lexicography.com

I lived through it; but could someone explain to me how President Nixon imposed wage and price controls? And corporations followed it without court challenge? What legislation allowed it, the price control act of 1972? Where is authority in the Constitution granted to the Federal government in whole to set wages and prices? How did that authority get solely vested in the office of the President?

Man we have surely seen worse times.

The pictures of innocent women reduced to crying and beging for their lives before a camera flanked by men with arms is - - - shameful.

It is simply shameful. They are shameful people, attacking and killing defenseless women. They should wear the hajib.

Markets went up.

In this modern world, when your enemy stands clear and exposes what he wants, it can be a good thing. Only question is the reaction. Forall of us.

An observer of the MSM would conclude a few summers ago that shark attacks on swimmers suddenly skyrocketed. Surely, given the MSM coverage, shark attacks were abnormally high. The media never presented facts about the number of attacks that summer in relation to historical data. There was one spectacular attack at a time that there was little competing news and everyone’s antenna was up about shark news and the next inevitable incident immediately drew headlines.

Reminds me of the time after one spectacular school shooting, that the local news featured a story about a shooting “near a school” when the shooter, the victim and everything about the story had no connection to schools or schoolchildren in any way other than geography. The antenna was up about shooting and school and the wire services were parsed for those words.

Mine tragedies are bad, but should politicians be setting legal safety policies based on media mob psychology? Evey wire story that has the words “coal mine” in it is now considered for national attention. Is mining the most dangerous occupation in the US?

America’s Most Dangerous Jobs
Job Number Of Fatalities Fatality Rate*
Timber Cutters 105 122.1
Fishermen 52 108.3
Pilots 230 100.8
Structural Metal Workers 47 59.5
Extractive Occupations 69 53.9
Roofers 65 30.2
Construction Workers 288 28.3
Truck Drivers 852 27.6
All Occupations 5,915 4.3

All data for calendar year 2000. *Deaths per 100,000 employed. Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor

America’s Most Dangerous Jobs - Forbs.com

Clearly timber men, pilots and fishermen are about twice as likely to die in an occupational accident than miners. Where is the legislation? Over eight hundred truck drivers die in work related accidents per year compared to fewer than 70 “extractive” workers. If the world were just, I could imagine the TV coverage of the widows and children of 18 wheeler jockeys played up close for a few months. There would be ten times the number of sad people. Facts and actual human tragedy figure little in this game. If you are bit by a shark in the summer of 2006 there are no cameras. If you expire in a coal mine in 2007 the media may have moved on and the ten minutes granted to the family of a co-worker and the hour dedicated to mine safety in January 2006 might be out of your reach forever.

Political decision making is like mob action. It is irrational, subject to chance, inefficient, ineffective. Why anyone would want more spheres of human decision making and resource allocation relegated to politics is beyond my ken.

Sometimes a throwaway word reveals more than the the most reasoned argument.

But this last week of Senate hearings has been so absurd it may bring the whole system into disrepute: Big-time Democrats are out there dancing for dollars in a cause so obviously non-viable that their media buddies feel obliged to signal that it’s merely a charade. Does that satisfy anybody? If you were one of the elderly feminists at NOW, would you take kindly to hearing that the Democrat bigshots don’t believe any of this shtick, it’s just a routine they have to go through to keep the little ladies happy?

Mark Steyn

See what I mean? If you need a hint is it the “elderly feminists at NOW” part. There are no young feminists. Media pays inordinate attention to the old feminist guard as they pay inordinate attention to the last proto-Communist, but there are no more of them, thank God.

How Congress Will Exploit The Abramoff Scandal

Look for Congress to use the Jack Abramoff scandal as another excuse to restrict free speech in America. He steered $1.5 million to Democrats in Congress and $2.9 million to Republicans in recent years.

Already, Congress is yakking about “reform.” That is code for further insulating congressmen from the public. In 2004 only one of the 26 senators seeking re-election was voted out.

What I was saying

I have always liked diesel automobiles. As a [relative] youngster I vacationed in Europe and thought their smoke belching vans were the best. Forty five miles per gallon. If there is a nuclear war or societal breakdown, I would be able to refill my gas tank from any home heating oil tank for centuries. No tune ups or spark plugs.

Yesterday I drove my little sportscar, carefully I might say, over a huge pothole and wrecked one of the low profile summer tires. You cannot replace one tire on this type of car. OK, all four of them are shot but buying four tires for a car I do not like irks me. I cannot proceed with my plan to get an exotic because I decided to take a large risk with my business and there is no room for consumption in the foreseeable future. So I was ogling the Jetta diesel.

Now in my past I had a federal government job and the salary was slim but the travel reimbursement was OK. I had a VW Rabbit, gas, almost bought a diesel. I made as much in travel reimbursement as salary and I always regretted not buying the diesel. Could have banked an extra $50 a month with that, I could.

So that old romantic appeal of the smoky, slow, dirty diesel never left me and if I cannot have the Modena F-1 I want than it is going to be sack cloth and ashes, I mean diesel.

After research it does not seem so great. Forget running on household heating oil, the modern turbo diesel needs the cleanest clear BP Special Diesel, and special crankcase oil to boot, or so I read. I thought it was a unstoppable clunker. Slow too, or so I read. Well back to the Exotic. I just have to make the business work before my eyesight and reaction time are gone. Incentive never hurt anyone.

They will simply try to insulate themselves from the effects of money while still collecting money. Once I went to a big name star’s dinner show. The person taking us slipped a large tip to the greeter expecting a good seat, but it did not work that way. The greeter took us all around the theater to show us that there were no better seats available than the ones he sat us at. He did not return the tip.

There will be regs that a lobbyist will be able to contribute or buy for or entertain but it will be illegal to expect anything in return. Lets see, individuals cannot draw the attention of other people to politicians’ actions (attack ads) and individuals or groups cannot lobbby effectively. I guess politicians will finally be able to vote their conscience, i.e., whatever they prefer insulated from petitions of any form.