Philosophical Detective

Recovering Flake

So, I was rooting through my briefcase a few minutes ago, looking for some change, when I came across my paycheck.  There it was smiling up at me as if nothing was wrong.

Problem.

I thought I'd deposited that into my bank account last week.  The same bank account that I wrote a whole slew of checks against last weekend to keep Chez Limey up and running.  A hasty dash to the bank later and I'm back at my computer trying to resist the urge to bash my head against the monitor until some semblance of sense filters through to my brain.

My ex-wife used to say I was crap at this sort of thing so she took care of all the finances.  I resented it because it felt like she was indulging a simple child.  Fact is, she was absolutely right.  In my defense, I was raised a socialist so the whole concept of basic financial planning is completely alien to me.  Still, I'm 36 now so it's about time I got these simple things sorted out, especially if I'm to hit my goal of growing up before I reach 40.

Maybe I could sneak in to the back of a first-grade class and get schooled on some basics...

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!

God damn the bloody idiots.  Spending billions of dollars of other people's money to burn food.

But wait, there's more.  It won't even curb the oil "addiction" because the process uses more energy than it produces.

Another generation of subsidies begins.

Sigh.

H.T. Coyote

Cheers 2.0

The Saloon closed nearly a year ago leaving me without my regular dose of fabness so I went off in search of a replacement.  I went from bar to bar looking for the right mix of great live music, nice people, beer and that laid-back, warm kind of atmosphere I like so much.  I found a few places that had one or two of my requirements but they were either too loud or the music was of irregular quality so I searched onward, hoping my liver would survive the quest.

Eventually I just had to resort to hiring a few members of The Saloon's house band to play at my parties.  Now, this was all fab and groovy but I can only do that a couple of times a year and I need my fix on a much more regular basis.  Actually, fab and groovy doesn't quite sum it up.  My parties, helped in no small part by the quality of the live music on offer, are rapidly becoming my all-time favorite experiences.  I mean, imagine how cool it is to have this sort of thing going on in the corner:

This shot will give you some idea of how much their music means to me. Sometimes I am unable to move, see?

After following them around to every pub and restaurant they played in I got an e-mail from Hank telling me they had a new regular gig at a bar near where The Saloon used to be (now a sports bar!).  So, off I went to see what it was like.

It's called Diggers and you'll find it right here.  They play every Tuesday night from 7 until close and I've yet to miss a week.  It's not as nice as The Saloon, mainly because it's a sports bar type thing but it's quiet, the food is tasty and the music is absolutely top notch.  It also has a lot of the old Saloon regulars what with it being only a block south and all.

This means that the music is always unpredictable but in a good way.  Hank and Anitra's musical buddies will show up from time to time and either join in or put on a performance by themselves.  Plus the owners, two brothers, will get up when they're in the mood and have a go.  Last week their 80-year old father turned up and the three of them played some old style bluegrass that was bloody marvelous.

Week after week I sit there, drinking Guinness and eating blue-cheese burgers and feeling transfixed by the beauty of the noises they produce.  I've told everyone I know so I'm usually joined by a friend or two.  If I'm alone I'll usually start gibbering at the nearest person so I'm never short of people to talk to.  I do get the deer-in-the-headlights look from time to time as people start to grasp just how abnormal I am but I like that, too.  Saves time, see?

Last night was no exception.  Kimberly showed up and we played pool while Hank and Anitra and then Ben Kinney and Scott Little all took it in turns to play some of the best music I've ever heard.  I'm still completely amazed that this sort of thing goes on, on a regular basis, at pubs across the country.  Yet another reason why I love this place so much.  There's no way you'd find such easy access to such high quality entertainment in Old Blighty.  A night out there would usually consist of a scruffy git with a turntable and a few Christmas lights desperately trying to be a disco in the corner of the local grotty pub.  Certainly don't miss that!

Anyway, it's time for bed now.  The only down side to Cheers 2.0 is that its best night is Tuesday so I'm a bit blurred on Wednesdays.

Reality Check

So, this Dutch girl, bored with an easy life limited only by her willingness to expend effort, flies off to Colombia to join the FARC rebels.  She really liked the idea of fighting for "social justice", see?

Reality soon hit home for the deluded fool.  They found her diary and she's none too happy with life on the farm.  Seems some rebels are more equal than others and the whole "imagine no possessions" thing isn't quite as good as the song made out.

Now, if only we can ship the rest of them off to join these "rebels" we'll soon see some real progress...

The Source of Inflation

I'm reading a book at the moment called "A History of Money and Banking in the United States", by Murray N. Rothbard.

It's quite interesting so far.  I'm only just at the beginning as it describes the history of state interference in the economy.  Starting with the colonies the government would decide it wanted to print paper money and the people must take it and treat it as real gold.  They did this whenever they wanted to grow the size of government.  People's savings in gold and silver disappeared as the market flooded with paper money backed by nothing but the state's guns.

Soon the price of everything was 5-50 times the original price but the government had benefited from the money at the original value.

After initially tying (loosely) the number and value of their supplies of paper money to gold they just did away with the pretense of a gold standard and fired up the printing presses at will.

These days we call it the federal reserve and congress fires up the presses whenever it decides it wants to intrude on our lives more.  This steals right out of our bank accounts as each dollar we have can buy less and less.

Could someone explain to me how this is different to living in a monarchy?

I mean, apart from the fact that congress isn't even pretending any more.  Look at what the "Conservative", Bush, has done in only eight years.  He and his goons have stolen half of everything you own: half of your savings, half of your salary, half of your investments.  All while touting his free-market tax cuts.

They do let us vote, though.  Keeps us thinking that this is freedom, see?  Just make sure you don't get ideas and try to use real money.  They don't like that.

More From Caroline Glick

Here's another piece of investigative journalism from one of the few in the world who ferrets out stories instead of publishing press releases.

Israel is an example of what happens when the modern left is in charge during a war.  After every attack by Iran's proxies the idiot, Olmert, merely looks for more ways to appease.

It'll end with another holocaust.  I can't see any other outcome at this point.

Driving Force

Via Donald Luskin, I found this excellent insight into the real driving force behind the fraud I showed y'all yesterday:

THE ONCE AND FUTURE RENT-SEEKER

Al Gore wins a prize bigger than the Nobel -- a partnership with Kleiner Perkins, the pre-eminent Silicon Valley venture capital firm. This is payola, pure and simple. Kleiner principals used Gore, when he was vice president, to promote the Clinton administration's antitrust campaign against Microsoft -- the key rival of several Kleiner-backed companies. And it's more of the same rent-seeking, too. Now Gore can help Kleiner lobby the Democratic congress to subsidize the useless "green" technologies of its portfolio companies.

Go read the whole thing.

Good Summary

Here's a good article that nicely summarizes the global warming fraud.

Socialism = Rationing

Our esteemed highness, the great Lord Perdue, governor of the fiefdom of Georgia, held a rain dance today.  No, really.

You see, it hasn't rained much this year down here.  In itself this isn't a remarkable thing.  Rainfall varies from year to year.  However, when it's coupled with socialism there tends to be a bit of a problem.

Our lords told us that we couldn't be trusted to sort out our own water supply so they'd take care of it for us with their great and magnanimous power.  A few doubting Thomases pointed out that socialism always led to shortages but they wouldn't have any of it.  They'd do it right this time, see?

Now we are approaching the day when there won't be enough water to supply the city so we'll have rolling shut-offs.  As we get closer to the shut-off date the restrictions and accompanying threats are getting more and more serious.  That hasn't achieved enough so we need to have a whole host of "conservation" measures forced on us.  Next comes the scape-goating of those who aren't doing their share - this morning I heard a "news" story about a resident of Atlanta who was using far too much water and how "there ought to be a law".  The fact that said resident was simply using a product he was paying for was nowhere to be seen.  Instead we get a slew of "friendly" campaigns to get us to do our noble duty and let our yards die off for the cause.

It reminds me of a passage from an Ayn Rand non-fiction book (I forget which one) where she talked about the Communists early predictions that socialism would outstrip capitalism.  They were sure that one socialist shoe factory would be sufficient to provide all the shoes the proletariat required.  When that failed miserably they declared that it was noble to go without shoes.

I'd better go and get myself a dead chicken and a feathered stick and get out there to do my bit for the cause.

It's a good job we put the government in charge.  I mean, the planet's only 2/3 water.  If it'd been left to private individuals we'd be in a real mess by now.

Crazy

I'm currently working for a client that seems to be trying for the world record in crazy.  I was called at 7:40 this morning by a colleague telling me that I couldn't go to the client site because they'd lost my paperwork.  For the third time.  Why did I need to be informed at 7:40?  Because I wouldn't be allowed in the building if I showed up there to do the work they are paying me to do.  It doesn't matter if I've got a log-in for their system, a desk with a computer or even a security badge with my photo and all-hours access.  If some bureau-bot doesn't have the right piece of paper I will be escorted from the building.  Again.  (Last time I had to stand in the corner of the lobby while my manager went up to my office to get my hat and coat.  No, really!)

I thought the last place I worked was the absolute top on the insane scale but I've since learned that I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of the corporate crazy.

HR bureaucracies never cease to amaze me.  The whole point of an HR department is to shoulder administrative burdens so the people who actually do the work the company relies upon can get on with said work.  In other words, they are supposed to mold their processes to the teams they are supporting.  However, in no time flat the entire rest of the organization is molding everything they do around HR  processes.  Actual work, you know, the stuff that pays everyone's wages, grinds to a halt every time an HR drone is even slightly inconvenienced.  And by inconvenienced I mean, "has to do some work".  Totally mad stuff.

I blame the prime feature of our post-modern age: non-judgmentalism.  You see, nothing makes a drone in HR, or anyone else  for that matter, more scared than having to rely on judgment to make a decision.  Whenever such a point is reached they quickly reach for the fall-back of those of negligible intellect: a new rule.  You know the game - someone screws up or fails to do their work, generic manager #2309 has to judge the person responsible and then has to act on said judgment.  This they are totally afraid of so they remember that old saw from the Book of Crazy: "Judge not lest you be judged yourself" and immediately fire off a memo/dept. wide email/new policy: no one is to do X without express permission from Y obtained by filling in form Z.

And thus those who can are shackled by those who can't or won't.  Again.

As an aside, this is why congress has churned out nothing but prior-restraint legislation for the past 100 years or so.  A country gets the politicians it deserves...

I'm giving serious thought to getting out of this business.  There are too many layers between incompetence and actual, perceivable results.  I find the prospect of a more hands-on job very appealing because it is more readily apparent when someone isn't doing what they are being paid to do.  I don't even care that I have no experience in hands-on fields.  I've always been a quick learner.  Anyone out there have any experience with jobs where it's do-or-die?  If so, let me know of any openings you hear about...