Rusty Sheridan

Chase credit cards are stealing from you, and the company is evil

2009-01-26T12:24:00.002-05:00

I got one of those balance transfer offers from Chase from a few years ago when I was in college. I used it to transfer a bunch of debt to a fixed, low-interest, no-fee credit card for "the life of the loan".

Of course "life of the loan" actually means "until we feel like changing things".

One trick is they'll boost your interest rate, and hope that you don't notice. If you do notice, you can write and "opt out" of the new interest rate. That's happened to me a few times with Chase.

But this latest trick I can hardly believe is legal, and I will be calling my Congressman about it, and I hope anyone reading this will do the same thing.

Instead of boosting the interest rate, which cardholders can choose not to accept, they add a monthly "fee". Because it's not based on the interest rate, the customer service rep told me, cardholders do NOT have the ability to opt out.

So now I have this credit card that charges me an arbitrary fee every single month that was NOT part of the original agreement, and that I can't opt out of, and even if they close the account the fee continues to rack up until the balance is paid in full.

I hope Chase bank crashes and burns, and I hope the greedy thieves behind this ploy have their homes broken into and something stolen from them every single month, because that's what they're doing to us cardholders.

do NOT go see Batman The Dark Knight in Imax at Discovery Place in Charlotte

2008-07-26T11:55:00.003-04:00

The presentation just about ruined an otherwise incredible film.

1- The Discovery Place screen is Imax Dome (formerly known as Omnimax), not Imax. This means the screen is more curved and tilted. Which means images get distorted, and it's really hard to keep up with the action sequences. And your neck is going to hurt at the end of the film.

2- The seats are so close together that you HAVE to stand up to let someone by. So when Joe Blow needs to go to the bathroom, you can't just scrunch up and let him walk by. You have to completely get out of your seat.

3- The Discovery Place people treat Imax more like a rollercoaster than a movie. They killed the ending musical score prematurely with an announcement from the voice-of-God narrator about being careful when you exit the theater. What the heck? The movie isn't over. Shut up.

4- No credits?!? Are you kidding me? How do they even get away with that? One of my favorite parts of a movie is enjoying the score while the credits roll. Call me a film snob, but I believe the movie isn't over until the last credit rolls.

DO NOT GO SEE BATMAN IN IMAX DOME AT DISCOVERY PLACE. That is not how a movie should be experienced.

Rustam Sheridan lost his wallet in Dilworth, Charlotte

2008-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

Hello,

Rustam Sheridan here. I lost my wallet in Dilworth. If you are a good Samaritan who picked up my wallet, and found this page through a google search trying to find me, please contact me at 704.526.7857, or rustysheridan@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Mike Munger on NC ballot access

2005-08-25T19:42:00.000-04:00

Mike Munger is a Wake Libertarian and the chair of PoliSci at Duke. He
will be delivering the following commentary on UNC radio next week
(Monday, possibly?); it will be broadcast on all UNC affiliates. Thanks to Susan Hogarth for forwarding this to the LPNC list serv. Unfortunately, the end of the commentary got cut off. But it's still an excellent read, and Dr. Munger makes great points all the way around.

***********************************************

Third Party Ballot Access Commentary
Mike Munger

Hey, North Carolina: We're near the top! And we've got our eye on
the summit: number one.
Unfortunately, this is not a list of winners. By two different
measures, North Carolina has among the most restrictive and
undemocratic ballot access laws in the nation. We are in violation of
United Nation rules on ballot access, and fall well short of the
requirements for "Free and Fair" elections that we publish and use to
evaluate nations like Nicaragua or the Philippines. It's great to be
home.

Consider some examples of the scope and impact of these restrictions:
1. Ralph Nader was kept off the ballot in NC in both 2000 and 2004.
Now, you can be for Nader, or against him, as a Presidential
candidate, but how can you argue that the citizens of North Carolina
should not be allowed to make their own choice? The real travesty was
denying Nader ballot access in 2000. He was the official candidate of
the Reform party that year, a party that had won double digit
percentage vote totals in many U.S. states in the previous two
elections. That's pretty outrageous.
The North Carolina law has it completely backwards: you have to get
10% of the vote as a precondition to get on the ballot. How does that
work, exactly? Real well, perfectly, from the perspective of the two
so-called major parties. Not so well, from the perspective of
citizens who would like to have a choice, rather than just be an echo.

2. Of course, there is another way to get on the ballot. A party, or
a candidate, has to collect signatures on a petition. One hundred
thousand signatures! After every election. You either collect one
hundred thousand signatures all over again, starting at zero, or you
get wiped out. What the aspiring party has to do is spend months of
time, and all of its meager cash, standing on street corners and
begging. Not just once. Every time there is an election. Until a
recent change in the law, it was worse: The language on the petition
made it sound like the signer had to support the new party, or
candidate, perhaps even financially.
There are two different questions here: do you, as a voter, support
the Green, the Socialist Workers, or the Libertarian Party candidate?
How would you know? Who are they? That is just too difficult a
hurdle for a party without ballot access to jump over. The second
question, the one that the policy should focus on, is this: do you
think that we need more choices, more alternatives, to the hide-bound,
insulated, and out-of-touch political establishment in this state?

Full disclosure: I'm a registered Libertarian. Or, I should say that
I was. Now I am an outcast, a pariah. I hope I don't have to go sew
a pink "L" on my shirt as an outward sign of my shame.
The state of North Carolina has just decided to strip my right to
register or vote as a Libertarian. Now, they are being fair about it:
they deny the same right to the Greens, the Natural Law, the
Socialist Workers, or any other third party. In the particular
instance, decided this week, consider this: There were 13,000 of us,
actually registered as Libertarian. There were more than 50,000
people in our state who voted for Barbara Howe, the Libertarian
gubernatorial candidate, in 2004.
Do we "need" a third party? Do we need all that clutter, and choice,
on the ballot? Suppose you asked Ford and General Motors if the
American public "needs" more choices. They'd say no. We don't need
those Toyotas, and Lexus sedans, and nice little Honda hybrids. We
don't even need Dodges, Jeeps, Chryslers, or other American cars. Two
choices ought to be enough for you little people.
Well…why? Competition keeps the big boys honest, or at least lets
people choose something else if the big two become too powerful and
greedy. But North Carolina has used ballot access restrictions to
prevent any challenges to the big two. You are either a Republican,
or a Democrat, or you are out of luck. How is that working out for
you, citizens?
This is a truly nonpartisan issue, one of the few I can think of. As
a matter of policy, in my opinion, this is an easy fix. Consider:

1. The ruling party oligarchy should not be able to decide which
parties are legitimate and which are not. But here are the thoughts
of Richard Morgan, then House co-speaker: This is how (I'm quoting
now)
North Carolina maintains stability within its political system.
Although there are some legitimate political parties in existence that
have not yet met this threshold in North Carolina, there are even more
parties that are illegitimate that this policy has been able to keep
at bay."
Keep "illegitimate parties at bay"? I think I preferred it in the
original German, frankly. If we need ballot restrictions to keep
certain parties away on election day, we must be afraid that people
might actually vote for such "illegitimate" parties. To me, the fact
that people might vote for them is what would prove those parties are
legitimate.

2. These ballot access restrictions are not some part of our sacred
heritage. Until 1981, North Carolina had much, much less onerous
requirements. We haven't even had these laws 25 years yet. It is an
experiment that has harmed our state, and rendered our political
system inert, our government calcified and unresponsive. Let's get
rid of the restrictions, dropping the petition and percentage
requirements to 1 of the electorate or less. The average in other
states is even lower; ½ of one percent of the electorate gets your
party on the ballot. That is 1/20 of our present requirement in North
Carolina.

3. The experience of other states shows that the scare tactics used
by opponents are flat wrong. No state with a requirement of at least
5,000 petition signatures has ever had even ten choices on the ballot.
Very few states have as many as four alternatives.

The problem is not with the parties that want to offer choices, or
with the citizens who would like to see some challenges to the status
quo. The problem is with the overly restrictive and repressive laws
that keep all of us from having a voice in the first place. The
political repression hall of fame is not a list how we should wan

Message from a film snob

2005-05-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

Tonight I finally got around to seeing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Rather than post a boring detailed review of the film, I'll just say that it was better than I expected, but of course nowhere near as funny as the book. The best parts were where it stayed true to the book. The worst parts were where it strayed (Malkovich? Huh?).

But I would like to make a few announcments on the subject of film-going in general.

1) Shut up in the movies. Please. Just shut up. Don't talk to your friends next to you every ten minutes. Instead, shut up.

2) If you're a geeky fan-boy, don't let everyone around you know. They don't care. No one cares that you spotted the cameo by the Marvin android from the BBC mini-series. No one cares that you recognize Simon Jones. No one cares that you know what a hoopy frood is. You're not getting any more nerd points. And you certainly don't have any more of a chance to score tonight having pointed it out. Try a little modesty instead, and think it to yourself. Pat yourself on the back for having such a keen knowledge of all things Nerd. Star Wars comes out in 11 days, but I fear I'm going to have to wait 3 weeks into its run before I can venture into the theater to see it. Any earlier and all the fanboy dorks sporting lightsabers and yelling "Hey! That's Grand Admiral Thrawn!" will drive me to attempt suicide. So, again, see point number one and just shut up.

3) When the last picture-image of the film, in this case Douglas Adams's head, fades to black, that doesn't mean the movie is over. The movie isn't over until the credits finish rolling and all audio ceases. Credits are an important part of movies. I speak from experience, and I can tell you an aweful lot of thoughts are put into how they look. So watch them. You might learn something. Or, if you don't want to watch them, at least see number one again and shut the hell up while they're rolling so the people that want to see them can do so. This doubly goes for employees of the theater who like to come in and start cleaning the aisles and chatting with each other before the credits are done. Please. I paid my six bucks. Shut up and wait for me to leave. Oh, and if you left before the credits finished rolling during H2G2, you missed a funny scene anyway. Ha ha, joke's on you. Stay for the entire movie next time.

Sheesh. It's to the point where I don't even want to go to the cinema anymore. It's too frustrating.

Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars

2005-04-25T11:10:00.000-04:00

Won't be long now. I've just finished watching The Clone Wars cartoons (most excellent), and I'm in official geek-fanboy-hysteria mode in anticipation of Revenge of the Sith being released next month.

Here's an article from someone more geekishly fanboyish than even me. It's a hypothesis that George Lucas has an M. Night Shyamalan-style twist in store for us: Darth Vader is actually Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Anakin Skywalker. It uses evidence from the original trilogy and episode 1 to back up that claim. Makes some sense, but given how straight-forward of a storyteller George Lucas is, I really doubt he has the ability to make a twist like this. It's a fun read, however.

The Star Wars twist, part 1
The Star Wars Twist, part 2

A bunch of tarholes go to the NBA

2005-04-22T15:07:00.000-04:00

So how will the team do next year without Matt Doherty's recruits? I dunno, we shall see.

I wonder if ACC Hoops (Carolina Hoops) will update now. Still waiting for an announcement about the coaching hire at UVA.

Why is junk email called Spam?

2005-04-12T13:21:00.000-04:00

And why aren't there trademark issues? Generic adhesive strips can't be called bandaids. Generic cotton swabs can't be called Qtips. Generic in-line skates can't be called Rollerblades. So why are so many companies allowed to use the term Spam?

Spam, of course, is that delicious meat product manufactured by the Hormel corporation.

Has Maynard James Keenan of Tool found Jesus?

2005-04-05T22:09:00.000-04:00

This news story from VH1 says so. So does this news story from the unofficial Tool fan site. I don't know, but I sure hope so. As a Christian, I pray for everyone to find the salvation that Christ provides. I especially pray for this of people I am close to or who I am affected by, and MJK is one of those people.

Yes, I know the story seems to have surfaced on or near April Fool's Day. Yes, the Tool website has done some notorious April Fool's Day gags in the past, including announcing that the band had broken up.

Yes, Maynard James Keenan is notoriously anti-religious in his lyrics. Tool has a song called "Opiate" (based on Marx's "opiate for the masses" comment about religion) with lyrics that say:

If you want to get your soul to heaven.
Trust in me, now don't you judge or question.
You are broken now but faith can heal you.
Just do everything I tell you to do.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow.
What you need is someone strong to guide you, like me.

Another song entitled "Eulogy" seems to be based on Nietzche's proclamation that "God is dead". The lyrics for that one state:

He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
Get off your cross.
We need the space to nail the next fool martyr.

MJK is constantly referencing psychology, philosophy, and religion in his lyrics. They are, quite possibly, the most intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics I've ever had the pleasure to listen to. MJK is a not a songwriter; he is a poet. Aside from perhaps Beethoven, he is probably my favorite musician of all-time.

With his music, he has always seemed to be searching for truth and questioning everything. That is a good thing. More people should search for truth and question authority at all times.

But did he really find Jesus?

My guess is no. It's probably all a joke. But man, I sure hope it's true. I can only imagine what sorts of lyrics he can write in praise of God. What a great story this will be if it's true.

Hotmail

2005-04-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

Is it just me, or does hotmail really blow? It only works about half the time. The rest of the time it sits perpetually loading or just gives you a blank, white screen. Gmail rules. Hotmail sucks.

2005-04-02T13:21:00.000-05:00

From left to right: niece, sister, me, nephew, sister-in-law, niece, brother. Taken a couple years ago in a Charlotte snow storm.

What NOT to do on April Fool's Day

2005-04-01T12:04:00.000-05:00

I learned the hard way. Here's how it panned out:

INT. APARTMENT--DAY
Rusty, a mid 20's boheme with a tall, slender build, is standing in the hallway of his fiancee Rachel's apartment. Rachel is a beautiful mid 20's brunette with a slender build and striking eyes. She is watching the morning news in her living room. Rusty sneaks into the bedroom where Rachel keeps her cell phone. From her cell phone, Rusty dials his own cell phone.
Then he quickly walks into the living room with Rachel. His cell phone rings.

RUSTY (into the phone)
Hello? Oh hi Mark.
(Mark is the manager of the facility where Rusty and Rachel are getting married in July)

RUSTY (contd.)
Yeah. Oh no. Really? Is there anything you can do? OK, I'm with Rachel right now. We'll discuss it and call you back.

Rusty hangs up the phone and walks towards Rachel, who is sitting on the couch enjoying a cup of coffee.

RUSTY: Rachel?
RACHEL: Yeah, hon?
RUSTY: That was Mark on the phone. He says there's a problem with the date we picked for our wedding.

Rusty struggles to hold back a smile. A look of terror crosses Rachel's face. She sets her coffee down.

RACHEL: Are you serious?

Rusty can tell by the look on her face this was a bad idea. Suddenly he fears for his life.

RUSTY: No, I'm not serious. April Fool's!

FADE TO BLACK

A loud thud is heard OFF SCREEN.

FADE IN

Rusty is doubled over in pain on the living room floor. Rachel walks out of the living room in tears.

FADE OUT

THE END

True story. I'm going to have a hefty bruise on my mid section.

Finally. It's officially "Charlotte" in the N&R

2005-03-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

I wonder what the folks at the Greensboro News & Record think of me. Am I seen as a reputable, concerned citizen, or just as an obnoxiously persistent college student with weird hair who never gives up?

First there was the lengthy debate between me and editorial page editor Allen Johnson about not including Libertarians in editorial endorsement consideration in the paper. I was tenacious enough in persuing that matter that the paper's discrimination policy will change, presumably in 2006.

Now, after several blog entries, a few emails, and a hand-delivered press release to the News & Record from the Univerisity of North Carolina at Charlotte, the paper is changing their policy again. This time it's about referring to the athletic programs of my alma mater as the preferred "Charlotte" instead of "UNC Charlotte" in the News & Record.

From N&R Editor John Robinson in a recent email to me:

"Rusty,
Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you on the UNCC vs. Charlotte debate. Joe Sirera, our sports editor, has decided that you're right and we'll begin referring to the 49ers as playing for Charlotte. There are reasons that we didn't before that I won't bore you with. He's preparing a communication to his staff of this change in style. Now, please cut us a little slack as we adjust to the change and have to break some habits. I'm sure we'll refer to it the old way on occasion.
Thanks for questioning it."

Regardless of how they picture me, I definitely have respect for them. Two times now where they have listened to the ramblings of a random nobody like me and changed their policies as a direct result. They listen to their audience. That is refreshing, indeed.

If they keep it up I may have to actually subscribe to the paper.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2005-03-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

I'm sure I'm not alone in my declaration that the late Douglas Adams and his 5-book trilogy The The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was easily the single greatest influence in my own writing and sense of humor. I remember reading it for the first time in jr. high school and wondering why no one else in my clique of friends knew why I was carrying a towel around and laughing in class whenever the teacher said the word "Belgium". It turns out that there are great deals of people who have read the book, it's just that I only had 2 people in my clique of friends and the odds were stacked against me.

I had the great privelege of meeting Mr. Adams 10 years ago in Charlotte (wow, has it been that long?). Back then he was discussing a new book he was working on (which, due to his untimely death, has never seen the light of day) and the screenplay for the film version of the book. I was so excited that a theatrical release was in the works. There was a BBC mini-series version that was produced back in the early 80s, but this was to be a big Hollywood flick with all the trimmings. I was giddy and ecstatic.

Cut to 10 years later. Mr. Adams is dead, but the film he began will be released next month. Please enjoy the trailer to the film.

To be honest, the trailer doesn't seem to do justice to the intelligent humor of the book. We shall have to wait and see, I suppose. In the meantime, carry that towel, don't panic, and watch out for invading microscopic space fleets.

My drama with the News&Record continues

2005-03-14T16:17:00.000-05:00

Nothing to do with Mr. Johnson or politics this time. It's about the Charlotte 49ers again.

Picked up the paper this morning and flipped to the sports page. Saw the blurb about the NC State/Charlotte matchup. Of course, the 49ers were denoted as "UNC Charlotte" in the N&R. (See this past blog entry for more on the name game the N&R keeps playing).

What is particularly frustrating is that right next to the State/Charlotte blurb was a discussion of the Wake Forest/Chattanooga matchup. Yes--Chattanooga. You know, the school that is officially known as "The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga", but whose atheletic department goes by simply "Chattanooga".

Then there's "The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill", who is denoted as UNC or Carolina in the paper.

I've checked a lot of media stories on the NCAA tournament and have examined lots of brackets. ESPN, CBS Sportsline, Yahoo sports, CNN/SI, the Charlotte Observer: they all refer to the 49ers as simply "Charlotte".

Come on, N&R. Quit playing double (or triple, or quadrouple) standard and call Charlotte Charlotte. Here's that link again to the announcement from the Charlotte athletic department. I'll go ahead and send a hard copy to the sports department and to John Robinson.

Everything about life sucks right now

2005-02-19T12:02:00.000-05:00

Pain, chest, cough, sniffle, mucus, robitussin. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggh. I think I have lung cancer or something.

I'm tired

2005-02-11T06:51:00.000-05:00

Planning a wedding in another state, working 12 hour days, trying to graduate in 3 months, and looking for a full time job thereafter is hard. If anyone wants to work for me as a personal assistant, give me a shout. Unfortunately I can only pay you with Raman noodles.

News and Record, repeat after me. CHARLOTTE

2005-02-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon the Charlotte 49ers got their second win in four tries this season over a top 25 opponent. Charlotte (15-4) defeated their arch-rivals, the #17 Cincinnati Bearcats (17-5), 91-90 in front of a sellout crowd at Halton Arena in Charlotte.

In the Greensboro News and Record this morning, in the write-up of in-state basketball, the headline for the game reads: "Cincinnati's Hicks scores 20, but UNC Charlotte gets win". Seems like an odd headline, because Hicks isn't exactly a phenom or anything, and the 49ers had 2 players with 20 or more points. So why mention Hicks's 20? I dunno. But that's not my beef with the paper.

My beef is in referring to the 49ers as "UNC Charlotte". While the name of the university is, indeed, the "University of North Carolina at Charlotte", the official name of the athletic department is the "Charlotte 49ers". It says "Charlotte" on their jerseys. It says "Charlotte" in the middle of the court. It says "Charlotte" on every sports ticker and headline on every major sporting news outlet. But not in the News and Record.

See, a few years ago the athletic dept. decided it didn't like having a name so similar to that faerie blue excuse for a program up in the Triangle. UNC-C looks and sounds too much like UNC-CH. Who would want to get confused with them? So the athletic dept. dropped the UNC prefix and changed the name (incidentally, with a new chancellor of the University coming in later this year, the entire school may change their name to University of Charlotte) from UNC Charlotte 49ers to the Charlotte 49ers.

I've emailed sports@news-record.com and alerted them to the error.

If the News and Record refuses to go by the preferred name of the athletic department because it's not the "true" name of the school, then I hope they will eliminate the double standard and stop referring to the Tarheels as "Carolina Tarheels" or "UNC Tarheels" and refer to them instead as the "UNC Chapel Hill Tarheels", which is the "true" name of that school.

Whoo! I suck at basketball

2005-02-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

I play on an intramural basketball team at UNCG. My team is composed of a bunch of nerdy white grad students from the film department. We suck.
I'm tall so I play center. The other team always put their biggest beefcake defender on me, apparently under the assumption that because I'm tall I play basketball well. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I shot 0-4 from the floor (I hit the backboard once), but I did manage to get 2 rebounds in 32 minutes of action. Final score: random fraternity jocks 78, my team 8. You read that right: we lost 78-8.

But we do have a cool team name: 3-2 Pulldown. 3-2 Pulldown, in case you weren't aware, is the process by which 24 frame per second film is transferred to NTSC standard 30 frame per second video.

Sports sure are fun to watch, but hard to play. But I bet I'd totally school those fraternity jocks in a game of Jeopardy.

My new favorite song

2005-01-25T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's an oldie (I think it's from the 50s) but a goodie. Listen to it online here

Props to Wake County Libertarian Susan Hogarth for hosting it, and to Jim Capo for introducing the song to us folk on the LPNC listserv.

Just watched the innauguration

2005-01-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

Blah blah blah blah blah. Every time I heard the words freedom or liberty I wanted to wretch. These nincompoops don't even know what freedom or liberty is any more. Then there's that bit where Bush solemnly swore to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. Please.

Martin Luther King's colorblind dream being destroyed?

2005-01-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

Dr. Onkar Ghate from the Ayn Rand Institute thinks so. I'm inclined to agree.

Frank Burlison gets it right

2005-01-14T19:44:00.000-05:00

Over at Foxsports.com the Charlotte 49ers are finally getting some respect. Says Frank Burlison:

"Attention, Associated Press Top 25 voters:

It's time to step up and either put UNC-Charlotte or Saint Mary's on your ballots, or move them up a few notches if you have already noticed how well they have been playing of late.

The Charlotte 49ers have won eight in a row and are 11-2 overall, and 2-0 in Conference USA after a 91-85 victory at UAB Wednesday night.

All the more impressive is that they are 6-0 on the road."

Thanks for the props, Frank, but next time remember--it's Charlotte, not UNC Charlotte.

Bobbleheads

2005-01-13T10:38:00.000-05:00

According to the Charlotte Observer, two bobbleheads will be given to the first 3,000 fans at two Charlotte 49er games next month. The bobbleheads are of former players Jarvis Lang and Diego Guevara. The Diego bobblehead also speaks: "I told them to call 9-1-1 cause the house is on fire". It's a quote from the Charlotte-Cincinatti game in 1999 when Cincinatti was 15-0 and ranked number 1 in the country before losing to the 49ers.

EDIT: Cincinatti was 12-0 and ranked #3 in the country at the time. My bad.

Niners win

2005-01-12T23:36:00.000-05:00

The Charlotte 49ers, the best team in NC that no one in NC seems to care about, have won again. 8 wins in a row now. Charlotte is now 11-2 and 2-0 in conference play. They are also undefeated on the road, and neither of their 2 home losses have been by more than 2 points.

Charlotte's latest victim is UAB, a team that went to the Sweet 16 last year and had won 16 games in a row on their home court, until the Niners beat them tonight by a score of 91-85 in Birmingham.

UAB is another one of those teams that is really, really good but isn't super sexy, and thus most people aren't aware of how good they are.

But apparently they aren't as good as Charlotte, who stands ready to break into the (meaningless and arbitrary) top 25 with one or two more wins. Charlotte got 3 votes in the last poll, so we'll see where they stand next week.

NC is ACC country

2005-01-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

So they say. I've made it clear before that I'm not a big fan. Being an ACC fan strikes me as "herd mentality", especially UNC Chapel Hil. Tarheel fans think Chapel Hill is the greatest college basketball school of all time (hello? ever heard of UCLA?), and it particularly bugs me when so many yokels are adamant about a school they never went to or had anything to do with.

Plus I hate how the ACC refuses to schedule good competition from within the state. They'll schedule bottom-feeders like NC A&T all day long, but would never touch a consistent Big Dancer like Charlotte with a 10-foot pole.

But, with that being said...

I do like Duke. It's hard for me to admit it, but I do. I followed Bobby Hurley back in the early 90s, and I dreamed of going to Duke when I was in high school. Alas, mediocre grades and no money won't get you in.

But my dream was fulfilled (sort of) when I started teaching philosophy and film courses for the Duke Talent Identification Program 2 years ago. It's not exactly the same thing as metriculating there, but I do get to stay on the Duke campus for 6 weeks in the summer.

And I get to return this Sunday, but not for a teaching post. I'm going to work the Duke-Virginia basketball game for a film production company. It'll be my first time seeing the Blue Devils in action in Cameron. And I even get paid. Such a deal.

So I'll let you know how the experience was when I get back. I hear the Duke crowd is rowdy. I've been spoiled by the Niner Nation at Halton Arena, so I have high expectations for the Cameron Crazies.

Now if only Duke would schedule Charlotte. Knock on wood.

UPDATE: OK, I don't like Duke anymore. I was just told by the production company that wanted to hire me that Duke has a policy about how many people per group can get in to Cameron for free. I was the low man on the totem pole, so I won't be going to the game after all. DANGIT

Saw Phantom of the Opera tonight

2005-01-08T01:04:00.000-05:00

Wasn't expecting much going in. I wanted to see Clint Eastwood's new movie Million Dollar Baby, but it wasn't playing at the Carousel on Battleground. My fiance wanted to see Phantom of the Opera, which looked like a really lame chick flick to me. But I caved in and obliged her.

Back in my musician days I played in an orchestral rendition of the musical. But it's been years since then, and I never saw the play or read the book. So I went into the film with a pretty clean slate. Didn't know what to expect.

Man, it was awesome. I loved everything about it. Just another example of why cinema is the best art form. You can present all the other arts within a motion picture. This movie has music, dance, sculpture, acting, singing, and just about everything else. And it all works marvelously.

The casting for the film was spot-on. The music is, of course, incredible. The production design was stellar. The cinematography was quite nice (the balance between film presentation and stage presentation is perfect). Schumaker's direction is lovely.

Bravo. 4 stars. One of the year's best. Go see this film.

One caviat: Carousel employees always come into the theater and start cleaning and talking and standing in front of the screen as soon as the credits begin to roll. Very frustrating for the folk who want to see the COMPLETE film from beginning to end. I've complained before. I hope you'll do the same if it bothers you as much as it does me. Maybe they'll change their policy in the future and wait til the whole film is over before they clean.

Guns vs. Doctors

2005-01-06T21:57:00.000-05:00

One of the first appearances/speeches of my past campaign was to the Greater Greensboro Society of Medicine.
There I spoke about the high cost of medicine, tort reform, indigent healthcare and the like. You know, most of that stuff that affects doctors and whatnot. I was happy to pipe up when they wanted my opinion on how the cost of healthcare can be reduced (by getting government out of the way), on how the cost of drugs can be reduced (by getting government out of the way), on how doctors can realize a larger profit (by getting government out of the way), and how patients will better be able to afford insurance (by getting government out of the way). The evening was going pretty smoothly, and I was confident I'd win a few of these rich doctors' votes. After all, I was the only candidate in my race telling them that taxes were far too high and that they should be able to keep much much more of the large paychecks they earn as physicians.

But then things took a turn for the worse. First they started urging the elected officials present, as well as the would-be politicians like myself, to use the government's gun to raise the cost of cigarettes through taxation. This is in the best interests of the patients, of course. Cigarettes are evil, and the doctors know what's best, therefore by whatever means necessary tobacco use must be curbed. Naturally I vehemently disagree; I feel that every individual has a God-given volition to choose what to do with their lives, be it a good or poor decision. That includes choosing whether or not to pollute your lungs with cigarettes. But, I knew I was talking to a bunch of doctors, so I bit my tongue and said nothing, hoping that I could still manage to get a few votes from my economic stances.

Then came the doctors crying about the people coming in to the hospital with gunshot wounds. Why, the government MUST enact more gun control legislation to prevent this. Because, after all, everyone knows that some thug who would shoot someone in the chest really CARES about the gun laws. Surely said thug would follow those laws to a T and less gun crime would ensue.

Well, today a fellow on the Libertarian Party of NC Yahoo listserv sent this statistial comparison of doctors and guns. Reminded me of that evening back on the trail. Oh, I don't think I got any of those doctor votes after all. Oh well.

DOCTORS:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. Statistics courtesy of
U.S. Dept. of Health Human Services.

Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is
80 million.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is
1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.0000188.

Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous
than gun owners.

Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

Fact: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE
DOCTOR.

Someone with blogger, help me out

2005-01-02T22:54:00.000-05:00

I'm not real good with computers. The randomest, weirdest stuff happens to me all the time when I use them. With hotmail I can't empty my trashcan, no matter how many times I try. With Gmail I get a perpetual blank page until I press the refresh button. And now with Blogger I can't insert a hyperlink. The option just disappeared. Poof.

It used to be right up there next to the spell check and upload image icons. But now it's gone. What happened to it?

I hate computers.

UPDATE:

It seems to be a problem with Macs. The insert hyperlink command works perfectly fine from my desktop PC, but my laptop Mac has issues. I tried using both Safari and IE for Mac. Neither browser allows you to insert hyperlinks with Blogger. Bummer.

Any Mac users out there have a solution? (I know, the real solution is to use my PC)

I met David Wharton today

2005-01-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

Something about the phrase "it's a small world" always bugged me. Maybe it's because people use it too much. If you bump into a coworker at a Neil Diamond concert, then that isn't a small world. Everyone and their uncle has gone to see Neil Diamond at some point (right? or maybe I'm just hoping I'm cool and normal because I dig on the Diamond). Also, shouldn't the phrase be "small country" or even "small state", because really--how many times have you run into someone by chance somewhere else in the world besides your country or state? The term "Small world" only seems appropriate if, while at a Waffle House in Butte, Montana, you run into that slovakian refugee that you once met on a mission trip across the globe.

I'll use the term "small Aycock historical district". Cause that's where I met Dr. Wharton today. He was jogging and I was taking the trash out of my fiance's apartment. He stopped and asked if I was Rusty. I replied that I was. He said he enjoyed my blog, and I said I enjoy his (which I do, very much. Check it out here). He said I should post more, which inspired me to lay this one on you. Here it is.

It was nice meeting you, Dr. Wharton.

There's hope yet

2004-12-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

Children are our future, so they say. I sure hope so. I just ran across this webpage showing the results for the Guilford County kids' election http://www.greensboro.com/kidsvote/results11_2001.html

As opposed to the 2.38% of the vote total I got from the adults, I got 7% from the kids. It was a similar result for other Guilford County Libertarian candidates. I just hope those kids continue voting Libertarian when they grow up. I sure would like to see liberty restored through peaceful rather than bloody means.

Cash IS a gift certificate

2004-12-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

With Christmas behind us, many of us are eager to use our Christmas spending money. For a lot of people, that spending money comes in the form of a gift card. I heard on the news that something like 25% of all gifts were gift cards.

Call me old fashioned, but I don't get it. Why the need to purchase a gift card? What is a gift card? It's a worthless little piece of paper or plastic that has no intrinsic value. Its latent value lies in what it can be traded for: goods or services.

Isn't that what our cash federal reserve notes are? Worthless pieces of fiat currency that hold no intrinsic value but can be traded for goods or services. Course, cash used to be based on silver or gold (remember the silver certificates?), but the government stopped long ago in trying to even pretend they were doing us a service by printing lots of worthless pieces of paper. Now they print print print, and the value goes down down down. But I digress.

So what is the difference between cash and gift cards? Gift cards are redeamable only at the store they were purchased at. Cash is redeamable anywhere (this note is good for all debts, public and private). And with gift cards, you often have to pay a surcharge for using the card. It could be $2/month after 6 months, or $1.50 up-front cost per card (the latter is the charge for the Simon Mall Visa gift cards--what an aweful deal).

Why would anyone want to pay more than the dollar amount of services/goods they could get in return? Why would anyone want to limit the options for the number of stores you could take a gift card to? Am I the only one that sees that cash, for all its government-induced problems, is vastly superior to gift cards?

Some people say cash is impersonal. To those people I ask: have you ever gotten cash as a gift and said to yourself "boy, Uncle Rico sure is insensitive and impersonal by getting me this crappy cash gift. I would have much preferred something thoughtful like a Chia Pet".

Cash is the ultimate gift certificate, its redeamable anywhere, and everyone always wants it. Please give cash for Christmas next year, not gift certificates. Thank you.

Sorry, ladies. I'm off the market

2004-12-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas, I asked my girlfriend of almost 5 years to marry me. She said yes. Whoo!
Her name is Rachel and she's my first and only love. I've never even been interested enough in any other girl to even date them. Rachel's got it all--brains, beauty, and she can use a semi-colon like no other. She's creative, too. She loves photography, graduating with a degree from Kent State U. in photojournalism. She currently shoots for the Greensboro News and Record. You can see a sample of her work at her website www.rbkphoto.com

If you've checked my website lately (www.rustysheridan.com) you can see a page I made for her. I incorporated it into my elaborate and memorable proposal scheme. It was slick enough to sucker her into committing to me forever. Pretty sweet. Oh, the song that plays over the page is Loro by the band Pinback. It's "our song". Good stuff.

Now I'm going to have to write a letter to Dr. Ada Fisher (http://www.dradamfisher.org) and let her know that I proposed. Back when I was on the campaign trail, Dr. Fisher was always giving me hell for not having proposed yet. Dr. Fisher is a trip.

One other shout-out: Bill Stegelmeyer at The Karat Patch Jewelry in Charlotte, NC. Bill is the father of a good friend of mine from high school and he gave me an awesome deal on a rock. Check them out at www.karatpatch.com

I heart Clark Howard

2004-12-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

If you don't know who Clark Howard is, then you probably don't listen to a lot of talk radio. Clark Howard is my hero. He's this rich guy down in Atlanta who does a talk show about ways to save money and stick it to the man. Last year he saved over 70% of his (six, possibly seven-figure) income. He drives a hybrid car to save on gas. He clips coupons. He has a rule never to wear or buy any outfit that costs double digit dollars ($10 or greater). That's the whole outfit, not just the shirt. He named his dog Costco Wholesale, out of his love affair with the good deals in that big box warehouse club. The man is amazing.

The dude is such a cheapskate I can hear his butt squeak all the way up here in Greensboro, 400 miles away from Atlanta.

I want to be just like Clark. I want to get the best possible deal on everything I consume, and save the majority of my money for my retirement and for my posterity. Being an anarcho-capitalist, I hate any attempt by an authority to take some portion of what I have rightly earned. It's mine, dammit. Hands off.

So I was particularly pleased to hear Clark on the Brad and Brit show on WZTK today. The subject? Dell incentives. Clark's response? He hates it when governments do that. It's not fair to the small business owners who make up a larger portion of our workbase (and who have to pay those taxes to Dell). The better solution? Lower taxes across the board so that businesses can come willingingly, without a bribe. God bless you, Clark Howard.

He talked about how Atlanta, where Clark was born and raised, was a little southern town 35 years ago, and now it's this economic juggernaut. And he said to his knowledge there has never been a single piece of corporate welfare to lure Coke or whoever down there. The businesses came willingly, and not at the expense of the regular taxpayer.

Brad and Brit talked about how Clark was sounding an aweful lot like Sen. Webster, whom theshu first introduced me to, who is a Republican also opposed to Dell welfare.

I didn't get my talking points from Sen. Webster when I was campaigning, and I don't think he got his from me. We just have the same opinion on the subject. Judging from some of the posts on Ed Cone's blog recently, I'd say there are a lot of us that share the same opinion.

I'm just really relieved that my hero Clark Howard feels that way too.

Sigh

2004-12-05T13:28:00.000-05:00

The Charlotte 49ers lost in triple overtime to #22 Alabama, a team that went to the Elite 8 last year. Final score Bama 102, Niners 101. The Niners led throughout most of the game by as many as 15 points. They had several chances to put the game away, but ultimately fell apart under pressure. The main problem with the Niners this year?
Abysmal free throw shooting. They only shot 61% from the free throw line, compared to about 85% for Bama. One or two more made free throws by the Niners and we might have won.

Well, it's only 1 game, and it's what the NCAA selection committee considers a "quality loss". At least we didn't lose to Santa Clara.

Reuters: Master/Slave most offensive

2004-12-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

According to this
story from Reuters, "Master/Slave" is the most offensive bit of politically incorrect terminology. Master/slave refers to primary and secondary computer parts, like harddrives, as they're configured inside your computer.
The list goes on to name a bunch of other politically incorrect phrases and provides alternatives. It suggests "progressive" should be used in place of "classical liberal".

Does the author not know what a classical liberal is? It isn't exactly a progressive. Contemporary liberalism is more in line with what most people think of "progressives" as. Classical liberals are more in line with today's libertarians.

For a great read on the term "liberal" and how its definition has changed throughout the years, check out this
entry from Wikipedia.com

1,797 Greensboro residents favor liberty

2004-11-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

That's my final vote count: 1,797. It works out to approximately 2.38% of the vote total. I was hoping for more, but I suppose I shouldn't complain. I got over 500 more votes than the Libertarian that ran for the same office against the same incumbant in 2002. Libertarians continue to build support and awareness for the concept of individual rights every election. Only one place to go: up!

Greensboro News and Record

2004-10-27T17:01:00.000-04:00

I called Allen Johnson, editorial page editor at the Greensboro News and Record today. Me being a political newbie, I wasn't aware that there were interviews of candidates to determine who the paper will endorse. Well, I saw the endorsement for my opponent Kay Hagan in the paper today and I called to ask how they arrived at their endorsements. He told me it was their policy to only allocate time and energy for interviews to "the most serious candidates". I asked him how he measured something as arbitrary as "seriousness". By time spent campaigning? If so, having gone door to door campaigning all over town and have gone to every forum and debate I was invited to; surely I must be considered serious. Or perhaps it was funds spent on my campaign? I've spent over $2,000 on radio ads, signs, flyers, etc. Is that not serious? Or is "seriousness" measured by a knowledge of the issues? If so, then clearly I should have been interviewed for endorsement consideration rather than my Republican challenger, who has only a cursory understanding of the political process and the issues we face as NC citizens.

He told me they do not have time to interview all the candidates in local races. They only have time to interview about 80% of them. I asked him if that included interviewing 100% of the Republican and Democrats in local races. A long pause, and then he said "yes."

In the end, he admitted that their policy is not to ignore candidates who are not "serious"; it is to ignore Libertarian candidates. "We made decisions", he kept repeating. I told him that was a disservice to the public to not consider 1/3 of the candidates. He said he understood where I was coming from and that I made some "valid points". He also said that in the future their policy of discriminating agaisnt Libertarians might change. I couldn't tell if he was just telling me that to shut me up or if he really meant it.

But anyway, it felt good to basically make him admit that the paper discriminates against legitimate candidates.

But, like my friend Tom Bailey says, they're not lying about their cheating anymore. They come right out and say "we're cheating". The question is, what are you gonna do about it?

Well, what I'm doing about it is running for NC Senate, and I plan on WINNING. But I can only win with your support. Please, PLEASE, vote Libertarian on Nov. 2nd. The media don't want to upset the status quo, but we the people still have the power to control our government. Let's show them.

-Rusty