Unlike so many others, I am not going to dwell long on the impending doom that is Hurricane Irene. All day yesterday we saw people getting ready for the coming deluge, stocking up on all kinds of supplies, from bottled water to cans of Dinty Moore Stew to toilet paper and paper towels. At more than one gas station I saw people filling up multiple gas cans (I must assume for their generators) while I made sure we had gas for the chainsaw (far more important, I believe).
One thing that stood out above all the others: folks pulling their boats out of the water all around Lake Winnipesaukee. The boat ramps and marinas were plenty busy getting them out of the water. I saw quite a few 'lines of water' on the roads surrounding the lake. (These lines are usually water draining from the bilges of boats as they're towed down the road by their owners, assuming they remembered to remove their bilge plugs.) At least that's one thing I didn't have to do as The Boat never made it into the water this year. (The renovations are proceeding and I expect it will be in tip-top shape for next year.)
BeezleBub is helping Farmer Andy get his farm ready for the deluge and winds. Somehow I doubt he'll have to show up for work tomorrow as the farm stand won't likely be open and there's no real place for him to work on the farm machinery where he won't get drenched.
Now I'm going to put aside the keyboard and get back to cleaning up the mess from yesterday's debacle. (See my previous “Head For The Hills!” post.)
8/27/2011
8/26/2011
Head For The Hills! The Dam Is Bust!
For the most part, things went swimmingly today.
Work went well, with a start on a couple of new projects. BeezleBub and I went to the town of Epsom to pick up his new (at least new to him) truck – a used Dodge Dakota 4X4 with less than 80,000 miles on it. Deb had the day off and was able to spend a small portion of it with a friend from work. (She also took care of the weekly grocery shopping, picking up a few extra items in light of the approach of Hurricane Irene such as a set of batteries for each of our portable radios.)
All in all it had been a pretty good day...right up to the point when the ceiling in the dining room of The Manse collapsed, accompanied by the sound of water and the thundering of 8 sets of feline paws scrambling up the stairs to the second floor and to safety.
Apparently one of Deb's favorite ways to relax – sitting in nice hot water in what we call “the whirly tub” - led to the disaster. Though I have not yet confirmed it, it appears one of the pipes or hoses that circulate water in the tub sprung a leak. This in turn led to water leaking onto the bathroom floor and between the ceiling of the first floor and the subflooring of the second floor. Eventually enough water pooled in one place and it weakened the drywall to the point where it finally gave way.
Mopping up gallons of water and clearing away sodden and broken drywall is not what I had planned to do on this Friday evening. But there it is.
So first thing Saturday morning I will be placing a call to our insurance company to make arrangements for an adjuster to come out to The Manse and assess the damage.
It will be interesting explaining to the insurance company how it is we had flooding in our home a good day and a half before Hurricane Irene even arrived.
Work went well, with a start on a couple of new projects. BeezleBub and I went to the town of Epsom to pick up his new (at least new to him) truck – a used Dodge Dakota 4X4 with less than 80,000 miles on it. Deb had the day off and was able to spend a small portion of it with a friend from work. (She also took care of the weekly grocery shopping, picking up a few extra items in light of the approach of Hurricane Irene such as a set of batteries for each of our portable radios.)
All in all it had been a pretty good day...right up to the point when the ceiling in the dining room of The Manse collapsed, accompanied by the sound of water and the thundering of 8 sets of feline paws scrambling up the stairs to the second floor and to safety.
Apparently one of Deb's favorite ways to relax – sitting in nice hot water in what we call “the whirly tub” - led to the disaster. Though I have not yet confirmed it, it appears one of the pipes or hoses that circulate water in the tub sprung a leak. This in turn led to water leaking onto the bathroom floor and between the ceiling of the first floor and the subflooring of the second floor. Eventually enough water pooled in one place and it weakened the drywall to the point where it finally gave way.
Mopping up gallons of water and clearing away sodden and broken drywall is not what I had planned to do on this Friday evening. But there it is.
So first thing Saturday morning I will be placing a call to our insurance company to make arrangements for an adjuster to come out to The Manse and assess the damage.
It will be interesting explaining to the insurance company how it is we had flooding in our home a good day and a half before Hurricane Irene even arrived.
8/25/2011
I'm So Old
When I read this quote in an article about phone technology, television, and how much the Internet has changed everything, I realized I fell well within the age range of the fellow saying this:
It used to be pay phones were on just about every street corner, convenience store, restaurant, most gas stations, hospitals, and hotels. Now you see them rarely, if at all, and then mostly in films and television shows set in the 20th century. The cell phone has supplanted them. (That's not necessarily progress when people are oblivious to the annoyance they create when they use their cell phones in inappropriate places, disturbing everyone else around them because they can not put them away and pay attention to their surroundings and the people they're with.)
Not that I am lamenting the fact that all these things have changed. I am not. Instead I am merely engaging in a bit of nostalgia, significant of nothing.
Sort of.
And to add to that, phones had dials rather than buttons. (How many kids even know how to use a dial phone these days?)
“I'm so old, I can remember when phone calls came on wires and television came over the air.”
It used to be pay phones were on just about every street corner, convenience store, restaurant, most gas stations, hospitals, and hotels. Now you see them rarely, if at all, and then mostly in films and television shows set in the 20th century. The cell phone has supplanted them. (That's not necessarily progress when people are oblivious to the annoyance they create when they use their cell phones in inappropriate places, disturbing everyone else around them because they can not put them away and pay attention to their surroundings and the people they're with.)
Not that I am lamenting the fact that all these things have changed. I am not. Instead I am merely engaging in a bit of nostalgia, significant of nothing.
Sort of.
8/24/2011
Optical Illusion
This is such a cool thing to see, and certainly fools the eye.
There are a number of follow on videos showing other optical illusions, and a few of them show how it was done.
Very cool, indeed!
There are a number of follow on videos showing other optical illusions, and a few of them show how it was done.
Very cool, indeed!
8/23/2011
It's A Long Overdue Tech Tuesday
It's Tuesday, and I have not one, but two tech items to cover today, therefore it must be Tech Tuesday!
First, let's delve into photography.
Have you ever taken a picture and you think it's going to be a good one only to find out that it isn't focused on what you thought it was? Then maybe it's time to use a camera that can focus the image after it's been taken.
...a startup company named Lytro (Mountain View, CA) is launching a new digital camera technology later this year that could change this reality forever: a camera that lets you adjust the focus after you’ve taken the picture.
Lytro founder and CEO Ren Ng is also the inventor of what he calls the Light-Field Camera. Ng’s 2006 PhD thesis dissertation from Stanford University—which won the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2007 Doctoral Dissertation Award—explains how a microlens transforms an ordinary 2D imaging sensor into a 3D world of “living” digital data.1 The user can view a light-field image on a computer screen, click on an object of interest, and watch the image change as that object moves into sharp focus—all without compromising image quality by reducing the aperture size to increase depth of field.
Here's an example of what one might see with this technology. Both images are from the same picture. The only difference is the computer used to view the images changed the focus from the cat in front to the cat in back with a click of a mouse (no pun intended).
If this technology plays out, fuzzy out-of-focus pictures will be a thing of the past.
Second, we must always remember there can be a dark side to technology as well. In this case, technology that gives an owner all kinds of neat function for controlling their car can also allow hackers to take control of your car's electronic systems...by texting.
Not good. I would think OnStar equipped vehicles would also be vulnerable to such hacking as well. One must think of the downsides to some of this technology before employing it, otherwise they may find their neato wizbang new toy has gone missing because someone with an iPad or smart phone hijacked your car's electronic systems and made off with your ride.
Computer hackers can force some cars to unlock their doors and start their engines without a key by sending specially crafted messages to a car's anti-theft system. They can also snoop at where you've been by tapping the car's GPS system.
That is possible because car alarms, GPS systems and other devices are increasingly connected to cellular telephone networks and thus can receive commands through text messaging. That capability allows owners to change settings on devices remotely, but it also gives hackers a way in.
Researchers from iSEC Partners recently demonstrated such an attack on a Subaru Outback equipped with a vulnerable alarm system, which wasn't identified. With a laptop perched on the hood, they sent the Subaru's alarm system commands to unlock the doors and start the engine.
8/21/2011
Thoughts On A Sunday
The search for a new Weekend Pundit Official Main Computer continues. I've narrowed it down to a couple of models, both HP. A check with Consumer Reports will help me finalize which one I'll purchase.
While the new machine will be far and above what it's replacing, it will by no means be leading edge technology. With one addition that will be added aftermarket (a second SATA drive with 500GB capacity), it should require no further tweaks. The new machine will come with Windows 7 Professional (required by my employer's IT department if I want to be able to use their VPN). I will also be installing Linux, hence the second hard drive. (I prefer to have each OS on its own drive, making it easier to reconfigure the machine should one of the drives fail.)
I hope to see the new machine by September 1st.
In the past such a strike would have had major repercussions, but because landlines are now a minor operation compared to Verizon's other ventures, the strike didn't have the impact it would have even ten years ago.
People and a number of small businesses have been abandoning their landlines for cell phones due to the lower costs and portability. Even larger businesses have switched from many of the incumbent telephone companies in favor of their competitors, either other telcos or cable providers.
Under those circumstances is it any wonder the strike created barely a blip in the awareness of the public?
The results shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to the economy or runs a business, with over 66 percent of those surveyed saying “they expect the size of their workforces to either stay the same or decrease over the next year.”
That does not bode well for Obama.
The President has been claiming things are turning around, but the folks he's actually dependent upon to make that happen (whether he realizes it or not) are saying it isn't going to happen unless the President and Congress remove a number of economic disincentives.
Knowing the President's inclinations, the chances of that happening before the 2012 election are somewhere between slim and none.
It is becoming increasingly apparent the Obama Administration really doesn't like the idea of “due process”, “rights of the accused”, and other pesky constitutional protections.
We've heard of more than one case where a college student has been accused of sexual assault, the local police have investigated and found no evidence of such an assault (and in one case, charged an accuser of filing a false report), yet the institution of higher learning still finds the accused guilty, puts them on probation, or worse, expels them.
If such a double standard is not quashed on constitutional grounds. And if you think such actions won't expand outside of college campuses, then you are deluding yourself. “Innocent until proven guilty” will be replaced with “if accused, must be guilty...even if eventually found innocent”.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
By this, I don't mean punish them for looking to reduce their tax and regulatory burdens. Instead, stop punishing them for being successful, stop hitting them with higher taxes, more draconian financial regulations, and more business-unfriendly rules and regulations. All of these things are factors that cause companies to expatriate to friendlier climes. If you make it painful enough for them, then they'll leave at their first opportunity, taking their taxes, their capital, and perhaps lots of jobs with them when they go.
The Left doesn't seem to realize that no business is required to go bankrupt or to stiff their investors just because the Left thinks it's the 'right' thing to do. In fact, it's suicidal for any business to do the right thing, as the Left sees it. Not that I expect the Left to realize that any time soon.
We've known that here at The Manse for some time, seeing as we have 73/4 cats and they all exhibit libertarian traits. They really aren't into the collective action thing.
(H/T BogieBlog)
Between restricted airspace all but shutting down the airport, traffic restrictions, certain portions of the island closed off from the public, and even sections of any of the towns where the President happens to be at any particular time restricted, it's making life a bit more difficult for those visiting or living on the Vineyard.
I know my friends on the island dislike it when the bigwigs show up because it means they usually have to change their work schedules or their plans, both on and off-island.
One thing you could say about Dubya was that when he went on vacation he usually went home to Crawford, which inconvenienced very few people and made it easier for all concerned, including the Secret Service.
As one PJM reader comments, “Heinlein has the same outlook as Ayn Rand, but writes with a little more fun and fantasy.”
What makes Heinlein so engaging is that much of what he wrote, specificallyly his 'wisdom', holds true as much today as it did 60 years ago. I guess that tells us things really haven't changed all that much.
(H/T And So It Goes In Shreveport by way of Pirate's Cove)
While the new machine will be far and above what it's replacing, it will by no means be leading edge technology. With one addition that will be added aftermarket (a second SATA drive with 500GB capacity), it should require no further tweaks. The new machine will come with Windows 7 Professional (required by my employer's IT department if I want to be able to use their VPN). I will also be installing Linux, hence the second hard drive. (I prefer to have each OS on its own drive, making it easier to reconfigure the machine should one of the drives fail.)
I hope to see the new machine by September 1st.
***********
One thing I should mention: I managed to resurrect the present Weekend Pundit Official Main Computer, but it took a lot of work to get it going again. I dare not shut it down for fear that I won't be able to get it going again. I have been making backups of the most recent data stored just to make it easier to move it to the new machine should this one fail again.***********
As I mentioned in this post, the two unions representing workers in Verizon's landline business union have been on strike for the past two weeks. Apparently they've decided it's time to go back to the bargaining table as their strike was not having the effect they'd expected.In the past such a strike would have had major repercussions, but because landlines are now a minor operation compared to Verizon's other ventures, the strike didn't have the impact it would have even ten years ago.
People and a number of small businesses have been abandoning their landlines for cell phones due to the lower costs and portability. Even larger businesses have switched from many of the incumbent telephone companies in favor of their competitors, either other telcos or cable providers.
Under those circumstances is it any wonder the strike created barely a blip in the awareness of the public?
***********
Professor Jacobsen offers us a glimpse into the minds of CEO's by way of a survey conducted by ChiefExecutive.net.The results shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to the economy or runs a business, with over 66 percent of those surveyed saying “they expect the size of their workforces to either stay the same or decrease over the next year.”
That does not bode well for Obama.
The President has been claiming things are turning around, but the folks he's actually dependent upon to make that happen (whether he realizes it or not) are saying it isn't going to happen unless the President and Congress remove a number of economic disincentives.
Knowing the President's inclinations, the chances of that happening before the 2012 election are somewhere between slim and none.
***********
A member of the Obama Administration further weakens the Constitution by requiring colleges and universities to ignore things like evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, double jeopardy, and the right to confront an accuser when it comes to sexual harassment and sexual assault on campuses.It is becoming increasingly apparent the Obama Administration really doesn't like the idea of “due process”, “rights of the accused”, and other pesky constitutional protections.
We've heard of more than one case where a college student has been accused of sexual assault, the local police have investigated and found no evidence of such an assault (and in one case, charged an accuser of filing a false report), yet the institution of higher learning still finds the accused guilty, puts them on probation, or worse, expels them.
If such a double standard is not quashed on constitutional grounds. And if you think such actions won't expand outside of college campuses, then you are deluding yourself. “Innocent until proven guilty” will be replaced with “if accused, must be guilty...even if eventually found innocent”.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
***********
Another lesson the Left should learn if they want to keep American companies here in the US: Don't make it so attractive for those companies to leave for greener pastures in the first place.By this, I don't mean punish them for looking to reduce their tax and regulatory burdens. Instead, stop punishing them for being successful, stop hitting them with higher taxes, more draconian financial regulations, and more business-unfriendly rules and regulations. All of these things are factors that cause companies to expatriate to friendlier climes. If you make it painful enough for them, then they'll leave at their first opportunity, taking their taxes, their capital, and perhaps lots of jobs with them when they go.
The Left doesn't seem to realize that no business is required to go bankrupt or to stiff their investors just because the Left thinks it's the 'right' thing to do. In fact, it's suicidal for any business to do the right thing, as the Left sees it. Not that I expect the Left to realize that any time soon.
***********
It turns out that cats are Republicans and dogs are Democrats.We've known that here at The Manse for some time, seeing as we have 73/4 cats and they all exhibit libertarian traits. They really aren't into the collective action thing.
(H/T BogieBlog)
***********
President Obama's vacation down on the Vineyard is causing problems for island residents, as it usually does when a president decides to vacation on the island. (Here in New England we refer to Martha's Vineyard as The Vineyard. Pretty much everyone here knows what it means.)Between restricted airspace all but shutting down the airport, traffic restrictions, certain portions of the island closed off from the public, and even sections of any of the towns where the President happens to be at any particular time restricted, it's making life a bit more difficult for those visiting or living on the Vineyard.
I know my friends on the island dislike it when the bigwigs show up because it means they usually have to change their work schedules or their plans, both on and off-island.
One thing you could say about Dubya was that when he went on vacation he usually went home to Crawford, which inconvenienced very few people and made it easier for all concerned, including the Secret Service.
***********
It's not only Ayn Rand getting lots of quotes during these economically perilous time in which we find ourselves. Robert Heinlein is also worth repeating. Glenn Reynolds has taken to quoting him quite often.As one PJM reader comments, “Heinlein has the same outlook as Ayn Rand, but writes with a little more fun and fantasy.”
What makes Heinlein so engaging is that much of what he wrote, specificallyly his 'wisdom', holds true as much today as it did 60 years ago. I guess that tells us things really haven't changed all that much.
***********
Sarah Palin may not have announced herself as a candidate for the GOP nomination, but this sure as heck looks like a campaign ad to me.(H/T And So It Goes In Shreveport by way of Pirate's Cove)
***********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where a line of thunderstorms have cooled things off, the annual Timberman Triathlon has had another successful weekend, and where my computer is still broken.8/20/2011
8/19/2011
Suppose They Held A Strike And Nobody Noticed?
While those of us outside Verizon's landline service area wouldn't notice that both the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and CWA (Communications Workers of America) are on strike against the telecommunications behemoth, it appears those within its service area really haven't really noticed either.
I can honestly say I am not surprised. After all, the landline portion of Verizon's business operations has been shrinking for well over a decade, with FiOS (their Fiber To The Home service) being the only portion of their landline services having seen any growth at all in that time, and that growth has tapered off as Verizon has scaled back further deployment.
What makes this strike so under-the-radar is that the unions are fighting for higher pay and benefits in an operation that has been breaking even at best, and losing money in less-than-best cases. Is it any wonder Verizon has been shedding itself of its less profitable landline operations over the past few years? Why else would they have sold their more rural (and money losing) operations to HawaiiTel, FairPoint, and Frontier? (Both HawaiiTel and FairPoint went into Chapter 11 a couple of years after buying those assets. Frontier has already had to seriosuly scale back some of the services Verizon used to offer when they owned the assets Frontier bought. That ought to tell you something.)
Yes, Verizon has posted billions in profits. But those profits came from their wireless and business operations (which are not unionized). How is it the CWA and IBEW figure they're due a portion of those profits? They sure as heck didn't help to create them. They're working in a business that is shrinking, both in the number of customers and profit margin. Do they really think Verizon will knuckle under to the unions when they are becoming an ever shrinking portion of their workforce covering a 100+ year old technology that is quickly being supplanted by other more flexible and less costly technologies? Apparently so.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this contest of wills.
I can honestly say I am not surprised. After all, the landline portion of Verizon's business operations has been shrinking for well over a decade, with FiOS (their Fiber To The Home service) being the only portion of their landline services having seen any growth at all in that time, and that growth has tapered off as Verizon has scaled back further deployment.
What makes this strike so under-the-radar is that the unions are fighting for higher pay and benefits in an operation that has been breaking even at best, and losing money in less-than-best cases. Is it any wonder Verizon has been shedding itself of its less profitable landline operations over the past few years? Why else would they have sold their more rural (and money losing) operations to HawaiiTel, FairPoint, and Frontier? (Both HawaiiTel and FairPoint went into Chapter 11 a couple of years after buying those assets. Frontier has already had to seriosuly scale back some of the services Verizon used to offer when they owned the assets Frontier bought. That ought to tell you something.)
Yes, Verizon has posted billions in profits. But those profits came from their wireless and business operations (which are not unionized). How is it the CWA and IBEW figure they're due a portion of those profits? They sure as heck didn't help to create them. They're working in a business that is shrinking, both in the number of customers and profit margin. Do they really think Verizon will knuckle under to the unions when they are becoming an ever shrinking portion of their workforce covering a 100+ year old technology that is quickly being supplanted by other more flexible and less costly technologies? Apparently so.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this contest of wills.
Don't Know Much About History....
Gee, I wish I could be this eloquent!
Allen West's response to CAIR's demands that he cut all ties with such conservative “anti-Muslim” pundits like Pam Gellar was classic, right out of history. Too bad the Think Progress folks (or at least those commenting at their blog), did not understand either the reference or the meaning of his one-word response.
But then the Left's understanding (or even acknowledgment) of history has always been poor, and too much of what they do know is heavily revisionist, so the fact they couldn't figure out West's response wasn't all that surprising.
Reading the comments to Ann Althouse's post about this shows that more people support his response, particularly to the pro-Islamist group that has, on more than one occasion, given tacit support for Muslim charities in the US who have funneled their funds to Islamic terrorist groups.
Says one commenter at Althouse:
(H/T Instapundit)
Allen West's response to CAIR's demands that he cut all ties with such conservative “anti-Muslim” pundits like Pam Gellar was classic, right out of history. Too bad the Think Progress folks (or at least those commenting at their blog), did not understand either the reference or the meaning of his one-word response.
But then the Left's understanding (or even acknowledgment) of history has always been poor, and too much of what they do know is heavily revisionist, so the fact they couldn't figure out West's response wasn't all that surprising.
Reading the comments to Ann Althouse's post about this shows that more people support his response, particularly to the pro-Islamist group that has, on more than one occasion, given tacit support for Muslim charities in the US who have funneled their funds to Islamic terrorist groups.
Says one commenter at Althouse:
Oh, the horror!
This is just another example of the political media game in which a simple declaration of a position is "bizarre". What is expected of the modern politician is an insidious hedging of opinion in a fog of sophistry. One of the ways in which the media thinks it protects Obama is in ignoring his simple declarations while celebrating his opaque meanderings. The latter, while useless in negotiation, leadership, or self-understanding, seem smart to the smart set.
Of course, as the commenters at the Think Progress make clear, those on the left are happy to express blunt opinions. West is a "Scumbag. Ignoramus. Idiot. Fool. Tool. Clown. Psucho. (sic) Nutjob. Whacko." But their mealy-mouthed leaders keep letting them down. How demoralizing!
And here's this West guy, and Perry, and Palin, and Bachmann, who keep saying blunt, disagreeable things.
(H/T Instapundit)
8/18/2011
"It's Dead, Jim"
I knew it was coming, but hoped the inevitable would hold off for just a little while longer. Today was the day the inevitable happened.
The Official Weekend Pundit Main Computer bit it.
I got home from work, took care a few things in the kitchen, went into the office and turned on the computer.
Nothing happened.
Press the power button again. Nada.
So I opened the side panel of the machine too see if there was anything obvious, like a loose connector or some other loose thing that shouldn't be. Nothing. I saw the 'Power Good' indicator was on, meaning all the power supplies were operating, but the machine wouldn't start. The fans didn't start. The drives didn't spin up. Nothing.
The computer was dead.
It wasn't a surprise as I'd been having problems with it for months. I did the smart thing and backed up all the data files on to DVDs and a spare hard drive just in case. (Since this failure isn't drive related I should be able to pull everything off the main drive and onto another computer. The back ups I made won't have the most recent data on them.)
I can't really complain as this machine has been in constant use for six years. It had a few minor upgrades along the way (A new video card after the first one died. An additional hard drive and second DVD-RW drive. Additional memory.) All in all it did its job with few hiccups.
But it was getting slow. Keeping it up to snuff was taking more time and effort. Storage capacity on the hard drives was dwindling away and would have required a major upgrade. It was probably going to require a complete re-stage (back up all data and reinstall the OS, run all of the OS updates, then reinstall all of the programs). I wasn't looking forward to that at all. And that was on top of all the problems I'd started seeing some time last winter.
And now it's dead.
So it looks like I'll be shopping for a new machine starting first thing tomorrow.
Posting may be a little spotty until I get the new machine as there will be three of us sharing the same computer for the time being.
8/17/2011
The Neverending Campaign
What is it about President Obama that he cannot stop campaigning? You would think that once he won the election in 2008 that he would be able to switch from campaign mode to governing mode, but no, it appears he was never able to make that transition.
Maybe it's because all he's done since he ran for office in Illinois is campaign, starting at the state level and working his way all the to the White House. He's been in the office of the highest elected official in the country, the pinnacle of any political career, and he can't stop campaigning.
From the day of his inauguration all his speeches have sounded more like stump speeches rather than Presidential speeches.
The very first speech he gave as President – his inaugural speech – sounded like a campaign speech, slamming his predecessor for 'everything that had gone wrong'. Never mind that no newly inaugurated president has ever done that before, particularly when his predecessor was standing nearby.
His State of the Union addresses have been anything but, being more about him and what he was going to do rather than being about he state of our nation. (His first SOTU speech used the word “I” 96 times and “me” 8 times. George Bush's last SOTU speech used “I” 39 times and “me” 2 times.) It was yet another campaign speech, meaningless noise quickly forgotten.
Now he's out on the stump again, this time in a $1 million+ tour bus (built in Canada), telling us yet again what he's going to to. Not that he's telling anyone how he'll do what he's promised (he never does), but he'll place the blame on the GOP for his failures, past, present, and future. It's interesting that he blames the GOP for his failures in 2009 ans 2010 even though for both of those years he had a solid Democrat majority in both the House and the Senate. His failures are his and his alone because he's incapable of leading.
He has not shown one iota of leadership, leaving all the heavy lifting to Congress, his czars, and his advisers. He has not presented an acceptable budget since he took office. He let Nancy and Harry put together that odious piece of legislation known derisively as ObamaCare and signed the bill even though it would do nothing more than destroy one of the greatest health care systems in the world, all in the name of “fairness”. (One has to wonder what the word actually means to Obama, because I doubt it means the same thing to him and his progressive cronies as it does to the other 300 million+ Americans.)
And so the Neverending Campaign continues.
Maybe it's because all he's done since he ran for office in Illinois is campaign, starting at the state level and working his way all the to the White House. He's been in the office of the highest elected official in the country, the pinnacle of any political career, and he can't stop campaigning.
From the day of his inauguration all his speeches have sounded more like stump speeches rather than Presidential speeches.
The very first speech he gave as President – his inaugural speech – sounded like a campaign speech, slamming his predecessor for 'everything that had gone wrong'. Never mind that no newly inaugurated president has ever done that before, particularly when his predecessor was standing nearby.
His State of the Union addresses have been anything but, being more about him and what he was going to do rather than being about he state of our nation. (His first SOTU speech used the word “I” 96 times and “me” 8 times. George Bush's last SOTU speech used “I” 39 times and “me” 2 times.) It was yet another campaign speech, meaningless noise quickly forgotten.
Now he's out on the stump again, this time in a $1 million+ tour bus (built in Canada), telling us yet again what he's going to to. Not that he's telling anyone how he'll do what he's promised (he never does), but he'll place the blame on the GOP for his failures, past, present, and future. It's interesting that he blames the GOP for his failures in 2009 ans 2010 even though for both of those years he had a solid Democrat majority in both the House and the Senate. His failures are his and his alone because he's incapable of leading.
He has not shown one iota of leadership, leaving all the heavy lifting to Congress, his czars, and his advisers. He has not presented an acceptable budget since he took office. He let Nancy and Harry put together that odious piece of legislation known derisively as ObamaCare and signed the bill even though it would do nothing more than destroy one of the greatest health care systems in the world, all in the name of “fairness”. (One has to wonder what the word actually means to Obama, because I doubt it means the same thing to him and his progressive cronies as it does to the other 300 million+ Americans.)
And so the Neverending Campaign continues.
8/16/2011
Unintended Consequences And Stupidity - California Edition
I guess we can call this yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, something the Left seems to be very good at overlooking.
We've been reading about the effects of California's so-called “Amazon Tax”, which was supposed to force Amazon to collect California sales tax for all sales made to customers in the state because of its presence by way of its affiliates program. The Golden State expected to collect millions in extra revenues, but no surprise to those of us well versed in unintended consequences, they've collected very little.
Why?
Because Amazon shut down its affiliates program in California, denying the state any extra sales tax revenues. But there's a secondary effect the legislators didn't foresee that will further decrease tax revenues: loss of income taxes from the affiliates.
Since the now former affiliates are no longer paid a commission from sales made through their links, they no longer generate the income taxes that would have been paid into the state coffers in Sacramento.
Talk about a twofer: no sales tax revenues and even less income tax revenues.
Maybe the pols in Sacramento were expecting Amazon to go to court to block implementation, but leave its affiliates program intact. Instead, Amazon said “Enough!” and pulled the plug, leaving California even worse off than they were before this idiot tax.
But wait! There's more!
Now California wants to pass a “fitted sheet” law that would make it illegal for hotels to not use fitted sheets on their beds. How effin' dumb is that?
It's no wonder California is doomed. All the really smart people have already left, taking their money and their businesses with them.
We've been reading about the effects of California's so-called “Amazon Tax”, which was supposed to force Amazon to collect California sales tax for all sales made to customers in the state because of its presence by way of its affiliates program. The Golden State expected to collect millions in extra revenues, but no surprise to those of us well versed in unintended consequences, they've collected very little.
Why?
Because Amazon shut down its affiliates program in California, denying the state any extra sales tax revenues. But there's a secondary effect the legislators didn't foresee that will further decrease tax revenues: loss of income taxes from the affiliates.
Since the now former affiliates are no longer paid a commission from sales made through their links, they no longer generate the income taxes that would have been paid into the state coffers in Sacramento.
Talk about a twofer: no sales tax revenues and even less income tax revenues.
Maybe the pols in Sacramento were expecting Amazon to go to court to block implementation, but leave its affiliates program intact. Instead, Amazon said “Enough!” and pulled the plug, leaving California even worse off than they were before this idiot tax.
But wait! There's more!
Now California wants to pass a “fitted sheet” law that would make it illegal for hotels to not use fitted sheets on their beds. How effin' dumb is that?
It's no wonder California is doomed. All the really smart people have already left, taking their money and their businesses with them.
8/14/2011
Thoughts On A Sunday
It's been another beautiful weekend here at Lake Winnipesaukee, though showers and thundershowers threaten to make their appearance towards the end of the day today.
While nothing fascinating has been going on here at The Manse, there appears to be plenty going on elsewhere in the world. Let's take a look, shall we?
To borrow a phrase from many of my schoolboy friends, “What a putz!”
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
Big Brother has decided to apply CAFE standards to big rigs (meaning tractor trailers) as if they were just like cars and light trucks. The only problem? Big rigs are nothing like cars and light trucks. The proposed standard as stated my be totally meaningless.
While cars and light trucks can have standards set as straightforward Miles Per Gallon, how does one rate the big rigs? After all, the big rigs haul cargo and the amount of weight they haul can change from trip to trip. Should it be stated as how many tons of weight can be moved a mile using a gallon of fuel, or some other measure? Do they base it on total vehicular weight, with the weight of the tractor and fully loaded trailer being factored in? Or is it by the weight of the tractor alone?
One of the arguments brought up in the comments is that the freight hauling companies, large and small, are always looking for ways to reduce the amount of fuel used to run their trucks. After all, fuel is probably their biggest expenditure and any way they can reduce fuel consumption reduces their costs (and ours). Big rigs have a different use and they can be made only so light before they can no longer do their jobs (meaning they can't haul as much cargo and more trucks will be needed to haul the same amount of cargo) or the maintenance costs start skyrocketing because they aren't as durable.
Even if a manufacturer can figure out a way drastically reduce fuel consumption, will the costs for the new more fuel-efficient tractors price them right out of the market? Who will spend $500,000 for such a tractor when it will be cheaper to buy and maintain a $100,000 tractor and pay for the extra fuel it will use?
No one.
As one commenter put it, “The left loves political violence when they’re the ones committing it.” Yeah, I've noticed that. And yet they'll complain when someone they've attacked has the audacity to defend themselves.
Sure, they picked up two state senate seats, but that wasn't enough to give them a majority. With a second recall election coming up, this time for the so-called “Fleebagger” Democrat senators who, rather than staying to vote on Governor Walker's budget reform bill, fled the state to deny the Senate a quorum, they could easily lose the two seats they gained, and more.
On the national level things like Obamacare handed the US House to the Republicans.
All in all, it looks like the Leftists are running out of places to push their agenda of envy and class warfare.
But what's interesting are some of the e-mail Glenn received about the out-migration from California, and the problems that might come to Texas and Nevada because of it. As one reader e-mailed:
I like Sarah Palin. I really do. But I wasn't sure she should throw her hat into the ring. After reading Dan's piece, I've changed my mind. In fact, I think a Palin-Bachmann or Bachmann-Palin ticket might be unbeatable, particularly if President Planless continues along being a leader incapable of doing anything more than holding pressers and blaming everybody but himself for his failures.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
Now if we can only get John Kerry to read and understand the US Constitution, particularly the First Amendment.
While nothing fascinating has been going on here at The Manse, there appears to be plenty going on elsewhere in the world. Let's take a look, shall we?
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I have to start with this bit of 'wisdom' from that fount of Leftist philosphy, wit, and revisionist history, Noam Chomsky. Only in his twisted mind can the support of Israel by American conservative Christians mean that they want the Jews to be exterminated.To borrow a phrase from many of my schoolboy friends, “What a putz!”
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Although Instapundit linked this a couple of days ago, I had to do so here along with my own brief comments.Big Brother has decided to apply CAFE standards to big rigs (meaning tractor trailers) as if they were just like cars and light trucks. The only problem? Big rigs are nothing like cars and light trucks. The proposed standard as stated my be totally meaningless.
While cars and light trucks can have standards set as straightforward Miles Per Gallon, how does one rate the big rigs? After all, the big rigs haul cargo and the amount of weight they haul can change from trip to trip. Should it be stated as how many tons of weight can be moved a mile using a gallon of fuel, or some other measure? Do they base it on total vehicular weight, with the weight of the tractor and fully loaded trailer being factored in? Or is it by the weight of the tractor alone?
One of the arguments brought up in the comments is that the freight hauling companies, large and small, are always looking for ways to reduce the amount of fuel used to run their trucks. After all, fuel is probably their biggest expenditure and any way they can reduce fuel consumption reduces their costs (and ours). Big rigs have a different use and they can be made only so light before they can no longer do their jobs (meaning they can't haul as much cargo and more trucks will be needed to haul the same amount of cargo) or the maintenance costs start skyrocketing because they aren't as durable.
Even if a manufacturer can figure out a way drastically reduce fuel consumption, will the costs for the new more fuel-efficient tractors price them right out of the market? Who will spend $500,000 for such a tractor when it will be cheaper to buy and maintain a $100,000 tractor and pay for the extra fuel it will use?
No one.
***********
Ann Althouse was attacked by a protester in Madison, Wisconsin. Fortunately the attack was caught by two different cameras, including Ann's.As one commenter put it, “The left loves political violence when they’re the ones committing it.” Yeah, I've noticed that. And yet they'll complain when someone they've attacked has the audacity to defend themselves.
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Ann's experiences also make this more illustrative of the problems of the Leftists, where the Democrats spent tens of millions of dollars on the first round of recall elections in Wisconsin and got nothing in return.Sure, they picked up two state senate seats, but that wasn't enough to give them a majority. With a second recall election coming up, this time for the so-called “Fleebagger” Democrat senators who, rather than staying to vote on Governor Walker's budget reform bill, fled the state to deny the Senate a quorum, they could easily lose the two seats they gained, and more.
On the national level things like Obamacare handed the US House to the Republicans.
All in all, it looks like the Leftists are running out of places to push their agenda of envy and class warfare.
***********
Glenn Reynolds links to a Jerry Pournelle post about how Republicans can be the ones to fix the problems created in Washington, and adds a couple ideas of his own, including repealing Sarbanes-Oxley.But what's interesting are some of the e-mail Glenn received about the out-migration from California, and the problems that might come to Texas and Nevada because of it. As one reader e-mailed:
We saw a similar problem here in New Hampshire when Massachusetts tax-exiles started moving here back in the 80's and 90's. They thought the low taxes (no state income or sales tax) were great, but they disliked the lack of services they were used to seeing back in Massachusetts. When they managed to get some of those services in their new home towns, they then complained their property taxes went up. They couldn't seem to make the connection between services provided and the cost of providing them. It was then that many of those same people started calling for a statewide income or sales tax to pay for it all, recreating exactly the same conditions from which they'd fled. Fortunately for the rest of us they were ignored and eventually they accepted (for the most part) the fact that if they wanted those services, then they would have to pay for them themselves.
I moved to Nevada 23 years ago, not from California, and we’ve seen a massive influx of former Golden State residents during that time. Californians are infamous for exporting their problems with them.
Far too many California refugees make no connection between the conditions that caused them to leave and the policies that created those conditions. They complain about the high cost of living in their former state then demand the same level of regulatory controls, government “services” and tax burden in their new home.
Nevada has gone from a relative bastion of libertarianism to a state with an increasingly stifling regulatory morass, a glacial bureaucracy and an ever-intrusive nanny state.
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Dan Riehl believes Sarah Palin should run for president.I like Sarah Palin. I really do. But I wasn't sure she should throw her hat into the ring. After reading Dan's piece, I've changed my mind. In fact, I think a Palin-Bachmann or Bachmann-Palin ticket might be unbeatable, particularly if President Planless continues along being a leader incapable of doing anything more than holding pressers and blaming everybody but himself for his failures.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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David Starr has a simple explanation of what the Tea Party is for those out there who still think we're a bunch of right wing bible-thumping terrorists.Now if we can only get John Kerry to read and understand the US Constitution, particularly the First Amendment.
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is flying by, the summerfolk are making the best of it, and where most of us have to go back to work tomorrow.8/13/2011
"Obama, Pay Your Bill!"
Since this seems to be “Video Saturday”, I figured I'd add this one by Felonious Monk. Felonious addresses the debt crisis and tells Barack Obama to get off his butt and “pay your f***in' bill!”.
WARNING! Felonious uses rather...umm...colorful language, so if you have any small children around I would suggest asking them to leave or to wait until they've gone off to bed this evening.
WARNING! Felonious uses rather...umm...colorful language, so if you have any small children around I would suggest asking them to leave or to wait until they've gone off to bed this evening.
The Riots In Britain - Pat Condell's Take
A follow on to yesterday's cartoon rant about the riots in England is this video rant by one of my favorite Brits, Pat Condell. For those of you who have never seen any of his video pieces I must warn you that he does not pull any punches and calls it exactly like he sees it.
8/12/2011
It's Not Because Of Social Injustice....
I think this cartoon illustrates the thinking of those rioting in the UK all too well.
For more head to Spider and Scorpion.
For more head to Spider and Scorpion.
8/11/2011
A Non-Apology Apology - And A Lesson In Economics
One of the things said about blogging is that bloggers shouldn't apologize for not blogging. Normally I would agree with that, but not this time.
It isn't that I haven't had anything to write about (quite the contrary). It isn't that I've lost interest (I haven't). It's merely that life has intruded, leaving me with far less time to write anything worthwhile.
Over the past couple of weeks or so I have been getting home late, usually from some kind of meeting of a town committee or board, though once because I had to make an unexpected trip to the WP In-Laws to pick up BeezleBub and we didn't get back until 10:30PM. At that point I was just too darned tired to do anything but go to bed.
It's been these little things that have contributed to my lack of posting anything inciteful, witty, or outright offensive (at least offensive to the Left). I've resorted to borrowing heavily from humorous e-mails or Facebook postings to make sure this blog stays active. I'm going to have to do that one more time as I had yet another late evening. But at least this is educational in that it makes our nations' fiscal problem a little easier to understand.
Received via e-mail:
The irony of this? I received this by way of the very liberal parent of a friend of mine. It's a shame she hasn't been able to integrate this little bit of education into her view.
It isn't that I haven't had anything to write about (quite the contrary). It isn't that I've lost interest (I haven't). It's merely that life has intruded, leaving me with far less time to write anything worthwhile.
Over the past couple of weeks or so I have been getting home late, usually from some kind of meeting of a town committee or board, though once because I had to make an unexpected trip to the WP In-Laws to pick up BeezleBub and we didn't get back until 10:30PM. At that point I was just too darned tired to do anything but go to bed.
It's been these little things that have contributed to my lack of posting anything inciteful, witty, or outright offensive (at least offensive to the Left). I've resorted to borrowing heavily from humorous e-mails or Facebook postings to make sure this blog stays active. I'm going to have to do that one more time as I had yet another late evening. But at least this is educational in that it makes our nations' fiscal problem a little easier to understand.
Received via e-mail:
Yup. I'd say the above pretty much explains it in terms we can all understand.Federal Budget 101
The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.
U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)
So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending?
Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from the budget: $385
It is a start, although hardly a solution.
Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt).
You would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress.
The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state.
To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders.
It is awfully hard (but not impossible) to reverse course and tell the government to stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now.
In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money. Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab.
The irony of this? I received this by way of the very liberal parent of a friend of mine. It's a shame she hasn't been able to integrate this little bit of education into her view.
8/09/2011
A Bit Of Humor
This bit of humor came from the comment section of this WSJ opinion piece.
It may not be relevant, but it is funny. At least it is to me.
It may not be relevant, but it is funny. At least it is to me.
I might have asked for a diet Dr. Pepper.....
A Progressive, a radical Muslim, and a Libertarian disturb an old oil lamp and a magnificent genie appears. The genie, thankful for his release, addresses the trio, "Thank you. To show my gratitude, I shall grant each of you a wish.”
The Progressive pushes himself to the front and says, "I would like all of my progressive brothers and sisters to be whisked away from this barbaric county and placed into a beautiful Utopia where the government will cause everyone to live correct and happy lives!"
The genie exclaims, “Shazzam, Socialist Utopia!” and the Progressive disappears.
This excites the radical Muslim who then quickly blurts out his wish. "I would like all my brothers that believe in the one and true God to be whisked away from this barbaric country to a beautiful oasis where Allah and Sharia law will cause everyone to live correct and happy lives!”
The genie exclaims, “Shazzam, Sharia!” and the radical Muslim disappears.
The Libertarian smiles but makes no request.
The genie, having people to see and places to go, queries the Libertarian, "So, what wish may I grant you?"
"You really granted their wishes – all of the Progressives and radical Muslims are gone?" asks the Libertarian.
"Yes." replies the genie.
"Wow," says the Libertarian, "Then I'll just have a Coke."
Small Business CEO Rant
This rant by a small business CEO tells it like it is, something the folks inside the Beltway no longer seem to understand. Do they really think “incentives” to hire will induce business to hire anyone? Businesses hire only when they need more people, not because the government provides some kind of lame incentive to do so.
If the government really wants to give businesses an incentive to hire, then maybe it should get the hell out of the way. Maybe government should stop sucking so much money out of the economy that there's less available to invest or to buy goods and services that create the demand for more jobs. Maybe rogue government agencies should be reined in before they do irreparable damage to the businesses that actually create the jobs.
If the government really wants to give businesses an incentive to hire, then maybe it should get the hell out of the way. Maybe government should stop sucking so much money out of the economy that there's less available to invest or to buy goods and services that create the demand for more jobs. Maybe rogue government agencies should be reined in before they do irreparable damage to the businesses that actually create the jobs.
8/07/2011
Thoughts On A Sunday
It's been one of those fifty-fifty weekends, with half the weather being nice and the other half not so nice.
We're not complaining.
While the not-so-nice weather can sometimes complicate BeezleBub's job on the farm, it gives Deb and I some respite and allows us to take care of things inside The Manse.
From what I can see it isn't S&P with the math problem, but the White House and Congressional 'Spend-Every-Dime-We-Have-And-Then-Some' representatives and senators who believe that tripling and quadrupling down on already unsustainable deficits would somehow solve the overspending problem. (Standard & Poor's does not consider Washington's problem to be a revenue problem, but purely a spending problem.)
We've been given the warning. Now it's time to see if our leadership will take the warning to heart and actually stop spending money we don't have and start paying back what money we've already borrowed.
Even more poignant – the Chinese are telling us we've got to cut back on our deficit spending.
Never mind that how someone feels about a particular issue is less important that what someone thinks about it. Basing political decisions upon one's feelings is almost always a disaster as far too often the Law of Unintended Consequences takes over and creates far bigger problems than the ones supposedly being fixed by 'feel-good' legislation.
I don't know how many times I've had to tell someone with whom I've been having a (heated) political discussion “I don't care how you feel about XYZ. I want to what you think about it!” On too many occasions their retort was “What's the difference? They're the same thing.”
No, they're not.
Of course we can expect the enviro-cultists to decry this advance as yet another way to kill the planet.
If the problem is out of control spending, then raising taxes won't solve the problem. All it will do is delay the inevitable. Maybe.
When asked about the possibility of a double-dip recession, one insightful trader said something along the lines of “We never got out of the last one. This is just the next chapter of the same one.”
We're not complaining.
While the not-so-nice weather can sometimes complicate BeezleBub's job on the farm, it gives Deb and I some respite and allows us to take care of things inside The Manse.
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The fallout from the debt ceiling and credit rating debacle is increasing. With Standard & Poor's dropping the US rating from AAA to AA+ and Moody's giving a warning to Washington about its spendthrift ways and failure to deal with overspending problem (though maintaining the AAA rating...for now), what does the White House do? It blames S&P for using poor math.From what I can see it isn't S&P with the math problem, but the White House and Congressional 'Spend-Every-Dime-We-Have-And-Then-Some' representatives and senators who believe that tripling and quadrupling down on already unsustainable deficits would somehow solve the overspending problem. (Standard & Poor's does not consider Washington's problem to be a revenue problem, but purely a spending problem.)
We've been given the warning. Now it's time to see if our leadership will take the warning to heart and actually stop spending money we don't have and start paying back what money we've already borrowed.
Even more poignant – the Chinese are telling us we've got to cut back on our deficit spending.
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Shifting gears, a conversation I had yesterday reminded me of the one seemingly overriding belief that drives far too many of our left-leaning politicians, their supporters, and their actions: feelings.Never mind that how someone feels about a particular issue is less important that what someone thinks about it. Basing political decisions upon one's feelings is almost always a disaster as far too often the Law of Unintended Consequences takes over and creates far bigger problems than the ones supposedly being fixed by 'feel-good' legislation.
I don't know how many times I've had to tell someone with whom I've been having a (heated) political discussion “I don't care how you feel about XYZ. I want to what you think about it!” On too many occasions their retort was “What's the difference? They're the same thing.”
No, they're not.
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Another great Dennis Miller rant.***********
In line with Dennis Miller's rant, sometimes technology triumphs touchie-feelie environmentalism, in this case with a new process that increases the yield from Canada's oil sands while reducing the pollution generated by 85%.Of course we can expect the enviro-cultists to decry this advance as yet another way to kill the planet.
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Though I've seen this one before, Bogie relates an updated version of the Ant and Grasshopper fable.***********
I can't seem to get away from this topic today, but I thought it was interesting that David Axelrod laid all the blame for S&P's downgrade of America's credit solely at the feet of the Tea Party. But what do you expect from a Democrat spin doctor? Instead, the downgrade proves the Tea Party was right.***********
As Cap'n Teach tells us, the “Washington Post is writing about the GOP anti-tax orthodoxy as if it's a bad thing.”If the problem is out of control spending, then raising taxes won't solve the problem. All it will do is delay the inevitable. Maybe.
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I wish I could remember where I saw the news report, but one thing a number of stock market traders and brokers said that stood out about the drop in the stock market last week had nothing to do with the debt ceiling crisis and its resolution. What spooked the market was Washington's refusal to deal with the problems facing the economy, such as the huge (and climbing) deficit, the lack of an actual federal budget (over 830 days and counting), and the President's unwillingness to bite the bullet and actually lead. Talking about the problem is not the same as actually doing something about it, something the President has failed to realize.When asked about the possibility of a double-dip recession, one insightful trader said something along the lines of “We never got out of the last one. This is just the next chapter of the same one.”
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where gas prices are edging up, consumer spending is edging down, and where we're buying next winter's fire wood right now.8/05/2011
Debt Limit Increase Not Having The Desired Effect
After all the dire predictions 'they' made about what would happen if Congress didn't raise the debt limit, it turns out they were wrong.
The President got his debt limit increase, but the stock market and at least one financial institution – Standard & Poor's – apparently didn't see it as a solution, and rightfully so. The stock market headed downwards, wiping out a year's worth of gains. Standard & Poor's is still threatening to drop the government's credit rating from AAA to AA or AA+ because of the government's continuing spendthrift ways.
The increase in the debt limit didn't solve the problem we're facing. It merely delayed the inevitable. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee offered an analogy that illustrated the problem perfectly.
The President got his debt limit increase, but the stock market and at least one financial institution – Standard & Poor's – apparently didn't see it as a solution, and rightfully so. The stock market headed downwards, wiping out a year's worth of gains. Standard & Poor's is still threatening to drop the government's credit rating from AAA to AA or AA+ because of the government's continuing spendthrift ways.
The increase in the debt limit didn't solve the problem we're facing. It merely delayed the inevitable. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee offered an analogy that illustrated the problem perfectly.
I'd say he nailed it.
Raising the debt limit solves the government's spending problem like raising the maximum legal blood alcohol content will solve the drunk driving problem.
8/04/2011
Tea Party - Target Of Hatred
Over the past year and a half I've listened to a large number of people disparaging the Tea party movement. Most of them have been card-carrying Democrats (or at least those with the belief they know how to spend my money better than I do). Others have been RINOs or part of the so-called “Establishment” Republicans.
The Tea party has been excoriated in the press, with the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a number of other media organs of the Left leading the way. Washington politicians and other Beltway insiders have derided the Tea party as “hobbits”, “terrorists”, “Nazis”, “racists”, “jack-booted thugs”, and a whole host of other derogatory labels.
As the volume of hateful rhetoric aimed at the Tea party and its supporters has increased, it has made me and others realize that the groups making these accusations must be really getting nervous. As one commenter to this piece wrote, “If you're getting a lot of [flak], you must be over the target.” And so it must be as the Tea party gains supporters throughout the country at a local, state, and national level because they're tired of being ignored by the Coastal elite and the Beltway intellectuals.
My most memorable run in with an unabashed Tea party hater took place at our business when one of our customers went on a rant about “those goddamn Tea partiers wanting to take everything away from us!” There was no way I could not respond, so I asked her where she'd gotten that idea. Apparently she'd read it in the paper, in this case the Boston Globe. (One must remember, the Globe is owned by the NYT and has the same editorial policies as its parent corporation.) I calmly informed her that if her opinion was based solely on what she'd read in the Globe, then she'd been misinformed and lied to. She saw the Tea party as a bunch of religious fundamentalists bent on depriving the poor, doing away with Social Security and Medicare, and undoing decades of civil rights advances. I had to remind her that many of the civil rights advances came from the GOP, not her sainted Democrats. I reminded her the KKK were primarily Southern Democrats, not Republicans. I reminded her it was the Democrats who started us down this path of unsustainable spending going all the way back to FDR. I reminded her that it was LBJ who decided his Great Society was the answer to all of our society's problems, that it had failed miserably, and that it was funded by stealing from the Social Security trust fund.. I reminder her it was the Democrat majorities in Congress going back to 2007 that multiplied the annual deficits to many times that of all of Dubya's deficits combined.
I gave her the URL for the Contract From America website which explains the Tea party platform, none of which deals with social issues she claims the Tea party is involved with. She wasn't interested. Instead she chose willful ignorance and adherence to libelous propaganda from those who do not have her best interests at heart.
Maybe she will care when the country is unable to pay its bills and all of the government support she is 'owed' ends because there's no money left to pay for it all. Maybe she will care when all “the rich” she's constantly complaining about are either driven into bankruptcy or flee with their wealth to friendly climes and no one is left to pay for everything she is owed.
But I'm not holding my breath.
UPDATE: It appears Senator John Kerry has decided to add fuel to the fire by expressing his opinion that the media should not give equal time to those "absolutely absurd notions" voiced by the Tea Party because their opinions "are not factual."
What a putz.
The Tea party has been excoriated in the press, with the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a number of other media organs of the Left leading the way. Washington politicians and other Beltway insiders have derided the Tea party as “hobbits”, “terrorists”, “Nazis”, “racists”, “jack-booted thugs”, and a whole host of other derogatory labels.
As the volume of hateful rhetoric aimed at the Tea party and its supporters has increased, it has made me and others realize that the groups making these accusations must be really getting nervous. As one commenter to this piece wrote, “If you're getting a lot of [flak], you must be over the target.” And so it must be as the Tea party gains supporters throughout the country at a local, state, and national level because they're tired of being ignored by the Coastal elite and the Beltway intellectuals.
My most memorable run in with an unabashed Tea party hater took place at our business when one of our customers went on a rant about “those goddamn Tea partiers wanting to take everything away from us!” There was no way I could not respond, so I asked her where she'd gotten that idea. Apparently she'd read it in the paper, in this case the Boston Globe. (One must remember, the Globe is owned by the NYT and has the same editorial policies as its parent corporation.) I calmly informed her that if her opinion was based solely on what she'd read in the Globe, then she'd been misinformed and lied to. She saw the Tea party as a bunch of religious fundamentalists bent on depriving the poor, doing away with Social Security and Medicare, and undoing decades of civil rights advances. I had to remind her that many of the civil rights advances came from the GOP, not her sainted Democrats. I reminded her the KKK were primarily Southern Democrats, not Republicans. I reminded her it was the Democrats who started us down this path of unsustainable spending going all the way back to FDR. I reminded her that it was LBJ who decided his Great Society was the answer to all of our society's problems, that it had failed miserably, and that it was funded by stealing from the Social Security trust fund.. I reminder her it was the Democrat majorities in Congress going back to 2007 that multiplied the annual deficits to many times that of all of Dubya's deficits combined.
I gave her the URL for the Contract From America website which explains the Tea party platform, none of which deals with social issues she claims the Tea party is involved with. She wasn't interested. Instead she chose willful ignorance and adherence to libelous propaganda from those who do not have her best interests at heart.
Maybe she will care when the country is unable to pay its bills and all of the government support she is 'owed' ends because there's no money left to pay for it all. Maybe she will care when all “the rich” she's constantly complaining about are either driven into bankruptcy or flee with their wealth to friendly climes and no one is left to pay for everything she is owed.
But I'm not holding my breath.
UPDATE: It appears Senator John Kerry has decided to add fuel to the fire by expressing his opinion that the media should not give equal time to those "absolutely absurd notions" voiced by the Tea Party because their opinions "are not factual."
What a putz.
8/03/2011
The Economy Is Not Getting Better
Another sign the economy is still bad and not getting any better?
Casinos have been replacing their 25¢ video slot machines with penny slots.
It's so bad that even the tooth fairy has had to cut back on pay outs.
Casinos have been replacing their 25¢ video slot machines with penny slots.
It's so bad that even the tooth fairy has had to cut back on pay outs.
8/02/2011
8/01/2011
Randian Prophecy?
It's no secret I'm a fan of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In both I've seen far too many parallels to what's been happening in our country, particularly since 2007.
The seeds for our self-destruction were laid a long time ago and now, in some places, are bearing fruit. All one needs to do is look at the state of Illinois and the city of Detroit. Both illustrate exactly what Rand wrote about over 50 years ago.
As Dan Mitchell explains, plans for a number of Detroit neighborhoods outlined in a CNBC report sounded familiar.
When I reread Atlas Shrugged a couple of years ago, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. Everything Rand had created in her novel was happening at that moment. (I have to admit I had little appreciation for the book when I read it the first time over 35 years ago. I guess history gives one a little more perspective.) Many of our present day “betters” are characters right out of the novel. What makes matters worse is that their ignorance of how the economy works is not so much a lack of exposure to it so much as willful ignorance on their part. They don't want to know how things work in the real world because they know better how to remake things into their version of utopia. Too bad they're wrong because their version of utopia is hell on earth for everyone else.
As mentioned earlier, all we have to do is look to Detroit to see how well that's all worked out. There are plenty of other examples of this just in the US alone, like Newark and Jersey City in New Jersey, and Gary, Indiana. If you need larger examples then states like Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and California should suffice. All are suffering under decades of enlightened rule by our betters (though New Jersey has a glimmer of hope in the form of Governor Chris Christie). If that isn't enough for you then look to Greece and Portugal to see how things have worked out there.
We see example after example after example of how our supposed “betters” are no such thing, being no better than what Rand called “looters” in Atlas Shrugged, for that's what they are.
The seeds for our self-destruction were laid a long time ago and now, in some places, are bearing fruit. All one needs to do is look at the state of Illinois and the city of Detroit. Both illustrate exactly what Rand wrote about over 50 years ago.
As Dan Mitchell explains, plans for a number of Detroit neighborhoods outlined in a CNBC report sounded familiar.
But there was also something about this story that rang a bell. It took a few minutes, since I’m getting old and decrepit, but then I realized that “blighted areas” was an eerily familiar term. Didn’t Ayn Rand use that term in one of her books?
Indeed, she did. Thanks to the miracle of Google Books, here is one of several passages in Atlas Shrugged that references Detroit—oops, I mean “blighted areas”:Fifty years ago, the book was viewed as a dystopian fantasy. Today, Greece, Illinois, and Detroit are making Ayn Rand seem like a prophet.
No railroad was mentioned by name in the speeches that preceded the voting. The speeches dealt only with the public welfare. It was said that while the public welfare was threatened by shortages of transportation, railroads were destroying each other through vicious competition, on “the brutal policy of dog-eat-dog.” While there existed blighted areas where rail service had been discontinued, there existed at the same time large regions where two or more railroads were competing for a traffic barely sufficient for one. It was said that there were great opportunities for younger railroads in the blighted areas. While it was true that such areas offered little economic incentive at present, a public-spirited railroad, it was said, would undertake to provide transportation for the struggling inhabitants, since the prime purpose of a railroad was public service, not profit.
When I reread Atlas Shrugged a couple of years ago, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. Everything Rand had created in her novel was happening at that moment. (I have to admit I had little appreciation for the book when I read it the first time over 35 years ago. I guess history gives one a little more perspective.) Many of our present day “betters” are characters right out of the novel. What makes matters worse is that their ignorance of how the economy works is not so much a lack of exposure to it so much as willful ignorance on their part. They don't want to know how things work in the real world because they know better how to remake things into their version of utopia. Too bad they're wrong because their version of utopia is hell on earth for everyone else.
As mentioned earlier, all we have to do is look to Detroit to see how well that's all worked out. There are plenty of other examples of this just in the US alone, like Newark and Jersey City in New Jersey, and Gary, Indiana. If you need larger examples then states like Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and California should suffice. All are suffering under decades of enlightened rule by our betters (though New Jersey has a glimmer of hope in the form of Governor Chris Christie). If that isn't enough for you then look to Greece and Portugal to see how things have worked out there.
We see example after example after example of how our supposed “betters” are no such thing, being no better than what Rand called “looters” in Atlas Shrugged, for that's what they are.
7/31/2011
Thoughts On A Sunday
The weather has been gorgeous here at Lake Winnipesaukee – sunny, warm, though a bit breezy on Saturday. (You could see whitecaps out on the lake all day.)
BeezleBub spent the weekend working at the farm, as he usually does. But now he's enjoying it even more as he's been given new duties and responsibilities, meaning he'll be spending more time running one of the many tractors and their various agricultural equipment attachments and less time performing stoop labor (picking vegetables or weeding).
My weekend duties including opening our business Saturday morning, getting what hazardous waste we'd collected over the past year (primarily T8 fluorescent light tubes and dead compact fluorescent lights) to our town's annual hazardous waste collection day at the depot set up behind the town hall, and getting the laundry and housecleaning done. I even managed to mow the lawn (what there is of it).
Deb also put her time in at work at the Veteran's Home during the evenings and at our business this morning, closing out the books for July.
All in all, we weren't not busy all weekend.
I find it curious that the news reports state it that way – the Republicans and the White House. No mention was made of the Congressional Democrats at all with one exception – Harry Reid – and then only in passing.
Was this intentional? Was it just one more way the media is working to distance their Democrat masters from the mess they helped create?
Time will tell.
I'd like to think our particular household is doing better than that, particularly since we just finished a mortgage refinance at a much lower interest rate and managed to pay off some debt. (And unlike a lot of folks, we actually have equity in The Manse, even after the re-fi.) And that seems to be the trend lately. Rather than taking on more debt, people with a little extra cash are trying to pay down what debt they have.
I think it also bears mentioning that debt in this context means unsecured debt, like credit cards. As Glenn Reynolds writes, “Several readers point out that Americans’ mortgages are secured by tangible assets pledged as security, which is different.”
Dr. Bob lists some of the reasons he's finally thrown in the towel:
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
I have more than a few friends that have found this to be true and when they had children, one of the spouses stayed home to raise them. In the end, it worked out better for them than many of their contemporaries taking the both-spouses-working route.
(H/T Instapundit)
I tried it and it made a noticeable difference on my machine.
Of course I expect someone within the AGW cult will try to massage or spin the NASA data to prove otherwise.
BeezleBub spent the weekend working at the farm, as he usually does. But now he's enjoying it even more as he's been given new duties and responsibilities, meaning he'll be spending more time running one of the many tractors and their various agricultural equipment attachments and less time performing stoop labor (picking vegetables or weeding).
My weekend duties including opening our business Saturday morning, getting what hazardous waste we'd collected over the past year (primarily T8 fluorescent light tubes and dead compact fluorescent lights) to our town's annual hazardous waste collection day at the depot set up behind the town hall, and getting the laundry and housecleaning done. I even managed to mow the lawn (what there is of it).
Deb also put her time in at work at the Veteran's Home during the evenings and at our business this morning, closing out the books for July.
All in all, we weren't not busy all weekend.
***********
As of 9AM this morning it appears the House Republicans and the White House may have reached an understanding on raising the debt limit, raising it $2.5 trillion in exchange for a deficit reduction of the same amount.I find it curious that the news reports state it that way – the Republicans and the White House. No mention was made of the Congressional Democrats at all with one exception – Harry Reid – and then only in passing.
Was this intentional? Was it just one more way the media is working to distance their Democrat masters from the mess they helped create?
Time will tell.
***********
And speaking of debt limits, it appears the average American household is deeper in debt than the spendthrift US government.I'd like to think our particular household is doing better than that, particularly since we just finished a mortgage refinance at a much lower interest rate and managed to pay off some debt. (And unlike a lot of folks, we actually have equity in The Manse, even after the re-fi.) And that seems to be the trend lately. Rather than taking on more debt, people with a little extra cash are trying to pay down what debt they have.
I think it also bears mentioning that debt in this context means unsecured debt, like credit cards. As Glenn Reynolds writes, “Several readers point out that Americans’ mortgages are secured by tangible assets pledged as security, which is different.”
***********
Another physician is packing it in, giving up his private practice and instead doing in-patient treatment at the local hospital.Dr. Bob lists some of the reasons he's finally thrown in the towel:
Oh, yeah, Obamacare is gonna fix all of that. Uh-huh. Sure. Yeah....
The past year or so has been one of the most challenging in many a season, on a number of fronts. Professionally, the passage of Obamacare has made it abundantly clear that the independent private practitioner is a dying breed, and likely will disappear — with the exception of cash-only, concierge-style arrangements — within the next few years. The administrative burden is crushing — unfunded mandates, such as pay-for-performance, compliance programs, HIPAA, mandated “government certified” EMRs (even though existing, non-certified ones are fully functional), and intrusive, abusive audits by the Feds and third party carriers. Such mandates and regulatory excesses place, or will soon place, such an overwhelming burden on the solo physician or small group as to make their continued existence unsustainable, even in the near term — and the full implementation of Obamacare will put roses on their grave. Reimbursements are dropping precipitously (my income dropped about 25% last year), as expenses spiral upward (employee health insurance rates are up 25%; malpractice rates up 15%, etc., etc.). The small business model of solo practice or small medical group is rapidly becoming extinct: its executioner, Big Government and Big Insurance.
--snip--
But I am weary. After nearly 30 years in private practice, I am not sure which straw broke the camel’s back, but it is most surely broken. It is a weariness born of 14 hour days; of dictating charts and finishing paperwork until 8 or 9 pm each night, after starting the day at 7 am; of endless audits by the insurance industry and Medicare; of the constant threat of litigation; of the crushing burden of one more federal requirement mandated but never recompensed; of a host of ever-expanding administrative burdens having nothing to do with patient care, and everything to do with bureaucratic micromanagement of the profession. And this before we have even begun to see the nightmare which Obamacare will inflict. Camels weren’t designed to carry such a load.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
***********
Also by way of Maggie's Farm comes a link to this review of a book critical of the uncompromising environmentalist movement, calling it “an ugly experiment.” The author is himself an environmentalist, but one who now sees the benefits of technology and how it can 'save the planet'.***********
Ann Althouse looks at the economics of the two-income family and finds that it doesn't make sense, particularly in regards to the higher income tax load and increased spending required because both spouses work. Between those two factors it's a money-losing proposition.I have more than a few friends that have found this to be true and when they had children, one of the spouses stayed home to raise them. In the end, it worked out better for them than many of their contemporaries taking the both-spouses-working route.
(H/T Instapundit)
***********
David Starr from the North Woods of New Hampshire offers some advice for speeding up your computer (assuming it runs Windows), particularly for web surfing. Apparently Java Quick Start (jqs.exe) has a tendency to eat up memory and CPU capacity even if you aren't using Java. It will start every time you boot your computer. David tells us how to change the settings so it starts only when needed.I tried it and it made a noticeable difference on my machine.
***********
It looks like the AGW crowd is going to have to do something now that their computer models have been shown to overestimate the effects of CO2 on radiation of heat from the Earth to space.Oops.
“The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show,” Spencer said. “There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans.”
Not only does the atmosphere release more energy than previously thought, it starts releasing it earlier in a warming cycle. The models forecast that the climate should continue to absorb solar energy until a warming event peaks. Instead, the satellite data shows the climate system starting to shed energy more than three months before the typical warming event reaches its peak.
“At the peak, satellites show energy being lost while climate models show energy still being gained,” Spencer said.
Of course I expect someone within the AGW cult will try to massage or spin the NASA data to prove otherwise.
***********
And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it's been another gorgeous weekend, most of the housework (except vacuuming) has been done, and where Monday beckons.7/29/2011
Ordinary People Solve A Seemingly Extraordinary Problem
The pols in Washington are still going at it hammer and thongs, and after weeks of debate and rhetoric they have been unable to come up with a workable compromise about the debt ceiling, out of control government spending, and a push to raise taxes.
But a group of five ordinary citizens were able to work out how to solve the problem in only an hour.
It seems to me we've been looking in the wrong place to find the answers needed to fix this problem. Some will claim their solutions are overly simplistic and overlook the nuances and complexities of the problem. But that is the problem. Those 'nuances and complexities' are what make it seem impossible to solve the problems. The folks in Washington tend to forget that no matter what they do, someone somewhere is going to be inconvenienced or hurt. The trick is that maybe we have to ignore that or any solution will be impossible. And then everyone will be hurt, possibly to a level not seen since the Great Depression. That is no solution.
What say you?
But a group of five ordinary citizens were able to work out how to solve the problem in only an hour.
It seems to me we've been looking in the wrong place to find the answers needed to fix this problem. Some will claim their solutions are overly simplistic and overlook the nuances and complexities of the problem. But that is the problem. Those 'nuances and complexities' are what make it seem impossible to solve the problems. The folks in Washington tend to forget that no matter what they do, someone somewhere is going to be inconvenienced or hurt. The trick is that maybe we have to ignore that or any solution will be impossible. And then everyone will be hurt, possibly to a level not seen since the Great Depression. That is no solution.
What say you?
7/28/2011
Extreme Beat Boxing
I haven't seen anything this good since Michael Winslow did his thing on the Police Academy movies.
EMBED-Cute Girl Has Amazing Beat Box Skill - Watch more free videos
EMBED-Cute Girl Has Amazing Beat Box Skill - Watch more free videos
7/27/2011
Advice To Potential College Freshmen
By way of Facebook comes this advice for potential college freshman from Cal Techgirl.
A number of comments from some of her friends expanded a bit on this, most of with which I agreed. Names have been modified to protect the innocent from egregious retaliation.
Dear Prospective Freshmen, You are trying to get into a major 4-year university. You do yourself no favors by 1) acting like you're my friend (e.g. "Hey" is not an appropriate subject line for a 1st email) or 2) using text speak. We use grammar and spacing here in the big kids' sandbox.
I have seen this problem at work, where the writing skills of the engineers, technicians, and software coders leave much to be desired, particularly among the younger employees. It's one reason why I spend an inordinate amount of time rewriting procedures, design specifications, and product proposals. It's also the main reason I read anything BeezleBub writes for school as he has a tendency to use texting shorthand – mostly leaving out “unnecessary” words – which makes reading his writing assignments painful at times. At least he hasn't been using texting abbreviations...or at least not yet.
BJW- Good luck with that one. Having taught a few high schoolers in the finer arts of English Literature, Grammar and Composition, I can tell you I fought the tough fight, but I fear I lost most days.
I once tried to convince my students to not use any "be" verbs in a particular assignment. They ignored me. I rewrote each of their papers, and I used 2 "be" verbs in two of them, and none in the others. They could not believe that I did it. One student claimed that I changed the meaning of what she had written. I sat down with her and went line by line. Then, she said, "but it doesn't sound like me." (Imagine the whine in her voice.) She did not amuse me. (I now teach only my children - homeschool. They don't like my "no be verbs" rules, either.)
Cal Techgirl- That's hard. But important for what we teach in terms of professional scientific writing. Most of them just don't get it.
--snip--
I think the other problem is that these kids just don't read as much as we did. You learn language by seeing it and hearing it.
CS- We just hired a girl with a bachelor's degree. Every e-mail she writes starts with “Hey”, even to the Assistant Vice President of our department. ACK!
BJW- Our society has devolved to such a casual state! Can we blame Mark Zuckerberg?
7/26/2011
Goin' Galt In Alabama
This is yet another post staying as far away from the Obama-owned debt limit crisis of his making. The last thing I need at this time of the day is to be even more pissed off than I am. So what am I going to write about instead?
Goin' Galt.
This story made the rounds on the blogosphere and the reaction has been one that has evoked two responses from me: elation that someone finally said “Enough of this horse***t,” and has decided to pull the plug on his business; and a sense of sadness that it had to come to this point.
It seems that Alabama coal mine owner/operator Ronnie Bryant heard enough at a Birmingham public hearing, with a number of residents laying the blame for everything that seems to be wrong with their lives on one of his future coal mines. After all the local, state, and federal hoops he had to jump through in order to get permission to start this mining operation, he then had to listen to endless business-bashing by far too many of the know-nothings attending the meeting. It reached the point where he'd had enough.
I don't blame Ronnie Bryant for saying “The hell with this! I quit!” But I have no doubt that many of the same people at the hearing will now point the finger at him for making a number of much needed jobs disappear, and claim that it's all because he's greedy and uncaring about the working man. One has to wonder about the logical disconnect from which these people suffer.
The comments to this piece are telling, with a large majority of them supporting Bryant's decision that creating all those jobs and the money they brought into the local economy wasn't worth the effort any more because the knee-jerk opposition of the religious environmentalists (and let's face it, this kind of environmentalism is a religion, and a mindless cult at that). Why should he have to deal with that kind of abuse just to run a business? So he did what anyone else facing that kind of crap would have done – he threw in the towel, goin' Galt, and letting those same self-righteous assholes suffer the consequences of their actions. He'll just take his money and go someplace else.
Goin' Galt.
This story made the rounds on the blogosphere and the reaction has been one that has evoked two responses from me: elation that someone finally said “Enough of this horse***t,” and has decided to pull the plug on his business; and a sense of sadness that it had to come to this point.
It seems that Alabama coal mine owner/operator Ronnie Bryant heard enough at a Birmingham public hearing, with a number of residents laying the blame for everything that seems to be wrong with their lives on one of his future coal mines. After all the local, state, and federal hoops he had to jump through in order to get permission to start this mining operation, he then had to listen to endless business-bashing by far too many of the know-nothings attending the meeting. It reached the point where he'd had enough.
...he finally stood to speak. He sounded a little bit shellshocked, a little bit angry — and a lot frustrated.My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator…. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.The only thing I’m sure of is that what I saw today is a broken process and a sham. We all want a decent environment in which to live, but when various people at a public meeting — including federal officials and community members — talk about “environmental justice” and make it clear that their intent is to make it harder for businesses to operate, well, I can see why a businessman would decide to quit. I consider myself an environmentalist — because I want to live in a safe, secure, clean world — but what I saw isn’t reasonable concern for the environment as much as it’s an ideological agenda.
I don't blame Ronnie Bryant for saying “The hell with this! I quit!” But I have no doubt that many of the same people at the hearing will now point the finger at him for making a number of much needed jobs disappear, and claim that it's all because he's greedy and uncaring about the working man. One has to wonder about the logical disconnect from which these people suffer.
The comments to this piece are telling, with a large majority of them supporting Bryant's decision that creating all those jobs and the money they brought into the local economy wasn't worth the effort any more because the knee-jerk opposition of the religious environmentalists (and let's face it, this kind of environmentalism is a religion, and a mindless cult at that). Why should he have to deal with that kind of abuse just to run a business? So he did what anyone else facing that kind of crap would have done – he threw in the towel, goin' Galt, and letting those same self-righteous assholes suffer the consequences of their actions. He'll just take his money and go someplace else.
7/25/2011
Carbon And Water - A New Storage Medium For Electrical Power?
Feeling the need to take a break from the ongoing debt ceiling drama, perhaps a little good news for a change
One thing I've found to be true over the seven different decades I've trodden this earth is that it's the complicated things that tend to have the easiest answers. That's particularly true of the sciences, where some of the most sophisticated inventions use the simplest of materials and configurations. That's certainly true of this neat means of storing electrical energy, using nothing more than graphite and water.
But even if Dr. Li and his team perfect their technology, there's another problem that will need to be solved: How to get all the electrical energy needed for a rapid recharge to the charging station? That's a lot of power to dump in a very short time.
One thing I've found to be true over the seven different decades I've trodden this earth is that it's the complicated things that tend to have the easiest answers. That's particularly true of the sciences, where some of the most sophisticated inventions use the simplest of materials and configurations. That's certainly true of this neat means of storing electrical energy, using nothing more than graphite and water.
The ability to rapidly charge a battery system is key to being able to make electric vehicles a more viable alternative to liquid fuel burning vehicles. If a vehicle's batteries can be charged in the same amount of time it takes to fill a fuel tank, then EV's can become more attractive to the motoring public.
A combination of two ordinary materials – graphite and water – could produce energy storage systems that perform on par with lithium ion batteries, but recharge in a matter of seconds and have an almost indefinite lifespan.
Dr Dan Li, of the Monash University Department of Materials Engineering, and his research team have been working with a material called graphene, which could form the basis of the next generation of ultrafast energy storage systems.
“Once we can properly manipulate this material, your iPhone, for example, could charge in a few seconds, or possibly faster.” said Dr Li.
But even if Dr. Li and his team perfect their technology, there's another problem that will need to be solved: How to get all the electrical energy needed for a rapid recharge to the charging station? That's a lot of power to dump in a very short time.
7/24/2011
Thoughts On A Sunday
At least the heat wave here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire has abated, with temps in the upper 80's yesterday and the mid-80's today. It's still a little humid, but not bad at all compared to the middle of last week.
I was out with Submarine Tim and his boss, Dawn, yesterday, taking in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 at the IMAX theater just outside of Manchester. While not exactly new to IMAX, I haven't seen a major Hollywood release on the big IMAX screen, particularly in 3D. All I can say is WOW!!
About the only gripe I have is that at times the 3D was a distraction, drawing attention away from the main action rather than enhancing it.
This is a case of yet another deluded leftist who forgets who it is who creates the jobs, pays the bills, and keeps the economy going. But then like most leftists, they believe that money just appears and that no work is required to make it appear, except for taxing the rich out of existence. The only exception are the rich socialists who will, of course, be he ones in power.
I guess this fellow has failed to look down into the socialist paradises that are Cuba and Venezuela, places where Republicans (or their Cuban and Venezuelan equivalent) are outlawed.
Yup everything is fine in those two countries. There are no shortages. Everyone is equal. (Equally miserable) And those in power are more equal than everyone else. The press is free (to print government propaganda). And everyone has everything they need provided by the government, except for food, clothing, housing, transportation, jobs, and basic utilities that the rest of us take for granted.
It never ceases to amaze me when the leftist here in the US are incapable of learning the lessons of failed socialism, figuring they can make it work this time. Yet they never do.
Let's face it, other than bloviating and pointing fingers, he hasn't got a plan.
This also plays into Gateway Pundit's post about a certain someone calling “President Snippy Pants” bluff.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
How presidential!
***********
I was out with Submarine Tim and his boss, Dawn, yesterday, taking in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 at the IMAX theater just outside of Manchester. While not exactly new to IMAX, I haven't seen a major Hollywood release on the big IMAX screen, particularly in 3D. All I can say is WOW!!
About the only gripe I have is that at times the 3D was a distraction, drawing attention away from the main action rather than enhancing it.
***********
During breakfast with the WP Parents late this morning, the WP Dad told of of one of his friends from church (who shall remain nameless) who stated unabashedly that if all the Republicans were to disappear tomorrow the US would be a paradise.This is a case of yet another deluded leftist who forgets who it is who creates the jobs, pays the bills, and keeps the economy going. But then like most leftists, they believe that money just appears and that no work is required to make it appear, except for taxing the rich out of existence. The only exception are the rich socialists who will, of course, be he ones in power.
I guess this fellow has failed to look down into the socialist paradises that are Cuba and Venezuela, places where Republicans (or their Cuban and Venezuelan equivalent) are outlawed.
Yup everything is fine in those two countries. There are no shortages. Everyone is equal. (Equally miserable) And those in power are more equal than everyone else. The press is free (to print government propaganda). And everyone has everything they need provided by the government, except for food, clothing, housing, transportation, jobs, and basic utilities that the rest of us take for granted.
It never ceases to amaze me when the leftist here in the US are incapable of learning the lessons of failed socialism, figuring they can make it work this time. Yet they never do.
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The effects of the Law of Unintended Consequences is unfolding in regards to the odious Dodd-Frank bill as it's provisions come into effect.Except that the “too big to fail” firms will be receiving even more billions in taxpayer funds under the provisions of the bill. And it adds even more of a burden on companies that also have to deal with the consequences of an even more odious piece of legislation, the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, which has burdened businesses across the board with even more time consuming and equally expensive and useless financial reporting paperwork.
...a monstrous 2,300-page law named after two of the most corrupt clots of slime ever to disgrace the Beltway. It was a reaction to the $zillions our rulers flushed down the toilet in bailouts after Democrat race-based mortgage policies crippled the housing sector and with it the entire economy in 2008. Supposedly it would do away with the alarming concept that politically connected firms are “too big to fail.”
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Bogie proves to us that at times concealment can be a good thing, and she has the pictures to prove it.***********
I think Eric the Viking has the right of it: This is but one more a proof of Hanlon's Razor.***********
Regarding the Viking's point, Pundit & Pundette add this commentary, calling Obama “President Planless.”Let's face it, other than bloviating and pointing fingers, he hasn't got a plan.
This also plays into Gateway Pundit's post about a certain someone calling “President Snippy Pants” bluff.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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While we're piling on the One-Term Wonder, let's add Kathleen McKinley's thoughts on his latest presser.The President is starting to sound more and more like a spoiled child who throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way.
I was stunned as well at Pres. Obama’s press conference yesterday. I’ve never seen a President act so childish. I’ve never seen a President complain about not getting his call returned. The entire press conference was surreal. The President wanted it to seem that it wasn’t him that welshed on the deal, when it was (“I’ve been left at the alter a few times”). Boehner clearly saw that Obama wasn’t serious about the debt talks. He figured it would be better to just go back to the leaders in the Senate, on both sides, and get a deal done.
How presidential!
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has returned to normal, the town beaches were full, and where my boat still isn't fixed.7/22/2011
EPA To Punish Texas For Its Success? Not So Fast...
You know it's getting bad when a rogue federal agency is being used as a bludgeon to punish critics of the present administration. (Of course the critics aren't so much saying anything about the Obama Administration so much as showing them to be the know-nothing socialist chumps they are.)
In this case the EPA is doing its darnedest to cripple the Texas economy by using environmental rules never meant to apply to the situation in Texas. By trying to force Texas to abide by the EPA's Cross State rules regarding coal-fired power plants and setting a very short deadline by which Texas must comply, Texas will lose a considerable amount of its electrical generation capacity.
But somehow I doubt Texas is going to cave in to the socialist yokels running the EPA and will call their bluff, in effect telling them in true Texas fashion to “Come And Take It”, or as the PJ Tatler writes it, “Kiss my ass!”
Such an action by the EPA can have nothing but negative consequences, particularly for the Obama Administration and for the power of the ever expanding government bureaucracies. As Obama and his czars try to clamp down on the economy and drive even more businesses to the brink, the backlash is likely to sink any chance the President has for re-election.
Let's hope this is the case as we can no longer afford the destructive forces of this know-nothing administration.
In this case the EPA is doing its darnedest to cripple the Texas economy by using environmental rules never meant to apply to the situation in Texas. By trying to force Texas to abide by the EPA's Cross State rules regarding coal-fired power plants and setting a very short deadline by which Texas must comply, Texas will lose a considerable amount of its electrical generation capacity.
But somehow I doubt Texas is going to cave in to the socialist yokels running the EPA and will call their bluff, in effect telling them in true Texas fashion to “Come And Take It”, or as the PJ Tatler writes it, “Kiss my ass!”
Such an action by the EPA can have nothing but negative consequences, particularly for the Obama Administration and for the power of the ever expanding government bureaucracies. As Obama and his czars try to clamp down on the economy and drive even more businesses to the brink, the backlash is likely to sink any chance the President has for re-election.
Let's hope this is the case as we can no longer afford the destructive forces of this know-nothing administration.
7/21/2011
It's Time To End Agricultural Subsidies
If we want to save billions of taxpayer dollars, stop the negative effects of government interfering with market forces, and let food prices seek their own level, then maybe it's time to get farmers off the federal dole.
While some may decry such an action as being against the interests of small family farms, those same folks speaking out against such cuts don't understand that it isn't the small family farms receiving the benefits of the government subsidies and tax breaks, but the large agribusiness corporations. They don't need those subsidies and shouldn't be receiving them because in the long run all they do is raise food prices (and the taxes keeping them there) to the detriment of everyone else, including the small farmers.
Before anyone gets on their high horse about saving the American farm, we should look at what happened when another country eliminated farm subsidies, in this case, New Zealand.
Can anyone successfully argue that we shouldn't do the same thing, and quite likely, see exactly the same results? Oh, I'm sure someone will try, particularly the folks from the “corporate farm” lobby. But maybe it's time we wean these folks off the government teat and let them succeed or fail on their own rather than allowing them to continue dipping into the taxpayer's wallets.
While some may decry such an action as being against the interests of small family farms, those same folks speaking out against such cuts don't understand that it isn't the small family farms receiving the benefits of the government subsidies and tax breaks, but the large agribusiness corporations. They don't need those subsidies and shouldn't be receiving them because in the long run all they do is raise food prices (and the taxes keeping them there) to the detriment of everyone else, including the small farmers.
Many of the subsidies date back to the Depression and the reasons for them no longer exist, but here we are seventy years later and we're still paying for them.
Government subsidies obviously aren’t necessary for food production: people have fed themselves and traded their surpluses for thousands of years. The system doesn’t help consumers. Reducing supplies and imposing price floors obviously are bad deals for the hungry. Paying off farmers might lower some prices, but steals back through taxes any benefits received by consumers. Agricultural subsidies are designed by farmers for farmers.
But which farmers? Not the idyllic family farmer. The majority of payments go to farms with average annual revenue exceeding $200,000 and net worth around $2 million.
Before anyone gets on their high horse about saving the American farm, we should look at what happened when another country eliminated farm subsidies, in this case, New Zealand.
In 1984, New Zealand's Labor government ended all farm subsidies, which then consisted of 30 separate production payments and export incentives -- a striking action given that New Zealand was five times more dependent on farming than the U.S. economy.
A report from [2001] from the country's main farmers' group, the Federated Farmers of New Zealand, documents what happened:New Zealand's farmers have competed successfully in world markets against subsidized producers in much of the rest of the world.
While land prices initially fell after reform, by 1994 they had rebounded and remain high today.
The predicted farm bankruptcies never materialized -- with just 1 percent of farmers going out of business.
The value of farm output soared 40 percent in constant dollar terms since the mid-1980s and agriculture's share of national output rose from 14 percent to 17 percent today.
Since subsidies were removed, productivity in the sector has risen 6 percent annually -- compared with just 1 percent before reform.
Can anyone successfully argue that we shouldn't do the same thing, and quite likely, see exactly the same results? Oh, I'm sure someone will try, particularly the folks from the “corporate farm” lobby. But maybe it's time we wean these folks off the government teat and let them succeed or fail on their own rather than allowing them to continue dipping into the taxpayer's wallets.
7/20/2011
San Francisco Not All It's Cracked Up To Be
I have to ask this question about the City of San Francisco: Are they nuts out there, hypocrites, or both?
Looking at the following two stories, I have to say it's the third option.
First, we have to ask that if San Francisco is a supposed liberal utopia, then why do they have so many homeless people? Could it be because far too many of the do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do progressives can't be bothered to actually help them out and prefer to leave it to “the government” to handle? Oh, wait, they are the government in San Francisco! I guess we can see how far progressive compassion really goes when they find they have to spend their own money rather than someone else's money to provide the services they believe is owed to the downtrodden, even when they're the ones who helped make them downtrodden in the first place.
Second, if the City by the Bay is so tolerant and supportive of homosexuals, then why did a staff member of museum hosting an exhibit of a well known lesbian artist ask a lesbian couple to leave because they were holding hands? That's not very tolerant, is it? Would they have asked a heterosexual couple to leave as well? Does the museum have a no PDA (Public Display of Affection) rule, or were they merely offended by a lesbian couple holding hands?
Reading the comments to the first linked post is telling, if for no other reason that a number of denizens of the Bay Area commented that San Francisco is not as friendly or as tolerant as advertised. Color me surprised.
Looking at the following two stories, I have to say it's the third option.
First, we have to ask that if San Francisco is a supposed liberal utopia, then why do they have so many homeless people? Could it be because far too many of the do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do progressives can't be bothered to actually help them out and prefer to leave it to “the government” to handle? Oh, wait, they are the government in San Francisco! I guess we can see how far progressive compassion really goes when they find they have to spend their own money rather than someone else's money to provide the services they believe is owed to the downtrodden, even when they're the ones who helped make them downtrodden in the first place.
Second, if the City by the Bay is so tolerant and supportive of homosexuals, then why did a staff member of museum hosting an exhibit of a well known lesbian artist ask a lesbian couple to leave because they were holding hands? That's not very tolerant, is it? Would they have asked a heterosexual couple to leave as well? Does the museum have a no PDA (Public Display of Affection) rule, or were they merely offended by a lesbian couple holding hands?
Reading the comments to the first linked post is telling, if for no other reason that a number of denizens of the Bay Area commented that San Francisco is not as friendly or as tolerant as advertised. Color me surprised.
7/18/2011
Debt Crisis Fatigue Is Getting Me Down
I must admit to being on the edge of Debt Crisis Fatigue after being bombarded by Obama, the Democrats, and the media for months on end about our impending doom if Congress doesn't pass an increase in the already outrageous debt limit.
I might not have nearly as much of a problem with Congress doing so if the Spender-In-Chief were willing to support spending cuts equal to the increase in the limit, but we all know there's no way he'll do that.
In truth, I don't like the idea of raising the debt limit even one penny. History shows us the promises made by Congress to cut spending if only the debt limit is raised have never been kept. All we've ever seen from such promises is more taxes and more spending. The promises made aren't any more real than the old “The check's in the mail” dodge, except that we're talking trillions of dollars, a number that doesn't seem to faze Obama or Congressional Democrats, but scares the bejeezus out of just about everyone else.
It's ironic, considering that many of the same people pushing for increasing the debt limit were vehemently against it the last time the issue came up. The difference this time around? Last time it was a Republican in the White House while this time it's a Democrat, and he's asking for an increase that is far greater than the last one.
Talk about a double standard.
If the President and his Democrat cronies won't control their insatiable appetite for running up the national credit card, particularly if they're not the ones who will have to pay the bill, then it's up to the GOP and the Tea Party to do it form them. Better it be done now than when it will be so painful that it brings the economy down even more than it already is. Obama and the Dems aren't willing to admit that the credit card company (that means us, folks) aren't willing to raise their credit limit until they pay off what they've already charged. Until then it will have to be as so many of we so-called “little people” do under these circumstances – pay cash, or do without.
The national credit card is maxed out and the issuers – We The People – are saying “Enough!”
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