Posts from — December 2010

I can relate in an odd sort of way.

Last year I said:

This is point at which bloggers are expected to provide round-ups of the year, and in this case, the decade. OK, they sucked.

I would like to think things will get better, but there is no sign of the powers-that-be actually understand that things suck, because they haven’t had much in the way of personal experience with the problems that exist in the real world that exists outside the Beltway.

The Naughts will best be remembered for the disasters.

Well, I was unfortunately right and things still suck. Most of the “accomplishments” of the last year were better done without than done so badly. DADT is the only unqualified success, but that is mostly due to Pelosi, Reid, and Gates, rather than the White House.

Nothing effective has been done to address the economy, and the foreclosure crisis still hasn’t ended. I see no hope for any improvement in 2011 because the people with the power to take action still don’t understand the nature of the problem.

The Cat Who Blinked

Not going to happen…

[Editor: Property still refuses to have a picture taken with her eyes open. It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t look like she was grinning.]

Friday Ark

Paul Krugman has proposed a neologism: Geloiocracy which he defines as “rule by the ridiculous”. He specifically complains about the Wall Street whiners and Congresscritters who insist that their staffs read Ayn Rand.

Digby also reacts to a discussion of the Wall Street whiners on Countdown. She sees it as ploy by the White House and Wall Street to make people believe that Obama has done something about the financial industry, when it is obvious that this White House covered Wall Streets gambling debts and let them return to the casino.

It would be one thing if this was a sit-com, but the reality that these “children” are destroying the economy of the United States makes it a tragedy for millions of people. As long as the people in charge of the country refuse to look at and accept the hard facts, rather than relying on their belief in fairy tales, like Atlas Shrugged and Reaganomics, we will not recover.

Posting at Naked Capitalism “George Washington” has an extensive comparison, Underneath the Happy Talk, Is This As Bad as the Great Depression?

The bottom line is that in some ways our current situation is worse than the Great Depression. The fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has just increased its monitoring of the long term unemployed from two years to five, should give you some idea of what they expect.

Duncan Black [Atrios] continues to bring up the problem of unemployment almost every day, and, today mentioned the banks fraudulent taking of property and the Federal failure to deal with foreclosures.

Wall Street caused the problem, and they are not being held to account for their fraud. Throwing money at them without any real reform or accountability for what they did, only ensures that they will do it again. Why wouldn’t they? They know the government and taxpayers will bail them out and they get to steal a lot more money before the next collapse.

I finally got around to updating to WordPress 3.03 when they put out an emergency security upgrade and had to do it again.

I also upgraded to a new version of the backup plug-in and it isn’t working properly, so I expect another upgrade shortly.

People feel compelled to do things at the end of the year, one final check mark on their list so they can log it as an accomplishment.

If something acts weirdly, let me know. Everything seems to be working, but I don’t do everything the software allows.

Lambert at Corrente has the most common version of the study that shows that American corporations are hiring, but most of it is occurring in other countries, and that’s where the new manufacturing plants are going up.

I can see why Caterpillar is moving manufacturing to China, all of the Asians want a feng shui option on the D-11 and the US version doesn’t work. Actually, they might as well leave if they are in the construction industry, because governments at all levels in the US are refusing to repair or build the infrastructure and you can only sell so many snowplows.

Paradox at the Left Coaster is making a guess about the State of the Union address – Shock Doctrine: The Red Flag is Up. There should be no one left with any illusions that Obama is good for anyone but the wealthy, and he will make his push to destroy Social Security in the SotU speech. At this point he is doing his level best to elect a Republican President in 2012.

My Mother refuses to use the Internet, even though she has in the past. She sees no need to bother with it, as I am available to deal with it for her.

As a result, in addition to everything else I have been doing, I have been dealing with things that she has agreed to without my knowledge or input regarding the timing. Having not bothered to do any of these things for some time she neither knows nor actually cares what is involved, only that I admit that what she wants done, can be done.

Therefore I have been doing a lot of scanning and e-mailing for her and dealing with gifts that she received that utilize the Internet to function properly.

I like to schedule things, and to do things in a linear fashion. I can multitask, and have been quite good at it, or I wouldn’t be alive today, but that doesn’t mean I like to do it. This is a trait that sets me apart from most of my family, as they seem to enjoy having a lot of things going on at the same time, and jumping from one thing to another.

If there is a reduction in activity on the blog, it should only be temporary, while I sort some things out. I check in multiple times during the day, but tend to wait until the late night to write anything, because that is the only time when I can be assured of not being interrupted.

While December 26^th is celebrated by a lot of people in the US in shopping malls returning gifts or taking advantage of inventory clearance sales, there are other celebrations.

It is the first day of the Kwanzaa celebration, which is explained at the link.

It is Boxing Day, a celebration of noblisse oblige when the upper classes bestow gifts on the lower and the contents of the poor boxes are distributed. Under the feudal system this was part of the “contract,” the mutual system of obligations that tied the system together.

As the feast of St. Stephen it honors the first Christian martyr, but Ireland’s Saint Stephen’s Day celebration is a bit different and is the reason for the wren on this post.

However, this post is really my complaint about “Good King Whatshisface.”

[Read more →]

As usual I’m searching for an audio feed of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge. My local public radio outlet has fallen down on the job lately, in this area as well as others.

The British have some wonderful Christmas customs that have survived the incursion of Christianity, especially the Puritan party poopers. Stealing customs from the Celts, Germans, and Scandinavians, they have created a wonderful holiday that I fondly remember from time spent there.

The bird is a European robin that is featured on British Christmas cards, as it is a Winter bird in England, unlike the fair-weather laggard of the same name in America. It is bracketed by holly and mistletoe. All go back to the druids and solstice celebrations.

If you read the Harry Potter books you will get a taste, but not the full effect of a British Christmas. A full-on Christmas dinner is wretched excess to the n^th degree – Thanksgiving on steroids. Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were major influences on the American celebration of Christmas when it made its come back in the US in the latter half of the 19^th century.

The BBC has the background on Father Christmas, while most people recognize that Clement Moore and Coca Cola are most responsible for the American concept of Santa Claus. [It isn’t an accident that he dresses in Coke’s corporate color scheme. Moore only mentioned “furs”.]

Ho Ho Ho!

Happy NODWISH
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Koli Sana Wa Anta Tayib
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Christmas

It is early Christmas morning in Europe, and the excitement is building among the “rug rats” that will burst forth at any moment to waken their poor parents who have probably had about two hours of sleep after dealing with “some assembly required” and/or “batteries not included”. You saw them on the Gävlebocken web cam, out and about until about 3AM.

To avoid any bad feelings among family members: it is an official requirement contained in the “Manual for Uncles” that some form or type of device that makes loud and obnoxious noises must be included in all Christmas parcels.

The “Goat” has made it to the celebration, so have a happy one [whether you feel like it or not].

So it’s time to get everything in line so that there will be smooth sailing tomorrow.

Obviously you need the text of A Visit from St. Nicholas [AKA Twas the night before Christmas] or one of the variations.

But now that you’ve finished putting up enough lights to match the total electrical consumption of a third world nation, you can sit back and watch the North American Air Defense Command’s annual attempt to take out that red-suited commie’s attack on the capitalist system by giving stuff away. [Don’t worry kids, they are using the anti-missile defense system, so there’s no danger to anyone but taxpayers.]

As of 6:30AM local time on Christmas Eve, the Gävlebocken is still standing.

Merry Catmas!

HO! … Ho? … Whatever.

[Editor: Sox, Dot, and Ringo being as merry as they are ever likely to be.]

The Friday Ark is on holiday this week