Wednesday, December 16, 2015

2016 Bucket List


  • I have all of the equipment at the agency to record, edit and publish videos.  This includes backgrounds in several colors including green as well as a professional lighting system. Watch out YouTube, here come the Conroys!

  • Next on the bucket list is getting my Amateur Radio license and setting up a broadcast studio.  The books have been ordered.  (Update: I passed the test for my Amateur Radio Technician license on 11/14/2015!) I am KE0GSH.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Vous êtes Charlie

Les barbares sont à la porte.  

Get your act together Europe!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!

2015 how did that happen!

I took out a 30-year mortgage on my first house in 1973. The term ran to 2003 and that seemed so far in the future and impossible to comprehend.

That was three states and six houses ago.

Now 2003 seems like the distant past and impossible to comprehend!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Confluence of Thoughts

I am still haunted by a mental image of two coeds that passed by me on an early morning walk to the football stadium in Iowa City a few years ago. They were wasted –obviously intoxicated from a binge that started at least the night before. Their eyes were bloodshot, with pupils dilated, set in sullen grey sockets on their slack faces as they stumbled down the street. I just saw another version of that look at a microbrewery on the south side of Des Moines.

A microbrewery is not a typical hang spot for me but I was there for a meeting. I am a principal of a local flying club and the current board president selected this location due to the extreme cold at the airport hangers.

There were about ten people in the large tasting room when I arrived for the meeting. During the hour-long meeting about ten drinkers left at random times while another ten arrived in almost perfect synchronicity.

All but one was male, all were about 25-35 years old and well dressed. It was the look in their eyes that reminded me of those wasted coeds from years ago. The drinkers look haunted and driven by an external force as they walked in, got their favorite beer and sat in small groups. There was very little conversation. The point of being there was to drink and feed the beast within them.

A prevention specialist with Prairie Ridge Addiction Treatment Services in Mason City, Iowa was recently quoted, “Overall, only a third of Iowa alcohol users consume 90 percent of the alcohol and the top 10 percent hammer down 10 drinks a day…The majority of alcohol is consumed problematically, consumed in high-risk fashion…The Centers for Disease Control says it costs Iowa $1.9 billion in medical bills, treatment, and law enforcement….We know how to prevent this. The will is not there.”

If alcohol was invented today it would be regulated by the FDA, not by state liquor commission and boards collecting taxes on the backs of people with a disease. The alcohol cartel would not be able to profit from exploiting such a debilitating disease.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Et Tu Brute

Football is like a bad joke with fans (fans is short for fanatics) cheering for their surrogates to inflict brutality on others. Not far removed from the days of the Roman gladiators.

 As always, follow the money. It is the advertising dollars spent by the alcohol cartel that provides the money and the spin to keep it going.