October 25, 2013

Weekend Economists Simplify Everything! October 25-27, 2013

Last Weekend, we danced around the issue of simplicity, literally.

The truth is, it takes a lot of intelligence, creativity, experience and some very complex reasoning to get to simplicity, or as scientists and engineers would call it, the Elegant Solution:

Well, maybe not. I used duct tape to mend a vacuum cleaner hose cheaply, quickly and effectively. Not "elegant" in the artistic meaning of the word, but it got the job done, and will keep doing so, indefinitely.



Perhaps we shall reserve "elegance" for the original design, which ought to be simple and effective enough to NOT need repair by something as tawdry as duct tape. A vacuum cleaner, of course, is a kind of kludge....nothing like a simple, elegant solution.




However, duct tape itself is a supremely elegant design...



Did you know duct tape comes in high-fashion colors for crafts? And people have made prom dresses and other clothing out of duct tape? (and at a cost comparable to the real thing, at today's prices for duct tape).



Duct tape prom dress could win Kansas teen $5,000

http://www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/Duct-tape-prom-dress-could-win-Kansas-teen-5000-160412155.html

How did I get off on this tangent?

Well, it wasn't simple, that's for sure. But that's what you get, from a Generalist's brain....

October 25, 2013

How bad is it? Read this and weep: Scott Adams couldn't even do it justice

Assessing the Exchanges By Yuval Levin

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361577/assessing-exchanges-yuval-levin








THE OPINION IS THAT IT IS THE ECONOMIC/HEALTH/INSURANCE-COMPANY-ALL-YOU-CAN-STEAL EQUIVALENT TO KATRINA IN N'AWLINS.....

October 21, 2013

Snowden Offers to Fix Healthcare.gov by Andy Borowitz

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/snowden-offers-to-fix-health-insurance-marketplace.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28187%29

The N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden today reached out to the United States government, offering to fix its troubled healthcare.gov Web site in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia, Mr. Snowden said he hacked the Web site over the weekend and thinks he is “pretty sure what the problem is.”

“Look, this thing was built terribly,” he said. “It’s a government Web site, O.K.?”

Mr. Snowden said that if an immunity deal can be worked out, “I can get to work on this thing right away—I don’t need a password.”

In addition to full immunity, Mr. Snowden said he is requesting that he be allowed to work from home.

At the White House, President Obama offered a muted response to Mr. Snowden’s proposal: “Edward Snowden is a traitor who has compromised our national security. Having said that, if he knows why we keep getting those error messages, that could be a conversation.”




TRUST ME, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN...WE AREN'T THAT KIND OF REALISTS AROUND HERE. ESPECIALLY THAT "WORKING FROM HOME" PART!

October 18, 2013

Simple "Weekend Economists" October 18-20, 2013

Portrait of Elder Joseph Brackett Jr,
1797-1882

Source:
The Aletheia:Spirit of Truth
by Aurelia G. Mace.
Farmington, Maine:
Press of the Knowlton & McLeary Co., 1907

"Simple Gifts" was written by Elder Joseph Brackett while he was at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. These are the lyrics to his one-verse song. Several Shaker manuscripts indicate that this is a "Dancing Song" or a "Quick Dance." "Turning" is a common theme in Christian theology, but the references to "turning" in the last two lines have also been identified as dance instructions. A manuscript of Mary Hazzard of the New Lebanon, New York, Shaker community records this original version of the melody:



Among other uses and adaptations, the Shaker's "Simple Gifts" melody shows up as a part of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, choreographed by Martha Graham 1944. (I don't think Martha had a clue about the Shakers...especially their tendency to eschew marriage and reproduction, hence the title "Appalachian Spring&quot .







This is the movement based on the Shaker tune





Two additional, later non-Shaker verses exist for the song, as follows:

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,
(refrain)
'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.[9]
(refrain)
Tis the gift to be loving, tis the best gift of all
Like a quiet rain it blesses where it falls
And with it we will truly believe
Tis better to give than it is to receive

And an additional alternative:

The Earth is our mother and the fullness thereof,
Her streets, her slums, as well as stars above.
Salvation is here where we laugh, where we cry,
Where we seek and love, where we live and die.

When true liberty is found,
By fear and by hate we will no more be bound.
In love and in light we will find our new birth
And in peace and freedom, redeem the Earth.[10]

Another alternate verse:

'tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be fair
'tis a gift to wake and breathe the morning air
and each day we walk on the path that we choose
'tis a gift we pray we never shall lose

"Lord Of The Dance" is another hymn, with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963, that uses the melody of the "Simple Gifts" hymn..



And of course, Michael Flatley took it from there:



Human beings don't do simple very well....certainly not this one! Nor the Congresscritters, as evidenced by their antics this month and last...

October 16, 2013

2500+ Killed by Drones in Pakistan, Names of Victims Now Available

Medea Benjamin ALSO discusses protecting the US public from drones at home

October 14, 2013

The Calvinistic Elite Rejoices at such news

It is exactly what they wished for.

Whereas, we would prefer to shut down the Military Occupations and Corporate Subsidies, including Energy and Agribusiness and the abusers of comsumers, wherever they may operate...

WELL WORTH THE READ

October 13, 2013

G.O.P.’s Hopes to Take Senate Are Dimming By JEREMY W. PETERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/gops-hopes-to-take-senate-are-dimming.html?pagewanted=print

Next year was supposed to be a prime opportunity for Republicans to retake the Senate. And for a while, everything seemed to be breaking their way: a wave of Democratic retirements, a fluke in the electoral map that put a large number of races in states that President Obama lost, a strong farm team of conservative Senate hopefuls from the House.

Then the government shut down. Now, instead of sharpening their attacks on Democrats, Republicans on Capitol Hill are being forced to explain why they are not to blame and why Americans should trust them to govern both houses of Congress when the one they do run is in such disarray. Complicating the prospects, the grass-roots political force that has provided so much of the energy for conservative victories over the last four years — the Tea Party — is aggressively working against Republicans it considers not conservative enough.

As a result, many Republicans are openly worrying that the fallout from the fiscal battles paralyzing the capital will hit hardest not in the House, which seems safely in Republican hands thanks to carefully redrawn districts, but in the Senate. Republican infighting, they say, has given Democrats the cover they need to deflect blame and keep their majority...With the elections still a year away, it is impossible to tell what other factors might alter the field. But Republicans, Democrats and independent experts all agree that the government shutdown has added one more cross for Republicans to bear...The Republicans have little margin of error. A new analysis by Cook Political showed how difficult the math was. The party would need to win five of the six Senate seats considered most competitive to recapture a majority. All six of those seats are in states that Mitt Romney won in 2012, but as Mr. Cook put it, “The path is very, very, very narrow.”

.....................................

For their part, the incumbent Democrats who will face off against the Republicans who have embraced the shutdown strategy seem to feel that they have caught a lucky break. When told the other day that Republicans were hopeful they could topple her by attacking her insistence that Democrats not give in on the health law or the debt ceiling, Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana was incredulous. “Oh, really?” she said. “Oh, really?”

October 13, 2013

Salmonella and Hepatitis Outbreaks Start Up as Government Shuts Down

http://truth-out.org/news/item/19375-salmonella-and-hepatitis-outbreaks-start-up-as-government-shuts-down

Food-borne pathogens are not cooperating with the Republican shutdown of the US government.

In fact, they are busy sickening and killing Americans in more than 18 states, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are scrambling to recall furloughed employees to deal with a dangerous food-borne salmonella outbreak and a lethal Hepatitis outbreak in Hawaii.

The dual outbreaks have been linked to contaminated Foster Farms chicken products and the Dallas-based USPLabs LLC dietary supplement, OxyElite Pro. The outbreaks have sickened more than 300 people so far, killed one and hospitalized 87, with reports of antibiotic resistance for the precipitating strain of salmonella Heidelberg. No recall is currently in effect for Foster Farms chicken, but USPLabs LLC has ceased distributing the supplement until the FDA investigation is complete.

US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors have not been affected by the ongoing government shutdown as many meat and poultry facilities cannot legally operate without a USDA inspector on site. But more than 45 percent of all FDA employees have been furloughed, leaving daily operations such as crucial inspections of food imports on hiatus until the government reopens. The CDC, which functions as the detective agency for the FDA and FSIS, was down to a skeleton crew of just 10 employees in its food-borne illness division when the latest outbreaks occurred. Since the government shutdown began 11 days ago, these 10 employees have been struggling to maintain the constant updates required by the CDC's nationwide PulseNet database for tracking food-borne pathogens and outbreaks. All federal and state agencies across the United States rely on this database for their work on food safety....

October 11, 2013

Weekend Economists Shake the Foundation October 11-13, 2013

These are earth-shattering, world-quaking times we endure, in the nicest Autumn since 1975...
but I'm thinking specifically of Isaac Asimov, who founded several alternate worlds of wonder and adventure, while simultaneously exploring this one.

I first met Asimov through his science fiction, which led to his non-fiction, then his "other" fiction, which led to his appearance at the NYC AG. I was a fan girl before the term existed. We were soul mates.




http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/isaac_asimov.html

I don't think we'll run out of topic, this weekend...(but first, I must run off to lose money at Euchre...)

Have at it, Weekenders!

October 11, 2013

Shutdown: Conservatives’ Revenge Against the “47 Percent”, Pt.1

http://ourfuture.org/20131010/shutdown-conservatives-revenge-against-the-47-percent-pt-1



During the first days of the government shutdown, conservatives were beside themselves with joy. Michele Bachmann (R, MN) told the Washington Post, “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.” Conservative media figures looked forward to “a long siege” that would “ideally” keep the government closed through the 2014 election. It was as if Republicans were relishing revenge against the “47 percent” that Mitt Romney disdained during the 2012 election, and the rest of the American electorate for rejecting the GOP’s agenda.

But conservatives aren’t just rejoicing over the success of their plan to shut down the government. Conservatives are also celebrating the consequences of the shutdown for those hit hardest by it: government workers, and those who rely on the services government agencies and workers provide. Conservatives believe shutting down the government is the right thing to do for the same reason they believed sequestration was the right thing to do. To understand this, one must first understand the conservative worldview as explained by George Lakoff.



In this worldview, the purpose of government is to protect the country by “maximizing military and political strength,” and “promote unimpeded economic activity” so that the “disciplined moral people” and “undisciplined immoral people” get what they deserve. You can tell who the “disciplined moral people are” by their “worldly success.” You can tell who the “undisciplined immoral people” are by their “lack of success.” Basically, the better off are better off because they are better people. The poor are poor because of their poor character. Promoting “unimpeded economic activity” means favoring the “best people” — those who control wealth and power — over those who are unsuccessful because they are morally weak.

Any government which “impedes” economic activity by the “best people,” through regulations designed to protect the consumers, workers, communities, etc., penalizes morality and discipline. Any government activity which protects the “immoral undisciplined people” from the economic consequences of their poor character rewards immorality and discipline. To conservatives, sequestration was a good start, but shutting down the government is even better. Sending government workers home without pay, and cutting off services to low-income Americans is the right thing to do. Plus, it means conservatives can force the country to conform to their worldview, without even having to win an election.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!


Terrance Heath is the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. He has consulted on blogging and social media consultant for a number of organizations and agencies. He is a prominent activist on LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.