Steve's Humor Politics and Writing Blog (live from Las Vegas)

Hillerman in Albuquerque

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:02:00 +0000

The reason I wimped out, er, failed to post last week was that I was in Albuquerque attending the Tony Hillerman Writers' Conference Focus on Mystery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I've been a fan of Hillerman ever since I read the first of his Navajo stories. He died a month before the conference, which is a crying shame, but he leaves a wonderful body of work for fans to enjoy for a long time. I can say that he was remarkably accurate in his portrayal of both the place and people of the four corners area. I've visited the Navajo in their homes, and found them to be funny, generous, and reserved, not necessarily in that order. All of which is by way of background to me going to that particular conference.

At the conference I won a book by Louis Bayard titled Mr. Timothy. Now that is one fine book, and Mr. Bayard signed it for me while I waited. That was a highlight. If you like a good thriller and have an interest in Victorian London, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Mr. Timothy is Tiny Tim, all grown up and still having issues with his dead father. And it's a good thriller, too.

The conference was good, but I'm not sure it was worth all the fuss and expense of going all the way to Albuquerque for. Not that Albuquerque is not a nice place, because it is, but it is a long way from Las Vegas Nevada. (It's not far at all from Las Vegas, New Mexico.) It was interesting to ride on Interstate 25 again, as for many years that was the North-South main road through my town. And New Mexico is a beautiful place, to the point of feeling sort of weird. The workshops at the conference were good, but not as nuts-and-bolts as I'd expected, or would have liked. I did learn some things, especially about publishing mysteries, and also about making villains sympathetic, which is an important thing to do, of course. I mean, who doesn't love Doctor No? Exactly, nobody. He's a popular, if consummately evil, guy, and a fitting foil for Bond, James Bond.

Still, for the money, I'd have liked more hands-on instruction, but if I'd gone down from Denver I'd have probably loved it. Denver is closer to New Mexico in several important ways than is Las Vegas.

Albuquerque is a small town of 850,000 people, many of them surprising. For instance, the driver of the shuttle taking us to the airport after the conference, when I said "Eh voila!" just like in Fractured Fairy Tales on Bullwinkle, made the proper response, which is "Nous Avaunt Arrive'". Of course in the original that's all one sentence uttered by a magical French talking duck. Then he told me, in beautiful French, that he'd studied French and lived there for a time, and learned the language well. Indeed he had.

Well, I did have a good time, although the hotel featured Starbucks coffee, which I've never liked, but other than that, I did learn some things and enjoyed the company of like-minded literary fools. It's a small conference, but nicely done. I probably won't attend next year, but I am planning to enter their contest. Why not? A man from Vegas won this year, so I'll go for two in a row.

As for Albuquerque, they love books. Just look at this picture I took with my phone on Central Avenue if you don't believe me.

Steve

I Told You So

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:09:00 +0000

Yes, I did correctly predict the outcome of this presidential election on June 18th. The link under the title of this post will take you to my unedited prediction. So, I really did tell you so. So there!

And now, as a service to those who just can't stand the thought of a President Obama, I offer the following. As in the late 1860s, when some people left the country for another country to the south, some of you may wish to do that yourselves. If so, here's a link to a Wikipedia article that you may find useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Mexico

Now, if you're serious, here's a link to actual information and resources to set the process in motion:

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/fqimig.html

Now, why would I be so snide? Well, it has to do with the casual way that some folks calling themselves "conservatives" have dismissed people like myself. Here are some sad facts, if that includes you.

Most of the country lives in cities. True, we don't know the difficulties of rural living, but then neither do most Americans. We have, for example, African-American citizens who we see, and work with, every day. Nothing in particular happens as a result. Know what else? We have people who primarily know a language other than English, and they're common as anything. In the really up-and-coming parts of the country, Latino people are not a minority. They're sometimes even a plurality, which is the most any ethnic group gets in our part of America these days. Yes, my country friends, there is no majority ethnicity where I live. We're stuck finding ways to get along with people no matter where they or their ancestors came from.

It is not normal to live in Alaska. At all. There are fewer people in Alaska than in the city of Las Vegas Nevada. And Las Vegas is only a bit over a quarter of the people in Clark County. Alaska is a beautiful place, but it isn't typical in any sense of the word. If it were, it wouldn't be special. They do take more tax money than they contribute on a Federal level, so of course they hate us urbanites who pay for their roads and bridges. Why shouldn't they? (Go ahead, I dare you to answer that one.)

The rising generation believes in working together for a common cause. That's not a boomer thing, but it's a sensible thing. Frankly, the boomer day was mercifully short. Clinton, then Bush. I'd have hated to slip any further, if you get my drift.

So, once again, I told you so!

Steve

Home Stretch

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:27:00 +0000

.
As noted much earlier, I gave up on trying to pick at the campaign ads. I'm just glad that they're almost over. I voted a couple of weeks ago, myself, the second day I could do so in Nevada. I didn't think it would work, but the political calls almost stopped after I voted. Apparently the various campaigns get a list of who isn't worth bothering any more. I did get a call from somebody today urging me to vote on Tuesday, but I told her that they wouldn't let me do it again.

So, thanks to some amazingly bad tactics by McCain, the worst of which has to be thinking that Governor Palin would attract Clinton supporters (Hillary not Bill,) and a smooth, glitch-free, genuine sounding two-years and more effort by Obama, I believe that my prediction from last summer is safe. Well, that's okay with me. I did my part. I've never been a party joiner by temperament, but the total volume of personal lies and misinformation coming from the red side of the campaigns in the past couple of decades finally choked me to the point where I couldn't continue. Great Googley Moogley, attacking Kerry's war record? Give me a break, please! Now Obama is a terrorist Muslim extremist bent on destroying America?

And there are people who believe that crap. If you don't like what Obama is saying, by all means don't vote for him, but please be aware that all the negative crap you hear about him is being pulled from the collective, er, ears of the Republican presidential campaign advising staff.

Frankly, the way they've let the party bullhorn be taken over by states rights (!) and religious nuts, the Republican party deserves to disintegrate so that it can be reborn in a more reasonable form.

The other day John Stewart had the Socialist candidate for president on as a guest. Yes, there is a candidate from the Socialist party. That man, the avowed socialist, called Obama just another capitalist, which is of course what he is.

As near as I can tell, since the days of Reagan, the Republican cause has been increasingly hijacked by a rough coalition of religious wackos, greed-head Libertarian wannabes, and left overs from what used to be the Dixicrat contingent of the Democratic party. The only way such a rag-tag collection can appear coherent is to lie. Not just to the public, but to themselves. They've lied so much that they are convinced that they're right.

I've met a few Muslims in America. Oddly, they have jobs, or businesses, they're students in school (most of the girls wear the scarves where I teach,) and they would do just about anything for America, because, like any sane capitalist, they love this country. Not the picture painted by that idiot Palin, I know, but my version has the virtue of being true.

Once more, here's a quick guide to whether somebody is trying to flim-flam you with a bad argument.

If the explanation they offer is simple and easy to understand, and it feels good to believe that it's true, it almost certainly is wrong.

Think of how many times in the past few decades the Republican argument has been simple and easy to understand, and it felt good to believe that it was true. That, in a nutshell, is why I voted for the other guy.

Not that I trust the Democrats. See, I figure they are going to win, and probably win big, and they, just like the Republicans did, will start to think that they own the truth. They will, over the next ten to twenty years, begin to flim-flam themselves with explanations that are simple and easy to understand, and that feel good to believe are true. Happens every time.

But, just now, it's time to clean out the old idiots and install some new ones. It's what we do every so often, and every time the republic survives. It'll survive this. I promise.

Steve

Et tu, Brute?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Last evening I was at the final performance of the fall season of the Shakespearean festival in Cedar City (Utah.) It was a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, set in the 1960s. I read Brutus in the eighth grade, so I was anxious to see the play produced, which I never had before.

In the play, as in history, a group of conspirators beguiles Brutus, who is a friend of Caesar, into helping them assassinate Caesar lest he be made king. Brutus did it for Rome, his country, and in the end Shakespeare has Marc Antony refer to Brutus as "The noblest Roman of them all" because his motives were pure. The result of the assassination was, in real history, a bloody civil war and the end of the Roman republic. Brutus's involvement ended up completely reversing what he had set out to do.

Caesar, for his part, had been undoing some of the damage done when rich landowners took over the fields owned by soldiers out fighting for their country. He had been giving the land back to the soldiers. The rich landowners, as you might expect, didn't much like that, and they comprised the core of the conspiracy that murdered Caesar.

In the play there are funerary speeches by Brutus and Marc Antony. Antony's is the more famous, as it is the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech that almost everyone in the English speaking world has heard at least once or twice. The core of Brutus's speech, which Shakespeare wrote in prose instead of his usual poetry, follows (for the whole speech, click on the title of this post.)

Who is here so base that would be a
bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended.
Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If
any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
for him have I offended.

Substitute "American" for "Roman" as you read that excerpt and see if it looks familiar. It sounds similar to the recent words of an idiot congresswoman from Minnesota, as echoed by an idiot governor from Alaska. (I would never badmouth another state's officials, but she put herself forth as more than that, so she's fair game.) In the case of "the noble Brutus," those words helped end the republic. In this case, they're just idiocy masquerading as political speech, but they still piss me off something terrible.

Someone is less patriotic because they don't follow our American leaders without complaint? Really? And why, again, did we overthrow His Majesty King George III? It's unpatriotic to live in a blue state? When did that start? Blue states contribute the bulk of the federal budget, including the handouts that go to Alaska, amongst others. It's unpatriotic to give you guys money? Okay, then, let us have it so we can do evil things with it like fund day care and health insurance. Better yet, how about all the red states secede and we let you this time? You have no money, no significant industry, and you depend on handouts from those of us who would be free to ignore you forever more. Sounds like a plan to me.

Or wait, wouldn't secession be unpatriotic? If you're not sure, ask Alaska's "first dude." I'm sure he has some words of wisdom on the subject.

Super Run in Henderson

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:06:00 +0000

I wrote two articles on this topic. One is on Living-Las-Vegas and you can go right to it by clicking the title of this post. Do it after you read, of course. This is the other one.

The Super Run is a classic street rod show in Henderson Nevada every September. I waited to post this because Living-Las-Vegas actually pays me, so I thought they should have the first thing posted. I'm not entirely heartless, or entirely stupid, either. Just mostly, huh?

So anyway, what this show is is hundreds and hundreds of shiny cars, some as old as single-digit twentieth century years, some brand new, most of them pretty cool rides, and virtually all of them legal.

For instance, here's one from a famous TV series of yore:

If you'll look at the full-sized version of this picture, you might, if you're classy enough, recognize the license plate. I'd seen this car a lot, of course, but never in person.

Now, here's a car Tami would like to own. Really. It's a 1966 Mustang Convertible, with beautiful paint and an original power plant not unlike, no kidding, one I had in a '64 Mercury Comet I bought from my Dad in 1976. Of course, this car looks a lot better than a Mercury Comet, and sounds better, and, well, nobody is going to pay twenty grand for a '64 Mercury Comet and that's enough said about that.

Now, for something more traditional, is this "blown hot rod." That's what it is, it says so right on the radiator.

They used to do drag racing with this show, but that isn't done any more, which is too bad. I spent a few illicit hours in my youth helping friends prove something with their automotive hardware. (My dad's Rambler never got entered, if you can believe it.) They do, each evening, have a one hour open-header cruise. Open-headers means no exhaust manifold at all, much less anything resembling a muffler. It's illegal, but not for what you might expect. There's no pollution controls on an open header setup, so there's no legal place to use one other than a track or in a show like this one. The noise is, as you might imagine, quite remarkable. Loud, even.

The thing is that a lot of these cars are cars from my high-school days. My friend Russ had a '58 BelAire wagon that he burned the clutch out on more than once. Another friend had a little Plymouth that could out-accelerate almost anything. We were high-school kids, so you can see that cars weren't really expensive in those days, and neither was fuel for them.

Now, cars are better. As cars. I have a little thing from Korea that gets almost thirty miles per gallon and I drive like a maniac. They didn't make 'em like that back in the day. But they sure did make 'em cool, and that's the truth.

Click here to visit the SuperRun web site.

Mahalo,

Steve

Debate on Dehook

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:00:00 +0000

My strongest impression of this evening's debate between McCain and Obama was that I was watching Nixon vs Kennedy all over again. (Yes, I did watch the first time, I'm old, get used to it.) What I mean is that the issues and all may have been a tie. Actually, both candidates just kept on saying what they've been saying, which seems odd in McCain's case, except that maybe he really is sincere. The issues may have been a tie, but the debate went to Obama. Why? Because McCain looked like hell, is why.

I've always sort of liked John McCain, so frankly I feel sorry for the man. He looked stiff, unable to sit, almost frozen in his posture, and he didn't walk around very well either. It reminds me of the way TV commercials sometimes project a completely different message when you watch them with the sound off.

But, as an educator, I know something that many do not. We remember a whole lot more of what we see than what we hear. A whole lot, like 50 percent to 14 percent, something like that. (I haven't looked that up in a while, but the ratio is in that neighborhood.) So, since the speech was pretty much forgettable, heck I could have written it for them, the visuals are bound to be what sways people. And visually, Obama looked relaxed, at ease with himself, in control, and McCain looked stiff, pained, and a bit inept. Too bad, but it does make my initial prognostication look better than ever. Thanks, guys!

Steve

Bill Engvall

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:56:00 +0000

Caught Bill at the Silver Legacy in Reno over the weekend. Not only is he side-splittingly funny in person, but it's all suitable for regular TV, too. One fine show.

New Headline

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:54:00 +0000

CONGRESS ACTS! ECONOMY ALL BETTER NOW!

Burn After Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:05:00 +0000

If you liked Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou? you may find yourself, like I was, wondering where the heck this movie was going.

Securities Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:25:00 +0000

Economics in college starts with a course numbered 101. Since apparently those in charge of some of our largest financial institutions never had that course, I offer herewith a short overview of the topic. And no, economics isn't really dismal at all. It's fairly simple. I give you Economics 001.

The link under the title of this post takes you to the Amazon listing for the newest edition of the famous book Securities Analysis, by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. There was no field called "Securities Analysis" before this book appeared. That there now is speaks volumes for how influential this volume has been. (Amazon has special re-issues of older editions for collectors, by the way.)

The book includes a long-term analysis of real value increase for various types of investment, tracked over a period of seventy-five years. This is real increase in value, not simply stuff that costs more dollars to buy.

Hey, you'll say, real estate, right? No, sorry. Real Estate, long term, appreciates a teensy-tiny bit, but not very much.

Oh, then bonds and other debt, right? No, actually, over the long term, if you want to lose money, then debt is the way to go. Not giving other people loans directly, like a bank, but investing in debt securities, like Wall Street has been doing so much of the recent decades. In a word, neither debt securities or real estate will do much for you long term.

Real estate will preserve value, but not increase it. Debt won't even do that.

What has been going on during this wonderful "Ownership" decade? Speculation in real estate and debt! Wowie! Can there be a connection between that fact and our current economic problems? Maybe? Could be? The book Securities Analysis came out in 1940. Maybe the war took people's mind off of the simple facts it presents. I couldn't say, but obviously the business schools aren't using this volume for anything more serious than a doorstop these days.

I'm not entirely kidding when I say we should consider shutting down Harvard and Yale and other prominent business colleges. Just look at the damage they do!

But, back to the topic at hand, you might ask, "What does appreciate in terms of real value over the long term?" The answer is productive industries. That is, factories that make things that people want to buy. Automobiles, for instance, or steel, or lines notebook paper, or corn chips or any thing that someone is willing to pay for. How much do stocks in manufacturing appreciate? Over seventy-five years the total gain in value was twenty-five percent. Put another way, over three-quarters of a century, making things people want to buy returned 125% of the investment it took to start the enterprise in the first place.

[That may sound like a small amount, but remember that over those decades many, many people made a good living producing the manufactured goods.]

So, if you want to make money and keep on making money, the thing to do is to produce something that people want to buy and keep selling it to them. Great googley-moogley, General Motors can't even seem to figure out how to make an automobile that people want to buy! How in heck can we expect to make money off of General Motor's debt? We can't, that's how. There's no way, no how, nada to be gotten from a company that has forgotten how to make items of value.

Oh, they can sell them. The automakers convinced Americans to buy SUVs because the SUVs are cheaper to make (fewer regulations for safety and fuel economy) and more profitable. Unfortunately, compared to most foreign automotive products, the average US-made SUV is like a poor cousin that looks like a car, but is so poorly put together that, sooner or later, and these days it's sooner, people are going to quit buying them. Still, the success of marketing SUVs and other products of, really, questionable value, led GM and others to put money into marketing and promotion that should have gone into making the product better and better. That, in short, is why GM is in trouble, and why Toyota sells so many pickup trucks these days.

GM's troubles are a part of the larger problem of not sticking to the fundamentals of a sound economy. Those fundamentals are, according to the guys who literally wrote the book, producing things of value and selling them for more than it cost you to produce them. All the slick marketing in the world won't overcome a cheaply made truck. And, all the wishful thinking in the world won't turn a debt security into a good investment.

Got all that? Okay, then.

Class dismissed!

Sexist Attacks on Palin Must End!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:54:00 +0000

I'd love to do this rant myself, but instead, just click here and read a better writer's take on this issue.

S.

Tina Fey Does Sarah Palin

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Believe it or not, I'm not Tina Fey's biggest fan. We might even be related for all I know, but there are comedians I like better. However, I did watch her portrayal of Sarah Palin on SNL, and I was amazed at how well she channeled the appearance and mannerisms of the Governor.

As for the commentary from both sides, screw 'em. It's really funny, and for the record it hits Hillary just as hard. "I didn't want a woman to be president, I wanted me to be president!"

The link in the title is a Google search. There are many places to view this video. Pick one. You'll be glad you did.

Steve

Put an Economy in Your Tank?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:02:00 +0000

The US economy is a pretty hot topic right now. Recent events have given a boost to Obama and caused McCain to scramble. Well, that's all well and good for the game they're playing, but it doesn't get at any solutions.

The reason that government can't get at the solution is that government isn't the root of the problem, whatever "I fight Republicans" McCain might say. The enemy, as a famous cartoonist once liked to say, is us.

Economics is all voodoo, really. If everybody thinks things are going well, then things are going well. If money is circulating freely, then it's easy to think things are going well. When the flow of money gets interrupted, it gets harder to believe in prosperity. Money, in case you didn't know, has to move around to be of any use, which is a tenet of Economics 101. What happened recently was that there was a bubble in real estate prices, caused, as are all bubbles, by unbridled enthusiasm causing undue speculation. The government can hardly be expected to tell people how to feel, so getting a bubble under control is a problem. In fact, bubbles, like the dot com bubble in the nineties, and like the real estate bubble in the, what are these years, two-thousands maybe, tend to expand until they burst. Then sometimes the government is called in to clean up the mess.

In the current case, you'll note that the agencies set up to help people buy houses, which had worked well for decades, suddenly found themselves overburdened. Prior to those agencies being created, it was almost impossible for a would-be homeowner to get a mortgage, and if you did it had a huge balloon payment after five or ten years. Essentially, you had five to ten years to pay off the place, or you were out the door. How much better it has been for everyone after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created during the Great Depression. Home ownership has become the norm, and quite a few people, as I read today, actually pay off their mortgages and own their homes outright. Over thirty percent, according to an article in today's paper. That's fantastic, compared to the way things used to be.

Unfortunately, the people, always a dicey group when it comes to common sense, managed to find a way to abuse the system set up to help people buy homes. When it worked for a few the ideas on how to do it spread until too many people were abusing the system, buying things they really never would be able to pay off. Lately we've seen the results.

My point, then, is that McCain and Obama are having a good time saying nasty things about each other over the credit crisis. ("Worst financial crisis since the Depression!") But that's all it is, just two guys who for some pathological reason want the world's worst job, sniping at each other. The truth, while less glamorous, is that we all caused the current financial mess, and we'll all have to fix it. That is the case no matter who wins this upcoming election.

I guess that moving seven-hundred billion dollars all of a sudden should have some sort of effect, huh?

S.

Something About Nevada

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I mean something about the local races in my area. We have two Senators, neither of which is up for re-election this year. Good for them. One of them is Harry Reid. In case you think he's Satan in a suit, he's got at least four more years. Sorry about that.

But there is one race of interest. My district is represented by John Porter. He's been doing that for a while now. The Democratic challenger is Dina Titus, who we last saw almost beating the embarrassment that is our governor two years ago. She runs a good race, but objectively she has one or two things working against her. She has a southern accent, and she's a Democrat. I don't mind either of those things, but a lot of people do. Still, it's apparently a close race.

I say that because Porter has attack ads running demonstrating that Titus is "out for herself," as opposed as being for "us," and Titus of course is answering with her own version of the truth. Some of what they say is true, some is borderline, some is pulled out of somebody's, um, ear. But my point is that it is a close enough race to engender that sort of thing, which is a novelty for Southern Nevada. Apparently, around Clark County we are becoming more liberal, which must be consternating to our friends up in Elko County, to say the least. (I'll worry more about that when they reject our tax contributions, but that's another story.)

In any event, I really don't think Porter has done a bad job at all, but he has some real competition. This is the lady who almost beat out the Republican for governor, and there are those, mostly those who don't like to see Nevada laughed at, who now wish that she had. Porter, who I'd have thought had his district sewed up pretty well, is fighting for his job.

Just goes to show, you never know.

S.

Today's Headline

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:09:00 +0000

Bank of America Issues Strong "Buy" Order for Merrill-Lynch!

LAVO Again

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Well, I am getting hip at last. Yesterday evening Tami and I went to the Grand Opening Party of Lavo, in the Palazzo, on the World Famous Las Vegas Strip and Wallet Cleaning Facility. Only our wallets were safe. In fact, I took Sheldon Addleston for $6.42 on a penny slot machine while waiting for Tami. Two bucks isn't a big win, maybe, but as a percentage on a penny bet it ain't hay!

Anyway, Lavo was too crowded to see properly when we went for the Press Party a couple of weeks ago. Now I can report more fully on the amenities.

They have a dance floor above which is an inverted bowl ceiling with figures apparently swimming around in it. Nice touch. There were a couple of ladies in the dance club doing things to each other with what looked like feather dusters, and a couple more downstairs in a bathtub using sponges. Those ladies, of course, reinforce what I've been saying for years about how you can get paid for doing absolutely anything. (They all would have been legally dressed on the street, and get your mind out of the gutter!)

There is a midget waving an ostrich plume over a woman who looks a bit like Queen Latifah. They were there before, too, so I think maybe they're permanent.

There are what amount to go-go dancers all over the club upstairs. The dancers and the cocktail waitresses wore the identical peach colored cocktail dresses and oddly shaped heels. I tried a mojito, which wasn't bad, but I have no idea what they'll charge you at retail. The food was good, too, and for us the same price as the liquor.

On the dance floor were lights moving around and coming up and going down that looked to me like Klingon text from Star Trek. Maybe it wasn't, but that's what it looked like to me. The truth is, if I were in my twenties I'd love the place a lot. I am, of course, too old for that ***t, but if I weren't, I'd be there all the time.

S.

Pork Barrel Spending, Earmarks, and the President

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:07:00 +0000

One of the issues McCain has been raising is the one about Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending. His running mate, in particular, has been making hay with that "Bridge to Nowhere" issue. They both are, of course, blowing smoke all over the place.

That is because the United States Senate is composed of one-hundred people who each represent a State, not the interests of the United States, and not the interests of any particular district. It's a great thing when your state gets that new army base, highway, research institute, testing ground, or bridge. I don't fault Palin at all for seeking and accepting Federal money for Alaska. That's what the Governor ought to do, and when one of her Senators was working to do just that, everything was working as designed. I do wonder why she's denying what was, after all, simply doing her job.

Okay, no I don't. McCain is trying to say that he'll cut out such earmarked spending. Horse Hockey! He will do no such thing. As the Senator from Arizona he's been working on behalf of Arizona for years, and doing a decent job of it. As President he has absolutely no power to stop the Senate from doing a single thing that the Senate wants to do. The House of Representatives, maybe, can slow down Senatorial proceedings, if they get organized enough. The President, though, hasn't got a snowball's chance.

So, McCain, quitcher lyin' about that, willya?

But, while we're on the subject, here's a link to check out. It's from the Tax Foundation. It's a chart showing Federal Taxes Paid vs. Federal Spending Received by State, 1981-2005. Alaska is right up near the top, so it is easy to see that in 2005, the last year reported, that State collected $1.84 in Federal aid for every dollar it paid in. That puts it at the third-highest reimbursed State in the nation. Just because it's handy, I can report that Alabama, another famously "Red" state that hates the Federal Government (Heart of Dixie and all that) received $1.66 for every dollar it paid in that same year. Alabama was #7.

I had to check my state. We received $0.49 for every dollar we paid, which makes us #49 in the nation for receiving earmarked spending. Just wanted you to know that I know whereof I speak.

To pull a few more out of my ear, South Dakota ranked #8, Montana #11, Maine #13. Amongst "Blue" states where those dangerous Liberals hold sway, California ranked #43 ($.78 per dollar), Massachusetts was #40, ($.82 per dollar), and New York #42 ($.79 per dollar.)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the current people calling themselves "conservatives" should be ashamed of themselves. Whiny and spoiled children is more like it. All that, and they put us into the deepest financial hole that the country's been in in many decades. And that after that damned, horrid, evil, anti-christian, how can I come up with a bad enough adjective, Bill Clinton saddled us with not only eight years of peace and prosperity, but a budgetary surplus to boot! No wonder the Conservative base is upset: They think that their livelihood of sucking at the public teat is endangered by an Obama candidacy!

And as for Nevada. #49? Harry Reid, what have you been up to?

Steve

The Front Fell Off

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:07:00 +0000

I just got a copy of this video from my brother in Ohio. Besides getting the brunt of the brutal campaign ads this year, Ohio is fighting a nasty economic downturn, so anyone living there can use some entertainment. Click the title of this post, or this link, to see an Australian politician talking about an oil tanker. One of which "the front fell off." It was towed . . . oh, well, just click the link and you'll see. It's a funny one, for sure!

Abstinence Only Strikes Again

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Mostly I agree with Obama that family isn't a part of politics. And I don't think any more or less about Governor Palin because her daughter is pregnant, either. Her business. But it does illustrate the problem with an inflexible approach to a complex problem. Telling a teenager to "just not have sex" is like telling them "just don't eat anything at all." It may make you feel better, but it won't stop them. I don't imagine that a social conservative ever really told her children how sex works, because, well, it may make them want to try it out. Trouble is, sex is an instinct, not exactly a choice, although some people claim to have chosen against doing it. Teenagers are squirrely, at the best of times, though, and expecting one to behave just because you taught "abstinence" is pretty damned silly.

The only way to get them to control their behavior is to be straight about the consequences, and to tell them how to go about it without ruining their futures. Maybe Palin's daughter wanted to marry that guy, maybe she would've anyway, but I'm thinking that is unlikely. Now she's stuck with the results of a lapse of what little reason she had as a teenager, sort of condemned by her own ignorance.

And, sorry, Obama, but that isn't the sort of thinking I want going on in a high-ranking official. Maybe McCain should've put some more thought into his choice. Or not. His campaign, his problem.

S.

August 31, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Republicans Lucky: Bush to Skip Convention

Today's Headline

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:41:00 +0000

McCain rejects Hillary, Goes for Younger Woman

LAVO

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:38:00 +0000

Knowing a guy who knows a guy is an important part of being in Las Vegas. One of those connections got me into the latest nightclub in town, Lavo, in the Palazzo, adjacent to the Venetian. The Palazzo is owned by the same, well, rich idiot who owns the Venetian, sort of the anti-Steve Wynn, if you will. Lavo made me wish I was twenty-five and out with my friends. Really. It's loud, it's got go-go dancers (no, I'm not kidding) and it's got a lot of exotic decor dealing with, well if you know any Latin, you'll know it's washing up. Sinks abound, and other watery stuff. There were a couple of actors posing as sort of Cleopatra and a feather waving slave, even. If you're of the night-clubbing age and in Las Vegas, you could do worse.

S.

CARS!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:56:00 +0000

For the love of . . .

I'm through with Ford, I have to say. I have a Focus from '01 with 85,000 miles on it. A bit over a week ago the oil pressure light blinked on when I turned a corner. Oops! What could that be? It was time for an oil change (inspection was due anyway) so I had it changed, and the light went off until it got warmed up, when it started blinking on again.

So, I took it to the Ford dealer, where they fixed something electrical on the cooling fan, giving a reasonable explanation as to why that might make the oil pressure light blink. I'd told them I thought the oil pump might be going out, but anyway, they charged me over $400.00 to do what they did, and hey, it worked for about three miles. At which time they were closed. I drove home very very slowly and the next day had it back to Ford.

Hey hey, now it turns out we have a bad piston rod bearing, which is not a good thing to hear, and it needs a new motor. I took it home at a moderate pace. I put a can of good old STP in it, and that worked for about ten minutes, when apparently the failing bearing gave out completely, as the car now sounds like a pile of pots and pans being dropped down a staircase if you turn on the motor.

I have a Mitsubishi with 165,000 miles on it and no bad anything that I know of other than some ooze from the hydraulic clutch. I'm going to buy a not terribly used Mitsubishi or similar to replace the Ford which I shall strip of anything useful and sell for the scrap it is. 85,000 miles for a failure like that is a material defect, but as they didn't offer a warranty beyond 36,000 miles, and we only extended to 65,000 miles, we are out of luck. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, screw you, Ford Motor Company, it was nice while it lasted.

And the American auto companies wonder why people buy foreign cars. Sheesh!

Tropic Thunder

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Sorry for the lateness. See above.

I saw Tropic Thunder over the weekend, and it was the funniest damn film I've seen in a good long while. Try it, you'll like it!

Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:19:00 +0000

It had to happen. You can find me on Facebook. The title link will take you to the site. Facebook is what My Space never quite achieved. The entertainment's here, though. ;-)