This is a particularly salient point in the capital of New York State. We recently ranked last (dead last… severely bottom-feeding last… at the extreme arse end of the scale last) on the Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom. It’s crazy to me that moving to a state like California would be a big, big improvement.

Well it’s no surprise to any New Yorkers that we’re in the pits. This state loves to spend, spend, spend… tax, tax, tax. No responsibility. No long-term vision. We reinforce the entitlement mentality of an ever-growing pustule of dependent special interests.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if there were government agents in the crowd paying attention to who was there… what with Janet Napolitano releasing a report on “right-wing extremism” naming various traits to watch for in citizens such as:

• Opposes abortion
• Opposes restrictions on firearms
• Opposes lax immigration
• Opposes the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs
• Opposes same-sex marriage
• Opposes one world government

I guarantee you this tea party was ripe with honest, hard-working, God-fearing, conservative, patriotic folks who would associate with most of the traits listed above – myself included. I guess according the Janet (who later had to tuck her mangy tail between her legs) anyone with traditional values is a potential threat. Hey Janet… come and get me!

Some cell pics of the event:

And as always you can see all my tax day photos in my gallery here: http://stevemooradian.com/gallery

The clinic will be at Trick Shot Billiards [map] – right behind Parkway Music – on Sunday, May 18, from 3-5pm. Tickets are $5 at the door and space is limited so plan accordingly. Dream Theater’s concert starts at 7pm that same night at the Armory.

On the 3-hour flight down to Orlando there was a family with a small girl (probably about 18 months) sitting in front of us. The little girl cried loudly for about two thirds of the flight. That’s two hours! I cannot emphasize how incredibly brain-piercing a little whine machine can be when you have to sit 20 inches away! I found myself checking my watch every few minutes to see how much closer our landing was. Needless to say, the entire back of the plane (where we were) was getting angry at the constant noise.

After pondering at length, I think that some parents are really very inconsiderate when it comes to their children. Not that they are inconsiderate to their children, but they are oblivious to the offensive sounds, smells, etc. emanating from their children that they have either grown numb to (like smokers who no longer realize their clothes stink) or dismiss as expected behavior from youngsters. And then unfortunately, some parents expose others around them (on planes, in restaurants, on buses, in lines) to these offenses without care or consideration… like the world must accept it because kids will be kids.

Now I’m not talking about only a little fussing or crying. There is some level of acceptability here… some level of balance… and I think that’s the whole point. There is a standard of propriety that one must take responsibility for… whether a dog barking endlessly at 2am, or a screaming infant in a quiet restaurant.

In my opinion, if a kid is screaming inordinately loud, I don’t think parents can force others to hear it… any more than I can force someone to have to smell something highly unpleasant and nauseous, or to force feed someone something that tastes highly unpleasant. So if I have to leave my skunk at home, then kids whose screaming is ear-piercing and can’t be controlled should be left at home, too. The parents on my flight should have had to pay for everyone’s plane ticket within a 15-foot radius of their bawling spawn.

I must mention that I know some classy parents who are very cognizant of their child and will not take it to a quiet restaurant when they know it’s being fussy… and if it starts crying at the restaurant they’ll take it out. Bravo! For the rest of you, I challenge you to remember that there are those of us who haven’t gotten “used to” crying and screaming, and who can’t tune it out quite as easily as you have learned to.

I find her show to be a wealth of information. Much of it is basic and the people who call in don’t always ask the hardest questions… but even somebody like me… who lives and breathes computers (and who has a graduate degree in the stuff) can learn a bunch just by listening to her. She always has tons of tips of helpful hints on about any computer related topic you can think of. And her website is loaded with info and links to preferred software.

I get asked a lot of computer questions by people… people from all my circles of life… because they think of me as “the computer guy”. Quite frankly, many times the questions I get asked are simple… not just simple by my standards… but even simple for a layman. People ask me these questions because they want a quick answer and don’t want to take the moment to look up the answer on their own. In fact, you should see the disappointment that falls over someone’s face when I tell them which website has the answer to their question. Now you may say – what do you mean… shouldn’t they be excited to have a website to find their answer. Yes, they SHOULD, but they aren’t… they are disappointed that they actually have to GO to the website THEMSELVES… and they don’t feel like writing the URL down and/or committing it to memory so they usually never go there. Isn’t that crazy?

On Kim’s website and you’ll find much, but the real gem to most people is her downloads section with great links to shareware and freeware applications to perform some of the most important functions on your computer… like spyware detection and virus protection.

I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about their computer (and is not into lots of geek-speak) to listen to Kim Komando’s show. I especially recommend this if you find yourself constantly asking help for routine and basic questions regarding commonly used software and features. I super-mega-recommend this if you know me!