Raining Friday Links

Don't know if I'm up to posting a real essay today, as I'm waiting for the rain to stop to mix a mad scientist brew of sand/concrete and Sheetrock plaster to repair the hole in my bedroom ceiling. Finally tore all the plaster down from the water damaged areas and was pleased to find the lath in very good condition, with only some mold. One repaired cheap sprayer and some bleach water later it was left to dry overnight. I suppose I should take photos of it now for the classic before and after shots -- that's assuming my improvised plastering methods work!

While I assume only bots are reading this blog, I'm going to start posting links to things I find interesting on the Net in case any human eyeballs ever find their way here.

First up, a video link to Milton Friedman on Donahue back in 1979. Friedman lays out why only capitalism works very succinctly and to great effect. He also quickly lays out why government isn't the answer.

Bolstering that last point -- the automakers are having to back the "Cash for Clunkers" program. It is a fine example of how the U.S. government runs things that they are having to be bailed out of their own stimulus program. GM being involved makes this even more surreal.

"Peace of Mind. Piece of Happiness." That's the slogan for the Japanese government's new ad campaign to sell their national debt to their populace. The Telegraph rather waggishly asks what slogan the UK could use.

On a more local note, Marty Seifert was in La Crescent as part of his campaign for Governor of Minnesota. I hadn't realized the number declaring to run was in the dozens! On the Republican side, I think he has the edge at the moment, coming off of successfully holding the caucus together in the Minnesota House of Representatives during the last session. Time will tell, of course.

The Rochester Tea Party Patriots will be holding a Health Care Freedom Rally Saturday at Noon in Rochester. Click on the link for details!

Related to Tea Party activities and health care concerns, across the Mississippi Representative Ron Kind D-WI had 800 people to deal with at his townhall in Tomah Thursday. From the article, it sounds like he got an earful. This shows how more intensely opposed the public has become to government expansion of health care. I don't remember this kind of civic involvement back during HillaryCare. Of course, the country wasn't broke back then and didn't have a possible second Great Depression looming.

On a lighter note, I've been watching how people slavishly buy the latest Apple iPod or iPhone when there are usually superior products for much less money out there. What I wasn't aware of is how technologically inferior products on the US market are compared to overseas. Just another sign of America's decay, as the article points out our falling rate of broadband penetration. Don't know if I agree on the "Wal-Mart factor" so much, I think being an 80% service economy might play into this. Or maybe it is that we have so many wide open spaces to play with that we don't need gadgets for entertainment as much as crowded Asia.

As I've gotten older, the less enchanted I've become with intellectual property rights. It seems that instead of coming up with more new and innovative product, individuals and corporations want to keep making money off of old things. With the rise of file sharing then torrenting and piracy of music, movies, television, books, and software this is surely being eroded. While I don't advocate piracy, I do think there needs to be some limits. Now the biggest torrent site, the Pirate Bay, is preparing to go legal. Reading the comments tells me that things have gone past being just college students looting music and there is a rebellion against any regulation of content. How much of it is ideological and how much is just greed is the question.

Last two articles were found on Blue's News, a gaming and tech website that occasionally has interesting oddball items.

The AP Reports on Consumer Prices

Boring sounding, right?

Well, if you are concerned with the economy, it stops being boring once you hit a specific line in the article.

Selected quotes from the article:

Prices fell 2.1 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest annual decline since a similar drop in the period ending in January 1950. Most of the past year's decline reflects energy prices falling 28.1 percent since peaking in July
2008.

Well that doesn't sound so bad, the high energy prices inhibited any chance of a recovery.

Some economists have expressed concerns that the economy could be headed toward a dangerous period of falling prices, something the U.S. has not experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Okay, that isn't positive sounding. Deflation has been a worry of mine for some time now.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday reported its first-ever drop in same-store sales for its overall U.S. business for the quarter. The world's largest retailer said a big factor was price deflation, primarily in grocery products like dairy.

If Wal-Mart is taking a hit, things are bad. They are the last redoubt of the consumer being squeezed for cash. Meanwhile, desperate efforts to prop up dairy prices are occurring in Wisconsin, as input costs are far outstripping returns. Are our dairy producers the canary in the coal mine?

The longest recession since World War II has kept prices in check as wage pressures disappeared because of heavy job layoffs. Companies have been unable to boost prices because of weak demand.

Now this is really not good, as we are a service driven economy with 80% of it being the service industry. With a good chunk of the spending vanishing due to debt, unemployment, and depressed wages, the main fuel for the engine of the economy is in short supply. We don't have manufacturing to pull us out of this one, or an influx of new workers like women after WWII.

The gist of the article is that falling prices have reigned in inflation and how great a job the Fed has done. Me, I'm concerned, as I've been watching for deflation as a sign of another Great Depression. Time will tell if these are warning signs or just bumps in the road. Better buckle your seat belts!

Oh Joy, History Repeats Itself

When Hitler decided he wanted to invade Poland, he sent SS troops dressed as Polish soldiers to attack German outposts on the border. With this false flag attack, the Nazi regime had their justification to go to war -- after all, those villainous Poles had attacked the Fatherland! So how does this relate to the title of the post?

I believe history repeats itself as variations of a theme, as composers have done their own takes on other compositions. Much of the tune stays the same, but enough changes to make the new version distinct. Today we have a struggle against an ever encroaching government and those who wish to keep their constitutional rights. The current administration is a product of the Chicago political machine, which means anything is allowed against opponents. Think mafia, because organized crime is a big part of the machine.

So we've seen SEIU goons beat Ken Gladney down and shove a camera in the face of a woman capturing their thuggery. That's the obvious behavior that the ObamaCare supporters had hoped would go the other way for propaganda purposes. Then there is the more sly method of propaganda staging.

Much ado has been made by Nancy Pelosi and others about the swastika's and Hitler pictures at the Tea Parties, with an inference of the protesters being Nazi racists themselves. It has been carefully worded to make that impact, while retaining the core of truth that the signs were depicting Obama and company as the Nazi's. At the Tea Parties I've attended, I haven't seen any and the comparison has been to the communists. That isn't to say there haven't been comparisons or signs elsewhere.

But look at this, we have a bonafide false flag operation being run by Democratic Representative John Dingall's supporters. Having someone carry that around and then hand out lit pieces for Dingall afterward smacks of complete arrogance. Or is it just the security of knowing the media will cover up for you? Still, the purpose is clear, to justify continued verbal demonization of the opposition to the health care bill.

So we have false flag operations going on, as I'm sure this isn't an isolated case, plus we unions being used to pack townhalls to prevent dissent. It may be the Chicago way, but it isn't the American way.

It's like they want a war.

Thugocracy

You know that the ancient Chinese curse of "May you live in interesting times" is true when the unions start rolling out to suppress free speech while claiming protesters are "attacking America." You can't make that kind of idiocy up, though you can satirize the mass media instructions/marching orders given out of Washington. Of course, in the left's view of the 1st Amendment, it is only valid when they protest and when confronted with an opposing view, they are entitled to slap down the opposition. Or just close the doors on anyone who wasn't snuck in the side door in an effort to pack a townhall meeting.

Hey, if someone opposes the Obamacare bill, the White House has asked that people submit their name to a list they are archiving. “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Nothing intimidating about that!

Then there is the lie about astroturfing (creating fake grassroots, a specialty of the Chicago machine's Axelrod) being spread, with insurance companies, Fox news, or the RNC organizing too well dressed protesters. Which is very silly indeed, as I have been to multiple Tea Party rallies and they are made of a wide political range of people indeed, including Republican haters. Top that off with Republican "insiders" ie: the reigning political class in the party, aka country club Republicans thinking the protests useless and plebian and it becomes clear who is really astroturfing. But don't forget, it is organized mobs causing all the fuss, according to the Democrats.

All of this is like playing with matches in a drought stricken forest. With the ever increasing reach of the federal government into literally all aspects of everyday life, the American people are getting more than uncomfortable. There is a sense that too much control is being taken away from individuals, aggravated by the severe economic downturn that shows no real sign of abatement. That is the motivation for these protests and the people who attend them.

In Discourses, Nico Machiavelli wrote that peoples are "extraordinarily revengeful toward those who have destroyed their liberty." He relates an account of the city of Corcyra in Greece during the Pelopennesian war. Ancient Greece broke between two camps, the Athenians and the Spartans, with the people of Corcyra being torn politically. The upper class nobles wanted an alliance with Sparta while the people wanted freedom and alignment with Athens. Subsequently, the upper class took over and instituted dictatorial rule that lasted until the Athenians were able to render aid to the people of the city.

The populace rose up and imprisoned the nobles in one prison, then set about executing them in cruel ways. Of course, that caused a prison uprising which ended when a crowd of the people marched on the prison. They collapsed its walls and upper story on the nobles to crush them.

Machiavelli concludes, "We thus see how true it is that a liberty which you have actually had taken away is avenged with much greater ferocity than is a liberty which someone has only tried to take away."

At the moment, with cap and trade passed and Obamacare being rushed through, people are waking up to the threat of their freedom to make choices being taken away. That's dangerous enough to cause trouble on its on. Adding in union thugs and a refusal to listen to constituents to the mix takes it from being a threat to an actual denial of liberty. If that threshold of perception is crossed, things can explode.

And one last time for the confused, please click on the difference between grass roots and astroturfers.

A Wicked Belated Father's Day

Since going to Mexico for my sister's wedding, it has been a mad scramble to catch up on various things needing doing, so it was no surprise when Father's Day came and went with no celebration. It didn't help that we are impecunious at the moment, so no Airfest this year.

Evading the heat and humidity the past few days has meant being in the living room, where we've temporarally installed an air conditioner, as my room is still out of commission. Being tired, reading was no longer working for my dad and me, so a quick look through the Netflix DVDs revealed nothing but serious and attention requiring movies. It was time to look through the family DVD library, especially the recent acquisitions.

One jumped out at me, one I'd gotten last month but hadn't had time to watch, an old movie from my youth. Lately I've been on a Ray Bradbury kick and had gotten the movie from an Amazon.com sale around the time I also purchased The Ray Bradbury Theater complete series set. The movie is Something Wicked This Way Comes, a flick that bombed in its 1983 theatrical release, but one I'd loved anyway. Known for being too intense and scary for younger children, it is no surprise it didn't find an audience, as it fell into a no-man's land between kid movies and the explicit slasher & horror movies of the era.

The film is set in a midwestern small town in the 1920s, during that magical time of the year that happens in October. Two boys, Will and Jim, are best friends and blood brothers living in the sleepy town, doing the things boys do when a mysterious carnival comes to town: Dark's Pandemonium. Harrowing encounters with Dark and his minions follow, with the lives of the townsfolk on the line, if not their very souls.

For me, it was a good movie that became even better once I saw it as an adult. The protagonists are two young boys, but the story is more about the fathers: one older then usual and filled with regrets, the other having run off is still a presence by his very absence. Both boys are deeply affected by their respective fathers and this is really the core of the film. Jason Robards shines as Will's father, the town librarian feeling his age and weighed down by a bad heart. Jonathan Pryce is hypnotically evil as Dark, every movement filled with the potential of explosive rage barely restrained.

I won't spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, but it turned out to be a wonderful belated Father's Day film to watch with my Dad. It is very much about the love that can only be held between father and son.

Iran Burns

We are seeing an uprising of the people versus a tyrannical dictatorship posing as a democratically elected government. That is something that we saw happen after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Eastern Europe but it is now happening in Iran. The clashes are violent, with students and protesters being gunned down (WARNING: very graphic), yet President Obama refuses to do anything in words or deeds. His apologists claim it is to protect the protesters, but that is a naive belief, whether held by Obama or by people making excuses for him. Voting present is simply not an option when you are President of the United States of America.

His silence and carefully moderated remarks have emboldened the ruling elite, Supreme Leader Khamenei led chants of "Death to America!" in his Friday prayers, while their state run TV has purportedly run "confessions" from college students that they were trained and funded by the USA to start this. So much for not choosing sides.

Pray for the Iranian people as they fight and die for their freedom.

The First Dance

or Why We Went to Tulum in Mexico:



Congratulations to Ann and Jeff, may your marriage be long and happy!