Harry Reid Is a Villainous Scourge

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

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.