Quote of the Day
“…the “right wing” guys I know are matter of factly gender-blind. No neocon’s ever called me “honey.””
— Confessions of A Failed Slut by Kathy Shaidle
Quote of the Day
Filed under: economy, Obama Economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics
“Every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”
— Steve Wynn
Monday Book Pick: Monster Hunter International
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This is the first book in his first series. He had self-published this book, after getting turned down by multiple publishers, and it was selling pretty well. Then Baen contacted him and Correia followed up his first hit with string of others, including three more Monster Hunter books and two other series with five books between them. In this book we meet Owen Z. Pitt, who has a soul sucking accounting job in Dallas that only gets worse, when his already bad boss gets bitten by a werewolf and attacks Pitt on the next full moon. It is close, but Pitt manages to kill his boss and get threatened by some Feds who tell him to keep his mouth shut or they will put a bullet in his head. Enter Monster Hunter International. A private company that hunts monsters and collects the federal bounty on them. Yes, Pitt finds his true calling. Hunting monsters. Zombies, werewolves, Vampires, and all that stuff. Stir in some Lovecraftian horror and an old Jewish monster hunter spirit guide and you have one fun read! It has monsters. It has romance. It has detailed and accurate firearm discriptions. Fun for the whole family!
Dealing with the economic illiterate.
One of the downsides of haven taken multiple graduate courses in economics, finance and accounting, is that I know more about the current state of the US economy than is probably good for me.
It also makes it painful to listen to people with absolutely no clue about economics or finance spout nonsense as gospel.
An all too common example is that we *need* inflation, because the increased spending will promote economic growth. This is wrong on multiple levels. First off, there are those economists that claim that inflation is a possible result of economic growth, not the other way around. In addition, those economists prefer academic models, since real world data so rarely supports their theories.
Then, as this article points out, if you have a basic understanding of the definitions of inflation, COGS, and economic growth, the idea of inflation being a driver of economic growth is nonsense.
Simply put, if you are spending more money for the same goods, because the money has less value, there is no economic growth because the exchange is still for the same value as before. If inflation has been increasing faster than economic growth, purchasing your basic goods will have a negative effect on the economy because you have less spending power left over for non-essential goods.
The worst part is, that all too often, after explaining this basic concept in simple terms, the idiots just stare at you and claim that you are wrong and justify that by repeating their false assertion!
Culture of Corruption
You may have missed this story from last month. It didn’t get much MSM/DNC coverage. Not very surprising given the story.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane shut down an investigation started by her predecessor. The investigation was an old classic, probably inspired by the recent movie American Hustle. Undercover operatives offered state politicians cash bribes. The bribes were made to both Republicans and democrats, but it was only democrats who took the money.
One of AG Kane’s first official acts was to shut down this operation, while playing the race card and several other victim cards.
It doesn’t take a deep understanding of Occam’s Razor to figure out that Kane did to protect the corrupt members of her party who were caught by this sting operation. It’s a partisan cover up of democrat fraud and corruption, pure and simple.
Monday Book Pick: Hard Magic
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This time with the first book in his hard-boiled noir series complete with more than a bit of magic thrown in. It’s the 1930’s and magic has been around for about a hundred years. It started with just a few people, but it’s been growing pretty steady, so by the time this story takes place it’s pretty mainstream. Magic takes different forms in different people. Some can move objects with their mind, others can heal people, others can change the effect (more or less) the effect of gravity, others can teleport, and so on. Then there are the Cogs. They are just really, really smart in specific areas. Einstein was a Cog, as was Count Von Zeppelin, and John Moses Browning. Larry Correia is a former firearms instructor, so of course John Moses Browning in the book, and he is hero. I enjoyed this book a lot. Good characters, both good guys and bad guys, and those who are really a bit of both. An interesting setting, and lots of action. I’m glad there are two sequels to this already in print.
Moonbats on Parade
Filed under: Barking Moonbats, Culture of Corruption, economy, Obama Economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics, Progressives
I’ve observed leftists getting all wee-weed up over somebody on Fox News Business saying “don’t be poor.”
When did the concept of bettering yourself and improving your lot in life become an idea that sensible people would find offensive?
It is certainly better advice that the moon-bat’s deity, Barack Hussein Obama has been giving to a big chunk of his voter base, i.e. “be poor.”
Just look at the numbers. Minority unemployment is at record highs. Unemployment levels for minority teens are at levels that would be a national crisis if a Republican was in the White House. Non participation in the work force is at record high levels (currently 91 million, up from 79 million in 2008) that haven’t been seen in 40 years (yup, the economy in our so called “recovery” is at Jimmy Carter Recession levels), the number of people on food stamps have doubled since our Dear Leader took office, the average income is down, not getting laid off is the new raise, food and fuel prices have risen dramatically, and we are still stuck in the unprecedented worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. As Mr. Reynolds says, “They told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney, the rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer, and they were right!” Let’s not forget the National debt, which is at $17.5 Trillion and rising.
Historically, booming recoveries after a recession have been a bi-partisan event. Reagan, Clinton, and G.W. Bush benefited from booming recoveries that historically follow a recession. How did Barry get stuck with a non-recovery? Simple, he worked very hard to strangle that recovery in its crib. Barry is much more interested in:
1: His golf game
2: His agenda of wealth distribution
than he is in doing anything that would actually help the US economy and the average US citizen. Sorry folks, if you are in, or want to be in, or used to be in, the middle class, you just aren’t in his core demographics.
Seriously, it takes a serious partisan avoidance of reality to take that much offense at someone saying to better your lot in life through self improvement.
Happy Lenin’s Birthday!
Yup, it’s time for the annual Lenin’s Birthday post!
For those of you coming in late to the party, Earth Day” is on Lenin’s Birthday. Not a coincidence, given that the “founder” of Earth Day was much more a “Watermelon” than an actual environmentalist. Watermelon: Thin layer of green of the outside, red to the core.
Let’s review the predictions from the very first so called “Earth Day” back in 1970.
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” — George Wald, Harvard Biologist
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.” — Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.” — Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” — Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.” — Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….” — Life Magazine, January 1970
“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.” — Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” — Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
Ok, Ehrlich was sorta right on this, if you restrict his predictions to modern Communist China, where they are showing the typical communist/socialist contempt for the environment.
“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” — Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Now we get to my personal favorite, although probably not Al Gore‘s…
“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.” — Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
2014 Update: Wired Magazine publishes this article: Renewables Aren’t Enough. Clean Coal Is the Future
It wouldn’t be Lenin’s Birthday with out this clip of the late George Carlin discussing “Saving the Planet.”
Monday Book Pick: The Given Sacrifice
The Given Sacrifice by S.M. Stirling
Once again, S.M. Stirling proves himself to be the current master of the epic trilogy. Set in his Emberverse, he wraps up another historic period of his alternate universe where Powers have denied technology beyond gunpowder. Don’t worry, there will be more epic trilogies set in the Change series. It’s just time for the next generation.
Corrupt democrat Leland Yee in the News again
Via Breitbart comes this report:
California State Senator Leland Yee, who has been charged with wire fraud and conspiring to import firearms, may be facing new charges from the federal government. Although U.S. Attorney Susan Badger said that the government “is anxious to start discovery,” the government stated that there will be additional charges in a superseding indictment.
Leland Yee, a prominent democrat, was the odds on favorite to win the Secretary of State race.
Along with many other democrats, Lee is currently charged with multiple counts of corruption. Leland Yee was also charged with illegal gun running. The anti-civil rights activist wanted to disarm the law abiding, while supplying fully automatic weapons and shoulder fired missiles, purchased from Islamic terrorists, to his friends in the Tong.