Jeans and Economic Theory

My little sister, who is going to a sort of boarding high school in Minnesota (for athletes not dopers or delinquents), was in town this weekend and informed me that I needed new jeans. I agreed, however she pointed out that since I had a big boy job, I should start spending big boy iron on clothes. She proceeded to pull up various $200+ jeans on the internets to show me what she meant. Now, I dress well, but I try to dress on the cheap. I pull it off for the most part, but little EK told me pulling off cheap jeans is impossible. I agreed to meet her in the middle and will tonight buy a little EK approved pair of jeans. Who cares? Well, since I am finally going to be forced to go shopping, I will also be picking up a copy of Freakonomics, THE economic buzz book of the day.



I am stoked.

The blog is fantastic as well, especially the post about peak oil.

The cover story of the New York Times Sunday Magazine written by Peter Maass is about "Peak Oil." The idea behind "peak oil" is that the world has been on a path of increasing oil production for many years, and now we are about to peak and go into a situation where there are dwindling reserves, leading to triple-digit prices for a barrel of oil, an unparalleled worldwide depression, and as one web page puts it, "Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon."

One might think that doomsday proponents would be chastened by the long history of people of their ilk being wrong: Nostradamus, Malthus, Paul Ehrlich, etc. Clearly they are not.

What most of these doomsday scenarios have gotten wrong is the fundamental idea of economics: people respond to incentives. If the price of a good goes up, people demand less of it, the companies that make it figure out how to make more of it, and everyone tries to figure out how to produce substitutes for it. Add to that the march of technological innovation (like the green revolution, birth control, etc.). The end result: markets figure out how to deal with problems of supply and demand.

Expect a Freakonomics review by next week while the ladies will decide if the jeans were worth the big iron. Expect some extrememly positive reviews...

Mohammed McQueen?

This is an incredibly interesting story, although undoubtedly it did not end on a hilltop with a gatling gun.

The 105th Military Police Battalion, charged with running Camp Bucca in the scorching desert of southernmost Iraq, knew something was amiss: Undetectable to the naked eye, the field's changing color was picked up by satellite imagery. The excavated dirt was also clogging the showers and two dozen portable toilets. The dirt was showing up under the floorboards of tents; some guards sensed that the floor itself seemed to be rising. Mysteriously, water use in the compound had spiked.

Hours before the planned prison break on March 24, an informant tipped off the Americans, who then drove a bulldozer across Compound 5. What they discovered was breathtaking: a fully completed tunnel that stretched 357 feet, longer than a football field. Inside were flashlights built from radio diodes and five larger spaces to provide ventilation. The tunnel's walls were as smooth and strong as concrete, sculpted with water and, the Americans believe, milk. The exit, beyond the compound's fence, was camouflaged with sand-colored cardboard. It opened into a partially concealed trench that would lead the detainees to freedom.

I think it's time for quite a crackdown at the prison where an uprising was staged earlier in the year.

Around 8:30 a.m., the company commander and prison commandant, Lt. Col. T. Paul Houser, a social worker from Catawba County, N.C., heard the commotion. Houser jumped in the back of a covered cargo truck and headed for Compound 3. As he approached, a chunk of cinderblock struck him in the left eye, fracturing his cheek in three places and breaking three teeth.

"I turned and just caught it in the face," said Houser, who was flown by helicopter to a military hospital, where a doctor told him his protective glasses had saved his eyesight.

Suddenly, everything the Americans had provided the inmates over the previous months was turned against them, according to guards and a videotape of the riot made available by the military. The cinderblock had been chiseled from the concrete base of a tent pole. The detainees used floorboards as shields. They hurled socks filled with a cocktail of feces, dirt and flammable, slow-burning hand sanitizer, the Americans said. One of the crude devices ignited a Polaris all-terrain vehicle.

How, only a few months after this display, the terrorists were still being treated with kid-gloves and guards were giving them the unsupervised time to build a reinforced tunnel is beyond me.

You Can't Trust Russ

An unnoticed gem from Kevin Bleyer (what the hell happened to the "star" that were supposed to be on HuffBog?) on at the HuffPo.

And now this: Yesterday on “Meet The Press,” Sen. Russ Feingold revealed that he asked a top general in Iraq when he thought troops should be withdrawn from Iraq.
Problem is, at the time he asked him, it wasn’t on “Meet The Press.” Nor was it for the press.

Mr. Feingold?

I said, "Off the record, your own view, would it help if we had a timeline to let the world know that we're not staying here forever?" And this is what he said, verbatim. He said, "Nothing would take the wind out of the sails of the insurgents more than having a timeline in place."

Remind me: what does “off the record” mean? Just whisper it to me. I swear I won’t tell anybody. Verbatim.

So uh, off the record Russ, do you EVER plan to squeeze helping out Wisconsin in during this term, or is it solely Presidency or bust, constituents be damned?

"Handicapping the crap" out of Cindy Sheehan

The more I read Oddjack the more I like it. Today they decided to lay odds on various Sheehaningans. Since she has already shown her leanings toward antiSemitism, some of the lines have to do with that angle.

(By the way, the over/under on last nights "vigil" in Racine was 35, seems like the Under bettors killed that one!



(Thanks to Real Debate Wisconsin for the pic!)

Odds That Crawford Currently Has More Jews, Vegetarians And Blacks Than Any Other Time In Its History: 1/1

Odds That Larry Hagman Is Signing Autographs Somewhere Within A 10-Mile Radius: 7/2

Odds That Salon Is Spending Three-Quarters Of Its Budget Covering Cindy Sheehan: 2/1

Odds That Her Husband, Who Filed For Divorce This Week, Is Getting A Ton Of Tail Out Of This: 3/2...

FUN WITH THE OVER/UNDER

Percentage Of Texans Far More Concerned About Bill Parcells: 95

Number Of Times Bill Clinton Has Looked At Cindy Sheehan On Television, Gone Quiet For A Moment, Looked Down, Looked Back Up, Then Shook His Head And Said, “Nahhh … Too Old.” : 3

Number Of Times George Bush Has Looked Outside His Window, Turned To His Wife, And, With A Thoughtful, Pensive Look In His Eyes, Said, “It’s Horrible What’s Happened To Tom Cruise. Top Gun Ruled.”: 2

Number Of Hours Protestors Will Spend In Crawford Once Sheehan Leaves: 1

Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead??

Come on, this is a blatant rip off right? Talk about real life immitating art.

A new company plans to unveil new high-tech tombstones with embedded flat screen monitors that would allow visitors to play memorial videos of the deceased, according to a report...

"What we're trying to do is create the ultimate funeral experience," Joachim said. "Funeral directors are realizing it's an important service we can offer, and and we're happy to offer it."

The solar-powered Vidstone will play a video of the person's life at the touch of a button.

Gentlemen, we have boat drinks.

Cindy Sheehan Pegged

I have resisted writing this because this woman really deserves no attention (her son bravely gave his life for a country and a cause he seemingly loved, but his mother is smearing his memory by suggesting he was either ignorant or part of a Zionist conspiracy "Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel.") but Christopher Hitchens really nails how I feel about the situation.

I think one must deny to anyone the right to ventriloquize the dead. Casey Sheehan joined up as a responsible adult volunteer. Are we so sure that he would have wanted to see his mother acquiring "a knack for P.R." and announcing that he was killed in a war for a Jewish cabal? This is just as objectionable, on logical as well as moral grounds, as the old pro-war argument that the dead "must not have died in vain." I distrust anyone who claims to speak for the fallen, and I distrust even more the hysterical noncombatants who exploit the grief of those who have to bury them.

As for the recent revelations that her husband is divorcing her, well, I guess that's the way public life works these days. She thrust herself into the public eye, and as the left has shown as recently as two weeks ago, nothing is sacred. How are adoption records any less personal and private than divorce records?

With smoking banned, NYC nannies march on...

Hate to say I told you so, but the nannystaters are not stopping with cigarette smoke. Look for this trend personal choice limitation trend to spread across the country...kiss your cheese curds good bye?

New York City wants restaurants to narrow their list of ingredients - and maybe some waistlines - by cutting out trans fats. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the voluntary change could also help fight the city's biggest killer, heart disease.

To comply, chefs would have to dump many margarines and frying oils, and possibly reworking long-held recipes for baked goods.

The New York State Restaurant Association supports the effort, Executive Vice President E. Charles Hunt said in a health department release Wednesday.

The fats, found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, raise diners' chance of developing heart disease in much the same way that saturated meat and dairy fats do, raising overall and bad cholesterol while lowering good cholesterol, American Heart Association President Robert Eckel said in the release.

The Food and Drug Administration has already targeted trans fats. Nationwide, all foods containing the chemically modified oils must be labeled beginning next January.

Some workers and diners were skeptical of the city plan.

"Labeling is as far as you want to go. You don't want to be telling people what to eat," Brooklyn waitress Karen Quam told The New York Times.

The city's request came two years after it outlawed smoking in bars, restaurants and offices, citing concerns about the ill effects of secondhand smoke.

Better start stocking up on those Creme Puffs.

The Trump Blog

What's not to love?

Jimmy Carter Makes Me Laugh

George Will on Jimmy Carter makes me laugh harder.

A quarter of a century has passed since 44 states said "No, thanks" to Jimmy Carter's offer to serve a second term, yet he still evidently thinks his loss is explained not by foreign policy debacles, such as invading Iran with eight helicopters, and a misery index -- inflation plus unemployment -- of 22, almost triple today's index...

The role of ex-president requires a grace and restraint notably absent from Carter. See, for example, his criticism of the United States when he is abroad, as in England two weeks ago. Having made such disappointing history as president, Carter as ex-president should at least refrain from disseminating a historical falsehood.

So strong, however, is the human impulse to believe comforting myths that Carter probably will continue to promulgate the fiction that I gave Reagan the utterly unimportant briefing book, thereby catalyzing the 1980 landslide. But to be fair: As a candidate, Carter promised only that as president he would never tell a lie, thereby leaving himself a loophole for his post-presidential career as a fabulist.

The fact that Carter thinks he lost to one of the best candidates in recent memory (Clinton was a great candidate because he was given a pass on his Vietnam experience, a helpful pass not granted to President Bush) because Reagan had some knowledge of what Carter might say in a debate is absurd. Hell, I know what Carter would say in any debate..."Weapons are bad mm kay. We should give up all our weapons and other will follow mm kay."

Yeah, brilliant man that Carter. I tried to read his historical fiction on the Revolutionary War and just couldn't make it through. Boring as all hell. THat has nothing to do with the fact that he is a sore loser, but it is in context of the article. Read the article.

My Apologies

Late summer is my busy season. Compound that with the fact that the Brewers are playing tantalizing basebell (which has kept me busy at The Wisconsin Sports Bar) and politics taking a vacation for August, and I have been neglecting this space. It might continue like this for a week and a half or so, but I will be back. In the meantime, just to keep it active, I might crosspost my sports bar posts over here.

Once things start to heat up again in the world of politics I will be back in a more solid nature, til then, hit the Bar and relax.

Enjoy Uecker!

Justin Sowa: Member of Democratic Underground and Running for Congress

This is the guy taking on Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin and a rising star in the GOP. Why is this interesting? Who cares that some dude with a buck or two made a web site and declared they are running for a locked up Congressional seat? Because he is a member of the "I Hate America" Democratic Underground! I look forward to going through the various threads and looking for Mr. Sowa's posts, his DU screen name is bugslsu9 in case you are interested.

By the way, an ongoing debate on DU involving 9/11 has been whether the Bush administration Made It Happen on Purpose (MIHOP) or Let It Happen On Purpose (LIHOP). I am busy working up an email questioning exactly which of these theories Mr. Sowa ascribes to.

I'll let you know what I find out!

PSA: COUP IN MAURITANIA!!!

Stunning news, I didn't even know there was a Mauritania, (but of course, the CIA did).

The military council said it had ended the "totalitarian regime" of President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

Troops have seized control of state media and main routes in Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott.

Presidential guards earlier blocked off access to the presidential palace and gunfire was heard.

The new Military Council for Justice and Democracy said it would rule the West African state for two years.

A plane carrying President Taya has landed in Niger's capital, Niamey, on his return from attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, officials say.

Interesting note, Mauritania is an Islamic Republic controlled by light-skinned Moors who apparently violently oppress the Black African population.

This Weeks "I Hate America" Professor? Luciana Bohne of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

This is some truely epic hatred of ones own country. Staggering. Not only does she hate America for having such a reprehensible past, but hates it for the men and women who are currently in office. Lucianna manages to elicit hatred not only for Puritans and men, but for (gasp!) African American conservatives! How dare they!

What brought this on? Why the sight of an American flag being proudly displayed across the street of course!

Some choice, dripping-with-hatred excerpts:

Across my lawn, I can see an American flag waving in my neighbor's backyard. Mr. Smith (not his name, of course) isa nice man but he's 95 years old, and I can't take issue with him. I can't tell him that the sporting of the flag, at this time, is tantamount to saying, "I am a fool. Traitors run the country in our name. They are taking our money from the treasury and spending it on a shortcut to world domination through war...Poor flag, to be raised in a time like this! Wouldn't it be more respectful to tuck it away for more honorable service in better times?

Better times? Time to stop fooling myself. The idiocy is contagious.

When were there better times? Since the birth of this nation, it has engaged in more than 200 armed interventions around the globe...

Since 1945, a conservative death count for US adventures abroad can easily tally up to 6 million. Easily! ...

And not just abroad. There was slavery, reputed to have cost forty million lives and the bloodiest conflict in history up until then, although freeing slaves was merely the hypocritical pretext for one industrial power block to crush the inefficient slave-agrarian one. A different slave system was born—imitated throughout the world, and now in its imperialist, full-spectrum, warpath phase. There was one of the most brutal and cynical genocides in history—against the native population—to reckon with. There was the crime of being the first and only nation to have used the atomic bomb . . . TWICE—without many scruples or visible residual guilt. In fact, today 50 percent of Americans say they would have no trouble using it again...

A slave democracy! And it hasn't changed. Oh, there's a black Secretary of State, but she is only black on the outside. Her heart is white, male, and propertied. Besides, she rubber-stamps the fiction of racial equality. Very useful cookie, ideologically speaking, is Condi Rice. And, anyway, she is only a servant, merely the means by which the social order of the truly Elect—the rich folks—reproduces itself. Ditto for Colin Powell and that fool on the Supreme Court—that black judge with the ethics and sense of humor of a guttersnipe. But it's not like the white-skinned servants are any less revolting. Just look at the president's "advisors." Hypocrites.

Not only does she despise America and everything it is about, she also claims America (and Brittain) have been behind the three latest major terrorist attacks, 9/11, Madrid, and London:

We are the people who will die in bogus terrorist attacks—in New York, in Madrid, in London. At 9 pm in the morning, when we are going to work...

European constitutions mostly forbid aggressive wars, and the European populations positively abhor war. If you go back to the Madrid "terrorist" attacks, you will note that the Bush gang at that time was very eager to get NATO involved. The attacks on Madrid were supposed to scare Europeans into agreeing to NATO deployment. It didn't work...

In the midst of this conflict between Britain and France, there is an alleged terrorist attack in the London tubes. And Blair doesn't want an investigation. What he wants is to terrorize the EU members into compliance with Washington's fiction of "the war on terror"—a.k.a. as the Plan for the New American Century of World Domination...

I believe they are sincere in this because without war for world domination and exploitation how can they hope to stave off the impending implosion of the US economy and the crash of Britain's credit economy which supports a personal debt per person of 110 percent? They are sincere: their backs are against the wall. It's just that they don't tell us that their values and way of life don't exactly coincide with ours. They let our naivete interpret those words: we see Western Civilization (those of us who are devoted to the Telebible) clashing with Islam! That's how they spin it after each convenient terror attack...

The one entity certain not to benefit from the London "terror" attacks is first of all us, the world's people, and, second, Iran—as Afghanistan and Iraq didn't benefit after 9/11. In fact, quite the contrary. It didn't help that the Iranians voted in a leader the West didn't like; Rafshanjani could have been bought; he was their choice....

We live in dangerous times. And the danger is state-grown, here at home. Under the cover of our flag....

Stunning stuff. She hates America, thinks Americans are responsible for all terror in an effort to bring about "world domination" and that Americans are installing anti-American Presidents in countries that "Cheney wants to nuke." Note that it's Cheney's will, not President Bush's.

To top it all of, she even manages to throw some hatred God's way!

This God of theirs is indeed a God of Hypocrisy, for He bestows on their remarkable aggression and love of war a unique affection.

If you want to get in touch with Professor Nutjob er..Bohne, she can be reached at lbohne@edinboro.edu

To get in touch with Edinboro University at Pennsylvania, you can call the Dean at 814-732-2477. His name is Dr. Terry L. Smith.

No Problems Left In Wisconsin!

So what are legislators to do? I know, let's tackle those pesky gift card loopholes that allow businesses to close open accounts payable in a reasonable time! Yeah!!!

In another brilliant idea to make sure the people of Wisconsin are never forced to be responsible Rep Peggy Krusick has introduced legislation to make gift cards redeemable until the end of days, and for full value!

Krusick said American consumers spent about $55 billion on gift cards last year, with the average person buying three of them for a total of more than $100. But about 10% of all gift cards are never redeemed, because they are lost or expired, she added...Store policies on gift cards can vary, with some companies charging up to $2 per month if they aren't used within a year, Krusick said. Other businesses require that the gift cards be used within a certain period, she added.

Wow. People who are stupid enough to exchange $50 dollars that can be used anywhere for 50 Best Buy Bucks, and then give this absurdity as a gift thereby displaying their stupidity for all to see aren't happy with the system? Shocking. So now, Best Buy will have to forever carry that $50 on their books as an outstanding debt, even though little Stevie lost the card three seconds after he got it, or just keeps forgetting to use the damn thing.

How about an ad campaing instead outlining how freaking retarded the people are who give gift cards in the first place? Why in God's name would I want store credit you paid for? Just give me the $50 bucks and let me be damn it! I can see gift cards for one group of people...

Addicts.

I get it, you don't want your boy running out and buying heroin so you get him a Barnes and Noble gift card. Fine. Otherwise, stay away from the gift cards for God's sake!

Democratic Underground: If only we could have another Depression!

Here's hoping...jackass.

A DUer will out themselves...

And run for a seat on the US House of Representatives, from our own great state of WI.

Seems he will be trying to represent the Janesville area, forgive me its friday and I don't feel like looking up who he will be running against. All I know is that the guys name is Justin and he'll be announcing his candidacy at Janesville Parker High School at 2 pm on August 7th.

I honestly can't wait. How easy would it be to discredit a DU poster? Good luck nutter.

Because it's Friday...

Are toilets my new Friday gimmick? You never really know, my mind tends to wander. However, I did go out one evening to about 12 dive bars in downtown Milwaukee that I hadn't been before and being drunk decided it would make a nice montage to take a photo of all the different stalls in each place. It was a nice screen saver for awhile...If I had my digital camera back from Casio right now, i would show you what a 23 year old's toilet looks like before it gets cleaned for the first time in a few years (I'm moving and it must be done) but alas...

Anyway, I don't like this urinal, and that's the real story.

NEW PABST PLAN

The folks over in Berlin have given me a fantastic idea for the decrepit old Pabst grounds. It is sure to attract tourists (look at Amsterdam)

A German company is looking to cash in on an expected boom in the sex trade during next year's soccer World Cup with a 60-room brothel a walk away from Berlin's Olympic Stadium, German media reported on Friday.

Named after the virgin huntress of Greek mythology, the "Artemis" complex is due to open for business in September with whirlpool, sauna, cinema, buffet restaurant and a staff of 100 prostitutes, mass circulation daily Bild reported.

"This is no flash rip-off joint where clients are taken for a ride," a spokesman for the Artemis GmbH investment company behind the project, told the newspaper.

Prostitution is legal in Germany in designated areas. Dortmund, one of 11 other cities to host World Cup matches, has said it will install drive-in wooden "sex garages" in time for the tournament in a bid to keep the trade off the streets.

Honestly, it is perfect. Build the area into a place to specifically employ women. The only way you can oppose this plan is if you are a sexist and don't want women to work. You don't want a brothel over at Pabst? Male-chaveunist pig!

No, You Show Me Your Documents

Interesting article by law professor Steven G Calabresi over at www.weeklystandard.com about Chuck Schumer's crusade for nominee Robets' documents (do you really need his grocery lists and fantasy football notes Chuckie?)

Evaluation of whether Schumer is or is not on a fishing expedition is impossible given the public record as it stands now. Accordingly, Senate Republicans and the administration should call on Senator Schumer to immediately release and make public all conversations and emails between the senator and his staff, between Schumer staffers and outside left-wing advocacy groups, and between Schumer staffers themselves relating to the Roberts nomination. Schumer should also be required to release phone records of all telephone and cell phone calls that were placed between his office and outside advocacy groups since the Roberts
nomination.

It is critically important that these internal Schumer-office documents be made public to determine whether the senator's demand for the Roberts's solicitor general's office memos is a good faith demand based on a genuine concern about positions Roberts may have taken as an executive branch lawyer or whether the senator is on a fishing expedition, as his cell phone declaration of war leads many on the right to suspect. There is simply no way given the public record as it currently stands to determine whether Schumer's request even meets the threshold for deserving serious consideration.{/satire off}

IN MY EXPERIENCE as an executive branch staffer, I became persuaded that some senators and congressmen simply do not appreciate how intrusive and improper their document requests are in terms of the chilling effect they have on the internal deliberations of a co-equal branch of the government. I think that is the case here.

If Schumer is really committed to the cause of openness in government and of transparency, he will not hesitate to make available his internal office records as described above. If Schumer refuses to honor this request, then his opponents are entitled to reject the senator's request for the solicitor general's office documents on the grounds that he is applying a level of disclosure from executive branch officials that he is unwilling to live by himself.

I Can't Believe She Is Still Alive?!?

Veteran wire reporter Helen Thomas is vowing to 'kill herself' if Dick Cheney announces he is running for president.

The newspaper HILL first reported the startling claim on Thursday.

MORE

"The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself," she told the HILL. "All we need is one more liar."

Thomas added, "I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does."

How does she keep getting into briefings?