Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Saturday, June 20. 2009

Saturday morning links


The 48' Colin Archer above is for sale, but what we really need up here in the Northeast is an Ark. Almost up to 40 days and 40 nights of cold rain. Nobody is boating much yet. I call all crummy weather "climate change" now. Don't you? Aren't we entitled to nice weather? Why doesn't the government do something about it?


Consumer Reports on digital cameras


Why is The Economist thriving?


Cool military mini-flying robots, with video


Iran has clamped down, but one message goes out


Via Examiner:



...when asked the most important economic issue facing the country, 24% chose the budget deficit and only 11% chose health care



Related, at Cafe hayek:



I want more rationing with less control where power is dispersed. The "reformers" want more rationing with more control and more power. They scare me.



Related: The O's own Doc knocks Obamacare


Related: Honeymoon is over


Related: Dems cannot agree on cap & trade.


What happened to AARP? Volokh:



AARP's official mission is now stated as leading "positive social change". 



Sheesh. Gimme a break. They think they are the YWCA? But why should I care?


From Insty:




JOHN TIERNEY: U.S. Climate Report Assailed: “The new federal report on climate change gets a withering critique from Roger Pielke Jr., who says that it misrepresents his own research and that it wrongly concludes that climate change is already responsible for an increase in damages from natural disasters.”




Does academia believe that they all think alike because they're smarter than me? I do not think that they are. They just chose different careers. Everybody is a careerist, to some extent.


Coyote calls out the BS brigade. There is no warming, boys and girls.


The usually serene Kimball loses it about Frank Rich. Don't we all?


Tort law in America is like a lottery. $16 million for what?


Megan: Is comprehensive health care dead? Related, at NRO:



It is a foregone conclusion that the bill now getting marked up in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) is not going anywhere.



Related, Wherein Tyler Cowan makes no sense to me:



Note that the economy has seemed to stabilize, more or less, and well under ten percent of the stimulus money has been spent to date.  Moving forward, if no further major programs will be put into place, how would you like to spend the rest of that cash?


Seriously.



 But Tyler, that cash doesn't exist yet. It's debt. Debt isn't money - it's negative money.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:44 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

It's negative money if it's spent on non-productive activity. That is, if you take out debt to go on vacation, then it's negative money. If you take out debt to build a factory that creates the latest and greatest widget that will change my life, then it is enabling of positive economic value.

Debt cannot simply be classified as a negative. Since most homes are purchased on debt (mortgage), and neighborhoods with high home ownership levels are the most desirable, it's easy to see that debt can be a net good.

On the other hand, it's fair to discuss all government debt as a net negative. The government is NOT (or should not be) in the business of business in the sense of running it. That is, the massive transformations of Chrysler, GM, AIG and eventually health care insurance will create a new outlet for governmental intervention financed by debt. IF these businesses were legit, and had a good future, then the markets would provide them the needed cash in debt form, if they were requested. Even in the "tight" money situation we currently face, the money would be provided because it would represent positive risk.

The problem is, each of these things (health care aside) is in bad shape with no hope of reasonable outcome. So, what solution exists for them to raise debt and pay off their wealthy friends? Why - go to the government, the beneficiary of massive Detroit and insurance largesse over the years. Quid pro quo, Senators and Mr. President - we took you on fishing trips, golf outings, bought you cars, sent you on vacations, promoted your "fact-finding" boondoggles......now we need the taxpayer's money. We've paid for it, now we want it.

A socialist at heart, Obama is more than happy to provide all this. I have no doubt McCain and Bush would have too - they were pragmatic (not practical) politicians who loved quid pro quo. Obama, he of the empty suit, is simply following his marching orders.

Bush was "owned" by Cheney. Obama is not owned by anyone - he's simply bossed around by Rahm Emmanuel and a coterie of socialists who are trying to cement their position in society so they can control who shows up at their private clubs.
#1 Rick on 2009-06-20 10:40 (Reply)
I'd like to own a few of those flying robots. They could be useful for any number of things... but I wonder, could they bring the newspaper in for me?
#2 Luther McLeod on 2009-06-20 12:27 (Reply)
Luther dear ... Probably not, as far as your paper goes. But they are an amazing development in warfare, and later on, peacefare. That video should be watched by all of us, for its future implications alone. I first heard of them in the ground war in the Mid East last year, and was grateful that they were there, sparing real live soldiers from dying. But, like all technological miracles, they can in the future be used for less noble purposes.

Anyway, the video is fascinating. And a little bit scary.

Marianne
#3 Marianne Matthews on 2009-06-20 12:35 (Reply)
Marianne, I agree. And it was just a silly notion that they'd fetch my paper. Though that film was just of 'future' projects, nothing in the field yet I don't think. But it will be.
#3.1 Luther McLeod on 2009-06-21 00:14 (Reply)
"Now the Americans have Obama and we have our version of Bush. We need an Obama who can find solutions for Iran's problems."

Please,they need an Obama?! And his found "solutions?"

WE need more people like the ones there in Iran who have taken to the streets enmass. To bad many have been hurt or killed.

Tree of Liberty?
#4 CIII on 2009-06-20 14:51 (Reply)
CIII,

I picked up on that phrase immediately. Here is my best guess on why it may have been used.

First, Obama is the current President and is generally liked - if you believe the polls.

Second, Bush was disliked even by people who supported his foreign policy but objected to his tolerance for spending, his position on immigration and other policies.

Third, Ahmadinejad is disliked by many Iranians. The economy has stumbled despite the benefits of an oil economy and high crude prices. He has cracked down on many expressions of freedom. He is also apocalyptic and that scares many for any number of reasons.

I think the comments were designed to make an identification with an appeal to Americans to support their efforts and the risk they are taking by defying the Khamenei, who has already shown he is unwilling to compromise.

Dictators don't respond well when their grip on power is threatened and the potential for large losses of life exist. The Iranian opposition knows this and hopes that a watching world will prevent the worst.
#4.1 Barrett on 2009-06-20 18:29 (Reply)
The fifth line should read "an identification with and an appeal to". Sorry.
#4.1.1 Barrett on 2009-06-20 18:31 (Reply)
Agree with your thoughts there Barrett. Thanks!
#4.1.2 CIII (Link) on 2009-06-20 21:23 (Reply)
Climate...

OK, I do think it changes. Sometimes drastically. But humans responsible? Local (even several hundred square miles at a time) perhaps, but not (despite adding all the changes I see worldwide) globally. Note that modern Chaos Theory was first published by a meteorologist (Lorenz) when he realised his computer models could not possibly work.

Whle I disagree with Prof. Lomborg (he believes in AGW) his proposals will work whichever way global temps go - and for a heck of a lot less money.

As to the warmists, they keep doing wierd stuff. Like acknowledging that temps have been steady or possibly dropped for ten years and will probably drop for twenty more in complete contradiction of their steady-rise models they say this is only because they did not include stuff like Nino/Nina, PDO, Solar fluctuation etc. Thus the models are correct and we must do what they say to change the steady rise of temps... Huh? Admit the models do not reflect reality for at least one-third of the disaster century, do not include major and known cyclic changes, then claim they are correct? Bernie Madoff didn't plot this course, right?

Lots more (can you believe there are attempts to claim the "hockey stick" was correct, there was no Medieval Warm etc?), but waddahay.
#5 teqjack on 2009-06-20 16:23 (Reply)
teqjack ... the warmists also failed to include a few little things in their computer models like the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age, both long before any concentrated industrial activity occurred on our planet. Now the jacka$$es are trying to say there was not a Medieval Warming Period. Then how come the people of that period could grow grapes in Greenland? How come food crops flourished where they had never flourished before? When a bunch of corrupt folks see how politicized 'scientists' tamper with objective truth, they figure that they can do it too, without any of us everyday busy people noticing.

Pernicious rubbish is what it is.

Marianne

Note: there are no obscenities in the above message.
#6 Marianne Matthews on 2009-06-20 16:34 (Reply)
Re: the AARP. That is explained by O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing. I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. More here: http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback-jos062603.asp

That Pope Center article was great. Bookmarked.
#7 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2009-06-20 22:08 (Reply)
Man! That is one pretty boat. Now that I live in western PA, I miss my days of sailing on the Chesapeake. Sorry to hear about the rain problems... must be heck getting the lawn mowed.
#8 Sean G (Link) on 2009-06-21 14:32 (Reply)
Sean ... I miss the Chesapeake and the tidal rivers too. My parents retired to the Northern Neck of Virginia -- a lovely, not very civilized area back 50 years ago. Did you ever sail a 'Pinkie' or a 'Sharpie?' We used to see them being used for commercial fishing, and in fact the last commercial fishing fleet under sail was anchored near The Tides Inn on the other side of the Neck from us.

Marianne
#9 Marianne Matthews on 2009-06-21 16:27 (Reply)
I'm afraid I never had the privilege, Marianne. I used to run about in a '67 Morgan 24.
#9.1 Sean G (Link) on 2009-06-22 05:50 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.