The Huffington Post

Posted on March 23, 2012 by RegenAxe

I am a liberal and I hate the Huffington Post. I hate the Drudge Report too, but I’ll hold-off on that. I was scrolling down on today’s front page of the Huff Post and I saw a link to an article that said, “Obama Hits Heckler”. Clicking it, I am taken to Arianna’s politics page. Scrolling down once again is another link to this article. This time the link has a picture of Obama speaking in-front of microphones and the caption, “Obama Hits Back at Heckler”. Finally, I reach the article and its headline says, “Obama Responds to Heckler during Energy Speech: ‘You’re Being Rude’”. I was lured into drilling-down by a salacious title, to what turned out to be a ho-hum story. All the while, I was being pelted with ads, which was the purpose of this exercise all along.

New HDR Shot of Monterey

I went from envisioning an attack from Obama, possibly involving a drone, to a tussle with the President that the Secret Service had to break up, to just words, and only half of the dialog at that. We never learn what the man heckling from the crowd said. From what Obama says to him from the podium, it apparently involved this man’s desire to give him a book to read. One only learns even this from watching the CBS News video feed of the event, after watching a commercial I might add. We never learn which book. The extent that the Huff Post exhibited any journalism at all was to echo another new source’s report.

Arianna Huffington learned her craft while working for Matt Drudge. For those of you not familiar with either of these two’s work, The Huffington Post is to the left, what the Drudge Report is to the right. Besides better politics, Arianna’s rag has better visuals than Matt’s, which has virtually none. It also reports on culture, which usually degrades to a laundry list of celebrity’s dirty laundry. Still, it is a guilty pleasure. Both Arianna and Matt perform a service for their various constituencies. Such a service is worthy of a fee, hence the ads, but to bait-and-switch the way she does is worthy only of tabloid journalism. I guess that is what she has sunk to, the National Enquirer of blogs.

Non-HDR Version

This is not what really pains me though. I do find it annoying, but what really hurts is the way she always goes all fangs out for Tina Brown and her Daily Beast/Newsweek organization, when ever she can. I know that they are competitors, but cattiness is never pretty and a girl fight is even worse. Brown has a healthy stable of writers who write real news articles, instead of trolling the internet in high-speed cigarette boats. You are never fast enough, if you are sourcing someone else’s material. Part of my anger is derived from what the Huffington Post once was, at least for me. Once it was my first source for much of its reporting. Maybe it is I that have changed and not Arianna. Maybe I have outgrown the supermarket checkout aisles and now prefer to U-scan my own news? They still put tabloids in the U-scan aisles, but watching and waiting for the previous customers to finish is so much more consuming.

The two photos are from my brother, Chris. He took them last night, while we were talking on the phone. They are the product of his new Canon 5D Mark III. It arrived just in time for his birthday. Over the phone, I could hear the shutter fluttering, as he snapped this HDR photo spread. Please be sure to click and enlarge these photographs. It is worth it. Once again, Happy Birthday Chris!

The Road We’ve Traveled

Posted on March 16, 2012 by RegenAxe

The beauty of this blog, my own little soapbox, is that I can speak out, whenever I feel like it. Sometimes more than once a day. Today is such a day. Early this morning, I was doing my morning ablutions, while concurrently surfing the web, not an easy combination to pull off and keep water out of the keyboard. I came upon the above embedded video. It is partisan to the core, so if President Obama is not your cup of tea, then skip it. It was published last night. I shared it on Facebook, this morning. It had only 14K hits then. Now it has ten times that. Way to go Facebook friends! 😉

If Obama is your cup of tea, then you’ll find this video chock full of Democratic luminaries. From Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, it begins in 2008, on election night. It recounts the last three plus years, their problems and the progress that we have made so far.

Underlying all of the successes claimed in this movie, is the statement; don’t forget how bad things were. Is this the audacity of hope that many Americans voted for in ’08? No, probably not. As Obama has quoted, “you campaign with poetry, but you govern in prose”. And then there were the Republicans. Their scorched earth obstructionism, audaciously killed hope, whenever they could. All the while claiming that the problems we faced, sprung full-grown from the forehead of Barack.

Another article surfed, while performing toiletry, asked conservatives the question, “How did Obama get elected in the first place?” A collection of man on the street interviews elicited the following responses: He tricked us; He tricked young people, who voted for him; He committed voter fraud. With these unrealistic viewpoints, how can any meaningful dialogue ever occur between the two parties?

Does the moniker, ensemble movie, really work in what is essentially a biopic? I noted the Democratic all-star cast. Anne noted that Bill Clinton got more air time than Joe Biden. Maybe he just took up more of the room? I noted that Nancy Pelosi only got a voiceover. I was surprised that Hilary didn’t get more screen time. This is a movie for the base, the Democratic base. If you don’t already know that you will be voting for Obama, then you’ve read too far.

My Personal Letter to Greg Smith

Posted on March 14, 2012 by RegenAxe

Fire and Ice

Dear Greg,

I know that today is Pi Day, but your NYT Op-Ed was a real pie in my face. To say that I was hurt is an understatement. I feel like a mother, who has been spurned by a thankless child. Twelve years? It seems so much shorter than that. I can remember first meeting you on that warm summer’s day, your first day on the job, a still wet behind the ears intern. I plucked you out of obscurity, mentored you, nurtured you, and this is how you repay my love?

A couple of years ago, when you moved away to London, I felt something was wrong. I tried to get you to speak with me, to open up, but you were already on your own trajectory. I wish now that then we could have talked. In the intervening two-years, our relationship has turned from one of respect, to one as toxic as I have ever seen.

Frankly, I don’t understand your going on-and-on about corporate culture. Goldman Sachs just stinks of culture. We have the best symphony, ballet and the opera seats that money can buy. Another thing, what’s wrong with Muppets. They’re lovable creatures. I get as emo about Elmo, as I do our customers. Are you some sort of [expletive deleted] culture warrior?

What is all of this talk about ax murders, or executing axes? [persuading clients to buy stocks that Goldman is trying to rid] My friends at RegenAxe take a personal exception to this kind of talk. You talk about hunting elephants [get clients to trade whatever, for Goldman’s biggest profit], but isn’t that the same as executing axes? This sounds like double indemnity to me. See I know some street jargon too. Then you go on about illiquid products and three-letter acronyms. First, illiquid is not illegal. Second, SEC, FBI, CIA, DEA are all three-letter acronyms, we do not trade any of these assets. They are the crown jewels of our portfolio.

All this being said, I understand and respect your opinions. Any criticism that you might have intended, will not be taken. If we part not as bosom buddies, than at least as colleagues. So, don’t let the [expletive deleted] door hit you on the way out!

Your best friend forever,
Lloyd C. Blankfein
CEO Goldman Sachs

PS – I hope that you [deleted] burn in hell forever.

An unnamed source approached RegenAxe, because he wanted, “a small, but reputable website, without too much exposure, so that this already too public story wouldn’t become even more so.” His words. We at RegenAxe were pleased to oblige. Not! We made this up of whole cloth. 😉

That’s the Sound of Freedom, Mam

Posted on January 28, 2012 by RegenAxe

Rolling Thunder

More than any other city that I know, Saint Louis loves a parade. It should be no surprise then that today, Saint Louis became the first major American city to hold a welcome home parade for our returning Iraq war veterans. The last American troops left Iraq, at the end of last year.

January is a risky month for parade weather, but other than a cold west wind, you couldn’t ask for a better day for a parade. After a week of rain and grey, today’s sky was brilliantly blue. Even at noontime, it was still cold enough for ice to linger on frozen rain puddles. Anne and I biked downtown. While, not as crowded, not even by half, as last fall’s Cardinal World Championship parade, there was still a respectable turnout.

We bounced around in the crowd, alternating to and fro, between the sun and the shade. Standing in the sun was much warmer, but there was better viewing in the shade. Go figure! Everyone was extra polite to everyone else. The crowd thanked the soldiers for their service and the soldiers thanked the crowd for turning out. In addition to the returning veterans, veterans of American wars dating back to WWII were also represented. There were some of the usual Saint Louisan paraders, like the Moolah go-kart guys, but not near as many as in most parades. I especially loved seeing the service people with their families. One of the largest demographic was bikers.

There was a large contingent of bicycle cops. There were also wounded veterans riding hand-cycles, with prosthetics proudly displayed. Most of the bikers though were riding Harley’s. Sporting American flags galore, there must have been literally hundreds of motorcyclists in the parade, and nary was a one wearing a helmet. In Illinois helmets are optional, but the parade was in Missouri where they are not. It was a parade though, so maybe the regular rules didn’t apply. Each wave of bikers would rev their engines for effect and in the meantime push their bikes forward, Fred Flintstone style with their feet. All this sound and fury, signifying nothing, was fine. It was part of the spectacle. All save one A-hole who had no muffler and delighted in creating an ear-splitting roar. Still, it was a parade, so none of the rules seemed to apply.

Sorry for this rant against bikers. I should be more conciliatory, because they are brother two-wheelers. It is just that I don’t see the connection between middle-age men, wearing leather and making a racket and military service. Maybe it is the demographic, or maybe it is just about the noise. Years ago, when I use to rub shoulders with the local National Guard pilots, Lindbergh’s Own, they would tell stories of Saint Louisans calling up to complain about the noise made whenever they flew their fighter jets, “The noise made by your airplane woke-up my baby!” Their answer was always the same, “That’s the sound of freedom, Mam.”

Teardown and Cleanup

Posted on March 2, 2011 by RegenAxe

On Tuesday Ray’s Tree Service showed up to remove our tree. I, (Anne), took over a hundred pictures of the process, and the damage that was more fully revealed when the tree was gone. Fortunately, the damage still looks fairly minimal, especially compared to the neighbors’ house behind us.

The first step was to figure out which way to position the cherry picker. Then the guy in the cherry picker took off the main branches working his way up. I picked up the witches broom that had formed at some point. When he had about half of the branches off, he stepped out of the cherry picker and walked up the trunk to our neighbor’s balcony, taking off more branches as he went. As he walked up the trunk, I remember Danny and David climbing the tree when they were little. “Remember; don’t climb any higher than the roof of the house!”

For a while the tree guys had tied a rope around the trunk and wrapped it over the cherry picker and around our standing tree. Apparently this method of raising the trunk off the neighbor’s balcony wasn’t going to work, so they went to Plan B. They moved the cherry picker out of the driveway, and then moved in “The Claw”. With “The Claw” holding the trunk in place, and a safety rope, they were able to chain saw through the trunk and lift the upper portion off our neighbor’s house. “The Claw” grabbed each successive piece as it was cut free and swung it around to the truck. Finally, “The Claw” grabbed the stump and pulled it free from the grip of the ivy, leaving a loverly heffalump trap. I kept one round of the trunk from near the base. I will count the rings and see how old the tree was. After lunch, the tree crew ran all the branches through the chipper and used a leaf blower on the driveway and sidewalks, and drove off to their next job. Thanks, guys, you did a great job!

Later in the afternoon, I watched a little bit of the tree removal job from our backyard neighbor’s house. Her tree broke the corner of the house, and damaged the empty house next to her too. Since the tree was in the backyard, they used both a cherry picker and a huge crane, to lift segments of the trunk up and over the house to the street. I didn’t see as much of this, because I spent a couple of hours looking for pictures of our tree throughout our time in the house. Didn’t find the ones I was looking for, but did find some from my (futile) attempt to rescue a blue jay fledging that had fallen from the nest in our tree. Dan can tell you all about the parental zeal of blue jays to protect the nest.

I had swept and collected bricks and broken glass (from the porch light) by the time Mark got home from work. Working together, Mark and I were able to take down the awning. There were only three cement bolts left to mess with, and Mark’s best tool was a crowbar. Tomorrow, it will be time to wash the windows, the absence of the tree reveals how dirty they are in the afternoon sun.

Huff, puff & blow the house down

Posted on March 1, 2011 by RegenAxe

On Sunday night, Anne and I stayed up to watch the Oscars. After the show, I went to bed and Anne soon followed. I fell quickly asleep, but Anne did not. First the tornado sirens going off kept her awake and then there the proverbial sound of a locomotive bearing down. Well, more like highway noise but just outside and it quickly passed. Afterwards, I woke up and noticed that the power was off. By then Anne was asleep and I went back to sleep too.

In the morning, I got up first. The power was still off, so it was cold and dark. I put on my glasses and peered out the bedroom window. Our backyard fence neighbor had lost a huge tree. It had fallen on her house and also on her next door neighbor’s roof too. I went to look out the front window and saw additional wreckage. There were several more downed trees to be seen, a small crowd of my neighbors gawking at them and several damaged vehicles.

It was only then that I noticed that something was missing, our beloved pine tree. When I focused on what I was looking at, I saw a root ball sticking up where our pine’s trunk had been. I called to Anne to get up. Moving to the front door, I opened it to the wreckage of our front porch and the pine blocking that entrance. Anne was up by then and groaned at her own realization. We got dressed and went out to see the destruction first hand.

A change of viewpoint didn’t improve the view. It only showed more damage. I went in to file the insurance claim. Unlike my auto accident, which was easy to report online using just my iPhone, for some reason I called an operator to make the claim. It took me forever. Watching the neighbors, photograph the scene, probably for their Facebook pages, didn’t help either. Watching a neighbor’s dog take-a-dump on the corpse of our beloved pine didn’t help at all. After agreeing on a tree service with our next door neighbor, who now shared our pine tree, I had to get out of there.

We bailed to Bread Co. On the way there we crossed the closed Big Bend Blvd. About a half-dozen high voltage power poles had been knocked over. Bread Co. was open, but slated soon to close. Ameren, the power company, planed on shutting off power for the day in order to repair the damage on Big Bend. We ate our muffins there, but took the rest of our coffee with us.

Returning home, we found the power was back on again. I called the tree service and the insurance company again and left another set of messages. With nothing else to do, I decided to go to work. I had a lot to do there and seemingly nothing left to do at home. Besides there, I had plenty of opportunities to repeat and refine my story for this post. After work, the sun was out and the other damaged neighbor’s properties had been cleaned up. Our house still had our fallen pine as a glaring exception, but the tree service is supposed to be by this morning. Beyond today, we still need to press our claim and get the awning, brickwork and roof repaired. We also need to replant.