Ten questions for…Marc Kilmer of the Maryland Public Policy Institute

My “Ten Questions” series returns with a twist.

Believe it or not, in less than two weeks (January 10) the sausage-grinding begins in Annapolis as the 2007 General Assembly gets underway. With that in mind, I went to a local man who’s quite familiar with many of the issues that will face our state in this and future years. But he’s not an elected official.

Regular readers of monoblogue may recognize the Maryland Public Policy Institute as an organization whose views I amplify from time to time. With a mission to “formulate and promote public policies at all levels of government based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and civil society” it’s more often than not that I agree with their stances. So, I’m pleased to have discussed the issues in a recent e-mail interview with Marc Kilmer, who is a local resident and Senior Fellow with the MPPI. Mr. Kilmer is also a Research Associate for the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, which was a happy accident since I had a nodding familiarity with that group from my native state.

While Marc did want me to note that his opinions are not necessarily those of MPPI, I’m quite happy with how the interview came out and think local readers will be as well.

monoblogue: I’d like to start out by asking a little bit about your background and how you came to be involved in the Maryland Public Policy Institute.

Kilmer: I was raised in Idaho and when I graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan I moved to Washington, D.C. While there I worked for Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) for four years and was then the Executive Director/CEO of a trade association representing nonprofit providers of services for people with disabilities (organizations similar to Dove Pointe and Lower Shore Enterprises here in Salisbury). My wife took a job in Salisbury so we moved here a year ago. At the same time, a friend working for the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free market think tank in Ohio, was looking for someone to take over one of his projects. Since I was looking for work, I began contracting with the Buckeye Institute to write on technology issues. After a few months I looked around for similar think tanks in Maryland and found the Maryland Public Policy Institute. I contacted Christopher Summers, the President, and offered my services, and I’ve been doing health care work with the MPPI since July.

monoblogue: It sounds like you’re a fairly ambitious entrepreneurial type. Having lived in and studied about several different places (including my native state of Ohio), how would you say Maryland’s business climate compares as far as taxation, red tape, etc. to other areas you’re familiar with?

Kilmer: I’ve really only studied the business climate of one other state (Ohio) and Maryland generally comes off better. That may be a little surprising, since Ohio is a Republican state (the recent election of a Democratic governor notwithstanding) and Maryland is quite liberal, but I guess it goes to show that poor economic ideas are not confined to either party.

Ohio, for instance, ranks 47 on the Tax Foundation’s business tax climate index. Maryland ranks 22. Of course, that isn’t all that great when you look at Maryland’s neighbors, which all rank higher (Delaware is at 8, Virginia is at 19, and Pennsylvania is at 16). The state could certainly do better by lowering taxes and easing some economic restrictions.

I am troubled, however, at the increasingly business-unfriendly actions being taken by the General Assembly. From raising the minimum wage to passing the “Wal Mart bill,” it seems that our legislators are increasingly enamored with passing legislation that is completely symbolic in terms of “solving” a problem and yet is quite destructive for certain businesses. While I am not generally in favor of imposing heavy burdens on business, at least if a legislature is going to do this, these burdens should be an effective remedy to some problem. Our General Assembly, however, does not seem to feel the same way.

Although I am disturbed by the actions of the General Assembly, I am more concerned about anti-business action on the county level. The slow growth agenda so popular here in Wicomico County is much more destructive to business than almost anything the General Assembly is contemplating. Although it is packaged in nice rhetoric, the heart of the slow growth movement is the desire by one group of citizens to tell another group how it may use its private property. Meddling in the choices of others through restrictive zoning, impact fees, and the other tools of “smart growth” is much more destructive to the economic life of Wicomico County than a higher minimum wage or the Wal Mart bill.

monoblogue: I tend to agree with you regarding growth in general, but those who favor slower growth or a complete moratorium on it bring up a valid point in claiming that when growth is too fast or poorly planned it creates large problems because infrastructure isn’t necessarily improved at the same time.

With the state looking at huge budgetary mandates outside the realm of capital spending, what steps (if any) would you advocate the state take to assist the local counties, or is this better left on a local level?

Kilmer: To continue the digression on smart growth policies, I agree that infrastructure needs to keep up with growth. I have issues with people who use terms like “make growth pay for itself,” and then try to increase taxes and fees on developers and newcomers. Growth does pay for itself — new residents pay the same taxes as the old residents.

Governments should use this increase in revenue to pay for new or improved infrastructure and not try to increase the tax burden on new arrivals. Furthermore, everyone uses the new infrastructure, so trying to force only newcomers (or people who buy new houses) to pay for it is unfair.

I could go on, but I should probably get to your question:

As far as mandates, I’m not completely familiar with all the mandates imposed on local governments, so I’ll have to be general. To meet state mandates, I’m not sure what needs to be done at the state level except ensure the state is very careful to impose mandates quite narrowly and give counties the freedom to meet these mandates in different ways. At the local level, however, we need elected officials who are willing to look at innovative ideas that can help local government complete its necessary functions as well as use tax dollars most efficiently. For example, with education our county leaders should consider privatization efforts as well as public-private partnerships. Counties have a lot of authority to experiment, but many county leaders seem to think the only way to do things is how they’ve been done for the past thirty or forty years. That needs to change.

monoblogue: As we speak of change, it has to be noted that with an entirely new leadership at the top of state government (new governor, LG, comptroller, and attorney general) it’s obvious state priorities would change. In the case of MPPI, you’re losing a govenor who I’m assuming was amenable to your interests and getting one who’s likely more hostile. Will this entail a strategy shift for the group, or is it still too early to tell?

Kilmer: I can’t really speak on that, since I wasn’t working with MPPI long enough to get a feel for how it interacted with the Ehrlich administration nor can I speak on its strategy for the future.

monoblogue: Fair enough. Let’s shift gears a little bit here. As I posted a few weeks back, you had an enlightening town hall meeting in Salisbury (one of a series across the state.) The predominant subject of discussion was possible remedies to the problem Maryland has with health care coverage. Last summer Massachusetts passed a measure mandating health insurance coverage for all state residents. Could you share with the readers some of MPPI’s reaction to this idea being translated into Maryland?

Kilmer: While I don’t necessarily speak for MPPI, I do see some troubling aspects of the Massachusetts health plan. I’m even further troubled that in Maryland we have the Chamber of Commerce joining with the liberal advocacy group Health Care for All to push aspects of this plan in the next session of the General Assembly. I’m even more troubled that this plan is being embraced by so many Republicans, who ostensibly hail from the “free market” party.

The key of the Massachusetts plan is that individuals are mandated to purchase health insurance. Individual mandates are flawed on both theoretical and practical levels. On the theoretical level, I do not support the notion that the government should force someone to buy any product as a prerequisite for living in the state. Until Massachusetts enacted such a mandate, no state in the U.S. had done this.

On the practical level, there is no way to enforce this mandate. In Massachusetts the state is doing so by forcing people to report their insurance number on their taxes. The problem is that tax compliance is completely voluntary for most people. Government does not check the accuracy of tax returns for the vast majority of filers. It, on the whole, accepts what taxpayers say as true. In order to ensure that people are not lying about having health insurance, the government would be forced to greatly expand its enforcement efforts. And, of course, what about the low-income residents who do not pay taxes? How will the mandate on them be enforced?

So while using tax returns to enforce such a mandate is deeply flawed, it is unclear what other method would produce the necessary results while avoiding massive government intrusion into the life of average citizens.

Some may be able to justify this expansion of government power because they see the problem of the uninsured as so dire. Well, the facts are that the problem of people not having health insurance isn’t all that huge. Only 16% of Marylanders lack insurance. 61% of them have incomes above the federal poverty level. 40% have incomes twice the federal poverty level. And, if Maryland follows national trends, between half and two-thirds only lack insurance for part of the year. There really is only a small percentage of very poor people who don’t have insurance in the state. The rest either lack insurance for only part of the year (likely due to changing jobs) or have enough money to afford it if they really needed it. There is no need to enact unprecedented government mandates and dramatically expand its power over everyone in the state to address the problem of such a small percentage of Marylanders.

monoblogue: Unfortunately, government expanding mandates seems to be the way of the world. Another area this applies to is the educational arena. I know MPPI has done a huge amount of work in supporting school choice, so what’s the best argument to use against one who contends that the public schools are good enough for our children?

Kilmer: School choice is important because different kids have different needs. Public schools are not set up to meet every child’s needs. Some kids need more discipline, some need a more rigorous academic schedule, some need special help, etc. Giving parents a voucher to send their children to schools that meet those children’s needs just makes sense. There is nothing logical about the government deciding that if you have a certain zip code your kids must go to a certain school. Schools should be freely chosen by the parent, not forced on children by the government.

The one thing we often hear in opposition to school choice is that we should focus on improving public schools instead of taking resources away from “underfunded” public schools via vouchers (it’s a whole other debate about whether public education is “underfunded” or whether more funding increases educational results, so I’ll leave that alone). We have been trying to solve the problem of public schools for decades, and there is scant evidence that these reforms have worked very well. Part of that is due to the opposition of teachers’ unions to any real education reform. While these unions hide behind the rhetoric of helping “the children,” people need to realize that teachers’ unions represent teachers, not children. The interest of teachers comes first to them, and their interests do not always coincide with what is best for kids. So reforms like making it easier to fire bad teachers or instituting merit pay for good teachers — commonsense reforms to help incentivize better education — are strongly opposed by teachers unions.

Instead of holding children hostage to continual social experiments to “fix” public schools, it makes sense to let parents who are dissatisfied with these schools to have a voucher to explore an alternative educational situation. That gives parents an opportunity for a better education for their children, but it also gives public schools an incentive to improve. Look at Ohio, which has fairly vigorous school choice in terms of charter schools and vouchers. Public schools are losing students and money, and these schools are responding by improving their programs. The only people who don’t benefit from school choice are bad teachers and bad school administrators.

monoblogue: Given that, would it be a fair statement to continue in that vein and infer that MPPI isn’t too crazy about the Thornton funding mandates in Maryland, or, to use another example I’m familiar with and you might be as well, the huge capital outlay the state of Ohio has undertaken over the last decade to build and rehab all of the state’s K-12 schools?

Kilmer: In MPPI’s Guide to the Issues, Karin Flynn and Tori Gorman did a chapter on Maryland’s budget problems. Part of that was devoted to education spending. In it they noted that since the Thornton Commissions recommendations were codified (more funding that was supposed to be followed by an increase in student achievement), we have seen more funding going to Maryland schools but not similar rise in achievement. There has been some increase in the Maryland School Assessment test scores since 2003, but the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test has shown no similar trend. As they point out, “. . . by 2005 (the most recent year for which education test scores are available), the state’s education budget had increased 25%, but by all measures [the state] has not seen a concomitant increase in academic achievement.”

monoblogue: I’m pretty familiar with the book and MPPI should be commended for putting it out to contribute to the discussion of issues facing Maryland. But one topic that’s not covered and is going to be a hot-button issue right off the top is expanding the state’s gambling industry by allowing slot machines at the horse racing tracks (and possibly other locations.) Does MPPI have a stance on the issue; or, if they don’t, as an MPPI contributor where do you stand on it?

Kilmer: MPPI doesn’t take stances on issues — it gives scholars a forum to present research and analysis about public policy. However, back in 2003 Tom Firey and Jeffrey Hook did an analysis of this issue for MPPI. Their conclusion: “if the state elects to adopt slot gaming, it should auction off a small number of slot operating licenses via a ‘Reverse Auction’ whereby potential private sector operators (including state horse tracks) vie for the licenses by offering to retain the smallest portion of the win. Under that design, our modeling shows the state would receive $1.6 billion annually from gaming.”

As far as whether the state should allow slot machines, my personal opinion is that it should. The state is obviously not opposed to gambling. It runs a lottery, after all. If the government can run a gambling enterprise, why prevent private businesses from doing the same? And why force people to drive to Delaware or Atlantic City or West Virginia to gamble? People want to gamble. I say let them.

monoblogue: By your answer to that question, you sort of half-answered my next one, so I’ll ask it this way. Because MPPI isn’t a lobbying organization per se, it doesn’t sound like they’re in the business of supporting candidates or advocating the General Assembly directly for pet issues. Would this mean that the business side of MPPI pretty much depends on book sales and contributions with its overhead just being salaries, printing costs, and keeping the lights on?

Kilmer: MPPI isn’t a political advocacy group or lobbying organization. It does not support candidates or bills before the General Assembly. It’s a think tank that is set up to, as its mission statement says, “provide accurate and timely research analysis of Maryland policy issues and market these findings to key primary audiences.” It does so from a free market perspective, but it does not follow any political party line.

As far as its business side, the president of MPPI, Christopher Summers, could answer that better than I can. In most think tanks, there is something of a wall between the analysts and the business side in order to help preserve the independence of analysts. However, I think MPPI’s funding comes from contributions, foundation grants, and book sales. As for overhead, I think you described it pretty well.

monoblogue: Two final questions. I don’t know how successful your pre-session forums were back in October, but will these become an annual event? And are there plans to publish the Guide to the Issues on an annual basis?

Kilmer: The town hall meetings will not be an annual event (although MPPI does hold other forums) and the Guide to the Issues is published every four years.

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I hope readers found this as enlightening as I did. I truly enjoyed doing this format as opposed to my Ten Questions that were aimed at candidates because I got to cover the topics I wanted to hit on but the interchange also suggested additional lines of inquiry that I didn’t think of originally.

For further information on the Maryland Public Policy Institute, their website is www.mdpolicy.org. I highly recommend a visit, and even more highly recommend placing your e-mail address on their mailing list for information on their events and press citations (as mine is.) They’re going to be a busy crew over the next several years as our state faces a number of difficult decisions.

And once again I’d like to thank Marc for taking time out of his work over several days for his participation.

NFL playoff picture set

With San Francisco’s game-winning field goal moments ago, it solidified the NFL playoff setup.

Saturday will have two games, both on NBC (cable channel 11 locally).

At 4:30 #6 seed Kansas City (9-7), a winner over Jacksonville today, takes on AFC foe and #3 seed Indianapolis (12-4) and tangles with Peyton Manning and company after the Colts knocked off Miami to finish an 8-0 home season. The two teams did not meet this season, their last go-round was a 45-35 victory for the Chiefs in 2004. They also met in the 2003 playoffs when Indianapolis upset the favored Chiefs 38-31 – both these games were in Kansas City. A Kansas City win would send them out to San Diego to face the Chargers, but if Indianapolis takes the contest they’ll travel to their onetime home in Baltimore.

After that’s over, the 8:00 game begins the NFC playoffs as #5 seed Dallas (9-7) goes up to the Pacific Northwest to face the fourth seed Seattle (9-7). The Cowboys limp into the playoffs after losing two straight at home to eventual NFC East champion Philadelphia last week and the 2-13 Detroit Lions today. (Now why couldn’t the Lions play this well the WHOLE SEASON? Of course, now they don’t get the #1 draft pick. Oh well.) Seattle got into the postseason on a winning note by dusting off Tampa Bay down in Florida. Last season in Week 7 these two teams met in Seattle with the Seahawks winning 13-10. The winner will either face Chicago or New Orleans depending on Sunday’s result.

On Sunday the playoffs shift to the conference’s “home” networks with the early (1:00) game locally on WBOC 16. This game features a divisional rematch between AFC East foes as the #5 seeded New York Jets (10-6) make the short trip up I-95 to square off with #4 seed New England (11-5). These teams met twice this year and both won on enemy turf – last meeting was week 10 at Foxboro and the Jets prevailed 17-14. Most interesting about this game is the fact Jets coach Eric Mangini was a longtime assistant to Patriots coach Bill Belichick until New York hired him away for this season, Mangini’s first stint as an NFL head coach.

Lastly at 4:30, Fox 21 will have another game between East Coast rivals as ancient NFC East foes collide. The #6 seeded New York Giants (8-8) renew hostilities with the third seeded Philadelphia Eagles (10-6). Once again, these rivals spilt the two regular season games and both won on opponent’s home fields – most recently just two weeks ago as the Eagles throttled Eli Manning’s team 36-22. After being left for dead at 5-6 this season, Philadelphia’s won five straight including a three game run where they won consecutively against all three NFC East rivals (Washington, New York, and Dallas) on their turf. Mostly backups played as Philadelphia won over Atlanta today, while the retiring Tiki Barber extended his career by carrying the Giants to a win at Washington last night. If the Giants do win in Philadelphia, they face the Chicago Bears next week, but a Philadelphia win sends them down to the Superdome to play New Orleans.

The other thing that was set up today was next season’s opponent schedule as the final two opponents for each team were made official based on this season’s standings.

Locally, Baltimore will get home games against their three AFC North rivals (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh); two teams from the AFC East (New England and New York Jets), two teams from the NFC West (Arizona and St. Louis), and the first-place AFC South team (Indianapolis). They’ll travel to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego (AFC West first place team.)

Meanwhile, the Redskins will host their three NFC East rivals (Dallas, New York, Philadelphia); two teams from the NFC North (Chicago and Detroit), two teams from the AFC East (Buffalo and Miami), and the fourth place team from the NFC West (Arizona). Their road games will be at Dallas, New York (for both the Giants and the Jets), Philadelphia, Green Bay, Minnesota, New England, and Tampa Bay (4th place in the NFC South.)

Being a Lions fan, one trivia note is that they’ll get to try again next season to win at Washington, which they never have. The other oddity is that this has to be the longest streak of playing an opponent outside your division – for the seventh season in a row they’ll play Arizona because both teams finished 4th in their division. There’s only been two times (including this season) where the entire divisions played (i.e. the entire NFC North played the entire NFC West), the other five were based on both teams finishing in the same divisional slot (usually last.)

All right, now I can get back to politics and other stuff since I don’t have a horse in the NFL playoff race. In these cases I generally root for teams who have never been to the Super Bowl – that will apply only to New Orleans in this case. I suppose Indianapolis would be the other team since that city hasn’t been there (although the Colts franchise has.) However, Kansas City has waited 36 years for a repeat appearance and the Jets 37 so they’ve been starved for a long while as well.

Making life easier

This bounces off a post made by Joe Albero on Salisbury News a couple days ago. He was frustrated at the dearth of postings made at certain blog sites, and I can see his point to some extent. Sometimes it’s frustrating to me to check out a blog site and find it’s the same old thing up for several days (or weeks.) However, there is a way to work around that.

If you’ll look on the left-hand column, I have a box under the posting calendar that says “other”. Inside that box is a link for RSS 2.0, which if I understand this correctly, one can place within their home page a link that automatically updates with each posting. In my example, my Yahoo page will update if any of several blogs post anew. This will save me a bit of time, but it’s only good for about 1/3 of the blogs I read regularly. Most “Blogspot” blogs don’t have a syndication setup that I’m aware of unless it’s added by the blogger. Fellow MBA bloggers Pillage Idiot and The Voltage Gate have done this with Blogspot sites through Feedburner.

With an RSS link people can see when I add items to monoblogue, which is on a regular (if not daily) basis. Since I work outside the home and don’t access my blog from my work computer I’m not going to spend large amounts of time posting during the day.

But for other blogs I can just go to my personal “My Yahoo” page and see if any new posts have been made in the blogs I syndicate now. Obviously Joe’s Salisbury News blog is good for new content but some others I can skip now in looking at daily unless I see something new there.

Adding to my comments, I just glanced through the blogs of my 14 fellow MBA brethren and these are the last updated posts:

4 last updated yesterday (Saturday the 30th)
3 last updated Friday the 29th
2 last updated Thursday the 28th
1 last updated Wednesday the 27th

The other four are last updated on the 26th (I think that’s when Stephanie wrote in hers, no date’s shown on the post), 21st, 14th, and September 12th – I’m not sure what the story is on the “Not-So-Free State” blog. The point is that with the MBA you’ll get fresher posts with a variety of perspectives about Maryland. My fellow MBA member Crablaw pointed out a few Eastern Shore blogs he liked the other day in this post.

As a side note, I have a few post ideas up my sleeve so if my schedule allows it, there will be more frequent monoblogue posts in the next few weeks as life goes from post-election and holiday mode back to “normal”. And they’re not playoff updates either, which I’m certain drove many people nuts. But I can’t help being a sports fan and I write about things I’m interested in. Anyway, I’m back to politics after this weekend.

NFL playoff update: week 17

Well, the Giants won tonight so I can hit the old delete feature on a couple games which are now only for pride.

The dominoes will start to fall tonight as the NFL season comes to an exciting close. With 20 teams either secured a playoff spot or still alive for the postseason, it’s amazing that currently 14 of the 16 games have a bearing on the playoff picture – the only exceptions being Cleveland at Houston (both teams are eliminated) and Seattle at Tampa Bay (Seattle is set as #4 seed in the NFC because they have a worse conference record than Philadelphia even if both finish 9-7 – 7-5 vs. 8-4 for the Eagles. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was eliminated weeks ago.)

Tomorrow night’s matchup begins the weekend and has the potential to make many of the other games meaningless if the result is correct. Because it’s on the (cable-only) NFL Network, I’m not sure if there will also be a free TV outlet in the area. We live within the “home area” for the Redskins and the game’s a sellout. So this time I’m going in game order rather than seeding order.

New York Giants (7-8) at Washington (5-10), 8 p.m. Saturday (NFL Network).

Eli Manning brings the Giants into Washington needing to win to grab the final remaining NFC playoff spot and give the NFC East a sweep of the wildcards. They’ll be hoping to repeat their success of Week 5 where New York throttled the Redskins 19-3 in the Meadowlands. That game started a 5 game winning streak where the Giants looked like world-beaters and put them 6-2 at the midway mark.

But the Redskins will have many more fans than the ones packed into FedEx Field. The playoff fates of Green Bay, St. Louis, Carolina, and Atlanta also hang in the balance. A Giant win officially knocks out the final three teams in that group and leaves the Packers needing to win and getting help from 8 different teams to advance.

Now we’ll move on to the Sunday games.

Carolina (7-8) at New Orleans (10-5), 1 p.m.

Carolina is third in the NFC wildcard pecking order behind the Giants and Green Bay based on their current 5-6 conference record, division record vs. Atlanta, and victory over St. Louis. So they need the Giants and Packers to both lose while they win. Meanwhile, New Orleans wraps up a dream regular season where they’ve already assured themselves a week off and a home game against either Dallas, Philadelphia, or Seattle in the second round. Carolina seeks a repeat of their Week 5 win over the Saints (21-18 at Carolina.)

Detroit (2-13) at Dallas (9-6), 1 p.m. (locally on Fox 21)

If only because of the vagaries of the NFL’s schedulemaker, Detroit finds itself in the playoff mix. Not only would a Detroit win assure Philadephia the NFC East title, it’s also one of the eight games Green Bay needs to fall its way if the Giants win. So Dallas will just seek a repeat of its 20-7 victory last season over the Lions in Dallas. And I can watch to see if a Detroit fan can sneak a “Fire Millen” sign into Texas Stadium.

Jacksonville (8-7) at Kansas City (8-7), 1 p.m.

The loser in this one is definitely out, and there’s actually a pretty good chance the winner will be too when all is said and done. Both of these teams are well down the tiebreaker scenarios. Each team needs Cincinnati and Tennessee to lose, while Jacksonville needs a Jets loss and Kansas City has to see Denver go down. But play they must and will. The last time they did so was 2004, where Jacksonville won at home 22-16.

New England (10-5) at Tennessee (8-7), 1 p.m.

While the Patriots aren’t locked into the #4 seed in the AFC, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll end up there. Only if they win and Indianapolis loses would they slide up to #3 and in either case they host a playoff game next week. But Tennessee has a chance to make history should they get some help from losses by Cincinnati and Denver plus a Kansas City win…no team’s ever started 0-5 and made the playoffs. I’m sure at that point New England was thinking about the nice cake game it had at the end of the schedule, but no more. This may be a shootout like the teams’ last meeting, a 38-30 win for the Patriots back in 2003.

Oakland (2-13) at New York Jets (9-6), 1 p.m.

Like the Lions, Raider Nation has a role in the playoff hunt despite its woeful record. The question is whether they have any shot at playing spoiler against the Jets, who simply need to win to assure themselves a spot in the playoffs. If the Raiders win, it provides additional hope for teams underneath the Jets in the order. Last season these two played with the Jets winning 26-10 at home.

Pittsburgh (7-8) at Cincinnati (8-7), 1 p.m.

Pittsburgh was knocked out of the postseason sweepstakes by their loss to the Ravens last week, but can extend the same discourtesy to the Bengals with a win while avenging a 28-20 loss to Cincinnati back in Week 3. Even with a win, the Bengals will need help from either Oakland beating the Jets or a combo pack of a Denver loss and Kansas City win to make the playoffs for a second straight season.

St. Louis (7-8) at Minnesota (6-9), 1 p.m.

This game might be the next meaningless one. St. Louis is pretty much the bottom of the barrel as far as playoff hopes go, and a Giants win Saturday night snuffs out the Rams’ faint hopes. Even if they survive that, they still need losses from the Panthers and Falcons to make it (they defeated Green Bay earlier so they hold the tiebreaker over the Packers.) Last December they lost to the Vikings in the same building 27-13 so a repeat performance kills their hopes.

Meanwhile, we have an interesting anamoly in the broadcasting world. For the first time I can recall, both CBS and FOX were allowed to have doubleheader broadcasts. I couldn’t find out whether the CBS early game telecast locally would be Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (which would be my guess) but I know FOX has the Detroit-Dallas matchup starting at 1:00. Our late games are noted below with the 4:15 starts.

Arizona (5-10) at San Diego (13-2), 4:15 p.m.

Yeah, it’s pretty much a mismatch. But San Diego needs to win this to assure that they need not leave sunny California for a playoff game until they win the AFC title. This is one of those games that you’re happy that the teams only face off once every 4 years. By the way, the Chargers won in Arizona that 2002 day, 23-15.

Atlanta (7-8) at Philadelphia (9-6), 4:15 p.m. (locally on Fox 21)

While Atlanta may be out of the playoff running well before this game starts (since they need both the Giants and Carolina to lose earlier contests), the Eagles will likely know by then whether they need to win to assure themselves a NFC East crown and #3 seed. There is a scenario where these two teams could meet again next week in the same place but it also involves Dallas losing to the lowly Lions and that’s not likely. In 2005 these two opened the season against each other with Atlanta winning in the Georgia Dome 14-10. While the game’s outdoors this time, weather shouldn’t be a factor.

Buffalo (7-8) at Baltimore (12-3), 4:15 p.m. (locally on WBOC 16)

Buffalo’s loss to Tennessee last week ended their playoff hopes and Baltimore’s already locked in. The only question is how much scoreboard watching Brian Billick’s crew will do since they need San Diego to lose to Arizona to have a shot at homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Meanwhile, if things go badly for the Ravens they’ll be watching for Miami to win at Indianapolis and keep the Ravens’ possible first-round bye intact. Two seasons ago these teams met in Baltimore with the Ravens winning 20-6.

Miami (6-9) at Indianapolis (11-4), 4:15 p.m.

This game has a big stake in the AFC playoff picture. At 9-0, it looked like there was no doubt Indianapolis was looking at “home dome” advantage through the AFC playoffs. But 4 straight road losses dropped the Colts from world-beaters to just hoping for a first-round bye. Part of that is beating their onetime division rivals while the other part is hoping another former division foe (Buffalo) takes care of business in the franchise’s onetime home city. The Colts and Dolphins haven’t squared off since 2003, when the Colts won at Miami 23-17.

San Francisco (6-9) at Denver (9-6), 4:15 p.m.

Oh, this oughta be interesting. Denver’s slammed with their second straight weekend of snow and a warm-weather team comes to town. You just hope we don’t see the Super Bowl XXIV result in reverse with a huge Denver win, nor do fans of Cincinnati, Kansas City, Jacksonville, or Tennessee. Way back in the second week of 2002, these teams met under much less adverse conditions by the Bay with Denver winning 24-14. A Denver win and it’s off to a likely date with the Patriots (or possibly a Denver at Indianapolis playoff rematch for the third straight season) next weekend.

Green Bay (7-8) at Chicago (13-2), 8:15 p.m. (locally on NBC)

The draw to this is that it’s quite possibly Brett Favre’s final NFL game. But wait…there’s still a viable scenario that #4 may play another day. (Besides the fact he’s officially announced nothing about his future.) We will already know by this time whether it’s possible for Green Bay to make it with a win, but here’s the scenarios:

If the Giants win, Green Bay also has to win along with Arizona, Detroit, Miami, Minnesota, San Francisco, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Seattle. (So I guess technically all 16 games have playoff implications, don’t they?)

If the Giants lose, then Green Bay needs to win and have a St. Louis loss or a win by either Carolina or Atlanta to make it.

Theoretically the two teams (Giants and Packers) could get all the way to the “strength of schedule” tiebreaker where the Giants currently hold the edge (but playing 13-2 Chicago helps the Packers.) Crazier things have happened, but the first order of business is for Green Bay to avenge its season-opening 26-0 loss to “da Bears.”

I know where I’ll be this weekend as I’m checking off results and figuring out who’s playing where next week.

Back from my hiatus

As you may have guessed by the lack of posts, I took a few days away from monoblogue. This was so I could visit my parents in Florida over Christmas weekend. If you were wondering about the Christmas Day tornadoes that hit Florida, thankfully the area my parents live in wasn’t affected but areas to the west and well north near the Georgia line were. We got quite a bit of rain along U.S. 27 but no real damage.

Visiting the Sunshine State did lead me to some observations though. I have very hazy and distant memories of going down to Florida with my family to visit my grandparents in the late 1970’s. I remember it being mostly open country all the way down I-75 and U.S. 27 and a little bit built up around Orlando since Disney World had been built (I was there in the pre-Epcot days, let alone all of the other stuff!) But in late 2006 the sleepy little towns along Route 27 are awash in the same commercial and retail outlets found in every other growing area in America as the region’s growth has gone well beyond the Disney complex that sits maybe 10 miles east of the I-4/U.S. 27 interchange. The podunk 4 lane highway that U.S. 27 once was has grown out to 6 lanes in each of these towns.

What I also noticed though is that there’s still a LOT of open space down there. When my parents and I went golfing on Sunday, we drove through an open area that my dad told me was an orange grove a couple years prior. Now it had paved roads, water and electric service, street lighting on one of the streets, and exactly ONE house that was in the process of being built. The rest of the lots were in place but still for sale (some by realtors, other by speculators.) It was a case where infrastructure was already in place before the dirt was turned over to build this house. (It’ll be a good-sized house – my parents were amazed when they realized the 2 story tall building placed there first was just the garage!)

I suppose in some respects Florida reminded me of what some would consider a nightmare scenario for the Eastern Shore – Routes 13 and 50 lined with Starbucks, McDonalds, and retail shops for miles and the personalities of Salisbury, Cambridge, Easton, etc. obliterated by the bland sameness of this miles-long retail strip. And, to a much smaller extent than central Florida, we do attract retirees and folks who have the means to telecommute or work from home.

But their area has a personality of its own that’s created by those that live there. My parents are fairly new to their street, but it’s in an established neighborhood where people who are native to Florida mix and mingle with those who are the Sunshine State’s version of “come-heres” as they flocked down from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other points up north. The key is that everyone’s friendly regardless of their original home. Native Floridians seem to have learned to accept that they’re going to be joined by those who either aren’t accustomed to or willing to follow all of the local traditions and mores, which got me to thinking about home.

At times since I’ve moved down here, I’ve heard the complaints by the “come-heres” about how they aren’t accepted by the natives. I wish some of those who are the subjects of the complaints would sit a spell in my parents’ neighborhood and see how they live and let live because it’s a good example. We seem to have lost some of that when the argument began over whether growth is good or not.

Growth is inevitable. Done properly, it can be good. We may not need a Starbucks or a McDonalds on every block, but a few won’t hurt. The key is not to limit our growth to the residential or retail sectors, because, unlike the Central Florida economy, we need to get our money from good (private sector) jobs we create, not retirement funds drawn down. But more than that, we also need to realize that our attitude of native vs. “come-here” can and should be managed as the growth is supposed to be.

Michael’s Christmas message

When I did my Christmas cards, I meant to place a small note in some of them detailing what my life’s been like in 2006. Unfortunately, when I was sitting there addressing the envelopes and such I sealed the envelopes up and neglected to place the notes inside. But, because I placed my website URL on the cards, it’s quite possible they can read the note here.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

This year I finally decided to do a Christmas letter to update friends and family about my life. I think this is the first year I’ve actually felt settled into my adopted home state of Maryland. That seems about right because it took me about this long to get used to living out in Perrysburg Township. Of course then I ended up getting laid off in Ohio, made the decision that it was time to go someplace where regular work exists and the weather’s a little nicer, and wound up finding a job here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

However, that was 2004, and now it’s 2006 – soon to be 2007. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess but in life sometimes time flies even when you’re not having a good time. And this year I had a good time more often than not.

But the reason I moved here still exists and I remain gainfully employed at Iott Architecture Engineering. Even with the national slowdown in the real estate market, there still is enough of a demand for new condos that I remain busy on my projects. One is just wrapping up in the town of Crisfield. MD and the other is under construction down in Chincoteague, VA. That’s a three-phase project and I’m just starting on Phase 3. But our company has its mitts all over the Delmarva Peninsula so I’m sure there will be another project on the horizon that I’ll be placed in charge of, and it’s just as likely now to be a commercial one.

So with that income I decided to use some of it and put myself in hock for various amounts of time. The first thing to do was get myself a nicer car, and I found one I liked, a Scion tC. No boring sedan for me this time. And that car took me back up north to Pennsylvania and Ohio in August for my vacation.

A vacation for me is defined as doing things I enjoy doing. So I spent a LONG day with Danie up in Cleveland as part of it. We shopped at a cool used CD store, did lunch with her friends, stopped by the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, had dinner, and watched our Delmarva Shorebirds play up at Lake County. In fact, I went to four ballgames in four different parks in five days (Washington PA, Cleveland, Lake County, and Pittsburgh) so it turned out to be a nice trip and awesome weather.

That was just the warmup to REALLY spending money. After cooling my heels in an apartment for two years here, I bought a house. It’s certainly not the biggest or newest house on the Shore but it fits my needs and it’s a place I can call home. One asset it has is the nice frontage on a semi-busy road. It’s great for political signs, and I had plenty. In September, I was elected to serve on the Republican Central Committee here in Wicomico County so as one would expect I had pretty much a slate full of signs in my yard once I got moved in during October. Didn’t help much but I’ll keep plugging away at it for the next four years.

The other key element in my days actually began at the tail end of 2005 but blossomed and became established this year. Late last year I began a website called monoblogue. Many who know me know that one thing I enjoy doing is writing and with the advent of the internet, it created an outlet for folks like me who don’t write for a living but have plenty to say anyway. From basically nothing I’ve gone to hundreds of readers a week. I’d say that more than anything it’s helped me get settled into this area because it gives people something to know me by.

And now you know more about me, except for the fact I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, blessed 2007!

Michael

There was one other thing that I wanted to add since the message is now online instead of in print. It’s this time of year where people are their most charitable – everyone sees the Salvation Army kettle out front of the stores or gets the toy to donate for Toys For Tots. But what about the needs that arise June 27th or October 14th? It’s great that folks are charitable now, I’d just like to see that occur and people care for their fellow man 24/7/365. Don’t shut the compassion off after today is over.

NFL playoff update: week 16

Back at it. I’m amazed that we only lost ONE team last week in the playoff sweepstakes as the NFL continues on its apparent goal of 32 mediocre 8-8 teams. Well, ok, maybe 26 mediocre 8-8 teams, 5 others that are 9-7, and the Detroit Lions finishing their usual 3-13 while Matt Millen gets another contract extension. Anyway…

There was one team that set its playoff destiny last week and thus made it two “meaningless” games this weekend. Chicago is assured of the #1 seed in the NFC and Soldier Field will host their playoff games until either the Bears are eliminated or they advance to Super Bowl XLI. Thus, their contest with the aforementioned Lions in Detroit has no bearing on the playoff race as Chicago’s in and Detroit’s out. It’ll be a nice warm venue for the Bears fans to cheer in.

The other meaningless game is Tampa Bay at Cleveland, both the Bucs and Browns long since knocked out of contention.

In like flint:

Chicago (see above).

Jockeying for position:

San Diego (12-2 overall, 5-1 division, 10-2 conference).

Opponent: at Seattle (8-6), 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: Seattle took a 31-28 decision against their onetime AFC West foe in the 2002 season finale.

What’s at stake: A win by San Diego plus a loss by Baltimore gives the Chargers homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. They still get the first round bye with the win or an Indianapolis loss, but the loss to Baltimore in Week 4 could give the Ravens the home turf if the Chargers stumble in their one of their final two games.

Indianapolis (11-3 overall, 3-2 division, 8-2 conference)

Opponent: at Houston (4-10), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: Indianapolis rolled over the Texans 43-24 in Week 2 back home in Indiana.

What’s at stake: The Colts have to win to stay ahead of the Ravens in the battle for the first round bye. Despite having the same overall and conference record as Baltimore, Indianapolis owns the tiebreaker based on a better record against their common opponents (3-1 against Cincinnati, Tennessee, and Denver vs. Baltimore’s 2-2 against the same teams. Indianapolis also defeated future Ravens opponent Buffalo this season.) A loss puts the Colts in a position to have to play a first-round game then travel outside the RCA Dome for a second-round matchup…the Colts are just 4-3 on the road this season.

Baltimore (11-3 overall, 3-2 division, 8-2 conference)

Opponent: at Pittsburgh (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: Ben Roethlisberger was on his back for much of this game as the Ravens bruised and cruised 27-0 just 4 weeks ago at home.

What’s at stake: Besides the joy of all but dooming the Pittsburgh playoff hopes with a win, the Ravens can keep pace with the two teams above them as they go for a first-round bye or even home field throughout the AFC playoffs. The win over San Diego could loom large.

New Orleans (9-5 overall, 4-1 division, 8-2 conference)

Opponent: at New York Giants (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: The nomadic 2005 Saints played their first “home” game against the Giants in New Jersey and lost 27-10.

What’s at stake: While the Saints are out of the running for the #1 seed in the NFC, they can secure a first round pass by winning this game and watching Dallas lose to Philadelphia on Christmas Day.

Dallas (9-5 overall, 2-3 division, 6-4 conference)

Opponent: vs. Philadelphia (8-6), 5 p.m. Monday.

Last meeting: Week 5 saw Dallas lose at Philadelphia 38-24.

What’s at stake: Dallas is already assured at least a wild-card berth, but can win the NFC East outright with a win in front of the home folks. A loss would give Philadelphia the leg up in the division race and could set up a Dallas-Philadelphia rematch in the playoffs if the Eagles win next week.

Win and they’re in:

New England (10-4 overall, 4-2 division, 6-4 conference)

Opponent: at Jacksonville (8-6), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: New England won last year’s playoff opener 28-3 at home.

What’s at stake: A win by the Patriots wraps up the AFC East, they’d be two games up on the Jets with one to play. It also maintains their slim chances at a first-round bye but for that they need some major help.

Seattle (8-6 overall, 3-3 division, 6-5 conference)

Opponent: vs. San Diego (12-2), 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See San Diego above.

What’s at stake: If the Seahawks can beat the Chargers (or San Francisco loses) they win the NFC West (two games up with one to play). It’s not likely they would get a first-round playoff bye but their chances would improve with a Philadelphia win over Dallas.

Philadelphia (8-6 overall, 4-1 division, 7-3 conference)

Opponent: at Dallas (9-5), 5 p.m. Monday.

Last meeting: See Dallas above.

What’s at stake: It’s sort of hard to believe given the McNabb injury, but if Philadelphia beats Dallas they clinch a playoff berth (based on a better possible conference record than Atlanta and better possible division record than the Giants) and move into the driver’s seat for an NFC East title. A loss would place them into the “must-win” category next week for a shot at the playoffs.

A little help from their friends:

Denver (8-6 overall, 3-3 division, 7-4 conference)

Opponent: vs. Cincinnati (8-6), 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: In 2004, Denver lost to the Bengals 23-10 at Cincinnati.

What’s at stake: This is what I like to call a “sub-playoff” game, as these are the two teams sitting with the #5 and #6 seeds in the AFC. If Denver wins and gets help from Oakland beating Kansas City or either the New York Jets or Jacksonville losing, they get a spot in the postseason.

Cincinnati (8-6 overall, 4-1 division, 6-4 conference)

Opponent: at Denver (8-6), 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See Denver above.

What’s at stake: On the flip side, if Cincinnati takes this road contest they need the hand from Tennessee beating Buffalo with either the Jets or Jaguars going down.

New York Giants (7-7 overall, 3-2 division, 6-4 conference)

Opponent: vs. New Orleans (9-5), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See New Orleans above.

What’s at stake: The Giants need to win to stay in the hunt, and it’s at least theoretical a win gets them into the postseason – with either of these two scenarios also occurring:

Minnesota and Atlanta lose while Philadelphia and Seattle win, or Minnesota, Atlanta, and San Francisco lose while Philadelphia wins. Either way, they need to beat New Orleans or they’re pretty much out of it.

Fading fast:

One team could survive with a loss but it would severely diminish their playoff hopes.

Jacksonville (8-6 overall, 2-4 division, 5-5 conference)

Opponent: vs. New England (10-4), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See New England above. A repeat of that debacle could be critical to the Jaguars postseason plans, but they can’t be knocked out because of the Denver-Cincinnati matchup.

On life support:

A loss does these teams in for all intents and purposes.

New York Jets (8-6 overall, 3-2 division, 5-5 conference)

Opponent: at Miami (4-10), 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Last meeting: In Week 6 Miami lost to the Jets 20-17 at the Meadowlands. If the Jets lose this time, they’re out if Jacksonville wins since they were blown out early on by the Jags.

Buffalo (7-7 overall, 3-3 division, 5-5 conference)

Opponent: vs. Tennessee (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: In 2003 Buffalo lost at Tennessee 28-26. Like last week’s game against the Dolphins, loser walks.

Pittsburgh (7-7 overall, 2-2 division, 4-6 conference)

Opponent: vs. Baltimore (11-3), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See Baltimore above. Could this be Bill Cowher’s last home game as the Steelers coach? That question adds a little more intrigue to an already heated matchup.

Tennessee (7-7 overall, 4-2 division, 4-6 conference)

Opponent: vs. Buffalo (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See Buffalo above. A good “sub-playoff” matchup but I don’t think it’ll stand up to the “Music City Miracle” of a few years back.

Kansas City (7-7 overall, 3-2 division, 3-7 conference)

Opponent: at Oakland (2-12), 8 p.m. Saturday.

Last meeting: In Week 11 the Chiefs prevailed 17-13 at home. Luckily they drew a weak opponent for a must-win game.

Atlanta (7-7 overall, 3-2 division, 5-5 conference)

Opponent: vs. Carolina (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: Atlanta won the season opener 20-6 at Carolina. What puts them on the bubble with a 7-7 record is their losses to two NFC East teams (New York and Dallas) still in contention and a worse conference record than Philadelphia (5-5 vs. 7-3).

Green Bay (6-8 overall, 3-1 division, 5-5 conference)

Opponent: vs. Minnesota (6-8), 8 p.m. Thursday.

Last meeting: In Week 10 the Packers beat the Vikings 23-17 under the Metrodome. This could be the last opportunity for Brett Favre to play at Lambeau and in front of a national audience, which is likely why the NFL Network picked this game.

San Francisco (6-8 overall, 3-2 division, 5-6 conference)

Opponent: vs. Arizona (4-10), 4:05 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: The Niners lost the opener in Arizona 34-27. They may actually have a better shot at the division than a wildcard, but they need to beat the Cardinals either way.

Carolina (6-8 overall, 3-1 division, 4-6 conference)

Opponent: at Atlanta (7-7), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: See Atlanta above. This could put disappointed Carolina fans out of their misery.

Minnesota (6-8 overall, 2-3 division, 6-4 conference)

Opponent: at Green Bay (6-8), 8:00 p.m. Thursday.

Last meeting: See Green Bay above. I’m sure the Viking fans would love to spoil the Lambeau party since the loser’s done in the playoff race.

St. Louis (6-8 overall, 2-4 division, 4-6 conference)

Opponent: vs. Washington (5-9), 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last meeting: The Rams lost in the same locale last season to the Redskins, 24-9. They are the absolute bottom of the playoff heap and very well could get axed even if they win. But that’s what happens when you lose 4 home games.

Now, next week’s promises to be shorter because we will lose a bunch of teams.

All talk but no action

There’s been so much talk on the local blog scene about getting rid of the “Scheme Team” (three members of Salisbury’s City Council) that I’m surprised we haven’t heard about anyone throwing their hat into the ring. Now that could be because any potential EOB’s (enemies of Barrie) would want to keep their powder dry, but gee, not even good rumors yet as to who’s running.

But after the first of the year it will certainly be getting started as the filing deadline is pretty early (January 30th to be exact.)

The thing that’s sort of crazy though is that I can’t think of any local blogger who actually lives in Salisbury. Maybe one or two do…but the point is they really can’t step in to solve the problems the city has either. (As of 2 months ago, I can’t because now I live in the county.) Local bloggers (myself included) certainly devote a lot of time to uncovering the problems that are ruining the quality of life on our slice of the Eastern Shore but none can do a whole lot about them aside from financial backing and posting reports.

Because this is a key regional election, I’m going to do like I did for Election 2006 as far as linking to websites and such goes. I may also decide to attend and report on the forums and such – after all, despite the fact I couldn’t vote in the Democrat primary I still covered those candidates as part of my overall Election 2006 coverage. It’s going to be an interesting election cycle and something tells me that, despite the fact Mayor Tilghman is not on the ballot, the 2007 election in Salisbury is going to be a LOT more intriguing than its 2005 predecessor.

Who is going to step up and be the new “Dream Team”? Stay tuned.

By the way, I checked today with Brenda Colegrove and no one has filed yet. In reading Joe’s post on Salisbury News, he says he personally knows of four people running, but there’s no names on the dotted line yet. Does Joe care to share that info?

Otherwise, the title stands for the time being.

A question of sovereignty

The local blogger D.D. Crabb of Crabbin’ has spent quite a bit of time and posting on the efforts to create a North American Union of sorts, based on the European Union and certainly a threat to our constitutional government. Today he posts regarding an interview done by American University professor Robert Pastor, a leader of the “North American Community” crowd. Here’s the money quote:

“Our founding fathers created a system of governance that was not designed to be efficient but was designed to protect freedom. Therefore, you created checks and balances that did protect freedom but also made it difficult to move forward on important issues.”

The way Pastor states his belief is troubling. In other words, American freedom and sovereignty is less important than efficiency. Unfortunately, I can’t see Canada and Mexico as paragons of efficiency.

In Canada, we have an industrialized nation much like the U.S. and one with plentiful natural resources (particularly oil), but with them comes the baggage of their socialized health care system and their pacifism in international affairs. Mexico is also rich in oil but their crude is controlled by a state-run entity and those oil riches do not circulate down to the population at large. This is why a huge number of Mexicans live and work abroad in the United States. The Mexican government can charitably be termed as awash in corruption as opposed to described as just plain criminal. In recent elections, the leftist candidate lost by a small margin and (of course) cried fraud so Mexico is a divided country as well.

With efficient organizations, a merger tends to accentuate the efficiency – so usually this holds true with free-market conditions. Additionally, the element of competition is helpful with creating better outcomes. However, government and bureaucracy is the antithesis of efficiency. It’s my fear that a merger of this sort between the three governments would bring out the worst in each. The Canadian health care system would certainly survive and corruption endemic in Mexico would likely take root in the U.S. As opposed to being a leader in protecting freedom, this union would be neutered in that respect.

The best way to move forward on important issues is to allow the most freedom to be innovative. Looking at the European example, a North American Union (with common currency, multi-national legislature, etc.) does not appear to be a course we want to follow.