Howdy, Folks, c'mon in and look around. Don't mind the clutter, we're still getting situated, you know

David told me about this interesting article concerning Europe, Iraq, the Euro and the dollar. I don't even pretend to know anything about economics and currency but this article made some sense to even my little brain. Sometimes I think economies and currency are an elaborate emperor's clothes deal that everyone agreed on at some point thousands of years ago. Anytime anyone gets on television or the radio or writes an article about upcoming economic trends remember, he is faking it.

Library troubles

It seems the library system, which I work for, may have trouble opening up a couple of new branches because there isn't enough dough available from the county to staff the buildings. There are positions opening up by departures and we are having to freeze those positions. All because of a lack of funds. Funny how the city seems to be able to find enough money to build a $300 million stadium for the NBA, a business that can't control it's own costs and insults cities like us that try to stand up to them, yet we can't staff new libraries which, as opposed to pro sports, offer a real service to the less affuent. What will the new NBA team and stadium offer to the working stiff in the Sugar Creek area trying to find a job? Nothing. The library will offer him an opportunity to update his resume, research chances at improving his skills and thereby give him a legitimate chance at improving his lot. I guess the NBA stadium might be willing to allow him to sell beer or peanuts at an hourly rate so what am I complaining about?

I am a professional sports fan but sometimes the colossal waste involved in professional sports, most notably team-based sports, is depressing. Along with the recording industry sports is more dominated by profit, and by profit I mean television profits. Television appears to be well on the way of destroying everything about NASCAR racing I loved.

Of course money has always dominated professional sports since it is...uh...professional. The Yankees didn't win so many world series because of great management but in spite of it. They always had the biggest bucks. Remember, they basically bought Babe Ruth, they didn't discover and then recruit him. I think what is missing from sports is regionalism. There was a time, on the west coast of this country, when there was a baseball league called the Pacific Coast League. It was not as prominent as the major leagues that dominated the east and midwest but there were players there that had major league talent and attendance was very high. I find on the PCL's official history webpage that they went from being one step above a minor league and one step below a major league due to the advent of television in the fifties. It's interesting how television ruined baseball regionalism which it is now doing to NASCAR.