Carbon Economy

While I am on the subject of economic stuff and all, I thought I would add this.

As we all know, Bush in his infinite wisdom decided to reject the Kyoto Protocol. The reason given was it would cost us too much money, and there is no evidence that climat change is going on. All thet "evidence" that scientists come up with is just propaganda, invented to support liberal causes. Besides, these are the same scientists that would have you believe that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, and that the Earth is not a little over 6,000 years old like the bible supposedly says it is.
Those liberal science guys with their crazy ideas!

But outside the USA, most first world nations adopted the protocol. The main goal of the protocol is to lower carbon emissions to pre 1990 levels. Not that this is a perfect solution, there are other gasses that trap heat much better than CO2, like for example SF5 (sulfur hexaflouride). SF5 is used by industry because it has excellent electrical insulation properties. Gasses like SF5 would not really be covered by Kyoto, but the reality is that pressure is already on industry by the EPA to get rid of the stuff.

How do you reduce CO2 output? Most people think of industry and coal / oil power plants. While much CO2 is produced by industry, the simple fact is that industry alone can not lower CO2 production enough to put nations in line with Kyoto goals. This means that people - consumers - have to kick in too. While the amount of CO2 that one car creates is nothing compared to a factory - combine your car with the millions of other cars and we are talking a lot of carbon!

So how do you get people to lower their CO2 production? Well you could simply raise, or create, an energy tax. This would make stuff more expensive, and therefore people would buy less. But this is not a very popular train of thought - as the tax would put the pinch on the people living in the lower ends of the income distribution scale, while the people on the top would simply pay for a tax exemption.

Then there is THIS IDEA (from the BBC website). What this idea does is make pollution a commodity. It is brilliant in its simplicity really.

In case you do not want to read the very short article, here are the highpoints. Everyone would be issued a "carbon debit card". When you make certian purchases, you would swipe the carbon debit card and have some carbon credits deducted from your account. Pretty simple huh?

But what if you run out of credits? No problem! You could buy more credits on the open market. And who would you buy the credits from? You would buy credits from someone who did not use up all of theirs.

In other words, a type of commodity market would be created. Those who do not use their carbon credits could sell them to someone who needs more.

So if you take public transportation to work, and ride a bike or walk if you need to go only a short distance, you would likely have spare credits that you could sell on an open market. If you feel you must drive the 6 MPG hummer around town you will likely need to buy more credits. Needless to say, people on the lower end of the income food chain will likely be the ones with spare credits, while those at the top will be buyers of credits. Retired people would also be more likely to end up with spare credits.

Of course, you would not need to sell your credits. You could hoard them, just like shares of stock. You could save your credits up to take that road trip, or catch that flight to Japan. The choice would be up to you.

Consumer choices would also effect your carbon spending. Say you decide to buy a new car. The car that gets 40 mpg would "cost" you less of your carbon balance than a vehicle that gets only 15 mpg. The water heater with a higher efficiency rating would cost less of your carbon balance than the one with poor insulation. You might even be able to add to your carbon balance by buying a solar water heating system. And because you could sell your unused balance, buying stuff that cost less of your carbon balance could end up saving you money on top of money. For example, that hybrid car that costs $3,000 more than a similar gas only car would save you money on gas AND allow you to sell some of your extra carbon. Buying a solar water heater system would save you electricity, and give you more carbon to sell or use.

While not a perfect solution to the whole greenhouse gas creation thing, the carbon economy idea might be something worth trying.

Wrap Up: Decay Part III

This post will attempt to wrap up all that I have typed over the past few days. I will do this by responding to some comments!

I will start by saying there are always expections to the rule. Not everyone has no values. Not everyone is having a moral crisis. but our socirty, as a whole, is. Look at what is happening in the cities. Crime is up. Violence is up. Nobody talks to their neighbor anymore. Divorce rates are up. Look what happened after the storms. Looting. Price gouging. People trampling other people to get a bag of ice.

Yes, there were those who decided to help people. There were people who decided to be part of a solution, and not add to the problem. I do not consider those who took supplies they NEEDED to be looters. The people that "stole" food, so that they could attempt to set up a public kitchen were NOT looters - they were people doing the right thing. But far more people decided to add to the problem.

1. I have not owned a business, but my parents did for a few years. It was about as small as a business could get, with one paid employee who was not me. But this does not really matter too much in my analysis of the system.

2. Wal-Mart is a good example for my analysis because it is so huge, and so well known. It also employes the predatory business practices that one must use in order to get that big. I live in a fairly large city, so I will always have a choice where to shop. A good part of my aversion to Wal-Mart is simply due to the fact that the stores are not that close to me, and they are located in heavy traffic areas. Why go out of my way, get stuck in traffic for an hour (in both directions), deal with a packed parking lot, stand in some long line - just to get super crappy customer service? I can go to Target, Best Buy, and a host of other large stores. But all big box retailers are pretty much the same in the big picture.

But again, the crappy service is not the point. The point is that the store is a perfect example of the final product of our system. When Wal-Mart started it was just another little store. But it grew. And grew. Soon it became too large for the little town it was in, so it expanded to other areas. And it grew even larger. On the surface, this is a huge success story.

But go to a small or even a medium size town - anyplace too small for a Wal-Mart and any other store - and you see the end result of capitalism. No consumer choice. For many people living in small town America, there is really only one place to shop. The mega box retailer pushed aside all other competition. And in the really small places, Wal-Mart is the major employer. People work at the same place they are forced to shop at. A good percentage of their wage goes right back to the company.

I suggest that you take this time to download some MP3s now. Start with "sixteen tons" by Tennessee Ford. You load 16 tons, and what do you get - another day older and deeper in debt. St Peter dont you call me cause I can't go - I owe my soul to the company store.

Only today, for many people, the company store is not owned by the coal mine. For those who do not know what the company store is, back in the day coal mines would built towns around the mines. Workers would get to live in this town. Wages paid to the miners would end up right back in the pockets of the company, as miners would pay rent and buy all their goods at the company store. If you did not have money, no problem. The store would sell you whatever, and just take the money out of your next check. Before long, miners would bring home no money at all, they worked to pay the bill to the company store. And we wonder why unions were born.

With only one store, consumers are left to the whim of a bunch of guys in suits who live in a palace. Well maybe not a real palace, but certianly not in a trailer or little house of less than say 10,000 square feet.

And how does this limit your choice? Go to a Wal-Mart and try to get them to stock a product that they do not already carry. Go on, try. It is already known that the store will not stock some CDs or books that the company management does not like. Once Wal-Mart is the only store in a given area, the store chooses what you buy, not you. The deli does not carry Boar's Head brand? Too bad! You are not buying it. The store management decides to not carry Toshiba products? Guess you have to go with Sony. After all, it is not like you can go anywere else.

The store can also raise prices. And what would you do? Drive 60 miles to the next little town and go to their Wal-Mart? There are some reports that stores did jack up prices slightly once the competition was gone.

Before the time when President Teddy Roosevelt used the anti-trust laws, these same business practices were in use. Companies like Standard Oil would sell product below market cost, driving away all competition. Once the competition was gone, they would jack up prices again. The men who ran these companies became more powerful than the government of the USA, and Teddy did not like that one bit. So he went after them, and forced large companies to break apart.

Competition was then restored, and consumers were better off. In more recent times, AT&T was forced to give up its stranglehold on long distance phone service. This act opened the door to massive competition and lower rates. Consumers are better off for it.

For the exact same reason, I was dissapointed when the government lost the anti-trust suit against Microsoft. Winblows is a terrible operating system, but what other choice is there? Mac? Linux? Microsoft is still out there, using predatory practices in an attempt to crush what little competition there is - so that EVERYTHING will have to use Windows. What is good for large companies is usually terrible for consumers.

3. I know that profits are a necessary evil. If used responsibly, they are not evil at all. But the way the system is set up, it is almost impossible to use them responsibily.

Lets go back to the oil companies, and their record breaking profits. Consumers also saw record high prices. Families living on a budget found themselvs in a little bit of a crunch, and had to figure out what other family budget account(s) to loot. And for what? So some dude who owns a million shares of stock can take another ski vacation to Aspen? So managers can award themselvs a fat bonus?

I would also like to point out that the price of gas at the pump reached $3.00 a gallon way before hurricane season. Yes, refineries were damaged, and oil platforms were sunk. Undersea pipelines were also damaged. After the storms, prices actually went down - in large part because the public got pissed off. Price hikes at the pump had nothing to do with storm damage, it was all due to greed. Cost of production went up 5 cents a gallon, oil companies would raise the price by 15 cents a gallon. All BEFORE hurricane season. Prices did NOT go up because of the damage - not by a long shot.

At the same time, mergers are making oil companies larger and fewer. Was there any connection to the mergers and the price hikes? Of course there is.

4. Medicine. In America the right wing has done an excellent job spreading the idea that medicine for everyone is a bad idea. People should have to PAY for health care! Right? Otherwise the system will collapse.

Except for the little problem of Norway. They have national health care over there. And it works. People get all the treatment they require. There is no doctor shortage. There is not a shortage of hospital beds, or nurses.

Yet, people still go to medical school to obtain advanced degrees. Why?

The idea that people become doctors to make lots of money is the wrong way to look at it. How about being a doctor because you want to help people? How about being a doctor because you want to lessen suffering?

In places like Norway, doctors still do well. The job still pays decently. But since hospitals are not for profit businesses, costs are lower. The government builds the hospitals, and buys all the equipment for them. With the idea that the hospital needs to pay off stockholders gone, all that needs to be paid is the direct cost of the treatment. In America, if the hospital pays 5o cents for a pill, they bill insurance a buck. Insurance in turn bills employers, or people paying for private policies. Cost gets higher at every step. Take put the profit, and a 50 cent pill is billed at 50 cents.

But the idea of doing the same in America is just crazy. Who needs it? It will reduce the quality of medicine! The fact that it works in other places is just propaganda I suppose.

What makes it work is a strong public demand for it, and a government committed to it. Norway spends close to 10% of the nation's GDP on health care.

At any rate, the whole problem boils down to human nature. Capitalism without regulation brings out a lot of negative aspects of human nature. A system that encourages greed, in order to accumulate as much wealth and power for individuals, is doomed to fail. And it DID fail. Capitalism as Adam Smith knew it is dead. We are living on "New Deal" capitalism, and this new deal borrows heavily from the ideas of Keynes. Without the New Deal, the depression might have led to revolt.

That is, it might have led to a revolt if the government did not provide jobs working on massive projects like the Hoover Dam and so forth.

America can survive another economic change. It survived the transition from classical ecoomics (farming) to the industrial revolution and the age of trusts, the rise of labor unions, the great depression and the New Deal, and so on.

It is impossible to know when the next economic evloutionary step will happen, or what that step will look like. It is impossible to know if the next step will happen gradualy over time, or if it will be caused by some major event like another Great Depression. Nobody knows these things.

I am still putting together my unified theory of everything. I am still working out some rough edges.

Moral Decay: Part II

Once again, this is a Saurkraut inspired blog post.

Do companies have a "right" to make profit? And if so, at what cost?

AH HA! You think you know the answer to the first question, but what the hell is up with the follow up question?

Right now, the dominate world viewpoint is that companies do have a "right" to profit, providing they do so using "sound business practices". Go to any nation, and you will see the same thing. Companies making profit. It does not matter if you are in the United States, the United Kingdom, India - even China or Venezuela.

Of course, profit is good right? I mean, that is what it is all about! Profit means progress!

But lets investigate this a little deeper. How does one make profit? Well that is easy, sell something for more than it cost you to make it. If you are making cars, you take all your costs - raw materials, machinery, energy, labor, distribution, marketing, research and devlopment, and most importantly big bonuses for top executives - add all that up, then add some more on top of everything. That "some more" is profit.

So what is wrong with all that? Well, at the surface nothing. For many years I thought that this was the way it should be.

But then I thought about it for a bit. I quit burning the Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. I took business classes. And here are some questions I came up with, that I asked in various business classes - and got dirty looks from the professor.

1. Is it ethical for drug companies to reap untold profits, selling life saving pills for $10 a pop when it only costs a few cents to actually make the pill?

We will just end with that one question. Yea yea I know all about how much research costs to make new drugs. But I also know that while one company sits on patents for some chemical that can save lives, selling it only to those who can afford it while letting everyone else just have kidney failure, society is not really any better off.

And what about all this "social responsibility" bullcrap they talk about in business school? What about all this "goodwill" crap that accountants put on balance sheets as an "intangible asset"? Does any of that stuff really exist?

No. There is no such thing as social responsibility, or goodwill. Companies do not give a squirt of rat piss about any of that stuff. All that matters is increasing shareholder wealth by reaping as much profit as possible.

For example, when was the last time a major company announced a pay raise for everyone when earnings expitations were above what the market was looking for? Never that is when. But the top level executives, who really do not do anything (ever seen a guy in a suit weld anything?), take all the credit and reap all the big bonuses. Plus, they make even more once you add in stock options.

And how about the recent stunt by the oil companies? Reaping record profits while pushing prices at the pump to all time highs? Was that ethical? Was putting the entire economy at risk of inflation worth it? For them it was - they made an ass load of money. The executives, who could afford to flush gas down the toilet even if it were $20 a gallon, will get huge bonuses out of it. Do you think that any of them cared about some schlob who suddenly found it cost $60 to fill a tank? Hell no.

Do you think Wal-Mart cares about all the other small business that it kills? Hell no. And for what? So some idiots can trample grandma to get a $20 DVD player? But Wal-Mart creates jobs! Yea, a lot of part time low wage jobs that come with no benefits at all. Of course, by keeping labor costs low they keep prices low - but the hidden costs are taken on by everyone - even myself and I do not go anywhere near a stupid Wal-Mart.

Everytime any worker with no insurance goes to the County Hospital emergency room - that is a hidden cost that everyone pays. So that $20 DVD player costs a lot more than $20.

And how about goodwill? Union Carbide racked up a lot of that in India.

Now we arrive at the $64,000 question. At what point do profits become excessive? How much social responsibility should society impose on business? When will business become ethical enough that the EPA is no longer needed, because companies will see to it that enviornmental standards are enforced?

Under our system - never. Social responsibility cost money, and we already saw how profits depend on selling for more than it costs to produce. So we would end up paying for our own social responsibility anyway - unless you are crazy enough to think that companies would simply allow some of that profit margin to drop so that costs to the consumer does not change.

Left up to company executives, thinking only about their next big bonus and what they can buy with it and who would gladly market asbestos blankets to pre-schools, benzene dumping into rivers would be perfectly fine.

I do not think that our economic system can last. For all the reasons I have posted here, and more. Capitalism as we know it at this moment in time can not possibily be sustained. Anyone who seriously thinks that it can is the modern day equal to people who thought that France would ALWAYS have a king in the days of Louis XIV.

As long as profits are more important than social responsibility, and money is more important than people, ALL the social woes will only get worse.

Our Declining Values

This post was inspired by something I read on Saurkraut's blog. The post that inspired this was not about DeBeers and the diamond cartel, it was related to another post about vultures trying to steal business clients. Or something like that. Anyway, here it goes.

I just ordered Jimmy Carter's new book titled "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis". Carter wrote this book from his viewpoint as a Christian, just not as an evangelical / fundamental christian. He gives his views about the "moral crisis" in America, from a viewpoint that I simply do not have. After watching Carter's interview on the Larry King Show, and hearing comments Carter has made on other media outlets, I think that I will find myself in agreement with the heart of his book. Religous fundamentalism has taken over the right wing of American politics.

But Mr. Carter will miss the point. What is the root cause of America's moral decay? Both the left AND the right blame the same things, with only some differences in the two. They blame TV shows. They blame fart noises on the Howard Stern Show. They blame bad words in movies. They blame rap music. They blame violent video games. The right branches off and blames feminism and gay rights, while the left branches off and blames "intolerance".

But are ANY of the above the cause, or the symptom?

Rap music is NOT the cause of America's moral decline. Rap music did not destroy the family unit. Neither did drugs, or fart noises, or anything else that our leaders pontificate about for hours on end.

So what did it? What is the cause of America's moral crisis? CAPITALISM. Our system of economics is doing us all in. Rap music, and all the other "causes" that both the left and right blame problems on are just window dressing, mere symptoms of the cause.

So how can I say this? Well, because it is the truth. Lets take rap music for example. How do the rap artists show they are successful? With tricked out $100,000 trucks, private jets, way too much gold, "iced out" everything, huge homes, and so on.

And it is not just rappers that do this. Business men do it too, only they have different status symbols. Expensive bottles of wine, membership to the "exclusive" country club, and so on.

Capitalist nations thrive on money. Those who have it, get cool stuff. Those who do not have money are left out of the loop.

How did this kill the family unit? Simple. How many single income homes do you know of? I can not think of a single person in my age group that lives in a single income home. EVERYONE has to work. A single income can not possibly pay for housing, food, cars, insurance, utilities, cable TV bills, and so on.

For a long time now, couples starting new families could not rely on a single income. Both parents HAD TO work. And yes, they HAD TO work. Our economic system demands that EVERYONE produce so that they can consume and keep the engine running. And with both parents working, who looks after the kids?

And for that matter, who can afford kids? The economic realities of having kids places a lot of stress on a relationship. The kind of stress that can lead to divorce.

People, in order to feel successful, neglect to save in order to buy a new BMW and leather furnature. They buy houses that they really can not afford. They have to pay for cable TV so they can distract themselvs when they get home. Family obligations take a backseat to making money. Should you work overtime or go to that parent-teacher confrence? Most of the time, overtime wins. After all, you "need" that money.

America's values revolve around money - and nothing but money. Religion is not the basis for ANY morality in America anymore - and it has not been for some time now. There are NO ETHICS in business, other than the ethics of making money at any and all costs. The only reason why companies no longer dump toxic waste into rivers is because the EPA will fine them if they do. Left up to business, the oceans of the planet would glow with orange light at night.

Money is the end all of everything that is good and holy in America. And the ends justify the means. Whatever you do to get this money is fair game - after all you can always hire a good lawyer and get away with it. Family values, religion, God, prayer in schools - none of that crap means anything once compated to MONEY. The color of the world is green, and not because of the plants.

The moral decay will not reverse itself as long as money is the core of our value system. We can pass a law banning rap music, and nothing will chance. We can pass laws making daily prayer compulsary, and nothing will change. We can force everyone to read the bible and go to church at least three times a week and nothing will change. The FCC can ban all the fart noises that it wants to, and nothing will change.

Long ago, America decided to let business and "the market" set the course for our national morality. And look at where we are now. There are no ethics in business, there are no ethics in "the market", and now we are all wondering why there are no ethics in society.

America, and for this matter EVERY western nation facing similar problems, has allowed money to write ethics.

Any right winger has tuned out of this post long ago. After all, attacking capitalism is un-american! Why, capitalism has made this nation great! Everything we have is due to capitalism!

And this is exactly my point. Everything we have IS due to capitalism. Everything from the electric can openers, to the laptop computer I am writing this post with - is due to capitalism.

But so are darker things. The division of wealth. The gap between the rich and the poor. Money being the sole guage of success. Over-consumption. Money over ethics. Money over family. The decline of the family unit. Divorce. Children raised by after school programs. Parents unable to provide moral guidance - because they are blinded by the money they strive to hard to get. Should you lie to get a raise?

Nobody will ever say these things, because to do so in America brings the wrath of business down upon you. People call you "communist" or "marxist", and try to discredit what you say by adding the word "liberal" or "too lazy to work".

So I ask you to take a look around. Take a HARD look around. Be objective. Are terrible TV shows really causing all the problems? Is rap music really causing all the crime, or is the crime caused by the value placed on money and the things it can buy?

If you think about it, you will come to the same conclusion I have arrived at. The root cause of moral decay is our economic system.

Someone Get The Butterfly Net

What the hell is going on in Hollywood? Is there some kind of brain cell toxin is the air, or some mystery chemical in the bottled water? It seems that EVERYONE over there is totally nuts.

Now I know that artists have a historical tendency to be a little strange. I can deal with that, I suppose it has something to do with the creative process. That is why accountants are NOT actors, and actors have to hire accountants. It all works out in the end.

But then there is this.

Now we al know that Tom is a little nuts. And not just because of the Scientology thing, there has to be more going on than we know. The guy can act, he has talent. But he is crazy. I have seen a lot of Tom Cruise movies, he gets good roles and can really act the part. But then again, he thinks that someone who wrote terrible science fiction, and even asked for mental health services from the VA, discovered a method to solve any and all problems.

Then there is his Scientology buddy. Mr Saturday Night Fever himself.

This is a photo of Travolta in one of his better films, Battlefield Earth. The movie flopped big time. The movie is based on one of L. Ron Hubbard's books. John insisted on writing and producing this movie all by himself, using the powers he attained from Scientology methods. As I understand it, the "church" of scientology tried to prevent him from making the movie, and when that did not work they asked him to downplay the fact that the movie follows one of L. Ron's books and has scientology themes in it. I guess that thought that sane people might see the film and say "I paid money to see this garbage??". Of course, this is exactly what happened.

Travolta would probably say "people who do not like the file simply do not understand it". Yea right dude - it just sucked. I do not need to spend thousands of dollars to find out what is "wrong" with me - the movie blew goats.

EDITORS NOTE: I am not 100% positive Travolta wrote the script, nor am I 100% positive that any group tried to prevent the movie from getting made. I AM 100% positive it flopped however. I could research to see if the studio lost money on the film, but it is simply not worth it. The movie ranks up there with Judge Dread and Killer Clowns From Outer Space.

And finally, there is someone who went crazy more recently.

Mel Gibson. This is another crazy person. Just look at this photo, which by the way came from the BBC World Service website. The guy looks like Hussien in this picture!

As you already know, Mel last made a movie about the last 12 hours on the life of Jesus. Of course the Bible has very little to say about this span of time, Mel Gibson based his movie on the "passion plays" of the middle ages, written mainly to justify things like The Cursades and not giving the holy land back to Jewish people.

Mel also felt the need to use the dead language of Aramaic for his passion movie. Why do this? Did it add to the movie? Not really. The ONLY reason anyone in the USA went to see it was the subject matter. And how does he know what the language sounds like? Nobody has spoken it for a good thousand years or so.

So now Mr. Gibson is making another movie. This is a snippet about the movie from the BBC website.

"Apocalypto, set 3,000 years ago in central America, features dialogue spoken in an obscure Mayan dialect."

You read it correctly! THe movie title is "Apocalypto", the setting is 3,000 years ago in Central America, and all the dialog will be in an obscure Mayan dialect.

I suspect that this movie will also have strong religous themes. But I predict that it will not go over so well in America. Nobody wants to read a movie. But do not tell that to the crazy man. He might lock himself up in a spider hole and try to devlop weapons of mass destruction.

Which hollywood big shot will wig out next? Who will be the next basket case unleashed on the world?

We will find out soon. Too soon.

Thanksgiving Top 10 List

Top 10 things you might hear this Thnaksgiving that sound dirty but are not.

10. Wow! That is a huge breast!
9. It is a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
8. Don't play with your meat.
7. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in!
6. I didn't expect everyone to come at once.
5. You still have a little bit on your chin.
4. How long will it take once you stick it in?
3. You will know it is ready when it pops up.
2. That's the biggest one I have ever seen!

And the number one thing you might hear this Thanksgiving that sounds dirty but is not is......

1. How long do I beat it before it is ready?

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. And to my readers who are NOT in the United States, have a happy November 24th. Or whatever. The important thing is to remember to have a few beers no matter where you are.

Stuck In The Closet

In case you missed the South Park scientolgy episode, CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK. It is like 130 megs, so you will need broadband access. The file plays with Windows Media Player, or whatever you like better.

http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/Vault/South.Park.S09E12.DSR.XviD-XOR.avi

Bush' New Exit Strategy

This is the man who is supposed to come up with an exit strategy for the war in Iraq?

Kayak Challenge

Saturday I did not show up to work. I said to the boss on Friday "HEY! I am not going to come to work tomorrow! So there! What are you going to do about?"

Actually none of the above is true, except for the not getting to work on Saturday part. I cashed out one of my hurricane days for a days paid vacation. I went to work on Hurrine Katrina day off, Hurricane Rita day off, and Hurricane Wilma day off. That is three days off. Well two days off now. I used one up.

So what did I do? I volunteered my time, and my boat, for the Cystic Fibrosis Miami Kayak Challenge 2005. Participants had to come up with at least $150 each, which went to the Miami Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. My boat was used as a support vessel.

I do volunteer communications for a number of events, but the Kayak Challenge is something I really like to help with. I got to use my boat, and in this case I was paid for it.

This USED TO be a really nice sailboat. As you can see, it is in need of some repair. This boat is located in the Crandon Harbor, I have passed by it many times. It was a sweet boat. It is a catamaran design, and is very wide. Cats are known for their smooth and stable ride. Now it is 1/2 sunk. The engine room is probably under water, the cabin has to be totally soaked and nasty, who knows what kind of hull damage there is. This boat sunk during Hurricane Katrina, not Wilma. It has been like this since August. It is unlikely it will ever float again.

Boaters in South Floirda have to be careful. Boats like this are still all over the place. Some you can see, some are sunk. The sunken boats present a special concern for boaters, colliding with one can cause major damage. I almost hit a sunken sailboat myself!

Not all the boats sank in the hurricanes. Here is one that is still floating. Government Cut was closed because three boats like this one were docked. When more than one cruise boat is docked, Government Cut is closed to recreational boat traffic.

THis is what I was supposed to be keeping an eye on. This is one of the race participants. I think this guy won or something. He went 12 miles.

This is a bridge. Miami residents will recognize this as the Rickenbacker Causeway. It goes from the mainland to Virginia Key and Key Biscyne.

There was some rain during the event. Not a whole lot, I just got some drizzle - but I did get rained on after the event for a few minutes. These rain clouds are over Fisher Island. A cheap home on Fisher Island will still set you back several million dollars. There is no bridge to the manmade island, you have to take a ferry. People drive Rolls-Royce GOLF CARTS. Really. They have that kind of money, enough to have custom built golf carts with real Rolls Royce hood ornaments and everything.

THis photo of Downtown Miami was snapped after the rain did its thing and left. Note the nice blue sky and stuff.

This is me, sitting on my bow rail. My shirt says "Work Sucks", which is also the name of my boat. Go figure. The blue thing by me feet is the spray hood. The anchor line is all over the place, I usually keep it all nice and tidy. Neat and tidy is not really my style, but on a boat it is important to keep everything tidy. Otherwise, your lines knot up and it pisses you off. There are NEVER any "ropes" on a boat, only lines. Rope is what you call a line when it is on land.

Well that is all! I enjoyed the event, and look forward to helping out next year - HOPEFULLY with a larger boat. a 22 footer would be sweet.

Tropical Storm Gamma, And Other Stuff (How To Tell You Are In A Cult)

I will start this post off with the other stuff.

In case you missed it, South Park took on Tom Cruise and his wacky religion Scientology. It was a great episode, truly one of the best ever.

In the episode, Stan is thought to be the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard, the man who started Scientology. The secret behind the cult is told to Stan.

The secret, which is known through court records (which are public record by default) are some TERRIBLE science fiction, but then again L. Ron Hubbard was a terrible science fiction writer.

Anyway, here it is. 75 million years ago the evil Lord Xenu decided to kill off some of his alien subjects. He had them frozen, loaded into space planes that look like a DC-8 except for rocket engines and not jet engines, transported to Earth, dumped into volcanoes, and killed. The alien souls were collected and sent to mega-plex movie theaters where they were forced to watch movies. The souls were then free to wander about for a few million years till humans evolved - at which time they had a new home. The host human then believed whatever movie the soul was forced to watch. This is where all the different languages, religions, cultures, and so on come from. Get it? Good.

This, in a nutshell, is the top level teaching of Scientology. Before you are told this by someone from the "church" you have to spend years, decades even, in service. Or, be like Tom Cruise and just fork over a few million on cash.

Oh yea, in the episode Tom Cruise locks himself in Stan's closet because Stan, who Cruise believes to be the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard, says his acting is just OK. Not great, and not as good as Gene Hackman - just OK. He then refuses to get OUT of the closet. Get it? John Travolta ends up in the closet with Tom. It is a running joke for the entire episode. But unlike all the gay rumors (and who really cares if they are true or not), in this case they are both actually in a closet. A place where clothes are kept on hangers.

Now I have no idea if the Xenu story is true or not. I am not in the cult, but supposedly ex-cult members who had access to this crazy story have come forth to spill the beans. But I DO KNOW this is true - the church copyrights EVERYTHING, even images of L. Ron. Even the word "Scientology" is under copyright. They sue anyone who dares mock the church. I also know that members have to pay for just about everything. They have to pay for L. Ron's Scientology books. They have to pay for E-Meters. They have to pay for auditing, and so forth.

They also keep writings secret. Nobody can just buy all of L. Ron's Scientology books outright. You have to buy them in steps, and pay for a lot of auditing inbetween books.

Compare this to say Christianity, which readers of this blog will know by now that I do not exactly subscribe to. Are there secret books of the bible that only senior members of the church have access to? No. Can you get a free bible? Yes, just go to any hotel - the bible in the room says you can take it if you want. If you want, get in contact with the Gideon’s directly and they will mail you a bible - free of charge. If you have questions about the religion, does it cost you money to speak to a priest? No, not at all. If you go to ANY church and just ask - you can get all kinds of free stuff - bibles, song books, and stuff like that.

Yes, people ARE asked to make offerings, but this is optional. And lets face the facts folks, God does not pay the electric bill. The priest (or pastor or rabbi depending on your faith) need to eat, and buy gas, and so on. So yea, offerings are needed. The point is no christian church, or jewish temple, will say to someone "you have to give us money before we will even talk to you".

So follow my simple "is this a cult or religion" rule. IF you are asked for money up front, it is probably a scam. If you are required to believe that someone who wrote bad science fiction is a genius, it is a cult AND a scam. If you are required to listen to only ONE HUMAN who is alive today, because they are the ONLY ones who know "the truth", it is a cult and you are in serious danger.

And now for the fun part! Tropical Storm Gamma is on the way! This could be good for me, as I will get even MORE administrative leave time (paid vacation days for future time off). If I am told to not come to work on Gamma Day, I still get paid as if I were there.

I will try everything I can to go to work, and rack up a vacation day. I might get a chance to GO TO CHINA next year, and I want to do this in a bad way. My neighbors are chinese, and are planning the whole thing. They want to fill up a tour bus, and there are slots open. IF I can pull off going, I will walk on The Great Wall, among other things. My master plan would be to fly into Japan, and spend a few days there before flying to Mainland China (sorry - Hong Kong does not appear to be on the travel list).

And now I leave you with a graphic for Gamma!

AGGHHHH! It is heading in my general direction! Panic! Freak out! Run around in circles screaming something! Put on a hard hat!

Or just drink a few beers and forget about it. It will just be a measly tropical storm, nothing to worry about. Plus, I think the cone will shift even more to the south (currently the center of the cone is at the southern tip of FL, the graphic above will update as the hurricane center updates their site). Nothing at all to worry about, unless of course your roof was damaged by Katrina, Rita, or Wilma. The rain Gamma will dump could cause a lot of people with tarp patched roofs grief. Water damage is a bitch.

Bird Flu In America - CONFIRMED!

Once again, the mighty America State Run Corporate News has let us all down. Will they report that bird flu is in America? Hell no.

But I have proof that the flu is indeed in America.

Services for Donald will be held at the nearest KFC. In lieu of flowers, bring dipping sauce.

Did I Miss Something Here?

I stole this post idea from CNN.

It seems that President Bush is out to do some history re-writing of his own. The article talks about how the President has called Democrats and whoever else is making noise about the war in Iraq "irresponsible".

"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people," Bush said in his prepared remarks.

"Only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world -- and that person was Saddam Hussein," Bush added.

It seems that the President is trying to make it seem like what happened did not happen. You know, do some of that "revisionist history" stuff that according to fat drug addicted pill popping right wing radio blowhards is only done by the left.

I really like the first statement, that it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that the American people were misled. What does Bush call it when only 1/2 of the story is presented, and people draw their conclusions without knowing all the facts? What does he call it when people are fed only information that someone WANTS them to hear, while discrediting all the rest?

Lets flash back a few years. The whole world, even France, is still behind the USA in the wake of the September 11 attack. Afganistan is under occupation, with the support of the planet (sans the Taliban). Here is what I remember happening.

1. President Bush called for war in Iraq, based on the "fact" that there were WMDs there. There were bio weapons factories, stockpiles of chemical weapons, an advanced nuclear program, tons of yellow cake uranium, and all the other stuff the United States has piles of. Much "evidence" was produced to "prove" the claim

2. U.N. memeber nations such as France, Germany, Canada, and others had other evidence that did not jive with what Bush was saying. The UN called for more time to sort the mess out, and see whose evidence was closer to fact.

3. The USA refused, set a date for invasion, Bush accused everyone who was not "with us" to be "against us", and republicans changed "french fries" to "freedom fries" in the US Capitol Building lunch menu.

4. The USA lost the support of the rest of the world, and went along with the invasion plans according to schedule.

5. None of the "slam dunk" evidence was found, so the story was changed to "we are spreading democracy to oppressed people".

6. Anyone who dares point any of this stuff out today is accused of sending mixed signals to "the enemy", and of "re-writing history".

Bush also points out that Democrats voted for the war. Well yea, they were given evidence hand picked by Bush to make his case. Evidence from UN member nations was to be ignored, for it was wrong.

In otherwords, congress WAS misled. Not just Democrats, but Republicans too. And the people. And America's volunteer fighting force. All were misled by the Pied Piper of DC.

And now for a little photo collage.

"Yellow cake" uranium. Have you seen any? None was found in Iraq. Bush said it was there.

Mission Accomplished indeed.

Lies to the UN - or "making a case for war". Powell was highly respected in the UN before this event. None of the slides he had turned out to be true. We should have asked France, they could have told us.

Aluminum tubes, which were going to be used to enrich uranium. Except that the tubes were of the wrong design to make effective enrichers, and there was no yellow cake uranium discovered. Also, no evidence of any other part that would be required to build a machine that could enrich uranium has been found.

So who is re-writing history here?

Pat Robertson, Shut Your Pie Hole!

You can always count on Pat Robertson to do one thing - open up his noise hole and make a total ass of himself in the process.

Now it takes real talent to say something stupid everytime you speak. Very few people can pull this off. The best I can do is pull off a 20% "say something stupid" rate - and that is if I make an effort.

So what did The Patster say this time? First some background information.

Very recently, as in the most recent election day, a rural Pennsylvania town gave the boot to all 8 members of a school board because the board decided to incorporate "intelligent design" theory into science classes. This pissed off the voters, so they fired the entire board and hired another.

Now for Pat Robertson's take on this action. He warned the residents that disaster may strike because they "voted God out of your city".

Here are some more comments he made.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."

And

"God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever," Robertson said. "If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."

Someone ought to tell Pat that nobody voted out "God", they voted out a bunch of PEOPLE who wanted to mix theology / philosophy into science class. You do not teach spanish in english class, you do not teach history in math class, and you do not teach philosophy in science class. Duh.

And as for calling on Darwin for help, what kind of crap is that? What does it say about the God he believes in? Should we sacrifice chickens or something to keep hurricanes away? Were all the people killed on September 11, 2001 athiests? Were the people who died on the russian submarine Kursk calling out for Charles Darwin? How about when a tornado flattens a church? What does that mean? That the church had a huge Charles Darwin stained glass window?

Pat Robertson has also said some other great stuff. Like for example, calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez - the President of Venezuela. Would this make him a terrorist? That is that we call people who get on TV and call for the assassination of ANY American president. Did God tell Robertson to call for the murder of another human being?

But that is not all folks! He also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Witchcraft? Kill their children? The idea that women can be independant causes all these things? And does the man actually believe in witchcraft? I thought all that flying around on a broom and making potions from eye of newt and wing of bat went out with the 1500s. Get real man.

And lets not forget that he also called for the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. At least according to this article in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinal.

He also predicted that Walt Disney World in Orlando Floirda would be flattened by tornados / hurricanes (aka "God's wrath")because Disney sells admission tickets to gay people. Last time I checked, none of the hurricanes that hit FL did very much damage to Disney. In fact, I do not think that any real damage was caused.

So there you go people. If you live in Dover Penn, expect it to rain toads soon. Feminism will turn all women into witches. Nuke the State Department. After all, Pat Robertson has spoken!

Normally I do not wish smite on people, but in this case I will make an exception. I would like to see every property that Pat Robertson get flattened by various natural disasters. Not his neighbors, just his. Like a tornado that only hits one house in one city or something else that just never happens. Then lets hear what comes out of his blow hole.

Perpetuating Stereotypes

We all know about stereotypes. Like for example all rednecks are toothless or all chinese people wear hats that look like a gong. Stuff like that.

Where do these stereotypes come from? Are there any rednecks that have a full set of teeth? Of course there are. Do all chinese people weat gong hats and have buck teeth? Of course not. That is just silly.

But we all know that these stereotypes live on. And to some degree, they are "true". By this I mean that if I scour the deep south I can find a white guy who wears the same John Deere hat every day, chews tabakee, drives an old beat up Ford F150, wears a big ass Texas belt buckle, and has no teeth. This guy perpetuates the stereotype - totally by choice. He could wear some other hat you know.

Other stereotypes are created by parents, and installed into their children at an early age. Take this story for example, from The Miami Herald (to see it you have to click the link then click the top link on the google page, otherwise you have to register for the Herald site). In case you are too lazy to click the link, I will summarize it for you. Some parents forked out $500,000 for their daughters Bat Mitzva. This is NOT in pesos folks, this is in US dollars. One half of one million dollars. For one party. Here is a picture of the girl with her dress that cost more than my truck cost when I bought it with only 20 miles on the odometer.

This dress costs $27,000 US dollars. My truck was only $23,000 when it was brand new in 2001 (it is a 2002 model by the way). This dress, which is nothing more than cloth, cost more than my friggin vehicle. For those into such things, this is a Dolce & Gabbana gown. And that is not all! Oh no! The parents are also forking out the spread to have hip-hop artists come to the party to perform live. A DJ is not good enough for this girl.

The theme for the party is billed as "Butterflies And Bling", but I have another theme idea. "My Parents Are So Stupid That They Paid For All This Crap".

Once again, they are going to blow 1/2 a MILLION dollars on one party.

Now what stereotype are they installing in this girl? Humm lets see here, Bat Mitzvah - that means she is jewish. $500,000 party, that would make any 13 year old girl think she is the princess on Monaco or something. See where I am going on this one? You probably can.

Now before I get hate comments about how important the Bat / Bar Mitzvah is to a jewish family - I am aware of the significance. I am just saying that a perfectly good party can be had for less than $500,000. I would think that a mere pittance of $20,000 would create a pretty nice party, and leave $480,000 that could be donated to Habitat For Humanity or Doctors Without Borders or something. A house will last for more than one night.

How is this girl going to think when she is older? That she just deserves a new Bently every 5 years? Do you think that she will be rather high maintenence? Do you think she will nag whoever is dumb (and rich) enough to marry her into an early grave? Will she live up to the rich spoiled jewish girl stereotype? You tell me. Remember that for her 13th birthday party she is getting a $27,000 gown - and by the time she is 16 it will not fit her anymore. This means it will probably only be worn once.

I will write this down now, and even carve it into stone. I do not care HOW MUCH money I come into, there is no way in hell I would spend $500,000 on a 13th birthday party. No way. You want a $27,000 gown? Start flopping Whoppers when you are 8.

Who is to blame for creating this perpetuating stereotype? Whoever is laying out that $500,000.
Parents, please. Do not allow the same thing to happen to your kid. Break the stereotype cycle. If you do not, nobody will. Lets rid America of all this stupidity.

Election Results

The lazy one will admit one thing right now - before I go off the deep end. I did not vote on Tuesday. The powers that are would not let me vote. Most of Miami-Dade County had nothing to vote for. As far as I am aware, the only things up for a vote in Miami was some lame crap about forming more cities and stuff. Since I do not live in any area that wants to incorporate, there was nothing for me to vote on.

I would vote NO for any measure that would turn my area into a city, as opposed to just part of Dade County at large. This city movement, started by wealthy folks who did not want to share their tax money with poor people who smell like department store perfume and cologne, invariably end up the same.

A bunch of old fart condo commandos take over, then start to tell people like ME that my boat is ugly and hurting property value and that I should keep it behind a tall fence that I can not build unless I file 500,000 permits and promise to only paint the fence one of 4 approved colors and then when my permit applications are not approved I have to pay out my ass to keep the boat at a marina and I can not afford that so I have to sell it then I go postal at a town hall meeting and end up on the 11 PM news.

The city movement has spread from the snooty upper crust areas, like a foot fungus spreads from one toe jam to another. Now, the cool thing to do is form a city so you can say "I live in the city of Royal Palm Stuffed Up My Ass". And so that some condo commandos can harass innocent boat owners with all their new code enforcement crap they pull out of somewhere the sun never shines.

Anyway, the post results for the rest of the nation is in. And here is my expert commentary.

1. New Jersey GOOBERner race: The Democrat won. The previous GOOBERner is also a Democrat. Yet, somehow it is being hailed as a major victory for the party. But is it? Did the guy win because people are backlashing against the neo-consertive movement, or just because New Jersey is slightly to the left. I think that the answer lies in who ran. The winner ran on a very middle ground platform - in other words, he is a moderate. Most people in the USA are also moderate. So he won. Go figure.

2. Virginia. Once again, a moderate democrat won. Now this race is far more important than New Jersey. Why? His Royal Highness, The Baron Of Oil, Bush made a last minute stop to stump for the republican guy. And the republican guy STILL lost. Virginia is part of the south, Robert E. Lee himself was from there. In 2000 and 2004 it was a red state. Like China, only without the yellow commie star.

Of coruse, in this case the former gooberner was a democrat, just as in New Jersey. But in this case, Bush obviously thought that his stumping would help push his guy over the top. Polls had the race at a dead heat. But the results handed a fairly solid victory to the democrat guy. If this is not evidence that Bush is damaged goods, with his war based on BS and his oil companies writing our energy policy and stuff - I do not know what is evidence. To go from a dead heat, to a solid victory for the other guy AFTER the president stumps for you is not exactly good news for the republicans.

But I think they key here is MODERATES. If the democrat party learns anything, it will be to run moderates in 2008. The consertive movement is over-run by people far to the right. Very far. And voters seem to not be very happy about the results.

3. Texas votes to ban any form of gay unions, no matter what they are called. No marriage, no civil unions, and so forth. This does not shock me at all. Not even a little bit. It was TEXAS we were talking about here. Marriage is holy! It is a pact before God! Till death do you part!

Meanwhile, at least 50% of these holy pacts before God end in divorce. And where do all the church going folks go to get their divorces? To the court house. What is "made before God" can be ended in a totally un-religous civil proceeding far away from any church. How can this be? Is this possible? Can the laws of man undo what is made by God? Apparently it can - but ONLY when a marriage between a man and a woman is what we are talking about!

I still say that marriage is a legal contract. You can have all the church weddings you want, you can have the Pope himself fly from Rome and marry you, but without the license from the STATE it does not mean beans legally. People get married all the time in a court house, skipping the whole church thing. And these man-woman marriages are just as valid, until someone files for divorce.

Why so many people feel like gay marriage is a threat to them is a mystery to me. Maybe all the manly Texas voters think that if gays can get married, they will decide to be gay and divorce their wife for some guy named Ted.

And what would happen if gay marriage had a lower divorce rate than normal man-woman made before God marriages? Why, that would be terrible!

4. Califirnia. They voted for something. Actually, they voted against something. Arnold "The Governator" wanted the things passed - voters said no. And nobody outside of California cares. It is unlikely Arnold will win re-election if he runs.

So there you go. My personal take on election day 2005. A little late, but then again I am lazy.

My Thoughts On Isolationism And Stuff

I can still remember the 2000 election. Sort of that is. I can remember that there was an election, and that there was some kind of minor problem in Floirda. I also remember something about not having much of a choice - both people running were white and both had more money than most Americans will ever see even if they live 10 lives. One was a goon, the other was a goober. Some choice huh?

The guy who ended up winning by like 50 votes ran on a "put America first" platform. Isolationism. Screw the world, we do not need those jokers. We can do without the whole lot of them!

But there was a problem. We can not do without "them". In fact, we need "them" more than anyone else wants to think about.

First off, we must have their oil. Domestic production is just not enough. And if we increased production, domestic reserves would run dry faster than the only Shell station open in Miami after a hurricane. Then what would we do? Life without my Escalade? I would rather die!

We also need their stuff. Nothing is made here. Well I will take that back, I do have a neck tie made in the USA - from 100% imported silk. The tie was "assembled" here, but the raw material was actually made someplace else. The tag says the silk was imported from Italy - which is kind of amusing seeing as how Italy had to import the silkworms from China at some point. I am still trying to figure out how Italy gets silk to export to the USA.

So we need The Middle East, Italy, and China. And Japan. We need those guys too. They make good hybrid cars. And while we are talking about cars Mexico and Venezuela have fairly large oil reserves - so lets add those guys to the list. Greenland will be a good place to get ice, and Iceland has some cool golf courses, so they are on the list too. England has some fantastic beer. And so on.

Now lets look at where we are today. Electing a president who originally ran on the isolationist platform worked out great huh? Not only does the world love us, but things could not be better at home! Finding a good job is as easy as finding water in a swamp, and the whole world looks towards America for leadership.

No nation can isolate itself anymore. Those days are gone. No longer in the Atlantic Ocean, or even the mighty Pacific, enough to allow the USA to ignore the rest of the world. A commercial jetliner can cross the Atlantic in only a few hours. I can fly to Germany in less time than it would take me to drive to Atlanta Georgia. If I start driving at the same time the jet pushes back, and if I do not ignore the speed limit signs.

America can not produce all the stuff the economy needs within out own borders anymore. We need imports. And imports, by default, come from someplace else.

But it is not enough to just import stuff. Stability is also important. This is why the UN is in place. The idea is that a strong international body can prevent wars before they start by providing stability in hot regions. Instability leads to unpredictible interruptions in supplies of imports, and that is no good to a nation that must consume to survive.

But look at what the consertive movement had done to the UN. It has made the UN the enemy. Remember the 2004 election talk, that John Kerry would "ask the UN to rubber stamp any US action"? As opposed to what? Not asking? Ignoring them totally? Pissing on the views of every other nation, then expecting them to kiss our ass afterwords? The world does not work that way. We had 100% world support, even the support of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez (who are really the same people by the way, except Fidel is older) after 9-11. And what about now? What happened to all that support? Where is it now?

Flushed away - all because the isolationist "we will go in alone" mentality. So we went in alone, and then act surprised because nations who opposed the action in the first place will not send in troops to help. Would we send US troops if Canada decided to invade Greenland after the USA voiced objections? Probably not.

Should the USA be "the world police"? No. I never said that. The world police BS was coined by the consertive movement in an effort to undermine the UN, and push the USA towards an isolationist agenda. We are so concerend about terror and phantom weapons in Iraq that we started a war (or a "police action" if you will - seeing as how our goals changed from finding the weapons we sold to Iraq in the 1980s to liberating the people from a criminal leader) and yet we totally IGNORE real acts of terror in other parts of the world that has less oil.

I am saying that the USA needs to be PART of the world police, but not the only part. Is it fair for any one nation to "go in alone" and take on the entire cost, both in money and the loss of life, by itself? No it is not. Nations should work together, towards a common goal of stability. A united planet is far more powerful than ANY individual nation. Isolationism tends to lead towards decisions that undermine unity.

So what places are we ignoring? Somalia for one. Pirates attacked a cruise ship - with US citizens on board - using machine guns and RPGs. These same pirates have also prevented UN ships bringing in humanitarian aid from docking. Notice how the media is being careful to NOT call the pirates "terrorists"? Has the mighty USA lifted a finger to stabilize Somalia? No, we cut and ran, under the same republican controled congress we have now, when the terrorists shot down some military choppers. Mind you - these are the SAME people saying that cut and run is the wrong thing to do now - but back then when an evil Bill Clinton was president cutting and running was a great policy. After all, the military had no business over there anyway. What could a bunch of camel jockeys possibly do to us anyway? There is no way terrorist could strike the USA and take down any tall buildings! No way! Impossible! Keep our military right here, let the UN sort out its own problems without us! Kick the UN out of New York. And so on.

And back then, they did not call the terrorists in Somalia terrorist either - they were all "warlords" or "tribal warlords" or whatever. But not terrorists! Nope - no terrorism at all over there! Not even a little bit. Just some pirates and stuff. Send em some rum and some Jolly Roger flags and they will be happy.

Another editors note. When the Blackhawks were shot down, public support was NOT behind a war, so it is highly unlikely that Clinton would have escalated things over there even with congressional support. And without a supportive public, congress members who wanted to get re-elected would NOT support a war. So it was not all the fault of the republicans that the USA allowed terrorists to shoot down military aircraft and get away with it. Democrats who wanted to keep their job were also calling for the USA to get and split. At the time popular support was calling for that line of action. Gas was cheap, the economy was good, jobs were around just waiting for people to apply, and people were just starting to get on this thing called "the internet". Nobody wanted a war. Nobody thought that terror would ever get to America. And even if we were told that there was this guy in a cave in Afganistan planning to attack The Pentagon and The World Trade Center, would you have believed it? Would you have thought that some guy in a cave without electricity could do anything to Fortress America? I would not have. The 9-11 attacks were so far outside of mainstream thinking that not even Hollywood, the guys who brought you a movie about oil drillers saving the planet from a huge space rock, could not have thought of it. If they had thought of it, you can bet that some cheezy action movie would have been made - with extra explosions and staring Van Dame as the good guy and The Rock as Osama.

It is just another example of why isolationism will always fail as a national policy. It ignores the fact that the planet is a pretty small place. Anyone who reads this can be anywhere in the world in a matter of a day or two at the most. The oceans are no longer an effective barrier. Problems in some far away place, even a dirt poor far away place that ends in STAN, can find its way to America. We need a strong UN now more than ever. but first the USA needs to decide to be a MEMBER STATE of this UN, and not some BULLY STATE that tries to just tell everyone to do what we say or kiss our ass.

After all, it was the United States that invented the United Nations! It is time to seriously think about re-joining it.

Bush In South America

Has anyone reading this blog seen the footage of Bush in South America? Some of it is classic.

For instance, I saw a press confrence where Bush had his nose SO FAR up the President of Argentina's ass that I am surprised he could still breathe. I do not know if it was funny or embarassing.

Of course, he has to kiss someone's ass. His image in South America is pretty bad. For some reason, people in South America seem to think that the USA would see the whole region in poverty, and then build a tall wall to close off our borders. Of course, they also think that the USA would just love to rape all the natural resources in the process. All the oil in Venezuela, all the trees in the Amazon, the gold and other shiny metals and pretty rocks - all that stuff.

Now why would they think this? It is not like the USA has exported any wars to Central and South America. It is not like American demand for cocaine, and the government's "war on drugs" has not ruined Colombia. It is not like the USA never armed a bunch of rebels so they could overthrow some government we did not like - just to have to arm some other rebels when the first band of rebels set up a government we did not like either.

Oh wait, all those things did happen? OOPS! Forget I said anything. The truth is that OUTSIDE Miami Floirda, where I live, nobody gives a rats ass about anything south of Texas. That is the American way. Screw up things overseas, then pretend that everything is OK. The history of US policy towards Central and South America is pretty clear.

And what would that policy be? Just ask any redneck what they think about Central and South America. Once they stop yelping about how the Confederate States will rise again and realize that South America does NOT mean "the south", but actually means everything south of Panama - you get the answer. "There ain't nothin down there but beaners and wetbacks, we ought to wall off the border to protect jobs!". That, in a nutshell, sums up the problem. For at least 200 years, the USA saw Mexico and everything south of Mexico as beaner land. Our playground to do with as we want, without having to worry about it. Do not like the government of some small Central American nation? Arm rebels! Start a civil war! Problem solved!

But not exactly. It is our problem. This might shock many Americans, but people in Latin America are NOT dumb. They can do things like read and write. They can follow politics. They can see what is going on in the nations they live in.

Bush has done little, if anything, to improve America's image down south. In all the time he has been president, this is his FIRST trip to South America. Yet he claims now that good relations with Latin America is "important". So important he can go to Texas, but not to Mexico. And certianly not to Argentina or Brazil.

So now, at this Free Trade Confrence, he has to do overtime ass kissing. Super mega extra heavy-duty ass kissing. My guess is that it will not work.

Meanwhile, Chavez can always be counted on to clown things up a bit. He is pretty much pulling a carbon copy of what Castro did in Cuba. Of course he would not have been able to pull this off if there was NOT a huge disparity between the rich and the poor - but that is another issue. The guy is a clown. Bush makes a speech, Chavez holds a rally. It is like he is in some sort of competition or something.

And the best part of all this - the part that proves what I am saying is correct - the USA press. Bush will make a speech about the free trade thing and what does his own press ask? "Can you comment about Scooter Libby". All that premium ass kissing, with the President of Argentina standing right there, and the American Press ignores it all.

This did not really surprise me. I told you that the majority of America does not care about anything south of the tall wall that people in the USA think will instantly solve all our problems. As if all the problems in America are caused by people that do not speak english.

Marine Salvage Laws

Anyone know about marine salvage laws for Florida? Someone told me about a Wilma damaged sailboat with a sign on it that reads "FREE SAILBOAT". It is quite large, around 40 feet.

I am going to take a gander at it soon. If it looks like it is worth the effort, I might just have the thing towed to a dry dock and commence the repairs.

But first I need to know more about salvage. Leave comments if you know anything about either salvage OR what it takes to repair a large sailboat.

Economics Of A Hurricane

Today we will talk about the economics of this hurricane season, and then discuss why it might not be a good idea to buy a house.

Now of you read Econo-Girl's blog, and you should, not all of this will be new to you. But read on anyway, at least some of it will be new.

First let us examine this rabid housing market. EVERYONE thinks that they are going to make a fourtune in real estate. After all, it is super easy! Just do whatever it takes to buy a property - any property - and watch it grow in value by 20% per year! Then sell the property and keep the profits. You can quit your job! You can turn $5000 and a good credit history into a $1,000,000 in just a year or two.

But there is a problem. A big problem. Speculators, the uneducated who watch those late night TV infomercials featuring scantly clad chicks, fancy cars, and huge mansions, have flooded the market with artificial demand. They buy buy buy, thinking they will sell sell sell later for huge profits. The result is that housing starts are "up", which drives up prices - and higher prices encourage devlopers to build more.

As if it were that easy to be rich. And if it were, do you think that the guy who "discovered" this would tell you? Would you want to sell maps to your gold mine? Yet people still think that the "secret" is something that only belongs to them.

And that is not all. The demand for building materials shoots up, which in the end makes the price of the building go up. Everything costs the construction compant more - PVC pipe, fiberglass insulation, copper pipe, cement, wood, even nails. What costs the devloper more ends up costing the buyer even more, once the profit margin is factored in.

But people keep buying, thinking that they will be in debt now but in 5 or so years their home will be worth so much more that they will be able to either sell it for a windfall OR use some of that equity built up to get a better rate from the bank. And it would all work, except for one pesky little fact. At this point, in many places, the median income can not buy the median priced house. House prices can not possibly continue to grow at the hyper inflated rate people think it will unless WAGES also increase by the same rate.

But if wages go up by that rate, inflation will skyrocket. A loaf of bread would end up costing $20, and people will still not be able to afford to buy houses.

What does the hurricanes have to do with this? It is all about demand. There will be a whole lot of unexpected demand for building materials. For one, just because of South Floirda and the two hurricanes, thousands of people need new roof tile. The wait list is at least one year. And that is assuming that the supply is available - the one year is just due to labor shortage.

Almost ALL of New Orleans has to be rebuilt. This will place even more demand on building materials. Then there are the projects that were planned even before all the hurricanes and stuff. In short, the unexpected demand will cause unexpected price increases which will mean unexpected rises in housing costs.

In Miami, there are a lot of high rise projects under construction. Some of these projects are already pre-sold out. The buyers are almost all speculators, some of who have bought multiple units. But as construction materials go up in cost the builders are going to ask for more. The buyers will probably sue to back out of the contract, or to force the builder to sell at the contract price. The builder, being in this game to make money, will have to cut costs somewhere (like in labor for example) or declare themselvs bankrupt, leaving a 1/2 build condo highrise.

But even if the projects are completed, prices will still be pushed up, leaving the question of who will the buyer be? Who will the speculator sell to? Can you afford a $500,000 condo? I can't.

What could end up happening is a glut of unsold units, as buyers back out of the condos due to the price increase. A glut of unsold units will tend to drive prices down. People who buy with the idea of short term profit will end up loosing. There will be foreclosures. Banks will start to loose money. Interest rates will rise as banks try to recover losses. Intrest rate hikes will put even more pressure to lower the price sellers can get.

Long term planners will survive all this. People who bought 10 years ago will never loose their money, unless prices fall to some unreasonable level (houses in major markets will not loose 50% of their value!). But if prices fall even 5%, the interest only loan people will be screwed.

This would be the bubble pop we have all heard so much about.

Our economy depends on waste and destruction to thrive. Why don't they build cars to last 50 years? Simple! They want you to buy a new car every 5 - 8 years (or even sooner!). If people only bought one car and drove it for their lifetime, what would Toyota and Ford sell? Toasters? Waffle makers? This is another reason why war makes so much money. Stuff blown up means it has to be rebuilt - and this means jobs and the need to buy new stuff. Also people need to be hired to build the bombs and stuff. And when people die, it means they do not have to be paid anymore or given benefits. Another slot opens up for some poor person to get a job.

The hurricanes of the 2005 season will help pop the housing bubble. They will not be the only reason, but the upward pressure in building material costs will not help matters.

But even if all this is wrong, one thing is not. Prices can not possibly keep climbing at the rate people expect them to. Something has to give.

One more thing. People ARE going to find that their insurance settlement check might not be enough. Estimates the insurance companies will get are based on current costs - NOT the future costs once the full demand for S tile hits the market.

Already, roofers in South Florida are not taking any more work orders. Tons of blue tarps are visible on homes. Adjustors will stop by, and cut claim checks based on the damage they see at that time. Homeowners who are on a 1 year waiting list will face the reality of a blue tarp roof for the next hurricane season. They will also have to worry about more roof damage due to the elements over that one year.

Insurance premiums will go up, which could lower prices. If the value of the dollar continues to fall, prices for goods and services will go up. The rise in prices could scare the Federal Reserve into seeing inflation triggering interest rate hikes. Rate hikes make borrowing more expensive, and making borrowing more expensive tends to lower the price of homes.

If you think that any of this is not true, just ask yourself this. Who is my buyer. Is your buyer someone who can afford a house payment of $2,000 per month? Well guess what - if premiums go up will your buyer suddenly be able to produce more money? If not, where will the money for insurance come from? If you guessed out of the cost of the house mortgage - you guessed right. Your buyer will still have $2,000 per month - it is just that the insurance companies and bank will get more of that $2k per month - leaving the seller with less.

All these factors lead me to conclude the following. Speculation short term real estate buying is a bad idea right now. Long term buyers will be OK, but they could realize some loss in the short term. Interest only loan buyers will get screwed the most. If you bought a home with the plan to live in it, you will be fine as long as you are NOT holding an interest only loan.

If you do not own a home yet, hang on. A buyers market could be closer than anyone thinks. Thanks in part to Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

Cooking With Lazy Iguana

This is a great story.

Today I decide to go to the supermarket to buy some food. I get there only to find that ALL the dairy products are pretty much gone, along with all the meat. There was no yogurt, no butter, no cheese, no frozen foods, very little produce, and so on. They had to throw it all out because of the lack of power thing. The supermarket must have stank something terrible when they opened it up.
My master plan was to buy some iguana food for Spaz, and some hamburger helper for me. But there is no hamburger. So I had to settle for tuna helper.

Spaz will be eating bananas, yellow squash, and zuchini tomorrow. There were no collard greens.

Anyway, I score a 1/2 gallon of milk (the ONLY dairy product on the shelf) and a couple of boxes of tuna helper. I get home and start to read the directions. I had a stick of butter, so no problem there. I just bought milk, no problem there. I have 4 cans of tuna, so that is under control. And I have water. I have everything for a feast of epic proportions.

But then I get lazy. Apparently, you have to boil some stuff , transfer it to another container, then bake it. That means getting two pots dirty. This is NOT acceptible.

So I find a nice Pyrex dish that will hold all the slop. Then I place the Pyrex dish on the stove top, and add the milk and butter. Then I turn in the heat. I figure I will just cook the slop on the stovetop, then toss the whole mess into the oven.

Next I open up two cans o tuna (twice the amount called for) and add the water. Then I add the sauce mix. Then I go to stir all the mess.

The dish then EXPLODES. Instantly. No ticking or anything. Just shards of Pyrex, and a huge mess on the stove. The milk burns onto the hot smoothtop eye, and the cats all come running because they can smell tuna frying.

2 cups of milk, plus 1.5 cups of water, 2 cans o tuna, 3 tablespoons of butter, and a packet o cheese sauce. All over the place. Dripping and running and splashed on the friggin wall. Meanwhile, I am standing there with a fork trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

On the positive side, my gin and tonic survived. No icky tuna helper got into it.

So now I am out one tuna helper kit, 1/2 of my cans o tuna, one pyrex BAKING dish (apparently you can not place it on the stovetop), and most of my butter.

Good thing I bought two boxes o tuna helper! Time to start over.