20 August 2011 morning

I have to admit that the above address makes me sad. Sure, I agree that the Republicans have been obstructionist and care more about political power than doing what is right for the country…ok, they see it that doing things THEIR WAY is what is right.

Yes, I agree that things like the infrastructure bank are a good idea.

But this idea that just because small town America can work things out among themselves says anything useful about Washington is just nonsense. Here is why: people tend to congregate in small, self selected communities of like minded people. Of course they can work things out; the differences in opinion tend to be minor. But what happens when you have two drastically different groups of people; some think that a government stimulus is useful; others think “no, that is SOCIALISM”. There is no common ground and any attempt at compromise will mean just giving them “about 98 percent of what they want”.

We live in interesting times. Our Republican party used to be the party of intellectual elitism. But no longer:

That’s a perfect Keynesian answer, and also perfectly nonsensical. What the White House is telling us is that the more unemployed people we can pay for not working, the more people will work. Only someone with a Ph.D. in economics from an elite university would believe this.

I have two teenage sons. One worked all summer and the other sat on his duff. To stimulate the economy, the White House wants to take more money from the son who works and give it to the one who doesn’t work. I can say with 100% certainty as a parent that in the Moore household this will lead to less work.

You see how this moron (writing in the Wall Street Journal) understands it? Do you see how simple minded this is; how it panders to the Newsmax crowd? This is the Wall Street Journal for crying out loud!
Or here is another example: one of my “friends” tried to use the old Soviet Union as an example of why “demand side” economics doesn’t work.

No wonder this party embraces creationism and other non-scientific woo.

How things have changed.

Yes, I get it; many times, the text book doesn’t help in getting things done at the local level. There is a great deal of variation among small systems; for example a type of vehicle might be designed by engineering principles. But the scientists who developed those principles probably couldn’t repair these things as well as the competent practitioner who has done the job hundreds of times and knows the particulars. So, yes, there is a place for “common sense” (though people who claim to have it really don’t).
But being successful with a small business does NOT qualify one to run an economy at a national level.

Of course, being able to solve the heat equation doesn’t qualify one to run a boiler room either.

Other topics
Paul Krugman started an interesting discussion. He made a snarky post about being surprised that Sweden was a rather nice place and not the “socialist hell-hole” that the Republicans would have predicted (given the high tax rate and the high degree of social services).

One reader (comment number 2) commented to the effect: “it seems that way to you, but in Sweden restaurant patrons get upset if they think someone else is getting a larger portion than they are getting”. That comment started 12 pages of discussion.

Evidently this surprised Dr. Krugman who penned an interesting response.

Tidbit
This is a fun post about sayings that are NOT in the (English translations of) the Bible, but are attributed to it.

Yates City 5K 2011 Version

Yes, I did this race in 2009 when I was much further along in my running.

Things were different this year for a variety of reasons, not the least being my conditioning going into the race.
It was scheduled to start at 7:30 but a line of thunderstorms pushed the start back to 8:15 (ok, in this rural community); note that the race director was following the storm track on a computer in a nearby bank (which they had the keys to); hence they knew when they could start the race safely. Talk about a mix between the small town (of yesteryear) atmosphere and the ultra modern!

And yes, I was 3:37 slower this year than I was in 2009; those are the breaks.

When we started it was 73 F with 87 percent humidity; it was suffocating. Or I’ll put it this way: the WINNING TIME was 20:19 (by a 49 year old man!) When is the last time you’ve heard of a 5K run being won by a time over 20 minutes on a basic road course? Sure, there was one gradual incline at about mile 2, but the course was far from difficult. It was the sauna like conditions, IMHO.

I didn’t catch my mile split but I knew it was about 9 minutes; perhaps a shade faster. What I do know is that I started almost dead last and I could hear the “trailing fire engine” right behind me. I passed about 1/3 of the field in the first 10 minutes or so and then about 1/6′th of the field in the next 5 minutes. I didn’t pass anyone else over the rest of the race but I did move up just a bit on the pack ahead of me; much to my surprise the lead vehicle stayed in (distant) sight for much of the race. I am not used to that.

I didn’t have a clue as to how fast I was going and that might have been helpful. I finished in 27:44 which was a few seconds faster than last week’s race on a much easier day to run; I think that my conservative start helped a bit.

Oh it wasn’t a total loss; I got a great workout, I enjoyed myself and, well, remember that only 48 people showed up (I finished 23′rd) and I was the second male over 50 (the first was about 1:30 ahead of me); the females over 50 kicked our butts (22:xx and 26:xx). But I won’t talk about that too much.

On one hand, my lack of speed is discouraging. But on the other hand, running is FINALLY starting to feel better. I just need to keep losing weight and to stay patient; not too much too soon.

Note: from last week’s Brimfield race:

Cartoon GOP Debate: Hilarious

First collected on Vodpod.com by buzzflash on Aug 19, 2011.

Cartoon GOP Debate: Hilarious, posted with vodpod

19 August 2011 noonish

Workout notes
Mediocre swim; some warm up (3g/swim), (kick/swim), (fist/swim), (kick/swim) (kicks with fins)
1000 of that, then 1000 in 17:46 (ugly; 8:53 each 500). 200 cool down; just wasn’t into it at all.

The shoulder: so-so.

Posts

You’ve heard about the “brain eating amoeba”. Here is the low-down from Why Evolution is True. Nasty stuff.

Humor

Tea Party: not the sharpest knives in the drawer: (from here)

Obama’s approval ratings He is still at 50+ at Intrade, perhaps based on the weakness of the Republican field. But his ratings have dropped…statistically so except for two groups: conservative Republicans (who never liked him to begin with) and liberal Democrats. So, there are problems but not insurmountable ones.

Daily Kos: INCREDIBLE Jon Stewart piece on right-wing class warfare!

Economic policy that adversely affects the wealthy is “class warfare”.

Daily Kos: INCREDIBLE Jon Stewart piece on righ…, posted with vodpod

18 August 2011: Typical Republicans ……

It really is a pity that Jon Huntsman doesn’t have a chance…

My goodness doesn’t Michelle Bachman lie…and Rick Perry….gheeze.

18 August 2011 midday

Workout notes
Swimming: mediocre. 250 of 3g/swim, 250 of front/swim (fins), 250 of fist/swim, 250 of front/swim (fins).
1000: 10 x 100 on the: well, it is hard to say. I left for new ones at 0, 2:00, 3:55, 5:50, 7:40, 9:30, 11:20, 13:10, 15:00, 16:50, finishing in 18:3x. I was getting a few seconds rest. So I suppose I did one at 2, 2 on 1:55 and 7 on 1:50.

Walking: 4 mile Cornstalk loop after; not an inspired effort but ok.

Posts
Jon Huntsman: won’t be a “serious” Republican candidate:

@JonHuntsman Jon Huntsman
To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.

Reducing the debt: This is pretty clear, I think:

Everyone is concerned with the debt/GDP ratio. Right now, total US debt is about $14.6 trillion, while nominal GDP is about $15 trillion. Going back to first or second grade, we can now make a fraction with the total debt as the numerator (the number on top) and the GDP figure being the denominator (the number on the bottom). Pulling out the ol’ HP12C (which still works even after being commandeered as a chew toy), we get a ratio or percentage of 97.33%. So, there is also most as much debt as GDP.

However, looking at the preceding paragraph, we see two numbers (the miracle of fractions in action). There is a numerator (which is causing tremendous consternation right now) and a denominator (which has been remarkably absent from the national discussion). So, what if we focus on the denominator for just a minute, which represents growth. Forgive me here, but, again, I must use more math, but this time it’s simple addition.

The GDP equation has four variables (long-time readers, please be kind. I’m talking to Washington here and they are stupid): C (consumer spending) + I (gross private investment) + X (net exports) + G (government spending). Right now, the consumer is OK but not great, investment is fair, but not great and the US is a net importer, so that subtracts from growth. That leaves government spending.

Now, let’s also assume that we can borrow at insanely low rates (say, 2.12%) and use that money to invest in something like infrastructure (not like we need to, but let’s assume the American Society of Civil Engineers has a certain level of expertise in this area).

Now, let’s say we borrow $500 billion in next years budget and target that spending on infrastructure. Let’s also assume we have an additional $900 billion in borrowing, increasing our total borrowing to $1.4 trillion. At the same time, we increase out GDP growth to 3%. That means we get the following numbers. $16 trillion in total debt and GDP at the end of next year of $15.45 trillion, or a debt to GDP ratio of 103%. Yes — the ratio is still increasing, but so is GDP. [...]

In other words, make the denominator bigger and the fraction gets smaller.

Evolution: great essay at Sandwalk. It attacks this “it is just a theory” BS.

Republicans and Racism Senator Tom Coburn:

This is what follows that faint praise:

Obama’s “intent is not to destroy, his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him,” he said.

“As an African-American male,” Coburn said, Obama received “tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs.”

Yep, millions of ‘mericans think that way….just good old “common sense”. It is getting harder to tell standard Republican rhetoric from Stormfront type stuff; here is Limbaugh and his Obama-Oreo remark.

That Obama…used his advantages to…..GET MORE VOTES than his opponent did in 2008. How dare him do something that Bush couldn’t do in 2000 and could barely do in 2004.

Rick Perry: Bringing the US Back to the Bible!!!

People LIKE this stuff???

Christine O’Donnell Walks Out Of CNN Interview When Asked About Witchcraft, Gay Marriage (VIDEO)

Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell, who made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate last year, walks out during an interview that airs on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” on Wednesday after being asked to weigh in on the issues of witchcraft and gay marriage.

Christine O’Donnell Walks Out Of CNN Interview …, posted with vodpod

17 August 2011 PM Quickies

Here is one of the things that I’ve been doing over the past month or so: I’ve taken some notes on Quantum Mechanics. There is nothing new here. But I’ve gone over some elementary references and put things into “undergraduate math teaching” friendly language (mostly using Daniel Gillespie’s outstanding book A Quantum Mechanics Primer)

I wrote these for those who teach undergraduate mathematics; I assume familiarity with calculus, linear algebra, probability (calculus based) and at least exposure to analysis and differential equations.

Posts
No, President Obama has NOT been on vacation as long as either President Bush or President Reagan (via Fact Check.org)

Q: Has President Obama taken more vacation time than his predecessors?

A: According to one count, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spent more time on “vacation” during their first year than President Obama did. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton spent less time on “vacation.”

Tea Party: They say “small government” oriented, but they are mostly religious social conservatives:

So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.

More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.

This inclination among the Tea Party faithful to mix religion and politics explains their support for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Their appeal to Tea Partiers lies less in what they say about the budget or taxes, and more in their overt use of religious language and imagery, including Mrs. Bachmann’s lengthy prayers at campaign stops and Mr. Perry’s prayer rally in Houston.

Yet it is precisely this infusion of religion into politics that most Americans increasingly oppose.

In other words, they aren’t so much libertarians as they are assholes social conservatives.

This is one reason Rick Perry is so popular with them. Of course, Mr. Secessionist has some nerve to imply that the President “doesn’t love America”.

But…while the the Republicans have a problem with their loons, we have a smaller group of loons. No, we don’t always agree with each other, and that is fine. Yes, it is fine to pressure the President from the left. For example, Paul Krugman knows more about economics than the President does, but the President understands politics and political realities better than Dr. Krugman does. Sometimes one can’t get to optimal policy directly.

Nevertheless, there is some news about some OFA (Obama for America) fighting with some liberal critics.

Some liberal criticism is policy oriented and principled. Some is just plain stupid; here is an example from Daily Kos:

There’s been discussion about President Obama’s speech in Iowa as it relates to public sector employees who have a retirement plan generally considered to be better than that of the average public sector employee. The comments most under discussion is this quote:

I do say, though, to my friends in the public sector unions that it is important that you are on the side of reform where reform is needed. Because the truth of the matter is, is that at a time when everybody is belt-tightening, there is nothing wrong with a union saying to itself, you know what, we know budgets are hard right now. Let’s sit down and say we’re willing to negotiate so that we’re making some sacrifices to maintain the number of teachers in the classroom and keep class sizes at a reasonable level. We’re willing to make some modifications in terms of how our pension systems work so that they’re sustainable for the next generation of teachers as long as it’s a conversation, as opposed to it simply being imposed and collective bargaining rights being stripped away.

So I think it’s important — remember we talked about shared sacrifice and burden sharing. Well, this is an area where there’s got to be burden sharing as well. If a public sector employee is able to retire at 55 with 80 percent of their wages, and the average public sector employee has got a 401(k) that they’ve just seen decline by about 20 percent and they have no idea how they’re going to retire, and they’re feeling burdened by a lot of taxes and they don’t feel like the public sector employers are making any adjustments whatsoever to reflect the tough economic realities that are facing folks who are not protected, then there’s going to be a natural backlash.

The criticism? The criticism is that the President is explaining how some in the general public might grow to resent the deal that some in public unions have!!!!! Oh no…the President understands the fear, pain and anger that some citizens feel!!! Oh no, NOT THAT!!!!

I swear: often I make fun at how stupid the Tea Party is…but I am seeing loads of stupidity of that caliber at Daily Kos and at other liberal hang outs.

Fortunately, the Republicans might Christine O’Donnell themselves in 2012.