Sleepless in Midland

Thank Obama for the economic upturn? Heck, Obama would have transformed us into a S-Hole country

Democrats say the darnedest things.

I was thinking about this while behind the wheel. Lucky I didn't crash.  Some Obama fan on the radio was saying that the current economic upturn is all Obama's doing. It's as if Obama had fed the economy a time-release pill with results to appear in the future. But actually, it was a sleeping pill with Obamacare, hyper regulators, and wasteful spending as the main ingredients.

The driver of the economy is enthusiasm. Someone has to decide to spend money. And Donald Trump has made people think it's OK to spend. So more power to him.

The downside will be inflation. The FED has been pretty good at keeping it under control. But we'll have to keep an eye on that.

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4:03 PM 1/30/2018

The Guggenheim's tasteless joke just recruited more Trump supporters

Here's the story from WaPo: The White House asked to borrow a van Gogh. The Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead.

Progressives are probably yucking it up over that little stunt. It's akin to that progressive community naming a sewer drain after George W. Bush. It was very insulting, but that's the point. For an alt-history exercise, imagine if they pulled either one of those stunts pulled on Barack Obama. If you can imagine that, you have a better imagination than I have.

Meanwhile, you can be sure that those people Hillary called "deplorable" have long memories.

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9:04 AM 1/27/2018

Fake public comments probed

Last year I blogged about discovering a similarity of the comments left at a government website. See AstroTurfing the Election Integrity Commission. The interesting aspect was that the wording was identical, as if they were from a template copied from an email or some website.

Now Wall Street Journal reports that an actual investigation by the GAO is under way about comments alleged to have been made using purloined identities. See it over there on the right. It will be interesting to see who or which organization is behind it.

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3:54 PM 1/26/2018 

Giving a police car the right of way simply because it's a police car may give the officer a false sense of roadway entitlement

Most drivers will slow down and get out of the way of a police car, possibly to avoid the officer's attention. Of course, we are required to get out of the way when the lights and sirens are going, but in normal traffic we still do it. Should we? It's possible that that creates a false sense of entitlement to the driver of the police car.

This comes to mind upon reading about a local officer who just got indicted for criminally negligent homicide following a car crash. Here's an excerpt from DA: Former MPD officer indicted in connection with fatal wreck:

The indictment alleges that Neely’s death was caused by Abrahim “operating a motor vehicle in a manner unsafe for the conditions of the roadway and by operating a motor vehicle at an unsafe speed and by failing to activate the emergency equipment of the patrol vehicle and by failing to take corrective and evasive action to avoid a collision,” Nodolf stated in her email.

Could the officer have assumed the other driver would get out of the way even though there was no emergency equipment on? That's one possible explanation, although the officer's explanation did not make it into the news. If the case goes to trial we'll learn more.

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1:06 PM 1/25/2018

Funny that a defense of swearing comes out so soon after Trump's s-hole remark

This is a link I picked up at some linking site. See DAMN RIGHT! Swearing makes you happier, healthier, more intelligent and honest. Short excerpt:

Experts claim using offensive language shows someone has a larger vocabulary and could be linked with a higher IQ.

There are also said to be many health benefits to using a naughty word or two.

It's believed swearing increases circulation and releases endorphins - making you feel happier.

While it also allows you to communicate exactly how you feel about something as you feel more able to be honest.

By swearing, a person can express fury, loathing or pain, without the threat of the argument turning physical.

It was also suggested that those who swore more often were less likely to lie and have higher levels of intergirty [sic].

To be fair, The Sun is probably not intentionally defending Trump. Furthermore, Donald Trump referring to s-hole countries probably may not technically swearing. Nevertheless, it's an interesting juxtaposition.

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9:38 AM 1/24/2018

Well, this blog isn't dead -- writer pens strange eulogy for blogs

Bruce Sterling in Dead Media Beat: blogs dropping like flies linked to a strange eulogy for blogs found at Newyorker.com. Starts out like this:

Blogging, that much-maligned pastime, is gradually but surely disappearing from the Internet, and so, consequently, is a lot of online freedom and fun. ...

Blogs are necessarily idiosyncratic, entirely about sensibility: they can only be run by workhorses who are creative enough to amuse themselves and distinct enough to hook an audience, and they tend to publish like-minded writers, who work more on the principle of personal obsession than pay. The result is editorial latitude to be obscure and silly and particular, but the finances are increasingly hard to sustain; media consumption is controlled these days by centralized tech platforms—Facebook, Twitter—whose algorithms favor what is viral, newsy, reactionary, easily decontextualized, and of general appeal.

Let the flies drop, Sleepless in Midland still has a beating heart.

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3:51 PM 1/23/2018

There are good reasons for avoiding the lottery -- this isn't one of them

The best reason I've read defending lottery ticket buyers was that it gave them fleeting hope. For a few days they could dream of buying things they would otherwise never afford.

There are plenty of reason not to buy lottery tickets, top among them is that the risk of losing the whole investment is 100%, less a very tiny fraction of one percent.

But this in difficult to believe: "Nearly 70% of lottery winners end up broke within seven years." That comes from Curse of the lottery: Tragic stories of big jackpot winners. That's where Nicole Bitette recounts several sob stories about lottery winners. There's no argument that many of the winners didn't know how to handle money or that they had trouble saying "No" to all the friends and relatives expecting a slice. But to say that only 30% still had some of it after seven years is simply not credible.

But then, how would I know? Besides, we are always hearing about movie stars blowing away their fortunes. So must happen to normals, too.

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1:21 PM 1/21/2018

Democrats are daring Republicans to end filibuster rule

The Sunday morning talk shows were filled with Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for the government shutdown. And one refrain viewers heard over and over was the one from Democrats that Republicans control the House, Senate, and Presidency. Therefore it's all their fault.

Well, there's that pesky filibuster rule in the Senate requiring 60% of the votes. But it seems as if Chuck Schumer, et. al., are daring Mitch McConnell to end the filibuster rule with all their emphasis on "majority." Well Mitch, take him up on it. Call his bluff.

Bring back the old fashioned filibuster where the stalling Senator has to actually stand up and speak for the duration of the filibuster.

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4:01 AM 1/22/2018

New rules at EU said to make it easier to serve insects to customers

Those of us who lean libertarian oppose governments picking and choosing winning businesses by way of regulation. So a relaxation of regulations is always welcome. In the EU the regs against bugs in food haven't really been deregulated, merely unified. See New EU rules put insects on the menu:

Under previous rules on new types of food (the so-called novel foods regulation, which governs products mostly unknown to Europeans before 1997, such as quinoa), it was unclear whether producers could market whole insects for human consumption, rather than just insect wings, for example. National governments also had to green-light food made from insects, splintering regulations across the bloc as Italy outlawed insect burgers while the Netherlands didn’t.

In my neck of the woods idea bugs as food was something one might consider in an extreme food shortage. During normal times it takes a certain amount of sophistication to actively seek out bugs to eat. But hey, if you like 'em, eat 'em.

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1:58 PM 1/20/2018

Texas Governor Abbott wants to alleviate property tax pain

Property owners in Texas were hoping the 2017 legislature would do something about property taxes, but they didn't come through.

Governor Abbott is still on the case. See Abbott wants to limit local jurisdictions' ability to raise Texans' taxes.

Here in Midland, Texas, the city council hikes taxes every year. It seems inevitable. And t citizens' complaints at the council meetings are usually accepted politely. But the citizens are usually wasting their time.

So it's nice to hear that the governor listens.

The above mentioned dallasnews.com article links to this document purporting to be Governor Abbott's plan: Titled Texans for Greg Abbott 2018 Property Tax Reform Rollout. Here are the bullet points:

- Cap property tax revenue growth at 2.5% per year;
- Prohibit legislated unfunded mandates;
- Require appraisal district directors to be locally elected;
- Improve property owners' rights to protest;
- Improve property tax transparency;
- Improve transparency and use of local debt; and
- Require 2/3 vote to issue new local debt.

Let's hope the next legislative session will deliver.

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2:42 PM 1/19/2018

Why do democrats fear citizenship question on census?

The conspiracy theory to which I subscribe goes something like this: Democrats fear that illegal aliens' votes will be exposed.

But more reasoned arguments are made by in a WSJ article the other day titled The Census Should Ask About Citizenship. It's behind a paywall, but it's imaged on the right.

There Edward Blum sets the two sides' rationale. To wit:

The worry is a political one - that the question would deter illegal aliens from returning their census forms, leading to under counts in states like California and New York which have large numbers of illegal residents. That in turn could reduce those states' apportionment of House seats and electoral votes.

Another concern is that new citizenship data could affect state legislative redistricting. There is speculation that some red states will draw districts equalized on their citizen population, rather than their total population, disadvantaging Democrats.

Mr. Blum adds this:

In a fact sheet about the ACS, the Census Bureau says it is: "We ask about place of birth, citizenship, and year of entry to provide statistics about citizens and the foreign-born population. These statistics are essential for agencies and policy makers setting and evaluating immigration policies and laws, understanding how different immigrant groups are assimilated and monitoring against discrimination. These statistics are also used to tailor services to accommodate cultural differences."

Unfortunately, expecting immigrants to assimilate these days is a form of racism to progressives dependent on the politics of identity.

For a reaction slanted toward the Democrat position, see NPR: Adding Citizenship Question Risks 'Bad Count' For 2020 Census, Experts Warn. For a defense of the question, see USA Today: Hostility to Census question is overblown.

The Supreme Court has not yet opined on the issue.

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12:35 PM 1/18/2018

Hiit, mother nature and father time

Just about everyone who works out is familiar with high intensity interval training.

There are as many variations of it as there are exercise gurus. First you calculate your maximum heart rate. I use the Tanaka formula, 208 – (0.7 x age). Then you work out near the maximum for half a minute, relax half a minute, then repeat that cycle for a total of four or five times. Supposed to be good for us.

So what should we think about this recent disclosure? Vigorous Exercise Tied to Macular Degeneration in Men.

Dang. It's as if Mother Nature says, "Exercise hard and live long." Then Father Time comes along and says, "I'm gonna get you one way or another."

Well maybe. My Optometrist says macular degeneration is more likely to occur in those who over do it -- think marathons -- rather than 30 minute work-outs.

Check back in about 20 years.

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1:45 PM 1/17/2018

The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille -- not a flattering travelogue for lovers of communism

It was fun reading "The Cuban Affair" -- adventure, intrigue, pursuit and love on the run from Cuban secret police.

Cliff's Notes version: A Florida fishing boat owner is recruited by Cuban exiles to go there and help exfiltrate possessions left behind. Staying a step ahead of Cubans friendly with the government was a challenge.

Want a better sales pitch? Watch this C-span video of an interview with the novel's author, Nelson DeMille.

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1:49 PM 1/16/2018

Mueller is in a tight spot

Robert Mueller is under a tremendous amount of pressure these days. Republicans are painting him as a partisan intent on damaging the president for political reasons. It will be hard for him to refute that if it's thrown back at him at a trial.

Then there are Democrats. They have loaded all their faith onto him that he can bring down the president. He's under so much pressure he absolutely has to find something with which to charge Trump, whether it's some technicality involving some years old real estate transaction or whether it's some accidental misstatement that Mueller tries to call a "lie." If Mueller fails he'll be punished career wise once Democrats retake full control of the bureaucracy.

It's a no-win situation for Mueller.

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12:25 PM 1/15/2018

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped make our great nation even greater. His eloquent speeches touched a lot of people and changed a lot of attitudes about race. Here's something I said in this blog on a previous MLK Day:

Contrary to the song from "South Pacific," you don't have to be carefully taught that people who looked different were in fact different. It was simply a way of life. It was how things were. You had to be taught to change that attitude. And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., opened a lot of hearts and minds.

Many of us who grew up prior to the civil rights movement were enlightened by King's famous speech. Don't judge a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Yes, indeed.

It's still true.

Unfortunately, race has become a political issue for Democrats who are in a constant search for even the slightest hint that can be turned into a accusation of racism. Donald Trump's alleged description of "shit-hole countries" is a good example. A charge of racism these days is less likely a discovery of real racism than it is a tactic to harm political opponents.

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12:49 PM 1/14/2018

Shelby Steele on anthem kneelers' protest fail

Colin Kaepernick explained that he protested the national anthem because he wanted to bring attention to mistreatment of blacks by police. But he didn't do a very good job of making his case. Kaepernick's position wasn't helped much when the best symbol he had of that mistreatment was the hands-up-don't-shoot myth perpetrated by Michael Brown's partner in crime, who, by the way, was the only witness who claimed Brown was trying to surrender rather than trying to disarm the police officer who had the thankless job of attempting to get Brown to move out of the street.

Nevertheless, the movement caught on but failed to win many hearts and minds.

Shelby Steele explained that failure wonderfully in Black Protest Has Lost Its Power. (Link goes to WSJ, but you might be able to avoid the paywall by clicking the link found in this Instapundit post.)

There Steele provided some history of black protest, then says this:

It is not surprising, then, that these black football players would don the mantle of protest. The surprise was that it didn’t work. They had misread the historic moment. They were not speaking truth to power. Rather, they were figures of pathos, mindlessly loyal to a black identity that had run its course.

What they missed is a simple truth that is both obvious and unutterable: The oppression of black people is over with. This is politically incorrect news, but it is true nonetheless. We blacks are, today, a free people. It is as if freedom sneaked up and caught us by surprise. ...

Watch out that you get what you ask for, the saying goes. Freedom came to blacks with an overlay of cruelty because it meant we had to look at ourselves without the excuse of oppression. Four centuries of dehumanization had left us underdeveloped in many ways, and within the world’s most highly developed society. When freedom expanded, we became more accountable for that underdevelopment. So freedom put blacks at risk of being judged inferior, the very libel that had always been used against us.

Steele tells a harsh truth.

One has to wonder if Oprah, were she run for president, would celebrate freedom or try to take advantage of identity politics.

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1:44 PM 1/13/2018

Feinstein's leak -- not the first time

What would Diane Feinstein not leak? Anything that might harm Democrats. That seems to be a reasonable observation based on her media leaks.

Her release of the transcript of the interview with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS wasn't the first. Her reason is known to her. But at least one Senator made the observation that the release would provide a way for future witnesses to get their stories coordinated. See Chuck Grassley: Dianne Feinstein's leak could make people 'more reserved' about testifying.

Another Feinstein leak was the outing of James Mitchell, one of the psychologists who implemented enhanced interrogation techniques on captured terrorists. See Hypocrisy alert -- Democrats feigned outrage over alleged Valarie Plame outing by a Republican but go silent when one of their own does it in this blog.

There's one thing we can probably count on, and that's that she won't leak anything that could harm Democrats. However, anything that can harm Republicans is fair game.

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2:38 PM 1/12/2018

Finland tests basic universal basic income on small scale

The idea has some merit, especially the aspect of eliminating all other subsidies. But here in the U.S. entitlement reform always meets hard core resistance. What we would end up with is a system of universal income AND subsidies.

And that's what the Finland test involves: A basic income as well as continuation of the already generous benefits. See What If Everyone Got a Monthly Check From the Government?

The experiment in Finland isn't over, but the brains behind it are losing interest. It's too expensive -- already high taxes would go even higher. From the article:

The wealthiest would be relatively unaffected by such a change because their taxes are already high, but a swath of middle- and upper-middle-class Finns would pay more in taxes than they’d get back in basic income. In national polls, when the possibility of a 55 percent flat tax was raised, the percentage of Finns who supported basic income dropped from 70 to about 30. “We would need to implement another study for the whole population to understand it,” says Miska Simanainen, a tax specialist who was part of Kangas’s team. No such studies are planned.

The biggest revelation from the article was that Milton Friedman may have actually supported a universal basic income in some form or other.

If it could be done right, i.e., the stipend for everyone but nothing else on top of that, it just might be affordable.

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2:38 PM 1/11/2018

Baltimore murder rate rises -- Rosenstein pins blame on local government

It wasn't too long ago that we were hearing about the innovative ways the police in Baltimore were protecting the people and their property using such high tech features as predictive policing and stingray cell surveillance.

But all that went out the window when the Baltimore mayor cut back on policing while proudly proclaiming during rioting that “we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.” Source.

Following that the cutback, when coupled with the Ferguson Effect, crime shot up. And it takes someone with the status of Rob Rosenstein to bring it home. See Baltimore leaders 'decided to cut back on policing and prosecution' before homicides surged, Rosenstein says.

Then, in 2015, “local authorities decided to try a new strategy. They decided to cut back on policing and prosecution,” he said.

“What happened next?” Rosenstein asked in prepared remarks at the American Correctional Association conference in Orlando, Fla. “Baltimore’s murder rate skyrocketed. In 2017, the murder rate was the highest in history. Hundreds of additional people lost their lives, and many hundreds more were wounded by bullets.”

Cut back on policing and the crime rate goes up. Dang. Who'da thunk it?

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1:50 PM 1/10/2018

Google sued for discriminating against conservative men

I'm generally against class action law suits. But that may be the only way to coerce Google into ceasing to discriminate against conservative men. Google would scoff at any fine the government would assess --- their progressive agenda is likely so important to them that they would consider a piddling fine as an expense of doing business the way they want.

Maybe the class action suit would also be just a part of the cost of doing business. And it would probably not change any deep seated attitudes.

Ex-Google engineer Damore sues alleging discrimination against white, conservative men. Excerpt:

The suit charges that Google’s management “goes to extreme—and illegal—lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees and potential employees.”

The article goes on to quote someone who says the suit will be a hard one for Damore to win. But it's a step.

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12:31 PM 1/9/2018

Maybe robots could keep us around for pets

It wasn't too awfully long ago that smart folks in the media took a break from warning of the danger of Donald Trump to warn about robots with artificial intelligence. See for example, warnings such as these: Elon Musk warns of AI's risks, calls for regulation now; Stephen Hawking: AI could be a 'real danger'; and Robots could 'threaten humanity' and will be physically stronger than humans "in the next few years", warns scientist.

Well, I always thought the robots might be human enough to want to keep humans as pets. After all, they generally clean up after themselves.

But then along came this one: Kalashnikov Group Announces Fully-Automated Combat Robots. Mikhail Kalashnikov, you will recall, was the inventor of the AK-47 which has been described as the most effective killing machine in human history. So now they've given it a brain. A Terminator. Swell.

Meanwhile, the smart folks in the media have gone back to bashing Trump. So I guess all is well.

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2:45 PM 1/8/2018

Letterman's new show headed full speed left

I was a David Letterman fan years ago. But he lost me when his lefty politics consumed his routine. Unfortunately, that shtick caught on, and the late night comics, sans Leno, all copied it.

Those Letterman fans who remained loyal will undoubtedly tune into his new show on Netflix. And to be sure he targets he audience, his guest will be none other than Barack Obama. See Letterman Nabs Obama as First Guest for New Netflix Show.

I won't be watching. But there's a drinking game just waiting to happen: One swig for every mention of Trump. Sleep late the next morning.

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1:04 PM 1/7/2018

punctuation evolution -- use of period in text message signifies insincerity

Amazing how communication evolves. Those of us who work or worked in a profession in which the ability to communicate in a written instrument was important might never have seen this coming.

Apparently, the technique of omitting a period in a one-sentence text connotes sincerity. Or more specifically, the use of the period connotes insincerity. Go figure

Anyway, the subject was deemed so important that a scholarly paper was written on it. See Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging. Excerpt:

When the exchanges appeared as text messages, the responses that ended with a period were rated as less sincere than those that did not end with a period. No such difference was found for handwritten notes. We conclude that punctuation is one cue used by senders, and understood by receivers, to convey pragmatic and social information.

This comes to us by way of an article in theweek.com, to wit: Why does using a period in a text message make you sound angry?

Who would have thought scholars would get paid for researching something like this? And who would have thought a website writer would get paid for writing about it?

Editor's note: Who would have thought a mere blogger would get paid regurgitating this stuff? -- RoboEd. | They don't -- Sleepless.

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2:00 PM 1/6/2018

Quote of the week -- 1/6/18

This is from the renowned blogger, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit talking about the influx of former blue state residents into red states:

The only downside is that that migration might turn some red states blue. Some GOP donors need to set up a Welcome Wagon service for those fleeing blue states, to educate them on why they shouldn’t just agitate for the policies that ruined the states they left. With today’s data-mining, such people wouldn’t be hard to identify and reach.

As a resident of Texas -- where new arrivals total in the millions -- I've worried about their voting preferences, too. The possibility of non-citizens voting is bad enough.

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1:01 PM 1/5/2018

Google is not the only company steeped in political correctness -- look at HP

Roger Clegg tells us that HP, Inc., is threatening to deduct 10% off a law firm's bill if the firm doesn't meet the diversity quota set by HP. See HP Mandates Quotas:

Kim M. Rivera, who is chief legal officer and general counsel of HP Inc., is serious in her insistence that law firms doing work for her company meet the racial, ethnic, and gender quotas she has set for them (she calls it “achieving the metric”). She has sent this letter informing them that the company will withhold up to 10 percent of any amount invoiced by the law firms if they “do not meet or exceed our minimal diverse staffing requirements.”

She helpfully appends a description of the program. It spells out, for example, that the definition of “diverse” attorneys is limited to “race/ethnicity, gender, LGBT status, and disability status” — no use trying to sneak in someone because of his or her religion, impoverished background, or heterodox political views. But the good news is that the “twofer” is alive and well: “An attorney who is both a woman and racially/ethnically diverse” counts double.

Never mind that the law prohibits discrimination, they may have to discriminate in order to get their workplace to comply with HP to get full payment.

Meanwhile, in the Senate: Senator wants 'mandated diversity' for Congressional staff. While I agree with the principle that elected office holders should be held to the same standards as everyone else, a better approach would be to abolish quotas all together.

Finally, Kyle Becker helpfully provides us the names of the 10 Most 'Woke' Corporations in America. To save you the trip over there, they are PayPal, Adidas, Starbucks, ESPN, PepsiCo, Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, Google, and General Motors.

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12:57 PM 1/4/2018

Video -- how mass shooter reloads weapons so fast

This is a jaw dropping video I saw the other night at a class about civilian response to an active shooter. The guy in the video walks up to the camera appearing to be unarmed. Then he pulls an AR-15 out of his pants, loads it with a magazine, ejects the magazine, then inserts another for a total of seven magazines.

That was remarkable enough, but he isn't finished. He then draws a semi-auto handgun. With that one he used a total of three magazines.

There were no shots fired in the video, it was simply a demonstration of how a mass shooter could reload his weapons. The lesson is solid. A bystander hoping to overpower the shooter has a very short window of opportunity between reloads.

Video link.

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9:32 AM 1/3/2018

North Korea wants to talk Olympics with South Korea

One has to wonder whether North Korean athletes will come to the games doped up to win. If so, one has to hope they get caught.

But this is interesting: Before Olympics, North Korea Offers Direct Talks With South Korea. Next thing you know, South Korea Proposes Talks With North Before Olympics.

OK. Maybe the leaders of the two countries will engage in some entertaining but meaningless wager like politicians here do. Unfortunately, Kim Jong Un appears to have no sense of humor. And if the past serves as predictor, Kim will simply use any hint of peace to buy time to build weaponry.

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4:14 PM 1/2/2018

Baby it's cold outside --7 degrees at 7am, 9 degrees at 9am

Out here in the desert that is Midland, Texas, the nights sometime get cold, but not usually this cold.

The temps here this morning were nothing to impress Northerners, but for us, it was damn cold.

At around 7am the temp was around 7ºF. And at 9am it was 9ºF.

 
Who couldn't love the symmetry?

Happy New Year 2018 -- this one issue voter is getting greedy

What a year 2017 was! Highs and lows throughout the year -- a real roller coaster ride.

This one issue voter -- Supreme Court appointment -- got what he wanted.

Now I'm greedy. I want more strict constructionists in the federal courts. Is that too much to ask?

Happy New Year!