Bits Bucket for February 28, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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dang 10 degrees 10 below wind chill, its cold in here…..the pitfalls of renting in a 2 family house with one boiler. The LL is probably warm so no need for the the boiler to send heat upstairs…. oh well i got blankets…
Look at it this way; at least you live in the north, where all the intelligent, civilized, happy, skinny, politically correct people are.
Ben, I laughed. Well played.
Sounds like a line from National Treasure.
That’s what my liberal betters tell me.
If it isn’t within 10 miles of an I-95 exit, it doesn’t exist.
This “”liberal”" is supporting GOP candidates for Gov & Congress. It’s not my fault the GOP purposely chose a stupid formula for awarding presidential delegates and that the GOP base has become foaming-at-the-mouth types and old people.
You would never vote GOP for president no matter who they ran. It is poison to your intelligentsia friends.
A friend I know from when I used to live in Cleveland has never been to a county in Ohio that does not have an interstate highway running through it. And as far as I know, she has never been to a county without an interstate between Ohio and Chicago or New York City. And she’s been to Europe at least ten times.
My liberal betters aren’t necessarily limited to the coasts, but they sure are limited.
“You would never vote GOP for president no matter who they ran. It is poison to your intelligentsia friends.”
Nah, I probably would’ve voted for Mittens in 08. (Of course, Mittens in 08 was different than Mittens in 12, after he became a reptile panderer.) I definitely would’ve loved to vote for Paul or Johnson as a GOP nominee in 12. I would love love love to have a GOP candidate to vote for in 16. I will never vote for Hillary under any circumstance. I’ll probably just vote for an independent.
I vote for more GOP or Independents than Dems. My _only_ Dem vote in ‘12 was Obama. I voted independent for Senate (GOP guy was running as independent). I voted GOP for House of Reps.
I can’t vote in primaries bc I am registered independent and MD is a party-only primary state.
The opposite of Democrat sure is not Republican. Their actions/votes differ only in degree.
The only thing Republican politicians (in general) have that Democrats do not? Weak knees.
They disagree on how quickly to boil the frog a.k.a taxpayers.
Paul or Johnson as a GOP nominee.
Why do they have to be nominated for you to vote for them?
Speaking of presidential elections:
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/28/rumors-persist-that-hillary-wont-run-because-health-is-worse-than-disclosed/
I’m one of those swing voters, and I won’t vote for Hillary. I haven’t seen or heard of any candidate, Demorat or Repug, that I would cast a vote for.
Downlow you would not vote for Obama if he had an R instead of a D, all other things being equal.
Yes, except for a few enclaves in NC, south of Virginia they can never solve a homicide because the DNA is all the same and there are no dental records.
I should not have to add this but that was sarcasm not my belief.
BAH!
Evil winter. It is like we have never seen snow and cold before…
—————-
Weather seems to blame for U.S. slowdown, Fed’s Yellen says
Reuters | February 27, 2014 | BY JONATHAN SPICER AND KRISTA HUGHES
Unusually harsh winter weather appears to be behind recent signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, suggesting the central bank was poised to press forward in ratcheting back its stimulus.
Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said the Fed would watch carefully to ensure weather was indeed the culprit, but she reiterated that it would take a “significant change” to the economy’s prospects for the Fed to put plans to wind down its bond-buying program on hold.
Amazingly, the weather is even slamming the Canadian economy, where they are used to some cold winters!
Canada’s economy grows steadily, but weather woes may weigh on December data
Gordon Isfeld | January 31, 2014 9:01 AM ET
The Bank of Canada is expecting October-to-December growth of 2.5%, but many economists are looking for a slightly better performance.
OTTAWA — The Canadian economy has edged ahead for five straight months, a steady but not necessarily stellar performance.
All told, though, those gains are pointing to a respectable end-of-year tally, with just one month missing from the fourth-quarter trend.
Growth was 0.2% in November, led by increases in oil and gas extraction, along with the retail sector, Statistics Canada said Friday. But closely watched — and often unpredictable — manufacturing and construction output was weak during the month.
The overall increase in gross domestic product was in line with forecasts, while still below the previous month’s pace of 0.3%.
“The three-month trend in growth is now running at a nifty 3.8% annualized clip,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“However, we look for a setback in next month’s report, as the brutal December weather — notably the ice storm in Ontario — is expected to produce a GDP decline for that month.”
…
Yes, because being 20 below instead of 10 below makes all the difference. (F not C for temperatures).
They don’t have degrees F in Canada.
That was is why I said I was using degrees F in Canada because I expected someone to challenge me but actually not after I said I was using F. While they do not use F, we do and it is not that difficult to calculate F in you know C.
I couldn’t resist. Actually anyone my age in Canada is still thinking in F and making a fast conversion to C.
It is o.k. I grew up 50 miles from the border and had to convert all the time when listening to radio and TV broadcasts from Canada.
It’s not unreasonable for cold weather to slow an economy which is 70% consumer-driven. One intelligent commentator (interviewed on PBS) expected a bit of pent-up demand to kick in when the weather breaks, but not enough to make up for losses. For example, if you need a new washer/dryer in January, you will just delay your purchase until March. But if you usually dine at Cheesecake Factory once a month, and it’s so cold in January that you want to hide in bed and save the cheesecake money for the heating bill, then you won’t make up for it by eating two cheesecakes in March. That January cheesecake is lost forever from the economy.
‘It’s not unreasonable for cold weather to slow an economy’
We get some bad winter storms here. When one is approaching, the stores are full of people stocking up. This winter is the mildest I’ve experienced in Arizona:
‘Two separate reports came out this week showing poor home builder sentiment and another dip in new housing permits and sales, both locally and nationally.’
‘Fingers are pointing at the unusually harsh winter weather — except for in Phoenix, of course — but is that really the main culprit? Many think not, and here’s why.’
‘Home builder confidence nationwide fell from a score of 56 in January to 46 in February, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index. That essentially means builder confidence went from positive to negative within one month, because index readings below 50 indicates market conditions are viewed as poor.’
‘Some might assume the cold snap would be a boost for the warmer Sunbelt and West, including Brad Hunter, chief economist and director of consulting.’
“Cold weather in the north tends to boost sales in the Sunbelt,” Hunter said in an emailed statement. “Florida builders are giddy about the cold snap.” However, builder confidence dipped during that one-month period in the South and remained unchanged in the Western region, which includes Arizona, although the West’s overall score, 63, was the highest of any region.’
‘While the Census Bureau data was not broken down to the local level, Scottsdale-based RL Brown Reports showed the Phoenix area saw a notable 26 percent year-over-year drop in new home permits in January. New home sales also dropped by about 22 percent.’
‘CEO RL Brown said that if bad winter weather actually has a significant impact on housing, the Valley wouldn’t have seen those permit and sales declines.’
‘He said potential buyer traffic keeps dropping, and for several reasons. For one, new home prices have been substantially higher than existing home prices since the downturn, which means affordability is shrinking.’
‘It’s not unreasonable for cold weather to slow an economy’
Really? With the fuel oil trucks racing all over the place the economy is slowing?
How about the roofing subs I know whose phones are ringing off the hook?
And the wiz bang plumbing outfits with their motor pools empty and service vans with the the dutch doors thrown open on every street?
And every supermarket mobbed because they’ve been pumped up full of weather-fear by the media?
And Walmart sold out of electric space heaters?
Woman…… you just don’t think.
My Canadian Red Head spent extra on heating and that is part of the “GDP”.
She also had to get a new car battery and a service call to put it in. Plus paying a fortune for the daily snow plowing of her driveway.
The big box stores are busy arranging and stocking for spring which is just a few weeks away.
People don’t lay in bed for a month, they go to work or school just like every other day.
Canada is shedding jobs horrifically. The Canadian Loonie is sick. Commodities are going down. Their numbers may come out sort of OK but it isn’t really good news if they do.
Besides, it is not a consumer driven economy, it is a debt driven economy.
Sounds like the American economy is booming, while Canada’s is tanking. What’s up with that?
Dudes raised their prices too fast during this most recent snap recovery.
That January cheesecake is lost forever from the economy.
You can buy them at Costco and save money. You can have your cake and heat it too, or at least heat your house.
we need more winter for austerity’s sake…
In you live in the East or the Midwest, you have at least two more weeks of it, so be careful what you ask for.
Well…. Try taking a dump in the port-a-john in this weather. Even using a dozen or more paper ass gaskets, my ass still freezes to the seat.
Your apartment doesn’t even have indoor plumbing?
What a loser!
He must be browsing HBB on a laptop in his truck. It’s the only way that he can be on a jobsite yet still debt-donkey almost every comment of mine within an hour of posting.
whaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Bring a doughnut.
I have a box of those…. and a bag of Cheetos.
No, an azz doughnut.
wait til this blizzard we got today moves east…when montana coughs, the midwest gets pneumonia.
Weird. It’s almost 90 degrees where I am.
Yeeeeeuck. I start complaining anytime it’s over 80.
+1. I get mighty grouchy during the two weeks a year when Portland is 90+.
Where is it 90 degrees? Australia?
Phoenix
It says 84 was their high. I didn’t see a 90 anywhere in the US. That’s why I wondered where he was.
90 in the desert southwest is about perfect.
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
Being foreclosed and evicted will never feel like a real life.
Aim, babe. You’re hooked on a “feeling”.
Does living in your rented Lexus feel like home?
Another ‘public servant’ ripping off the system…
Elections have consequences…
——————–
Watch Outraged Citizens Excoriate City School Superintendent Over $600,000 Salary
ijreview.com | february 27, 2014
In another example of local city officials grossly abusing government funds, the Centinela School District Superintendent was berated by justifiably angry citizens over his enormous salary.
The small California community has been shocked to discover that in addition to the $663,000 compensation package granted to Jose Fernandez, he also received a monumental loan from the school district of $900,000 at 2 percent interest over 40 years, even though he had already declared bankruptcy twice!
And this is just an isolated incident, right?
100 bucks a student but its for the children
Progressive Rule #34322 - If white people would do the same and rant about Blacks or Hispanics moving into the neighborhood that would be racist.
Bushwick, was initially inhabited by ethnic Dutch. Then ethnic Germans replaced the Dutch. Next ethnic Italians replaced the Germans. Then Blacks moved in in the 50’s and 60’s. Now the gentry are moving in.
Things change….
—————
Spike Lee explains expletive-filled gentrification rant
CNN | 2//27/2014
His parents still live there.
He still keeps an office there.
But it’s not the same neighborhood he grew up in, and his feelings about newcomers now inhabiting once-blighted parts of America’s most-populous city like Fort Greene slapped many people in the face after the famed director went into an expletive-laced rant during an African-American History Month lecture on Tuesday. Spike Lee on gentrification
“I grew up here in New York. It’s changed,” Lee said at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, an art, design, and architecture school. “And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? The garbage wasn’t picked up every mother******* day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. … The police weren’t around. When you see white mothers pushing their babies in strollers, three o’clock in the morning on 125th Street, that must tell you something.”
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, said the city has witnessed an enormous recovery since 2001, and the greatest change has been felt in Brooklyn, which has drawn newcomers because of its housing, access to Manhattan and improved safety.
…The new neighbors complain
“Let me just kill you right now,” Lee, the “Do The Right Thing” director, told D.K. Smith, a Brooklyn homeowner and tech start-up director, at the speech when Smith brought up the subject of the “other side” of gentrification.
And then he launched his lengthy tirade.
Nothing really newsworthy here–people really want to live in BK now, it’s not a racial issue. It’s the best borough.
Polly is cooler than any of us, bc she lived in Park Slope (BK) even before it was chic. And she paid off her law loans while living there. Impressive.
Hah! My mother’s side of the family were from Park Slope and Flatbush Ave.
Were they near the park? That’s an awesome park, more interesting than Central Park… I think quite a bit bigger, too. I think Flatbush dead-ends into the park entrance? I don’t remember though. I took the subway out there. Service is really good around there, which has driven property values sky high.
Yes, I think I have some old photographs somewhere of my mother in the Park. She used to walk through part of it on her way to school, that’s what she used to tell us, anyway. She loved the area as a kid.
She was a die-hard New Yorker. Born and raised in Brooklyn, worked in Manhattan all her working life. Even when the family moved to the NY burbs, she became a regular New Haven line commuter and kept or shared an apartment in the city. 9/11 sent her over the edge into full blown dementia.
The part near Flatbush Avenue is near Crown Heights. That area probably got bad for a while before it got really nice. That’s just a guess–a lot of my NYC geography is based on looking at the ubiquitous NYC subway maps just inside the doors of every car. I’ll admit I’ve never been to Crown Heights, I just remember hearing about the whole Al Sharpton thing.
It’s sort of difficult for many to understand how Brooklyn was back in the day. First it was a pleasant area for middle class immigrant families, second and third generation. Then parts of it got really messed up. Now it’s “gentrifying”. These things go in cycles.
But she loved NY with a passion and was involved many NY centered business and cultural efforts, in fact she did a lot for the city and also for a number of its movers and shakers, who basically just used her. We tried to tell her that, but she refused to listen. I’m just glad she wasn’t around when the NYT slapped her in the face by refusing to publish her obituary. She would have been devastated. When that sh*tty roll of used toilet paper finally goes under, I’m gonna celebrate big time.
The people who honored her was a group of Japanese people who were grateful for a trade deal that she helped to facilitate. So I have a soft spot in my heart for the Japanese, who were so kind to her.
Speaking of Brooklyn, life in post-Lena Dunham Bushwick:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/travel/shopping-sipping-and-slurping-in-bushwick-brooklyn.html
What, no sizzurp?
Liberace,
You’ve never been to Crooklyn?
Never lived in Park Slope. It was downtown Brooklyn. Not too far from Fulton Mall. Very close to Brooklyn Heights, but not in Brooklyn Heights. I shared a car service home from a summer event once with a partner. He was stunned that the cars parked in the off road spots within the complex of buildings were nice. He didn’t know that anyone in Brooklyn who didn’t own their own brownstone could have a nice car.
Joe - Have you ever tried to actually network in DC. Not just let the head hunters know you are available, but actually network. Not sure if you have ever looked for a more “interesting” job than law firm associate, but I’ve been contemplating the idea. If you have, what has been your experience? I’m assuming that college/law school related events are the best way to go, but wonder if you have other ideas.
Never lived in Park Slope.
Do Joe’s blatant lies ever stop?
Never.
Liberace is pathological.
I guess the whites are improving the neighborhood. I can see why Spike would feel upset about that. After all, it makes him look bad.
It all comes down to commute. Pretty young things in DC do NOT want to play Catch the Marc every morning, or manuever amongst squadrons of minivans ferrying precious angels to school.
Instead, urban infill is blasting ahead near dodgy metro stops. All it takes to get the developers slobbering is one medium-sized abandoned 1970’s era building with a stoney parking lot. Within a year, that land is now a shiny 12-floor mixed-use building with pergraniteel kitchens, underground parking, an Sbux, a Yuppity Yogurt, possibly a Whole Paycheck, and a “vibe.” At $1800/month for a one-bed, or $300K for a one-bed with den.
This is a new development near the Mississippi/Broadway light rail station. Studios $995, 1BR $1325-1445, 2BR $1825-2070, 3BR $2500. All of the floor plans are named after Colorado ski resorts. And they describe the neighborhood as “West Washington Park” despite being a bit far from Washington Park.
http://www.1000sbroadway.com/Apartments/module/home/is_full_version/1/
I like the way they managed to make the young models look rich, professional, AND grungy, all at the same time. Dang, I wish I could be like them. No wonder they all hang out together.
They are putting up similar designs all over SLC.
Interesting. The lobby is full of light, but the floor plans indicate that the apartments themselves are dark as hell. I guess they want the professional grungies to congregate in the lobby.
Meme - Both republicans and democrats are just the same…
Except wacko environmentalists, unions goons, gun control nuts and trial lawyers vote and give money to democrats in a 99-1 ratio
—————————-
Environmentalists champion economic ‘de-growth’
The Daily Caller | February 28, 2014 | Michael Bastasch
Environmentalists are pushing a new way to deal with global warming and overpopulation: the U.S. needs to “de-grow” its economy.
What is “de-growth”? It means forcing people to work less to make them more equal, consume fewer goods and use less electricity. Think of it like camping, but for the rest of your life.
Environmentalists at the New Economics Foundation in London and the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C. argue that cutting the 40-hour work week and using less electricity is necessary. This includes a living wage requirement and a more progressive tax code.
De-growing the economy means working less and consuming fewer goods and electricity — the foundation of modern life. Most cheap, reliable electricity that businesses and homes rely to power their everyday needs comes from sources like coal, natural gas and nuclear power — which environmentalists argue are killing the planet.
“If we had a livable wage and could each work a 20-hour week,” Assadourian said, “we’d have time to choose more sustainable options that are also better for ourselves.”
“Whether you move to a smaller house or an apartment, downsize to one or no car, or simply have fewer lattes to-go, a smaller paycheck could reduce consumption overall,” noted Sierra Magazine, a publication of the Sierra Club, which is an anti-fossil fuel and nuclear power environmental group.
Assadourian and Coote aren’t the only ones with Malthusian points of view. About a month ago, former Vice President Al Gore suggested that “fertility management” was crucial to fighting global warming and promoting development in poor countries.
But one man’s paradise is another man’s hell. Many of Sierra Magazine’s commentators did not think “de-growth” was such a good idea.
“At least you’re honest about your agenda of lowering people’s standard of living. Very few people on the Left are so honest,” one commenter said. “But as always, some animals are more equal than others. When Michelle Obama starts hanging the family laundry out to dry on the White House lawn, please let us know.”
When there are 15 billion of God’s little miracles competing for the resources of a finite ecosystem, this will happen whether you like it or not. Unless of course you’re one of the 0.1%.
I did the math on this before. If you built 100 story buildings in Texas, the entire current population of the world could live in that state with 99% open space, and the rest of the world empty. I have invited goon before to be the first to return his little miracle soul to his maker voluntarily, immediately, and by his own hand…. looks like he doesn’t care THAT much about the rest of us because he is still here posting…
‘i just wanna get some kicks before the whole sh1thouse goes up in flames’ — jim morrison
Bring an azz donut so you do not stick to the toilet bowl in the cold prior to it going up in flames.
….. or some paper ass gaskets.
>When there are 15 billion of God’s little miracles competing for the resources of a finite ecosystem, this will happen whether you like it or not
>i just wanna get some kicks
guess getting the kicks in doesn’t include resolving cognitive dissonance… care but don’t care… criticize but don’t participate… masturbate about euthanasia .. we get it…
Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. It is a problem.
That’s good but where does the food come from?
Hope and change comes to college?
Dartmouth used to be all white. Does Spike Lee know that this neighbor changed?
————————-
Dartmouth Students Claim Racial Oppression, Threaten ‘Physical Action’
College Fix | 2/24/2014
A group of disgruntled students at Dartmouth College sent an 8-page protest letter to leaders of the Ivy League institution Monday calling for reparations for what they claim is the school’s oppressive and racist atmosphere – and threatened “physical action” if their demands are not met.
The list of demands, written by “concerned Asian, Black, Latin@, Native, Undocumented, Queer, and Differently-Abled students,” include:
• Racial enrollment quotas for Black and Latino students to “at least 10 percent each”
• “Ensure that 47 percent of post-doctoral students are people of color”
• “Ban the use of ‘illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, wetback’ and any racially charged term”
• Mandate cultural competency and sensitivity training for professors
• “Ask staff/faculty to use students’ and employees’ preferred gender pronouns”
• Enroll more students in the country illegally (undocumented students); and provide them free legal assistance and financial aid
• Convert ethnic studies programs into full-fledged departments
• Incorporate into each department at least one queer studies class
• Increase the interdisciplinary academic focus on sexualities
• Enact curricular changes to force students to study social justice and marginalization in depth
• Provide gender-neutral bathrooms in every building on campus
• “Create a policy with serious consequences against hate speech/crimes”
• Create a policy penalizing and discriminating against students who use the Indian mascot
• Require school’s conservative paper give up “Dartmouth” name if they use term “Indian”
Enacting these changes and the many others listed on the lengthy demand letter, its authors stated, will “eradicate systems of oppression as they affect marginalized communities on this campus.”
“These systems–which include racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism—are deployed at Dartmouth and beyond as forms of institutional violence,” the letter states. “We demand that Dartmouth challenge these systems by redistributing power and resources in a way that is radically equitable.”
The unnamed students go on to assert that by March 24 – the first day of spring term – Dartmouth administrators must publicly respond to each item raised in the letter with “its exact commitment to each one of its demands” and that reparations that require funds “have a monetary commitment in the 2014-2015 fiscal budget.”
“If the Dartmouth administration does not respond by the indicated time, those who believe in freedom will be forced to physical action,” the letter states. “As mentioned before, this proposal is not about interpersonal interactions, but about restoring justice in an institution beset with a history of discriminatory and oppressive practices.”
When Renewables Destroy Nature
But in the first article from a forthcoming issue of Breakthrough Journal, Will Boisvert argues that bioenergy’s devastating impact on nature is typical of renewables, not exceptional. A world powered primarily by renewables, Boisvert writes, is unlikely to be environmentally friendly at all.
Consider that of the four renewable energy sources with an appreciable share of the market—large-scale hydroelectric dams, biomass, solar, and wind—the two that have scaled most significantly, hydro and biomass, are attracting intense opprobrium as the devastating consequences of their widespread deployment become impossible to ignore.
http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://theenergycollective.com/michaelshellenberger/345981/when-renewables-destroy-nature
Black hawk would love to live off the grid in a forest, but that’s not practical right now. It’s interesting that the move to renewables is taking us back top an era where we burned wood for heat and we changed the landscape for our sustainable resources.
Isn’t it easier to develop highly efficient energy sources that burn fossil fuels?
I am presently working in a rural area in the NM mountains with a woodstove as my primary heat. Live with the elks and get paid for it, man I love natural resources law, however, it means I am over hundred miles from my house but I lease this one from my employer for a $1 a year so the rent is right.
A gig in the mountains would be great. I like the sounds of nature, the fresh air, the stars at night and how about a little stream for trout fishing.
Red River is one of my favorite NM towns. The Best Western in town has a little stream running right past it.
I like the Taos area but I cannot say I am familiar with Red River. Best Western works fine with me even have their credit card for the free stays. Might just consider it, thanks for the suggestion.
Dannyboy fancies himself to be a woodsman, does he?
With the people I work with we always say a bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office. I grew up in Vermont hunting, fishing and camping, had a ten gauge shotgun when I was ten years old and my friends and I at that age would go alone into the mountains for days at time without adult supervision. Our parent’s would probably be in trouble with child protection these days but I am old school and so were our parents. Besides as well armed as we were sexual predators are not a problem. I use to carry a machete on my side to cut through brush and had a gun and my friends were equally armed.
Dannyboy fancies himself to be a junior Rambo, does he?
I was junior Rambo before there was a Rambo. My friend had an uncle that taught Green Berets, he was a WWII paratrooper. He taught us quite a lot about survival.
had a ten gauge shotgun
Actually, it was a 12 gauge, set me on my butt the first time I fired it. Was thinking about my age when I wrote that. Taped a rubber recoil pad to it to prevent any future embarrassment.
Whatever. I was milking farm-fresh Pepsis by the time I was seven.
When I was a child I walked 20 miles back and forth to school each day, uphill both ways. I hunted my own meat, grew and harvested my own vegetables, and fended off wild predators, both human and otherwise, with my bare fists or a hatchet which I made with my own hands. You see, I was also a blacksmith. I rebuilt engines and fixed broken appliances, sewed clothing and built houses and barns, and in my spare time I engaged in the local politics. The world is much different now that I’m 44. Sound familiar, Dan?
No, but good try. What I described is actually how we lived in Vermont. My life was not that much different than many other Vermonters.
But going through the list, I walked one mile to school both ways and they did not have a lunch program so I walked back for lunch total of four miles each day but only half the time was it up hill. Of course, we did that even on below zero days which were common. We did hunt and grow some of our own food but most was store bought. I cannot rebuild engines by myself but know plenty of people that can in Vermont and can do many of the other things you mentioned and have helped do many of them. Sorry, what you think is over the top is how resourceful people live. When I see people waiting for government to help them in a disaster situation, I am stunned since I could have handled the situation when I was ten never mind as an adult.
You apparently have no idea what it is to grow up country.
For you Goon, I have to run: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/28/friday-funny-mann-hot-pants/#more-103968
You know we should take Joe hiking with us, as they say you do not have to be faster than the bear just the person your hiking with.
Dannyboy fancies himself to be a comedian, does he?
And speaking of hiking, am heading up to Estes Park tomorrow morning, March 1 is the first day to make backcountry camping reservations in Rocky Mountain National Park.
For some reason, I can’t picture Downlow Joe faring well in the backcountry.
I remember staying in Estes Park when I was in college in the late 1970’s at a Lodge, I think connected to the YMCA. It was an anti-poverty conference, with the keynote speaker Sargent Shriver of the Kennedy clan. I enjoyed his speech since I was much more idealistic but was really turned off by how many people at the conference were upset because it was not like a luxury hotel. I loved the area around the lodge and did not understand why people that claimed to be poverty advocates needed to be housed like wealthy people. It was the beginning of my political journey.
we went horseback riding at that ymca camp when my friends were here with their kidz in june of 2011. the winter of 2010-2011 was an epic snowpack, and the melting was at its peak when they were here. we were hiking up wild basin to calypso cascades (the bridge over which was washed out in last september’s flooding) and the kidz kept getting too close to the water, so uncle goon told them that if you fall in there you’re gonna take a ride all the way to the atlantic ocean.
Glad to hear it is still in operation.
It’s crazy. We only call them “renewables” because they are not.
Same school as John Corzine?
Will Mark Karpeles now become a democrat governor of some hipster, we have all the culture and high paying jobs of a NE state?
———————
Mt Gox Files For Bankruptcy After $473 Million In Bitcoins “Disappeared”
Tyler Durden - 02/28/2014 - ZeroHedge
“There was some weakness in the system, and the bitcoins have disappeared. I apologize for causing trouble” - Mt.Gox CEO Mark Karpeles
Bitcoins! Bitcoins! Bitcoins!
Step right up, folks, and lay your money down! Don’t allow this once in a lifetime opportunity to pass you by!
I have seen the future and it is financed by bitcoins, the unseeable, untouchable currency that exists only in cyberspace.
Lol.
“…and the bitcoins have disappeared.”
No big deal, given they were as invisible as The Emperor’s New Clothes to begin with.
Funny because a bunch of bankers seem to keep disappearing too, right around the same time as the Bitcoins. I wonder if the “suicides” are related?
At the risk of arousing TJ’s philosophical enthusiasm, I believe we are making progress in our understanding of what a currency is. In short, a currency is only worth the contractual protections which support its value as a medium of exchange.
In the case of Mt. Gox, those protections were nonexistent.
Send me some cold cash and I will give to you in return a lesson regarding the value of currency.
The more cash you send to me the greater will be the lesson.
If anyone on this message board is interested in mining bitcoins I have some bitcoin mining shares I will let go at a discount.
Let me know.
In short, a currency is only worth the contractual protections which support its value as a medium of exchange.
Exactly stated.
you mean a *fiat* currency…
A commodity based currency is supported by the amount of labor and energy required to produce it. No contracts are necessary. One day these hard learned lessons will be re-learned the hard way. The school of experience keeps a dear tuition.
What are contractual protections which support value? Aircraft carriers?
Realtors Are Liars
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25234358/report-buying-better-deal-than-renting-denver
See? Reported by realtor-affiliated trulia.
@goon - A little treat for you to add to your ever-growing index of media scholarship:
http://gawker.com/rupert-murdoch-gave-tony-blair-100-000-then-blair-fuc-1531707995
“Rupert Murdoch donated 100k to Tony Blair’s foundation, then Blair f###d Murdoch’s wife (Wendi Deng).”
D.C. strikes another blow for freedom:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/27/dc-health-plans-include-gender-reassignment-surger/
“D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Thursday announced that the city will recognize gender identity disorder as a medical condition and mandate insurance companies cover associated treatments — including gender-reassignment surgery.
The coverage extends to all insured city residents — including the roughly one-third of residents receiving Medicaid benefits — who are diagnosed by a doctor with the condition and for whom treatment is deemed medically necessary.
“This action places the District at the forefront of advancing the rights of transgender individuals,” Mr. Gray said during an announcement at his ceremonial office at city hall.
The move comes after city officials in March issued a bulletin notifying health insurers to remove language that discriminated on the basis of gender identity and expression from their policies in order to allow transgendered individuals to obtain medical benefits.”
Good morning Liberace.
Downlow Joe has entered the building.
So THAT’S why Murdoch divorced Deng. Bwahahahah. Priceless! I wondered why the divorce was rather low key. If Deng had been the one wronged, it would have been more of a circus.
Bill Clinton must be so jealous.
That old guy is too old for the lady in the picture. Gee, I wonder why he married her.
“That old guy is too old for the lady in the picture. Gee, I wonder why
he married her.she married him.”Fixed.
They obviously had an unspoken agreement. She would agree to marry an old geezer and be his trophy, and he would agree to give her the money. Duh.
“Letting federal contractors review their own work is like letting the fox guard the henhouse,” said Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the federal workforce.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bill-would-prevent-contractors-from-doing-quality-reviews/2014/02/27/1e08e060-a004-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html
LOLZ
They do a half-a** job even when they review each other’s work. There’s pressure not to pierce the veil around the “contractors provide good value” meme and to avoid setting a precedent for governments to claw back money on the basis of poor performance.
There is also the danger that the gov will see just how expensvie contractors are and just hire experts to do work in-house.
Commie talk!
Paul Krugman just announced he’s retiring next year. He’s moving back to NYC to be nearer to his cultural base. In his announcement he cites a kosher deli (Zabar’s). LOL. The guy is only 60 and plenty of P profs live in Manhattan or have a pied a terre in the city.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/krugman/2014/02/28/changes-personalprofessional/
“In terms of geography, the answer seemed clear on reflection: somewhere near Zabar’s New York is the best place to pursue my current interests.”
I smell a DiBlasio consultancy in the works, lol.
NYT is screwed, anyway, so now’s as good a time as any to get out.
He needs a kosher deli nearby at all times. He’s perfect for the NYT. We can’t have him eating the WASP food served at Prospect House or the WWS cafeteria, can we?
Maybe he’ll get into the bottomless brunch scene before DiBlasio does away with it for good.
Just stay out of Spike Lee’s old neighborhood…
No, please go there. Maybe we can arrange a to the death cage match and hope for a tie.
Zabar’s isn’t Kosher.
Hope and Change
“in the past year, large groups of sub-Saharan immigrants have been charging the rows of seven-yard-high chain-link fences here with increasing frequency, or trying to swim around them, believing with good reason that if they can just get past they will ultimately end up in Europe. They often end up injured, not just from falls and the newly laid concertina wire, but at the hands of the Moroccan and Spanish authorities trying to stop them.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/world/europe/africans-battered-and-broke-surge-to-europes-door.html
Is there a Turkey in your EM’s fund? Excerpt from NYT Feb 27:
When foreign capital was flowing freely into Turkey and other emerging markets, the nation used it to splurge on consumer goods and real estate, rather than on new businesses that would support lasting growth. Now the bill is coming due. A big issue facing Turkey is what financial and political havoc this pile of consumer debt could create as a plunge in the value of the Turkish lira and a pullback by foreign investors forces the country to live within its means.
Much of Turkey’s rapid growth in the last decade came from consumer spending based on credit. Debt from credit cards rose 31 percent nationwide in 2012. In 2013 it rose an additional 22 percent. From practically nothing a decade ago, consumer debt in Turkey now equals 55 percent of household disposable income, according to Oxford Economics, a research organization in Britain. Until the Turkish government recently curtailed the practice, stores habitually offered to sell almost anything on installment, even a pair of jeans.
The debt overhang adds to the stress on the Turkish economy, which is already intense. Debt by the Turkish private sector, including businesses other than banks, totals more than 60 percent of gross domestic product. That is one of the highest levels among developing countries, according to Oxford Economics.
An additional danger is that foreign investors are increasingly less willing to finance this debt, preferring to deploy their money in the United States and Europe as those regions grow faster and offer better returns. The danger is seen in Turkey’s current-account deficit, a measure of how much imports exceed exports. The deficit of 7.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 is really a representation of how much more Turks were spending than they were earning. Such a deficit is sustainable only as long as foreigners are willing to keep extending credit. Signs suggest they are not. That means the boom in consumer spending stops suddenly, forcing a sharp decline in living standards.
‘Speaking to reporters, US secretary of state John Kerry inveighed against what he sees as a tendency within the United States to retreat from the world…“There’s a new isolationism,” Kerry said. “We are beginning to behave like a poor nation,” he added, saying some Americans do not perceive the connection between US engagement abroad and the US economy, their own jobs and wider US interests.’
And then he got back on his private jet, and flew off to stay at a 5 star hotel, and eat at a 5 star restaurant.
These egg head billionaires really don’t get it. They think we can spend more than the world on the military, decade after decade, and never run out of money.
Oh, here come the neocons:
‘Perhaps the president needs to do his own reset. A speech would be in order to try to recalibrate his foreign policy and halt the slide into chaos and irrelevancy…Instead of declaring that a decade of war is over he would do well to declare that we live in times of great opportunity but also danger.’
‘By cutting down to the quick he signals we are in retreat and incapable of projecting U.S. power. He should abandon that tact and instead enlist General David Petraeus to go through the budget, formulate reforms and use savings to repair readiness and avoid painful cuts that will affect our troops and their families.’
Jeebus, the military industrial complex freaked out when it was suggested they take a cut to future increases! Yeah, let’s put Petraeus back on a government private jet (he’s fond of the jets). That will sort things out.
Kerry sounds more and more unhinged each time he opens his yap. Jeebus.
“We are beginning to behave like a poor nation,” he added.
In other words, we’re gonna die if Washington doesn’t keep bombing and bullying across the world. What a sick creep.
Relevant funny story told by singer James Blunt on the latest issue of Top Gear, described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Pristina
He ended it with a demeaning ‘Wesley Clark later ran for president of the United States’.
1999 means Clinton right? Kerry’s just carrying-on.
The math doesn’t lie.
A Brief History of American Welfare State
RealClearHistory.com | 05/09/2013 | Brian Vanyo
According to deficit forecasts in President Barack Obama’s latest budget, the national debt will surpass $20 trillion by 2016. If this occurs (and it is almost certain to occur), then Obama will add more to the national debt during his presidency than all prior presidents combined, despite collecting projected record-high tax receipts each year of his last term in office.
The largest expenditure in Obama’s budget — and the largest federal outlay in every budget since 1970 — is an expense item labeled “payments for individuals,” which includes spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disability payments, and other federal welfare subsidies. These payments comprised 65 percent of all federal spending in 2012 and are expected to grow to 70 percent in 2016. (By contrast, national defense spending was 19 percent of the federal budget in 2012 and will decrease to 14 percent in 2016.)
Soylent Green is the only solution.
What type of wine do you pair that with? I was thinking Night Train but I don’t want to be a snob.
purple drank
Do I propose a toast to Trayvon when I drink it?
And I repeat:
IS THERE ICE CREAM?
We are beginning to behave like a poor nation,” he added, saying some Americans do not perceive the connection between US engagement abroad and the US economy, their own jobs and wider US interests.’
Actually more Americans are perceiving the connections and realize trying to maintain an empire is not in their interests and globalization is destroying their standard of living.
‘the media did their best to help bring on the palpitations by repeating the headline, “cuts bring military down to pre-World War II levels” a million times in almost every mainstream news outlet – television and radio too – for two days. As Conor Friedersdorf pointed out in The Atlantic on Tuesday, they were all played. And so were news consumers who obviously reacted to the dramatic headlines.’
‘For one, these headlines were comparing the proposed number of Army cuts (down to 440,000 to 450,000, compared to a wartime peak of 570,000) to the entire military, all branches, circa 1940, which was 458,355 strong (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) and about to kick some Nazi and Japanese butt.’
‘So what is the point of the headline, other than confusing us all? As good-guy Noah Millman over at The American Conservative points out, “My base-case assumption is that ‘lowest levels since 1940’ is just a lot more dramatic than ‘below the levels of 2000’or ‘largest reductions since 1992.’” But that is exactly where the proposed levels are. Sorry guys, we can’t all be ramped up like we’re about to launch a major land war every single fiscal year of our lives. It’s unsustainable, wasteful and silly.’
Good points. Bad historical research.
The US Air Force was founded in 1947.
The US really did ramp up for war until 1941.
WWII: Mobilization - United States Army:
Although President Roosevelt neither shared nor pandered to this viewpoint, he understood the strength of the isolationist position. With one eye on his upcoming reelection bid in 1940, he acted carefully. So, rather than begin a massive central rearmament effort, he launched a limited preparedness campaign at the start of 1939, with his emphasis on increasing the striking power of the Army Air Corps. The Army, in turn, used the opportunity of the air buildup and the $575 million appropriation for a more balanced expansion. Momentum picked up after the German invasion of Poland in September and the outbreak of a general European war. Proclaiming a limited national emergency, Roosevelt authorized an increase to 227,000 for the Regular Army and to 235,000 for the National Guard.
The U.S. mobilization pace picked up in the wake of German military successes in the spring of 1940. This phase, usually called the defense period, represented a transitional stage similar to the one envisioned by the abandoned industrial mobilization plan. In May 1940 Roosevelt called for 50,000 new aircraft and a supplemental defense appropriation. He also set up an Office of Emergency Management in his executive office to coordinate the effort, and he revived the Advisory Commission of National Defense to assess problems of mobilizing resources and to prepare comprehensive plans for various stages of mobilization. But the commission itself did not last the year, and its successor, the Office of Production Management, was also soon abolished. The political climate was still not receptive to a full-scale industrial mobilization.
http://www.history.army.mil/documents/mobpam.htm
‘Bad historical research…The US really (didn’t) ramp up for war until 1941′
No, it is entirely relevant. If we were able to “ramp up” with that many soldiers already on duty, why would we need to have more today? Are we supposed to have WW2 sized armies on hand all the time?
We don’t fight those kind of wars anymore. Is it reasonable to expect hundreds of thousands of men to march across Europe or Asia? Or is it more likely to involve jets and missiles? Heck, when we bomb Afghanistan, they can take off from the US. The drone operators are sitting in Nevada. If we had 500,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, our death count would skyrocket, with no increase in success.
And there is this:
‘Aug. 27, 2010 - The single biggest threat to national security is the national debt, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday, underscoring the importance of good fiscal stewardship and a need to stimulate economic growth.’
‘American taxpayers are going to pay an estimated $600 billion in interest on the national debt in 2012, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told local leaders and university students here. “That’s one year’s worth of defense budget,” he noted, adding that the Pentagon is going to have to work to “cut the fat” from its overhead spending.’
“We’re going to have to do that if it’s going to survive at all,” he said, “and do it in a way that is predictable.”
‘Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates earlier this month called for reform in the way the Pentagon does business by working to eliminate duplicative, unnecessary overhead costs. Since 2000, the defense budget has doubled. The fiscal 2010 budget is $664 billion, compared to roughly $300 billion before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.’
‘The Defense Department is determined to save money, Gates said, but it will be a challenge. Mullen agreed. “We’re not a business,” he said. “Part of us does this really well. Parts of us have never had to, plus our budget has doubled over the last 10 years.” Defense spending has not been prioritized as well as it should have, he explained, and leaders have not had to make tough decisions about programs and procurements. The Pentagon must return to more responsible fiscal practices, he added.’
“A lot of those skills have to be sharpened,” Mullen acknowledged. For industry and adequate defense funding to survive, the chairman said, the two must work together. Otherwise, he added, “this wave of debt” will carry over from year to year, and eventually, the defense budget will be cut just to facilitate the debt.’
I think our land based military should be more defensive and we should close a bunch of foreign land bases. Our navy and marine corp should be large enough to protect our global commerce and respond to emergencies around the world. However, the spending on the military is but a drop in the bucket compared to domestic spending and entitlements.
Are you trying to say that the media outlets lied to us? Well of course they would. If they don’t report what they’re told, then they will lose their pet contacts on Capitol Hill. Then they would have to get a different job, which would probably make them happier anyway.
It’s tack, not tact!
And WTH? The United States must constantly have at least three wars ongoing, or else we will become irrelevant isolationists? We must be really insecure!
“…enlist General David Petraeus to…”
I’m still waiting on the clip, “Broadwell disarms the Warhead.”
from the daily caller, linked from google news:
‘on thursday, the u.s. ninth circuit court of appeals upheld a california high school’s decision to outlaw american flag t-shirts on cinco de mayo.
officials at live oak high school banned american flags on may 5, 2010 because the year before there had been altercations between white students and mexican students. there were american flags and chants of ‘usa.’ according to reports, there were also mexican flags and kids running around saying, ‘f8ck them white boys. let’s f8ck them up.’
Most of them probably are allowed to stay in the country under Obama’s Dream Act like amnesty. It seems more like the Nightmare Act.
The lack of COEXIST-ing at this high school is disturbing.
I thought America’s multicultural future was gonna be Utopia, because our differences only make us stronger, just like in the Coke commercial during the Souper Bowl.
I’ve read that the “Chicanos” in LA don’t get along with the newcomers. Also that illegals from different parts of Mexico don’t get along with each other either. Tribalism is a human instinct.
I just need enough Mexican people to ensure bean and cheese burritos within a short drive or walk from wherever I am. But they should wear US flags on their shirts though. They take US money for the burritos, after all.
“It seems more like the Nightmare Act.”
From a Nightmare administration.
Say….. do you think all of us can pool our paltry sums and buy some influence like the others do?
85 people own half the world’s wealth. So no, we can’t.
Actually, you do seem to have a trouble understanding data, you should not be throwing stones in the post below about science being based on facts or evidence. What the study found is that 85 people had as much wealth as around 50% of the population of the world, that does not mean that they own 50% of the wealth of the world, that is because a lot of those people were only earning $2 bucks a day and had no wealth.
I never read the article, adan. It’s a meme. The point is to show that you and I don’t have enough money to collectively out-bribe these ppl.
BTW, given the factual situation the school had sufficient justification to interfere with the first amendment rights of the students which are more limited than in school than other circumstances. However, it speaks to the problem of assimilating economic migrants who really do not want to be citizens of a country except to receive benefits and provides another reason why we need to change our immigration laws to prevent chain migration.
But I’ll bet they don’t make the Mexican kids hide their gang tats.
racis
However, it speaks to the problem of assimilating economic migrants who really do not want to be citizens of a country except to receive benefits and provides another reason why we need to change our immigration laws to prevent chain migration.”
I wonder how they ( poor uneducated economic migrants) will like it in 50 years when the Chinese and Indians own everything in CA ?
Reading the MSM it is a bit like reading Pravda in the old Soviet Union. It is much more interesting what is left out than what is reported. They address what Republicans want and what Democrats want but on most issues they do not tell us what independents want. They also state that 75% say not everyone needs to be kicked out but how many just want self-deportation due to making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants? :
http://news.yahoo.com/most-us-wouldnt-eject-illegal-immigrants-minority-ok-231159188.html
We’ve lost our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assocation.
Viva Hope and Change!!!!
Because the invisible hand of the free market is like, invisible right?
Wall Street Journal - How to Bring the Price of Health Care Into the Open
“Price transparency, as it is known, is common in most industries but rare in health care, where “charges,” “prices,” “rates” and “payments” all have different meanings and bear little relation to actual costs.
(best health care system in the world, according to my bootstrapping betters)
Unlike other industries, prices for health care can vary dramatically depending on who’s paying. The list prices for hospital stays and doctor visits are often just opening bids that insurers negotiate down. The deals insurers and providers strike are often proprietary, making comparisons difficult. Even doctors are generally clueless about what the tests, drugs and specialists they recommend will cost patients.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303650204579375242842086688
Better yet, just try asking for an estimate for a procedure. They will dig their heels in and say that they can’t do it, especially if you’re paying cash.
I just called a new doctor because my dumazz pharmacy is going to cut my prescription short by a month, so I have to find doctor in my new part-time city sooner than I thought. The price for an office visit is $150 and up, minus a 30% disount if you pay in full at the time of the visit. I’m all like “what do you mean by ‘and up’?”. And the lady is all like, “We charge whatever we want, so there.” And I am all like “Oh, I need to put the money in my HSA so I can deduct it from my taxes.” And she is all like “we only make same-day appointments.”
These people are drunk on mandated health insurance, OK?
It was that way (we’ll charge whatever we feel like, sorry, no estimates) long before Obamacare.
We had mandated insurance for employed people long before Obamacare.
Since when? What law states that employers have to provide insurance?
All the states have their own laws. Look up the ones in your state.
and up’?”.
I think it means up yours. The government caps the number of doctors by imposing limits on Med school admissions and the doctors are allowed to decide what are the barriers of entry exist, with that kind of pricing power, they can charge whatever they want.
are allowed to decide the barriers of entry
Bigger and bigger government will solve this…
We just need the Ministry of Up Yours.
linked from drudge:
‘the phenomena of global warming has been used to explain many things, but now mother jones is quoting a study saying it might cause more rapes of women.’
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/02/27/Mother-Jones-Global-Warming-Will-Cause-More-Rape
phenomenon. it is singular. ppl should speak english.
The CFPB has really raised the ire of the FIRE sector. Seems to me that’s a good thing.
Chairman Hensarling Floor Remarks on the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act
“Mr. Chairman, we are now into the sixth year of the Obama administration and probably the two most common comments I hear from my constituents are “I just can’t make ends meet in this economy” and “Washington has become arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch.”
And at the apex of these sentiments lies the newly minted, Dodd-Frank government agency known as the CFPB.
And although many have yet to hear of it, the CFPB is perhaps the single most powerful and least accountable Federal agency in all of Washington.
…
Core Logic, which analyzes mortgage data has said “only half of today’s mortgage originations meet QM requirements.” That is egregiously unfair to hardworking Americans.” [This sounds like BS. From what I've read, most loans are QM and the umbrella of QM is slated to continue to become larger and larger. It's a trojan horse so I don't think QM is the reason for the ire.]
http://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=371197
“Just shut up and buy our debt, government. Don’t even pretend to worry about whether it’s repayable.”
The problem is that this kind of mentality does lead to foreclosures. And while that benefits the FIRE sector as it is lucrative via higher commissions and fees associated with higher prices, it does have a negative impact on the rest of society.
So, government just mindlessly buying debt has had a negative impact on society, and going forward will continue to negatively impact society.
People justify a religion any way they can, you justify science with facts and the fact is we are very much in the norm for an interglacial period in fact 2 degrees Celsius cooler. Or as my contract law professor use to say, if the law is on your side pound the law, if the facts are on your side pound the facts, if neither is on your side, pound the table, they are pounding the table.
Sorry meant to post under Goon’s rape article. The left wants the co2 tax money and ability to regulate on a worldwide basis so bad they will say or do anything including fabricate data.
No, you do not justify science with facts. You use experimental observation to try and disprove all of the hypotheses. I can tell that you lack a scientific education, sorry adan.
Semantics. You can either duplicate the research or it is not accepted. If you can duplicate it becomes a fact that a certain event will occur under certain conditions.
And that goes to the point about the science not being settled with global warming, if that ever really occurs in science. But take the theory of gravity, when a banker jumps off a building, we can determine with great accuracy at what speed he or she will splat on the ground. The theory will match the actual measurements made about falling objects considering resistance etc. You can test the theory and find that it accurately predicts the outcome. With AGW, they have used computer models and they could not be more wrong with their predictions thus the facts, evidence, data whatever you want to call it do not match the theory so the science is far from settled. They tried to say that co2 ppm overwhelmed all natural factors until their predictions were false. Now, the talk about the PDO, La Nina, Sunspots etc. However, even common sense will tell you if these are factors in the pause, they were factors in the original warming which they blamed entirely on man’s emissions of co2.
No, it’s not semantics. It’s a difference between understanding how science works, and not understanding. There are some people who have a conclusion, and then gather “facts” to justify said predetermined belief. All of them think that they are being scientific because they used a fact. Science requires the scientific method, which does not begin with facts. The scientific method begins with a hypothesis, and then a controlled experiment designed to disprove said hypothesis. Duplication is just a check. Duplication is not proof of a fact. For instance, I can duplicate a flawed experiment and get the same result.
Any first year law student knows the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning, you are not teaching me anything. I know the method. However, I have always asserted that AGW was a religion and not a science and the ability to show evidence clearly delineates the difference between the two.
I wrote another e-mail that appears to be lost in space or Ben thought it was too graphic. I will not duplicate but it involved gravity and bankers and our ability to accurate predict things with gravity and the inaccuracy of the AGW models. P.S. the duplication I am talking about is other scientists duplicating the work and not finding flaws in the process.
Article from WUWT, please ignore the use evidence:
change facts →
More Evidence for a Low Climate Sensitivity
Posted on February 28, 2014 by Anthony Watts
By Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger
We have two new entries to the long (and growing) list of papers appearing the in recent scientific literature that argue that the earth’s climate sensitivity—the ultimate rise in the earth’s average surface temperature from a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide content—is close to 2°C, or near the low end of the range of possible values presented by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). With a low-end warming comes low-end impacts and an overall lack of urgency for federal rules and regulations (such as those outlined in the President’s Climate Action Plan) to limit carbon dioxide emissions and limit our energy choices.
The first is the result of a research effort conducted by Craig Loehle and published in the journal Ecological Modelling. The paper is a pretty straightforward determination of the climate sensitivity. Loehle first uses a model of natural modulations to remove the influence of natural variability (such as solar activity and ocean circulation cycles) from the observed temperature history since 1850. The linear trend in the post-1950 residuals from Loehle’s natural variability model was then assumed to be largely the result, in net, of human carbon dioxide emissions. By dividing the total temperature change (as indicated by the best-fit linear trend) by the observed rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide content, and then applying that relationship to a doubling of the carbon dioxide content, Loehle arrives at an estimate of the earth’s transient climate sensitivity—transient, in the sense that at the time of CO2 doubling, the earth has yet to reach a state of equilibrium and some warming is still to come.
Loehle estimated the equilibrium climate sensitivity from his transient calculation based on the average transient:equilibrium ratio projected by the collection of climate models used in the IPCC’s most recent Assessment Report. In doing so, he arrived at an equilibrium climate sensitivity estimate of 1.99°C with a 95% confidence range of it being between 1.75°C and 2.23°C.
Real journalists at the New York Times report on heroin in Vermont:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/us/a-call-to-arms-on-a-vermont-heroin-epidemic.html
Two people I went to high school with died from Oxycontin overdoses, this was back when prescription narcotics were relatively available and affordable, before their increased regulation pushed the pill junkies onto heroin.
It is everywhere Goon. It is a man bites dog article because it is in Vermont. Of course, Vermont has had an influx of flatlanders over the last 40 years, so true Vermonter’s are actually in the minority in many towns. The joke about Burlington is that the best thing about it is that it is so close to Vermont.
Vermont’s =Vermonters BTW, flatlanders is just a term for New Yorkers etc that live in the less mountainous areas of the East. Now, I know that flat areas in the West have more elevation than the peaks in the East but you have to measure the mountains from sea level since places like Burlington are not much above sea level.
FWIW, the highest peak in Vermont is 4400 feet. If you use the Front Range (elevation 5000 ft) as “sea level” our many 14′ers are twice as high.
Do not dispute it. The Rockies are very young compared to the Green Mountains.
“true Vermonter’s are actually in the minority in many towns.”
You are correct. It’s now a LIEberal paradise. For instance, property taxes are 33% of local annual income, income/price is out of wack on everything.
The best thing about VT anymore is screwing with the transplants and Vulva driving fools while there visiting family.
I’m hearing something nowadays that I used to hear in the early 2000s - that lack of supply is the cause of high prices. I think Rental Watch is a big proponent of this theory.
However, I don’t think that’s true. I recall looking into Baltimore in the early-mid 2000s. Prices were melting upwards. However - Baltimore had been consistently losing population for years, up to the time I did my research. So, it wasn’t lack of supply that was causing the high prices. There were fewer and fewer residents for an increasing supply of houses.
Now, there may have been more bidders perhaps? I don’t know about that. But would be an intensively speculative market. Not one driven by lack of supply relative to residents.
Now, Baltimore is one data point. But the reality is that the real money in housing are the mortgages behind them and the transaction fees. That’s another data point.
Now, might there be actual lacks of supply in some areas. Perhaps. But because of the continued intensely speculative nature of the housing market, rising prices certainly do not necessarily show that at all.
The New York Times wets the bed on drill baby drill:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/business/energy-environment/bakkan-crude-rolling-through-albany.html
As I posted about this weekend , the XL pipeline is not even that important anymore. If the NYT’s reporter had dug deeper, he or she would have discovered that soon oil sands bitumen will be able to move as cheaply by rail as pipeline due to heated rail cars that do not require the bitumen to be diluted as much. The major reason for environmentalists to block XL was the hope it might prevent oil sands development but that will not happen. The only thing they might accomplish is that Canada might just sell all the oil sands bitumen to China instead of the U.S. since railroad tracks exist to take it to the Pacific coast instead of the U.S.
Still waiting for a meeting to start but may have to leave soon.
The ends justify the means…
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CA Dems block expulsion of legislator convicted of 8 felonies: Protecting the supermajority.
Hotair | 02/28/2014 | Ed Morrissey
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage has more application than usual in California, where Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and supermajorities in the legislature. They can enact any policies they want, with only the judicial branch offering belated checks on their power. And when I say belated, that’s literally the case with state Senator Rod Wright, whom a jury found guilty in January of committing eight felonies regarding his residency and eligibility for the office he held.
Normally, politicians who get that kind of a verdict have the decency to resign. If not, the body in which they serve would almost assuredly eject them — but not California Democrats:
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a move to expel their Democratic colleague Sen. Rod Wright by sending a Republican proposal to the Rules Committee, where it could permanently stall.
Sen. Steve Knight, a Republican from Palmdale, introduced a resolution to expel Wright from the Senate because a jury found him guilty of eight felonies last month for lying about living in the district he represents.
“This will be precedent-setting,” Knight said as debate on his measure was being quashed on a 21-13, mostly party-line vote.
In the past, a jury verdict of corruption has been enough to press for resignations from the California legislature. Democrats insisted yesterday that a resignation wasn’t necessary because Wright has been stripped of his committee assignments, and — I’m not making this up — he’s on paid leave, and apparently only since Tuesday. Democrats want taxpayers to pay his salary after a jury convicted him of corruption in the office he now refuses to leave.
It is like I said when the poster talked about New Mexico being corrupt, any entity which is predominately Democratic is likely to be corrupt. One party rule even Republican rule is likely to lead to corruption but Democrats do lead in that department. The corrupt political machines tend to be democratic.
Stocks climbed more Friday, following the record high close of the S&P 500 index in the prior session.
In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.7% and the Nasdaq composite 0.5% higher.
The nation’s Gross Domestic Product grew at a tepid 2.4% in the last quarter of 2013 — well below the anticipated 3.2%, the Commerce Department said.
The government cut its estimate of fourth-quarter growth because consumer spending, government spending and exports were weaker than previously estimated.
I will hate the NYSE until all the major indexes drop by 53% from their December 2013 prices. If it never happens, then I will go to my grave hating the stock market.
Uncle Fed, I think that the doctor’s call has put you in a very bad mood. I know I am certainly not feeling the love. But hating on the stock market it is un-American.
The key to loving the stock market is to invest a small amount in regular intervals. And you “uncle Fed,” we’re the one who claimed you could time the market. I am laughing now.
It will be funny to see the progressives reaction when a republican administration does the same thing to them…
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Eric Holder Asks State Attorneys General To Ignore Law
Investor’s Business Daily ^ | February 28, 2015 | IBD EDITORIALS
Corruption: Attorney General Eric Holder wants his counterparts at the state level to treat the rule of law with the same contempt and selectivity that he and his boss in the White House employ.
‘We the people” and “consent of the governed” are important American concepts that Holder and his boss, President Obama, do not understand. They’ve made it clear by spreading their creeping lawlessness among the attorneys general of the 50 states.
We acknowledge the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion, which provides those charged with enforcing our laws in the courts with the authority to decide which particular cases merit pursuing.
However, this power does not extend to deciding which laws passed by the duly elected representatives of the people may be enforced.
Obama and Holder took oaths to see that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed, an oath both have ignored.
Obama, armed with his pen and his phone, has routinely ignored the courts, Congress and the Constitution. He’s governed through regulations and executive orders like some banana republic dictator.
They are actively trying to ensure that they do not hand over power so that cannot happen.
And the 1%ers just keep winning….
Driving under drugs and a hit and run - NO worries!
She was accidentally driving while being accidentally impaired… and accidentally caused an accident.
And she is a Kennedy with close ties to the NYS democrat mafia.
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Kerry Kennedy acquitted of drugged driving in New York
CBS News | 02/28/2014
Kerry Kennedy was acquitted Friday of drugged driving in a July 2012 incident in which she accidentally took a sleeping pill and then sideswiped a truck in a wild highway drive she said she didn’t remember.
Kennedy hugged and clasped hands with her lawyers as a six-person jury cleared her of driving while impaired, a misdemeanor. It had carried the potential for up to a year in jail, though that would be unlikely for a first-time offender.
I wish I knew about this defence 27 years ago.
I had no idea I was “sleep-driving” your honor, I thought I drank 22 Gatorades and smoked 3 Marlboros. It was an accidental ingestion!
By JOSEPH BERGERFEB. 23, 2014
“At no time was she aware she was sleep-driving,” he said, referring to a side effect of pills like Ambien.
“It was an accidental ingestion,” said Mr. Lefcourt, using a phrase that is a defense against the charge of driving under the influence of a drug.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/nyregion/trial-for-kerry-kennedy-set-to-start-in-dui-case.html - -
Follow this link to the deadly undercurrent of deflation, or go directly to Goldseek.com, it is well worth the read:
http://news.goldseek.com/ClifDroke/1393619915.php
On the one hand, I’m impressed. People like this have no self-limiting behaviors. They always land on their feet.
On the other hand, I’m mortified. Who at University of Chicago thought this was a good idea?
Fabulous Fab to teach at University of Chicago
Marketwatch
February 27, 2014, 11:07 AM
The former executive who was convicted of six counts of securities fraud last summer in a civil suit with the Securities and Exchange Commission, will become an economics teacher at the prestigious school, according to a report in The New York Post.
Tourre, who is a doctoral student at the Univerity, will be teaching a class called ‘Elements of Economic Analysis’ on Thursday afternoons, followed by a discussion on Monday evenings, according to reports.
The charges against Tourre contend that he intentionally defrauded investors as part of a sub-prime mortgage investment known as Abacus 2007-AC1 five years ago. The government claimed Tourre helped billionaire John Paulson’s hedge fund bet against the investment and ultimately made billions of dollars in profit, while investors lost money.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/02/27/fabulous-fab-to-teach-at-university-of-chicago/
Here’s the outcome of our hope ‘n change:
“Over the course of 2013, the federal government subtracted from GDP growth in every quarter, including shaving nearly a full percentage point off of last quarter’s GDP growth”
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/01/30/last-quarters-gdp-would-have-been-better-without-washington
I’d like to know more about the methodology used - although the finding is far from surprising.
Finally starting to admit that they intend to inflate there way out of this mess. Of course, that will cause an even bigger mess.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should be willing to let inflation temporarily run above its target level so as to more quickly bring the economy back to health, a top Fed official said on Friday, even as a second policymaker signaled the very idea left him cold.
The debate, between Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, underscored a fundamental disagreement over the central bank’s optimal approach to policy under new Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
To Evans, one of the Fed’s most dovish policymakers, allowing inflation to run above the Fed’s 2-percent target would be a small price to pay for bringing the U.S. economy back to full employment quickly, and could even signal the Fed’s commitment to making good on its goals.
To Plosser, an ardent policy hawk, letting inflation rise above the target would call into question the Fed’s commitment to its goals, undermining its policy effectiveness.
How the debate plays out could have a huge impact on the course of Fed policy as Yellen prepares to chair her first policy-setting meeting next month, particularly as policymakers debate ways to retool a low-rate promise that both hawks and doves see as in need of a serious overhaul.
Under Yellen’s predecessor Ben Bernanke, the Fed used massive bond-buying programs and a promise to keep rates low to boost the economy despite having already slashed the main policy rate to near zero.
Closing out Black History Month with this song by Curtis Mayfield, “This is My Country”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_esbRoOeR0
And Ice-T “Escape From The Killing Fields”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XPvxXSjn0
And Ice Cube “What They Hittin Foe?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaLacfdA-wI
And De La Soul “Stakes Is High”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj-vPcCfQ6k
Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call
7 February 2014
The alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt,
Jonathan Marcus: The US says that it is working with all sides in the crisis to reach a peaceful solution, noting that “ultimately it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their future”. However this transcript suggests that the US has very clear ideas about what the outcome should be and is striving to achieve these goals. Russian spokesmen have insisted that the US is meddling in Ukraine’s affairs - no more than Moscow, the cynic might say - but Washington clearly has its own game-plan. The clear purpose in leaking this conversation is to embarrass Washington and for audiences susceptible to Moscow’s message to portray the US as interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
Nuland: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Pyatt: Yeah. I guess… in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other opposition leader] and his guys and I’m sure that’s part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.
Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the… what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in… he’s going to be at that level working for Yatsenyuk, it’s just not going to work.
Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?
Nuland: My understanding from that call - but you tell me - was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a… three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?
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Joe Biden calls new Ukraine leader, pledges support
Biden told Yatsenyuk the U.S. will give full support as Ukraine seeks to restore order.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 2/27/14 10:58 PM EST
Vice President Joe Biden has told Ukraine’s new prime minister that the U.S. welcomes the formation of the country’s new government.
The White House says Biden called Arseniy Yatsenyuk Thursday.
“Biden told Yatsenyuk the U.S. will give full support as Ukraine seeks to restore order.”
Time for the fed to print another batch of the green stuff.
I knew that couple should of just kept their mouths quiet about their find. Forget that the coins were face value of so many dollars years ago. Bill, their gonna go after your Honda Accord for imputed value if you do not watch out.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/27/california-couple-in-10m-gold-find-to-owe-govt-about-half-report-says/
Most are too friggin’ stupid to keep their mouth shut about found money.