Archive for January, 2009

the sound of genius

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Today we rearranged the furniture. Out with the new, in with the old … one second-hand piece returned and another wonderfully complimenting it came from Goodwill. That triggered some furniture movement and a reorganization of the stereo system / “karaoke monitor”. Our 27″ monitor now accepts input from dvd, karaoke and vcr at the push of a button (no broadcast propaganda input here). The stereo now accepts input from the monitor, cd, cassette, radio or my newly beloved turntable.

The new-to-us piece has cabinet space for lp records that I began loading when I ran across Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting. I had to stop and savor my day’s labors.
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Going down for sure

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

As I started home from work my radio had some gent blathering about the government spending our way out of this economic downturn. I turned it off, then back on to hear just how widely the misinformation is being broadcast and how much credibility it is being granted. Sadly, their featured star spent my entire drive home guaranteeing a total collapse of the USA and world economy.
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Ending the Mexican Civil War

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

I have written so much regarding the “war on drugs” that I was surprised this morning to find none of it here. I’ll have to remedy that someday. My first step is to share a great article I found today at Downsize DC.

All prohibitions are transfers of money and power. Granting exclusive markets to big pharma and powerful drug lords are no different. Huge profits buy politicians, police, military, judges and support great crime families. The losers are the drug users, their families and communities. For the winners, those are small prices to pay.
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You win. You can have ‘em.

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Gosh, I’m just full of it lately… optimism, that is. This moment of buoyancy is brought to you by the good folks at Armalite. They make some of the best components and rifles in their AR family which includes the AR15 semi-auto rifles that are extremely popular in “high-power” 200-600 yard matches sanctioned by the CMP and NRA.

In my recent family budgeting session, we decided that I get to build a service rifle in .223 caliber as soon as possible, as an economy measure. Okay, you wise guys can stop laughing, get up off the floor and finish reading my sales pitch here. Ya’see I can reload .223 for a new rifle so much cheaper than .308 for the old one that the difference in ammo cost will pay for the smaller rifle in one season of practice and match shooting. Any graduate of government-school financial analysis classes will tell you that 100% return on investment in 9 months is very good indeed. (You can try this argument free of charge in your own household budgeting, but I won’t guarantee results.)
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The End Is Near

Monday, January 19th, 2009

The good news is that everyday people are beginning to notice the economy and declining value of the dollar. More and more articles reach us describing it. The unrestrained binge buying that grew high-end clothing stores and consumer electronics specialty marts has ended, with drying-up/blowing-away stores proving it. North Americans no longer think of houses as infinite-growth equity sinks. The complacency of job security is disappearing with people treating the jobs they do have with far more respect than in the past.

These bits qualify as good news because the truth is finally reaching the commoners. Of course it is going to get a lot worse, making today’s lifestyles beautiful in comparison. But at last my conservative and preparation suggestions are met with interest rather than dismissed out-of-hand as they would the sack-clothed vagrant whose sign declares, “The End Is Near”.
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The Ascention

Friday, January 16th, 2009

My “Happy birthday, sister” call turned into a delightful, long chat with one who is excitedly entering the realm of political activism. The ascension of The Anointed One to the throne is inspiring her and a number of enthusiastic Silicon Valley networkers into inventing deliberative democracy.
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toxins from DC

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

from the LA Times: Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children’s clothing. The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger — including clothing — be tested for lead and phthalates …

STOP right there. Do not for one moment believe the law was made to protect the children. Neither the children nor their parents lobbied for this, bribed for this nor wrote the verbiage that the legislators passed. FOLLOW THE MONEY. This was written as all mercantilist laws were, to protect political patrons from competition.
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higher education

Friday, January 9th, 2009

I see so many relatives, friends, co-workers and their kids going off to college. I am saddened by all of the people who sacrifice so much of their time and money attending government schools. Just as a man with only a hammer views every problem as a nail, and the AMA figures knives or prescription drugs cure all ills, the U.S. university system has 2-year, 4-year, 6-year and 8-year programs for every trade.
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rosy predictions for 2009

Monday, January 5th, 2009

roses

Ah, the challenge of positive, upbeat predictions for 2009 is a fun one. I’m game. While some accuse me of being doom-and-gloom, you can see here that I really am quite upbeat and optimistic.
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