Cardozaisms

So Goes Nevada...

2008-11-05T00:39:00.000-08:00

Within the memory of at least a couple of generations, as Nevada goes in the federal elections, so goes the nation. The GOP would be wise, indeed, to keep this as creed.

The way I see it is thusly: Nevada, unlike many, MANY states in our great nation, is not alltogether unlike the human body. We are currently the fastest growing state in the nation, with a large transient population figuring in the overall electoral process; prior to containing a population over six digits Nevada was largely driven by the mining industry with a *gasp* transient population figuring into the electoral process. What Nevada has, and many states do not have in such numbers, is the transient vote. As years progress the transient vote dilutes and concentrates (as do so many of the waters in the Great Basin) , yet it does remain. This translates into something of a "bloodflow" of national sentiment running through our state. This "bloodflow" is essentially the same as what runs through the nation as a whole, and since that transient part of our population comes from the nation as a whole the national sentiment tends to be reflected.

Require proof? The last time Nevada sent electors for a candidate who didn' t win the Presidency was 1908 when the Nevada majority voted William Jennings Bryan over William Howard Taft. That was one hundred years ago!!!

In perspective: that was the same year that the Cubs won the World Series for the LAST TIME; Arizona and New Mexico were both, as of yet, territories. (As an addendum, Nevada was the ONLY West Coast state to send electors for J.F.K. in 1960.)

In an entire century, including some monumental upsets, Nevada has voted with the winner each and every time since 1908, as well as in 1864, 1868, 1872, 1876, and 1888.

In other words: since statehood in 1864, Nevada has voted in opposition to the victor in 1880, 1884, 1892, 1896, 1900, and 1904***.

So, in one hundred and forty four years and 37 Presidential elections, Nevada has NOT voted for the winner six times.

31-6. I'd say that's a pretty fair handicap.

I won't even keep that a secret for the GOP; this is history at its finest. Watch Nevada! Here is history, precident, and future all wraped into one neat little package!!!

WATCH NEVADA!!!

***In fact, in 1892 Nevada voted with the "populist" candidate (Weaver) with Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and parts of North Dakota and Oregon!

Jill Derby...in the Interest of the Fairness Doctrine

2008-11-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

I'll keep this one short.

I don't like her. Not one iota. In fact, my dislike for her quite possibly transcends my dislike for Obama. She's another greasy change band-waggoner and, frankly, I find her "aw shucks" presentation of herself to be patronizing.

Despite the aggressive campaigning from both sides, Dean Heller has been a fine representative for the Second Nevada Congressional District. Indeed, I would be fairly upset to lose his representation.

T'other day I noticed that the DNC felt compelled to advertise for Ms. Derby, I reckon with a feeling that this district was, possibly, winnable for the first time in its nearly thirty year history. The DNC ad does two things which really get under my craw more than just about anything else: one, it quotes only the Las Vegas Sun, and two, it refers to those quotes as being from a "local paper." Um, different city, 450 miles away, completely different district(s). Talk about patronizing, the best that can be argued is the opinion of an editorial staff in the "second" paper of a city eight hours away from 'almost' everybody which exists in a separate, distant congressional district? She is culpable for this nonsense, at least by proxy, and if this is the best that she is able to muster ('I'm not a Republican and it's time for a change and those people waaaaay down there agree') then she obviously does not take Northern Nevada seriously enough to warrant her election.

So let me say this now: if you, Jill Derby, win our representation, I will make it my mission to blog you out! It will become a personal vendetta, and I will relish each and every savory, dillish second.

In the interest of the possible reinstatement of the "Fairness Doctrine," I offer a Democratic response to the above post:

"I disagree."

Fair enough.

How Bad Can it Be?

2008-11-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

In all reality I do not anticipate any drastic horrors from an Obama administration.

First off, he's not a child. He's young, granted, but not so young that he doesn't recognize his limitations. He's also shrewed, and so he'll make sure to surround himself with the best people he can muster; he can't afford to look bad. His inner circle, you can bet, will be very strong and immanently qualified.

Second, chances are he's going to run in 2012 and he's made an awful lot of moderate promises. He has the "gift," the "Jedi mind trick" as Mary Catherine Ham calls it (mmm...ham...): whenever evidence is presented regarding prior statements, prior acquaintances, prior voting records, he merely states that it is "untrue" and, largely, people believe it. If someone produced evidence that he's from a Martian colony about one hundred miles from the Olympus Mons base camp and green, slimy tentacles spurted from beneath his off-white shirt, he'd simply retort: "No, there's no truth to that whatsoever...by the way, McCain has voted with Bush over 90 percent of the time! Now does anyone know where I can find some tungsten?" Through that, he has seemed to cast his more extreme views aside and convinced a majority of the public as to his, well, sanity. With that, coming across as of sound, reasonable mind, feeling people's pain and understanding their plight (i.e. trying to appease at least 50% of the population) he cannot afford to take a strong ultra-left stance on just about anything. Something may get by, and he may even use his "Jedi mind trick" to get away with one or two, but he really can't to much more than that if he wants to have a prayer in 2012. And the one or two that he could get away with cannot be shoot-the-moon, big-ticket items, either. Sneak in strict government oversight of health insurance? sure; re-enact the Revenue Act of 1932? asinine, but possible; repeal the second amendment and force the general populace into communal apartments? not likely.

On top of that, the rest of his party want their chances, too, in 2012 as well as the midterm elections in 2010. If he were to go too crazy I'm pretty sure that enough Democrats would reach across the aisle and, at a minimum, support a censure resolution to temper him just enough to get through a couple more election cycles. Same, really, applies for 2014 if he were re-elected. That leaves two years where he could go crazy, which is scarcely enough time for anything serious to happen. And pretty sure the Party is going to want their cake in 2016, too, so I'm not too worried.

That's not to say that some really drastic changes may not be in the works. It is very plausible that he could try to levy some Hoover-style tax increases, and if he's studied even a tiny bit of Great Depression history, he knows that is a catastrophic mistake. Even so, his wealth distribution is likely a bit more remarkable than Hoover's Revenue Act. In 1932 the tax rate was raised across the table on an ascending scale. Obama's basically puts the burden only on a fraction of the population...unfortunately, it's the portion that largely drives the economy. But, and I'm no real economist here (I can add, and I can figure out a lot of variables if I have at least a modicum of information), I sense his plan turning out more FDR-style than anything: whatever legislation he and a democratic congress pass won't solve the problem, but it won't make it a whole lot worse, either. So there will likely be some shake-up, but in the end nothing much worse than where we are now; things seem to be stabilizing, though there may be fluctuations (either or both directions) for awhile, but nothing too drastic, at least not in the greater scheme of things. Plus his wealth distribution "benefits" the vast majority of Americans, at least on the surface: the electorate, at large, will be pacified.

Then again, I could be horribly, horribly wrong; it has happened before.

Still, I'm not too worried. We, as a nation, have elected socialists in the past and we're still here today to reflect upon it.

Which is another glorious factor to consider. Think, for a moment, about all the propaganda out there, all the signs that exist what tell us that this man may, possibly, try to rule this nation in a Lenin-fashioned elitist style. Some friends went to a local Obama rally and returned with Che-style t-shirts (quite frightening, actually) in olive drab with Obama appearing as Che...well, you get the idea; I can't, for the life of me, find a copy on a Google image search! Anyway, from those shirts to the Soviet-style signs...well, nothing exists in a vacuum, and someone, somewhere (Obama, a campaigner, someone) felt inclined to include those as campaign materiel. It is quite possible that there is a distinct and vapid (at least for me) shock about to take place, and there is evidence to support that theory. If so, in the face of such evidence, then the United States is about to grasp that pendulum and swing wildly, and all within the guise of the established system. In the time that we've been a nation some countries have moved from Monarchy to occupied territory to autonomous, democratic nation, to fascism, to socialism, often with horrible hinge factors at each turn. In this country it has happened before, and it could be happening again; but only twice has blood been seriously spilt; once over an eight year span in order to gain our independence, and again 78 years later in what would become a "doozey" of a brawl. We have not been a country where every generation has been touched by open revolt! And, if some pundit's predictions come to pass in the next 24 hours, we won't here, either.

So take me for what I am...a young(ish) guy, possibly trying to calm himself down with stories of..."hope."

Before the Regime Change

2008-11-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

Know, ye, who have battled hard in these uncertain times that your fight has not been in vein. Be that as it may, you fight is also far from finished. We know not what will come through this change of regime, what perils may be forthcoming, and we may have to settle into our trenches and prepare for a long battle of attrition.

In these precious hours prior to the general election, do not despair! This great nation has seen extremes between adjacent leaders in the past and has survived, as we, the nation and its citizens, will continue to do. But it will take courage and fortitude to overcome inevitable inequities and the possibilities of internal strife.

The road ahead is, indeed, uncertain, but we have the choice between fearing the possibility of darkness and grasping a lantern to trudge onward with renewed vigor. I chose the latter.

Sleep well tonight, and face the future with you head held high.

Posters the DNC Doesn't Want You to See

2008-10-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I tried very, very hard to take the image I have posted twice now (the Obama image with the caption "hope," or "change," or "progress") and do a fine mix with some Maoist posters. Problem being, I don't know the first way to go about that. So instead I'm just going to post some pictures I've found and add my own captions to them.

I call this one "HOPE."

I call this one "CHANGE."

I call this one "PROGRESS," what with the factories belching smoke & "greenhouse gasses" AND a breast-feeding woman, in spite of being French. WOO!

I call this one "AWE-SOME."

In Brief: Polls, Then and Now

2008-10-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

I keep looking for wee little glimmers of red-state hope (no pun intended...okay, maybe a little pun), but there is very little to which I can grasp at this point. Some polls seem marginally favorable, others detail such a wild distance that the preference of the pollsters glares a "brilliant" luster. So far the biggest little morsel I can chew right now is that infamous blunder, that Dewey defeated Truman. That morsel happens to taste like a fine steak...but I still have that nagging feeling that my waiter forgot my baked potato. And, damnit, I like baked potato.

How, you ask, feeling the same sense of either surging joy or silent, lugubrious declension (in my case: silent, lugubrious declension), do I know that my little, khaki Idahoan has been consigned an inauspicious demise beneath the vermilion glow of a heat lamp?

Gallup now has Obama's lead between 7-8 percent. Gallup tends to err closer to fact than most any other poll. Gallup's polling pictures one of the narrower projections amongst the more major pollsters. Many, in fact, have the figure closer to nine.

Here I'm making a projection, still hoping that the ghost of "S" can miracle me into wrongness...we're gonna see something similar to 1948, with a reasonably close popular vote, but an electoral college map so out of balance it may shift the orbit of the planet (hopefully, though, without Strom Thurmond or one of his disciples earning ANY EC votes).

That, on top a rather disturbing article I read in my morning rag citing that Obama and McCain are neck-and-neck in rural areas as well, with a precedent that the Republican candidate generally must garner 15% or more of the rural vote to offset that of the urban AND the fact that ONE SINGLE PROTESTER showed up (conspicuously, I add, since I was nearby but had to remain covert as part of my infiltration), and he supported Ralph Nader!!! Whew, that's a mouthful of ugh.

Yet there are some small golden glimmers out there, and time will tell if they are for the fool: one, that the rural vote seems to be so tight and yet the EC is still far from decided; two, a point that another Gallup poll tries to show is that, proportionally, the number of first timers is staying the same. That bodes well for the youth vote! But then I come back to the "fond" memories I have from four years past.

To tell you the truth, I have found my memory skewed. What I remember:

Kerry good, Bush bad. Kerry up big, Bush falls like nuclear warhead. Bush makes signs of comeback, Kerry up too big to overcome. Bush wins popular AND electoral vote, Kerry actually concedes within two months.

I then do just a modicum of research into the recent past and find:

September 6: Bush up 7; September 17: Bush up 8; September 28: 8 again; October 4: tied; October 12: Kerry up 1; November 1: pick 'em.

So, by and large, Bush actually lead most of the time, contrary to what my stupid brain was telling me (FIE ON YOU!), although it did show Kerry with the narrowest of leads about this same time last year, terminating in a technical tie. Of course, America doesn't believe in soccer and she doesn't believe in ties; although the narrowness of the polling was reflected, Bush prevailed by 3,012,171.

It seems like a mathematical equation. Then again, there was quite a bit of wishy-washy in the polling that year, too, so maybe, just maybe, there is some hope. But in the end "closeness" and "Bush" were nearly always consistent, and this year "leading" and "Obama" are nearly always consistent (as well as most normally occurring within the same sentence). So it's mathematical after all.

And that, friends, pretty much dashed my hope of seeing Nevada donning the only pretty red dress she has (see picture).

In related but other news, here's a headline, which, of course, I can't find again, from foxnews.com: 1 Percent of French Prefer McCain. OK, so if that doesn't prove how we should vote, I don't know what would.

Besides, we mustn't base our decisions upon the expressed wishes of people "over there." I would call it something akin to a rancher, requiring a "new" vehicle to help in the feeding of cattle, and settling upon a Prius because his buddy in the "big city" drives one and tells him that it saved him $1,028 in gas last year: it's simply does not fulfill the needs of the rancher, who will, in all probability, destroy the car in the 400 yards between the garage (aka: "car-hold") and the haystack.

Good weekend to all!

David Ward, and Riding the Coattails of "Change"

2008-10-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I haven't posted anything, useful or otherwise, in nearly a month. Now I have been preparing a neat historical look, or examples upon which we may like to reflect before casting our votes, and I promise that will get done before the election. But for now, a little filler.

So, I just have to chuckle whenever I see David Ward's campaign materials around town here. CHANGE FOR RENO!!! As happy as I am that he's decided to use this quadrennium's most important (and misused) catchphrase to bolster his campaign, I find it delightfully ironic.

In 1995, the City of Reno began a new era when Jeff Griffin became the new Mayor. The years before, culminating with Mayor Sferrazza, had seen a dramatic downturn throughout the city. Major projects had been conspicuously neglected as the city, though ever growing in population, fell farther into the charnel. Some sectors of the city were slipping rapidly into dilapidation, and tourists and residents alike tended to steer clear of the downtown economic center. With Mayor Griffin (and continuing with current Mayor Bob Cashell), the city took the reigns and began a series of municipal projects intended to undo much of the damage that the previous years of negligence had inflicted.

What's so damn funny to me is how it reminds me of some remarks made by one of my heroes a few years ago.

"And now we hear talk that it's time for a change. Well, ladies and gentlemen, another friendly reminder: We are the change."

And that is not altogether different here. Our mayors and our very diverse city council have accomplished much in the past thirteen years, and yet there is much to be done. In reading over Mr. Ward's website I am taken by a number of items, not the least of which being his attention to term limits; I am generally in favor of the imposition of term limits. Also his concepts of dealing with the old Mapes site, the Kings Inn, the Woolworth's building, &c. reflect many screams I have been making for years now. Yet his Ideas for Change seem to reflect a number of Johnson/Carter-style social plans what are reminiscent not only of policy that lead to near economic devastation in the late 70's, but also of exactly what Mr. Reagan was talking about when he discussed his "change."

"We focused on hope, not despair. We challenged the failed policies of the past because we believed that a society is great not because of promises made by its government but only because of progress made by its people. And that was our change."

Truer words have been scant spoken. Yes, the economy, here and almost everywhere, is currently aslump, so this is not the time to be attempting major civil projects (bikes on demand, a Park-&-Ride, expanded municipal transit, &c.). This is a time for real action to improve ourselves, our economy, and our people; not so much a time to be focusing on pipe dreams of ambiguous change.

Addendum: Best of Rural Nevada Part 1

2008-09-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have seen the light!

After my friend made the suggestion that, perhaps, the TA Travel Center, Mill City may trump the Carlin Pilot, I decided I'd better take a closer look. It had, after all, been nearly a decade since I'd stopped there.

AM Gold and Jefferson Starship CDs, along with a completely unnecessary package of bills of lading definitely trumps the music selection at the Pilot as well as the selection of erotic cows at the Flying J in Winnemucca.

It is also the only place I've yet seen with Obama's tax plan inscribed on the wall of a men's room stall. Think about it!

However, Flying J does have their Flying J E-Store. I had no luck finding their online selection of bovine erotica, but perhaps my humble readership will fare a bit better than I.

Best of Rural Nevada Part 1

2008-09-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

A few of my most basic favourites...

Best Basque Food: Let's not kid, this may seem weird to many from out of the area, or even newcomers to our metropolitan centers. For most of Nevada,though, persons of Basque heritage are as common as (often more so than) Irish, Hispanic, English, German, Portuguese, or even Russian, and Basque-style food is just unworldly good, as long as you're willing to eat parts of the cow (or pig, or goat) you've never even seen rendered into soap (cast off your shackles, people! sweetbreads are the new porterhouse). Now my personal favourite Basque restaurant is the Santa Fe here in Reno, so I just had to plug them. However, that's really not entirely fair since this is a "rural specific" list.

Therefore, my categorical favourite goes to the Nevada Dinner House in Elko. I know this comes as sacrilege to many Northern Nevadans, especially those in Elko itself, most of whom believe that the Star Hotel is king amongst the Basque eateries. Sorry, folks, perhaps I the runes happened to fall just right for me, but I found the Nevada Dinner House to be far superior. In fact, just in the Elko area alone I think that the Star places third to the NDH and Biltoki. Sorry, gotta call 'em as I see 'em.
Best Radio Station: I have to give this a technical tie. First in the running is KELK in Elko (I'm not just plugging Elko here, I promise). Granted, they're geared toward a mostly female core and play some stuff what I would consider to be suspect at best, but they get mad props for carrying local athletic events as well as my beloved Wolf Pack.

Take those props out of the equation, however, and this is an open-and-shut case. Hands down, the best station out there is KGFN 106.3 FM Radio Goldfield. There aren't a whole lot of radio stations outside of the metros, granted, but it would be hard to beat this station. They have to have a lot of heart to be able to do what they do out there, and they broadcast just about everything. "Solid Gold," they call it, from 1940 to 1990. Nothing vulgar, but how many other stations will broadcast ol' fashioned blues, then some bluegrass, then Tina Turner, then Benny Goodman, then Disco, then some bad country, then Blondie? Radio Goldfield is a must-tune-in the next time you're driving U.S. 95 through Esmeralda County (see right). Can't wait that long? Click the link above, they have a live stream!

Best Truck Stop: I have always been partial to the Flying J in Winnemucca, what with their selection of Buckwear. However, while their music selection became legendary amongst my circle of friends in the late nineties, they have gone downhill a bit in recent years. Who has picked up their slack? The Pilot in Carlin. The Flying J in Wells is still pretty dern good, though, but while the Pilot isn't necessarily the cleanest truck stop by the strictest definitions, it still gets the nod thanks to their selection of truly awful Techno, &c. Depeche Mode, anyone?

Best McDonald's: Why not add this category? It's easy, anyway. The McDonald's in Ely is probably the nicest, but I can remember having McPizza and McTacos (can't find much on those things) in Tonopah. Is it a coincidence that McDonald's has their test site near where the Feds have their test site? Anyway, case closed, Tonopah McDonald's wins.

Best Sandwich: Owl Club in Eureka, dead, done, best sammich. And, while you're there, ask them about their infamous W.R.A.N.G.L.E.R. shirts. Not everyone has surrendered the Sagebrush Rebellion.

Best Non-Sandwich Non-Ravioli Hot Food: International Cafe in Austin. They have good reading while you wait, too. They're in an older building on the NORTH side of the highway.

Best Ravioli: Bruno's Country Club in Gerlach. Yes, it is worth mentioning both Gerlach and Bruno's if for nothing other than the famous ravioli. World-ending, second coming of Christ-style, Soviet Union collapsing good, they are, and definitely worth the gas money to drive out there.

Best Cold/Frosty Beverages: Toiyabe Cafe, Austin. Fine vittles, too, don't get me wrong, but their treats are unsurpassed.

Best Margarita: El Marques, Tonopah. Food is good...good, not great. Fine people. In my humblest of opinions, they make the best margarita in the state of Nevada, flat out. If you follow the link, the map seems to put the place in Manhattan, a mountain town nearly an hour to the north of Tonopah with no services, so don't pay attention to that bit.

Okay, that's enough to put me to bed for this evening. The next time you find yourself traversing our great state, I hope that this list (and those to follow) provide modest assistance.

Whimsical Item of the Day

2008-09-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have seen a moderate increase in traffic of late. The funny part is that at least 80% of the new traffic (and welcome, folks!) are all people searching then coming across a picture I have a few posts down.

Now I am nothing if not accommodating for people. Hell, I'll damn near bend over backwards for anybody, so long as they use their turn signals when they drive and don't officiate Western Athletic Conference football. So here it is again, so that, at least for a week or two, it will be easier for our well-intentioned yet misguided friends to find.

I will at least take the time to point out, once again, just exactly how much this design resembles Soviet propaganda posters of the 1930's through the 1950's. The question remains: inspired by neat proletarian artwork or a chilling view of things to come?
Aaaahhhh...that's better.

Now I am going to move on to something completely different in upcoming blogs. I will throw in the occasional reference/link to nice things like Gallup and the Sarah Palin fan club, but I have decided to run a periodic series chronicling my personal favorites from the non-metro Nevada I love ever so much. Stay tuned!

FOOTBALL!!!

2008-09-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks be to the Almighty that it's time for Football once again.

And once again, I'm riding the coattails of my most esteemed friend.

Of course I'm not saying anything new here, just something what needs to be said, again and again, with FIERCE conviction. Now, I LOVE football, and I love "acting out" as it were at the games. For someone like me, it's cathartic; it makes me feel like I'm a part of something greater to be able to bring adaptations of my eccentricities to the field. They work for me, people like them (by and large), they don't hurt anyone. I am a fan, and a rabid one at that, going to games as a sense of release, to be a part of the community, to be a part of something far greater than I alone. That aside, on a fundamental level I go for the same reason as everyone else: to enjoy football and enjoy the experience.

Some, however, attend for all the wrong reasons. Meu Amigo (follow the link above) gives an excellent diatribe relating to the antics of some attendees whose substandard decorum infects the experience of those around them. Please read the link, he does a fine job.

Please, when attending games, remember the Golden Rule, that's all I ask. Ridiculing someone because their shirt is a little older than yours (ask the person, there may be a good reason for it!), or because it's a little bit faded, or because someone cheers or supports their team in a manner somewhat different from the manner in which you "support" them, or because he...or she...wears one brand over another, or because they happen to use proper English (or don't use the "F" word every third syllable), or because you assume that, merely due to a physical trait, such as flowing locks of blonde hair, that someone has had one or two or fifteen sexual partners and "calling them out" on that 'fact' is deplorable. Act your age(s), for God's sake!

It's what separates US from THE ANIMALS.

State-Sponsored Compulsory Servitude

2008-08-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

My friend did a great write-up of the Obama's "secret plan" for "universal voluntary service," which can be read here.

Two quick blurbs about the Obamajunge:

Middle-High school age children get to throw in 50 hours per year. College students, many of whom get to pay for thier own education at a state school, get to chip in 100 hours per year, or twelve and a half eight-hour Saturdays. Sign me up!

And what about more "underprivilaged" neighborhoods? Will a youngin' in inner city Oakland be willing to chip in 50 hours if he/she already has to work 30 hours per week to help support their family? How many would even care anyway? This is assuming that, given crime rates in cities such as Oakland, that they are not already engaging in court-orderd community service. But hey, whatever doesn't kill them can only make them more pissed off.

Not to mention, think of the irony! Obama mandating the youth of the nation to engage in unpaid service?

Sorry that the quality of the writing is not quite up to snuff, I have been exhaused of late. I do hope, however, that the sentiment comes across without entirely sounding like an Obamambot-style rant.

Stuff I Loathe

2008-08-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have not been getting a lot of traffic lately. Sometimes, when I hit on one or two things of importance to someone somewhere I get one or two. The State of Nebraska has visited me a couple of times, and I have even gotten three international hits. So, in an attempt to drive up my ratings, I'm going to give a little blurb about stuff I loathe (since it's wrong to hate). This is a short list...short, but effective.

Lack of courtesy (this is my biggest pet peeve; everyone from those bastards who won't use their turn signals to people who won't say "thank you" for holding a door for them...they can all rot); hippies; burners (Northern Nevadans should know what I mean); UNLV; the City What Shall Not Be Named; the reds; the Reds; the Atlanta Braves; the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; the Denver Broncos; the Boise State Broncos; the Raiders; the Red Raiders; the Dolphins; the Cowboys; mind games between significant others; the Dodgers; UTEP; Texas; Texas; Texas; people who belittle other people because their beliefs fail to coincide; atonality; USC; Jacques Chirac; assholes who drive SUVs or a 1967 Ford pickup with bumper stickers what say "No Blood for Oil," "Obama 08," "Endless War," "Think Green," &c. &c. &c; James Buchannan; Gary Buchannan; canine lymphoma; cholera (been there, done that, saved by Poweraide); teenage drivers; teenage girls who think they can sing; Spaniards; nose flutes; wank jobs who think they're musicians because they can play G, C, and D7 chords on a gee-tahr; saxophones; teenage oboe players; soccer; the word "malignant;" people who say "numero uno" who do not speak Spanish as a native language; (most) democrats; when my cat puts her butt in my face at four in the morning; the Nevada Indoor Clean Air Act...

The list goes on, but I think this is a fair start.

Greening with the Patricians

2008-08-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Since the release of "An Inconvenient Truth," we have seen environmental action (or, perhaps rather, environmental attention) move from the fringe to the mainstream, almost overnight. It is not the scope of this quick note to speculate upon the validity of Mr. Gore's evidences, and I will point out that wastefulness in any capacity is a bad thing, be it gasoline, food, scrap iron, &c.

Conservation is good.

However, as with any such rapid development in philosophy, a kind of "rage," or "craze" has been born; along with that craze comes a growing belief that one cannot feel good unless they are contributing to the solution. For some people this means attempting to levy feelings of guilt over those who are seen as contributing to the problem, and since we have seen an exponential growth of environmental sentiment, it is a mathematical certainty that there will be a correlating rise in the number of guilt "mongers."

Guilt is bad.

Environmental agendas have been vanguards for the Left for some time now, and this convenient rage (pun intended) fuels their ambitions (again, pun intended) at a critical juncture in time. Along with this, however, is the promulgation of a common stereotype that the Right is out to fulfill their ambitions upon the brow of labor, over the toil of the lower income brackets: that the so-called "common folk" are indentured to the capitalists.

Right is Czarism.
Left is salvation.

Therein lies the problem. At this critical juncture what boils down is that those who can feel good about helping the environment are largely those who can afford to feel good. It is the brow of labor which sweats in these times, and requiring lower income families to purchase more expensive equipment and/or fuel in order to further one agenda merely serves to punish those families. Nominal savings in energy usage concurrent with rising energy prices becomes a wash, and we are left with "feel good" environmentalism wrought upon the toil of the lower income brackets. Chances are that an American scraping by on $22K per year is not going to care a whole lot about how any moose one light bulb is saving, let alone someone living in abject poverty in Calcutta. For many the thought of owning a Prius is a nice idea, but when you can only budget $2K for a used car the economy (and often even the condition) are right out.

Include in this the number of people who believe that rising fuel costs are a good thing...Erik Kirschbaum, for example. These are nice things to say, when one can afford to say them (or, rather, actually live by them) all the while blatantly flying in the face of the problems that these people profess an attempt to alleviate.

Left is Czarism.
Left is popular complacency.

Environmentalism is the fight of the patrician Left, at least as it is currently waged, and to ignore that fact is to ignore a very important feature of this election year. They purvey of themselves to be the caretaker of the downtrodden, yet it is one of their proudest vanguards which is currently leading to many of the economic woes of those who are least capable of paying for it.

Until people are able to deal with the "greening" in a rational manner rather than as a mania, it will continue to be a major, unspoken factor of economic difficulty.

Five Reasons Why I Would Not Live in Nebraska

2008-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

There are many good things to say about the place, don't get me wrong. However, there are at least five pressing things keeping me away.

(Honourable Mention: the Unicameral; any state which does not have two houses in their legislature is not for me, and since Nebraska is the ONLY state with a unicam, well, there it is.)

5.) Humidity: I hate humidity. I can tolerate it, in small doses for short periods of time, but even then it's a tough ride. I'll take the occasional nose bleed and split finger over swollen joints anytime.

4.) Public Lands: Nevada has a LOT of public land and a load of things to see on those public lands if you have the slightest idea what you are trying to find. Things like ghost towns, the "petrified forest" north of Gerlach, the Reese River, &c. &c. Nebraska: not so much. This will relate to #2 somewhat closely.

3.) Runza: If you've never tried one...don't. I guess it's an acquired taste, as there are far more people who admit to loving the stuff than should be allowed to breed, but for this Nevadan it's something akin to the Midwest's version of haggis. Rather than boiling it in a wee sheep's stomach, though, it served in some kind of soggy pita bread. I hate to think of the number of random "use every part of the buffalo" things that they contain, but more is almost never better, and if mustard can't make it taste good then it's just not fit for human consumption.

2.) Mountains: I love mountains. Big mountains, small mountains, mountains what climb on rocks; fat mountains, skinny mountains, even mountains with chicken pox! Nebraska has no mountains. They have Chimney Rock...woo. In Nebraska you lose cell service if you drop into a depression deeper than you are tall; in my case that's particularly sad. No mountains, no me. Not only are there no mountains but you'd have to drive half a day just to see one! To hell with that.

1.) Tornadoes: I think this is self explanatory...to the point that I nearly left it off the list. I can handle earthquakes: if the house falls down I can always dig out. Conversely, if the tornado doesn't destroy all my family heirlooms then the accompanying rain will certainly finish the job unless I keep them in a below-ground safe encased in concrete. I would like living in a place where I'd be reading about wildfires rather than fearing them, but it's just not worth it.

So there it is; that should be just enough to get my mother all riled up.

McCain vs. Obama and the Gallup Announcers

2008-07-21T20:37:00.001-07:00

If you feel like keeping track of these things as they go by, Gallup has Obama leading McCain by six. These things do change day-by-day, and poll-by-poll, inasmuch as polls are trustworthy anyway, but Gallup is normally pretty good about these things.

http://www.gallup.com/

I remember back in 2004 I would check out various network websites to see the electorate's opinions regarding the debates. It would seem that the conservative base raced to the Communist News Network to vote for Bush, while the Libs headed straight for Fox News to plug for Kerry. Just food for thought.

Harry Reid Is Still a Villainous Scourge

2008-07-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry to my loyal reader for my absence. I offer this as a token of my saudade for the delay.

At it again, they are. Those people, down there, the ones in that damnable metroplex in Southern Nevada. Unwilling to make concessions to anybody, incapable of even the slightest sacrifice, reserved from any empathy with those who stand in their way, they have succeeded in their plans to rape much of White Pine County of its water (to the tune of 19 billion gallons per year). They are now beginning to look to the future; not for any sort of real solutions, but to extend their raping, this time across state lines.

The plan: by 2015 (the 100th anniversary of the Lusitania sinking...coincidence? I think so), be able to pump up to 16 billion gallons from Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada (White Pine)/Utah border.

The project is backed by casino executives, developers, union representatives and others who point to water conservation efforts in (_@$ \#&@$) and who warn of an economic downturn — beyond the one the state already is experiencing — unless the city gets more water.

Water conservation efforts? I'd like to see examples. I would love to be proven wrong in the face of such overwhelming evidence to the contrary...

See exhibits A...; B (It's a hot, desert climate...let's build SWIMMING POOLS!)...; and C (as the quote on Google states: "Every guest to Bellagio must witness our spectacular dancing waters that come to life on our 8-acre lake.")...just to give three. Eight acres, for the love of God!?

"In a ruling last week, Taylor granted SNWA just over 6 billion gallons a year of the 11 billion gallons of groundwater it sought from Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave Valleys in Lincoln County, despite warnings from opponents that the pumping could have a catastrophic impact.
"SNWA representatives had contended the water authority met all requirements for the pumping from the three valleys and said critics’ disaster scenarios were unfounded. The valleys, located between about 75 miles and 125 miles from (_@$ \#&@$), are expected to be the first tapped for the agency’s massive pipeline project."

How do you define unfounded? Because the groundwater is coming from places that most people down there are unaware even exist (or, if they do, they don't care since they are "the hicks")?

So that Senator Reid can stick another 400,000 people down there without the infrastructure or, more importantly, the resources to sustain them?

So that the Belagio can have eight acres upon which to dazzle the masses while marching their armies of the damned (or army of darkness?) across my beloved state to pillage our precious resources?

That's how I define unfounded...hell, that's how I define unwarranted.

This at a time where our own TMWA is considering leasing their utilities to private investors. Normally I would not be entirely opposed to such action, but there are two important factors as to why this is a bad idea: 1.) this is still Nevada, and I don't need investors from California or Texas or wherever else is raw and evil controlling our aquatic resources...Nevada's water, by God, sir, will be run by Nevadans; and 2.) what's to keep the Southies from sending up their own "investors?"

Not to rant like a raving lunatic...perhaps I should have allowed myself to cool off a bit before writing. But I, certainly, have to vent once in a while.

Harry Reid Is a Villainous Scourge

2008-06-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

I mean that, I really do, from the bottom of my war-weary heart. The reasons are plentiful, but the ones tugging at me so vociferously in recent hours come from a florid counterpoint of dirtiness interweaving into black texture of demise.

It all surrounds growth. Some months past I gave a brief tutorial regarding the activities which have provided revenue for the State of Nevada. Ever since the Great Depression, gaming has been Nevada's crutch. However, the amount of monies the industry is capable of pumping into the coffers is not congruent to the rate of growth; the fact is, it hasn't been for a long time now. Unrestricted or, rather, uncontrolled growth (along with the social programs what generally follow) is a major concern for a fiscally sound Nevada.

Growth also provides great difficulties in a state devoid of a number of vital resources. Chief among them: water. Southern Nevada has an advantage in the form of access to the Colorado River and Lake Mead. They have a disadvantage in having to share that water with another desert state with a rapidly growing population. As it stands the Southern end of the state (along with Arizona) is bleeding Lake Mead faster than river flow is able to replenish the reservoir, which is leaving them to grab what water they can where they can find it. They began courting the town of Ely, offering them a pittance in exchange for significant quantities of White Pine County water; when the courtship failed they responded with coercion. Current populations are unable to suffice with their own resources, leaving them to pillage other locales within the state; growth fuels these atrocities.

Taxation vs. budget reallocation: each of the past two governors have had to deal with budget crises, and each have handled these crises in different fashions. Kenny Guinn decided that a massive tax levy was necessary, aimed high, and still managed to get a portion more than was necessary after three special sessions by the state legislature. Jim Gibbons has vowed to balance the budget without taxation. While I cannot envy either, nor will I condemn either in this post, the fact remains that the deficit this time 'round leads to significant budgetary constraints and some remarkable spending cuts.

What is congruent here: along with such strains upon the State of Nevada relating to rampant growth is the planning of a new community, some 60 miles north of the North B.M.I. Townsite, which is planned to comprise up to 150,000 homes (leading to anywhere between 350,000 to 450,000 residents). It's not what he's not doing, it's that Sen. Reid is an active player in the development, under the guise of job growth. Creating jobs is great...at what cost? We, as a state, can't afford this growth. We must ask ourselves, for a left-of-moderate Democrat such as Reid, what could possibly provide his motives? He is an active participant in a major engagement which will do little but to exacerbate our state's woes, and will not himself so much as provide a believable spin for the situation.

Reid is a cancer. There, I've said it.

I'm a Republican and I Don't Have to Apologize for It

2008-06-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

And as a result, I am adding one of the GOP bog add-ons. I'm sure they won't mind (since they give you the links on their own web page) and if anything perhaps they'll track me a bit. Then they'll take notice of me. Then the world will be my oyster and everyone will have a Victory Garden.

In other news, a co-worker and I were arguing to-day (I like hy-phens) about "change" and what is the "best way" (in a general sense, not in a "what's-the-best-way-to-change" sense); she argued that federalization is best, at least at this juncture, in order to tame rampant business interests from destroying the lower classes (sound familiar?), but happened to destroy her own argument by discussing the corruption of the federal government, and in the same breath, no less. Ergo, her disillusionment gave me the perfect plug for privatization.

Privatization/federalization; you be the judge.

By the way, don't you just LOVE those Obama t-shirts in the throwback style of Communist Propaganda? Think it may be (less than) subtly letting you know where he plans on leading us? If there's anything out there that just cries "Left of Lenin," this would be it.

Ain't that right, Comrade Obama; or Комраде (товарищ) Обама.

Just remember to be careful of what you wish, you just might get it. God/karma/fate/whatever you chose to call him/her/it or whatever your beliefs has/have funny ways of coming back to bite the proverbial buttocks.

I prefer this one:

Happy gardening.

The Misery Index and You (or, the 38.5 Year Rollercoaster)

2008-06-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

During the L. B. Johnson administration, an economist named Arthur Okun devised a simple system to measure the national economic performance; he called it the Misery Index, and it added two important figures together: the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment concurrent for a given period of time. The formula is no more complex than simple addition (unless, of course, you seek averages, in which case you must know how to divide *gasp*).

In any case, my thoughts turned to the so-called misery index for two reasons: one, Ronald Reagan, in his address to the 1988 Republican National Convention, made mention of the index's use during the 1976 campaign in order to discredit incumbent Gerald Ford, using it himself in turn to discredit Jimmy Carter while showing the strides his administration had made toward the restoration of the economy - this set a precedent in my mind relating to the economic situation through different decades; two, I overheard a comment the other day relating to "Reagan's Recession" and what an "awful" president he had been. The utterer had disappeared before I could retort with "remember the '70s" and "it's about the whole picture, not about whether or not your folks could sell a house," but it got the ball rolling in my head: I HAD to devise a way to show simple economic indicators from where we've been prior to Reagan, through his administration, and right up to the present. If nothing else, it would help to show the state of our current "recession" and perhaps put it into perspective for some people.

My first thought was to create a so-called "Pocket Misery Index Calculator" which could be produced at will from my haversack of goodies, until I found http://www.miseryindex.us/, which not only shows Okun's index by year (subdividing for administrations as well), but also by month from 1948, as well as both factors of the formula by month, again from 1948. This can be accessed from anywhere (maybe not Kansas, but anywhere else). I now have all the ammunition I need to wage a war of attrition upon the masses.

I shall heal the contrite!!!

So I spent a great deal of time this evening putting together raw numbers, and I must say that there are a few results what surprised even myself. I do not have graphs as of yet, but I will, and when I do I will post them. Readers beware.

What I do have are figures...many, many figures. I have broken them down in the following manners, beginning in 1969:

Inflation rates by year, including averages per administration.
Unemployment rated by year, including averages ditto.
Misery index ditto.
Averages for all three by administration.
Averages ditto by decade (e.g. 1970-1979).
Averages ditto by semidecade (including the seven year period 1969-1975, and 2.5 year period 2006-present).

For now, I will abbreviate: the rate of inflation through the Nixon administration was 5.00, unemployment was 4.98, and misery was at 9.98. Spike for poor Ford, with 8.66, 7.27, and 15.93, respectively. And for Carter: inflation - 9.73, unemployment - 6.54, misery - 16.27! Remember, these are averages, not high-low.

Reagan: inflation - 4.56, unemployment - 7.54, misery - 12.19; G. H. W. Bush: inflation - 4.38, unemployment - 6.23, misery - 10.68.

Clinton: inflation - 2.60, unemployment - 5.20, misery - 7.8; G. W. Bush: inflation - 3.06, unemployment - 5.53, misery - 8.58.

For the record, the current misery index (May, 2008) is 9.68.

What we see (and you will, too, in coming days) is that the mid '70s spiked hard, and it failed to relent until 1981. The high water mark was 1980, with 13.58 inflation and 7.18 unemployment for a misery of 20.76! This was, may I remind the reader, prior to Reagan's election.

The rampant "misery" of these years culminating the decade did lead to significantly higher unemployment rates for 1982 and 1983, but inflation fell from 13.58 in 1980 to 10.35 in 1981 to 6.16 in 1982 to 3.22 in 1983. Unemployment subsequently rebounded with the period 1984-1988 with 7.51 (1984), 7.19 (1985), 7.00 (1986), 6.18 (1987), and 5.49 (1988). This is a far cry from where the nation was just years prior.

Long story short: the '70s were a really, really baaaad time economically, and it took time, initiative, effort, and more time to right the ship, so to speak. It has always been easier to destroy than to create, and that decade did a fine job of economic destruction, and it took a whole lot of effort (all through the mid '90s, in fact) to put things right again. That's twenty years...Sheesh!

Compare that to the past few years:

1996-2000: inflation - 2.48; unemployment - 4.60; misery - 7.09
2001-2005: inflation - 2.55; unemployment - 5.83; misery - 7.98
2006-present: inflation - 4.07; unemployment - 5.72; misery - 9.79

And I will take Bush's 9.68 misery against Carter's 20.76 any day; people need to look at the past and reflect upon it rationally. Tomorrow I will post my notes. Happy reading!

Mais coisas das jardins.

2008-06-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

I am going to take a moment to discuss (or, rather, point the reader in the direction of) a most important topic related to an effective "victory garden:" canning.

It's great to have a garden, it is not only rewarding but also quite cathartic (in my opinion) to go through the toils required of a good gardening experience. However, what is to be done with the surplus of veggies one may have come fall? Some plants (legumes, among a plethora of others) continue to produce over a period of time, providing some foodstuffs during the growing season. Many are not ripe until the fall harvest. Point being, if you are lucky enough to have access to sufficient land to grow bushels of foodstuffs it is behoving to save and store such foodstuffs for consumption during the non-growing seasons. Said foodstuffs must be preserved for storage, and the age old tradition is by home canning.

Wikipedia presents us a nice, forensic article about canning in general and is well worth the read. They likewise have an article on home canning which, while lacking formal instruction, adds a quick insight into the overall concept (and dangers). Some foodstuffs are relatively easy (high acid content), but most garden items require special attention and technique lest money saved quickly be transferred to the local infirmary (bad).

The USDA provides its own canning website, and I may recommend reading this thoroughly. Wikipedia is good about supplying links, and so others may be reached, but I would believe this one to be the most trustworthy.

I mention canning first and foremost in my "Victory Garden Series" so that the reader may be aware of the challenges to be faced depending upon the level to which he or she is willing to take the concept; I endorse the "balls to the wall" idea. After all, it shouldn't be about what someone else (the feds) can do to help you, it should be about what you can do to help yourself. Cast away the blame game, kick away the self pity, and roll up your sleeves and just do it!

As jardins pela vitória

2008-06-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

I have been giving serious thought to the idea of a "victory garden" of late, and the more I dwell upon it the more heartily the belief in the idea grows. Perhaps because I come from a line of farmers on both sides of the family, or perhaps because I'm just cheap. Regardless, I think it's a great idea, and even if you live in a squalid apartment, or "flat," one can always find a way to grow something useful.

Detroit, for instance, is trying an interesting idea (yes, something GOOD we can take from Detroit!), using vacant lots to grow fresh produce. I think this is brilliant, so long as there is a sure way to protect the food (not just from thieves, but also from the perverts out there who feed off of human misery). As of yet I'm not sure that I would trust a zucchini grown on West Grand Boulevard, but add in a couple of guard towers and a competent biologist (or even a good, ol' fashioned agricultor) and we've stumbled upon an "herbalogical" sweet spot!

So I am going to include a series of little postings (if anyone finds them) to assist people in certain forgotten arts what may help people along in their horticultural ventures. The best part: you need not fork over the bulk of your growings to the state to distribute at their whim. IT'S ALL YOURS!!!

Of course, some things take more effort and more time than others. Some climates favor more water, some favor a longer growing season, and some dangerously unpredictable, and some are just awful for most anything. I will try to help people along with this (graphs!) as best I can.

For those who are willing to strive for success in these ventures, this may help to free up a little extra petty cash for all those decadent little "bourgeois" luxuries you've always wanted. VIVA! now I can get a Wii.

We Are Sooooo Screwed

2008-06-15T19:29:00.001-07:00

I'm going to take a quick minute to harbinge a little darkness.

If you haven't been following the news at all, the midwest is experiencing some catastrophic flooding. Sorry if this isn't clear enough, but I don't mean "catastrophic" as a metaphor, I mean that hundreds of square miles of crops are being wiped clean off of the earth. What hasn't been affected by the ethanol craze is being affected by this, including the ethanol craze. With huge hectareage of ceral grains (corn especially) vanishing, we will see yet another spike in the cost of foodstuffs. Of course, this is going to be worse for our exportee 3rd world countries, but it'll be plenty bad for us, too.

Brace yourselves. In my humble Portuguese opinion, it's time to start thinking Victory Garden!

Iwo Jima

2008-06-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my folks this afternoon. They were dutifully watching Fox News and "Hannity & Idiot," the special guest being Leo Terrell, a Los Angeles lawyer fighting discrimination cases. Not to downplay examples of human badness when they occur, but this guy walked right into my cynicism.

In this instance, referring to Letters from Iwo Jima, the movie by Clint Eastwood some years ago, Leo made the claim that, despite there being some 900 African-Americans having fought on Iwo Jima, there was "not one single blackface" in the film.

So, in honor of Mr. Terrell (whether a juris doctorate qualifies him for the title 'doctor' or not I will refer to him as mister, thank you very much), I give you...

...EXACTLY one "Blackface in Iwo Jima."

Take THAT space coyote.

More Olde-Tymie News Stuffs

2008-06-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

Back to the lighter side, here's another example of a substantial chunk of editorial from the Ft. Jones news rag, dated Saturday, June 15, 1889:

Learning to Think

In everyday life no fact is more noticeable than the inability of many persons to do their own thinking, even in matters and upon lines wholly within the range of their intelligence. They will see a point that is suggested to them, and will at once understand its bearing on some matter in hand, but they do not seem to have the faculty or art of raising points for themselves, and consequently their action is not as intelligent as it might be. If given a rule to work by, they will apply it not only in season but out of season, and will look amazed if one suggests that under special circumstances, they should have varied their usual procedure. Every employer and overseer knows to what an extent this is the case. It is the exceptional workman who really thinks, and who can therefore be trusted to suit his circumstances. And so in nearly every sphere of life, a kind of automatism seems to be the rule, and intellegent (sic) self-direction, in the light of present facts, more or less the exception. One is therefore tempted to ask whether in connection with our system of education some gymnastic might not be devised for the special purpose of teaching the rising generation to think.
We do not know who the author of the above paragraph is but he has well said what people who do think have thought of a thousand times. The automaton who does everything because his muscles are schooled to it by a more intelligent power never can be more than a mere machine. If an over ambitious workman, who is always suggesting something new and perhaps impracticable is objectionable, the man who never has a thought above doing just what he is told - nothing less nor more - is a downright nuisance and must always occupy a subordinate position or none at all. Originality, even wrongly directed, is preferable to an absolute want of the power to devise a way out of a difficulty of, better yet, to avoid it altogether in the absence of the head of the concern. Thought rightly directed is self-reliance, which is the foundation if not the the essence of fortune. This talk of the NEWS to its young readers is not intended to reflect upon a single member of the large circle who peruse its columns but to stimulate the habit of thought and that kind of thought which like applied science, is prolific of grand results.

I suppose I could editorialize the editorial, but that would defeat the purpose. As it stands, perhaps we should take the editor's advice and just dwell upon it individually, divining our own sense of correctness and/or falsity. Think about it for ourselves and take our own truths from it, or use it as a springboard for our own mental provocations.

Wham, Bam, Thank You, Klan

2008-06-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

While on my repast in Yreka this past weekend I came upon this story on KOBI out of Medford, OR. This is an absolutely disgusting atrocity, and the legal system in Oregon owes to all her citizens swift and crushing discipline in this matter.

If you have not accessed the above link, I will brief the situation. The victims here are Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan and Sol Whyte, longtime residents of Medford. Mr. Whyte immigrated from Jamaica in 2000, and in recent days the family has been targeted by repeated acts of white supremacist vandalism. They are now fleeing their neighborhood.

I thank the Almighty that this is now an "exception that proves the rule," of sorts. It is my understanding that Southern Oregon harbors many of these types exhibiting some of the most deplorable traits of human society, yet at large occurrences such as these do help to underscore how our society deems such matters: now it is a banner tragedy, not a blurb in the "Neighborhoods" section of the local paper (...this week's Klan meeting will take place at Jackson's place on Old Mill Road; those willing to participate or provide refreshments should contact Wizard Miller at KL5-0104).

These acts may lend an unfortunate verisimilitude to the likes of Father Michael Pfleger, Rev. Wright, and others. Their hate is rhetorical; these Oregonians' hate is pompous, wanton acts of vandalism. And unlike the above vocal clergy, the perpetrators of these crimes can only be described as dirty cowards, engaging in esoteric acts. They spill archaic, asinine opinion under the guise of righteousness, of being true and worthy; they should have the gumption to appear in public with their ideals. Rather they are empowered by acts of vandalism and terror; as such, they should be handled as domestic terrorists and prosecuted to the fullest extents of the law in our post 9/11 society. (We should, however, not forget that the "clerical" rhetoric of the above is of similar tenacity, of nearly identical sentiment, and mongers a similar hate.)

The Whyte family has my deepest sympathies, and I encourage all to rebuke and disparage this disgusting situation.

Ye Olde-Tymie News Stuffs

2008-06-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

I've just now returned from my annual visit to the Holy Land (was once "quadrannual," then semiannual, then $4.49 9/10) , and one of the first things I do when I get to Yreka (the Golden City) is hit the archives at the courthouse and/or the county library. Specifically, this go-'round was to search out (an) article(s) pertaining to the murder of my great-great uncle in May of 1889 (story for another time). I certainly found more than a bargain of information, not just about the untimely "deceasement" of o Senhor Manoel Cardozo, but also glimpses of exactly what passed for journalism back in that day. These kinds of examples are not peculiar to the Fort Jones paper, however the quiet nature of the vicinity seemed to lend a wont for material to take up the space between the banner and the advertisements. I've decided that, from time to time, I will share some of the gems I have found on just two partial pages.

Here we go...

Advertisement:

Consumption Surely Cured.
To the editor - Please inform your readers that I have a positive remedy for the above named disease. By its timely use thousands of hopeless cases have been permanently cured. I shall be glad to send two bottles of my remedy FREE to any of your readers who have consumption if they will send me their express and post office address. Respectfully,
T. A. Slocum, M.C. 181 Pearl St., New York.

As true today as it was when it was written??? For those of you born after 1920, consumption=tuberculosis.

From Saturday, June 8, 1889:

News Notes.
Fireworks on July 4th evening.
T. C. Jones goes to Redding Monday.
The new creamery at Walker's ranch is in successful operation.
L.R. Baggett goes to San Fernando, Los Angeles county, early next week.
A.J. Walker has posts for sale near Callahan's. See advertisement.
John Henderson returned Wednesday evening from a trip to San Francisco.
Returns from Chas. Abbott's Greenhorn Creek mine, the Journal says are satisfactory.
Robert Willard of Hamburg was in town this week, on his return from the County seat.
A large number of people from all parts of the Valley went to the pic-nic at Meamber's yesterday.
J.F. Taggart was here last week setting up marble work in the Fort Jones and Etna cemeteries.
Felix Kunz and family returned Wednesday evening from San Francisco, where Mrs. Kunz has been for her health.
Lots will be offered for sale at Klamath City by the first of August and the Mills probably ready for business by December.
G. G. Mallow and L. E. Clark have left at this office, some fine specimens of vegetables grown in their respective gardens.
The ladies of Oro Fino will give an ice cream social at the school house June 11th., for the benefit of Rev. W.C. Stewart.
Good wages is made (sic.) in the Humbug mines by carrying the dirt some distance down the mountain and washing with the rocker.
Mrs. John Furness of San Francisco came up on a visit to her brother, L.S. Wilson, on Tuesday. She was accompanied by her two daughters.

There are oh so many more, but I will leave those for a later time; after all, if I give them all up front, how will I be able to regale people with more in the future? This stuff must last awhile, you know.

Memoria de...

2008-05-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

I guess you could consider my family to be "lucky" when it comes to wartime. I have had a number of family members in the military; but when it came to war in the age of conscription, most were either too young or too old (my great grandfather would have been old enough to have served in the U.S. Civil War, but he was yet in the Old Country so he doesn't really count). There were a few notable exceptions:

There's not a whole lot known about my mother's family. The only two of whom I am certain were two cousins (brothers, in fact) involved in WWII. Joe was a pilot in the Pacific Theater and later also served in Korea; his brother, Frank, was killed on the U.S.S. West Virginia at Pearl Harbor.

On t'other side, I had three great uncles conscripted into the AEF in 1917. Uncle Joe C. planned on being an aviator, but after his first flight he reconsidered; he was lucky enough to avoid being sent "over there." Ditto with Uncle Anthony Simas; my grandmother was scant with information, and I was young enough to be complacent with scant information while her mind remained sound, yet I seem to recall her saying that he had landed a cushy desk job. Uncle Joe Simas was less fortunate, returning to the Western Hemisphere shell-shocked and weary. He survived the armistice by a mere fourteen years. Although living in the Azores at the time, my great grandfather would have been old enough to have served in the U.S. Civil War.

Others may have more spectacular family war stories, but that is mine. On this Memorial Day, here's not only to the fallen soldiers, but to the survivors, the desk jockeys, the message runners, the factory workers, miners, farmers...all those of the great American infrastructure who have kept and continue to keep our nation rolling, especially under duress, as well as the families who love and support them.

"Cardozaisms"

2008-05-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Now the lighter side:

If I were to be memorialized in one of those "...isms" books, I think that it would go a little something like this...

(You probably have to be a Nevadan to get most of these...this does NOT include people from The City What Shall Not Be Named, as they have demonstrated time and time again that they really don't care to be part of our great state, and I really don't want them here.)

Some people call it a "false spring;" around here we call it "February."

(in a similar vein...)

So-And-So made reference to our freak snowstorm...Renoites call it "Memorial Day."

Yes, I ride my bike to work and wear an old U.S. Army haversack; this does not mean that I am a #$% %&*@ hippie, it means I'm a cheap son-of-a...

There is a Satan, and unions do his bidding.

I feel so...Warren Harding.

Here's one: not a verbal expression, just a big, waggling middle finger at some sludge donkey not using a turn signal; this would be the cover page, and is the quintessential "me."

Sludge donkey!!!

G. W. does not equal Stalin; nor does he equal Hitler. When I see brown shirts on the streets rounding up brown people, running them into boxcars at the tracks, tens of thousands of people "disappearing" or coming down with a bad case of North Dakota, and one of them comes to get you for making that very comment, then maybe, MAYBE I'll agree.

It's PINE NUT SEASON!!! Let's dance 'round the September Pole!

Thanks, Harry Reid, for granting me the opportunity to watch a grown man sweep the interstate with a PUSH BROOM in the middle of the flippin' desert. Glad to know that pork barrel is going somewhere useful.

Punt on third down...they'll never see it coming! (This was a Chris Tormey brainchild, apparently.)

Okay, I'm tired and this is not going nearly as well as I thought it would. Some impartial observer should just trail me with a notebook, because I KNOW I'm good for some kookey crap (not including my Portuguese rants).

Earthquakes and Human Stupidity

2008-05-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have been ill for a time, but have now sufficiently recovered to resume blogwork, thanks to a miracle elixir called "V8 Fusion." Move over, Nerve Tonic!

As a result of my convalescence (coinciding with a much-needed three-day weekend, as cruel fate would have it), I have been passing several days waiting to make this post. Normally this would serve as a cool-off time for me after which I would decide that the subject just wasn't worth the effort after all. Not so this time. Since our earthquake swarm has intensified, many people have been trying to ask "Why?" Some have been reasonable but way off base; and some of them have been insanely concocted by left-wing leafblowers.

On Friday, the RG-J posted two letters to the editor, "Possible we brought this on ourselves?" and "Draining aquifers could be the cause." I was able to link to the first, but was unable to locate the second via the RG-J website; possibly some intrepid reader may have more luck than I. It is OK, I will merely have to copy it out. But first things first.

"Possible we brought this on ourselves?" brings attention to the recent explosion of residential development in the area of the recent Reno earthquake swarm. I will not dwell upon this letter, but will mention a quick point. The author notes two things: one, that the landscape has been altered, in some places rather significantly (The mountain could now easily pose for the cover of Strip Mining Quarterly.); two, that changes in the landscape have already caused other, more visible/provable problems (Anytime it rains or snows heavily in this area, the county dispatches large vacuum trucks to keep the silt from reaching the Truckee River). This author then poses the question asked in the title. At least he phrases it as a question. I will point out that there are an abundance of real mines all over the west (including Nevada) , and there is no conclusive evidence linking them to similar seismic activity. Also, the largest of the swarm, so I am told, released approximately the same amount of energy as an atom bomb. So, in order for "we humans" to have done this we would have to, well, detonate an atom bomb, not remove relatively small portions of hillside (yes, relatively small; for comparison visit the Carlin Trend). Not to mention the bombing done at the Nevada Test Site. Simply put: no, mankind would have to rape the earth far more than we could ever imagine to even coerce the planet into this kind of retaliation. It is far more likely that we will meet our Waterloo by toxic gasses of our own design long before that (and that is a stretch unto itself).

Now on to the second. This is not something I do too often: rant. But I feel that the author of the second letter has earned a most earnest, vile, and caustic diatribe.

Draining aquifers could be the cause
"Earth tremors at unusually shallow depths" and the scientists wonder why.
Let's see: Deep water wells necessary to support endless housing developments drain the valley's underground-based aquifers of the driest state in the union.
The mountain runoff is unable to restore the volume of incompressible water necessary to support the walls of the emptied aquifer caverns, and gravity does what gravity does. The result might just be "earth tremors at unusually shallow depths.
Works for me until an answer so complex that the public can't understand it comes along.

I almost don't know where to begin with this one, but I may as well do it in the manner now famous amongst my friends and acquaintances...

What kind of bad blow have you been snorting? Seriously...maybe if we sacrifice a virgin to the mountain she'll relent; makes just as much sense! You know what works for me? You moving your stinky hippie self out of my state!!! Seriously, I have heard some dumb, ignorant brain sludge in my day, but that has got to be one of the most unfounded and ignorantly stupefying loads of liberal guilt-ridden tripe to come out of my hometown since the last time Jack Carter spoke here. In fact, I'm still not sure I'm completely grasping your unfathomable idiocy. But let me try, try, to take this thing point-by-grueling point...

(Okay, I have finally regained enough strength to continue; sooooo...)

Wells:

First of all, wells dredging the aquifers are nowhere close to the depths of the earthquakes. Yes, the earthquakes are shallow...by earthquake standards. Yet they exist at a depth, shallow though they are, of between 1-3 kilometers (the sciency types chose the metric system, not I, so don't hold me accountable). The deepest wells reach barely half that depth. This does not include projects such as remediation, which endeavor to replenish aquifers in the area...these wells also do not reach a depth of 1+ kilometers. These are also 'round the Truckee Meadows, the "valley" portion of our metro area, not so much the hills.

Aquifers:

In these parts, aquifers tend to exist in what we call "gravels" and other porous sediments, not in fanciful caves. Even if they did, rock is not what we call "buoyant," and the mere existence of water does not guarantee that such "caves," if they did exist, would not fail. There are, I will concede, examples of wells draining water resulting in such collapses; we see this occurring in Texas right now (saw an article about a 20+ foot sinkhole which is now home to a healthy alligator), and has been common in places like Florida for a long time. These sinkholes are not associated with any kind of seismic activity (at least not what we'd consider to be seismic activity) and result in, well, sinkholes. Do you see any sinkholes developing? DO YOU!?!?

Faults:

Which brings up another point: this is occurring along faulting...never before discovered, and possibly never before active, but faulting none the less. For every fault out there, it had to have a first time, and humans are relative newcomers to the planet, let alone in a "learned" state. Also, the faulting occurring as a result of this swarm are what are called "strike-slip," meaning that the ground is moving laterally. If this were caused by draining massive quantities of water then the temblors would be caused by the downward shift of a section of ground...not a lateral movement.

Now, allow me to indulge myself for a moment. Let's pretend you are right, and that it's mankind's "fault" (sorry for the really bad pun, but I just had to do it) for bringing this on ourselves. Then, sir, don't you dare patronize me by pretending you are not a part of the problem! If this is the case, then you live here right along side the rest of us and would be considered as guilty as the remaining nearly half million of us in Western Nevada...unless, of course, you are being brought your water from mysterious space aliens who appear only to you and your family bringing you water from Mars or some crap, in which case you are leading to the same catastrophic ecological problems on that planet as you are here!

I'm not going to rant like this often, but sometime I just gotta.

Face it, Mr. Person-Whose-Name-I'll-Leave-Off-But-People-Can-Look-Up-If-They-Really-Wanna: you are a total choad.

Carded! parte dois...

2008-05-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

I have heard a great deal of discourse of late pertaining to the impact of the immigration debate upon this year's election season, or the nearly total lack thereof. Here's a story what may just change that dynamic altogether.

I have long been of the opinion that, in places where they feel stifled and outnumbered, the left tends to react by making as much noise as humanly possible, and where would they feel more stifled and more outnumbered than in the state of Nebraska? Even Idaho had one blue county in the 2004 election. In this land of corn, cows, and...corn, it would appear that the ever faithful Nebraskan left now has it's vanguard...housing discrimination and its relationship with illegal immigration.

Anne Hobbs was angry. The head of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission had just learned of a Hispanic couple who said their landlord asked for their driver's licenses - but didn't ask the same of non-Hispanic tenants.
Hobbs said it sounded like the couple were "treated differently than everybody else because of national origin," and sent the case to the state's top prosecutor, hoping he would sue on their behalf under fair housing laws. (http://www.cbsnews.com/ May 1, 2008.)

This is a legitimate grievance, if it can be proved. I have yet to divine any evidences to incriminate the landlord, but as this story is fresh I admit that such evidences may yet be forthcoming. However, the outcry stretches far beyond the outcry of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission.

When Attorney General Jon Bruning received the case, he was angry, too - for a different reason than Hobbs.

Did I mention that the couple were in the U.S. illegally?

"I'm not going to use taxpayer dollars to file lawsuits for illegal aliens," said Bruning after learning the couple was in the U.S. illegally. "You're not going to get a free lawyer" from his office, he said, "if you're not a citizen of this country."

Bruning cites the 1996 welfare reform law to validate his stance, specifically the refusal of "any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household or family eligibility unit." According to Ron Haskins, who assisted in the drafting of the 1996 law, said that it was intended to deny legal services to illegal immigrants.

But it is appropriate to spend public money on issues that "advance the interests of society," he said.

"If I was a citizen of the state," he said when told about Bruning's position, "I'd think, what's in the interests of the community?"

"Even if a person is here illegally, we should enforce the law." (http://www.cbsnews.com/ 05/01/2008.)

Exactly; we should enforce the law. This article fails to mention whether or not their housing was denied, but does refer to the person who "carded" the couple as "their landlord," not "potential landlord," nor "property owner," nor any other moniker by which we may infer that the couple were attempting to gain housing; by the use of "their landlord" this insinuates that they were, at the time, tenants of that said landlord. Another source describes the event in a bit more detail:

The case involved a Lincoln couple that filed a complaint with the commission alleging they were discriminated against by their landlord. According to both Hobbs and Bruning, the landlord asked the complainants to provide drivers' licenses after becoming concerned that too many people were living in the apartment. (www.siouxcityjournal.com, 04/18/2008.)

Ergo, this is not a clear-cut case of housing discrimination; without the landlord making specific, stereotyped comments regarding the matter then there is no basis as such. It is also not about the couple's housing rights: it is about the landlord's property rights.

If the landlord had not asked others to produce their drivers' licences or other forms of state identification, then clearly he/she had not asked this of this couple when they first rented, lest such documentation would have been on file. If this be the case, then the fault in the landlord is that no such measures were taken with any tenant at any time in the first place and had no proofs of identity for any tenant; this is clearly poor judgement. But the manner in which this has escalated is ludicrous: the landlord did not evict the couple and their immigration status had no bearing on their rental status; the landlord merely acted, naively and with only minor inflection, in what he/she determined to be the best interests of a perceived concern his/her own property.

There is obviously a great deal of information absent in this story, yet we can make a preliminary conclusion: the couple were not treated differently because of national origin, they were carded because the landlord perceived a potential code violation in the form of too many persons dwelling within the single apartment. We do not know if any of the other apartment dwellers were carded along with them in order to determine whether or not they were party to the lease agreement; nor do we know if there were examples of similar circumstances amongst non-Hispanic tenants. Therefore I declare this outcry to be absurd.

Carded!

2008-04-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today, April the twenty-ninth, 2008, most buzz surrounds the deepening intrigue between the Messrs. Obama and Wright, and with good cause: it is fantastic tabloid entertainment hitting the mainstream, and what can be better? If I may indulge, I would speculate that actual news may edge out the snappy tabloid goodness that is the Obama-Wright affair, and so I will tackle another big item handed down the pike..."carding" voters at polling places.

Of course, there can be no political action without an equal and opposite reaction, and so there are some people who do not hesitate to condemn this edict. My biggest problem with their dissent is not merely the willful exchange of a contrary view, it is the cliche partisan card playing, in this case the "poor card."

"...because of their ruling there is now an undue burden on the poor and elderly to vote. For them, a voter registration card is not enough." (http://www.liberadio.com/, 04/29/2008.)

I can't vouch for many out there, but my voter registration card could be duplicated by twelve-year-old on an Apple II-e. That aside, how does one define "undue?" In order to obtain an official identification card from the State of Nevada, one must:

Be a resident of Nevada and provide a Nevada street address.
Provide acceptable proof of your name, date of birth and Social Security number if one has been issued for you. See Residency and Proof of Identity.
Apply in person at a DMV Full Service Office. (We do not make appointments.)
Complete a Driver License Application.
Pay the required fee. (Under 18 - $5.25, 18-64 - $11.25, 65 or older - $6.25)
Surrender any existing U.S. driver license, permit or ID card.
Have your picture taken. The ID card will then be issued at the DMV office.

($11.25 for the majority of voting-age persons; $6.25 for seniors...how very burdensome.)

For argument's sake, we will also look at the procedure in Indiana (from www.dmv.org/in-indiana/id-cards.php):

The Indiana identification card resembles a driver license, but has a non-driver label at the top. All ages are eligible to receive a state ID. The cards cost $13 and are valid for six years. If you are at least 65 years old or disabled, the cost is $10. If you can't afford to pay for a state ID card, you may be issued one for free if the proper documentation is presented.
To apply for a state ID card, just go to any license agency. Make sure to bring along proof of both your identity and your date of birth from the state's acceptable documentation list. You'll need to provide one document each from the primary, secondary, and proof of residency groups. Or, you can show two documents from the primary group and one from the proof of residency group.

liberadio.com paraphrases the act of acquiring a replacement social security card:

"You can replace your card for free if it is lost or stolen.
To replace a lost Social Security card:
Complete an Application For A Social Security Card (Form SS-5); and
Show us documents proving your identity.
Show us documents proving your U.S. citizenship if our records do not already contain that information.
Show us documents proving your current, lawful, work-authorized status if you are not a U.S. citizen.
"In most cases, you can mail or take your application and original documents to your local Social Security office. If you live in the New York City metropolitan area, Las Vegas NV, Orlando FL, or Phoenix AZ you may need to apply in person at your local Social Security Card Center.
"All documents must be either originals or copies certified by the issuing agency. We cannot accept photocopies of notarized copies of documents."

Easy. Hey! Wait a minute...,

In Indiana you need a valid identification with picture and signature to get the copy of the birth certificate you need to get a valid identification with picture so you can vote?

That would be the idea, yes. Or, in other words, in order to prevent fraudulent acquisition of a person's vital documents (think identity theft here; even if it were true that a few honest, diligent voters could be turned away at the polls, I think that it is a far better recourse than the possibility of my or anyone Else's loss of finances, credit, property, &c.), a person must present the same documents required of them to obtain employment, open a bank account, cash a check, pay for goods or services by any method aside from cash, &c. &c. &c.

If you cannot afford to pay the $13.00, or roughly the price of a case of Hamm's, the state will provide the ID free of charge, so long as proof of the inability to pay is submitted in writing (this would be akin to taxes). Is this $13.00, if one cannot prove destitution, really a sufficiently burdensome amount to prevent people from excercising their right to vote...or cash a paycheck?

No money to a pay for either a copy of your birth certificate - which, did I mention, you can’t get without a valid picture id? - or the government issue photo id? No problem, just go down to your county’s election commission, and fill out the paperwork to get your certificate of indigency. I’m not sure what documentation you need to prove indigency - probably a valid photo id - but nevertheless, once you have it then you can use it to get all the documentation you need to get the valid photo id without having to pay for it all.

Ah, cynical speculation lends an "incredulous" amount of credibility to any argument.

As I have above alluded, unless a person lives in a cave in the wilderness, trekking into town only occasionally for to procure supplies paid with gold bullion, physical identification with photograph and signature are required to accomplish anything at this point in society; therefore it serves to say that citizens (those entitled to vote) who do not already possess such identification likely have made a conscious decision based upon some socio-political belief.

In my humble, editorial opinion, playing the poor card in this instance is absurd leftism. To be clear, by leftism, at this point, I am referring to the blind use of key "hot" terms or ideas intended for some type of political propaganda usage by the left side of the spectrum. Equally absurd, however, is another primary argument, namely that there is no "evidence" of the voter fraud through "identity manipulation."

I will say that I believe "identity manipulation" is a misnomer; it is identity theft, plain and simple, and if we see it in other, traceable areas, are we so naive as to assume that 100% of the electorate (or "others" passing as lawful voters) would never engage is such egregious behavior? It pains my soul to say, but voter fraud has been in service for a very, very long time, and with the horrors of identity theft hanging as a villainous specter over life in our current day and age, the alignments between what we would consider to be identity theft (as the term relates to matters of personal credit and finance) and voter fraud (as I have alluded to really being the same thing) are no more askew than the fact than differing terms can be ascribed to them. They are one and the same thing, and if a person can create accounts in the name of another, and destroy the life of that other by the third-party liquidation of that other's assets, then it serves equally that that same third party could snatch or create an identity for the purpose of promulgating voter fraud to a virtually unlimited level.

liberadio.com offers a differing opinion, citing:

…the court acknowledged that the record of the case contained “no evidence” of the type of voter fraud the law was ostensibly devised to detect and deter, the effort by a voter to cast a ballot in another person’s name.

Wouldn't the intent of "fraud" be deception? If fraud were carried out effectively, then would there be any evidences? We're not talking about an extended period of time, either, as we would if a Capital One account had been created fraudulently by one in the name of another; we're discussing brief increments of time over the period of a single day involving the heated passions of millions from a myriad of differing positions and agendas each hoping to have their own way. In this modern age of rampant technology, would voter fraud be detectable after the event? would there be a significant push to rectify the fraud if it had occurred, with those same millions clamoring to uphold their results?

Summing up the arguments against photo ID to validate voting procedure can be accomplished with one word: asinine.

This is not an issue, either, of a federal mandate; it is an issue of the highest court upholding a state's individual right to regulate electoral procedure in that state, and, in the end, it should be the right of that state to regulate their own procedures as they see fit to do so, so long as it in no way interferes with a clear constitutional mandate. If the federal government did institute a uniform voting procedure across the nation, it would still be behoving to include procedures such as these in an attempt to curtail voter fraud, and criticisms of such procedures are not only tired, they are just as I have stated above: asinine, a thinly veiled attempt at partisan manipulation, not of the individual votes, but of the entire electoral proceeding.

Re-cy-CLING?

2008-04-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

I crossed into dangerous territory today, doing something I'd hoped to avoid for the rest of my God-given life: I fixed a prominent part of my car with duct tape.

It seems that the government is about to explore ideas that it, too, had hoped to avoid, at least through the foreseeable future: namely, the recycling of nuclear wastes. Through recent history, we, the public at large, have been encouraged to "go green," recycling every common item imaginable; they've offered incentives and even preached fear in order to convince as many people as possible to recycle as much as possible. When it comes to nuclear waste, on the other hand, recycling has simply not been an option, and has seldom been discussed at the political level. That seems to be changing, however, as the Feds, together with the TVA, are now legitimately investigating the potential of spent nuclear fuel recycling.

One of the most prominent reasons given for banning the recycling of spent fuel, aside from the potentially great cost involved, is the concern over terrorism, dating back to the Ford administration.

"Ivan Oelrich of the Federation of American Scientists, for example, says that the new type of recycled fuel would contain as much as 90 percent plutonium, making it a much more attractive target to a bomb-building terrorist. Spent fuel from traditional reactors, by comparison, contains only 1 percent plutonium."

Compared to the uranium already used? If it were possible to obtain quantities of plutonium from recycling facilities, does it not serve to say that the same concerns are plausible regarding the possibilities of obtaining the enriched uranium in the first place? To me, this seems like a dodge.

If we are to be convinced to recycle a lowly aluminum can or consumed Grolsch bottle, how much more does the recycling of spent nuclear fuel benefit us all ecologically? If we, as a nation, are looking toward nuclear power as a prominent source of energy in the coming decades in order to reduce emissions while increasing output and efficiency, then the effective and efficient recycling of the byproducts of that process becomes a must, especially considering the volatility of those byproducts. Research must be allowed to flourish in order to fully develop and refine the possibilities, and help to dispel the demonic shadow cast, in the eyes of many, by the nuclear industries.

The Safest Place on the Whole Battlefield; Right Smack Dab in the Middle

2008-04-19T21:46:00.001-07:00

I'll keep this observation brief.

I have noticed in recent days that Hillary is pulling her campaign more into the middle ground. Normally, a candidate must pander to the base as much as possible through the primaries; then, when the party nominations are secured, a pullback to more "moderate" positions is attempted.

Obama, true to form, has been shooting himself in the proverbial foot, again and again, from with whom he chooses to associate, to "embittered" comments regarding the populace in the yet-to-come primaries, and each time he has used his powers of oratory and rebounded most skilfully. However, with each "scandalous" moment, his rebounds have become increasingly slow.

This can mean two things, and most likely both: one, Hillary is attempting to break free from Obama politically once and for all, and distance herself as much as possible leading into the final primaries; two, which ties into the first a bit, she feels the nomination drawing nigh and is beginning a larger-scale campaign to set the tone for the next six and a half months. How much does she have to lose?

According to Real Clear Politics, she trails Obama by only 140 delegates, and has a 5.7% lead over him heading into the Pennsylvania primaries. I am not sure that anyone aside from the Almighty completely understands how the Democratic system functions (if, indeed, one could call it "functioning"), but she has a very realistic chance of overtaking, screeching into the convention by just the enamel on her teeth.

However, she trails badly in North Carolina polling...by a devastating 14.5%

Again, an observation, take it for what you may; but I find it fascinating.

Dropping the "A" Bomb

2008-04-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps this post is a bit tardy, but it should serve as a reminder about certain sentiments, and I should certainly remind any readership of it in coming months.

I can't even say that I find this particular sentiment sad...rather, I find it quite pathetic.

John McCain began launching the first in his series of campaign ads in the fairly recent past, affixing the slogan "The American President Americans have been waiting for." Then came the inevitable attacks, as one would expect. Personally, my first thought would be to attack the use of a preposition in concluding the sentence. Rather, it was the use of the term "American" which sparked the outcry.

It would seem that the use of that term can now be considered racist.

The theory used to validate such claims is that the usage of "American President" was aimed squarely at Barack Obama, challenging his Americanness. Yet not only is this theory unsubstantiated, it is unsubstantiatable. As a point of contention, Republican candidates tend to inject their campaigns with large doses of patriotism, to sometimes extreme levels. With no other metaphors, verbal or visual, which could be used to definitively portray Obama as a specific target, other than this one word, the sentiment that there can be racial overtones for an American candidate to refer to himself as an American while campaigning for an office whose title is even used by a multitude of other offices and in other nations is discouraging and troubling.

That one may attack based solely upon this unfounded "theory" merely reflects ones own sense of inadequacy or inferiority, and that more than anything reflects the desperation felt by the Democrats at this point in time.

April 13, 2008

2008-04-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

A personal moment if I may...

Today is a great day, marking an annual tradition for me. Today is:

I MANAGED TO GET MY LBJ-ERA LAWNMOWER RUNNING FOR ANOTHER YEAR DAY!

It is quite an accomplishment, and every spring I hold my breath and await sweet success or catastrophic failure. Since it stimulates such profound jubilation in my own murmuring heart, I felt the need to share it with the world.

Happy Lawnmower Day!!!

My Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds

2008-04-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I made a comment, possibly in less than scrupulous taste, that the president (small "P") had passed away. One of my esteemed acquaintances raised a smug, tooth-filled grin and asked: "Bush is dead?" How I was able to keep my composure is a miracle known only to the Almighty, but it prompted some contemplation from the dark recesses of my cranial sac.

It seems that: those who think that war is a pathetic reality which should be dealt with as a crime; those who seek more lenient punishments for the wicked, "feeling" that the problem lies within society or in certain mental conditions, the likes of which we mere mortals can never begin to understand or appreciate; those who are pacifists; feel that the only way to deal with the current administration in the District of Columbia is through the untimely end of the very life of the executive. It has been countless times in recent years that I have heard phrases uttered, such as: "I wish he would just...," "Why won't he...," "Someone ought to..." and the like, in reference to the mortality of a man, regardless of differences of opinion, flesh and blood just as they...an endless torrent of pure hate. These same people, many of whom I have known personally, who utter comments such as these are the very same people who vehemently believe in principles of Chamberlainian pacifism such as I have outlined above, exemplify liberal hypocrisy, and they proclaim their sentiments with ever increasing efficiency and vivacious fervor.

To strive for "change," to clamor for what you determine to be injustice and await reprisal on account of proper, fair judgement in the eyes of your own fellow countrymen is fair and honorable, but to advocate the termination of a human life, a countryman, under the mere pretense that that person's policies are not in agreement with your own is absolutely sickening.

Vai com Deus, presidente Heston

2008-04-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

It was with a heavy dose of melancholy I received word of Charlton Heston's death on Sunday. My mind has been swimming to provide an adequate homage, but to no avail.

I will leave it in the hands of bloomberg.com to provide an epilogue, which can be summed up quite succinctly by these words, included in the above article, by his own kin:

"No one could ask for a fuller life than his," his family said. "No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country,"

The Zaney Democrats

2008-04-03T22:11:00.001-07:00

Last month I had brought up some considerations regarding the Democratic Presidential race in a vague attempt to shed light upon an ugly situation. Will their free press propel either candidate through November 4th, or will the supporters of the losing candidate tend to shun the victor?

Here are a few more considerations. There are voters out there who are probably not paying the least attention to the race right now, yet either Democratic contender is pounding the scene with name recognition. Make no mistake, there will be voters out there more inclined to vote for either of them merely because they will have heard their name far more than McCain's.

That said, there will be others out there, though not as many, I'm afraid, who will vote for McCain for that same reason.

Much of Obama's support is with younger voters; many of the older voters are completely turned off by him. If he wins, advantage McCain.

However, here's a new one. In that earlier blurb I made some comments about speaking to the base. Regardless of the winner, by the time the August convention is finished, the last balloon has been popped, and the last protester arraigned, a substantial amount of campaigning has been directed precisely there, to the base of the party, those whose views, even amongst the party itself, tend to be the most extreme, and will therefore bill themselves as decidedly more extreme. McCain has the opportunity of dealing with a broader spectrum of voters right now, and relative advantage normally held by incumbents. McCain will be able to appear as something akin to a "compromise," whereas neither Democrat will be able to appear even somewhat moderate.

For those out there who dread the possibilities, perhaps this last one will help calm those damaged nerves.

The Economy and Nevada, Part Two

2008-04-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I laid the historical background behind the motives for Nevada's more libertarian solutions to economic hardship. While many of these solutions had their roots in the "old West" days, traditions which never fully died off, it was the Great Depression which brought about legislation allowing activities shunned by many to become industrialized, including gaming, leaving tourism to thrive, keeping taxes relatively low.

The relatively low tax rate, aside from benefiting the citizenry of the State, was a huge boon to growth. In fact, as that article will show, the State's population had been shrinking drastically in the closing years of the 19th century, posing a significant revenue problem at the state level. As Nevada has always been considered a "small state" (total state population being under 500,000 into the 1970s), relying upon one primary industry for the bulk of state revenue could be considered adequate (as had been done with mining previously), as became with Gaming. However, as population increases in the fantastic sums Nevada has seen (nearly 50% or above each decade for the past fifty years), sustaining a barely diversified economy becomes difficult.

This is what we see in Nevada today: the growth of the tourism industry is unable to compete with the accelerating growth of residents and the inherent social programs for which that larger population will clamor. Here-to-fore, a balance for a large part of the dividend has been by way of property taxes, a revenue source which becomes fickle between current housing trends as well as a growing need for more "mass housing," i.e. apartments, condominiums, &c, in the larger, metropolitan areas of the state (Washoe County, Carson City, Clark County, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, parts of Elko, Lyon, and Douglas Counties). The tax crisis faced by the legislature in 2003 (to say nothing about current budget shortfalls approaching the $900,000,000 mark) underscores the need to diversify.

But, back to the task at hand, the role of gaming in all of this. The current situation is not pretty, but given what we have to work with, an economy which can be described as sluggish does not lend itself to tax increases, least of all increases in tax rates for the proverbial hand that feeds us. Reverting back to an "old friend" (see Part Two of Historical Musing #1 from March), the Revenue Act of 1932 proves this fact. The question begs to be asked, just what would happen in the event of a tax increase for the gaming industry in particular.

The first to feel the bite would be the smaller casinos. The "little guy" simply would be unable to compete, especially given the current state of the economy, with their larger neighbors. Aside from the distressing number of layoffs created by the closure of several "little guys," the larger neighbors, rather than driving down many of their own rates, would see their product at a premium, actually increasing their rates for room and board, food, and even the gambling activities themselves. For a huge (yet ever dwindling) number of weekend gamers from California this would provide a huge obstacle, and with an increasing number of Indian casinos much closer to home offering the same products (and perceptions of opportunity) far closer to home, a significant portion of the tourists who drive the Nevada economy will simply be far less willing to make the drive across state lines for their excursions. Indian gaming as already had a profound effect upon the Nevada economy (with the Comstock, Sundowner, and Old Reno Club, among others, closing since 2000 in Reno alone; these properties were able to benefit by the housing boom of recent years, a topic to which I will address in a bit more depth shortly), and the state simply cannot afford to wage an all-out war over gaming in the west at this juncture. Less business for the small Nevada casinos translates to more business for the Indian casinos, filling their coffers rather than ours, leaving them to create larger, more truly Nevada-style establishments, further decimating this source of state revenue in the decades down the road.

With the closures comes the unsightly and unfortunate prospect of vacant property. As I began above, several operations were forced to close in recent years. Yet a booming housing market (at the time) salvaged the majority of the physical properties as developers snatched up the not insignificant buildings for conversion into apartments and condos. With housing in a remarkable slump, properties in the immediate future would not be able to benefit from the same types of speculation, and it is far more likely that these buildings would fall into litigation nightmares and left to rot for years upon end, as has happened in the past. The city of Reno here becomes my model. The fabulous Hotel Mapes sat in a state of vacant decay for sixteen painful years before the City of Reno exercised eminent domain and finally demolished the beautiful yet dilapidated structure in January of 2000. The older Riverside Hotel in Reno, likewise, sat vacant for well over a decade before the City was finally able to rejuvenate the sad structure. Currently there is one significant, grotesque monument to this in the form of the old Kings Inn, which operated only from 1975 into 1982. Many others, including the not insignificant in stature Fitzgerald's building downtown, could easily meet similar fates, leaving the downtown a hideous, pockmarked mess, further driving away the all too valuable tourism market. Reno would, unfortunately, not be alone in this disaster, however.

In my opinion, the problems faced today are exacerbated by Nevada's industrial distribution. As of 2006, "Leisure and Hospitality" took the largest share at 27%, followed by "Trade, Transportation, and Utilities" at 17%. Tied for third, at 12% were "Professional and Business Services" and "Government." An industrial distribution where government and the bureaucracy it inherently creates is the third largest chunk is an enormous hurdle not only for solvency, but for the State in general.

Government is where special attention should be aimed, not at thinly veiled attempts at slapping the hand that feeds you...with a hatchet.

The Economy and Nevada, Part One

2008-04-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

A short while back a friend of mine lamented the curtailing of a specific program of which she is an avid supporter. While I will refrain from mentioning it specifically, it will suffice to say that it is a fantastic program, however due to the economic constraints under which the great State of Nevada is currently forced to operate they were unable to receive a particular state-funded grant, resulting in the shrinking of the size of the program.

I greatly admire her convictions in the matter, but as she lamented she began stating (blurting, more like) her solutions to these economic constraints. Simply put, it was to punish the purveyors of prosperity.

I.E. levy taxes against the casinos.

In the Beginning...

Nevada has always had a rather "different" culture, and as a state with a fairly small population there was always something steady driving the state's economy. In the earliest years this was at the hands of the vast mineral wealth. Nevada being a state who's population was below 90k prior to the Great Depression, this mineral wealth, in spite of the ever waxing and waning trends in mineralogical development, provided an adequate sustenance for the State.

Once the depression hit, however, Nevada searched for something to sustain the economy. The mines no longer produced the fantastic sums they had in the previous 70 years, and, in a short time, Washington, D.C.'s would expand efforts to create a "more stable currency," further minimizing the economic impact that mining had upon state tax revenue. Having dabbled in permitting and regulating activities shunned by most other states before (in the early 20th century, boxing was highly taboo in most states, and when promoters for the famous bout between Joe Gans and Oscar Nelson, Nevada was more than eager to host the event; the fight was held September 3, 1906, in Goldfield, Nevada), the State once more turned its attention to more unorthodox solutions, chief among them being gaming (legalized in 1931), as well as reducing the minimum period of residency in the state to six weeks in order to obtain a divorce (1931), among others. The industries associated with tourism began to flourish and helped to provide a more suitable tax base for the relatively small population extant at the time, and, as it continued to grow, continued as the primary sources of income for the State.

Thursday I will continue venture into Nevada and her economy, including the growth of population as well as contemporary economic contributions by industry.

McCain

2008-03-30T20:50:00.001-07:00

It is my belief that, at this time, John McCain is the single, most suitable candidate for the executive office of the federal government. Simply put, either Democratic candidate will undoubtedly strain our sovereignty and poison our economy. Now is not the time to attempt to balance a federal budget by punishing the purveyors of prosperity, as Democratic philosophies on taxation certainly will (remember the Revenue Act of 1932? Hoover tried this with miserable results). So, to celebrate my endorsement of Senator McCain, I have composed a short bit of prose...

Mc is for My Candidate, even though you may not have been my first choice and it is very likely that nobody actually thought you'd make it this far. But the times are desperate, indeed, and the stakes are too high to cross over the aisle at this juncture.

C (the other "C") is for that Can Do belief which has kept you going. Being repeatedly cast aside by the Republican base has not deterred you; you have bounced back and tried, again and again, to attain the party's nomination. At last you succeeded, and I trust that you will bring that philosophy to the executive office.

A is for attitude. Well, frankly, I think the "C" pretty much has this covered, and I trust, again, that your attitude toward your mission will keep the nation moving forward in all its endeavors.

I is for the initiative that the Republican party must take in order to ensure you your destiny. Some may have considered you as riding the black horse, but make no mistake: either of the "others" are riding the pale donkey...and hell follows with them.

N is for Now or Never. This is a critical time for the Republicans, and, with good guidance and sound leadership, we must make the word REPUBLICAN a proud word once again. Okay, I kinda borrowed part of that from Ronald Reagan, but...I really miss Reagan.

Perhaps not my most laudable effort, but a gift nonetheless.

RG-J Reader Opinion, 03/26/2008

2008-03-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

The title: Don't Need Another Bush in White House

The alarms sound, but we continue.

A little food for thought before you go to the polls:

Is it easier today buying daily necessities: food, gas, medications?

Is America respected more throughout the world today?

Is our security as safe?

Do we want continued war or peace?

Do we want to pursue the same path?

The government isn't the solution to our problems, the government is our problem.

Putting everything into perspective, it appears to me our present administration has failed miserably.

Think before you choose to elect another Bush in office.

Well, the author got one thing right, that government is the problem, not the solution. In my opinion this is a sentiment not reserved exclusively for 2001 to present, but a general truth.

Yet there is one crucial sentiment that this letter expresses: people really have no idea what is going on out there.

George W. Bush is done; his eight years have expired and by this time next year he will be retired. He is not running again; Jeb is not running; Jenna is not running. In short, there is NO Bush running for federal office; we are, repeat after me, NOT GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER BUSH IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Or did the author mean this as a metaphor? If this is so, then even a sidelong glance at the three, major-party candidates will show that none of them is particularly eager to continue along this current avenue, at least not in the same buggy.

Again, we are, repeat after me, NOT GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER BUSH IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

Whew.

This is a major problem with many on the left at this point in time; they focus their hatred of G. W. Bush into a what they hope will become a lethal laser beam when, in fact, the argument is almost moot. The times are changing, for better or for worse, and people who push sentiments such as these are obviously not putting forth the best parts of their efforts on real, tangible issues, only their own self-contained hatred and obvious ignorance. In my estimation this not only a dangerous process but is even worse than apathy as the only thing it accomplishes is focusing on the worst aspects of our society rather than actually attempting to fix those difficulties or, at least, doing a modicum of research in order to vote for someone who best represents your philosophies of change or status quo.

Perhaps they can't deal with someone new coming along upon whom to focus their hate when Bush is such an easy target. Face it, he's gone, and there's nothing you can do to bring him back.

Right now the best we can do is let these little toddlers have their little tantrums and do our best to ignore their outbursts. By next January they will be forced to exercise their hatred elsewhere.

Is the Snow Off of Peavine Yet?

2008-03-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ah, there is nothing quite like listening to Shostakovitch to bring out my inner proletarian. For me, this means gardening.

The old Renoite adage is to never plant a garden until the snows have melted off of Peavine Mountain. Generally this is a fair guideline, but there are the odd years. Well, who am I kidding, they're all odd years. Last year there wasn't enough snow, and it had cleared off the mountain quite early leaving me sunk when a late frost came 'round in May. In heavy years such as this it may linger well past the greater planting good.

As it stands now my kitchen counter is cluttered with little seedlings just itching to be put in the ground, and, frankly, I'm tired of having them in the house.

Springtime is always a crazy critter 'round hereabouts.

So now I have a post to offset my rants about nearly obscure historical references.

Next Up: Cardozaisms Related to a Letter to the RG-J Opinion Editor for March 26, 2008.

On Deck: Gimme a Mc C*A*I*N

Historical Musing #2 (in "D" Minor)

2008-03-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

With the 2008 Democratic primaries in a state of chaotic flux, I introduce another note from the past.

After the election of 1908, the majority of the nation showed that it desired to continue in the ways of Theodore Roosevelt, and with Roosevelt himself persuading the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft, now President Taft was elected 1,269,411 popular votes (but 321 to 162 Electoral) versus perennial challenger William Jennings Bryan. By 1912 the sentiment had changed somewhat, as Roosevelt had become greatly displeased at Taft's handling of the office, in particular the downfall of so many programs over which Roosevelt himself had labored so diligently. Wilson managed 41.8% of the popular vote, but with the opposition split between 27.4% for the Roosevelt Progressives and 23.2% for Taft and the Republicans. In the Electoral College the victory for Wilson was much more sweeping, as he had taken 435 of the necessary 531 to win. Taft was left with eight total electoral votes, winning only Vermont and Utah. With that reference in mind, let us move on to our blog.

There has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate, about to assemble will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put into the hands of Democrats. What dies the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds to-day. That is the question I am going to try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion.

It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which the Nation now seeks to use the Democratic Party. it seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view. Some old things with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to creep into the very habit of our thought and of our lives, have altered their aspect as we have latterly looked critically upon them, with fresh, awakened eyes; have dropped their disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister. Some new things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to comprehend their real character, have come to assume the aspect of things long believed in and familiar, stuff of our own convictions. We have been refreshed by a new insight into our own life.

This sentiment is all the more true today than it was when it was spoken in March of 1913. The Republicans have had the ball for some time now, but for the past five to six years have fumbled their way around the field. It is now the Democrat's game to lose.

Yet as they stand poised to make a titanic comeback, can they "punch it in" for the final score, the Presidency? They are on the verge, but with two stars remaining on their team, fighting amongst themselves for the individual glory, they have turned even their fans back upon themselves, and with a cheering section such as that behind you the outcome becomes much more foggy.

The longer they can maintain the charade the greater the possibility that the rift they are creating between the continents of the two candidates will become irreconcilable.

There is a catch, however. This bickering and prolonging and dividing within the Democratic Party provides a constant torrent of free publicity, inescapable to nearly all Americans. This can work one of two ways:

A significant enough portion of the voters tire of hearing the names of either of the remaining candidates, leaving whoever emerges from this "thing" doomed.
We may be reminded of Rudy Giuliani's campaign, the theory being that by holding back he would increase his popularity by refraining from rubbing the public's proverbial noses in his campaign ad nauseam. To this end he refrained from many of the early primaries, deciding to focus instead on "Super Tuesday" states. This worked out poorly for him. Along those lines, the unceasing barage of "Democrat, Democrat, Democrat" may leave voters speaking softly to themselves: "Yes, Democrat, Democrat; I'm going to vote Democrat."

One thing to consider about that latter, though, is that the primaries are inherently geared not to the middle ground, but to the more extremes of party politics, people who very likely wanted, even needed, to have their proverbial noses rubbed into his campaign ad nauseam.

Likewise, McCain is seen by many as a moderate, and while there are many out there who simply will not vote for the candidate with the capital "R" after his name (again, this is the Democrat's election to lose), this is a sentiment largest in younger groups whose voting turnouts are schizophrenic at best; whereas there are a number of older, more dependable voters who have been split by this rift in the Democratic Party and freely admit to their willingness to vote for McCain should their candidate not survive the convention process.

There are many factors which complicate this thing beyond measure, but I remind the reader that this truly is the Democrat's election to lose: Wilson's sentiment in 1913 resounds today, but the Democrats are trying their best to throw that ball into the hands of the defense, and while McCain may not be a first-team All-American, he's the best we've got right now.

Historical Musing No. 1 (in "F" Minor); Part Two

2008-03-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

With the chicken on the stove and the cat finally settled down for a long, five-minute rest, it is time to complete the first "Historical Musing."

In part one I touched upon statements by FDR regarding his presumptive belief that the nation desired government action. It is worth noting that he was correct in this presumption as the results of the 1932 election prove. Hoover himself was not a proponent of laissez-faire policies (find a copy of Hoover's 1922 American Individualism), his actions and reactions following Black Tuesday show the ends to which he was willing to allow government to take part in widespread economic recovery (one devistating mistake he had made was the Revenue Act of 1932, in which taxes on the highest levels of income were levied from 25 to 63%, the estate tax was doubled, and, possibly most importantly, corporate taxes were raised 15%, attacking those who most directly affect prosperity and recovery). However the message was clear in 1932: help us; don't help me help myself, fix our little problems so that we can forget about all of this (and fix the drought, too). This is understandable, since many in the working classes of Europe had become mesmerized by the ideals of communism, and those ideals trickling out across the industrialized world, strongly influencing many Americans and even leading to a "revolutionary" institution of a government (Russia, nee USSR, nee Russia) based upon those ideals. For many working Americans this philosophy was the proverbial greatest thing since sliced bread, assuming that they had lost their job to an automated bread slicing machine, and in a governmental sense it relied heavily upon "redistribution" to move nearer to some sort of economic equality. With that, on to Part Two.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land.

If what we have visited here-to-fore in this speech could be considered a bit "progressive," this sentiment is downright socialistic. I personally find the sentiment frightening that "we" would be willing to put "our" faith in a man who believes in the relocation of the people over whom he was elected to preside in order to facilitate some form of reorganization of land usage or other. Since he deemed it important enough to set as a part of his administration's agenda in his first publicly-spoken monologue as President we may take for granted that this is not merely a prelude to the occasional exercise of eminent domain for a TVA project.

One last bit before I retire...

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

Would we be better served by a government who keeps their metaphorical noses out of the financial dealings of the people, or one which legislates for the mutual good and common security and strives to bring down the hammer upon transgressors? That is to the taste of the the individual, in my opinion. Yet consider these old-order "evils" to which Mr. Roosevelt speaks. Nearly every generation develops new economic theories and, really, about the only good thing what most of them have brought is the ability to prove them wrong; economic theorists believed that a stagnating economy could not be coupled with inflation, yet a period to which I casually refer as the '70s proved that to be a gross miscalculation. However, throughout capitalist history economies have their ups and their downs; very often the downs seem to attack suddenly, at least to the eyes of the majority of affected people, whereas the ups are often achieved with a relatively more shallow gradient. New Deal implementations may have helped restore some faith in some peoples' selves, but to resolve the economic woes of the nation it was a failure.

Consider the unemployment rates once more; 1926 saw the lowest unemployment percentage in eight years at 1.9%; the average for 1929 was 3.2%, rising to 8.9% for 1930; 1933 saw the worst unemployment rates at 24.9%, although the preceding and following years were not much better. In fact 1937 saw the lowest unemployment rate, at 14.3%, prior to World War Two, and rates failed to dip below 5% (really, they failed to drop out of borderline double digits) until 1943 finally saw a 1.9% rate. According to one article, the Great Depression can be described as containing two periods of recession: August, 1929 through March, 1933 (Hoover); and May, 1937 through June, 1938 (second Roosevelt). For reference, compare this with the unemployment rate for February, 2008 at 4.8%.

For whatever my humble opinion may be worth, if the New Deal, as preluded with the First Inaugural Address, restored the faith of an individual in the individual, thereby winning the admiration and respect of seemingly millions of Americans, then it may be understandable the long-term effects that this had on the economy; the policy failed, and inspired decades of economic theory and political action based upon those failures.

Next on the agenda: Woodrow Wilson, the Change in Government, and Cardoza's Modern Speculation.

On Deck: Is the Snow Off Peavine Yet?

Historical Musing No. 1 ( in "F" Minor); Part One

2008-03-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of divining from history and exploiting it for my own election year musings, I will draw from, as my first source of inspiration, the First Inaugural Address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is the famous "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," speech.

This is not a strict, line-by-line analysis, mind you; merely my own personal reflections upon a few quotes which stand out specifically among the others.

In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

This is followed a few paragraphs later with the following.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

In a moment of what the reader may refer to as candor, Roosevelt admits that taxes had risen while the ability of the citizenry to pay those taxes had diminished. In those early years of the Great Depression this was most obvious. At this late hour of the evening I will not address economic concerns, only specific feelings about the text. In this vein, the phrase which I find to be the most distressing is: "direct recruiting by the Government itself," followed closely by: "to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources."

It serves to say that disparaging thoughts regarding FDR may greatly upset a number of seniors, as I have learned through viewpoint exchanges with some elder members of my own family. The general consensus is that Roosevelt's greatest success was in the restoration of an impression of the self worth of an individual, a sentiment which is difficult to refute despite contemporary unemployment rates. Yet the concept of the government stepping in not to solve the difficulties, but to absorb and control them by having a direct hand in any portion of the force of national labor, beyond that which concerns the direct functioning of the government, is in itself problematic, and the dealings with "our natural resources" underscore this problem.

Why do I mention such trivial historical footnotes? Two reasons: first, to provide a very general foundation of my own musings; and second, history is ripe with the fruits of experience, and beyond the usual cliches of its unending repetition we can view specimens of that fruit and use them, as in reference, to better display the table of issues in the present.

Next on the agenda: Part Two, the Overbalance of Population & National Redistribution, and Government Supervision of Financial Dealings.

On Deck: Woodrow Wilson, the Change in Government, and Cardoza's Modern Speculation.

Great for 2008

2008-03-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

About mid December of even-numbered years I make a concerted effort to distance myself from viewpoint exchanges (as I choose to refer to spirited political encounters) and other political musings, preferring to take a live and let live approach to the opinions of those who surround me, figuring that it is far better for my overall health and well being. Yet the attraction proves too great in the ensuing even numbered years to allow for such musings to fly by my wings without paying it at least some mind if not contributing in some fashion or another. Thanks to the wondrous world of technology (and finally casting off the burdensome shackles of rotary telephony), this has become significantly easier for me, and so the time has finally come for the world to share in what to which my friends affectionately (or so they tell me) refer as Cardozaisms.

Since I am a "regular, blue-collar" working man I am simply unable at this juncture to throw myself off into the proverbial "deep end" of this sometimes crazy world, but I would like to think that, at the end of the day, I have contributed something to someone somewhere.

I will call attention now to the fact that I have something of a penchant for history, a "quirk" which will rear its head frequently. With that duly given as a fair warning, I will let the elections year "isms" begin.