Author: Aaron Weber

Swiffer Good

On Saturday, I swiffered the cats. I have the Swiffer jingle to the tune of “Whip It” stuck in my head. That evening all we did was watch TLC. I’m turning into a domestic drone.

Sometimes that scares me, but not much. I mean, this particular phase of my life seems to be focused on setting up and settling in– a lot of people my age are doing that sort of thing. Buying, saving, working, acquiring, cleaning, organizing.

On the other hand, maybe I’m just a consumer whore. Or maybe my fear of becoming a consumer whore is due to being a cheapskate. I can never tell– I’m definitely neurotic about money, more so than the rest of my family. I mean, I’m aware of it, and when I hesitate about things I have to remind myself “money is for using, not hoarding. Do nice things for people.” When I remember that, when I remember that I have a good savings rate and few expenses, then it’s much easier to buy dinner or drinks for friends, to give to charities, buy presents, etc.

Tarrifs Made Simple

How the whole tarrif thing works in relatively simple terms. For example, defining dumping subsidies:

Let’s say my mother wants to see me do well in the lemonade business, so she offers to pay me 15 cents for each cup I sell. Now I can charge 10 cents a cup and make a profit! I could give it away for free and still break even! Once again, my pricing advantage will run you out of business in short order. Subsidized dumping works this way, with government playing the role of Mom (without the warm chocolate-chip cookies before bedtime).

Corporatism

BFT is in a competitive market, and has few new members and a declining credit rating. On the other hand, they’re the biggest gym network in a big fat country. I think that a lot of people have been cancelling their gym memberships as cost-saving measures, but if the larger economy improves they’ll go back. The way Bally’s handles the post-New-Year’s surge of gym-joining and resolution-making should be a good indicator of their ongoing value.

Commerce Bank is one I should have paid attention to earlier. Great bank, strong growth, and not an oversized conglomerate like Bank of America (bad service, bad acquisitions: dump it). Open weekends, too. Even if the stock sucks (and it is expensive right now) I really recommend their checking account and consumer banking services.

SNE could get back in the saddle. They have great design, great technology, strong innovation, and a great brand. On the other hand, the industry is brutally competitive. But the Japanese economy can’t keep sucking forever, and when it revives, Sony should be able to perk up along with it.

RAD was way low for way long. Mismanagement, overexpansion, and so forth, drove them near collapse. But they’ve restructured their debt and their stores keep doing well, and management seems not to be screwing it up this time around, so I think they’ll keep doing well.

Conservatives, Cranks, etc.

Note from a former conservative about his change of heart and the neocon kleptocracy.

Now, I don’t want to sound like a crank, but the New Yorker had a great article about the redistricting system, in which it described an “unholy alliance” between various electoral groups. But really– is it an alliance between the rich and the stupid, as some suggest? Are we really moving toward fascism? Is Krugman right that we’re undermining the foundations of democracy in our own nation?

I don’t think things are all that bad, but it’s true that our voting machines are owned by Republicans. Our registration systems are owned by Republicans. The districts are owned by Republicans. There oughta be a fair fight. Districting ought to create fair fights and reasonable electoral groupings… things like a neighborhood, a city, a region. Maybe not– maybe it needs to be all in squares, no matter what.

I’m not Pro-Freedom, I’m Anti-God

People like this give the South a bad name. I mean, where do you get off saying things like “Atheists … don’t have personal values”. Your personal values and mine are not even all that incompatible. But your ignorance is painful to me.

Look at the line “I do solemnly swear (or affirm).” Why does it say affirm? Because some people do not take oaths before God, because they do not believe in such a thing. Really. That and refusing to swear allegiance to anyone else but God. So, there. You’re just all wrong. Now, crumble before my obviously superior intellect.

Contempt for religious fundamentalism, like contempt for George W. Bush, is a caustic and potentially destructive emotion, but it’s one that most civilized human beings tend to wear as a badge of honor these days.

Are you talking about my mother?

I will never mention my gay mother in school ever ever again.

Well, little one. Welcome to the harsh, harsh world of reality. You know how Mister Rogers is a nice guy who likes you just the way you are? A lot of the world is the opposite, and they will hate you, no matter what, and they are often people who have power over you and will use it to hurt you, and there is nothing you can do about it but suck it up and wait for it to be over.

Shrill the alarm

The WSJ’s Allan Murray is turning on Dubya, reports Brad DeLong. Without a subscription to the WSJ, I haven’t read the whole article, but the excerpt has the wonderful line:

It is also possible that what really links Presidents Nixon and Bush is something else: an unbounded desire for a second term, even at the expense of taxpayers.

I saw somewhere the explanation “There are two political parties in my country: the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. When the Evil Party is in charge, the Stupid Party stands in the way and prevents them from getting much evil accomplished. When the Stupid Party is in charge, the Evil Party stands in the way and prevents them from doing anything stupid. But sometimes, they manage to cooperate, and do something that is both stupid and evil, and that’s how we get laws in this country.”