United States and Canada: A Tale of Two Medicares by Derek Hunter

United States and Canada: A Tale of Two Medicares
by Derek Hunter (August 29, 2005)

"Summary: In 1997, George Zeliotis, a Quebec citizen, learned that he needed hip-replacement surgery. But his troubles were just beginning.

[www.CapMag.com]

In 1997, George Zeliotis, a Quebec citizen, learned that he needed hip-replacement surgery. But his troubles were just beginning.

As is standard in Canada for non-emergency surgery, Zeliotis was put on a waiting list behind everyone else in Quebec who needed the same procedure. When he learned that his wait would be a year and that he would have to endure the pain of an arthritic hip during that time, Zeliotis decided to pay for the surgery himself.

Then he made a disturbing discovery: He couldn’t pay for it himself. Canadian law forbids private payment for a covered medical service.

Since its inception, Canada’s Medicare has been the favorite model for single-payer healthcare among those who advocate socialized medicine in the United States. They tout that every Canadian is covered from cradle to grave and that all have equal access to the same level of care. The facts on the ground, however, are quite different."

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healthcare canada medicare medicaid socialism

Walter E. Williams: Gasoline prices

As usual, sense from Dr. Williams.

Gasoline prices
Walter E. Williams

Nationally, the average per gallon price for regular gasoline is $2.50.

Are gasoline prices high? That's not the best way to ask that question. It's akin to asking, 'Is Williams tall?' The average height of U.S. women is 5'4', and for men, it's 5'10'. Being 6'4', I'd be tall relative to the general U.S. population. But put me on a basketball court, next to the average NBA basketball player, and I wouldn't be tall; I'd be short. So when we ask whether a price is high or low, we have to ask relative to what.

In 1950, a gallon of regular gasoline sold for about 30 cents; today, it's $2.50. Are today's gasoline prices high compared to 1950? Before answering that question, we have to take into account inflation that has occurred since 1950. Using my trusty inflation calculator (www.westegg.com/inflation), what cost 30 cents in 1950 costs $2.33 in 2005. In real terms, that means gasoline prices today are only slightly higher, about 8 percent, than they were in 1950. Up until the recent spike, gasoline prices have been considerably lower than 1950 prices.

Some Americans are demanding that the government do something about gasoline prices. Let's think back to 1979 when the government did do something."

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walter+williams gas price+gouging big+oil halliburton

Che Guevara's family to fight use of famed photo

(INSERT IRONY RELATED JOKE HERE!)

Che Guevara's family to fight use of famed photo

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- With his picture on rock band posters, baseball caps and women's lingerie, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is firmly entrenched in the capitalist consumer society that he died fighting to overturn.

The image of the Argentine-born guerrilla gazing sternly into the distance, long-hair tucked into a beret with a single star, has been an enduring 20th century pop icon.

The picture -- taken by a Cuban photographer in 1960 and printed on posters by an Italian publisher after Guevara's execution in Bolivia seven years later -- fired the imagination of rioting Parisian students in May 1968 and became a symbol of idealistic revolt for a generation.

But as well as being one of the world's most reproduced, the image has become one of its most merchandised. And Guevara's family is launching an effort to stop it. They plan to file lawsuits abroad against companies that they believe are exploiting the image and say lawyers in a number of countries have offered assistance."

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Che Cuba Castro communism socialism Marxism

Today's Quotes ...

"Nothing has yet been offered to invalidate the doctrine that the meaning of the Constitution may as well be ascertained by the Legislative as by the Judicial authority."
-- James Madison (speech in the Congress of the United States, 18 June 1789)
Reference: Original Intent, Barton (365); original The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, vol. 1 (568)


"Political correctness is really a subjective list put together by the few to rule the many -- a list of things one must think, say, or do. It affronts the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs."
-- Mark Berley
Source: Argos, Spring 1998


"There never was an idea stated that woke men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
(1809-1894) American Poet
Source: Over the Teacups, 1891


"A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to."
-- Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679)
Source: Leviathan, 1651

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quotes liberty constitution

Java Joy: Study Touts Coffee's Benefits

It's good for you, it's bad for you, wait, it's good for you!

Java Joy: Study Touts Coffee's Benefits - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - When the Ink Spots sang 'I love the java jive and it loves me' in 1940, they could not have known how right they were. Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Of course, too much coffee can make people jittery and even raise cholesterol levels, so food experts stress moderation.

The findings by Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, give a healthy boost to the warming beverage.

'The point is, people are getting the most antioxidants from beverages, as opposed to what you might think,' Vinson said in a telephone interview.

Antioxidants, which are thought to help battle cancer and provide other health benefits, are abundant in grains, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables.

Vinson said he was researching tea and cocoa and other foods and decided to study coffee, too.

His team analyzed the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common beverages. They then used Agriculture Department data on typical food consumption patterns to calculate how much antioxidant each food contributes to a person's diet.

They concluded that the average adult consumes 1,299 milligrams of antioxidants daily from coffee. The closest competitor was tea at 294 milligrams. Rounding out the top five sources were bananas, 76 milligrams; dry beans, 72 milligrams; and corn, 48 milligrams. According to the Agriculture Department, the typical adult American drinks 1.64 cups of coffee daily."

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coffee java antioxidants

Today's Quotes ...

"One man with a gun can control 100 without one."
-- Vladimir Lenin

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
-- Mao Tse-tung

"We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?"
-- Joseph Stalin

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their fall by doing so."
-- Adolf Hitler


"A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Thomas Ritchie, 25 December 1820)
Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1446)

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quotes

Are you serious about Bonsai?

Yahoo! News Photo: "Malaysian Kuah Mershel, daughter of a bonsai cultivator, holds the smallest of her miniature bonsai at her residence in Kuala Lumpur August 24, 2005. These miniature bonsai from a local species known as 'water jasmine' measure 22mm. Picture taken late August 24, 2005. REUTERS/Kamarulzaman Russali"

Hawaii First State To Cap Gasoline Prices

Holy cr@p?!? There are still people that don't understand the problem with this? Hasn't this been tried before, never successfully? A commentary on the sad state of education?


ClickOnDetroit.com - Automotive - Hawaii First State To Cap Gasoline Prices: "HONOLULU -Hawaii has become the first state in the nation to set limits on gasoline prices.

The state Public Utilities Commission is setting the wholesale price ceiling for gasoline in Honolulu at just under $2.16 a gallon.

With taxes, the wholesale price would be $2.74. If wholesalers charge that price and retailers keep their typical 12-cent markup, then the price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Honolulu could rise to $2.86 per gallon.

The caps apply as of next week, when a new law goes into effect allowing Hawaii to set a maximum wholesale price at which gasoline can be sold. The limit is based on the weekly average of spot prices in Los Angeles and New York, and on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The law doesn't put a cap on retail prices."


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gas price+gouging big+oil halliburton Hawaii

Seiko Spring Drive by Edward Hahn, Part 1

Thanks to Ed Hahn and timezone.com for this great article on the Spring Drive!

Seiko Spring Drive by Edward Hahn, Part 1: "Introduction

It’s not often that you get an email note out of the blue inviting you to Tokyo. But then again, it’s not often that a watch company releases a fundamentally different kind of watch to the worldwide market. Lucky me, I got to be in on both in early July 2005.

As announced at the Basel Fair in March, Seiko is introducing Spring Drive technology to the world this September, and is linking it with a new long (72 hour) power reserve model with automatic winding. With this watch, Seiko is taking an unprecedented step outside its home market, as they intend to sell the watch at a price that most people don’t associate with the 124 year old company from Japan.

The Spring Drive is more than simply a new movement for Seiko – it’s the culmination of a strategy that has already been underway for several years already. Our visit to Seiko was in-part to hear both of the technical innovation as well as to hear Seiko’s plans for entering the upper echelons of horology worldwide. Also accompanying me on this trip were Joe Thompson of Watchtime Magazine, Jordan Rothacker of International Wristwatch, and Bill Shuster of JCK (a jewelry trade magazine)."




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seiko watches mechanical+watches

Marginal Revolution: Just how bad is U.S. health care?

I'm glad Tyler posted this rebuttal to the original column. I skimmed it quickly, and it's full of biases and misunderstandings. I don't have time to dissect it now, and I could hardly do any better than Tyler Cohen anyway.

In short, govt. interference in health care is the cause of the current problems, not the solution to them.

Marginal Revolution: Just how bad is U.S. health care?: "Just how bad is U.S. health care?

Malcolm Gladwell delivers a lengthy polemic. He favors some form of national health insurance, but is this the correct conclusion? A few observations:

1. He is correct that 'too much insurance' is not the problem. Health savings accounts are not the answer.

2. Many of the current uninsured are linked to immigration, or voluntarily uninsured. This is not pure institutional failure.

3. Gladwell downplays moral hazard, arguing that the fully insured wealthy do not forgo their golf games for superfluous doctor visits. But the real problem comes from the other side: doctors overbill or perform unnecessary procedures."

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healthcare insurance

John Stossel: The value of private charity

Private charity, moral hazard, and crowding out, this one's got it all.

John Stossel: The value of private charity: "When 'Cheech,' a street hustler, would stand outside my apartment building begging, I'd ask him why he was begging. He'd tell me about his gambling and family problems, and I'd repeatedly tell him, 'Someone who speaks as well as you could do much more with his life,' and I'd encourage him to consult New York City's Social Services agencies. I could have done more for Cheech personally, but I said to myself, 'Better leave it to the specialists -- my city spends billions on social services -- they have specialists to deal with people like Cheech.'
...
When you rely on the government to help those who need it, you don't practice benevolence yourself. You don't take responsibility for deciding whom to help. Just as public assistance discourages the poor from becoming independent by rewarding them with fixed handouts, it discourages the rest of us from being benevolent. This may be the greatest irony of the welfare state: It not only encourages the poor to stay dependent, it kills individuals' desire to help them."


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charity

Thomas Sowell: An oil 'crisis'?

Dr. Sowell on the oil 'crisis'.

Thomas Sowell: An oil 'crisis'?: "With oil prices passing the record-breaking $60 a barrel level and heading even higher, the word 'crisis' is now being used and all sorts of political 'solutions' are being proposed. Is there really a crisis?

One of the dictionary definitions of a crisis is 'the point in the course of a serious disease at which a decisive change occurs, leading either to recovery or to death.' Is that where we are when it comes to oil? Are we either going to solve the problem of oil or see it destroy us economically?

...

Many of the same people who cry "No blood for oil!" also want higher gas mileage standards for cars. But higher mileage standards have meant lighter and more flimsy cars, leading to more injuries and deaths in accidents -- in other words, trading blood for oil."


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gas price+gouging big+oil halliburton thomas+sowell

Merck Ponders Grounds for Appeal in Wake of $253M Vioxx Verdict

How likely are drug companies and potential investors to introduce new drugs for anything after this nonsense?

Merck Ponders Grounds for Appeal in Wake of $253M Vioxx Verdict: "A jury in Angleton, Texas on Friday returned a verdict awarding a total of $253.4 million in damages to the plaintiffs in the nation's first civil Vioxx trial against drug maker Merck & Co. Inc.

After deliberating for a day and a half, the jury found negligence on Merck's part was a proximate cause in the death of Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old Wal-Mart employee who died in 2001. The jury also found that a marketing defect in Vioxx and a design defect in the painkiller were both producing causes in Ernst's death.

The jury awarded $24.4 million in actual damages and $220 million in punitives to Ernst's widow, Carol, and his children, who filed Carol A. Ernst, et al. v. Merck & Co Inc. in 2002 in 23rd District Judge Ben Hardin's court."


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pharma drugs vioxx healthcare tort+reform Merck

Today's Quotes ...

These are amazing quotes. I found them in Dr. Tom Woods' book: "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History".

Today, wanting someone else's money is called 'need', wanting to keep your own money is called 'greed', and 'compassion' is when politicians arrange the transfer.
-- Joseph Sobran

Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants?
-- FDR when the Supreme Court struck down his agricultural program

Nothing is easier than the expenditure of public money. It doesn't appear to belong to anyone. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.
-- Calvin Coolidge

War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.
-- Ludwig Von Mises

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quotes economics money

Democrats turn up heat on US pump prices

Does anyone else get the feeling that they'll just never learn? Very frustrating.


BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday said the Bush administration should require U.S. oil companies to disclose their fuel pricing policies and production costs.

In a letter to the White House, Reid also said the Federal Trade Commission should investigate instances where a state's retail prices rise 20 percent in any given week 'to determine if the price of gasoline is being artificially manipulated.'

Past FTC probes into U.S. oil company pricing policies have found no sign of abuse.

'This one has already being done,' White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. 'The FTC and the Justice Department have been keenly watching for this type of activity for the past two years.'
...

Separately, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said the White House should ask oil companies for a voluntary, temporarily freeze (sic) on prices that they charge gasoline distributors."


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gas price+gouging big+oil halliburton democrats

Unions Again: The Jobs Bank Debacle

Hey, another great benefit of unions! I had no idea this was going on, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me.

Jobs Bank Debacle: "Back in the late 1980s, the Big Three agreed to protect United Auto Workers union jobs as the industry moved into lean production methods. The idea was to get workers to buy into practices that improved efficiency by eliminating the fear productivity increases would translate into layoffs.

If a worker's job is eliminated, he or she becomes part of a special labor pool where they collect most of their straight-time pay until a new job within their company turns up.

It was a great idea – back then.

Today, there are thousands in the Jobs Bank being paid nearly full wages to do…nothing. Many have been there for years. We don't know how many because no one will say. Not GM, not Ford, not DaimlerChrysler, not the UAW.

With labor as a fixed cost, the economics are such that it is cheaper to build cars and slap massive rebates on them, than it is to never build those cars in the first place. And so that is what the Big Three are doing. They're avoiding putting more people in the Jobs Bank by building vehicles the market does not want and discounting them heavily to entice buyers. They are force-feeding the market.

The Jobs Bank is a key cause of overcapacity. It is creating oversupply, which is causing prices to fall, which drags down residual values and means consumers need a bigger rebate to use as a down payment because their trade-in is worth less. And so goes the vicious spiral."


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unions waste economics jobs UAW GM ford chrysler

Public Hospitals in Poor Suburbs Closing Doors

I suspect that they can't keep their doors open with customers not paying their bills. Hospital EDs are in an awkward situation in that they really can't turn people away. And if someone is in really bad shape, you can't stop and ask them to prepay or produce an insurance card.

An acquaintance is a doctor in a large well-respected local hospital. He told me that their ED has about a 50% success rate collecting on outstanding bills. Not a good way to run a business unfortunately.


Public Hospitals in Poor Suburbs Closing Doors - Yahoo! News: "WEDNESDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) -- While many hospitals in the suburbs surrounding the country's largest cities have closed their doors in the past decade, a new study finds that public hospitals, which typically serve the poor, have been hit the hardest.

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York City report that about 27 percent of public hospitals in the suburbs of large cities and 16 percent of public hospitals in cities have closed between 1996 and 2002, leaving a potentially serious gap in the availability of health care for the vulnerable populations that rely on these hospitals for their medical needs.

'This report is a wake-up call. There should be real concerns about availability of hospital-based safety net care, especially in high-poverty suburban areas,' said study author Dennis Andrulis, director of the Center for Health Equality at the Drexel University School of Health in Philadelphia. He conducted the study while working at SUNY Downstate."


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healthcare SUNY hospitals

O'Reilly Developer: Living in text files

This intrigues me a bit. I often have snippets of info sitting around everywhere. The downside is that if you're using & depending on something like OS X's Spotlight to quickly find things, you'll always fiond the same result, all in one file. Spotlight won't buy you anything. But if you're using a decent text editor with good navigation & search features, you should be fine. I may try this for a while.


Living in text files: "A while ago, I thought I'd try an experiment: could I organise all my work, all my personal stuff, all my writing, in one huge text file?

I tried it. It wasn't easy. While it's sort-of comforting to know that you have everything you need at your disposal, it's also a little daunting. 'Where did I leave that half-finished snippet of writing about such-and-such? I hope I can find it somewhere in this 4,000-line file...'

Of course, such worries are baseless because any half-decent text editor can find exactly what you need in a file that big, or 10 times that big. You just need to remember what it is you're looking for.

My experiment ended with me abandoning the idea; I decided it was easier (especially with the advent of Tiger and Spotlight) to use separate text files.

And then, a few weeks ago, I purchased a second computer, and had to change my thinking yet again.

With two computers to work on, the question of managing a bunch of essential files becomes more complex. Which machine should they live on? How should they be kept in sync with each other? I played about with a variety of sync methods and couldn't find anything that I felt really comfortable with.

So I switched back to one-file-fits-all; now I only have one text file to worry about, to keep synchronized, and that's much easier."

Today's Quotes

"Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own."
-- Thomas Jefferson (Rights of British America, 1774)
Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 1:210.


"What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before."
-- Donald Rumsfeld
U.S. Secretary of Defense


"You know, I’ve had a lot of jobs: boxer, mascot, astronaut, imitation Krusty, baby proofer, trucker, hippy, plow driver, food critic, conceptual artist, grease salesman, carnie, mayor, grifter, bodyguard for the mayor, country western manager, garbage commissioner, mountain climber, farmer, inventor, Smithers, Poochy, celebrity assistant, power plant worker, fortune cookie writer, beer baron, Kwik-E-Mart clerk, homophobe, and missionary, but protecting Springfield – that gives me the best feeling of all." -- Homer Simpson


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quotes simpsons taxes

U.S. Broadband Access Falling Behind

I'm a little confused by this. Falling behind what or whom? Who's to say what the proper amount of broadband access is? Isn't that best left up to consumers of broadband? If we removed gocvt. interference from the market we would know exactly what the proper amount was.

Slashdot | U.S. Broadband Access Falling Behind: "U.S. Broadband Access Falling Behind

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 18, @12:06AM
from the no-computer-left-behind dept.
EpochVII writes 'FreePress recently released a report(PDF) detailing the woeful situation of U.S. broadband access. From the press release: 'By overstating broadband availability and portraying anti-competitive policies as good for consumers, the FCC is trying to erect a fa�ade of success. But if the president's goal of universal, affordable high-speed Internet access by 2007 is to be achieved, policymakers in Washington must change course.''"


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broadband economics

Today's Quotes ...

"The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government."
-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 9, 1787)


" ... I suggest that the more the state intervenes in such situations, the more 'necessary' (on this view) it becomes, because positive altruism and voluntary cooperative behaviour atrophy in the presence of the state and grow in its absence. Thus, again, the state exacerbates the conditions which are supposed to make it necessary. We might say that the state is like an addictive drug: the more of it we have, the more we 'need' it and the more we come to 'depend' on it."
-- Michael Taylor
Source: The Possibility of Cooperation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 168


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quotes constitution

Photo in the News: Gas Thief Escapes on Tricycle

What the heck?!? I wonder what they'll do w/ this?

Photo in the News: Gas Thief Escapes on Tricycle: "August 16, 2005—Speeding from the scene of the crime, a Chinese boy tows a floating plastic bag of stolen natural gas last week. Flouting a government ban, farmers around the central Chinese town of Pucheng frequently filch gas from the local oil field.



As Chinese industry booms and automobile use spreads, the country as a whole appears to be on a feverish quest for fossil fuels. Oil consumption rose by 11 percent last year, and the number of private autos hit 14 million in 2003—and is expected to rise to 150 million by 2015."

AARP: Drug Makers Are Price Gouging

Allegations of price-gouging often make me chuckle and mad at the same time.

A few questions/comments:

1.
Who decided that the drug manufacturers were obligated to keep their prices in line with inflation?

2.
If the drug price increases were half that of inflation, would the AARP be running a similar campaign for the manufacturers to increase the prices accordingly?

3.
The inflation rate is somewhat arbitrary anyway, and should be taken with a grain of salt.


AARP: Drug Makers Are Price Gouging: "AARP: Drug Makers Are Price Gouging

Wholesale prices for the brand-name prescription drugs widely used by older Americans rose at more than twice the rate of inflation during the year that ended March 31, the AARP says.

The price charged by manufacturers climbed 6.6 percent for a sample of 195 drugs. That's down from the 7.1 percent increase in the year that ended Dec. 31 but still well ahead of the 3 percent general inflation rate, the organization said in a report for release Tuesday.

'We are very disappointed that brand name manufacturers have failed to keep their price increases in line with inflation and we will continue to educate our members and the public about how best to find the most affordable prescription drugs to suit their needs,' AARP chief executive William Novelli said."


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AARP pharma price-gouging healthcare

Health Group Gets $2M Grant of Federal Money

Where in the constitution do the feds get the authority to use taxpayer money in this manner? Who gets to decide when we have a health-care shortage or surplus?


"But the government puts almost nothing into elder health care"
Yes, and it should put nothing into it!!


Democrat & Chronicle: Local News: "UR-headed health care group gets $2M grant

Federal funding will be used to train health workers in geriatrics

Alan Morrell

(August 16, 2005) — A health care consortium anchored by the University of Rochester is receiving a $2 million U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to train workers in geriatrics.

The five-year grant is going to the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center of Upstate New York.

'The demographics speak for themselves,' said Dr. Paul R. Katz, chief of the geriatrics division at UR, of the continuously growing number of elderly. 'But the government puts almost nothing into elder health care.'"


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constitution taxes waste healthcare

Guaranteed Retirement Income by Michael S. Rozeff

Guaranteed Retirement Income by Michael S. Rozeff: "An ad by the AARP caught my ear during the Bud Billiken Parade broadcast by WGN on August 13. The ad’s part of a big AARP campaign focusing on Social Security. The AARP is against Social Security becoming a risky retirement plan. Their argument is that Social Security is 'guaranteed retirement income' and should stay that way.

Forget the contradiction that they are calling Social Security guaranteed while arguing that Uncle Sam, who can change it at any time, shouldn’t. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that it is guaranteed. Let’s say that a subgroup (enrolled retirees) of the overall population is 100% assured of getting a level of real income in the future no matter what happens in the economy. Then it follows as the night follows the day that the rest of the population bears a greater uncertainty or risk in their income! This is basic finance.

...

Systemic risk cannot be made to disappear by guarantees made by the government. It can be shifted around, repackaged, sliced and diced, passed from one group to another, but it does not go away."


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AARP retirement social+security

The Public School Disaster by Mike Ford

What an expensive wasteful mess.

The Public School Disaster by Mike Ford: "In my state, in the coming weeks, there are going to be a great many columns about the failure of the Texas legislature to finance the public schools. 98% of what will be written will be irrelevancies about money.

Our public school system has problems that money can't cure. This will not be discussed. Despite its support by a mandatory attendance (required for 13 years) and taxpayer financial support that is also mandatory (averaging $9,000 per year per student), our public schools now produce high school graduates with less than an 8th grade-level education. Nationwide, the costs for this academic and social failure are $536 billion per year (www.ed.gov). And costs are going up.

The principal reason for this situation is that educating our children is no longer the primary purpose of the public schools. Today their purpose is to employ six million people – not to deliver quality education to our children, and certainly not to save money. It has been this way for at least 20 years.

Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), had a penchant for telling it like it is. Back in 1985, he said 'When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.' Legislators, the media, and the public may be confused on this issue, but the teachers' unions are not."


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education public+schools teachers unions

Treehugger: Roy Lee Walker Sustainable Elementary School

Fair-Trade & Guilt-Free School


Treehugger: Roy Lee Walker Sustainable Elementary School in McKinney: "Roy Lee Walker Sustainable Elementary School in McKinney
August 15, 2005 01:53 AM - Michael G. Richard, Ottawa

walker-elementary-01.jpgIt seems like there's something quite cool going on in the city of McKinney, Texas. First there was the prototype of an eco-Walmart, then the eco-dealership by Toyota, and now - thanks to reader littleCatalyst for pointing it out - we learn that the city also has a sustainable elementary school that has been named (pdf link) one of the ten Most Environmentally Responsible Design Projects in the Nation by the American Institute of Architects."


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education public+schools

Today's Quotes ...

"...(I)f money were the answer, Washington public schools would be the best in the nation -- if not the world. Per student expenditures are $10,500 a year, second highest in the nation. With a student-teacher ration of 15.8, they have smaller-than-average class sizes. What is the result? In only one of the city's 19 high schools do as many as 50 percent of its students test as proficient in reading, and at no school are 50 percent of the students proficient in math. At nine high schools, only 5 percent or fewer of its students test proficient in reading; and in 11 high schools, only 5 percent or less are proficient in math."
-- Walter Williams


"Some ideas seem so plausible that they can fail nine times in a row and still be believed the tenth time. Other ideas seem so implausible that they can succeed nine times in a row and still not be believed the tenth time. Government controls in the economy are among the first kinds of ideas and the operation of a free market is among the second kinds of ideas."
--Thomas Sowell


"Suppose I hire you to repair my computer. The job is worth $200 to me and doing the job is worth $200 to you. The transaction will occur because we have a meeting of the mind. Now suppose there's the imposition of a 30 percent income tax on you. That means you won't receive $200 but instead $140. You might say the heck with working for me -- spending the day with your family is worth more than $140. You might then offer that you'll do the job if I pay you $285. That way your after-tax earnings will be $200 -- what the job was worth to you. There's a problem. The repair job was worth $200 to me, not $285. So it's my turn to say the heck with it. This simple example demonstrates that one effect of taxes is that of eliminating transactions, and hence jobs."
-- Walter Williams


"There are no solutions...(t)here are only trade-offs."
--Thomas Sowell


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education public+schools thomas+sowell walter+williams economics quotes

Early Ad For Namiki/Pilot VP/Capless Fountain Pen

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namiki pilot vanishing+point capless fountain+pen fountain+pens ink

TZ Public Forum: The Speedmaster Makeover

On TZ's public forum, Jocke posted some nice pics of his Speedmaster Professional as he disassembled it for servicing.

TimeZone: Public Forum: The Omega makeover part 1

TimeZone: Public Forum: The Omega makeover part 2








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omega speedmaster omega+speedmaster watches mechanical+watches horology

Treehugger: Prototype of Eco-Friendly Toyota Dealership in Texas

" ... we could have the first [certified] environmentally sensitive auto dealership ..."

Now, guilt free autos! I wonder if they will throw in a guilt-free oil change or t-shirt w/ a new car purchase? Maybe a guilt-free four wheel alingment? ;-)

Milk-based paint? Is that 2% or skim?

Treehugger: Prototype of Eco-Friendly Toyota Dealership in Texas: "McKinney, North Texas, will be the location of the first 'green' Toyota dealership. The company is working with a private dealer and architects to plan the store and it seems like they want to do it right. 'From solar panels to milk-based paint to recycled rainwater, [waterless urinals] and recycled carpet,' and the best part is that it could become a prototype for future Toyota dealerships. 'We thought perhaps we could have the first [certified] environmentally sensitive auto dealership designed in the world,' said Paul Bennett, director of dealer development for Gulf States, 'if you're trying to inform customers about the benefits of hybrid technology ... what better way to cast that than to put it in an environmentally friendly facility?'"


Technorati Tags:
toyota cars global+warming

Ignorance Update: "We should learn from Mugabe"

"We should learn from Mugabe"?!? Sadly, this woman appears to be serious.


Independent Online Edition > Africa : app6: "We should learn from Mugabe, says South Africa's deputy leader
By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg
Published: 12 August 2005

South Africa's new Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has caused an uproar by calling for her country to copy Zimbabwe's disastrous land reform policies in an attempt to speed up redistribution.

Mrs Mlambo-Ngcuka's remarks came shortly after a government summit to review South Africa's land reforms opted to drop the willing buyer/willing seller policy in favour of a new policy yet to be spelt out.

'Land reform in South Africa has been too slow and too structured. There needs to be a bit of 'oomph'. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us,' she said at an education conference. 'On agrarian and land reform, South Africa should learn some lessons from Zimbabwe - how to do it fast.' But analysts and opposition MPs, who fear South Africa is already on the path to losing its status as the world's sixth-biggest net food exporter following the rejection of the willing buyer/willing seller policy, condemned Mrs Mlambo Ngcuka's comments as 'grossly irresponsible'.

While the need to redistribute land in South Africa to redress colonial-era imbalances is not disputed, there is almost universal consensus that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's methods are textbook examples of how not to enact land reforms.

...

Mr Morobe said South Africa could learn from Zimbabwe 'or any other country' about the important issue of land reform: 'The Deputy President definitely did not agree or disagree with the Zimbabwean issue when she made those remarks. The fact is that our land reforms need 'oomph', as she said, but one should not elevate a lighthearted moment and turn it into a fact.'

Years of often violent evictions of white farmers in favour of regime cronies have destroyed Zimbabwe's agricultural economy. A major international think-tank, the Washington-based Centre for Global Development (CGD), this week said Zimbabwe's economy had dropped to its 1953 levels due to destructive policies.

...

'The lesson for our country lies in not following the same route which Zimbabwe has taken. Zimbabwe offers a textbook example of ways in which land reform should not be carried out,' said Mr Gibson.

...

'Land reform in South Africa has been too slow and too structured. There needs to be a bit of 'oomph'. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us,' she said at an education conference. '"


Technorati Tags:
africa

As the Aral Sea dries up, the Soviet Union's biological weapons secrets surface - Yahoo! News

Hmm, I don't like the sound of this.

As the Aral Sea dries up, the Soviet Union's biological weapons secrets surface - Yahoo! News: "ARALSK, Kazakhstan (AFP) - As the Aral Sea in southwestern Kazakhstan continues to shrink, the deadly legacy of the Soviet Union's biological weapons programme is threatening to spread illness in this arid region.

For nearly 60 years, Soviet scientists used the Aral Sea island of Vozrozhdenie (Rebirth) to test bacteriological weapons -- including anthrax and the plague -- in top-secret laboratories.

The experiments ended in 1991 and much of the infrastructure on the island, now shared between the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, has been destroyed but scientists say the diseases may have survived in animals."


Technorati Tags:
WMD Kazakhstan Soviet+Union

Wired News: Traffic Hackers Hit Red Light

These things seem like an accident waiting to happen, literally! Wish I had one.

Wired News: Traffic Hackers Hit Red Light: "If you've ever been stuck in traffic longing for a magic box that could turn all your red lights to green, beware: Acting on that fantasy became a federal crime this week.

The Safe Intersections Act, part of the transit bill signed Wednesday by President Bush, makes it a misdemeanor for unauthorized users to wield a 'traffic signal pre-emption transmitter,' a special remote control used by police, firefighters and ambulance drivers to change traffic lights to green as they approach an intersection.

Beeco Sales and Distributing offers a slick traffic signal pre-emption transmitter that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket and attaches to an automobile's dash. The company says only government agencies can buy it.A savvy do-it-yourselfer can build this mobile infrared transmitter for less than $20, but using it is now a federal crime.This home-brew transmitter uses powerful infrared LEDs to signal traffic lights.Traffic signals equipped with pre-emption systems bear a telltale infrared sensor mounted on top.

Lawmakers took an interest in the devices, called mobile infrared transmitters, or MIRTs, a couple of years ago, when it emerged that impatient commuters could purchase rogue boxes online for around $500. Several states outlawed unauthorized possession of the transmitters, and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) introduced the federal bill in 2003. The measure won support from police and firefighter groups."


Technorati Tags:
traffic cars hacking

Corporate Welfare at It's Worst: Advanced Technology Program by Brian Riedl -- Capitalism Magazine

Just when you thought you'd heard of all of the wasteful inefficient govt. programs ...

Corporate Welfare at It's Worst: Advanced Technology Program by Brian Riedl -- Capitalism Magazine: "Members of Congress will soon return home for August recess. While there, many will express outrage over the 33 percent increase in government spending since 2001, and the $400 billion budget deficit. They will offer vague pledges to rein in government.

Taxpayers have heard it all before.

Those who want to see how serious lawmakers are about restraining spending would be wise to follow the fate of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) in this year's budget. Corporate welfare at its worst, ATP may be the most offensively unnecessary program in Washington. If lawmakers cannot even close down ATP, then they clearly are not ready to make the larger and more complicated decisions necessary to bring the budget under control.

Congress created ATP in 1988 when Japanese-style industrial policy was en vogue. ATP would “bridge the gap between research and the marketplace” by providing grants to businesses engaged in commercial scientific research. Unlike the National Science Foundation, which funds basic academic-style research, ATP funds projects with a “significant commercial payoff,” meaning those that would create substantial profits for businesses.

Between 1990 and 2004, ATP spent more than $2 billion, 35 percent of which was distributed to 39 Fortune 500 companies. For example, $127 million has gone to IBM, $91 million to General Electric, $79 million to General Motors, and $44 million apiece to Motorola and 3M. Overall, these 39 companies reported revenues of $1.4 trillion in 2003. This is how Congress spends tax dollars extracted from working Americans."


Technorati Tags:
IBM GE GM welfare corporate+welfare

Tech Central Station - War and ANWR: Facts vs. Fictions

Some more sense on ANWR.

TCS: Tech Central Station - War and ANWR: Facts vs. Fictions: "Sorting fact from fiction in the debate over oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska has become easier recently. Just look at who has actors to do their talking and you'll know who's telling tall tales.

Members of the Natural Resources Defense Council are getting e-mails from Robert Redford asking them to urge members of Congress to oppose the energy bill supported by President Bush. Redford claims the bill would open not only the ANWR to drilling but also 'pave the way for energy companies to exploit and destroy pristine areas of Greater Yellowstone and other gems of our natural heritage.' And last month, Martin Sheen, the fictional president in the Emmy award winning The West Wing, put out an ad for the Alaska Wildlife League in which he asks, 'The Arctic Refuge, is it worth destroying forever, for six months of oil?'

Sentimentally buffeted by such charming leading men, who wouldn't oppose the president's energy measure? The answer: Anyone who prefers to deal with the facts, and anyone who must face squarely the nation's economic, energy and security needs.

The economy, despite using energy with twice the efficiency of 40 years ago, still relies and will rely on oil and other fossil fuels for growth for the next several decades. More than four-fifths of the nation's energy needs are met by fossil fuels. And oil -- at an equivalent of 20 million barrels consumed per day -- meets 40% of America's energy needs, and represents the single largest component of the energy supply.

One problem for this nation is that much of its oil and natural gas resources are on federal lands. In the last two decades, at the urging of environmentalists, the government has reduced federal lands available to development by 60%."


Technorati Tags:
gas price+gouging big+oil halliburton ANWR oil

Tech Central Station - Sallie Baliunas

Sallie Baliunas is a great writer and has put togther a bunch of columns and articles on numerous topics. Very interesting stuff, highly recommended.

TCS: Tech Central Station - Where Free Markets Meet Technology: "Sallie Baliunas
Sallie Baliunas, Ph.D. served as part Deputy Director of Mount Wilson Observatory and as Senior Scientist at the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington, DC, and chairs the Institute's Science Advisory Board and is past contributing editor to the World Climate Report. Her awards include the Newton-Lacy-Pierce Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Petr Beckmann Award for Scientific Freedom and the Bok Prize from Harvard University. She has written over 200 scientific research articles. In 1991 Discover magazine profiled her as one of America's outstanding women scientists. She was technical consultant for a science-fiction television series, 'Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict,' airing 1997 - 2001. She received her M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees in Astrophysics from Harvard University.

Her research interests include solar variability and other factors in climate change, magnetohydrodynamics of the sun and sunlike stars, exoplanets and the use of laser electro-optics for the correction of turbulence due to the earth's atmosphere in astronomical images."

Click here for all Tech Central Station articles by Sallie Baliunas.

Today's Quotes ...

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow."
-- Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (Federalist No. 62, 1788)
Reference: The Federalist


"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie."
- Vladimir Lenin


"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."
- Vladimir Lenin


Technorati Tags:
quotes lenin

Fountain Pen Forums

The places to be for you fountain pen fans.

http://www.pentrace.com/mboard.htm

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/

http://www.ramblingsnail.net/

http://fountainpenforum.com/


Technorati Tags:
pens fountain+pens forums, fountain+pen

Treehugger: Rodedawg: Out-Hummering the Hummer

This looks slick.

Treehugger: Rodedawg: Out-Hummering the Hummer: "Rodedawg: Out-Hummering the Hummer



Here's a new road-monstrosity for the un-treehugger category: Beijing Jeep, Chrysler's Chinese partner, makes amphibious vehicles. They used to be sold only to the Chinese military, but Rodedawg International Industries has bought the marketing rights to the beasts and intend to sell them to civilians all around the globe for around $50,000 apiece."

http://www.rodedawg.com/


Technorati Tags:
hummer cars

Strange New Products: Gas Station Dog Wash

Darnit, why didn't I think of this?!?

Strange New Products: Gas Station Dog Wash: "GinSan, the maker of self-serve car-washes for gas stations has a coin-operated dog-washing station, marketed as the 'GinSan Pet Wash'. It's designed to be set up at gas stations and car-washes.



The product is all stainless steel, and runs on a timer, and charges users $5.00 for 8 minutes. A control panel gives them a variety of options including shampoo, flea & tick shampoo, skunk odor remover, air dry, and others."


Technorati Tags:
dogs

Walter E. Williams: Making intelligent errors

Dr. Williams does it again.

Walter E. Williams: Making intelligent errors: "We're not omniscient. That means making errors is unavoidable. Understanding the nature of errors is vital to our well-being. Let's look at it.

There are two types of errors, nicely named the type I error and the type II error. The type I error is when we reject a true hypothesis when we should accept it. The type II error is when we accept a false hypothesis when we should reject it. In decision-making, there's always a non-zero probability of making one error or the other. That means we're confronted with asking the question: Which error is least costly? Let's apply this concept to a couple of issues."


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walter+williams

John Stossel: The fallacy of the prevailing wage

John Stossel is on a run of several very good columns in a row, well worth reading.

John Stossel: The fallacy of the prevailing wage: "In its contempt for the market, the federal government is setting high wages that keep people poor.

On government construction jobs, federal law requires that everyone be paid 'the prevailing wage.' By 'prevailing wage,' the feds mean the wage the bureaucrats were prevailed upon to set. The Davis Bacon Act, passed in 1935, requires every construction worker be paid exactly what the bureaucrats decree.

The real 'prevailing wage' is set by the law of free exchange, of course: If you don't pay enough, no one will work for you. Demand too much, and you won't get much construction work. Supply and demand make sure people are paid a wage that's most efficient for the most people.

The Davis Bacon Act redefines the term 'prevailing wage.' For the facts of the market, it substitutes the arbitrary whims of bureaucrats. But the facts are the facts, and ignoring them is never safe. In this case, the victims of the government's self-deception are the people the government is refusing to see: the people for whom the real prevailing wage -- the amount they can earn on the open market -- is lower than that set by the government."


Technorati Tags:
minimum+wage living+wage

Vintage Pilot Pen Posters, from Pentrace.com

Someone kindly posted this on pentrace.com.

Vintage Pilot Fountain Pen Posters




Technorati Tags:
pens fountain+pens namiki, fountain+pen

Today's Quote ...

"Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution."
-- James Madison (Federalist No. 39, 1788)


Technorati Tags:
quotes constitution

Philippe Dufour - Portrait of a Master

Fabulous work by Peter Chong: Potrait of a Master, Philippe Dufour.

All photographs and text by Peter Chong. From timezone.com.

Philippe Dufour - portrait of a master: "Much has been written about Philippe Dufour, his mastery of the craft of watchmaking, his insistence on perfection, his stubborn-ness to remain close to the art of his forebears, his open-ness to sharing with collectors and other watchmakers alike.

I have been close to the man for many years, since the mid-1990s, when he made his mark as the creator of the wristwatch Grande Sonnerie, and of the Duality. I visited him again at his booth in the ACHI stand in Basel 1998 when gingerly, he told me that he had created something different from his earlier creations. Something so simple, in watchmaking terms, he called it the Simplicity."








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Philippe+Dufour watches mechanical+watches swiss

Victor Davis Hanson on Hiroshima on National Review Online

Victor Davis Hanson on Hiroshima on National Review Online: "August 05, 2005, 7:14 a.m.
60 Years Later
Considering Hiroshima.

For 60 years the United States has agonized over its unleashing of the world’s first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. President Harry Truman’s decision to explode an atomic bomb over an ostensible military target — the headquarters of the crack Japanese 2nd Army — led to well over 100,000 fatalities, the vast majority of them civilians.

Critics immediately argued that we should have first targeted the bomb on an uninhabited area as a warning for the Japanese militarists to capitulate. Did a democratic America really wish to live with the burden of being the only state that had used nuclear weapons against another?

Later generals Hap Arnold, Dwight Eisenhower, Curtis LeMay, Douglas Macarthur, and Admirals William Leahy and William Halsey all reportedly felt the bomb was unnecessary, being either militarily redundant or unnecessarily punitive to an essentially defeated populace."

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hiroshima war

Marginal Revolution: Jokes about opportunity cost

This is great, almost laughed my @ss off. ;-)


Marginal Revolution: Jokes about opportunity cost: "Jokes about opportunity cost

So this guy is driving down the high and passes an orchard...

He sees this farmer holding up a pig so that it can gobble apples right off the tree. The pig is going crazy eating apples.

'That's the craziet thing I ever saw,' the guy tells himself and he pulls over to the side of the road, gets out of the car, and goes up to the farmer.

'Hey, I couldn't help noticing what you were doing. Does your pig like apples?'

The farmer says, 'My pig loves apples.'

'Well, if you don't mind my saying so, if you took a stick and knocked the apples on the ground instead of lifting the pig up, you would save lots of time.'

And the farmer answers, 'What's time to a pig?'

That is attributed to Paul Willis, and is from Peter Kaminsky's new and excellent (for foodies) Pig Perfect."

moleskinerie: The 2006 Moleskine Diaries

I'm going to have to check these planners out. I've developed a bit of a Moleskine addiction in the last 2 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moleskine

moleskinerie: The 2006 Moleskine Diaries: "POCKET DIARY 2006
The ideal place to keep information and news for people on the move. A new page for each day for notes and appointments. 380 lined pages. MB516D

POCKET WEEKLY DIARY 2006
The ideal place to keep information and news for people who travel. The whole week on two pages. 128 lined pages.
MB516W

DIARY 2006 LARGE
With plenty of space to organize your day. A new page for each day for notes and appointments. 380 lined pages.
MBL516D

WEEKLY DIARY 2006 LARGE
In large format, with the whole week on two pages. 128 lined pages.
MBL516W

2006 Moleskine Diaries now available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Your independent Bookseller and fine stationery stores.

A product update from Kikkerland Designs."

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moleskine journals writing pens fountain+pens

Treehugger: Fair Hemp Wristbands

Fair-trade coffee, and now fair-trade hemp products. What's left? Fair-trade crystals, Jerry Garcia CDs, and VW buses? ;-)

Treehugger: Fair Hemp Wristbands: "I'm embarrassed to admit that I had no idea that terry wristbands were a hot fashion accessory. So, I dutifully did my research and learned that they are indeed the cool insignia-fied item of the day. Well thank goodness Fair Hemp isn't as clueless as I, or we wouldn't be checking out this line of vividly colored Hemp and Organic Cotton Wristbands."

http://www.fairhemp.com/

Pilot Japan's Capless Fountain Pen Page

The Japanese Pilot page for this fountain pen, w/ a slick animated .gif.



Japanese Pilot Capless Fountain Pen Page

Technorati Tags:
pens fountain+pens namiki pilot, fountain+pen

Today's Quotes ...

"Mans striving after an improvement of the conditions of his existence impels him to action. Action requires planning and the decision which of various plans is the most advantageous."
- Ludwig von Mises
The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science


"The most serious dangers for American freedom and the American way of life do not come from without."
- Ludwig von Mises
Economic Freedom and Interventionism


"The consumers suffer when the laws of the country prevent the most efficient entrepreneurs from expanding the sphere of their activities. What made some enterprises develop into big business was precisely their success in filling best the demand of the masses."
- Ludwig von Mises
Planned Chaos


"There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them."
- Ludwig von Mises
Omnipotent Government

Technorati Tags:
quotes

New Scientist Breaking News - 'Worthless' gifts get the good girls

Finally, a good use for game theory! ;-)

New Scientist Breaking News - 'Worthless' gifts get the good girls: "Men who spend big money wining and dining their dates are not frittering away hard-earned cash. According to a pair of UK researchers, they are merely employing the best strategy for getting the girl without being taken for granted.

Using mathematical modelling, Peter Sozou and Robert Seymour at University College London, UK, found that wooing girls with costly, but essentially worthless gifts – such as theatre tickets or expensive dinners out – is a winning courtship strategy for both sexes.

Females can assess how serious or committed a male plans to be and males can ensure they are not just seducing 'gold-diggers' – girls who take valuable presents with no intention of accepting subsequent dates."

Technorati Tags:
economics game+theory

Fortune - Fair-Trade Water?

You'll buy this water, unless you don't care about thirsty kids.

Okay, sour grapes, I'm just sorry I didn't think of it first. ;-)

Investing - Starbucks Stirs Up the Water Market - FORTUNE - Page: "n an effort to grab a bigger share of the fast-growing $9.8-billion a year bottled water industry in the U.S., Starbucks is rolling out a new brand of bottled water, with a twist. No, that's not a twist as in lemon or lime—the twist here is that Ethos Water, a tiny startup acquired by Starbucks in April, will donate five cents for every $1.80 bottle of water that it sells to fund drinking water projects in poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This is shrewd marketing. How else would an unknown brand of a look-alike, taste-alike product like water stand out from the crowd in an industry that is dominated by giants like Pepsico (Aquafina), Coca-Cola (Dasani) and Nestle (Poland Spring, Arrowhead and Deer Park) and well-supplied with premium brands like Evian and Fiji. 'We've got a very simple message,' says Peter Thum, the 37-year-old co-founder of Ethos, who is now a Starbucks vice president. 'Every bottle makes a difference. Buy this brand and help children get clean water.'"

This desperately needs a caption!

Chrysler pitchman proves he's still master of the deal - 08/05/05: "'It's a big company and a big-time rapper doing big business together. We are bringing the generations together and it's a beautiful thing,' says platinum-selling rapper Snoop Dogg, with auto legend Lee Iacocca, of their commercial, which debuts tonight on network TV."

Technorati Tags:
chrysler snoop

Today's Quotes ...

"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
-- Anatole France
[Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844-1924)


"If you believe everything you read, you better not read."
-- Japanese Proverb

Technorati Tags:
quotes

Tech Central Station - On Embryonic Stem Cells, Frist Backs A Loser

Now aside from the fact that I believe this to be immoral, there is another much more salient issue at play here. There is simply no call whatsoever for this kind of federal govt. spending in the Constitution. It simply isn't there. Regardless of one's views on the morality of it, it's unconstitutional from my vantage point.

TCS: Tech Central Station - On Embryonic Stem Cells, Frist Backs A Loser: "What does embryonic stem cell research have to do with the space shuttle? Seemingly nothing. Dig deeper, though. Whatever NASA may claim, there's little the shuttle can do that unmanned spaceships cannot - at much lower costs. But NASA knows what sci-fi writers always have, that we're enamored of manned space flight. The shuttle's main mission is maintaining NASA's prestige and budget.

Yet if the shuttle has proved to have little use, ESCs have so far had none. They've never been tested on a human, much less treated one. And like the shuttle, there's a far superior alternative. Culled from numerous body tissues as well as umbilical cords and placenta, these are generally referred to as 'adult stem cells.' Yet the value of ASCs are routinely downplayed or even ignored precisely because ESCs, like the shuttle, are of such marginal value to the human race but of such tremendous value to individual reputations and budgets.



Which brings us to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's support of new legislation (and his break with the Bush administration) that would tremendously expand federal aid for ESC research. (Note: one of the myths surrounding ESC research is that it currently receives no federal support, while another goes even further to say such research is illegal.)"

Technorati Tags:
stem+cells abortion

Dog beats most in swim from Alcatraz - Boston.com

This is cute as hell.

Dog beats most in swim from Alcatraz - Boston.com


SAN FRANCISCO --With a stomach full of scrambled eggs, Jake dog-paddled his way into history, leaving most of the serious -- and human -- swimmers in his wake.

Organizers of the South End Rowing Club's 10th annual Alcatraz Invitational -- a 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shoreline -- say the 65-pound golden retriever is the first canine known to have made the crossing.

He was the only dog among more than 500 swimmers who lept into the chilly, choppy waters on Saturday, coming in 72nd overall. His time was 41 minutes and 45 seconds.

The crowd cheered as the 4-year-old pooch made his way onto solid ground, shaking sprays of water and dodging a woman who tried to put a medal around his neck.

'It was colder and rougher than we thought it would be,' said Jeff Pokonosky, Jake's owner and swim partner. 'Jake amazed me. He was very focused. He started out really fast. I was trying to slow him down. He increased his pace to stay with the pack.'"

BBC's GREATEST PHILOSOPHER VOTE

This is pathetic. Karl Marx voted the #1 philosopher by BBC readers? A testament to the sorry state of the Western education systems and/or its infiltration and control by the left?

BBC - Radio 4 - In Our Time: "In Our Time's Greatest Philosopher
The final top ten positions are listed below. You can still read the profiles and enjoy some stimulating advocating by our experts or go to the full shortlist for all the special pleadings in the vote. "

Analysis at the Mises Blog.

Technorati Tags:
BBC karl+marx

Rare Giant Catfish Released in Cambodia on Yahoo! News Photos

Not a bad catch!!

Rare Giant Catfish Released in Cambodia on Yahoo! News Photos: "A handout picture released Monday Aug. 1, 2005 shows Duncan Rooke, 32, left and Stephen Buss, 30, as they haul in a record-breaking catfish in the River Ebro, near Barcelona in Spain on July 6, 2005. The 7ft 7in, (2.3 meters) 212lb (96kgms) female fish is the biggest freshwater catch ever made by a British angler and nearly pulled 32-year-old gas engineer Rooke back into the river once he had hold of her. After weighing the fish and burping her to get rid of the air in her stomach she was released. Photo taken on July 6. (AP Photos/HO/PA)"

Cafe Hayek: On Sweatshop Wages

This is an excellent quote from Don Boudreaux.

"In and of itself, situation A is neither good nor bad; it is good or bad only in comparison with it's real alternatives. This lesson is a hard one, perhaps -- it's certainly an unromantic one -- but it's indispensable for sound analysis."


Cafe Hayek: On Sweatshop Wages: "Benjamin Powell – a fine economist who earned his PhD in Economics at George Mason University and who now serves on the faculty at San Jose State University – wrote, with his student Dave Skarbek, this excellent op-ed on sweatshops in developing countries. It appears in today's Christian Science Monitor."

Technorati Tags:
economics sweatshops living+wage

Today's Quotes ...

"Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors."
-- John Adams (letter to the young men of the Philadelphia, 7 May 1798)
The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (188)



And a few thoughts on "Campaign Finance Reform":

"The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."
-- James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: First draft of what became the First Amendment, 8 June 1789


"No nation, ancient or modern, ever lost the liberty of speaking freely, writing, or publishing their sentiments, but forthwith lost their liberty in general and became slaves."
-- John Peter Zenger
(1697-1746)

Technorati Tags:
quotes liberty constitution

Today's Quotes ...

"It seems the press has been second-guessing military operations for a long time".
- From the Federalist Patriot Newsletter

"Why, it appears that we appointed all of our worst generals to command the armies and we appointed all of our best generals to edit the newspapers. I mean, I found by reading a newspaper that these editor generals saw all of the defects plainly from the start but didn't tell me until it was too late. I'm willing to yield my place to these best generals and I'll do my best for the cause by editing a newspaper."
--Robert E. Lee


"[W]hen People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."
--Samuel Adams

Technorati Tags:
quotes

Enumerated Powers Act: Require Congress to Cite Constitutional Authority

God knows this has ben a LONG time coming, badly needed. In short, if I understand this correctly, every bill proposal would have to contain a section explaining what part of the Constitution permits the proposed law.

Thank you Congressman John Shadegg!!!


U.S. Congressman John Shadegg : Serving the 3rd District of Arizona: "Washington, May 19 - The Enumerated Powers Act, H.R. 2458, requires that all bills introduced in the U.S. Congress include a statement setting forth the specific constitutional authority under which the law is being enacted. This measure will force a continual re-examination of the role of the national government, and will fundamentally alter the ever-expanding reach of the federal government.

For too long, the federal government has operated without constitutional restraint. In doing so, it has created ineffective and costly programs, massive deficits year after year, and a national debt totaling nearly $7 trillion. The Enumerated Powers Act will help slow the flood of unconstitutional legislation and force Congress to reexamine the proper role of the federal government. For these reasons, every Congress since the 104th Congress I have introduced the Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 2270 - 104th, H.R. 292 - 105th, H.R. 1018 – 106th, H.R. 175 — 107th, H.R. 384 — 108th)."

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