Republican Hypocrisy in Florida

It's early voting time for the Republican primary here in Florida, and the hypocrisy is flying about fast and furious. According to a report on CNN, Romney is being attacked for alledgedly committing Medicare fraud by a pro-Gingrich super-PAC. This mud slinging is bad enough, but what really pushes it over the top is it's being voiced by former Florida state Attorney General Bill McCollum.

To fully understand why this is so hypocritical, especially for anyone associated with the Florida Republican establishment, you need to consider our current governor, Rick Scott. Before he moved to Florida to meet the absolute minimum residency requirements of seven years before running for governor of Florida, he was chairman and CEO of Columbia/HCA. He was forced to resign by the Columbia/HCA board of directors in 1997 when agents of the FBI, the IRS, and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants on Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso as well a dozens of doctors affiliated with Columbia/HCA. As a result search warrants and following investigations, Columbia/HCA was charged with 14 felonies related to Medicare fraud, eventually paying over $600 million in fines, the largest fraud settlement in history.

That's right, we elected a real crook as governor of Florida.

And that's why absolutely nobody of this state's Republican political establishment, and I mean nobody, had better sling the accusation of Medicare fraud at anybody else. Not until Rick Scott stands up and tells the real truth about his involvement with Columbia/HCA during that period of time. As chairman and CEO he had ultimate responsibility, and should have had knowledge as to what was going on, and further, that what was happening was wrong. To say anything else shows either incompetence, gross unethical indifference, or both.

Oh. One other little thing. The early voting station had lots of Romney and Santorum signs, and a group of Romney supporters nearby, but not one shred of Gingrich signage anywhere. And I mean anywhere. Although I'm a Democrat, I hope that the Republicans Nuke the Newt this coming Tuesday.

Rick Scott via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott

M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R Reviewed

In case you're interested I reviewed this lens on thewsreviews.com. Basically I gave the 'R' lens a very good recommendation, but you'll have to read the complete review for the details. I'm going to expand on a few observations made of the 'R' version at thewsreviews and take more of an editorial/grumpy opinionated tone in the process.

As I noted on thewsreviews this is an all-plastic lens from bayonet mount to lens shade mount at the seeing end. The only parts that aren't, obviously, are the lenses and the electrical (focusing motor) and electronics. Olympus isn't the only camera manufacturer to do this; the vaunted Canon and Nikon sell kit zooms that also have plastic mounts. But that doesn't make it any more acceptable in my book. I mentioned in the review about how I held back purchasing this lens because it was selling for $300. If the lens had had a full metal bayonet (and maybe a little more plastic?), then I would have purchased a copy when I did, instead of waiting for the price to hit $160 on Adorama.

I want metal on the bayonet for two reasons: strength and durability. Strength comes into play when you're slinging the whole assemblage of lens and body around; the mount is the weakest link and will see all the forces of twisting and moving the camera and lens combination around. Fortunately for this lens, there's very little lens mass to worry about. Durability comes into play when mounting and unmounting the lens. I wrote that the 'R' version mounts "snugly" on the E-P2. That's right now, while the lens is effectively still new. I tend to change my lenses a bit on my interchangeable lens cameras, so I'm curious to see just how long this bayonet will last under my usage. I hope for a good long time. I know that every other lens I own, including those purchased over 40 years ago with metal bayonets still click smoothly and snugly into place.

So in case you haven't figured it out already, I don't like plastic bayonets on my lenses. Rather than beat this particular dead horse Yet Again and annoy the reading public over on thewsreviews, I came back into my cave to vent.

The 40-150mm lens concept is pretty powerful regular 4/3rds, and that power caries over onto µ4/3rds systems. It is the focal length equivalent of 80-300mm on 35mm cameras. A zoom with a 4:1 zoom range and 300mm on the long end is quite useful. The the sins of a plastic bayonet are mitigated somewhat by the small size and very light weight of the lens that zooms out to 300mm. I know this because I have an Olympus OM 300mm f/4 lens that weighs more than two E-P2 + 40-150mm zoom combinations. That has to be taken into consideration.

As I noted in the review, the 'R' version of this lens is smaller in diameter than the Mark 2 version, while being a bit longer. I have a theory that what you're seeing is the effective length of the MMF-2 adapter built into the 'R' version (and the earlier MSC/Mark 3 native µ4/3rds version as well).

Why? Nobody talks about it much anymore, but one of the early selling points of the 4/3rds system was telecenticity, or as Olympus advertised, "near-telecentric optics". Telecentricity was the attempt to design lenses that would align rays coming out of the exit pupil of the lens to be parallel to the sensor (or as parallel as possible). You wanted your light rays as parallel as possible to minimize vignetting and chromatic aberrations with the sensor.

While the debate rages in some circles as to the effectiveness of this design, I will say this: I have seen the quality of Olympus optics, and it is because of Olympus glass that I stay with Olympus digital cameras. Whether that quality is due to "near-telecentric" optical design, I can't say for certain.

I back this theory up with one final observation; flip the 'R' lens over and look at the exit pupil of the lens, and see that it's recessed into the rear of the lens. The Mark 2, by comparison, has its exit pupil flush with the bayonet edge. Whatever the case, the 'R' 40-150mm optically performs every bit as well as the regular 4/3rds lens with an adapter, and I don't think the longer length of the µ4/3rds version is an accident.

The greater length is the 'R' over the Mark 2 is even more pronounced when both lenses are extended to their full focal length of 150mm. The designers of the 'R' lens also cleaned up the two-piece design of the Mark 2. As a consequence the 'R' lens feels more solid racked out to 150mm. The inner barrel of the 'R' is also more tightly seated, or at least it appears and feels that way. There's none of the "rattly" feel of the older Mark 2. But then again, when using the older Mark 2 with the MMF-2 adapter, I never felt I got poor quality photos from the older 40-150mm. The Mark 2 is good, but the 'R' just seems better.

If there's one thing I will complain about it's how cheap Olympus has gone on its accessories. Every older lens came with a lens shade and a center-pinch lens cap. For High Grade lenses you also got a pretty decent lens case/bag (which, unlike some people I know, I actually use). Even my Sigma 30mm came with all the aforementioned accessories.

But not Olympus' µ4/3rds lenses (and to be fair, Panasonic is just as cheap). The only thing you get are the front and back lens caps, and that's it. Even the front lens caps have been cheapened. Note that 'R' front cap on the left, compared to the older Mark 2 front lens cap on the right. I should note at this point that both lenses have 58mm filter rings, so the older Mark 2 cap fits just fine on the newer 'R' version.

At this point I would shrug my shoulders and say "what did you expect with a cheap lens", except I know what to expect because Olympus set the standard with its regular 4/3rds versions. What makes it really bad is that this is policy on all lenses, regardless of price. I have the M.Zuiko 45mm that came with nothing but cheap caps, and if I want to purchase the M.Zuiko 12mm for $700, it's only going to come with cheap end caps as well. I guess this is a cost cutting measure to help pay off all those bad investments Olympus made 10 and 20 years ago.

Afternoon Walkabout

The youngest came down to visit with mom and dad for a few days this past week. We missed her at Christmas because she'd traveled to New Your. She made a promise to help a friend drive up to New York. The deal was she'd help with driving up and down, would pay very little, and would stay at the friend's parent's house to really keep costs down. While she was up there she'd get to see New Your city. She'd never been to New York before then, so she jumped at the chance for a road trip to exotic New Your. And I can understand that.

But she had gifts down here from her folks and relatives, and she was getting home sick, so when work allowed she rented a car and drove down to Orlando on Tuesday. The next two days were somewhat hectic as she worked to take care of personal business and visit a high school and  later college friend. She also decided to spend a few hours photographing with her old man. And so on Thursday afternoon she loaded up with her E-1 and I loaded up with my E-P2 and we headed out to Downtown Disney.

I love the winter light in central Florida. The sun sits rather low on the horizon through a good part of the day. It's a warm, rich, more diffuse light, that the hard overhead light you have to deal with in the middle of summer. And so when we started walking about around 1pm, the light was almost perfect.

I've never been inside Planet Hollywood before, and looking at it from the outside, I can't think of any reason why I would go inside. Nevertheless under certain circumstances and at certain angles it looks interesting.

A short walk from Planet Hollywood is a large yellow tethered balloon. In all the years I've lived here and all the years it's been here, I've never gone up for a ride. In the early afternoon light I was captivated by the shapes and saturated colors of the sky, balloon, and the umbrella tops.

As we wondered around the back on West Side Lakefront Walk, I came across the back of a group of buildings that included The House of Blues. Something about the light, the chairs, and the colors...

And then we stepped into Cirque Du Soleil gift shop to "appreciate" the air conditioning and look at what they had to sell. I saw these masks at just this angle, and well, I had to experiment with the light and composition.

On the way back to the parking lot we stopped off at the Hoy Poloi art shop, where I happened to come across this simple wooden model of the Space Shuttle. Set the 45mm to f/1.8, focus on the nose, and it looks like it's floating across a sea of stars in space.

We almost made it out to the parking lot before the smell of mint fudge drew my daughter into the Candy Cauldron. Dad doesn't need that kind candy, but I didn't have any problem with my daughter getting a huge block of it. While she was waiting for her fudge I happened upon all these Minnie toys in a bin. Brings back lots of memories when both girls were small enough to actually want Minnie toys.

Technical

Everything taken with the E-P2 and post processed in Lightroom 3.5. The balloon was taken with the Panasonic 20mm, while everything else was taken with the M.Zuiko 45mm.

The Next Generation

Nothing will focus your attention on the future like having children. Especially when they've hit their twenties, and you see them making their way about the world. As a parent you hope that you've given them every possible opportunity to prepare for the future, and you hope that you've given them a decent enough world to build on. Over the past few years, however, I've come had my doubts about both.

When each girl was born we took out a Florida Prepaid account for both. My wife and I had decided that we would give them good education at a Florida state school. I worked through college and my wife had taken out loans; based on those experiences we wanted to give our children the opportunity to just go to school and graduate without any financial burdens. We hoped that the girls would do well academically through K-12 on up to college and beyond. Fortunately for all concerned, that's pretty much the way it all turned out.

When my youngest daughter graduated Spring 2011 after four years at FSU, on paper her future looked bright. She'd graduated magna cum-laude and with honors. She had a major in art and a minor in art history. In addition to all her course work she'd also held down a number of on-campus positions, some that paid, and some that were voluntary, but all in an attempt to build up an initial resume that would look good to recruiters and companies looking for entry level employees, either in Tallahassee or elsewhere. But that was on paper. Reality was a whole lot darker.

It turned out that while we were busy raising our kids and paying into Florida Prepaid, the economy grew over-heated, then burst with the Internet bubble, and finally entered the Great Recession (nee Depression) of the mid-2000s with the even larger real estate bubble collapse. By the time my youngest daughter was ready to graduate (and even before that) there were no job offers, no entry level positions anywhere. The best that FSU could do at the time was to offer a job fair with nothing but unpaid internships. FSU provided no help what-so-ever except to make sure she took her assigned classes to graduate and to collect her fees. And there were lots of additional fees above and beyond Florida Prepaid.

She's working right now, but not at what she had hoped to do. It's hourly, which means she has no insurance. And the number of hours worked at the various jobs is low enough that if she gets laid off, Florida's revamped unemployment system won't give her any benefits. Telling her to work hard in school and make exemplary grades and she'd have a shot at a decent job rings pretty hollow right now. I certainly never went through this, but then I came of age during the mid-1970s, nearly forty years ago. My experiences and advice are absolutely worthless for navigating through this particularly bad economic period.

All I can do at this point in time is to do what all parents should do for their kids, and that's give them whatever support possible to help them get launched. She's bright and hard working, and she has zero school loan debt to worry about. That lack of debt offers her tremendous flexibility at this point in her young life. But she doesn't see it that way; she's grown tired of the system and the continuous run around, and I can certainly understand that. So I have to be careful of the advice I give her (if I can even give her any useful advice).

About the best thing I can do is be the ultimate backstop for her. Just because she's "grown up" doesn't mean I've been relieved of my responsibilities as a parent. I'll have those responsibilities until the day I give my last breath. Until that day I will see both girls succeed, and go beyond where I've gone in my life. Right now, it's just tough to envision.