38 posts tagged “qotd”

Seal of the President of the United States

What makes a good President of the United States?

A good President of the United States is someone who has an intense and active intellectual mind, and have a sense of curiosity.

He or she possess a very powerful and sincere compassion for Americans from all backgrounds and classes.

A good President of the United States serves to inspire both citizens nationally and internationally to make greater achievements in our shared interests in the national and global community.

A good President is not bogged down by petty political bickering and posturing. They understand when it is necessary to be politically forceful and when it is time for a more subtle and nuanced approach to challenges we face.

A good President innovates within the constraints of our United States Constitution and without sacrificing personal liberties when old solutions will not suffice for new problems.

A good President will face down the increasing pressure to grow our military budget and will divert those monies back to states for purposes of solving domestic needs including environmental and sustainability concerns.

A good President places a premium on solid quality science and implements policies with quality science in mind.

A good President is clear to separate Religious practice and superstition from the practices and efforts of logical and reasoned government.

2008 is the Year of the Rat.  Which animal year were you born in?

The Year of Tiger.

What is that I hear in the distance?

Indeed, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" is booming in the background.

heh.

Were your holiday cards store bought, handmade, online, TBD or MIA?

Our holiday cards were handmade, using scrapbooking resources from Close To My Heart.
They turned out very nicely. I wish I'd had the forethought to take a few pics of them before we sent them out.

:)

What work of art (film, book, record, whatever) changed your life?
Submitted by bodhibound.

There are so many, and at different points in my life, so I'll just run down a few the favorites.

Film
1. Star Wars
2. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure/Weird Science (I wish it were not so, but it is.)

Book
1. Dragonlance Chronicles
2. The Sandman

Records
1. Yello "One Second"  
    It was a record that blew my mind. Prior to this album I don't think I fully understood the
mind boggling possibilities of  what one musician could do with electronics, synth sampling and
multi-track sequencing.

2. Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral"
 It brought together all of my favorite genres in one album. Classical structures, conceptuality, story, electronics, computers, guitars, death, destruction and despair. Its all in there.

What's your alma mater?
Submitted by Lies.

University of Oregon.

University of Oregon campus

U of O logo.

What issues do you look forward to hearing about in the upcoming U.S. Presidential debates?

1) A pull out of our military troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

2) Healthcare, more specifically opinions about universal healthcare

3) Net Neutrality

4) Balancing the budget ideas.

5) Repealing detrimental and overly enthusiastic tax cuts

6) Addressing the needs of Social Security

Do professional athletes make too much money, or do they deserve every penny?  Why?

While I cannot address all professional athletes, it does make sense to me why a professional football player would be worth the potentially millions of dollars they can earn in one year, and it all comes from a logical mathematical point of view.

If you go by Super Bowl numbers, the NFL has potentially over 1 Billion fans. In 2006 the NFL was estimated to have gross earnings of $6 Billion, with $3.7 Billion of those dollars earned from the network affiliates at ESPN, CBS, FOX, NBC, and the NFL Network.

On the expense side, each of the 32 teams had a regular season roster of 53 players. Each team was also allowed a practice squad of 8 players. I also calculated (using the Seattle Seahawks as an example) that the average professional football team has a coaching staff of around 20 people, and management/employee staff of around 127 people which brings us to a total of 208 people per franchise. 208 people per franchise multiplied by the 32 franchises in the league brings us to an estimated employee pool of 6,656 people (not including the unknown number of people who work with and for the commissioner of the league and the players union).

If you divide the $6 Billion in earnings by the estimated employee pool of 6,656 you arrive at an average earning of $901,442 per person. Some might argue that the players are being paid too much when some of that money could be spread around to all of the other employees who makeup up the NFL brand, but I would argue that because the players have to perform under such incredible pressure and because their earnings are not guaranteed should they become injured or unable to perform at the same high level consistently and because their earnings are often dependent on wins more than losses, they deserve $901,442 or more per year for their contributions to making this world a brighter and more fun place to be in.

Put another way, imagine the Super Bowl where the number of viewers reaches easily over 1 Billion. You have  2 teams, 106 players, 40 coaches, and 254 employees, all brought together to entertain those 1 Billion people. How much is that entertainment worth to each individual who is experienced the peaks and valleys of the NFL football game? $1 dollar a piece? More? Less?

I think we've all met the guy who is willing to spend hundreds on his cable or satellite bill in order to see his favorite team each year. To that guy, the Super Bowl is clearly worth more than $100 of his annual earnings. If every person who was watching paid only $1 per person and the amount was divided evenly among all the participants, each of the 400 participants would roughly receive  $2.5 million just from playing that one game, the Super Bowl. Is it their fault that so many people enjoy the sport? Put in that perspective is it really unfair to pay a top performing player say $10 million dollars for the entire regular season?  I think not.

Would we object if a person sold a piece of their art to the public for a nickel and over 1 billion people bought a copy? Would their contribution to the human experience during that moment not be worth the $50 million dollars they just earned?

What about the worth of the stories about the players exploits that can be handed down from father to son, mother to daughter?  Look back in hindsight at the importance of players such as Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan to their leagues. What is their worth, when now, years after their playing careers have ended, they are still providing entertainment to the masses?  What sporting fan doesn't have a memory or hasn't heard a great story from another fan who witnessed one of their sporting exploits?

To be fair to the professional athlete, I think we must also consider the unseen expenses that each athlete will incur during the average playing year. They will not keep all of those millions to themselves. If they are paid $10 million dollars in a season they will likely owe around 50% of those earnings to the U.S. government. From the remaining $5 million they will owe another $1 million to their agent. From the remaining $4 million they will pay for any personal trainers and chefs to stay in peak performance shape. They will also need to pay a portion for the services of various accountants, lawyers, and stockbrokers to manage the record keeping such earnings will require. They will spend another sizable sum in travel expenses related to keeping their public persona at a level commiserate with their pay.

And this is all just when we consider the top stars in the league. The average player in the league only earns the league minimum which is dependent upon the number of years of experience the player has in the league from $285,000 per year for a player with no experience in the league to $820,000 for a player with more than a decade of experience.

Also factor in that the average NFL player's career is only 4 years and you are talking about a huge income risk each player takes every time they step onto the football field.

In a country like America where we value the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, would it not be un-American to deny a just income for the efforts produced by each player?

What is the best beer on planet Earth? 
Submitted by Remmy Van Hornie.

A & W Root Beer

What song do you wish would never show up on a karaoke list?

Oh hell, there are plenty of songs I dread coming up on the karaoke list because they are frequently butchered.

1) "Stairway to Heaven" - Led Zepplin  
 The original is annoying enough without having to hear men trying to reach their inner falsetto.

2) Any country tune. I mean it. ANY Country tune.
Very few people sound appropriately hillbilly enough to pull this shit off.

3) Any female Pop star teen, panty flashers or not. This includes Britney, Mandy, and just about anyone else that we can recognize by one name. That goes for Prince as well.

Who would you trust with your life?

I probably could trust a bunch of people, but I think it would be wiser in the case of a life threatening event to trust my parents, my wife, or a qualified and insured first responder.