Tea Party Becomes Diluted

Posted on May 29, 2014 by bvanrysdam

A funny thing happened on the way to the recent run-off election; the “Official” Tea Party of Montgomery County, better known as the Texas Patriot PAC (TPPAC) got hijacked and now they’re madder than the notorious wet hen.

The TPPAC was founded to organize, educate, inform citizens regarding public policy, and to support the election of local, state and national candidates who share their core values. Those values include upholding the constitution, free markets, limited government, fiscal responsibility and political action.

So why are they so angry? Seems that not all conservatives agreed with them and decided they would go out and form their own Tea Party which caused the TPPAC to cry foul. The TPPAC did not like the fact the other “faux” Tea Parties were trying to fool the voters (a la Dave Wilson implying he was black to win election to the HCC board of trustees).

Ultimately, only 1 of the 4 local candidates the TPPAC endorsed won the run-off.

They posted on their website:

A bunch of people who have never had anything to do with any tea party activity decided to call themselves a Tea Party about a month ago and put out a “Voter Guide” to fool the people, claiming they were a legitimate Tea Party.

This begs the question of what is a “legitimate” Tea Party since there is no official vetting and no national organization that can recognize or deny a local group to call themselves a Tea Party.

The TPPAC went on to say that:

We knew we would likely be outspent by multiples of our capacity to raise funds and decided to apply our efforts through “sweat equity.”

Now we all know that money talks and has always bought influence in government. Did anyone really think Ted Cruz won simply because the Tea Party knocked on doors or because he spent more than $16 million with nearly $1 million coming from lawyers and law firms. What is ironic is that, on the one hand, they promote free markets, but then complain when the free market outspends them. It truly is a have your cake and eat it too mentality.

Brian Crumby, a Montgomery County Tea Party volunteer and board member has posted numerous messages on the Conroe Courier website lamenting “the way I read last night’s elections is the majority of voters in the county believe in the tea party’s conservative message, but it got hijacked again.” Or in other words, tea party voters are not as smart as they think they are.

I have always wondered what the people who hang out at polling locations, promoting their candidate hope to accomplish. I think its fine to do research and yes, see what different groups including the Tea Party(s) say about various candidates, but if a person still doesn’t know who they are voting for when heading to the polls, they should probably turn around and go home.

Maybe the TPPAC become too big and powerful, maybe they stepped on some toes and made some conservatives upset. What upsets me is that State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor receiving votes from only 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters. In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, David Alameel of Dallas receiving votes from just 1 percent of the people who can vote in Texas. Sounds like a shadowy mandate to me.

FCC Looks To Screw Up Internet

Posted on May 16, 2014 by bvanrysdam

The continuing clash over net-neutrality is picking up speed. The Federal Communications Commission recently voted on a proposal that could allow Internet service providers to charge content companies for faster and more reliable delivery of their traffic to users.

By a 3-2 vote, the commission advanced the proposal and has begun formally collecting public comment, which has already started.

In typical Washington fashion, the proposed rule is intended to prevent Internet providers from knowingly slowing data, but would allow content providers the right to pay for a guaranteed fast lane of service. Many opponents of the plan say allowing some content to be transmitted faster would basically discriminate against other content.

“Candidate Obama promised to defend a free and open Internet, pledging to take a ‘backseat to no one’ on the issue of Net Neutrality,” said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress in an emailed statement. “The President can’t run away from this. Internet users across the country are demanding answers.”

Consumer advocates want to see the FCC reclassify Internet providers as utilities, similar to telephone companies. That’s because a 2005 US Supreme Court decision ruled that broadband services are not to be classified as telecommunications services and its infrastructure is not considered a public right of way.

“I will not allow the national asset of an open Internet to be compromised. I understand this issue in my bones,” said Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC during the meeting.

The public will have until July 15 to submit initial comments on the proposal to the commission, and until Sept. 10 to file comments replying to the initial discussions.

Saving College Football From Itself

Posted on April 29, 2014 by bvanrysdam

There has been a lot of discussion lately about college athletics, specifically college football. It is obvious that there is a major disparity between the haves and the have not’s. Realistically, 90 percent of schools have no shot at winning a national championship, or even being invited to a major bowl game.

There has also been greater focus put on whether or not football athletes are being used unfairly to generate money for their respective universities. One school, Northwestern, has voted to unionize while athlete directors seem to talk more these days about expanding the brand and generating revenue than helping student athletes succeed.

So where do we go from here? Perhaps the solution can be found across the pond by taking a page from the Barclay’s Premiere League. The league, for those uninformed sports fans, features England’s best soccer clubs. The clubs play matches outside the league, but winning the Barclay’s is equivalent to winning a Super Bowl or being named National Champions.

Now before you say “I hate soccer, it’s boring”; what makes the Barclay’s Premiere Leagues so unique is that they “relegate” teams every year. That means the bottom three clubs are kicked out and new ones added. (I’m sure the Texans and the Astros are glad the NFL and MLB don’t follow this policy).

The beauty of this set-up is that it creates drama at the top and bottom of the standings. First you would need to set up a “Super Football Conference”. I know there will be lots of disagreement about the criteria, but for the sake of argument, let’s pick last year’s BCS Top 25 schools. Those not making the cut would remain in their respective conferences.

The top four teams in the BCS standings at the end of the year were Florida, Auburn, Florida State and Michigan State. These schools could have competed in a play-off system to determine the national championship. USC, Duke and Northern Illinois finished at the bottom of the list and would be relegated out of this super conference and returned to their respective conferences.

The incentive is that opens the door to three other schools to join this super conference. Again, the exact criteria would need to be worked out as to how to select those schools. It could be best record, followed by most points scored in a season, but you get the idea and it would give a lot of schools the opportunity to play with the big boys that they might not have gotten in the past.

Perhaps a super conference could also address some of the disparity in college football by allowing them to have different rules including paying athletes and other issues facing big time college football. Yes, this means schools could lose some of their traditional rivalries, but in a world where Texas no longer plays Texas A&M and bowl games seem to extend into February, it might just take a radical move to save college football from itself.

Let the debate begin.

5 Reasons why Barclay’s Premier Soccer is worth watching

Posted on April 28, 2014 by bvanrysdam

#5: Introduction of the teams.

There’s no pyrotechnics or loud obnoxious music to get fans pumped up. Both teams enter the pitch side by side at the same time, often holding the hands of young soccer fan. The home team then walks calmly down the line and shakes the visiting team’s hands and officials.

#4: The fans

Soccer fans are notorious for being fanatical about their teams and with good reason; some of these teams have been playing over 150 years. It’s not unusual to see fans singing the team fight song throughout the entire game while cheering, moaning and flashing their team’s colors.

#3: There are no TV timeouts.

While there are plenty of times play is halted, you won’t be inundated with commercial after commercial. You will see little pop-up ads while play is taking place, but it never interferes with the pace or flow the match. Just make sure you visit the Loo prior to the opening whistle.

#2: Close enough is fine

It is interesting how, in the world of the NFL where every inch of yardage is scrutinized and debated, soccer players simply pick up a ball that went out of bounds and then take a few steps either way to throw the ball back in. The same thing occurs when a ref calls a foul. The ball is simply placed in the “area” where the foul occurred and play is continued. There is no replay to determine the exact spot of where the ball should be placed which adds to more delays and hence more advertisements to sit through.

#1: Relegation

As the season draws towards the end, all eyes are on the top and bottom of the standings. Not because the bottom three teams will be in a position to draft a good player, but because they will be kicked out of the league. Seeing as how the Houston Texans and Astros finished dead last last year, you have to believe they’re glad they don’t play in the Barclay’s Premier League.

FCC Changes Its Mind

Posted on April 24, 2014 by bvanrysdam

It appears the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has done an about face with its policy towards net neutrality according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.

The new plan would grant Internet service providers the ability to give websites favored treatment meaning they would have priority over other sites and deliver faster service.

The catch is the ISP’s would charge such sites fees for better access. Companies like Netflix could have to pay extra fees which would give their service greater bandwidth and thus a better user experience, but I’m sure you can guess who will pick up those extra costs.

Now the new proposal under consideration would ban the outright blockage of sites that are not willing, or able to pay for the faster access, but to many internet activists, that’s not good enough. There is a fear that ending net neutrality could stifle innovation and Internet startups from competing for page views and revenue.

If a gaming company could not afford to pay for the high speed access, interest may vanish among the gamers and the company might not be able to survive. And there are also concerns that companies like Comcast, the nation’s largest provider of high-speed internet service who also owns NBC-Universal and is trying to purchase Time Warner Cable, would really limit the number of options available to consumers.

None of this has been approved and it is expected that the FCC will vote on the new rules near the end of this year, but after the January ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, you can be sure your surfing experience will have a new feel.

Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by bvanrysdam

By now I’m sure you have seen the “selfie” video of Jared Frank, the 22 year old Canadian who was kicked in the head by a worker on passing train while traveling in Peru. Like most of you, I thought what an idiot until I learned that he could earn some big bucks for his viral video.

He has reportedly made a deal with a licensing company (Jukin Media) that could net the young man $30,000 to $250,000 in revenue. His original train kick video had accrued more than 23 million views and growing daily.

There was some debate if the video was real or staged, but like most things on the internet, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Flying the Unfriendly Skies

Posted on April 22, 2014 by bvanrysdam

In a report that should surprise no one, customer satisfaction with airlines remains low. That’s according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), who surveys roughly 70,000 customers about the various products and services they use.

What is interesting to note is that most passengers are generally pleased with the check-in process and booking, but rate in-flight service and lack of seat comfort as major factors to the dismal rating. Over-all, the airline industry scores 69 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale and remain among the lowest-scoring categories in the Index, beating only subscription TV service, social media and internet service providers.

JetBlue remains the highest-scoring airline with an ACSI rating of 79 barely edging out Southwest which came in at 78. Delta jumped up 4% from last year to increase to 71. US Airways and American Airlines also saw small gains and ended up tied at 66.

United has the dubious distinction of posting the lowest score among the major carriers , dropping 3% from last year to post a 60 with 30% of their passengers giving an ACSI score below 50. The report concluded that “the acquisition of Continental appears to play a role here—frequent and continual problems with reservations and refunds three years after the merger are problematic.”

“We’ve seen time and time again the negative impact mergers have on customer satisfaction. American Airlines may also see a slump in satisfaction as it combines operations with US Airways,” said Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder through the ACSI website. “Southwest led the industry for 17 years until it merged with AirTran in 2011 and Delta is just now recovering from its 2008 merger with Northwest.”

The Magic of San Gimignano

Posted on March 18, 2014 by bvanrysdam

Exploring Tuscany is like searching for that perfect plate of pasta. You can become overwhelmed by so many places that you worry you missed something along the way. From Florence, to Sienna, to Pisa, the Old World charm and rustic countryside provides ample locations to eat; drink and soak up some incredible history. But, if you are interested in a one special place off the beaten path, go visit San Gimignano.

San Gimignano is a historic town that dates back to 63 B.C. Known as “The Manhattan of Italy,” San Gimignano boasted 72 towers in the 14th century when families displayed their power and wealth. When a family lost its influence, their towers would be removed by rivals. Today, only 13 towers remain, but that does not lessen the charm.

The town became important for its location for pilgrims who traveled to Rome, mainly from France. The detour to the port of Pisa made San Gimignano one of the most important transit and stopping sites for all travelers. Today San Gimignano is not an easy place to get to. There is no train station or major highway nearby. One must depend on the local bus service, or participate in an excursion. While I normally prefer to travel outside of groups, my excursion allowed for us to wander freely around the town with no guide or group to follow.

Entering the enormous Porta San Giovanni instantly takes one back in time. Streets made of brick house little shops that sell everything from a wide assortment of Tuscany food including wild boar, fine works of art and the ever prevalent tacky magnets. One can’t help but feel the aura of a fairy-tale town that has been witness to much over its history.

Every step you take in San Gimignano affords a brilliant photo opportunity. Whether it’s looking up at one its majestic towers, admiring a tiny church or gazing across the Tuscany landscape, one is grateful for the world of digital cameras and very large memory discs.

Thankfully, there is also plenty to eat and drink including a special local wine called Vernaccia di San Gimignano. The wine was first cited back in 1276, when the Commune of San Gimignano instilled a duty tax for imports and exports. Vernaccia has been enjoyed by many over the years including Pope Martin IV, Dante Alighieri as well as powerful governors like Ludovico il Moro and Lorenzo il Magnifico.

If your feet get tired, try resting in the Piazza della Cisterna and indulge in some Italian ice cream from Gelateria Dondoli (who boasts winning the Ice Cream World Championships in 2006-07 and 2008-09). You can enjoy your gelato while sitting on the cistern admiring the Torre del Diavolo, (the Devil’s Tower) whose story is that its owner, returning from a long journey, found it unexplainably higher which he ascribed as the work to the Devil.

Tuscany seems to be one of those places where one can never get enough, but if you are up for a little adventure, try spending some time in San Gimignano. You may just find it has the right ingredients to make your visit to Tuscany picture perfect.