Disability King Update. Watch your Blood Pressure.

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Alaska

Cash is king in an economic crisis, we all know that. What’s the corollary? Everything starts to go underground. Unrecorded cash is untaxed cash, baby! Here’s some anecdotal proof.

Jim Rawles once mused that Orofino, the little hamlet that hosts Boomershoot, would have a fairly resilient economy during an extended financial crisis, because of the high percentage of residents receiving Federal paychecks. Unless the FedGov goes away, there’d be a continuous stream of money flowing into town keeping businesses alive.

Well, California’s impoverished Central Valley —Victor Davis Hanson country — is just like that, but worse because the money doesn’t come from jobs but from benefit payments. It’s definitely in Depression territory, (20-40% unemployment) but it’s still awash with cash from all the unemployment and welfare and disability checks.  Over the holidays, I saw lots of evidence of this as we made our annual visit. There were new restaurants thriving — low-priced pizza joints, etc., but they were new, which means someone projected a good P&L.

(Why’s Dr. Hanson seeing increased crime? Because of all the folks who are unemployed but are not scrambling for a job, any job — and who therefore have nothing to do.  Idle hands make the Devil’s work….)

Restaurants are also great places to launder cash that you don’t want taxed.

What brought that to mind is that I had a chance to catch up with the California Disability King, and if you don’t remember him you really want to go ahead and click that link. I’ll wait.

You’re back. Blood pressure through the roof? Teeth being gnashed? Good. There’s more.

So he spent his lump-sum amount already, as Rivrdog had foreseen in the comments to that earlier post. Bought brand new cars for his immediate family, and loaned some money to relatives. He is a genuinely kind fellow, and he was very generous with his new-found largesse. And now that’s all gone, he’s still getting his nearly $3k in monthly payments for doing nothing. Life’s good, right?

Well, as you might expect from someone the State of California considers permanently disabled due to chronic meth use, he was going-stir-crazy just sitting around the house. As he explained to me, he wanted to be “productive.” Boy is he.

See, he became a suburban farmer.

Continue reading →

Posted in Color me confused | 2 Comments

Maximizing Shareholder Value is a Bad Idea

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Oscar Gordon

So says this bit in Forbes

Nutshell: executives who focus on shareholders can not focus on customers (for various & sundry reasons)

RTWT

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day, 01/03/12

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Alaska

The fall of the Soviet Union had released a flood of information related to the “spy war” between the U.S. and the Soviets going back to the 1930s and the returns were pretty much in: The Soviets had hammered the U.S.

The Russians had moles in most of the major defense and intelligence agencies not only in the U.S. but in all of the West. They had penetrated almost every communications department, most secure research and regularly had people with access to the White House. They’d managed so many disinformation operations that straightening out fact from fiction was taking careful work by historians. For example, the entire Vietnam “peace movement” had been KGB funded, as were many journalism departments.

–John Ringo, Choosers of the Slain

After reading this quote, I went hunting for a good overview based on recent sources, and this book looks like the most current state of knowledge on the subject.

It’s in Kindle form, too, which I’m appreciating more and more.

Posted in Quote of the Day | 5 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day, 01/02/12

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Alaska

The basic cause of totalitarianism is two ideas: men’s rejection of reason in favor of faith, and of self-interest in favor of self-sacrifice. If this is a society’s philosophical consensus, it will not be long before an all-powerful Leader rises up to direct the faith and sacrifice that everyone has been extolling. His subjects cannot resist his takeover, neither by exercising their faculty of thought nor their passion for values, because these are the two priceless possessions they have given up. The end result is thought control, starvation, and mass slaughter.

–Ayn Rand, Introduction to We the Living

This is about as succinct a statement of this concept as I’ve seen.

Posted in Quote of the Day | Leave a comment

Game Changer

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Phil Kadath

And Name Changer

Why would the North American Free Trade Agreement become the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement?

Because the UK might want to be joining.

Clyde Prestowitz in the Foreign Policy Journal

This past weekend in Brussels British Prime Minister David Cameron finally ended the half-century- old British debate about whether it wants to be part of Europe or not. Cameron’s conclusion, of course, was no.

This is not at all surprising as the Brits have never really had their hearts in the European project. When the European Economic Community (EEC or Common Market) was founded in 1958, Britain was invited to join. Its reply was “thanks, but no thanks.” Then in 1972, when the Common Market looked like it was going to be a real success, London changed its mind and was admitted to membership claiming that the place of Britain was at the heart of Europe. But then began a long series of negotiations for special exceptions and conditions for the British, and in the internal debates, the weight of Britain was always thrown on the scales for less economic integration and for absolutely no political integration.

…..

I suggest that the United States, Canada, and Mexico invite Britain to join NAFTA. We could change its name from the North American Free Trade Area to simply the Northern Free Trade Area or the North Atlantic Free Trade Area. It would make all kinds of sense for Britain since its concepts of unfettered free markets and free trade are much closer to those of the North Americans than they are to the more regulation-oriented and mercantilist concepts of continental Europeans. Britain already does an immense amount of trade with North America and is the alternate center of operations for much of the North American financial industry. It obviously shares a common language with the United States and Canada and its biggest newspaper mogul owns the Wall Street Journal.

OK, up to that point I was willing to think about it. Up to that point. But then he goes right off the rails.

Then there is the matter of currency. The final stumbling block for Cameron was the unwillingness of his continental European partners to grant special exceptions that the City deemed necessary to maintain London’s place as the world’s premier hub of finance. Ironically, however, without really active membership in the EU, the City’s future role will be quite uncertain. On top of that, in a world of big currencies like the dollar, the Euro, and, in the future, the Chinese yuan, a small currency like the pound sterling will likely find life increasingly difficult. This problem, however, would be easy to solve if the new Northern Free Trade Area were to adopt a common currency (U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar + Mexican Peso+ Pound Sterling = Dolep).

Of course, the Canadians and Mexicans might not go for this, in which case Washington could offer statehood to Britain, or separately to England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The U.S. flag would have either 51 or 54 stars and there would never again be any question of the Germans or French or the bureaucrats in Brussels calling the tune in London.

Trade partners? Fine. Though, personally, I think they’d see a brain drain of a magnitude they could have never expected.

But adopting a “common currency” would be suicide for all involved. Or, to be more clear, a faster spiral of death by debt than we both already have. And as for “adopting” them as as state or states, fuck that. Can you say eternal Democrat Majority?

Posted in Dare To Be Stupid | 2 Comments

Why you should save

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Phil Kadath

And buy precious metals (gold, silver, nickel, copper, brass and lead).

These shitheels will be in charge during your golden years.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 3 Comments

Stupid User Tricks

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Oscar Gordon

For Gunnies

…sigh…

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Bunker Library Prep

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Alaska

We got to be surrogate grandparents just before Christmas, when my niece and nephew-in-law (my son in all but name, really, as he and our niece lived with us and grew up with our daughter) came to visit with their 11-month-old boy.

Of course, the ladies got to play with the baby, while we big boys got to play with other toys. I’ve missed having a quiet, enclosed workshop, and Nephew and I high-tailed it off to my storage unit to build the first of my Ultimate Bookshelves.

Final design specs: five 8′ x 23″ shelves per unit. Overall height roughly eight-and-a-half feet. Overall length eight-and-a-quarter. Overall width 34 inches. The four 500-lb. steel casters are offset from the centerline, with the vertical endcaps forming an elongated “H” if you are looking down from above each unit. That’s for earthquake stability. These buggers will NOT fall down.

I like a 23″-deep shelf not only because I hate when long books hang over standard-depth shelves, but also because it’s really pleasurable to walk up, pull a book or two and plop them flat in front of you and start reading right there. What’s design for, I say, if not to accommodate laziness ease of use?

Since I’m all of 5’8″ I overengineered each shelf so that I can simply climb up to pull books from the top. Also they will NOT sag in my lifetime, despite an eight-foot unsupported span.

Each shelf is an open sandwich of four 2x4s and two 1x12s, all screwed to form a tight open box.* I left space open under each shelf so there’s an easy place to run hidden rope lighting in the future.

All fasteners are screws of one sort or another, for added strength.

The only cuts required are for the 34″ ledger 2x4s on the ends; the rest is all (by design) done with standard engineered lumber: mostly 2x4s and 1x12s, with a few 2x8s and 4x8s, and two 4’x8′ plywood sheets per unit.

We got two finished, with Nephew doing most of the work. The first was a test-run of the design, and revealed some quirks that needed ironing out.  After that, the next one was much faster.

In these last three photos, they’re nearly complete, just missing some 2x8s on each vertical to dress off the ends of each “H” leg.

At the base, lag screws tie it all together.

I will have eleven of these units when I’m done, lining the walls of the bunker library. And yes, they will all be pretty much filled with books.

As the storage unit’s 14′ wide, I’ll have plenty of room to stash 1-foot-deep storage shelves behind the bookshelves, tucked in the rear of each “H,” with SHTF supplies, water, etc. More on those thoughts in the original post.
— Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

*Was that as fun to read as it was for me to write? Indeed, indeed it was. Gentlemen, let us all embrace our natures in these, our post-mid-life-crisis years. For my part, my copy of Dr. A’s fine, illustrious tome will be one of the first up on these shelves.

 

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | 2 Comments

I thought the Chinese didn’t celebrate Christmas

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Phil Kadath

It appears that they took advantage of someone’s Christmas Sale

The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.

Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.

Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked “fireworks”.

The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked “fireworks”.

That sounds like my kind of “fireworks”. And my kind of Christmas sale!

I wonder what tipped them off? Did they find it odd that “fireworks” were head TO China instead of the other way around?

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

So Long Old Friend

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Dave RNS Photographer

It’s mid-December in the afternoon. The skies are grey and a cold front is moving through mid-Michigan , taking the temperature from mid 50’s down to the low 40’s. The winds are blowing strong with gusts to nearly 30 mph. I’m looking out the window and waiting. I keep looking and waiting, hoping that maybe the car won’t appear in the driveway and then reminding myself to be pragmatic and it’s the right time.

My mind goes back 14 years to Christmas of 1997 and my daughter presenting me with this little golden fur ball that she had carried home inside her jacket. “Merry Christmas Dad” . . . . maybe the car won’t come

Potty training on the newspapers; walking in the field out back to do your “business”; playing in the leaves at the new house . . . . maybe the car won’t come

a retriever that only plays half fetch, never getting the bring-back part down; always getting along with the other dogs and cats that came and went in the home; chasing and burrowing your nose in the snow for the snowballs thrown your way . . . maybe the car won’t come

staring down the wild turkey that came into the yard; drinking from your water bowl with the plastic cone around your head; laying sprawled in the couch that you weren’t allowed on; driving in the pickup, your body up on the center console with your head out the sliding rear window . . . maybe the car won’t come

your fondness for chewing on plastic water bottles; sleeping beside the bed at night with your head under the bed; getting a toy or two out of the toy basket immediately after they were put away and bringing them back onto the living room rug; your face turning from golden red to white, the legs getting stiff and stairs more difficult . . . the car’s here

I watch in a surreal sort of detachment as the vet administers the sedative and then we wait ten minutes while works its way through your system . . . . I remember wondering if I changed my mind, whether it was too late; I tell myself no, it’s the right time. Then the final solution is administered and I sit with you and stroke your head and body. It doesn’t feel real. After a while the vet pronounces your heart stopped. I ask for a few minutes alone before your body is removed and I don’t know exactly what to say. I wonder if you were aware of what I was doing to you and hope you’ll forgive me. I don’t know what to say other than “so long old friend”.

The Power of the Dog
by
Rudyard Kipling

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie–
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find–it’s your own affair–
But … you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone–wherever it goes–for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long–
So why in–Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

Posted in Heroes, Comrades and Brothers | 18 Comments