Sleepless in Midland

His home protection plan included a .45

A homeowner armed with a gun confronted a burglar armed with a tire iron. Guess which one ended up in the morgue. Thug Report alerts us to this incident of citizen prevailing over burglar.

It happened in Channelview, Texas, near Houston the other day, and here's an excerpt from the Chron.com article:

On Tuesday, the homeowner saw a car about 3:30 p.m. as it pulled into the driveway leading to the home in the 100 block of Cedar Lane in Channelview.

After checking with his father-in-law, who lives in another home on the same property, the man took his .45-caliber pistol and went outside to confront the man he had seen in the car, investigators said.

The man was carrying empty cases used to hold crossbows when the homeowner confronted him in the driveway.

"He pulled out his gun and ordered the suspect to stop," Rivera said. "The suspect threw the cases down and produced the tire iron."

The homeowner fired once with the pistol. He fired a second time when the man continued moving toward him.

The man got into his car then began grabbing for the pistol, Rivera said.

"They struggled for the gun and he (the homeowner) fires two or three more shots," Rivera said.

The man tried to drive away, but struck a support column for a large covered car port, causing it to partially collapse.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, Rivera said.

The sequence in the article is a little confusing. If the burglar began grabbing for the pistol only after he got into his car then the homeowner must have walked right up to him.

In any event, it proves once again that crime doesn't pay. Burglary, fun and profitable, but the retirement plan sucks.

We can't let this one go without a link to a must-see video titled home alone. It's a commercial for a shooting range but it's also a spoof of an alarm company commercial. It serves as a good reminder that each of us is our own first line of defense.

Bartering for dental work

Interesting ad in the "Personals" the other day: Someone in need of a dentist was offering to put on a metal or tile roof in exchange for some bridge work. See a shot of the ad in the margin.

The practice of bartering probably began shortly after humans started communicating. "I'll draw a nice mural on your cave wall if you will let me sleep in it and eat some the animals you kill."

Bartering seems to be alive and well, and in fact, Craigslist even has a bartering section where you can see, for example, offers to trade a pool table for tile work.

We've all heard stories from back in the days when doctors might accept produce or livestock from patients who had more product than money. But that was another era, and it's hard to picture in this day and time when some docs won't even give the time of day to person who isn't insured.

However, dental work seems to be one of those services subject to barter. (Probably has something to do with fewer insured patients, but that's a subject for another day.) Here's a dentist in New York who has offered to trade dental services for plumbing and tile work. The practice must be quite common as the IRS has provided a convenient reminder that a barter transaction is taxable. And the example they use, coincidentally enough, involves a dentist and plumber exchanging services.

Oh, by the way, in case you didn't know, I'll blog for food.

Putney Swope, ahead of his time

Putney Swope was a 1969 cult movie about a black guy who took over a Madison Avenue advertising agency. To make that happen the plot had the CEO drop dead in the middle of a meeting with the executive board so the board members could set about electing a new chairman. Each of the board members wanted the job, but the rules said no one could vote for himself. They thought Putney Swope, the music director and token black dude on the board, couldn't win, so they voted for him. To their surprise and the audiences delight, he won.

The rules were basically cast aside at that point, and Mr. Swope proceeded to fire most of the white people and replace them with guys from the hood, called "militant brothers" back then. And being the progressive that he was, he dropped tobacco companies and toy gun makers as clients. And any work the company did was to be paid for with bags of cash.

All the cash was put into a large glass container which Mr. Swope planned to distribute in equal shares to the employees -- what a guy. But unfortunately, a disgruntled employee blows up the cash. The end.

The movie was really quite lame, but it was a big hit on college campuses as it exemplified the prevailing view that businessmen were bad people. If only some cool black dude could come along and straighten things out, get tough with those mean old bosses and make them share the wealth. Then everyone could live in peace and harmony and make love, not war, in the age of Aquarius.

The attitude still lives. President Obama was an impressionable eight year old when the movie came out although he was probably schooling abroad at the time. But it's obvious that somewhere along the line he was exposed to that philosophy. I don't recall ever hearing what Mr. Obama's favorite movies are, but I would expect to see "Putney Swope" on that list before I would expect to see "High Noon."

The entire movie is in nine parts on Youtube. As of now Part 1 has had 1,724 views, and the last segment, part 9 has had 336 views which suggests it takes some real dedication to watch the whole thing.

No crying at this wedding

This wedding video has been viewed 10 million times as of the time of this writing, and if you haven't seen it yet, you are in for a treat. It's a march down the isle unlike any other wedding march. See the video at Youtube.

As seen on Hot Air.

Gun recoil doesn't slap you in the face, people slap you in the ... oh wait

Any rational person can learn from his/her own mistakes, but the smart person will learn from other's mistakes. The lesson the fellow in this video teaches us is not to hold a rifle out at arms length and shoot it.

Click to watch it.

Cambridge cops need cap cams and body mics

The dispute between Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley has gotten such wide spread attention that even our esteemed President Barack Obama snapped forth with a judgment on a prime time TV appearance.

Sounded like Mr. Gates dropped the H-bomb, "H" being Harvard. "Do you know who I am?" He allegedly asked, certain that a Harvard professor shouldn't have to deal with a lowly police officer even though he appeared to be a door kicking house burglar.

Sgt. Crowley seems to be holding his own, though. Listen to him explain his side of the story as he called into this radio talk show.

On that tape Sgt. Crowley said the Cambridge doesn't have a recording of the incident. Too bad. What each officer needs is a cap cam and a body mic. Surely it will occur to them after this event that whatever downside they fear doesn't outweigh the positive that could come from having a record other than a police report and "he said," "I said," hearsay.

Updated 7/28/09: Apparently, the only tapes available are the 911 call and Sgt. Crowley's call for backup. Links to recordings can be found here, as well as the transcript of Sgt. Crowley's call. Too bad they didn't have a policy of recording all citizen interactions.

Jon Stewart replaces Wally Cronkite as most trusted newsman

Walter Cronkite was the winner of a long ago poll asking who was the most trusted newsman. So now that he's deceased Time.com conducted an internet poll to get opinions on who is currently the most trusted newsman. And they tell us that Jon Steward is the new Walter Cronkite. Go to Time Poll and mouse over the various states to see how close the voting was. Maybe that poll should tell us that there really isn't any replacement as the network news has driven so many people to seek the news elsewhere.

I may have gone along with that ancient poll had I been asked to participate way back then, but I'm not sure who else was running in that race. Huntley and Brinkley were no slouches.

But attitudes and beliefs change as we get older. And even though I may have trusted Wally back then, it was only later that the realization hit that he, or his writers, had their fingers to the wind and were merely giving their customers the mainstream consensus. At least one observer suggests that Mr. Cronkite was overrated and that his tone was the only thing that distinguished him from the others.

Mr. Cronkite made his famous turn on the Vietnam war after the Tet offensive which Mr. Cronkite deemed to have been a U.S. loss. Interestingly, the current consensus says it was a victory. At that point in history the campus anti-war movement was growing like gang busters, and the counterculture movement was on the verge of going mainstream. Cronkite wasn't ahead of the pack, he was merely joining the side of the issue that appeared to have the momentum. Mr. Cronkite was our leader, you see, but to stay ahead of the crowd he had to keep glancing back to see which way the crowd was going.

In a sense, he was like the starlets who showed up on the Carson show decked out in hippie garb in total contrast to the girl-next-door look or the sex siren look of their previous appearances.

So now we have Jon Stewart wearing Cronkite's old badge. Stewart was very much anti-Bush as were his fans, and he gave them plenty of red meat to chew on which is exactly what they wanted. Like any good entertainer, he's got his finger to the wind, and once Obamania runs its course and the polls tilt solidly away from Obama we'll get to witness the moment when Obama loses Jon Stewart. Pay attention. Maybe someday they'll look back at it as a moment in broadcasting history.

Captain Eo -- Michael Jackson at Epcot Center

It was long ago when the future was far, far away, and the 3D movie "Captain Eo" showed at Epcot Center. It starred Michael Jackson as the captain of a space ship manned by a crazy crew of Muppets. And it was cute.

The beginning of the movie was fantastic. A slow spinning meteor was headed right for the audience. Keep in mind that it was in 3D, so the meteor came right out into the theater. The viewers sat stunned as it stopped just a few feet away from their faces. It looked so real that many audience members reached out to try to touch it.

You can watch it at YouTube. Here's Part 1 and here's Part 2, but it won't be in 3D unless you have the glasses.  The meteor is in Part 1, and the big song and dance number is in Part 2.

Michael Jackson was good too, but you have to put yourself back in another century, at a time before the image of Michael Jackson as an entertainer of children didn't make people cringe.

When it rains it pours

Too bad the rain we got Wednesday and Thursday couldn't have been spread over a longer period of time, say about three weeks. The backyard rain gauge I got 2/3rds inch on Wednesday, and Thursday it collected 2 ½ inches.

Let's see, that comes to ... um ... let's see, 2 ½ plus another 2/3. OK, it's 3.16 inches.

After Obamacare all future elections to be about level of government services -- Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn, having lived in Britain, Canada and the U.S., is one of those few who has experienced health care delivery in all of those countries. He doesn't like the direction the U.S. is going, and he is a very harsh critic of President Obama's plan to reform the health care industry.

Some people will benefit from Mr. Obama's plan, should it ever become implemented, and some people will suffer under it. The trick for any serious health care reformer is to come up with a plan that will benefit the most people without a radical disruption for the others. Mr. Obama will probably sign any legislation the House and Senate agree to put before him, and we don't know right now what form the eventual bill will take.

There has been severe criticism of the plans currently under consideration, and Mr. Steyn sees a consequence that deserves some notice -- a change in the direction of all future elections. Here's a direct quote:

It alters the equation. If you provide government health care, then suddenly all the elections, they’re not thought about war and foreign policy, or even big economic questions. They’re suddenly fought about government services, and the level of government services, and that’s all they’re about, because once you get government health care, the citizens’ dependency on government as provider is so fundamentally changed that in effect, every election is fought on left wing terms.

(Source: This was from a podcast of the Hugh Hewitt show, a transcript of which can be found here. Listen to the podcast by going here and scrolling down to May 7, Episode 167.)

While most of us thought "hope" and "change" were merely focus group tested campaigning devices, there were those who argued that Mr. Obama hoped to change the U.S. from a country full of people proud of their individuality and brimming with initiative to a country full of government dependents. Mr. Obama rode into office on the backlash of an economic downturn and a dislike for his predecessor. And it's questionable whether those voters who were swept off their feet by him really expected the monumental transformation he is proposing. The U.S. is being tested right now, and we will eventually see whether Mr. Steyn's prediction is correct.

Obamacare in France

President Obama and supporters of his health care plan are pushing like crazy to get the thing passed into law. Meanwhile, most of us out here in flyover country, the people who may benefit or suffer from it but who will definitely pay for it, are wishing they would slow down a bit so we can study the whole thing some more.

It would be nice if supporters could point to a similar system somewhere in the world where it has been tried and actually works. There are people around who will attempt to tell us how great the government run programs are in Britain and Canada -- for example see previously, How bad could the Canadian healthcare system really be? However, there is certainly no shortage of complaints about those systems, and we have to conclude that no system is perfect.

Same with France. HealthcareEconomist.com says, "France has the highest level of satisfaction with their health care among all European countries." However, it didn't take Le Parisien long to find some dissatisfaction. In particular, they found doctors who won't accept patients who are under the government plan. Excerpt (translation from Google translate.):

The two-tier medicine is a reality. Victims, patients receiving universal health coverage (CMU), reserved for people earning less than € 621 per month. They have more and more difficult to seek treatment outside of hospitals. Proof: The test that we conducted among physicians Paris and its suburbs.

Thirty practitioners contacted, eight or 25% refused to grant us an appointment when it was as a patient benefiting from the CMU.

So we have an example of doctors not making enough money treating patients under the government plan, so even though the law says they have to treat them, they don't. C'est la vie.

The Obamacare plan presumably will require people to buy insurance either from a private insurer or the government. And while some of the opponents say the government may squeeze out the private insurer, it's possible the opposite could happen if the government doesn't pay doctors enough. The practical effect would be to put all those people currently without insurance right back where they started.

Red light at the top of a hill

Sounds like a horror movie title or maybe a line from a country song.

It's the new overpass at JBS Parkway and Business 20 (AKA Highway 80 or 2nd Street) in Odessa, TX. Could this be the "$24.6 million bridge to somewhere?"

The stop light is right at the top of an artificial hill and requires drivers to stop on a slope. Is this a common Texas highway phenomenon? Some locals were screaming bloody murder about this overpass when it was proposed, but they were helpless to stop it. It looks like motels make up the predominate industry in the vicinity, and one hopes the drivers will have access to them without driving a block or two out of the way to find an entrance.

Hopefully, the roadways will get shut down during ice storms, otherwise vehicles stopping at the light might just slide back down the hill.

Click the link to see a short OAOA.com video of the scene under construction. And here's a link to a pre-overpass Google Map overhead view.

Thanks to RP for the heads-up.

More free tickets! "Footloose" at Midland Community Theatre on 7/25/09

Two tickets to "Footloose" Saturday night, free for the asking!

The ticket give-away last week was a big success, so let's do it again.

What's the play about? Here's the Midland Reporter-Telegram preview.

If you want two free tickets to the see "Footloose" all you have to do is email me with your name and a mailing address, and I'll snail mail them to you. I won't publish your name unless you tell me it's OK.

The play is at the Midland Community Theatre located at 2000 W. Wadley Ave., and the tickets for the 8:00pm, July 25, 2009, performance.

Don't delay. First come, first served.

P.S. To whomever gets the tickets: Be in your seats at showtime. If the show is a sellout they count the empty seats at showtime and sell them to people on a standby list.  So there's a strong incentive to be on time.

Updated 7/20/09 7:18pm:  We have a winner!  Thanks to everyone who replied, and I'm sorry I don't have any more for this play.

Hot enough for you? It's nice and cool at the South Pole.

NOAA says the temperature at Midland International Airport at the moment is 98°F. And while that's a bit toasty, it's noticeably cooler than the 104°F we had a week or so back.

For a quick cool down, check out Frostbytes and take a look at Anthony Powell's photos. He's a New Zealand photographer who got a grant to live and take photos down under, way down under in Antarctica where NOAA says the temp is currently -65 F with a windchill of -101 F.

Brrrrr. I'm feeling cooler now.

Enjoy more of Mr. Powell's photos at Antarcticimages.com. And note especially the Aurora Australis.

Obama condoms

YES! YES! YES WE CAN!

From the incomparable Art of Obama we learn that some enterprising entrepreneurs are selling "Obama Condoms." Original photos found at Michael's Film Pix's photostream.

Best check the expiration date.

For STD treatment see your Obamacare provider.

Cell phones in prison

The report about the call Texas State Senator John Whitmire received from a Texas death row inmate on a contraband cell phone has given widespread attention to the fact that there were a lot of cell phones in Texas prisons, something most of us weren't aware of. It seems that the inmate wanted better conditions -- it gets hot in an un-air conditioned prison. His roughshod approach, not to mention the death threat, didn't exactly fall on deaf ears, and the wide spread crackdown could not have been what he intended.

We don't know whether Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison received any such calls, but she is trying to help eliminate the potential of it happening again with the introduction of the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009, the bill which would allow prisons to jam wireless transmissions in prisons. Click to read her press release.

Some are complaining that a jamming device will jam all wireless transmissions in a prison, not just prisoners' cell phone calls. Others say that the technology exists to detect, identify and manage cell phone transmissions as well as restrict it to a certain subset of approved users. But that's more expensive than merely jamming the signals, and in these economic times, the cheap way will likely be the accepted way.

In the meantime, Texas inmate do have legal access to phones to talk to friends and family. They are limited to two hours a month at a per minute rate of $0.26 intrastate and $0.43 interstate. That's a sounds a bit steep compared to typical outside rates, but at a maximum possible expense of $51.60 per month it's a bargain compared to the $800 a Virginia woman claimed to have paid for one month's phone calls from her incarcerated husband.

But with inmates using contraband cell phones to run illegal operations, order hits, threaten witnesses and any other thing imaginable, then in spite of the complaints, jamming doesn't sound like such a bad thing at all.

In fact, I'd like to have a rear facing jammer for my car so that anyone within a few car lengths behind won't be talking on their cell phones.  Maybe that would have prevented that cell phone talking woman from giving my vehicle an eleven hundred dollar love tap a year or so ago.

Free tickets "Footloose" at Midland Community Theatre (2nd time offered)

Two tickets to "Footloose" -- free for the asking!

Does that look familiar? I offered these tickets the other day, and someone emailed to say she wanted them. However, she declined to answer my three emails asking how to get them to her thereby signaling that she no longer wanted them. So the tickets are back on the market.

These two tickets are for the 7/18/09 (Saturday) evening performance and are free to whomever wants them.

Read the Midland Reporter-Telegram preview here if you aren't familiar with the play.

If you want the tickets all you have to do is email me with your name and a mailing address, and I'll snail mail them to you. I won't publish your name unless you tell me you don't mind.

Don't delay.

Updated:  The tickets have been spoken for.  Thank you to everyone who emailed, and I'm sorry I didn't have more.

Those sneaky little TinyURLs

There's something annoying about those TinyURLs -- the target site isn't obvious until you are there. It's not just a curiosity to know where the link will end up, there are some sites web surfers might just like to avoid. For example, see Tweets Link to Identity Theft, in which the author offers a warning about the TinyURLs, to wit:

Unfortunately, a condensed URL that appears harmless can easily lead to a malware download or phishing site, rather than the destination you were expecting. What appears to be a link to a friend’s home video may actually be pointing you toward the Koobface virus. Hackers can target a single URL shortening service and intentionally misroute millions of users.

Further, a TinyURL rival called Cligs was hacked recently. See Hacker cracks TinyURL rival, redirects millions of Twitter users.

Fortunately, there are some Firefox add-ons that can fix that by disclosing the full URL. The one I eventually settled on is Long URL which converts the TinyURL to the long form. Works great, however it doesn't seem to work on Clig shortcuts. I originally experimented with one from the "Experimental" category but decided against that one. The decision was based on an unbiased concern about that "Experimental" label and had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the author's website was in Arabic and strewn with praises for Allah.

Updated 7/15/09:  The Long URL add-on quit working yesterday afternoon and doesn't seem to be working today.  Don't know whether this is a temporary outage, a bug in the program, or a fatal problem.

"Footloose" at Midland Community Theatre -- 2 free tickets!

Two tickets to "Footloose" -- free for the asking!

What's the play about? I peeked in at the rehearsal the other day to see some energetic teens earning their acting chops. A glance in my direction from the director sent me scurrying, so you'll have to go read the Midland Reporter-Telegram preview.

Anyway, two people will have the opportunity to see it free Saturday night, 7/18/09. All you have to do is email me, and let's work out a way to get the tickets to you.

Don't delay. First come, first served.

Updated:  We have a winner!  You know, that was too easy.  Next time I should make it a quiz.

2nd update:  Someone emailed wanting the tickets. But she changed her mind, so the tickets are back on the market.

3rd update:  The tickets have been given away.  Thanks to everyone who emailed.

Scientists say swearing makes it less painful

Interesting study reported in Live Science, Swearing Makes Pain More Tolerable.

The test required that subjects place their hands in icy water while repeating a swear word. The control group repeated a non-swear word, and the cussers endured the discomfort longer than the polite group.

Swearing apparently arises from the emotional right side of the brain, whereas language generally comes from the left side. So maybe by extrapolation it could be said that engaging the emotion can override the pain signals.

Remember FCC vs. Fox about swearing on TV? About that, see What does the F-word mean?. Maybe swearing made the FCC fine more tolerable.

The moonwalk, not as easy as it looks

Here's a tribute to Michael Jackson which consists of row after row of people doing the moonwalk in short viewer submitted videos. It's EternalMoonwalk.com, and the videos scroll across the screen with each moonwalker getting a couple of seconds in the center spot.

There are thousands of them, and one thing becomes painfully obvious, it's not that easy to mimic someone with the dancing skills of Michael Jackson. If you get a string of bad ones, search for numbers 1956, 5724 or 2455.

Via BermanPost.com.

Fact checking fast speeding ticket braggarts

Page 1: Sometimes a story is so good the reader doesn't want to look to closely into the details for fear of finding out it isn't true. Take this photo, for example, found at Jalopnik.com. A fellow posted the photo on Flickr of a ticket he allegedly received for driving 210 mph in a Bugatti on a California toll road. The images you see here are screen captures of what the Flickr page and the ticket looked like, but the gentleman's Flickr page was amended this morning, and the ticket photo has mysteriously vanished. Hmmm. Maybe his lawyer told him to take it down. Or maybe the incident didn't really happen.

The whole thing looked suspicious from the start. Scroll through the gentleman's Flickr photos and one might presume that he very much likes to display images of himself. But there is precious little in the photos that suggests the kind of lifestyle that might result in a high speed run down the road in a Bugatti. And tellingly, there are no pictures of the car itself.

Maybe it really did happen. But it sure looks fishy.

Page 2: This story is presented with some skepticism at RideLust.com, to wit:

“During its review of the CCR’s successor, the CCX, BBC television program Top Gear reported that the Koenigsegg CCR holds the fastest speeding ticket in the United States allegedly occurred in May 2003 in Texas. It was supposedly 242mph (389 km/h) in a 75mph zone. The car was involved in the San Francisco to Miami Gumball 3000 Rally.”

Go to Genctuning.org to watch the "Top Gear" video in which the host tries to put the Koenigsegg through its paces, and in passing, mentions the story about the speeding ticket.

But did it really happen? For something this noteworthy, there is amazingly little information about it on the net. All that turns up is a vague reference to wikipedia and an occasional link to a wikipedia entry which bounces us back to the Top Gear show.

Call this one a great story, but also call it unprovable.

Page 3: The internet is such a wonderful thing, and there is so much information available to us with a mere key stroke. Some complain about the lack of editors and the easy ability to fabricate a story. But contrary to what some say, Google is making us smarter. Anyone can fact check anyone else, and braggarts need to be extra cautious or else the people they are trying to impress may come away with an impression not nearly as favorable as the one they hoped for.

Little wonder government workers voted for Obama

Federal employees are weathering the recession in fine form. While employees in the private sector worry about pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs, the number of federal employees is growing, and the pay checks are getting fatter. Source, and excerpt:

Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

[Emphasis added.]

And Mr. Obama cares about government employees and what they think so much that he will let them influence his budget process. See Employee satisfaction survey will play role in budget process. Excerpt:

The Obama administration plans to use a biennial survey of employee satisfaction and morale to shape the 2011 budget process, according to Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

True, we want workers at any job to have some degree of satisfaction. But is it asking too much to take a customers' satisfaction survey to determine whether the agency is actually providing the service they are paid to do? And better yet, let's ask taxpayers where to cut and where to spend. Now there's a radical concept.

To get your own federal job, go to USAjobs.gov where it says, "There are 33,112 U.S. Government job opportunities worldwide."

Biden "misread the economy"

Vice President Biden recently claimed that he and everyone else misread the economy when he was questioned on ABC about the rising unemployment numbers. The administration team was talking down the economy for the entire duration of the campaign leading up to the '08 election, so maybe he's admitting to some pre-election hyperbole. Or perhaps he and the President are not cognizant of the effect they themselves have had on the economy. Or more likely, both are true. But so far they've done little to reassure any citizen who has a basic understanding of economics.

For Mr. Biden, it's a case of vision shaped by a lifetime in government. For Mr. Obama, it's the vision of a naive ideologue with a remarkable understanding of how to get people to vote for him but a misguided belief that he can change fundamental human behavior.

There are giant deficit causing spending programs, threats of higher taxes, bank takeovers, auto industry takeovers, threats to credit companies, threats to cut executives' pay, threats to hinder the energy industry, threats to alter the health care profession, union favoritism, and other threats and actions Obama and team have made to the health of the economy. They may relish the power that results from the fear they cause, but everyone else has to suffer because of it.

The same thing happened during the Great Depression. See Great Depression 2.0 and Regime Uncertainty, inside. "Regime Uncertainty" is a phrase coined by Robert Higgs to describe the fear that a government can create in the business world, and that fear inhibits any desire in the private sector to make investments.

Listen to a podcast interview with Mr. Higgs at econtalk.org. And read his paper titled Regime Uncertainty (PDF) in which he discussed the years following the crash in which the economy operated substantially below it's capability to produce, and fear of the government prolonged the Great Depression by several years.

We hear talk about not repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression, but when Obama/Biden say it, they are probably not thinking beyond trade tariffs. They seem unwilling to admit to the fear they've created in the investment world and among the people and industries they expect will help lower the unemployment rate.

It's sooooo hot ...

It's so hot that roofers have to hose down the shingles before they can put them in place on the roof.

People in the profession have probably seen this before, but it's a first for me.

At a toasty 103°, it's hot, hot hot!

Google's new operating system

Well now, this is interesting. Google is developing a computer operating system.

Microsoft trounced all the rival PC operating systems and grabbed the lead back in the '80s. And currently, there is only one real rival, the open sourced Linux. Linux has a small but loyal following, and it just might get bigger since the Google OS is going to be based on Linux. Their initial focus is on netbook computers, and here's what the Official Google Blog says:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Via Marketwatch.com.

The way they describe it it should be a nice OS for web use, but it's not so clear whether it would be much use for those of us who still use old fashioned word processing, photo editing and other software planted firmly in our PCs.

Further, Google probably already has enough stored information to compile a dossier on each and every one of us, and the Google Chrome browser together with the Google Chrome OS may just make Google closer than a family member. How good Google will be in the future with the history of our personal computer usage is anybody's guess.

Bank robbers, don't forget to update your Facebook page

There's just something about those social networking sites that really must hook users into them. Here's a fellow who robbed a bank then bragged about it on his MySpace page.

He wrote on his MySpace.com page, "One in the head $till ain’t dead!!!!!! On tha run for robbin a bank Love all of yall," federal court documents say.

Link .

The social network is the local bar, the locker room, the hair salon and everything else that once served as a place to brag and gossip.

Remember Leo Gao? See On the lam? Don't forget to update Facebook. He's the New Zealand chap who took advantage of a bank's mistaken deposit into his account and high tailed it for Hong Kong with his gal pal.  They are still on the loose, however, police may be closing in.

And now we learn that the wife of the British M16 incoming chief has plastered family photos all over her own page. See The Spy Who Loved to Wear Speedos. Although the only real harm there is probably that it made it a little easier on the tabloids and paparazzi. Her page has since been taken down -- tough luck, Smersh.

Say, have you heard about this "Twitter" thing? All the rage, it seems. Just a matter of time before someone tweets a true crime confession.

Odessa Tea Party, July 4, 2009

Rally organizers in Odessa were on top of the Tea Party game last April 15 when they put together a fabulous event. And they did it again yesterday, July 4. The spirits were high, the speakers were eloquent, and the temperature was HOT, HOT, HOT!

The rally got started shortly after noon, and the speakers and audience celebrated the 4th of July with an appreciation of their right to speak freely and express concern about the problems the country faces, problems which resulted in no small part from the actions of our esteemed elected officials.

In fact, it's not just a right, it's a patriotic duty to our friends, neighbors and fellow Americans to speak up about problems that needs addressing. The participants had various concerns; some were religious, but most were political. And one thing on which they all would probably agree is that our government is out of control with the spending. Whether the people in our government know pork when they see it or whether they think all spending is somehow good for the country, the President and Congress have been spending with less caution than a lottery winning cocaine addict.

One noteworthy sign said "OK, we're here. What Now?" She summed up the feeling a lot of the attendees must have felt, a sense of helplessness as our government has spent so much money it will take three generations to pay it back. The Republicans started it, and the Democrats are building it into a Frankenstein monster they won't be able to control, and the citizenry can only watch in astonishment.

When our biggest creditor, which also happens to be a rival super power, is worried about the wisdom of their investments maybe it's time to wake. Perhaps that's role that the Tea Party movement will serve -- a barking guard dog warning that burglars are hauling off our life savings.  We can go back to sleep and let it happen or wake up and take a stand.

Links: Odessa Tea Party website; video; and previously, Odessa Tea Party April 15.

Road Notes: Tatum, New Mexico -- SPEED TRAP! SPEED TRAP!

I made the trip between Midland, TX, and Roswell, NM, the other day, and my GPS directed me along a route that consisted of about 90 miles between the Texas state line and Roswell, NM, along U.S. Highway 380. There's isn't much between Roswell and Texas on that highway, so almost every vehicle on that road is either going to or coming from Texas.

With a speed limit drop of 70 in Texas to 65 in New Mexico, the New Mexicans must feel a little bit queasy with all those speedy Texans on the road. And that may explain why there were so many NM State Police out there on July 3. And each time I saw one he was writing a ticket. (If I had been thinking I would have looked to see if the ticket recipients had Texas plates. DOH! Maybe next time.)

Then there's Tatum. The two lane highway widens to a smooth four lanes as it enters Tatum, a little town with a population of fewer than a thousand people. Oh yeah, the speed limit slows to 30 mph, and the law was certainly being enforced that day in what could be the biggest source of revenue that tiny little town has. In a sense, it's like a toll road with a free ride for those who slow to a snail's pace and a steep fee for any driver who doesn't.

No, I didn't get a ticket, but others did. Welcome to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment.

What planet are you from?

One would have to be from another planet not to know about the alleged UFO touch down in Roswell, NM, way back in '47. It had a very rational explanation, but that shouldn't interfere with the need to party.

Some community minded individual had the brilliant idea to celebrate the event with an annual Rowell UFO Festival, and it has to be the envy of communities all across the country. "Why couldn't the space aliens have landed in our town?"

The event is going on this weekend. And your faithful blogger made the journey to Roswell to help celebrate the arrival of the visitors from outer space. (Day trip only, no room at the inns.)

There were several events planned for the celebration throughout the weekend, including a visit from the actor Malcolm McDowell and concerts by Jefferson Starship. But most importantly, costume contests!

If there's one thing that scientists know, it's that earthlings and extraterrestrials share a love for dogs. And no close encounter of the third kind would be complete without an Alien Pet Contest so canines from space could strut their stuff and show off their costumes.

Then there was a contest for the humanoid type aliens. What a sight to behold. The photos you see in this post are just teasers, see more at Roswell 2009.

From the editor: One shouldn't address extraterrestrials with a sentence or question ending in a preposition. -- ed

OK, so what planet are you from, space monkey?