I am home. Today I feel curiously non-verbal, so I apologize for the disjointed nature of this post.
So, I have proof the airlines are out to get me – all of them.
Okay, it’s not so much proof as the fact that I can’t get anywhere without a cancellation/delay/baggage loss, but on the other hands this seems to happen to everyone who travels to the point a trip without any of those is startling.
Of course this is because our government bails out the airlines when they insult so many customers that people will drive across country rather than fly. So, what do they learn? Be inefficient, get more money.
Actually that also relates to our government.
Which reminds me, doom, gloom, horrible things loom: you realize the NSA didn’t read this blog post before I put it up? How can any country survive such lax ways of handling information? How can I get used to privacy again?
We must un-shut the government even at the cost of paralyzing all of the economy with the worst law ever written implemented in the worst way possible. Otherwise, who will make us use toxic-metal shedding lightbulbs?
If you wrote this as a plot, you could never sell it. The law is demonstrably destroying the economy, yet the party trying to stop it is the one that can’t be blamed for it. Meanwhile the Frankensteins who cobbled it together are saying “full speed ahead”.
Is it because they think that they’ve got vote fraud SO sewn up they don’t think they have to worry? Is it because they think the votes of the people hired to administer this three ring circus will out-leverage the rest of the country? Or is it that they hate us and wish us to collapse? Or “yes”?
Or is it that they’re stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. Lethal levels of stupid? After all more than one of them has seemed to intimate that in the ideal society everyone works at government make-work jobs. And yet… there would be food and electricity and everything. Think on this a while.
Meanwhile? What if they gave a government shut down and no one noticed? Other than the contrived instances they want us to notice?
Wall Street didn’t react at all to the shut down. What does this mean?
We’re too great a nation to have this sclerotic, bizarre and STUPID government. Let’s continue with our business as if they didn’t exist.
According To Hoyt 
Wow! What if we had a government, and no one noticed? From your fingertips to Gods eyes!
Meanwhile, the words to a Beatles song keeps running in my mind:
LET IT BE, LET IT BE!
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They’re worried that nobody will notice the shutdown, so they paid people to go damage access to all the stuff that didn’t NEED to be upkept….
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My favorite commentary on the “shut down” so far: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/govtshutdown-388×600.jpg
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Nah, my favorite quote on the shutdown is (from memory): “Wait a minute… you mean that as of Tuesday, there’ll be nobody left to spy on me, read my emails, monitor my phone calls and audit my tax returns because of my political views?”
And they wonder why we hate them.
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There’s a line in one of the “Belisarius” novels to the effect that “they wanted their government small, distant, and absent-minded.” Splendid idea, what? Let’s sequester the whole shootin’ match, and leave ’em shut down. We’d most likely be better off.
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yes!
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Submitted for your consideration:
I assume you’re not expecting anyone here to be surprised.
Can we heat up the tar and feathers yet?
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Wayne, I applaud your fondness for old-fashioned methods to express displeasure. May I respectfully submit an additional traditional method involving oiled rope and tall trees? Some assembly is required, of course.
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That’s the backup plan, for when/if the first plan doesn’t work.
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Modulating punishments means that they have some incentive not to go whole hog once they have offended.
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No rope. I’m a Heinleinian. We’ll use their own guts.
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I’m a fan of Joseph Fouche.
155mm artillery pieces, lined up hub-to-hub, firing canister loads.
“DC made war on liberty….” >:)
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There are no US 155mm canister rounds (how bad would your day have to be to break those out?) But they do have one that disperses a few dozen anti-personnel grenades.
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Please don’t heat up the feathers, tar smells bad enough.
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My understanding is that the whole “tar and feathers” thing involved pine tar… it wasn’t to burn them to death, it was to massively inconvenience and shame them (and also hurt, but not nearly as much).
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Well, no, not intended to burn to death, but I understand that it has to be pretty uncomfortably hot to pour well.
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You’re abusing my fantasy with your reality. :(
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Just pointing out .. driveway sealer is liquid at room temperature, and is quite sticky…
Mew
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Hm. Possibilities. Has the added benefit of being available at home improvement stores. Good, subtle messaging, that.
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Along the same lines, IKEA has cheap down pillows…
Mew
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Just buy in smallish quantities to make it harder to track …
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Unless you’re putting on an extra-thick coat, a 5-gallon bucket – available at almost any Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, or True Value, should have enough tar to drench several politicians…
Mew
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AND the boiling oil.
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You Europeans… still enamoured of your old-fashioned punishments. Not that I necessarily disapprove, of course.
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Smile when you call me “European”, sweetheart!
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Euro American like myself and about two thirds of the rest of the country. Though it chokes me to even mention it as I’ve never been a fan of the policy of defining people by where their grandfolks came from.
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au contraire, I expect people here to be shocked, shocked!
Sure would like to see the training program for those 600 new hires to get them up to speed in under a week. Most places I’ve been the new hires need three days to find the bathrooms routinely.
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It is my profound hope that they continue to fail to get their collective sewage together and the shutdown continues. And much like the (OH, HORRORS!) sequester, nobody will care.
As to why, for my part I try never to attribute to conspiracy what can easily be explained by monumental stupidity. Stupidity is more likely.
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Considering the players, I’m sure you are correct in this case. A bunch of senile old people reliving their Kindergarten days…
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I disagree. Political parties are by definition a conspiracy. It is just a really really stupid one in this case. Thus this is explained by a monumentally stupid conspiracy.
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And arrogance. Don’t forget arrogance.
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Oh, they never let you forget their arrogance. It’s a given.
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I feel sorry for the people who are on vacation and planned to visit national parks, or who were trying to do research at the national archive facilities. And for some of the basic rank-and-file folks who actually provide necessary services (border patrol, some customs folks, staff at some federal courts, those sorts of things). Otherwise? A pox on both Houses and on the Executive.
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TXRed, it does raise the question whether the .fedgov should be in the park-maintenance business in the first place. (I happen to think they should, but then people should realize that a bloated Parks & Rec department contributes to the national deficit just like all the other bloated .gov departments.)
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There’s various quibbles about whether or not .gov ought to be into the owning of parks and such. For my part, owning doesn’t give me too much heartburn (all things in moderation, of course) it’s the running they ought to get out of. Privatize operations and maintenance and we can strike-through big chunks of that Parks and Rec bloat.
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Kim, the libertarian side of me says, “No, the states or local governments should be running the parks.” The historian side of me says, “well, they have been doing it for a while and did an OK job until the past five years. And if the states and local’s can’t afford to take the parks over, some group may step in and offer to run the parks, then shut them down ‘to preserve them’ like is starting to happen to Yosemite.”
So yeah, it’s a bit like the .gov and the weather service or air traffic control – I use the services and I like them, but they cost tax money and are not in the Constitution. And the private contractor that is doing the official aviation weather, well, I’m not pleased with their customer service, which makes me less inclined to favor privatizing a slew of other things.
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We’ve always had common lands in the West. The amusing thing is that we have common forests and game areas, whereas European medieval forests’ deer belonged only to the lords or to the king.
So yeah, I think the American people has no obligation to homestead everything; we can also have nice things like national and state and local parks.
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The private contractor that is doing the official aviation weather? You are not the customer they need to service. Classic instance of Third Party relationship, usually exemplified by veterinary care. Your dog may care that the vet has cold hands, but you don’t notice and unless the dog makes its displeasure extremely evident the vet has no reason to warm hands before probing.
The agency responsible for selecting the private contractor may even derive covert benefits from the service being substandard. “We tried hiring it out and you wouldn’t believe how many complaints we received.”
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To resolve the concern with privatized services being responsive to the right customer it is essential write the contracts in such a way that the performance metrics are based on job performance and not pencil whipping and kissing of the appropriate posteriors. A challenge I will grant, but not an insurmountable one.
Not to say there aren’t numerous outrageous problems with privatization efforts. Clearly there are many, I’m just inclined to call it a failure of execution not idea. (By the by, I am not a ‘privatize everything’ fellow, just select things.)
Warren Meyer is far more informed on these things than I am, and can be found discussing them here and here. He talks about other stuff at that 2nd link, as well.
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Ack! Awaiting moderation! Is it the links? Did I trip the moderation gremlin with links? Abject apologies! Limbo is so lonely…
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YAY! I’m free!!
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I hadn’t noticed it was moderated. It’s so unlike you ;)
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Wow. No, really, consider me struck mute in my awe. :|
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(My dog is giving me strange looks. Apparently the snickering baffles him.)
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:P
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Well, you can be free with that tongue if you like. I’ve learned better. The dog considers it an invitation to a face licking party.
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Hm. In my email that was more of a tongue sticking out sort of emoticon. Note to self: always check the source document…
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Eamon, my experience with the canine branch of humanity is that an invitation is rarely if ever necessary.
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‘Tis true. More accurately he takes it as an invitation to pay special attention to the licking.
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Congratulations.
They say evry man needs protection,
They say evry man must fall.
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Some place so high above this wall.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.
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Yes, it was the links. WordPress hates it when you post from the golf course. (runs)
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Hey, here I am with a handy 9 iron and an insidious desire to chase the running dude… *gives chase*
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A large part of the parks should be returned to National Forest rather than Parks in my opinion. But actually that is just a complaint on the management of the Parks (not that the USFS does a good job of managing anything, but it is difference in degree). If we didn’t have idiots in charge that think ‘fire is a good thing’ (actual quote of multiple Park officials during the big Yellowstone fires ten years ago) and refused to fight them they wouldn’t have gotten so big as to be uncontrollable and burned down large sections of three states.
I don’t have a problem with them sending Park Service employees home, in fact they should do it permantly, but most Parks don’t NEED Rangers for people to access and enjoy them. Shutting them down and denying access is not just stupid, it is an intentional ploy to try and irritate people. Wouldn’t want people not to notice the government is shut down, after all.
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See news stories yesterday about (attempted) shutting WWII veterans from monuments in DC.
The premise that we need their permission/supervision to enjoy this country is … very interesting.
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I keep thinking of the line from Starship Troopers. Paraphrasing because I don’t have the time to look it up “And then the veterans had had enough. Coming home from a war they weren’t allowed to win…”
And then there’s the truly bleak thought: we could do worse.
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Free at last, Lawd Almighty, Free at last!
I wonder just what “First Amendment activities” they think they’re permitting and why they think those activities can be limited to Honor Flights but not other citizens? Are Honor Flight participants the only ones permitted peaceably to assemble, worship according to their consciences or speak freely at the World War Two Memorial? What is the basis for such discrimination?
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And when the vets refused to be properly intimidated, they wired the barricades together. As one vet retorted, “The Krauts at Normandy had wire too.” No word on whether the vets put hard earned skills with Bangalore torpedoes to use…..
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Eh, Bearcat, the problem wasn’t that fire per se, it was the policy of the previous 30 years that said “fight any fire – all fire is bad.” So you had fuel loads that built up and got crown fires as a result. 1988 was dramatic, but not harmful in the long term. Or even in the short term, judging by the next year’s growth. Although, to be fair, Interior (owner of the National Park Service) does get credit for the mess in New Mexico a few years ago. The Forest Service (Department of Ag) has also had a few “memorable” moments.
On the off chance that anyone’s interested, Stephen Pyne (no joke) has written several excellent books about wildfires around the world. He’s a former wildland fire fighter as well as a historian. Omer Stewart’s “Forgotten Fires” is also good – it’s about Native Americans’ use of fire.
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CJ Box has some interesting comments on Bureau of Land Management practices in his Joe Pickett series of mysteries. I can’t recall which specific book makes the point(s) most clearly, so I advise reading the whole series, starting with Open Season..
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Well, I’ll agree and disagree with you. Yes the practice of putting out fires did allow fuel loads to build. Of course if they would have allowed logging and other management practices that would have also depleted fuel loads. With the fuel situation what it was however, at the time the fire started what needed to be done to mitigate damage was to put the fire out while it was still small enough to fight THEN deal with the fuel issue.
The biggest problem from the viewpoint of everybody around Yellowstone was that the Park Service refused to do anything about the fire because ‘fire is a good thing’ and THEN let it burn out of the park boundary. While many of those surrounding lands were federal, they were also USFS and actually of use to the people that lived and worked there, and there was plenty of ground that wasn’t federal that burned also. The fires were to big to control by the time they reached ground that people were actually allowed to attempt to control them on.
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The National Park Service plans to reduce recreation in Yosemite, supposedly as a way to preserve the park for future generations. Only a cynic would wonder if the NPS welcomes regulatory capture by environmental extremists as a way to reduce its workload (but presumably not its budget).
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Trust me, the rank-and-file folks who provide necessary services are still working. We’re working for IOU’s, but we’re working.
And I was looking forward to taking some time off. Of course, I was a responsible adult and saved up a couple of month’s worth of expenses.
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I’ve noticed that the Dems are calling the Reps “anarchists” a lot, lately. Which is silly. If they really were anarchists, the Left would love them and write children’s books praising them. I’m not making that up, by the way: http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Is-To-Break-Anarchy/dp/1933149256. Blurbed by Bill Ayers, no less. :-(
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And of course, the really hilarious part is that five short years ago, the Right were evil totalitarians who were about to found the Fourth Reich. (eyeroll)
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…and the government was shut down four times when the Democrats controlled Congress and there was a Republican (Reagan) in the White House, but I guess that was back when opposition to power was cool.
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Speak truth to someone else’s power!
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From Michele Bachmann, a persuasive case for why many Republicans don’t fear a shutdown
Emphasis added.
But it doesn’t matter — this is “Shutdown Theatre,” staged and managed to produce pictures of maximum suffering because of Republican intransigence in the face of Democrat demands the House GOP do what they’re effing told instead of what their voters elected them to do.
The Dems are the party of government, so when it is shut down to prevent Republicans from limiting it, that’s okay. It isn’t the fact of the shutdown that matters, it is the why.
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They still are. It just depends on which way the wind is blowing, which one you hear. They have no idea of the contradiction that would involve.
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Hmm… ambiguous use of “they”. To clarify, if anyone didn’t actually understand: The Republicans are still accused of being totalitarians, and the Democrats have no clue.
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Anarchists all over the world protest when government benefits are cut.
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Which makes one wonder … whatever happened to the theocracy?
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They sent it back to be refurbished.
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It’s here. It’s just that the religion is Marxism, not Christianity.
If you want to know what a vileprog desires, look at what he accuses his opponent of.
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crossed with Gaia worship in the case of the EnvironMENTALists
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To paraphrase the Great Captain “Let them shut it down”
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And let’s not forget, this shutdown happened because the government tried to cram a deeply unpopular law down the throats of the American people. A law that came about because the president needed an applause line while campaigning.
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Heh. I will consider flying if I can get there on Southwest as they seem the least “out to get me”… they’re also the only ones in the industry making a true profit .. funny how that works together.
Tried taking Amtrak once .. if you never have, it’s an experience. Not a good one, but .. well .. it’s surprisingly similar to flying United.
The usual plan, though, is to drive.
Mew
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If I have to fly, I go Southwest (domestic) or Lufthansa (foreign). Otherwise I drive.
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I think well of BA and JAL for foreign airlines. But then I’ve got zillions of miles on them so they give me extra service.
Within the US, Southwest is my preferred airline, although Delta seem to be pretty good. Still Southwest is getting a lot more expensive than they used to be which makes me love them less.
Amtrak is indeed an “experience”. I recommend taking one of the routes across the West (I’ve done Oakland -> Denver->Chicago), the views are spectacular. Just don’t take it if you have a schedule to meet. The train eastwards was 3 or 4 hours late and the one we took back from Denver to California was over 12 hours late getting into Denver and (IIRC) about 18 hours late by the time we got back to Ca.
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Flew to Europe on Luftwaffe a few years ago. Nice flight. The flak wasn’t too bad.
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What, exactly are middle-aged midwestern women suspected of that I *always* get the full scan? Is there some terrorist group that recruits from us?
I got tired of it, the security theater, the parking, the airport freeways that are always under construction, and now I take the extra 2-3 days and drive. You see the country, eat better food, and don’t get probed. And if you’re traveling with family, you can actually blackmail a teenager into talking with you. (“You vill talk! or the little nintendo ds goes out the vindow …”)
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Yeah, I kind of agree, Kali, but that same little nintendo ds can keep an 8YO from driving you crazy on a 90-mile drive to one of the local parks… 8^)
I don’t think Dingy Harry is going to be pleased with this shutdown, and I hope the state of Nevada keeps the next election a lot cleaner than his. There’s a growing ground-swell to hang this whole episode (and a lot more) around his neck. Talking about being an American dictator!
The entire “shut-down” hasn’t touched this household — I got my retirement check. Now if Wells Bungle will just credit it to my account, so I can pay my bills.
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Well. I a person of swarth, so….
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Yes, but I’m not, and I have the sunburned nose to prove it. Half my ancestors came from Germany, and it’s not like anyone of German descent has ever tried to … terrorize …
oops.
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Yes, when somebody complains about experiencing racial/ethnic/class/historical injustice, it can be…instructive…to go back and check how their ancestors behaved when they had the upper hand. For that matter, when somebody boasts about how history has revealed that their nation/race/culture is manifestly superior, it can be instructive to go back and check the specifics of how that superiority was attained. Taking care, of course, not go switch from one extreme to another.
My own ancestors not excepted.
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It can be amusing reading the wrestling with racial superiority in the 19th century and early 20th. Italians going “Look! Rome!” and trying to distract from its subsequent history, and Germans trying to paper over the era of the grandeur of Rome. . . .
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Oh noes! But if you are a good little brown person (and are obedient, and believe The Right Things), the will love you and squeeze you and give you gubmint monies that they forcibly redistributed from folks what actually work for a living.
Ain’t democracy grand? *shakes head*
I want my Republic back…
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Oh! Oh! and will they call her George?
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Small, pale sailors in uniform, on orders also get singled out for the full check.
Even when it’s ILLEGAL.
OTOH, the one time I wasn’t singled out, they asked me to step aside…then asked if I had my gun in my luggage. Security couldn’t tell military orders from a flight marshal’s paperwork…..
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When I left boot camp about a year after 9/11 the security droids wanted to open my order packet because it couldn’t go through the X-ray (had my dental X-rays in it). It took a cop to tell them that it would not go well for us to arrive at our next duty station with opened orders. We were in dress whites. In O’Hare.
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Wait, I’m OLDER than you!?!?! (Alright, just got out of bootcamp about a year before you– I was in the middle for 9/11.)
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I didn’t join until just before my 23rd birthday. I, like most enlisted nukes, tried college first. Would have been great if they had just let me learn what I wanted.
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Alright, my sense of chronology is restored, you’re slightly older.
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“What, exactly are middle-aged midwestern women suspected of that I *always* get the full scan?”
Possibly it is simply that you have good hygiene. I mean who wants to spend all day feeling up middle-aged middle eastern men who smell like two week dead goat?
Or;
Possibly it is simply that they deem you have something worth feeling?
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I don’t know. I know they all lined up to feel up 17 yo son — the younger, aka the purty one — here and in Europe, both. I still owe him a t-shirt that says “I was groped in Madrid.”
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Keep reminding your Demo-neighbors that the Senate has all it needs from the House to end the govt shutdown. And for followup, muse that since the exchanges are expected to be “glitchy” for some time to come, Ob’care should be considered a pilot project: no full implementation, no individual mandate, etc. until they work all the bugs out of the exchanges. (That should take until the next election, at least…)
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An IT nightmare, among its other flaws.
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Based on the composition of the Senate and the executive, I would vote for really, really stupid. On the other hand, the Republicans control the House … Oh wait … back to really, really stupid. Maybe just a little less so.
I am enjoying the shutdown, however. For the first time in a long time I feel that my liberty is just a little safer. I hope it lasts a year.
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After today’s news that Senators were unable to navigate the Senate building by elevator without help from the furloughed elevator attendants, I am leaning more than ever toward stupidity as the explanation. Which is really scary after I’ve watching them act like masterminds who assume they possess genius-level intelligence.
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Please tell me you’re joking.
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Given the ages and apparent mental status of some of them, well . . . And this applies to senators with D, R, and I behind their names.
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What are the odds the Senate building still uses 1930s’ technology in their elevators, with the hand-controlled up/down lever instead of push-buttons?
Still something a reasonably competent person ought be able to manage, but our senators are superb button-pushers who badly handle the levers of power.
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A quick [SEARCHENGINE] check on “senate elevators” indicates the elevators in the U.S. Senate do, indeed, have buttons.
“Uncle Sam shelled out more than $1.2 million to pay operators to man the Capitol’s fully automated senators-only elevators over the last five years, according to reports from the secretary of the Senate.”
https://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/Senate-Elevator-Operator
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Oops – head exploded at the next line from that article:
The longer the elevator operators push the correct buttons, the more cash they win. The longest-tenured elevator operator has seen his annual salary increase each of the last five years—though non-congressional federal government employee wages are currently frozen—for total earnings of more than $210,000.
$42K/year … although I am sure they have to have security clearances and be able to keep their mouths shut about what they overhear/see.
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If the elevators are senator-only, do the senators have keys/passes to prevent non-senators from riding?
GIven that keys/passes can be stolen or hacked, are the “elevator operators” really just guards?
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There are little signs indicating that certain elevators are for Senators only when congress is in session. Makes sense since they often have very little time to reach the Senate Chamber when a vote is called. Even with the trains, they can barely make it in time from the more distant parts of the Senate office buildings.
When the congress is not in session, no one cares who rides which elevator. I have ridden the “Senators Only” elevators many times.
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Wouldn’t want one of our oh-so-supreme US Senators from having to push their OWN buttons, now would we? /Extreme sark
Also, couldn’t reduce the overall number of government employees, even non-essential ones. That might set a precedent. Tar and feathers is too good for them. Boil them in turpentine and iodine after 40 lashes with a barbed-wire whip.
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In fairness their duties include much more than pushing the buttons for senators. For example, they also tell smelly tourists where to go.
Is $1.2 million over five years really too high a price to pay so that Harry Reid doesn’t have to smell the tourists?
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Senators have offices and Hearing Rooms in 5 buildings. The Russel, Dirkson, and Hart Senate office Buildings, the Capitol, and the Congressional Office Building. All the buildings have elevators, but I believe all the elevators have been updated so operators are no longer needed. Even the subway cars from the Senate office buildings to the Capitol are now automated.
I have done a lot of work in these buildings and have ridden the elevators and subways on both the Senate and the House sides.
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I would be perfectly happy to pretend the gov’t didn’t exist and go my own way if they weren’t so darn insistent on making their presence felt. And if so many of my friends weren’t harping and whinging about how this is all the fault of one particular political party that just doesn’t have any compassion.
I really shouldn’t be on the internet today.
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I had to turn off the TV today because I was ready to throw my kindle fire through the TV thereby losing two of my important electronics. Yea, if the government would leave us alone, then we could get the country back to running like it should–
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I’m sure that the NSA is absolutely essential and they have their noses where only dogs put their noses (and it’s mere social politeness inherited from their wolf ancestors for dogs). After all people could be communicating freely with each other without the NSA. Actually at my age I don’t really care, and figure I’m already on someone’s fecal roster anyway. “Have fun guys,” is all I can say.
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Good: http://spectator.org/blog/2013/10/01/government-reboot
I’ve no idea how to make WP just display the !@#@ image.
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MSNBC Anchor Gives Up Signing Up For ObamaCare Exchange After 35 Minutes
Posted by the National REPUBLICAN Congressional Committee.
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Just because your jiggity jig reminded me of the hubby’s favorite little poem–
rickety rickety ree
kick me in the knee
rickety rickety rass
kick me in the …….
…………………………. other knee
;-)
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Diggity, diggity dare
A pig flew up in the air.
The man in brown soon brought him down
Diggity diggity dare.
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a cute poem too– of course the hubby gets every one who wants to rhyme the last line after rickety-rickety-rass ;-)
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I learned yours as a football chant. “Rah, rah, ree, kick ’em in the knee . . .” and so on. Not quite up there with Renesslar Poly Tech, but easier to remember. :)
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my hubby always liked to put his own spin on his chants lol
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But despite all the problems with the federal goverment, remember, we have Hope and Change
http://www.despair.com/hope.html
http://www.despair.com/change.html
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If you haven’t had the stomach to keep up with the news media today, most of them seem to be calling for the President to do what the President does in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and a hundred other left wing near future political novels. Only those presidents are all weird right wing fundamentalists.
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The Left’s commitment to democracy is extremely thin. New Republic blog posted a veiled call for a coup by the President.
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“The White House was operating with a skeletal staff, …”
Proof that it’s really evil undead running the country.
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Sorry, here’s the reference
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obamacare-dispute-sends-govt-brink-shutdown-20417933
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GIGGLE.
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OT: 2000 words and a major plot problem sorted out. 45 minutes at the gym. And the EPUB and MOBI versions of the next book checked and approved.
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1200 words today, and the day’s not over yet. No exercise today, unfortunately. I’m trying to pack.
On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 5:09 PM, According To Hoyt wrote:
> ** > TXRed commented: “OT: 2000 words and a major plot problem sorted out. > 45 minutes at the gym. And the EPUB and MOBI versions of the next book > checked and approved.” >
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Sitting here trying to get something done on my last novel, but just not into it right now. I hope NOBODY NOTICES that the government has ‘shut down’, and people start to call for huge cuts everywhere, beginning with the overly-bloated Executive branch.
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Honestly? First I knew we had a “government shutdown” was finding it here.
I still fail to see what the worry was or ever would be about. Less government? Wheee!
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There is a reason the Constitution requires all spending bills to originate in the House. So that, in extremis, the people can – through their representatives – stop government tyranny by simply not funding it. There should never be an expectation that any person, group, or activity has a right to taxpayer money.
And as someone else mentioned, the House is more than willing to fund the vast majority of the government. It is Harry Reid and the Senate who are holding the government hostage in order to extract funds for their pet tyranny.
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YES! This one essential detail that keeps getting missed by all those pundits and politicians droning on about those mean, dirty, nasty, terroristic Republicans.
That and the simple fact that “government shutdown” means about 18% of Federal activities come to a halt. So lets do everything we can to make them terribly inconvenient.
Blech.
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Contrary to what President Obama asserts, there is NO DUTY specified in the Constitution for the House to write a budget. It is not surprising that Obama doesn’t understand the Budget Process since the Senate never passed on while he was in there. Historically the government is funded by individual authorization bills covering individual departments of the budget – Defense, Transportation, etc.
From Politico:
In other words, “Give me my binky or nobody’s getting anything.”
And WE’RE the ones taking hostages.
I need a drink.
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Jeff, it’s taking all my will power not to put a glug of whiskey in my coffee this morning.
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Your body knows what it needs, LISTEN to it.
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I think this is my mind, not my body. Spending a couple of weeks with one tied on, might just save my sanity.
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Back when I worked as a night auditor a part of the job included a security round, a walk through the hotel to determine that all access doors that should be locked were locked, that guest halls were quiet (or that I would know which to monitor as the night wound on) and a check in at the lounge to see when they would be closing and whether there was likely to be any problems with their clientele. As that was the last stop on my round I would usually take advantage of the opportunity to hit the barkeep up for a coke to take back to the desk and the barkeep, being of that profession, would offer to “add a little something” to my coke.
I always replied by observing “I don’t like this job enough to drink while doing it.”
In my experience drinking rarely alleviates psychic discomfort but often diminishes the mind’s ability to refrain from direct, if unproductive, action … such as choking the life out of some obnoxious a-hole who richly deserves such admonition.
YMMV, of course.
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While on the topic of richly deserving a-holes, National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty points to this:
As folksinger Tom Paxton wrote:
What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?
I learned that our government must be strong
It’s always right and never wrong
Our leaders are the finest men
So we elect them again and again
And that’s what I learned in school today
That’s what I learned in school.
(Link omitted to avoid moderation, but try making the appropriate adjustment to youtube-dot-com/watch?v=Wf5Jn8O3s0c )
Of course, that was written back in the early Sixties when America’s government was under the controll of such notorious Right-Wing fascists as JFK and LBJ.
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IN THE INTEREST OF full disclosure, I expand upon and revise the prior remarks of Senate Majority Leader Reid:
I leave it to others to decide whether that revision is ameliorative.
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Not a promising idea.
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Well then it’s settled. SCIENCE! demands it.
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This is a little too stunning to pass up.
J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees:
“I have made crystal clear to the administration that federal employees have already sacrificed more than enough to these serial, manufactured budget crises,” Cox said. “After three years of frozen pay, unpaid furloughs, huge increases in retirement costs for new employees and the threat of massive layoffs at the Department of Defense and elsewhere, Congress and the administration need to keep their hands off of federal employees once and for all.”
For emphasis: “Congress and the administration need to keep their hands off of federal employees once and for all.”
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If Barry or Reid put their hands on me they aren’t getting them back.
I’d let Cruz cop a feel.
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Cruz is the only good one in the bunch!
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First. let me say *snort*.
And now, somehow I don’t think the American Federation of Government Employees has much concern for you. Least I never heard a peep out of ’em when I was wearing a pickle suit.
It may be my bias showing, but I get the feeling they’re a bureaucratically focused org.
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Unions exists to represent bad workers. Good workers know they can get jobs anywhere (well, as long as Democrats aren’t playing silly buggars with the economy). AFGE doesn’t have much concern for me.
The feeling is mutual.
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Which brings me around to why I originally commented on it. The blind ignorance that leads the president of a government employee organization to declare that those responsible for the disposition of government operations (however irresponsible they are in actuality) should keep their hands off employees once and for all? It boggles. It’s a job, not a title of nobility.
I also tend to separate ‘federal employees’ and ‘military service-people’ into different categories. It’s an artificial distinction, I realize, but I never thought of myself as a government employee, I thought of myself as a soldier. And some of those government employees I had occasion to interact with? They weren’t too hip on recognizing any fraternity between us.
And finally, because it’s late and I find I’m unsure of clarity, my *snort* above was because I found your comment deliciously humorous.
By the way, you standing your watch in the midst of a shutdown is appreciated. I don’t know how it affects you, personally, but I’m aware it’s not likely to be beer and caviar. So, thanks.
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There’s certainly more camaraderie between Sailors and yardbirds. Maybe it’s because so many of us are Navy vets, or because both groups are doing the same job, or because the yardbirds are taking work from the Sailors.
Right now I haven’t seen much impact, though yesterday was “orderly shutdown” day, so we’ll see what today brings. It looks like the biggest effect I’ll see is uncertainty about when I’ll next get paid, but I’ve got enough savings for a few months (in fact I just hit my savings goal with my last paycheck. TIMING!) so that’s not much of a worry. I do know some people is substantially worse circumstances.
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The main problem with air travel is: The airlines insist on scheduling flights into and out of the Midwest during the peak thunderstorm hours (t-storms shut down airports). One delayed flight ripples through the entire system — people who don’t have enough time to make connections; pilots who can’t be awake more than so-many hours in a row; turnaround at the airport taking X amount of time.
Three words, people: “High-Speed Rail”. Learn it; live it; love it.
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I was flying out of O’Hare to Ireland for my sister’s graduation when a tornado passed through the airport. While we were stuck on the tarmac. In an aluminum tube designed to fly. Once the weather cleared and the ground crews had checked the runway for FOD we had flight attendants literally running through the aisles to get the plane ready for takeoff before the flight crew turned into a pumpkin. I think they said we wound up with 2 minutes to spare.
High speed rail has never been economically profitable, even in countries where population densities are significantly higher than the US. It has always been, and shall forever be, a scheme to funnel taxpayer money to favored interest groups. Until we perfect transporters we’re stuck with air travel in the US. The country is just too big.
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As I understand it, the only high speed rail line that is truly profitable is TokyoOsaka. And I’m told even that is only profitable if you ignore some of the capex costs by removing the cost of land purchase in certain places. Certainly, even in densely populated Japan, the rest of the high speed rail network is only vaguely break even.
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High Speed Rail is not only unprofitable, but also unconformable. You build a rail line and it will last for a long time. Problem being you can’t move it very easily. When things change and a lot more people start traveling to City B instead of City A that they used to, well you might have to build a longer runway, but otherwise the only thing an airline has to do is tell the pilot to point the planes nose in a different direction. High Speed trains don’t turn all that well, however.
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Which raises a thought (just blue-skying here). Airplanes are expensive, but with 3D printing and assembly lines, why should it be so difficult to mass-produce a few million smallish planes (10 passenger?) with auto-pilots that *actually* pilot them? I suppose we don’t have the software just yet, but if the Google self-driving car can be made to work, why not a Google self-flying plane? Give them all collision-avoidance radar and let them actively route themselves to wherever the passengers want to go.
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Even discounting all other issues: The number of such craft attempting to arrive at destinations which are very close to each other would rise to unacceptable levels in some places, leading to catastrophic failures of the collision avoidance algorithms.
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That would indicate a market opportunity: rentable runways!
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We’ve got the software, and the hardware for semi-autonomous fleets – but then you’ve got to look at the other hardware involved such as the jet engines, the pressurization systems and the like. I don’t think it would be ‘cheaper’ to have 20 10-passenger planes vs 1 200 passenger plane, because you’d end up boosting maintenance costs X 20, if not more.
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I was thinking in terms of mass-produced puddle-jumpers, not 747’s. Something small, standard, simple. Prop-driven probably. Sky buses essentially going from small airport to small airport on an on-call basis. The main gimmick is the automated piloting as they couldn’t be hijacked and you wouldn’t have to pay pilots (nor wait in lines to be groped by the TSA).
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Prior to 9/11 UPS was supposedly looking at putting together “cabin cargos” for their cargo planes: essentially a 1st class compartment that would be loaded as a cargo container and unloaded at the destination airport. There would be no contact with the rest of the plane, since it is a cargo plane. Kinda’ like touring the world in a 1st class conex box on a freighter.
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Also roads.
I like roads.
If you really need “high speed rail,” put tires on the train cars and call them buses…wait, folks already do that. Since there are private buses, it must make money, too.
Trains are very good for moving freight, though.
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I believe that if someone were to set up a system of high-speed rail between cities, to stations outside the cities, in a similar fashion to airports, that they could get good freight business plus some accommodations for passenger travel. Start-up cost would be considerable, but if you only have to pay to truck freight from the station to the door, and intercity distances are eaten at 200+ mph, not only would the freight arrive sooner, overall costs would go down. Passenger traffic would simply be a plus for the service owner, as they would pay a higher per-pound rate.
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I think Amtrak could turn its financials around if they started using RO-RO car carriers on their routes. Right now one of their biggest problems is they combine the convenience of air travel with the speed of driving. If I could replace the 15 hour drive down I-5 with a drive to Seattle, sleep and read to San Francisco, then drive to my mom’s house it would be worth dealing with the fixed schedule and a couple hundred bucks.
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Possibly apocryphal story about a accident investigator grilling a railroad rep about a pedestrian-train suicide: after the investigator started claiming that the engineer did not do everything possible to avoid hitting the suicide the rep said that he hated to admit, it but evidence was that the engineer didn’t swerve.
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I’ve heard a possibly apocryphal story about the light rail in Denver striking an ambulance that was running red lights and siren along a street downtown. (Colorado traffic code had actually previously been amended to state that light rail had the right of way even over emergency vehicles) When a Denver police officer tried to arrest the light rail train operator, supposedly the light rail police showed up and there was quite the confrontation.
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When I was out getting breakfast this AM, the Usual Suspects were at the back table grousing about ObamaCare and laughing at the feds. I got the feeling from the cafe talk that what the feds have done, more than anything, is turn themselves into laughing stock. Although folks were pretty steamed with closing the WWII and Lincoln Memorials, since there’s nothing to do there but stand around and look at them.
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