There is now a retail store in the Washington, DC train station that sells nothing but Obama merchandise. I wonder if they sell vegetables from the White House garden that Michele and the girls planted a couple of months ago?
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/05/17/cultwatch-union-station-new-york-times/
Meanwhile, in other news: We went to dinner on Friday evening with Mark and Linda L and happened to run into the first night of the Blobfest, which is a cult event in commemoration of the filming of The Blob in Phoenixville. The event has gotten so popular that they now set up bleachers so spectators can watch the running of the blobbers as they flee the theater in panic at the climactic scene where the giant blob emerges through the movie screen.
Very appropriately, there was a fellow across from the theater trying to get people to sign a petition in favor of President Obama's health care plan, which is a cleverly disguised medium sized blob intended to grow to monstrous proportions and devour everything. No one was running from the Obama cultist in panic; but they should have been.
Checking further into the My Obama Store I found that it's a venture of a Jamaican fellow who calls himself Yehmon (http://www.yehmon.com/id31.html). This fellow Yehmon is somewhat of a poet. I found one of his poems right on point (http://www.yehmon.com/id28.html). I may print it out to give to the Obama health care cultist the next time we go to Phoenixville. Or I may bring a CO2 fire extinguisher in hopes of stopping his monstrous project the way Steve McQueen stopped The Blob.
In still other news: Here's a coincidence that may or may not be related to what President Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Representative Barney Frank and their ilk are likely to do to the economy if they pass their plans into law.
On July 10th a lady in Virginia bought my copy of the Foxfire Book, and on July 11th a fellow in Oregon bought my copy of Foxfire 4; so two widely divergent people are suddenly interested in hog dressing, log cabin building, fiddle making, horse trading, berry buckets and other affairs of plain living.
Perhaps I should remove my remaining five Foxfire books from the "for sale" list on Amazon. Within 96 months when all of us peasants are living the simple life Al Gore and Prince Charles want us to live those books may become very valuable.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/just-96-months-to-save-world-says-charles-1738049.html
Meanwhile, in case you haven't noticed, Al Gore's so called global warming has provided unbelievably good weather in Collegeville so far this summer. Here it is July 13th and we still haven't needed to use our air conditioner. The very mild high seventies daytime and high fifties nightime temperatures don't quite qualify for calling this a year without a summer that the sunspot people told us was possible; but if this is the global warming Al and his fellow CO2 fanatic buddies have been harping about for the past ten years I want more of it.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I'm baaaack!
It's been a while since I posted a blog because my laptop computer has been acting funny. For some reason it won't let me log into the blogger software.
Here are a few things I've wanted to share.
1. In the You just can't win department: This fellow and his wife installed a nice environmentally friendly windmill on their property, and now the neighbors are whining and the local government made them shut the thing down because it makes a bit of noise. I did find it suspicious that the couple located the windmill 230 feet from their own house, but only 164 feet from the neighbor's house. It's also interesting that the windmill cost them 20,000 pounds but it only saved them 500 pounds a year in energy cost - so it would take forty years to pay for itself, even leaving aside the interest they could have earned on the money they used to buy it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187936/Green-homeowner-hit-noise-abatement-order-40ft-wind-turbine-driving-neighbours-mad.html
2. In the You can't win unless you're a government employee department: California has started to pay some of it's bills with IOUs because the state is running out of money due to a spending binge worthy of a sailor loose in Olongapo after 60 days at sea. But here's a funny thing - the state is not paying any of its hundreds of thousands of government workers and government pension benefit recipients with IOUs. The government folks get cash; all others get IOUs. You might be tempted to think that this is because the state is concerned about the government workers because they depend on their salaries to eat; but it turns out that the state is giving IOUs to a whole bunch of other folks who depend on their government check to eat. Fat cat college professors and judges get cash; the blind and the disabled get IOUs.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/07/01/california-the-haves-and-have-nots/
3. In the None of us humans can win in the long run department: It turns out that we're all doomed after these Argentinian ants consolidate their position globally. The Orkin man had better get ready for battle on a global basis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8127000/8127519.stm
4. In the Even if you can't win you can live in a certain style before you are eaten by ants: Sometimes a house comes on the market that has an extra nice garden or a very nicely outfitted kitchen. And then sometimes a house comes on the market that has a really special feature. The owner of this house automatically becomes a Count, and his wife becomes a Countess. The house also comes with extra thick walls that won't let in the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound of any nearby windmills.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904574248540382556988.html
Here are a few things I've wanted to share.
1. In the You just can't win department: This fellow and his wife installed a nice environmentally friendly windmill on their property, and now the neighbors are whining and the local government made them shut the thing down because it makes a bit of noise. I did find it suspicious that the couple located the windmill 230 feet from their own house, but only 164 feet from the neighbor's house. It's also interesting that the windmill cost them 20,000 pounds but it only saved them 500 pounds a year in energy cost - so it would take forty years to pay for itself, even leaving aside the interest they could have earned on the money they used to buy it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187936/Green-homeowner-hit-noise-abatement-order-40ft-wind-turbine-driving-neighbours-mad.html
2. In the You can't win unless you're a government employee department: California has started to pay some of it's bills with IOUs because the state is running out of money due to a spending binge worthy of a sailor loose in Olongapo after 60 days at sea. But here's a funny thing - the state is not paying any of its hundreds of thousands of government workers and government pension benefit recipients with IOUs. The government folks get cash; all others get IOUs. You might be tempted to think that this is because the state is concerned about the government workers because they depend on their salaries to eat; but it turns out that the state is giving IOUs to a whole bunch of other folks who depend on their government check to eat. Fat cat college professors and judges get cash; the blind and the disabled get IOUs.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/07/01/california-the-haves-and-have-nots/
3. In the None of us humans can win in the long run department: It turns out that we're all doomed after these Argentinian ants consolidate their position globally. The Orkin man had better get ready for battle on a global basis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8127000/8127519.stm
4. In the Even if you can't win you can live in a certain style before you are eaten by ants: Sometimes a house comes on the market that has an extra nice garden or a very nicely outfitted kitchen. And then sometimes a house comes on the market that has a really special feature. The owner of this house automatically becomes a Count, and his wife becomes a Countess. The house also comes with extra thick walls that won't let in the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound of any nearby windmills.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904574248540382556988.html
Sunday, June 28, 2009
88, 79, 96, 86, 95, 86
All in all, Thursday the 25th was a pretty darn fine day here in the Norristown area, and not just because the daily number in the Times Herald was the highly soothing one recorded in the title of this piece. It was also a good day for smelling the last of the Great Northern Catalpa blossoms, and a good day for appreciating the annual display of the Tiger Lilies, which the stupid books insist on calling Tawny Day Lilies.
What we've always called Tiger Lilies are, of course, day lilies, even though it's hard to believe each one of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of flowers stretching down both banks of the creek is a one day wonder that will wither in the night and be replaced next morning by a new blossom. It's not a one for one replacement, actually. It's more like a chain reaction that builds from a few to an uncountable proliferation of flowers each day, and then tails off slowly over the course of a few days.
But I was talking about Thursday, and how it was a good day; I was not meaning to dwell on the short lives and deaths of a multitude of day lilies. Thursday was also a good day for pondering why one of our cousins seemed to want to talk about nothing except his unconcern about aging when he came by for coffee with me and Jas a couple of Saturdays ago. And it was a good day for thinking over the fact that another one of our cousins made a point of mentioning his purchase of a burial plot when Jas and I called him last Saturday morning.
A burial plot! Burial plots are surely sold to old people, very old people. They're sold to people so old they need a magnifying glass and not just a pair of drug store reading glasses to check the ages of the folks enjoying (in a manner of speaking) their fifteen minutes of fame in The Norristown Times Herald obits. We have some older cousins. We even have a cousin in her mid seventies. But until last Saturday I would have thought we didn't have any cousins of an age appropriate for the buying of a burial plot.
During the conversation with the new burial plot owner we learned that the single plot is meant as a final resting place for two, which necessitated a conversation about the likelihood of ending up in the bottom bunk, so to speak, men being severely discriminated against in the life expectancy tables. We also learned that a crematorium will not simply wrap one in a sheet and shove one into its incinerator - a box is required. Which means that one must choose the box, two boxes actually - one big box and one little box. It was heartening that our cousin found a certain amount of humor in his discussions with the undertaker. He finally settled on the cardboard, excuse me, corrugated box.
What we've always called Tiger Lilies are, of course, day lilies, even though it's hard to believe each one of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of flowers stretching down both banks of the creek is a one day wonder that will wither in the night and be replaced next morning by a new blossom. It's not a one for one replacement, actually. It's more like a chain reaction that builds from a few to an uncountable proliferation of flowers each day, and then tails off slowly over the course of a few days.
But I was talking about Thursday, and how it was a good day; I was not meaning to dwell on the short lives and deaths of a multitude of day lilies. Thursday was also a good day for pondering why one of our cousins seemed to want to talk about nothing except his unconcern about aging when he came by for coffee with me and Jas a couple of Saturdays ago. And it was a good day for thinking over the fact that another one of our cousins made a point of mentioning his purchase of a burial plot when Jas and I called him last Saturday morning.
A burial plot! Burial plots are surely sold to old people, very old people. They're sold to people so old they need a magnifying glass and not just a pair of drug store reading glasses to check the ages of the folks enjoying (in a manner of speaking) their fifteen minutes of fame in The Norristown Times Herald obits. We have some older cousins. We even have a cousin in her mid seventies. But until last Saturday I would have thought we didn't have any cousins of an age appropriate for the buying of a burial plot.
During the conversation with the new burial plot owner we learned that the single plot is meant as a final resting place for two, which necessitated a conversation about the likelihood of ending up in the bottom bunk, so to speak, men being severely discriminated against in the life expectancy tables. We also learned that a crematorium will not simply wrap one in a sheet and shove one into its incinerator - a box is required. Which means that one must choose the box, two boxes actually - one big box and one little box. It was heartening that our cousin found a certain amount of humor in his discussions with the undertaker. He finally settled on the cardboard, excuse me, corrugated box.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Is it 1973, 2001 or 1931?
Here's a chart from reason.com of the recent movement of the stock market that's either scary or heartening, depending on how you look at it.
So far the market's performance over the past 20 months has been about as bad as it was during the 1973/1974 oil crisis and the 2000/2002 tech stock crash; but it's nowhere near as bad as the stock market did leading into the great depression.
We're either doomed, or else we're poised for another spin on the good times merry go round.
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/134405.html
So far the market's performance over the past 20 months has been about as bad as it was during the 1973/1974 oil crisis and the 2000/2002 tech stock crash; but it's nowhere near as bad as the stock market did leading into the great depression.
We're either doomed, or else we're poised for another spin on the good times merry go round.
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/134405.html
Saturday, June 20, 2009
I was born under a waning gibbous moon, Pop was at a Phillies game
I was born 22,303 days ago under a waning gibbous moon. Pop was at a Phillies game, watching the Phillies beat the Pirates 2 to 1. Mercury and Uranus were in Taurus, Venus was in Gemini, Mars was in Leo, Jupiter was in Sagittarius, Saturn was in Cancer and Neptune was in Virgo. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 190. The Dow has done pretty well since the world was graced with my presence.
Mom always said that Pop was at a Phillies game when I was born, which means I was born in the morning of May 28th since the Phillies played the Pittsburgh Pirates at home on the evening of May 27th. If Pop wasn't available to take her to the hospital she had to have gone there on the 27th. Pop would have been home to take Mom to the hospital on the 28th, because the Phillies were away that day playing the New York Giants.
Here's a great website where you can put in your birth date and find out what phase of the moon you were born under. If you put in "planets" and then your birth date it will tell you what signs of the zodiac they were in on that date. Same thing if you put in "Dow Jones Average" and then your birthdate.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
The website will also do all sorts of math stuff. For instance, if you put in "x cubed + y cubed = 17" it will solve the equation for x and y, graph it, and tell you the implicit derivatives, which you may vaguely remember from near the end of the year in algebra class if you weren't daydreaming. More usefully, it will tell you the probability of drawing a full house in a five card poker hand is 1 chance in 693. Or it will tell you that the probability of drawing specifically three jacks and two aces in a five card poker hand is 1 in 108,900, although I can't imagine why you would want to know that.
Talk about neat! It will also translate Roman Numerals into regular numbers, for those pesky situations when you see a long string of Roman Numerals engraved on the cornerstone of a building and can't remember your M's and D's and X's. Additionally, if you should ever be in a position to supply the cornerstone for a building the website will translate the date into Babylonian or Mayan notation so you can carve the date in a way that will really make people nuts.
http://www17.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2021+to+Babylonian
And, talk about something that was invented too late. If you're like me you can remember Mom and Aunt Mary getting into a who's who discussion about relatives. One of them would say something like "She's your second cousin. She's Sia Gigette's sister's granddaughter," and you would be totally clueless. This site will draw you a picture of how you're related to someone if you put in things like "grandfather's sister's second cousin."
http://www17.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=grandmother%27s+brother%27s+second+cousin
Update: Alex called today to wish me a happy father's day, probably because Christina reminded him to do so, since he called on Friday evening and talked to me and Linda. Today he reported that yesterday's Tea Party up in Worcester had some interesting speeches but was a bit of a disappointment because it only drew a crowd of a couple of hundred people.
I find it amazing that there should be two hundred people in the most liberal state in the union, a state nicknamed Taxachussetts, who care about the fact that the federal government is on a spending spree that would make ten thousand drunken sailors blush. George Bush was a big disappointment in the government spending and waste department, just like his father; but Barack Obama is throwing around cash in a way not seen since the last time a ten ship carrier battle group of the Seventh Fleet pulled into Subic Bay after 65 days at sea.
Mom always said that Pop was at a Phillies game when I was born, which means I was born in the morning of May 28th since the Phillies played the Pittsburgh Pirates at home on the evening of May 27th. If Pop wasn't available to take her to the hospital she had to have gone there on the 27th. Pop would have been home to take Mom to the hospital on the 28th, because the Phillies were away that day playing the New York Giants.
Here's a great website where you can put in your birth date and find out what phase of the moon you were born under. If you put in "planets" and then your birth date it will tell you what signs of the zodiac they were in on that date. Same thing if you put in "Dow Jones Average" and then your birthdate.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
The website will also do all sorts of math stuff. For instance, if you put in "x cubed + y cubed = 17" it will solve the equation for x and y, graph it, and tell you the implicit derivatives, which you may vaguely remember from near the end of the year in algebra class if you weren't daydreaming. More usefully, it will tell you the probability of drawing a full house in a five card poker hand is 1 chance in 693. Or it will tell you that the probability of drawing specifically three jacks and two aces in a five card poker hand is 1 in 108,900, although I can't imagine why you would want to know that.
Talk about neat! It will also translate Roman Numerals into regular numbers, for those pesky situations when you see a long string of Roman Numerals engraved on the cornerstone of a building and can't remember your M's and D's and X's. Additionally, if you should ever be in a position to supply the cornerstone for a building the website will translate the date into Babylonian or Mayan notation so you can carve the date in a way that will really make people nuts.
http://www17.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2021+to+Babylonian
And, talk about something that was invented too late. If you're like me you can remember Mom and Aunt Mary getting into a who's who discussion about relatives. One of them would say something like "She's your second cousin. She's Sia Gigette's sister's granddaughter," and you would be totally clueless. This site will draw you a picture of how you're related to someone if you put in things like "grandfather's sister's second cousin."
http://www17.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=grandmother%27s+brother%27s+second+cousin
Update: Alex called today to wish me a happy father's day, probably because Christina reminded him to do so, since he called on Friday evening and talked to me and Linda. Today he reported that yesterday's Tea Party up in Worcester had some interesting speeches but was a bit of a disappointment because it only drew a crowd of a couple of hundred people.
I find it amazing that there should be two hundred people in the most liberal state in the union, a state nicknamed Taxachussetts, who care about the fact that the federal government is on a spending spree that would make ten thousand drunken sailors blush. George Bush was a big disappointment in the government spending and waste department, just like his father; but Barack Obama is throwing around cash in a way not seen since the last time a ten ship carrier battle group of the Seventh Fleet pulled into Subic Bay after 65 days at sea.
Friday, June 19, 2009
The path to enlightenment
A week or so ago we got an invitation to "Matt's graduation" in Langhorne. A nice handwritten invitation. Sounded great, except that we couldn't figure out who Matt was.
When John and Kathy showed up for bridge on Tuesday we learned that the envelope for their invitation included a return address sticker with the name J. K----. Still no joy. Jas and Kathy knew no K----, and neither did Sam and Deb, with whom they had already checked. Jas was an advocate of a conspiracy theory, namely that the invitations were sent out randomly on the assumption that some would return gifts. Thus I learned that I have a brother even more cynical than I am.
So. . . yesterday I called Marianne, who didn't receive an invitation, not surprising because many in the wide extended family don't know her last name, a thought you should keep in mind since we get back to it later.
Marianne also had no idea as to who a Matt K---- could be; but she suggested that I call Angie out in California on the thought that Matt was probably connected via the R----s. No joy, Angie confirmed what I had suspected, there are no K----s connected with the R----s.
So I went out on the net and found on Facebook a Matt K---- who is graduating this year from a high school up near Langhorne. I sent him a facebook message asking if he's related to the A--------s, the L---s or the R----s, to which he hasn't responded. I also put a message on my facebook page asking if anybody knows a Matt K----. No responses.
So, this morning I left a message on the rsvp phone number, saying that we would be glad to come to the graduation party, if only we could figure out who Matt is.
Then I got looking at that phone number, and I put it into Microsoft's new search engine Bing which came back with the name Jacquelin K---- at the same address specified for the party. I then put that name in Bing and it came back with references to a half dozen Jacquelin K----s, one of which was on LinkedIn in the Philadelphia area. Jackie K----'s profile on LinkedIn told me she works for BMC which finally gave me an Aha moment since I talked with someone who works for BMC at Dolores's 70th birthday party last week.
I just got off the phone with Jackie J--------, who confirmed that his daughter Candy's real name is Jacquelin and she indeed does have an 18 year old son whose name is Matt and who is graduating from high school this year.
Inspector Clouseau couldn't have done the investigation better. And Siddhartha Gautama couldn't have felt much more enlightened after he discovered the middle way than I do at this moment.
When John and Kathy showed up for bridge on Tuesday we learned that the envelope for their invitation included a return address sticker with the name J. K----. Still no joy. Jas and Kathy knew no K----, and neither did Sam and Deb, with whom they had already checked. Jas was an advocate of a conspiracy theory, namely that the invitations were sent out randomly on the assumption that some would return gifts. Thus I learned that I have a brother even more cynical than I am.
So. . . yesterday I called Marianne, who didn't receive an invitation, not surprising because many in the wide extended family don't know her last name, a thought you should keep in mind since we get back to it later.
Marianne also had no idea as to who a Matt K---- could be; but she suggested that I call Angie out in California on the thought that Matt was probably connected via the R----s. No joy, Angie confirmed what I had suspected, there are no K----s connected with the R----s.
So I went out on the net and found on Facebook a Matt K---- who is graduating this year from a high school up near Langhorne. I sent him a facebook message asking if he's related to the A--------s, the L---s or the R----s, to which he hasn't responded. I also put a message on my facebook page asking if anybody knows a Matt K----. No responses.
So, this morning I left a message on the rsvp phone number, saying that we would be glad to come to the graduation party, if only we could figure out who Matt is.
Then I got looking at that phone number, and I put it into Microsoft's new search engine Bing which came back with the name Jacquelin K---- at the same address specified for the party. I then put that name in Bing and it came back with references to a half dozen Jacquelin K----s, one of which was on LinkedIn in the Philadelphia area. Jackie K----'s profile on LinkedIn told me she works for BMC which finally gave me an Aha moment since I talked with someone who works for BMC at Dolores's 70th birthday party last week.
I just got off the phone with Jackie J--------, who confirmed that his daughter Candy's real name is Jacquelin and she indeed does have an 18 year old son whose name is Matt and who is graduating from high school this year.
Inspector Clouseau couldn't have done the investigation better. And Siddhartha Gautama couldn't have felt much more enlightened after he discovered the middle way than I do at this moment.
Monday, June 15, 2009
It's a pity we didn't bring my frog to Death Valley
The Devil's Hole Pupfish is holding up all sorts of solar and wind power projects.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510519321116631.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Jas and I tried to visit the pupfish when we drove around the Southwest a few years back; but we never got to see the little fellow because the National Park Service has his hole fenced off like a maximum security prison and you can only get a glimpse of the water is way down in the crack in the rock.
If my frog had been with us he would have leaped right through that chain link fence. Then he would have done an octuple somersault with fifteen or twenty twists on the way down to the water for lunch. Survival of the fittest would have taken care of the rest. By now there wouldn't be any need for the environmentalists to worry about the cute little pupfish and his relatives.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510519321116631.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Jas and I tried to visit the pupfish when we drove around the Southwest a few years back; but we never got to see the little fellow because the National Park Service has his hole fenced off like a maximum security prison and you can only get a glimpse of the water is way down in the crack in the rock.
If my frog had been with us he would have leaped right through that chain link fence. Then he would have done an octuple somersault with fifteen or twenty twists on the way down to the water for lunch. Survival of the fittest would have taken care of the rest. By now there wouldn't be any need for the environmentalists to worry about the cute little pupfish and his relatives.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Clipping coupons, eating feline pate', buying diapers
Every so often you run across the phrase "clipping coupons" as in "His widow lived out her remaining years clipping coupons." I've known what the phrase meant; but until today I've never seen a picture of an actual bond with coupons to be clipped.
Here's a picture of a ten year One Million dollar U.S. Treasury bearer bond with some of the coupons still on it. As each interest coupon comes due it becomes just like cash since anyone can take it to a Federal Reserve Bank to redeem it for cash. Then at the end of the term the owner (or anyone who has the bond) can return it to the treasury for the million bucks that the bond itself is worth.
It's called a "bearer bond" because the treasury will pay out the interest and the principal to whoever comes in bearing the coupons and the bond when they're mature.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_07Vo5mDNg18/SjG0o3s-hAI/AAAAAAAAACw/qZFWJmppPak/s1600-h/bond1small.jpg
On a related note, yesterday I had reason to check out the rate of inflation over the past thirty years and also over a variety of prior thirty years periods. Inflation ran at a 4.4% rate from 1975 to 2005. There is a useful mental tool called the Rule of 72. If you divide the interest rate into 72 the answer tells you how fast money doubles if invested at a certain percentage interest rate or how fast its value is cut in half at a certain inflation rate. The Rule of 72 says a dollar lost approximately half of its value every 16 years from 1975 to 2005. A 1975 dollar is worth a bit less than 25 cents in real purchasing power today since it's been 34 years since then. Put another way, if your house was worth $50,000 in 1975 and it's worth $200,000 today its real value hasn't changed.
The worst thirty year period in the recent past for inflation was the period from 1965 to 1995 when inflation ran at an average rate of 5.4%. During that period a dollar lost half of its value every 13.3 years. It's purchasing power was reduced by 75% in about 27 years during that time period.
I think what's been happening down in Washington is setting the country up for an inflation rate even higher than the 5.4% average rate that prevailed from 1965 to 1995.
If I'm right that means a lunchtime can of catfood that costs an old lady $2 today will cost her daughter more than $8 twenty six years years from now in 2035, perhaps much more, and it will cost her granddaughter $32 in 2051. The same thing goes for Depends, Fixodent, Prunes and all the other necessities of old age.
Just so you know, I found the inflation rates I used at the site link below. Other sites give different and somewhat lower inflati0on rates. I was looking for a worst case estimate, so I purposely looked for the inflation calculator that showed the worst picture of what's happened on the inflation front over the last 100 years.
http://www.measuringworth.com/inflation/?redirurl=calculators/inflation/
Here's a picture of a ten year One Million dollar U.S. Treasury bearer bond with some of the coupons still on it. As each interest coupon comes due it becomes just like cash since anyone can take it to a Federal Reserve Bank to redeem it for cash. Then at the end of the term the owner (or anyone who has the bond) can return it to the treasury for the million bucks that the bond itself is worth.
It's called a "bearer bond" because the treasury will pay out the interest and the principal to whoever comes in bearing the coupons and the bond when they're mature.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_07Vo5mDNg18/SjG0o3s-hAI/AAAAAAAAACw/qZFWJmppPak/s1600-h/bond1small.jpg
On a related note, yesterday I had reason to check out the rate of inflation over the past thirty years and also over a variety of prior thirty years periods. Inflation ran at a 4.4% rate from 1975 to 2005. There is a useful mental tool called the Rule of 72. If you divide the interest rate into 72 the answer tells you how fast money doubles if invested at a certain percentage interest rate or how fast its value is cut in half at a certain inflation rate. The Rule of 72 says a dollar lost approximately half of its value every 16 years from 1975 to 2005. A 1975 dollar is worth a bit less than 25 cents in real purchasing power today since it's been 34 years since then. Put another way, if your house was worth $50,000 in 1975 and it's worth $200,000 today its real value hasn't changed.
The worst thirty year period in the recent past for inflation was the period from 1965 to 1995 when inflation ran at an average rate of 5.4%. During that period a dollar lost half of its value every 13.3 years. It's purchasing power was reduced by 75% in about 27 years during that time period.
I think what's been happening down in Washington is setting the country up for an inflation rate even higher than the 5.4% average rate that prevailed from 1965 to 1995.
If I'm right that means a lunchtime can of catfood that costs an old lady $2 today will cost her daughter more than $8 twenty six years years from now in 2035, perhaps much more, and it will cost her granddaughter $32 in 2051. The same thing goes for Depends, Fixodent, Prunes and all the other necessities of old age.
Just so you know, I found the inflation rates I used at the site link below. Other sites give different and somewhat lower inflati0on rates. I was looking for a worst case estimate, so I purposely looked for the inflation calculator that showed the worst picture of what's happened on the inflation front over the last 100 years.
http://www.measuringworth.com/inflation/?redirurl=calculators/inflation/
Thursday, June 11, 2009
We grew up gourmets and never knew it
The yuppies have discovered weeds as gourmet fare. Nine bucks a pound for dandelion! By that measure there's at least ten thousand bucks worth of valuable gourmet salad out there in the lawn right now.
It's hard to believe the author of this article in The Wall Street Journal missed Chima de Rabe. I remedied that with a comment to the article. As I write this I still have two containers of this Spring's rabes in the freezer. And, I happen to be eating a sandwich of boiled ham, rabes that I thawed the other day and a little mayonnaise on slices of Corropolese split loaf. I generally prefer this particular sandwich on a seeded football roll; but we're out of them right now. It used to make Pop crazy when he would see me putting mayonnaise on a sandwich of rabes and ham; but that's not why I still invariably do it.
Also, she specifies two changes of water for boiling Pokes. I can't imagine that Mom or Aunt Mary R did two changes of water, and I certainly never have; which may explain why there have been incidents of rapid necessary movement to the necessaries room related to the consumption of Poke Salad over the years. It's very difficult to resist the temptation to pick larger and larger and leafier and leafier shoots as one gets tired when picking Polks, which also may explain the incidents.
And, she mentions Burdock but doesn't mention that the leaves are poisonous, or at least that's what Mom believed, although the internet seems not to think so. Mom and Grandmom L only used the thick stems of the leaves which they called Cardunes and prepared by battering and deep frying. Next Spring I'm going to pick Cardunes and try to recreate that recipe. As I recall they had a unique flavor somewhat like, but only somewhat like, the battered and fried celery we do at Christmas.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338226000356493.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
And, since I'm on the subject of food, I should mention that Linda and I ate our first Swiss Chard from the garden on Tuesday, probably the earliest that it's ever been ready for picking. We've been eating lettuce for a couple of weeks; but slugs are multiplying and ravaging it now, probably due to the very rainy weather we've been having for the past week or so.
Finally, if you are one of the few people who still actually, you know, like, read, like, books, you may find this article by Ann Kirshner in The Chronicle Review interesting. She tried out all the current modes of reading and listening to Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit to see which she liked better. I can only wish she had gone further into the issue of the differences between sight reading and audio since I find them such distinctly different experiences.
Most interesting paragraph - "Readers are passionate and opinionated advocates for their preferred formats. Flip announced that she reads only hardcovers; end of conversation. "I get it," said Bill, watching me read on the iPhone: "You like your books little." Bob is no Luddite, but he insists that Steve Jobs has bribed me, since the Kindle is so obviously superior. Just wait for the Apple tablet," advises techno-sage Joe. And Judith derides my affection for audiobooks as "not really reading.""
For the record I will only read a hardback if I can't get a paperback. Something about a hardback book intimidates me and causes me to treat it too carefully. I can dog-ear the pages to mark my place or break the binding of a paperback by bending it back to hold in one hand; but I can rarely bring myself to treat a hardback book so cavalierly no matter how cheaply I bought it. And, I find listening to an audio book so different from reading the same book that I will often read an especially good novel immediately after listening to it and vice versa. Also, she doesn't mention the obvious next step, which is to combine audio with a video formatted somewhat like the succession of still pictures that Ken Burns used in his Civil War series on PBS. Soon technology should allow relatively easy mating of period pictures with text. So you could see a street scene related to a passage of audio or a picture of an animal mentioned in an audio passage as you listened, for instance.
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39b01601.htm
And, really, really, finally, since I've been on the subjects of yuppies, books, reading and cooking; here's an interesting article by Jennifer Reese on Slate about a book about a whole different way to think about cooking. One suspects that Linda will come home to find something really new and different on the table one of these days; but not 'til after she has endured Lobscouse, which I still haven't gotten around to making even though Alex tried it and praised it pretty highly.
http://www.slate.com/id/2219243/pagenum/all
It's hard to believe the author of this article in The Wall Street Journal missed Chima de Rabe. I remedied that with a comment to the article. As I write this I still have two containers of this Spring's rabes in the freezer. And, I happen to be eating a sandwich of boiled ham, rabes that I thawed the other day and a little mayonnaise on slices of Corropolese split loaf. I generally prefer this particular sandwich on a seeded football roll; but we're out of them right now. It used to make Pop crazy when he would see me putting mayonnaise on a sandwich of rabes and ham; but that's not why I still invariably do it.
Also, she specifies two changes of water for boiling Pokes. I can't imagine that Mom or Aunt Mary R did two changes of water, and I certainly never have; which may explain why there have been incidents of rapid necessary movement to the necessaries room related to the consumption of Poke Salad over the years. It's very difficult to resist the temptation to pick larger and larger and leafier and leafier shoots as one gets tired when picking Polks, which also may explain the incidents.
And, she mentions Burdock but doesn't mention that the leaves are poisonous, or at least that's what Mom believed, although the internet seems not to think so. Mom and Grandmom L only used the thick stems of the leaves which they called Cardunes and prepared by battering and deep frying. Next Spring I'm going to pick Cardunes and try to recreate that recipe. As I recall they had a unique flavor somewhat like, but only somewhat like, the battered and fried celery we do at Christmas.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338226000356493.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
And, since I'm on the subject of food, I should mention that Linda and I ate our first Swiss Chard from the garden on Tuesday, probably the earliest that it's ever been ready for picking. We've been eating lettuce for a couple of weeks; but slugs are multiplying and ravaging it now, probably due to the very rainy weather we've been having for the past week or so.
Finally, if you are one of the few people who still actually, you know, like, read, like, books, you may find this article by Ann Kirshner in The Chronicle Review interesting. She tried out all the current modes of reading and listening to Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit to see which she liked better. I can only wish she had gone further into the issue of the differences between sight reading and audio since I find them such distinctly different experiences.
Most interesting paragraph - "Readers are passionate and opinionated advocates for their preferred formats. Flip announced that she reads only hardcovers; end of conversation. "I get it," said Bill, watching me read on the iPhone: "You like your books little." Bob is no Luddite, but he insists that Steve Jobs has bribed me, since the Kindle is so obviously superior. Just wait for the Apple tablet," advises techno-sage Joe. And Judith derides my affection for audiobooks as "not really reading.""
For the record I will only read a hardback if I can't get a paperback. Something about a hardback book intimidates me and causes me to treat it too carefully. I can dog-ear the pages to mark my place or break the binding of a paperback by bending it back to hold in one hand; but I can rarely bring myself to treat a hardback book so cavalierly no matter how cheaply I bought it. And, I find listening to an audio book so different from reading the same book that I will often read an especially good novel immediately after listening to it and vice versa. Also, she doesn't mention the obvious next step, which is to combine audio with a video formatted somewhat like the succession of still pictures that Ken Burns used in his Civil War series on PBS. Soon technology should allow relatively easy mating of period pictures with text. So you could see a street scene related to a passage of audio or a picture of an animal mentioned in an audio passage as you listened, for instance.
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39b01601.htm
And, really, really, finally, since I've been on the subjects of yuppies, books, reading and cooking; here's an interesting article by Jennifer Reese on Slate about a book about a whole different way to think about cooking. One suspects that Linda will come home to find something really new and different on the table one of these days; but not 'til after she has endured Lobscouse, which I still haven't gotten around to making even though Alex tried it and praised it pretty highly.
http://www.slate.com/id/2219243/pagenum/all
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
We should dig up Margaret Mead and put her head on a pike
While I was growing up in the 1950's and 1960's the anthropologists were falling all over themselves to lecture us about how all those primitive tribesmen out there were peaceful, while we evil civilized people were murderous savages. Now it turns out that this meme that was sold by supposed scientists like Margaret Mead was a lie or at best the result of shoddy research biased by what the researchers wanted to find.
I have some problems with the analysis in this article from the NewScientist; but there was a very interesting factoid buried in it.
"On average, warfare caused 14 per cent of the total deaths in ancient and more recent hunter-gatherers populations."
By that standard modern man is an altruistic softy more akin to Mother Theresa than to Ghenghis Khan. Something like a hundred and fifty million people die each year in the current world. Warfare isn't killing anything close to twenty million people per year, which would be 14% of them. We're pathetic pikers in the killing department next to those "peaceful" hunter gatherers who lovingly polished their war clubs while coming of age in Samoa and elsewhere. Only in a very few top scoring years during the twentieth century did modern man manage to cause anything like 14% of overall deaths through warfare.
Crikey, it turns out that "war inflicted 30 per cent of deaths among the Ache, a hunter-gatherer population from Eastern Paraguay, 17 per cent among the Hiwi, who live in Venezuela and Colombia, while just 4 per cent among the Anbara in northern Australia." I'm guessing the Anbara are afflicted by a poverty of nearby tribes to kill.
The other day at Dolores' 70th birthday party and at a dinner the night before with Jas and Kathy and Bob and Michele N, people were talking about how much better things were back in the good old days. They weren't talking about days quite so far back; but it's useful to remember before engaging in such twaddle that in the really good old days Ghenghis is reported to have said "Man's greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and embrace his women."
I'm betting Ghenghis was a better observer and judge of human nature than either Mother Theresa or Margaret Mead, whether we care to like that fact or not.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17255-ancient-warfare-fighting-for-the-greater-good.html
And, for you sports fans, the scientists have finally explained why it's hard to hit a curve ball. It turns out that a curve ball is hard to hit more because it's spinning than because it's curving.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227114.300-revealed-why-curve-balls-are-so-hard-to-hit.html
http://www.newscientist.com/movie/best-new-visual-illusions-curveball
Hit this curve ball. What's the common thread linking the biographies of the following folks?
Virginia Apgar, Bashar al-Assad, Michael DeBakey, Francois Duvalier, Jack Kevorkian, David Livingstone, Josef Mengele, Albert Schweitzer, Harold Shipman, Benjamin Spock
Meanwhile, in other news, my frog retains his healthy appetite and continues to thrive, unlike this numinous amphibian whose followers obviously aren't providing Him the form of worship He requires.
http://www.kirotv.com/family/19699075/detail.html
I have some problems with the analysis in this article from the NewScientist; but there was a very interesting factoid buried in it.
"On average, warfare caused 14 per cent of the total deaths in ancient and more recent hunter-gatherers populations."
By that standard modern man is an altruistic softy more akin to Mother Theresa than to Ghenghis Khan. Something like a hundred and fifty million people die each year in the current world. Warfare isn't killing anything close to twenty million people per year, which would be 14% of them. We're pathetic pikers in the killing department next to those "peaceful" hunter gatherers who lovingly polished their war clubs while coming of age in Samoa and elsewhere. Only in a very few top scoring years during the twentieth century did modern man manage to cause anything like 14% of overall deaths through warfare.
Crikey, it turns out that "war inflicted 30 per cent of deaths among the Ache, a hunter-gatherer population from Eastern Paraguay, 17 per cent among the Hiwi, who live in Venezuela and Colombia, while just 4 per cent among the Anbara in northern Australia." I'm guessing the Anbara are afflicted by a poverty of nearby tribes to kill.
The other day at Dolores' 70th birthday party and at a dinner the night before with Jas and Kathy and Bob and Michele N, people were talking about how much better things were back in the good old days. They weren't talking about days quite so far back; but it's useful to remember before engaging in such twaddle that in the really good old days Ghenghis is reported to have said "Man's greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and embrace his women."
I'm betting Ghenghis was a better observer and judge of human nature than either Mother Theresa or Margaret Mead, whether we care to like that fact or not.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17255-ancient-warfare-fighting-for-the-greater-good.html
And, for you sports fans, the scientists have finally explained why it's hard to hit a curve ball. It turns out that a curve ball is hard to hit more because it's spinning than because it's curving.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227114.300-revealed-why-curve-balls-are-so-hard-to-hit.html
http://www.newscientist.com/movie/best-new-visual-illusions-curveball
Hit this curve ball. What's the common thread linking the biographies of the following folks?
Virginia Apgar, Bashar al-Assad, Michael DeBakey, Francois Duvalier, Jack Kevorkian, David Livingstone, Josef Mengele, Albert Schweitzer, Harold Shipman, Benjamin Spock
Meanwhile, in other news, my frog retains his healthy appetite and continues to thrive, unlike this numinous amphibian whose followers obviously aren't providing Him the form of worship He requires.
http://www.kirotv.com/family/19699075/detail.html
Monday, June 1, 2009
Fawning slaves, unrepentent revolutionaries, socialists and bourbon
There were quite a number of unkind comments about my frog last week at Sam and Deb's anniversary party.
I'd like to point out a few facts for the record.
1. Doug spent some time at the party trying to teach his dog Roxie to bite socialists. Yet all of the socialists at the party remained unbitten at the end of the evening after the bourbon and the beer ran out. My frog has understood since birth that it's his duty to bite socialists, as any socialist who cares to put his finger near the water in the frog bowl will quickly learn.
What's more, my frog's cousins have an entire socialist city terrified. And they're too tough for the wimpy authorities of an entire left coast state, as you dog lovers will learn if you play the video at this link. Dogs have the mentality of fawning slaves; my frog is an unrepentent revolutionary. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/25/eveningnews/main619543.shtml
2. David mentioned finding it strange that I write about my frog as though he were a touchy feely pet. My frog is plenty touchy feely. He takes great interest in me when I give him his occasional food pellet, and he gets touchy feely whenever I put a finger within a couple of inches of the water, perhaps because he mistakenly thinks I'm a socialist.
3. In the course of the party I learned some pretty disgusting things about the eating habits of both Doug's Roxie and of Liana and Catherine's cute little Shih Tzus. If my frog is a coprophagist he is at a minimum discrete about it. What happens under the rocks in his bowl stays under the rocks.
4. At 23 years old my frog can benchpress a rock that outweighs him by several times, and he does it whenever I forget to feed him for a few days. Also, in his younger days, he demonstrated the ability to eat an entire tadpole almost as big as him in only two days. Plus, he can broadjump about 30 times his length, and he can highjump about 10 times his length, or at least he could a few years ago when he last escaped from the tank. Finally, he can hold his breath for at least twenty minutes, which is the longest I've ever had the patience to watch him closely. Tell me about your canines when they can do any of those things.
Update: Linda informed me that I may have unjustly identified Doug and Jenny's dog Roxie as a devotee of coprophagy. Linda says it is Rebecca and Matt's dog that goes in for pungent eating. Linda further said the women at the party all agreed that it's only logical that the girl dogs don't indulge and that only boy dogs are filthy pigs.
I'd like to point out a few facts for the record.
1. Doug spent some time at the party trying to teach his dog Roxie to bite socialists. Yet all of the socialists at the party remained unbitten at the end of the evening after the bourbon and the beer ran out. My frog has understood since birth that it's his duty to bite socialists, as any socialist who cares to put his finger near the water in the frog bowl will quickly learn.
What's more, my frog's cousins have an entire socialist city terrified. And they're too tough for the wimpy authorities of an entire left coast state, as you dog lovers will learn if you play the video at this link. Dogs have the mentality of fawning slaves; my frog is an unrepentent revolutionary. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/25/eveningnews/main619543.shtml
2. David mentioned finding it strange that I write about my frog as though he were a touchy feely pet. My frog is plenty touchy feely. He takes great interest in me when I give him his occasional food pellet, and he gets touchy feely whenever I put a finger within a couple of inches of the water, perhaps because he mistakenly thinks I'm a socialist.
3. In the course of the party I learned some pretty disgusting things about the eating habits of both Doug's Roxie and of Liana and Catherine's cute little Shih Tzus. If my frog is a coprophagist he is at a minimum discrete about it. What happens under the rocks in his bowl stays under the rocks.
4. At 23 years old my frog can benchpress a rock that outweighs him by several times, and he does it whenever I forget to feed him for a few days. Also, in his younger days, he demonstrated the ability to eat an entire tadpole almost as big as him in only two days. Plus, he can broadjump about 30 times his length, and he can highjump about 10 times his length, or at least he could a few years ago when he last escaped from the tank. Finally, he can hold his breath for at least twenty minutes, which is the longest I've ever had the patience to watch him closely. Tell me about your canines when they can do any of those things.
Update: Linda informed me that I may have unjustly identified Doug and Jenny's dog Roxie as a devotee of coprophagy. Linda says it is Rebecca and Matt's dog that goes in for pungent eating. Linda further said the women at the party all agreed that it's only logical that the girl dogs don't indulge and that only boy dogs are filthy pigs.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
We live in an age of marvels
What will they think of next. Here's a new product that will help kids get their homework done.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5343111/Ball-and-chain-to-force-children-to-study.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5343111/Ball-and-chain-to-force-children-to-study.html
Friday, May 29, 2009
Girls gone wild
Susan Whatshername seems to be suffering from Post Dramatic Stress Syndrome as a result of all the attention she's been receiving since she wowed the judges and the audience with her performance on Britain's Got Talent. According to this article in The Sun, Susan has a bit of a mouth on her. I think her mouth should be washed out with whatever they call soap over there in Blighty.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/britain_got_talent/2451169/Susan-Boyles-two-four-letter-rants-in-one-day-Britains-got-Talent.html
And in equal opportunity news, Brenda Lee, a reporter and self proclaimed Roman Catholic Priestess, showed up in in a self described cassock at the Los Angeles airport and got into a bit of a tiff with the Secret Service because they wouldn't let her give a letter to President Obama. Besides getting mad at the Secret Service, she also got mad at the Associated Press photographer because she thought he was trying to take a picture up her dress when they carried her away to the funny farm for observation.
Come to think of it the Secret Service guys were just doing their job; but maybe she's right about that Associate Press photographer. Maybe he was trying to take a picture up her dress, the pervert.
The whole situation sounds quite stresful. I hope she's not suffering from Post Photographic Stress Syndrome.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Reporter-Dragged-Kicking-and-Screaming-From-Near-Air-Force-One-.html
Consider yourself warned that if you follow the links that are contained in the story about Brenda Lee you will find some strange stuff that is only believed in isolated parts of Georgia and in Reverend Wright's church in Chicago.
But, one sometimes finds gold amidst straw. The paragraph at the bottom of Brenda's latest article in the Georgia Informer about Catholic Priests exercising modern day Droite de Seigneur privileges is. . . is. . . is. . . let's just say that paragraph is startlingly inventive. I hope Brenda writes more before the aliens come back to get her for more experiments.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/britain_got_talent/2451169/Susan-Boyles-two-four-letter-rants-in-one-day-Britains-got-Talent.html
And in equal opportunity news, Brenda Lee, a reporter and self proclaimed Roman Catholic Priestess, showed up in in a self described cassock at the Los Angeles airport and got into a bit of a tiff with the Secret Service because they wouldn't let her give a letter to President Obama. Besides getting mad at the Secret Service, she also got mad at the Associated Press photographer because she thought he was trying to take a picture up her dress when they carried her away to the funny farm for observation.
Come to think of it the Secret Service guys were just doing their job; but maybe she's right about that Associate Press photographer. Maybe he was trying to take a picture up her dress, the pervert.
The whole situation sounds quite stresful. I hope she's not suffering from Post Photographic Stress Syndrome.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Reporter-Dragged-Kicking-and-Screaming-From-Near-Air-Force-One-.html
Consider yourself warned that if you follow the links that are contained in the story about Brenda Lee you will find some strange stuff that is only believed in isolated parts of Georgia and in Reverend Wright's church in Chicago.
But, one sometimes finds gold amidst straw. The paragraph at the bottom of Brenda's latest article in the Georgia Informer about Catholic Priests exercising modern day Droite de Seigneur privileges is. . . is. . . is. . . let's just say that paragraph is startlingly inventive. I hope Brenda writes more before the aliens come back to get her for more experiments.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Vive La France
Here's an excellent video from Reason.tv that gives you an idea of what to expect after President Obama makes this country more like France.
http://reason.tv/video/show/773.html
Veronique de Rugy has it exactly right. It's one thing to visit France; but another thing entirely to live there.
And, in other news, here's a preview of a scary new movie. Warning, it has violence, hysteria and a brief appearance by Vice President Joseph Biden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6duTolZMGmI
http://reason.tv/video/show/773.html
Veronique de Rugy has it exactly right. It's one thing to visit France; but another thing entirely to live there.
And, in other news, here's a preview of a scary new movie. Warning, it has violence, hysteria and a brief appearance by Vice President Joseph Biden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6duTolZMGmI
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Who is John Galt, er, Tom Golisano?
When lifelong committed lefties like tom Golisano start talking and writing things that could have been pulled from the pages of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged you know things are getting tense on the taxation front.
The irony, of course, is that once Golisano gets established as a Florida resident he will immediately start voting for new tax and spend laws that will eventually make Florida as dysfunctional and corrupt as New York.
Interesting quotes:
"Politicians like to talk about incentives -- for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immediately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state."
". . . the top 1 percent of earners account for about 50 percent of state revenue and are the ones who can and will leave. "
"Like I said, I love New York. But I'm not going to pay any more for the waste, corruption and inefficiency that is New York state government."
Wesley Mouch, er, Barack Obama, better get on this quick. Surely he can find some way to chain Tom Golisano and the other rich traitors to their homes in high tax states. President Obama should consider getting congress to pass a new law making it illegal for people to move across state lines without permission. It wouldn't be hard to draft such a law since the old USSR had one whose language can be copied. Or, President Obama could have his attorney general get a copy of Atlas Shrugged and just copy the Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Bill or the Equalization of Opportunity bill that Wesley Mouch put into effect.
You can read the whole thing at the link below.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05202009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/adios__new_york_170074.htm?&page=0
Hat tip to Kathry Jean Lopez of National Review whose post on The Corner led me to this New York Post column.
The irony, of course, is that once Golisano gets established as a Florida resident he will immediately start voting for new tax and spend laws that will eventually make Florida as dysfunctional and corrupt as New York.
Interesting quotes:
"Politicians like to talk about incentives -- for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immediately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state."
". . . the top 1 percent of earners account for about 50 percent of state revenue and are the ones who can and will leave. "
"Like I said, I love New York. But I'm not going to pay any more for the waste, corruption and inefficiency that is New York state government."
Wesley Mouch, er, Barack Obama, better get on this quick. Surely he can find some way to chain Tom Golisano and the other rich traitors to their homes in high tax states. President Obama should consider getting congress to pass a new law making it illegal for people to move across state lines without permission. It wouldn't be hard to draft such a law since the old USSR had one whose language can be copied. Or, President Obama could have his attorney general get a copy of Atlas Shrugged and just copy the Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Bill or the Equalization of Opportunity bill that Wesley Mouch put into effect.
You can read the whole thing at the link below.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05202009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/adios__new_york_170074.htm?&page=0
Hat tip to Kathry Jean Lopez of National Review whose post on The Corner led me to this New York Post column.
Monday, May 18, 2009
The wisdom of the ages
We ignore folk wisdom at our peril.
For instance: I've always remembered Pop as saying that you shouldn't plant your garden until May 20th because of the danger of frost. Sam, on the other hand, has always claimed that Pop's edict was that you can plant anytime after Mother's Day. We've gone around about this for years; and for years Sam has maintained that I've been planting too late.
Like the slow drip. . . drip. . . drip of Chinese Water Torture, uh, Chinese Intensive Interrogation, Sam's constant negative feedback and Al Gore's incessant harping about global warming have weakened my allegiance to my own remembrance. So here I am on May 18th with all my carefully nurtured tomato and swiss chard and zucchini and cucumber plants already set out in the garden; and Linda mentioned this morning that they're predicting possible frost tonight.
Now, in a proper world, a mob of us peasants would rise up and go on a rampage with our shovels and rakes and hoes. We would put a dunce cap on Sam and equip him with a set of flimsy wings with which to stir the air over the tender tomato plants. And we would then storm off to capture Al Gore, the false Shaman, so as to render him down for fat to fuel smudge pots. The renderings from Al would fuel a lot of smudge pots and thus save a lot of crops.
But. . but. . . unfortunately we can't do those things, just yet. . . because the folly of the whole global warming hysteria has not yet become clear to enough of the population.
So instead we are reduced to reliance on our own singular efforts. In my own case I'm okay; because it happens that yesterday Linda replaced the living room drapes. The lining of the old drapes is a very thin material which will make perfect plant caps. You can bet that I'll be cursing later today as I go about tenting all the plants.
Meanwhile: in other news, Alec Baldwin has the Filipino segment of the great global multicultural community a tad upset. Alec was joking the other day about importing a Filipino mail order bride for breeding purposes; and it seems that Ramon Revilla, a senator in the Phillippines, was not amused. He threatened to open a big can of whup-ass on Alec.
For myself, I wasn't terribly offended by Alec's remarks about mail order brides because I'm not Filipino. But I was wondering how it is that Alec didn't get some negative feedback from the Gaia community for wanting more children, they being bad for the environment and all. And that got me to wondering how it is that Baldwin is still here in the United States. As I recall Alec was one of the lefty idiots who threatened to leave the country in the event George W. Bush was re-elected back in 2004. Why is Alec Baldwin still here in the U.S. spouting his racial hatred? Shouldn't he be, like overseas somewhere, like maybe in The Phillippines?
And another thing. How is it that President Barack Obama's continuance of George W. Bush's evil war in Iraq has not caused lefties like Alec Baldwin to go ballistic? Back before the recent election I distinctly recall being reminded that the war in Iraq was evil and that it was moreover causing terrible problems because it was costing $8 Billion per month.
Well, here we are, well into President Barack Obama's new Hope and Change regime, and Barry has found time to spend like many trillions of dollars on Hopey Changey stuff; but somehow he hasn't found time to end the war in Iraq, which was just funded by Obama's Democratic Party controlled congress for another eight months at the rate of, uh, $8 Billion per month. Surely the left still cares about that $8 Billion per month.
And surely President Obama wasn't lying back during the campaign when he constantly promised to end the war in Iraq and do a whole bunch of other Hopey Changey stuff like close the evil and illegal prison down in Guantanamo Bay where President Bush put all those misunderstood sons of liberty who our military captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thinking about President Obama has me remembering some old wisdom of Aunt Mary R's. During virtually any discussion of politicians she would remind you that "they're all whoremasters." She couldn't get away with saying that today of course because calling Barack Obama a whoremaster, or criticizing him in any way, would quickly be denounced as racism by the baying leftist pack, he being half Kenyan and all.
If President Obama was half Filipino, apparently, anybody could go on national TV like Alec Baldwin and joke about buying one of his daughters with a credit card on EBay and having her shipped to his home for breeding, and none of the politically correct crowd of race hustlers would turn a hair.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D988KQ001&show_article=1
Update: In other news, our pal Alec Baldwin has suddenly discovered that he hates Detroit cars and wants to see U.S. auto workers out of work after shilling for Chevy Tahoes for years. And he goes on and on about global warming despite the fact that he wants to wants to buy and import a Filipino to make another carbon spewing offspring. Do the United Auto Workers Union and the National Organization for Women know about this guy?
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmU4YzVlYWExNzMxOTU2NDlhMDA2MjgyM2FjMTg5ZGM=
Hat Tip to Greg Pollowitz, of National Review's blog Planet Gore, who evidently has a strong enough stomach to keep a closer eye on Alec Baldwin than I do.
For instance: I've always remembered Pop as saying that you shouldn't plant your garden until May 20th because of the danger of frost. Sam, on the other hand, has always claimed that Pop's edict was that you can plant anytime after Mother's Day. We've gone around about this for years; and for years Sam has maintained that I've been planting too late.
Like the slow drip. . . drip. . . drip of Chinese Water Torture, uh, Chinese Intensive Interrogation, Sam's constant negative feedback and Al Gore's incessant harping about global warming have weakened my allegiance to my own remembrance. So here I am on May 18th with all my carefully nurtured tomato and swiss chard and zucchini and cucumber plants already set out in the garden; and Linda mentioned this morning that they're predicting possible frost tonight.
Now, in a proper world, a mob of us peasants would rise up and go on a rampage with our shovels and rakes and hoes. We would put a dunce cap on Sam and equip him with a set of flimsy wings with which to stir the air over the tender tomato plants. And we would then storm off to capture Al Gore, the false Shaman, so as to render him down for fat to fuel smudge pots. The renderings from Al would fuel a lot of smudge pots and thus save a lot of crops.
But. . but. . . unfortunately we can't do those things, just yet. . . because the folly of the whole global warming hysteria has not yet become clear to enough of the population.
So instead we are reduced to reliance on our own singular efforts. In my own case I'm okay; because it happens that yesterday Linda replaced the living room drapes. The lining of the old drapes is a very thin material which will make perfect plant caps. You can bet that I'll be cursing later today as I go about tenting all the plants.
Meanwhile: in other news, Alec Baldwin has the Filipino segment of the great global multicultural community a tad upset. Alec was joking the other day about importing a Filipino mail order bride for breeding purposes; and it seems that Ramon Revilla, a senator in the Phillippines, was not amused. He threatened to open a big can of whup-ass on Alec.
For myself, I wasn't terribly offended by Alec's remarks about mail order brides because I'm not Filipino. But I was wondering how it is that Alec didn't get some negative feedback from the Gaia community for wanting more children, they being bad for the environment and all. And that got me to wondering how it is that Baldwin is still here in the United States. As I recall Alec was one of the lefty idiots who threatened to leave the country in the event George W. Bush was re-elected back in 2004. Why is Alec Baldwin still here in the U.S. spouting his racial hatred? Shouldn't he be, like overseas somewhere, like maybe in The Phillippines?
And another thing. How is it that President Barack Obama's continuance of George W. Bush's evil war in Iraq has not caused lefties like Alec Baldwin to go ballistic? Back before the recent election I distinctly recall being reminded that the war in Iraq was evil and that it was moreover causing terrible problems because it was costing $8 Billion per month.
Well, here we are, well into President Barack Obama's new Hope and Change regime, and Barry has found time to spend like many trillions of dollars on Hopey Changey stuff; but somehow he hasn't found time to end the war in Iraq, which was just funded by Obama's Democratic Party controlled congress for another eight months at the rate of, uh, $8 Billion per month. Surely the left still cares about that $8 Billion per month.
And surely President Obama wasn't lying back during the campaign when he constantly promised to end the war in Iraq and do a whole bunch of other Hopey Changey stuff like close the evil and illegal prison down in Guantanamo Bay where President Bush put all those misunderstood sons of liberty who our military captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thinking about President Obama has me remembering some old wisdom of Aunt Mary R's. During virtually any discussion of politicians she would remind you that "they're all whoremasters." She couldn't get away with saying that today of course because calling Barack Obama a whoremaster, or criticizing him in any way, would quickly be denounced as racism by the baying leftist pack, he being half Kenyan and all.
If President Obama was half Filipino, apparently, anybody could go on national TV like Alec Baldwin and joke about buying one of his daughters with a credit card on EBay and having her shipped to his home for breeding, and none of the politically correct crowd of race hustlers would turn a hair.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D988KQ001&show_article=1
Update: In other news, our pal Alec Baldwin has suddenly discovered that he hates Detroit cars and wants to see U.S. auto workers out of work after shilling for Chevy Tahoes for years. And he goes on and on about global warming despite the fact that he wants to wants to buy and import a Filipino to make another carbon spewing offspring. Do the United Auto Workers Union and the National Organization for Women know about this guy?
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmU4YzVlYWExNzMxOTU2NDlhMDA2MjgyM2FjMTg5ZGM=
Hat Tip to Greg Pollowitz, of National Review's blog Planet Gore, who evidently has a strong enough stomach to keep a closer eye on Alec Baldwin than I do.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Mangia, mangia, tuta cosa
Forget about buying cookbooks. Clara Cunnicciari will teach you to cook for free. I'm going to serve Linda her poor man's meal one of these nights, right after I remember to make lobscouse.
The best part about Clara is that she's so absent minded. In her pepper and eggs video she said she never uses a cutting board; in this video she pulls out a cutting board. Also, in this video she tells the same story twice within a couple of minutes. Plus, she makes you cringe from the way she's handling a knife; it's surprising she still has all her fingers at 91 years old.
She'd better hurry and make all the videos she wants to make before the nanny state people take away her knives and disconnect her stove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPQqH3YlHA&feature=channel
The best part about Clara is that she's so absent minded. In her pepper and eggs video she said she never uses a cutting board; in this video she pulls out a cutting board. Also, in this video she tells the same story twice within a couple of minutes. Plus, she makes you cringe from the way she's handling a knife; it's surprising she still has all her fingers at 91 years old.
She'd better hurry and make all the videos she wants to make before the nanny state people take away her knives and disconnect her stove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPQqH3YlHA&feature=channel
Wow! Even the Spender in Chief is starting to get it
"We can’t keep on just borrowing. . . We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
What a shocking statement! And what's even more shocking is that it wasn't made by some dreary economist or some boring anal-retentive accountant. It was made by none other than President Barack Obama, the Spender in Chief, the Guns and Butter Guy, the Damn the Torpedoes, Full Spend Ahead Guy. And he made that statement a few days after he signed the largest deficit spending budget in all of recorded time.
Duh!
And double duh!
Last year the man promised not to increase taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000. And he promised expensive goodies to every special interest group this side of Pluto. And 53% of you all elected him on those promises. And here we are, less than four months into his time in office, and now he tells us that chickens have an unfortunate tendency to come home to roost, to borrow a colorful phrase.
Here's a news bulletin for you. President Obama can tax every penny that the rich earn and it won't pay for more than a small down payment on the trillions and trillions of new spending bills that Nancy Pelosi and her pals in congress passed and that he quickly signed into law, breaking another one of his promises, which was that his new Hope and Change administration would post all new laws on the internet so everybody could see what he was doing.
The government can only pay for its spending in three ways. It can tax, it can borrow, or it can print money. It's already taxing at near the limit of what it can without dipping into the pockets of the middle class and the working class for a lot bigger chunk of their earnings. It's already borrowing at about the limit of what it can without causing those pesky foreigners to demand higher interest payments on the already existing huge government bond debt. And it's already printing at the rate of about a hundred billion per month.
For now the Obama economy appears to be working; but it's working like an old car whose radiator is overheating while it's driving on the level. The minute the world economy begins to recover from the recession interest rates are going to shoot up fast and high. That will choke off the recovery. Google stagflation if you have time to learn a little about economics and rational expectations and negative feedback.
Meanwhile, you can read all about President Obama's sudden discovery of basic economics in the Bloomberg article I've linked to below.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
What a shocking statement! And what's even more shocking is that it wasn't made by some dreary economist or some boring anal-retentive accountant. It was made by none other than President Barack Obama, the Spender in Chief, the Guns and Butter Guy, the Damn the Torpedoes, Full Spend Ahead Guy. And he made that statement a few days after he signed the largest deficit spending budget in all of recorded time.
Duh!
And double duh!
Last year the man promised not to increase taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000. And he promised expensive goodies to every special interest group this side of Pluto. And 53% of you all elected him on those promises. And here we are, less than four months into his time in office, and now he tells us that chickens have an unfortunate tendency to come home to roost, to borrow a colorful phrase.
Here's a news bulletin for you. President Obama can tax every penny that the rich earn and it won't pay for more than a small down payment on the trillions and trillions of new spending bills that Nancy Pelosi and her pals in congress passed and that he quickly signed into law, breaking another one of his promises, which was that his new Hope and Change administration would post all new laws on the internet so everybody could see what he was doing.
The government can only pay for its spending in three ways. It can tax, it can borrow, or it can print money. It's already taxing at near the limit of what it can without dipping into the pockets of the middle class and the working class for a lot bigger chunk of their earnings. It's already borrowing at about the limit of what it can without causing those pesky foreigners to demand higher interest payments on the already existing huge government bond debt. And it's already printing at the rate of about a hundred billion per month.
For now the Obama economy appears to be working; but it's working like an old car whose radiator is overheating while it's driving on the level. The minute the world economy begins to recover from the recession interest rates are going to shoot up fast and high. That will choke off the recovery. Google stagflation if you have time to learn a little about economics and rational expectations and negative feedback.
Meanwhile, you can read all about President Obama's sudden discovery of basic economics in the Bloomberg article I've linked to below.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
Thursday, May 14, 2009
It's a great time to be alive; but a pall is settling over the world
Mark Steyn recetnly gave a great speech at Hillsdale College. Here are a few paragraphs:
""Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor," wrote Charles Murray in In Our Hands. "When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do, ideas of greatness become an irritant. Such is the nature of the Europe syndrome."
The key word here is "give." When the state "gives" you plenty—when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood—it's not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence—literally so for those Germans who've mastered the knack of staying in education till they're 34 and taking early retirement at 42. Hilaire Belloc, incidentally, foresaw this very clearly in his book The Servile State in 1912. He understood that the long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.
Genteel decline can be very agreeable—initially: You still have terrific restaurants, beautiful buildings, a great opera house. And once the pressure's off it's nice to linger at the sidewalk table, have a second café au lait and a pain au chocolat, and watch the world go by. At the Munich Security Conference in February, President Sarkozy demanded of his fellow Continentals, "Does Europe want peace, or do we want to be left in peace?" To pose the question is to answer it. Alas, it only works for a generation or two. And it's hard to come up with a wake-up call for a society as dedicated as latterday Europe to the belief that life is about sleeping in."
The entire speech is here: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
""Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor," wrote Charles Murray in In Our Hands. "When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do, ideas of greatness become an irritant. Such is the nature of the Europe syndrome."
The key word here is "give." When the state "gives" you plenty—when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood—it's not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence—literally so for those Germans who've mastered the knack of staying in education till they're 34 and taking early retirement at 42. Hilaire Belloc, incidentally, foresaw this very clearly in his book The Servile State in 1912. He understood that the long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.
Genteel decline can be very agreeable—initially: You still have terrific restaurants, beautiful buildings, a great opera house. And once the pressure's off it's nice to linger at the sidewalk table, have a second café au lait and a pain au chocolat, and watch the world go by. At the Munich Security Conference in February, President Sarkozy demanded of his fellow Continentals, "Does Europe want peace, or do we want to be left in peace?" To pose the question is to answer it. Alas, it only works for a generation or two. And it's hard to come up with a wake-up call for a society as dedicated as latterday Europe to the belief that life is about sleeping in."
The entire speech is here: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A trillion here a trillion there
First a warning. The five minute video at the post below is about a very boring subject and your share of the loot they're talking about is only $30,000, so it may not be worth your time.
I'm not the most careful person in the world about balancing our checkbook; and I'm even less careful about doing anything that can be called budgeting; but it's just a little shocking to find out the the Federal Reserve doesn't regularly balance its multi-trillion dollar checkbook. And it's even more shocking that the Federal Reserve doesn't keep track on who it sends the trillions to and how much it gets paid back.
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/federal-reserve-can-not-account-for-9.html
And, in lighter news: The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about Italian bicycle racing, which, unsurprisingly, is far more manly and authentic than the sissified French variety.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124209602462609577.html#mod%3Darticle-outset-box%26articleTabs%3Dcomments
I'm not the most careful person in the world about balancing our checkbook; and I'm even less careful about doing anything that can be called budgeting; but it's just a little shocking to find out the the Federal Reserve doesn't regularly balance its multi-trillion dollar checkbook. And it's even more shocking that the Federal Reserve doesn't keep track on who it sends the trillions to and how much it gets paid back.
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/federal-reserve-can-not-account-for-9.html
And, in lighter news: The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about Italian bicycle racing, which, unsurprisingly, is far more manly and authentic than the sissified French variety.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124209602462609577.html#mod%3Darticle-outset-box%26articleTabs%3Dcomments
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Fry me kangaroo brown, Sport
The title of this science article was too good to change. Gino's in Norristown may have been way ahead of the curve on reducing greenhouse gases. They were rumored to be serving kangaroo meat hamburgers way back in the 1960's.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811074908.htm
And, in related news: it turns out that cows are 25 percent less gassy if you're careful what you feed them. I could have told them that.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507145752.htm
And, proving that some scientists aren't getting enough brain food in their diets, these fellows just discovered that you gain weight if you eat more.
Their stunning conclusion - "To return to the average weights of the 1970s, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children (about one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and 500 calories a day for adults (about one large hamburger)," Swinburn said. "Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, although a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake."
I would sure love to have a couple of pieces of the pizza that the mildly chubby kid in the picture is scarfing down. I bet he would love it even better if it had pepperoni on it.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090508045321.htm
Finally, in completely unrelated news: Antiques Roadshow junkies can find a virtually unlimited number of appraisals to waste time watching at pbs.org. And those who are truly desperate can find unlimited timewasters at hulu.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811074908.htm
And, in related news: it turns out that cows are 25 percent less gassy if you're careful what you feed them. I could have told them that.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507145752.htm
And, proving that some scientists aren't getting enough brain food in their diets, these fellows just discovered that you gain weight if you eat more.
Their stunning conclusion - "To return to the average weights of the 1970s, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children (about one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and 500 calories a day for adults (about one large hamburger)," Swinburn said. "Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, although a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake."
I would sure love to have a couple of pieces of the pizza that the mildly chubby kid in the picture is scarfing down. I bet he would love it even better if it had pepperoni on it.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090508045321.htm
Finally, in completely unrelated news: Antiques Roadshow junkies can find a virtually unlimited number of appraisals to waste time watching at pbs.org. And those who are truly desperate can find unlimited timewasters at hulu.com
Thursday, May 7, 2009
At least the recent monsoon didn't drive any of these into the house
Little ants are busy making a nest in our mailbox and box turtles are fleeing in panic to higher ground. Both the insects and the reptiles are reacting to the fact we've had over six inches of rain here in the past week or so. Yesterday they could have filmed a Bollywood celebrate the coming of the monsoon dance number on our lawn. This morning they could have filmed a new Godzilla versus Mothra movie down at the creek, co-starring the insane goose that spent an hour or so maniacally splashing under the bridge.
I haven't seen any of these (http://news.aol.com/article/giant-spiders-invade-town/466956?icid=mainmaindl1link4http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fgiant-spiders-invade-town%2F466956) yet; but I'm keeping a wary eye out.
In other nature news, the bad linear growing bamboo is making an unbelievably vigorous break for freedom this spring. Shoots are coming up all over the place in an area about fifty feet in diameter around the main clump. It's an impressive but, I fear (hope?), futile effort. As soon as the ground dries up, if it ever dries up, I'll introduce those new shoots to my friend John Deere. Hopefully the box turtles will all be wise enough lay low. I really don't want to know if Mr. Deere can beat his existing fifty or so yard record for flinging half of a turtle.
In completely unrelated news, my barber at the Quick Cuts this morning was, I think, Charlie Jiggs great grandson. My unsureness comes from the fact that he was a little confused as to whether his grandfather was a part time barber and he had never heard talk of the Redpeppers or of a cousin Gussie P. So he may be descended from another Charlie P in Norristown. He's going to send me his email address so I can send him a picture of the Redpeppers to show his uncle Steve. There was a Stevie Jiggs in Pop's generation as I recall, brother to Frankie, Louie and Charlie; but I don't think we ever met him.
In still other news, I bought a couple of red sweet pepper plants at the Redners. I fear my garden is going to be as overcrowded as always again this year, even though I've almost doubled its size. I have 16 tomatoes, six zucchinis, four cucumbers and a whole bunch of swiss chard to squeeze in there. And that assumes I give Sam, Jase and Marianne some of the truly excessive number of cherry tomato swiss chard plants that I started from seed as an insurance policy against cutworms, rabbits, groundhogs, rampaging birds, etc. There's no worry about the deer since I'll be fortifying the new larger garden as well as last year's circle.
Update: I just introduced the cute little ants to Mr. Raid. Au revoir little ants.
And, I just opened an email from Don A down in Florida that included this link to the worlds neatest train set. If Naz has access to the internet he will go nuts over this train layout. Well worth the five minutes or so. This train set is as elaborate as the Barbarossa plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_oDdGmKyA&feature=player_embedded
I haven't seen any of these (http://news.aol.com/article/giant-spiders-invade-town/466956?icid=mainmaindl1link4http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fgiant-spiders-invade-town%2F466956) yet; but I'm keeping a wary eye out.
In other nature news, the bad linear growing bamboo is making an unbelievably vigorous break for freedom this spring. Shoots are coming up all over the place in an area about fifty feet in diameter around the main clump. It's an impressive but, I fear (hope?), futile effort. As soon as the ground dries up, if it ever dries up, I'll introduce those new shoots to my friend John Deere. Hopefully the box turtles will all be wise enough lay low. I really don't want to know if Mr. Deere can beat his existing fifty or so yard record for flinging half of a turtle.
In completely unrelated news, my barber at the Quick Cuts this morning was, I think, Charlie Jiggs great grandson. My unsureness comes from the fact that he was a little confused as to whether his grandfather was a part time barber and he had never heard talk of the Redpeppers or of a cousin Gussie P. So he may be descended from another Charlie P in Norristown. He's going to send me his email address so I can send him a picture of the Redpeppers to show his uncle Steve. There was a Stevie Jiggs in Pop's generation as I recall, brother to Frankie, Louie and Charlie; but I don't think we ever met him.
In still other news, I bought a couple of red sweet pepper plants at the Redners. I fear my garden is going to be as overcrowded as always again this year, even though I've almost doubled its size. I have 16 tomatoes, six zucchinis, four cucumbers and a whole bunch of swiss chard to squeeze in there. And that assumes I give Sam, Jase and Marianne some of the truly excessive number of cherry tomato swiss chard plants that I started from seed as an insurance policy against cutworms, rabbits, groundhogs, rampaging birds, etc. There's no worry about the deer since I'll be fortifying the new larger garden as well as last year's circle.
Update: I just introduced the cute little ants to Mr. Raid. Au revoir little ants.
And, I just opened an email from Don A down in Florida that included this link to the worlds neatest train set. If Naz has access to the internet he will go nuts over this train layout. Well worth the five minutes or so. This train set is as elaborate as the Barbarossa plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_oDdGmKyA&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Why indeed?
President Obama has gone out of his way to kill the Washington D.C. education vouchers program despite the fact that he is sending his own daughters to a private school and despite the fact that he has fought to shower money on virtually everything else in the country.
Veronique de Rugy of National Review linked to an interesting short video in which the mother of one of the children affected, a woman who marched for Obama, asks "Why?".
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzU2YzFjMTBlMTA4NDk2Zjk4N2Q4MDE2YzVmOTNkMDY=
The state of inner city public school education in this country has been far worse than merely shameful for decades. City governments and the the state and federal governments spend more and more while the inner city public schools achieve less and less. Meanwhile the teachers unions and other special interests fight any program, such as education vouchers, that attempts to do something concrete and measurable about the problem. It's hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that the teachers unions and the politicians who control education are actively working to ensure that inner city people remain uneducated. At very best the teachers unions and city politicians don't give a damn.
Veronique de Rugy of National Review linked to an interesting short video in which the mother of one of the children affected, a woman who marched for Obama, asks "Why?".
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzU2YzFjMTBlMTA4NDk2Zjk4N2Q4MDE2YzVmOTNkMDY=
The state of inner city public school education in this country has been far worse than merely shameful for decades. City governments and the the state and federal governments spend more and more while the inner city public schools achieve less and less. Meanwhile the teachers unions and other special interests fight any program, such as education vouchers, that attempts to do something concrete and measurable about the problem. It's hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that the teachers unions and the politicians who control education are actively working to ensure that inner city people remain uneducated. At very best the teachers unions and city politicians don't give a damn.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Jas is down in Florida or I would ask him about this
While Jas and Kathy are busy enjoying themselved down in The Villages there has been shocking new research that may explain global warming. I went down to Jas's Post Office to try to get the Postal Service's official explanation; but the clerk yelled at me to "Get lost, Schmuck!" just like she yelled at the six people ahead of me in the line that snaked through the piles and boxes of undelivered mail in the lobby.
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/05/03/shock-global-temperatures-driven-by-us-postal-charges/
Not that I'm complaining, but both of my faithless brothers have been completely incommunicado since they went to Florida. They don't call, they don't write; it's like they've fallen off the face of the earth. I called Al R on Saturday morning, so I know that Jas was still alive and had been seen as of Friday of last week; but for all I know he and Sam may have been eaten by boa constrictors or alligators out on one of the golf courses since then.
Linda and I are bearing up as well as we can under the strain. On Saturday night we managed to combine the Chasse' with our former Waltz routine up at the Ballroom on High where there was pleasingly sparse attendance, so the dance floor was relatively open for experimentation. Dawn, Barb and Patsy all asked where Jas and Kathy were and how they were doing. I had to tell them that I had heard nothing.
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/05/03/shock-global-temperatures-driven-by-us-postal-charges/
Not that I'm complaining, but both of my faithless brothers have been completely incommunicado since they went to Florida. They don't call, they don't write; it's like they've fallen off the face of the earth. I called Al R on Saturday morning, so I know that Jas was still alive and had been seen as of Friday of last week; but for all I know he and Sam may have been eaten by boa constrictors or alligators out on one of the golf courses since then.
Linda and I are bearing up as well as we can under the strain. On Saturday night we managed to combine the Chasse' with our former Waltz routine up at the Ballroom on High where there was pleasingly sparse attendance, so the dance floor was relatively open for experimentation. Dawn, Barb and Patsy all asked where Jas and Kathy were and how they were doing. I had to tell them that I had heard nothing.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A great history lesson
Cossetted idiots have been blathering about war crimes a lot recently because three (yes 3) Al Quaeda big shots were waterboarded in order to cause them to talk about the plans and makeup of their organization. Most of the posturing is politically motivated; but there are actually some truly amazing idiots out there who think war is some kind of refereed sport whose rules can be neatly written down in a book like the rules for a baseball game. It simply isn't so, and it never will be so.
This moral backbiting game recently resulted in comedian John Stewart parrotting the increasingly but wrongly held idea that President Harry Truman's use of the atomic bombs against Japan was unnecessary and a war crime. The only thing nice that can be said about people who believe that is that they may deserve some leniency by reason of insanity or by virtue of lack of education about the attitudes of the leaders of Japan and the attitudes of a significant portion of the Japanese people during World War II.
Later John Stewart turned around and retracted his judgement of Harry Truman as a war criminal, probably because he was informed by his horrified writers and political commissars that Truman was a Democrat. He was probably also informed that Truman was the immediate successor to Franklin D. Roosevelt who is a Democratic Party Saint, in part because he ordered the development of the atomic bombs and the long range B29 bombers which Truman later used to drop them on Japan. The only reason Roosevelt himself didn't order the use of the atomic bombs was because they weren't ready before he died. You can be sure of that because Roosevelt never shrank from ordering the firebombing of cities, though, and the firebombing attacks killed many more people than the atomic bomb attacks.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not attacking Roosevelt or Truman for those decisions. They were running this country during a war to the death. Based on lot of reading I think they prosecuted that war with reasonable competence and reasonable humanity given the nature of the times and the nature of the other combatant nations.
Here is a video takedown of the whole concept of the atomic bombing of Japan as a war crime. It's excellent.
http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_/The_True_Story_of_the_Atomic_Bombs/1808/
This moral backbiting game recently resulted in comedian John Stewart parrotting the increasingly but wrongly held idea that President Harry Truman's use of the atomic bombs against Japan was unnecessary and a war crime. The only thing nice that can be said about people who believe that is that they may deserve some leniency by reason of insanity or by virtue of lack of education about the attitudes of the leaders of Japan and the attitudes of a significant portion of the Japanese people during World War II.
Later John Stewart turned around and retracted his judgement of Harry Truman as a war criminal, probably because he was informed by his horrified writers and political commissars that Truman was a Democrat. He was probably also informed that Truman was the immediate successor to Franklin D. Roosevelt who is a Democratic Party Saint, in part because he ordered the development of the atomic bombs and the long range B29 bombers which Truman later used to drop them on Japan. The only reason Roosevelt himself didn't order the use of the atomic bombs was because they weren't ready before he died. You can be sure of that because Roosevelt never shrank from ordering the firebombing of cities, though, and the firebombing attacks killed many more people than the atomic bomb attacks.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not attacking Roosevelt or Truman for those decisions. They were running this country during a war to the death. Based on lot of reading I think they prosecuted that war with reasonable competence and reasonable humanity given the nature of the times and the nature of the other combatant nations.
Here is a video takedown of the whole concept of the atomic bombing of Japan as a war crime. It's excellent.
http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_/The_True_Story_of_the_Atomic_Bombs/1808/
Friday, May 1, 2009
I feel like I wasted my time in college
Relative to these guys I was very lazy during my college days. I never applied myself as much as these guys obviously have.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjZkNzY0ODA4MmY1MjMwNzRjMGI2N2IwNGMwYzBkNTI=
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjZkNzY0ODA4MmY1MjMwNzRjMGI2N2IwNGMwYzBkNTI=
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Meanwhile, it appears we're not doomed to freeze in the dark
Quietly and stealthily the drilling companies have been finding ways to produce potentially enormous amounts of natural gas right here in the U.S. And the politicians have started to list natural gas along with wind and solar when they talk about "alternative" sources of energy.
Laissez les bon temps roulez.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124104549891270585.html#mod%3Darticle-outset-box%26articleTabs%3Dcomments
As is usual on the Wall Street Journal site the comments on the article are well worth skimming if you're interested in the topic. The WSJ limits comments to subscribers who provide their full name with the comment so there are fewer annoying trolls, and the commenters generally know a bit about economics, unlike politicians and many so called environmentalists.
Laissez les bon temps roulez.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124104549891270585.html#mod%3Darticle-outset-box%26articleTabs%3Dcomments
As is usual on the Wall Street Journal site the comments on the article are well worth skimming if you're interested in the topic. The WSJ limits comments to subscribers who provide their full name with the comment so there are fewer annoying trolls, and the commenters generally know a bit about economics, unlike politicians and many so called environmentalists.
Heavens to murgatroyds - I'm very, very mildly famous
Commentary Magazine's Contentions Blog chose one of my comments as their Post of the Day.
"A large part of MoveOn’s success was rooted in the fact that it was well launched and organized long before the start and most especially the bogging down of the Iraq war provided it with its most effective issue. The Tea Party movement is most interesting because it seems well launched and ready to grow long before the ‘chickens’ inherent in Obama’s statist policies can reasonably be expected to ‘come home to roost.’
There is simply no way to pay for Obama’s initiatives with taxes only on those earning over $250,000 or even $150,000 and there is no way the economy can resume rapid long term growth anytime soon given the much larger share of output that Obama’s plans will consume. The anger at passing on the tax and slower growth burden on to the children and grandchildren will pale next to the anger that will arise once people see taxes and slower growth impact on their own household finances."
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/gjermani/64111
"A large part of MoveOn’s success was rooted in the fact that it was well launched and organized long before the start and most especially the bogging down of the Iraq war provided it with its most effective issue. The Tea Party movement is most interesting because it seems well launched and ready to grow long before the ‘chickens’ inherent in Obama’s statist policies can reasonably be expected to ‘come home to roost.’
There is simply no way to pay for Obama’s initiatives with taxes only on those earning over $250,000 or even $150,000 and there is no way the economy can resume rapid long term growth anytime soon given the much larger share of output that Obama’s plans will consume. The anger at passing on the tax and slower growth burden on to the children and grandchildren will pale next to the anger that will arise once people see taxes and slower growth impact on their own household finances."
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/gjermani/64111
Here's a swine talking about the flu on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30494440#30494440
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/us_world/Swine-Flu-0428.html
I wonder what the environmentalists and the Mayor of New York think about him suggesting that people shouldn't use subways to get to work.
I also wonder if anyone in his family has taken the subway anywhere since he was bought lock stock and barrel and became "the Senator from MBNA" thirty years ago.
Finally, I wonder who's doing his makeup. He looks like he has dropsy or something.
Meanwhile, the Muslims in Egypt are franticly killing all the pigs owned by the Coptic Christians, even though the pigs being killed have nothing to do with spreading Swine Flu. This makes sense from a Muslim standpoint since its a great new way to get at what they really want to do, which is to starve out the Copts or force them to flee the country as they have been patiently doing for 1400 years. We should offer asylum to any and all Egyptian Coptic Christians who want to come to the U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE53T4BA20090430
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/us_world/Swine-Flu-0428.html
I wonder what the environmentalists and the Mayor of New York think about him suggesting that people shouldn't use subways to get to work.
I also wonder if anyone in his family has taken the subway anywhere since he was bought lock stock and barrel and became "the Senator from MBNA" thirty years ago.
Finally, I wonder who's doing his makeup. He looks like he has dropsy or something.
Meanwhile, the Muslims in Egypt are franticly killing all the pigs owned by the Coptic Christians, even though the pigs being killed have nothing to do with spreading Swine Flu. This makes sense from a Muslim standpoint since its a great new way to get at what they really want to do, which is to starve out the Copts or force them to flee the country as they have been patiently doing for 1400 years. We should offer asylum to any and all Egyptian Coptic Christians who want to come to the U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE53T4BA20090430
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Au contraire - it's great news for porkophiles
Every so often one comes across a great example of how ignorant even very smart people can be about simple economics. The other day, for instance, Richard Besser, who is an MD and acting head of the Centers for Disease Control, said that swine flu is "not helpful to people who eat pork."
Au contraire, Dicky, swine flu is great news for porkophiles who are smart enough to understand that you can't get the disease from a pork chop or a fresh ham or a slab of bacon. It may be wise to avoid contact with recently arrived travellers from Mexico; but avoiding contact with a nice porkette sandwich won't do you a bit of good on the swine flu front.
Prices of pork in the market are going down, folks.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28343516.htm
Au contraire, Dicky, swine flu is great news for porkophiles who are smart enough to understand that you can't get the disease from a pork chop or a fresh ham or a slab of bacon. It may be wise to avoid contact with recently arrived travellers from Mexico; but avoiding contact with a nice porkette sandwich won't do you a bit of good on the swine flu front.
Prices of pork in the market are going down, folks.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28343516.htm
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