race, age and education influenced voters more than anything else - even among those living in one of the world's most gay-friendly cities.

Voters in 54 of San Francisco's 580 precincts supported the ban, with a high of 65 percent of voters favoring it in parts of Chinatown and downtown. More than half of voters in large swaths of Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, the Excelsior and areas around Lake Merced also voted to ban same-sex marriage.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../MNIQ144185.DTL

I bet the 30% of blacks who didn't support Prop 8 did so on the down low.

This isn't a race issue. I said that earlier in the thread when musicman was trying to race bait. It's also not like California is filled with black voters.

I'm Black, so is my spouse, and although originally from the East Coast, spouse from New York City, me from Boston, we have lived in California since 1991 and we and vote in California. Both of us voted in the November election for Obama-Biden and "no" on Proposition 8, which places us in the 30% of Blacks who didn't vote "yes" on Proposition 8. We didn't vote on the down low and in fact all of our Black friends and colleagues know we voted "no" on Proposition 8. In fact, we've argue with some of our more conservative religious acqaintances about about the issue. Neither my spouse or I are religious; we do not belong to or attend church of any denomination. A larger percentage of Black folks are church goers, often attending Black congregations, many of which are quite conservative on social issues. Many, but not all of the preachers in the California Black churches told the members of their congregation to vote 'yes" on Proposition 8 and apparently many did which I believe accounts for the fact that 70% of Black voted "yes" on Proposition 8. There have been quite a few discussions about this issue since the election and some of have claimed that the "no" on Proposition 8 was not as well organized as the "yes" on Proposition 8 did not have a presence or reach out to communities of color or other socially conservative communities for that matter--The Inland Empire, for example-- which were likely to vote "yes" on Proposition 8. I can't say for certain that these last points are accurate, but that is what the pundits are saying.

Obama is considered black because of historical context. The notion that if you have even a single black grandparent makes you black still exists.

Additionally, blacks almost always support the Democrats at an 85-90% clip. Obama really is only getting a bounce because more blacks are voting this time around. Additionally, I can't really fault them for this. It is history in the making.

Exactly! The idea was known by the term "one drop rule", which in the United States historically holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry was considered Black and subject to being held as slaves and later subject to the "Jim Crow" laws. This was a tactic in the South that strengthened and codified segregation and the disenfranchisement of Blacks.

During slavery and afterward Plessy vs Ferguson the Supreme Court Decision that legalized separate but equal, state legislatures adopted this rule to segregate Blacks. Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Florids, Kentucky, Maryland Missouri, Nebraska, Georgis and several other states had these laws and the one drop rule included people who were one, sixteenth and one thirty second Black. There were lots of half Black half white people who were held as slaves and later bound by Jim Crow. If they were light enough to pass as white, some of them did, which of course meant leaving their families behind as they dare not let the white community in which they were passing know they heritage. But others in the same family who weren't light enough to pass as white had to live as Black people. This is what happened with Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson's children. Some of them lived as Black people and some of them who were light enough to pass simply blended into the white community. The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice tells the story of a contemporary family some of whose members remained Black and others who became white.

In my own family, my great great grandfather was half-white, his father was his owner and his mother was a slave. My great great grandfather was much whiter looking than Obama and was raised by a white man--his father--, but lived as a Black man and was subject to everything that entailed throughout his life.

The "one drop rule" and the fact that no matter how light they might have been Black people were historically considered Black is one reason that Black folks cling so strongly to the belief that half-Black people are Black. Black people didn't make the rule, but it did become part of the way Black folks consider who is Black.

I was wondering why Gwen Ifill (the moderator) was still sitting. Didn't know she was on crutches right now?

Does anyone know what happened to her?

She broke her ankle.

Millennicca is the one that was truly of value. (Her name suddenly popped into my head while in flight)

The lady had such, such wealth of knowledge and insite. A walking enclyclopedia. We welcome those like her any day/occassion, etc. The West Coast always has such great contributions to Haif.

Thanks for the shout-out.

Lazarus and the Yoruba deity, Babalu Aye, Lazarus' syncretic version in Santeria

The only true standard is the Bible and the life of Jesus Christ.

Really? What about religions that don't use the Bible or the life of Jesus Christ as their standard?

Yearn, unlikely: indifferent perhaps. Perhaps choosing to be married by a county clerk indicates indifference about who performs the marriage ceremony.

The California Code, Section 400, authorizes several different groups of people to conduct marriages. Some of these groups include ministers, priests, rabbis and other officials of religious denominations, judges--active and retired--, state legislators and constitutional officers, and members of Congress who represent a district with the state while they are in office. County Clerks are also allowed to conduct marriages and many perform civil marriage ceremonies in their offices.

QUOTE (millennica @ Friday, April 25th, 2008 @ 3:43pm)

Harvard solicits money from all alums. They call and write me too, but I haven't given them a dime yet. I am planning to include them in my will and leave them some money to endow a small graduate student fellowship in my name.

I am a member of the Varisty Club and make a gift every year both to the club and to the track team, and I'm active in the local Harvard Club and the admissions committee, but there is no way in Hades I am giving the College Fund anything until I am sufficiently wealthy and/or dead.

I don't give them any money even though I am sufficiently wealthy do so. I also don't plan on giving them any until I am dead. As I said, I am leaving them a small endowment in my will, which I assume won't be in force until I'm dead. And if I manage to spend all my money and there's none left when I die, then Harvard won't get any.

So lemme get this straight... the PG&G will not give you a credit for the electricity that you produce, but they will sell what you produce to someone else (and make a profit, since they didn't have to produce it).

That doesn't sound proper.

That's right. Proper or not, that's what happens. P G & E (I made a typing mistake in my first email message) does not give the consumer a credit for the electricity s/he produces and apparently makes a profit on selling it to another consumer. It may not seem acceptable, but that's what P G & E does. I even inquired if I might give the excess electricity produced to someone else. I also asked if there was any program whereby the excess electricity could be banked and awarded to needy consumers, sort of like a sick day bank that some employers have. But the answer was "no". The excess electricity consumers produce is returned to P G & E to do with what they like, which is probably sell and profit from it. And so it goes.

The discussion about solar panels is interesting, especially since for the past week or so I've been thinking about and researching the benefits of having solar panels installed on my house. Last Saturday, I had a solar energy consultant from a local solar firm come to my house in the SF Bay Area, to whom I had previously provided my electric bills, conduct a site visit and give me an estimate for a solar installation. My house has excellent south/southwest orientation with nothing in the way that casts any shade. The house itself is a 3 bedroom 3 bath ranch, approximately 1700 sq. ft. The house uses gas for heat and hot water. Electricity is used for all appliances including the range. We don't need or have air conditioning. The estimated cost of installing solar panels (the final cost after federal and CA state credits are applied) is approximately 10,000.00. My electric bills are not high (for the 12 month period beginning in April 2007 through the most recent bill ending April 2008), the lowest monthly bill was $32.01, the highest monthly bill was $42.08.

Even though he would like to sell me the solar panels, the solar energy consultant made it clear that it would take it would take a very long time for me to recoup the installation costs. In part this is because my electric use is so low. He noted that were I to switch from a gas water heater to an on-demand tankless water heater, the costs might be recovered more quickly. Still, he noted, it would take a long time to recoup the initial installation costs.

The other reason is that PG & G ( Pacific Gas and Electric Company), my provider does not pay its customers for the excess electricity produced. It more electricity is produced than is used, then the customer has a zero balance, but the customer never receives a credit if more electricity is produced that consumed.

So while my spouse and I are still considering installing solar, if we decide to do so, it will be for environmental reasons not economic ones.

This is a question for black people and people with black friends

Do you/they watch Seinfeld? Michael Wilboln on ESPN said 'brothas don't watch Seinfeld, none of them.' They were talking about it b/c it's Jerry's birthday today.

This was the funniest show ever by the way. Ever.

My spouse and several of his friends -- all Black men who grew up in New York City--watch/watched Seinfeld. They think it is funny, but I don't believe they would say that it is the funniest show ever.

Heed it or not, I don't care. You'll be the one walking around with a steering column in your left nostril 'cause you didn't have airbags, not me.

As others have said, I'm not worried, so I'll thank you to keep your warnings to yourself. Not only are your warnings hyperbolic, they are exceedingly tiresome. Although you say you don't care, you not seem capable of stopping yourself from giving unwanted advice.

The current law allows up to $250,000 of profit from the sale of a primary personal residence per person ($500,000 per couple) to be excluded from taxation. The full amount is available if the seller(s) used the home as their primary residence for at least two (2) years out of the five (5) years prior to the sale. This does no mean that the property had to be owned for a full five years, as some believe.

One of jm1fd's missions is to warn others about how unsafe older cars are. He preached the same message to me several months ago when HAIF was having a discussion about cars and I mentioned that I was still driving a 1988 VW Fox. Guess s/he feels the need to warn all of us uninformed folks of the danger we are courting when driving our small, older model cars. Based on the responses so far, several unrepentant HAIFers simply aren't heeding her/his warning.