Base System

I had a discussion this weekend about what activities were expected at "second base". I think this helpful chart certainly clears it up.

Friends of the A** End of Nowhere

President Obama has expressed admirable plans for green energy. Typically, they involve the generation of energy in remote areas (by solar or wind) and transmission into urban areas.

Unfortunately, it is in the production and transmission that these plans run into a phenomenon I like to call the "Friends of the A** End of Nowhere". Want to put a solar farm in the desert? FAN sez the desert environment is incredibly fragile and you'll harm it irreparably. Want to transmit that power to the city? FAN sez the route is right through a conservation area and wants you to go another less direct, more inefficient way. Want to research and generate wave energy on the coast of Oregon? No dice -- property owners, fishermen and environmentalists will call you rapacious foreign capitalists who want to industrialize the ocean.

Infrastructure progress in the United States proceeds at a glacial pace for a number of reasons, one of which is the ability of environmental and citizens' groups to use the courts to gum up the works for justice and due process. It is my sincere hope that President Obama will have a Nixon-to-China moment and be able to effect change positively for power generation during his terms in office.

Nope, not even close.

What was the wrongest part of the President's speech to the AMA? This whopper:

"To most Americans, you are the health care system. Americans - me included - just do what you recommend."

Um, no. No, Mr. President, we don't. Not even close. We don't do the things doctors recommend, we cherry-pick the treatments and we don't comply with prescription instructions.

Right-Wing Extremism

The Department of Homeland Security says right-wing extremism is on the rise throughout the country.

Remember all of the venom being spewed by right-wing pundits about this Homeland Security report? In the past two weeks we have had a doctor who performs abortions gunned down outside of his church (I find it very interesting that someone who claims to be pro-life murdered someone), and a lunatic open fire in the National Holocaust Museum. In no way can these stories be spun any other way. The DHS report was absolutely right. Because there is a liberal black dude in the oval office every idiot who is hateful will now turn ultra-hateful. I cannot understand why there was such fervor over the report when it is pretty obvious that violence from these types of groups was going to occur.

EPIC!

Literally Total Eclipse of the Heart

I'm in a silly mood. My friend sent this to me and I felt like sharing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

Cleveland Tourism Video

Props to the anonymous North Korean artist

I'm quite a fan of Communist propaganda, especially when it comes in poster form. It's usually bright and cheery and Uncle Sam typically plays a starring role as the villain.

This poster is especially lovely, since it appears that the head-only GI is being attacked by the North Korean version of the Care Bear Stare. Note that the baby nurse is emanating powerful rays from her medical satchel, while the child soldier is administering the (Democratic) People's Elbow. Not quite sure why the toddler sailor nor the baby airman are not attacking on their respective vehicles -- didn't get any heavy fuel oil in recently?

From Tom Ricks, who may interest you.

A bracing reminder of how to deal with life.

Just in case you need a little pep talk after your 3-day weekend.

Alabama Leprechaun

Happy Friday Taylorites!

Wolf T-Shirt

I love the internets! Check out the reviews for this fine product. I think I saw Jack wearing this at some point during his career at ND.

Don't let this happen to you...

This article is by a reporter for the New York Times -- it's long, but worth it. In summary, he's an economics reporter and he makes 120K/yr, but he made a couple of bad financial decisions and now he's up to his eyeballs in debt and he may lose his house. Remarkable.

This is in response to the superfluous cheese tray that was at our happy hour today. You can learn all about the Xzibit internet meme here.

Interesting interview

Those of you politically inclined may have already enjoyed this interview that Obama did with an economics correspondent of the New York Times, David Leonhardt.

Obama on credentialing: "So part of the function of a high-school degree or a community-college degree is credentialing, right? It allows employers in a quick way to sort through who’s got the skills and who doesn’t. But part of the problem that we’ve got right now is that what it means to have graduated from high school, what it means to have graduated from a two-year college or a four-year college is not always as clear as it was several years ago.

And that means that we’ve got to — in our education-reform agenda — we’ve got to focus not just on increasing graduation rates, but we’ve also got to make what’s learned in the high-school and college experience more robust and more effective."

Obama on competitiveness: "That’s why I don’t just want to see more college graduates; I also want to specifically see more math and science graduates, I specifically want to see more folks in engineering. I think part of the postbubble economy that I’m describing is one in which we are restoring a balance between making things and providing services, whether it’s marketing or catering to people or servicing folks in some way. Those are all good jobs, and we’re not going to return to an economy in which manufacturing is as large a percentage as it was back in the 1940s just because of automation and technological advance.

But the broader point is that if you look at who our long-term competition will be in the global economy — China, India, the E.U., Brazil, Korea — the countries that are producing the best-educated work force, whose education system emphasizes the sciences and mathematics, who can translate those technology backgrounds or those science backgrounds into technological applications, they are going to have a significant advantage in the economy. And I think that we’ve got to have enough of that in order to maintain our economic strength."

Obama also made an odd point about "nursing paying better" in context of traditionally male or female fields. Frankly (as the husband of a nurse), I find it difficult to imagine that nurses could get paid more than they are already.

Nevertheless, I found it to be a worthwhile interview and a good insight into the president's thinking.

Underreported Story...

President Obama's speech at the National Academy of Sciences got lots of press for a teleprompter but his comments about investment in science was missed completely.

I believe it is not in our character, the American character, to follow. It's our character to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. So I'm here today to set this goal: We will devote more than 3 percent of our GDP to research and development. We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and science.

This represents the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history.

NOS 2009?

Sadly, I'm not going to the 2009 NOS (no time off) -- but who is?

Why didn't I think of this?

A liberal extremist at a "grass roots" tea party.

Easter Weekend

I was recently hijacked by the "Glenn Beck Wing" of the Republican Party this weekend, and they assured me that Obama's budget wouldn't allow you to donate to certain charities. Knowing that most of this Wing relies on random, non-factual e-mails, I tried to find the correct information myself. The only thing I could come with is the plan to cap tax write offs for folks making over 200G's a year. This cap would decrease the deductible amount of a charitable donation from 33% to 28%. Nowhere could I find anything about restricting which charitable organization you could donate to. If any other Taylorites can help me find info on this it would be greatly appreciative. Nothing would make me happier than having cited facts to prove that their claim was bogus.

Moving Election Day...

With my son in Florida for a couple of weeks, I got to stay at work particularly late this week, and thus got to enjoy real talk radio on my drive home. I figured 15 minutes of Michael Savage would induce the necessary angiogenesis to see significant growth the Hannity-generated tumor currently reside in my brain.

Savage nicely explained to me that the result of the November presidential election was caused by a protest within the republican party, a protest against the nomination of McCain which was viewed, by the republicans, as four more years of Bush. While we can argue that point, this post asks you to complete the following sentences...

Savage says “If a new election was held today... Obama ______% McCain ____%

I say “If a new election was held today... Obama ______% McCain ____%

Please fill in the blanks. I will provide you with Savage’s numbers as well as mine in a few days.

Echoing this talking point...
Yesterday, Boehner said he wishes the 2010 and 2012 elections were much sooner as the American people are not in synch with the direction Obama has taken the country.

Don't worry the first hundred days are the slowest!

An imagined conversation.

Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM: Hello?
Barack Obama, POTUS: Hello, Rick, this is Barack Obama.
RW: Yes, Mr. President! How are you?
POTUS: Well, Rick, not so good, actually.
RW: Really, Mr. President? Why?
POTUS: Well, Rick -- I'm sorry it's come down to this.
RW: Uh oh...
POTUS: Yup, I'm sorry, Rick. We, as an organization, have decided to move in a different direction...
RW: Yes?
POTUS (hurried): So, we're going to have to let you go.
RW: Well, I think we all knew it was going to happen sometime...
POTUS: But I'm sure that you'll receive a nice severance package. We've worked it out -- 2 weeks pay for every year you've worked at GM, so... that makes it somewhere around $500,000. Hey -- that's not too bad...
RW: Well, I guess I'm not buying that cottage in Maine this summer.
POTUS: Well, no, probably not. Well, Rick, you're a nice guy and I'm sure you can get a job somewhere.
RW: Uh, thanks, Mr. President. I think I'll take a couple of months off, you know, hang out with the kids, breathe a little bit.
POTUS: Hey, Rick?
RW: Yeah?
POTUS: How does it feel to have destroyed 90% of shareholder value in ten years?
RW: (silence)
POTUS: Well, Rick -- there will be a couple of guys to uh, help you pack up in a couple of hours... do leave the keys to the executive washroom in the center drawer of your desk, okay?
RW: (silence)
POTUS: Good luck -- I gotta go talk to Geithner -- that scamp, he's always in deep.