Read and think

1-taxing the uber-rich cannot erase the deficit
2-taxing the populous can
3-you cant raise taxes on the populous in a weak economy
4-there is no such thing as trickle down economics
5-Taxing the "job creators" does not effect their expansion and hiring

Watch MSNBC and listen to Rachel Madowe lie to you
Watch Fox News and listen to Hannity lie to you.

Dont let them lie to you.. please don't. Have some courage. Think wider.

Sunday, lucky Sunday

It is a glorious day to be alive. I am so happy today. Feeling so powerful and spiritual. It is Sunday!
Lucky Sunday... out of seven days it happens to be the day I am feeling this wonderful.
Sunday is lucky. No... I don't mean Sunday is lucky for "me"
I mean Sunday is lucky to be the day I feel so good. Monday didn't get me. Saturday didn't get me. Just lucky Sunday is blessed to have me today.


Ron... maybe reading too much Norman Vincent Peale

Another Album I wore out

I wore out Yellow Brick Road first... but this one was a close second.
There was a movie about it but now there is a resurrection of the wall as a Rock Opera produced and directed by the main man in PF,  Roger Waters... now 68 years old. It is a sell out all over the globe.

This on 60 minuets

"Pink Floyd's the Wall is one of the most intriguing and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. Since the studio album's release in 1979, the tour of 1980-81, and the subsequent movie of 1982, the Wall has become synonymous with, if not the very definition of, the term "concept album." Aurally explosive on record, astoundingly complex on stage, and visually explosive on the screen, the Wall traces the life of the fictional protagonist, Pink Floyd, from his boyhood days in post-World-War-II England to his self-imposed isolation as a world-renowned rock star, leading to a climax that is as cathartic as it is destructive.

From the outset, Pink's life revolves around an abyss of loss and isolation. Born during the final throes of a war that claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 British soldiers (Pink's father among them) to an overprotective mother who lavishes equal measures of love and phobia onto her son, Pink begins to build a mental wall between himself and the rest of the world so that he can live in a constant, alienated equilibrium free from life's emotional troubles. Every incident that causes Pink pain is yet another brick in his ever-growing wall: a fatherless childhood, a domineering mother, an out-of-touch education system bent on producing compliant cogs in the societal wheel, a government that treats its citizens like chess pieces, the superficiality of stardom, an estranged marriage, even the very drugs he turns to in order to find release. As his wall nears completion - each brick further closing him off from the rest of the world - Pink spirals into a veritable Wonderland of insanity. Yet the minute it's complete, the gravity of his life's choices sets in. Now shackled to his bricks, Pink watches helplessly (or perhaps fantasizes) as his fragmented psyche coalesces into the very dictatorial persona that antagonized the world during World War II, scarred his nation, killed his father, and in essence defiled his own life from birth. As much as this story told mostly from Pink's point of view tips toward nihilistic victimhood, there also runs a strong existentialist countercurrent in which freedom cannot be separated from personal responsibility. Culminating in a mental trial as theatrically rich as the greatest stage shows, Pink's tale ends with a message that is as enigmatic and circular as the rest of his life. Whether it is ultimately viewed as a cynical story about the futility of life, or a hopeful journey of metaphorical death and rebirth, the Wall is certainly a musical milestone worthy of the title "art."

As with most art, Pink Floyd's concept album is a combination of imagination and the author's own life. The album germinated during the band's 1977 "Animals" tour when frontman Roger Waters, growing disillusioned with stardom and the godlike status that fans grant to rock stars like himself, spit in the face of an overzealous concert-goer. Horrified by his disenchantment, Waters began drawing on these feelings of adult alienation as well as those springing from the loss of his own father during World War II to flesh out the fictional character of Pink. The wild stories surrounding Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett - including his drugged-out escapades and subsequent withdrawal from the world - provided Waters with further inspiration for the moody rock-star. The contributions of bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright provided the final brush strokes for a contemporary anti-hero - a modern, existential everyman struggling to find (or arguably lose) self and meaning in a century fragmented by war."

From  http://www.thewallanalysis.com/main/

Garden three weeks later

Compare to three weeks ago. Mounding up potatoes is more obvious.
The seed potatoes were planted 6" deep in the bottom of the V-troughs. As they grow you keep hoeing dirt up on them covering the lowest leaves even. The dirt came from the center mound and the two sides of the V-trough and now they are growing on the top of the mound while the V-troughs are middle and two sides.

Data

Many quote fiscal data. Hardly anyone knows if what they are quoting is true.

Look at this PDF file http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2008-TAB/pdf/BUDGET-2008-TAB.pdf

 This an "official"  historical summary of the US Budget since the republic was formed. It is from the Government Printing Office, the keeper of all accounting books.

Ok so when the news-puppet tells you what the deficit or surplus is in any given year you can check it.

You can also download the same data in an XLS file here http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
With an XLS (spread sheet) you can segregate data and do what ifs and create graphs and pie charts.

So now when the politicians start lying you can do your own fact-check. Meaning you will be very busy or will forever believe what they tell you so there's no point.

Enjoy

You're welcome :)

Facebook... no thanks

Another article that explains almost to a tee why I am no longer on Face-ache.
LINK

Len Kleinrock, 77, says Facebook is fine for his grandchildren, but it's not for him.

"I do not want more distractions," he says. "As it is, I am deluged with email. My friends and colleagues have ready access to me and I don't really want another service that I would feel obliged to check into on a frequent basis."

Kleinrock says his resistance is generational, but discomfort with technology isn't a factor.

After all, Kleinrock is arguably the world's first Internet user. The University of California, Los Angeles professor was part of the team that invented the Internet. His lab was where researchers gathered in 1969 to send test data between two bulky computers —the beginnings of the Arpanet network, which morphed into the Internet we know today.

"I'm having a 'been-there, done-that' feeling," Kleinrock says. "There's not a need on my part for reaching out and finding new social groups to interact with. I have trouble keeping up with those I'm involved with now."

For me too, Face-thingie is old news. There is nothing they invented that has not been around for 30 years.
Forums? Been there.
Messaging? Been there.
Chat? Been there.
Groups? Been there.

We did it on dial up acoustic modems with monochrome monitors and called it a BBS (bulletin  board service). Like this...




So all I can see that Face Book did, besides modernize it,  was to get people to give them the password to their email accounts so they could then invite all of their contacts to join who would then give all their own email passwords etc. Even Zuckerberg was amazed that people would do that.


I'm very happy to be in the minority here.


PS yes I was amazingly stupid to sign up in the first place.

Building

Lots of new construction in town. Many retires coming out and building their custom homes. Three lots east on a lot our size (five acres)  they are building a beautiful southwestern flat roof. Its got to be close to 4000 sq ft. I walked around inside during construction. Three or four lots west on our street with  the same lot size they put another big home on a hill... dint last long. The gentleman's wife passed and he is moving back to Tucson I think. On the market for $750k right now. Hope he gets it.



There are also quite a number of people who moved here after visiting Best Friends and like us sold their other retirement property and bought and built here. There is a big new house going up down Six Mile Gap. Gotta be worth a couple million as they have a huge amount of land and a mansion of a home. Land values are rising again after falling steep. Here is listing of 1400 acres for $4,400,000 ($30k plus per acre unimproved). Lots along our side of Red Cliff are about $50k per acre (water, phone, electricity). It normally follows that per acre price is higher for smaller lots.



A not-too-near neighbor did a reverse mortgage five years ago and tells me he got 40% more than he could get now. I think he thinks he was smart. I think more like lucky. But maybe he was lucky-smart. Neighbor George (his brother) put his gigantic custom home on the market... he has a huge metal building attached big enough to park four motor homes... really! it is that big. He's asking $789k.. hope it sells. Only two acres.

 Link

So it looks like the real estate bubble burst has started to patch itself up here.. starting maybe as long as a year ago. All the contractors tell me they are very busy. So come take a look people! Now's the time to for you guys to take your CalStrs and come on out.

Bird watching

We have some migratory birds passing through in the spring and the fall. We see them just briefly as they water in our bath.

Saw an Oriole today.. don't think we saw one last year.

We may see a Yellow headed black bird heading back to British Columbia

And tons of yellow warblers (I don't think they migrate more than 20 miles from the mountains)

We had the bird bath up close to the window a few years ago and a fledgling red tail hawk came down and took a bath in it. Oblivious to us just six feet inside...he couldn't see us. Was one of the wonderful wild animal moments we have had in Utah.

They Jays come back in the fall and stay most of the winter.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers everywhere.

Venus curl

She sits there in the window above the window every night looking at us.
She is beautiful and never fails to show it off.
It is comforting to watch TV and glance a wink at her.
Always in the same place.
Every night.
A curling orbit in the black sky.

Going on my second year now...

... of new-car withdrawal. I want a new truck. I have not driven a ten year old vehicle for maybe thirty years now.... ummm, except for now... and except for my '70 Ford F150 which was a project truck (man I took a beating on that... but 'twas fun).

I never had a good truck until the ranger. Had the hot-Subie before that. So now the Ranger is 11 years old I can't stand it! I need a new one... but they stopped making them last year.. closed the twin cities plant. It gets 15mpg when I tow the Casita... the newer rangers have more towing capacity and would get me 18 mpg towing.

But that is not enough I guess... I heart my truck. I have topper, and Firestone air springs, and compressor and so much installed I have it just like I want it and it has only 120k miles. Today a car with 120k miles is like having a 60 Buick with only 35k on it. It used to be that if you got 100k out of a car it was probably on its last legs. This Ford can get 250k with ease. Although I have been putting money in it... new seat belts $500, new cruise control $300, new air-springs $300, complete new front end which I ruined on the hard roads of Alaska $700, new tires $1000, and other stuff too. But... I am torn. I love this ranger... it is perfectly suited to me but the new-car sprite calls from over the hills, "come buy... buy... buy".

Dammit even.

Another boring victory for the USA middle class

"For several years now, the anecdotal data has been tantalizing:
Caterpillar is building a $120 million plant to make giant earthmovers in Victoria, Texas, including some models that were previously built in Japan and shipped back to North American customers. The Japan plant is now free to devote more capacity to the booming Asian market.
Master Lock, in Milwaukee, landed a visit from President Barack Obama in February after its decision to bring 300 jobs back from China.
General Electric reversed a decision to build a new “green” refrigerator plant in Asia and decided instead to invest $93 million in refurbishing a plant in Bloomington, Indiana, saving 700 jobs. The company followed up in 2010 by investing $80 million in a water heater plant in Louisville, Kentucky, preventing another 400 jobs from heading east.

Not to be outdone, GE competitor Whirlpool decided to break ground on a new $200 million plant in Cleveland, Tennessee rather than send the 1,500 jobs overseas. The facility is part of a four-year, $1 billion American investment campaign.
Dow Chemical, the cash register company NCR, Sauder Woodworking and the machine tool firm GF AgieCharmilles have all brought overseas production back to the US market in the past three years"

From the Global Post

 Of particular interest to me is my long held belief that manufacturing is becoming local. If the buyer is in North America the products will be manufactured in North America. Which is what Caterpillar is doing.

I'm a dink

"DINK" Dual Incomes No Kids

Liz and I were quite dinkish there for some years. Having no kids to account to -- or for -- opens up doors. Travel and dining and sail boats and stuff when we were still young enough for dancing and staying up late and being groupies of our favorite local bands and stuff. It was a real great time. Now we're too old for that but we do have memories.

I think the best dink memories I have are the restaurants. During some stretches we ate out three or four times a week. We went to every five star restaurant in Orange county (many times over) and most of them in Eastern LA county. I learned about wine... good wine. Learning the gourmet part was more subtle and took longer to appreciate but we did get fairly good at it eventually. Even to the point that we cooked out of gourmet cook books on those nights we were not out eating out. We had our friends over for dinner and loved to see them blown away gastronomically while they ended up begging us to give them the recipe. That was fun back then.

Anyway the dinks have landed and are all partied out and take naps and grow gardens now. Now we are more like HINKs Half the income :)

Are you an extrovert?

People are either introverted or extroverted. The extent of the introversion or extroversion is very measurable with psychological testing. And that is the point to me. It is the "extent" that matters in ones life.

Liz and I took the Meyers Briggs personality test 30 years ago and were amazed that we are so much alike. A psychologist once told us, when reviewing our test scores, that we were not just uniquely suited for each other but that couples like us make up less than 5% of the populous.

The the Myers Briggs test is coupled with the book, "Please Understand Me" by David Keisery

You can take a similar test here

The results can be analyzed here

And the book is here

Liz is an INTJ and I am an  INTP

But the really unique thing is we score way out there as introverts. We are introverted but you will probably have to do more research to find out that introversion does not make you  a shrinking violet or wall flower. I spent the last 15 years of my working life teaching. My voice wasn't weak or shaky. Nor did I break out in cold sweats... and Liz would never be accused of that either since she conducted meetings and spoke publicly all her working life as an Executive Officer. Being an introvert in psychology is usually simplified this way: While most people get their internal batteries charged by going to people events like parties, socializing, church. Introverts like us recharge our batteries by being alone. It is good for us to be alone. It makes us very happy and gives us peace.

BTW it is not a genetic thing one way or the other. It is personality type generated during the formative years by ones surroundings. People should understand this and try to account for it within their family, workplace,  or other social  surroundings.