Remember to vote

Tomorrow I plan to vote early, go to a class, see some friends for coffee, read and write some more, go out for pasta and a beer, and read about the results of the election Wednesday morning.  My wife, on the other hand, will be working as an election judge from the before the polls open until probably well after they close.  She will come home too tired to even listen to the radio or check her computer.

If you are an American citizen and have not cast an absentee ballot for the November 6, 2012 election, be sure to make every effort to show up and vote for the candidates and issues of your choice.  There are lots of choices of candidates and issues, wherever you live.

I'm sorry but it is hard not to close with an admonishment.  If you don't vote, don't complain about the results, especially to those who took the time and made the effort.

Quote of the day - from a REAL conservative

"And allowing our financiers to run unchecked is about as conservative as leaving the faucet running."

- Maurice Manning, "My Old Kentucky Conservatism", New York Times, 2012-11-05.

Manning has a lot more gems about how the so-called conservative Republicans are wasting resources, who have no other values than purely monetary gain and have "no interest in local preservation or local well-being" and who are "shortsighted, opportunistic and wasteful".

Never, ever use never and ever - a note to Mitt Romney

I noticed that an ad at the top of "Citizens or soldiers, which do we want" is for Mitt Romney, probably because I quote from The American Conservative".  (You may see a different ad.)

The ad boldly repeats Romney's assertion, "I will never apologize for America."  I am afraid of leaders who assert, "My country, always right!"  I'm sorry, Mr. Romney, but history is full of aggressive acts by American governments where others were pushed aside for American "interests".

I guess Romney would not apologize for the atrocities against Native Americans that have been admitted by other presidents.  Note: the measure was introduced into the U.S. Senate by Sam Brownback, R-KS with the words: “to officially apologize for the past ill-conceived policies by the US Government toward the Native Peoples of this land and re-affirm our commitment toward healing our nation’s wounds and working toward establishing better relationships rooted in reconciliation.”  See http://nativevotewa.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/president-obama-signs-native-american-apology-resolution/.

I guess he would not apologize for the internment of Japanese-Americans as did his hero, Ronald Reagan.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment.

I guess he would not apologize for an American sniper using the Qu'ran for target practice as did his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.  See "Real conservatives can say they're sorry", Nicholaus Mills, CNN, 2012-09-20.

I guess he would not apologize for the atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the Philipines (see "Revolt in the Ranks" written by a conservative).

I guess he would not apologize for all the meddling in other countries' affairs that we would not tolerate if done by other countries to us.

Citizens or soldiers, which do we want?

Many talk about the National Guard being citizen soldiers.  Unfortunately, many consider those who become soldiers to no longer be citizens.  That is, once a person becomes a soldier that person is to become an automaton, blindly following orders without dissent.

However, if we are to be a democracy, all must question authority, whether in the military or not.

Our history is full of incidents questioning the decisions of those above in the chain of command, from the Revolution to the Philipines takeover to Bradley Manning.  Sometimes it is only because a higher officer has ignored custom; sometimes it is because the generals or the politicians are lying about the purposes or results of a war.

These situations can also show the fallacy of casting issues as conservative or liberal.

See "Revolt in the Ranks: Dissent in the armed forces is a patriotic tradition", Chris Bray, The American Conservative, 2012-06-12, republished in Utne Reader, Nov.-Dec 2012

More "real" names of political parties

Given Romney's false statements, maybe he's a Republicon.  Given that Democrats often don't seem to be what many vote for, maybe they should be called Lemoncrats.

Pessimistic quote of the day: responsibility for business success or failure

A small BBQ chain in Richmond went out of business.  Mitt Romney used it as an example of how the Obama administration is bad for business.  He ignores that another BBQ in Richmond is quite successful, but Romney won't give the Obama credit for its success.

"Mr. Romney’s take on Bill’s seems perfectly representative of his general outlook. If a business succeeds, the government can’t share the credit. If it fails, it’s the government’s fault."

See "Bad Barbecue? Blame Obama", Juliet Lapados, New York Times, 2012-11-02.

Protect the unborn, forget the pain of the born children

Idaho has a "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" which supposedly is based on some neuroscience findings about what a fetus might feel.  It tried to convict a woman of self-abortion because she used RU-486, a legal drug bought out of state.  The case was dropped because of lack of evidence.

My question is if these pseudo-conservatives are so concerned about the pain of the unborn, why are they not also concerned about the pain of the born caused by their own wars?  Does not a drone missile cause pain and death to children?  Does not a nuclear bomb cause pain and death to children?  Think Sadako Sasaki of a thousand cranes.

For a lengthier discussion of the implications of basing decisions on limited scientific research, see "Can Neuroscience Challenge Roe v. Wade", William Egginton, New York Times, 2012-10-28.

Will U.S. be the Soviet Union of the 21st Century?

Is the United States moving towards

A single contradictory ideology
Seeing threats everywhere
Giving a large portion of its resources to military
Meddling in other countries' affairs
Being ruled by an oligarchy with sham elections

Or maybe it will become like today's China, building with few environmental considerations, obsessed with security and squashing dissent, and giving sweeping power to large organizations?

I do wish the U.S. would develop a party with enough confidence to stand up to the pseudo-conservatives who are driving most of the political "discussion".

I still don't believe the polls

… and I don't really have any well-based predictions of my own.

Consider that our phone rings several times a day.  We don't answer and very few leave a message on the answering machine.  Those who do leave a message have some meaningful connection to us.  Given the approaching election, these "empty" calls are

1) Robo-calls for a candidate or a party
2) Person calls for a candidate or a party
3) Poll calls

Also consider that many people have cell phones but no land line.  Although some pollsters say they are calling both land lines and cell phones, many cell phone numbers are not in any directory.  My cell phone has few calls and the two recent unknown calls may have been misdials or random spamming.  Besides, I generally have it off.

Which way will those who are not reached by a poll lean?  I can't really say.  Will too many younger voters stay away because they didn't think Obama didn't do enough?  Are those who don't answer more likely to lean toward Obama?  As I write this yet another call came in that stopped after three rings.

How likely are those who respond to actually vote?  One of the questions is if the respondent is a likely voter.  Many people say they are likely voters because they are embarrassed to admit that they don't plan on voting.

I think the election will be determined by the balance of unhappy people, which group will stay away in larger numbers - Tea Party types who don't think Romney is "conservative" enough or "liberals" who don't think Obama did enough.  My inclination is that the latter will be the larger group.

I hope you, dear reader, will not be a stay-away on election day.  Please remind your friends to vote.

I'm a winner in a photo contest!

But it's not a big deal.  There were only four entries submitted to the South St. Louis Soil and Water Conservation District, and so everybody was a winner.

You can see a poster of the winning entries at http://www.southstlouisswcd.org/treeshrub.html?set=a.420835254625427.89854.136260856416203 and from there you can order the poster or a set of note cards.

FEMA - A smart conservative speaks

FEMA does need reform, many states should look out for themselves, and the private sector can do things for disaster relief.  But instead of a broad brush attack on the Federal Government or a broad brush defense of business as usual, we need calm deliberation of the facts and of where the best resources are available.

See "How a Smart Conservative Would Reform FEMA", Jordan Weissman, The Atlantic, 2012-10-31.

Maybe Matt Mayer could be a catalyst for a "Real Republican" party?

"Moving" auto jobs from country to country

Mitt Romney's campaign has made a big deal of Jeep expanding its manufacturing in China, claiming Jeep is outsourcing jobs and blaming it on President Obama.  Is he also going to blame George W. Bush for all the outsourcing that was done between 2000 and 2008?

The fact is that Jeep is expanding its total manufacturing, including manufacturing Jeeps where they will be sold.

What does he think of Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi,  BMW, Mercedes-Benz,  and Volkswagen having factories in the U.S.?  Are they exporting jobs from their home countries?  Or expanding closer to their markets.  Maybe it's the shipping companies that should complain, all that trans-oceanic traffic that is lost and the associated jobs.

See "'Transplant' auto factories in USA turn 30 this year", James R. Healy, USA Today, 2012-04-03.

As Thomas Friedman wrote, "The World is Flat".

Typo of the day, a "split vote"

"Some 1.9 Floridians have already voted…"

I have heard about split votes before, but this vote count really takes the prize.

This is what appeared in today's Star Tribune as "GOP steps up early vote" by Michael Cooper and Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times.  As I write this, the above phrase still appears in the Star Tribune online edition at http://www.startribune.com/nation/176347891.html.

I don't know whether the original New York Times article had this same error, but the online edition at the time of this writing, titled "Early Voters, and a Hurricane, Change the Rhythm of Voting", has "Some 1.9 million Floridians have already voted…"  The article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/us/politics/millions-vote-early-changing-the-rhythm-of-the-campaigns.html.

Mitt and FEMA, ideology trumps pragmatism and sympathy

See "A Big Storm Requires Big Government", New York Times, 2012-10-29.

I wonder how Mitt Romney thinks massive disaster relief by private corporations would work.  "Before we rescue from your roof, would you please give us your credit card number?"  "Before we spray your house with water as the forest fire gets closer, would you please give us your credit card number?"  "Before we give you information about the hurricane's path, would you please…"

Another inefficient corporation

When I bought my iPhone in September, I cancelled my Verizon Wireless account in favor of Virgin Mobile.  I was told at the time by the Best Buy representative that I would have a cancellation fee of around $80 from Verizon.

When Verizon notified me in early October that I had an online statement, I thought I would pay that cancellation fee.  Ha!  Even though the statement showed an outstanding balance of $89.46, in the "Pay Bill" section, the amount was $0!  The site wouldn't even let me pay the true balance online with my debit card.  The site did say I would get a paper statement.

The due date was October 23, and so I had plenty of time to get the paper bill and write a check. And the paper bill did not come, and it did not come.  Finally, about October 22, I looked up the phone number for "Contact Us".  The woman that responded said that I could pay at such and such URL.

Surprise, at that URL I could pay, and I could pay with a debit card.  I did and the payment has cleared my bank.

Yesterday, October 29, six days after the payment had been due, I received the paper bill.  The paper bill states that I owe $89.46!

From my posts about Netflix, you know the Postal Service can provide next day service.  If the sending post office is not within a day's drive of Duluth, Netflix states a DVD will be delivered within 3-5 days.  If memory serves me right, the actual delivery is 2-3 days.

The Verizon bill was dated September 28.  The only mail that takes over a week to arrive is mail that gets mis-delivered, stuck in a crevice somewhere, or is never sent promptly by the sender.  I will go with the last.  Is this a deceptive practice to hit me with a late payment fee or is this extreme inefficiency.  I think the latter.  Of course, if I were actually late with a regular payment, Verizon or many other vendors would promptly charge me with a late payment charge.

Thank you to Netflix, Best Buy, and many others for giving me counter-examples that show corporations can provide efficient customer service.  It just goes to show that the management/ownership form of any organization doesn't predict its efficiency or effectiveness; the real guide is the kind of people in the organization – from top to bottom!

How to vote intelligently

We went to a League of Women Voters meeting, supposedly to watch "Patriocracy", a movie about the divisiveness in this country.  For some reason, the movie never made it to the meeting place.  Instead we had an impromptu discussion about the subject.

One of the complaints voiced is how many news organizations don't separate fact from fiction, treating every pronouncement from politicians as fact, especially on TV.

I gave these four suggestions for voting intelligently:

Don't watch TV
Don't answer the phone
Read lots of newspapers
Show up and vote

If you don't follow my advice on the first three points, do me, yourself, and your country a favor by proudly acting on the fourth point.

If you're not scared this Hallowe'en, you should be

According to Frank Rich, win or lose, the Republicans are going to be very detrimental to our future.  And these pseudo-conservatives won't be going away.  See "Right will rage if Obama wins", David Daley, Salon, 2012-10-27.

Plutocracy and democracy

Someone on a facebook page asked what is plutocracy.  I don't remember whether it was about all the money in politics or not.  I answered that plutocracy meant rule of the wealthy.  We certainly see it with the Koch brothers and Michael Bloomberg.  The greatest danger of plutocracy is that it drives out participation by ordinary people, the essence of democracy.

I looked up plutocracy on Wiktionary and found this wonderful quote by G.K. Chesterton:

"Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy."

Why Read?

Fact: Reading can make you a better conversationalist.

Fact: Neighbors will never complain that your book is too loud.

Fact: Knowledge by osmosis has not yet been perfected. You'd better read.

Fact: Books have stopped bullets - reading might save your life.

Fact: Dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them.

From an email from ABE Books.

Another quote from the past - flying

"Flying is like taking a very expensive Greyhound bus" - Shari Flasness

I found this as a note from the June meeting of the Italian Conversation Group at Sir Ben's in Duluth.  The conversation is more often about travel to Italy than speaking Italian.

But Shari's expensive bus is starting to get poor maintenance.  See "Fixing American Airlines", 2012-10-23, Jim Hightower, republished in the 2012-10-25 Reader Weekly. 

Quote of the day - Competition

"When, for instance, competition laws are not enforced, monopolies grow, and with them the income of monopolists. Competition, by contrast, drives profits down." - "Some Are More Unequal Than Others", Joseph E. Stiglitz, New York Times 2012-10-26

The article relates how the oligopolists are over and over driving down their costs, including taxes and wages, and increasing their profits.

My thought is that there may be a time when there are no profits to made because few can afford to buy the oligopolists' products and services and there will be insufficient qualified employees because there were insufficient taxes to educate a large number of people.

See "fastest to ruin" quote in "The Invisible Adam Smith".

The Invisible Adam Smith

Many who claim to be "free market proponents" cite the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations".  However, Adam Smith only uses the term once, only in reference to individuals, and in the context of trade among nations. The chapter is "Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home".  Among the questions Smith raises is :

If a restriction benefits an industry, does it also benefit society?

As to the "invisible hand", Smith does not apply it as a metaphor for an absolutely free market, but as an indication that the acts of an individual can lead to consequences not intended by the individual.  A more complete citation than "invisible hand" is:

"[The individual] generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." - pages 242-243

In other words, seeking his own security he may benefit society and seeking his own gain he may harm society, or otherwise, depending on the circumstances.  In no way does this describe a "perfect market".

All page references are to the PDF version of "Wealth of Nations" transcribed by the Gutenberg Project.  You can select your preferred format from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300.

For the most part, I don't think Adam Smith provides a prescription of how an economy works.  Instead he provides a description of what he observed worked or didn't work.

Smith only uses "free market" once, in a discussion of the bad effects of restricting exports - pages 353-354.  Woolen manufacturers wanted to restrict exports of wool so that their supply of wool would be increased.  The problem was that English wool was inferior for clothing compared to wool from other countries.  The prohibition of exports caused the price of wool to drop drastically, making it unprofitable to produce.  The "invisible hand" now works to raise the price of mutton because the farmer has to pay his costs.  That means to give the woolen manufacturers cheap wool is to give the consumers expensive meat.  So, restricting exports did not give society much benefit.

A word that Smith uses frequently is "labour", would you believe over one thousand times?  And how many times do you hear proponents of the "invisible hand" talk about labor, other than "greedy labor unions"?  Smith looked favorably on labour, both as the basis of all economic activity and how labor can be marginalized by those with power.

The opening paragraph of "The Wealth of Nations" is:

"The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies [sic] of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations." - page 3

In other words, without labor, nothing happens.

"The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national wealth. The scanty maintenance of the labouring poor, on the other hand, is the natural symptom that things are at a stand, and their starving condition, that they are going fast backwards."

As the National Football League found out, not paying referees what they asked lowered the owners wealth.

As for those who complain about "greedy unions" and promote "right-to-work laws", consider:

"The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment." - page 142

Few seem to understand the need to balance interests.  When profits and wages are out of balance we are in deep trouble.  Given the rising cash hoard of many large corporations and the still uncertain job market, we should consider:

"It is the stock [materials, equipment, and workplaces] that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operation of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects.  But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin." - page 142

In other words, without corporations much work doesn't get started and without labor it doesn't get finished.

Finally, Smith didn't think business people ["those who live by profit"] should be trusted in public affairs:

"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it." - pages 142-143

Adam Smith was an academic who read widely, considered what he read, and wrote an opinion for the powers-that-be.  Those who consider "invisible hand" and "free market" as the only things important about economics, should consider reading more of modern economists, who have the benefit of having read all of "Wealth of Nations" and over two centuries more of data to consider.  They are no more in an ivory tower than Adam Smith was.

For a poster of "The proposal of any new law…" see "Poster: A warning from the 'Invisible Hand'".

Updated 2013-07-21 to include Adam Smith's words for "business people.
Updated 2013-08-20 to include link to the poster.

Which is the largest political party?

According to Robert Reich, the largest political party is the party of non-voters.  See "The Politics of Fear and the Party of Non-Voters" on his  blog, 2012-10-09.

My own take was published in today's Duluth News Tribune at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/247683/group/Opinion/ and follows

Will another election be given away by no-shows?

Consider that more people have stayed away in most elections than have voted for the eventual winners.

The following data is compiled from the American Presidency Project at presidency.ucsb.edu/.

Since 1980, turnouts varied between 47 percent and 53 percent of the voting-age populations. That means that more people stayed away than voted for the successful candidates.

If we multiply the turnout by the winner’s percentage of votes cast, we get:

--26.6 percent for President Reagan in 1980
--31.2 percent for Reagan in 1984
--26.8 percent for President Bush in 1988
--23.7 percent for President Clinton in 1992
--24.1 percent for Clinton in 1996
--24.6 percent for President George W. Bush in 2000
--28.0 percent for Bush in 2004
--30.4 percent for President Obama 2008

No matter who you favor, consider that if you stay away from the polls because you don’t want to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” you actually may be helping elect the candidate you consider “the greater of two evils.”

If you want a better democracy, show up on Election Day, vote for your choices, and proudly wear your “I voted” sticker.
Melvyn Magree
Duluth

- End of letter

And remind your friends and relatives to vote!

Thanks for reading, please tell others

The daily page views of this blog have gone way up from the usual 20 or so, discounting the Russian reverse-spammers, to nearly 100.  I doubt that it is that I'm writing more interesting articles.  I think it is that much of what I write is of interest in the election season.  In fact, U.S. page views are now about the same as Russian page views.

Whatever your reason for visiting here, regular reader, finder via Google, or link from another site, I thank you for visiting.  If you like what you see, please tell others or put links in your own site.

In turn, I'll do my best to post some interesting thoughts more regularly.

Thanks!

Don't answer the phone until November 7

We have given up answering the phone until after election day.  Monday we must have had seven calls, only one of which left a message.  That was a personal call that my wife returned immediately. 

Why should we drop everything for a political robo-call?

The second American Revolution has started, and it ain't pretty

The Republican Party has become a revolutionary party, one that tolerates no opposition.

Consider that if a Republican politician doesn't follow party doctrine then he or she is is sidelined as soon as possible.  Why do you think there are so many ex-Republicans?  See Jim Ramstad's praise of Wellstone, "Remembering Paul Wellstone", Star Tribune 2012-10-19.

Consider that Republicans keep insisting that their solutions will solve certain problems even when experts point out historic facts that show similar policies have not worked in the past.

Consider that Republicans' stated goal at the start of Obama's presidency was to ensure he did not have a second term.  Some commentators think this is barely concealed racism.  This may be true, but it is also an effective smokescreen.  Their true motive may be to destroy the Democratic Party and to become the only party.

Consider the Republican claims of voter fraud. Are not voter ID requirements a thinly disguised attempt to reduce the number of Democratic voters?

Consider that the Republicans may have already started a civil war.  As they give more power to corporations, are they transforming our government from "by the people" to "by the corporations"?  Once corporations were tools of the people to be dissolved when their purpose was fulfilled.  Now people seem to be the tools of corporations to be discarded when no longer economically useful.

See "The Great Unraveling" by Paul Krugman.  He saw this revolution in 2003!

Consider that the Republicans call themselves "conservatives" but they are nowhere near being classical conservatives as defined by Edmund Burke in the Eighteenth Century.  In fact, many of the so-called liberals in the Democratic Party may be closer to the Burkian model of Conservative than the Republicans.  For more details, see "Why Voters Should Turn From the Pseudoconservative Party of the Great Recession, Part I", Louis M. Guenin, Huffington Post, 2012-10-24.  It is quite an indictment of the hodgepodge of conflicting ideas of the Republican Party.  Watch for Part II in the Huffington Post tomorrow (2012-10-25).

The MacBook Pro doesn't have a touch screen, yet!

Lately, I've been trying to touch the screen of my laptop to get it to do something.  Nothing happens!  I've even gone so far to touch it several times trying to get the exact spot and the right amount of pressure.  Nothing happens!  Not quite, the screen does move back a bit.

I used to know quite well that I had to move the cursor with the trackpad and then click with the nearest part of the trackpad.  But now I spend a lot of time using my iPhone and iPad.  With these it's poke and swipe.

Someday I'll get it all sorted out and do the right things in the right place.  It's sort of like speaking one language with one person then turning to another and speaking a different language.  It's all in practice, practice, practice.

Debates? What debates?

According to the newspapers, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama had their third and final debate last night, supposedly on foreign policy.  As with the previous two, I didn't bother watching.  What for?  See What do the debates prove?
http://magree.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-do-debates-prove.html and Netflix disappointed me
http://magree.blogspot.com/2012/10/netflix-disappointed-me.html

From what little I read in newspapers, I didn't think it was worth watching.  I think the debates were summed up by two snippets from "Sparring Over Foreign Policy, Obama Goes on the Offense
", Peter Baker and Helene Cooper, New York Times, 2012-10-22.

"For all its fireworks, the debate broke little new ground and underscored that the differences between the two men on foreign policy rest more on tone, style and their sense of leadership than on particular policies. Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney seemed to align on matters like withdrawal from Afghanistan, the perils of intervening in Syria and the use of drones to battle terrorists."

"Mr. Romney pinned the cascading crises around the world on Mr. Obama’s shoulders, saying the president had failed to live up to his promises from his 2008 campaign and left the country in a weaker position."

Baker and Cooper seem to say that whoever wins the election will follow essentially the same policies.  Maybe, maybe not.  However, I think the second quote is quite telling of Romney's attitude that the President of the U.S. should be emperor of the world and bring all these hot spots in line with U.S. "interests".  My usual question is who elected the President as "the leader of the free world"?  It certainly wasn't the people of Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  How can you claim to be for freedom and democracy if you anoint yourself as "the leader of the free world"?  Napoleon crowned himself as Emperor of France, and look what happened to him.  Look what's happening to our economy as we spend all this money on weapons and war without raising the taxes to pay for them.

Netflix comes out ahead again on customer service and trust

We put a Netflix DVD in a mailbox outside a post office on Sunday, October 14.  On Saturday, October 20, it was still listed as not returned.  I clicked on a button about returns, noted that I had returned it on October 14, clicked that it was a street mail box, gave my ZIP code, clicked OK or whatever, and poof!  The DVD was no longer in my account as not returned!!!

We thought about the problem a bit and wondered if it was because we opened the mailer at the wrong end.  That cut off the closing tab from the return envelope.  My wife jury-rigged a closure.  Maybe that closure didn't hold and the package wound up getting jammed in a sorting machine.  I also realized that the post office where we returned the DVD does not have the same ZIP code as we do.

I called Netflix and within two minutes was speaking with Travis of the cheery voice.  Essentially he said, "Don't worry.  It's not your problem.  It will probably turn up."

I know there are lots of company's that take the customer's word about a problem and make amends quickly.  But there are also many company's that don't trust their customers any farther than they can throw them.  The former are companies that treat their employees with respect; the latter are companies that create rule-burdened bureaucracies.

Who creates jobs? Government or Corporations?

According to "The Myth of Job Creation", Editorial, New York Times, 2012-10-21, Obama and Romney agree that "government does not create jobs".  The New York Times disagrees, "Except that it does, millions of them — including teachers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, sailors, astronauts, epidemiologists, antiterrorism agents, park rangers, diplomats, governors (Mr. Romney’s old job) and congressmen (like Paul Ryan)."

It is so hard to break the Norquist attitude that government is useless.  If government was so useless, why do so many corporations spend fortunes to get a government that will pass laws they favor?  If government was so useless, why do so many corporations seek government contracts?  If government was so useless, who would give corporations patents?  If government was so useless, who would adjudicate corporations billion-dollar suits against each other?

Who controls gasoline prices

As I watch the gasoline prices drop, I wonder if those who blamed Obama for an increase in prices are  giving him credit for the drop.  I doubt it, because the latter is just as unrealistic as the former.

"In the end, supply and demand is causing prices to moderate once again."
Sharon Epperson, CNBC, 2012-10-18 via Yahoo Finance.

In other words, free market proponents are all for free markets when markets work to their benefit, but they blame someone else when markets work to their detriment.

Letter about the safety of GMO foods

Brandon Ferdig submitted an opinion piece to the Star Tribune about science and political belief, writing that both conservatives and liberals are selective about the science they accept and reject.  See "How Deep Have You Dug in Your Heels?", Star Tribune, 2012-10-16.

One of the items he wrote that liberals don't accept is "The science behind the safety of genetically modified foods."

I wrote a letter that was published today in response: "Food and Science, GMO opposition can be quite reasonable" (The Strib's title).

See also "Corporations hate free markets" and "GMO producers don't want free markets".

An argument for universal health care

"First, a civilized society compensates for the human propensity to screw up. That’s why we have single-payer firefighters and police officers. That’s why we require seat belts. When someone who has been speeding gets in a car accident, the 911 operator doesn’t sneer: 'You were irresponsible, so figure out your own way to the hospital' — and hang up."

Read the full story at "Scott's Story and the Elections", Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 2012-10-17.

The endless use of "infinite"

How often have you seen claims of "infinite storage" or "endless possibilities" or "limitless growth"?

All of these are impossible!  "Boxee TV, New Media Player, Combines Live TV, Unlimited DVR and Apps in Latest Shot At Cable", Huffington Post, Jason Gilbert, 2012-10-17 states that "Boxee provides an infinite amount of online storage space for your recordings…"

One, how can a finite human being accumulate an infinite amount of anything?  Two, if Boxee's customers ever fill up the very large space that it provides, where are they going to put more storage space?  In space?  I would say that a finite company can only do a finite amount of work.

Now maybe the storage space would be infinite if Boxee continues to operate for millennia and eons and is able to put online storage farther and farther out in space.  But the retrieval times would get longer and longer to the point that a retrieval request would not be filled in the user's lifetime.

Maybe a more accurate description of Boxee's capabilities would be that it can store billions of shows for millions of users.

Quote of the century

"Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over."  Mock quote of President-elect George W. Bush, The Onion, 2001-01-18, quoted by Paul Krugman in "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century", 2003

Some thoughts on compromise

To some, compromise means come promise to believe as I do.

Compromise between blue states and red states yields a purple nation; purple is the color of bruises.

Compromise conversation

A:  You owe me $100!
B:  I owe you nothing!
A:  Let's compromise; you owe me $50.

See also:
Not always two sides to every issue
More on two sides to every issue
π is an Obama liberal plot to socialize America
Compromise reached with flat earthers

Quote of the day - money in politics

"[M]oney doesn't just talk in politics - it screams."

From "'Munger Sandwich' Squeezes California Governor", Robert Frank, CNBC, 2012-10-15, via Yahoo Finance!

It's about a very wealthy man opposing a tax hike Proposition and is very wealthy half-sister supporting a different tax hike proposition that she claims provides more support to schools.  Both are spending tens of millions of dollars.

The same paragraph that I took the above quote from also includes: "But one family pouring more than $50 million to defeat the governor's proposal will only add to the media chorus that the rich are distorting democracy."

Of mice and wolves and shrews, too

The first time I saw a shrew was in Sweden in 1973 or 1974.  We took a train from Stockholm to the seaside.  While walking around a park, I saw some movement in the grass.  It was a shrew, the smallest mammal I'd ever seen.  It went about its business completely unaware of this giant standing over it.

I haven't seen a shrew since, until yesterday.  I found one in a mousetrap in one of our outbuildings in Brimson.  It came in from a little hole in the back of the shed, walked across the trap, and that was that.  I dumped the shrew next to a mouse that no scavenger had found yet; it was about the quarter of the size of the mouse.

What I use is "The Better Mousetrapwolves, mice, shrews, hunting, trapping, season, deer, endangered species, trespassing", a reusable trap that the mouse simply walks across.  The idea is that you place the trap along a wall or other vertical object, the mouse uses it whiskers to navigate, and just thinks the trap is another object to climb over.  When a mouse has been caught, open the trap without touching the mouse, and throw it in the woods.

OK, why am I killing these cute little critters?  Because they gnaw on anything paper and build nests in nooks and crannies.  OK, you say, why not put any paper or cardboard boxes up on a shelf?  Hah, mice are climbers.  Two of our outbuildings have floors that are two mouse lengths above the ground, and the mice just climb up the vertical surface.

The hard part is that these traps are not always immediately lethal.  Sometimes a mouse gets only a leg caught.  I won't go into any more details on this, but I'm not happy that things were not immediate.

So, what does this have to do with wolves?

Wolves have been removed from the endangered species list and states may now set wolf seasons.  Minnesota had done so with much controversy, with the usual suspects taking the usual sides.

An aside: one letter writer complained that if people didn't kill wolves, the wolves would be out of control and eat all the deer.  He ignored that at a certain point there would be too few deer to feed all the wolves, then the wolves would start to starve and the deer population would increase.  This has been going on for centuries.  Maybe we should kill automobiles because they kill more deer than wolves do.

I have nothing against hunting deer and such; to me hunting is a very expensive and time-
consuming way to get meat.  And I can enjoy the outdoors where the only shooting I do is with a camera.  What I don't like is that in Minnesota land-owners have to post "No trespassing" signs to legally keep hunters off.  This can be a time-consuming task including to be sure no "path" is left unmarked.  Even then, we've had bird hunters shoot down our driveway with a plainly visible "no trespassing" sign and with a bright red pickup truck in plain sight!

What I also don't like is that I have to wear orange during hunting season to protect myself.

Now Minnesota has set a wolf season that not only coincides with deer season, but the state has also set a wolf season that goes into January.  How long do I have to wear orange on my own property?

Additionally, trapping of wolves is allowed.  What happens if some trapper decides that one of my paths is an ideal place to place a trap.  I do know that wolves use our property, both from the scat and one kill that we saw.  It's bad enough I have to watch that I won't stumble on a rock, but do I have to be on the lookout for traps also?

Consider what I didn't tell you about trapped mice; the same applies to wolves.  The mice are going where they are not supposed to be.  The wolves are going where they've been going for centuries.

More on more appropriate party names

Given the number of misleading and untrue statements that Mitt Romney made in the first debate, given the Republicans claim of voter fraud, denial of climate change, and mischaracterizations of free markets, maybe the best name for their party is the Republicons.

Given how often the Democrats give in to many of the Republican charges against them, like soft on communism, soft on crime, and soft on terrorism, maybe the best name for their party is the Fraidycrats.

Socialism or needed regulation, they ain't the same thing

It seems every where one turns, there are cries that Obama is a socialist, that the country is becoming socialist, and on and on ad nauseum.

One, do many of these people even know what socialism is?  In short, it often means state ownership of the means of production.  Is any major party candidate calling for government takeover of all companies?  I haven't heard of any.  Is it co-operatives?  Could be, but they are operated by their members, not the government.  For a more complex discussion of socialism, see the Wikipedia entry on socialism.

Two, are those orchestrating the cries of socialism those who want no government regulation unless it is to their benefit.  Is it polluters who cry socialism when they are called to task?  Is it those who cut corners on safety of workers or consumers?  Is it those who would cheat customers or not provide customers with sufficient information?

Considering the sources of the orchestration, I would say its those who want to operate without any government regulation at all.  They don't want to pay taxes for all the public goods they depend on, including an educated work force and an infra-structure of highways, water, and sewer.

In short, they want to privatize profit but socialize losses or costs.

Ironically, Adam Smith, the guru of so-called free-marketers, and many of the writers of the U.S. Constitution called for regulation in varying degrees.

WWII in Russia, a meandering search for a book

I like to keep up what little foreign language skills I have by listening to podcasts and reading newspapers.  For a Swedish paper I chose Svenska Dagbladet over Dagens Nyheter.  I was reading the former on my iPhone when I came across an article about Soviet women in WWII.

This has a special interest because we are going to a book club meeting tomorrow about "City of Thieves" by David Benioff, a novel set in the siege of Leningrad.  It is very grim tale of the deprivations and horrors as the hero goes on a quixotic quest for a dozen eggs.

The article in Svenska Dagbladet is "Kriget enligt kvinnorna (The war according to the women)".  It is about the book "Kriget har inget kvinnligt ansikte. Utopins Röster (The war has no womanly face. Utopians Voices)"  The author, Svetlana Alexievitch, interviewed hundreds of women about their experiences, including active combat.

I wanted to give an English reference to the other attendees of the "City of Thieves" discussion.  I went round and round with various translations of the Swedish, having no Russian title.  Finally by using a translation of the title of the series "Utopia's Voices", I found it.  The English title is "War's Unwomanly Face" and is widely available.

I don't know if I could read it after "City of Thieves".  Consider that the Germans began the siege of Leningrad before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Soviet Army and partisans didn't push them back until 1944, before the Allied landing at Normandy.  Residents were starved and bombed and more.  Getting supplies into the city took a lot of ingenuity, including Allied truck convoys over the frozen Lake Ladoga.  We were in Leningrad in 1973 and saw the mass graves, dozens of furrows of mounded earth.

Is it any wonder the Soviets wanted a big, secure buffer between themselves and Germany?  They weren't nice about it and made themselves quite unwanted.  They only withdrew when their crumbling economy couldn't support the occupation any longer.

Are there any others who could learn from this lesson?

Netflix disappointed me

I've posted a couple of entries how the US Postal Service and Netflix give excellent service in keeping me supplied with movies.  If I put a DVD in a mail box, Netflix has it early in the morning of the next delivery day and sends me the next DVD in my queue.  I receive that DVD on the next delivery day, in effect, two days turnaround.

I think it was Sunday morning that I woke up wondering if the last DVD I sent back to Netflix even got there.  I had to think when and where I put it in the mail.  Ah, yes, I watched an Inspector Morse DVD on the night of the Presidential debates, last Wednesday.  I put it in the mail box at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, on my way to a University for Seniors class.

Did mail get picked up from that box?  I checked my account and it was no longer on my list.  Ah, yes, I did get an email that it had been received but I had already deleted it.  Then I got an email that the next DVD would be sent for Monday delivery.

Well, that wouldn't happen because Monday was the official Columbus day this year.  Then my account said it was not available.  I forgotten the other changes for the status that DVD.  Finally, the status was that I would get the second DVD in my list on Wednesday and the first DVD would be sent shortly.

Drat, my wife isn't interested in murder mysteries (except Agatha Christie's) and she went to the Twin Cities today. So, I would be able to watch it without disturbing her.

Oh, well, the bright side, maybe, is that I wrote that "delightful" critique of the political parties at http://magree.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-true-names-of-republicans-and.html.  If you read that, I hope you are pleased that I didn't watch a DVD instead.  If you were pleased, I hope you'll let me know if you see me.

The true names of the Republicans and the Democrats

I've often thought that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats live up to the names of their parties.  The Republicans are more in favor of res privata than res publica and the Democrats may often make noises of being the party of the people (demōs) but often bow to corporate interests.

I've often thought of the Republicans as the Republicants or the Republiwonts because they are often such nay-sayers to anything the Democrats may propose.  Then a few years ago I noticed the all the Republicans seemed to be all in lockstep on a laundry list of issues.  They must be anti-abortion, pro-war, lower and lower taxes, climate change deniers, America firsters, anti environment protection, anti safety rules, anti-labor unions, and pro-pro-pro business.  They all must bash the public schools and their "greedy teacher unions".  They all must decry run-away spending without being specific about what really should be cut, except for the military that they think needs more money without limit.  They all must decry deficits without considering that running a deficit may be because of investments that will pay off in the future.  They must decry subsidies for alternate energy but must demand subsidies for sports stadiums.

Then I heard about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council run by the Koch brothers and others.  Ah, so, the Republicans are not a bunch of politicians with similar ideas who may disagree on some points.  They have almost all become beholden to ALEC and its ideology.  They have become puppets of and parrots for a small plutocracy.  So, their true party name is Repuppetans or Reparrotans.  We could also call them Reprivateers, because they put the private interests of a few far over public interests.

The Democrats at least make some effort to put public interests above private interests.  Of course, it's hard to do so when the private interests provide so much larger campaign contributions than the general public does.  They also lack the energy of a Teddy Roosevelt, a Franklin Roosevelt or a Harry Truman who were willing to face down large corporate interests in favor of the public interest.  I wonder if modern Democrats should be called Democravens or Democave-ins.  From reports I've had of the October 2, 2012 debates, these could be very apt names.

Is Hugo Chavez more popular than U.S. presidents?

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezeula, won a fourth term.  Compared with his previous elections, he had a tighter race.  However, like U.S. presidents should do and never do, Chavez should consider that he did not receive the support of the majority of voters.

The turnout was about 80%, far higher than any one state in the U.S. ever got recently and Chavez received about 55% of that.  In other words, only 44% of the voters turned out to support Chavez and 56% of the voters either supported someone else or didn't care.

Consider that the turnout in U.S. elections has not been over 60% since 1972.  For Reagan's "landslide" in 1984 the turnout was 53.11%.  Reagan had 58.77% of the votes cast, which means that he had the support of only 31.2% of the voting age population.  In percent of votes cast, Reagan did better than Chavez, but in the support of all the people Reagan didn't fare as well.

The lesson for every election is that those who show up determine the results.  Too often elections are given away by those who aren't completely satisfied with the losing candidate.

An unfortunate pirate

A pirate was not a success because his cutlass cut less.

Thought for the day: hyperbole

When you engage in hyperbole will you dig yourself a hyper hole?

Or if you want a rhyme, sort of:

When you engage in hyperbole, are you being hyper holy?

"Government-made" billionaire

Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant, started making Chobani yogurt with the help of a Small Business Administration loan.  He bought a Kraft Foods factory in 2005 with the help of that loan, and he began shipping Chobani Greek yogurt two years later.  It is now the best selling yogurt brand in the U.S.  He is now estimated to be worth 1.1 billion dollars.

Of course, the government didn't make him a billionaire.  He and many other people had to do a lot of work to produce and sell all that yogurt.  But could he have started without the SBA loan?  Maybe if there had been a friendly banker who believed in him.  So, the government didn't make him a billionaire, but it certainly gave him a rung or two to start the climb to success.

See "The billionaire behind Chobani", Devon Pendelton, Bloomberg News, Updated 2012-09-25, via Star Tribune.

Something else to consider: was the SBA loan government spending or government investment?  Consider all the jobs that Chobani created and the taxes the employees pay.  Consider how much more taxes Ulukaya paid than if he hadn't been so successful.  Consider how those taxes in turn can be reinvested in education, roads, and loans to other fledgling companies.

Three cheers for independent stores

A twist switch on a kitchen wall light wouldn't stay in the on position.  I kept putting off looking at it, but finally did last week.  We turned off the circuit breaker for the kitchen and I disassembled the light.  Hurray, there was enough wall wire to reconnect it.

I took the switch to Denny's Hardware for a replacement.  Denny Moran, the former owner, who now spends his time on the floor, was in.  He said he didn't have exactly the same thing but something close.  The difference was the new one had screws to attach wires rather then wires soldered to it.  Close enough and in fact even better.

This afternoon I reassembled the light and it works fine.

Now if I'd gone to a big box hardware/lumber store, I would have wandered the aisles to find the right shelf.  If I didn't find what I needed, I might wait five minutes for a clerk.  The clerk may or may not know if the store had the part.  I might have paid a few cents less for the part, but I would have used up the savings in the gas to get to the box box store.

As it was, I parked right at the door of the local hardware store, I was waited on right away, I got exactly what I needed, and was in and out in less time that it would have taken me to walk from my car to the correct aisle, walk to the cashier, and walk back to my car.

Three cheers for the dying breed, the local hardware store.  Two bigger ones have closed in the last five or six years in Duluth.  Killed not by policies in Washington, but by big box stores.

And maybe by local politicians who are always trying to attract businesses to town.  Often those new businesses put local businesses out of business.  The key to business success in a city is not to attract businesses but to attract people.  People start businesses.  Businesses don't start people.

Cereals sponsor serials - a homonym homilie

The only cereal sponsoring a radio serial that I remember at the moment was Wheaties for "Jack Armstrong,  the All-American Boy" but I think there were a few other cereal sponsors  for radio serials.

This little play on my words popped into my conscious mind when I was thinking about the title of the Italian podcast, "Fuori Tempi", which means Outside Times, but I'm not sure what that means.  I'll probably find out when I get around to listening to it.  The title made me think of the phrase "fuori serie" that means a special car model that is not in a companies usual line.

What do the debates prove?

I don't plan to watch the presidential debates tomorrow.  What will they prove?  Only how well either participant can answer questions in a couple of minutes.  This is not how a president governs.

A good president asks the right questions of the right people and then deliberates how to get others to act.  There may be a time for quick responses, but for the most part, the president engages in long term thinking.  This can take weeks of interviews and of deliberation.

The debates may actually be harmful to the governing of the country.  They encourage too much off the top of the head thinking with insufficient information.  What one says in the heat of the debate may be quite contrary to what one should do in practice.

Short cuts can short change you: Part II

For Part I, click here.

After I returned from the fruitless search for the missing sheet of plywood, I ate supper, went to bed, and tossed and turned too much of the night, considering various options for the next day.

The next morning I plotted out the work for the day.  On one of my crawls underneath, I noticed that there were lots of staples sticking out.  These would have hindered moving plywood sections and so I began removing them.  I think it took me all morning to get them out; I don't remember if that was one-quarter of joists or all of them.

Finally, maybe it was after lunch, I measured out lengths of insulation and stuffed them between the joists, two layers of 3-1/2 inch denim "no-scratch".  I think I did one "sixteen inch by six feet" section at a time.  However, the insulation would not stay between the joists; it sagged and even dropped completely out.

I had set aside some of the old insulation supports, springy sixteen-inch wire rods.  These did the trick of holding the insulation up.  I also had a full package of them left from when I had first put insulation under the floor.  Fortunately, I didn't let my wife throw them out or give them to a rummage sale.

Sometime in the afternoon, I had insulation in place on one-quarter of the joists.

My memory may be wrong, but I think I considered that it a good stopping place.  The next step would be to cover what I had done with plywood.  That would be the next visit's work.  Now it was time to return my friend's trailer.

For some reason, I took the longer way around, thinking that a more direct road was still closed, even when I knew it had been opened.  I had gotten directions to my friend's house from Two Harbors from Map Quest or Google.  When I got into Two Harbors and cell phone coverage, I called him to let him know I was on my way (his Duluth number was long distance from our cabin).  It's a good thing I did.  He told me that I can't use Cant Rd. to get to his place.

When I did get there he noticed the tire iron wasn't on top of the loose spare tire.  Hoo boy!  At 65 mph it must have bounced out.  At least traffic was sparse and it didn't slam into someone's grille or worse.

On Friday I returned to our cabin and tried getting a 4x8 sheet of 1/4-inch plywood in place to screw it to the joists.  No way could I manage this by myself.

So I cooked up what I call Plan A-.  My trying to cover the insulation with whole sheets of plywood was Plan B; the original Plan A having been to put the insulation in from the top.  Plan A- was putting in pieces of plywood from the bottom and holding them up by some means.

Before I cut up my brand new sheets of plywood, I found some old, squirrel-chewed 1/4-inch plywood on our lumber left-overs pile.  The squirrels probably liked the glue.  There was enough good wood to make two about 70x14 panels.  I also found that my circular saw, unused for many years, had a plywood blade and still worked.

My original thought had been to screw runners to the side of the joists and then zigzag the plywood up and let it drop back down.  I measured a "pocket" carefully and tried to cut each piece carefully.  I cut one piece in and tried to fit it in.  I couldn't push up on one side and get the other side to go over the opposite runner.  That didn't work so well.  I took the runners off one side and then just held the piece up with one hand and used a cordless drill to put 1-1/2 screws every 18 inches or so.  That worked.

Except!  There were hangers over the support beams that prevented the piece from going completely to the outside edge.  I had to make notches in the piece.  Then, because I was using low supports to cut the plywood, my cuts weren't the straightest possible.  I had to trim wherever a piece was too wide.  And of course, the joists are not precision cut or placed lumber and are different distances apart - 14-1/2 inches one place and 14-1/4 another.  Some places a piece may fit snugly, and other places there are huge gaps that will have to be filled with caulk.

To shorten this long tale of fortitude, stubbornness, stupidity, and cleverness, the two pieces of scrap worked, and so I cut four more pieces out of the new sheets.  At five o'clock Saturday afternoon, I had one quarter of the insulation up and supported.  Now I began putting all my scattered tools away.  That took an hour.  Then another hour straightening up the cabin and packing up.  When I went to turn off the refrigerator I discovered I never turned it on.  Fortunately the cabin had been so cold when I arrived the day before that the food stayed cool enough.

At about seven I drove out the driveway and locked the cable.  I looked East down the road and saw a full moon almost over the center of the road.  Take a few pictures.  I should have done it with a tripod; the moon is bleary.  Off I go on the hour-long drive listening to the latest "To the Best of Our Knowledge" on my iPhone plugged into the radio.  It gets darker and darker.  I'm not used to this.  My eyes dart back and forth watching for deer.  Then I realize I don't have my high beams on.  Ah, that makes a difference.

Finally I arrive back in Duluth, but no way am I going to prepare supper for myself at this hour.  I stop at Bulldog Pizza for a pint and a big sandwich.  What a relief to sit down without a cabin floor hanging six inches from my face or without a steering wheel in my hands peering into the dark.

Still 3/4 of the insulation to go.  At least the next time I'll have my wife there to help in so many ways.

One corporation still can't live within its means

On 2011-09-26 I wrote how Forum Communications raised the price of the Duluth News Tribune by 33-1/3 percent.  Now just over a year later they've raised the price by 25 percent!  I had been forewarned by a vendor that the Sunday paper would be raised to $2.50, but I didn't know that the daily would be raised to $1.25.

When I went to the corner boxes this morning I was surprised to find that there were still copies of the Star Tribune.  This location is chronically understocked with the Strib, often being sold out a bit after seven.  I put four quarters in the Strib machine and took my copy.  Then I put four quarters in the DNT machine.  It wouldn't unlock.  I tried again.  Same thing.  I looked at the price labels on the box, and I know I saw $2.50 for the Sunday edition and $1.00 for the daily edition.

When I got home, I sent email about this to the Customer Service representative.  She had not responded by about one this afternoon.

I went out later and stopped at a convenience store.  It had signs about the price change for both editions of the DNT.  As I forked out the extra quarter, I joked with the clerk, "If government raised taxes by 25 percent, people would complain loudly.  Hell!  If they would complain if government raised taxes by 2.5 percent."

When I got to the fitness center, the DNT box outside the door had the new prices written in marker, not a "permanent" sign.

What a way to run a railroad, I mean a newspaper!  I wonder what a 67 percent increase in just over a year will do to circulation.  I really do appreciate having a physical copy of the newspaper to read at breakfast and lunch.  I wonder if the employees have seen a comparable increase in their income.

See also "Can't corporations live within their means?"

Short cuts can short change you

For readers not familiar with American idioms, let me explain the title.

A short cut is doing something with less time or money than normal.  It comes from taking a shorter route than the usual route, say cutting through the woods rather than following the road.  A short cut now may mean doing something quicker than normal.  Like not putting on a hard hat to save time.

Giving short change is not giving all the change due a payee.  For example, if you present $20 for something that costs $16.10, the seller may give you only $3.50 in change or $2.90, not $3.90.  Short change has now come to mean not getting full value from something.

So, my short cut in building a cabin has cost me more money and time over the years than if I had done it right the first time.

When we built our cabin in Brimson, Minnesota in 1994 or so, we were living in the Twin Cities, a 200-mile, 3-1/2 to 4 hour drive each way.  Each time we did a bit of work, we tried to make as much progress as possible.

We built the cabin on six posts stuck in the ground with the floor about 2-1/2 feet above the ground.  I should have put insulation between the joists before I put the floor on, but I didn't want the insulation to get wet if I didn't have time to put the floor on.  The way to put insulation between the joists is to nail runners along the sides of the joists, drop plywood on the runners, caulk the result, and drop insulation between the joists.

No, Mr. Know-It-All would crawl under the building and put the insulation in from underneath.  No big deal for a fifty-something "kid".

Our cabin floor was warm through most winters, but then the squirrels discovered this wonderful nesting material.  We would see wads all over our yard.  I tried putting plastic screen under the insulation, but the squirrels would rip that off.  I talked about putting 1/4-inch screen underneath, but never put more than a few square feet in.

Finally, there was practically no insulation left, and our floor was always cold in winter.  This spring and summer, I pulled out what was left.  I intended to install new insulation the proper way this fall.  I finally started two weeks ago.

I intended to stuff insulation between the joists and then screw 1/4-inch plywood to support it and protect it from squirrels.

I borrowed a trailer from a friend, went to Menard's to buy all the plywood and a couple of packages of insulation.  As a clerk helped me put the plywood in the trailer, he asked if I wanted to put the spare tire on top to hold the plywood down.  I said no, I have tie-downs.  Mistake one!

When I tried putting my tie-downs on, I could not find a good purchase on the side of the trailer, at least within reach of a single tie-down.  I didn't think to hook two together.  Mistake two!

As I drove the fifty-plus miles to our cabin, I kept looking in the rear-view mirror to be sure the insulation was still there.  At not quite 25 miles, the insulation wasn't there.  The North Star fire station was just ahead and I used that to turn around.  Within a mile of backtracking, I saw the two insulation bundles stacked beside the road.  Some kind person had stopped, picked them up off the road, and put them at the side.  This time I put the bundles in the back of my SUV.  But I didn't count the sheets of plywood; I saw that the top sheet was wedged under one of the back slats of the trailer and that should hold them in place.  Mistake three!

When I unloaded everything at the cabin, I discovered I had only five of the six sheets of plywood.  Hoo, boy!  I drove the twenty-five miles back to where I had lost the insulation,  looking carefully on both sides of the road (lots of tall grass, embankments, and such), as the daylight dwindled.  As I drove, I pondered that I'm probably spending as much in gas as the missing sheet of plywood cost.  I didn't find the sheet.

Tomorrow or soon: Part II - the actual progress of the insulation.

To my one faithful reader and others

Within an hour of posting a new blog entry, it seems within an hour, at least one person has read that entry.  Whoever you are, thank you!

Unfortunately, I haven't given you or others much to read lately.  That's because I've made my to-do list a bit longer and blogging has taken a back seat.  I originally called this blog "Irregular Blog" because I didn't know how often I would post something.  I guess the name still means something.

One, the fall quarter for University for Seniors has started at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.  I signed up for five classes, but fortunately I was wait-listed for two.  Otherwise, I would have been really full up.

Two, I bought some new toys - an iPhone and an iPod.  From the simple Apple Macintosh "For the rest of us" we have seen the boxes get smaller and the capabilities grow almost exponentially.  It is no longer a simple matter of pulling the computer out of the box, plugging it in, and starting work.  There are settings galore, dozens of features to explore, and a whole lot more to do all you want to do.

Three, I finally found a round tuit to reinsulate the floor of our cabin.  That is a blog entry in itself.  Oh, yes, I don't do much blogging at our cabin because the connection is so darn slow.

There is a bit more on the new toys, but I must go finish installing Skype on the iPad so my wife can use it when she visits our daughter and they can talk to our son in Japan.

So, please keep checking.  You never know when I might post three entries in a day.

Thanks for your readership.

A voice from the 47% who is now in the 53%

Moby, a DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician, wrote a heartfelt analysis about being in the 47%.  All the help he got helped him become quite well-off.  He did it with a rich "uncle" because he had no rich daddy.  See "Mitt Romney Does Not Have the Right to Dismiss Us", Huffington Post, 2012-09-23.

Education - maybe we haven't got the lead out yet

I wonder how many people have considered how a poor environment has caused poor school performance and how the ramifications continue.

Consider these two statements from "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain" by David Eagleman.

"The major public health movement to remove lead-based paint grew out of an understanding that even low levels of lead can cause brain damage that makes children less intelligent and, in some cases, more impulsive and aggressive."

"As a child grows, neglect, physical abuse, and head injury can cause problems in mental development."

So, a child grows up impulsive and aggressive and becomes a parent.  The now parent may also neglect and abuse his or her children.  Now these children may have problems in mental development. And so it continues through the generations, some children breaking the cycle, too many not.  "The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, yea, unto the seventh generation."

"But," you say, "lead paint was used everywhere.  Wouldn't all kids have been affected?"  Well, many children had the good fortune to grow up in houses where the paint was well-maintained.  Others had the  bad fortune to grow up in houses in which the paint deteriorated, chipped, and flaked.  If the kids didn't eat some of the paint chips, they might have inhaled some of the dust from the deteriorating paint.

The problem is not to get the "lead" out of "poor-performing teachers" but to get the "lead" out of "poor performing families".  That will take a lot more effort than too many are willing to spend.  And I'm not talking about unwilling teachers.

A bad omen for Obama?

"According to the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal survey … 50 percent of voters favor Barack Obama, while 45 percent plan to vote for Mitt Romney."  See "Could This Man Cost Romney the White House?", Lee Brodie, CNBC, 2012-09-20.

That may look favorable for Obama, but note that some voters "favor" him while others "plan to vote" for Romney.  Will all those who "favor" Obama actually show up and vote?  If history is any guide, there will be lots of no-shows on the Democratic side.

One business group that wants more regulation

In the name of efficiency, one business sector has become inefficient, and that sector would like government regulation to restore efficiency.

The business sector: stock trading.  The inefficiency: run-amok computer algorithms for high-frequency trading, HFT.  There have been several cases where HFT algorithms have caused problems with initial public offerings and set off price-spikes that some firms couldn't handle.  Firms may not put in sufficient checks on certain trades in order to gain speed.

"'Market participants at every level of the trade life cycle reported they are looking to regulators to establish best practices in risk management and to monitor compliance with those practices,' Carol Clark, senior policy specialist at the Chicago Fed, wrote in a summary of the survey's findings."

See "High Frequency Trading: Worse than You Thought", Jeff Cox, CNBC, 2012-09-20.

Next time a newspaper reports that "investors decided" ask yourself do they mean traders and do they mean trading computers.

O ye of little faith!

Someone in the U.S. posted a video uncomplimentary of Mohammed.  Some Muslims in Libya attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, resulting in the deaths of the U.S. Ambassador and three other U.S. diplomats.  Now demonstrations and attacks by some Muslims on American interests are happening all around the world where there are a large number of Muslims.  Is this the way to promote Islam as a religion of peace?

The idea of Islam as a religion of peace is something that many American Muslims believe and need in order to be part of their communities.  Unfortunately, attacks like those above work against American Muslims.  Why?  Because there are too many non-Muslim Americans who believe that ALL Muslims are terrorists.  Consider the uproar being made by Rep. Michele Bachmann about U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton having a Muslim aide, Huma Abedin.

When I was a kid a counter to those who called others by derogatory names was "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names cannot hurt me!"  Some Muslims are letting derogatory names hurt them and are breaking other people's bones.

"Allah akbar!  God is great!" shout those demonstrating against the uncomplimentary video.  Do you think a great God would worry about the callous remarks of a petty criminal?  If a great God were concerned with such remarks, wouldn't He do something about it?  If God is not doing anything about some stupid remarks, should you?  There is an old Greek word for the sin of knowing better than the gods - hubris, a form of misplaced pride and conceit.

Before some non-Muslims have their own bit of hubris and conceit about their own religion's tolerance, consider some Christian history.  Early Christian leaders had some really heated debates about what Christianity should be, and many of them branded those who disagreed with them as heretics.  For too many years, the Roman Church with the blessing of monarchs tortured and executed those who they suspected of not being devout Christians.  The Puritans in Massachusetts hung Quakers for preaching in public.  The Ku Klux Klan used the symbols of Christianity and terrorized and murdered blacks for a long list of crimes real and imagined.

The world is getting smaller and more crowded.  If we can't learn to have some tolerance for each other, no god is going to save us from destroying ourselves.

For a good analysis of the larger picture of the long-standing conflict, see "A Dangerous Misperception and Cultural Divide", Alon Ben-Meir, Huffington Post, 2012-09-17.

Be careful about quotes, especially from the web

The choir I sing in will be singing Bobby McFerrin's 23rd Psalm in the near future.  It ends with "As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen."

Hm!  That contradicts the belief of the "End-timers" who believe the end of the world is near, based on their reading of Revelations.

OK, let's do a quick check of the "original" 23rd Psalm. "Psalm 23 'world without end'" gives Bobby McFerrin's version as first and several more later.  The second item is from the burial section of "The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland".  Oops!  Every Psalm listed ends with "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen."  This cannot be part of each of these psalms.  Especially when it it proceeded with "GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;"  The concept of the Trinity had not even been considered at the writing of the Psalms.

A bit more searching gives that this appendage is the "Gloria Patri".  It is also known as the "Minor Doxology".  A doxology is a short hymn of praise.

Interestingly, the original Greek uses a different ending.  The "world without end" dates from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, either 1549 or 1552.  Modern usage varies all over, from the Cranmer words to a closer rendition of the original Greek.

If scholars who know ancient Greek, Latin, and Hebrew can't agree on what the surviving texts contain, how can the rest of be sure what the translations state?

The people know best how to spend their own money! Really?

Yes, we know how to spend our money on food, shelter, and entertainment, but do we know how to spend our money on infra-structure, police and fire, military, regulatory agencies, foreign policy, and basic research?

"Know best how to spend our own money" has been a mantra of the anti-tax, anti-government crowd as if government is just a sinkhole giving money away for no purpose.  They completely ignore that taxes pay for our roads, our sewers, and many other physical features of a civil society.  They ignore that without regulatory agencies a power company could change its rates willy-nilly without warning.  They ignore that without a military, there would be nobody to fight the wars that they claim we should get into.  They ignore that without the basic research into atomic energy that we would not have the nuclear energy that taxes have heavily subsidized.  And if they found this page with Google, they should thank the National Science Foundation, DARPA, and NASA for the grant to Stanford University in 1994 that made Google possible.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Foundation and many other pages.

Corporate Whimsy

Facebook, that time gobbler that so many can't do without and so many hate, is at it again changing the way it works.

Yesterday I posted a picture on Flickr and then wrote a note on Facebook with a link to the picture.  When I clicked return, the picture was showing on my message list.  A few friends commented on it and I saw the picture above their comments.

Today as I scrolled through my list of messages, the picture was gone but the text remained.  I left a comment about it, and one friend said she hadn't seen it before and now she did.

One of the first rules of good human interface is consistency.  If I do a certain thing in a certain set of circumstances, I should be able to get a similar result each and every time.

Facebook is not alone in inconsistent user interfaces.  Microsoft, Apple, and many others confuse users time after time.

Through iTunes I download Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" podcasts, receiving two each week.  Suddenly, about four weeks ago I was getting only one.  Last week I got none.  This week I got one.  With a little email help from the TTBOOK host, Jim Fleming, I figured out that iTunes or somebody has decided that I don't need podcasts that I've already downloaded, even if they were from two or more years ago.  TTBOOK does rebroadcast programs and thus republishes the podcasts.  But shouldn't I be the one to decide that I don't want to listen to an old program again?

Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac had programmable macros with an extensive, easily used description for each available function.  Microsoft decided to take macros out in Office 2008.  They said users should write AppleScripts instead.  I'll just say that AppleScript is a byzantine programming language.  Microsoft decided to put macros back in Office 2011, but many old macros don't work or only work erratically.  And the descriptions of the functions are often incomplete.

I'm sure many readers have their own tales of frustration about how software, computers, cars, and customer service departments work.  So many of what we depend on may be produced efficiently, but do we get effective results using them?

Lying with the truth

Several times Republicans have stated that 250,000 small businesses closed last year, the implication being that President Obama's policies were responsible for each and every small business closing.

But why have these small businesses closed?  Let me list the ways.

The owner died or retired.
The owner tried doing too much with too little resources.
The owner did not have enough potential customers.
The owner located in a low traffic area.
The owner did not have the personality to attract and keep customers.
The owner's business model was all wrong.
The owner's landlord would not renew the lease or changed the terms too drastically.
A large corporation moved in too close and drained the small business's customers.
A large corporation provided a service that outmoded the small business's service.

I have no idea what percentage of businesses closed for any of these reasons, but I see examples all the time that have no relation to Obama's policies.

Where are all the DVD stores?  Netflix, RedBox, and streaming have taken many customers away.

Where have all the local pharmacies gone?  Replaced by Walgreens, CVS, Target, and Walmart.

Where are all the camera stores?  Replaced by Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

I don't care which candidate or party makes some sweeping generalization, but I try to ask at least myself what is the bigger picture.  Are things as bad, or as good, as this or that politician proclaim?

Grover Norquist drowns in his bathtub

Grover Norquist was enjoying a nice soak in his bathtub because he had just drowned government in it.

His timing was unfortunate, because a monster rainstorm due to climate change started while he as in the tub.

The rain came down and down soaking the ground thoroughly.  There was so much water that the sewer mains fell in downstream of Norquist's house.  There was so much water that it started flooding the cracked sewer mains upstream of his house.  The upstream pressure became so great that it started popping sink and tub plugs in houses.  The geyser coming out of Norquist's bathtub drain was so huge that he never got a chance to get out of the tub.

This could have all been avoided if there had been a well-financed government to inspect and repair the aging infrastructure, including the sewers.

Quote of the day: watering the weeds and pulling the flowers

In "The Dow has recovered, but what about 'The Doug?'" 2012-09-03, Jim Hightower wrote:

"[T]oday's corporate and political leaders are wretchedly-bad gardeners – by tending to the moneyed elites and ignoring America's workaday majority, they're watering the weeds and pulling the flowers. Where's that going to lead us?"

One of the ways that this is done is taxing dividends at a lower rate than wages.  If we tax dividends at a lower rate to encourage investment, do we discourage work by taxing labor at a higher rate?  Would anybody get dividends if there weren't people to do the work to generate those dividends?

Maybe I shouldn't complain. I am retired and derive a portion of my income from dividends and capital gains.  But how hard am I working to do that?  As for the dividends, my work consists either of having requested reinvestment by a financial institution or by typing a request to have accumulated dividends transferred to my bank account.

Sure, I'd like to pay less taxes, wouldn't we all?  But if we don't pay taxes, would we have any kind of civil society?

Complaint of "junk science" from a different source

Thankfully, I haven't seen the claim of "junk science" for quite awhile.  "Junk science" is a contradiction.  If it is "junk thinking", it is not science.  If it is science, then it is not "junk thinking".  It was often used by the "right" to disparage results they didn't like.

Now it is used by Jim Hightower as a disparagement of someone whose views he doesn't like: "Todd Akin, a devout worshipper of junk science, is a member of the House Committee on Science."  See "Welcome to the GOP's Theological Nutland", Jim Hightower, 2012-09-04.  Todd Akin is the politician who claimed the bodies of women who have been "legitimately raped" can protect them from becoming pregnant.

It just occurred to me that some people's theological thought has nothing to do with God or with logic.  It is more hubris telling God what they think he or she should have done or should do.

What is slower than the Postal Service?

Electronic fund transfers!  From one corporation to another!  In days, not hours!

On Tuesday I asked online for the cash balance of my brokerage account and the sales of some mutual fund shares, the proceeds of each to be transferred to my local checking account.  Neither transaction was confirmed until Wednesday afternoon.  My bank account did not show the deposits until eight o'clock Thursday.  About 46 hours after I had made my request, I saw the result.

Two days is what it takes to send in one Netflix DVD and receive the next!  In fact, the time from pickup to confirmation is less than 16 hours.  I am notified of the shipment of the next DVD about noon and receive it before 10 the next morning.  Hm!  With a 12:30 pickup and a 10:00 delivery, that's less than 46 hours!  A two-way transaction is faster than a one-way transaction!

The first is done completely by computers.  The second is done by a lot of hard-working people, both government and corporate.

Oh, yes, the last two DVDs have been from southwestern Wisconsin, not from Duluth.  Unbelievable, a Postal Service truck is faster than corporate computers!

Apple stores – efficiency over effectiveness?

CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer "were of the opinion that the stores didn’t generate enough revenues to justify their operating expenses."
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/is-apples-retail-model-set-to-change-forever.html/
"Are Apple employees worried about their jobs?" , Aabha Rathee, Wall St. Cheat St., 2012-09-03

Is anybody really looking at the side effects of the stores even existing?  How many sales are there online because customers know they can go to an Apple Store for more direct help than online?

For example, if I buy a Macintosh online, buy an Apple Care contract, and something goes wrong, can I get timely help online.  Well, I bought one Mac from a local dealer, but took it to an Apple Store because of a problem.  The techie looked at it, gave me a quick fix, checked the battery, and replaced the battery at no charge.  Messrs. Cook and Browett, how many times are similar stories are there like this.  If Apple provides superior technical assistance, how do you measure the benefit to increased sales?  Apple customers pay a premium for superior service.  If you reduce that service, why should customers pay that premium?

It's like an auto dealer cuts back on the number of mechanics because they are not generating enough revenue.  Why aren't they generating enough revenue?  A very large portion of the dealer's customers have bought long-term service contracts; therefore, they pay little or nothing when they bring their cars in.  If the dealer's customers have to wait a long time for pre-paid service, are they going to be so willing to buy their next cars from the same dealer?

You can't run a business as a series of silos with no relation to all the other silos.  A business is more like a chain of gears.  You take one gear out and everything stops.

The economy is doing what?

Many people talk about the "poor economy", but which economy are they talking about?

The business section of the 2012-09-05 Star Tribune had four pieces of contradictory information on the same page.

"Markets mostly down amid gloomy reports on U.S. Economy"

"U.S. auto sales hit three-year high"

"Construction spending dropped in July"

"Home-price index posts strong rise"

But the story on construction spending is mixed.  There was "a big drop in home improvement projects" but "spending on construction of single-famiy homes and apartments increased again".

The real story is that we have a continually changing economy.  Lots of jobs don't even exist anymore or the "efficiencies" have become so great that fewer people are needed to do the work.

Grover Norquist calls 911

Grover Norquist is frying a couple of hamburger patties in his kitchen when some grease spatters and is ignited.  He rushes to his phone to call for assistance.

Scenario One

Grover Norquist calls 911.  He receives a recorded message:

If you require government assistance, please look in Grover Norquist's bathtub.

Scenario Two

Grover Norquist calls his private fire company.  He is given the following list of instructions:

If you are calling about a cat in a tree, please press 1.

If you are calling about smelling gas, please press 2.

If you are calling about a medical emergency, please press 3.

If you are calling about a fire, please press 4. (Grover Norquist presses 4.)

If you are calling about a car fire, please press 1.

If you are calling about a brush fire, please press 2.

If you are calling about a chimney fire, please press 3.

If you are calling about a kitchen fire, please press 4.  (Grover Norquist presses 4.)

He hears the following message:

All our agents are busy.  Please stay online for our next available agent.

After a minute, Grover Norquist hears the following message:

All our agents are still busy.  Please stay online for our next available agent.  Your approximate wait time is five minutes. (This is repeated every minute.)

Finally after ten minutes, he hears in an Indian accent:

"Good evening, my name is Stephanie.  It is my pleasure to assist you this evening.  May I have your name and address?"

Grover Norquist gives his name and address.

"I am sorry, sir, but we have no record of a client named Rover Northlist."

Grover Norquist spells out his name.

"I apologize for getting your name wrong, sir.  My computer is searching for your account."

After a minute, the agent says, "I'm sorry, sir, but we are having a typhoon and our connection to the Internet is slow."

After another minute, the agent says, "I'm sorry, sir, but our records indicate that you have not paid your last two premiums.  We are not permitted to dispatch a crew when a client is in arrears."

Scenario Three

As in Scenario two, but Grover Norquist has paid all his premiums.  After the agent finds his account, she says,  "I'm sorry, sir, but our crew for your town is now at an apartment fire and it appears that they will be there all night.  Would you like me to check with our backup crew?  They are only twenty miles away."