Thoughts On A Sunday

It's NASCAR weekend here in New Hampshire, with the Lennox 301 running in Loudon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The race fans certainly made their presence known since Friday, with very heavy traffic all through the Lakes Region (we're about 15 miles north of the track).

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I have to admit to being lazy this weekend, not accomplishing nearly as much as I might have. Yard work was low on the priority list, with the lawn being mowed late today and weeding being put off until after work over the workweek. Housework and laundry are about the only things I've managed to accomplish over the past two days.

At least BeezleBub and Deb have been busy with work, though both have had some time off to recreate.

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Bogie shows us some photos from northern New Hampshire where there's an ongoing dispute about a power line project that would bring Quebec hydroelectric power to southern New England. Most folks up north are concerned about the path of the new Northern Pass power line – right through the prettiest scenery that attracts lots of tourists. Needless to say they're worried the destruction of the scenic views would adversely affect the tourist trade, the 'bread and butter' of the economy up there.

While the Northern Pass folks are working hard on PR to get their way, there are just as many locals working to stop the construction of the proposed route. It's not that they're against the project so much as they believe the route will cause major damage to their livelihoods. Some have proposed using existing routes to run the power down to southern New England, but the Northern Pass folks appear to dislike that idea.

Who will win this one? As much as I would like to think the folks up north will get their way, I think the fix is in for Northern Pass and they're gonna rip a wide scar right across some of the prettiest scenery in the country.

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Does anyone want to tell me we're now out of the recession and the economy is just hunky-dory?

I didn't think so.

While things have been hopping here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, summer business isn't anywhere near where it's been in previous years. Many of the folks spending vacation time up here are from New Hampshire, rather than folks from out of state. At least the Canadians have been showing up in greater numbers than in the past, but then their economy is booming and their dollar is worth more than the US dollar, meaning vacations here are a bargain...for them.

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And speaking of vacations, it appears a large percentage (34%) of Americans have said they have changed their vacation plans this summer, the largest number in quite some time.

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I had a rather lively discussion with one of the customers of our small business, a nice lady that seems to gravitate towards all kinds of conspiracy theories, BS economic theories, and believes the rich don't pay any taxes at all. But it appears the tax burden of the top 1% of taxpayers exceeds that of the bottom 95%. I guess that isn't enough for her as she keeps complaining that the rich don't pay their fair share. I asked her what she pays in income taxes and she wouldn't say. If I had to guess I'd say she's probably one of those folks who pays nothing. In my experience the folks who pay the least amount in the way of income taxes bitch the most about income taxes. Isn't that always the way?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Stacy McCain has three little words we can use whenever liberals decry the alleged “lack of civility” by conservatives: Sheila Jackson-Lee.

Of course I don't expect them to understand the reference.

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Do you really want to understand the tax fight going on between Obama, his Democrat sycophants, and the GOP? Then take a look at this point of view from a small business owner, someone who will be the most affected by the tax policies being proposed by Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

So when politicians are talking about raising taxes on the filthy rich, they want us to think that those nasty old bankers, corporate swells, and union thugs are finally going to get what's coming to them. Unfortunately, these protected groups will be largely immune to the tax and regulatory burden. The real losers will be the small business owners, ordinary folk like you and me who have no means of protecting ourselves against the power of the government.

Don't be fooled by political rhetoric that claims taxes will be extracted from the super rich. It's the small business owner, already suffering in a poor economy, who will be hurt the most.

As a small business owner myself, I can see exactly where he's coming from.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the race crowd has gone home until next month, the tourists (what there are of them) are spending their money carefully, and where bits and pieces of The Boat are strewn across the floor of our garage as we work to repair it.

A Little Kitten With A Bad Habit And Worse Attitude

I have a feeling that both Bagheera and Hilda would have to agree this kitten has a nasty habit. That at his/her age this kitten was acting more like Charlotte, our grumpy kitchen cat, is not a good sign.


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The Government Should Stop Wasting Even More Money On Money

This is an update to a previous post about how our government wastes taxpayer money on creating money, in this case on dollar coins no one wants or uses.

Now ABC News is on the case (thought they got it from NPR), reporting on how billions are wasted on those dollar coins that end up sitting in Federal Reserve vaults.



While the report points the finger at legislation that mandated the minting of the coins, specifically the Presidential series coins, the blame is being laid in the wrong place, or on the wrong piece of legislation.

As I have written far too many times, the reason the dollar coin is unwanted is because Congress hasn't had the courage to do away with the dollar bill. As long as it is still in circulation the dollar coins will sit in those vaults, unused, unwanted, and costing the American taxpayers plenty.

One Solution To The Spending Problem

The ongoing disagreement between Congressional leaders and the President about the debt limit, taxes, and spending is showing the American people more than they wanted to see. To me this means far too many of the Democrats still seem to think we can fix the the deficit problem by spending even more money we don't have and can't pay back even if they make “the rich” pay their “fair share” in taxes, and the President acting like a spoiled and petulant child, placing all the blame for the outcome of his ill-advised and fiscally disastrous policies on the GOP because they don't or won't recognize his genius.

As much as the Democrats and the media try to spin it, the Democrats are about to reap what they've sown, namely a seriously broken financial system and the enmity of a large majority of the American people, particularly those in flyover country.

One commenter to a previously linked WSJ piece has proposed a solution to the spending problem with deep cuts for agencies and programs that manage to do nothing but waste billions of taxpayer dollars and create misery for far too many of the people they say they're helping.

Here we go. A quick way to save a few bucks.

2011 Budget Line items to consider - spending at the federal level, independent of state spending:

$129.8 Billion Education (why is the federal government involved in this?) - Zero out

$495 Billion Welfare (that's charity, right? Is this an enumerated power at the federal level or is it a state power? My take is I didn't see a charity power and Grover Cleveland agreed with me.

Grover Cleveland veto statement when vetoing charity to help Texas farmers:

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

-zero out.

--snip--

$22.7 billion Fuel and energy (as in Ethanol?) Why does energy need a subsidy, it's suppose to provide the value, not absorb it? - Zero out.

There's plenty more, so I suggest you Read The Whole Thing. While I don't agree with every point brought up, I can live with these proposed cuts as compared to some of those proposed within Congress.

Manufacturing Will Not Be What It Was

As much as we'd like to hear that manufacturing jobs are returning to the US, the truth is that not as many of them will be created here as have been lost. It's not that there isn't the need for manufacturing jobs so much as it's businesses learning to do more with less, be it with more efficiency processes or more automation.

As Perry Sainati, founder and president of Belden International, explains how manufacturing has been transformed in the U.S.

U.S. manufacturing these days is in the midst of a remarkable three-year recovery because for three years running manufacturing has not been about job growth.

It's been about automation. It's been about process improvement. It's been about productivity. And it's been about quality.

In fact, it's been about reinventing the very process by which durable and disposable goods get manufactured.

What's more, it's been about streamlining our factories to the point that they're now among the most efficient in the world.

Worker productivity on the U.S. is the highest in the world. That means for every man-hour put in we get more products built. It's to the point now here we can even outproduce low-cost nations while doing it at a lower per unit cost. That means that even with cheaper labor, countries like China are finding themselves at an increasing cost disadvantage because American factories require a lot less labor to produce the same goods. It doesn't matter if workers in a low-cost country are paid an eighth that of American workers if a single American worker can make the same amount of product as ten workers in the low-cost country. The cost per unit is lower in the US than in the low-cost country.

At the moment this scenario isn't true across the board, but it's getting there. As labor costs rise overseas, and transportation costs do likewise, it becomes increasingly more economical to build products here.

However, as Sainati noted, pundits and politicians “say the word 'manufacturing' and they see in their minds' eyes things they used to see when they were kids.” But those days are long gone, and with them the old manufacturing stereotypes. The days of huge factories employing thousands upon thousands of men and women have been replaced with modern factories using lean manufacturing with better design, processes, and automation. As such, returning a manufacturing operation to the U.S. may cost a thousand workers in a low-cost country their jobs, but it won't create a thousand new manufacturing jobs in the U.S. It might only create 80, or 100, or 120 jobs. It's not a 1:1 ratio because of the high productivity of American workers.

It's likely it's going to remain that way and we best get used to it.

On Spending, Debt, And Taxes

It's gotten to the point where President Obama resembles one of those romantic swains who does not understand that “no” means “no”, or in this case “Hell no!”

We have an economy that is still foundering due to job-killing regulations made by rogue bureaucracies, job-killing legislation by Congress, bailouts to commercial and financial institutions that don't deserve them, and a government spending spree that looks more like a teenager running around using daddy's credit card. But the 'teenager' doesn't understand that the credit card has reached its limit. What's worse is that he wants the credit card issuer (i.e. the taxpayers) to pony up even more credit to keep spending money he doesn't have and can never pay back. When he doesn't get his way he throws a tantrum, blaming the over-the-limit credit card he used on those no longer willing to have their pockets picked by an ungrateful and willful child.

Try as he might, I don't think Obama's going to get away with painting the GOP as the cause of the upcoming default on August 2^nd. The Republicans are standing their ground, not willing to give the President a pass by reneging on their campaign promises and raising the debt limit in return for 'future' spending cuts. All one needs to do is look how such promises made by Democrats in the past all fell by the wayside once they got their way to see how foolish trusting them again would be.

On top of that, the President wants to impose an additional $1 trillion in taxes on top of those he's already added to pay for it all. (We all know that theoretical extra revenue will not be used to pay down the debt, but will instead be spent on stupid and foolish things we don't need, want, or can afford.) That's all we need is to have yet another $1 trillion in capital removed from the economy, money that otherwise would be used to expand businesses, create jobs, and expand the tax base. Neither the President or Congressional Democrats see that every action they have taken over the past 4 years has narrowed the tax base, increased uncertainties in the business world which in turn has discouraged investment and hiring, and stretched out a painful recession and the resulting high unemployment/underemployment an additional 2 years with who knows how many more to follow.

What part of “Enough! Not one red cent more!” does the President fail to understand?

All of it, apparently.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been quiet around The Manse this weekend. Not that I'm complaining.

BeezleBub worked all weekend at the farm, managing to get some time at the end of the day to use his new kayak out on Lake Opechee.

Deb visited with the WP Parents and the oldest WP Sister, then spent some time with one of her friends from work on a Girl's Day Out.

And me, I spent time dealing with the usual chores around The Manse, as well as a small computer problem that drove me to distraction until I got it squared away.

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I happened to catch a small portion of this morning's Good Morning America as they covered the visit of William and Kate. One thing one of the hosts said made me stop and think about how much importance being attached to this visit, and how, in the end, far too much is being made about it.

As I recall, the host made mention about Kate's attire, and how everyone in America is wondering what she's wearing.

I'm not. I could care less what she's wearing, or who designed it, or how many times she changed outfits during the day. Somehow I doubt more than a few fashionistas really care at all. Yet somehow this is news?

How far we have fallen!

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While I've known this is true about liberals, or more specifically, the liberals and their sycophants in the press, John Hinderaker defines the problem far more succinctly than I could.

He boils it down to this:

It is a phenomenon we see over and over again: a liberal will make a wild accusation or engage in defamatory speculation about a political opponent. The accusation will then be taken up by left-wingers across the internet and, if it looks promising, it will be repeated in far-left newspapers like the New York Times. Liberals everywhere will eat it up and elaborate on it. Then, in due course, it will be proved entirely baseless.

What happens next? Do liberal web sites, columnists and reporters retract their fictitious claims and apologize? Hardly ever. By the time the truth comes out, they have moved on to some new libel or conspiracy theory. The truth remains a stranger to most of the readers who rely on such dishonest sources for information.

How many times over the years have wee seen this? How many times over the past four years have we seen this?

Too many times to count. Yet they still get away with it.

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Sister Toldjah follows up on this meme, showing how media bias and liberal lies far too often become “fact”. No amount of evidence to the contrary will convince them otherwise.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Speaking of liberal “facts”, how about the one where military spending is greater than entitlement spending? The problem: it's not true.

At the moment entitlement spending is twice that of military spending. Entitlement spending has been greater than military spending since 1976 and there's no indication that trend won't continue.

Where does this information come from? The White House Office of Management and Budget.

Somehow I doubt the Left will be able to spin that as some kind of GOP conspiracy.

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This Ain't Hell shows us a spoiled, entitled ditz who doesn't support our troops because “they gun down 5 year-olds.”

She's a living example of the aforementioned liberal lies that somehow become “facts”. No one this unintelligent should be allowed to vote...or procreate.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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And now for a climate change three-fer.

First, it's Anthony Watts covering the madness that is the Carbon Tax in Australia. And the Aussies are pissed off that their Prime Minister has decided it's such a good thing even though they don't.

Second, there's this from Dr. Roy Spencer talking about how surface sea temperatures are still not rising and how global oceanic reflected light has increased, meaning sea surface temperatures are likely to continue to fall.

And last, but not least, there's Stuart Shapiro saying this about climate change: “What anyone who considers themselves part of the reality based community can’t argue, however, is that the best response is to wait and see what happens.”

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been quite pleasant, the yard work is never ending, and where – once again – Monday is returning all too soon.

The Return Of Marcus Welby, MD?

The trend of physicians no longer accepting health insurance is spreading, with even more of them switching over to cash-only practices. I mentioned one Minnesota doctor who made the switch and is glad she did.

Now comes the story of Dr. Brian Forrest, his practice in North Carolina, and how he shed the frustrations and costs of dealing with health insurance companies, all to the betterment of his patients and his bottom line.

In an age of family physicians literally not being able to give away their practices, Brian Forrest has built a successful model that is similar to the age of Marcus Welby where there was a direct relationship between a patient and their doctor. Practices such as Forrest’s Access Healthcare in North Carolina run unencumbered by insurance hassles.

As word of Dr. Forrest’s direct pay practice has spread, he has had a constant stream of physicians visiting his practice so others could learn how he has a successful financial model, happy patients and a sane lifestyle – something increasingly less common in the hamster-wheel model of primary care that is prevalent in current fee-for-service based primary care practices. Dr. Forrest runs a cash-only practice sees 16 patients a day at a maximum, works a 40 hour week and takes home more than the average family physician a year with a highly satisfied patient base that pays less than those in fee-for-service, insurance models.

It's gotten to the point where the cost of accepting health insurance by primary care practices has become burdensome, both financially and in time, with doctors working long hours, seeing 40 patients a day or more, becoming detached from their patients because of time constraints, and being less well compensated for their time. Too many primary care practices have become nothing more than 'factory' medicine, much to the detriment of both health care professionals and their patients. Is it any wonder more doctors are abandoning the present model of medical practices and returning to older, more personal and satisfying models?

He Still Doesn't Get It

During his Twitter 'presser', Obama proved he really doesn't get it when it comes to to spending and taxes, trying to blame the budget impasse on Congressional Republicans and the inherent ignorance of the American public.

Saying that he would have to explain (again) to the American people how his plan will work, all he showed the American people is his condescension towards them, implying that they're all too stupid to understand. Unfortunately, we do understand all too well why his plan hasn't worked and won't work: he hasn't got a clue how the economy works nor how taxes and unrestrained government spending has a negative effect on it.

Hepburn, Hughes, A House In Connecticut, And Socialism

By way of Maggie's Farm comes this announcement that Katherine Hepburn's home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut is for sale. The asking price is $28 million.

I know the place as we used to drive near it on occasion on our way to or from Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale, one of our favorite restaurants on the Connecticut seacoast.

Normally I wouldn't even post anything about this as I have little real interest. But a recent viewing of The Aviator (the story of Howard Hughes) reminded me of something I had almost forgotten. (I cannot say for sure this actually happened, but it certainly made for interesting cinema.)

There was a scene that took place at the Hepburn house (and I believe it may have even been shot there, comparing scenes from the movie to photos seen in the listing), where Howard accompanied Katherine to dine with her family one summer weekend. During the meal Katherine's mother, a rather outspoken woman in her own right, blathered on about being socialists and that she didn't care who knew it, and anyone who disagreed would never step into her house.

Howard sat there quietly fuming until he couldn't stand it anymore. He replied to her, saying that she and her family could afford to be socialists because they had money, while the average working man could not. He basically lambasted her for her ignorance about how business and the economy actually worked, then got up from his seat and left.

Howard Hughes may have been eccentric, but he knew his stuff when it came to business, economics, and the working man. He also spoke a truth (or at least the Howard Hughes in the movie did).

Those with money can afford to be socialists. The rest of us can't.

Socialism rarely effects the limousine liberals. After all, they've already got theirs. Living with the effects of socialism is only for the little people. (That means you and me, folks.) It also means that it's the little people who, in the end, pay for it all, be it with confiscatory taxes, crappy social services, poor educational and health care systems, substandard housing, or dead end it's-for-the-public-good 'jobs' of the “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us” variety.

Titus Going Galt?

BeezleBub and I watched Christopher Titus' Take America Back show on Comedy Central Sunday evening. He covered a wide range of topics, all dealing with taking back America and making it great again.

He touched upon one of my favorite topics – parenting. I won't bore you with the details of that as you can see it for yourself on Comedy Central or their website, but I have to say I agree with him, specifically on the topic of 'touchie-feelie' parents without the balls to discipline their brat of a kid. That wasn't the only topic he covered, of course. He got into a number of others, including racism, the economy, and government. On these last two he hit a home run.

He made a suggestion that struck a chord with both me and my son, bringing up a subject near and dear to my heart – the government's inability to stop wasting time and money trying to fix something they broke. His suggestion sounded like something right out of Atlas Shrugged.

I can't quote verbatim, so I'm not even going to try. But here's the gist of it:

Pick a day during the week (I think Titus said a Wednesday for a reason I won't go into), and between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, stop doing what you're doing. Don't work. Don't answer the phone. Don't drive. Don't shop. Don't travel. Don't do anything.

Right after 4 o'clock, we all send a text message to Congress and the President that says “If you guys don't stop screwing around and fix what you guys screwed up, we'll do this for a month!”

Do you think if we all went Galt for a couple of hours they might take notice?

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, Fourth of July Weekend already.

How time flies.

One downside to this holiday weekend: The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka “The Boat” - will not grace the waters of the lake this summer. A number of factors drove that decision, including maintenance work that will be easier to accomplish while The Boat is out of the water (it really needs work done on the fiberglass, engine work neither BeezleBub or I have either the tools or the know how to perform, and some electrical system upgrades), and our personal budget.

It's been no secret that we here at The Manse have had to tighten our belts to ensure we weren't going to have problems paying our bills. We've cut back on 'luxuries' (we rarely eat out any more and we make our own pizza rather than getting it from the local pizzeria), did away with our landline phone (it costs the same as our cell phone bill and we practically never used it), do a lot of online price comparisons before buying anything, and clip coupons like crazy, just to name a few of the actions we've taken to rein in our spending.

Unfortunately The Boat falls under the luxury category (personally I think it's an absolute necessity as it brings tranquility into my life when I'm out on the lake). We could put it in the water, paying for the annual slip rental, or we could do some much needed maintenance. But we couldn't swing both. Reluctantly, we decided to do the maintenance and forgo any time out on the lake this summer.

Bummer.

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Skip points us to piece by Maggie Thurber which analyzes Union Derangement Syndrome and provides a well deserved fisking of a union VP of communications.

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Has Washington learned it's hard stimulus lesson? Listening to Obama, members of his cabinet, and Democrat leaders in Congress, I'd have to say the answer is 'no'.

Despite this, even Keynesians and Wall Street financial experts are now saying enough is enough. The question is, will Obama and the rest of the Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) listen?

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Now for a really important question: Who is “ATM”?



The people have a right to know!

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Cap'n Teach asks whether we can call AGW a cult yet? He asks because apparently the UK didn't meet its goal of a reduction in CO₂ emissions. Instead emissions went up 3% because of the demand for more energy during the cold winter in 2010. (I'm not going to say colder than normal because Britain has had cold winters like this in the past. Let's just say that the winter temps have returned to 'normal'.)

CO₂ reduction is a fine thing in theory, but when people are in danger of freezing to death theory has to give way to practice.

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As I mentioned in one of yesterday's posts, jobs for teens are scare as compared to even 2 years ago. This WSJ piece also covers this topic, and a number of commenters delve into the twisted logic of those who seem to think that mandating higher wages will solve all our problems. One comment in particular stands out, explaining how community leaders in the Bronx got it entirely backwards.

I've posted before about the Kingsbridge Armory in The Bronx. A developer wanted to turn it into a shopping mall, creating 2200 jobs. The City Council and the Bronx borough president insisted he agree to a "living wage" mandate i.e. $10 an hour + benefits or $11.50 an hour. He said it blows up the economics of the project and walked away.

The politicians hailed the creation of zero jobs at "living wage" as a victory, and crowed about it all over the papers. (emphasis mine – ed.)

Seriously. In their world, zero jobs at a mandated wage is preferred to a couple thousand at market wages. And people keep voting for these geniuses.

How twisted is that? Celebrating zero jobs created as a victory? No wonder our economy is in such a mess with people like this trying to short circuit the market feedback mechanisms.

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Glenn Reynolds has three suggestions about what you can do for liberty over this July 4^th weekend.

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I knew California had problems with more than its share of clueless morons, but I didn't think it had gotten this bad.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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Oh, no! Someone call AlGore!

The Arctic Ice Basin is out of ice...except for 95% of area, which has plenty of ice.

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I think the Racine, Wisconsin firefighter's union is going to look incredibly stupid on this one.

It certainly seems the public isn't backing them on this issue, and the last thing the union needs to do at this point is to piss off the people who pay their salaries.

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Will New Hampshire be the battleground for the 'soul of the GOP'? It seems to be shaping up that way...again.

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Unfortunately, this is not a surprise to me.

It appears that far too many of our kids are failing what we used to call civics (also known as social studies). Our children are showing their ignorance about how our democracy works, how our civic institutions are supposed to work, and what the Constitution says and means. That is a formula for disaster, for if they don't know our history, do not understand our laws and customs, they are in danger of losing it all.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where everyone has been gearing up for the Fourth, the weather has (sorta) been cooperating, and where to big doin's are down on the Esplanade tomorrow evening.

California Gets It Wrong Again

Is it just me or is the state of California doing everything it can to ensure its total financial collapse will take place? Nope, it isn't me.

It seems every measure the California legislature is taking will have the effect of increasing support of the state employees unions pay, benefits, and pensions while increasing the burden on the taxpayers, or decreasing its already falling tax revenues, or both.

The latest stupid, rent-seeking action? Shutting down Amazon's Associate program in California by trying to force Amazon to collect California sales taxes (even though the move is illegal). The amount of sales taxes collected by this move? Zero The estimated amount of income tax revenues lost with the shutdown of the Amazon program? $151 million.

As Bill Quick, a now former Amazon Associate, writes:

Did I mention that these people are leftists, greedheads, and wreckers? Let me add that they are also corrupt bribe-takers on a massive scale. They pushed this law through, and are more than happy to see the Amazon Associates program permanently shut down, because that is the goal the real backers of this law were after in the first place. It has nothing to do with sales tax collections. It is, in its entirety, designed to use the government as a club to shut down Amazon’s Associate Program in the biggest states in the country.

How so?

Big companies like Wal-Mart, (an out of state corporations itself) who have associate programs that are much less effective at driving sales than the Amazon Associate program is, can’t handle that competition head on by beefing up their own programs. Or at least they don’t want to. So what these sponsors were really after was not to collect additional sales tax for California, but to shut down the competition in the state. They got what they wanted. The politicians behind this bill will get what they want - more money and support (bribes) from companies like Wal-Mart. And the state will get nothing, in fact, will lose money.

But of course the big drive now is to somehow make Amazon the villain in all this. And too many people are buying the propaganda. Sad.

So while the aim of the legislation appeared to be to collect sales taxes, it was really a rent-seeking move by Amazon's competition? This sounds a little paranoid. But unfortunately, it is likely true. There's certainly enough precedent for such a move, and we've seen it at the federal level, particularly since “The One” Term Wonder took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Should this type of shenanigans continue in the Golden State, the motivation for businesses and residents to leave California will rise and the stream of businesses and workers already leaving will turn into a flood. That ought to help the state's bottom line. NOT.

Obama Really Doesn't Understand Economics...And Doesn't Want To

As we move closer to 2012, it has become increasingly apparent to those not previously cognizant that President Obama is, to put it in terms everyone can understand, an economic moron. Part of this lack of understanding can be laid at his upbringing and lack of a real-world education.

Between his parents, step parent, grandparents, and his pastor of 20 years, he was fed a continuous diet of anti-Americanism. We have no idea what he really learned in school, particularly at college (his transcripts are sealed). While speaking about bringing people together, his actions have done nothing but divided them. This is particularly true when it comes to economics, where it appears he's pulling his 'fixes' out of the past, with liberal doses of Marxist economic theory blended with the worst of the failed economic policies of FDR and Jimmy Carter. He really doesn't see why his efforts to fix the economy have failed or why his popularity has fallen so precipitously. Could it be because he's in over his head, being so ill-prepared and undereducated in how things really work?

That certainly seems to be the case, particularly in light of his most recent presser where he engaged in “false choices and demagoguery” rather than offering solid proposals. He talks about reaching a compromise with the Republican members of the House, but I get the feeling he's still defining compromise as “Sit down, shut up, and vote the way I tell you to vote.” That hasn't worked since the Democrat takeover of the House and Senate back in 2006, and is less likely to work today since the GOP retook the House last fall.

All any of this shows us is that he really doesn't get it, doesn't understand how the economy works, and isn't interested in learning how it works. Instead he wants the economy to bend to his will. Unfortunately he will learn, as did King Canute, that the economy won't listen to him. The more he tries to bend it to his will, the worst it will get and the more those who actually drive the economy will rebel, just as they have to date. All he will do is to motivate even more people to “go Galt”, driving more of the economic activity underground and away from the prying eyes of The One Term Wonder.

The Government Should Stop Wasting Money On Money

I can't believe the government is still trying to foist dollar coins on the American public. All of their PR and educational slant in trying to garner interest in the dollar coin has fallen flat on its face.

On more than one occasion I have bemoaned the doomed-to-fail attempts by the government to get us to switch over to the dollar coin from the paper dollar. But as long as the government keeps printing dollar bills, the coins will sit in bank vaults, unused.

So far the government has wasted billions minting coins that will never see the light of day because Congress is unwilling to act to end the printing of dollar bills and make the coins “the law of the land.” Vending machine companies say it will be too expensive to modify their machines in order to let them accept dollar coins. (I find that hard to believe considering they've been able to do it for machines in Canada, and for machines in the UK to accept the pound coin, and for machines in the rest of Europe to accept the euro coin. It's a specious argument about specie!)

Either the government should end the 'experiment' with the dollar coin and stop wasting money, or it should do away with the dollar bill...and stop wasting money. But by doing neither the government continues to waste money we can ill afford to waste.

Savants Among Us

We've all heard of savants before, generally being people with amazing abilities that are otherwise mentally disabled. Dustin Hoffman played on in the movie Rainman. Their extraordinary abilities span a wide range, covering everything from mathematics to music.

In this case, 60 Minutes brought us the story of Derek Paravicini, a blind autistic man with the ability to play piano like no one I've ever seen before.

Rather than describing what makes him so incredible, better that you watch for yourself.



I have to say I liked the part where he transformed Beethoven's Fur Elise, making it sound as if Mozart had written it instead.

Consumer Spending Falls...Again

Is this yet another bit of “unexpected” news?

Apparently consumer spending is down, again. It's at its lowest pace in two years and not getting any better.

While consumers haven't stopped spending, they are being more careful. They also have changed their spending habits, with more online spending and less in the way of trips to the mall. As one of Glenn Reynolds readers explained it:

I realize it is a cliche for a woman to say she has nothing to wear; but I have literally only bought one new item of apparel for myself in the past three years. I had a pair of shorts that was more patches than original cloth, so I determined I had to buy some new ones. But after three years of mall avoidance I found the idea of going to one to be impossibly fatiguing. So I checked Overstock and Landsend (sic) clearance and bought myself some new shorts for about $10 each.

But of course since I was online I just typed in women’s shorts and that’s all I bought. If I had been at a mall I would have found a cute top and an adorable little skirt and etc. etc. My shopping habits have been completely altered, and I think its a good thing.

I can't remember the last time I went to one of the malls to shop. It's either WalMart or online shopping for us here at The Manse. If I buy something, I know what it is I want, where I can buy it, and how much it costs. I know all of that before leaving The Manse (assuming I actually go to a store to buy what I need). Otherwise we buy it online.

One of the other things driving lower consumer spending is consumers paying off debt, getting those credit cards and car loans paid off. And when consumers do spend, they're paying cash or doing without. As Instapundit reader Robin Lyons writes:

Instead of spending, I have been taking all my disposable income and paying off debt. I have a good job and have disposable income every month. But I have decided that I am not buying anything not absolutely necessary in protest of the Obama economy. Not that my single participation makes any difference, but who knows how many of me there are out there?

We've had a tight budget here at The Manse over the past two years. After a mortgage refinance at a much lower interest rate, we're paying off all of our other debt and freeing up $1000 a month or more because we won't have those payments. Our mortgage payments will remain the same and that's the only debt we'll have, one we're willing to carry. From this point forward we'll be paying cash or doing without. We'll keep one credit card (the one with both the lowest credit limit and lowest interest rate).

Even though reducing the number of credit cards we have to one may adversely affect our credit rating, the missus and I much prefer to limit our exposure in the future rather than worry about what Experion and the others credit bureaus might have to say about us. Freeing up $12,000 of cash a year makes me feel a whole lot better than worrying about our credit rating dropping 50 points. It seems quite a few others are taking the same route we have, at least from what friends and acquaintances have been telling me.

So the fact that consumer spending has dropped isn't a surprise to me or anyone else paying attention to the Obama economy.

Another Doctor Drops Out Of The Health Insurance Rat Race

I can see that we have yet another “I don't take any kind of health insurance” medical practice that appears to be doing well.

A doctor in Minnesota has borrowed a page from other doctors around the US that have abandoned the endlessly more complicated (and expensive) system of health insurance covered health care. Instead all she will accept is cash, checks, and foodstuffs.

It's amazing how much costs go down when you no longer have to deal with the paperwork and regulations imposed by health insurance companies and the government if a medical practice accepts health insurance (and particularly Medicare and Medicaid).

As Minnesota Public Radio reports, Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson finds she's doing just fine without all the extra dross that comes with accepting medical insurance.

It's more a scene from the days of frontier medicine than from the modern health care system. And that's because Rutten Wasson, 42, is a throwback to a time before HMOs, electronic health records and hospitals with fountains in their lobbies. She sees patients the same day they call if she's not booked up, spends at least a half-hour per visit — compared to the more typical 15 minutes — and usually charges only $50 for a consultation. She takes cash or check, but no insurance — and sometimes accepts gratuities of a dozen fresh eggs or a pie.

--snip--

In an era of high overhead, ever more byzantine regulations and payment models, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare benefits, and large medical systems swallowing independent practices, Rutten Wasson relishes her straight-forward manner of practicing. Since many federal health care reforms — such as those requiring electronic medical records — are tied to Medicare, they tend not to apply to her.

As she says, not having to deal with the insurance is a big time saver, allowing her more time to actually spend with patients, something that is becoming more important as even with more sophisticated medical technology at our beck and call, doctors still need to talk with patients and get to know them in order to do a better job diagnosing and treating them.

“Factory” medical clinics that so many of us go to are more like an assembly line, with doctors rushing about, seeing them for the minimum amount of time possible, before rushing out to see the next one. It isn't uncommon for some physicians to see as many as 40 patients in a day, meaning they can't possibly give the time and attention some patients need in order to be treated properly for their medical conditions. If you miss an appointment don't count on getting another one for months. I had to reschedule my annual physical due to a schedule conflict. That was three months ago and they still haven't been able to tell me when I'll be able to get another appointment. If I had to guess, it won't be until next year. And if I'm actually sick, they might be able to squeeze me in in two or three weeks.

Think I'm kidding?

After our return from a week's vacation in Florida two years ago, I came down with a bad case of bronchitis which swiftly turned into pneumonia. I called my doctor's office and they said they might be able to see me in week. It got so bad I ended up at our local hospital's ER. The physician there said I probably wouldn't have lasted long enough to see my own doctor. It took a lot of antibiotics and another week before I was well enough to return to work.

But if I had a doctor like Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson, chances are she would have come to my home, examined me, and written a prescription for what I needed, as well as make a follow up visit a couple of days later. I don't see anything like that happening under the present system or ObamaCare. Do you?

Thoughts On A Sunday

The cool wet weather cycle continues, a repeat of a few summers ago. Should this weather pattern continue it's going to be a long miserable summer, much like a few summers ago. It also means that not having The Boat in the water may not be such a bad thing as the last time we went through a summer like this we didn't make it out onto the lake more than seven our eight times all season. It was usually too cold, too wet, or both.

Even BeezleBub is grousing about the weather. The conditions make working out in the fields miserable at best. It also has a negative effect on some of the crops they've planted.

We'll just have to wait and see how this summer's weather plays out.

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I had to go into work this morning to get a head start on finishing up calibrating some optical equipment. While I had estimated it would take all of a single day to complete the work, I was wrong, sort of.

If everything had gone as planned, it would have been done on Friday. But as is always the case, Murphy's Law raised its ugly head and we had to do some of the calibration a second time.

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Scary Yankee Chick tells us about going through the process of trying to get her concealed carry permit in New York State.

Thank goodness I live in New Hampshire where getting a CCW permit is relatively easy. And I don't even need a permit to carry openly.

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Labrat over at Atomic Nerds comments about Sarah Palin, the media, and her bus tour.

He also comments about and links to stuff about Gordon Ramsay (Hell's Kitchen) and Dustin Diamond (Saved By The Bell)in the same post.

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I guess we can now say our worst fears are confirmed now that Timothy Geitner has said government must raise taxes on small businesses, those that create most of the jobs, in order to prevent the government from shrinking. Never mind that those taxes may end up killing some of those businesses (and the jobs they provide) that are just barely hanging on during this never-ending government-driven recession.

Now we know Obama and his cronies really have no interest in curing this recession because it gives them more power over more aspects of our lives. It doesn't matter to them that they are less competent to run our lives than we are.

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Apparently it's not only the University of New Hampshire seeing a double-digit tuition increase. Add the University of Tennessee to list, with the UT board okaying a 12% tuition increase. That's about the same, percentage wise, as the expected increase for UNH, but smaller dollar wise as tuition at UNH is already one of the highest of any public university. Tuition and fees will be about $8000 at UT versus $12,060 just for tuition at UNH.

Both states are having to deal with cuts in state funding as the effects of the continuing recession seriously affect their ability to fund state operations. New Hampshire's state budget is 12% smaller than the previous biennial budget (New Hampshire runs a 2-year budget cycle), with the legislature taking heed of the taxpayer's concerns about rapidly growing state spending with no corresponding increase in revenue.

As Glenn Reynolds writes, “...it does mean that students, since they’re footing the bill (often with borrowed money), need to be sure that they’re getting their money’s worth.”

Far too often these days, they aren't.

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Oh, no! Now global warming is causing a chair shortage! (Scroll down to the June 22^nd entry.)

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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A major pet peeve of mine is the broadcast media's improper use of English. There are times when it drives me to shut the TV or radio off because I can't stand to listen to it. This evening's news on the local TV station almost had me throwing the remote at the TV because of the poor phrasing being used by reporters, anchors, and weather guys.

Some examples of a few of the most annoying:

“Once the accident scene was cleared the road opened back up.” I'm sorry, but shouldn't that be “reopened”? How does something “open back up”? Does that mean it was opened, and then someone backed up? (I've actually written to the news editors at the TV station about this one and for a while “re-open” replaced “open back up”, but now that hated phrase has returned with a vengeance.)

“As we approach evening, the clouds will melt apart.” Hmm. I've heard of things melting together and melting away, but not melting “apart”.

And two of my all time favorites, “gonna” instead of “going to” and “ta” instead of “to”. The last is something I hear President Obama say all the time and I find it quite annoying. But then I find almost everything he says these days quite annoying.

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Legal Insurrection asks the question “Can any Republican presidential candidate withstand being Palinized?” I'm beginning to think the only one can withstand being Palinized is Sarah Palin.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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At least someone in Pittsburgh is willing to call Obama's economic policy what it is: an (e)con job.

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At least Subaru knows how to keep the union thugs from their doors: Zero layoffs. Zero strikes. Zero health care premiums. Zero pay cuts.

The unions can't even come close to matching that. Historically, the unions tend to have just the opposite effect, and Subaru employees know it.

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As the Left here in the US is still trying to ram multi-culturalism down the throats of Americans, the Netherlands has abandoned it wholesale as a miserable failure that has done nothing but weaken Dutch culture and allowed cultural barbarians unwilling to assimilate to run rampant through their society. All multi-culturalism has done for the Netherlands is increase violent crime, create greater intolerance by Third World immigrants for traditional Dutch culture and traditions, and created a wide swath of second class citizens (by their own choice).

As far as I've been able to determine, multi-culturalism by edict has never worked and has always weakened the society trying to live by it, if not destroyed it outright.

Maybe the purveyors of multiculturalism in the US should take note.

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Has Obama's stimulus managed to stimulate anything other than more government jobs and a lot of rhetoric from Democrats? It certainly hasn't had the effect he claimed it would, in effect pulling more money out of the economy needed to help it recover and using for things that did nothing to stimulate it at all. An analogy presented in the piece linked above explains it quite well.

Analogy time. Consider a robber who steals a purse containing $500, who then uses the money to buy himself a new TV. It is categorically undeniable that the theft has created a sale for the TV store. Conservatives who pretend the stimulus has not created any jobs whatsoever stand in the position of an observer trying to deny the TV has been sold.

Yet the liberal analysis lacks any recognition that the purse owner now has $500 less to spend on the laptop computer she was going to buy. The theft has generated one sale only by destroying another.

The first effect is easily seen. The second is not. But only the economically illiterate would conclude that just the first effect occurred, and that therefore the way to increase consumption is to encourage more purse-stealing. So in addition to looking at the number of jobs created or saved by the stimulus, shouldn’t we also consider the number of jobs destroyed or forestalled?

And that's the problem. Neither Obama or Congressional Democrats see the second effect, or choose to ignore it. On top of that we also must recognize that the government is the thief, and before it spends the money taken, it assesses a handling fee. Using the analogy above, that means of the $500 taken away, only $460 is actually spent 'stimulating' the economy (assuming a 10% 'handling' fee). So by taking that money from the taxpayer, they have decreased the buying power of of the dollars taken to only 90% as compared if the taxpayer had been allowed to keep it and use it for themselves. How is this supposed to stimulate the economy?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're finally getting a break in the weather, the first full weekend of summer is coming to a close, and where our boat still isn't in the water and not likely to be any time this summer.

Bilingual Cat

Here it is, I thought that only Miley – our three-legged cat - was the only bilingual feline around. It turns out I was wrong, as this video proves.



At least Miley doesn't mind showing she's bilingual, unlike the character in the video above. As one commenter put it, “He does it so people will post noise complaints about the neighbor's dog.”

This Is Known As "Bad Luck"

Though the link to this piece appeared over at Instapundit a few days ago, I hadn't read it until yesterday. If nothing else it proves that Robert Heinlein was right when he wrote:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

All we need to do is look at Pakistan to see how Heinlein's observation is true.

As Anglo-Indians were driven out of Pakistan, its society and economy started to deteriorate. Those actually producing the wealth, running the bureaucracies, the courts, the hospitals, the police, the railroads, the schools were driven out and bad things started happening. As Masood Hasan writes in the Pakistan's international edition of The News:

It is hard to believe that Pakistan was once a gentle country. It is even harder to believe that some of the most wonderful people lived here. All that seems like a misty memory which has little relevance as you face the day’s first rude slaps. A friend passed me an interesting short article about the Anglo-Indians who lived and worked in what is now India and Pakistan. The Anglos are long gone swallowed up by the mists of time, driven out from here to fend for themselves. But in their extinction lies a bigger tragedy.

The Anglo Indians were fun people. But more than the singular expertise they brought to the jobs that became traditionally their forte, they added a swing, vibrancy and a sheer joy of living spirit to our society that in many ways epitomised the new, fresh spirit that was Pakistan. That was then. Now it’s a fading sepia tone picture. Those of us who grew up with them, watched with considerable sadness as family after family left this country to go and live in alien climes. There was nothing left for them. They were wise in retrospect. Look at our bestiality towards our minorities. But while the Anglo Indians were here, they gave us a unique gift. The joy of living and of being alive.

Pakistan is a shadow if its former self. Where once everyone could walk the streets safely, one now puts one's life in jeopardy, particularly if you aren't Pakistani. The government is corrupt, the military is rife with religious fundamentalists who see Wahabbi-perverted jihad as a good thing, and it's once thriving economy and society is a shambles.

The 1972 laws enforced by ZAB to please the fundos broke the spirit of all of us, particularly the Anglo Indians. Bars, discos, clubs all shut down in fear. Suddenly hosts of musicians and other artists had no livelihood. ‘Tolerance went up in smoke,’ recalls one sad person. Came 1979 and the evil Zia and the coup de grace forced the Anglos to escape, migrate anywhere they could go. They left by the droves, never to come back. The clubs died, the dance floors uprooted, the many services they offered fell by the wayside. In driving out this small community, we dug our own graves. We rapidly became soulless, grey, hypocritical and boring. With them gone, an integral part of decent civilian life was snuffed out. Guns replaced guitars. The scorched landscape that we inherited, now mocks us. Laughter has changed to anguish. Pakistan may be a ‘hard country’, but it is also a barren and desolate land. One gentleman of the fabled 60s sums it all up in one line: ‘Those days are gone. They will not come back.’ Quite an epitaph wouldn’t you agree?

What's telling are the comments from those who remember the days before everything started coming apart and their lament at what their home country has become.

The Power Of Music

World War II veteran Jack Leroy Tueller tells his story about how music changed the the heart and mind of a German sniper after D-Day.



(H/T Facebook – Thanks, Deb!)

Obama - Closet Luddite?

As I wrote in my previous post about Obama's Afghanistan speech, I don't believe he knows what he's doing. This is particularly true when it comes to economics. There's certainly been plenty of evidence that drives me to make this claim, but this one takes the cake: Obama believes technology leads to job losses. It's such an old saw that has been disproven again and again, but he's trying to sell it as the reason the American job market is in such dire straits.

"There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers," he said. "You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don't go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate."

The president calls this a structural issue—we usually call it progress. And it isn't exactly a new phenomenon. It's been going on for centuries, and its pace has accelerated over the past 50 years. Businesses relentlessly look for ways to replace workers with machines. The machines get better and smarter. We go from spoons to shovels to excavators, not the other way around.

I get the feeling he'd like to see us go backwards, reducing productivity, increasing the costs of goods, and making even more American jobs disappear to other countries that haven't deluded themselves that technology costs jobs and that increased productivity is a bad thing.

I hate to say this, but what he put forward almost sounded like it came right out of Atlas Shrugged, with the government forcing producers to use less efficient production methods as a means to 'create' more jobs. Of course it won't work out that way and they'll end up with even fewer jobs as they price themselves right out of the market.

And so it goes with One-Term Wonder, a master of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Small Town Democracy In Action

I've just returned from an exercise in small town democracy.

While most of our town's deliberations and voting on spending for municipal functions and education take place in February and March, an education issue going back to the March voting has come to a head and our school board decided it had to meet this head on rather than continuing an ongoing fight in the local papers, with heated point/counterpoint letters to the editor creating some of the best local gossip seen around here in some time.

It all came down to what is called a petition warrant article, in this case dealing with one specific petition warrant article that was aimed at eliminating an administrative position the petitioners believed was never authorized when our school district broke away from a larger school administrative unit (or SAU) 13 years ago. The warrant article passed by a 2 to 1 margin, but the school board ignored it, claiming it was “advisory only.” That didn't sit well with a lot of folks in our town.

On top of that, the school board announced the day before the vote in March that they had hired a replacement to fill administrative position being vacated due to the retirement of the person occupying that position. Quite a few people saw that as a slap in the face, taking it as arrogance on the part of board by flaunting their decision ahead of the vote as if to say “We don't care what you want, we going to do it our way.”

But was it arrogance? Or was it poor timing on their part? It doesn't matter, the reason being that perception is reality. (If the voters see it as arrogance then it is arrogance, motives not withstanding.)

A lot of people showed up for this 'special' school board meeting, held at the our high school auditorium, and a lot of people spoke up, not pleased with the way the board handled the matter. There had been a lot of name calling in the letters to the editor published in our two local papers. Some of the anger displayed in those letters was evident at the meeting as person after person took the opportunity to address their comments and questions to the board. There was plenty of fancy footwork (figuratively speaking) displayed by the board and the school district's attorney. A lot of people left the meeting feeling nothing had been accomplished.

Some questions did get answered. The one I asked dealt with what criteria is used to determine whether a petition warrant article is advisory or binding. (If the petition deals with a specific action, such as adding or cutting funding for a specific purpose, such as a job or activity within the town or school district, then it's binding. If it doesn't address a specific action, then it's advisory.)

One thing is certain, the people got involved in how our school board is performing its function. Another thing that's certain is that a number of school board members will be seeing some serious competition come the next election in March.

And so it goes in small town New Hampshire.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We celebrated BeezleBub's 17^th birthday yesterday (it was actually last Wednesday), along with some of his friends from school. BK, Slick Nick, Monkey Girl (I gave her that sobriquet because she's an accomplished sidecar motorcycle racer...at 15 years old!), KG, and Snooky (called that because she resembles Snooky from Jersey Shore, minus the orange spray-on tan and French manicure) attended. Between snacks, burgers and dogs, worm cake, a 'story circle', and watching some World's Dumbest videos, I think we can say everyone had a good time.

While low key as birthday celebrations go, I think next year's will be a big blowout when he turns 18.

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Now a quick shift over to a little economic news, specifically the housing market and unemployment, at least here in New Hampshire.

May's home sales here in the Granite State actually looked pretty good, with numbers close to what would normally be seen in May: 951 homes sold. The downside being the median price was lower than compared to last year ($210,000 versus $220,000), though last year's numbers were probably skewed due to the first time homebuyer's tax credit. Even with those sales numbers, it has to be understood there is a large unsold inventory of homes on the market as well as some shadow inventory (bank-owned homes) not presently on the market.

May's unemployment numbers looked better, with an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent this year versus 6.1 percent in May 2010. However I have to cast a skeptical eye at the numbers considering they do not include those who have dropped off the unemployment roles because they've stopped looking for work or have taken seasonal jobs outside their usual occupation.

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It appears the trend of “reshoring”, meaning returning jobs from overseas to the US, is picking up.

This trend of reshoring or insourcing is likely to grow in the coming years, as the cost gap between building overseas and building at home narrows. It's an encouraging sign in a job market where hiring has stalled in recent months.

--snip--

Greater quality was the major factor cited by Carbonite for moving back jobs to the U.S. as well. The company's call center in New Delhi, India was having turnover of 100% or more each year, said Tom Murray, the company's vice president of marketing.

I've seen other companies also returning operations to US soil, with some citing the increased manufacturing costs overseas as well as the rising costs of shipping products to the US.

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Alexandra Cahill describes how she survived four years of liberal indoctrination at Wellesley College and remained a conservative.

Some of the comments are telling, showing how some liberals are still close-minded bigots incapable of independent thought outside of their indoctrination.

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Peter Heck tells us about the sorry state of liberal compassion.

In effect, they have none...unless they want to spend someone else's money to deal with something they see as a problem, whether it really is or not. But don't look for them to spend their own money on their causes unless they expect some kind of a payback from the powers-that-be.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Bogie has pictures and observations from Bike Week, which ended today.

The roar of motorcycles has been fading away throughout the day as we bid farewell to the 88^th annual Laconia Motorcycle Rally.

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I had the opportunity to commiserate with some bikers up from Ocean City, Maryland as we ate breakfast at the Olde Bay Diner in Alton Bay.

One observation they made: There are a lot of independent diners throughout New Hampshire, unlike the various franchises, chain restaurants, and fast food joints back where they reside. All in all, they liked the atmosphere and the food at the diners far more than the chain restaurants. They were also surprised to see the owners greeting their 'regulars' like family and newcomers like friends.

There's something to be said for some of the old fashioned ways of doing things.

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Ann Althouse quotes two possible strategies for the unions to follow in regards to the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision upholding the state legislatures passage of a bill stripping the public unions of collective bargaining rights for benefits and pensions.

But the real action is in the comments to Ann's post, where it is obvious that at least a few union supporters have a very skewed idea about the integrity of unions and the tactics they would use to take back control of the taxpayer's wallets.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rumble of thousands of motorcycles has faded away, the weather is becoming more summer-like, and where thoughts of days at the beach intrude.

Federal & State Spending, Debt, And Taxes

For anyone who's been paying attention for even the past 6 months, it's obvious that our country has a major problem: debt.

While this is not a new problem, it is the magnitude of our national debt that has become quite worrisome. On top of that we have a Congress (or at least one chamber of Congress) that seems incapable of dealing with this problem. Rather than dealing with it, they seem fine with staying the course they set over four years ago. It doesn't help that the President seems hellbent on allowing them to continue their profligate ways, all while trying to stymie the Republican opposition trying to deal with it buy doing what needs to be done.

While the Democrats are convinced this country has a major revenue problem, just about everyone else knows what we have is a spending problem, and that we've managed to dig what John Stossel is calling The Money Hole.

While part of Congress and the President seem unwilling to do something to fix the problem, there are a number of other chief executives at the state level who have similar problems and met them head on. One in particular stands above all the others.

Some governors have shown the way. You know about Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich, etc. But you probably don't know about Luis Fortuno.

Fortuno is governor of Puerto Rico. Two years ago, he fired 17,000 government workers. No state governor did anything like that. He cut spending much more than Walker did in Wisconsin. In return, thousands of union members demonstrated against Fortuno for days. They clashed with police. They called him a fascist. (Gee, that seems to be the accusuation du jour, as a union leader called Chris Christie a Nazi, too. -ed.)

Fortuno said he had to make the cuts because Puerto Rico's economy was a mess.

"Not just a mess. We didn't have enough money to meet our first payroll."

Fortuno's predecessors had grown Puerto Rico's government to the point that the state employed one out of every three workers. By the time he was elected, Puerto Rico was broke. So the new conservative majority, the first in Puerto Rico in 40 years, shrank the government.

What did Fortuno cut? Believe it or not, everything, including his own salary. Nothing was immune from his budget ax. As he said, raising taxes wasn't going to happen because they were already too high. And he didn't waste time doing it, either.

Fortuno's advice for leaders who want to shrink the state: "Do what you need to do quickly, swiftly, like when you take off a Band-Aid. Just do it. And move on to better things."

The longer the delay, the less likely it will get done to the level needed in order to turn things around.

Many of our states are in a similar bind.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has been fighting this battle from the day he took office. And while he hasn't been gentle in dealing with the Garden State's abysmal financial conditions, he has been straightforward dealing with them. He hasn't pulled punches. He hasn't apologized. And he hasn't taken crap from state employees or teachers who feel they are entitled to plunder New Jersey taxpayer's wallets. He's told it like it is and the taxpayers of New Jersey appear to like what he's been saying.

My home state of New Hampshire, while not in the dire financial straits seen in New Jersey, California, Michigan, and a whole host of other states, has still had to deal with the aftereffects of a four year spending spree by legislative Democrats that started in 2007.

Normally a frugal state, New Hampshire legislative Democrats and the governor opened up the floodgates for state spending, increasing the state budget by over 30% in four years. The only problem was that they used overly optimistic revenue projections to justify it. Their projections were wrong and they left the state with an $800 million+ deficit, something illegal under the state constitution. They attempted to plug the deficit by boosting business taxes during a deep recession and seizing surplus funds from a state-chartered (but not state-funded) medical malpractice insurance agency, just to name two instances where they tried to use un-New Hampshire-like tactics to refill state coffers. Both failed, the first when voters revolted and threw the Democrats out, and the second when malpractice policyholders sued the state in court and won a decision that banned it from 'appropriating' private funds to which the it had no claim.

This year the Republican-dominated legislature cut the budget by 10%, though the Democrat governor may veto it as it stands. (The GOP has a supermajority, meaning they can override the veto should the governor do so.)

It's not just the states that have had to bite the bullet to fix government overspending.

Our neighbor to the north found itself in a similar position to where we are today, but they didn't hesitate when it came time to put their financial house in order.

When I think Canada, I think big government. I'm embarrassed that I didn't know that in the mid-'90s, Canada shrank its government. It had to. Its debt level was as bad as ours is today, almost 70 percent of the economy. Canada's finance minister said: "We are in debt up to our eyeballs. That can't be sustained."

--snip--

The problem, he added, was that Canada had a government safety net that was more like a hammock.

So in 1995 Canadian leaders cut unemployment benefits and other programs. It happened quietly because it was a liberal government, and liberals didn't want to criticize their own. The result was that Canada's debt stopped increasing. As the government ran budget surpluses, the debt went down.

--snip--

Canada fired government workers, but unemployment didn't increase. In fact, it fell from 12 percent to 6 percent. Canadian unemployment is still well below ours. And the Canadian dollar rose from just 72 American cents to $1.02 today.

That means that laid off government workers got new jobs elsewhere and became productive citizens rather than a drain on the taxpayer's wallets and the Canadian economy. Isn't it likely the same thing will happen here as well? Or are our gummint employees only competent enough to work for the government? (Unfortunately that might indeed be the case, as sad as that sounds.)

So the question is whether or not Congress will tackle the fiscal mess they helped create? Or will they continue along the path of least resistance (and the least amount of work) and not address the problem until they have no other choice, like when we're coming after them with pitchforks, torches, and a lot of rope?

Taxation - A Thought Experiment

As a comment made to a link within my previous post, this little “thought experiment” in regards to taxation puts the effects of taxes on businesses and individuals into easily understandable terms.

A thought experiment suggested by Mr. Rich Karlgaard writing for Forbes.

Imagine your tax rates for a week’s work:

0% on Monday
25% on Tuesday
50% on Wednesday
75% on Thursday
100% on Friday

Would you work on Friday? Not many would.

Reading the comments following this one the consensus was that no one would work on Friday and quite a few would also forgo working on Thursday as well. One wouldn't even work past Tuesday because as he wrote “...I've received 70% of my potential net income for the week. I think I call it quits at that point and go fishing for the next five days.”

As another commenter opined “No industry will even bother to open from Wed[nesday] to Friday.”

This thought experiment is a perfect illustration how what seems to be a reasonable policy to those making it would have a devastating effect on the economy, with businesses closed for 4 or 5 days out of seven because they can't get anyone to work past the first two or three days. There's no incentive to do so. In fact, there's plenty of incentive not to. The theoretical policy makers overlooked one very important factor that would greatly change the outcome: human nature.

The tax policy in the experiment assumed everyone would work all 5 days of the week because it would be for the good of all. But it wouldn't happen because, quite frankly, we humans aren't all that altruistic. Once the disincentive to work outweighs the difficult-to-find altruism, people will stop working.

And so it is with the proposed changes in the tax code. All they will be is a big disincentive for a lot of people who would otherwise work hard and make more money. If the only thing they're going to get out of that hard work is even higher taxes and less take home pay, they won't bother putting in the effort. Why should they? After all they aren't really being compensated for all that extra effort and are, in fact, being punished for it. That's one hell of an incentive to keep their income to a level where they can pay their bills with a little bit left over, and screw the rest. In turn, the government won't raise the revenue they think they will and the economy will continue it's slide to the bottom.

One other thing the proposed high taxes will allow? It will grant those in Congress the power to grant favors by creating all kinds of loopholes and tax shelters for those who will support them in their bids for re-election.

But wait, isn't this where we came in, when tax rates in the past were very high but the effective tax rate was low for the top earners because of the thousands of favors and exemptions granted by Congress? It looks like it to me.

Yet Another Democrat Attempt To Kill The US Economy

If we need any more proof of the axiom “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results this time”, then here it is:

Democrats want to go back to the bad old days of dozens of income tax rates, with the highest being 49% (though some are suggesting 70%), figuring they'll collect billions more in tax revenues. However, history shows the won't collect all that much more and in fact will collect even less than they do now.

The intelligentsia of the Democratic Party is growing increasingly enthusiastic about raising the highest federal income tax rates to 70% or more. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich took the lead in February, proposing on his blog "a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the rich." After all, he noted, "between the late 1940s and 1980 America's highest marginal rate averaged above 70 percent. Under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Not until the 1980s did Ronald Reagan slash it to 28 percent."

--snip--

All this nostalgia about the good old days of 70% tax rates makes it sound as though only the highest incomes would face higher tax rates. In reality, there were a dozen tax rates between 48% and 70% during the 1970s. Moreover—and this is what Mr. Reich and his friends always fail to mention—the individual income tax actually brought in less revenue when the highest tax rate was 70% to 91% than it did when the highest tax rate was 28%.

All this will do is narrow the tax base even farther than it already has been, placing an even greater burden on upper income Americans. The so-called Fairness in Taxation Act will be anything but. The Democrats seem to worry the rich aren't paying their “fair” share. Never mind that they already pay a very large majority of income taxes. Never mind that just under half of American wage earners already pay no income tax at all. How is that not fair? Oh, yeah, I forgot. To tax-and-spend Democrats, a fair share is always defined as “more than they pay now.”

They've chosen to ignore the effects such tax rates will have on the economy, that being that it will kill off any recovery there may have been as investment capital flees the country, meaning businesses won't be able to expand and jobs these businesses might have been able to provide won't be created. All they have to do to see what the effects of a return to those draconian tax rates is look at what the US economy was like back in the 1970's.

For those of you who have forgotten (or weren't born yet), the economy sucked. Unemployment skyrocketed. Inflation reached staggering rates, as did interest rates. Now these know-nothings want to take our already shaky economy and create an even bigger recession when they kill off any incentive to invest, to expand, to do better. Haven't they learned that if you punish people for succeeding all they will get is failure and a shrinking economy, along with plummeting tax revenues? Obviously not.

Need another example? How about the UK during the same time? They greatly increased income taxes across the board, with the top tax rate reaching 98%. As soon as the government imposed those taxes, the British economy collapsed as wealth and investment capital fled for more friendly environments. It wasn't until the 80's when Maggie Thatcher became Prime Minister and drove Parliament to end such insanity that the British economy recovered.

Yet here we have another bunch of economic morons within Congress who want to do the same thing, figuring it will have little if any effect on the economy. They have chosen to ignore history, and are thereby doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately it will be We The People who will pay the price for such stupidity and arrogance.

Concealed Carry Permit

Received via e-mail:

An Arizona Department of Safety officer pulled over the driver of a pick-up truck for a faulty taillight. When the officer approached the driver, the man behind the wheel handed the officer his driver's license, insurance card, truck registration, and a concealed weapon carry permit.

The officer took all the documents, looked them over and said to the driver, “Mr. Smith, I see you have a CCP. Do you have any weapons with you?”

The driver replied, " Yes sir, I have a .357 handgun in a hip holster, a .45 in the glove box and a .22 derringer in my boot."

The officer looked at the driver and asked, "Anything else?"

"Yes sir, I have a Mossberg 500 12 gauge and an AR-15 behind the seat."

The officer asked if the man was driving to or from a shooting range and the man said he wasn't, so the officer bent over and looked into the driver's face and said "Mr. Smith, you're carrying quite a few guns. May I ask what you are afraid of?”

Mr. Smith locked eyes with the officer and calmly answered, “Not a damn thing!”

Indeed.

The Bruins Win!

The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks to take the Stanley Cup! Woo-hoo!!

Solar Scientists Predicting Lower Solar Activity

After reading this, I think we should pray there is some anthropogenic global warming coming our way, otherwise it might get a bit chilly here on Earth...and the other planets as well.

If the solar scientists are right, we might be seeing decades of much lower solar activity after the peak of this rather anemic sunspot cycle.

Scientists have studied sunspots and the sun's 11-year activity cycle for 400 years, and they're getting increasingly savvy about spotting the harbingers of "space weather" years in advance, just as meteorologists can figure out what's coming after the next storm.

Storms from the sun are expected to build to a peak in 2013 or so, but after that, the long-range indicators are pointing to an extended period of low activity — or even hibernation.

The previous two periods of low solar activity, the Maunder and Dalton Minimums, led us the what is called the Little Ice Age. It wasn't until the early 1800's that solar activity picked up again and ended the Little Ice Age. These types of solar minimums have created havoc worldwide and one such minimum that ended the Medieval Warm Period may have helped usher in the Black Plague in Europe which wiped out from one-third to one-half of the population. Agriculture suffered and previously habitable lands became too cold to grow crops or raise livestock, like Greenland or Newfoundland. (Yes, Greenland was once green. The Vikings had settled, farmed, and thrived there for over 400 years before the Little Ice Age made it impossible for them to survive there.)

Somehow the AGW folks have convinced themselves we'd be better off with a colder world despite having not one shred of evidence to support their beliefs and plenty of evidence to the contrary. They can choose to ignore the possibility that a warmer world would be better, with the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods giving us a good indication of that.

The peak of present sunspot cycle - Cycle 24 - is expected in 2013, and it's expected to be a particularly weak one. But wait, there's more!

All these signs suggest that the current solar cycle, Cycle 24, "may be the last one for quite some time," Hill said. The next upswing in solar storms, Cycle 25, may be "very much delayed ... very weak, or may not happen at all."

The solar activity upswing at the start of Cycle 24 was almost 2 years late, and what activity we have seen is far below that seen in Cycles 23, 22, and 21, with Cycle 23 having been one of the most energetic in centuries. Is it a coincidence that Earth's climate warmed during that period? Is it a coincidence that the climate on Mars, and Jupiter's and Saturn's moons also warmed during that same period?

Not likely.

The Housing Market Hasn't Bottomed Out Yet

Is it any surprise that economist Robert Shiller believes housing prices will continue to decline over the next 5 years? Not to me.

With the still large shadow inventory of foreclosed homes waiting to go on the market, prices can't help but fall. Shiller predicts prices will fall an additional 10 to 25 percent before they stabilize. That's on top of the price decline we've already seen.

U.S. home prices plunged 33 percent in 20 cities through March from their 2006 peak, reaching their lowest level since 2003, according to a Case-Shiller report on May 31. The decline signaled a “double dip” as the index fell below its previous post-housing-bubble low set in April 2009. Prices more than doubled from 2000 to July 2006.

It took six years for prices to double and will take eleven years for prices to fall back to their 2000 level, assuming the economy continues on it's bumpy path along the bottom. And should the housing market recover we can only hope we won't fall into the trap created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with 'easy money' for mortgages on homes the borrowers cannot possibly afford to pay for.

We've seen the value of our home skyrocket by 25% in a year and then roll back until it is worth 16% less than we paid for it. That's a 41% swing in value over a period of 6 years. Others have seen a worse reversal, buying at the peak of the market in 2006 and now seeing their homes being under water, worth considerably less than the mortgage on it.