Quote of the Day...

Unknown source, via my mom:

If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you weren't a racist, you'll have to vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you're not an idiot.

A Day in the Country...

This morning I'm stiff and sore all over, because yesterday Debbie and I worked in the yard for the first time this season.  We got a lot more done than we thought we would – with burn permit in hand, we burned six brush piles that had accumulated around the yard.  The tractor started right up after being idle for the winter.  Once I filled it's gas tank, the chain saw started on the first pull, and I used it to cut up and burn one pile of branches.  Then finding ourselves with time and some leftover energy, we even sawed a few low, drooping branches from our pines.  We cut those up and burned them as well.  Then we were completely out of anything resembling energy!

Just moments after I doused the fire's embers and put away our tools, Frankie T. and Miss Daisy (her beautiful old dog) showed up for a visit.  We all had a very pleasant visit – Debbie had never met Miss Daisy before, and Miss Daisy had never met our dogs before.  Soon Miss Daisy was stretched out on our carpet, looking very content and happy, the center of the room's attention.  Mo'i watched over her.  Bootie and Maka Lea came over to check out the new dog.  Race ignored her and wanted us to throw his toy.  Debbie handed out treats to Miss Daisy that she eagerly accepted.  Miki was all over Frankie, wiggling with field spaniel joy.  Lea stayed away from Miss Daisy at first, but eventually (and very cautiously) came over to say hello.  The action never stopped, especially while Frankie was trying to drink a cup of coffee and eat (without help!) a piece of chocolate cake.  We were all sad to see Frankie and Miss Daisy head home, but we're hoping they'll wander out this way again some day soon... 

Happy Easter!

My mom sends these Easter greetings:

NGC 6543: the Cat's Eye Nebula...

From APOD, of course:

Don Knuth: All Questions Answered...

If you're a geek, Knuth needs no introduction. If you're not a geek, this will not be of interest.

Friends...

How the World Sees Us...

Musings from Peggy Noonan...

California Dreamin'...

John Fund has an excellent piece up at the WSJ.  Sample:

Hours after the legislators met with Mr. Perry, another business, Fujitsu Frontech, announced that it is abandoning California. "It's the 70th business to leave this year," says California business relocation expert Joe Vranich. "That's an average of 4.7 per week, up from 3.9 a week last year." The Lone Star State was the top destination, with 14 of the 70 moving there.

I don't want to move to Texas.  I don't even want to leave California.  But if the current trend continues, finding employment may be yet another reason (along with high taxes and batshit-crazy politicians) to vote with our feet...

What to Invest In?

Via reader Dr. Simi L.:

I called my stockbroker and asked him what I should be buying.

He said, "If the current administration is in office much longer, canned goods and ammunition is your best bet."

Energy Flows...

Reader Doug S. passes along this very cool chart of energy flows in the U.S. for a recent year (2009), from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.  He points out that the chart makes it clear how difficult it would be to use wind or solar power to replace our other energy sources.  There are lots of other insights like that to be had by studying this for a bit...

Ceramic Lasers to Replace Spark Plugs?

Solid state lasers have come a long way, baby...

Original Sin...

What could I possibly add to this?  Via my mom:

Beautiful!

Time lapse photography from El Teide (tallest mountain in Spain).  The scenes with clouds below the level of the camera are very reminiscent of things we see in our mountain valleys quite frequently.  Via Frankie T:

On the Air Again...

Thanks to Eric at SDWISP, we're back on the air again.  We're not actually sure exactly what was wrong, but somehow between the work the Eric did on our radio link and associated wiring, and that I did on our network's router, our Internet connection is back.  Woo hoo!

Thanks for the great service, Eric.  While we've come to expect it (because you're so consistent!), it is still greatly appreciated...

Internet-Free Morning, and Quote of the Day...

Our Internet service at home died yesterday morning – I suspect rodents gnawed something important.  Eric from SDWISP returned my trouble call very quickly (on a Sunday – love that service!).  He'll be at our house this afternoon to put things right.

Meanwhile, I drove to work early this morning so I could actually get something done.  I got into the office at 2:25 am – a personal record.  Yes, mom, I know I'm crazy.

Around 2 am I passed the Rancho San Diego shopping center (where Target is), and spotted an older woman sitting by the side of the road.  I thought she might be sick or hurt, so I stopped to see if she was ok.  It was an interesting experience.

Her name is Alicia, and she appears to be about 70 years old.  She's filthy, and her clothes are falling apart.  As best I could tell, she doesn't have a drink or drug problem – she just has no money, and the shelter she was staying in (in La Mesa) had closed.  She told me she was staying near the iron bridge just down the road, but she'd been rousted by the Border Patrol, and was now looking for another place to stay.  She was just resting when I stopped to check on her.

Alicia told me she'd really like to get to Clairemont Mesa, as she'd heard there was another shelter there, still open.  I was headed that way (I work in Del Mar), so I offered her a lift.  For the half hour ride, I asked Alicia a string of questions and she cheerfully answered.

She has two children that she hasn't heard from in ten years or more.  Five years ago her husband died.  She had no income other than Social Security, and that's not even close to enough to live on in San Diego.  She's been in San Diego for 50 years, after moving out here with her Navy dad.  She lost her house, foreclosed for taxes and mortgage payment; she got almost nothing from the sale.  She's been living on the streets in the three years since then.

And yet ... Alicia seems happy.  It's amazing how resilient some people are.  When I mentioned how surprising I found her cheerfulness, she said:

“I'm alive, aren't I?  I still enjoy sunsets and the birds, and I have enough to eat.  That's a lot more than some people have!”

Alicia gets my quote of the day.  I don't think anyone's going to top it.

I let her off at the 24 hour McDonald's off Mira Mesa Blvd, and bought her some breakfast.  I got a hug before she trudged off toward where she believed the shelter was, happily slurping her coffee and munching on her breakfast burrito.

Happy trails, Alicia.  I'll think of you at sunset today...

Historical U.S. Top Marginal Tax Rates...

Over the years I've been surprised many times by the general ignorance U.S. citizens have of how their top marginal tax rates have changed over the years.  In particular, few people seem to know how much higher these rates were between the FDR and Reagan administrations.  The chart below shows this very nicely (as usual, click to enlarge).

There are many interesting observations one can make from this chart.

One that progressives like to make is that we have a lot of experience in economic boom times (say, the late '50s) with very high top marginal rates – therefore such rates are not the destroyer of jobs claimed by the conservatives.  However, it is simultaneously true that the very wealthy back then had relatively easy access to tax shelters, and in fact very little income was actually taxed at that rate.  The real world is messy and complicated.

An observation that conservatives like to make is the strong correllation between the dropping of tax rates and the subsequent ramping up of the economy (this happened both in the late '20s and early '90s).  But progressives can point to other factors that influenced those economic upturns, including other roughly simultaneous changes in the regulatory environment.  The real world is messy and complicated.

So be careful reading too much into the squiggles on this chart.  Nonetheless it's a useful piece of any U.S. citizen's political education – no matter what one's political beliefs, this chart encapsulates the past century's history of one of the most significant consequences of elections: the setting of our tax rates...

IC 410...

From APOD, of course:

Ersatz Budget Politics...

Mark Steyn, as only he can:

The other day the post office apologized for its new stamp honoring Lady Liberty. Due to an unfortunate error, the stamp shows not the 19th-century Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor but the 1990s replica that stands at the New York–New York Casino in Las Vegas.

An ersatz statue of pseudo-liberty standing guard over the world’s biggest gambling operation: What better way to round out a week in which the Republicans pretended to pass the most historically historic budget cut in history while the president pretended to come up with a plan to address the debt? All while pretending to wage a war in Libya whose most likely outcome seems to be that the only Arab dictator to sleep soundly in his bed at night during these turbulent times will be doing so under cover of a NATO no-fly zone for the rest of his 75-year term of office. In such a world, the USPS, bless ’em, has come up with a far more plausible emblem of societal devastation than Hollywood’s space monsters and climate-change fairies.

Ah, Mr. Steyn. How could I despair without you?

The Lady is on Fire...

Complete with the screechy voice.  It's impossible for anyone to reconcile the left's portrayal of her intellectual capacity with the content of that speech.  It's also impossible to miss the fact that she's the only national politician who effectively leveraged the recent events in Wisconsin – which she, alone, recognized as watershed events as they occurred.  Sarah Palin taken as a complete political package is one very impressive politician, whatever one may think of her views.

The 2012 election cycle promises to be even more interesting – and consequential – than the 2010 cycle.

Send In a Marine!

Via reader Simi L., this story of a Marine's solution to a discipline challenge:

A former Sergeant in the Marine Corps took a new job as a high chool teacher. Just before the school year started he injured his back. He was required to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. Fortunately, the cast fit under his shirt and wasn't noticeable. On the first day of class, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school.

The smart aleck punks, having already heard the new teacher was a former Marine, were leery of him and he knew they would be testing his discipline in the classroom.

Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, the new teacher opened the window wide and sat down at his desk. When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he picked up a stapler and stapled the tie to his chest.

Dead silence. He had no trouble with discipline the rest of the year.

Hoo ah!