Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Nanny State Strikes Again
I was just at the friendly neighborhood Walmart and figured that I had better start stocking up on those evil incandescent light bulbs. Earlier in the year I had hope that common sense might prevail and that the idiots in congress would reverse or delay their schemes to make everyone use flourescent bulbs by the year 2011. You know, those bulbs that contain mercury but that's not an issue just as long that 2011-restriction-bill gets passed, just as long as you consider a broken bulb hazardous and clear the building. You know, those bulbs that are getting cheaper but will suddenly have a disposal tax attached by the Obama administration to ensure proper disposal of all that hazardous mercury. At the very least I figure the gracious members of congress will allow us to purchase incandescent light bulbs as long as we pay some kind of carbon tax to offset all the damage we are surely doing to the environment. At least I hope so because at the moment there isn't anyone making those little 40W decorative bulbs that we use in the hallway or the dining room or the girls bedroom.
However 40W is no longer 40W. When I went to stock up on some 97cent boxes of incandescent bulbs I found that good ol' Walmart was making sure I was doing the right thing. So was GE. 40W bulbs, which are already pretty dim, are now 34W. 60W bulbs are 52W. 75W bulbs are 67W and 100W bulbs are 90W. The 50-100-150 are still (for the time being, 50-100-150).
I thought the point of using a light bulb was to (steady now) have light. If I wanted to have less than a 60W brightness I'd go and use a 40W. Now if I want 60W I have to (gasp) "waste" more electricity and use a 67W bulb. Which is exactly what I'm doing.
It's called the Law of Unintended Consequences and it affects just about everything government does. They intend to force us use less electricity but the end result will be us (or at least me) using MORE! I'd give more examples but right now I've got to go flip on every light in the house. Heck, I might even rip off the end of an extension chord and plug one end into the wall and leave the other on the ground so those electrons can just spill freely all over the place. After all, it's America and it's supposed to be my choice of what I do with the money that I have earned.
However 40W is no longer 40W. When I went to stock up on some 97cent boxes of incandescent bulbs I found that good ol' Walmart was making sure I was doing the right thing. So was GE. 40W bulbs, which are already pretty dim, are now 34W. 60W bulbs are 52W. 75W bulbs are 67W and 100W bulbs are 90W. The 50-100-150 are still (for the time being, 50-100-150).
I thought the point of using a light bulb was to (steady now) have light. If I wanted to have less than a 60W brightness I'd go and use a 40W. Now if I want 60W I have to (gasp) "waste" more electricity and use a 67W bulb. Which is exactly what I'm doing.
It's called the Law of Unintended Consequences and it affects just about everything government does. They intend to force us use less electricity but the end result will be us (or at least me) using MORE! I'd give more examples but right now I've got to go flip on every light in the house. Heck, I might even rip off the end of an extension chord and plug one end into the wall and leave the other on the ground so those electrons can just spill freely all over the place. After all, it's America and it's supposed to be my choice of what I do with the money that I have earned.
For a bit of added levity, here's a scan of some toilet paper I picked up at the same place. Yep, I'm just FLUSHING money down the drain. Be sure to tip your waitress!
The look on her face says "THIS BABY JUST SCREAMED FOR FOUR STRAIGHT HOURS. GO AHEAD... MAKE MY DAY."
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Everybody Loves Mail
One of the great things about writing CD reviews is being sent music from record companies, music that I would have never known about. Most of the time it's stuff that doesn't strike any inner chords but every now and then one resonates big time. Frost* is one such band.
Their first album, Milliontown, was a glorious mix of progressive rock. Yeah... that prog rock stuff. Except this isn't the self-indulgant stuff of today or the mellotron-drenched stuff of the 70s. Frost* is the creation of Jem Godfrey, some big time British pop producer who's done work with Atomic Kitten and various Walt Disney projects. Because of this pop music background he is able to make songs with instant appeal, songs that hook you on the very first listen, songs that nearly sound normal. However he's also able to add an amazing amount of depth to his music, making those "nearly normal" songs slowly reveal their nuances with each listen. In a nutshell it's the kind of music I love: well-written glossy rock/pop with enough intelligent progressive to keep you interested but not so many that you feel like you're doing calculus with each listen.
So Milliontown was a couple of years ago and there was nothing else I could find out on this band. A search for the band name brings up a Swedish dance-music duo or some other such rot. I figured Milliontown was just an amazing one-off project, never to be repeated (Toy Matinee, anyone?). Yesterday I opened a package and received a jolt of electricity through my brain... a new and completely unexpected album by Frost*!
It's currently spinning now for the first time and those immediate-gratification hooks are digging deep. It's like a surprise mini-birthday party for my brain!
Hear some samples here and surely you'll think I'm a dolt. But a happy dolt!
Also enclosed in the package was a massive 3-CD + 1 DVD retrospective set from Ayreon. I wished I liked this guy's music but despite trying to get into his past three albums I get nothin'. I mightily enjoyed his Stream of Passion project but his regular stuff... meh. What am I missing?
Fox Guarding the Chickens
Rent-controls began in New York City as a temporary emergency response to the Second World War.
Agriculture subsidies likewise were intended to be a temporary fix.
Back when it was newly built the parking fee at War Memorial Colesium (of twenty-five cents) was only going to last until it paid for the cost of paving the lot.
And how about that temporary 1% restaurant tax ten or so years ago that was going to go away just as soon as it paid for the convention center expansion of the Colesium (not the roof raising)?
When some politician says a tax or program is going to be temporary the only thing you can be certain of is that they are lying. Once they get that money coming in it takes a major effort to detox their system.
Agriculture subsidies likewise were intended to be a temporary fix.
Back when it was newly built the parking fee at War Memorial Colesium (of twenty-five cents) was only going to last until it paid for the cost of paving the lot.
And how about that temporary 1% restaurant tax ten or so years ago that was going to go away just as soon as it paid for the convention center expansion of the Colesium (not the roof raising)?
When some politician says a tax or program is going to be temporary the only thing you can be certain of is that they are lying. Once they get that money coming in it takes a major effort to detox their system.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Nothing New Under The Sun
From Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, a difficult but eye-opening and rewarding read:
"Jacob Maged, a forty-nine year old immigrant dry cleaner was jailed for three months for charging thirty-five cents to press a suit when the government insisted that all loyal Americans charged at least forty cents. Because one of the central goals of the early New Deal was to create artificial scarcity in order to drive prices up, the Agriculture Adjustment Administration ordered that six million pigs be slaughtered. Bountiful crops were left to rot. Many white farmers were paid not to work their land (which meant that many black tenant farmers went hungry). All of these policies were enforced by a militarized government.
"Meanwhile, under [General Hugh] Johnson's watchful eye, policement would break down doors with axes to make sure tailors weren't working at night and - literally - yank newsboys from the street because they didn't work for big corporations."
Sounds like eeeevil Republicans, right? Nope, it happened in the mid 1930's under FDR's New Deal, an administration that was much admired by Hitler.
A little bit later this same administration put over 100,000 Americans into concentration camps just because they were Japanese. Nice fellas.
"Jacob Maged, a forty-nine year old immigrant dry cleaner was jailed for three months for charging thirty-five cents to press a suit when the government insisted that all loyal Americans charged at least forty cents. Because one of the central goals of the early New Deal was to create artificial scarcity in order to drive prices up, the Agriculture Adjustment Administration ordered that six million pigs be slaughtered. Bountiful crops were left to rot. Many white farmers were paid not to work their land (which meant that many black tenant farmers went hungry). All of these policies were enforced by a militarized government.
"Meanwhile, under [General Hugh] Johnson's watchful eye, policement would break down doors with axes to make sure tailors weren't working at night and - literally - yank newsboys from the street because they didn't work for big corporations."
Sounds like eeeevil Republicans, right? Nope, it happened in the mid 1930's under FDR's New Deal, an administration that was much admired by Hitler.
A little bit later this same administration put over 100,000 Americans into concentration camps just because they were Japanese. Nice fellas.
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