Fox News Attacks Ordinary Americans

Note: if you compare this to “Joe the Plumber”; remember that he made some specific claims about what he did and what his plans were.

OWS is making Fox News livid with hate; good for OWS!!!

Where government money really goes….

I feel this person’s pain. A member of Daily Kos that lives in rural Oklahoma writes:

My friends are nice people. I am nice people, and I am their friend too.

My friends do the same stuff that nice folk in the rest of the country do. They work hard, they play hard. They raise their kids well and they generally have their priorities in the same place everyone else does.

They are decent, honest and politically about as stupid as stupid gets.

I have always preferred the term “low-information” to pejorative terms like “stupid”. I am rapidly running out of patience though. If you have “low-information” yet refuse to accept any that is offered, then you are stupid.

I don’t really know why, or who to blame. I am tempted to blame them for their ignorance, their completely incurious acceptance of the conventional wisdom around here that all that is Republican will be their salvation, and all that is Liberal is dragging the country down to the level of, oh I dunno, Ulan Bator, or somewhere else most of them couldn’t find on a map. Maybe Wisconsin …

I have tried. I am blue in the face (sic) from trying, but to little avail. Even the little things are beyond their comprehension, or capacity to accept. Even things as basic as the President being an actual American, or that two wars contributed massively to the deficit, and cost 5000 American lives, needlessly.

They won’t hear of millionaires or billionaires paying a little more tax … and this from a guy who works for the sanitation department. Well he might be a billionaire one day. He fails to acknowledge, understand or concede that were he ever to be so fortunate then he actually would be able to afford to pay a little more tax, given that he would have more money than he would ever be able to spend.

He thinks that Liberals are “Big Government” mad. He thinks they should stop wasting his tax dollars on “government spending”. This spending isn’t actually quantified. He can’t tell me which government spending should be cut. He thinks that teachers, first responders, sanitation workers should have decent pay and benefits, but that Unions who try to obtain these benefits are ruining the country. [...]

So exactly where does all of that government money go? Paul Krugman explains:

I gather, from what I’ve been reading and hearing in various places, that the right-wing line is that it’s all Solyndra — that your tax dollars are going to pay for vast numbers of wasteful projects.

Now, even the Solyndra story is a lot more nuanced than that. But this seems like a good time to repeat, once again, the truth about federal spending: Your federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. The vast bulk of its spending goes to the big five: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, and interest on the debt.

But what about recent deficits? They’re caused mainly by a fall in revenue and a mostly automatic increase in spending on safety-net programs. Oh, and the federal government has been providing aid to state and local governments, largely to limit layoffs of schoolteachers.

The amounts spent on anything remotely resembling Solyndra is a rounding error on a rounding error. It’s just not what your government does on any significant scale.

And if you want smaller government, either you’re talking about cuts in the big five, or you have no idea what you’re talking about.

On the lighter side: I am watching the Air Force vs. Boise State football game. It has been very good; a fumble helped BSU score a touchdown right before half time and go in with a 20-10 lead; it has been back and forth in the second half. Boise is driving and leads 34-26 (after blocking an Air Force extra point and having an exiting but futile multi-lateral attempt at a return). But with 3 minutes to go and an 8 point lead, BSU is confident enough to pass on any down to move the ball. It is down to 2 minutes and baring a fumble, it looks as if BSU will hold on. But it has been a great game.

Oh well; BSU just iced it with a field goal; they are up 37-26 with 42 seconds to go.

I was flipping through Yahoo College Football and saw this photo:

(this is from Auburn vs. LSU: photo from yahoo)

I think that it is great!

Something else I think is great:

(click the photo for access to a much larger one at the site; there are MANY more at The Spandex Statement)

Illinois vs. Purdue Football game, 2011

(photos from yahoo)
To recap: after relatively easy wins over Arkansas State (who is 6-2 with their other loss being to Virgina Tech) and South Dakota State (FCS (old I-AA) team), Illinois had three 3-point wins at home in a row: 17-14 over Arizona State, 24-21 over Western Michigan, 38-35 over Northwestern after falling behind 28-10 in the 3′rd quarter and 35-31 with 1 minute to go.

Then came an easy 41-20 win at Indiana followed by last week’s 17-7 loss at home. In that game, Ohio State completed ONE pass (for a touchdown) and lead 17-0 until late in the 4′th.

So what Illinois team would show up against a Purdue team that lost to Rice and got creamed at home 38-10 by Notre Dame (yes, this game was as lopsided as the score would indicate).

It ended 21-14, but it was 21-0 at the half and still 21-0 with 8:30 to go. It was 21-7 until 1 minute to go in the game. Illinois did cut it to 7 but then failed on an onside kick.

Statistically: yes, Illinois out gained Purdue 366-303, BUT 150 of the Illinois yards came on the final two drives of the 4′th quarter: 60 and 90 yards respectively.

The game started with the teams exchanging punts. Illinois caught a break when Purdue fumbled the ball just past midfield but could do nothing with the ball. A punt pinned Purdue back on their 9; but this lead to a 91 yard drive and a touchdown. Illinois had 17 yards TOTAL in quarter 1.

Purdue promptly drove it 88 yards for another touchdown to go up 14-0; they mixed things up very nicely.
Illinois got the ball back and gained a few yards but had to punt again. The punter bobbled the snap and got tackled for a huge loss.

Purdue had the ball at the Illinois 8. The defense held on 3 plays…but on 3′rd down there was a “hands to the face personal foul” on Illinois. New life and Purdue scored to go up 21-0.

Illinois put in their backup quarterback (a pure passer) and he had some success driving the ball 46 yards..and then throwing an interception.

The Illinois defense held and got the ball at their own 44. Scheelhaase (the starting quarterback) made a nice run and lateraled the ball prior to getting tackled. The running back made more yards but didn’t have a path to the end zone and didn’t go down. Hence the clock stopped on the first down..but only 2 seconds remained and Illinois had no time outs.

Hence Illinois had 128 yards total at the end of the half; 35 coming on the last run of the half. Purdue had 223.

The Illinois defense forced 5 punts in the second half and Illinois had one promising drive in the 3′rd quarter that eventually fizzled. In short, the 3′rd quarter saw each team punt 4 times each.

Illinois had the two long drives that I talked about, but it was too little, too late.

Once again, Illinois quarterbacks took a beating; Scheelhaase got sacked 4 times and hit a lot more than that.

Sadly, the game was a more dominant win by Purdue than the score would indicate.
Clearly Purdue is better than they were early in the year though they really aren’t what I’d call a good team. On the other hand, Illinois was clearly overrated; they beat a good Arizona State team but haven’t done much since; in fact, they appeared to have regressed from that point going on (even with the 3 wins after that).

(photos from yahoo)

Boo Run 5K (Peoria, IL)

Today saw a crisp (41 F, or 5 C) day; it was clear and there was a slight wind. I picked up Tracy at the crack of dawn and headed to the mall.

The course: a lap around the mall; a rectangular segment with an out and back spur on local suburban mall-area roads, then a half of a loop around the mall. My question: how was the course measured; one is trained to “run the tangents” (the Mall lap) but was the course measured by the inner curb?

I did get to the mile marker at 8:05; I was just a bit skeptical as I saw others ahead of me who weren’t 7:30 mpm runners. The out and back segment gave me a view of everyone else. I had gained on some; I was following a very tall, broadly built (kind of like a javelin thrower) lady and was able to get ahead of her. My other targets were getting out of reach.

Mile 2: 16:12; this part couldn’t have been incorrectly measured, I think. I was chasing a guy with a cape and eventually he got away from me; my legs started to get heavy. At 20-22 minutes, two guys got me. Still I saw the clock at about 25 and knew I could make it under 26 and so I did.

I talked to two others who had Garmins; one had 3.12 and another had 3.08. Still another coming in had 2.99 with, well, about .1 to go.

Tracy broke 39 minutes which is faster than her previous race (Zoo Run); we’ll have to see about the early miles.

Short (by .02-.05 or so) or not, this was a decent race for me and part of a steady improvement. I had no trouble with my knees.

Remarks
1. Some ran in costume; I was beaten by a gladiator with a cape and a banana.

2. Yep, it was a spandex kind of day. I got some serious eyestrain, especially during the pre-race stretch:

(click to see the full size image at the site). No, this wasn’t exactly what I saw; today it was mostly tights rather than shorts.

3. I can tell I am making progress because the groups I end up chasing are smaller (in terms of body size) than 2-3 months ago. This is almost the optimum speed for viewing as the ladies in sight are fit enough to run an 8-8:30 mpm pace but not as skinny as the 7 mpm and faster runners. Then again the 10-12 mpm ladies are a bit bigger in the caboose and I like that too.

4. A retired physics professor was helping out at the finish line. He and I had an interesting locker room conversation yesterday. He asked me “do you have arthritis?” I said “in the knee and shoulder; why?” He then said that he was surprised that a guy my size was lifting such light weights. I have to admit that this really didn’t bother me; he was genuinely curious and he remembered me from 17-18 years ago when I could bench 300 pounds…I was much younger and I weight a LOT more. He might have also been surprised at my lunges (I use 30-40 pounds), rotator cuff exercises (2.5-5 pounds) and arm curls (25 pound dumbbells for sets of 12; I keep my elbows tucked at my sides).

Still, my routine precludes me from lifting a lot of weight; yesterday it went like this:
rotator cuff (pulley, and light dumbbells; 18 sets of 10 total) 18
rows (Hammer: 3 sets of 10 with 200) 3
bench press: 10 x 135, 8 x 155, 3 x 165, 3 x 165 4
incline press: 10 x 125, 10 x 125 2
pull downs: 10 x 140, 10 x 145, 10 x 145 3
curls: 2 sets of 12 x 25, EZ bar: 10 x 65, 10 x 45 4
lunges: 2 full sets of 10 (1 set is 10 each leg front, 10 each leg back) 4
military press: 2 sets of 15 x 40 lb. dumbbells; seated/supported, 1 set of 8 x 45 standing 3
sit ups: 100 via 50-30-20 (1-2-3 incline; highest is 1) 1
legs: adduction: 3 sets of 10 with 180 3
abduction: 3 sets of 10 with 180 3
push back: 3 sets of 10 with 110 3

Note: I super set everything; for example I’ll often do rows-pull downs, then bench press-leg series, incline with sit ups in between; super set curls and military press. I am also careful to stay in control; I don’t want to re-injure my shoulder. I also rest very little; the above routine usually takes me 55 minutes and I did 51 sets (mostly 10, some 15, some 3).

Romney’s (possible) Mistake, Herman Cain’s style, Flat Taxes and Flat Earthers

President Obama: we are leaving Iraq!!!

Flat Taxes why the “flat tax idea” is nonsense. Note: when it comes to income tax, everyone does pay the same:

Here’s a modified version of the current Federal Income Tax Brackets (I’ve rounded off the numbers to make it easier to follow):

Taxable Income / Tax Rate
$0 – $10,000 / 10%
$10,000 – $30,000 / 15%
$30,000 – $80,000 / 25%
$80,000 – $200,000 / 28%
$200,000 – $400,000 / 33%
More than $400,000 / 35%

That is, everyone’s first 10,000 is taxed at the same rate, then everyone’s 10 to 30K is taxed at the same rate, etc. The tax rate changes income level and not by total. That is, if you make 100K, your first 10K is taxed at 10 percent, your next 20K is taxed at 15 percent, your next 50K is taxed at 25 percent and your next 20K is taxed at 28 percent.

Science and mathematics
Get a load of this wooden adding machine. It isn’t profound, but it is fun:

Nothing new in resistance to science
The public has often been slow to accept new science results. The situation with climate change is even harder since there are rich industries who are fighting the findings. This article from Physics Today has an interesting summary. Here is a bit of it:

Even Albert Einstein was not immune to political backlash. His theory of general relativity, excerpted on the notebook page in figure 2, undermined our most fundamental notions of absolute space and time, a revolution that Max Planck avowed “can only be compared with that brought about by the introduction of the Copernican world system.”5 Though the theory predicted the anomalous perihelion shift of Mercury’s orbit, it was still regarded as provisional in the years following its publication in 1916.

When observation, by Arthur Eddington and others, of a rare solar eclipse in 1919 confirmed the bending of light, it was widely hailed and turned Einstein into a celebrity. Elated, he was finally satisfied that his theory was verified. But the following year he wrote to his mathematician collaborator Marcel Grossmann:

This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation.6

Instead of quelling the debate, the confirmation of the theory and acclaim for its author had sparked an organized opposition dedicated to discrediting both theory and author. Part of the backlash came from a minority of scientists who apparently either felt sidelined or could not understand the theory. The driving force was probably professional jealousy,6but scientific opposition was greatly amplified by the anti-Semitism of the interwar period and was exploited by political and culture warriors. The same forces, together with status quo economic interests, have amplified the views of climate contrarians.7

The historical backlashes shed some light on a paradox of the current climate debate: As evidence continues to accumulate confirming longstanding warming predictions and showing how sensitive climate has been throughout Earth’s history, why does climate skepticism seem to be growing rather than shrinking? All three provocative ideas—heliocentricity, relativity, and greenhouse warming—have been, in Kuhn’s words, “destructive of an entire fabric of thought,” and have shattered notions that make us feel safe.2 That kind of change can turn people away from reason and toward emotion, especially when the ideas are pressed on them with great force.8

The agitations of modern greenhouse proponents appear to have provoked an antiscience backlash similar to the one against Galileo. In the space of only two years, almost as fast as Bellarmine changed his position on Copernicanism, leading moderates have been squeezed out of the main conservative political parties in both the US and Australia and replaced by hard-line rejecters of climate science.

Leave it to our Republicans to lead the charge for stupidity and ignorance.

Nothing New: Herman Cain’s strange behavior explained

I admit that the first bit of this clip is “same old, same old”: “Cain is an idiot and the Republican debate audiences are even bigger idiots”. Yep, I think there is truth in that (sort of) but that isn’t the reason I linked to it.

The winning point comes toward the end of it (5 minutes or so) when someone who is (sort of) defending Mr. Cain speaks: he points out that while Mr. Cain is mostly associated with is time as CEO for Godfather’s Pizza, he has spent much of his time in the past few years as a motivational speaker. These are the types who say “YOU CAN DO IT!!!! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY and follow my “X-point” PLAN FOR SUCCESS.” When have you ever seen someone actually study such a plan to see if it indeed leads to success?

Anyway, remember the “motivational speaker” background the next time you hear Mr. Cain speak.

Politics 2012
Is Mitt Romney making a mistake by attacking Rick Perry so hard? Why might this be a mistake? According to Nate Silver, Mr. Romney might be setting Mr. Perry as the “legitimate” anti-Romney candidate; perhaps he ought to let the anti-Romney crowd remain fractured.