Monday, December 21, 2009

Gerrymandering

Long before voters choose their elected officials, the elected officials choose their voters.
Use the tool at this site to see how easy it is to rearrange voting districts, virtually guaranteeing the re-election of incumbent elected officials.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009



Here are the most terrifying charts on the economy you've ever seen. This is the amount of taxes being withheld from peoples' paychecks and business income. Every federal, state, and local budget plan in the country is based on the assumption that the government's income (taxes) will be at the same level (or more) than the previous year.
This changes everything. The money isn't there. The federal government can still sell U.S. Treasury Bonds to foreign investors, and they can even print more money, which can sweep the problem under the rug temporarily, but states and local governments can't even do that. Keep in mind that this data is on a national level, so some states like California, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona are much worse than the other states, but with this much revenue being taken away from the government, all of the programs and services provided by state and local governments are now in jeopardy of being reduced or eliminated over the next fiscal year. The money isn't there. The federal government will likely just continue the rapid acceleration of the national debt's growth, but states and municipalities do not have that option.

Marine murdered over Nebraska/Texas football argument

story here

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Plattsmouth


went here to pick up my pickup's cargo rack- it got sandblasted & painted by a guy who paints water towers. anyway, here is where the Platte river meets the Missouri river. Lewis & Clark were here, and the expeditions by other white men before them had never gone past this point.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009


If this trend continues, it could affect the outcome of the currently pending healthcare reform legislation.

"Never mistake activity for achievement."


This graph shows how your tax dollars, which are being used to give $8000 to new homeowners, are being wasted because the homebuyers are not buying new homes- they're buying existing homes. This means that new homes aren't being built- it's just a bunch of homeowners selling their house and buying someone else's house. The people who bought homes during the housing bubble are trading up again, and the new homeowners are just buying their leftovers. If you think about it, it makes sense, because with the U-6 unemployment rate at 17.5%, how many people can feel safe about buying their first home and signing a 30-year mortgage? So, much like the Cash-for-Clunkers debacle, the new homeowner tax credit is just more taxpayer money down the rathole- rapidly increasing the national debt while having virtually no stimulative impact on the economy.
Calculated Risk: Existing Home Sales: Distressing Gap

Monday, November 23, 2009

Free Healthcare in America! (but only for Mexicans)

Under the rules in the Senate's new healthcare reform bill, U.S. citizens who don't purchase health insurance will pay a punitive fine, somewhere between $750 and $1500.

But illegal immigrants who don't purchase health insurance aren't forced to pay any fines, and they're still eligible for the same care as U.S. citizens.

Details here

George Will

George Will, 11/22/09

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Are We There Yet?

2012 MLB All-Star Game to be in Kansas City?

Sports Radio 810 WHB - Powered by Fans

The Most Popular Video Game Ever


In its first week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reached $600 million in sales. Recently there were over 2 million players online, playing the game at the same time. Be warned that the video of this game is very graphic. I've never played it, and I'm not an expert on the subject. But see for yourself...

Friday, November 13, 2009

Tom Daschle has a question for you


1. Um, I know a really simple answer to his question. Do you?
2. Once someone has the flu, they are contagious to others, whether a doctor sees them or not.
3. We should all be so lucky that illegal immigrants show up at the ER with the flu. That would be inexpensive. The reality is that they show up in the ER with stab wounds from a fight- or motor vehicle crash injuries from drunk driving (and killing a 4 year-old girl despite already having 3 DUI convictions on his driving record) and/or not wearing seat belts. Last month in Omaha, they just fled the scene after killing another driver in a hit-and-run crash, (they literally got out of their car and ran) and when the cops finally tracked down their address from their abandoned car's license plate, they had already made it to Kansas City, where they had taken a Greyhound bus back to Mexico.
But Daschle insists we should treat them for the flu. As if that would make any difference. It would be far cheaper to put Greyhound bus stops at every emergency room all the way to Mexico.

Why Chinese Economic Numbers Are So Good.


I don't even know what to say about this. It should have some pretty serious effects on international investors' decisions, assuming this video gets the amount of exposure that it almost certainly will...

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Afghanistan: The Failure to Plan Is "The Plan" @ AMERICAN DIGEST

Afghanistan: The Failure to Plan Is "The Plan" @ AMERICAN DIGEST
"Veterans of dysfunctional corporations will recognize the Obama style as the one in which upper management is fond of giving middle management “All the responsibility, none of the authority, and zero resources.” It’s a time-tested recipe for failure and demoralization while maintaining an aloof, "concerned," and above the fray posture on the part of the CEO. It is what is being done to the US military, day in and day out, in Afghanistan and, as such, works to Obama’s favor as long as it can be done slowly and without alarm."

Wal-Mart Trying New Black-Friday Tactic So That Nobody Dies This Year

Wal-Mart Trying New Black-Friday Tactic So That Nobody Dies This Year

Popular polling firm completely made up polling results

Skipping Elections, Strategic Vision Has Not Polled Since Controversy Arose


see article here

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

pointing out the obvious

Washington Post: "Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States. As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is. The election has been held, but the campaign goes on and on. The candidate has yet to become commander in chief."

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Oregano effective against MRSA

http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/article.asp?item=1374&year=2008
“Further tests in the SGS laboratory found that the Himalayan oregano oil killed MRSA more effectively than all 18 antibiotics that it was compared against. We have recently linked up with UWE's microbiology department who are now carrying out more rigorous tests, and hope to publish the results in a scientific journal.”

:-[

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/09/irans-only-awacs-crashes.html

The coast is now clear for Israel to attack Iran.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

State-by-State Unemployment, August 2009



Just for comparison, here's what this same map looked like 18 months ago:

County-by-County Unemployment, July 2009












These county-level unemployment maps are based on figures from JULY, whereas the state-by-state maps are based on figures from AUGUST- the newest figures for counties won't be released until September 30, 2009.
You can click on the pictures above for bigger pictures or click here to be taken to the bls.gov website for access to more maps.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

BigGovernment.com

The community organizing group ACORN has been decimated in less than a week by a blog by Andrew Breitbart. Check out the videos to see why. www.biggovernment.com

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Your Cell Phone Bars-of-Service Indicator Doesn't Really Mean Much

.
.
PC World Article


Calculated Risk: CNBC: What Banks are doing with Foreclosures

Calculated Risk: CNBC: What Banks are doing with Foreclosures
For the rest of 2009, the demand for housing will be significantly artificially inflated by the $8000 tax credit the government is providing for new home buyers. As we have seen in the Cash for Clunkers program, demand will fall off a cliff after the program expires (unless Congress passes an extension to the home buying credit, but they didn't extend Cash for Clunkers, so they probably won't extend the home buying credit)
With the waves of foreclosures happening later this year and in early 2010 at the same time the homebuyer credit expires, there will be a rising supply and a falling demand. This means that prices must drop to a point where supply can meet demand.

Economist's View: "The Savings Rate Has Recovered…if You Ignore the Bottom 99%"

Economist's View: "The Savings Rate Has Recovered…if You Ignore the Bottom 99%"

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney


I bet there are lots of people at Disney who cringe when this guy gets up to take credit for all of their creativity because he "micromanaged" them to greatness, but it's still a decent talk. Not great, but decent.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

saw this on the way to work yesterday. It's a Lotus. There was a lot of traffic, so I had time to take a picture before it was out of sight.


This was Captain this morning on the way home- picture taken is of the side mirror. i should take a video sometime. He makes lots of funny faces. I think there were lots of bugs out this morning- he kept licking his teeth. :-)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

News from 1930

News from 1930

check out this site: it's a guy who gives you a day-by-day summary of the Wall Street Journal from today's date in 1930.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Nice Catch


Mark Buehrle pitched the first perfect game in the major leagues in 5 years, but he needed this catch from Dewayne Wise in the 9th inning to make it possible.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Whitney Tilson: Why There Is More Pain To Come

Whitney Tilson: Why There Is More Pain To Come

According to one of the statistics in this presentation, 29% of all new car sales in California in 2007 were financed using Home Equity Lines of Credit. The same figure was about 20% in Florida in 2007. So, with these artificially-boosted car sales, how did the car companies still manage to go bankrupt? And how could they possibly keep up the same rate of sales during the housing crash, when HELOCs are no longer so easily obtained?

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Better Than Google

Bing
Use this search engine- the searches are almost always more relevant, you can find hundreds more images than Google Image search, and the 3-D Maps are like nothing you've seen before in an online map (after you download the applet on the site). Google Maps' 'Street View' is still really useful, but if you haven't tried Bing, you really should check it out.

HUNTING AIREDALE PHOTOS


HUNTING AIREDALE PHOTOS

Click on the link, and then keep clicking at the bottom of each page for more pictures- they get better with each page. Pretty cool stuff!

Palin E-mails Show Infighting With Staff - CBS News

Palin E-mails Show Infighting With Staff - CBS News

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Light Bulbs


In 2007, Popular Mechanics did a comparison test of compact fluorescent light bulbs. They're filled with mercury, so they're not very safe for kids. But other than that, aside from the energy consumption differences between CFLs and incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs produce a higher-quality light in my opinion. Popular Mechanics seems to agree.
Anyway, in the test, their highest-rated CFL bulb was this one.
I recently purchased a similar bulb- this one- and it is excellent for any room where you are planning to look at a computer screen (or a television i assume). The light is extremely bright and white, which makes looking at a screen much easier on your eyes.

Backseat Driver

Monday, June 29, 2009

Tornado Chasers

Lately I've been seeing these vehicles on the road on days when storms have been predicted. I can't tell who is funding their strange-looking projects. I'm guessing that there is some TV show behind this that I've never heard of. Does anyone know who is putting these vehicles together?






Saturday, June 27, 2009

Will We Have Inflation or Deflation?

First, Deflation.

Even through the years of the recent housing bubble, the U.S. economy as a whole did not experience any significant inflation, due to the balancing effects of other commodities like energy (excluding oil during the past 18 months) and consumer goods.
A very crude, simplistic explanation in real-world terms: during the U.S housing bubble, Wal-Mart expanded into smaller & smaller communities while adopting an entirely new (grocery) business, and surrounding larger U.S. cities with multiple stores. This is no accident, of course, because it ensures that a large majority of Americans are now within a 30-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, and they make a large share of their annual spending on consumable goods at that store. Wal-Mart's effect of driving down prices (their own prices and their competitors' prices) is just one example of how the U.S. economy has avoided inflation, even during the past 2 decades of rapidly increasing prices on the most-valuable assets of most american families.
But now housing prices are falling, too.
This makes it almost impossible to slow down deflation, much less prevent it.
The Obama administration's monetary and fiscal policies will cause inflation, to be sure- but not until the national economy rebounds. And right now, when that rebound will happen is completely unpredictable. Until the economy begins to grow, there will be too few significant commodities with rising prices which will balance against deflation- possibly oil, and products whose prices are linked to oil, such as agricultural products via the ethanol industry.
This is just something to think about the next time you drive past a gas station with increasing prices- the rising price of oil might be a good thing, because it is virtually the only thing slowing down the cycle of deflation. Click here to read why deflation is just as bad as inflation.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate

Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate

Iran needs nuclear power? They're sitting on top of an ocean of oil. But they need nuclear technology- for energy? Am I missing something here?

Michelle Malkin » Mapping the “climate of hate”

Michelle Malkin » Mapping the “climate of hate”
Obama immediately condemned the murder of a partial-birth abortion doctor in Kansas. But he has nothing to say when a muslim terrorist kills a uniformed Army soldier in Arkansas. Am I missing something here?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Chrysler


Above is a map from Zero Hedgewhich shows a dot on the map for every Chrysler dealership which was eliminated today as a result of the Chrysler bankruptcy. Keep in mind that there will likely be more Chrysler dealers eliminated- this represents about one-third of all Chrysler dealerships. GM is expected to do the same, except GM has twice as many dealerships as Chrysler.
Think about how this makes it much more difficult for the economy to recover from the current crisis. Auto dealers are often the largest source of sales tax revenue for small communities. They are also large commercial real estate tenants. This is only the beginning.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Mmmm



Kashi

Unemployment

Here is a map of unemployment rates in the U.S., by state.

Now look at the maps, by county:
California
Florida
Iowa
Kansas
Nebraska
Alaska
Texas
Washington state

It makes you stop and think when you can see the unemployment by county.

Now think about the unemployed people in each of those counties who own homes.

Then think about the banks who do most of the mortgage lending in those counties.

The recent "stress tests" for banks was based on the most 'adverse' scenario being 8.9% unemployment in 2009, and 10.3% unemployment in 2010. Here we are in May of 2009, and we've already reached 8.9% unemployment nationally- but in some areas, the rate is over 20%.
As you can see by looking at the county-by-county unemployment charts, banks in some regions of the country will be affected far more severely than others. This might partially explain why Warren Buffett is so sure that Wells Fargo is in a better position than other big banks to survive the current economic crisis.
The government stress-tested 19 big banks, and said that 10 of the banks needed to raise %75 Billion by June 8, based on possible unemployment rates of 10.3% next year. What about the banks in areas with much higher unemployment? Which banks are more exposed to the higher rates of localized unemployment? Plus, The Wall Street Journal explains how the big banks got the government to bend the rules of the 'stress tests' to their advantage before the results came out.