Bellicose Bumpkin

Winter sucks less … a lot less … if you have outdoor activities to do. That’s what I’ve found anyways.

I was never into downhill skiing – and even if I was, it’s not something the average person can do very often. Skating is good but it is rare that you have good ice – or any ice – outside a skating rink. Hiking and running are good and some years the weather really cooperates. Up until recently, I was running regularly – sometimes in shorts. Mountain biking is fun year round but like hiking and running it comes to and end when the snow comes.

Enter snowshoeing.

I always thought I’d like since I enjoy cross county skiing. Last year I went one time with a buddy who had an extra pair and really liked it. I bought a pair of Tubbs Timberline snowshoes. They ran about $120 are are probably lower middle of the range.

I did two consecutive days over the weekend with my cool doggie – Saturday at a nice trail system near my house and on Sunday out at the Taunton River Wildlife Management Area.

Bottom line: This is an easy sport with low risk of injury – and a lot of fun.

The Middleboro Conservation Commission has an opening for a new member. One of my secret sources from the bowels of town government outlined the time commitment and responsibilities and some general information about the ConCom. Step up and help out

• It is an appointed position and one would become a voting member Read more…

My column in this week’s Middleboro Gazette is about the Google Chromebook that Santa Claus brought to my son Zach this <insert holiday of choice here>.

I love this thing.

Now you should be asking yourself: “Why the heck would I want that when I can buy a cheap laptop for a little more?” To which I will answer: DO NOT buy a Chromebook if you need any of the programs I mentioned. However, if you want a device that is simple, small, light, well made, good value, lightening fast, secure, has fantastic battery life, and is optimized for using the Internet — the Chromebook is a great device. Santa Claus was good enough to bring one to my youngest son Zach for Christmas and I have to admit that I am very jealous. In fact, I’m writing this column on it right now with Google Docs. The machine goes from off to login in about eight seconds and from login to fully on the Internet in another six seconds. When you open the cover, the thing POPS to life almost instantaneously. I haven’t had a problem viewing any web site — Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Gmail, and the dozen news sites I routinely read all work just fine as does Amazon and the on-line shopping sites I use.

One of my readers sent me a Boston Globe article that I found to be fascinating. Harvard Professor Roland Fryer applied statistical analysis on successful schools to see why they worked, then applied the resulting 5 principals to failing schools in Texas with dramatic results in just one year.
The magic recipe

• Frequent feedback to teachers
• Use data on individual students to guide their instruction
• Heavy tutoring
• Increase instructional time
• Maintain very high expectations

Read more…

Hello Everyone in BumpkinLand,
 
I haven’t added a post in awhile and I am hoping to comment more in the coming New Year.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday Season and Santa was good to everyone.
 
On Sunday January 8^th, I am co-hosting along with Allin Frawley and Al Rullo a Meet and Greet for Congressman Bill Keating.  As many loyal readers may be aware, Massachusetts lost a Congressional seat and the Commonwealth was redistricted by the State Legislature.  In the fall, Bill will be running for a district that includes most of his current area along with new cities and towns that include Middleboro.
 
I have known Bill for well over 20 years and he is a great person and an incredible public servant.  He wants to get to know his new area and try to understand the issues and concerns of those communities.  We wanted to create a forum for him to come and hear about Middleboro.
 
The event will start at 2:30 and be held at the Flat Iron Café.  Pizza and soft drinks are free and a cash bar is available.  This is a family friendly event, so please stop by and say hello.  If you have any questions, just let me know.
 
Thank you,

Rich

I just bought a Roku 2 XD. It is a set top box that gives you content over the Internet – movies, TV, news, etc. There are a ton of channels – I’m still going through them all. I expect that there are some free gems – but to really make use of the device you need to pay for premium content from Netflix and/or Amazon and/or Hulu Plus. I got all three so I can see what combination gives me reasonable content. The device is tiny, cheap, and setup was a breeze.

Initially I was going to get a Blue Ray DVD player since they also include Internet content. I figured I could replace my DVD player and avoid having an extra device in the chain. As it turned out, the Roku was too cheap to pass up and seemed to have far superior content to Blue Ray and other set top boxes I looked at.

I know a couple/few people that have owned Roku devices and would welcome advice, tips, channel recommendations etc. I’d love nothing more than to ditch cable completely. The last time I checked I think we were paying something like $80 per month – about the same as the Roku cost. I could buy one for every TV and spend about $28/month for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon and have more stuff than I could possibly ever watch. There would certainly be some holes but it is tempting all the same.

I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on the Roku and similar devices: What do you think of the content, what would you recommend, other devices, etc.

This week’s Gazette offering is a review of the columns I wrote in the last year. Bumpkin’s Corner graces the Middleboro Gazette every two weeks – its mission is to alienate every resident of Middleboro and Lakeville. I’m well on track to accomplish that goal with my incite insight on town politics.

Of all the issues covered in the last year, I would like to see Middleboro take a closer look at switching town employees and retirees to GIC and investigate the efficacy of expanding the use of call firefighters. Does the Quinn Bill still make sense? Are we getting the best bang for our buck with capital spending? As the old saying goes, if you watch your pennies the dollars will take care of themselves.

The biggest controversy of last year was the Safer grant in my estimation. We all agree that Middleboro has a manpower shortage in the fire department and I think we should explore the expanded use of call firefighters. Since the SAFER grant was rejected, the prospect of adding over $1M in full time career firefighters is a non-starter. If we truly have a safety issue – the only viable alternative is expanded use of call firefighters.

I also want to see us look at adopting GIC. I’d have to see the numbers to believe that it wouldn’t be a benefit – particularly the savings that would be achieved by switching retired town employees to Medicare as required by GIC.

Earlier this year I wrote a three-part gripe about the Middleboro school system and ended up looking for some resources to supplement my kids education at home. We used Study Island – an online MCAS test prep site – which I found pretty good at test prep but not really great at teaching the material. That only makes sense because teaching the material is not the goal of the site. A few months ago I stumbled on Khan Academy (thanks Dave D.) and I have to tell you that this site is nothing short of unbelievable. They have thousands – literally thousands – of video lessons covering dozens of subjects. We’ve been using it for a month or so – both kids like it about as much as you could expect. Jake is doing Algebra this year and has gotten a little behind. Last night we covered Equations 2, Equations 3, Linear Equations 4, and Solving Inequalities. Zach and I are working on percents, decimals, fractions and stuff like that.

The site is totally free and you can login with your existing google or facebook account. Amazing. Here is a talk by the founder if you’re interested – or just check out the sample video below.

Video for Equations 2

Gotta love the live human lips superimposed on the minimalist animation. Sadly I can remember watching old Clutch when I was very young. It was made in 1959 and probably primitive even by the 1966 standards – when I was watching it.

Check out the look on Romney’s face when he challenges Perry to a $10,000 bet. His face has raging ***hole written all over it. This is one of those “Duke in tank” moments. It’s all over Mitt.

A while back I explained why I thought that the legalization of casinos in Massachusetts would not lead to a casino in Middleboro – tribal or commercial. There is 50 foot brick wall between the Mashpee Wampanoag and a tribal casino and that wall has Carcieri v. Salazar spray painted on it — just to left of “for a good time call Bumpkin”.

Nearly every news article on casinos in Massachusetts have been woefully uninformed on the mechanics of tribal gaming. Finally in today’s Globe, Paul McMorrow has an article with a more sober view on the likelihood of a tribal casino.

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lawyers for the state say lawmakers only gave the tribe the opportunity to operate within federal Indian gambling law, and that the tribe would need federal approvals before opening a Massachusetts casino. The problem is, the Supreme Court barred these federal approvals two years ago.
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By writing the Mashpee Wampanoag into the state’s new gambling regime, lawmakers have leaped into a legal tangle that could take years to sort out. The state’s system for licensing a tribal casino relies on federal approvals that the feds have no authority to give.

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One of the things I love about Linux – is that I can change the look and feel to suit my needs by changing the desktop environment completely. Windows and Mac have no counterpart so most of you will have no idea what I’m talking about. Sure you can change themes and get your desktop to look pretty different – but it’s essentially the same. On Linux – the GUI is a completely separate component. Most Linux distributions come with some flavor of Gnome or KDE. Both are very capable, full featured, and require a pretty modern system to run well. I use several computers that range in age from 10 years old to brand new. The older ones are very sluggish running the whole hog Gnome/KDE experience so I run something more lightweight.

For years that was blackbox and its descendant fluxbox. Just recently I switched to LXDE – the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment and I’m liking it. This is not a dig at *box. Fluxbox, blackbox, openbox really pop. They only use a few megabytes of memory – probably less than 10 and literally POP into existence when you login. LXDE is a bit more fancy, a bit slower to start, but still very easy on older hardware. It uses a LOT more memory then fluxbox but a lot less than Gnome. I’m enjoying the change for now and love the fact that I’m free to try new desktop environments. I’ve used fwm, fvwm, olwm, olvwm, mwm, twm, Window Maker, Enlightenment, Afterstep, blackbox, fluxbox, openbox, CDE, KDE, XFCE, Gnome, Unity and probably a bunch of others I’ve forgotten.

‘Tis well.

Angry bumpkin will be back in full force this week in my Gazette column this coming Thursday. It will discuss the gutting of the grammar school music program and general failure of the schools to change their utterly unacceptable MCAS scores.

Starting next year, the instrument music program will be done after school – a move that is sure to kill participation and thus destroy all music in Middleboro since the grammar school is the feeder for our middle and high school musicians.

Nothing amuses me more than watching the hordes come out of the wood work for an issue that has zero effect on their daily lives like the kerfuffle over calling a Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree.

You want to call it a Christmas tree – go ahead. You want to call it a Holiday tree that’s fine with me. Heck call it “Billy” if you want to.

Whatever you call it – everybody should spend less time worrying about things that don’t matter and focus on things that do – like local, state, and federal budget deficits, education, the environment, and about a billion other things. It’s nice that people have the limited mental capacity to get worked up over the difference between “Holiday tree” and “Christmas tree”. With a little more intellectual effort we might be able to start addressing the real issues facing the country and the world.

Now that the casino law has passed, I have a feeling of Deja Vu watching various towns react to the prospect of having a giant development dropped on them.

And I pity them.

When faced with the prospect of a something that has the potential to radically alter the character of the town, people get testy. As large developments go, casinos seem to spark more emotions than other projects. Middleboro was torn apart by the proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino and four years later things are still not totally back to normal. Getting there but not there yet. Myself and my wife were subject to harsh treatment at the hands of pro-casino residents – something I still struggle with.

For towns that are potential casino sites: Strap yourselves in. You’re in for a wild and unpleasant ride as the spectre of money pits neighbor against neighbor and sends common sense packing.

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Casino opposition in the Milford area has been tepid, however, compared with the reaction in Foxborough last week. News that the town that hosts Gillette Stadium could be in line for a casino immediately sparked a protest on the downtown common, and the creation of two websites to help organize the effort to fight it.

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Anti-casino web sites are popping up – including nofoxborocasino.com. They have a good looking web site and a Facebook page with 600 friends. Good luck guys.

We use Lotus Notes at work for mail, calendaring, and other applications. While it may have some non-apparent-to-me value as an application platform, as an email platform it leaves a lot to be desired. My mail quota has apparently been exceeded – leaving me able to receive new emails but not delete old ones to solve the problem using thunderbird via Notes’ half-broken IMAP interface. Lotus notes gives this advice when using the native client.

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You must compact your mailbox immediately. To compact your mailbox, open your email, click File > Application > Properties, select Database in the drop-down field at the top of the properties box, click the i (info) tab, and then click Compact.

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You have got to be kidding me. It is just this sort of obtuseness that makes Lotus Notes richly deserve its place in the Interface Hall Of Shame.

Reminder that Sixteen Shillings is playing in Braintree on Saturday 12/3

My column in this week’s Gazette discusses the surprisingly positive experience I’ve had in the Universalist Unitarian church since I started attending earlier this year.

Sixteen Shillings will be this weekend in Braintree.

Loyal Order of Moose Lodges
175 Howard St, Braintree, MA 02184-1151
8:30 until whenever

Sixteen Shillings is myself(guitar/vocals) and Rob Dragunas(mandolin/vocals) playing a wide range of stuff

I’ll be playing at in Braintree this Saturday from 8:30 – 12:30
Loyal Order of Moose Lodges
175 Howard St, Braintree, MA 02184-1151
Also see the Page: Facebook Event Page

Got this email today. I think the new store is in the former Holly Berries across from Cafe Milano:

Greetings to all you ladies who love jewelry (and spouses who love to buy for your special one) ~

Look no further than Gregory Scot Jewelers on Center St. in downtown Middleboro. This fabulous store is newly opened by Middleboro residents Scot & Allison Dean (who you may know as parents of Ryan, Tyler and Mya).

The store is filled with a beautiful selection, but if you don’t see what you like, Scot will be delighted to help you find that special gift!

Spend your Christmas shopping dollars in Middleboro, it’s convenient and supports the local economy!

Cheers!

Now that the Massachusetts State Legislature has passed a bill for expanded mathematical stupidity gambling, I’ve decided to comment on what that means for the prospects of a casino in Middleboro.

The short answer is – the chances are still slim.

I’m sure there are a few diehards out there cheering the decision to legalize gambling and see the inclusion of a preference for a tribal casino in Southeastern Mass as a good sign – a breath of new life into the idea of a Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Middleboro. On the surface, it would appear to bode well — but I don’t think it does. I believe as strongly as ever that the Mashpee will never get a tribal casino. Their prospects for a commercial casino are a bit better but still not great. And neither event is likely to result in a casino in Middleboro.

First off – let’s look at what the bill actually says about tribal casinos.

The first mention provides $5M for legal and other costs related to a tribal casino in Region C(SE Mass):

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To provide for certain costs associated with the implementation of expanded gaming in the commonwealth, including, but not limited to, costs related to legal, financial and other professional services required for the negotiation and execution of a compact with a federally recognized Indian tribe in the commonwealth to establish a tribal casino in region C -$5,000,000

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Note this just sets aside money – nothing more.

The next mention is in the duties of the hackerama gambiling commission(send applications to Sen. Marc Pacheco). The 40th listed duty is to assist the governor in negotiating a compact with an indian tribe – if necessary.

The next mention – 100 pages later basically says: Keep an eye on the tribes and let us know if impossible happens – land into trust:

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Section 67. The commission shall continue to evaluate the status of Indian tribes in the commonwealth, including, without limitation, gaining federal recognition or taking land into trust for tribal economic development. The commission shall evaluate and make a recommendation to the governor and the chairs of the joint committee on economic development and emerging technologies as to whether it would be in the best interest of the commonwealth to enter into any negotiations with said tribes for the purposes of establishing Class III gaming on tribal land.

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A few dozen pages later – we have Section 89 – where all the tribal meat is. Items a-d specify the way compacts with indian tribes work. The bill gives the governor permission to enter into a compact with a tribe that would be subject to approval by the legislature. I believe that the governor already has this power – I guess it’s restating is to remove doubt about the role of the legislature. So far, we have no solid promise of an indian casino.

The whole tribal pot boils down to section e. The way I read it is this: If a tribe looks likely to get land into trust by Aug 1, 2012 – the Governor has to power to negotiate a compact. If they don’t – any old person can bid on the SE Mass casino.

At the risk of restating the obvious for the 12 billionth time: There is no legal way for the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust(See Carcieri v. Salazar). It would – literally – take an act of Congress for the Mashpee or anyone else to get land into trust and that is JUST NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Read Sec. 89 for yourself:

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SECTION 89. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law or rule or regulation to the contrary, the governor may enter into a compact with a federally recognized Indian tribe in the commonwealth.
(b) The Massachusetts gaming commission shall, upon request of the governor, provide assistance to the governor in negotiating such compact.
(c) The governor shall only enter into negotiations under this section with a tribe that has purchased, or entered into an agreement to purchase, a parcel of land for the proposed tribal gaming development and scheduled a vote in the host communities for approval of the proposed tribal gaming development.
(d) A compact negotiated and agreed to by the governor and tribe shall be submitted to the general court for approval.
(e) Notwithstanding any general or special law or rule or regulation to the contrary, if a mutually agreed-upon compact has not been negotiated by the governor and Indian tribe or if such compact has not been approved by the general court before July 31, 2012, the commission shall issue a request for applications for a category 1 license in Region C pursuant to chapter 23K of the General Laws not later than October 31, 2012; provided, however, that if, at any time on or after August 1, 2012 the commission determines that the tribe will not be granted land-in-trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the United States Department of the Interior, the commission shall consider bids for a category 1 license in Region C under said chapter 23K.

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It is still possible for the Governor Patrick to do something really dumb and give the Mashpee Wampanoag a commercial casino if they cede their rights for a possible future tribal casino. I think that would be of very suspect legality with regards to federal indian law – but he could do it. But I don’t think that is likely. Why would the Governor give this hapless bunch a commercial casino? To be fair – I don’t think of the tribal rank and file to be “hapless” – it’s their leadership – and that is the only thing that is relevent to this discussion. They’ve proven to be untrustworthy partners(See Middleboro, Fall River, Freetown, Raynham). They seem to have significant difficulty with self-governance(See Marshall, Hendricks, Cromwell). They have absolutely zero experience with casinos – or any large commercial venture. The most likely reason for all this alleged tribal preference is to give an appearance of negotiating in good faith so there is no legal ground for the tribe to argue to the BIA/SOI that Patrick was negotiating in bad faith.

If everyone decides to do something stupid, like give them a commercial casino, it will most certainly NOT be in Middleboro. There are several hundred pages of documentation explaining in great detail why that land is environmentally untenable for large commercial development – along with the painfully obvious fact that the state DOES NOT want a a casino in Middleboro.

A refreshingly simple, concise, clear statement on Occupy Wall Street from musical genius Roger Waters. I do not understand how this movement is being stratified by the right as a liberal movement.

His production of Pink Floyd’s The Wall is swinging through the states for a second pass.

GO

A few months ago there was a lot of uproar about the Middleboro G&E. The din has died down and the populace gone back to sleep.

This Tuesday at 7:30 at the G&E office building – 32 South Main Street.

This is an open meeting that will discuss the dollars and sense behind the bills we are all paying every month. Public scrutiny requires the public.

When the Occupy Wall Street thing first started, I didn’t pay that much attention. Judging by the name of the movement and the few blurbs I saw in passing on the news, it seemed like a bunch of people who were pissed off that Wall Street, big corporations, and the ultra-rich had undue influence with the government and that it was damaging the country. I knew that almost nobody had been convicted over the financial meltdown that was caused by malfeasance on the part of large banks. The whole message seemed pretty non-controversial and non-partisan to me.

Then the right wing started attacking the movement – and I knew that I had missed something.

Why was the right trying to paint this as a left-wing liberal movement? The same people who are wrapping themselves in THE CONSTITUTION and FREEDOM and the FOUNDING FATHERS were ridiculing the movement and demanding an end to the demonstrations. The right to free speech and peaceful assembly are KEY FREEDOMS protected by the blessed, holy almighty, socialist-hating, CONSTITUTION.

If there is a criticism of the OWS movement, it is that the message is not cohesive and too varied. All true. But the basic message is that the majority of people are being screwed because too few people have too much influence in government. The fiscal crisis of recent years was caused by a systematic dismantling of the financial protections that came into place as a result of the Great Depression. The Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980′s resulted in hundreds? of convictions. The financial meltdown of 2008/9 was many orders of magnitude worse, and yet we have had virtually no accountability for those responsible.

As I said, I paid little attention when OWS started off. Then I saw peaceful protesters being tear gassed, pepper sprayed, and seriously injured by police. I saw the fundamental right of assembly being threatened and ridiculed. And I saw the propaganda wing of the RepubliCorp party working as hard as it could to invalidate the movement. I can accept that you are not receptive to the message. I cannot accept, and I cannot understand how someone can sit on the sidelines rooting for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly to be violently quashed and curtailed.

I’m paying attention now – and I’m on board.

And before you comment on the trumped up charges of poor sanitation, trespassing, and so on: Those are artificial barriers put in place to curtail YOUR right to public assembly.

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Nice post from SSCR – acknowledging my column and “paying it forward” by listing/linking to many of the businesses in town.

Class act

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My column in this week’s Gazette discusses a very positive experience I had recently buying a custom built computer from South Shore Computer Repair in downtown Middleboro. That dove tails into a case for shopping locally particularly at fine vendors like Mary Barry Massage Therapy who offers gift certificates that make a thoughtful and unique holiday gift.

I’ve been very busy lately with my recent appointment to the Middleboro Community Preservation Committee. Last night we had a 2 1/2 hour training/Q&A session with Stuart Saginor from the Community Preservation Coalition – a statewide CPA advocacy group.

Our local CPC has had a bit of a controversy already with a former town moderator challenging the legality of the statutory member(Jo) representing the Housing Authority. The CPC statue calls for “a member” of the Housing Authority. Jo is an ex-officio member – she is appointed to the HA not elected. According to Wikipedia, “ex-officio” only describes how a person becomes a member – it does NOT limit their status as a member. This seems to have mostly been resolved with the DOR ruling that the her participation in the committee is proper. We are also awaiting advice from town counsel.

Bottom line to me:

1. Jo is a MEMBER of the HA – ex-officio or not.
2. Roberts rules states that ex-officio is a designation about how somebody gets onto a board and is NOT a limit of their participatory rights.
3. CPC calls for a member of the HA on the CPC
4. Go to 1

CPA is controversial – I was expecting the controversy to be of a less hair-splitting nature.