Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category

End of the month thoughts

Sunday, January 31st, 2021

Time to write a blog post…

What can be written about the craziness of this month?

The capitol building invasion that is the greatest threat ever to our democracy was just a bunch of larpers. The reaction on the part of the Washington elite would be humorous if they hadn’t ignored the rest of the country during the Summer of St. Floyd. Nothing was done until their little domain was threatened. Then it was the WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO OUR DEMOCRACY!!!! IT IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT ON PAR WITH PEARL HARBOR!!!!

I don’t know where I first heard about the left being so into results that they don’t give a damn about process. But it is true and are seeing that it is true right now with the flurry of executive orders coming from Sleepy Joe. I wonder if he even knows what he’s signing?

This two week period between the conference championships and the super bowl has to be one of the more amusing time periods on the NFL calendar. The sports writers have nothing to do but make shit up. They’ll call it analysis and projection and prediction, but it really is just making shit up.

Still struggling with employment here. My advanced age is keeping me out of consideration for jobs. I’ve been looking into various ways to make more money. These include handyman work, growing mushrooms, kitchen design and installation, etc. I’m sure I can make occasional money in any of these endeavors, but to get a steady income will require quite a bit of effort with no certainty of payoff. I would really prefer a job with benefits. I’ll keep looking.

On job searching… There could not be worse software design that what the various HR softwares provide for employment application. There is nothing about any of these programs that say to a prospective employee, “Do you see how awesome our application process is? We strive to provide the same enjoyable to work with and supportive systems in every area of our enterprise.”

Working on closets here at the White Rock Estate.

I really have nothing more to add to the mass hysteria that is our national covid response. The whole thing is insane. Go read this post from an interview with Robin Hanson. This is the sort of thing that just gets me all worked up over the ‘rona:

Pandemic experts have had their standard story about what to do in a pandemic that goes back decades. And, you know, you can look on all their standard writings about, you know, what to do about travel bans or what to do about masks or what to do about quarantines and all those sorts of things. And they’ve had their standard story about what to do in a pandemic. And there was no particularly new information that showed up except as soon as we had a pandemic, all the experts, all the elites in the world suddenly decided, “That’s a subject to talk about.” The elites went wild talking to each other about pandemics and the elites decided that they did want masks and they did what quarantines and lockdowns, and they did want travel bans. And so, the elites declared that was the better thing. And they, the experts, caved immediately. As soon as the elites declared that that was better, the experts changed their mind about what the expert judgment was just like in 1984.

Shit like this is enough to drive a normal guy insane.

As I look around this blog I can see it is time once again to update things like categories and such.

I don’t think I’ll pick up on the daily entry for the pandemic again. It has gone on too far and almost every normal person is tired of it.

Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics

Friday, December 11th, 2020
  1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
  2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
  3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

Read the whole post.

Walter Williams, RIP

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

Thomas Sowell on his friend

Someday I’ll make a list of the people I’d like to meet. A sort of bucket list of my personal favorite celebrities(?). Walter Williams would have been on that list. Too late now. Thomas Sowell is on the list.

Day 66 of the Wuhan Flu Apocalypse House Arrest

Monday, May 18th, 2020

Check this article out for a wonderful example of unintended consequences: Surrogate-Born Babies Wait In Ukraine Amid Coronavirus Travel Restrictions.

I also find it surprising that there is an industry for surrogate mothers in the Ukraine. Weird.

Another very reasonable guy with a minority opinion that was deleted from Youtube. What is up with that company? What is up with Google? Censorship of minority but still reasonable opinion is a very bad direction to head.

I am very afraid that Sports won’t start on time in the fall. It all sort of makes my heart race when I think about it. So much of the White Rock household is tied to entertainment that we will be screwed if sportsball isn’t allowed to resume.

Day 61 of the Wu Flu Lockdown

Thursday, May 14th, 2020

Drove back from the beach.

Saw this while the Deuce was driving.

If I’m going to step out and make a prediction about future changes due to this current pandemic bullshit, here is mine: That post by the Lion couldn’t be more wrong.

And yes… I’m still a day behind. I’ll catch up and get on target later today.

I notice that Kling gave up yesterday. He’s been posting a lot. He’s apparently even more frustrated than I am.

Day 35 of the Wu Flu House Arrest

Saturday, April 18th, 2020

Missed a day again.

Dallas County demands we wear masks. Clay Jenkins is going to get me out to vote for the first time in years. I’ll be voting for his opponent.

Season 6 of Bosch has started. We watched an episode last night.

The Deuce returned from Oxford last night. SWMBO is reporting that her facebook account has been hacked. Hmmm…

Progress continues on the Fermentorium.

And there is always something that will make you smile in Powerline’s Week in Pictures. I do wonder if the stuff they post is all old hat to people that use facebook?

Easter Sunday, Day 30 of the Wu Flu Lockdown

Monday, April 13th, 2020

I’m putting the post up a day late.

We violated our social distancing orders by having the Ace and her man thing over for dinner. They came early so we had a couple of drinks out by the pool too.

The menu was roast beast with veggies and potatoes. Turned out very good.

The dinner conversation was lively.

It was nice night.

From the web (via the great Craig Newmark), Bullshit Numbers:

The death rates are bullshit. In a given country, there is considerable subjectivity regarding how deaths are qualified. The Great Scarfini* (Dr. Deborah Birx) pretty much let that cat out of the bag when she acknowledged that not only are the decedents who test positive (regardless of other co-morbidities) declared as covid-19 deaths, but those who have some colorable connection to covid-19 (clinical presentation, exposure to someone who tested positive) are declared to be covid-19 deaths.

It goes on from there and is a very good, much better than I could ever do, explanation of what I’ve been thinking. We are ruining my son’s life in order that I don’t inherit my parents estate until a few months later than otherwise might have happened. That is a very cruel and crude way to put things. But it is the truth of the situation we find ourselves in today.

Day 24 of the Wu Flu Lockdown, Post B

Monday, April 6th, 2020

The tests return false positives: Manufactured Pandemic. (Courtesy of No Agenda podcast)

The Ventilators kill people: 86% die at a later date. (Courtesy of Phillip Greenspun)

I promised these links last night.

We are doomed. The people nominally in charge of our institutions are fools.

 

Day 24 of the Bat Soup Flu Apocalypse

Monday, April 6th, 2020

I find this very scary. Here is Bill Gates building demand for the vaccine he is making:

It is scary because this is part of his effort to build demand for his vaccine, he’s lobbying to keep many businesses shut down. He wants more of us to demand the federal government purchase and disburse his medicines. He’s trying to get us lowly plebes to do his marketing and sales for him. You can tell he’s talking his book as he says schools can reopen, but mass gatherings (sporting events, concerts, etc.) should not.

A lot of my personal well being and economic health are tied into mass gatherings.

I know there will be pushback from many other corners of the economy, but Gates will have the media on his side.

Day 20 of the Bat Flu Soup Pandemic Lock Down

Thursday, April 2nd, 2020

It is SWMBO’s birthday. She’s getting some tenderloin and home made bread. (I do have some yeast. Probably my best advance purchase! But I’ve had it for at least a year.)

Her present is spending the past 20 days with me. What could be better?

My current China Flu projections:

The next version of iOS/Android will have a pandemic tracking app built in. You won’t get to delete it either.

Cash will be done away with. It’s too dirty, will be the excuse. Allows for better tracking too.

We will only watch football on TV this fall. No one will be in the stadiums. At the moment I am worried about the entire 2020 Baseball season. I am very worried about the resumption of Basketball and Hockey. I’m not heavily invested in being a sportsball fan (I do love a good hockey game with my beer), but I do think we will not get back to life as normal until the arenas have 20,000 people in them again.