It must be Thursday...

When I am not playing golf (ok, playing "at golf") or sitting here at my computer getting frustrated by how the Monopoly game cheats, whipping Freecell, and solving online jigsaw and crossword puzzles, I wonder about things...

We call this "musing". At least, I call it musing. Other people have described it as "going off on weird tangents" or, at times, "babbling." They may be right though I think I have to be drunk to babble properly.

I muse about the histrionics of Senators and Representatives over the extension of unemployment benefits. Total number of unemployed is 15 million (May figure). The extension would affect 1.3 million. Don't get me wrong, the money would undoubtedly be helpful and appreciated by those 1.3 million. It probably wouldn't save them from foreclosure but it might stall it off or at least pay the rent. Unemployment benefits are not great. They are usually a bit less than half what you made before becoming unemployed. I don't begrudge anyone who gets them.

I am sympathetic but I don't see how helping 1.3 million get by for another 2 years would have helped overall. And I don't like the politics. One side wants the money to come from the TARP funds, the other refuses. You can count me in as one who favors using the, so far unspent, TARP funds to pay for this. And for job training and assistance for the other 13.7 million. Why can't bailout money go to them?

I'm not holding my breath. Politics does not make much sense.

Even cookies in space seem complicated because government is involved. Ever hear of Canasnaks (original name was "CANookie")? These are "bite-sized"..."cream-filled sandwich cookies" made with oatmeal made for astronauts to take into space. Why Canasnaks? Because they are Canadian. Canadian made with Canadian ingredients and even a Maple Leaf logo design on them.

Cost? Upwards of $415,000. There are, apparently, stringent requirements by NASA on foodstuffs for astronauts. There was a special oven needed to bake them and the maple leaf's red color had to be done by hand. They did produce a number of these cookies in packs of 5 each.

There was some consideration given to making them available to the public commercially but that never panned out. Few companies were interested.

So the cookie crumbled.

The new iPhone 4 is out and there's a lawsuit planned against Apple over it. Something about how the new antenna scheme discriminates against lefties. Holding the phone in a normal way with the left hand covers up part of the antenna. It would affect me since I always use my left ear, thereby holding a phone with my left hand, so any iPhone 4 I used would also likely drop calls.

My cellphone is a Gophone. It didn't start out that way but I found I only used about 20 minutes a month so it was cheaper to convert to that status. After 34 years with the phone company, I basically avoid spending more than a few minutes on one.

The cost of electronic books is coming down. The cheapest seems to be a $149 model from Barnes and Noble. Still too expensive for me. Under $100 and I will take a serious look at them. You really have to entice me away from real books made of paper.

The oil gushing into the Gulf is such a huge crisis that the Jones Act (which would allow non-US owned ships to be used) isn't being waived and a ship that promises to skim off over 500,000 barrels of oil a day is awaiting both decent weather (blame TS Alex for that) and government approval. No word on when the latter might happen but the weather should be cooperating in a couple more days.

I have already mused too long. It has begun to look like babbling.