No Recession For Me

Via Peter Shankman's HARO list ...

Today's HARO comes from the concept that even if there's some bad economic news, people need to think positive! Holton Sentivan + Gury and j2 communications invite you to stand up and choose NOT to participate in the recession!Everyone who signs up will have their names included in an upcoming Wall Street Journal ad that will tell Wall Street and Americans that we refuse to wallow in bad financial news, and will continue to do what we do even better in '09! Stand up and be proud! http://norecessionforme.us/

Why?  Well .. why not?

Optimism is harder to sustain than gloomy pessimism, but in the long run optimists are better prepared to take advantage of whatever opportunity rolls along.

Plus we're just naturally more fun to be around.

Government in Action - Mass Transit Category

I was listening to NPR today and heard that Phoenix opened its first light-rail line over the weekend.

You can listen to the report - in fact, please do - but the bullet points are

• $ 1.4 billion dollars for 20 miles of track.
• It goes around the airport but not to the airport.
• It won't be useful until they build more lines.  Lots and lots more.  Because Phoenix sprawls all over the damn place.
• The point of the exercise?  It serves to tell the whole world that Phoenix is a world class city with mass transit and everything.

Those with a cynical viewpoint might think that it really serves to tell the whole world that Phoenix can blow a wad of cash with the best of 'em.

Minimum Wage Increase - Real World Consequences

We've got a guy who employs a lot of people making minimum wage.

And what is the impact of a 41% increase in the Arizona minimum wage since December, 2006?

Raising prices as much as his market can stand. Replacing people with automation. Replacing older full-time staff with part-time young people.

• Higher prices
• Automation
• Job loss.

I don't think this is quite what the people who want to jack up minimum wage have in mind.

Government in Action - Web Design Category

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Great State of Wisconsin - our state government in action.

State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) noticed something a little odd when he logged onto the state's new Web site for campaign finance information.

Prominently displayed at http://cfis.wi.gov was a picture of the Capitol in Madison next to a beautiful skyline - of Minneapolis.

Insurance - it's important stuff

So .. here is what happens when you get older. You still do the same stuff you did when you were younger .. but if you take your kids sledding and you hit a jump and you fall out and slam your knee into packed ice and snow, your first thought is something like ...

'doctor's office-insurance-broken knee-physical therapy' [1]

I can't remember ever thinking that when I was young and dumb.


[1] Luckily, after a few minutes stamping around at the bottom of the hill and lustily cursing under my breath [2] everything appears 'ok'. Little pain but it's just 'normal' pain and nothing to get excited about.

[2] Also, I will admit, some lusty out-loud cursing as well.

NASA Administrator Building his dream home

Just imagine a post-NASA Mike Griffin building his retirement dream home.

First, take all the plans you've paid competing architects to devise to meet your stated needs and shred them, and decree that they will build a 6-bedroom Greek-revival mansion on a 1000sqft lot in a marshy brownfield area that you just happen to have gotten a sweetheart deal on.

Then, after decreeing the size and shape of the shell of the house and choosing a builder, mandate on said builder that the home contain all manner of luxuries, amenities, and frivolities, all of which are to come with multiply-redundant safety features and backups. Then comes the punchline: these features can't take up any of the limited living space, can't use any power, and can't add to the home's purchase or maintenance costs.

Then let your extended family members have their say. Give pushy and dramatic Cousin Marsha a kitchen and bath for every room, lest your guests die for the lack of them. Let scatterbrained Cousin Glenn redesign the basement and utilities services again and again to suit his whims, because it gives him something to do. Put Cousin Ken in charge of redesigning the entire house around the garage door and opener he already has and wants to unload on you. And put Cousin John in charge of building himself the pretty but extravagantCorinthian columns on the front and continually reimagining the interior decor.

Ignore all the while your soil geologist's anxious whispers reports that the swampy lot you've committed to using can't support the weight of the house you've decreed. There's no foundation problem a few extra tons of concrete and rerod can't fix, after all. Tell the county inspector that everything is hunky-dory, and call the home builder and tell him to reduce the weight of the house by deleting the smoke detectors and fire sprinklers.

To silence the critics of your DIY architectural talent, build a "demonstration" house by reusing the foundation of an abandoned tenement that only cosmetically resembles your dream palace. Use it to show off the fire escape design you've long since changed, and that the abandoned foundation af a different structure can support the weight of a completely different home than what you're actually building. Dismiss criticism that the test is being staged for political reasons and to wow the mortgage lenders, and poo-poo as ignorant and uninformed any concerns that it will do nothing to allay fears about the earthquake survivability of the real thing.

Then, after blowing most of your budget on supporting the cousins in their accustomed style and paying the contractors to make unending whim-driven changes, cut the contractors' budgets. When they complain that there is too much work and too little resources, mandate a bunch of new major changes. That'll shut 'em up.

Continue to make fundamental changes even as the walls go up. Why not? It's not like you have to pay for them, since everything you do is "in scope", by definition.

And then finally, when move-in day comes in spite of your brilliant multi-degreed architectural leadership, you and your cousins can watch from the cookie-cutter ranch houses across the street as the new owners, financed up to their eyeballs and left without alternate accommodations for five years, carry in all their worldly possessions only to have the castle crumble around them and sink into she mire.

Of course by then you've moved on to other concerns, like being the HOA president, so you neatly avoid blame for the tragedy and expense.

One problem is that he's not doing this with his money but ours ...

Via.

A non-serious idea - Laser Snow Removal

Seattle is having problems with their recent snow storms ...

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

Hey, Seattle is not my city so who am I to judge? Instead, I've got an idea .. lasers.

Orbital lasers, firing down from directly overhead could warm the streets, melt the snow. Without any sand or salt. So it's really a Green solution.

Also? The city would buy time on the system - no need to buy a lot of equipment that is only used seasonally.

There are probably a whole lotta technical problems with the idea. One non-technical reason why this will never, ever work? Never-ever underestimate the power of ... Lawyers.  Legal issues alone would keep the lasers powered down - a city of several million souls will have a lot of citizens with money who won't like the idea of death-beams from the heavens lancing down from overhead.

I wonder - there are a lot of places that should be snow-free that don't have people living around them.  Roads in wilderness areas, train tracks in the middle of nowhere.  Still a non-starter, I bet.



I gotta admit - the idea of snow just melting away from the roads is a mighty attractive one.

With Friends Like These ...

Wisconsin Lege: Okay - we got us a budget shortfall, we got to freeze salaries, cut spending,raise taxes .. something ... I'm forgetting something.

Joint Committee on Employment Relations: We get a 5.3% pay raise.

Lege: (snap) That's it. Thanks.


Raising my taxes and a pay raise.  Yeah, thanks a bunch, you guys.




I don't know whose cat this is - but my doesn't he look grumpy?

What Everyone Knows is wrong - and an antidote

Everyone knows ... the pain of the Great Depression was eased by FDR, and ended when WW II came along in 1941.

What everyone knows is wrong. 

This is kinda important since we're in an economic jam of some sort now and people are reaching back to an ill-remembered past to draw the wrong conclusions - which can be summed as only the government can save us. [1]

If you want to get a better handle on what's going on that what they teach in school, you outta give these a look ..

America's Great Depression by Murray N. Rothbard.  Which is, frankly, really really long and full of big words and vocabulary.  I think it's written at the high school level, at least. So if you read USA Today on a regular basis, it's clean over your head.

"Great Myths of the Great Depression" at twenty pages is shorter - but it too is written at the high-school level and so, possibly, too advanced unless you managed to actually learn something in school.

Maybe someone can do up a Dr. Seuss version.


Via.

[1] Just writing that made me gag, a little.  Government is good at a few things [2], but making things better sure ain't one of them.

[2] Most of them involve variations on organized violence.  When you need a country invaded, or to convince millions of people it's better to just mail a check to the IRS than to hang the revenuer, a government is what you need.
 

When Pigs Fly

Thomas Friedman wants a reboot . . .

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

Maybe the Obama Administration will surprise me - and seriously irk some people - and go for for tax incentives. You know, trusting that people will do the right thing based on their own selfish interest instead of doing the knee-jerk thing and dictating people do this or do that because Uncle Sugar said so.





I know. But it could happen.

From 'The Bishop's Wife'

The sermon from 'The Bishop's Wife'

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. Its his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

Amen!

Oh and .. Merry Christmas!

Haw ..

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

When you put it that way, suicide seems like a viable choice [1], hunh?

Via.

[1] Except for the whole mortal sin and damning yourself to eternal punishment in the Bad Place thing.

The Future is not afraid of the Past

Thank you America my foot

Like this;  a company went, not to a bank, [1] but just this place where I gotta send a big chunk of my money every year.  And they said 'hey, man, I've run my company right into the ground, I need some of that cash you guys jacked from the public to tide me over while I change my ways.'

Which, put that way, sounds like a junkie whining that this time he's really really sorry he put his rent money up his nose instead of paying his rent, but if they just let him slide a few weeks he'll have the dough ..

And I said to the guys running the place 'hey, that sucks, don't do that'.  And their governing body voted 'no'. And I said 'cool'.  And the guy who runs the place said 'well, shucks, ah'm gonna do that anyway'.  And he did. [2]

And then the company, all bright and perky, blows a big chunk of cash [3] telling me 'thanks, buddy'.

To which my response, after careful editing because my first through fifth responses contained language that might make a sailor blush is ...

Mr. Nardelli?   You, your dealers, or any of the one million people who depend on Chrysler for their livelihoods will never see a dime from me.

I was serious about this before but that ad really cheesed me off.

Kia?  I'll need a new car in a few years.  Let's talk.

Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.

[1] A bank has stricter rules for handling money than the government ever will.

[2] It's a weak metaphor, granted.

[3] Cuban cites 100k for the cost of the ad in the Wall Street Journal.

Mustang Ranch - the government takeover that wasn't

Hey, look! An urban legend!

Something to think about.

A colleague sent me this email:

The bailout, a different perspective

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whorehouse and selling booze?

Yeah, yeah. Didn't happen.

The government seized it, then sold it. They never tried to run it.

I'll give a metaphorical devalued US dollar to someone who can point me to the law that sez 'the government is required to run the brothel they've just seized because the owner is a crook'.

You'd think a guy who does a column for a newspaper would be able to smell cow flop when he steps in it

Cheeseheads With Attitude (CWA) "Where the Hell is Neenah?"

After kicking back and camping
With some friends from Lake Geneva,
We grabbed some food and headed back to Neenah.

Where the Hell is Neenah?


Cheeseheads With Attitude (CWA) "Where the Hell is Neenah?"

Good politics

I worked for a pretty good company once. Then we were acquired by a much, much larger company. There were about 15,000 of them and 500 of us. One of the Senior Vice Presidents flew down to give us a pep talk.

'We like everything about you guys - you are special and that's why we bought you.'

And over the next 18 months corporate changed everything about us that was special and unique. Finally there were massive layoffs when they decided they really didn't want to be in the business we were in.

That's what this article reminded me of.

For more than 30 years the entrepreneurship-venture capital-IPO
cycle centered in Silicon Valley has generated new wealth,
commercialized innovation, and created new companies and industries.
It's also spun off millions of new jobs. The great companies created by
this process -- Intel, Apple, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Cisco, to name
just a few -- have propelled most of the growth in the U.S. economy in
the last two decades. And what began as a process almost exclusively
available to scientists and engineering Ph.D.s became open to just
about anyone with a good business plan and a healthy dose of
entrepreneurial drive.

At its best, the cycle is self-perpetuating. Entrepreneurs come up
with a new idea, form a team, write a business plan, and then pitch
their idea to venture capitalists. If they're persuaded, the VCs
invest, typically through several rounds during which the start-up
company must meet performance benchmarks. Should the company succeed,
it then makes an initial public offering of stock.

The IPO can reward the founders and venture-capital investors, and
enables the general public to participate in the company's success.
Thousands of secretaries, clerks and technicians at these companies
also have come away from the IPO richer than they ever dreamed.
Meanwhile, some of those gains are invested in new venture funds, and
the cycle begins again.

From the beginning of this decade, the process of new company creation
has been under assault by legislators and regulators. They treat it as
if it is a natural phenomenon that can be manipulated and exploited,
rather than the fragile creation of several generations of hard work,
risk-taking and inventiveness. In the name of "fairness," preventing
future Enrons, and increased oversight, Congress, the SEC and the
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have piled burdens onto the
economy that put entrepreneurship at risk.

In other words 'we appreciate everything you've accomplished and boy we sure liked the growth. We're just going to change everything around now because .. well .. screwing up a good thing is good politics.'

Glasses for the masses

Do it yourself eyeglasses prescription.

What if it were possible, he thought, to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision? Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them?

More than two decades after posing that question, Silver now feels he has the answer. The British inventor has embarked on a quest that is breathtakingly ambitious, but which he insists is achievable - to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020.

Awesome hack.  When can I buy a pair?

Here is a plan, Stan.  Make the frame stylish.  Market them online at the same time you're selling them to the masses of poor in Bangladesh.

I can easily see paying $40 a pair - and I'm a cheapskate.

Kiisu Kitty

About the new cat - how about a picture?

Hey, man. Don't judge me.

I think the unwritten rule is if you name a critter you're going to keep her.   The Current Occupant is - so far - not impressed.




Just stay off my bed, sister.

Hey, Asshole

Yeah, you: the shit-for-brains who left a six-month old kitten on the side of the road to die.

Would it have killed you to have driven two more miles to the Animal Shelter?  Seriously?

She's parked on the back of my couch (purring up a storm) and a nicer more friendly cat you can't imagine: she lap sits, she's litter-box trained, she's not afraid of our little dogs and not afraid to tell the big dog to back the F off. 

Karma will get you - and she's a stone bitch, buddy.