Best Burger

No surprises here, Five Guys has the best burgers in the US according to Zagat.  They also were second best in fries (losing to McDonald's).  Congratulations Five Guys!

Full results here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38694233/ns/today-foodwine/

CA Proposition 8 Struck Down

Unfortunately the fight will continue.  But for now, same sex marriage is quasi legal again in California.  Key phrase in the ruling, which I wholeheartedly agree with:

"Race restrictions on marital partners were once common in most states but are now seen as archaic, shameful or even bizarre," he added. "Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals."

My America does not discriminate, whether it is on race, gender, or sexual orientation.  It is important that the Supreme Court rule that way, but I do fear that they may not.  However, for any Plessy v. Ferguson, there is a Brown v. Board of Education.  It can just take a few decades.

Ground Zero Mosque

I'm not one to say great things about any religion, but I'm also leery of government regulation of private activities.  This is why I think it is great that a mosque and Islamic center is being built in lower Manhattan. While some are calling this a "ground zero" mosque it is actually located several blocks away.  That's miles in NYC terms.  There are also bars and other establishments nearby.  We should not hold half of Manhattan sacred, and the government should definitely not block development.

Animal Style Cooking

I'm not a huge fan of In n Out Burger.  Having gone to one in San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf location), I felt that it made burgers that were somewhat better than McDonald's, much worse than Five Guys, with an atmosphere somewhere in between.  But I forgot to order anything from the "secret menu".  Well, I made an Animal Style burger tonight at home, thanks to this guy who reverse engineered one.

I made a few substitutions to save time.
1. Used sharp cheddar cheese
2. Used irradiated beef, 80/20 (safer)
3. My buns had been frozen.

Result?  A pretty fucking tasty burger, if I do so say myself.  And I'll have some leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Top Secret America

The Washington Post has a very interesting feature this week called Top Secret America.  It appears a few of their reporters spent a couple years investigating the government's response to 9/11 and the large amount of money being spent on top secret activities.  While this was compiled using publicly available data, there are now questions as to whether the consolidated report would be considered classified using the controversial "mosaic theory".  It is very interesting reading, considering we have now spent over $1T on anti-terrorism measures.

This is very alarming to me, when you take into account that very, very few people are killed or harmed by terrorists.

MI Township Tries to Ban Dancing

There was quite a vocal fight about permitting a restaurant to have belly dancing in rural Oakland County, MI.

Best quotes:

"The Devil is at Orion's gate."  Orion is the township in question.
"These people are out of their minds."  Obviously, this was said by a reasonable fellow.

Running through the holiday

I took part in the inaugural Independence 5000 race this past weekend.  Pacers running stores has been putting on quite a number of events lately.  I was able to beat my previous 5k record by 19 seconds, which is great considering my achilles was acting up a bit.

I recovered mostly during the weekend, went on a few gentle runs.

I also got to use my new toy, a Garmin Forerunner 305.  Here is my run, as told through the Garmin (the time is a little bit off since I started the timer a few seconds before the race).

2nd Amendment Applies to the States

Breaking news: Chicago's handgun ban has been struck down, the Supreme Court has ruled that the 2nd Amendment applies to the states.

Sen Robert Byrd Dead

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia died today at the age of 92.  He's the longest serving member of Congress.  While there will no doubt be many tributes to him, we should all keep in mind that he represents the (hopefully) end of an era, where you can go from KKK leader to US congressman.

Why I sold my Kindle (updated)

I was given a Amazon Kindle as a birthday present last December.  I recently sold it on eBay.

When I first receive the Kindle, I was very excited about it.  I thought this would definitely be the wave of the future, and a great device to use for years to come.  Over the holidays, I took it with me on vacation and read books for about 30 hours on it.  I was able to download free, older books online as well as a few free deals Amazon had going on.

The Kindle's screen is truly nice to read on.  The only downside is that there is quite a lag in the refresh rate.  I didn't get rid of the Kindle due to the technology itself, the main reason I dumped it was due to simple economics.

Price of new Kindle: $259
Cost of leather cover: $35
Sold both for: ~$190 net of shipping and eBay fees
Total loss: ~$104 (but keep in mind it was a gift)

So, basically I used a Kindle for about 2 months, let it sit for 4 months, and sold it.  I consider myself lucky, since it would have cost me much more to keep it.

I read approximately 2-3 books per month.  The average cost of a new book is $18 or so, on a Kindle it is $10.  So some would say that I would save between 16-24 a month by using the Kindle.

Not true.

First of all, a Kindle book is worthless.  You can't sell it, you can't trade it, you can loan it to a friend.  It is there to be read once and that's it.  That bestseller you buy for $18 can be sold for something later on.  And you can always buy a used book on half.com for a lot less.

And need I talk about my new best friend?  The library.

Keeping the Kindle would have cost me $20-30 a month in recurring book fees to Amazon.  It would make me stress over each purchase, wondering if its worth the money, since I wouldn't be able to do anything with the book once I was done.

What Amazon needs to do is lower the price of books, or at least remove the DRM, like Apple has with iTunes.

By the way, I took my profit and bought something I'll at least use: a Garmin Forerunner 305 brand new for $135.

Update: About an hour after posting this Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle to $189.  Looks like my timing was dead on.

Proposed Arizona law most certainly unconstitutional, unjust

The xenophobes in Arizona are at it again.  On the heels of passing a very tough anti-immigration law that turns the state into a police state, they have now proposed that children of illegal immigrants will not automatically become US citizens if born in the US.  

Citizenship is a federal matter, not a state matter, so it is unclear how this would be enforced (it appears they would deny birth certificates, which is very odd).  But even if they are able to get the logistics straight, this is still a federal matter.  

The rationale behind this is to prevent "anchor babies" where parents will not be deported if their kids are US citizens.  However, anchor babies are more myth than fact; you cannot deport a US citizen but you can deport their parents, whereupon they would become a ward of the state.

In any case, a child born here deserves to be a US citizen.  Think of it this way: your parents are illegal immigrants from Mexico.  You are born in the states and raised in the states.  When you are 15, your parents immigration status is uncovered.  Now tell me this, is it ethical to deport someone who likely speaks English as good as anyone else and has never known another country?

Afghan Plunder

It was announced yesterday that there is up to $1T of minerals in Afghanistan.  Before you get too excited, consider this: we've known about the lithium for 40 years.

Strasburg Amazing in Debut

Stephen Strasburg threw 14 strikeouts in the 5-2 Nats win over the Bucs.

This video shows the complete domination he brings to the game: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8802881

Holloway Suspect Murder Again?

The truth is often stranger than fiction.  In this case, Joran van der Sloot is accused of murder, for the second time in 5 years.  He was suspected, but never charged, with killing American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba several years ago.  Earlier this year he had what many call a confession.  Suffice it to say, there was a lot of criticism as to how the local authorities handled the case.

BP still in business

BP is not yet in danger of bankruptcy, says one financial analyst.  I'm in agreement, BP does have a large amount of cash reserves.  I also agree that investors are the ones who are really killing BP.  Consumers have short minds, and BP could always rebrand as Amoco.  But as an investor right now I'd put my money into Total (TOT), which has a juicy yield without any of the baggage.