Kentucky Packrat

Time to leave California

2009-11-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

It seems that California is raising payroll withholdings, as an interest-free loan. (Sorry for no hat tips, I saw this too many different places....) I am SO glad that I never wandered too far left of the country. At this rate, I expect California to be bankrupt in months.

It is well with my soul

2009-10-19T00:09:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry for ignoring the blog. In one sense, I've been suffering the death of a thousand cuts, but on the other side the Lord has been so very faithful.

In the course of two weeks, I have had the following items break

the video card on "Precious"(*), my work laptop
The battery on my supervisor's spare MacBook, which I was borrowing.
Then the hard drive on the same MacBook dies, leaving it down. I had to scrounge a hard drive out of an older Dell laptop and restore my files again.
My co-worker's hard drive decided to die a few days later.
We had to cancel a trip out of town with our neighbors because our 7 person cabin ended up being a 4 person cabin...
I spent Sunday afternoon taking out the vinyl flooring I put in the kitchen just a few months ago. We have no idea how water got under it, but it did. This would be less depressing if we were finished paying it off... *blush*

Even so, it is well with my soul. All four of us are healthy (including Number 1 Son), and no one has the swine flu yet. Our house is intact, and we aren't bankrupt. I have good friends, good co-workers, a good job, and a good church.

To quote the song:
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul

Something long forgotten

2009-09-29T12:37:00.000-04:00

Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year old girl.

His arrest isn't about a great artist being persecuted. It's about a pedophile and rapist being caught to face justice.

There was a plea bargain that the judge was waffling on. I don't know California law from the 70s, but most states didn't require judges to follow plea bargains for sentencing.

Even if it did, Mr. Polanski ran first and asked questions later. He should be in jail in California, awaiting the results of his appeal.

Sorry, Roman, you're no OJ. I tolerated the Not Guilty verdict for OJ because IMHO the state didn't prove its case. You on the other hand are a dirty old man who ran from his jail time and should face it.

And now the fun starts

2009-09-12T09:21:00.000-04:00

Early this year, I told Milady, "I really hope they don't keep using the Great Depression as a to-do list". They are.

President Barack Obama has imposed new punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires coming into the U.S. from China, a move Beijing condemned Saturday as protectionism and a violation of the guidelines of global trade.

At first, I thought the powers that be were "just" going to try to repeat Japan's 20 year depression. The same people that told Japan to let their banks fail are now propping up ours. However, getting into a trade war with our #1 creditor, one who has already publicly expressed doubts to our ability to pay(*), just isn't smart.

(*) There's no doubt about our ability to pay off our Treasuries: we can't. Sorry, sucker!

I watched Fearless Leader's Speech

2009-09-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

I was impressed that Fearless Leader essentially allowed the progressives go under the bus to save his plan. That said, I have little trouble with the bullet points; they sound good. The devil will be in the details, of course.

The Republican who gave the response looked like a complete and total idiot. He outlined the 4 Republican points, but Fearless Leader had already put them in his speech. Once again, the Republicans failed to not fail.

Snow Leopard is faster

2009-09-02T01:16:00.000-04:00

My work copy of Precious, um, Snow Leopard is here, and I installed it tonight.

Wow. I am impressed. Everything in the OS really is faster. Mail flows faster. Exchange integration does 80% of what I could ever need in Outlook. Safari is a LOT faster. The only feature I've lost so far is network scanning for my Brother MFC-420CN, and I'll pester Brother and Apple about that tomorrow.

Of course, my adventures in .0 land are probably only just beginning.

New Tim Hawkins Video

2009-09-01T13:36:00.001-04:00

Normally, I don't repost videos, but my hero John Stossel had this one up. Tim Hawkins is a favorite of the Packrat family (watch The Wife Song. Now.)

The Government Can.

I can't bend my arms

2009-08-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

If you're not allergic to poison ivy, you just haven't been exposed enough.

I never did believe that old saying, because I never was allergic to poison ivy. When I was a kid, I could walk through the stuff, and not even get a blister. Even recently, I might get one or two blisters while Milady would break out in full-body rashes.

It seems that now, I've been exposed enough. My left forearm is a constant and solid rash, and my right arm is a third of the way there. I am alternating calamine lotion, hydrocortisone cream, and antihistamines. Generic Zyrtec was definitely the best antihistamine, but the 24 hour dose only lasted 12 hours...

Excuse me while I work on taping on oven mitts.

A comment over on Roger Ebert's Journal

2009-08-18T09:07:00.001-04:00

I'm not done on this, but this is too good a post to just leave as a comment somewhere else.

Ebert: The government woudn't run the health care system. It would make insurance more affordable.

The dirty little secret of "health care reform" is that there are only three ways to decrease costs (Adam Smith 101): increase supply, decrease demand, and remove overhead. Let's take on each one individually.

Milady and I have talked to doctors about overhead. For the birth of Number 1 Son, her ob/gyn was barely clearing enough to order a pizza after the delivery. He ended up retiring to take care of his ailing father. Why? Insurance paperwork and liability insurance. I would like to see a pseudo-criminal system completely replace the current tort liability system. If a doctor commits malpractice, he is criminally liable to losing his license for X number of years. Allow private prosecution (as England does some still), but institute loser pays for them. Make the doctor liable for consequences without opening up unending financial liabilities onto the entire system. The Democratic plans make no tort reform, and do nothing to lower Medicare overhead (which are running doctors out of the system).

We are also making no steps to increase the number of doctors out there. There are less medical schools now than in 1900, and less doctors per capita than in 1900. Most medical schools are turning away 4 or 5 equally-qualified students for every 1 admitted. Allow doctors a path through to where they aren't crushed by debt, and make a bunch more of them.

As an aside, make doctors publish price lists, and make insurance companies publish their payment lists. One price for everyone. I shouldn't pay $200 for what Humana pays $40. Instead, the doctor charges $50, and Humana pays up to $60, so I'm happy. Or maybe Humana pays $40, but the doctor charges $50, and I have to cough up $10. Most other people would face jail time for what is called business as usual in the insurance field.

The third step is lowering demand, aka rationing. No one wants to say "you can't have it", but we need to say so. We want to tell the lazy poor "get out of the ER, go to the free clinic in the morning". 90% of the people who get cholesterol medicine don't really need it; it's just that the 10% who do need it need it desperately. We just can't tell right now who the 10% are. Most areas of the country don't have enough need of a medical helicopter to justify it. They also don't need a trauma center enough to justify it either.

The British and the Canadians have made those choices, and most of the time they work. If you have something simple, you get a treatment, and it works. But the edges are where the cost savings hit the road. If Natasha Richardson had been in the US, she would have been in range of a medical helicopter and a Grade 1 trauma center. Only God knows if she'd have lived, but because she was stuck with ground transportation and multiple hours from any trauma center, she didn't have a chance. Canada works because the US back-stops it. The really bad cases (troubled pregnancies, denied claims, etc.) can cross the border.

The real question: who pays for the really expensive stuff? I've heard some claims that 80% of Medicare costs are for caring for the last year of life. Number 1 Son cost our insurance $100k from pneumonia that destroyed half a lung, and then another 100K or so with pericarditis. That chopper, that trauma unit, that second MRI, that extra doctor in the ER, all those things cost a lot of money. The British and Canadians are saying no to the "extras", and it's starting to show.

Our health care providers currently have to compete on service, and it shows. They can do the 20% chance of success treatments enough times to convert them to 50% or 75%. They can drive the $50000 MRIs to $500. But, all that costs money.
There won't be "death panels" deciding individuals. That will be too gaudy. There may be appeal panels, but not often. Most of the time, there will be faceless groups making actuary tables, deciding that the chance of you living doesn't pay off, so you won't get the knee replacement, or the speech restoration surgery, or that quad bypass.

As a libertarian, I want a real market. Most people don't pay for car care insurance; it costs more than the actual work. Most health insurance is really health care plans. We pay the insurance X+Y dollars to spend X dollars on our behalf, when X is usually a well-defined minimum amount each year. 80% of the people in the US (under 65) would be better off having a plan that had a $4000 out of pocket minimum and paid 100% of everything else, and be able to put that $4000 back pre-tax. If you can't afford that plan or can't afford the $4000, then provide that money as charity or welfare, not by hiding the costs as health care overhead.

Push the spending decisions back onto the consumer. If it's important to do, then you spend the money, and pay for it.

Insomniac notes

2009-08-13T02:07:00.000-04:00

Milady and Little Miss are camping with American Heritage Girls up in the Cincinnati metro area. When I'm away from Milady or Milady is away from me, I don't sleep well. That's why I'm up at 1:49AM local time.

Mr. Obama needs to quit campaigning. Even Number 1 Son is starting to notice that everything is a campaign issue.
I am teaching a computer science class to the little darlings at homeschool co-op. At the teacher's meeting this week, they asked us to tell one thing that few people might know. I thought about mentioning that I was becoming quite good at Omaha and was winning at Texas Hold-Em. I knew that wouldn't go over well. Instead, I mentioned that I am right-handed but left eye dominant.

Since I'm finally sleepy, it's time to go to bed. Fortunately, Milady will be back tomorrow.

Scraping the inside of your skull

2009-08-06T09:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the first day of a well-deserved vacation. Instead of shopping and playing with Milady and the kids, I was laying on my sister-in-law's bed. Why? My first awful migraine in almost two years. I took some aspirin before I left the house, and I thought that had it under control. Nope. By the time we were done shopping at Big Lots, I was in a full-blown migraine. We stopped by my sister-in-law's house, and I made it up into her yard before I threw up the peanuts I'd had as a 2PM snack. Boy do peanuts hurt coming back up...

Instead of a nice trip to Sam's Club, I ended up sleeping on her day bed. Vomiting always eases the worst of my migraine symptoms, but I want to sleep afterwards.

Fortunately, I'm better now. I just feel like I want to crack open my skull and scratch the insides of my head. This should pass a day or two.

A Reasonable Plan to end the "Housing Crisis"

2009-07-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Karl Denniger proposed a 4 point plan that IMHO is a wonderful way to fix the mortgage and banking markets. It is a one-time overpowering government intervention, but we've already made the mess; it's time to become a janitor and clean up the mess.

I've got a few other post building, but I'll wait until lunchtime for them.

"I can't take it any more"

2009-07-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

Mr. Obama's TelePrompTer tried to committed suicide yesterday. The spin is on, however, since the teleprompter is now denying any intent.

A few notes

2009-07-07T17:07:00.000-04:00

It's easy to call Michael Jackson a pedophile. It's easy to make fun of his plastic surgeries and financial problems. Then you look a bit deeper and you see an abused child with a lot of mental health issues crying out for God and fulfillment. It makes the criticisms a little less justifiable.

Boy, could he dance....
Sarah Palin left her one big office. She should have said "They drove me broke, and I've got kids to feed. I can make enough on the rubber chicken circuit to pay off my debts and put my kids through college. My family comes first, and I know I'm leaving Alaska in good hands with the Lt. Governor."

Does she still have a chance at President? Don't look at me, I'm usually wrong.
Why are the Federal Reserve Governors, Henry Paulson, and Tim Geithner still walking around without tar and feathers on themselves?

Is that so wrong? (Was: Crushing the Grape)

2009-07-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

I had to go over to one of the campus bookstores in Lexington. They still have 5 copies of my book in stock. There's just something nice about seeing your book in stock.

We are closing Blue Grape Press, LLC. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the state and county have made Blue Grape unprofitable. I've closed down selling Student Hebrew Bible completely. We will be selling the rest of the publishing business to one of our author's business concerns, so that she can keep her books in print. Once that's complete, I expect to unwind the rest of BGP's business before November.

I guess I'm officially a libertarian now: I've been mugged by the government.

I'm sorry, but he's not "excessively evil"

2009-06-30T07:02:00.002-04:00

Bernie Madoff is a jerk, and he's greedy. It looks like 10 of his closest friends and relatives will be going to jail with him. However, I don't understand the "excessively evil" part.

Madoff took people's money. That's it. He didn't kill, he didn't threaten, he didn't even extort. People who were greedy for "guaranteed results" flocked to give him money when they should have known he was crooked.

I'm sorry that a lot of innocent people lost their life's savings. If it is your life's savings, you shouldn't have every cent of it with one person anyway.

Bernie's old; any sentence worthy of his crime would be a life sentence. I just can't see the glee at 150 years when murderers get less.

Leaving Questionable Preachers to God

2009-06-30T06:56:00.000-04:00

We are studying Phillipians for an in-home Bible study with the kids. Once again, Paul has struck me with something very uncomfortable:

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. (Phillipians 1:15-18 New King James Version).

We have had issues with my previous church. I think the minister there was too young, and should have had a career before becoming a minister. This has reinforced my beliefs against the ministry career path for some time.

Even so, Paul doesn't give me that option. So long as the Gospel is preached, I'm supposed to rejoice that it's being preached. It's not my job to question the motives; God will take care of that. We should correct incorrect teaching, and lead all who will be lead. Even so, those who are not against us are for us, as Jesus said.

Not quite 100%

2009-06-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

I looked at the test twice, and I still couldn't figure out which answer it wanted for a couple. Oh, well....

88% Geek

Hat tip to The Grey Monk.

A surprise WWDC

2009-06-08T15:08:00.001-04:00

Apple has made an impressive WWDC. First, they snuck a complete refresh of the MacBook Pros under the radar. There wasn't a single rumor out there of any of it, and boy, are they sweet! Then, they make Snow Leopard $29, and integrate it with Exchange (that's my work killer app).

Then, iPhone OS 3.0 is announced, and its very nice too. IMHO, the killer app is "Remote Wipe". If you lose your iPhone, you can log into MobileMe and brick it remotely. You can also make it make noise, even if you had the phone ringer off. That alone might be worth the $99/year for MobileMe. Plus the idea of writing third party hardware add-ons (think old school) is just too neat.

Now, if Jobs had just walked out with the iPhone Tablet as one last thing...

Number 1 Son has pericarditis again

2009-06-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Number 1 son started hurting all over, including his chest. Of course, he doesn't ever hurt on weekdays, only the weekend. His body loves going to the ER even if the rest of us don't.

This time, it acted more like the flu than pericarditis, so we treated him with ibuprofen for the fevers and body aches and waited until Monday. This let just enough fluid build up to let them tell that the pericarditis was back, and had probably never gone completely away the last time.

He's back on the colchicine, a steroid, and ibuprofen.

The United States of Europe

2009-06-01T09:52:00.000-04:00

We now have nationalized banks and a zombified national automobile maker. All we need is a national strike or two, and we'll be Britain or France.

Political payback, Chicago-style

2009-05-28T09:34:00.000-04:00

The Chrysler bailout is going from tragedy to farce: several bloggers have all but proven that the Obama administration is rewarding political supporters and Democrats at the cost of Republican supporters and non-political owners. A small list of links:

A quote showing that the government is choosing the plan.
Joey Smith has an entire blog at http://chryslerdealershipshutdown.blogspot.com/
Doug Ross is documenting a lot of evidence of political favoritism over at http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

I could post at least 10 other links, but I think this is a good start. It's clear: the Obama campaign is rewarding its supporters, Clinton's supporters, and other Democrats, and punishing Republican supporters under the color of a Government Motors bailout.

Pablo, email me

2009-05-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

You posted a comment to my sqlite3 post about needing the sqlite3 code. I can't find a way to look up your Email to mail you, so I need you to Email me about it. Use this link.

Thanks,
David

Why is GM's stock above 0?

2009-05-19T15:05:00.002-04:00

According to Reuters, GM is going to go bankrupt soon, becoming Government Motors. Even ignoring the insanity of the government essentially nationalizing two car builders at the same time, the markets are past irrational.

GM will go bankrupt. Their good assets will be bought to pay off their secured debt (at least they're not robbing bondholders like Chrysler). The trash gets left to pay off the unsecured debt (hah!). Yet, at the time of writing GM's stock is 1.29 and rising.

Essentially, GM is going to destroy itself and void the stock. The current stock will at best be worth pennies on the dollar, and most likely is now worth 0. Even so, people are buying it.

As Milady pointed out, perhaps there's a deal to save the stockholders over the bondholders. Maybe program buying of the Dow or S&P 500 is holding up GM. Or maybe people are just plain dumb.

I would short GM with borrowed money if I wasn't afraid that the fix was in.

Jeff posted! Jeff posted!

2009-05-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

I knew if I kept Jeff of Think Sink fame in my RSS Folder, he would finally post. And he did!!!.

Now, if I could just post more...