Cain Out...

Watching what's happened to him, my constant thought was “Is it any wonder that good, normal folks don't want to run for elected office?”

I have no desire to run for any elective office.  I'm certain I'd make a terrible politician.  But if I did want to run for office, the crap that candidates must endure (whether justified or not) is not something I would ever sign up for.  I don't know about you, but I know about me: my life has been far from perfect, and there are a great many things I've been responsible for that I regret.  They've also made me a better man.  But there's no way I'd offer my life up for the kind of scrutiny (and potentially false accusations, as if the true ones weren't enough!) that a candidate like Herman Cain had to endure.

You have my deepest sympathy, Mr. Cain.  I have no idea what kind of a president you would have made – and our corrupt, low-substance political process has unfortunately ensured that I never will...

On that Drop in the Unemployment Rate...

The “unexpected” drop in the unemployment rate (from 9.0% to 8.6%) isn't quite what it seems like.  More than half of that drop was caused by a drop in the “participation rate”.  What's that?  It's the main fudge factor used by the government to dress up the widely reported overall unemployment statistic – it's one of the “adjustments” they make to the largely unreported raw unemployment number.  This adjustment removes those people the government believes have permanently removed themselves from the ranks of those looking for work – including those who the government believes (or asserts) have permanently given up on the idea that they will ever be able to find a job.  This oh-so-conveniently gives the government a tool to make the widely reported number look better than the raw number.

Me, I think that person who gave up (assuming they really did) is just as much unemployed as the person who hasn't given up – and they should be reported as part of the overall unemployment number.  But I'm a well-known crank about such things...

Accessible ClimateGate 2.0 Summary...

Stephen Hayward (an excellent commentator in general) has a great piece up at the Weekly Standard summarizing his findings upon reading about a third of the ClimateGate 2.0 document trove.  There will be more, but in the meantime this is a very easy to understand summary (even for those not familiar with the ClimateGate brouhaha) of just why ClimateGate 2.0 is so disturbing...

Ode to the Incandescent Lamp...

I detest the light emitted by fluorescent lamps (including the very best CFLs) and by the top-notch LED lamps.  Even more, I detest the loss of freedom that occurs when the government takes away a choice of mine.  I like incandescent lighting, and I'm willing to pay extra to get it.  I just placed an order for a stockpile of 100 watt and 250 watt lamps, and I will use them with pleasure until we run out of them.  By then I'm hoping that either new technology for broad-spectrum lighting will be available, or the nanny statism we're current suffering under will be reversed, or that there will be an established black market for incandescents.  Meanwhile, I can entirely sympathize with the viewpoint expressed here:





By the way, Reason magazine is one of the very few periodicals I still subscribe to. I get the same sort of joy from its arrival that the heroin addict gets when his next nickel bag is in his hands...

Awesome!

Just Disgraceful...

More about the internal bumblings of the Justice Department on the “Fast & Furious” project.  One can't help but observe the silence of the lamestream media on this scandal – compared with the trumpeting that would be happening if it were a Republican administration.  Here we have bureaucratic screw-ups that killed American citizens, and the general public, for the most part, doesn't even know they occurred...

Airless Tires...

Bridgestone is working on them...

Most Popular Tools...

For web designers, that is, in a nice infographic (click the thumbnail below for something you can read).