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Opinari - Latin term for Opinion. Opinari.net is just what it seems: a cornucopia of rants, raves and poignant soliloquy.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Opinari family has stopped today in the greater northern Louisiana area en route to our destination in Eastern Texas. I would like to do some mobile blogging, but you know how it is... being the driver, and all. Somehow, I think even the standards of driving in Louisiana are such that they discourage drivers from typing on their PDAs. But what do I know?

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.: posted by Dave 9:33 AM


Sunday, June 19, 2005



Since Opinari is moving to Texas sometime this week, I thought it would be appropriate to post about some of the goings-on in Texas this week:

  • School funding is at the top of the list, as Governor Perry has vetoed all $33.6 billion spending for schools, and ordered the legislature to "come back and get it right". The challenge of course is to fund the schools when property taxes are skyrocketing, and those same taxes are the primary source of school funding. Can Governor Perry and the legislature fix this problem in 30 days?

    It's doubtful. This has been an ongoing problem for years, and I doubt a quick fix is in order. Still, speaking as one who is leaving a high tax state for a low one, it is far better to have high property taxes and no income tax than to have both.

  • The Governor apparently is also a fan of toll roads, since Texas doesn't have many of them. Fortunately, Governor Perry signed a provision that says voters would have to approve changes of state highways into toll ones. It's nice to see some state governments value the referendum (are you listening, Connecticut?)

  • Kay Bailey Hutchinson has been critical of Rick Perry. Many expect her to toss her Stetson into the ring of Gubernatorial candidates in 2006. The effect of a Hutchinson run would be far-reaching, as opponents will be posturing to run for her current Senate seat if that happens. So will she or won't she? Stay tuned.

    • Labels:

    .: posted by Dave 10:50 AM


    Say, anyone know what's going on with SKB's blog? Threats? Intimidation?

    UPDATE: Well, now we know. It seems Mr. Conley, part owner of that alternative weekly called MetroPulse, initiated a rather interesting conversation with SKB. Read their email exchange here.

    A comment on the whole kerfuffle... I respect SKB and his opinions, many with which I disagree. I also understand SKB's desire for anonymity, as his business interests could be affected. After all, in a world of "good ol' boys", if the GOB network disagrees with your politics, it stands to reason that they might not do business with you. My belief is that one's politics should not determine one's viability as a business partner. I feel the same way about religion.

    Thus, I can see how Conley's veiled threats could be taken as a need to beat Conley to the punch, so to speak. It is true that SKB outed himself, but only because of Conley's actions. One has to wonder what Conley's motivations were in starting this brouhaha (in fact, some of the commenters have already begun to speculate). Regardless of the motive, Conley was way off base, and should apologize at the very least.

    In the meantime, I think I am in agreement with many bloggers that MetroPulse is not worth my time, and until appropriate action is taken, neither are their advertisers. And another thing, agree with him or not, SKB has a very informative, and entertaining blog. I will continue to read it daily, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same.

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    .: posted by Dave 8:43 AM


    Friday, June 17, 2005

    Spotted in an L.A Times editorial:

    If you are proud of this country and don't want its identity to vanish, you must teach U.S. history to your children. They won't learn it in school. This nation's memory will go blank unless you act.

    This editorial is the biggest tacit endorsement yet for homeschooling your children, which is why my wife and I are going to be doing just that.

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    .: posted by Dave 10:59 PM


    Victor Davis Hanson on the Middle East:

    The problem the administration faces is not entirely a military one: Our armed forces continue to perform heroically and selflessly under nearly impossible conditions of global scrutiny and hypercriticism. There has not been an attack on the U.S. since 9/11 — despite carnage in Madrid and over 1,000 slaughtered in Russia by various Islamic terrorists during the same period.

    Rather, the American public is tiring of the Middle East, its hypocrisy and whiny logic — and to such a degree that it sometimes unfortunately doesn't make distinctions for the Iraqi democratic government or other Arab reformers, but rather is slowly coming to believe the entire region is ungracious, hopeless, and not worth another American soldier or dollar.

    This is a dangerous trend. Despite murderous Syrian terrorists, dictatorial Saudis, crazy Pakistanis, and triangulating European allies, and after so many tragic setbacks, we are close to creating lasting democratic states in Afghanistan and Iraq — states that are influencing the entire region and ending the old calculus of Middle Eastern terror. We are winning even as we are told we are losing. But the key is that the American people need to be told — honestly and daily — how and why those successes came about and must continue before it sours on the entire sorry bunch.

    Go read the rest of the article here.

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    .: posted by Dave 11:00 AM


    Susan Konig on Parenting:

    Beta Moms and Gamma Dads
    Parenting the old-fashioned way.

    It's not easy being a parent in the first decade of the new millennium. It takes more than just being a mom or a dad.


    It takes a ceiling fan.

    The other day, I was trying to read the cover story of this week's New York magazine about a woman who is starting a TV network for Alpha Moms. I wanted to know who these Alpha Moms were. But my 41/2-week-old baby needed attention. So I cradled him in one arm, turned on the ceiling fan in the living room and stood there reading while he watched the blades slowly turning. He likes that.

    The article suggested that Alpha Moms can do it all, but by the second page I found out how — they have help. "It takes a village," the mom in the article actually said. And she apparently hired a village to watch her kid so she could work 100 hours a week on starting a TV network. Not just a nanny or a babysitter as many parents do, but a nanny and a babysitter and a night nurse. The more she learned about successful motherhood, the more people she hired to achieve it for her, the article said.

    Me, I'm a Beta Mom. Beta Moms fall short of Alpha Moms in terms of doing it all. But we do raise our kids. Oh, we can work at home or in an office, but we generally care for our own offspring.

    Right now, I am typing this all lower case with one hand because I am holding the baby and can't hit the shift key.

    The Alpha Mom gets a report on how many diapers her baby goes through in a day. I change our baby's diapers and report to myself. Oh, I don't change them all. My husband changes some and so does our wonderful ten-year-old daughter. Our sons, aged eight and five, sing to him, fetch bottles, wipes, and gently push the stroller back and forth on our porch. The dog licks the top of the baby's head when within reach. I think she thinks he's a puppy. The cat stares at him.

    Since I came home from the hospital four weeks ago after my fourth c-section, the whole family has been pitching in to make things work. Avoiding excessive stair climbing meant the laundry room was off limits to me. My husband did what was suddenly double the amount of wash we had with two adults and three kids just by adding a baby. Besides projectile vomiting on me several times a day necessitating various wardrobe changes for both of us, the baby seemed to continuously pee out the back of his diaper all over his bedding. (Three sons and I still have not figured out this mystery.)

    My husband is a Gamma spouse because he does a lot but not with Alpha perfection. He bought all the groceries this month, occasionally buying bread no one likes or industrial size cans of tuna that would feed an entire high-school cafeteria. Bigger is better, he says.

    He also tells people the baby is sleeping through the night. The twist is that it's my husband who is sleeping through the night so he misses the part when the baby and I are up.

    But if I need to go back to sleep in the morning, he and the tot go off to watch cable news and check e-mail while I get some rest. My Gamma guy takes the three older kids to their Little League games on three different fields, sometimes all on the same night.

    Our house is kind of messy. The living room and dining room are littered with burping cloths, toys, shoes, comic books, baseball gloves. The kitchen counter has 14 cans of formula on it. Baby bottles are drying on a towel. Dinner has been sandwiches more times than I'd like to admit these past few weeks.

    It may not be pretty but we get it done. I guess we don't have the right to call ourselves Alpha parents but, as far as we're concerned, parenting has a certain hands-on quality to it. The woman in the article said she wanted to maintain a sense of self. I can understand that. We sometimes get overwhelmed with the day-to-day stuff but we know who we are...we're parents.

    Happy Father's Day.

    Taken from the NRO Online, 17 JUN 2005.

    I posted this in its entirety because I wanted my wife to read it. It seems that the chaos that is our life with children (well, one child and one on the way) is the norm, and not the exception. I think we can relate to just about everything in this post (except the grocery shopping, which is almost exclusively the domain of the Mrs.)

    The article was written for Father's Day, but I like to think of it as Parent's Day. Ami, we're in this together. I love you.

    Your husband.

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    .: posted by Dave 10:35 AM


    Back when Kitty Kelly's book came out alleging drug use by George W. Bush, I viewed it as slanderous opportunism. Fortunately, that book has been relegated to the scrap heap of literature (for lack of a better word).

    Now comes the Ed Klein book alleging that the birth of Chelsea Clinton was the result of some rather aggressive sexual activity by Bill (the book calls it rape). This sort of sensationalist tripe is nonsensical. This view is not ideological, and is independent of political party. I don't think books of this sort have any place in the marketplace of ideas, although by nature, they always seem to find their way into the public consciousness. Here's hoping this tome goes the same way as Kelly's.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:19 AM


    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals?

    Two Hampton Roads employees of Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been charged in Ahoskie, N.C., with animal cruelty after dumping dead dogs and cats in a shopping center garbage bin, police said Thursday.

    Investigators staked out the bin after discovering that dead animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for the past four weeks, Ahoskie police said in a prepared statement.

    Police found 18 dead animals in the trash bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties in North Carolina, police said. The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Thursday.

    Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.

    Local officials and veterinarians said they were told that PETA would find homes for the animals, not euthanize them. PETA has scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon to discuss the charges.

    From PETA's mission statement:

    "Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals."

    Apparently, those rights include the right to be euthanized, regardless of whether or not the animal is viable as a pet.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:09 AM


    Wednesday, June 15, 2005

    Blame the Filibuster

    From the L.A. Times:

    As Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat who sponsored the (anti-lynching) resolution, said, the Senate was "uniquely culpable" for Washington's failure to protect U.S. citizens from a type of domestic terrorism often orchestrated by local authorities.

    What wasn't said is that the Senate was "uniquely culpable" because it cherished the filibuster — a procedural rule that enhances each member's individual power — over the Constitution. The Senate's failure to acknowledge the cause of its homicidal negligence robs its apology of much meaning or sincerity.

    Those unfamiliar with history today, or generations from now, might blame the American people for sending senators to Washington who were evil or out of touch. But there were 70 senators willing to sponsor anti-lynching legislation as far back as 1938, and lives could have been saved if the federal government had taken action then.

    History would look a little different if a minority of Southern Democrats hadn't been allowed to defend their cultural livelihood using a procedural tool.

    Tyranny of the minority, indeed.

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    .: posted by Dave 12:03 PM


    Some folks are upset because a group of Senators have not co-sponsored a lynching apology resolution. I don't think anyone in our government thinks lynching was a good thing, yet it is being suggested that by virtue of not co-sponsoring the resolution, these fifteen Senators are pro-lynching. I find such a suggestion absurd. I would find it equally absurd if a group of Senators resolved to condemn pedophilia, and a group of legislators decided not to be a co-sponsor. The question I keep asking when any resolution of this type comes to the forefront is "What good does this do?"

    And what of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander's position?

    Alexander filed a written statement explaining that he preferred another approach, a resolution he filed in February to celebrate Black History Month.

    That resolution in part noted the "disgraceful" period of lynchings, and "condemns" them as well as the period of slavery and segregation.

    "There is no resolution of apology that we can pass today (Monday) that will teach one more child to read, prevent one more case of AIDS or stop one more violent crime," Alexander's written statement said. "I prefer to look to correct current injustices rather than to look to the past."

    Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't really have an issue with Alexander's position here, although knowing how politicized things can be in Washington, maybe the prudent thing to have done would have been to sign on as a co-sponsor if for no other reason than to end the silly insinuation that by not signing on, you are implicitly pro-lynching.

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    .: posted by Dave 11:06 AM


    Monday, June 13, 2005

    I'm not one to link to the Huffington Post much, but this "IM exchange" between Blair and Dubya had me laughing.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:21 PM


    Am I really supposed to feel sorry for this lady because she spent $5,000,000 that she received after her husband died in the World Trade Center attacks? I mean, I feel for anyone who lost a loved one on September 11, but:

    Trant began lavishing gifts on friends and family. She gave her former housekeeper $15,000 to buy a home in El Salvador, she spent $70,000 to take six friends to the Super Bowl and another $30,000 for a trip for 20 to the Bahamas.

    She said Dan would have wanted to help others, and he would have liked to improve their home as well. So Trant spent $1.5 million to nearly triple the size of her suburban New York home. She spent $350,000 on the back yard, installing a full basketball court also equipped for volleyball, tennis and Rollerblading, a heated pool and a hot tub.

    Wait, there's more...

    Trant designed a shrine of her husband's mementos, and put it on display in her new red-white-and-blue den. She added sports memorabilia to her walls, including a Boston Celtics ball autographed by players. Dan was drafted last by the Celtics in 1984, and though he never played for them, he played professionally in Ireland.

    Trant also blew millions on frivolous items for herself. Her walk-in closet houses a $500,000 shoe collection, gowns by Versace and Capelli that go for $5,000 each and Fendi and Judith Leiber handbags, also $5,000 per bag.

    I'm sorry. I have a hard time seeing this woman as a victim, except where the loss of her husband is concerned. This sounds more to me like a shopaholic who didn't know when to quit, and if I ran up huge shopping bills like that, I doubt I could claim that I had a disorder and get away with it (or, maybe I could, but I sure as heck wouldn't try.)

    She should be required to pay this money back, and give it to others who really need it, like orphaned children of September 11th victims, and such. Or hey, where's the G8? Maybe they can demand that she give her extra bucks to Africa to combat poverty.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:13 PM


    I missed this little tidbit (from the A.P. no less) while I was in Texas:

    U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.

    But I thought there were no WMD to be found in Iraq? I guess the U.N. is lying about this little fact, since Bush told the very same "lies".

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    .: posted by Dave 8:56 PM


    Sunday, June 05, 2005

    We've been in East Texas all week looking for a new house. Househunting isn't something I really like, since the wife and I don't always agree on what we are looking for. However, this time has been different, since we have found several that we both like. At present, this one looks like it will be our choice:

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    .: posted by Dave 10:07 AM


    My son's first airplane flight:

    First leg:



    Second leg:




    Quite a difference. Heh.

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    .: posted by Dave 10:03 AM


    Travel Rant:

    I've been too tired to post much on the subject, but I have to detail the ordeal that was our arrival here in Texas. Fortunately, the ordeal most often associated with traveling with infants, crying and screaming, wasn't an issue. My son was terrific on the way here, and I can only hope he approaches that for the return trip.

    The ordeal we encountered was with the human element, the customer support people who run Hertz Rental Cars, and American Airlines. Upon arriving in Dallas airport, we noted that an earlier flight was available to our destination, and we wanted to get there ASAP so that our son could take a nap. We transferred flights, fully expecting that our luggage would not arrive with us until later.

    When we arrived, we noted that the next flight would arrive at 2 pm, so we figured we could drive to the hotel, and come back in 90 minutes (we arrived at 12:30) to retrieve our luggage. What we found was that not only was our rental car agency not on site, but the car we needed (complete with infnt car seat) was in Shreveport, LA, 100 miles away (this, despite the fact that they knew 2 weeks in ADVANCE that we would be arriving in Texas and would need a car seat equipped vehicle).

    At this point, I didn't see any reason to change vendors, since it was already paid and arranged, so we waited, hoping that the car would arrive around the same time as our luggage. When 2 pm came, we watched the luggage carousel complete its cycle at least a half dozen times, and our luggage was nowhere to be seen. So... we have been in town for almost 2 hours, with no luggage, and no rental car. I should also add that my son was pee-soaked, and we didn't have a change of clothes handy for him (yes, bad planning, so sue me).

    American tracks our luggage and can't. Hertz assures me they are "on their way". Yet, I'm sitting there, naked baby in lap, tired pregnant wife beside me, and hunger pains permeating my every fiber. At one point, I could have strangled anything airline related. (This moment also gave me new pleasure in knowing that I was leaving the aerospace industry for something more stable).

    Finally, forty minutes late, and one hundred and thirty minutes after our arrival, Hertz shows up, apologetic and courteous, which was good. However, I've learned to expect ineptitude from Hertz. I never should have selected them as the provider for a rental car, but they were, according to the travel agent, the only one who had a car seat available. Later that day, I found out that National, Enterprise, and Avis ALL had car seats ON SITE THAT DAY. Someone at the travel agency should be drawn and quartered.

    Finally, three hours later, our luggage arrived at the hotel, but not before we had to buy a change of clothes for our son. All in all, it could have gone much worse, but the dilemma only solidified my dissatisfaction with air travel in general.

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    .: posted by Dave 8:13 AM


    Thursday, June 02, 2005

    I have to admit... even after working in the aerospace industry and even though I have a degree in aeronautical engineering and even though it is "far safer statistically than driving", I still hate hate HATE riding on commuter jets that have horribly vibrational turboprops and yaw 10-20 degrees at the slightest turbulence (that means you, Saab and Embraer!).

    Oh well, at least it's only a 29 minute flight.

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    .: posted by Dave 12:21 PM


    This morning, we're embarking on our house hunting trip in Texas. It's my son's first flight ever, and he seems to be thoroughly at ease (thank the Lord!) We had hoped that he could watch the clouds go by, but the engine nacelle blocked the view. It would not have mattered anyway since his primary occupation has been with the vacuum pictures in the Skymall catalog. Hopefully, when the weeklong trip ends, we'll have a new home. In the meantime, the Residence Inn awaits!

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    .: posted by Dave 11:25 AM


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