In This Dimension

Lots of ink and pixels are being spilled protesting that the German government should (or not) save the euro and, perhaps, the entire EU by (over)spending (or not) their taxpayers’ earnings.

The issue for Europe (and America, frankly) is that leaders continue to lead their people in resistance to natural selection. Natural selection is just as relevant in the nation-state world as in the animal kingdom of which we are a part; the difference is only that nation-states CHOOSE to succeed (or not).

It is past obvious that the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain) and perhaps France and Belgium have chosen[…]

CA is about to pull the trigger on a budget deal that will remove yet more money from higher ed and K-12. Why? To pay pensions and benefits of those unable to get a real job in the private sector.

How dumb is that?

I went to work for IBM in 1977, right out of college. After three years there I decided (dumb decision) to become a headhunter in the IT industry. After about a year I returned to IT, where I have remained.

What’s the relevance? As a headhunter you are looking for job openings and looking for good employees to fill them.

And,[…]

Think about that title up there for a second. We are a nation of laws. We entrust Congress with writing those laws. Yet they refuse to abide by them and often give themselves specific exemption from the laws they pass to govern us. They seem unable to remember that THEY work for US, and not the other-way-’round.

Americans are CITIZENS, not SUBJECTS. Within reason and the Constitution, we do what we want, not what we are told. Many people of many countries do what they are told. We call these people “Europeans” “Chinese” “Russians” etc. We do NOT call them “Americans”.

All[…]

This is a bit of a rant.

Basically I have become so irritated with Audible.com, an Amazon company providing a good library of audio books, what once was a very good service, that I not only have cancelled my membership, but am informing as many others as I can. Below is what I sent their tech support.

I have been an Audible member for years, and have hundreds of downloaded titles. But your service has become too expensive in my time to continue using. I am a 30-yr tech person who has spent decades in computer usage, programming, etc. I am not[…]

OWS is a bunch of whiny, dirty, filthy losers. All the adults know that.

But - they also have a legit point. They are just too ignorant or ideological to make it intelligently.

There is absolutely zero reason for a company to pay executives tens of millions of dollars to run a company. None. And the nonsense of companies paying execs (that they FIRE for doing a crappy job) tens of millions of dollars to GO AWAY is just pure insanity.

Back before Baby Boomers this was unheard of. I worked for IBM from 1977 - 1981, and from 1988 - 2001. This[…]

So our heroes in Congress have failed again. Big surprise.

Here, therefore, a plan to fix the fiscal problems we face.

So… the Dems - having walked-away from a Supercommittee GOP offer of $500B of tax increases over the next ten years (they are demanding a trillion), now seem intent on cutting the Defense budget 10%.

I’m fine with cutting the defense budget - just not without re-ordering their mission (i.e. I am tired of paying for the defense of the entire West while these silly little pretend nations can’t even stand-up a military larger than the NYPD and spend all their tax money on unsustainable welfare benefits - meaning, because defense of citizens and borders is the First responsibility of a[…]

Yep, you never thought you’d see the day, right?

But - here’s the deal: Holder?

50 years ago when we still had adults running this nation, if MY son had been killed by a gun that had been watched BY MY OWN GOVERNMENT as it was illegally bought and taken to Mexico - not interdicted, WATCHED - then Holder wouldn’t be on a stand lying to Congress. Nor would his boss. And our society would be OK with that.

And - here’s the deal: Paterno?

50 years ago when we still had adults running this nations, if MY 10-yr-old son had been raped by[…]

A friend recently asked, “When Obama said that if he hadn’t fixed things in 3 years he would be a one termer…do you think he believed that what he was doing was going to fix things?”

I think it was just hype to play to the Center voters.

Look at his past. He is absolutely incapable of making a decision. Did you see the House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy on Greta this week? He said Obama’s main trait is to say that he’ll think about something or form some committee or get back to you on this - and then NOTHING ever[…]

Michael Barone has an interesting column today, the net of which is that today’s populism is fueled by a growing distrust of experts. I am not at all sure I agree with this thesis.

Rather than putting a low value in expertise, which assumes incorrectly that those in office now are expert - and they demonstrably are not (they are just the most-expert in a self-validating cohort of inexpert ideologues) - I think America finds itself at the point in which the best and the brightest - who most certainly are NOT in office of any kind - have decided that[…]