Is It Almost Dawn In NEPA?

• Luzerne County judges indicted for taking cash kick-backs for sending kids to jail
• Almost an entire courthouse that looked the other way while two judges took cash kick-backs for sending kids to jail
• School districts mired in "pay for job" teacher hiring schemes
• The Lackawanna Single Tax Office investigated (but ultimately found to be too screwed up to even properly audit) for having several million dollars in a combined account
• Luzerne County row officer found selling used cars during working hours
  
• A ranking state senator sitting on corporate boards for industries that he has a hand in regulating AND having the state pay him to rent office space (for him) AND paying a well-known political consultant to provide communications services (despite a staff of people already paid by the taxpayers to do this)
• An investigation into the construction costs of an airport terminal that seems far larger than what is required (story link here)

Now I know I've missed a scandal or three, but the point is this: so much seems to be coming out now that it makes me wonder two points aloud:

1. Is NEPA possibly the most corrupt single region in the country?
2. Is it almost dawn?

They say that the night sky is at it's darkest right before dawn. The implication for us, as residents of NEPA is that maybe, finally, this region is getting the attention it deserves from a public corruption investigation perspective. Unlike some residents of NEPA, I've actually lived other places, so I don't subscribe to the "grass is always greener" philosophy. There are great reasons to want to want to live and work in NEPA, and for those who can't see them, I have some saged advice: Move.

The fact remains though that there seems to be a pervasive mentality among some residents in the area that political corruption is bad, unless of course it helps me (or my family, or my friends, etc.). If the sum total of what is happening in the area in this arena does any good, it will be to change that mentality once and for all.

As a final note, what I'm NOT TALKING ABOUT is the nonsense that you read in message boards, etc. where every politician who makes a bone-headed move is being automatically being tagged with the "he is a corrupt thief" label. That line of reasoning is used ad nauseum when it comes to Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty, and I simply don't buy it. I probably disagree with the Mayor as much as I agree with him, but there is a difference between...

...I don't like the guy
...His priorities are different than mine

and...

...He is corrupt

When everyone is tagged as being corrupt then no one will ever want to serve. That will end up hurting this area far more than it will help.

So let's hope that the good work of rooting out corruption doesn't turn into an excuse by some to conduct personal witch-hunts. This can and will work if we all follow a simple rule: hard evidence first, aspersions second.

More Doctors Smoke Camels

Ah the good old days, when people just didn't think about things like lung cancer...

10 Things I'd Rather Do Than Support 'SarahPAC'

I saw an advertisement on the Drudgereport requesting readers to support 'SarahPAC', the political action committee of soon-to-be-former Governor of Alaska (and former mayor of a town the size of Dunmore PA) Sarah Palin. That got me to thinking: now just what would I rather do than support 'SarahPAC'? Putting aside all the fun things in life for a moment, here are a few things that would still be above my providing any kind of support to Todd's wife:

1. Work in a Mexican sewage treatment plant.
2. Be one of the late Michael Jackson's creditors (now that would be frustrating).
3. Wash dogs for a living (I find fewer things smell worse than a wet dog).
4. Be responsible for emptying Courtney Love's trash (can you imagine what you'd find?).
5. Write copy for "The Catholic Light".
6. Try to making a living selling Wall Street Journal subscriptions in Oil City, PA (inside joke...).
7. Be a police officer and try to give Professor Gates a parking ticket.
8. Be Rush Limbaugh's 'Hillbilly Heroin' supplier.
9. Clean up road kill...in Georgia...in August.
10. Help OJ find the real killer.
    

Senator Bob Mellow

The latest foible in the Senator's political career is linked here.

Unrepentant, unmitigated, unashamed GREED, unchecked lust for POWER, ARROGANCE.

I should leave the entire blog entry with just the above, because I think it says it all. Now in all fairness, you can't completely blame Senator Mellow, in the same sense that you can't completely blame a drug-addict for his/her condition; after all, in the case of an addict, someone had to supply him/her with the narcotics. In the case of Senator Mellow there is also blame to go around:

FIRST, to the voting population of Senator Mellow's district, who have given this gentlemen a free pass at the voting booth all these years. That's the problem with con-men: they can only apply their craft if there are those gullible enough to be conned in the first place.

SECOND, to the local newspapers who have given the Senator a pass all these years up until now. While I'm glad that some of these issues are coming to light, some have existed for years without much scrutiny from the folks at The Scranton Times.

THIRD, to a political system in Harrisburg designed around perpetuating abuse through "tough as tissue paper" ethics standards, a classic case of the fox being allowed to watch the hen-house.


Bottom Line: Senator Mellow has abused the trust of these he is elected to serve through blatant conflicts of interest (serving on boards of organizations he in turn has a say in regulating). He has enriched himself with taxpayer dollars (through having the state pay rent to a company partially owned family members). He has inflated his ego at taxpayer expense by using taxpayer money for things that end up getting named after him. He has engaged in the worst kinds of political maneuvering (being a proponent of late night pay raises for legislators).

Senator Mellow should resign, period.

"...I'd let you watch, I would inivte you, but the Queens we use would not excite you..."

The title is from the song "One Night in Bangkok", which is from the musical Chess. It's really just an ABBA song that's just not sung the the ABBA ladies (instead it's sung by Murray Head). Anyway, I love the line. It refers to a guy playing the nerdy game of chess while in the midst of a sex-crazed city. I heard it for the first time in a long while as I was driving back from Hartford yesterday evening.

As noted above, I was traveling this week. Maybe it's just me but when I'm working out of town it's as if my life suddenly collapses into this transparent bubble, with only so many things within reach (inside the bubble), but yet I can see things outside the bubble. I know, that's a difficult analogy to make, but it's the best I can come up with. It's as if my reach were far greater than my grasp. In a lot of ways it has always been that way, although now that my girls are much older (16, soon to be 17 & 21) I have less to worry about on the home front. This is only a partial comfort, as that "worry void" doesn't remain completely void, instead being filled up with the work stuff that only gets more complex each and every year.

Work, a true four letter word.

Maybe I am not alone in this, but I have this "love - hate" relationship with work. Yes, I like getting paid and I'm not one for sitting on my butt anyway, but still there are times when the levels of stress that it produces have been so great that I've felt as if I was going to literally burst into a million pieces. Think the planet as it's getting destroyed by the DeathStar during the first Star Wars movie.

About the closest I've ever come to the explosion thing actually happening occurred this past Tuesday night. I was training all day, it was just a rough, long day. At the time things just didn't seem to be working, I wasn't sure what to do, and the whole situation seemed devoid of any hope. Feeling so depleted, I thought I'd go to the movies, which I did. Sitting the the theater watching "Bruno", all I could think about was the seeming pickle I was in at work. No hope what so ever. Needless to say I didn't enjoy the movie, but then again I just don't think that the movie was all that entertaining (it was very funny in spots, exceptionally difficult to watch in others) to begin with. Making matters worse, I got lost going home...something about not being familiar with that part of Hartford, the dark, and the rainstorm. For some strange reason though, just as I was finding my way back to the hotel (by just driving in what I thought was the right direction and looking for landmarks), I seemed to gain a little better perspective on the whole work thing. It was a strange juxtaposition of getting physically and mentally lost I suppose. By the time I found the hotel I found inside my head something of a plan to begin dealing the the stickier elements of what was happening in the office.

I know, the above reads like something you'd find in a bad motivational book, but I swear it's the truth.

Anyway, yesterday's training went well and I have inside my head at least some thoughts on how my work on this particular project will proceed. I'll get by.

Now it's back to the grind in a slightly larger bubble.

Assorted Political Silliness That I've Seen & Heard

The GOP Healthcare Graphic
This is silliness for one simple reason: It's nothing more than a shameless attempt to scare people into the status quo. Want a really scary graphic? Build one of the current healthcare system in this country, complete with references to every party in chain wanting a 15% ROI year over year. Now that is both silly and scary.

Oh, and as for the "lady in England has to wait 6 months to get her arthritis treated" stuff, well it takes six months for my teenage daughter to get an appointment to get his scoliosis checked via my Geisinger Health Plan coverage. So much for that argument.

The Michael Jackson Resolution
This is silliness that seems to have past. I think it was Congressman Maxine Waters wanted something passed in Congress to honor the late Michael Jackson. Sorry, but that's far too silly even for Congress, as the idea died. Score one for our national legislature, as for once they got it right.

Pennsylvania's Budget (or lack thereof)
The heat turns on, as state employees will not get paid. If I were them I would be pissed, Hell, as a taxpayer I am already pissed, as Pennsylvania's legislature proves yet again that it is more interested in self-preservation and pandering to political bases than it is in actually running an efficient and effective state government. GOP - Taxes will have to raised. Democrats - Programs will have to be cut. Not get on with it already.

Oh, and let's make sure that members of the legislature aren't renting office space from themselves anymore.

Slavery Apologies
Slavery is immoral and as practiced in the United States 100+ years ago it was evil. Can we move on now?

Sarah Palin
I have the Vanity Fair article to read yet, which should be interesting. Bottom line is that if Ms Palin can't handle the heat of being the governor of Alaska, then I don't think she has much a future in politics period. If she does want to continue with a political career, I suggest she go to a "political boot camp" of sorts, you know, like running for City Council in Scranton.

Chris Doherty Wants To Be Governor
Now this isn't really all that silly, as I think he has done a good job on balance as Mayor of Scranton. The silly part will come into play as the jockeying would begin to replace him. That's speculation I'll leave to a later date, but suffice to say there aren't a lot of stellar alternatives.

In the "It Better Not Happen" Department (related to silliness)
There had better not be any single part of the new Medical College in Scranton that bears the name of Bob Mellow, Not so much as a freak'n brick. The man funneled our money into this...not his own. It's time for the shameless promotion of politicians (Casey Highway, McDade Park, McDade Expressway, Mellow Theater...) to end.

Road Apples #36

Sirius - After much debate, I decided to renew my Sirius Satellite radio subscription for another six months. It was a difficult decision, and I was very, very close to canceling it. In fact, one of these days I really need to call those guys and find out what the deal is with 'a-la carte' channel pricing. While there are 120 channels available, I honestly maybe listen to about ten of them, probably less than 10%. Of that, about 75% of the time I am just listening to Howard Stern. Why am I paying $12/month for channels I don't listen to? More to come on this one.

Howard Stern - Probably the single biggest reason why I got Sirius was to listen to Howard Stern. I first started to listen to Howard back in the late 80's, when I was living in York Pennsylvania and I could pick up his show from, I think, Washington DC. Since then, whenever I lived near a market that broadcast his show (such as when I lived in Florham Park NJ in 1989) I would listen regularly, as well as when I would be traveling on business. In my personal opinion the show was probably at its height back around 1990 or so, back when Billy West was on along with Howard, Jackie, etc. Those days are long gone, but the show can still be pretty funny, although not what I would call consistently funny. Yesterday's show was hilarious (lots of Michael Jackson stuff, as well as an interview with Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" character). Sometimes I find the "modern" show pretty bad, mainly when Howard has "friends" of his in the studio (Jerry O'Connell for example, who is simply boring) or when the rags on about his model wife or some other celebrity stuff. The show was at its funniest when Howard was more like a "regular" guy, not a millionaire celebrity. One other thing: am I the only Stern fan out there who really thinks that Artie Lange mostly adds nothing to the show?

On The Road Again - I'm staring down several weeks of training in our Hartford CT office. In fact, much of August will be spent training, which means much of the summer will be burned off before I can really enjoy it. I keep telling myself that "next year it will be different", but then "next year" comes around, it's summer again, and I'm submerged in work. That's not the fault of anyone at work, it's my fault. I need to do a better job of managing expectations, both for myself and for my employer. Remembering that "no one will give you what you want if you don't ask for it" is an important concept to remember.

It's July 14th And There Is No State Budget - Funny, but if I didn't do my job I would be in trouble. In Harrisburg, not doing your job is considered to be "business as usual", as legislators continue to rack up per diem reimbursements for sitting around not passing a budget. Outside of California, which I will admit is even more messed up than Pennsylvania, it's hard to imagine a more ineffective state legislature.

State Senator Mellow Rents An Office To Himself - Yes, that all around politician's politician has once again managed to find the razor's edge of ethics and is yet again waltzing over it. With all due respect to the good Senator, we expect you to follow the BOTH the LETTER and the SPIRIT of the law. More proof that our state legislature is highly dysfunctional (at best).

Slowly Recovering

In the "probably no one gives a rat's rectum but me" department...

...the titanium screw seems to be coexisting nicely with my upper jaw
...slowly but surely my back pain is diminishing
...the rapid-onset headaches from two weeks ago seem to have gone away

...life is truly grand.

Motivation

"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script'. If he says, 'But what's my motivation?', I say, 'Your salary'".

- Alfred Hitchcock


What is it that motivates us? Is there in fact any one "thing" that motivates us all? I don't know. For me, there are times when nothing what-so-ever motivates me; at those times I have more in common with a carbon rod than any sentient life-form. Yes, sometimes motivation is, shall we say, an elusive quantity.

Now I do find that when I am unmotivated, sometimes the best thing for me to do is to simply do something. Sometimes I just need that ever-so-slight push to get me going. Simple. huh? Well not so fast, as that "little push" is harder than a Geometry proof to come up with; sometimes it's nearly impossible to find. Bottom line: motivation is a tough one for me.

So anyway, here are a few things that probably should motivate me, and how I think I react to them on a scale of 1 (not motivating at all) to 10 (highly motivating).


Independence (10) -
I find the concept of being dependent upon someone else to be repugnant, and I say that as someone who as been there. Much of what I've done in my personal life over the past ten years has been squarely aimed at become more independent. I've walked down a path where I've come to realize that dependence is a license to feel bad and be disappointed. Now this isn't to say that I don't think I can trust anyone, because that definitely not the case. There are people I trust, and trust deeply. However, for me to freely give and accept that trust, I have to know inside of myself that I don't need it. It's like a gift: giving a gift because you want to is always better than giving a gift because you have to. For me, being independent liberates me from the notion that I interact with others because I have to. It's not a perfect motivator, but it seems to work for me.

Morality (9) -
I don't know if "morality" is the right word, but it's as good as any that I can think of to describe the notion of trying to do the "right thing". For me, whether at work or at home, I always am asking myself if a particular course of action represents "the right thing" to do. It's a delicate balance, because sometimes you have to do something that can make one person upset but another person happy. Now I'm not claiming that morality is just about popularity, because it isn't. I've made more than a few very unpopular decisions in my life, but I'd at least like to think that when I did, it was to serve the betterment of a higher purpose.

Helping Others (7) -
I like to help other people. Sometimes that means just listening. Sometimes that means more than that. Interesting, huh? If you knew me at work, you'd think that I was basically this cold, almost unfeeling "thing", but one of the reasons why I continue to do what I do is because I get a genuine thrill out of making some small aspect of a person's job easier. The same thing holds true outside of work. The '7' note above is something of an aggregate. as there are some people for whom I would do anything to help (more like a 10) and there are others...a very, very small group...where I'd have to think first about throwing them a life-preserver.

Money (7) -
Money is something of a motivator, but not a complete one. One of the things I've learned working in the business world for these 23+ years is that there isn't a straight-line correlation between hard work and compensation. There simply isn't. I know some folks at work who both out-rank me and go home at 4:10pm each day, without fail. I also know some folks who earn far less than me who seem to work non-stop. For me, it's always been something of a delicate balance between what I think I'm worth and what others who do similar work are being paid. Put another way, money is a motivator to the extent that I think I'm being compensated "fairly". Note the quotes, as "fair" is a relative term.

Learning (6) -
I truly enjoy learning new things. Sometimes the process of learning can be complex and convoluted, but never-the-less I do enjoy and am motivated by the prospect of learning new things

Power/Control(5) -
I don't desire much in the way of control over others. That kind of thing is over-rated. It's also very tiring. The kind of "power" that I want has more to do with an ability to be able to control these things around me that impact me.

God (3) -
I'd like to start this out by saying something about my "relationship with God", but yet I can't, as that would seem to imply something that I don't know exists. The frustrated Scientist in me always wants some proof that God exists, the other part of me thinks that this is why we have the concept of faith (so that we can in fact suspend the need for proof). Regardless, I can't say that the concept or being of God is much of a motivator. That's not to say though that I am not a moral person, because I do think that I am, and I do think that someone can be morally upstanding and not be a believer in God. I don't know if I'm that far down the road yet.

Fear (2) -
Fear is a motivator for all of us I suspect, but I can't say that I do many things out of fear. That I will say is a benefit of getting older: you just seem to fear less, maybe because you get closer to the only thing that there really is to fear in life: death.

Popularity (2) -
To say that I don't care what others think would be wrong, because I do. However, to say that what others think motivates me to do certain things would be an out-and-out lie. I will always do what I think is right before I'll do what I think is popular.

Getting Screwed

Well yesterday was "phase 2" of my dental implant saga, and I certainly "got screwed".

Actually what they did was punch a little section of my gum out, drill a hole, drive a titanium screw into the hole, and cap the hole thing off. So yes, while my bones may turn to dust in a few hundred years, in my casket you will find one perfectly preserved titanium screw among the dust that remains of my body. Immortality of a sort I suppose.

The procedure itself went well. I think I was in and out in less than an hour. Afterward I had some pain in where the screw was placed, but it wasn't anything that some Advil couldn't help. Since I had so much bone to work with and since stitches were not required, I didn't need to be put on a post-procedure anti-biotic. I'm fine with that, as I've always felt that the less medication used, the better.

What's next? Well the bone tissue in my upper jaw needs to grow around the screw so that it is completely permanent. After that they will secure a porcelain molar over the screw and I will be done. That I think will come in a few months. Up immediately next is a check-up with the Periodontist on Friday the 23rd to make sure that all looks well.

This whole thing started with a crown that I had cracking, resulting in an infection in the root of the tooth. I had the option of getting bridge work done, but that would have ended up destroying three teeth and the bridge work would not be permanent. I wanted something that would be fixed more or less forever, which led me to the decision to get the dental implant. The worst part, so far, was the extraction of the cracked tooth root...I think the procedure took something like 45 minutes of the Periodontist digging around to get all the fragments and gobs of infected tissue out and placing the bone graft in my jaw.

Did I mention that my insurance covers none of this?

So there you have it, I really am screwed. I wonder if this will set off airport metal detectors? That would be pretty cool.