Missing the point

Citizens Bank wants customers to use less paper.  So they have a new rewards program that they call GreenSense.

Now, GreenSense basically does three things:

1. You get credited 10¢ for every paperless transaction, like debit card payments or scheduled automatic debits, up to $120 per year.
2. You're automatically signed up for paperless statements, and they waive the $3.95 monthly fee for online bill payment (which is also what you need in order to do direct OFX downloads to online-banking software¹, rather than the unreliable "web connect").

[So far, so good.]

3. As a side-effect, they issue you a new GreenSense debit card made from recycled plastic.

Now ... Most of that is a good program.  Issuing a distinctive new card is all very nice, I suppose, in a traditional banking sort of way (wait, where's my toaster?), and making the cards from recycled plastic is a good thing ... but issuing me a new card made from recycled plastic uses more resouces than just letting me keep my existing card.  Why don't they just replace my card with a Green Sense card next time I need a new card?  For that matter, why don't they just start making ALL of their debit cards from recycled plastic?

[1]  Note that Quicken does NOT support OFX.  It supports QFX, which is an Intuit proprietary implementation of OFX only available to banks that have paid "the Intuit tax".  But MoneyDance does, and it doesn't phone home or install malware on your machine, and it runs on Mac, PC and Linux.  (As a matter of fact, it's the only personal banking software that runs on all three.)  'Nuff said?

Semper Fi!

On Easter morning, April 2, 1972, the first battle of Quảng Trị had been raging since March 30.  The 56th Regiment ARVN had surrendered itself and the Camp Carroll firebase to superior North Vietnamese forces.  At Dong Ha, 700 men of the South Vietnamese 3rd Marines Battalion, reinforced by M48 tanks from the ARVN 20th Tank Regiment, had been ordered to hold the bridges at all costs against an advancing column of over 20,000 NVA regulars with supporting armor.  The North Vietnamese column could not be allowed to cross the Dong Ha bridges.

Captain John Walter Ripley, USMC, was at Dong Ha that day as an advisor, along with Major James E. Smock, US Army.  Ripley was a demolitions export who had trained with US Marine Reconaissance, US Army Ranger Corps, US Army Airborne, and the Royal Marine Commandos.  With Major Smock's aid hauling cases of explosives over a concertina-wire fence to him, Captain Ripley climbed out hand-over-hand under the bridge span in full view of North Vietnamese troops on the far bank to place 500 pounds of TNT and C-4 among the bridge girders over the course of several hours, and blew the bridge before the NVA column could cross.  Captain Ripley was later awarded the Navy Cross for this exploit, while Major Smock received the Silver Star.

Captain John Ripley would eventually reach the rank of Colonel, retiring in 1992 after 35 years of service in the USMC.  During his service, in addition to the Navy Cross he earned at Dong Ha, he was also awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit (twice), the Bronze Star with combat 'V' (twice), the Purple Heart, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the South Vietnamese Army Distinguished Service Order, 2nd Class, and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star.¹  In his final tours of duty he taught at the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Naval Academy.

In 2002, at age 63, Colonel Ripley lay in the intensive care unit at Georgetown University Medical Center dying from liver failure, when a donor liver became available from a gunshot victim in Philadelphia.  There was just one problem — there was no time to get it.  It would take at least twelve hours to get the donor liver from Philadelphia removed and transported to Georgetown, and Col. Ripley didn't have twelve hours.

The USMC stepped up to the plate, dispatching a CH-46 helicopter from the Presidential "Marine One" fleet.  Georgetown's transplant team raced to Anacostia Naval Air Station, where the waiting CH-46 flew them to Philadelphia to retrieve the donor liver.  On their return, a smaller DC Police helicopter met the CH-46, too big to land at Georgetown University, and ferried the transplant team and the donor liver directly to the medical center.  The transplant was successful.

Colonel John Ripley was found dead at his home yesterday, aged 69 years.  But the United States Marine Corps will remember him for as long as there is a United States Marine Corps.

Semper fi, Colonel Ripley.

[1]  Citation list per the Wikipedia article

The political landscape

I've come across a variety of articles across the Web talking about how the Republican Party is melting down as moderate Republicans, feeling marginalized by their own party, are abandoning it to run as independents.  (Here's an example from the Boston Globe.)

My intent here is not to argue about whether or not the Republican Party is in fact falling apart.  Rather, I have a larger question:  Assume for the moment that the speculation is true.  If the Republican Party falls apart, what happens to the Democratic Party?

The way I see it, there's a variety of ways it could go.  If enough moderate Republicans cross over to the Democratic side of the aisle, we could end up with a de-facto one-party system, with a Congress all but completely controlled by the Democratic Party and no other faction powerful enough to seriously challenge it at the Federal level.  Or, one or more of the third parties could pick up enough support to challenge the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party itself could move back towards the center, influenced by former moderate Republicans and no longer needing to cater to its more radical left-wingers; or, no longer needing support from the center to defeat the Republican Party, it could move further left.  Or, it could even melt down itself, lacking the Republican party to balance it.

[Note:  I don't claim this is an exhaustive list, or that any of them is a sure thing.  I'm not predicting, I'm speculating.]

So, what do all you zombies think?