Today's Hobby Lobby episode with the Supreme Court.....kinda reset the stage a bit. Basically, the court said that you can't make a one-owner type company buy "X" type of healthcare that some guys in DC felt everyone needed. In this case.....the company didn't mind the healthcare situation, but wasn't going to be forced into covering birth-control (a $22 a situation if you use Walgreens).
If the government wanted to get clearly into the mess....they should just hand out condoms.....by bulk distribution to every single American. You show up at the Post Office.....say you got a need.....and the Post-Master would just issue out twenty-five condoms to you. Go down to some county office and state a need.....and have that guy disperse out forty condoms to you.....all free of course.
In this case, I think the government got to some point where they felt they'd set the stage for just about anything to be part of the healthcare package, and just never thought the court would challenge them on this.
The hostility on this? Kinda surprising. I sat and watched five minutes of CNN trying to explain how was terribly unfair if you were working for Hobby Lobby and they won't pay for such-and-such coverage. But then.....$22 a month at Walgreens for what a woman needs? From what I saw in DC while living there.....folks spend $100 a month just on Starbucks coffee, so I don't see anything frustrating about $22 out of a person's pocket for birth control.
These employees who are angry? Well....go find another job....like some bar where they cover this, but they force you to hang around drunks for six hours every evening. Or go work for McDonalds and flip burgers for a eight-hour shift. Or go work for some truck-stop where guys come in and cuss non-stop for sixteen minutes while they stand there. Everyone has something to whine about these days.....and this is just number 4,539,083 on the list of things to whine about. Get a life.
Monday 30 June 2014
The Nazi Comparison Again
I don't have access to HBO (living in Germany kinda prevents that)....but occasionally, there will be a clip put up from a HBO show and I'll sit and review the clip. On Friday night of last week....there was the 'Real Time with Bill Maher Show'. Bill's guests included Max Brooks.....who has written a book or two. Bill got around to asking Max about the Tea Party.
Max responded that the Tea Party has numerous characteristics similar to the Nationalists Socialists of Germany (1930-era), and kind of behave like Nazis. I sat there for about two minutes watching it.....then kinda laughed.
The Nazis had a platform to greatly increase old-age pensions....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis had a platform to nationalize all business operations, and have the government be the manager.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted profit-sharing built into all major business operations.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted community-run department stores....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted all physical and mental labor to be conducted for the betterment of society or the community....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted to absolutely eliminate all rent and land speculation objectives, allowing on the government to decide on rent costs or land prices.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted compulsory fitness programs in all schools....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted a legal means to counter anyone that they perceived as deceiving the public within the political world. If the authority deemed a reporter wasn't reporting the government-sanctioned 'truth', then the reporter could be jailed.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The list goes on and on.
Yeah, there's some nut-jobs out there who get chances to talk to the news media or entertainment media, and you get episodes like this. You'd best sit down if you are going to use Nazis in your conversation, and really do your school-work.
Max responded that the Tea Party has numerous characteristics similar to the Nationalists Socialists of Germany (1930-era), and kind of behave like Nazis. I sat there for about two minutes watching it.....then kinda laughed.
The Nazis had a platform to greatly increase old-age pensions....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis had a platform to nationalize all business operations, and have the government be the manager.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted profit-sharing built into all major business operations.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted community-run department stores....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted all physical and mental labor to be conducted for the betterment of society or the community....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted to absolutely eliminate all rent and land speculation objectives, allowing on the government to decide on rent costs or land prices.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted compulsory fitness programs in all schools....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The Nazis wanted a legal means to counter anyone that they perceived as deceiving the public within the political world. If the authority deemed a reporter wasn't reporting the government-sanctioned 'truth', then the reporter could be jailed.....something that you'd never hear a Tea Party guy suggest.
The list goes on and on.
Yeah, there's some nut-jobs out there who get chances to talk to the news media or entertainment media, and you get episodes like this. You'd best sit down if you are going to use Nazis in your conversation, and really do your school-work.
Saturday 28 June 2014
A Canal Story
There's a big moment coming up in about two years.....as the newly enhanced Panama Canal (bigger locks) becomes a reality. You see....for decades...the older locks set into motion a particular limit to the size of vessels going from the Atlantic to the Pacific (or vice-versa).
In the business world, this meant that as much as China could sell into the US....they had to ship it, and that meant stopping at one of a half-dozen major ports on the west coast of the US. Naturally, the bigger vessels meant lesser cost on shipping, but then the cost of unloading at the Pacific ports came into play, and then you had to figure the costs of trucking your product from that port to a warehouse....typically in the mid-section of the US.
Well....at some point in 2016, the new larger locks open.....and the bigger vessels can slip by the west coast, and the significant trucking/rail costs involved in getting their items to a central warehouse depot around Texas or near the Mississippi River.
Naturally, this 2016 date worries some west coast port guys....on a hefty salary.....and sets into motion some dramatic change in prices.
But.....there's one other little thing in this mix coming. No one yet from Panama has said what the cost of the new transit fee will be. Larger locks....more business....higher fees? No one knows. It's highly speculative to sit and guess.
And if that wasn't enough for the west coast folks to worry about.....there's still talk of another canal being built in Nicaragua. This possible canal....still in planning stages.....would be a joint venture between Nicaragua and a Hong Kong-based company. Naturally....if the Hong Kong company owned ships, and they mandated a very low passing fee....then Chinese vessels would quickly transit and unload in Texas....at a lower rate of cost.
You can sense that a number of players are in the pool for this change of logistical effort. Imagine a major port activity in Seattle suddenly going into a spiral and only unloading thirty-percent of the normal yearly requirements. Imagine the port in Portland doing the same thing. And imagine the various California ports suddenly laying off half their union guys.....making $30-an-hour.
By the end of 2016.....you might want to sit back and watch some sudden changes, and note the changes on American society.
In the business world, this meant that as much as China could sell into the US....they had to ship it, and that meant stopping at one of a half-dozen major ports on the west coast of the US. Naturally, the bigger vessels meant lesser cost on shipping, but then the cost of unloading at the Pacific ports came into play, and then you had to figure the costs of trucking your product from that port to a warehouse....typically in the mid-section of the US.
Well....at some point in 2016, the new larger locks open.....and the bigger vessels can slip by the west coast, and the significant trucking/rail costs involved in getting their items to a central warehouse depot around Texas or near the Mississippi River.
Naturally, this 2016 date worries some west coast port guys....on a hefty salary.....and sets into motion some dramatic change in prices.
But.....there's one other little thing in this mix coming. No one yet from Panama has said what the cost of the new transit fee will be. Larger locks....more business....higher fees? No one knows. It's highly speculative to sit and guess.
And if that wasn't enough for the west coast folks to worry about.....there's still talk of another canal being built in Nicaragua. This possible canal....still in planning stages.....would be a joint venture between Nicaragua and a Hong Kong-based company. Naturally....if the Hong Kong company owned ships, and they mandated a very low passing fee....then Chinese vessels would quickly transit and unload in Texas....at a lower rate of cost.
You can sense that a number of players are in the pool for this change of logistical effort. Imagine a major port activity in Seattle suddenly going into a spiral and only unloading thirty-percent of the normal yearly requirements. Imagine the port in Portland doing the same thing. And imagine the various California ports suddenly laying off half their union guys.....making $30-an-hour.
By the end of 2016.....you might want to sit back and watch some sudden changes, and note the changes on American society.
Friday 27 June 2014
Story "Planting"
I've come to the point when I recognize "planting" of stories on the news. "Planting" generally means....something isn't really news but it's been dragged out for public relations and suppose to smear someone or some organization.
This morning was an interesting piece. I read the German "FOCUS".....a weekly national news item, which is updated every twenty-four hours online, and for anyone to read. If you want the absolute full story.....you have to go out and buy the magazine itself.
So I'm in the middle of the top twenty stories of the day related to German society, and suddenly, here's this Hillary Clinton story. I figure ok.....has to be over the book or some piece of the book she's recently published. No.....it's over the fact that Chelsea Clinton, and the suggested fact that she's not Bill Clinton's daughter.....which then goes into a short suggestive story of Hillary and Web Hubbell being a package deal at some point years ago. And Chelsea came from that relationship....so the story suggests.
Well....it's all fine and dandy, until you start thinking and realize that this story has been out in the American public view since the early 1990s.....over twenty years ago. As far as I know.....Germans were never told this nifty story (either in the 1990s or the last decade). Some Germans are waking up this morning....picking up on FOCUS, and gasping a bit. My goodness......probably is the first thing they state and they wonder if Americans will be told the truth on this.
Yeah.....an introduction of a smear story, which goes back twenty years, which might be true.....but it's the first time ever that most Germans have heard this. Unless the national press of Germany prints something.....it's simply not regarded as true. That's the blunt truth about German society and culture.
A planted story? By who? I'm guessing some comments by Hillary in the last week finally peeved some folks, and they decided to lay out a good smear story to some German reporters, and they simply worked up a simple twenty-line story and put it out there. By this weekend.....probably five million Germans will have read it and now start to gossip over the story and the lurid details of Hillary's past life. The fact that it's been around for twenty years in the US.....really doesn't dawn on these folks, and how it got dragged back up for a major telling once again.
Planting is an interesting episode. You need a cooperative press, a friendly reporter who is a bit naive and desperate for a four-star story.....and a willing society who will not read through the story and ask stupid questions.
This all goes back to one of my ten big negatives about news today....sometimes....news really isn't news, and we seem to overlook that.
This morning was an interesting piece. I read the German "FOCUS".....a weekly national news item, which is updated every twenty-four hours online, and for anyone to read. If you want the absolute full story.....you have to go out and buy the magazine itself.
So I'm in the middle of the top twenty stories of the day related to German society, and suddenly, here's this Hillary Clinton story. I figure ok.....has to be over the book or some piece of the book she's recently published. No.....it's over the fact that Chelsea Clinton, and the suggested fact that she's not Bill Clinton's daughter.....which then goes into a short suggestive story of Hillary and Web Hubbell being a package deal at some point years ago. And Chelsea came from that relationship....so the story suggests.
Well....it's all fine and dandy, until you start thinking and realize that this story has been out in the American public view since the early 1990s.....over twenty years ago. As far as I know.....Germans were never told this nifty story (either in the 1990s or the last decade). Some Germans are waking up this morning....picking up on FOCUS, and gasping a bit. My goodness......probably is the first thing they state and they wonder if Americans will be told the truth on this.
Yeah.....an introduction of a smear story, which goes back twenty years, which might be true.....but it's the first time ever that most Germans have heard this. Unless the national press of Germany prints something.....it's simply not regarded as true. That's the blunt truth about German society and culture.
A planted story? By who? I'm guessing some comments by Hillary in the last week finally peeved some folks, and they decided to lay out a good smear story to some German reporters, and they simply worked up a simple twenty-line story and put it out there. By this weekend.....probably five million Germans will have read it and now start to gossip over the story and the lurid details of Hillary's past life. The fact that it's been around for twenty years in the US.....really doesn't dawn on these folks, and how it got dragged back up for a major telling once again.
Planting is an interesting episode. You need a cooperative press, a friendly reporter who is a bit naive and desperate for a four-star story.....and a willing society who will not read through the story and ask stupid questions.
This all goes back to one of my ten big negatives about news today....sometimes....news really isn't news, and we seem to overlook that.
Thursday 26 June 2014
The Lucky Society
Once upon a time, in a faraway land.....there was no war or political intrigue....for roughly two thousand years. Yeah, it sounds like a good fictional piece for a science fiction show or some less violent Game of Thrones. But it's true.
I often read far and wide from the regular news crowd and came upon this piece written over the Harappan people. The article? By Annalee Newitz....."How Did This Ancient Civilization Avoid War for 2,000 Years"....over at Io9.
As you head south out of the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal.....there's this big grand valley where the water flows into. To the west are mountains (Pakistan), and the east is India's flat desert region. The river heads on off to the gulf. You can kinda imagine it as the Tennessee Valley area resting south of the Rocky Mountains, with a gentle breeze and mild temperatures, and a rich fertile soil that grows just about anything you desire.
What Ms Newitz points out.....is that life just kept going on and on there.....with no noted military campaign, war, or battles. Nor is there any evidence of big-name political figures, kings, emperors, or conquering generals. Normally, it's hard to find a society that exists more than a hundred years without some town burned down, or some mass grave area. The Harappans? Well....there just isn't any plain evidence of trouble or chaos.
What the smart guys will say is that Harappans developed themselves into a culture or society around 6,000 years ago. They went through all the standard developments....weights, measurements, language, written word, agriculture, etc. They had plumbing, flowing water, organized villages, and streets.
The story from Ms Newitz points out the eventual decline of the valley....mostly through over-farming, TB, disease, and folks just packing up to leave. The society declined enough....that it could not survive.
But this all brings me back to the original topic.....a place where no political turmoil or intrigue existed, and wars simply didn't occur with neighbors or from within. There's not a society in existence today that can match up with this record of 2,000 years. The source of avoidance? Until the day that we decipher the language and take apart what little written words exist.....we are stuck with no idea over the way they made it that far with no problems.
A happy place? Probably. A society just content on farming and local gossip? Maybe. Course, they didn't have the 24-hour news cycle, the New York Times, Karl Rove, or the Democratic National Committee to deal with. Nor did they have some Hitler character from the next valley over, or some nutcase always talking up his connection as a prophet to God. Maybe it was just plain dumb stupid luck.....which would be sad to admit.
Anyway....it's a four-star reading piece.....worth a fifteen-minute pause, and might make you reflect upon our society today and it's woes.
I often read far and wide from the regular news crowd and came upon this piece written over the Harappan people. The article? By Annalee Newitz....."How Did This Ancient Civilization Avoid War for 2,000 Years"....over at Io9.
As you head south out of the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal.....there's this big grand valley where the water flows into. To the west are mountains (Pakistan), and the east is India's flat desert region. The river heads on off to the gulf. You can kinda imagine it as the Tennessee Valley area resting south of the Rocky Mountains, with a gentle breeze and mild temperatures, and a rich fertile soil that grows just about anything you desire.
What Ms Newitz points out.....is that life just kept going on and on there.....with no noted military campaign, war, or battles. Nor is there any evidence of big-name political figures, kings, emperors, or conquering generals. Normally, it's hard to find a society that exists more than a hundred years without some town burned down, or some mass grave area. The Harappans? Well....there just isn't any plain evidence of trouble or chaos.
What the smart guys will say is that Harappans developed themselves into a culture or society around 6,000 years ago. They went through all the standard developments....weights, measurements, language, written word, agriculture, etc. They had plumbing, flowing water, organized villages, and streets.
The story from Ms Newitz points out the eventual decline of the valley....mostly through over-farming, TB, disease, and folks just packing up to leave. The society declined enough....that it could not survive.
But this all brings me back to the original topic.....a place where no political turmoil or intrigue existed, and wars simply didn't occur with neighbors or from within. There's not a society in existence today that can match up with this record of 2,000 years. The source of avoidance? Until the day that we decipher the language and take apart what little written words exist.....we are stuck with no idea over the way they made it that far with no problems.
A happy place? Probably. A society just content on farming and local gossip? Maybe. Course, they didn't have the 24-hour news cycle, the New York Times, Karl Rove, or the Democratic National Committee to deal with. Nor did they have some Hitler character from the next valley over, or some nutcase always talking up his connection as a prophet to God. Maybe it was just plain dumb stupid luck.....which would be sad to admit.
Anyway....it's a four-star reading piece.....worth a fifteen-minute pause, and might make you reflect upon our society today and it's woes.
When a Play isn't a Play
Being from Bama.....plays (of the theater type) are a curious thing for me. For some ninth grade project, the teacher engaged the class into a rough fifteen minute play....which I felt like a 500-pound gorilla at a disco. In the tenth grade, another English teacher introduced the class to Shakespeare....strictly for inside the classroom, and I came to question this 1600's English usage (it just didn't make any sense for southern kids to recite like this). Finally, around the twelfth grade, Our Town was introduced as a in-class project, which got me a bit more interested. It was boring, but it had something worth watching.
Throughout the years, I've kinda avoided going to a theater to watch a play. It's different when you can watch a play on TV.....able to get up and stretch at different times. Plays aren't like movies with intense interest built into scenes....plays are subtle in terms of words and actions taken....at the right moment. You can see the shifty eyes.....the twist and turn of secondary characters.....and note a plot change that you didn't expect.
This week, I noted that well known play-writer David Mamet got all hyped up over one of his plays which had been designed by some group in a very different manner. He'd written a nifty play that takes a college professor through a major stumble in life....as he's accused of sexual harassment by some student gal. It's a false accusation, but Oleanna (the play) takes you through the woes and sorrows of this professor.
In this case, the play company (a minor group) had decided to twist this around, and use a male student accusing the professor of sexual harassment. Yeah, a gay twist of sort.
The play showed for one evening and Mamet sent a message of "halt and stop".....citing the change of genders was unacceptable and changed the whole meaning of the play that he wrote.
Redefining a play has been a big deal over the past few decades. Folks from the 1940s didn't ever change a play much....it was....what it was. Today, you could take Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and turn into a play about two transexual folks, or two lesbians....just to do something different. No bad feelings or such.....just to be different.
Course, if I stepped in to do the Romeo and Juliet script with southern accents, Pabst-Blue-Ribbon beer, and a trailer park setting.....the play-crowd would get all disturbed and say it just wasn't right.
I suspect if I took "Our Town" and rebuilt it to be inner-city Chicago....that would disturb the play-crowd just as well.
So, I'm back to the 500-pound guerrilla feeling. This is stuff that I ought not care much about, but being a 500-pound gorilla.....I'd just like to stand there and observe. Sometimes, a play isn't so much about a literally moment, as it is about what's going to be seen and perceived. Good versus evil. Idiots versus brilliance. Same-old-same-old versus being different. It's all in the story.
Throughout the years, I've kinda avoided going to a theater to watch a play. It's different when you can watch a play on TV.....able to get up and stretch at different times. Plays aren't like movies with intense interest built into scenes....plays are subtle in terms of words and actions taken....at the right moment. You can see the shifty eyes.....the twist and turn of secondary characters.....and note a plot change that you didn't expect.
This week, I noted that well known play-writer David Mamet got all hyped up over one of his plays which had been designed by some group in a very different manner. He'd written a nifty play that takes a college professor through a major stumble in life....as he's accused of sexual harassment by some student gal. It's a false accusation, but Oleanna (the play) takes you through the woes and sorrows of this professor.
In this case, the play company (a minor group) had decided to twist this around, and use a male student accusing the professor of sexual harassment. Yeah, a gay twist of sort.
The play showed for one evening and Mamet sent a message of "halt and stop".....citing the change of genders was unacceptable and changed the whole meaning of the play that he wrote.
Redefining a play has been a big deal over the past few decades. Folks from the 1940s didn't ever change a play much....it was....what it was. Today, you could take Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and turn into a play about two transexual folks, or two lesbians....just to do something different. No bad feelings or such.....just to be different.
Course, if I stepped in to do the Romeo and Juliet script with southern accents, Pabst-Blue-Ribbon beer, and a trailer park setting.....the play-crowd would get all disturbed and say it just wasn't right.
I suspect if I took "Our Town" and rebuilt it to be inner-city Chicago....that would disturb the play-crowd just as well.
So, I'm back to the 500-pound guerrilla feeling. This is stuff that I ought not care much about, but being a 500-pound gorilla.....I'd just like to stand there and observe. Sometimes, a play isn't so much about a literally moment, as it is about what's going to be seen and perceived. Good versus evil. Idiots versus brilliance. Same-old-same-old versus being different. It's all in the story.
Wednesday 25 June 2014
That Economic Stumble Today
It is a shocker....the US economy as of today's report....slipped by 2.9 percent. The quote attached to it? The largest slip in the economy outside of a recession (Fox New's quote, not mine). For folks with short memory episodes....it was the last two quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.....when all the bad news came and folks felt pretty negative about the economy. Course, the Bush team fixed up some minor deal and the new Obama administration carried the rest of the "fix" down the line.
What should we take from this episode today? Well....the recession or depression (as the President often talks of).....probably never came to an end. When you look at employment numbers and how they've changed the entire game of counting who is employed and who isn't......it's more than a mere six or seven percent. Forbes magazine in 2013 gave the real rate in the US at around 14.3 percent. The CNBC business news folks put the rate back in December at around 13 percent.
Toss in bank failures (they still occur).....major US companies keeping their profits overseas....small business stagnation across the US.....and the CD rate still stuck at barely one percent, and you've got a depression on your hands.
Why did the President authorize the sales of US-produced oil to business operations outside of the US today? It's been forty years since we halted US-produced oil being sold to other countries. I'm guessing for the past month they knew the economic news was going to be bad, and this was the only positive thing they had left in their bag of tricks.
What's left? Repeat cash-for-clunkers? Toss out seven-hundred-and-eighty billion in stimulus money to build bridges and schools? Slash taxes on the working class? Pump up taxes on the wealthy?
A short history lesson. When Wall Street fell in 1929, and the FED refused to step in to help the banks in their moment of crisis.....Hoover ended up with twenty-odd solutions which simply delayed spiral until the election, and then FDR stepped in with his hundred-odd solutions which kept the depression underway until 7 Dec 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day). As the next month went by and various members of the FDR White House team admitted that it'd take a year or so to gear up industry and even start to marginally get us into the war.....private industry walked in and simply said to put them into the control seats and suspend all of the FDR practices of the past decade.
Roughly a hundred days after 7 December 1941.....the nation was in a building frenzy....violating every past FDR rule set into place. When the war came to an end....the economic experts of the FDR era felt that the government would have to step in and manage the economy once again....otherwise, we would collapse back into a depression again. Well.....that didn't happen. Overmanagement of the economy wasn't allowed. As Eisenhower came in around 1953...the economic management crew were still left sitting and out of the picture.
Since the Nixon era.....there's been various efforts to bring the economic back under a government-managed system. Both Republicans and Democrats have agreed to the measures. We sit here today.....with massive regulation, rules which stagnant growth, and lack of clear future goals because folks think the government will step in to tax them more or set up marginal stumbling blocks.
Stock prices drops? I'd prepare myself for a correction or two in the next week. More speeches by the President? Maybe....but what else can he say? Admit we never emerged from the 2008 depression? It's best to just smile and hope for better days ahead.
What should we take from this episode today? Well....the recession or depression (as the President often talks of).....probably never came to an end. When you look at employment numbers and how they've changed the entire game of counting who is employed and who isn't......it's more than a mere six or seven percent. Forbes magazine in 2013 gave the real rate in the US at around 14.3 percent. The CNBC business news folks put the rate back in December at around 13 percent.
Toss in bank failures (they still occur).....major US companies keeping their profits overseas....small business stagnation across the US.....and the CD rate still stuck at barely one percent, and you've got a depression on your hands.
Why did the President authorize the sales of US-produced oil to business operations outside of the US today? It's been forty years since we halted US-produced oil being sold to other countries. I'm guessing for the past month they knew the economic news was going to be bad, and this was the only positive thing they had left in their bag of tricks.
What's left? Repeat cash-for-clunkers? Toss out seven-hundred-and-eighty billion in stimulus money to build bridges and schools? Slash taxes on the working class? Pump up taxes on the wealthy?
A short history lesson. When Wall Street fell in 1929, and the FED refused to step in to help the banks in their moment of crisis.....Hoover ended up with twenty-odd solutions which simply delayed spiral until the election, and then FDR stepped in with his hundred-odd solutions which kept the depression underway until 7 Dec 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day). As the next month went by and various members of the FDR White House team admitted that it'd take a year or so to gear up industry and even start to marginally get us into the war.....private industry walked in and simply said to put them into the control seats and suspend all of the FDR practices of the past decade.
Roughly a hundred days after 7 December 1941.....the nation was in a building frenzy....violating every past FDR rule set into place. When the war came to an end....the economic experts of the FDR era felt that the government would have to step in and manage the economy once again....otherwise, we would collapse back into a depression again. Well.....that didn't happen. Overmanagement of the economy wasn't allowed. As Eisenhower came in around 1953...the economic management crew were still left sitting and out of the picture.
Since the Nixon era.....there's been various efforts to bring the economic back under a government-managed system. Both Republicans and Democrats have agreed to the measures. We sit here today.....with massive regulation, rules which stagnant growth, and lack of clear future goals because folks think the government will step in to tax them more or set up marginal stumbling blocks.
Stock prices drops? I'd prepare myself for a correction or two in the next week. More speeches by the President? Maybe....but what else can he say? Admit we never emerged from the 2008 depression? It's best to just smile and hope for better days ahead.
Tuesday 24 June 2014
My Stuck Story
This is a true story.
Over the last weekend....some American kid (exchange student, I presume) in Germany....got engaged in a conversation with some German associates near a statue in the local village.
It's best to describe the statue as a resemblance to a woman's certain private area....with an opening. You can sit and imagine at your leisure.
Why a statue of such significance? Well....no one has really said much over that. I'd assume the city council thought they had money to blow on something....some artist suggested this....and a year later, he/she delivers this stone statue depicting....well....a woman's private area. It's a fairly big monument.....maybe six to eight feet tall....and the opening is just big enough for a slim kid to push himself through....well...maybe.
In this episode....the kid took a dare that he could pass from the inside out....got halfway....fell....and got stuck.
His associates tried to yank him.....pull him.....and lift him....but the American kid was stuck completely in the stone cavity.....so to speak.
So, the fire department got called. Normally, to rescue cats out of trees and such....it'd be one truck and four firemen. In this case? Four trucks and around twenty German firemen. They took a while to size up the situation. You see....in Germany....you just don't wander up to a town statue and accidentally destroy it. So they figured out the best method to remove the kid, and the job was done.
I sat and previewed the whole thing. If this was in the US....they'd have to put a fence around the statue because folks would claim it's dangerous for the public to be around it after one person got stuck. Germans don't think that way.....they assume fifty years might pass before another idiot gets stuck.
The kid? Well....he's gotten a nickname from the episode....maybe even five or six nicknames. Later in life....he'll be interviewed for a job with the State Department and bring up the "stuck-in-a-woman's-privates" story. He'll get the job because of the story. In a bar in Guntersville or Aruba.....it's good enough for folks to buy you a drink or two.
As for the town council? They might put up a warning sign, but I kinda doubt it. It'd just draw attention. As for future statues? I'm guessing questions will be raised over the safe factor and how it might be abused.
Yeah, just an odd-ball story from Germany. True though.
Over the last weekend....some American kid (exchange student, I presume) in Germany....got engaged in a conversation with some German associates near a statue in the local village.
It's best to describe the statue as a resemblance to a woman's certain private area....with an opening. You can sit and imagine at your leisure.
Why a statue of such significance? Well....no one has really said much over that. I'd assume the city council thought they had money to blow on something....some artist suggested this....and a year later, he/she delivers this stone statue depicting....well....a woman's private area. It's a fairly big monument.....maybe six to eight feet tall....and the opening is just big enough for a slim kid to push himself through....well...maybe.
In this episode....the kid took a dare that he could pass from the inside out....got halfway....fell....and got stuck.
His associates tried to yank him.....pull him.....and lift him....but the American kid was stuck completely in the stone cavity.....so to speak.
So, the fire department got called. Normally, to rescue cats out of trees and such....it'd be one truck and four firemen. In this case? Four trucks and around twenty German firemen. They took a while to size up the situation. You see....in Germany....you just don't wander up to a town statue and accidentally destroy it. So they figured out the best method to remove the kid, and the job was done.
I sat and previewed the whole thing. If this was in the US....they'd have to put a fence around the statue because folks would claim it's dangerous for the public to be around it after one person got stuck. Germans don't think that way.....they assume fifty years might pass before another idiot gets stuck.
The kid? Well....he's gotten a nickname from the episode....maybe even five or six nicknames. Later in life....he'll be interviewed for a job with the State Department and bring up the "stuck-in-a-woman's-privates" story. He'll get the job because of the story. In a bar in Guntersville or Aruba.....it's good enough for folks to buy you a drink or two.
As for the town council? They might put up a warning sign, but I kinda doubt it. It'd just draw attention. As for future statues? I'm guessing questions will be raised over the safe factor and how it might be abused.
Yeah, just an odd-ball story from Germany. True though.
Sunday 22 June 2014
The Pope's Lack of Understanding
This past week, the Pope stood up and made a big speech over ethical judgements, investing, and poor judgement in agricultural commodities. Basically, food prices have gone up a notch or two over the past six months, and someone finally noted this to the Pope. He figured that a speech on the topic and Pope-like advice would get to the folks who run the agricultural markets and halt such unethical pricing.
Generally, you go to a priest, bishop or Pope for one general purpose.....a reading on the Bible. Beyond that, there's not much else in terms of advice that you want from them.
They generally don't tune cars, lay bricks, herd cattle, mix drinks, dig septic tanks, paint barns, split posts, feed the hungry, drive eighteen-wheelers, shovel snow, run a pub, mix concrete, plant tomatoes, operate a Dollar General Store, mow grass, weld metal gates, run a patrol through dangerous neighborhoods, rescue cats out of trees, rescue drunks at wild parties, replace windows, or plan a forty-person family reunion.
When the Pope suggests it's intolerable for folks to flex the market and it's by God's wishes to be ethical in handling agricultural pricing.....he might want to stand back and observe that there are at least forty variations on pricing which real life has to contend with. He didn't mention various inspectors that are required by law now. Nor did he mention the effect of weather. Nor did he mention that drought comes and goes in various regions of the world. The oil used for gas and diesel to move products? Well, yeah....that's part of the mess as well. The fact that folks want year-round products now....mean that we import grapes from India (yeah, shocking, isn't it) tomatoes from Egypt, and apples from New Zealand on occasion. That didn't happen fifty years ago, but we started to insist that we had to have watermelons all year round, and that meant ships got involved, along with refrigeration.
Speculation? It's all built into the system because we don't eat local fruits and vegetables anymore. Nor will we eat local pork, chicken, turkey, fish or beef anymore.
I'm not dumping on the Pope.....but to suggest that God's will fits into agriculture, speculation or the pricing of cucumbers....well....it just ain't so. Course, if you got a question on Moses, or why some reason why Luke was a better disciple than the rest of the dozen.....well....it might be worth asking about that.
Generally, you go to a priest, bishop or Pope for one general purpose.....a reading on the Bible. Beyond that, there's not much else in terms of advice that you want from them.
They generally don't tune cars, lay bricks, herd cattle, mix drinks, dig septic tanks, paint barns, split posts, feed the hungry, drive eighteen-wheelers, shovel snow, run a pub, mix concrete, plant tomatoes, operate a Dollar General Store, mow grass, weld metal gates, run a patrol through dangerous neighborhoods, rescue cats out of trees, rescue drunks at wild parties, replace windows, or plan a forty-person family reunion.
When the Pope suggests it's intolerable for folks to flex the market and it's by God's wishes to be ethical in handling agricultural pricing.....he might want to stand back and observe that there are at least forty variations on pricing which real life has to contend with. He didn't mention various inspectors that are required by law now. Nor did he mention the effect of weather. Nor did he mention that drought comes and goes in various regions of the world. The oil used for gas and diesel to move products? Well, yeah....that's part of the mess as well. The fact that folks want year-round products now....mean that we import grapes from India (yeah, shocking, isn't it) tomatoes from Egypt, and apples from New Zealand on occasion. That didn't happen fifty years ago, but we started to insist that we had to have watermelons all year round, and that meant ships got involved, along with refrigeration.
Speculation? It's all built into the system because we don't eat local fruits and vegetables anymore. Nor will we eat local pork, chicken, turkey, fish or beef anymore.
I'm not dumping on the Pope.....but to suggest that God's will fits into agriculture, speculation or the pricing of cucumbers....well....it just ain't so. Course, if you got a question on Moses, or why some reason why Luke was a better disciple than the rest of the dozen.....well....it might be worth asking about that.
Friday 13 June 2014
Simply Observations
A couple of notes I've come to realize over the past day or two.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has taken this comment "Gay lifestyles can be from your DNA" and thrown it back into pot....saying alcoholism can come from your DNA and you can deny it....starve it off....and avoid it. Journalists are a bit peeved and want to say something harsh about this, but Rick's comment goes hand-in-hand with use of the DNA stance. Opening up the DNA can of worms.....probably didn't help anyone's case in the long run. Stupidity also comes from DNA.....and we don't necessarily brag about that.
High protein diets loaded with meat....good to avoid strokes? Yeah. That's what the smart guys have discovered. Course, they'd rather not rejoice on this. Another group of smart guys says meat can increase the chances of breast cancer.
In Bama.....some young gal (19) had ended up with an aunt. Bad family situation or whatever. But the young gal wasn't having much luck either with the aunt. The aunt ended up going onto Facebook with a fake account as a guy to befriend her niece. What ended up having in a rather odd and quick way....was that the young gal quickly buddied up with the new fake guy, and said she wanted her entire family killed. The aunt then realized she had a nut-job in the house.....called the local Sheriff and the niece is sitting in a local jail. Charges are going to be interesting, and I doubt if the gal spends more than six months in jail.
Finally, this Bergdahl guy. The newest fact on him is that he went to the Coast Guard boot camp originally....spent roughly four weeks there before they kicked him out. They won't give a reason, but it would appear that he had real issues in accepting authority. More and more.....Bergdahl looks like a nut-case who never should have spent a day in uniform, but the Army relaxed its standards enough to let the guy in. Promoting a nut-job to Sergeant? Well....the Army has kinda gone back on that promotion. It might still happen, but it'd likely embarrass the leadership a good bit to admit they promoted some nut. And the $360,000 in back-pay? It'll still happen, I think. If you had to pick some guy who needed to go and spend the rest of his life in a mental institute.....this is the one guy that I'd definitely send.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has taken this comment "Gay lifestyles can be from your DNA" and thrown it back into pot....saying alcoholism can come from your DNA and you can deny it....starve it off....and avoid it. Journalists are a bit peeved and want to say something harsh about this, but Rick's comment goes hand-in-hand with use of the DNA stance. Opening up the DNA can of worms.....probably didn't help anyone's case in the long run. Stupidity also comes from DNA.....and we don't necessarily brag about that.
High protein diets loaded with meat....good to avoid strokes? Yeah. That's what the smart guys have discovered. Course, they'd rather not rejoice on this. Another group of smart guys says meat can increase the chances of breast cancer.
In Bama.....some young gal (19) had ended up with an aunt. Bad family situation or whatever. But the young gal wasn't having much luck either with the aunt. The aunt ended up going onto Facebook with a fake account as a guy to befriend her niece. What ended up having in a rather odd and quick way....was that the young gal quickly buddied up with the new fake guy, and said she wanted her entire family killed. The aunt then realized she had a nut-job in the house.....called the local Sheriff and the niece is sitting in a local jail. Charges are going to be interesting, and I doubt if the gal spends more than six months in jail.
Finally, this Bergdahl guy. The newest fact on him is that he went to the Coast Guard boot camp originally....spent roughly four weeks there before they kicked him out. They won't give a reason, but it would appear that he had real issues in accepting authority. More and more.....Bergdahl looks like a nut-case who never should have spent a day in uniform, but the Army relaxed its standards enough to let the guy in. Promoting a nut-job to Sergeant? Well....the Army has kinda gone back on that promotion. It might still happen, but it'd likely embarrass the leadership a good bit to admit they promoted some nut. And the $360,000 in back-pay? It'll still happen, I think. If you had to pick some guy who needed to go and spend the rest of his life in a mental institute.....this is the one guy that I'd definitely send.
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