Generic Confusion

A little political history

2012-01-19T23:57:00.002-05:00

If you feel like a little political history, here's an interesting account of the candidacy of Evan Bayh for governor of Indiana, and his eligibility for the office. The case essentially boiled down to the state Constitution's five year residency rule, and the undecided legal question of whether residency required physical presence or whether a domicile standard was appropriate.

My retrospective

2012-01-11T21:28:00.003-05:00

Just because I can, I'll share my opinions on the editions of D&D. I started with the red box, bought the AD&D rule books, and basically used the AD&D rules. I wasn't actively playing in high school, so didn't get into 2nd edition until college. From there, I got involved in organized play, which used whatever the current rules set was, and so played 3rd and 4th from the beginning.

My favorite edition? 3e/3.5e. (There were only minimal changes to the fundamental game rules with 3.5e, so I'll call them the same.) The biggest change in this edition was a moderate focus on tactical combat. Just making using a square grid and miniatures changed the game a lot. Before, you'd tell the DM "I'll advance on the orc and swing my sword." Now, you'd actually see the orcs, and their placement would matter. You'd have a clear idea if you might get surrounded. You could move for tactical advantage, with flanking and setting yourself up for opportunity attacks. And it was relevant for all those spellcasters with their area effect spells. Better place that fireball carefully!

Still, there were issues with these tactical rules, issues that were left unclear by the rules as written. For example, how does flanking change with reach attacks and large creatures? How about cover? A few examples, published on their web site, would have helped immensely. Another example is exactly how to translate a shape (like a 20 foot radius circle) to a grid of 5 by 5 squares, which wasn't addressed until 3.5e. (Hopefully, the design of 5th edition will make sure the rules are clear. Wizards of the Coast also designs Magic: the Gathering, where they use very specific wordings, publish comprehensive rules with exactly one right answer, and issue FAQs with each new set release, including detailing confusing interactions. There's no reason this can't be done with D&D.)

Other things I liked:

Spells were familiar to players of past editions, but standardized in rules, using a limited number of ranges, areas, and durations. 1st edition was more random, whatever Gygax or one of his friends thought fit.
A reasonable system of skills was introduced to the game. Proficiencies in 2nd edition were just painful to anyone with basic math skills, with a check being based entirely off one's stat.
Attributes actually had meaning. In 2nd edition, a Wisdom of 8 was for almost all purposes identical to a 14. 3e's +1 per 2 points allowed an attribute point buy system that went beyond 18/18/18/8/8/8.
Three saving throws: Fortitude, Reflex, Will. Easy to understand. Easy for a DM to create a new effect and decide which category of saves to use.
Magic items made more sense, were more flexible, and could be crafted using standard rules.
Clerics channeling healing allowed a cleric to prepare a variety of useful spells, while still being able to heal when needed.

Things I didn't like about 3.5e:

There were some obvious abuses in designing monsters, including advancing them and adding templates. There were abusive spells, like Blasphemy. There were challenge ratings that often didn't make sense. (A CR 12 monster with the spellcasting of a 18th level sorcerer. An 18th level sorcerer is a CR 18 foe. And adding a level of warrior didn't affect the CR at all.) These problems, and using terrain and hindering effects, allowed one to be a "killer" DM with relative ease. Not a big issue for a home game, but a big problem for organized play, where modules should be run as written.
The importance of saving throws, and how bonuses were earned, encouraged combining multiple classes. There was little reason to stay a sorcerer, and every reason to add prestige classes.
The inevitable power creep. (4e would address this problem by constantly refining abusive powers, which resulted in rulebooks that couldn't be used as written.)
Low level problems for spellcasters. Zero level spells helped, but you'd still see wizards reduced to using a crossbow instead of spells. Something like at-will zero level power spells would be nice. Fighters didn't have this problem, because swinging a sword was always available. Similarly, sometimes it was right for a spellcaster to do nothing, conserving resources. That isn't particularly fun.

In contrast, 4th edition had very few positives:

A standard set of actions: move, minor, standard. Also one immediate action. (3.5e was leaning in this direction in its later days.)
No more "save or die". Effects like petrification that previously could remove you from combat entirely... didn't, in 4e.
It finally cured the fighter linear-wizard quadratic power issue, where the power of spellcasters simply grew much faster with levels. But for many, the cure was worse than the disease. "Too balanced" is a criticism of 4e.
By focusing the rules almost entirely on combat, we lost the feel of a role-playing game. Fun magic items and noncombat spells played a role in 2e and 3e, helping overcome obstacles that weren't combat. No more in 4e: everything was forced towards die rolls.

So, my ideal 5th edition would most resemble 3rd edition, including iconic races and classes from multiple editions, a variety of spells including those for noncombat use, and better powers for low level spellcasters and high level fighters.

A new edition!

2012-01-11T21:14:00.002-05:00

A new edition of Dungeons and Dragons, that is. The announcement even got a fluff article in the New York Times.

It may be considered an admission that the fourth edition of the venerable role-playing game was a failure, given it's been around for less than four years, a much shorter lifespan than the eight years of 3e/3.5e and the 11 years of 2e.

The link above is to Ace of Spades, who discusses the announcement. The comment section is active, as might be expected on a subject that attracts this level of passion. There are the normal anti-nerd jokes, people talking about how they've outgrown the game, and people talking about how they still like the game (and which edition they like). Here's one interesting comment, on the Pathfinder game that follows in the style of 3.5e:

As for Pathfinder, it simply is not as backwards compatible as the publishers and fans like to pretend it is, and is quickly accumulating just as much dead weight rules books as 3E/3.5/4E did. Add to that the hard Left worldview of well near the entire management and workforce, and a dominant theme of Torture Porn masquerading as "edgy" and "adult", and you have a product with no real attraction above and beyond sticking with whatever junk WotC is spamming the shelves with.

I can certainly confirm the hard left views of the Paizo publisher on my Facebook feed. And while I haven't played enough of their adventures to see the torture porn, I did see an early example. This same publisher, at the time leading and writing for the new Living Greyhawk campaign, showed off his darker vision by having an early adventure start with a dirty, bruised and naked girl running into the PCs' coach.

The year in weather?

2011-12-22T22:54:00.002-05:00

The Guardian published a "year in review" for the environment. It looks like it might be a press release from an environmental group. In any case, it highlights record high and low temperatures, drought, floods, and the like.

Imagine if next year's review included this summary:

The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most intense in history. A record-tying eight hurricanes reached Category 3 strength, with Hurricane Leslie hitting South Carolina as a Category 4, and three other hurricanes causing massive damage in Texas, Alabama, Florida, and the Yucutan Peninsula.

The report mentions hurricanes, but their damage was nothing like what I wrote. I don't think any hurricanes came ashore above Category 1. Is that notable? Who knows? The review doesn't talk about the way the environment was average or calmer.

What I fear is that this review is discussing weather, not climate, but it's trying to get people worried about climate. Every year, there are droughts and floods. There are record low temperatures and record high temperatures. There are ice storms, blizzards, early snowstorms, and late snowstorms. There's nothing notable about weather events, unless they're tied to climate. If you say they are: was the 2011 hurricane season tied to climate? Was it as tied to climate as the 2005 hurricane season?

The "perils" of high stake testing

2011-12-07T21:15:00.002-05:00

A Florida school board member (identity revealed here) took his state's 10th grade standardized tests in math and reading. He reported not knowing how to do any of the math problems, and only got 10 out of 60 questions right after guessing.

Seriously?

This man was an educator for years and has multiple advanced degrees, and he couldn't get a question right on an exam that probably doesn't go past 8th grade algebra? (The WaPo article includes links to similar questions, and I could answer those problems correctly, in my head.)

I would be more than happy to see school board members, teachers, and administrators take these exams, but only if they're compared to volunteers of similar ages from the community. That would help determine if the problem is with the exam, or if it's between the exam and the chair.

Architectural Find!

2011-11-23T00:01:00.002-05:00

While digging to put in a new storm pipe, workers at UNC discovered the remains of what might be an old inn or home from centuries past.

After realizing that the historical remnants were not of a well, the group speculated that the site could be a large cellar or possibly an outhouse.

Now that they are further into the project, Davis and the group believe they have come across a backyard cellar they suspect was associated with a detached kitchen from a house that stood in the first half of the 1800s.

“As we get more exposed, we’re able to narrow down the likelihood of what it is,” he said.

“We have more confidence in our current interpretations.”

The first house built on the lot was constructed before 1797, Davis said.

He said the group also found a drain that might be from a hotel that stood after the Civil War before the University bought it and tore it down.

A fitting discovery for the nation's oldest public university!

Devolution

2011-11-11T00:18:00.002-05:00

And not the good type, involving wearing flower pots as hats and cracking whips.

Power Line collects a list of incredible failures, neatly summarized with the statement:

If you have ever wondered what would happen in a society consisting entirely of liberals, the Occupier movement is providing the answer: devolution.

Occupy the Administration Building

2011-11-01T20:22:00.002-04:00

Students upset with being in debt after receiving a college education, and then not finding a job using their degree, have decided to blame... Wall Street? They're looking in the wrong place. They should be protesting in the administration building of their colleges and universities.

They should protest schools that have raised tuition far faster than inflation, not coincidentally rising to absorb third party funding, mostly government guaranteed loans.

They should protest a system that rewards their biggest name professors (the 1%, so to speak) by having them teach even less.

They should protest an administration that grows and grows, resources that could be put to direct education.

They should protest a lowering of standards for admission. They should recognize the perverse incentives for universities to collect full tuition for a year spent in remedial education.

They should protest a system that fails to focus students on choosing a degree path, realistically discussing the career opportunities for the degree, and getting them out in four years.

Civility FAIL

2011-10-26T20:08:00.002-04:00

The local alternative rag ran a column by one of its contributors bemoaning the lack of civility in public discourse. Throughout the column, he referred to a group of small government conservatives by a sexual slur. Then, he described how he trolled the comments of an article online by suggesting the Waco (Branch Davidian) solution to those commenters he disagreed with.

As a lolcat might say - civility: ur doin it wrong.

(You might see why I don't think this column is worth a link. Don't feed the trolls.)

Bad behavior

2011-09-19T19:34:00.002-04:00

Geordie Tait, long-time player of Magic: the Gathering and writer about the same, posted a long article about the gender attitudes of some gamers, touching on the reaction to Finkelgate. There's a bit too much feminist... stuff. There's one comment he makes that demands a response. He talks about fear, quoting a book which states that a woman's worst fear from a romantic encounter is being raped and murdered. He continues:

Now, pumpkin, pretend you're a man. What's your greatest fear in a romantic situation?

Give up? More than anything, we fear being laughed at and made to feel humiliated by the opposite sex.

That is wrong. What a man fears most is the evening's mutual yeses are followed by her regret and self-doubt. She convinces herself that despite saying yes, she didn't really consent to the night's activities, and so she files a charge of rape against the man. A false charge of rape. A classic he said, she said situation. It will be investigated. It will be news. The man knows he did nothing wrong, and he knows he shouldn't be convicted, but for months, his life becomes a living hell. And when he's exonerated? He has thousands of dollars of legal bills. And his name is forever listed as an accused rapist. His exoneration isn't going in the police blotter. And her name? It's probably not even in the article, given the standards of most newspapers.

It's even worse for college students, and not just because of the lower levels of maturity of both men and women of that age. Such a charge could bring the man before an Honor Board, where basic rights such as the right to legal representation and the right to face one's accuser are not present. And the man may be judged by a person with prejudices like "A woman would never lie about being raped" and "All men are potential rapists."

A date with a World Champion

2011-08-30T23:29:00.004-04:00

Over at Gizmodo, intern Alyssa Bereznak wrote about a date arranged online over OKCupid. It turns out this date was with Jon Finkel, one time world champion player of Magic: the Gathering, Hall of Famer, immortalized on a Magic card, and widely acknowledged as one of the best players of the game, ever. She apparently didn't like that this history wasn't a major part of his profile, even though *GASP* he still plays the game, and is still friends with fellow players.

I won't link to her post, as there's suspicion that she gets paid per link or hit, so I've linked instead to a Reddit thread where Jon Finkel answers questions on the issue (an Ask Me Anything thread).

Now, I'm not sure what would inspire a person to discuss a person, by name, in an article like this. It seems petty and vindictive. She would have known his history by just Googling him. Ironically, it is Alyssa who will forever be marked as damaged goods through the power of Google.

I haven't done online dating, but I doubt I'd put "player of D&D and M:tG" in any profile. Maybe "enjoys games," which suggests a wider variety of interests I may share with a woman. As I mentioned before, I cover.

It looks like my comment on the original article wasn't posted, so I'll put it here.

So your objection is he participates in a harmless intellectual hobby that you don't, and he has friends that aren't yours? You sound like a real catch for an independent man.

Were I in a long term relationship with a woman who didn't share my own geek interests and my old friends, I would expect to spend less time on them, and even less time were I to have children. However, I would not expect to spend no time on them. Nor would I expect her to spend no time on her old hobbies and old friends. Let's be honest, were the setup a man telling his wife or girlfriend that she can't see her old friends now that they're together, the Dear Abby advice would be "That sounds like an abusive relationship. Get out."

Update: Over Labor Day weekend, Jon Finkel won $4000 in that Magic tournament he was preparing for. What did Alyssa do?

Could Hit the U.S.

2011-08-23T00:32:00.002-04:00

Ah, the high quality of the Huffington AOLpost. The caption on the video screenshot says "Hurricane Irene slams Puerto Rico; Could Hit US."

It already hit the U.S.

At least the headline got it right: "U.S. Mainland".

Stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair

2011-08-14T11:39:00.002-04:00

Strong winds last night toppled the stage rigging at the grandstand of the Indiana State Fair, right between the performance of opening act Sara Bareilles and headlining act Sugarland. There have been five deaths so far, and the State Fair is canceled today.

Company Store redux

2011-08-10T08:41:00.002-04:00

Previously, I commented on the savings the Kaukauna school district had attained by getting insurance outside the WEA Trust. I suspected at the time that it was always overpriced, not just for this one year. And a later column by Byron York confirms it.

The problem for Hartland-Lakeside was that WEA Trust was charging significantly higher rates than the school district could find on the open market. School officials knew that because they got a better deal from United HealthCare for coverage of nonunion employees. On more than one occasion, Superintendent Glenn Schilling asked WEA Trust why the rates were so high. "I could never get a definitive answer on that," says Schilling.

Changing to a different insurance company would save Hartland-Lakeside hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on key educational priorities -- especially important since the cash-strapped state government was cutting back on education funding. But teachers union officials wouldn't allow it; the WEA Trust requirement was in the contract, and union leaders refused to let Hartland-Lakeside off the hook.

That's where Wisconsin's new budget law came in. The law, bitterly opposed by organized labor in the state and across the nation, limits the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. And it just happens that the Hartland-Lakeside teachers' collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers.

"It's going to save us about $690,000 in 2011-2012," says Schilling. Insurance costs that had been about $2.5 million a year will now be around $1.8 million. What union leaders said would be a catastrophe will in fact be a boon to teachers and students.

Standard & Poor's downgrade: Think about this

2011-08-09T20:11:00.002-04:00

They have the authority they do because the government says so.

The one thing the US could do to punish Standard & Poor's is to no longer allow their ratings to have any regulatory value. If a company has to have assets of a certain quality, the judgment of S&P is no longer valid in determining whether or not you meet that requirement. (I have no idea on the legality of that, or whether or not it's a good idea.)

But think about this: In a free market, S&P should have gone out of business, since they so badly handled ratings of collateralized mortgage obligations. They gave a AAA rating to something that collapsed in value and security with a housing market downturn. They gave these ratings despite widespread thought that we were in a housing bubble. They didn't do one single sensitivity test?

Without the official recognition of government being involved, a competitor could have arisen, promising a more robust model for complex securities like CMOs. Instead, there's a practically insurmountable barrier to entry.

Last Friday Night

2011-08-08T19:56:00.002-04:00

Katy Perry has four #1 singles off her current album: California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Firework, and E.T. If current single Last Friday Night can rise from #2 to #1, she will tie Michael Jackson's record for most #1 singles off an album. That was a record I never thought would be equaled.

And if you haven't seen it, the video is hilarious. Look at the cameos: Debbie Gibson, Corey Feldman, Kenny G, Hanson, Rebecca Black, and two of the actors from Glee.

The Bridge to Nowhere

2011-07-18T20:04:00.003-04:00

On a trip to Alaska which included a trip to Ketchikan, I learned something about that city's famed "Bridge to Nowhere". As described by a tour guide, the city is completely surrounded by national park, and cannot expand. However, there is land on Gravina Island that is not parkland, and could be developed. Without said bridge, prospects for developing this land are poor.

Now, whether or not the bridge is a good use of federal funds is still worthy of debate. What I find notable is how not one person discussing this issue in the national media mentioned the development issue. All I remember hearing was about the airport, and the ferry that served to bring people from the mainland to the airport. A fair and balanced discussion of the issue would have mentioned the development issue as well. Frankly, it's not something the average American would even consider, never having lived in an area with such restricted geography.

I sold my soul to the company store

2011-07-04T11:00:00.003-04:00

A seemingly incredible story: as a result of the changes in Wisconsin's collective bargaining law, the one fought tooth and nail by the unions, the Kaukauna school district turned a $0.4 million deficit into a $1.5 million surplus.

In his column, Byron York reveals one of the causes of the savings.

In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.

Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.

It's theoretically possible the WEA Trust had the lowest premiums for years, and only this year mispriced their coverage. But it is far more likely that this trust existed to line the pockets of union leaders. And since, even before the changes, union members paid part of their health insurance costs, the actions of the union leaders directly hurt the members.

I thought the company store was a relic of the past. Wages, even if nominally fair, were made unfair when they had to be spent at the company store, where the lack of competition allowed the company to charge whatever it wanted, providing pure profit to the owners. Now, it's the unions who want the workers to sell their soul to the company store.

The Dear Abby test

2011-06-15T21:28:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, the book Manning Up by Kay Hymowitz made the discussion circles of the Internet. The book bemoaned the perpetual adolescence of adult men who watch Adam Sandler movies and play video games. I find myself asking, who cares? My honest and sincere hope for anyone, man or woman, is that you do something you enjoy in your free time.

The second consideration is for relationships for men are happy staying in this state. A single man or woman can get an education, start a career, buy a house, and save for retirement. One thing they can't do unilaterally is marry.

A relationship requires compromise. I would expect a guy who likes video games to play a lot less once married, and even more so once a father. But I don't think it's fair to think one should stop playing games (or sports, or whatever avocation you enjoy) entirely. And the same goes for a gal's shopping trips and girls' nights out.

I came up with what I call the "Dear Abby Test" to determine what level of restriction might be fair. Imagine what you demand of your husband were described in a letter to the famed advice columnist, but written from the perspective of demands on a woman from her husband or boyfriend. If you think Dear Abby would respond "Your husband is abusive and controlling. Get out.", that's a sign that you may have gone beyond the normal compromise appropriate to a relationship.

Weiner's Wienergate

2011-06-02T00:36:00.003-04:00

It's a story that, were it the plot of a television series, you'd think it too silly. A sitting congressman takes a picture of his tented underwear, and tries to send it to a young woman across the country via Twitter. Only, he types the wrong thing, and everyone following him gets it. And then, he makes a whole bunch of unconvincing denials. He claims to have been hacked (but without losing control of his accounts). The requisite shot of him out with his recent wife, looking happy, naturally follows as well.

This congressman holds reprehensible views and should be kicked out of office for that reason. Still, as a kindhearted person, I'll offer some free advice on making a more reasonable denial.

"That is not a picture of me." Simple, direct.

His wife: "Other than my husband, I know better than anyone what type of underwear he wears. And that is not it."

But saying you're not sure? Do you regularly take pictures of yourself in your underwear? Do you have a collection of crotch shots like that?

Now, the best theory comes from the millionaire playboy of the Actuarial Outpost:

Weiner is gay. This is a cover for all that.

Weiner is married to some hot Persian (?) chick who was Hillary Clinton's constant companion in the past. Anyone think Hillary is straight? Didn't think so.

The marriage is a scam, and this instance of hyper-heterosexuality is more cover. This guy has h-o-m-o written all over him.

Well, that would explain why he follows porn stars as well.

Temporarily down

2011-05-13T20:14:00.002-04:00

Ann Althouse reports Blogger-based problems. Thus, she's posting from althouse2.blogspot.com

Given that I'm posting, there's no problems with this blog, not that my nonexistent readers would notice....

A nice change

2011-04-26T21:15:00.000-04:00

Primary elections are next week, focusing on local races. In a welcome change to the normal, boring campaign signs that can be seen everywhere, the incumbent mayor is using Burma Shave-style series of signs as a part of his reelection strategy.

Major math fail

2011-03-29T22:23:00.003-04:00

A contributor to the Huffington AOLpost has a very interesting comparison. The subject is the costs of two rail projects, the high speed rail he rejected and improvements to an existing and popular slow rail service.

He or she compares an annual cost of "as low as" $750,000 to a one-time cost of $12 million, and goes on to say that, with those numbers, Scott Walker is supporting spending 16 times as much. That's a major failure of mathematics. Assume both of those figures are accurate, and that there are zero cost savings from the $12 million construction. At 5% interest, a perpetuity of $750,000 has a present value of $15 million.

It's also a failure of logic. I don't expect people to understand the theory of interest. But a perpetuity is the easiest thing to calculate. The value of a perpetuity (a level stream of money) of 1 is 1/i, where i is the assumed interest rate. Still, it doesn't take a genius to understand that directly comparing a one-time cost to an annual cost makes no sense.

The bottom line: Even under the least favorable monetary calculations, Scott Walker is spending less money.

The dangers of....

2011-03-14T23:33:00.002-04:00

Best comment of the day, at Instapundit:

Reader Andrew Medina says we’re lucky to face nuclear-plant problems, because if the tsunami had hit a solar farm instead, “10,000’s of Lbs of lead and cadmium telluride would have been swept into the Sea of Japan poisoning just about everything.”

The risks of nuclear power can't be underestimated, but this comment highlights that even the greenest source of energy is a potential toxic disaster. We shouldn't fear the risks of nuclear power, which is a lot safer than coal.

Powerful

2011-03-14T01:06:00.001-04:00

The New York Times has satellite pictures of Japan before and after the devastation wrought by the tsunami.

AMBER Alert

2011-02-17T19:18:00.003-05:00

Fourteen children were abducted from Madison, Wisconsin, early in the morning on February 17, 2011. They were last seen in the company of their teachers. The abducted children are feared to have been taken out of state. The abductors are not thought to be armed, but are extremely dangerous.

Tim Carpenter
Spencer Coggs
Tim Cullen
Jon Erpenbach
Dave Hansen
Jim Holperin
Robert Jauch
Chris Larson
Julie Lassa
Mark Miller
Fred Risser
Lena Taylor
Kathleen Vinehout
Robert Wirch

If you see any of these children, please contact federal marshals and the people of Wisconsin immediately.

Climate of Hate

2011-01-15T15:06:00.000-05:00

Markos Krugman (excellent pseudonym!) is chronicling the Climate of Hate in America. Check it out!

(Via Instapundit)

Irrational fear... of men

2011-01-12T21:12:00.002-05:00

Lenore Skezany, a promoter of "free-range children", has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, criticizing the state of society where men are assumed, by default, to be predators.

Last week, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Timothy Murray, noticed smoke coming out of a minivan in his hometown of Worcester. He raced over and pulled out two small children, moments before the van's tire exploded into flames. At which point, according to the AP account, the kids' grandmother, who had been driving, nearly punched our hero in the face.

Why?

Mr. Murray said she told him she thought he might be a kidnapper.

I agree that this level of paranoia is ridiculous and harmful. There aren't too many kids in my neighborhood, but I can't help but feel a little worried in talking to them. I know I'm fine. (Maybe a little quiet, keeping to myself... :) ) Heck, I could even babysit. On a given evening when I have nothing particular planned, I could watch TV just as well while keeping an eye on a couple of kids. But would I ever offer this? Let's just say I'd have to know the family really well to even suggest that.

Incidentally, "free range" is how I was raised. It may not have been the biggest range, but being free to roam the neighborhood or the woods surrounding the neighborhood without being monitored was just fine, and probably safer and healthier than being driven around to a variety of organized events.

Seeing what you want to see

2011-01-10T00:39:00.001-05:00

About ten years ago, Wizards of the Coast created an online version of its popular Magic: the Gathering collectible trading card game. While the basic rules of the game can be taught fairly easily, the detailed rules run dozens of pages. Each of these rules is faithfully coded and debugged. With hundreds of new cards introduced each year, each possibly interacting with old cards in unusual ways, that's an impressive endeavor.

There's one element of the game that's not complex, however. Each player plays with a deck of virtual cards, and these decks are shuffled. The shuffling algorithm is a basic function, and is no different than coding the randomization of a 52 card deck for a game of poker. But if you play online, you'll hear players complain about the shuffler, as if it's some evil program designed to make them lose.

In Magic: the Gathering, a type of card called land is used to allow you to cast your business cards, and you can play one land a turn. Generally, these cards have no direct effect on your opponent and don't directly allow you to win the game. But you need to use mana from lands to cast the spells that will win you the game. Players use the terms "mana screw" and "mana flood" to refer to not drawing enough lands to cast your spells, or drawing too many lands instead of cards that will help you win.

Typically, a deck is 40% land, and you might expect to see three lands in an opening hand of seven, possibly four. Both of those are good results, but any number of lands from zero to seven is possible. A hand with 0, 1, 6, or 7 lands is typically mulliganed, and 2 or 5 is iffy. If you keep the two land hand and don't draw the third land until your fourth turn or later, you will not be able to cast many spells, and will be behind in the game. If you keep the five land hand and draw several more, you'll find yourself in the same position, for a different reason.

Say you're a person who believes the shuffler is broken. You will remember all those improbable opening hands. You will remember all the instances of mana screw and mana flood. You won't remember the opening hands with 3 and 4 lands, and you won't remember the hands where you draw the cards you need when you kept a marginal hand.

If you have already reached the conclusion, then your mind will only record the evidence that supports your conclusion. That's not a wise way to live. Try looking at the actual evidence instead. You'll see it's not so black and white.

Warren Buffett supports the estate tax

2010-12-08T21:32:00.002-05:00

Why does America's second richest man support the estate tax? Doesn't it hurt people like him?

Not really, considering it helped him become the second richest man in America.

What do these companies have in common?

Dairy Queen, Jordan’s, Justin Industries, Star Furniture, Borsheim, Ben Bridge Jewelers, U.S. Liability, NetJets, R.C. Wiley, Flight Safety and Nebraska Furniture Mart.

As Dick Patton reveals in an article in Human Events, these are all companies bought by Berkshire Hathaway when their family owners were forced to sell to settle their estate tax bill.

In addition, Buffett's life insurance companies sell survivorship life insurance, which is primarily sold to pay estate taxes and transfer some wealth into a form that can be transferred to heirs without being subject to the tax.

The Twinkie Diet

2010-11-09T21:56:00.003-05:00

Mark Haub, a nutrition professor, decided to eat unhealthy foods. And he lost weight.

He may have been eating Twinkies and the like, but he ate only 1800 Calories a day. This demonstrates the most important aspect of weight loss, the need to consume fewer Calories than you burn.

This is another example why I question the motives of people who rail against certain foods, such as hydrogenated oils and corn syrup. In the end, everything you eat gets converted to energy.

(Via Instapundit)

Halloween

2010-10-31T21:42:00.002-04:00

There's one holiday that I don't really get into. When I left college and moved into an apartment, I dutifully bought a bag of candy. But there were no trick-or-treaters. I ended up forgetting about the bag of candy for a while, but it was eventually put to good use.

After that, I forgot all about the candy. I couldn't even tell you what day of the week the kids go trick-or-treating. All I know is that if I'm at home, and am worried about kids stopping by, I keep the lights off so they think I'm not home. Yes, I'm a terrible person.

The first time I didn't go out trick-or-treating, I used the time to finish the computer game Might and Magic. That should give you a good idea of how long ago that was.

History FAIL

2010-09-21T20:19:00.001-04:00

"Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples. The British and French, the Dutch and Spanish, to Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land." - Barack Obama

It's sad to see an Ivy League graduate with no idea of when Mexico attained its independence.

More consequences of ObamaCare

2010-09-14T20:45:00.002-04:00

Any actuary could tell you the likely consequences of a bill like ObamaCare. Here, the nonpartisan American Academy of Actuaries describes the consequences of the design of one of its features, the guaranteed issue requirement (with no underwriting) for children under 19.

A non-actuary could probably tell you that allowing the purchase of a policy at any time gives a strong incentive to wait until a child is sick to buy coverage. But this letter describes many more likely consequences. For example, for any company with group health insurance where the rates they pay are based on their own experience, there is a logical economic incentive to pay an employee with a sick child to not cover the child through the group insurance, but rather through the guaranteed issue individual insurance.

Yes, like most of Obamacare, it's designed in such a way that increased costs are all but guaranteed. And don't be surprised if, several years down the road, these cost increases are used by Democrats as justification for a total government takeover of health care.

Reducing the population, one at a time

2010-09-01T23:42:00.003-04:00

A total nutcase, influenced by crackpots like Al Gore, takes hostages in the headquarters of the Discovery Channel, issuing a manifesto demanding population reduction.

This story has a happy ending. The nutcase is killed by police snipers, fulfilling his wish. None of the hostages are harmed.

I post the link to Jim Treacher, who imbeds the perfect music video. Hint... "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals...."

Epic Design Fail

2010-08-23T00:16:00.004-04:00

So, Coca-Cola has decided to redesign their two liter bottles to better catch that "Coke" shape. When I bought the first one of these bottles, it looked strange. I've been buying two liter bottles for nearly twenty years, as my primary source of soda.

And when I got home, I discovered this new design doesn't fit in my refrigerator. The bottle is now too tall to fit on the upper shelf or in the drawers.

It looks like I bought my last two liter of Coke products.

What a dumb***

2010-06-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

Vice President Joe Biden paid a visit to the Milwaukee area, stopping at Kopp's Frozen Custard. As the attached videos show, he put his feet in his mouth once again.

Now, that reference to the product as "ice cream" is almost certainly a joke. But referring to the store owner as a smart*** for saying lower our taxes and we'll call it even is not.

My advice to the VP: After enjoying the finest frozen custard, which I've been eating all my life, please take some time to listen to the owner. I, too, would like to see lower taxes. And having seen the price of a single scoop more than double over nearly 20 years, I recognize that a part of that price I pay is to pay taxes to Wisconsin and the federal government. Lower that, and I'll pay less for that delicious treat.

When "Blame Bush" fails

2010-06-22T22:44:00.001-04:00

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently blamed Bush appointees who “burrowed in” at the Minerals Management Service for the regulatory failures that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But as it turns out, not one of the officials responsible for overseeing the exploded rig was a Bush political appointee.

Oops.

You'd think people would stop believing Democrats by now.

Eenie meenie miney moe

2010-06-13T08:01:00.002-04:00

Several years ago, there was a minor furor when a playful Southwest flight attendant announced over the speaker, "Eenie meenie miney moe, pick a seat, we have to go."

What's so bad about that? If you're of blogging age, you've probably only heard the nursery rhyme go:

Eenie meenie miney moe
Catch a tiger by its toe
If he hollers let him go
Eenie meenie miney moe

You see, there was nothing wrong with what she said. However, further in the past, some people used a racial slur instead of "tiger". I thought the complaints were ridiculous, an example of political correctness gone crazy, because there's a very good chance this flight attendant had never heard the bad version of the song. It's almost guaranteed if she's around my age, and if she was raised among good people, like me.

I'd like to thank the racial activists for demonstrating that we've won the fight against racism, since they had time to make an issue of this non-issue. And I'd like to point out that it was they that taught me the racist version of this rhyme. Them, not society.

Now, I hear a white Canadian boy singing the following on the radio today:

Shorty is a eenie meenie miney mo lova’

Eenie meenie miney moe
Catch a bad chick by her toe
If she holla’ (if, if, if she holla) let her go

So, when are these same racial activists going to criticize Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston?

Wakefield banned

2010-05-26T23:14:00.001-04:00

Very good news.

A gastroenterologist who persuaded millions of parents worldwide that the vaccine used to prevent measles, mumps and rubella might cause autism has been banned from practicing medicine in his native Britain after the country's top medical group said Monday he conducted his research unethically.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield was the first researcher to publish a peer-reviewed study suggesting a connection between autism, inflammatory bowel disease and the MMR vaccine.

In February, Britain's leading medical journal, "The Lancet, "retracted Wakefield's controversial 1998 study just days after Wakefield was found guilty by a British panel of acting unethically in his research on autism.

Wakefield's study prompted a worldwide anti-vaccination movement, which has been partially blamed for an outbreak of measles that hit 15 U.S. states in the summer of 2008. American parents have gone so far as throwing "measles parties," in which they expose their children to the virus to help them build up a natural resistance to it, in an effort to avoid giving their children the vaccination. Doctors have said this practice is both dangerous and ineffective.

There's a lot of human suffering attributable to the movement this doctor led. Let's hope people wise up in the future.

A thought exercise

2010-04-29T00:50:00.001-04:00

An eccentric billionaire hates insurance. He takes good care of himself, sees a private doctor regularly, and has a Rolodex filled with the names of top medical experts. No matter what goes wrong with him, he can pay for the best medical care in the world.

Question: How does this man's decision to not have health insurance impact interstate commerce?

Ball and Chain

2010-04-23T00:24:00.004-04:00

Is the phrase "old ball and chain" sexist? Is it misogynistic? Is it a symbol of phallocentric patriarchy? Or is it just a joke?

For years, some of the larger conventions devoted to those who love games (specialty board games, historical miniatures, role-playing games, live action role-playing games, and video games among them) have offered "spouse track" events. A good portion of these events are geared towards activities women are, in general, more interested in; this makes sense, as gaming is an activity men, in general, are more interested in. However, others are more general interest. Examples for each would be crafts and a winery tour.

The most prominent convention, Gen Con, has had these activities for years. And also for years, they've used picture icons for broad categories of events. The role-playing games, for example, use a twenty-sided die, as that die evokes the well-known Dungeons and Dragons game (among others that use it). The spouse track uses a "ball and chain" icon.

Now, they've used this icon for years, but just now, someone noticed and complained. Many think women should find this offensive.

But it turns out the person who chose the icon, Jeanette LeGault, is a woman. And she's not offended by the icon.

I picked the icon. I consider myself an independent, liberal minded woman. I picked it not because I thought it represented who or what I was or as a reflection on women, but because I thought it funny and I liked the irony.

Some advice for Jeanette: I see you're pointing out that you're not offended. It's a nice try. But from personal experience, I know you won't have success in saying you're not offended when someone else thinks you should be offended.

Lower CD prices!

2010-03-18T20:44:00.002-04:00

The Universal Music Group will rewrite U.S. music pricing following the debut of its new frontline pricing structure, which is designed to get single CDs in
stores at $10, or below.

The company is about to unveil its Velocity program for the U.S. market, which will see a price card for single CDs with suggested list prices of $10, $9, $8, $7 and $6. In order to accommodate the lower pricing, UMG labels also plan to step up deluxe versions of albums that can sell at higher prices for the more devout music fans and collectors. UMG is also banking that the lower price points will at the least be offset by increasing CD sales volume.

Here's a welcome change, one that could help music sales more than any amount of attacks on file sharing. People are used to 99 cents a song now. CDs shouldn't be $18 unless they're chock full of extras, like a companion DVD.

For those of us who like physical CDs, with liner notes, credits, and song lyrics in one convenient package, this is a welcome sign that there's some intelligence left in the music industry.

Scandal!

2010-03-01T23:11:00.002-05:00

A doctor performed an EXPERIMENTAL MEDICAL PROCEDURE on the President of the United States! How could this happen?

Actually, the procedure is a virtual colonoscopy. They've been performed for years, but they're excluded from Medicare because they're "experimental".

So, there you have it. Government health insurance doesn't cover a procedure that is just fine for the President. That's an example of rationing. And we don't even have ObamaCare yet.

Light rail in Indy?

2010-02-11T22:57:00.002-05:00

The familiar call of light rail has appeared on the Indianapolis scene. This proposal suggests a line from Fishers to downtown, then to Greenwood in the south. Another line would head from the airport to downtown.

It's not a lot of coverage, and it would be expensive:

Officials estimate the rail system and expanded bus service would cost an estimated $1.2 billion to build and another $90 million to $100 million a year to operate. Both could be funded through a sales tax increase of 0.35 percentage point to 0.5 percentage point, as well as fares from the system.

At this point, few people would really benefit from this transit option. The I-69 corridor may be the busiest, but it's not gridlock on the level of New York City. I wouldn't want the light rail to be built before the demand is demonstrated. And how to do that? Adopt part of the proposal: the expanded express bus service. If that fails? It's easier to recover the investment from buses than an entire light rail system.

New Non-Issue: School Start Dates

2010-02-03T00:19:00.005-05:00

It's been years since the Daylight Savings Time issue was settled in Indiana. It's time for another pointless debate to occupy our time.

The Indiana Senate passed a bill requiring that schools start after Labor Day. Reasons cited include a families getting more time in summer together (in a vacation that starts later, so it's actually the same length) and saving on energy costs from not cooling schools in August (but instead increasing the cooling costs in June). There's also the issue of better syncing with college schedules (which vary considerably).

I had a three month vacation one summer, when I went from a school district that started in August, ending in May, to another than started in September, ending in June. I saw both schedules. It really makes no difference. (Although it's good for some students if school starts after Gen Con.)

I will agree, however, that school seems to start earlier and earlier, which suggests that maybe the schedule needs to be condensed, removing some extra vacation days and teacher workshop days to fit 180 days into fewer weeks.

"I draw my +2 shank and move into the flank...."

2010-01-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

An unusual court case upheld a Wisconsin prison's ban on inmates playing Dungeons & Dragons. Not surprisingly, the case got mention on several forums with a high geek population, but also received comment at The Volokh Conspiracy (linked above). Apparently, Ilya Somin doesn't mind letting his freak flag show.

The prison policy is a pretty stupid decision, with rather idiotic justification. It leads to gang activity? Really? A cynic might point out that religion is misused as a justification for the racist thoughts behind actual gangs in prison; should we ban chaplains as well as Dungeon Masters?

I'd be happy if prisoners were both physically tired from hard labor and mentally tired from receiving an education that they would have no interest in playing D&D.

And a note to any prison wardens who might read this: The fact that this policy is receiving international attention doesn't mean people think it's a good idea.

Bad uniforms

2010-01-13T23:23:00.002-05:00

I just got back from watching the normally unimpressive Indiana Pacers come back from a big deficit to beat the Phoenix Suns. But my only criticism is going to be for the uniforms. The Phoenix uniforms, with PHX instead of Phoenix on the front, are the stupidest looking things I've seen in a while.

The stupidest looking sports emblem I've ever seen was a proposed update to the San Francisco 49ers classic interlocked SF symbol, somewhere around the late 80s. They actually wanted to replace it with a helmet saying 49ers, with 49 in a large, modern font. It looked more like the name of a trendy bistro. Thankfully, the reaction was so negative, that the idea was scrapped.

Oh, that equitable nationalized health care....

2010-01-04T22:59:00.002-05:00

A big selling point of various universal health care systems is how they're fairer. No one is turned away because they don't have money. Everyone gets the care they need in a timely manner.

Dafydd ab Hugh of Big Lizards has a revealing post about his father's experience with Japan's oh-so-fair national health system. It's a tale of private insurance for the well off, peddling influence, bribery, and work that nurses and doctors won't do.

If you thought the French letting its elderly die because no one wanted to cut short their August vacation was bad, just look at this glimpse of trying to get timely, quality health care during the busy New Year's holiday.

I'm going to be honest. There will always be a problem with more demand for health care than the system can handle. And I'd much prefer a system where people with money have an advantage than one where people related to hospital executives or prominent politicians do.

Dominance

2009-12-17T22:08:00.003-05:00

One coach. Twenty national titles. That's what UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance has now, after beating Stanford 1-0 in the 2009 national championship. While one can argue which college sports dynasty is the greatest, Dorrance now holds the numerical record for most championships won in one sport. Congratulations!

Environmentalism, at its very essence

2009-11-23T22:07:00.002-05:00

A winning quote from a recent George Will column, which briefly summarizes the oil we've been running out of for a century.

Today, there is a name for the political doctrine that rejoices in scarcity of everything except government. The name is environmentalism.

What's wrong with continued economic growth?

2009-11-18T22:25:00.002-05:00

In response to an environmental press release, urging developed nations to just be less wealthy in the future, Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog has an excellent response.

Assuming that such thinking is not just a crass excuse for totalitarian control, it represents an enormous failure of imagination. The author cannot imagine what benefits increased wealth would provide, so he assumes those benefits to be zero. There is absolutely no reason that this same exact thinking could not have been applied in 1300 or 1750 or 1900. Fortunately it was not.

I fully support the increased wealth and comfort for American conservatives. I fully support the right of American liberals to live in penury. And I fully support applying the ingenuity of Americans to make the scientific and technological advances which will improve the life of the entire world.

The future of health care, as seen in... mammograms?

2009-11-18T21:46:00.003-05:00

A seemingly innocuous statement about recommended medical treatment has inadvertently exposed Americans to the risk of a government-run health care system. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends less frequent mammograms to monitor for breast cancer. The new guidelines suggest that only women with risk factors get screened at 40, and two years between mammograms is fine for women in their 50s. The reason for these changes is that the false positives outweigh the early detections. Of course, home examinations can and should be continued as normal.

Understandably, many women are upset with this recommendation. Any woman whose early breast cancer was discovered by a mammogram would feel as if the early detection saved her life. "I wouldn't be here today if these guidelines were in place." (Some would have survived even with a later detection, of course.) Some fear these guidelines may be used by government and private insurers to set which medical procedures are covered.

In the current U.S. health care system, there is nothing to be afraid of. Some insurers may change their policies, but I don't think most will. Private insurance widely covers preventative care, normally at 100%. It may make theoretical sense for all insurance to exclude annual preventative care, like physicals and mammograms and prostate exams, because it's more expensive to pay with insurance's overhead than just paying out of pocket. But health insurance is not sold to homo economicus, the theoretical creatures that economists work with, who make perfectly rational economic decisions. In the real world, covering preventative care encourages utilization of preventative care (which can help discover problems early, though the actual economic cost/benefit analysis is extremely complicated) and is attractive to consumers. As long as the price remains reasonable, people won't mind over-pre-paying. As long as there's strong interest in this type of coverage at a
reasonable price, insurers have a financial incentive to offer this coverage.

However, put only one entity, the government, in charge of health care, and these type of recommendations may become enforcements. The absolute extreme case is a complete ban on mammograms before 50 for women without risk factors. The more reasonable extreme case is a system where almost all care is provided by government-paid and government-regulated doctors, who would have a prohibition on providing these mammograms, and only the very rich would be able to see doctors who operate outside the public sphere. In either case, being willing to pay for the peace of mind of an early mammogram would not be an option.

The larger issue, of course, is increasing health care costs, partly because people want care that is of limited or no benefit. They want antibiotics to treat the flu. They want the latest generation drug when an earlier, now generic drug might work as well. They want health screenings that are very unlikely to uncover a disease. Anecdotal evidence will uncover some who benefited, but practically, we do need to recognize that some risk will remain in an ideal system. We could virtually eliminate traffic fatalities by restricting automobiles to running no faster than 20 mph, but we accept those risks to get the benefits of being able to travel faster.

The hate crime bill reminds me of something

2009-11-11T21:35:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, while stuck at an airport with CNN omnipresent, one of the big news items of the day was the signing of a new federal hate crimes bill. Suddenly, I realized it sounded vaguely familiar. I was reminded of the old practice of life insurers charging a higher premium for blacks than whites.

Now, please recognize that these insurance companies weren't charging a higher premium just because they could. The premiums were based on the higher mortality rates for blacks at that time.

Do you see the problem? The higher mortality rate was true, but the cause wasn't skin color. In other words, correlation does not necessarily imply causation.

Most hate crimes deserve to be punished harder. They are more brutal. They are premeditated. They intend to terrorize, not just harm the one victim. But these are the reasons these crimes should be punished harder. It has nothing to do with the defining characteristics of the perpetrators and victims. And to create a law that can be used selectively, and in a way that inherently criminalizes thought, isn't the way to punish the criminals that need to be punished.

Fear no bats

2009-11-02T00:45:00.002-05:00

I just have to post this one: Someone released a live bat in the AT&T Center, during the Spurs-Kings game on Halloween. The bat caused a delay of game. Then the Spurs' Manu Ginobili swatted it out of midair.

The only animal hazard in my own workplace is gnatlike insects. They're hard to catch. I think I need to hire Manu for a small project.

New insurance company proposal

2009-10-21T19:36:00.002-04:00

In individual health insurance, which is underwritten, the issuance of a policy, and the premium for the policy, are based on the facts, as expressed in the application and verified with some tests. A significant claim can cause the application to be reexamined, and sometimes, material differences can be discovered, leading to the policy being canceled. This process, called rescission, is a protection against fraud, but honest mistakes can lead to rescission as well. However, it is important for insurance, which is priced based on expectation of claims given underwriting guidelines, to meet these guidelines.

As a crazy idea, I suggest a private individual, one dissatisfied with the existence of rescission, found an insurance company to honor these original contracts. I nominate Warren Buffett, whose conglomerate has insurance experience.

April Fools in September?

2009-09-22T00:17:00.002-04:00

Universal has set July 1, 2011, for the release of "Battleship," confirming Peter Berg as helmer of the live-action pic based on Hasbro's naval combat board game.

Deal is part of a two-picture pic pact Berg has made with U, where he'll follow "Battleship" with an Afghan war drama "Lone Survivor."

Universal's date declaration positions "Battleship" to become the second film release from the studio's multiyear deal with Hasbro to turn its classic games into features. The studio previously set an April 11, 2011, release date for "Stretch Armstrong," with Steve Oedekerk about to deliver a script.

You'd think Hollywood studios would realize they could make a movie about a fleet of ships, in whatever time and war they like, without paying Hasbro a dime. They could even throw in the "C-6, you sunk my battleship!" as an in-joke. It's not like GI Joe, which has actual established characters and continuity, making all those kids who watched the cartoons in the 1980's more likely to watch a GI Joe movie than Randomly Named Squad of Tech-Laden Heroes Fights Randomly Named Squad of Supervillains.

And in the meantime, dozens of Hasbro properties that could be developed into interesting movies will go undeveloped. I understand that more people have played Battleship than have played Dungeons and Dragons or Magic: the Gathering, but those latter properties have actual worlds, with histories, conflicts, personalities....

That's not to say I trust Hollywood to create a watchable movie off even the best property, as evidenced by the first movie to bear the Dungeons and Dragons name.

So true...

2009-09-12T08:36:00.002-04:00

Yes, we all make such an impact with our blogging!

(From the Web comic Precocious, by Christopher Paulson.)

Good riddance, Van Jones

2009-09-09T23:38:00.005-04:00

Communist and 9/11 Truther Van Jones "resigned" from the useless but potentially dangerous "green jobs czar" position. I saw this news flashed on CNN while in the airport in Atlanta. The tagline at the bottom of the screen mentioned a "vicious smear campaign of lies and distortion."

It's telling to see what the Left considers a "vicious smear campaign of lies and distortion": reporting the person's actual words and actions, wholly in context. Van Jones was a leader in a Marxist organization. He was a Truther. He is immortalized on CD as anti-Israel. All of these are true. If you want an example of a vicious smear campaign, and one that's timely given recent news, look at Ted Kennedy's speech on Robert Bork's America.

Now, just because you supported some bad causes in the past, it shouldn't ruin you. You can just admit you were wrong. For example, when it was revealed that Barack Obama was recorded saying he supported a single payer health care system, he could have responded, "When I made that statement, I hadn't studied the issue much, mostly relying on the opinions of one side. In my time in the Senate and running for the presidency, I studied the issue further, and have concluded that the single payer system will not work for America." Now, I wouldn't have believed him, but if you don't describe how and why your opinions have changed, it is very sensible to assume they haven't changed.

At the link, Robert Stacy McCain discusses the media impact, and has a number of interesting links.

Rethinking redistricting

2009-09-09T23:21:00.002-04:00

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita is promoting sensible redistricting for 2010, focusing on more compact districts that keep communities intact and does not reflect political data. In addition, he suggests state House districts should not be split across multiple state Senate districts. I support this plan. Follow the link and look at how state and Congressional districts might have looked had this plan been in force then.

Free friendly false flag favors

2009-08-26T22:46:00.004-04:00

So vandalism that was directed against DNC headquarters in Denver was done by... a Democrat. Or rather, by someone who has worked in a political fashion (canvasser) for a Democratic political candidate. That's strong evidence he's a Democrat, but who knows? With that economy that was preparing for mono-party control of Washington, he could have been desperate.

Predictably, some people were quick to blame Republicans. Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak said it was a consequence of "an effort on the other side to stir up hate." She had to quickly backpedal when, oops, one of the perpetrators was caught and publicly named.

If this crime was the result of a conspiracy of more than the two perpetrators, let me offer some free and friendly advice. If you're going to launch a false flag campaign, choose people with nondescript names like Jason Miller, not unique names like Maurice Schwenkler. Or, at the very least, do a thorough Google search to make sure there's no identifying information on the Web.

But it's more likely it's just a couple of deluded people who thought it was a good idea at the time. So I'll offer some honest advice that all would be wise to follow, whenever a politicized crime like this happens:

When any unwitnessed crime happens, don't make assumptions as to motive. Don't listen to people who are far away from the issue and have no special knowledge. If anyone suggests the crime is clearly the work of his adversaries, treat the speaker exactly as if he said fairies and unicorns were responsible; there is as much basis in fact for this assertion as there is for the one he made. Also, take a closer look at his own organization: there could be a big story for you to uncover!

Say it ain't so!

2009-07-28T21:49:00.002-04:00

The Onion, crown jewel of American news reporting, has been sold to the Chinese!

The report from ancient publisher emeritus T. Herman Zweibel is amusing, as always.

My tonsillectomy

2009-07-24T23:41:00.002-04:00

Yes, my greedy pediatrician gave me a tonsillectomy just to line his pockets.

No, wait, I think it was medically desirable. I'd say medically necessary, although I don't know if treatment that simply makes one healthy for several additional weeks each year fits that definition.

First, the link, where Wesley M. at In My Copious Free Time attacks the idiocy of Barack Obama opining on this medical procedure, despite knowing nothing special about medicine.

I grew up in a medical family. I've worked in the business side of a medical practice. And I've edited medical journals and textbooks for closing in on 20 years now. I've literally lost track of how many specialists, general practitioners, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, and even medical billing clerks I've had conversations and dealings with over my life. And not once have I ever heard of a doctor ordering a unnecessary surgical procedure on a child simply because he thought he could "make a lot more money" that way.

Not once.

That's just my own experience, of course. So if you have an actual example, Mr. President, please share it with us. Because I'd like to have that doctor reported to his or her state medical licensing board.

I do, unfortunately, know of some possibly unnecessary tonsillectomies that have been performed, but not because of the chance to "make a lot more money," as President Obama suggests. These were performed as protection against potential malpractice lawsuits, in case at some point down the line the decision not to perform the procedure turned out to be the wrong one. These were performed for the same reason a lot of potentially unnecessary tests and procedures are -- as defensive medicine. But to acknowledge that fact of our current health care system would mean dealing with medical malpractice premiums, lawsuits, and jury awards. And how many Democrats currently involved with health care reform are highlighting medical malpractice reform as a priority in this debate?

And now, my sad tale:

When I was young, I suffered from strep throat multiple times each winter. It was almost like once the cycle of antibiotics wore off, the disease would strike again. I had my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was six, and I don't think I've had strep throat since then. I was out of school for a while, and missed PE and recess for a while after that. It was painful for a few days, and I needed some speech therapy because of the removed adenoids. The only positive was getting to watch Kenny Rogers in The Gambler (if that gives you an idea of my age). The free ice cream bit didn't really make an impact on me.

I'm worried that under ObamaCare, doctors would receive "suggestions" from politicians, who lack medical degrees, that tonsillectomies were "never necessary," and they would feel pressured to let kids like me get sick again and again rather than perform an appropriate medical procedure.

(Via Instapundit)

It's time for government-provided....

2009-07-16T22:05:00.002-04:00

Ed Morrissey is demanding a government-controlled single market for a professional service that too many people have inadequate access to, due to their inability to pay. And unlike that other hot topic for debate, this service is a Constitutionally-guaranteed right.

It's time for a single-payer legal system. You'd be amazed how well the arguments line up with the ones used in the health care debate.

One solution to make health care affordable

2009-07-15T23:13:00.004-04:00

I've been meaning to post this link for a while. In this YouTube video, actuary Ron Bachman testifies to Congress about the problems involved in creating affordable health insurance policies. It is devastating to hear all of the federal and state laws and regulations that, even inadvertently, restrict affordable individual insurance, and restrict small employers (who don't have the benefit of group insurance) to contribute to their employees' individual insurance and encourage wellness.

Most notably, Georgia passed laws to eliminate many of these restrictions. It sounds like a plan every state should get behind.

Canadian Health Care

2009-07-14T22:38:00.004-04:00

Steven Crowder documents his friend as he tries, in vain, to get some free health care in Canada.

An enjoyable ambush-documentary, even if I don't like the jerky editing style.

Timely news on a passing....

2009-07-09T22:08:00.002-04:00

The death of Michael Jackson led to the artist having the top three selling albums. He doesn't top the Billboard Top 200, since catalog albums are ineligible for that chart, but this was the first time in history a catalog title was the top-selling record in the country. One of those three albums was Thriller. That surprises me; doesn't everyone already own that album? (I bought last year's 25th Anniversary edition, last year.)

Meanwhile, Iowahawk memorializes the passing of a similar superstar:

Millions of fans from around the globe gathered along Sunset Boulevard to pay final respects to California today, as a slow moving funeral procession transported the eccentric superstar state's remains to its final resting place in a Winchell's Donuts dumpster in Van Nuys. The self-proclaimed 'King of Pop Culture' died last week at 160, in what coroners ruled an accidental case of financial autoerotic asphyxiation. The death sent shock waves across the world and sparked an outpouring of grief by rabid fans.

As always, it's Iowahawk, so read the whole thing!

Keeping perspective

2009-07-04T00:26:00.002-04:00

Printed in its entirety is one of the entries from a past weekly politics summary from The Economist.

Britain complained to the United States that it was not consulted about a deal under which four men held at Guantánamo Bay were sent as refugees to Bermuda, a British territory. Hundreds of locals demonstrated against the decision to admit the men, all Uighurs from western China. The Uighurs went fishing.

Health care issues discussed

2009-06-30T21:57:00.004-04:00

For those with a true interest in learning the details of health insurance, and the various tradeoffs that come with goals like universal coverage and restricting underwriting, take a look at the issue papers released by the nonpartisan experts at the American Academy of Actuaries. The fact that there are tradeoffs is something that should be mentioned from Day 1 of any debate on the health care issue.

The first step to fix health care

2009-06-05T23:46:00.003-04:00

Virginia Postrel makes a sensible suggestion, similar to something I've long thought.

"Nearly 30 percent of Medicare’s costs could be saved without adverse health consequences."

The report also suggests that we know what the problems are, listing the usual suspects:

We spend a substantial amount on high cost, low-value treatments.
Patients obtain too little of certain types of care that are effective and of high value.

Patients frequently do not receive care in the most cost-effective setting.

There is extensive variation in the quality of care provided to patients.

There are many preventable medical errors that lead to worse outcomes and higher costs.

Our system is complex and we have high administrative costs.

Think about this for a moment. Medicare is a huge, single-payer, government-run program. It ought to provide the perfect environment for experimentation. If more-efficient government management can slash health-care costs by addressing all these problems, why not start with Medicare? Let's see what "better management" looks like applied to Medicare before we roll it out to the rest of the country.

This is not a completely cynical suggestion. Medicare is, for instance, a logical place to start to design better electronic records systems and the incentives to use them. But you do have to wonder why a report that claims that Medicare is wasting 30 percent of its spending thinks it's making a case for making the rest of the health care system more like Medicare.

Many massive government programs are sold in this manner. For example, in the Medicare prescription drug coverage debate, you might remember a suggestion that giving someone a drug now would prevent an expensive surgery later. That is certainly true in some cases, but if you give 50 million people $1000 in drugs and prevent 1000 surgeries costing $100,000, is that really sensible?

So, before we turn over health care to the same group that ruins health care for our veterans, let's implement the many suggestions for making health care more efficient and which will decrease medical errors. Let's compare the savings we observe over, say, three years, to government predictions of savings. If they're off by more than 20%, this current administration should shelve its goals, because they will have been demonstrated to have failed.

(I recognize that these savings may be hard to measure. But even so, these successes should be obvious enough to sell the Democrats' vision. However, that will only apply if the successes are real.)

As an addition to this debate, please read this article by Postrel, and how she's glad to have lived in the American health care system, over a particular state-controlled system.

The Chicago way

2009-05-28T00:09:00.002-04:00

Many people around the blogosphere (I'm using Gateway Pundit here) are reporting that a suspicious number of the closed Chrysler dealers are Republican supporters, or supporters of Obama's opponents. That dealerships should close is expected, but these closures don't appear to be tied to market saturation or lack of profitability.

How will die-hard Obama supporters spin this one?

Glee

2009-05-27T23:42:00.003-04:00

Watched the debut of this new Fox series. It looks promising. The debut following the final episode of American Idol makes sense, given the show's topic, and the decision to release versions of the songs performed by the cast on the series will hopefully be profitable for the network, iTunes, and the songwriters alike.

The biggest surprise was hearing a fairly obscure song, and a song I like (Annie's Chewing Gum) used in one of the scenes.

Edit: Billboard Magazine, in its May 30 issue, has an interview with one of the show's creators. It mentions that first episode included an incredible 20 songs. That's a lot of rights to secure!

Still want to blame the mortgage industry?

2009-05-27T23:37:00.002-04:00

Since I first posted about Edmund Andrews' book, more information has come out about the author, namely that his second wife filed for bankruptcy, then a second time, almost as soon as she legally could.

Andrews has been admirably open about many of the poor decisions and the wishful thinking that led him deep into debt. Nonetheless, he has laid much of the blame onto irresponsible bankers and mortgage brokers. The missing bankruptcies substantially undermine this basic narrative arc of Andrews' story. Particularly in his book, the bankers are the villains, America's current troubles are the inevitable denouement of their maniacal greed, and the Andrews household stands in for an American public led, by their own greed and longing and hopeful trust, into the money pit.

It's hard to argue that Ms. Barreiro was forced into bankruptcy by crazed subprime mortgage lenders in 1998. Greedy bankers certainly didn't keep her and her first husband from paying their taxes.

Megan McArdle is keeping up with the story, and has Andrews' response, and a response of her own, in a later post.

One person's financial crisis

2009-05-19T00:50:00.003-04:00

Megan McArdle points to this New York Times article about a economics reporter who got in economically over his head. An expensive house with a liar loan, spending on overpriced luxuries, overdraft protection, paying one credit card with another... it's all there.

Megan comments that writers and journalists are particularly impacted by a need to live a high status life with an income that's certainly not high.

This is what David Brooks calls "status-income disequilibrium", and unless you are among that happy breed of writers who is married to someone with a high-paying job, or who has a trust fund, you feel it keenly. Everyone you write about makes more than you. Most of the people you know make more than you. And you come to feel that shopping at the farmer's market, travelling to Europe, drinking good coffee, are minimum necessities. Your house is small, your furniture is shabby, and you can't even really afford to shop at Whole Foods. Yet you're at the top of your field, working for one of the world's top media outlets. This can't be so.

This post is most worth reading for the comments. Megan's commenters are absolutely brutal, mostly criticizing this $120,000 a year professional for his horrible decisions (divorce, not talking finances with his new wife, buying a house they couldn't afford, etc.). I agree with them, since I'm in the opposite situation.

Consider I'm not married, living in a home less than 2x salary, with no credit card debt, money in retirement accounts, a cushion in the bank, etc. My main TV dates back to college, and is nearly 15 years old. I keep computers for about 6 years. I have a lightweight jacket that I had in high school. These are all things that function just fine, and don't need to be replaced. But even when I do spend money, I do it sensibly.

For my avocation of playing role-playing games, there are weekend-long conventions across the country, where players can gather to play these games. (GenCon is the biggest and best-known.) I could attend one pretty much every weekend, with a smaller number being more desirable, as they run brand new events. But the reality of cost intrudes on the fantasy of role-playing games.

Conventions have entry fees and ticket costs that vary, but might run from $20 for an event at a college, $40 for a larger event, and $70-$100 for the largest. But travel costs, particularly hotel costs, could significantly add to that.

In college, I was normally restricted to local events, day trips only. Only when I could find a group of people willing to share a hotel room, four to a room, could I afford to go to an out-of-town event for the weekend.

Just out of school, I could afford to travel to more events, even flying to some when reasonable airfare was available. But I attended those events where lodging costs were low. That could be staying with friends or family, getting a group for the hotel, or taking advantage of free rooms for volunteering for a majority of the convention. (Someone has to run so 4-6 people can play.)

As my income increased, I could better afford to travel, even being able to eat the cost of a solo hotel room. But I didn't spend like this when I was earning a fraction of my current salary. I was raised far better than that.

Frost?

2009-05-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

It's a week from Memorial Day, and weather.com lists a frost advisory for my city? What's up with that?

Unintended consequences

2009-05-17T21:09:00.000-04:00

The only population of great cormorants in the United States, up in Maine, may be wiped out. Guess who's responsible? If you said man, you're only indirectly right.

Bald eagles, bouncing back after years of decline, are swaggering forth with an appetite for great cormorant chicks that threatens to wipe out that bird population in the United States.

The eagles, perhaps finding less fish to eat, are flying to Maine's remote rocky islands where they've been raiding the only known nesting colonies of great cormorants in the U.S. Snatching waddling chicks from the ground and driving adults from their nests, the eagles are causing the numbers of the glossy black birds to decline from more than 250 pairs to 80 pairs since 1992.

The bald eagles, after being saved by man, have impacted other ecosystems. They don't have a restricted diet:

With more eagles around and fewer fish in the waters than in the past, young eagles are turning to other birds to satisfy their hunger. Eagles are opportunistic feeders and will go after the easiest prey they can find, bird experts say.

It reminds me of that list of joke headlines from the future: Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Some people believe humans are no better than other animals. To them, I ask, how many species care about the fate of these great cormorants?

Gokey Goes

2009-05-14T23:35:00.002-04:00

Danny Gokey, recent endorsee of Vote for the Worst, did not survive to become a finalist on American Idol. I haven't been paying much attention to the series, only knowing that one of the finalists is a grad student at the University of North Carolina. Gokey is from Milwaukee, where I was this past weekend, and so I got to see some of the news media reports. While the press has been brutal, Gokey has one redeeming quality: he's a fan of Kopp's frozen custard.

Bush's Third Term

2009-05-10T09:57:00.002-04:00

Hyperpartisan Democrats who were so eager to paint Sen. McCain as a third Bush term should now be protesting President Obama, who is embracing those military- and terrorism-related positions they once vehemently protested. Dissenting Justice has the roundup.

(Via Instapundit)

A victory for the good guys

2009-05-01T23:18:00.002-04:00

The Senate has rejected (the cloture vote failed) a desired Obama policy, that would change decades of tradition on how mortgages are treated in bankruptcy court.

Small banks and credit unions had opposed letting judges reduce a mortgage to reflect a home's market value -- known as a "cramdown" -- despite weeks of wooing by Democrats. Some opponents said they wanted to signal to Mr. Obama their dwindling tolerance for what they described as continued government intervention in private business, particularly businesses that didn't precipitate the nation's mortgage crisis. The measure failed a vote that would have moved it forward by 45-51.

Any time risk is added to a financial process, the cost is increased to reflect this risk. Had cramdown passed, the good people who pay their mortgages on time would end up paying more for their mortgages, and possibly faced tougher restrictions on getting mortgages in the first place. I could see required downpayments increasing, and banks loathe to lend in the face of rising real estate prices. That would be bad for anyone desiring to move to a place with a booming job market and improve their lot in life.

Incoming jet!

2009-04-28T23:14:00.002-04:00

A lot of New Yorkers were certainly shocked by a jet flying in a forbidden zone, right around their tall buildings. It was the surprisingly tone-deaf Obama administration responsible for that!

Joey Devilla offers an interesting argument:

After reading it, I began to wonder why they didn’t do the opposite of keeping it a secret: why not make a big announcement about it and treat it as a mini-air show?

If the response to the air show we have at the Canadian National Exhibition here in Toronto is any indication, it would be a big hit. People, especially in the States, love air shows. If it were me, I’d see if I could get a team like the Blue Angels (they’re Navy – who’s the Air Force equivalent?) to fly in formation behind the big bird.

In fact, a pre-announced Air Force One air show might even garner an extra PR boost from the additional “viral marketing” that would come from people posting their Air Force One photos taken from New York’s many good vantage points on their Facebooks and on Flickr. It’s the sort of social media thing for which the Air Force has shown a considerable amount of savvy.

I agree that people, in general, like air shows, though I personally wouldn't attend one. I would watch a video posted on YouTube of this event.

And since the Obama administration has its handle on intelligence matters, announcing this event for a location in the U.S. would be perfectly safe.

Ah, those tolerant liberals

2009-04-15T22:38:00.002-04:00

A group of liberals at the University of North Carolina demonstrated their typical tolerance last night. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo was on campus to speak on illegal immigration. Now, some idiots think opposition to illegal immigration is equivalent to racism, so they came to protest. After some near-violence and vandalism, the speech ended up cancelled.

Now, since I went to UNC, I know any of the campus groups who have different opinions could have easily reserved a room, offered their own speakers, and relied on the power of their own reasonable arguments to win the debate.

Yeah, right.

I'll paraphrase what I once wrote when the campus organization demanded the removal of a Pit preacher (who is just as described, and was a widespread target of ridicule) before one of their events:
Education is a two-way street; what these protesters prefer is better termed indoctrination.

They should relish the chance to present their own reasoned opinion in opposition to the one Tancredo offers. They would, if they felt their argument stood on its own merits.

And I have to add the following hilarious point-counterpoint, from the comments of the article:

"Personally, I'm more concerned that there actually exists a *student organization* that honestly believes 'our civilization is under attack from liberal forces.'"

I think I see your point. I mean, it's not like big angry groups of liberals, self-righteous with the irrefutable correctness of their opinions, are going around silencing those they disagree with.

From the News and Observer.

Apocalypse. Now.

2009-02-26T00:34:00.003-05:00

Back in 1994, I wrote a humorous editorial for the Daily Tar Heel entitled Apocalypse Now!, listing fifteen signs that the apocalypse was upon us. (The punch line was the UNC women's soccer team losing at home to a conference opponent, which basically never happened.)

Nothing in that editorial can compare to this sign:

Taylor Hanson (Hanson), James Iha (ex-Smashing Pumpkins), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) have formed a band and are calling themselves Tinted Windows.

I do admit to liking Mmmbop, and Stacy's Mom is a fun song, but my God, the Mayans were off by a few years.

Barenaked Ladies No More?

2009-02-26T00:00:00.003-05:00

Surprising news: Steven Page is leaving Barenaked Ladies. That's like Difford or Tilbrook leaving Squeeze... can the band really be the same?

An amusing line from the article:

2008 was a rough year for the band. First Page was charged with drug possession in upstate New York last July, just weeks after the Barenaked Ladies released a children's album, 'Snacktime.'

Since marijuana was one of the drugs discovered, the album name takes on a whole new meaning.

My BNL collection consists of the single for One Week, plus Pinch Me on a compilation album. But I really like One Week, particularly the reference to Sailor Moon, which was surprisingly more successful in Canada than the U.S.

Speed Limits in the Suburbs

2009-02-19T22:19:00.003-05:00

Here, the Indianapolis Star criticizes the maintenance of the 70 mph speed limit in Interstate 69 through Fishers and Noblesville. And they use a recent major accident, a thirty-four-car pileup with two fatalities, to preface the argument.

When Indiana State Police investigated the deadly 34-car pileup near mile marker 8 during a snowstorm Feb. 3, they said that, among several contributing issues, speed was a factor. The crash began along a stretch of I-69 that has kept its 70 mph speed limit despite state guidelines that require a lower speed.

And it quickly involved more cars than almost any Central Indiana crash on record because, as usual, traffic was heavy that morning.

The problem with this article is it is highly unlikely anyone was traveling 70 during a snowstorm that suddenly turned into whiteout conditions, and even if someone were acting stupidly, most people would be driving slower, as the conditions demand it. And a surprise white-out is dangerous, no matter what your speed.

The main focus of the article is that the higher speed limit persists, despite the higher traffic. Congestion is a serious problem (by Indianapolis standards) for the first ten miles of I-69, and for the freeway cloverleafs that feed this road.

Notice the problem with the argument? If a road is congested, it really doesn't matter what the speed limit is, because you'll never reach it! The question should be, given conditions when traffic is low, is 70 mph a safe speed for the road? I would say yes. And an honest civil engineer would probably tell you that a freeway can be safely traveled at speeds few people will ever choose to travel. I'm guessing 90 mph is still a safe speed if you're the only car on the road.

Vegas, baby?

2009-02-11T00:38:00.005-05:00

Coyote Blog references the kerfuffle about a Wells Fargo conference held in Las Vegas. To the extent actual business can best be conducted face to face (true in the Coyote's experience), this conference had to be held, and he defends Las Vegas as a choice. "There are tons of cheap flights there from everywhere."

I've heard that a lot, but that hasn't been true, in my experience. Since I went to Las Vegas last year, I thought I'd compare the cost of plane tickets I bought most recently. All but one were over similar time frames, extended weekend trips, with a focus on flight times over lowest cost.

Richmond: 234.50
Denver: 287.41
Minneapolis: The highest, by far
Albuquerque: 218.50
Hartford: 309.50
Atlanta: 249.50
Orlando: 314.35 (business trip, not over a Saturday night)
Las Vegas: 335.98
Kansas City: 283.00 (normally much cheaper, but I bought too late)
Seattle: 229.00

For whatever reason (probably lack of competition), a flight to Minneapolis is always a ridiculously expensive ticket. And aside from that one trip, Las Vegas was the most expensive city for me to fly to. There is competition, with at least two airlines, including Southwest, flying nonstop to Las Vegas.

Plane down! Canada to blame!

2009-01-15T21:08:00.003-05:00

An incredible story. A USAirways flight out of LaGuardia crash-landed in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff. It looks as if all on board were able to flee, and were quickly rescued thanks to the actions of nearby ferries and water taxis.

As of right now, it appears the plane flew into a flock of geese, which ruined the plane's two jet engines.

Don't say you weren't warned. I posted about Canada's terrorist threat nearly four years ago. (Be sure to click where it says "Post continued here.")

Update: Andy Levy is demanding we look at the root causes. Why do the geese hate us?

Who's really to blame for the housing crisis

2009-01-14T00:07:00.002-05:00

And continuing the trend of the previous post, Jim Sollisch has a piece in the Wall Street Journal laying the blame for the housing crisis where it truly belongs.

HGTV.

That's right. The cable network HGTV is the real villain of the economic meltdown. As the viewership reached a critical mass over the past decade -- HGTV is now broadcast into 91 million homes -- homeowners began experiencing deep angst. Suddenly no one but the most slovenly and unambitious were satisfied with their houses. It didn't matter if you lived in an apartment or a gated community, one episode of "House Hunters" or "What's My House Worth?" and you were convinced you needed more. More square feet. More granite. More stainless steel appliances. More landscaping. More media rooms. More style. You deserved it.

If you had any doubts about your ability to afford such luxuries, all you had to do was look at the 20-something couple in the latest episode choosing between three houses. Should they go for the fixer-upper, priced at $425,000? Or the one with the pool for $550,000? What about the one with room to grow for $675,000?

I don't watch this network, but I did see several of these shows when home for Christmas, as my parents are big fans. These shows really need to get out to Indiana. In my home town, which is a nice suburb with good schools, you can get a new, 3000 square foot house with finished basement for less than $250,000. Prices in California and New York are not normal, but those huge numbers are probably part of the attraction for viewers elsewhere.

Dining on a shoestring

2009-01-14T00:01:00.002-05:00

If your shoestring is gold thread with a diamond tip. CBS News thinks a $35 "recession-busting" budget is dining on a shoestring, and so they made Beet Salad with Crushed Pistachios & Soft Goat Cheese, Lamb Ragu with Rigatoni and Fresh Ricotta, and Greek Yogurt with Blood Oranges, Honey & Mint.

Here's a realistic meal for those needing to stretch their budgets:

Head of lettuce, two cucumbers, bottle of salad dressing
Box of dry spaghetti, jar of spaghetti sauce, onion, ground beef
Carton of plain yogurt and frozen strawberries

The New York-based news crews again show how ignorant they are of real life in this country.

Music's back on MTV!

2008-11-10T23:40:00.002-05:00

Well, not really, but at mtvmusic.com, you can watch pretty much any video ever sent to MTV. Several of those videos, I'm certain, have never played on MTV in America.

I remember, some years ago, MTV had a contest where its viewers could nominate videos to be perpetually banned from the network. The "winner" had the original tape of his video returned. As I recall, the "winner" was Vanilla Ice, with Ice Ice Baby. However, I notice that video is available at mtvmusic.com. Hmmmmmmmm....

More Numa Numa news!

2008-11-10T23:37:00.002-05:00

The song won't die. The recent #1 song by T.I., Live Your Life, from the album Paper Trail, contains an interpolation of Dragostea Din Tei.

For some reason, the songwriting credits are listed as Balan DanMihai, and as a result, I didn't notice this from reading Billboard. So, it took a mention on the Actuarial Outpost for me to look up the song.

It's time for equal rights in auto insurance

2008-11-10T23:31:00.002-05:00

The New York Times is calling for an end to discrimination in auto insurance. People should not pay more for insurance just because of their chromosomes. Check out the article.
.
.
.
.
Of course, that's not the subject. Why would anyone ever be concerned about men being screwed? It seems individual health insurance rates have drawn enough attention to be worthy of an article in the New York Times.

Particularly odious is this quote from a lawyer:

Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, an advocacy group that has examined hundreds of individual policies, said: “The wide variation in premiums could not possibly be justified by actuarial principles. We should not tolerate women having to pay more for health insurance, just as we do not tolerate the practice of using race as a factor in setting rates.”

Stick to law, and let the actuaries decide what is justified by actuarial principles. Just as older people utilize health care services more, so do women. And so it's entirely justified they be charged more because they do.

Right now, existing regulations are wholly skewed in favor of women. Currently, men pay more for auto insurance, as experience justifies the higher claims of men. Men pay more for life insurance, as their mortality rate is higher at every age, including in the womb. Yet pensions, both private and Social Security, pay out equal benefits to men and women. Since women live longer, a given investment in a pension plan should result in a lower monthly benefit than men, since it has to last much longer. Yet that's not the case, by law. In addition, long term care insurance, designed to cover the expenses of institutional or home care due to infirmity, is also sold under unisex rates, even though women live longer and use this benefit more often.

Plus, as the article mentioned, group health insurance is unisex as well. Though I'm on my company's group insurance, I'm the poster child for men rarely using health care. What purpose is served by getting a gamut of tests when I feel healthy?

The state of Montana is mentioned in the article, and we should pay attention to what happened there. In some past furor over equal rights, the state required all insurance to be sold with unisex rates. The result? The typical life insurance product uses the higher premiums for both sexes, the male rates for the benefit, and female rates for disability or waiver of premium benefits (childbirth is the reason for higher female disability rates among young people).

Guess the party

2008-10-23T23:49:00.002-04:00

I've had to mute or fast forward through every stupid Obama ad. But more worthy of comment is an ad I saw for a candidate for attorney general. The ad discussed a school coach involved in sexual abuse, and how, since he wasn't a school employee, he couldn't receive the harsher penalty reserved for school employees who abuse student trust. And this candidate was going to fight to change that, or had fought to change that.

The one thing the ad didn't mention was that candidate's political party.

Of course, that was an ad from the Democratic candidate.

An example of bias in journalism

2008-10-23T22:37:00.002-04:00

Here's an example of a common form of bias in today's paper:

Gas prices fell as low as $3.04 a gallon at some stations in Indianapolis on Tuesday, which sounds like good news but may actually be a sign of a worsening economy.

Some analysts say the price drop could mean the nation is falling deeper into economic turmoil, with demand for oil decreasing worldwide as consumers and businesses cut back consumption.

Did you see the following article several months ago?

Gas prices rose as high as $4.15 a gallon at some stations in Indianapolis on Tuesday, which sounds like bad news but may actually be a sign of a strengthening economy.

If you remember, gas prices were below $1 a gallon while southeast Asia was in a financial crisis, thus reducing demand, but that had little bearing on the U.S. economy. Certainly, these journalists were alive for that, and probably working then. They also saw rising gas prices in the strengthening 2003-2007 economy, and rising gas prices and a faltering economy as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Right now, gas prices are falling for multiple reasons, including a worsening world economy, reduced gas usage in America as a result of past high prices, and less speculation that oil prices will be higher in the future. But after we've endured years of articles where gas prices, all by themselves, were hurting families, then these same families benefit from drastically falling gas prices.

Let's go out to eat. Now pay up!

2008-10-23T22:09:00.002-04:00

There's some truly hideous behavior out there, as this article on inviting friends to eat out demonstrates.

Think twice before accepting an invitation to a party. That's the lesson Tonya Bowman, 39, learned recently after a birthday bash for a newfound acquaintance at a pricey sushi restaurant.

While Bowman ordered economically -- rice, miso soup and tea -- everyone else acted as if money were no object.

"When the bill came," Bowman says, the birthday girl "smiled and made a big production by way of a toast, saying, 'Thank you all so much for my lovely birthday dinner. I really do appreciate it. You guys are great. Here's to you!' Then she just sat there, waiting for us to decide how to split the bill."

The bill for the birthday girl and her seven "guests" came to a whopping $3,450, which someone suggested splitting evenly. That worked out to $500 per person, plus tip.

Ah, the group meal. I have no problem with taking someone out to celebrate a birthday or other event (most often for me, that's a coworker's going-away party). But anyone who takes a group out to a RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED restaurant, especially if they aren't all Democrat-stupid-rich, is a total putz.

The article mentions that traditionally, if you invite someone to eat, you pay for the party. However, I'm used to going out in groups, where everyone pays. And never do we go out to these overpriced restaurants. (Just one benefit of not living in New York City.)

Musicians complain too much

2008-10-13T21:11:00.000-04:00

Here's one of many similar stories to appear every four years. Musician records song. Song becomes popular. All types of people like song. Politician uses song in public assembly. Musician b!tches and moans. Musician accepts royalties from ASCAP or BMI anyway.

Look, there are rules for how to use music at public performances, including campaign rallies. You pay a flat fee to the publishing organizations, ASCAP or BMI, and that money gets aggregated across millions of public performances, and goes to the artists. It's a simple system.

If musicians could decide on how their music could be used in public perfomances, all hell would break loose. A Mormon artist could demand a restaurant serving caffeinated beverages or alcohol not play his song, because he doesn't want to be considered to be supporting something in opposition to his beliefs. An artist who believes exotic dancing demeans women could demand his music not be played at the local gentleman's club. A Green Bay Packers fan could demand his music not be played at Soldier Field.

I suppose you could advocate a law requiring politicians to secure permission from the song's copyright holders, unlike all other public performances, but that would almost certainly be unconstitutional.

Terrorist convicted

2008-09-22T22:15:00.004-04:00

Terrorist Mohammed Taheri-Azar has been convicted of nine counts of attempted first-degree murder in the March 2006 incident where he drove his vehicle into the Pit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will be sentenced to between 26 and 33 years in prison. As a reminder to the world, he said at one point that he acted to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.

The new cookbook

2008-09-22T21:26:00.002-04:00

Found stashed on my computer, from around the time of the release of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, is this Wired article, discussing how gamers would react to a new edition of a cookbook.

Among my favorite comments is this one, from one of those people who demands total realism in their game:

I just have to laugh at the recipe for Beef Wellington. In Wellington's day, ovens didn't have temperature settings! And pate de foie gras certainly didn't come in cans. It's like the authors didn't even care about replicating authentic early 19th century cooking techniques!

New Magic: the Gathering expansion

2008-09-04T23:07:00.004-04:00

MightyGodKing has the 2008 election described with Magic: the Gathering cards. They're funny, though of course they'd be funnier written from a conservative viewpoint. He's also taking reader submissions, to be posted Monday. So I've submitted some cards of my own.

(via alternatehistory.com, of all places)

Update: Part 2 is here, using some of my submissions.

Another explanation for childhood obesity

2008-08-18T20:32:00.004-04:00

In an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, Philip Howard identifies another source of childhood obesity. It's not that kids today are any different than kids thirty years ago in being able to watch television versus playing outside. It's that it's much more interesting than what they're now allowed to do outside.

One in six children in America is obese, and many of them will face a lifetime of chronic illness. According to the Center for Disease Control, this problem would basically cure itself if children engaged in the informal outdoor activities that used to be normal. But how do we lure children off the sofa? One key attraction is risk.

Risk is fun, at least the moderate risks that were common in prior generations. An informal survey of children by the University of Toronto's Institute of Child Studies found that "merry-go-rounds . . . anecdotally the most hated piece of playground equipment in hospital emergency rooms -- topped the list of most desired bits of playground equipment." Those of us of a certain age can remember sprinting to get the contraption really moving. That was fun. And a lot of exercise.

America unfortunately is going in the opposite direction. There is nothing left in playgrounds that would attract the interest of a child over the age of four.

Mostly pointless anecdote: When I went to a new elementary school in 1981, my fellow students mentioned that the merry-go-round had been removed during reconstruction of the school's playground. Never having heard the term applied to the spinning wheel of doom, I naturally pictured an ornate carousel, like the one seen in Six Flags Great America.

I do remember merry-go-rounds (or should that be merries-go-round? :) ) at some playgrounds growing up, and yes, they did require a lot of running around. They did, that is, unless you could find a willing adult to spin you, always better, because it was faster. I also remember being able to roam my neighborhood freely from a young age, not even saying where I was going. And around twelve, being free to ride bikes several miles to the local pizza place or movie theater. That's a lot of activity. And I want to raise any children with this same philosophy.

The sue-happy American culture of today would deem any injury that happens to a child while out of his parents' direct view as evidence of neglect. They view any injury on the playground as evidence of unsafe environments. In better days past, the first was a terrible tragedy, and the second was just the worst of childhood bumps and sprains. I support the mission of Howard's organization, Common Good, and its legal reforms efforts.

The Onion on Wall-E

2008-07-28T23:49:00.001-04:00

The Onion has an article discussing the various controversies surrounding Wall-E, with its portrayal of a polluting megacorporation and fat infantilized humans. But while the Onion is normally excellent, author Sean O’Neal drops the ball when commenting on the criticism of Disney’s exploitation of the merchandising rights.

But, uh, I thought all of that stuff about factories destroying the environment and the evils of non-biodegradable plastic was just a horror story concocted by liberal Nazis out to scare us into acquiescence? Does the hypocrisy of the film’s promotional campaign somehow mean that we’re not facing an eventual solid waste crisis? Is this the same logic that dictates that, because Al Gore travels by jet, he’s wrong about global warming?

He’s obviously never listened to anyone debate hypocrisy. The same people who believe in open relationships, easy divorce, and loose sxeual mores freely criticize conservative politicians who divorce and remarry trophy wives, or who have affairs or visit call girls.

So let me summarize the argument for global warming. I don’t believe the world is seriously threatened by human CO2 output that contributes to global warming. I don’t believe we’re on a precipice, and that we must take immediate action else the planet is doomed. And apparently, neither does Al Gore, since if he really believed that, he would both reduce his carbon usage (by staying in a house small enough for his family and Secret Service protectors, use one extra room for an office, use existing hotels and conference centers for larger meetings and parties, fly commercial instead of Gulfstream) and contribute to carbon-negative causes.

So I don’t believe Wal-Mart is the doom of mankind, but if Disney does, they are hypocrites by bringing in tons of cheap garbage to promote its intellectual property.

Stick to humor, not political analysis, Onion.

Bonus: From the comments:

I wasn't surprised to see some people over at National Review have concerns with the film but I think WALL-E is kind of a blank slate that you can take lots of different messages from. Buy N Large is obviously a monopoly and free market conservatives would see the movie as showing that bad things happen when there's no competition. Also the Buy N Large President and the Ship Computer could be interpreted as cultural elites that dictate how the rest of humanity should live, a notion that you'll see talked about a lot in conservative circles. The humans in WALL-E have lost their ability for individual thought which is a classically liberal idea that is valued by both sides of the political spectrum. Also, WALL-E never really gets into prescribing solutions so you really can't say that the movie is advocating some sort of vast government program to control consumption. The end credits imply a blissfully happy green planet but there's not enough detail in there for either side of the political spectrum to claim WALL-E for its own purposes.