Near Earth Asteroid to take another shot

This little gem could blow all our cares away. There's so many of them we can't expect them to always miss.

Damage estimates based on asteroid sizes.  

Property taxes

Schools here are funded mostly by property taxes.  Here, is East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.  Main problem is that for a few years this was a boom area. People came because cheaper houses allowed New Jersey and New York residents to upgrade.  Property taxes here were lower than in New York and New Jersey. It was a gold rush. At first the long commute to higher jobs seemed worth it because of woods, big yards, deer, and bears that could be fed doughnuts. Then gas prices went up. Expanding schools required higher property taxes.  Many moved back to where they lived before because it was now cheaper and the long commute proved more taxing than first believed. There are now many empty houses here. There are three on my short road.  Empty houses do not deliver taxes but big school buildings with swimming pools, have long, large mortgages and extra teachers are protected by tenure and unions.  Property taxes go up, catastrophically for many, leading to more empty houses and yet higher taxes.  No one wants to buy a house in a heavily taxed area so there is almost no construction, for many years the main industry here, and unemployed builders and their unemployed workers are losing homes to foreclosure.  No one wants to close schools in their neighborhood and no one wants to fire their children's teachers but many believe it is ok to fire administrators. 

A good solution might be to change the tax support structure. The fairest, of course, would be to increase graduated income taxes but no one wants higher income taxes.  Lots want a sales tax because they think visitors and other outsiders could be made to pay for a good part of our schools. Those that believe this do not realize that this would be a tax less fair to lower and middle income people than an income tax.  They think it would be less painful.  Maybe so. 

It is easy to blame the administrators who stupidly believed that the boom would continue forever.  But, most people are delusional in the same way.  Many of us believe we will live forever, or at least act as if we believe that.  The hindsight approach would be to build flexible schools, schools that expanded and contracted painlessly in sync with  population fluctuations.  But we're not that smart. Yet.  Flexibility in architecture, and likely in all ways of being, would be a good way to go.

For now, there is no way to avoid the pain of past stupidity and greed and a desire to construct monumental schools named after local luminaries.  When there is not enough to go around people get very nasty and concentrate more on fixing blame than on fixing situations. So, school board meetings are packed and people are very vulnerable to solutions that readily translate into slogans. The extreme Right thrives.  This is the kind of environment that breeds racism and other more inclusive forms of fascism. That's where we are today. Here, nationally and perhaps worldwide.

Volatile.

Abdulelah Haider Shaye

Obama keeps Yemeni journalist locked up according to The Nation.

Here's Gawker's take on the same story: "...beaten, tortured and imprisoned for two years..."

And the Huffington Post with videos

Different president, same shit.

Senior confusion

I'm  beginning to wonder if it is not everyone else that is turning into Professor Irwin Corey, but it is me who is losing the ability to make sense of things.  The world seems garbled. Santorum, Rush, Fox, Haley's pardons, David Gergen's endless drone, earnest Anderson--a world of wackadoodles.

Road Kill

Yesterday's count from here to post office (5 miles) : one opossum, two racoons (one blonde), several squirrels and a deer.

Another wonderful day brought to us by global warming.  Thanks Detroit and makers of oil burning engines, coal and oil power plants, clear cutting lumber companies, and thanks also to me and my wood burning stove.

Bring it on.  June in January and toasted in July.

There is no honor...

http://gawker.com/5893188/goldman-exec-ping-pong-star-quits-with-brutal-rant-in-the-new-york-times

CNN's John King confuses me

While on the topic of frightening funny things, I come to John King who everyday now reminds me more and more of Professor Irwin Corey. King's mouthful of marbles garbled nonsense is quickly moving from the incoherent to the hilarious.

More Professor Corey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtN0xxzfsw

Men wearing wigs

I have a problem with men who wear wigs; not so much with entertainers who do so, but very much so with politicians and businessmen and others who want to be taken seriously.  I sometimes think half the men in congress wear wigs.  It bothers me because choosing to wear a wig indicates a fundamental dishonesty. It also suggests that the wig wearer is uncomfortable with the truth of who he is.  A person who would lie about his hair would lie about anything.  And, most men's wigs are so bad and so obviously fake hair that they make the wearer look like a clown.  Don't wig wearing politicians have mirrors? Or, are the completely dependent on others' willingness to suspend disbelief? Or, do they actually believe that perception is reality?

Anyway, I think the current clown prince of politics, Rick Santorum, is a wig wearing fool who, if elected will satisfy the most cynical, darkest, most perverse side of my sense of humor.  In that sense, electing George Bush II was hilarious but Santorum will be an absolute wig wearing gut buster.  (I would give anything for a reporter who went around asking politicians if their hair was real or a wig.  Makes me yearn for the genius of Stuttering  John .)

The few remaining honest bald guys among us will have little option but to hold our sides and roar ourselves into oblivion as America becomes a clown festival featuring delusional, wrinkled old guys wearing young hair while spitting out a slush of hate tinged racism, sexism, homophobia, anti sex, fear mongering fundamental christian inspired slogans.

One more threat to keep your gut in a knot

Oceans going sour

Washington culture? This about covers it.

Below is a quote from Chris Hayes that I found on The Huffington Post

HAYES: It means that the culture of Washington is totally and completely corrupt. And that the country is ruled -- and I know this sounds radical, but true -- by a very intense financial oligarchy, that basically has purchase on both parties. I mean, what you see here -- and I don't want to downplay the import of the derivatives bill that passed out of the Ag Committee and the financial regulations, some of the measures of which are quite strong and built because of this public anger -- but the fact of the matter is, drawing these lines between who's on the side of Wall Street and who isn't, every single one of these members is talking to Wall Street every day, and raising money from them, and having them whisper in their ear. And over the years, we have seen finance metastasize so that it's 40 or 50 percent of corporate profits, and funneling that money back into purchasing the assent of elected representatives in a way that brought us to this crisis point. So we can make technical fixes to regulation, but what we have to do is break the political/economic power of the banks, and that I don't see on the horizon.

The terroists next door

Turns out the gunman shot down at the Pentagon was a Right Wing terrorist in the Timothy McVeigh,Joseph Stack tradition. Lots of these nutcases are out there.

link

Killer Whales: Let them go

Keeping large wild animals in small enclosures for no reason but entertainment is a disgusting practice. Turning them into dancing clowns even more perverse. Better to either let them go or, if they can't survive in the wild, keep them cared for in areas open to the sea in a way that allows them to come and go.

Link to Deep Ecology

Ford Fusion 2010 transmission problems

Our 2010 Ford Fusion had serious transmission problems at 10,000 miles. The transmission slipped and also would not shift to a higher gear. The problem was intermittent, seemed most likely to occur when it and the engine were warm. Our most serious incidents happened after we had traveled 20 miles on the interstate and were going up hill. A brief cruise through Google revealed that many others are experiencing the same or similar problems with the same model Ford. Ours is at the dealer's for the second time. The first time they said they were unable to reproduce the problem.

Obama can't be trusted on Social Security

Here is a link to a longish article on Obama's Social Security position. Hint: He may not be as committed to protecting benefits as he led us to believe in his campaign.

Daily Kos

Is Cheney a fugitive?

As I've said before I knew Obama would be more of the same the day it was announced that he would not investigate or prosecute the Bush/Cheney war criminals. Here's an informative summary of the law and crimes at Naked Capitalism

Canada

I think I should have moved to Canada when I was young enough to make it work. It's the Senate that makes me long for Canada; the Senate, the Republicans and Obama and his crew. This bunch also makes me long for LBJ, of all people. LBJ was a lion. He knew a paper tiger when he saw one and his presence alone would have sent the prissy Mitch McConnell scurrying for a hideout under the rug. Lieberman would be at the door holding the toilet paper while LBJ sat on the can dumping.

It's not going to happen though. Because if the Republicans are mean spirited but prissy, the Democrats are far worse. Either, like Obama they are too smug and self satisfied to act or they are stupid cowards, or they are cut and run closet Republicans like Bayh.

Maybe my daughter will move to Canada.

Real Compromise? Not likely.

No matter what the Democrats offer it will not be enough. The Republicans are only interested in obstruction as its own end. That's the simple truth of today's political landscape.

Poor Obama

Obama's Presidency is in trouble because he is an honest broker. He came to office believing that if he is reasonable and willing to compromise he would be met in kind by the Republicans and Right wing Democrats and be able to get good things done for America and Americans. Too bad. That approach to government is no longer viable. In fact it is almost charming in its old fashion quaintness and would be a good goof if so much were not at stake. Obama needs to face the simple fact that the Right does not want to compromise one inch. It wants to wipe out, grind out of existence any ideas and those that hold them that differ from Right wing Republican orthodoxy. They do not want a country that values diversity, debate, free expresion and compromise. They want a singularity and they will get it if Obama does not wake up and if the Left does not step up to the challenge.

You don't need a compass to see where we're heading

Get off the cloud Obama

I knew we were in trouble when Obama decided to give the Bush criminals a pass. It got worse with his sad efforts to reach out to Republicans. He should know they have the single agenda of obstructing his programs and destroying whatever they label as Liberal. Now it's time for Obama to stop being above it all and come down from the cloud and get his hands dirty. Republican extremists only respond to a kick in the teeth followed by an indictment. Hopefully Obama is not too enamored of his bipartisan self and the enchantment of being president to do that.

It's time to go after the big banks, close Guantanamo, prosecute the torturers, and force congress to bring to votes what's good for us and not what seems most likely to pass. By aggressively pursuing a liberal agenda the agents of failure will be clearly identified and the blame placed where it belongs.

Obama, you need to be more altruistic and less political.