Gridlock City

The Wages of Tunnel Vision is Ignorance

2021-06-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

cicada corpse "mulch"

Many of us who live in the belly of the Midwest – Indiana and Ohio, to be exact – are well aware of the emergence of Brood X of the 17-year cicadas. Mercy, are we aware! In some parts of town, the dead insects are so thick on the ground under the larger trees that the accumulated bodies look like brown mulch. I kid you not... and yet the buzzy little guys aren't everywhere: I was in a part of town just yesterday where nary a buzz or whirr was to be heard, and I wasn't constantly dive-bombed by bugs the size of a wine-bottle cork.

Ain't nature great?! Whatever the case, apparently some people don't believe that there's a "cicada emergence" happening right now. Yup, some bobble-head wrote to the local newspaper and opined,

"Been hearing about the Cicadas brood for the last 60 days. So far — nada. Kind of like our weather reports. Lots of hype, then nothing."

So this man (or woman; no one ever said all idiots are male) doesn't think the cicada emergence is real because he hasn't seen any. Well, he's welcome to visit my local park...

That failure of logic puts me in mind of a certain segment of our population who think that what they can't see doesn't exist. You know exactly who I'm talking about: the moron who declaims that there's no such thing as "global warming" because it was so damned cold here last week. The fact that people in the know discuss global climate change instead of global warming notwithstanding, let's take a look at just how tiny the guy's window on the world really is. We'll use the state of Indiana for an example.

Indiana has a total area of 36,418 square miles. In terms of the rest of the world, that's

1.17% of the surface area of the "lower 48"
0.38% of the surface area of North America
0.064% of Earth's land surface area
0.018% of Earth's total surface area.

And this guy thinks that because it was cold in his back yard in February, that the rest of the globe was also cold?

Will someone please buy this jackass a clue?

And now for something completely dumb...

2021-02-02T13:33:00.004-08:00

A Facebook acquaintance posted the meme shown below on January 29th, some nine days after the Biden administration took over the federal government. Based on what he wrote, he reposted it from someone who had copied it (presumably from Newsmax or OAN) on January 25th. Either that, or he doesn't realize that from January 20th to January 29th is not "less than a week."

The name of the guilty has been removed to... hell, I dunno, I should have probably left it there. But enough of that; let's take a look at the thought (or lack thereof) behind the meme.

Apparently the right is planning to blame the new administration for everything that has happened since 12:01 on January 20th, 2021. But wait: let's take a look at those numbers. What are they, anyway? Well, some bubble-brain is apparently tallying the number of COVID deaths every day and says that Biden's to blame for every one that occurred after he took office. That's a little weird, given that the same people didn't blame Donald Trump for a single COVID death, but never mind that little inconsistency.

Apparently, J____ and his mental midget friends don't realize that death by COVID-19 isn't instantaneous. No, according to one study by Harvard University scientists, death rates lag infection rates by four to six weeks.

So J_____'s meme is flawed: few, if any people infected during the Biden administration were dead five days later, or nine days later when he reposted this, or for that matter, today (2-2-2021). The people who were dying in late January were most likely infected in a surge of cases centered around the holiday season.

You can count that as one more victim of a lack of critical thinking...

As for the 11,000 jobs lost, who knows where that comes from? maybe it's the December unemployment numbers.

When Logic Fails, Fall Back on Insults

2020-12-29T07:49:00.010-08:00

Unlike most people, I still subscribe to a local newspaper... the Indianapolis Star, if you must know. I'm not absolutely certain, but I think the only reason we still get a physical subscription is because I live with a a Labrador Retriever who loves collecting the paper from the end of the driveway and depositing it in my hand.

The Star prints a daily column called "Let It Out" in which locals say what's on their minds. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't seem to have very much room, as is demonstrated by the comment reproduced above. Just how clueless are these people, anyway?

In case this is a talking point from your bubble (and most of the stupid things printed in the column are bubblicious talking points), listen up:

Comparing the charges made about the two elections is definitely comparing apples to oranges. President Trump, in all his narcissistic glory, screeches constantly that there has been fraud, with "millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots" and a giant conspiracy to change votes cast by his supporters to the opposite party.

Lest you've forgotten, as detailed in The Mueller Report, all seventeen of the intelligence services agreed that Russia meddled in the election by publishing false, misleading, and inflammatory material about Trump's opponent; including so-called "fake news" (Star Pizza, anyone?) and stolen emails. According to statements made by government officials, there is no credible information that a single vote cast in 2016 was changed. That is a fa-a-a-a-r cry from claiming that some shadowy, unnamed conspirators changed votes and introduced fake ballots.

So no, Mr. or Ms FoxNation, there's no comparison. Then again, you're probably one of the people who were fooled by Russian disinformation four years ago...

Live in a Bubble? Get a Life

2020-12-28T12:30:00.009-08:00

I was driving the old truck today so when trad jazz started coming out of my radio speakers, it was find another station or listen to the tire noise. I chose option one, ending up on an FM station broadcasting something I later learned was called "The Tony Katz Show." I was bored and the guy subbing for Katz had just started babbling about what he gave the kids for Christmas (he apparently bought them hoverboards), so I let it keep on playing: it was that, Country and Western, or Christian radio.

I never caught his name, but this putz started telling of how he had learned of the Nashville bombing Christmas morning because he got an alert on his phone. It was only 'cause he's from Memphis and has lots of friends in Tennessee, however: according to him, most other people had no idea it had happened. His producer even claimed that he hadn't heard anything about it until Sunday, two days later.

Of course, you know why: the liberal mainstream media didn't tell people about it. Bad media, bad media.

I'm not the most connected guy. I rarely watch television news, I'm not glued to a Facebook news feed 24/7, I don't listen to AM talk radio (like the Tony Katz Show). But I knew about that bombing within an hour after it happened (about 6:30 AM, EST), and it wasn't from watching Fox News. Yet here's a bloviating jackass telling me that people who depend on "mainstream media" didn't learn about it for days.

Man, some morons will say anything. Worse, a lot more people will believe anything!

The Choking Doberman Lives...

2020-08-13T19:09:00.001-07:00

the hook: an enduring urban legend

Way back in 1985, a ski lift at Colorado's Keystone resort collapsed, killing two and injuring scores more. The tragedy happened a week or so before Christmas on a Saturday, prime vacation skiing. At the time a Denver resident and avid skier, I knew plenty of people out on various slopes that day. In the following weeks, at least half a dozen people told me that they knew the person next in the lift line when the bull wheel collapsed.

Oh, sure: a friend of a friend...

That's the quintessential FOAF, to quote folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, a guy whose life work is compiling so-called urban legends. Those are the horrible things that always seem to happen to someone three people removed from you: not your friend, but a friend of one of their other friends. That's what's known in the biz as a red flag.

I had someone play the good ol' FOAF card not long ago. Accordng to this guy (the father-in-law of one of my step-kids), he has a client who has a part interest in a Ford dealership in Tampa. They sent four salesguys in to get tested for COVID-19. The quartet checked in at the test site but when they found out that there was a two-hour wait, they split. Two days later, all four of them got letters notifying them that they had tested positive.

Note the red flags:

Not just a FOAF, but four people who work for a FOAF.
Overload of specific details: a "Ford dealership in Tampa," not "a car dealership in Florida."
Not just one false positive, four of 'em.

So let's apply a little critical thinking: given how strict HIPAA regulations are, how would anyone have the name and contact information of someone who hadn't taken a test? OK, OK, I know: people make mistakes; maybe, just maybe there have been goofs and forms for people who bailed before getting tested have gone through, although anyone who's been in a medical facility in the past ten years knows damned well that the staff ask you your name, age, and other details over and over and over and over...
But it's all about wanting to believe. You see it every day: the simple bullshit claim is soooooo much easier to believe than the complicated explanation.

Yup: the choking doberman rides again.

Critical Thinking Failure II

2020-05-11T09:23:00.002-07:00

Virus transmission through air

A family member – an in-law type – was regaling us not long ago about how all this social distancing is going to kill the restaurant business. Yeah, he's probably right, at least restaurants that can't survive on a drive-up window. I agree with the guy that this is tragic, not just because there won't be good places to eat, but also – and a damned-sight more important – because millions of people will be out of work when bars and restaurants fold.

As someone who is in an "at-risk group" (solely because of my age) I was a bit taken aback by this not particularly thoughtful gent's next pronouncement, paraphrased here:

"This social distancing is bullshit. The gummint shouldn't be telling restaurant owners to leave half their space empty. Hell, they should let the restaurants open completely, and anyone who's afraid of the virus can check the room when they come in. If they think it's too crowded, they can go somewhere else."

Ahh, the old "If you don't like it, go somewhere else" defense; a mainstay of people who lack critical thinking skills. In other words, "Only people who agree with me get a choice." Let me explain:

I'm old enough to remember restaurants and bars before there were non-smoking sections. You'd walk in, sit down, order, and start your meal. Just as your food was delivered, a party of four would sit down at a nearby table, and all four would light up. So much for smoke-free dining!

It's the same thing, only instead of a steak that tastes like cigarette ashes and some clothes that reek of smoke, in the age of COVID-19 there's a chance that you're gonna go home with a creepy virus in your sinuses. Even if the restaurant wasn't crowded when you sat down, you're at the mercy of other people, people who aren't concerned about your safety.
What're you gonna do: get up and leave? How's that a solution? How are people supposed to ensure that the space around them stays clear when other people can go anywhere they damned well please... and will?

Yeah: right... "They can go somewhere else." How 'bout you actually think for a minute, guy!

Watch Out, Bill Gates, Fox Nation is Coming for You!

2020-05-09T10:59:00.002-07:00

Here's recent news from that fount of accuracy, Facebook.com...

Right-wing media types are screaming that, to paraphrase someone I know, "Of course Bill Gates wants everyone to take the vaccine. He owns the patent on it!" over a YouTube video with a Fox News chiron. What? there's a vaccine out there? Why doesn't my doctor know about it? Hell, why doesn't the White House know about it?

Well, as is usually the case about the bogosity that circulates on Facebook, there's a kernel of truth buried in there somewhere — though you have to look pretty hard for it. The kernel is this:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an international non-profit organization for which the Gateses provided the endowment in 2000, is pouring cash into dozens of efforts to synthesize a vaccine for the novel¹ coronavirus that causes COVID-19. From there, it's an easy hop-skip-jump for people who are bereft of critical thinking skills to decide that Gates will make money off the vaccine because he "owns the patent."

That is, of course, utter bullshit. Here's why:

There's no vaccine, so no one – including Gates – "owns" a patent for the vaccine.
The research facility – a laboratory, university, pharmaceutical company, genetics lab, whatever – that develops the vaccine will own the patent. Yes, it's possible that it could later be sold to someone with deep enough pockets.
Gates is the chairman of the charitable foundation that bears the family name, which has an endowment in the neighborhood of $40 billion. He does not receive compensation for his activities.
While it is conceivable that the Foundation might receive royalties in compensation for its research funding (unlikely, since such funding is most probably a grant), the organization cannot turn a profit. Any funds that accrue would be directed to the endowment.

So to recap:

There is no vaccine, and therefore no patent.
Gates wouldn't make any money from a vaccine even if one were developed.

So why all the rotten tomatoes headed Bill's way from the far right? Easy: Gates defended the World Health Organization in the face of President Trump's ignorance. Say anything that disagrees with Trump? FoxNation will rain down the abuse.

¹ "Novel" in this context means "new," not "fictitious."

Red Light Deaths Are Up: Wonder Why?

2019-09-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

red light

This news came across my local newspaper¹ not long ago: according to the AAA, "Deaths caused by drivers running red lights hit their highest rate in 10 years." Their numbers are for 2017; I can't imagine where we sit for 2019. I've lost count of the number of people I see on a daily basis ignoring red lights, stop signs, speed limits, and just about every other rule of the road.

The auto club's numbers say that about 950 people were killed in accidents caused by a driver running a light, up nearly 30% over 2012. The number say that about half (46%) of the deceased were in another car, while the driver at fault was killed about a third of the time (35%). One in 20 was a pedestrian or a cyclist.
A spokesperson for the National Safety Council opined that such accidents are preventable through the used of red light cameras. Ken Kolosh, manager of statistics for the Council, said that about 40% of drivers ignore red lights because they don't think they'll be caught by the police, while a national study by an insurance institute found that using the cameras reduces the incidence of drivers blowing through lights by – what a coincidence! – about 40 percent.

Some place the blame at distracted driving, but my personal observation of drivers who ignore stop signs (and I see a lot of them) is that they aren't any more distracted than drivers who actually stop. I have an opinion, though, and it's related to but not because of cell phone use:

We've become a society unaccustomed to waiting for anything. Want to chat with your sweetie? you don't have to wait until you get to a landline to call honeybunch, you just ask Siri to call. Need groceries? You don't have to clip coupons, write out a list, and take all that to the store. No, just ask Google to add coffee and Dove bars to the grocery list, call up your Kroger app on your smartphone, and someone will pull the order for you (for a small fee). Want a new pair of high-tops? Amazon will deliver them tomorrow - in some markets, before you go to sleep tonight!
Is it any wonder that some people have gotten the notion that they no longer need to wait for something as mundane as a red light or a stop sign?

¹ For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a newspaper is a physical journal of recent news and commentary, typically delivered to a subscriber's house on a daily basis.

It's Context, Doofus!

2018-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

It's election season again. I can tell because I'm wearing out the MUTE button on my television remote so I don't have to listen to three or four political commercials every nine minutes. I'm pretty certain that if I listened to them, though, I'd hear (or see) some word or phrase taken out of context in almost every one of them. Friggin' negative advertisements...

That, and a random bumper sticker I saw not long ago, got me thinking about "context." Every politician, regardless of party, claims that he or she was "quoted out of context" on a regular basis. My news sources don't zero in on sound bites, though, so I (usually) hear or see the entire statement, not the "suspect" phrase. You know exactly what I mean: Incumbent A says, "My opponent thinks Nigeria is a shithole country!" Opponent B's next television ad trumpets the claim that "Incumbent A says 'Nigeria is a shithole country!'"

Yeah, context...

Anyway, the bumper sticker I saw (and I've seen several over the years) said, "The government didn't build my business. I did!"

That's from a 2012 Romney-Ryan claim that Obama isn't "business-friendly." And here's why: it's called Obama's "You didn't build that speech." The paragraph in question follows.

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. "

Of course, Fox News (as the unofficial mouthpiece of the Republican presidential campaign) immediately seized on a single sentence from the speech, and Romney-Ryan jumped on board right away: "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that." Never mind that this section of the President's speech was about how government provides and manages the infrastructure that makes it possible to operate the business you "built without gummint help."

Jeez, some people are such sheep...

Another Trump voter heard from

2018-07-21T11:12:00.002-07:00

The following is copied in its entirety from the Indianapolis Star "Letters to the editor" section today (20 July 2018).

Russian meddling in elections? How is that even possible?

All the folks who are saying that Russians interfered with our election I ask, how? They do not vote in our elections. Does Russia rule that many people in the United States? Wise up and use your own brain. President Barack Obama nearly destroyed this country.

Also, any immigrant could enter this country illegally, and those who chose to enter illegally should leave.

Bob Glaspie
Oxford

Whoa, I'm left wondering whether to pity this man for his lack of knowledge or pity our country because people who are this ill-informed are allowed to vote.

Whatever the case, wouldn't be great if someone took Mr. Gaspie aside and explained to him what happened to this country in the months leading up to the 2016 election? Really, Bob: no one with any authority has ever claimed that Russian interference in the 2016 election included casting votes. No one with any authority has ever even said that the Russians changed a single vote that had been cast.

The only person who's ever claimed large numbers of illicit votes is, of course, the Prez himself. He has long claimed that the only reason Secretary Clinton got more popular votes than him was because "3 million illegals voted." Anyone who believes that is another Glaspie, I guess.

No, Bob, the Russians were a lot more subtle than that: they spread disinformation on social media in an effort to influence people with weak cognitive skills, and also hacked the Clinton campaign and DNC looking for damaging information, which they then released at times when it could be most damaging. For instance:

As the Democratic National Convention was poised to nominate Secretary Clinton, the hackers dropped stolen emails detailing party leaders' preference for Clinton over Senator Sanders, thereby enraging his supporters – a substantial number of whom did not vote for Clinton in the general election.
Within hours after the release of the Trump Access Hollywood tape that could have dominated the news cycle, a huge trove of stolen emails was released.
The first cyberattack attack on the Clinton campaign took place within 24 hours of then-candidate Trump's call, "Russia, if you're listening..."

Mr. Glaspie, perhaps you need wider exposure to the world of news. Or perhaps, just use your brain: it appears to be in need of some exercise.

Hey, stoopid: climate and weather aren't the same thing!

2018-01-20T07:53:00.001-08:00

global temperatures

I ran across this on Facebook not long ago (once more, I'm absolutely flabbergasted at how ignorant some people are). The names have been converted to random initials to protect the guilty...

AB: Yes it's definitely been crazy this year. 60's today but snow tomorrow here in Colorado but so much for global warming huh lol.

CD: I read an article a few days ago, A, that explained weather and climate are different. It was really interesting. Weather is what we see around us, climate is the whole planet. Overall, the planet is still warmer this past year, one of the hottest years in recorded history. Like right now it's unusually warm in Alaska. I hope this climate change isn't real, that's for sure!

AB: C, that's indeed interesting!Do you remember where you read the article? I would love to read it. I do know the planet is shifting.
Umm, excuse me people, but scientists and science writers – as opposed to politicians and Fox News talking heads – have been attempting to educate the public for thirty-plus years that,

Only climate deniers (and the scientifically illiterate) call the phenomenon "global warming" these days, mainly because they want to be able to point to cold spells as "evidence." People in the know call it climate change. In other words, having a cold snap in Louisiana or a warm spell in Utah doesn't disprove the evidence for global climate change!
Weather is a local, short-term expression of climate. Climate is the long-term trends observable in Earth's atmosphere.

'Nuff said? 'Nuff said!

Hey! Look Over There!

2017-11-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a little story for you...

I was walking my dog in a neighborhood near my home one evening last summer, when not one but two dogs belonging to a homeowner on the street charged us, barking fiercely. One dog had been in the front yard as we approached (on the opposite side of the street), and the second charged out the front door when someone entered. It was over in a minute or two: the woman of the house caught one dog by its collar, and someone visiting the house removed the second dog after he'd snarled at us for a minute or two.

My dog, smaller than either of his two attackers, was terrified (a rescue pooch, he has anxiety issues to begin with), and I was understandably concerned since I'd already been bitten by a loose dog a few weeks before.

For what it's worth, the city has a leash law, and a) I was on public property (a sidewalk) and b) I was in compliance with that leash law – my dog was controlled by a harness and a six-foot nylon lead (not a retractable). When I asked the owners, rather pointedly, if they were aware of the leash law, the man responded by asking, "Do you live here?"
WTF? That's a public street! I could have been walking my dog on the sidewalk of a public street in Chicago, LA, Boston, or Bugtussle, Oklahoma, and not needed to justify my presence to a resident.

But now I know what was going on: he was employing what's known as the "Hey! Look over there!" defense, a form of the "distraction defense." He knew he was in the wrong, so he tried to convince me that I was "equally wrong" by raising a completely unrelated question that – at least in this case – was not even in the least wrongdoing. In other words, pretty much the same as saying "Nope, no Russian collusion here, but hey! Look over there! they bought some uranium a decade ago!"

Yep, people like this guy voted for Donald Trump because he could be depended on to act just like they would...

Wisdom of the Crowd? I Think Not

2017-10-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new CBS drama “Wisdom of the Crowd”? Well, here’s the official series synopsis from the network: it’s “a drama about a visionary tech innovator who creates a cutting-edge crowdsourcing app to solve his daughter's murder, and revolutionize crime solving in the process. Inspired by the notion that a million minds are better than one, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jeffrey Tanner, develops ‘Sophe,’ an online platform for publicly shared information he's certain will find his daughter's killer.”

Yeah, I know about the notion, but in case you don't, here’s the tale: In episode one, Tanner (Jeremy Piven) relates how, in 1906, a statistician asked every member of the crowd at a county fair how much a certain ox weighed, and – although no guess was correct – the “average” was within one percent of the ox’s actual weight. True story…

Of course, CBS’s version has nothing to do with guessing the weight of an ox or making any other sort of random stab at a factoid. Instead, it’s about how a social media application can be used as for ad hoc surveillance, enlisting the citizenry to do what the cops can’t (or, according to the scripts, won’t). Unfortunately, some creative type decided that calling the series “Wisdom of the Crowd” would pull in more eyeballs than “Crowdsourcing” or “Amateur NSA Surveillance.” Go figure.
When you come right down to it, however, the very notion that social media could be used in a setting like the ox-weight question is fallacious. The phenomenon works best in situations when 1) there’s an objective answer to the question, 2) the crowd is statistically diverse, and 3) all of the guesses are made anonymously and in secret. Point (3) is at the center of the fallacy inherent in this show’s plot: even if the “Sophe” (the name's clearly a nod to the Greek word sophos [σοφός], or wisdom) users were asked an objective question – e.g., “How tall is the suspect?” – anyone who’s spent any time on social media knows that the popularity of certain members will skew the “average" of all the answers. Ditto with strangers listening to everyone else's answers: you'll unconsciously (probably) try to curry favor with strong or attractive individuals by mirroring their guesses.

So no, a social media platform can’t be used to tap the alleged wisdom of a crowd, not without a lot more screening that appears to have gone into Sophe. And while we’re at it, the ox weight question? It wasn’t the “average” that was so accurate, it was the geometric mean… but I don’t expect most scriptwriters to know the difference.

Why Social Networks are More Antisocial than Not

2017-06-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Ever notice how some people just cannot stand it if you disagree with them? In olden days, it seems that – when people had to talk to each other face to face – if people disagreed, they’d talk it out. Maybe one would point out something the other had missed; gently correct a mistake, offer an alternative explanation. That no longer happens, at least on-line and especially if the two parties will never meet face to face. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if this is a result of the blue-ribbon for everyone generation and the Lake Woebegone effect… here: check out this exchange.

Set-up: the website is Nextdoor.com (a “social network" for people living near each other); the topic is a new store from the Meijer superstore chain that had opened nearby. Here’s the conversation:

Joe) Well, we gave it a try (not just once, about five times)... but it's still a Meijer with all the irritants we've come to expect: many empty spaces on the shelves, lots of items stocked in the wrong location, and not enough checkers for the number of customers: 11:00 AM on Friday, and only two checkstands open?

Jane) My experience with things in life has been if you're looking for the negative you'll find it every time, Perhaps a different view would help…
Joe) [My] experience in the retail industry… is that if you have products to buy you will earn your profit. If you leave an empty space on the shelf, you lose the sale. I don't understand why Meijer can't seem to figure this out.
Judy) To each their own. As with anything you can't please everyone.
Jill) You just cannot please everyone. There are always going to be those people that are not happy period. Just enjoy life and be thankful you had the money to go to buy what you need.

Jim) You are a sad sap. Open your own grocery and I will tear it up on how 'bad' it is. Take a nap and eat a cookie

I see what you’re doing there, folks: Joe has a complaint. Jane, Judy, Jill, and Jim disagree. All four seem to find it necessary to paint Joe as a whiner and negative, the three women are passively aggressive in attempting to bring Joe down by calling his opinion inferior to theirs. In this way, they seem to feel they can elevate their own standing. Jim goes so far as to call Joe names and make an overtly insulting comment.

In a world where everyone valued the opinions of others there might be a discussion of the stocking pattern at the store. Perhaps someone would point out that stores often have empty shelves early in the week because there are no deliveries over the weekend. Perhaps someone would commiserate and say, “I haven’t seen that yet, but it would drive me nuts!” But no – instead, the anonymous correspondents think that, by tearing someone else down, they make themselves superior.

They’re wrong, by the way…

Big Yellow Bus Maniacs

2017-05-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

I lived in the country as a kid, many long years ago, and until I was about sixteen I rode a big yellow school bus to school almost every day. A local farmer -- Suzy Hedges' dad -- drove that bus for most of those ten-plus years. I doubt that my Mom or Dad drove me to school on more than a couple of occasions in all those years, so the idea of driving your kids to school every day is completely foreign to me.

I first noticed this in Texas, where schools are designed with gigantic, switchbacking driveways so that parents' cars don't block the streets as school starts and ends. It doesn't always work, but that's not the point. Why, I wondered, don't these kids ride the buses that ply the streets like great yellow elephants?

I've heard that some kids on the buses bully other kids. That could be: hell, the only fight I ever had in school was on the bus, though I survived with my self-esteem intact. But I think I've figured out the real story: the parents are scared of the morons driving the buses. In the past month, I've seen the following (all involving Lawrence, Indiana, MSD buses):

Two "shorty" buses full of kids rolling down I-465 around Indianapolis at 75 MPH (in a 55 MPH zone)
Multiple instances of bus drivers rolling through stop signs
And the crowning glory: when a street in front of a local school was gridlocked, one bus driver pulled across a double yellow line and drove on the wrong side of a two-lane road to pass stopped traffic, apparently in a hurry to drop off her passengers at the school. She nearly broadsided one car making a U-turn in a driveway.

Add these observations to the stories of a Houston school bus driver who killed a cyclist in a hit-and-run accident and an Austin bus driver who made a wrong turn and ended up 35 miles south of town in San Marcos, and I think I'd be scared to let my kids ride with these people, too. Apparently they think they're driving their personal vehicles (I wonder how many are yapping on their hands-free phones and answering their email...).

Peter Heck is Intellectually Lazy

2017-05-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

Is the Indy Star paying for Peter Heck’s column? Because if they are, they got ripped off by the installment in his weekly encyclical published on May 5. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Heck was in the bottom of a tequila bottle when he sent that one in. If you missed it (which you should), you can read it here (I linked to the Google cache version so you don’t put ad money in the moron’s coffers). Heck’s bio says he teaches high school history… I certainly hope he has higher standards for the research his students do than he apparently does for his column.

For starters, Heck’s piece is little more than a reword of an anti-Planned Parenthood screed that’s been making the rounds for several years, one that depends entirely on “statements” transcribed by an anti-abortion activist. Clearly, he didn’t even do original research. The main problem with his piece? even though a YouTube video of the statements makes it obvious that the event in question is a debate among college students, Heck continues to refer to a student participant as a “Planned Parenthood spokeswoman.” That’s the logical fallacy known as “conflation.”

NOTE: If you’d like to see the video, you can find a heavily-edited version of it on YouTube here, complete with captions and dramatic music. What’s missing is… well, what's missing is any context. Like the heavily edited videos attack-dog videographer James O’Keefe uses to “bust” enemies of the right, nothing that disagrees with the opinion of the video editor has been allowed to remain.

Moving on, Heck claims that the students were “confronted with the biological evidence for the obvious humanity of the unborn child.” No one denies that a fetus is human genetic material – that’s science: hell, that’s what embryonic stem-cell research (which Heck also hates with a passion) is all about. What Heck and his fellow anti-abortion protesters claim is that the fetus is human because God breathed life into it at the moment of conception. Sorry, Pete, that’s not science, no matter how hard you twiddle the knobs.

All that pales alongside the utter stupidity inherent in Heck’s time-worn slippery slope argument: “A murderer is no longer a murderer if he or she simply declares that he or she doesn't believe in the humanity of the victim?”

Weak, Pete, weak – almost as weak as claiming that a debate in a student forum seven years ago has anything to do with A) the official stance of Planned Parenthood, and B) the March For Science held in April, 2017. Has anyone told you lately that you’re intellectually lazy? Well, you are.

Life in the Bubble

2017-03-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have a sister who, to be honest, is nothing like me -- especially when it comes to politics. She and my brother-in-law, one of the sweetest guys on the face of the earth if truth be told, live entirely in an evangelical Christian right-wing bubble. They don't watch television, don't go to movies, sent their kids to a Christian school, and listen to no radio except the local Christian station and AM talk radio. When we're together, we just don't talk politics -- it's non-productive.

But yesterday, we had lunch together and my brother-in-law went off on "some actress who testified at a congressional hearing." Yep, it's a tenet of conservative faith that actors have no business expressing opinions. Of course, if their opinions are conservative, that's fine -- you know, like Ronald Reagan or Charlton Heston... Stupidly, I said I had no idea what he was talking about, at which time the two of them proceeded to explain that some actree, whose name they couldn't remember, had the unmitigated gall to testify at a (Congressional?) hearing about alar in apples, and her only expertise was that she had played someone who worked on an apple farm in a movie. The conversation deteriorated from there, although I do remember mentioning that I thought the USDA had phased out alar years ago.

Well, I was half right: the manufacturer withdrew alar from the market after the "EPA proposed banning it based on concerns about cancer risks to consumers." I was also right about "years ago" -- alar has been off the market since 1989 -- almost thirty years ago.

So why was my brother-in-law so dismissive of "some actress"? Because that actress was Meryl Streep -- who testified in front of Congress in 1989, not as a "movie star" but on behalf of a pro-organic food non-profit she had started in 1986. Yes, the same "some actress" who incurred the wrath of TrumpNation for dissing Donald Trump at the Golden Globes a few weeks ago: that Meryl Streep, "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood..."

Poor Steve -- buried so deep in his conservative bubble that he doesn't even know what year it is...

Honesty: It’s Still the Best Policy

2017-03-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

By now you’ve probably heard of Nextdoor.com – heck, you’ve probably been badgered to join. If you’re already familiar with the “neighborhood social media” site, feel free to skip to the next paragraph; if not, read on for background. It’s a website for those who are geographically neighbors instead of “friends.” You can connect with people in your housing addition, school district, little town, etc. – share information about what’s going on, announce garage sales, complain about potholes, and the like. There is, of course, a “social” component, which is why we’re here right now.

Not long ago, a Nextdoor member posted a broadside to more than 5,000 local members. She asked that people contact their state senator to ask him to oppose a bill in the Indiana legislature. Her post said,

“High electric prices to get worse if Senate Bill 309 passes: If you are concerned about high electric pricing, contact your Senator and oppose senate bill 309. Senator Merritt is supporting this bill for utility increases.”

I’m a little more aware of what’s going on in the state legislature than the average Joe, and this was news to me… so I looked the bill up. The gist of the bill is, as summarized in a recent Indianapolis Star story,

“Senate Bill 309 would eliminate a discount homeowners and businesses receive when they buy back extra energy they had sent to the electric grid because they had generated more than they needed."

A little reading and puzzling through the language of the bill convinced me that it has nothing to do with raising electric prices on average homeowners. I pointed this out and also pointed out that contacting Senator Merritt wouldn’t do much good since he is one of two senators who authored the bill.

Not long after, a third party pointed out that the woman who had originally posted the “warning” about increased electricity prices is partner in a business that sells… wait for it… home and commercial solar power systems. Yeah: distributed generation, which would be affected by the bill. As for your average homeowner? Not so much – in fact, probably not at all.

She took the thread down, but not until after a bit of public shaming (and a surly, passive-aggressive reply on her part):

“Then don't contact your representative, no problem. I didn't write a novel outlining the bill and how it affects everyone, instead a tiny brief on my thought and why it's something we should speak for or against. All your choice. I've clarified to make you happier.”

So much for operating an honest business: when did honesty cease being the best policy?

Hate Celebrities? Then Why'd You Vote for Trump?

2017-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

It's a given that the dittoheads, errr natives of FoxNation, errr, residents of TrumpNation... hate celebrities (except, of course, Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Charlton Heston, Fred Thompson...). The reason's obvious: many outspoken celebrities have views to the left of Attila the Hun. I don't know why, but I've always assumed it was because they worked like dogs in restaurants and bars while trying to get their careers off the ground -- in other words, they used tough, long-hour blue-collar jobs to finance their dreams. That's apparently beyond the pale for people who just use blue-collar jobs to afford a new JetSki or Harley. But we digress...

Today's "Let It Out" section in the Indianapolis Star contains an attempted dig at Hollywood celebrities from one such person. It's anonymous, as are all submissions to the reader column. This idiot (we'll explain why s/he's an idiot in a minute) found the faux pas at the 2017 Academy Awards ceremony to be expected...

"The brilliant 'stars' who tell us how to run our country and the world can't even run their own awards show."

In case you've been in a coma since February 26th, the presenters called the "Best Picture" award wrong, and someone had to come up on stage to set the record straight. The "let it out" correspondent crowed it was the fault of Hollywood...

...but, idiot that he or she is, was wrong. Yes, wrong: two partners at the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers were in charge of the award, and one of them was seen tweeting from backstage (see above right) not long before they handed Warren Beatty the wrong envelope. The twit is Brian Cullinan, whose LinkedIn profile says he has a MA in Financial Accounting. The other partner is Martha Ruiz, who says on LinkedIn that she holds degrees in business and taxation.

So no, anonymous Trumpster, the mistake wasn't made by Hollywood -- it may well have been made by a high-powered business type with his nose stuck in his Twitter account. Funny, that reminds me of someone...

Lies, Statistics and Politics... Again

2017-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

On the Indianapolis Star opinion page today (29 January, 2017) you can find a letter to the editor signed by all seven of the Indiana congresspersons. The fact that a state in which Republicans win statewide office with 50-57% of the vote has 78% Republican congressional representation is, in and of itself, a travesty... but that's not the point. No, the point is that the first paragraph of the letter says,

"Eight in 10 Americans believe we should significantly change or repeal Obamacare."

The letter then goes on (at some length) to explain that Republicans are nice people who don't want anyone to be sad and sure as heck don't want anyone to lose access to healthcare. They just don't like the Affordable Healthcare Act because... well, because it was passed by Democrats. Never mind that the majority of the pieces that make up the AHCA were originally Republican ideas or that it's based on "Romneycare" in Massachusetts: it was passed during a Democratic administration, so it's wrong.

Let's go back and look at that first sentence: it doesn't say eight in ten Americans believe we should repeal Obamacare, it says "significantly change or repeal." That statement, which is a version of one made by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, has its basis in a Gallup poll conducted in November, 2016. Gallup's press release detailing the results includes the following:

"Whatever the exact course of action that ensues once Trump and the new Congress take office, it is clear that about eight in 10 Americans favor changing the ACA significantly (43 percent) or replacing it altogether (37 percent)." This data is based on a survey conducted on Nov. 9 to Nov. 13, 2016."

Oops: does that mean that Indiana's congressional cadre is lying to us? Yes, it probably does... does that surprise you? It doesn't surprise me.

Paranoia Strikes Deep...

2017-01-22T04:33:00.001-08:00

This came across my desk the other day... actually, it appeared on my local site on Nextdoor.com. A woman posted the following:

"We received a legit looking survey in the mail supposedly from the Census Bureau. Many personal questions were on it, some like the Census bureau would ask, but we noticed that it asked what time you leave for work and how long it takes you to get home. When we had not filled it out and returned it someone called and pressured us to answer it over the phone. We refused and he said he would be calling back. After that, I did a bit of research. According to consumeraffairs.com, the census bureau would NOT ask when you leave for work and when you return."

Instead of contacting the Census Bureau (which has a pretty easy-to-remember web address -- www.census.gov) to ask questions, the woman got all paranoid and went to a commercial website looking for "help." There she found an article that said there's a "census scam," written by a freelancer (with no background in security) who based her description of said "scam" on a single newspaper article -- about a door-to-door "surveyor."

I went looking for such a "legit-looking survey" and found one pretty quickly: it's the Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey form, which does indeed contain a question about what time you leave for work (question 33) -- although it doesn't ask what time you're gone: instead it asks how long it takes to get to work.

Now I can believe that someone might be a little leery of a stranger showing up at your door claiming to be a census taker. I, too, would probably contact the Census Bureau to verify his or her credentials. But then I'm not stupid enough to think that the bureau is going to ask for my SSN or the password to my online banking account, much less identify itself as a Nigerian prince

Here's where my neighbor (we'll call her Jane) got lost: it's something called critical thinking. the questions she should have asked herself before getting paranoid are ones like

Does this form really ask, "What time do you get home"? (probably not)
What would someone hope to gain by asking this information of random homeowners?
Does Jane really think a wannabe burglar would put together a multiple-page questionnaire, rent a post office box in a distant city, set up a website, and pay for a toll-free number so he -can find out when Jane's not home?
When the person called on the telephone, did he really "pressure" her? And what makes Jane think some criminal would go to the trouble of follow-up phone calls?

Yeah, sure: some shifty character who won't look me in the eye shows up at my door and starts asking how much money I have in the bank and whether I have a gun safe, I get paranoid. But this? This reaction is exactly what I expect of someone who doesn't exercise critical thinking. Your critical thinking process is no different from a muscle: if you don't exercise it, it gets flabby -- and Jane's looks like a pretty flabby brain.

What Can You Buy with a Minimum Wage Job?

2016-11-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, I saw a graphic that claimed that in the 35 years between 1978 and 2013, the “real value” of the federal minimum wage in the U. S. has decreased by 25%, while the cost of going to a four-year college has increased by 1,120%. It’s an interesting comparison, though one immediately jumped on by chart-wielding opponents of any increase to the minimum wage. According to this chart at CNN [1], one said, the “buying power” of the minimum wage in 1978 represented $8.22 in 2013 dollars, and that’s a decrease of “only” 13 percent. No one asked the commenter how he'd feel if his salary were cut by 13%, though...

Of course, the “buying power” of a dollar is based on a market basket comprising many items, from entertainment to housing and everything in between. So what about just the necessities of keeping body and soul together? Well, there’s lots of historical data out there so perhaps a little exercise in number-crunching might bring some clarity to discussions of just what minimum wage will buy. [Note: all numbers herein are based on the references cited using brackets. Projections and estimates are based on simple linear interpolation/extrapolation using an Excel spreadsheet].

First, a couple of numbers: in 1978, the federal minimum wage was $2.60 per hour. In 2013, it was $7.25.We'll start with some common food items:

Cost of Food

Let’s begin with a staple in the American diet, Campbell’s Tomato Soup: [2]

In 1977, a 10-ounce can cost 19¢, or about five minutes’ minimum-wage work (1977 minimum wage was $2.30). In 2013, a 10.75-ounce can cost $1.09, or about nine minutes of work at the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. That represents an 80% increase in cost for a 7.5% increase in product. I have to admit that I’ve never liked tomato soup, so I can’t verify those costs (though I do remember that Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup cost about 20¢ per can in the late 1970s).

How about something a little tastier, say for instance a Hershey's chocolate bar? [3]

In 1978, a 1.2-ounce Hershey bar would set you back 25¢, or just under 21¢ per ounce – five minutes’ work per ounce at the then-minimum wage. In 2013, the Hershey bar had increased in size to 1.55 ounces and in price to 99¢. That’s 64¢ per ounce of Pennsylvania chocolate, or (still) a hair over 5 minutes’ work per ounce. That’s one product that has been keeping pace with inflation.

You want breakfast with that? Try Kellogg’s Corn Flakes: [4]

In 1978, a 24-ounce box cost $1.15, 4.7 cents per ounce – just a hair over one minute’s work per ounce or a bit less than half an hour to buy the whole box. In 2013, a 12-ounce box cost $3.89 – about 32.5¢ per ounce, or 2.5 minutes’ work per ounce – still half an hour to buy the box, which had somehow shrunk to half the size.

Cost of Shelter

The U.S. Bureau of Census tracks the cost of rental housing on a ten-year interval, so data for the years 1978 and 2013 aren’t available – only for 1970 and 2000 (though it is possible to project numbers for 2013). According to their numbers [4], in 1970 the median monthly cost of rental housing was $108/month in 1970 and $602/month in 2000. By combining the data in that chart with the consumer price index calculator [5] of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s possible to project a median rental cost of approximately $929/month for 2013. Similarly, using the two exhibits, it is possible to estimate a median monthly rental of $177 in 1978.

So let’s look at the buying power of the minimum wage over the years. In 1978, it took 68 hours to pay median monthly rental – 40% of a month’s wages at minimum wage. In 2000, it took 116 hours at minimum wage to pay a month’s rental. In 2013, the toll has grown to 128 hours at minimum wage to pay the median monthly rental. Given that a month is approximately 168 working hours, that represents more than three-quarters of a month’s minimum wages needed to pay for shelter.

Look at another way: the cost of one of life’s necessities – shelter – has increased at almost twice the rate of increase of the minimum wage. What took 68 hours’ work to buy in 1978 took 128 hours to buy in 2013.

As for the stated increase in college costs that started this entire conversation? The university where I took classes in 1968 has had a 3,211% increase in tuition between my first semester there (1968) and 2013. The claim of 1120% sounds rather low to me...

References

[1] http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/minimum-wage-since-1938/
[2] http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#campbells
[3] http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#candybar
[4] https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html
[5] http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

Some Statistics on the Electoral College

2016-11-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

The following table is factual; the author intends no comment. The numbers presented are as follows:

Column 1: State name (includes D.C.)
Column 2: estimated 2016 population by state, from Census.gov
Column 3: number of Electoral College votes the state controls
Column 4: column 2 divided by column 3, rounded to the nearest whole number

The table is sorted by Column 4, in descending order of "population per Electoral College vote"

State	Population	Electoral College Votes	Pop. / Electoral College Vote
Texas	27,469,114	38	722,871
California	39,144,818	55	711,724
Florida	20,271,272	29	699,009
New York	19,795,791	29	682,613
North Carolina	10,042,802	15	669,520
Ohio	11,613,423	18	645,190
Virginia	8,382,993	13	644,846
Illinois	12,859,995	20	643,000
Pennsylvania	12,802,503	20	640,125
New Jersey	8,958,013	14	639,858
Georgia	10,214,860	16	638,429
Arizona	6,828,065	11	620,733
Michigan	9,922,576	16	620,161
Massachusetts	6,794,422	11	617,675
Missouri	6,083,672	10	608,367
Colorado	5,456,574	9	606,286
Indiana	6,619,680	11	601,789
Maryland	6,006,401	10	600,640
Tennessee	6,600,299	11	600,027
Washington	7,170,351	12	597,529
Louisiana	4,670,724	8	583,841
Wisconsin	5,771,337	10	577,134
Oregon	4,028,977	7	575,568
Oklahoma	3,911,338	7	558,763
Kentucky	4,425,092	8	553,137
Minnesota	5,489,594	10	548,959
South Carolina	4,896,146	9	544,016
Alabama	4,858,979	9	539,887
Iowa	3,123,899	6	520,650
Connecticut	3,590,886	7	512,984
Utah	2,995,919	6	499,320
Mississippi	2,992,333	6	498,722
Arkansas	2,978,204	6	496,367
Kansas	2,911,641	6	485,274
Nevada	2,890,845	6	481,808
New Mexico	2,085,109	5	417,022
Idaho	1,654,930	4	413,733
Nebraska	1,896,190	5	379,238
West Virginia	1,844,128	5	368,826
Hawaii	1,431,603	4	357,901
Montana	1,032,949	3	344,316
New Hampshire	1,330,608	4	332,652
Maine	1,329,328	4	332,332
Delaware	945,934	3	315,311
South Dakota	858,469	3	286,156
Rhode Island	1,056,298	4	264,075
North Dakota	756,927	3	252,309
Alaska	738,432	3	246,144
DC	672,228	3	224,076
Vermont	626,042	3	208,681
Wyoming	586,107	3	195,369

Nationwide	321,418,820	538	597,433

Fox Nation's Ten Core Axioms

2015-09-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

Heard anyone decorate the phrase "politically correct" with an audible sneer lately? Sensed it when he or she said "PC" and wasn't referring to a personal computer? Then you've met a resident of the vast conservative echo chamber that calls itself Fox Nation. You know, cable-news junkies who get all their (mis)information from Rupert Murdoch's version of spin city, Fox News - or as some like to call it, Faux News.

We spent a few minutes not long ago listening to them slap each other on the back and compare horror stories about regulations run rampant and socialists in control of the country. Never mind that most of them couldn't pick out socialism on a two-choice multiple choice question... But anyway, we decided that they do have core principles (if you can call them "principles"), which require mindless adherence. By "mindless," we mean that any contradictory statement, no matter how well documented, is "a lie."

Without further ado, here are ten (there are probably more, but thinking about them made our head hurt):

Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is secretly a Muslim
Al Gore claims he invented the internet
The mainstream media has a liberal bias
Snow in April proves global warming is a hoax
Actors have no right to talk about social issues, CEOs have every right to talk about social issues
A rising tide lifts all yachts
Ronald Reagan was a saint and the greatest president of all time - of any country!
The three most beautiful women in the world are Ann Coulter, Megyn Kelly and Sarah Palin.
The most evil billionaire in the world is George Soros. The rest of them are just peachy.
It is possible to deport every undocumented person in the country, and it won't cost the taxpayers a thing.

Know anyone who believes all of those statements with all his heart? Well, you've just met a resident of Fox Nation.

Who Wants Honesty About the Iran Deal?

2015-09-11T13:44:00.001-07:00

We all do. What we don't want is political posturing and spin. So here's what one person thinks about the deal:

The Congresscritters and Senators who are opposed to it have three main reasons; some of them have two of them (though I don't know of any who have all three). In no particular order, the reasons are

They are honoring the wishes of their district's or states Jewish constituency, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it crystal clear that if you're Jewish, you have to be opposed. That's where the majority of the Democratic "NO" votes are coming from, though I don't know of any Republican legislators who have a substantial Jewish voting bloc in their districts.
It's a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that the deal was negotiated by the Obama administration and departed Secretary of State John Kerry. No Republican legislator who wants to escape his party primary will ever sign off on anything put forth by them guys. Case closed.
Maybe you hadn't thought about this, but a substantial number of Republican legislators are "TEA Party" types, The TEA Party, for all its protestations to the contrary, is little more than a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. Koch Industries and its owners, the Koch brothers, benefit from high crude oil prices. Lifting sanctions on Iran releases the crude oil held by the country with the second largest petroleum reserves in the world. If you think oil prices are low now, just wait until Iranian oil floods the market. The Kochs and their fellow oil billionaires are scared shitless this will happen and pulled out all the stops to keep it from happening.

Some legislators are both Republican (Reason 2) and represent oil-producing states (Reason 3).

Any thoughts?