Vern & Naomi's line

too hot to blog?

2009-04-24T14:43:00.002-05:00

During the past week much of the western US experienced record high temperatures. Among those places was Santa Cruz. The signs of the oncoming heat were already evident last Friday.

My office is 250 m above sea level, and I usually walk up from the downtown floodplain. The walk starts at the river, heads through the main street of Santa Cruz, and then starts climbing. The climb involves numerous separate rises, each of which is one of the many marine terraces that have formed by the combination of the climactic changes of sea level and the 1 mm/year rise of the land around Santa Cruz.

The first rise takes me from the location of the first Mission Santa Cruz (which got flooded out) to the existing remnant of the mission. That site is now largely occupied by the large Catholic church and its school, with the surroundings converted to suburban neighborhood. The next several rises continue through the upscale neighborhoods which surround the springs which were the water supply for the old mission site. Above the neighborhoods is the meadow at the base of campus and the several terraces that it covers. In these were the first signs of the oncoming heat. The meadows are now covered with wildflowers, clover, and grasses. They are also full of active ground squirrels busily eating in preparation for giving birth to their babies.

Above the meadow begins the forest; it is a mix of bay, oak, redwood, and fir. Last Friday it was clear this would be a bad year for the oaks, for from the trees were hanging silky threads of the first generation of oak worms. They come down when it gets warm, they can go through several generations during a hot summer, and they can completely strip the oaks of all their leaves. Over the weekend it got hotter. By Monday it was difficult to walk through the forest without getting caught in multiple tangles of oak worm silks.

On Tuesday the high pressure system was centered over us. When the conditions turn hot and stagnant the ground squirrels tend to hide, for that is when the golden eagles command the sky. I often see them perched on the trees in the gulches. Several times they have surprised me as I walk up. They seem to like to swoop over the meadow about 2 m above ground, right about my eye level. They also seem to like to surprise me by doing that just behind me. It's disturbing to hear the rush of wind over the feathers and turn around to see a raptor whose wingspan is greater than my own.

But this Tuesday the eagle was more polite. As I walked up the eagle swooshed past me just in front of me. Having passed me heading east the eagle banked, casting its shadow upon me as I winced looking sunward. As I turned to track it the eagle swooped back over the pathway behind where I was, and then glided back to its perch on the dead top of a tree in the gulch.

Obama Goes to Las Vegas

2009-04-01T09:34:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I'm glad to be old. I won't have to face decades of working for the Chinese like you young folks will have to do.

Obama is betting the store on massive government spending. Keynesian theory has never been tested in the real world, so it's the biggest gamble in world history. The economy's recovery may or may not be helped by this spending - time will tell - but the borrowed money must be paid back eventually. And since Obama is piling on top of that spending another trillion or so for social programs - with the revenues to pay for it to come from unspecified future taxes - he's acting like the teenager in the mall with a credit card. But it won't be the teenager's parents who will have to pay the bill; it will be the teenager's children, born and unborn. Is this the change voters wanted?

Naomi's retirement party

2009-03-23T12:09:00.003-05:00

Among dad's things I found numerous photos, including this one. I also found a china plate with a pattern matching the one in front of me. Here's what I can say about this.

Location: The Pantry Restaurant, 718 Garden Street, Park Ridge, Illinois
Date: maybe 1966?
Occasion: Naomi's retirement party

The location was originally the house of artist Walter Clute. The web indicates that it is no longer in operation as a restaurant.
I note that it is barely 3 blocks from the ancestral house.

I'm pretty sure my brother was at home with a babysitter. I don't know if any of the other cousins were present. I don't know if this restaurant was special in some way, or why it was chosen, or anything else about who was there.

I appeal to our patriarch's memory for other particulars of this occasion.

staking claim for my name

2009-03-17T13:44:00.002-05:00

My name is the result of a woman whose firstborn son would be named Steven marrying a man whose surname is Allen. Alas for me, the month before that union took place a guy with that name became internationally famous for hosting NBC's Tonight show.

Today I am reminded that I can't even maintain the association with my initials. Ever since I was in junior high school the initials SLA have been in the news.

Symbionese Liberation Army member Sarah Jane Olson is released from prison

Sri Lanka Army soldiers shoot civilians

the smell of money

2009-03-16T01:17:00.002-05:00

Today Gillian brought home a token from the Nik-o-lok corporation -- a restroom token, for a pay toilet. That corporation should be getting ready to celebrate its centennial, except that about a generation ago most localities outlawed pay toilets. I could ruminate about the reappearance of upscale pay toilets (there must be salesmen for them, for they keep cropping up in news reports of city council meetings), but I'll refrain.

Instead I look back, way back, still thinking of the economy, the state of the world, or something.

When Rome finally settled down after Nero, Vespasian was emperor. According to Suetonius he instituted a tax on urinals, but his son Titus complained. (Titus, who had sacked Jerusalem, burned Herod's temple, and would later become emperor.) With one of the tax coins in hand Titus admitted that it did not smell bad. In Latin classes this remains a teachable moment, for Vespasian concluded "Atqui, e lotio est" -- "yet it comes from urine."

From urine, from slavery, from just printing more, from whatever, the politicians seem more concerned with other issues than the origin of the cash flow.

what does he eat?

2009-03-09T15:06:00.002-05:00

In today's news we see reaction to the stem cell policy change from Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama

My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth.

I love reductio ad absurdum, and it seems to me that this statement requires regressing to the hunter/gatherer stage of civilization. After all, even broadcasting seeds to attempt a bigger harvest is creating life, isn't it?

the economy

2009-03-09T13:39:00.002-05:00

There's ongoing drama in followups to January's vampire post. If only to emphasize that I quote from a classic fairy tale:

"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."

Do you believe in dollars?

get a real blog

2009-02-24T15:11:00.002-06:00

Whoa, folks, get out your tinfoil hats, for UK's Baroness and Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield says social websites like facebook and twitter rot young brains.

You know, I agree. The facebook status updates are on a par with twitter tweets. Their terseness invites unconsidered thoughts that are not fleshed out to explore their full meaning. The content of the blogs I read, and the ones to which I contribute, is very different than one-liners and silly images. Looking at lots of inputs from others is useful, but expressing thoughts and telling stories is what defines one's own self as something different and unique.

Okay, wait a minute, where did I learn about this? On facebook.

As with so much of life, it's how you use it. Yes, it is possible to use facebook with deliberation, but it's a lot easier with a real blog.

this is what reporting is about

2009-02-11T11:59:00.002-06:00

The ridge line of the Santa Cruz mountains provides spectacular views of the Monterey Bay and Pacific Ocean on one side, and views of the SF Bay on the other side. The ridge line also serves as the boundary between Santa Cruz county and Santa Clara county, but the road along that route must wend its way back and forth between counties. Boundary or no boundary, all of that region is remote from the population centers. Communities and services must be somewhat blind to the exact position of the boundary, and in particular this means emergency and fire protection.

Last month the local paper ran a story pointing out that the Santa Cruz side residents pay taxes to support the fire protection crews, but the Santa Clara residents do not. That story prompted our county supervisors to investigate the magnitude of the inequality. Today's paper contains a story on the result. Santa Cruz will be contacting Santa Clara to ask them to pay their fair share.

Now if only we could figure out how to continue to pay for reporters to do this sort of story, for they are going broke giving it all away for free on the net.

obscuring our patriarch's blog

2009-01-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

Today's news contains yet another dilution of our patriarch's efforts to gain recognition of the politics of his commonwealth locality.

Since the Wars of the Roses there has been a Lord Egremont. Today we see the current Egremont in the news. He owns the earliest telescopic drawings of the moon.

Happy 400th birthday, telescope.

I'm with Eric Berne

2009-01-31T12:34:00.002-06:00

I recall my dad telling stories about life at the house in Park Ridge. I surmise that after moving in Vern undertook a long project to remodel an upper room. My dad spoke glowingly of the craftsmanship, and I found the accounting ledger for the project when I cleared my dad's storage locker. My dad spoke of an alcove in the room which was a perfect fit for a radio.

I suppose that it was in this room that another story occurred. My dad spoke of listening to the radio and Vern telling him that someday they would be able to see the performers. My dad described his imagined notion of looking into the top of the radio and seeing little performers inside. The first licensed TV station in Illinois was in 1943, and production of TVs was halted until Japan surrendered in 1945, so I surmise this discussion happened before then.

Nevertheless, the NTSC standard for TV broadcasts in the US had been created before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. That's how old the system is -- our patriarch is barely older. We're still using it today even though the ATSC family of standards has been around for a while. According to an act of congress 3 years ago NTSC is to cease in 3 weeks, and only ATSC will remain. Within that act were requirements that all TVs sold during the past 2 years (the past 4 years for big TVs) handle ATSC.

The broadcasters are all ready, and they've been telling the public about this for several years. But the new president has expressed reservations, and the senate is following the lead of their former colleague. Last week the senate tried to extend the deadline by 4 months, but the house said no. This week the senate passed another bill to extend the deadline -- sort of. This bill doesn't require an extension, it allows the broadcasters to decide to extend, if they want.

I find this to be reminiscent of Han Solo's "it's not my fault" line, and of George Lucas retconning history in the Mos Eisley bar on Tattooine. Let's all remember clearly -- Han Solo fired his blaster first. Some three years ago congress and the previous president extended the previous deadline and mandated the change to ATSC on 2009-02-17. Now the current incumbents want to pull a Han Solo. They want to make any loss of signal by unprepared consumers into the fault of the local TV station.

Wait, I've seen this game even before Han Solo. Eric Berne wrote about it in Games People Play, the foundation of transactional analysis. I'm pretty sure it's one or more of the most common games.

It's pretty clear that the president wants to play this game. I hope congress maintains its resolve and again says "no" instead of spreading the blame. After all, it's not like the lack of broadcast TV would destabilize civilization, is it?

National Bankruptcy

2009-01-26T17:16:00.002-06:00

As I feared, the tax and spenders (sometimes known as the democrats, although in recent years including the republicans) are in the process of turning emergency economic stimulus into a Christmas tree of spending on their favorite programs. For roughly the last 60 years, we could afford that kind of nonsense in this country, but we can't any more. I'm old enough that the fallout won't hurt me heavily before I die. But you younger folks will suffer for a long time. You will essentially become vassals of the Chinese and other peoples who still believe that profligacy is bad.

how's your weather?

2009-01-15T17:48:00.003-06:00

Here in Santa Cruz we are enjoying our 4th straight day of record high temperatures. Last weekend the girls and I were wading in the tidepools at the beach.

I understand it's not so warm where some of you are.
I don't expect you can out do these folks.

failure of imagination

2009-01-15T16:30:00.003-06:00

René Descartes laid mathematical foundations for much of human endeavor, as well as writing about other aspects of human behavior. His math was relevant to the calculus of Newton and Leibniz. The calculus underlies the work of Lotka and Volterra whose equations model the predator-prey equations in 2 or more dimensions. In their general form these equations have been applied to the populations of blood-sucking fiends in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My point in all of these is that there can be a stable equilibrium, or there can be wild oscillations of the various populations. It depends on the initial conditions, the changes in those conditions, and the availability of guiding forces outside the natural instincts of the populations.

The same sorts of differential equations apply to economics. There can be relatively stable equilibrium, or there can be wild oscillations, it depends on the amount and type of regulation. Lack of regulation will often result in wild oscillations. Too much regulation may cause the extinction of one, or more, of the species. Regulations come from government, but government itself is subject to wild oscillations.

It's hard to reach equlibrium, especially when the conditions are evolving. It's harder when there are other populations which are not subject to regulation. It's harder still when there is more than one species of blood sucking fiend participating in the government policies, for they may not be interested in equilibrium at all.

The world is full of vampires, and some of them are us.

The Economy and Politicians

2009-01-15T09:22:00.002-06:00

The following wasn't written by me, but it might have been:

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office

about the future of this company, and more

specifically, your job. As you know, the economy

has changed for the worse and presents many

challenges. However, the good news is this: The

economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What

does threaten your job however, is the changing

political landscape in this country. However, let me

tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help

you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts

employers against employees, you have to

understand that for every business owner there is a

Back Story. This back story is often neglected and

overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you

see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my

big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure; all

these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some

idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the BACK STORY:

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I

lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3

years. My entire living apartment was converted into

an office so I could put forth 100% effort into

building a company, which by the way, would

eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because

every dollar I spent went back into this company. I

drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective

transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times,

I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went

out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to

my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40

hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and

spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy

cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy

designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's

for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through

the discount store extracting any clothing item that

didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends

refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury.

I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and

my life into a business with a vision that eventually,

some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries

my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9

A.M., mentally check in at about noon, and then

leave at 5 P.M., I don't. There is no "off" button for

me. When you leave the office, you are done and

you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately

do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this

company every minute of the day. There is no rest.

There is no weekend. There is no happy hour.

Every day this business is attached to my hip like a

1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only

see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the

Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the

Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy

that made all the right decisions and saved his

money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't.

The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly

feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and

sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the

price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business,

and employing you, is starting to eclipse the

threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you

why:

I am being taxed to death and the government

thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes.

Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes.

Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes.

Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire

a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess

what? I have to pay taxes for employing him.

Government mandates and regulations and all the

accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my

time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US

Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know

what my "stimulus" check was? Zero.. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the

economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people

good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000

people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the

single mother sitting at home pregnant with her

fourth child waiting for her next welfare check?

Obviously, government feels the latter is the

economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your

paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I

mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to

get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I

agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand ... to

stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what

runs the economy. Had suddenly government

mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes,

guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000

into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent

it, hired more employees, and generated substantial

economic growth. My employees would have

enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of

promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it

now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of

death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb

thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or,

do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart

of America and always has been. To restart it, you

must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power

brokers in Washington believe the poor of America

are the essential drivers of the American economic

engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and

this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company,

my reaction will be swift and simple. I'll fire you. I'll

fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the

government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV,

and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem

any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to

another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm

done with a country that penalizes the productive

and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to

work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with

it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of

the economy; it will be at the hands of a political

hurricane that swept through this country,

steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed

its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find

me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no

employees to worry about....

Signed, THE BOSS

Atlas is finally very much ready to shrug.

Plinian medicine, or Mushroom clouds

2009-01-12T12:31:00.002-06:00

When Rich suggested this blog should be erudite I wondered if he might wish for us to produce works such as Pliny the Elder or maybe Pliny the Younger. After a long career in service of the Roman empire the elder was in charge of the largest port of the Roman navy when Vesuvius erupted. He launched rescue boats toward the other side of the gulf of Naples and died during the effort. His nephew's description of that event led to the moniker Plinian eruption to describe the mushroom cloud of ash.

Locally we have a doctor Todd Mitchell who is in the news again today because of mushrooms. Two years ago he cut through FDA red tape to get a drug that inhibits the liver damage caused by poisonous mushrooms. He saved a family then, and he has just repeated that with another family. In Europe they have been using milk thistle extract to treat poisonings, but the drug is not approved in the US.

How is this all connected? Pliny the elder wrote Naturalis Historia, one of the earliest surviving examples of encyclopedic knowledge. In it he described the use of milk thistle.

Can we all reach the levels of the Plinys? Perhaps not, but we can aspire. We must.

Holman Jenkins and Madoff and Ponzi Schemes

2009-01-07T09:52:00.006-06:00

I was drafting an erudite posting on the Jenkins opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal, but it disappeared after I'd done about 4 paragraphs, so I'm not going to recreate it. Suffice it to say that a lot of Madoff investors who got their money out before the bankruptcy (because they were lucky or smart) are going to get sued and have to pay the money back. Many of them will be as innocent as the snow falling outside my window. They'll be victims of a bad decision by a guy named Hardin, the bankruptcy judge in the Bayou Ponzi scheme bankruptcy, who ruled that pretty much all pre-bankruptcy transfers (during the period of two years before the bankruptcy - Holman Jenkins please note this error in yout WSJ piece) made when there's a Ponzi scheme are recoverable.

If it's a bad decision, why wasn't it appealed? Because the lawyers for the bankrupt engaged in a scorched earth approach designed to make people give up and settle before their own legal fees bankrupted them. That reflects a major flaw in our American legal system. But it's a flaw that won't get corrected until we all wake up to the damage done by the trial lawyers in this country. What do you think the chances are for that to happen?

I'm gonna be in such deep trouble...

2008-12-31T15:54:00.003-06:00

Not just because of Canada's largest broadcaster...

I was interviewed for the UK last night/this morning, too. I wish I had a picture of the faces of Gill and Katie as they listened to BBC World Service and heard my voice -- especially since the final answer was me talking about them.

Happy Leap Second everyone!

Happy New Year!

who do you trust, and why?

2008-12-30T13:13:00.002-06:00

At UCO/Lick I oversee two sets of secure web pages -- those are the ones where the URL begins with https://, where the 's' indicates that the communications are secured by cryptographic means. Have a look at the portal page for slit mask submission. As it says in the lower paragraph, you won't be able to go to the secure page itself (we have multiple levels of security), but the focus here is on the upper paragraph.

I added the first paragraph because of e-mail from users who were alarmed by the message that Firefox 3 gave them. Previous versions of Firefox had not been so in-your-face about the fact that our web server SSL certificate is "self-signed". Self-signed is basically a way of saying that we did not pay a "Certificate Authority" (CA) for our certificate. My paragraph of text is about how I considered the whole CA scheme to be a protection racket.

In today's news is a story of the presentation in Berlin which demonstrated that it's also an ineffective protection racket. The authors showed the Chaos Communication Congress that they could create a SSL CA certificate which would let them manufacture more SSL certificates that all browsers would believe were valid.

That is to say, your web browser may say that it trusts a site and believes it to be the entity you intended to contact, but that may no longer be a statement with any meaning.

So, if you are accustomed to doing internet banking, or stock trading, or anything else where it is essential that your communications are known only to you and the official entity on the other side of your web browser, you may be in deep trouble.

Ski Instructor Bailout

2008-12-30T12:31:00.002-06:00

My fellow ski instructors and I are planning to make a case for a ski instructors' bailout from the federal government. We think our case is very solid. We provide an essential public service and help to stimulate the economy. Our studies show that the skiing business affects 1 in every 15 jobs in the United States, and that there could be massive increases in unemployment if we go under. And we'll all have to go on welfare if we don't get some money soon. In consideration for a bailout, we are willing to engage in some trail maintenance in order to improve the nation's infrastructure, and to accept pension payments equal to a mere half pay after 20 years. (We'll go to 21 years if pushed.) Please support our position. If we get a bailout, we'll publish newspaper ads saying "thank you, America," just like Chrysler did.

GM and lemons

2008-12-30T00:47:00.002-06:00

If I've got the date right (1993-04-04) it was over 15 years ago that Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes used lemonade to demonstrate what GM just got today from the federal government.

There's a copy of that Sunday comic here.

7 PM Eastern, 6 Central, 5 Mountain, 4 PM Pacific

2008-12-29T23:48:00.005-06:00

On New Year's Eve there will be a leap second. I'm already planning to be sitting with the girls and two short wave radios (reception can be spotty, and I want to use two frequencies to be sure).

I've been called a leap second chronicler, or things like that, because I've been tracking the international process of considering abandoning leap seconds for over 6 years.

This leap second is unique for us in the US -- as shown on my other (live, ticking) web page it's the first leap second which will legally happen in the US. All the others happened officially, but not legally.

Over here it happens before sunset, before evening festivities. That means we can listen to it on the radio, and also watch it on the web, and still have a life.

Happy New Year!

wanna live by the Monterey Bay?

2008-12-26T22:45:00.002-06:00

The property tax deadline in Santa Cruz is December. The headline news says 10% of the homes in the county became delinquent on their taxes this month. It looks like 2009 may be the year to get a (relatively) cheap house in a really nice place. However, the governator prepared to slash all the state services to the bone, so if you come, be prepared to live independently.

ice, but only a little

2008-12-26T12:58:00.002-06:00

There's high pressure heading for northern California, and that means a north wind. North of Santa Cruz are the eponymous mountains, and south is the Monterey Bay. Both are the sources of our air conditioning, depending on the season, because both can be the source of temperature inversions. In this season the mountains are the cool source, for the air at the summit gets pushed gently down the gulches until it slides under the ocean air. Where the gulches hit the coastal flats we can have frost from mid-October through mid-May.

The iciest winter in recent memory was December of 1990, where for 5 days the arctic wind blew at us. Every succulent plant died, and many citrus even far south of us. The street next to the post office was covered in ice after a water main froze. Puddles of water in parking lots stayed frozen for five days.

Today was mild by comparison even to this year, but there was a skin of ice in the buckets against the back porch until 09:00, and the frost remained on roofs another half hour after that despite the bright shining sun.

Happy Boxing Day

Ken Starr loves sex

2008-12-19T23:29:00.003-06:00

Ken Starr really loves to talk about sex, especially when it involves doing it in the public spaces of courts and laws.

First it was Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.

Now it's 18000 couples in California.

The position in the argument engages with the full faith and credit clause of the federal constitution as well as the 14th amendment and the defense of marriage act.

I get the impression that Starr wants to argue all this in front of SCOTUS.

But that won't happen until this gets through the state level.

Strangely enough, as a direct result of the passage of proposition 8 a self-consistent interpretation of the current law in California is that the state cannot recognize marriage at all. The position Starr took today is consistent with that interpretation.

Disorder in Detroit

2008-12-19T08:14:00.005-06:00

A couple of interesting comments keep coming up in the Detroit bailout saga. This morning Bush repeated the "disorderly bankruptcy" line we've been hearing. But he said something else. He also said that the automakers had failed to "make the proper legal and financial preparations necessary" for an orderly bankruptcy (I'm paraphrasing). He also said that the short term of the newly announced loans will give the Big 3 "time to prepare for an orderly bankruptcy" and that the US taxpayers' loans will be repaid in 2009 if those terms were not met.

All of this raises for me a question that indicates the mismanagement of these companies may have been even worse than we know: What is wrong with the structuring of the automakers' secured obligations that a Chapter 11 proceeding would be "disorderly?" Are bondholders' priorities a legal mess for some reason?

The Supreme Court and Tort Reform

2008-12-17T12:04:00.002-06:00

When the Supreme Court renders a controversial decision, I learned long ago not to get too opinionated about it until I'd read the written opinions. When a decision is a 6 to 3 one or a 5 to 4 one, I know it's likely a close call, and both sides are going to have cogent reasons for their positions.

This week the Court rendered a decision involving the doctrine known as pre-emption. It was 5 to 4, so I know there probably isn't a right side and a wrong side, even before reading the written opinions. But it's unfortunate that it came when the trial lawyers party (otherwise known as the democrats) is about to take over Washington.

It's hard to justify the existence of the trial lawyer bar. They not only do nothing productive, they significantly diminish productivity, sucking out a portion of gross domestic product for themselves in the process.

When the trial lawyers move into a new field (asbestos claims, tobacco claims, pharma claims, whatever), they look for a state or states that are most receptive to their latest scam. Since most deep pocket defendants operate in all 50 states, it's easy to get jurisdiction in some really enlightened state, such as Mississippi, whose juries and judges love to spread the wealth around. They rarely go to the federal courts, because federal judges are tougher to convince that, for example, coffee cups should bear warning labels and if they don't the culprits should pay very large damage amounts, a big chunk of which goes to the lawyers.

Pre-emption says that if there's a federal law that seems intended to completely regulate a matter, the states can't impose their own inconsistent regulatory schemes. So if, for example, the feds impose comprehensive labeling requirements and insulate companies from liability if they comply, the states can't override that. The doctrine obviously makes eminent sense. The trial lawyers hate it. Alas, any time an exception to the doctrine is created, the floodgates open a bit to the kind of mischief the trial lawyers do. This latest Supreme Court case will have that effect.

I don't blame the Supreme Court for doing its job. What is required is for Congress to rein in the trial lawyers by enacting meaningful tort reform laws. That is highly unlikely with the democrats taking power, especially with a leader who apparently thinks redistribution of wealth is an admirable thing.

Feeling Pretty Good

2008-12-17T02:43:00.004-06:00

OK, now I've beaten Keith.

I haven't been following this blog very closely, but it seems like a lot of complaining goes on, mostly about politics and economics. I know I'll probably be roundly ridiculed, and no doubt lectured on my ignorance, but I have to say I am feeling pretty good about everything. In my insular little world, things are good. I do read the papers and I know what's going on in the world and with the economy, but I really don't feel any of it. I haven't curtailed my spending at all (of course, being a Christen, I have always been extremely frugal, to put it nicely). I read my monthly financial statements and yes, my assets are worth less than they were 6 months ago, but since I don't plan on selling, so what? I have every confidence that things will pick up, and until then, I'll just continue on my merry way. Am I deluding myself? Maybe, but I don't care. I've got enough to worry about with child care, house work. volunteering (I know, what a hard life!) . I don't need to stay up nights worrying about things that are out of my control. So, I don't.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody!

- Amanda

Obama Energy/Environmental Team

2008-12-16T11:14:00.002-06:00

I've often told people that one of my state's senators, Teddy Kennedy, seems to be stuck in the past, say about 1975. He seems to still view the world as if it were that year.

The same may hold true for Obama's newly-named energy and environmental team. Those folks are similar to the ones I knew back when I was an active environmentalist. (In fact, I know Carol Browner, albeit not well, from those days.) I wonder if we're in a time warp, trying to return to those "halycon" 60s. (The continuing impact of the 60s has caused more grief and problems for American society than any other period during my lifetime.)

I hope those newly-appointed idealists have some new, and a bit more practical, ideas. But I'm not optomistic. During their announcements, there was not one mention of two things that are pretty critical to dealing with today's energy/environmental world: nuclear plants to supply electricity; and domestic drilling to supply fuel.

If we seriously want to cut hydrocarbon consumption and/or encourage domestic production and/or put Detroit into a position where they can more effectively compete with the offshore car companies, there's a step we can take that's tried and true: Drop CAFE, drop government subsidies and put a $2 per gallon tax on gasoline. But neither the democrats nor the republicans have the guts to do that.

pants check?

2008-12-13T16:30:00.003-06:00

Given the weather elsewhere I'm not even sure that many of us have power, but it's relatively nice here in California, at least for near solstice. We might even get snow on the peaks of Santa Cruz.

But there are other concerns in Santa Cruz and California as a result of the election. Early in the year a ballot initiative was prepared for November with the aim of modifying the constitution. Right after the prohibition against slavery and the assertion of equal protection, and right before the prohibition of discrimination, it proposed that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid in California. The wording of the initiative was in place before the California supreme court ruled that same sex marriage could happen. The counties modified the marriage licenses to add boxes for "spouse" to go alongside "husband" and "wife". Many such marriages happened in California, as well as in other states, before proposition 8 passed in November.

Almost immediately the county of San Francisco filed suit to stop the law. Within two weeks the county of Santa Cruz joined that suit. There are all sorts of arguments about why a county would want to do this, and many have been given openly, but one remains rather less talked about by the county officials.

If it is incumbent on the county officials to uphold the constitution, then in order to verify that the couple applying for a marriage is a man and a woman, the county basically has to ask them to drop their pants. (Recall that California dropped the requirement for a pre-marital blood test in 1995.) The county workers really don't want to have to do this. The counties do not want to be mandated to have a medical professional on hand in order to comply with this change to the constitution.

Illinois Politics

2008-12-12T16:28:00.002-06:00

I think all politicians are potentially dangerous, but Illinois seems to have far more than its share of the seriously dangerous ones. First: Blagojevich may or may not be guilty of sins; the quotes released so far by Fitzgerald don't mention money, only favors and trades and other quid pro quos that politicians deal in all the time, usually without objection. And prosecutorial zeal often isn't supported by hard evidence. So I think it's a little early to judge the Gov guilty, and I thought we had a rule in this country about presumption of innocence. Time will tell, and I don't see any reason here to be rushing to judgment.

But let's assume that Blagojevich is absolutely guilty as charged. Why does that give the lieutenant governor the right to force his ouster? Talk about self interest! And why does the Illinois attorney general have the right to ask the state supreme court to oust a public official elected by the people? What happened to separation of powers? That doctrine is especially important in situations precisely like this one. Finally, if the legislature can change the rules of the game after an official is elected - calling a special election just because they don't like the occupant of the office - we have all the elements of tyranny. Looks to me like there are multiple star chambers in Illinois.

So my concern isn't Blagojevich. If he's guilty, he'll eventually get his just desserts. My concern is all those other greedy Illinois politicians who are just leaping at the chance to move up the ladder by changing or ignoring the basic rules, rules that were designed to prevent arbitrary and hasty action exactly when the temptation is greatest to do so.

If people who really care about these things - I'd call them the true patriots - don't speak up when ill advised (or worse) jerks are threatening to change fundamental protections, there's no telling what evil will transpire. Speak up!!

what time is it?

2008-12-12T01:11:00.003-06:00

The facts are that all of us are descendants of Hoosiers. Although our patriarch and his brothers were born in Chicagoland, both their parents were Hoosiers, and all those boys married Hoosier women.

You may have noticed that I chose the Central time zone when I set up this blog. That seemed appropriate for the name of the blog, but it relates to a big issue in Indiana: What time is it?

I remember the confusion about calling maternal grandparents while I was growing up, and I knew that for all of my life lots of Hoosiers have had issues with daylight saving time, but the full glory of the history of time in Indiana didn't become apparent to me until this week.

I read the wikipedia article on Time in Indiana.

Disagreements about the nature of conventional reality don't get much more surreal than that.

The Capitol, Truth, and the Dreaded "R" Word

2008-12-05T15:35:00.001-06:00

The new Capitol Visitor’s Center opened in Washington, DC this week, splashed in controversy.

As usual for a government project it was making its debut behind schedule (the original date for completion was January of 2004) and grossly over-budget ($621-million versus a promised $71-million), but those were not the root of the dissension.

The epicenter of the tumult was one of those subjects you supposedly don’t initiate in polite company: religion. According to a number of those who previewed the grand new digs, designed to give dear leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid relief from the “offensive body odor” of tourists, the place of religion in America’s foundation is nearly invisible.

But I submit the charge isn’t entirely true.

Upon entering, you are confronted with a religious quote—etched in marble—from that towering giant of American history, Rufus Choate.

Yes, the esteemed Rufus.

You say you’ve never heard of him? Well, if you were from the great State of Massachusetts you might have.

Might.

You see, ol’ Rufus was a Congressman, and then Senator, from today’s State of the Walking Brain Dead (present company on this blog excluded, of course) beginning back in the 1830’s. I will leave aside for a moment the question of why we would choose such a prominent location for a statement from such an unknown and unremarkable figure to focus on the religious content of the quote itself.

Here’s what the words etched in stone say: We have built no national temple but the Capitol; We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.

I’m going to do something very un-post-modern here for a moment and actually try to do a simple analysis of what Mr. Choate’s statement communicates. (Yes, I’m one of those archaic people who believes people of the past—for example the writers of the Constitution itself—meant to communicate something specific when they wrote, not just ideas to be reshaped like Gumby when they say something we don’t like.)

Phrase One: We have built no national temple but the Capitol;

Who resides, or is sought, in a temple? If you answered: A God or gods, you show a promising level of intellectual ability.

So in very simple terms, Mr. Choate is apparently communicating a belief that those who reside inside the Capitol are the nation’s gods. Doesn’t that begin to explain a lot of what we’re seeing in America these days; why our Congress-people consider themselves above the law—to BE the law?

Phrase Two: We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.

Ooh, now that’s a delicious irony.

What’s an oracle? One definition is: A command or revelation from God. There we are again. The Constitution, in this man’s view, was a Divine command; the revealed will of gods. Who wrote it: men. The Founders. Those who sat in the halls of power. Men just like Rufus (at least in his own mind, I’m sure).

Apparently Rufus saw himself as some kind of exalted being who should be termed homo-deitus. (At this moment I prefer homo-dufus-Rufus, but that would be unprofessional, even if true.) When I see many of our current leaders on TV I believe the same infection endures on Capitol Hill.

As for the ‘irony,’ when was the last time a Congressman or Senator actually considered the Constitution when producing legislation? More specifically, when was the last time almost any of them contemplated what the Founders themselves intended to communicate in that document?

Back to the religion thing.

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina was one of those who protested the skewed history depicted in the new Visitor’s Center. In a statement this week he said:

“The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to tell the history and purpose of our nation's Capitol, but it fails to appropriately honor our religious heritage that has been critical to America’s success. While the Architect of the Capitol has pledged to include some references to faith, more needs to be done. You cannot accurately tell the history of America or its Capitol by ignoring the religious heritage of our Founders and the generations since who relied on their faith for strength and guidance. The millions of visitors that will visit the CVC each year should get a true portrayal of the motivations and inspirations of those who have served in Congress since its establishment.

Dr. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and best-selling author of countless Christian books, said the issue is not one of Christian advocacy. “The point is truth. Caring about that is one of the biggest differences between 1787, when our constitution was written, and now.”

For many it is an inconvenient truth, indeed, that the American experience began as a Church-relocation project when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Any unbiased reading of history easily demonstrates that those who initiated the Great Experiment in Liberty did so as an outworking of their belief in the God of the Bible, something now generally seen by the elite of this land an outdated collection of fables.

But…

“Historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document.” Obviously a statement like that came from some right-wing, religious nutcase, correct? Nope. Newsweek Magazine. (Yeah, you know, that noted pro-Christian publication.)

“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.” Who said that? Another source who couldn’t know much: John Adams, Second President of the United States.

One more:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.“

Apparently the author of these words would differ with a decision to delete reference to the religious nature of America’s founding from a new Capitol Visitor’s Center. In fact, this obviously ignorant, bigoted individual says the person who makes or supports such a decision is not a patriot. How dare he!

Who was this bigot?

George Washington, First President of the United States, and the man widely known as the “Father of the Country.”

Of course, what did he know?

Obviously Rufus Choate was a better choice to highlight in the Capital Visitor’s Center.

Right?

Timing Detroit

2008-12-04T14:13:00.003-06:00

Today’s argument by the Big 3 (2 ½?) seems to have morphed into an issue of timing: even if one thinks the auto industry should go under, now is not the time. The recession having been declared since the last failed attempt to wring taxpayer money out of Congress, the auto makers argue that if they go down now, economic Armageddon will ensue.

Aside from other criticisms of this plea, it begs the question at issue. If now is not the time to let GM go bankrupt, when is? Is it Q4 09, when the recession has (hopefully) abated? Or when the jobs market recovers (and is the present measure of that believable)? And why should the taxpayers give them 30 billion dollars while we wait for their deaths?

The arrogance of the Big 3 is appalling. But the issue of timing is not without substance. The timing being discussed, however, is, like virtually all of the issues discussed in America today, wholly off the mark. The timing truly at issue is that of the deleveraging of the American consumer. And that timing is now.

The Big 3 are indirect victims of the credit crisis. American consumers are badly overleveraged. They have too much debt, especially mortgage and consumer debt. The widespread and heavily encouraged trading of home equity for consumption debt over the last decade is especially illustrative of the problem. Yet the household-by-household deleveraging of the US consumer is now underway; foreclosure and deprivation of consumer credit are the fastest routes to ending further household debt imaginable.

Part of the Big 3’s problem, however, is the nature of the housing bubble. Virtually all of the housing orgy of the last 10 years took place in the suburbs. The six-ton, three-car household is the Siamese twin of the housing boom. While toasting on the Kool-Aid served up at their new home and mortgage closings, these new suburbanites borrowed to buy the cars and SUVs they needed for their new, auto-centered lifestyle. The single-station wagon family gave way to the one-sedan, two-SUV family, complete with three-car heated and enclosed attached garage. Detroit drank this Kool-Aid along with US consumers. The GM model for US sales sustainability was similar to their profitable Chinese operation: as long as more housing is being built, and cash is available to finance auto purchases, they can continue selling automobiles without structural change.

The overleveraged-Kool-Aid fest is not limited to US households. Investment banks (remember them?) had absurd leverage ratios, with overconcentrations of the sugar in the Kool-Aid -- housing-based derivative securities. Banks extended credit to consumers based on insufficient collateral (their homes) so they could consume discretionary goods like electronics and second and third automobiles. Then, there’s the big daddy of leveraged finance, Uncle Sam. Accumulating an enormous federal debt and ballooning deficits, the US borrowed huge sums from China (and other nations) to balance its current account, all the while maintaining a weak enough dollar for Chinese imports to offset the debt racked up by US consumers, business and government.

And that’s the tie that binds the whole affair. US consumers are going to consume fewer discretionary goods and services in the future, because they have to. Permanently higher commodities prices – primarily gas and food -- drive higher household budgetary anxiety and result in lower discretionary household spending. Combined with substantially higher health care costs, an aging population and a contraction of credit to fund any household expenses, a long-term trend toward lower discretionary consumption emerges.

Indeed, they already have. Consumer spending, as reflected in retail sales, consumer confidence and the US savings rate, all point to household spending contraction on everything other than necessities. The Bush economic stimulus checks were not spent by consumers, they were hoarded by households or used to pay down household debt – to deleverage (like the TARP funds given to banks).

The implications are enormous. The model of a global economy that has arisen is one of the US borrowing, through household and government credit, to fund imports from overseas. Imports in turn create wealth for households and private business in China, and elsewhere. That wealth creation is the true definition of “emerging markets.” (Last October when the People’s Republic of China cut central bank interest rates in concert with the US and ECB was the final death knell of Chairman Mao.) If US consumers consume less – if they consume some amount that is in fact sustainable given the actual, non-inflated value of their collateral assets -- the global model gives way to global crisis.

Which brings us back to Detroit. The issue is not whether the Big 3 can be allowed to fail at this time -- during recession. Nor is it how long before they will begin making green (and unprofitable) cars. That is the same as asking what month of 2009 they should be allowed to go bankrupt. The real question is: How will they structure themselves to profit from deleveraged US households that can only afford one-ton of auto each? If the time has now come where consumers buy fewer cars as a matter of household finance, how will the Big 3 shrink to meet this demand?

I Had a Dream

2008-12-03T17:19:00.002-06:00

I had a dream.

No, really. It was a dream.

Well, sort of.

I was in bed anyway, and I was supposed to be sleeping, but because of this wonderful, life-stopping illness I've been enjoying for the past few days I was hacking and coughing while closing my eyes and praying that I could sleep.

But then... there was the dream.

Or was it a dream? (OK, OK, I told you I've been sick. Some people would undoubtedly say for a very long time, after reading this post!)

I had apparently been elected to Congress, and was making my very first floor speech. Let's just say if ol' Dale what's-his-name who wrote "How to Win Friends and Influence People" were still alive, he might be asking to provide me with a few pointers.

I won't bore you with the whole thing (not that I can remember it anyway... but I never remember my dreams, so this is quite remarkable that I'm remembering any of it... if it was a dream... Ooooh... back to the story)

I said something like:

In my oath of office, I promised to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. From what I've seen over the past few decades, apparently I've taken an oath to defend the country against most of you! Yes, you, and all your little lobbyist friends too, Toto. (Hey, it was a dream... don't accuse me of plagiarism... or was it a dream?)

I said, while I would like to be friends with everyone in the room, given my oath, and my duty to the people of this country, the only ones in the room who deserve my friendship are those who actually support the Constitution.

Since that eliminates about 433 of us (you can breathe easy, Ron Paul), that means if the Founding Fathers could rise from the grave today and give Congress what it deserves they would probably bestow each of you with a little gift; a small token of their esteem for the way you've ruined the Great Experiment in Liberty.

What kind of tiny remembrance, you might be wondering: A musket-ball between the eyes!

OK, enough of the dream (if it was a dream), I think you get the picture.

I do think it's high time the citizens of this country quit playing buddy-buddy with those who are destroying what was set up to be the greatest, most prosperous land on earth.

If this were France, I would vote Henry Paulson--the traitor-in-chief--as first in line to meet Lady Blade. Next, each and every member of Congress who voted to steal the People's money to bail out the richest, most vile scoundrels who have cursed the ground of this once free land.

Now that the bailouts have begun, there will be no end to the madness. And now that they've begun--if the country survives this round of economic collapse--we have ensured that it will happen again, because we've sought to remove the pain of criminality and stupidity, which should never be removed for the sake of people learning what not to do.

We are victims of men practicing "Economic Universalism."

Just as so many have attempted to deny the reality of Hell, for their own treasonous deeds against the Creator and Giver of life, so we attempt to forestall and/or eliminate pain for those who will not work (What do you mean the government doesn't owe me a check for existing?), those who will not follow directions (Gee, hot coffee is hot?!? Who woulda known?), and those whose economic understanding is beneath the level of a turnip (You mean deficits do matter, and bills have to be paid back someday? C'mon, if we throw enough trillions at this thing we can whip it!)

Believers in Economic Universalism are destined for a foretaste of the pain that awaits followers of Metaphysical Universalism: 404 - Sorry, the destination you planned to reach does not exist.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect $200 (Oh, I'm sorry... with the inflation that's now in the pipeline Monopoly will have to raise that to $20,000).

Here's your musket-ball.

Next.

But, hey, it's only a dream. Right?

Someone please let me know when it's safe to wake up.

Nancy Pelosi

2008-12-02T15:14:00.001-06:00

I'm watching her babbling about Detroit on TV. Is she from this planet?

Bailing Out Detroit

2008-12-01T20:20:00.002-06:00

I'll try to stay calm while warching the new hearings this week. I don't blame the car companies or the unions for trying to get a place at the trough. They'll make their pitch and I'll disagree with them, but I won't get excited. But I'll go bonkers when the congresspeople, especially the ones from California, start asking their inane questions. WE NEED TERM LIMITS!!

Let's talk turkey

2008-12-01T19:18:00.002-06:00

I was recently invited to a friend's home for Thanksgiving dinner. Since I could not be with my family, I eagerly agreed. As we sat in the living room waiting for dinner, I could not wait for my favorite dish - the stuffing. As my hostess was taking the turkey out of the oven, of course I volunteered to help hoping to get the first crusty bites of stuffing. The turkey was out of the oven and I said "Where is the bowl for the stuffing?" I was shocked and dismayed to hear, "Oh the stuffing is still in the oven". How could this be??? I said, "The stuffing is not in the turkey?" A collective gasp went out from the gathered guests. "You can't put stuffing in a turkey - it isn't safe" was the reply.

Are you kidding me? Apparently the USDA or FDA or some oversized government agency has decided and published articles and warnings to terrify the American public that putting stuffing in a turkey is "potentially dangerous". Some nonsense about possible bacteria. What has happened to tradition? The stuffing has been IN the turkey since the pilgrims. What has happened to common sense? Where did this propaganda originate? Was it the West Coast alfalfa lovers who lobbied to have the stuffing taken out of the turkey? Or the East Coast liberals that decided government does not have their fingers in enough pies and that the American public needs government to tell us what and how to eat? When is enough enough?

Grandma Allen (the impetus for this blog) would turn over in her grave. While she was a survivor of the Depression and possibly the originator of Stone soup (boiling water and a potato CAN be a meal in desperate times), she was also a wonderful cook. She cooked like an American. The grease from bacon was considered valuable and to be saved! Her crescent rolls were made with lots of butter. And no sane person ever turned down one of her crescent rolls. Eggs were a hearty breakfast and it was never necessary to limit the number consumed. She and others from her generation lived well into their 80's and 90's.

So when did we as Americans decide to turn our diets over to the government? When did we lose our ability to make our own choices? When did we stop to think for ourselves? And for the love of God, when did we decide to let them tell us to take the stuffing out of the turkey????

I think that's (more than just) a first

2008-11-28T22:24:00.003-06:00

Unless I'm mistaken, facebook reports the first of Vern and Naomi's great-grandchildren is "in a relationship". I find myself wondering with Miranda about the "brave new world" from The Tempest. Wondering not just that the three-year-old I once twirled happily around the back yard is so grown up, but also that I can know about that from half a continent away, and even see an image of the couple within hours, all as a result of an update to somebody's database.

We all give up a bit of privacy when we use these web 2.0 thingies. I hope we do it as in Lost Horizon, in moderation, so that we can enjoy it as if inhabitants of Shangri-La.

something else Steve does ...

2008-11-24T12:18:00.002-06:00

I keep getting the last word in articles like this one in Smithsonian's Air & Space.

So from my entries here thus far it seems I'm partial to saving marine life forms and legal/technical tricks to keep the sun overhead at noon.

Despite being registered Republican does that make me a bleeding-heart left-coast liberal?

what Steve does ...

2008-11-23T23:37:00.003-06:00

For a look at one piece of what I do, see what Wired is showing about DEIMOS.

2008-11-23T12:02:00.002-06:00

The Democrats and Detroit

I think I finally figured out the enigma of the democrats going through a fruitless and inane exercise last week re Detroit. Their attempt at aiding Detroit is obviously a required payback for union help in the last election; that I figured out a while ago. But I couldn't understand why they'd be attempting political suicide; polls show roughly 75% or more of the electorate opposed to a Detroit bailout. Then the light bulb went off in my head. By going through this charade now, with no chance of success given the position of Bush and the republicans, they can say to the unions "well, we tried our best, but we couldn't pull it off." Then come January, GM will have gone bankrupt or other events will have transpired that will let the democrats off the hook with the unions. So they're not as dumb politically as I had thought.

it's like Kurosawa

2008-11-22T16:34:00.002-06:00

On youtube, Sarah Palin g ets her Thanksgiving turkey
I note this here because I'm pretty sure that I had not sat still to watch Saturday Night Live until the family reunion with Naomi at Rich's place in 1980. The local news managed to frame this scene even better than SNL. I especially like the question from the reporter about state programs on the chopping block.

congratulations MBA 339

2008-11-22T12:48:00.002-06:00

It is about a half hour walk to get to the beach, only a little bit farther away than Gill's middle school (and during the summer days walking is faster than seeking parking). Starting from the closest beach it is a short scramble over the rocks to the beach with Rodeo Creek, which drains our property (or at least it tries, when it can out compete the sand bar). I've been there with the girls a lot. The form of the beach varies seasonally, for as winter storms start up they pull out at least a meter deep of sand, which slowly returns after the storm season ends. The full or new moon at the end of December provides one of the best times, for then the tide can be more than a meter below its usual low, and many life forms are evident clinging to the rocks. Alternatively, during high tide and a storm the waves crash up onto the roadways, once inundating a bus.

From the beach there are always marine mammals visible. During the season the whales sometimes come in close, and also the Stellar sea lions. Porpoises are a pretty common sight. Once we found a dead elephant seal. But there are almost always sea otters basking in the sun while clinging to the kelp. These last two were both highly endangered by human hunting. Indeed, after the elephant seal was considered extinct a Smithsonian expedition found a handful on a beach and killed them to bring their carcasses to museums. (In a fashion typical of humans who survive so long, one of the scientists justified his actions in a paper 30 years later.)

Today's entry is prompted by a story of successful human intervention, one of Monterey Bay Aquarium's human-raised orphan otters is now a successful mom.

2008-11-20T11:14:00.002-06:00

I watched with disgust the hearing yesterday in the House on the possible Detroit bailout. I knew our congresspeople weren't the best and brightest, but I didn't know they were plain stupid. One after another, they showed their complete ignorance of what is going on and how they waste time and money with posturing and inanity.

We're talking here about an incredibly important matter of policy that deserves really serious consideration and incisive analysis. What penetrating questions did our congresspeople ask? Several of them asked about their own cars and the problems they had getting service. Others wanted the Detroit CEOs to say they'd use any money they got to support their dealers (and of course one of the many structural problems Detroit has is too many dealers), as if Congress wasn't capable of crafting a law that would accomplish that. Others harped on protecting the workers (i.e., unions), whose refusal to share the pain is, of course, a major part of the problem.

I wanted to throw up, or move to Canada (or somewhere). You don't believe it's that bad? Watch some of the hearing and decide for yourself.

2008-11-19T09:43:00.004-06:00

I've been going around telling people I voted for McCain because he's white. That isn't true, but it's interesting to see people's reactions. Usually, there is a look of disapproval, but politeness keeps people from saying what many of them are thinking, namely "you're a racist!" For those who actually wish to discuss the matter (not including most liberals, who have trouble cogently defending their positions), I point out that 90% or more of blacks voted for Obama because - lo and behold - he's black. So if I'm a racist, so are most of those black voters.

Is that true? I don't think so. The problem is that the term "racist" is now commonly used to discredit any contrary viewpoint on any subject that involves race. But human beings are wired to belong to groups. We have an ingrained affinity for our alma mater, our country, our fellow employees, etc., etc. If I vote for a citizen from my home state because he's from my home state, that doesn't mean I hate the candidate from the other state.

If I vote for the white (or black or brown or whatever) candidate because his color is like mine, that's not racist. It's racist if I vote against a candidate because I don't like people of his color. Put another way: If I always vote against a candidate who is black, regardless of qualifications, I'm probably being racist. If I always vote for the white candidate because I think he'll do more for people like me, I'm probably not being racist.

Why is this important? Because laws and regulations involving race are legitimate only if they deal with and attack real racism, not if they simply reflect white guilt and political correctness. The latter are no more than restrictions on liberty and individual choice that impose the will and views of one group on another without any compelling societal justification. And to boot they too often produce irrational and unintended results.

2008-11-19T09:41:00.000-06:00

You gotta break some eggs

2008-11-18T01:00:00.002-06:00

If your schooling included Chaucer's Canterbury Tales then you recognize the name of my street. Over half a century ago this neighborhood was one of the largest chicken ranching areas in the state. The local historians tell stories explaining how chickens and the very deep lots around here are related. Our residence is one of many which was built in the back yard, the chicken yard, behind an earlier house along the street.

Along the street there are still some large vacant lots, the biggest of which has long been owned by the county with the intent of creating a park. Recently there has been some progress toward that goal. Last year the county demolished a former childcare center and two houses of inferior quality. This month they demolished the penultimate set of tiny residences formerly inhabited by the farm hands. All of these had been rented out by the county for years. But one moderate-sized residence of obvious quality remains on the site.

It was always evident that the elementary school attended by the girls was named for a young man who died too young. Neither of the girls was told that story in the school. It became clear by combining two things. First, the county outlined the plans for the park. The house remaining on the park site will become part of the park -- it was the house owned by the parents of the boy who died. I found the second part at the school fundraiser. I asked the retired principal, who had started teaching there before I started school. She pointed out that the current board chair and music teacher was the son of the dead boy's sister, the grandson of the house owners.

What about the eggs? With a few exceptions all the chicken ranches moved to the central valley. As a result of Proposition 2 in the election this month those chicken ranches are in today's news. Soon we get to vote with our dollars. Cage free eggs from California? Or cheap, large-scale eggs trucked in from elsewhere?

Murder Capital of the World

2008-11-15T11:48:00.002-06:00

Based on Rich's expectations, I'm suppose that the local news will prove a rich source of inspiration for entries in this blog. I'll start.

Anyone who comes for a visit here will find a place where the redwoods meet the beaches, raptors and coyotes patrol the meadows, deer and bobcats patrol the forests. Today's news shows a darker part of the past -- our local paper once styled this place as the Murder Capital of the World. The article is written by one of the young staffers of the paper who had to consult the archives for content. (The sad state of local news in general is that there aren't any reporters left who have any seniority or first hand experience of the past. They've all been let go as part of the newspapers business model changing to giving away the news in URLs.)

That era was still being remembered when I arrived here. The homicidal epithet was trotted out again when Kiefer Sutherland (lately of 24) was around town filming The Lost Boys.

Things are better now. There haven't been any mass murders lately. I'm not so sure about the vampires.

administrivia

2008-11-15T10:49:00.002-06:00

Here is the blog, hosted courtesy of google's blogspot and blogger. I'm pretty sure that this provides the lowest barrier for entry to those who, unlike me, don't already have more online identities than I can count. We can move to a new site later if we find that preferable.

Getting a blogger identity is relatively easy, it is the same as a google account. That identity does not require getting a Gmail address or calendar (although it opens the door to those options); it can be based on any existing e-mail address. I don't have the URLs that lead to the google account handy, but I think they are only a few clicks away from anyone who is reading this.

I have no affection for the current theme and layout, but I also have insufficient exposure to art to want to manipulate the CSS that provides the style. I'm willing to add anyone else as a blog admin as well as a blog author, so if you have notions for HTML/CSS that would make it prettier then come right along and change it.