Page 132

Why no blogging?

2008-08-03T20:49:00.002-04:00

I know it has been over a week for me and blogging..What gives?

1) Work now is longer and more intense, leaving me less time at night to blog
2) I now blog for a living and so blogging, even on Page 132, holds less of an appeal
3) My increase work on the computer has given me pains in my elbows (probably pre-carpal tunnel) that hurts when I type.

I wish I could tell you when I'll be blogging more regularly. For now, intermit is probably the answer. Maybe my fellow Page 132 authors can add more. Or you, as reader, can just show up once a week until we are back up to daily blogging again.

Low Hanging Fruit

2008-07-27T11:36:00.001-04:00

The Old Man asked me to post this. Pretty funny, but pretty easy...

2008-07-23T10:55:00.002-04:00

An absolute must read!

Seven Trampled In Annual 'Running Of The Congressmen'

Thanks to reader JR for the link. Which legislator do you think would be the most ferocious and deadly? I think Patty Murray in her tennis shoes would be terrifying!

Does McCain still think challenging Obama to go to Iraq was a good idea?

2008-07-22T19:46:00.000-04:00

Iraq backs Obama on troop pull-out

The God Delusion

2008-07-21T00:56:00.001-04:00

Has anyone read The God Delusion? I started reading it thinking it might be a good book for a group study for some guys at church who are interested in apologetics and whatnot. It has some interesting thoughts. It has a lot unfortunate examples of the Church and its members not representing Christ. But this book, from what I've read so far, has no clear-cut defense (in a philosophical sense of the term "defense") of the position that there is no god other than, "I disagree with these actions and so should every compassionate human being, so there is no god," and, "given these really disagreeable events in history, how can you believe in god?" and, "Evolution explains everything, so we don't need god anymore." I'm really simplifying things quite a bit and after further digging I may change my tune on his lack of a defense, but right now, I'm not impressed.

A response to ML

2008-07-19T18:26:00.002-04:00

A friend on Facebook linked to horrible, horrible, horrible editorial that I'm loath to link to - Change Means Never Having To Face Facts - but I feel the need so that readers of Page 132 have a complete picture of what I'm dealing with.

My response to this editorial was "Wow...there are so many false assumptions and allegations here that I don't know where to start. I do know that I'm now dumber for reading this editorial."

However, ML declared he liked debating with me and picked a few places to start. I shall attack them one by one...(ML's comments are in purple and mine in black)

Regarding Obama, here is what I see as the Obama economic plan (unless he has changed it again):
- Do absolutely nothing to increase American energy production, except increase government involvement in the development of alternatives, which leads to situations like the current ethanol boom. Government subsidies for ethanol have driven up the price of corn and caused average citizens to pay more for milk, meat, etc. We need a comprehensive plan, but a large part of that has to be more domestic drilling. Rather than support that, Obama was up until the beginning of this year calling for a higher gas tax.

Snide remark aside, ML has repeated what are Republican talking points on this and it misses the bigger picture. Barack Obama sees the bigger picture. It is completely untrue that Barack Obama has done nothing to increase energy production. He is against oil energy, but has pushed the development of all sorts of renewable sources including wind, solar and biofuels. But more importantly, he is pushing conservation, which is probably the biggest area for Americans to "gain" new energy. An increase in CAFE standards for automobiles and improvement in housing design and construction could save millions of barrels of oil each day. If Boeing made planes that were 5% more efficient, it would decrease American oil usage by 672, 900, 000 barrels a year (~1.8 million barrels per day).

It is also untrue that ethanol has been the source of the massive increase in the price of food. The University of Nebraska concluded in May that ethanol has increased of food by 1-2%. It is actually gasoline/petroleum increases that farmers need to drive their tractors, fertilize their fields and transport their goods to market that is the single biggest reason for the increase in food prices. All the more reason to build more efficient vehicles, our food prices will come down.

Did you know that Americans are sending $2 billion a day overseas to pay for our oil addiction? That is a MASSIVE capital outflow. And it is enriching lots of regimes that are not supportive to American goals or interests. Our oil addiction DIRECTLY strengthens slimeballs like Hugo Chavez, Islom Karimov and King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

To my knowledge, Obama has never called for a higher gas tax. He has rejected the ridiculous idea that we have a gas tax holiday because the loss of revenue would harm our transportation infrastructure (which we'd have to pay for eventually anyway...deferring paving potholes today doesn't make them go away tomorrow).

- "Reopen" trade deals, which is another way of saying he is going to stop the progress of free trade. I think you and I would both agree free trade is great diplomacy and needs to be promoted further.

I do agree with ML. Free trade helps poor people and Democrats should embrace it, but my party isn't there yet. However, "reopen" doesn't translate into stopping further progress. I know of no one that thinks "reopen" means "to stop". When sports players "reopen" their negotiations with their teams, it usually means that they are going to rework the terms, but not that they will stop playing.

- More unnecessary, unconstitutional regulation of business that drives up costs and makes America less competitive. Even if global warming is a threat (which is still disputed by experts), over regulating businesses and crippling the American economy through Obama's proposed cap and trade system that may or may not help the environment is the wrong solution.

1st - there is no scientist with a peer-reviewed published paper and no body of scientists that doesn't endorse the idea that the Earth is warming up and that human activity is the problem. The Bush administration said as much back in 2002. About the cap and trade system...as a true free market economist, why wouldn't it be appropriate to figure in the total cost of negative externalities? Just because businesses have been able to avoid paying this cost in the past doesn't mean they should be allowed to in the future. Will it cost money? For 20th century industries, absolutely! But one of the greatest things about Americans is their ability to respond to a pricing mechanism and innovate. Know what happened when horse draw carts got to be too expensive (cost of hay, stabling, clean up horse apples, etc) in the late 1800s? Americans created a new form of transport...the automobile. I, and Barack Obama, believes we can adapt and innovate again.

- More and more big government programs that take money and jobs out of the private sector and add more bureaucracy to our already bloated federal government.

There is a fundamental difference between "bloated" government and effective government. Bloated government is a government that is feeble and costs a lot of money. Size doesn't matter. Paying 3 guys that can't do the job is always unacceptable. It is bad value for money. However, effective government does the job asked of them. Again size doesn't matter. If it takes 30 guys, but they do the job that is good value for money and is perfectly acceptable.

- "Universal" health care that will never be fully funded and has failed in multiple other countries. Again, giving more power to the federal government and taking liberty away from individual citizens to make their own decisions.

I think you need to view Barack's actual plan. He isn't suggesting a nationalization of the health care sector like in Canada or the UK. Under his plan, you can keep your health plan if you like. But the truth is that state or federal government already pick up the cost of something like 50% of all dollars spent on health care. Please don't act as if government isn't already very involved in health care. (And I know that ML gets his health care from a 100% government funded and provided health care UPDATED - ML wrote me to explain that he is "not really sure where [I] received that information, but [ML] pays about $100 a month just for health insurance. AND our health care coverage is better than a lot of people's, but it is certainly not the best out there and is free to no one, including members of Congress." - I stand corrected)

- Curbing CEO pay to score political points, something that the executive branch has no business doing - interfering with private sector pay scales.

I'll agree on the CEO pay. But I do reject the idea that the federal government doesn't have a valuable role as oversight in the business community. Thanks to EPA oversight, I can drink water from my local river. Thanks to the SEC, the brokerage house that oversees my 401-k much report each quarter exactly where my money is and would be held accountable should they make fraudulent claims about it. The federal government has a role in oversight and society is stronger, business is stronger, we are stronger when they do it well.

- Bashing and slapping extra taxes on businesses like oil companies and pharmaceutical companies all for making a profit. Meanwhile, generally liberal companies like Google run up three times the profits of what the media deems "evil" businesses and pays no excess taxes for their profits.

Let us not confuse what these two industries do. The Oil and Gas companies fuel our economy, but at great cost (see negative externalities above). Democrats want to roll back tax breaks for oil and pharmaceutical companies because they are profitable. Why should they get special treatment when other industries and sectors don't?

The argument about the windfall tax is an interesting one. Compare these two situations. Google started with two guys that have worked from an idea to create a service that has become indispensable. Google has made more money as it has become more useful. On the flip side, Exxon claimed some land possibly as much as 100 years ago. It had oil. Today, they chose to pump the oil today (and not 100 years) and through absolutely nothing of their effort, but instead through outside factors, the value is worth 100 times more. Democrats value work over wealth. Google worked for their profits, Exxon simply had the wealth given to them.

Now from economic argument, the windfall tax is a bad one, but from a political argument, it is powerful.

- Raise taxes on capital gains and the top income tax brackets, which will stifle entrepreneurship and investment in the economy, and hence create fewer jobs. America needs to abolish the death tax, lower corporate taxes, and make current tax rates permanent to ensure continued economic growth. And I think we need to cut unneeded govt programs. My prediction of all of Obama's plans is that our national economy will turn out like the state of Michigan's. Last year the only industry that grew in MI was the state government. I await your response!

Wow....let me just attack this from a fiscal responsibility viewpoint. A fundamental flaw with modern conservatism is that it has swallowed the Laffer curve and forgotten what it looks like. There is a whole side of the curve that is when government lowers taxes, it begins to cut government revenue without actually improving the economy. This fallacy has meant that under every Republican administration since Reagan has run up huge deficits. And why does that matter?

Because deficits weaken the dollar (the more we owe, the risky we appear to lenders). And oil is priced in US dollars. When the US dollar weakens, the price of oil goes up (the dollar is worth less, so it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of oil). Want cheaper gas? Raise taxes and pay down the deficit.

And I'll keep you to your prophesy about Obama, but you have cherry picked one state. Michigan is a unique case because it is a single-industry state and that industry is going through a hard time right now. I notice that you didn't choose Massachusetts. It is known as Taxachusetts, but also has effective governments. And it had private industry growth much larger the national average.

Happy News to wake up to this morning

2008-07-19T12:57:00.002-04:00

It rarely happens that I wake up and like reading the news. I do it, but it is usually "how bad is the world today?" But then today I was surprised with this front page. I've got Hope.

A blog hero met

2008-07-18T16:13:00.003-04:00

I read TalkingPointsMemo every day. Most of the time, twice a day. Today I met David Kurtz quickly. I just told him how much I love what they do and he was gracious in accepting my accolades. He's a pretty normal guy (no Superman costume that I saw).

That's all. Just saying I'm loving my new gig.

UPDATED: At a HuffingtonPost/GQ party tonight, I talked with David Kurtz for about 45 minutes. It was truly awesome. (and I don't mean that in the colloquial sense - I mean the interaction inspired awe) He even gave me a business card and let me know how we could help each other along. Maybe some day I'll work for TPM...

Lefties drink coffee

2008-07-18T10:42:00.002-04:00

First, I liveblogged Governor Dean's keynote last night. Go check it out.

Second, we had coffee provided by ACLU and it was a great example of lefties drinking coffee.

On offer - only FairTrade Coffee is available. Decaf and regular. The coffee cups are "ecotainer" and 100% biodegradable. The sugar was organic. The stir sticks were bamboo. The creamer was on ice (no UHT). And the coffee sleeves had "Union Printed" on it.

So funny! and Enjoyable.

On Second Thought

2008-07-17T12:05:00.000-04:00

I just received this e-mail from Obama for America: “We have some big news we want to share with you. In the month of June, supporters like you helped raise $52 million. And together with the DNC, we now have nearly $72 million in the bank. That's a very strong financial position to be in. But we remain at a massive disadvantage to our opponents. As I mentioned in my video message earlier in the week, the McCain Campaign and the Republican National Committee finished June with nearly $100 million in the bank. We can't stop now. It's going to take everything we've got to defeat John McCain and his allies in November. Can you make a donation of $5 now to strengthen our movement for change? We can't do this without you. Thanks, David Plouffe - Campaign Manager”

So… if it is true that they “remain at a massive disadvantage” to their opponents, my question is: Do you think the Obama for America folks are regretting their decision to forego public campaign financing?
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President Bush sent packing...

2008-07-16T19:36:00.002-04:00

On JibJab anyway. Go check it out. Apparently, it is time for some general election campaignin'

Where I'll be the next 4 days...

2008-07-16T17:14:00.006-04:00

So either this blog will be hoppin' the next 4 days or I'll be totally absent. I'm not sure which will happen. Why is that?

Because I'll be at Netroots Nation! Formerly known as the YearlyKos, it has been rebranded and expanded this year.

Some the highlights will be:

Opening keynote address by Howard Dean

A Q&A with Speaker Pelosi

Whatever happened to the religious left?

Marketing and Monetizing your blog

A personal meet and greet/Q&A with Jeff Merkley, senatorial candidate from Oregon

I'll be live-blogging (or at least leaving multiple updates) over at my work blog if you wanna swing over there. I leave in 12 hours, gotta get packing....

Pretty Interesting

2008-07-15T17:48:00.002-04:00

Have you ever wondered how many people in the USA share your first name, your last name, or both? This is not a 100% exhaustive search engine, but quite interesting nonetheless:

http://www.howmanyofme.com/

Maybe Page 132 Folks could post comments indicating what they discover? I am the only person in the USA with my first and last name. Same is true for gurufrisbee. (Of course, there are less than 335 people in the USA with our unusual last name in the first place.)
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McCain the panderer

2008-07-15T12:04:00.003-04:00

One of the things that doesn't seem to get enough notice is that McCain is the biggest panderer in recent memory. He wants to be POTUS so badly that he will say anything to any audience, assuming the they won't ever talk to each other.

Carpetbagger has an excellent post today about McCain's sordid past with the DREAM Act.

McCain co-sponsored the Dream Act, then refused to vote for it, then promised to oppose it, then promised to support it.

Sorry Senator, where do you stand exactly on this bill?

July Trivia Quiz

2008-07-14T22:11:00.001-04:00

1. How many bones are in the human body?
a.206 b.320 c.705 d.197

2. A human sneeze travels how many miles per hour?
a.75 b.45 c.80 d.100

3. Number of hours the average American spends kissing in a lifetime?
a.77 b.180 c.336 d.408

4. Barack Obama was born in:
a.Kansas b.Hawaii c.Kenya d.Indonesia

5. Which edition of the Summer Olympics begins next month?
a.29th b.30th c.31st d.32nd

6. John McCain’s first wife’s name is:
a.Barbara b.Susan c.Carol d.Linda

7. The Taliban began in:
a.Iran b.Afghanistan c.Iraq d.Pakistan

8. Who said, “I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next.”
a.George Harrison b.Henry Ford c.Harry Houdini d.Tony Curtis

9. What percent of Cy Young’s 815 career starts ended as complete games pitched?
a.45% b.59% c.77% d.91%

10. When Pheidippides ran 26 miles, 385 feet, from Marathon with the news of a victorious battle, to where did he run?
a.Sparta b.Thersippus c.Eukles d.Athens

11. The pomegranate is indigenous to all these countries except:
a.Afghanistan b.India c.Pakistan d.Iran

12. A Carat (in gemstones) weighs:
a.10 milligrams b.100 milligrams c.144 milligrams d.200 milligrams

Obama and God

2008-07-14T13:50:00.001-04:00

Obama talks about his faith in this week's Newsweek Cover Story. He also did a Q&A. Thoughts?

Racism in Europe...will we see it in the US too?

2008-07-13T15:01:00.006-04:00

America has a problem with racism. It isn't institutional, but we have yet to achieve Martin Luther King's dream that "little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

However, we are hardly unique. Back in June, the Swiss held a referendum to decide on citizenship by secret ballot. If it had passed, neighbors would have voted by secret ballot on a citizenship applications. An applicant could be rejected for citizenship with no explanation and no recourse for appeal. It was designed specifically to discriminate against recent immigrants (often dark skinned or speaking a different language). Wisely, the Swiss did reject the new citizenship rule.

I know that much will be made of racist claims against Obama, but imagine if any of these posters were ever published by the Democratic or Republican Parties.

UPDATED: In the comments, DC Nemesis asked about the popular support of the two parties below. The Swiss People's Party has grown in support "with the further rise in support from 27% in 2003 to 29% in the 2007 election (62 out of the 200 seats)" and the Lega Nord won 8.3% of the total vote in in the 2008 general election and that was the third highest vote total. Wikipedia adds that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi "is dependent on the Northern League [Lega Nord] for his majorities in both houses of parliament."

A poster used by the Swiss People's Party during this referendum

Translation: Inevitably, who is the last one? For your rights to home, work
and health. Vote Lega Nord (Italian political party)

For more security - Swiss People's Party

On the left: They had immediate immigration and now they live on a reserve.
On the right: Grow Padano with the Lega Nord against the Roman thieves

Velvet Elvis

2008-07-12T14:22:00.003-04:00

Has anyone read this book by Rob Bell. Really good. I had a hard time getting into it at first, but I've flown through it. It's like he's been in my head and printed my thoughts.

I also finished Generous Orthodoxy by McLaren. Good read. I further understand why some people (ie, right-wing conservative evangelicals) are upset with him...

Next, I'm off to finish my rereading of Mere Christianity by Lewis...

Has anyone read The Shack? It was recommended by a guy in my church and I saw it in Time this last week.

Late night reading

2008-07-12T00:18:00.003-04:00

My Facebook friends have already seen this article, but it won't leave my brain. With the help of my Facebook friends, I've already identified 6 WOWs in this story, but I think there are more. Can you help me in the margins?

Teenager finds bat asleep in bra

Obama hasn't changed positions. He just hates stupidity

2008-07-10T11:49:00.003-04:00

and maybe that's why I like him the best.

Gail Collins has a weirdly written column (she turned Barack into an adjective: Baracky) in today's NY Times outlining explaining that Obama has always been a centrist and he isn't "moving to the middle" he's always been there. He just hates stupidity. So only supports intelligent ideas and policies.

Go read it and tell me if she isn't on to something.

The 6 segments of the voting population and why they matter

2008-07-10T11:28:00.003-04:00

Wroth your time today is this article by USA Today that highlights the 6 types of voters who will decide the presidential election.

Obama dominates the two most energized groups of voters, 44% of the electorate combined, who are focused on a range of issues and say they won't change their choice of candidate between now and November. McCain's strongholds are two groups of voters at the other end of the spectrum, 28% of the electorate in all, who are skeptical that the election results will make any difference in their lives and are less enthusiastic about voting than usual.

Very good news for Democrats.

Can some one please explain to me...

2008-07-10T11:06:00.002-04:00

For the love of Kingdogs and artificial turf, can some one please explain why Jose Vidro is still in a major league uniform let alone the starting DH for the Ms. And why, oh why is the man batting fourth? What in the name of Alvin Davis is going on here?

It's a...

2008-07-09T20:34:00.004-04:00

Somewhere in this picture is enough evidence (I think it's front and center) to show that in November my wife, two daughters, and I will be welcoming a little boy to our family!

Offensiveness and comedy

2008-07-09T20:07:00.001-04:00

XM Radio has 2 comedy channels. One is labeled family-friendly and one is labeled "XL" which means "parents beware!" I guess.

In need of a good chuckle, I was listening to them today and I had a profound realization about offensiveness, history and comedy.

On the "clean" channel, they often have comics from yesteryear. Today I was listening to someone (probably from the 70s) talk about how they had were tired of seeing all those "rice-burner cars made by slanty-eyed Japs" coming into the country. He did have some funny jokes about the differences between Japanese economy cars and American muscle cars, but he kept using the phrase "slanty-eyed Japs" to help deliver his punchline.

Next it played something by Henny Youngman. Henny is famous for putting down his wife in his acts. The ol' "take my wife, please" routine. After about 3 minutes of him, I couldn't stand it anymore.

So I switched to the "XL" station. I listened to some comic go through his morning routine and chuckled. He talked about the alarm clock, the morning shower, the coffee and his f*cking toaster. He dropped the f-bomb one time to emphasize how the toaster can screw up his day if the bread burns.

When his skit was over, I changed the channel to some music. And thought. While I'm not against raciness in comedy, I was offended. I think there is an important and strong tradition in using comedy to be offensive and challenge the norm.

But I wasn't offended because a comic alluded to his fornicating toaster. I was offended by the topics of the "clean" channel. If I was a parent, I wouldn't want my kids listening to such blatant sexist and racist jokes. I'd much rather have them hear about a fucking toaster than a man complain about his wife for 3 minutes.

But now I'm thinking about how things change as offensive. Jokes that repeat "slanty-eyed Japs" would never pass muster, but Carlin's Seven Words You Can Never Say On Tv are still taboo. When my kids grow up, I'm sure I'l hear most of them on prime-time television. What will be a no-go zone for the next generation?

UPDATED: On a similar topic...go check out this 1968 advertisement.

How to balance a budget without actually talking numbers

2008-07-08T12:55:00.002-04:00

John McCain is going to balance the federal budget by 2013. At least he's claiming he will. But the fundamental problem is that he refuses to show his math.

Usually when one says they will balance a budget, they explain how they will either cut spending or increase revenue AND SHOW WHERE.

Not McCain. In fact, all we can get out of him is tax cuts - mostly for the wealthy - that will cost $700 billion in the next five years. So income is down. Surely he'll cut spending!

Not really. McCain promises to veto all earmarks. Certainly that must be a big savings. The Bush White House says earmarks this year total $17 billion, a comparatively small share of a $2.9 trillion budget and 9.4 trillion deficit.

McCain is a nice man, but the federal budget is just another example of things he just doesn't understand. Add that to the internet, Sunnis and Shias, Iran and Al-Qaeda and a few more that escape me.