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.
America's public schools have warehoused three million people in jobs that do little to improve student achievement—people who would be working productively in the private sector if that extra $210 billion were not taxed out of the economy each year.
Now this is a perfect example of poetic justice! A corrupt democrat politician uses corrupt means to win an election by a tactic that our Attorney General claims doesn't exist.
"...don’t let others who are no better than you are, convince you that there is something wrong with you because you don’t want to use the power of the state to try to improve the lives of others. Their strategy has a very mixed track record."
The US, unlike Canada and (mostly) in the UK, will never criminalize private medicine because who could imagine the Lefty Hollywooders and the Lefty Wall Streeters waiting in lines in grungy government clinics or waiting six months for an MRI?
Not to mention the little-noticed detail that federal employees are exempt from Obamacare. I wonder why.
As the last wave of fireworks die out, the shooting stars sinking to earth and vanishing into the darkness, the light of Independence Day fades and the crowds slowly trudge away from the brief spectacle, past the lines of police barricades, through narrow streets, past government buildings, back to their co-dependent lives in a co-dependent nation where the will of the people and the rights of the individual matter less than the latest proposal to solve the problems of their independence by making the country a more dependent place.
A few hundred years ago in these streets, men and women celebrated the end of tyranny, and in its darkest hour, lines of grim men marched along the waterfront up to the highest point on the island to mount a final defense. Sometimes the older buildings still wear their shadows on their brick walls and by the golden light of the fireworks you can almost see them, shadows moving in the darkness, their footsteps taking them north, a faint song on their lips, muskets in their hands, their lives lost and gained in defense of their freedom.
An interesting dilemma has presented itself to the world's bankers. For years they have been misguided in believing that forcing money through the system is the only way to keep economies running. Ignoring the nature of economic cycles, and trying to centrally manipulate positive outcomes, typically called 'soft landings', has led to a number of unintended consequences.
A slowing economy is one which needs savings, because in a heated economy, too many people are spending. At some point, the investment cycle can only be completed by having more people save.
We are, and have been for some time, at this stage. But the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) have all tried to manipulate consumption and spur borrowing by lowering interest rates. At some point, we've borrowed too much. At what point is that? At the point where we begin to charge for the 'privilege' of saving money. This is a Keynesian solution to a problem, but a problem that is misunderstood. During the Depression, rates were raised. This was the correct approach to handling the issue. But they were raised too far. Keynes did not deal with the issue of scale, just the issue he felt was problematic, which was a lack of consumption. Lack of Consumption is a very real problem, but lack of savings is an even worse problem.
The truth is, with interest rates as close to zero as they can be, and bank fees reaching levels that rival extortion, the US has been in a Negative Interest Rate situation for almost 3 years. We just haven't made it official the way Denmark has. It's not a good thing, either (though Denmark claims it is).
Interest rates have been negative once before - for reserves by banks at the central bank in Sweden in 2009. Even the US is considering this approach to get banks to lend more.
At some point, the massive credit expansion the Fed has employed the last 4 years will create inflation. We've been lucky so far, as a reserve currency, that most of this inflation has been exported to smaller nations. But that time is coming to an end, as is our reserve status. This, combined with negative interest rates, will no doubt spark the inflationary fires as consumption takes place and dollars are repatriated when interest rates go up.
It's worth noting, as well, that the US has been in a Negative Real Interest Rate situation for quite some time (inflation is greater than interest rate payments = negative real interest rates). Negative Real Interest is not rare, and is usually what leads to increased consumption (and has no doubt kept our economy struggling along rather than forcing us to do what we need to do). Which explains why Jim Rogers has been deeply invested in commodities.
The Washington Post describes the discovery of the subatomic Higgs boson particle as “thought to create a sort of force field that permeates the universe, imbuing everything we see and touch with the fundamental property known as mass.” There is also a basic particle that permeates the universe of human nature and, thus, of politics, imbuing everything that happens with the fundamental property known as power.
From birth each individual exhibits a basic nature which exists throughout life. Even as it is shaped some by nurture and experiences, that basic nature is dominant. Those natures fall along a continuum from stubborn control of self and choices of environment to stubborn control of others and their choices of environment. In the political sphere these natures fall along a right to left continuum. On the right is a tendency toward individualism and creation of an environment that is based on the freely combined choices of other individuals. On the left is a tendency toward imposing a collectivism that is based of unifying others through power over their choices. On the right the role of government is important in protecting those free choices, including those of minorities. On the left the role of government is essential to aggregating power to enforce visions of the collective good, regardless of minorities. Most people are along the continuum, by nature, by choice, and by circumstance tending toward one end or the other.
This is, if you consider 'lucky' as witnessing the most spectacular fireworks display in the history of mankind, now and probably forever.
Last night, an electrical malfunction caused the city of San Diego to set off their entire display in half a minute.
I've combined two clips for your viewing pleasure. The camera lens kind of futzes out in the first one because of the brightness; the second one, while blurrier, is closer to what people actually saw. Lucky bastards.
If you have a minute (but who does?) and have been on vacation from the intertubes, please scroll down Maggie's and catch up on some of our posts from the last couple of days.
Re France, "Why should they (the Germans) accept to contribute to the financing of a 60 year retirement age in France when they have just raised it domestically to 67?"
Happy Dependence Day! Between the government-sponsored electronic medical records and the Obamacare-IRS alliance, big brother is going to know everything about you and your family. For the Greater Good, natch.
It's a wonder that a single American likes this idea. Perhaps there is a large portion of Americans who like to be forced to do things. I just don't get it.
Last week I noted that I need an operation to get rid of a tumor in my lower intestine. It's always somethin', huh? As my rather glib doctor put it, I have a cancer, not the cancer, and they caught it at a fairly early stage, so I've got some time to dig up the cash for the operation. Gruesome details are here.
I just wanted to express a huge 'Thank You' to all of you who have chipped a little something into the pot, and especially to those who gave more than their fair share, so hopefully I'll make it. If anyone's interested, my bio is here. I guess you could say I've been around the block a few times. If you'd like to join the Save-Our-Doc campaign, my PayPal donation page is here.
To those who have contributed: While I promised not to spill the beans and let everyone know what a terrific person you are, I obviously will if you want, and if you have a web site I can promote in an article, I'll be happy to do so. Also, if you've been thinking of putting up a blog or web site, I'll do the initial setup for you. Just don't get a domain name until we talk. If you want to do any of the above, just say "please email me" in the comments and I'll get hold of you at the address associated with your login name.
As some of you know, there's a country to the north of us. I know it sounds crazy that anyone would lay claim to some vast expanse of frozen wasteland, but as the old expression goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure", so I suppose it's understandable that someone would come along and claim the parts we didn't want.
The name of this delightful British protectorate is "Canada" (also referred to as "Great Britain Jr."), and the fact that it exists at all is often cited as "The eighth wonder of the world." National Geographic magazine has done a number of specials on it over the years, amazing the readers with photographic evidence that people actually live in this frozen hellhole.
Well, today is their Independence Day, which celebrates the famous day in 1867 when Britain bought a big chunk of it from France for $38 and change (roughly $17.2B accounting for inflation) because they needed to import drinking water to their Caribbean colonies and Canada has lots of snow. Then they filed an Instant Country document with the League of Nations and became "Canada", which is Eskimo for "land of many snow".
In doing my research on this adorable little principality, I quickly discovered that Canadians are very patriotic:
And I'm sure you caught the Biblical reference to covering up the private parts with a Canadian fig leaf (their national symbol), so we have to presume Canadians are also exceptionally moral.
Now, while some people call Canadians and other Nordic tribes "humorless", their money proves this just isn't so. Based on the famous Warner Bros animated cartoon series "Looney Tunes", they named their money "Loonies" and "Toonies".
All in all, that's quite the little accolade for Porky and the gang. Personally, I was always a Yosemite Sam kinda guy. Why, I remember once when he-
Wait... where was I?
Oh, right. Trying to think of nice things to say about Canada.
Well, others have also taken up this mighty challenge, and it was only by combing the very bowels of the Internet that I was able to conjure up what appears at first glance to border upon the miraculous:
We sometimes wonder what the US Constitution would look like if it had been written by “qualified” political scientists with Ph.Ds and a solid body of peer reviewed published work behind them. We think it would probably stink in comparison with the current version ..
I just came up this this at my desk. "New services" means new medical services people will use now that they have insurance - along the lines of preventative care etc, which in my option may decrease "S" in the long term but not enough for an overall economic benefit. This model assumes the cost of insurance will be the same for everyone. My colleagues think it is a pretty robust equation.
Seems to me she gets to the heart of it. No, insurance companies cannot afford it without raising rates to a level which is impossible for the middle class and unacceptible to the federal regulators. Like requiring people to buy hybrid Rolls Royces that they don't want and cannot use. Then the companies will be blamed for the prices and few will remember that the government required the whole mess (just like the housing bubble).
Despite the ugly subject matter, I suppose you could call this good news.
First off, in case you missed it, you might want to glance over my first post on spy drones.
I then started collecting articles for a future post, and here we are. But what's to note is that these aren't a bunch of whiny, bitchy rantings on some backwater blog site (like, you know, mine), but coming from the major news organizations.
I would also note that I mentioned the 'private sector' in the above post, and the first two links here are what I was referring to. All the rest have to do with our beloved imperialstormtroopers trusted government officials.
After those Street View snoopers, Google and Apple use planes that can film you sunbathing in your back garden. Software giants will use military-grade cameras to take powerful satellite images.
So, as these things go, it's nice to see the major news organizations aren't backing away from the story. I suppose this is figuring that all the while they're planning on building up their own 'eye in the sky' fleets. As soon as one news organization scoops everybody with some really boss footage of some horrendous disaster using a drone, they'll all have to jump on board. Those are the rules.
And all of that just barely scratches the surface.
I'm far more concerned with the precedent the Court will set regarding the further expansion of the Commerce Clause. If the Court fails to declare a federal mandate of this type unconstitutional, that would be an enormous triumph for "progressives"---far beyond the momentary victory of the Court's upholding Obamacare.]
In less than 40 months, Obama destroyed the greatest bipartisan good will that any recent president has enjoyed, and has done more to discredit Keynesian neo-socialist politics than have all of talk radio, Fox News, and the internet combined. In just two years, he took a Democratic Congress and lost the House in the largest midterm setback since 1938. In other words, the people — fifty percent of whom either do not pay federal income taxes or receive some sort of state or federal entitlement or both — saw the best face of modern neo-socialism imaginable, and they were not quite sold on it.
Second, it is hard to screw up America in just four years. Look at it this way: gas and oil production has soared despite, not because of, the federal government. The rest of the world — the unraveling European Union, the Arab Spring, Putin’s Russia, aging Japan, authoritarian China, the recrudescent Marxism in Latin America — reminds us of American exceptionalism. The verdict from Wisconsin is that the statist model is over. The public union, big pension, non-fireable employee model is left only with an “après nous, le déluge“ sigh. The private sector is not doing fine, but shortly will be when it is assured taxes won’t soar, energy will be cheaper, and Obamacare will cease. The irony is that the last four years have reminded us of what we still can be, and how we differ from most other places in the world.
What is amazing to me is that there were any votes on the Supremes opposed. Why would anybody in America want to squelch voices and opinions? Unless they have contempt for the peoples' opinions?
It's a sickness, and it has a foothold, but not quite a majority, on the Court. We The People need all points of view, and we have the duty to apply our BS Detectors and biases as best we can. Seems to me that politicians are the biggest purveyors of self-interested BS, but their expensive speech cannot be outlawed.
No president in memory has done more to divide America than Barack Obama. Exploiting every division for political gain, he has pitted poor against rich, blacks and Hispanics against whites, gays against straights, women against men, young against old, and union members against business and government leaders. Mainstream Americans are tired of these divisions, and they want a president who speaks of "believing in America," not believing in black America, Hispanic America, young America, female America, gay America, or unionized America.
The American people are tired of change. What they want is jobs, better wages, stability, and security.
...you directly imply that I am a “denier”, as I am highly skeptical of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (not just “anthropogenic global warming”, which is plausible if not measurable, although there are honest grounds to doubt even this associated with the details of the Carbon Cycle that remain unresolved by model or experiment). Since I am a theoretical physicist, I find this enormously offensive. I might as well label you an idiot for using it, when you’ve never met me, have no idea of my competence or the strength of my arguments for or against any aspect of climate dynamics (because on this list I argue both points of view as the science demands and am just as vigorous in smacking down bullshit physics used to challenge some aspect of CAGW as I am to question the physics or statistical analysis or modelling used to “prove” it). But honestly, you probably aren’t an idiot (are you?) and no useful purpose is served by ad hominem or emotionally loaded human descriptors
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The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start
Last week I noted that I need an operation to get rid of a tumor in my lower intestine. It's always somethin', huh? As my rather glib doctor put it, I have a cancer, not the cancer, and they caught it at a fairly early stage, so I've got some time to dig up the cash for the operation. Gruesome details are 
Image from 
We had some internet glitches today but now the Farm is open for business again. 
Despite the ugly subject matter, I suppose you could call this good news.
Those two peacocks 