Thursday, August 12, 2010
California Thursday dumping of the tabs
The tabs are piling up like grapes drying in to raisins in the hot California sun (of which more below).
Hardening the "cultural confidence" of those of us who subscribe to traditional American values. The linked post addresses an issue that has been rattling around in my own noggin for some time. Teaser:
Why does the Ruling Class, using Codevilla’s term, have such strong cultural confidence?
And what can we do to undermine it?
If I had to pick an ultimate target for activism and action by Conservatives, Libertarians, Tea Partiers, and common-sense Conservatives, it would be strengthening to diamond-hardness the cultural confidence of those who believe in the American way of life –free enterprise, limited government, personal freedom — and nuking out the foundations of the cultural confidence of our opponents. That is, long term, the most important thing. Many things in the short and medium term have to come first, but that is the long term goal.
Dang, spreads on Club Med credit default swaps are widening again. Another swoon for the Euro?
The Bush tax plan vs. the Obama tax plan in one easy-to-understand graph. Look to the comments for the entertainment.
So, I'm at our facility in Irvine, California. I made the mistake of ordering a "Greek Salad" from the take-out place near by, and got back the salad equivalent of a transporter malfunction: There were nuts of all sorts and -- egads -- raisins in the freaking thing, but nary an olive. Indeed, apart from a little lettuce the only thing "Greek" about this salad was a bit of feta sprinkled over the top (as if). In an admittedly immature but I believe understandable fit of pique I announced on Facebook that "If I want raisins in my Greek salad I'll ask for them," to which one of my so-called "friends" posted this link. OK, fair point.
Regular readers of this blog know that I am all for giving money and time to worthy causes, so I am a supporter of the Buffet-Gates initiative. It sets an excellent example to the world's wealthy, even if it is also a bit sanctimonious. Today's rich need to be taught noblesse oblige, which I suppose is in the main better than them having learned it from wealthy ancestors. And, besides, most of this money will do a lot more good than it possibly could in the hands of government. But I like "the Giving Pledge" even more now that I know that European lefties are against it.
The "Ground Zero mosque" is going to be "green"? This seems like a naked attempt to enlist the support of the transnational environmentalists. You know, if there are any who were opposed to the Ground Zero mosque in the first place.
The Deepwater Horizon spill "by the numbers." Lotso' interesting factoids.
I beg to differ.
Can exercise help you control your foul temper? I know several people who ought to work out more.
TTYL.
10 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Aug 13, 12:29:00 AM:
WHY DO YOU DAMN CHRISTIANS KEEP CALLING IT THE "GROUND ZERO MOSQUE?" STOP!! IT IS NOT THE "GROUND ZERO MOSQUE," IT IS THE "MOSQUE OF THE SACRED MARTYRS!"
The brave and beloved young Saudi men who struck against the great Satan will always be honored by this mosque. The generous Saudi royalty has, through their many entities, provided the wealth to honor these brave martyrs, and that is the true name and purpose of the memorial to the brave martyrs!
Just because Mayor Bloomberg's business organizations will gain immeasurable Saudi wealth from his irrational decision doesn't mean he has been bribed! No!! He just recognizes the valor of the brave Saudi martyrs who knocked down the evil twin towers and murdered the infidels who worked therein.
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 12:46:00 AM:
As to that corporate welfare queen, Bill Gates (read about his latest bit of mooching, via his former employee, Raj Shah, who Obama appointed as head of USAID, 86 million worth to increase outsourcing of jobs out of the US), my fondest wish is that while flat on his back in a hospital, he is dosed up with the wrong medication by one of those illiterate Filipino J1 visa nurses he demands we import more of, dies miserably, and his carrion crow wife learns after the fact that he hasn't left her a sous.
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 04:15:00 AM:
This is address directly to you ANONYMOUS:
If filipinos are illiterate as you made it sound, then how come America the Great is desperately hiring (BSN) nurses from the Philippines specifically among all countries in this world? And did you not research before you opened your non-thinking brain that fifty percent (50%) of the current population of nurses here in America are filipinos? RESEARCH MAN RESEARCH...
Whys is that?
I will answer for you blabber mouth:: it is because filipino nurses are COMPETENT enough that America the Great is desperate to get hold of that competency to handle the complexity of the nursing profession throughout the American soil.
And one more thing, before you open your mouth --- if you are really that sassy!!!! - do make a research about the Philippines. Which means that you will find out that eighty five percent (85%) of the entire Philippine population are college graduates. College graduates are dime a dozen in the Philippines.
How about you blabber mouth? Are you a college graduate? And lastly, are you one among the Hollywood people specifically that Desperate Wives series who maligned on air Philippine doctors last year- circa 2009?
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 04:23:00 AM:
Still for you ANONYMOUS::
And if by chance, one of these days you happen to be in a hospital and your nurse or nurses are filipinos since I mentioned it already that 50% of the nurses manning hospital and facilities here in America are filipinos, what would you do? Can you look them in your eyes without rancor because of how you view them as IIINNNCCOOOMPPPETENT????
What's your beef with filipinos anyway, huh? You can't believe in your heart and mind that brown skin are smart and smarter than you credit them for?
By 
Greg Toombs, at
Fri Aug 13, 09:50:00 AM:
Re: exercise and temper control
Maybe K-Rod needs to pitch a lot more innings.
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 10:29:00 AM:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/capitalist-revolt-%E2%80%93-against-warren-buffett-and-bill-gates
According to Fortune’s own tally, the comments ran 2-to-1 against Buffett and Gates. The included 36 percent of who readers described the philanthropy plan as “a publicity stunt/dangerous/the work of socialists” and another 26 percent who said the money that Buffett, Gates, and the other billiionaires were proposing to spend on charity should be spent in other ways – to pay off the U.S. debt, to help individuals, or reinvested in the creation of new businesses and job opportunities.
Any number of readers wrote in to urge Buffett and Gates to remember that they were supposed to be capitalists. As one put it, “For all their vast wealth, these people don’t have a clue about how economies flourish and fail. Don’t GIVE your money away. That’s called putting it in a bottomless pit. INVEST IT. Create some badly needed jobs by creating something called BUSINESSES with that capital.”
By SR, at
Fri Aug 13, 11:36:00 AM:
Ezra demonstrates that under Obama, there is a huge incentive to cut productivity after $500K. One quibble, the graph indicates that there are "cuts" in the taxes of both plans. Huh? What is the baseline, 1958? There will be no CUTS in the tax rates over $250 K from Obama (only cuts in output and thus government tax receipts).
By SR, at
Fri Aug 13, 11:40:00 AM:
About nurses. There is a dramatic nursing shortage in the US. Regarding race and training, there are excellent as well as incompetent nurses from all backgrounds. No one has a monopoly on them. We do import Philippine trained nurses as they become available and willing to relocate here. There is a bottleneck in US nursing training which is the shortage of nursing school faculty.
A practicing nurse can make far more than a faculty nursing professor. Looks like it is easier to import nurses than to train them here.
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 01:37:00 PM:
Re: Buffet / Gates initiative
The best example for how to give away a fortune is Chuck Feeney, a 79-year old Jersey Boy. Feeney believes in "giving while living" and in doing so anonymously -- worthy causes find a fat check in their incoming mail. Until 1997, Feeney had managed to give away a few billion in complete secrecy. He got outed in the course of a legal dispute with a business partner.
Out of high school the Air Force posted Feeney to Japan during the Korean War -- where he picked up the language. He then went to Cornell Hotel on a GI scholarship. Parlaying this, he was the principal founder of Duty Free Shoppers. DFS was worth billions after it figured out how to tap into Japanese tourists. Feeney also founded General Atlantic Partners, a very successful PE/VC firm.
Feeney has given over $600 million to Cornell over the years. He jump-started higher education in Ireland back in the 1970s with $1 billion, with an emphasis on technical and engineering programs. Most of the money went to what were then third-tier schools like the University of Limerick ("There once was a man from Nantucket'). He even put the IRA on the dole during peace negotiations -- so they'd stop robbing banks. To date, he's given away over $6 billion, with about $4 billion to go. Last I heard, he was active in Vietnam.
Feeney hates the idea of perpetual foundations which he believes ultimately become self-serving. Money need to get back in circulation. Donees get evaluated much like the way you'd make a PE/VC investment. The best opportunities wouldn't get past the door at the likes of Ford or Carnegie. Some -- like the University of Limerick -- didn't even know they needed the money.
Another angle to this, Feeney built his fortune by studiously avoiding paying taxes. Initially he did so by putting a lot in the name of his French wife (now that's trust !) and later by using Bermudian trusts. Compound growth works even better without any tax bites along the way.
Feeney says he never expected to get so rich, that he just liked to work. But one guy made a big difference in a lot of places. Shows what you can do with $10 billion well-spent. Alas ... what you could do with a trillion ....
My last post before this appears to have been deleted by management ... let's see if this gets by.
By , at
Fri Aug 13, 01:45:00 PM:
"There is a dramatic nursing shortage in the US."
We're going to have a dramatic shortage of doctors too, but nary a word in 2,000+ pages of Healthcare Reform (100,000 pages in the Federal Register to follow).
Funny that.
