Hostess

Hostess continues in limbo. They said they were shutting down last Friday, but a venture capital group over the weekend has apparently made a bid to buy the company, Today we learn the shutdown has also been delayed as the union and Hostess are still taking. Personally the only things I would notice gone is the Wonder bread and powdered dough-nuts. I seldom use their bread but have good memories from a field trip when I was in about 2nd or 3rd grade to the Wonder bread plant in Washington DC and watching bread made. However with both these products I use other companies products often. I never have been a person to eat the Twinkies or Ding Dongs, etc. When I was in Walmart last night I looked on the bread aisle to see what products if any from Hostess remained. I only found one which is ironic. They still have loaves of Hostess fruit cakes. I did not look to see if they say what year they were made.

What to expect today in election

This election seems to have many parallels to twp previous elections, 1980 and 2000. Up until the debates it appeared ti be Obama's to lose, since then it has changed. An incumbent who is either just leading in the margin of error in the polls or not leading is a good indication that the incumbent will lose. The polls fro several weeks now have shown neck and neck. In 1980 Carter was leading up until the debates and was still \very close in polls to the election. Yet Reagan came in at last minute and trounced Carter in electoral college. I think this election has headed the same and is very likely to be the same by time we go to bed tonight. In another close election in 2000 Gore won the popular vote and Bush won the electoral college. It is possible with the closeness that tonight could turn out the same \way but with the parties reversed. I am quite confident that if that happens we will not hear fro next four years from the democrats that Obama is not a legitimate president as they claimed (and some still claim) on Bush. However I think is is unlikely. I do not expect electoral college to change as it was put there for small states and they would block a constitutional amendment. However we may see more states move like Nebraska and Main and distribute electoral college votes by popular vote. It is the individual states who decide how the members of electoral college are chosen. Until now it is winner take all in most states. Th third possibility as we have seen the states that were toss-ups increase and some move from Obama to undecided we could end up in a tie and this would lead to probably the most awkward outcome since we switched from electing a president and #2 in balloting was vice president (which did not work well). Then the House will elect the president (since Republican controlled and 1 vote per state Romney would win) an the Senate will elect the vice president and since Democratic controlled Biden would win. That would be interesting watching them work together. I expect the House to stay Republican controlled and the Senate will be narrowly controlled by Republicans. In local races here in NW Georgia it has been interesting with a strong write-in campaign for the commissioner of Walker County (even covered by Wall Street Journal, the night I helped run political forum they had a reporter at it) and write-in for sheriff in Catoosa County. The sheriffs races I expect to won in both counties by the Republicans. In Walker I think Campbell will come close on write-in but will fall short as many will not do a write-in. If you have not voted I encourage you to go vote. I early voted a few weeks ago. If you do not vote you don't have much right to complain about what the politicians do as you had opportunity to help decide. If you vote and decide person you voted for is doing lousy you participated and you can tell people what they do wrong (and right) complain about them, just as if person who won was not who you voted for you can say they are doing wrong and right. As Americans we get to decide who our government is as opposed to many parts of the world.

Voter photo-id Chicago

Did you watch the video of President Obama early voting this week in Chicago? He had to produce a photo-id to be able to vote (he joked about not looking same as it due to gray hair). Illinois requires photo-id to early vote. Why is it that other states trying to require photo-id from people voting are being told it is wrong and being opposed by the Obama administration but yet that is the law in Illinois for early voting. Why they only require photo-id for early voting but not for voting on election day I am not sure. I have heard of no one convicted for fraud in early voting by mis-representing themselves but there have been a few cases on regular election and with absentees. The Chicago election web site (http://www.chicagoelections.com/page.php?id=68) says: "Usually, ID is required to prove the voter's identity and residency at the address of the registration. Here are the most common situations: 1 Any time a voter uses Early Voting, the voter must present a government-issued photo ID such as a current Illinois driver's license, a current state identification card issued by the Illinois Secretary of State or a current passport. This is a requirement under Illinois law. " Why is it ok for Chicago to require photo-id when people early vote to prove the voter's identity but people (including the Obama administration) say it is wrong for Georgia to require photo-id from me when I early voted today. Another observation from the two voting experiences (Obama and me) is he was filmed going in and voting and the signs when I voted said cameras and cell phones were not permitted. Last someone might tell Obama it is permissible for him to tell how he voted, it is not allowed to demand a person tell how they voted.

Free online classes

Yes, there are a number of colleges now offering classes online for free. In most cases these classes do not count toward degrees, but there is talk of trying to start doing that. In many cases they will give you a certificate for completing the course and in some cases you can apply for continuing education credit. This gives more people an opportunity to update themselves in areas that interest them. Political science and computers have always been a large interest for me (my undergraduate degree was political science). Classes cover all kinds of subjects. All types of colleges are offering these including Hillsdale in Michigan, Harvard and MIT among others. These classes are often the same as the credit classes taught at the college or at least by the same instructors. www.coursera.com is the clearing house for many of these colleges. You can normally do the work at any time during the week or often they are archived and you can do at a slower pace. I learned about Hillsdale College’s (www.hillsdale.edu) course on the Constitution (101) thru an email from them and I took a course in the spring and got a nice certificate. I am now taking Constitution 201 from them and starting next week a history class on early western civilization history. These are very professionally done. The James Madison’s Montpelier Center for the Constitution offers free classes on the Constitution also at http://learn.montpelier.org In addition Microsoft has started the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) which has a large number of Microsoft classes available for free. They are available about a number of different types of Microsoft software. I have enrolled there and am talking a class on IT Connectivity and will do an introduction to Server 2012 next. Currently Microsoft keeps a record of you completing the classes but plans to start issuing certificates soon. You will also see these classes referred to as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOC. The possibilities of what you can take and where is growing daily.

A 1 hour hike adventure

Saturday afternoon having stayed in NW Georgia I decided at 4:30 to go to Villanow and go hike back in Johns Mountain Forest and find Keown Fall. This was to be a 2-3 mile hike. I drove my pickup there and did the hike but the falls was never on the trail, although one hollowed out area I suspect is where the falls should be. Having a lot of rain earlier in week I assumed it would be running. It was to be a 1 hour 2-3 mile hike. I got back to the truck and the truck would not start and I was only one left in the parking lot. There is no cell tower close so my cell phone did not work. A one hour hike now begins looking like Gilligan may have been along (the professor was there, me) and I am stranded. I put on my jacket and started walking to Villanow probably 8-10 miles away where there is a convenience store. Checking my phone constantly I discovered I had cell coverage leaving the National Forest. I called AAA and about one and half hours later they appeared. In the meantime a former student who lives near there, who I had texted, showed right behind tow truck. By that time it was dark. I heard a flock of turkeys go by but only 2 pickups in all that time. AAA took me to truck and he got in and it cranked. My former student followed me back to Lafayette. a one hour hike of 2-3 miles had turned into 5 hour adventure with the 2-3 mile hike and then 4 miles walking on the road. Pictures of the hike are at http://dwightwatt.shutterfly.com/23570

What to expect today in election

This election seems to have many parallels to twp previous elections, 1980 and 2000. Up until the debates it appeared ti be Obama's to lose, since then it has changed. An incumbent who is either just leading in the margin of error in the polls or not leading is a good indication that the incumbent will lose. The polls fro several weeks now have shown neck and neck. In 1980 Carter was leading up until the debates and was still \very close in polls to the election. Yet Reagan came in at last minute and trounced Carter in electoral college. I think this election has headed the same and is very likely to be the same by time we go to bed tonight. In another close election in 2000 Gore won the popular vote and Bush won the electoral college. It is possible with the closeness that tonight could turn out the same \way but with the parties reversed. I am quite confident that if that happens we will not hear fro next four years from the democrats that Obama is not a legitimate president as they claimed (and some still claim) on Bush. However I think is is unlikely. I do not expect electoral college to change as it was put there for small states and they would block a constitutional amendment. However we may see more states move like Nebraska and Main and distribute electoral college votes by popular vote. It is the individual states who decide how the members of electoral college are chosen. Until now it is winner take all in most states. Th third possibility as we have seen the states that were toss-ups increase and some move from Obama to undecided we could end up in a tie and this would lead to probably the most awkward outcome since we switched from electing a president and #2 in balloting was vice president (which did not work well). Then the House will elect the president (since Republican controlled and 1 vote per state Romney would win) an the Senate will elect the vice president and since Democratic controlled Biden would win. That would be interesting watching them work together. I expect the House to stay Republican controlled and the Senate will be narrowly controlled by Republicans. In local races here in NW Georgia it has been interesting with a strong write-in campaign for the commissioner of Walker County (even covered by Wall Street Journal, the night I helped run political forum they had a reporter at it) and write-in for sheriff in Catoosa County. The sheriffs races I expect to won in both counties by the Republicans. In Walker I think Campbell will come close on write-in but will fall short as many will not do a write-in. If you have not voted I encourage you to go vote. I early voted a few weeks ago. If you do not vote you don't have much right to complain about what the politicians do as you had opportunity to help decide. If you vote and decide person you voted for is doing lousy you participated and you can tell people what they do wrong (and right) complain about them, just as if person who won was not who you voted for you can say they are doing wrong and right. As Americans we get to decide who our government is as opposed to many parts of the world.