The Voice of Doom and Gloom

Flash Fiction: Circling the Edge

Kevin — Sun, 20 May 2012 20:04:26 +0000

“I’ve fallen from grace and I can’t get up!”

“Very funny Tommy. Get up off the floor,” said the priest.

Tommy Morreti got up and brushed dirt off his slacks. “Father Mike, where’s your sense of humor?”

Father Mike poured himself a healthy slug of Jameson and fell into the worn black leather chair in his small, book-lined living room. A single lamp lit the area around his reading chair, throwing very dim light in the rest of the small room.

“Father, those guys won’t miss the money, rich bastards. And you need it for the school. And, you need it to get this rug of yours cleaned.”

Father Mike looked out the window at the dark street outside the rectory. Even in the darkness he could see the peeling paint around the window frame. “Tommy – Is it still a sin when we steal from evil people for a good cause? I used to know these things. Now, I just get confused.”

Tommy grabbed his jacket from the floor and started toward the door.

“It’ll be OK Father. I’m going now.”

“Bye Tommy. Peace be with you.”

Father Mike wrenched himself slowly from the chair, grabbed his glass, and walked into the church to make sure all the lights were off. As he walked on the altar from the sacristy, he noticed the lights in the confessionals were still on. He walked over to the bank of switches behind the altar and turned them off. He heard deep, but quiet laughter. It wasn’t the first time. He turned and looked up at the choir loft and saw the shining red eyes.

“What do you want?” Father Tom asked.

“Nothing Father. Just watching and waiting. You circle closer and closer to the edge”

Father Mike took a healthy slug of the Irish whiskey, turned his back on the choir loft and walked back to the rectory.

The Conservative Media and the Alternate Energy Industry

Kevin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:55:18 +0000

Why does the conservative media react with glee when some new energy technology suffers some glitch? Why are they so happy when a solar company does poorly? Why do they cackle so when Chevy Volt sales aren’t as expected, or when GM’s revolutionary car is being checked for fire problems? Why are they so happy when the wind turbine industry suffers a setback? I really don’t get it.
Is this the reaction conservatives had about those “new-fangled” automobiles that would never replace the horse and buggy? Did they squeal with joy when electric lights failed early in their technological development? All new technologies suffer setbacks. It takes time to work this stuff out and get it right. Giving up on alternative energy approaches at the first glitch (which it seems like the conservative media would prefer) isn’t the answer.
Oh, and don’t tell me it’s because of government subsidies for the alternative energy industry! The automobile, aircraft, and oil industries have received massive subsidies from the taxpayers over the decades, and still do. If it was OK for those industries, why not other industries?
It seems beyond my understanding. It’s like conservatives just want to stay with the same entrenched interests regardless of what is best for us. Anything we can do to wean ourselves from oil and make the middle east countries irrelevant to the United States (and the world) is in our best interest. Drill baby drill all you want, but our long term interest will still be best served by switching to transportation fuel sources other than oil – and electric vehicles, solar, and wind power – along with safe nuclear, natural gas and clean burning coal – will be a big part of that. We surely have untapped oil reserves here in the United States, but not enough to significantly control the price of oil. And, high oil prices are a big drag on our economy. We should drill for more oil, but that should be looked at as a short-term fix – while we work hard on a long term energy strategy.
Why are conservative media talking heads so disdainful of that approach? Why shouldn’t we be the leaders in alternative energy technologies? Do they want China or Europe to lead in that area? I’d sure like to understand their interest in all this and why they seem so joyful when our homegrown alternative energy efforts run into roadblocks.

Just Goofing Around…

Kevin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:07:18 +0000

I got tired of messing with spreadsheets.

The Voice of Doom and Gloom Asks You to Help Stem the Decline of our Culture: Help Water Street Studios’ After School / Summer Camp Program!

Kevin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:23:07 +0000

Water Street Studios has begun an on-line campaign to raise $5,000 to support our summer camp/after school program, Art Flow. We have 45 days to raise the money. If we meet or exceed the $5,000, we get the funds. If we fall short, we get nothing. Any amount will help. Thank you.

Donate here: http://www.indiegogo.com/ArtFlow?a=532494

Today’s Words

Kevin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:27:22 +0000

I read a list of 33 things every creative person should do. One was read a page of the dictionary every day. So, this morning I did. Here’s two words I didn’t know:

matutinal: relating to or occurring in the morning

maunder: to wander slowly and idly

My matutinal ritual is to maunder until I drink a few cups of coffee.

Another gorgeous day in Chicago. This warmth in March is wonderful, but I’m sure there will be severe consequences at some point: flowers destroyed when the inevitable cold snap occurs, bugs the size of my fist spreading mayhem this summer (worked another word in from my dictionary page there), and starting the dreaded lawn care work way too early. Did you expect anything less from the voice of doom and gloom? I specialize in seeing the dark cloud obscuring the silver lining!

Seth Godin: Stop Stealing Dreams

Kevin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:55:38 +0000

I’m reading a book about education written by Seth Godin called Stop Stealing Dreams. I suspect I’ll write more about this book later. I read this line today and thought it was a pretty good reminder of how important education is:

“…education is expensive, but living in a world of ignorance is even
more expensive.”

Gingrich Promised $2.50 per Gallon for Gas!

Kevin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:34:47 +0000

I saw a clip of Newt Gingrich telling the audience that a vote for Obama will mean $10 / gallon gasoline. He pledges to make gas cost $2.50 a gallon, though how he could possibly accomplish that is not detailed. And here’s some inaccuracies from Romney’s website: “Unfortunately, the first three years of the Obama administration have witnessed energy and environmental policies that have stifled the domestic energy sector. In thrall to the environmentalist lobby and its dogmas, the President and the regulatory bodies under his control have taken measures to limit energy exploration and restrict development in ways that sap economic performance, curtail growth, and kill jobs.”

YET…”Bloomberg News reported last week that “the U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency. … Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal.” As a result, “the U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011.” This transformation could make the U.S. the world’s top energy producer by 2020, raise more tax revenue, free us from worrying about the Middle East, and, if we’re smart, build a bridge to a much cleaner energy future.”

Bloomberg News is hardly a left-wing propaganda machine. Voter beware - the election-year rhetoric may be full of falsehoods.

My Haircut – Lessons in Life

Kevin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:10:50 +0000

I got my hair cut today. I asked the manager (in jest) why mostly bald guys, like me, don’t get a discount for haircuts. My head took a fraction of the time the guy before me did (though he did seem awfully picky, for a guy). I was told that everyone gets the same price so the guys with lots of hair don’t get penalized. I didn’t know what to say to the manager, who was obviously clueless.

It seems to work this way in life:

When getting a haircut, the bald guys subsidize the full-head-of-hair-guys.
When paying for health insurance, the healthy subsidize the sick.
When paying for auto insurance, the good drivers subsidize the bad.
When paying taxes, those that get paid well subsidize those that don’t.
Existing, loyal customers of a lot of businesses subsidize brand new customers, who seem to get all the good deals.
I think those that play by the rules subsidize those that cheat, though I don’t have proof that is really the case.

Good thing I only get my hair cut a few times a year – one of the advantages of being mostly bald – who knew it would be such a downer?

Wouldn’t it be Easier to Make Stupidity Illegal? Part 1

Kevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:21:53 +0000

I saw this headline in the Tribune on January 26th:

“State urged to lower risks of online dating – Legislation would require sites to disclose whether they do background checks on clients”

Background checks? Do bars have to do background checks for ladies night? What happened to common sense? What happened to people moving slowly into relationships, getting to know someone in order to figure out if there are some red flags? Hasn’t the chance you could hook up with a loser always been a problem? Now we need laws?

I think it would be far easier to just outlaw stupidity. One law would cover a multitude of situations.

Our elected officials really have time for this? Illinois has about $9 billion (yes, with a “b”) in unpaid bills and that amount is growing daily. If spending isn’t stopped, the Civic Federation, a tax watchdog group, estimates that the unpaid bills could add up to $28 billion in 5 years – even if the latest tax increase stays in place. I think our elected officials need to focus on our budget problem before moving on to regulating online dating.

Curious about the article? Here it is: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-online-dating-regulation-20120126,0,7998978.story

I’m Back

Kevin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:08:52 +0000

I thought I could do it. I thought the Voice of Doom and Gloom could turn into a positive thinker. No more whining I said. No more cynicism. Worthy goals perhaps, but it isn’t going to happen. It’s an election year. There’s way too much fun stuff to write about. What was I thinking?

Newt Gingrich proposes to make our moon colony the 51st state! And, he also proposes to make government smaller and balance the budget while he’s at it.
Romney tells us that $360K in speaking fees is not really much money. Put aside the fact that it’s 7 times the average household salary, do we want someone with such poor judgement, such lousy political advisers, to be leader of the free world?