The New Socialism [Updated]

Hi, Cassandra. Hi, Martooni. Glad to see the Dawn Patrol in good shape.

We need to come up with a catchy name for this new hybrid economic political system where the risk of companies is absorbed by the government (i.e. taxpayers). How about socialized capitalism? National corporatism? Corporate socialism? Socialized nationalism? Anything?

I'm not nearly so worried about the bailout of Fannie and Freddie as I am about the GWOT bankrupting the country.

Just from reading the "dust jacket" summary, Deadlock sounds like a dumb novel. Axeley could do better.

Is it the van Drehle book to which Joel refers? Or any of the other half-dozen Deadlocks out there?

For boodle purposes, there is only one book with that title:

http://www.amazon.com/Deadlock-Inside-Americas-Closest-Election/dp/1586480804/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216914641&sr=1-3

... and I don't think it is properly referred to -- here -- as "the Von Drehle book." Just saying.

Me and McCain, just gaffe after gaffe. Sorry.

Ouch, did you see the price on that Amazon site? ($0.04)

But here's something to balance that out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000Q1EYIW/ref=dp_olp_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1216914984&sr=1-8

Economic crisis, recession, ballooning deficit, whatever--I still say there's still NOT ENOUGH INCOME TAX:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/fashion/24skin.html?em&ex=1217044800&en=6daca065fa34f19f&ei=5087%0A

The New Economic Model for Democracy should be called (drum-roll maestro, if you please)...
"Financially Responsible Capitalism" wherein we, our children, their children, and so on, will be financially responsible for the mistakes, graft, greed, corruption and incompetence of those who capitalize on their connections, positions of power or dumb luck at the expense of the rest of us.
Oh! Wait! We've got that already.
Sorry.
Everybody chant with me:
Print more money!
Print more money!
Print more money!

I read that long list of authors on that Deadlock book. Didn't recognize any names, tho'.

No, it's definitely "the Von Drehle book." He basically locked himself in a room for a month and wrote the entire thing. Cast of thousands contributed material, but he wrote it.

The potential cost of the mortgage rescue bill is about 5% of what we are spending in Iraq.

Two sections of the bill specifically addresses servicemen and women who may be losing their homes while serving overseas at less than the income they made as civilians.

The most important part, to my mind, of HR 3221 is the section (127 of Title 1) that recognizes declining home values, authorizes refinancing of owner occupied homes at 90% of appraisal (with lenders consent) and establishes a 43% debt to income ratio. All designed to keep families from going bankrupt.

Joel, it may be DVD's book as far as the wider world is concerned. But to me the Washington Post is just "that newspaper that hosts the Achenblog." It's a matter of perspective.

Deeply saddened to learn that medical genetics pioneer Victor McKusick has passed away. He was key, he was central to the documentation and understanding of rare and not-so-rare genetic disorders How I relied on his efforts!:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072303187.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

I had no idea Joel had written a Bob Marley biography.
What's that?
DEADlocked?
Nevermind...

And who let Mark Knopfler play Wolf Trap without letting me know. The last time I was close to seeing him, he canceled his tour because of a motorcycle accident. I put the word out and he snuck back into town behind my back. Heads will roll.

Might make a good movie, though. Get, say, Tom Wilkinson to play Jim Baker, Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary for, say, a couple of sharp Dem lawyers, Bob Balaban to play the suck-up. How about Laura Dern for Katherine Harris?

Now, how do we cast the reporters? Let's see:

Bradley Whitfield for Von Drehle?
Duchovney for Achenbach--just no question about it.
Ming-na for Ellen Nakashima
Brian Dennehy for Len Downie?
Richard Libertini for Dan Balz? (Backup: Richard Schiff?)
Kristin Scott-Thomas for Dana Priest?

OK, I'm stuck on Milbank and Kurtz. Any help? And I don't know what the others look like.

...and introducing Rachel Manteuffel as "The Girl."

I'm not sure you should call it the "new" socialism, Joel. Various old news about corporate welfare:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-254.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E6DF133DF931A35751C0A961958260
Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, field-tested many words and phrases to assess their political appeal. ''Corporate welfare,'' he reported, was third on the list of ''things the public flips out on,'' right after ''foreign aid'' and ''waste, fraud and abuse.''

http://lists.essential.org/corporate-welfare/msg00003.html

please don't throw big number at us! We are not good in math to comprehend the number.

and this, too, Jumper:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29326

I did some newsroom casting the other day and it included David Cross and Julia Roberts.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2008/07/wapo-gets-fnke.html

But 'mudge is right on about Duchovney. The only possible choice for the film adaptation of 'Captured By Aliens'. Except that might be typecasting.

AMERICAN SOCIALISM or HOW I TRIED TO REVERSE TIME AND LOST

The bailout was probably a good thing and America cannot have organizations "to large to fail" in private hands. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to be broken up into smaller parts if they are to remain private.

Additionally, the next administration should get the anti-trust division of the Justice Department up and rolling again, the gigantic mergers of the last few years of the oil companies, banks as well as the exemption of the insurance industry from antitrust laws have produced a almost total reliance on a few corporations which in effect control the economy.

Break-up of large corporations is nothing to fear, AT&T was divested of its smaller parts in the late 1980's and our phone service has grown cheaper and more interesting as more and more peole move to wireless service.

Additionally, The SEC should STOP "investors" who buy a company and then saddle a it with tons of debt under the claim they are making it "more efficent," when in reality they are destroying its ability to produce quality products. The saga of Burlington Industries is a classic example of this ruinous practice -- which when taken over could not afford to produce the fabric for which it was so well known because the extreme debt forces it to sell its factories.

The WSJ editorial lament sounds to me like an unwritten worry about what the mortgage bill may do to oil and war profiteers, the wealthiest capitalists on Wall Street. The WSJ has never been about the majority, but is all about a privileged, monied minority that is worried about, as kbertocci points out, NOT ENOUGH INCOME TAX on the super rich and on corporate windfall profits.

Don't fool yourself, Kurt. AT&T never stopped being a monopoly. It just went underground for a while. Now the Baby Bells are consolidating again. It's all still AT&T.

and remember, math is hard. Let's go shopping!

clouds

My name for it would be The Good,the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good= A new administration,whoever it is has got to do better.Period

The Bad= the way our economy is heading,hopefully this is rock bottom and we can start moving back up the hill in the right direction.

The Ugly= The past 8 long years,whoever thought it would go 8 years.Geesh it just blows my mind how bad we have been.

Whoever the next administration is,they need to first apologize for for the past 8 years and say to the world.We are going to try and do Better.

on a happier note,picked the first batch of green beans and shared them with my fishing buddy for lunch. They were Yummy and many more to follow.

Coming at this objectively: I am very angry. Not at this bill but with the events that have taken place to put us in a position where we acctually need it to prevent a major economic meltdown. I am appalled at the idea of using my tax dollars to bailout people who made bad financial decisions. It sets a very bad precendent. However I also realize that without doing this it will acctually hurt me more. Metaphorically speaking it's like chopping up your house to use as firewood to get you through a particularly harsh winter. By doing it you are putting your future at risk, but by not doing it you may not have a future. Did I mention how angry I am that we have been put in this position?

For the record I don't blame Bush for this. His belief that you can spend your way out of a recession added fuel to the fire, but didn't start the fire. I blame congress, both past and present for changing too many rules in the economy game at once.

That was just too easy, kbert!

Tornado has touched down in the south side of town. Roofs off, parts of buildings gone, plant debris strewn about, fences toppled--occuring in the 900 block of Steves, covering a two-block radius. (As I recall, yello visted the lumberman Edward Steves Homestead Museum in the old German King Wiliam district when he was in town.)

Quick touchdown. At first, it was thought to be straight-line winds, but witnesses who are on television say it was a tornado they saw. Electicity crews in the area restoring power, a temporary shelter opened at the local Catholic church. Still, nowhere as bad as the electicity outages in the Rio Grande Valley and the rain totals from the hurricane on the order of five to seven inches in the Valley and coastal areas.

Other areas of town getting wind damage--trees split in two, planters toppled, fences down. We are getting the brunt of Dolly's wrath today. More rain expected, although our rain gauge, which I checked about 30 minutes ago, shows only .4 for the showers from yesterday and today. Skies very dark and gray. Thunder in the distance. Local ABC-affiliate says to keep an eye to the sky for more, possible quickly descending tornados. We certainly can use any rain we get but without the twisters. Interesting that the big orange blobs as indicated by radar and approaching stream of strong showers coming up 37 and heading toward us are or will be over us today.

Front page alert.

Just got around to reading Libby Copeland's piece on the intelligence (or possible lack thereof) of the average voter (it had the good "Kinda Don't Get It" hed I mentioned this morning). The piece talks about a classic 50-year-old poli. sci. book, "The American Voter." And she even discusses its four authors, down even to their nickname ("the Four Horsemen") -- but she never once tells you who they are.

The funny thing is, back when I was in college in the late 60s, I took a lot of poli. sci classes, even though I was a J-major. (I nearly had a full minor in poli. sci., and probnably ought to have gone for a double major, except I wanted to get the he11 out into the real world as fast as possible. Memo to self: add to "Deep Regrets" list.) But here's the point: the names of the authors are Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes. I have their names woodburnt into my memory, along with joint names like Crosby, Stills and Nash; Goodman Cheney and Schwerner.

If you studied any poli. sci. in the 60's the single name CampbellConverseMillerandStokes came out of your mouth as one word, kinda like EmersonLakeandPalmer. I cut my teeth as a courthouse reporter on CampbellConverseMillerandStokes. To be a political reporter in those days, you only needed to know two books: Teddy White's "The Making of the President, 1960," and... CampbellConverseMillerandStokes.

To some extent, Copeland's piece says as much. But I just wish she'd bothered to insert somewhere the immortal name, CampbellConverseMillerandStokes.

Ivansmom said,"It's all still AT&T." I disagree.

It's Verizon (merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic), Lucent-Alcatel combo, the AT&T + Bellsouth merger, MCI and the buying of small rural and independent systems that is creating several large phone companies, rather than one "Ma Bell" behemoth.

Wall Street is bearish on both the new AT&T combo and on Quest, the baby Bell of the west, expecting both to be losers.

The Telecommunication Act of 1996 did not authorize the re-creation of the old AT&T.

An interesting metaphor from Libby Copeland's article:

"If I say to you, 'What did the guy you didn't marry say to you in bed?' " and you can't remember, "does that mean you didn't enjoy it?" Popkin says.

Libby Copeland's piece on the American voter includes the following: "If a person...changes his opinion in response to information that he can't remember later...might he still be able to make thoughtful choices in the voting booth?"

By this standard, I will confess to being one of those idjits. I can read an essay, editorial piece, article, whatever, think about it, and occasionally change my opinion on the basis of having read it. However, my mind works (or doesn't) such that, while it can recall the decision, it is able to reproduce only the foggiest of notions on the facts that led to that conclusion.

*slinking back into un-intellectual seclusion*

They're still reassembling like one big slow Terminator machine back into TPC. Pat Harrington plays the long game.

Shiloh, I agree w/ Ivansmom. I'm getting into telecom law big time here, and while it may have a new hairdo and wear more trendy clothes, it's still the old "Ma Bell". The larger carriers get away with a whole lot, and more. Just a mere glimpse at their contracts is enough to make one gag.

Just sayin'

(now, back to the telecom (and other) grindstone)

Yo, added a couple things at the top and, at the end of the kit, a link for bc -- have you seen this stock car science blog? Right up your alley if you hain't seen it before.

Well, reassembling Ma Bell may not be easy, but keep your eye on where Bell Atlantic ("The Heart of Communication") ends up - that's going to be the core of the new Frankenstein's Ma.
And, hey - I miss a day and now I find that the chains are broken and this place has a new name and everything. I don't think you can legally call this the Daily Migraine, though; that's the Official Nickname of the place I work at. I'm kind of looking forward to digging out my old armband and jackboots, though. "Wir marschen, gegen Weingarten!"

The new "big three" traditional phone companies, AT&T, Quest and Verizon, no longer enjoy the previously unfettered vertical integration of the old AT&T; have competition from wireless and internet communication companies and are unlikely to become a monopoly again, especially as the consequences of deregulation in various industries has made for a more cautious Congress.

Tornado warning for our area for a tense 15 minutes--Lackland AFB, SeaWorld (and the very nearby Wachovia campus), and Helotes. Opposing winds in one spot of 58 m.p.h., according to local radar. Sheets of rain coming down outside my husband's window at Wachovia, he called to say about 5 minutes before the hour. Extremely dark, and much heavier rain here, moments after I hung up the phone. Tornado warnings now positioned a few miles to the northwest, moving toward Pipe Creek. This kind of excitement I don't need!

//At this very second, somewhere in town, men and women are examining tables filled with numbers, most of which, out of convenience or perhaps shame, have had the last six zeros deleted.//

Sorry, boss, I've been too busy to boodle, I've been examining tables filled with numbers, most of which have had the last six zeros deleted. Actually, I'm looking at our fleet's fuel consumption. You only *thought* it was expensive to fill up your SUV's gas tank!

"How about socialized capitalism? National corporatism? Corporate socialism? Socialized nationalism? Anything?"

Corporate fascism.

I was exaggerating for effect, Shiloh, but I believe that AT&T is a rose by any other name. The old vertical monopoly may never be the same but the basics are all still there, lurking within the mix.

Loomis, thank you for the San Antonio updates. Good luck and be careful.

Good luck to you and yours, Loomis. Sounds like a scary combination of weather down there. Please keep us posted.

I agree with Ivansmom concerning Ma Bell. She went undercover, but the heart is still there. Didn't go anywhere, just laid low. She wanted it to look like there were layers, but it's still intact.

Thanks for the information concerning my questions.

2008 budget? I think you mean 2009, Joel.

One of those little moments of joy... I'm sitting here, mindlessly eating my meager cheese sandwich while working and boodling. After I finish eating I'm thinking how I wish I just had one more bite.. there just wasn't quite enough to satisfy me.

Then I look down on my plate and what do I see? I hadn't finished after all! One more bite, just sitting there waiting for me. I was so distracted by working and boodling I hadn't noticed I wasn't actually finished after all.

Sigh. Oh happy day.

The concept of "Socialized nationalism" was tried under the National Socialism (Nazi) banner and did not prevail. Corporate guidance of government is a key component of fascism and has been a part of the current Bush/Cheney administration, usually through non-disclosure of who is really setting policy.

I suggest that a better name for a capitalist free market economic system that bails out business is a "Free Socialist Market" (FSM) economic system, venerated through the Church of the FSM, a denomination frequently cited as holy writ by boodlers.

Say, yellojkt, were you aware that The Gene Pool's question of the day features a link to something of yours? Just the gif, unfortunately, not a link to your actual blog.

Gee, TBG, you're such a cheap date.

I learned in school that in the United States we have something called a mixed economy. I have always understood this was kind of like a mixed drink in that it can lead to a nasty hangover if you aren't careful.

Gee, TBG, you're such a cheap date.

RD, it's all in the order for mixed economies, like in the old saying:

Smith then Galbraith, okay with some faith
Galbraith then Smith, you'll take the Fifth

Tables of numbers indeed
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/don_15883___article.html/patties_patty.html

But, also Shiloh, keep in mind that the FCC does favor the big boys and girls to the aggressive detriment of the resellers, the wireless (those not held or otherwise controlled by the big ones) and other small independent players. It's a fixed game and when you're on the "other" side, you definitely know the fix. That being said, our firm continues to mop the floor with the big boys and even the FCC. Makes the daily grind a whole lot of fun.

Ma Bell, Auntie Bell, Grandma Bell up in the attic . . . it's all the same family, and they continue to take care of their own.

Joel:
Congrats!
I see your blog has made it to the splash page of WaPo.com today.
You got your wish.
Now you have to do something nice for your departing editor.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/icespikes/icespikes.htm

More neat science stuff. On the site are also pix of "world's largest snowflake"

There's an echo in here.

Shiloh, I can't speak for all my fellow Jews, but I'm pretty sure I can find a bunch of us who'd frown on National Socialism. We didn't fare real well last time around.

Try something with the word blintz in it. Or mashugannah.

News from New Orleans

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1216877868216820.xml&coll=1

An 80-mile-long oil spill in Nawlins? Well, given Bush's track record, they ought to have a role of Bounty paper towels on scene by...Christmas?

While Citizen Obama orated at a hefty crowd of Berliners, not to be outdone, Senator McCain went to a German restaurant.

I think this symbolism will haunt McCain for the rest of the campaign.

The Nationals are all Socialists? It's a wonder they haven't won the World Series; they've got nothing to lose but their chains!

Note: not all who object to National Socialism are Jewish.

Yes, Yoki, I think it includes the rest of us.

Well, y'know, Mudge just wanted to avoid being presumptuous. Nobody likes to have words put in their mouth.

How about Hebrew National Socialism? Then we'd be the Weiner Republic.

Sorry, bad joke *hitting head*

And it was supposed to be "Wiener" anyway. You know, hot dogs.

*chrickets*

For some reason I'm reminded of my plan for peace in the Middle East: every country change their name to something completely different.

More science news. NASA has discovered the cause of the Northern Lights:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/24/AR2008072402620.html?hpid=artslot

I would like to see them before I die.

I saw them twice. Once from the plane while flying over the pole from San Francisco to London (got nice pictures through the window.) The other time while camping out at 11,000 feet in BC while deer hunting.

pj, I am just having a really hard time imagining someone who hasn't seen them even once. Up here, we don't even talk about the ordinary ones where the sky glows with an uneven whiteness and a little dancing. Those happen fairly frequently and are most visible in winter (lots of dark hours)

The ones we wake people up for in the middle of the night are wild, coloured and dance more dramatically than a laser light show. You can spend a very long time watching them.

IIRC, I recall one time when I was very small, maybe 4 or so, when I had left my little chair outside after a day of playing, and I had to go outside and get it after supper when it was already dark.

I was sure I was going to die, because the sky was scary. It was a grand show of northern lights of course. I think I thought it was a fox (I don't think I knew what a fox was, I just knew they were scary just like the sky was)and have a vague memory of telling my dad whilst bawling, that the big foxes were going to get me.

I wonder if that is why even now as an adult, I still have a moment of pure panic if I wake up in a totally dark room, though it seems to me that fear predates the chair incident.

Weiner, wiener ... whatever. THAT was funny, CowTown!

Looks like my contributions here will be pretty much restricted to donkey brays.

Except that I will say that I saw the Northern Lights a bunch as a kid insomuch as I grew up in MN and ND. Almost led me to a career as a theremin soloist, it did.

dr, your reaction to people never having seen the northern lights (I haven't) reminds me of mine when I first met lots of undergraduate Texans who had never seen snow.

I've never seen the northern lights. :(

My father who was born near the Arctic Circle was fond of talking about them.

The best I've managed to see is noctilucent clouds. Thin clouds at very high altitudes that reflect sunlight long after susnset.

The most vivid northern lights I've ever seen happened back in '84 while I was driving home on leave. It's almost as if I made the turn north on the final 27 mile stretch of highway, on a 1400 mile journey, and the dancing lights were there just for me as a grand welcome. Either that or a UFO was getting ready to land on my car and I evaded it by turning into the deep dark forest.

Frostbitten,
Funny you should have mentioned UFOs. I have a noctilucent clouds and UFO story. It will take some time to write, so it will come a few Boodlings later.

That is something we take for granted up here. Photos don't really do them justice, because they move.

The normal Northern Lights look like watching a translucent green curtain from below, slowly fluttering in a draft.

It is silly to have to really think about it, to have to really shift my perceptions. Logically I know most people in the world have not seen them or the southern ones. It just took a moment to shift my sense of reality a wee bit because it never occurred to me to wonder if any of you had not seen them. Next time I see some, I will think of the boodle. It's lovely how the boodle creeps into the regular world.

The best northern lights I ever saw were sometime back in the early 80's too. Was that a period of high activity? Anyway those days I saw quite a few good ones. I was often up with some sickly wee one and was awake enough to really enjoy the show.

Labor (industry, commerce, agriculture, and services,including the management of all the foregoing) creates wealth. [Some]governments create money. The constitution assigns that power to Congress, which created the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, to produce the money and to regulate the supply of it (somewhat).

A federal deficit is just another way of producing money. Historically, the periods of deficit spending, allowing for a few blips, both up and down, have been periods of prosperity, e.g., 1940 to the present. None longer. The problem is, just how big can the deficit and the debt become before the system crashes? No one knows, or even has a good idea.

Again historically, when the numbers become shocking, as they do every fifteen or twenty years, the shock -- the surplus of money? -- stimulates a new spurt of growth and even more prosperity.

Until the present sense of shock wears off, we will continue to slide downwards. Then we will have another blast off!

No? Oh.

Now, as to the economics of all that, I just don't know. Neither do the economists. That's why there are so many voice among them, each in tune with its own paymaster. So be of good cheer. But if you're really so worried that you can't sleep, get up, get out there, start agitating for higher capital gains taxes to help smooth things out and let Congress and the voters feel better about Congressional largess. After all,t's what keeps the country going.

Noctilucent Clouds and UFO

1981. We are flying a Boeing 707 from Berlin to the Canary Islands. The sun had just set at sea level. Approaching Gibraltar I prepare to hang a left. To the south, I spot a cloud formation and ask my crew if they have ever seen noctilucent clouds.
Negative.
We turn and fly along the coast of Africa
The sun sets at 32,000 feet.
It gets dark, Long lines of pink and golden clouds stay lit.
We are awed by the sight.
Lanzarote Island slips behind us. Soon, we have to turn right to land on Las Palmas.
From the western horizon, leaving a golden trail behind it, an object moves east much higher than we are.
Radio traffic goes crazy. Spanish pilots demand to know what the unreported traffic is.
The object is moving faster than any airplane I know. I Think it's a rocket, probably launched by the French in Guyana.

The craft stops and converts itself into a bright star. We watch it ascend vertically into the night and vanish among the stars.

After landing, we are told that Las Palmas was iluminated like daylight for nearly a minute.

I have never seen the Northern Lights. I have aways wanted too. But I understand how easy it is to take things for granted. When I moved to the East coast I used to spend hours watching lightning storms, having never seen a proper one before. This amazed my wife for whom a sky full of lightning streaks was old hat.

I tried to find some good, plain video of the northern lights (I've never seen them(. Too many of them have eerie music or are made more dramatic with time lapsing or other techniques.

For those of you who have seen them, is this what they look like from a normal vantage point?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taLRQrNbipQ&feature=related

dr: The Finnish word for the Northern Lights is *revontulet* and translates as "fox fires." So maybe it was the foxes.

I think I told this story here before, RD, but I had a college roommate who was also in your position. He was from Spokane, WA and came east. The first night he moved into my apartment, we had a thunderstorm. It was a pretty bad one, but nothing I hadn't seen before. I was padding around the apartment like nothing was wrong, while he was sitting in a chair basically catatonic. I didn't know this until later, of course, because I grew up around these storms and loved to stand outside to watch them build. I was smart enough to go inside before the lightning really started flying. I still like those storms and have see some very impressive lightning this year.

Oh for crying out loud, another thunderstorm approaches. I've lost track of how many evenings in a row our late sunset and long twilight have been ruined for gardening or a beer by the fire. Lightning is fun to watch though.

'94, driving home after midnight following coverage of a long Town Meeting session in Londonderry, N.H.

I was very fortunate to traverse a very dark section of highway (sparsely traveled at that time of night), and had a good if somewhat obscured by trees on the horizon view of some darn lovely Northern Lights. Hope to get a better, longer view of 'em sometime soon.

:-)

SoC,

Yeah, the pictures are pretty damned impressive, so I can only imagine what they must be like in person when you're looking at the entire sky and not an 8x10 (or smaller) photograph.

Thanks TBG

I knew the northern light moved. Didn't rea;ize the movement was so lively.

I know, Yoki. I was just doing some schtick.

I've never seen the Northern Lights either. They're high up on my bucket list.

Hey, CP, you out there? *sigh* It's like herding cats around here. (Sorry, Wilbrodog. Metaphor. I swear it.)

I resemble that remark.

Either schtick or kvetch, curmudgeon, may classify you as scheissermeister. My Yiddish is rusty and derives from my Russian grandparents, but some things we *never forget.*

Gee, I thought it was a catty simile, Mudge?

*burps as a few pages from the dictionary slowly digests in my semicolon*

I've never seen northern lights, either. Is it true that they are more intense in colder weather?

Mr. T and I made the obligatory trip to Lowe's after supper and came back the long way. In other words, we wandered about, and saw deer twice. The first time, it was a single deer in a front yard, jumping up as if to pull a piece of fruit off a tree. The second sighting was three deer in a pasture along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It's been a beautiful day in the mountains, sunny with a high around 70 and a nice breeze. Mr. T and one of the neighbors are conferring about having the road graded and ditches dug properly to eliminate erosion. It's a problem, to keep the road passable.

Mudge, never too late to finish that polysci degree, by the way.

Brag, do you think this was McCain's wurst day this month?

I want to see the aurora too *sigh*. I thought we'd be seeing them by the dozen here, but we're too southernly. Maybe you could share aurora-spotting tips, dr.

Scheissermeister roughly translates as BS artist. But I'm not sure I get the inference, Shiloh. A little syntax problem.

Trust me, Wilbrod, it is wayyyyyy too late. Too much other stuff to do, not much time left to do it in.

Liked "wurst day," though.

pj - yep, catatonic is kinda how I was the first time I saw a true lightning storm. And two decades later the awe has yet to fully vanish.

The only aurora I recall seeing was on a summer night in northwest Wyoming, while driving through the desert between Lovell and Greybull. The highway had almost no traffic, so it was workable to pull over periodically.

This one was red, slow moving, and rather like a vast teepee--a big cone covering most of the sky.

Yes, it was an astonishing sight, maybe a good reason to visit Fairbanks in the winter.

Hotcakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaOyUdiv7rU

All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep
Now melodrama never makes me weep anymore
'Cause I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

You showed me how, how to leave myself behind
How to turn down the noise in my mind
Now I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

Suffering was the only thing that made me feel I was alive
Though that's just how much it cost to survive in this world
'Til you showed me how, how to fill my heart with love
How to open up and drink in all that white love
Pouring down from the heaven
I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

Omni, is that you? Thanks for the lyrical pain.

Wilbrod - I have seen the Northern lights here and I think I am south of you - there were the green wispy kind Soc spoke of - too much light around to see the colours. But a couple of hours north in cottage country they are frequent.

Saw the full Northern lights once - in Ottawa, must have - strange to see them in the city - but it was the 80's and as dr suggest must have been a time of high activity.

We are thinking of heading to Tobermory next week and a search for the northern lights will commence at night if we go.

I have told Mr Ml to wake me up if he ever sees the Northern Lights. I've never seen them. dr, now I know I should come visit you. Oh, winter is best? Hmmmm...

Time of night, that sort of thing to go aurora-watching would be helpful. I'm sure we get them once in a long while...

Answers for Northern Lights.

http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html

Wilbrod-I'm not far from you, but south, and have seen a couple weak displays of northern lights in the last few years.

Achenbach, you've been talking about the need for newspapers to develop new ideas.

Here's an interesting article regarding the A-11 offense that might be of relevance.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=825031

Mind-exploding for sure.

How do we translate this kind of innovation into newspaper terms? Force George Will to pass his column to the paperboy? Make Krauthammer sell ads?

Jointly-author columns with continually changing editorial teams to ensure reliable touchdowns? Pull some people off the street for the scrimmage-line reporting?

Word Play, Cur, as in rusty (Russe) for Yiddish origin, and BS for what it is, is an implicit, although perhaps cryptic, response to an umbrage or two of little merit. Sometimes the thick-headed have the thinnest skins.

A little bump, great smile, truly happy and such a glow

http://www.irocknroll.com/images/Carly_Simon_LP.jpg

Research site for aurora study - way over my head.

http://aurora.phys.ucalgary.ca/themis/themis_main.html

I once saw the northern lights on a cold Febuary night in WV.I went outside to see the cresent moon and venus together setting in the southwest,turned around and there was a strange blue green glow to the north.I really thought I was going to see my first UFO. But it was just the northern lights. I went back in to grab my old digital camera(the one with the floppy disc as film).I took a bunch of pictures, but none of them turned out. It was something very cool and a very cold night.

Still no UFO yet,but I am always looking skyward!!

Hi Wilbrod, yep...was me

Just heard that song and thought I'd share.

My 9:36 was a clue to everyone else that it was me

Shiloh, the second part of your 3:21 put a smile on my face. Bravo

Thanks, omni. It was the whole point before some folks got stuck on the first graf.

The Fed started throwing money around after the dot com bubble, and now we are paying for it. They were so worried about a recession that they forgot that inflation is just as nasty.

And now they are throwing more money around to bail out companies that should be scrapped because they were stupid, not to mention greedy.

Free markets are not the problem. A central banking system is not the problem. But a PRIVATE central bank, charging Americans interest for money that it creates is nothing short of treason.

Ask yourself, how do we torpedo the Fed? Oh, wait... we don't vote for the Fed board... they aren't appointed by elected officials... hmmmm...

I can only guess, Mattsoundworld, that the great depression bank failures of the 1930s,the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s, and Chryler Corp bailouts were before your time

Santayana said, "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.".

Think of this girl next time you complain about the name your parents saddled you with...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/24/2313126.htm

Heck, even Senator Obama has nothing to complain about in comparsion!

Name as "social disparity" as the judge ruled in the TBG link opens a potential hornet's nest of complaints ranging from "George," and its Anglos Saxon root for "farmer" to "Bush" and its reference to pubic hair.

TBG, I can't say for sure, but I think the Youtube video is speeded up somewhat. I think the fastest I've seen them move might be like a frippery during a foxtrot. Otherwise, yes.

ML, spring and fall are supposed to be the best IIRC.

I have been studying planetary aurora since 1986, on other planets than this one, in both ultraviolet and infrared light. I have only ever seen aurora one time with my own eyes. Back about 2002 or 2004 or so (I do not recall exactly which year), in early April, the ScienceSpouse called us outside to admire the late sunset light shining from high clouds in a diffuse red glow all across the sky. After a moment I noticed that the stars plainly could be seen and it was clear that there were no clouds. We were seeing what the terrestrial auroral physicists cleverly call Diffuse Red Aurora, down here at the latitude of Maryland. Checking with the auroral physics guys, the next day, revealed reports of DRA as far south as the Carolinas. It's a general irradiation of the upper atmosphere by relatively low-energy electrons. The red glow is a transition of atomic oxygen that forms at relatively high altitude due to a lack of competition with collisional de-excitation because of the very tenuous atmosphere. The low energy of the electrons keeps them from penetrating very deeply in the atmosphere.

The other terrestrial auroral emissions, as noted by the Northern Lights Centre [sic], are an atomic oxygen green line that forms at lower altitude under bombardment by more energetic electrons, and a blue nitrogen emission that I THINK is from N2+ (that's singly-ionized molecular nitrogen), if I am recalling correctly. I would have to look it up.

On the giant planets, the primary auroral emissions are transitions of molecular and atomic hydrogen, and infrared emissions by trace species. The red atomic hydrogen line that we got to see in junior high, Balmer Alpha, was sought since shortly after the discovery of Jovian radio emission in 1955 until finally being detected in 1998 by the Galileo spacecraft looking at Jupiter's night side. As it happens, it isn't entirely Balmer alpha, it's more molecular hydrogen, but that is a matter of interest primarily to spectroscopists.

Strong terrestrial aurora is most common in years near the maximum of the 11.2-year solar activity cycle. There were solar max events in 1980, 1991, 2002, and the next will be in 2013. The maximum may span a few years, so it's not real precisely timed.

Time to go retrieve The Daily Show from Tivo!

Not to mention Dick Cheney, eh Shiloh?

Of course, not many people would dispute that there would be social disparity caused by the name Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii.

But maybe Number 16 Bus Shelter is better than Dick or Bush... I'm not sure.

I saw a strange light on the side of the mountain on my way home,moving up the mountain and it gave me that "fire in the sky" type chill.

Although there could be a couple of explanations,a fire in the woods,ATV's riding at night,tonight's moonrise shining on some mist rising or a couple of other explanations I can't think of.

All this after I talked about UFO's,kinda strange if you ask me.

I worked in a small bank in the SF Bay Area in the late 1980s. My job was to produce reports and deal with some Fed people. The figures in my reports had their last 5 or 6 digits chopped off. A few hundred million looks like a few hundred. When you don't see the last 5 or 6 digits, the figure seems quite small, like, you know, not a big deal.

i've always wanted to see northern lights but never have. here i'm lucky if i can see the stars.

well, i'm off to raleigh tomorrow for a wedding. any chance you n.c. boodlers could cool it off for me over there this weekend?

Well, winter does provide more potential viewing hours in the Northern Hemisphere, so I'd say your chances of seeing the Lights are better then...

:-)

Saw that "name" article, TBG... "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii" is SO easy to fit on a job application, hm???? :-O We've Boodled before about the need for a parenting license, haven't we??? *RME*

*TGIF-and-hoping-for-a-wonderful-weekend-for-all Grover waves* :-)

'Morning, Boodle. Glad to see Scotty's back on schedule ahead of me.

Judging by the news reports, I'd say Obama had a stellar week. My wife, not an Obama fan by any means, said he sounded almost Kennedyesque in his Berlin speech.

Not much else to report on (haven't read much of the columns yet).

Carry on.

'morning all. Like most Northern Boodlers I've seen the aurora borealis. In 2002, as pointed out by ScienceTim, they were spectacular due to the peak solar activity. On vacation in the Gaspé peninsula we were treated to a great light show every nights. So much that we decided to go to Murdochville, in the moutain in the center of the peninsula, to have an official Northern Lights night. It was spectacular. Now, off to the last day of work before the two weeks vacation.

Crikey! There is a hole in the plane!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4395076.ece

Backboodling like crazy:

Never seen the Northern Lights. Someday, though. I really liked the Hebrew National socialism and The Weiner Republic. But then again you know how sick my sense of humor is.

And I can laugh because I understand the horror. Too many deniers and explainers out there don't. When 'we' say we all oppose those ideas, remember that there are those that don't and only the bright light of truth keeps them under their rocks.

On a lighter note, thanks for the notice that Weingarten is working my turf. I'm the Sally Forth fan around here.

The writer, Ces, has jumped on the Hilary (one 'l') For President bandwagon:

http://francescoexplainsitall.blogspot.com/2008/07/next-president-of-united-states.html

Good Morning Boodle *Rocks wings* :-)

Goood morning and happy Friday to all! It's a particularly nice day for me because it's payday and I got a COLA!

LA Lurker, highs in the low nineties in the Carolinas this weekend, what's not to like? It IS late July. At least we don't have a hurricane forecast for the next several days.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Good morning,friends. Slyness, my, my, what a good way to end the week. Mudge, I didn't get a chance to read any of the op-ed page either, but want to check back in later. Some of the stuff looks interesting.

Scotty, Martooni, good morning, and good morning to all.*waving*

I overslept this morning, and have a slight headache to go with that. I'm getting ready to head out the door. I want to read about Obama's European trip. It all sounds fascinating.

Today is Friday, and boy, am I glad. It has been a long week. I saw the g-girl,and her sisters last night. I've missed that little girl, but she is a handful. She had her little friend with her. They play together all the time. I miss her, but it is good for her to be with others. Have to sharpen those socializing skills. I went to the library yesterday, and the librarian said to me, "where's your boss". She was talking about the g-girl.

Have a great day, folks, and look forward to the weekend. The weather was nice here yesterday, but I suspect the heat will return over the weekend. Time to go.

Finally an end to the deluge of the last few days. The grass will probably grow a foot today - not literally. I haven't seen the Northern Lights either and really hope to some day. Busy around here, spent last night making cupcakes for a family cook out tomorrow. Tonight is the benefit for my daughter and the challenge will be getting over the bridge to the Cape on a Friday night. Finally have a couple of mini vacations planned for August. I really needed something to look forward to as some events at work have been getting on my nerves. Very (underline and caps) glad that it is Friday. Have a great weekend everyone.

*faxin' Sneaks a hydrofoil so she can go UNDER the bridge instead* :-)

Microsoft Flight Simulator (Century of Flight edition, anyway - don't forget to fly the Wright brothers plane!) included what I consider an Easter egg - Aurora Borealis when flying in the far North. I was trying for a nighttime flight from Alaska to Russia over the pole, and decided to fly my DC-3 through the snow and then climb above it, after which, when I did, I was completely entranced by Microsoft's special treat for me I had not heard of before.

Howard Kurtz today takes on the flying media circus that is circling the globe with Obama.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/24/AR2008072403924.html

In it he says:

"After saying little in public during a weekend in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama met with traveling reporters near Jordan's Temple of Hercules, a gladiator standing his ground against the media hordes. "

This Boodle-riffic because of the gladiator-togged mental image. But the Hercules call-out is interesting too because Maureen Dowd did an entire column comparing Barack to the mythical hero.

http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/07/labor-pains.html

And I even used my meager PS skilz to show what Obama would look like in a leather skirt with Maureen clutching his leg near his loins.

Timely article on the Northern Lights, the video is great - but I don't have sound at work so no idea what is says.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080724.wnorthernlights0724/BNStory/Science/home

Video of MS FS2002 aurora:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zeg3HVfEaQ&feature=related

Chuckie K today finally says out loud what many assumed was part of the overall goal of the neo-con driven invasion of Iraq, a permanent military presence in the Middle East that can be used as a center of operation for future conflicts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/24/AR2008072403416.html

"McCain, like George Bush, envisions the United States seizing the fruits of victory from a bloody and costly war by establishing an extensive strategic relationship that would not only make the new Iraq a strong ally in the war on terror but would also provide the U.S. with the infrastructure and freedom of action to project American power regionally, as do U.S. forces in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

"For example, we might want to retain an air base to deter Iran, protect regional allies and relieve our naval forces, which today carry much of the burden of protecting the Persian Gulf region, thus allowing redeployment elsewhere."

This buried in the middle of the column, but it is the most open revelation yet of what our real objectives in Iraq were.

And Gerson writes a middle-school level book review about the end of slavery in Britain just so that he can expense his BigBoxOfBooks receipt. Raise his pay or something so that everything he sees or reads or does isn't a column so he can deduct it.

Great info SciTim. I wondered if this was in your territory. 2013 eh? And that is a great link dmd. I have to go back there.

I think too fall is the best time to watch them. The weather is nice and yet it gets dark so early here that you end up spending a lot of time outside.

I have seen stuff like the link TBG found, but not nearly that much red and orange and the speed is exactly as SoC describes, a foxtrot. I did see a bit of a violet one time, but the really great shows are mostly blues and green.

As for tips, my 80's viewing was deeply connected to sick kids. Maybe a child 'burping up' down your back helps the chances of seeing really good northern lights?

And if anyone wants to view them, you know you all are welcome. We'll do sky tours, campfires and weiner roasts and marshmallows with your cocoa (and Irish cream too. Its really great in cocoa)

Mo MoDo, I enjoyed your blog's recent post greatly. "Bill Clinton's third head": what a closer!

Thanks, Jumper. Sometimes I feel I just labor in vain. At least I amuse myself.

For Billy Joel fans only -- you know who you are -- the rest of you just move along.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-23/music/billy-joel-shea-stadium-let-s-do-this?src=newsletter

That whole review and no mention of "Miami 2017"?

They held a concert out in Brooklyn
To watch the island bridges blow
They turned our power down
And drove us underground
But we went right on with the show
{snip}
They sent a carrier out from Norfolk
And picked the Yankees up for free
They said that Queens could stay
And blew the Bronx away
And sank Manhattan out at sea.

That should have been the show closer.

I think I'll throw in my two cents worth today on offshore drilling. It's about the infrastructure, and corporate looting of it.

First thing to get out of the way is to point out that lots of it is about natural gas, not oil. Methane has the highest percentage of hydrogen of any hydrocarbon, and given that carbon burning is not going to cease overnight, much as I wish it could, methane is a good intermediate fuel.

Secondly, allowing offshore drilling is not an either/or proposition. I tend to choke and stare worriedly in the mirror when I find myself agreeing with something McCain says, but I'm non-partisan and it happens occasionally. States should have veto power over allowing offshore exploration and production.

Having said that, people need to be aware that most of the real anticipated ecological assaults from offshore oil and gas exploration will occur at the staging areas onshore. Coastal roads will be overloaded, congested, ruined, and the States will end up paying for it if they aren't careful. Pipelines and refineries will be built, harbors will be re-dredged, silt will affect estuaries, undeveloped property removed from the ecosystem, more boat-motor oil will spill in the water. The States will end up paying for it if they aren't careful. Spills into the actual offshore ocean areas will be more likely unless people demand that margins of safety be ratcheted up: spill precautions and preventives need to be vigilently monitored, and hard fines levied even for drilling companies merely tempting fate by failing to keep these precautions at the ready at all times.

I went through the Campeche spill, and it was caused by just such a lapse. There was literally not enough drilling mud barite onboard the rig to control the pressure that caused the blowout. This sort of thing is unacceptable.

IF the anti-regulation mob is allowed to control it, this business will end badly. If a little forethought is used, offshore drilling can be made safe and fair. And help our national security. After all, two of our greatest enemies are cold and hunger.

Stay the he11 out of ANWR.
Thank you.

Mo you shouldn't feel that way. I always stop in for a read-and-giggle when you post. Your Obamacles poster? Genius.

Thanks, Kerric. I have a lot of fun doing the photoshops. Someday I will have to put together a best-of post.

Dagnabit, I missed a great kit and boodle 'cause my phone line failed completely Wed. afternoon. To complete my pissedoffedness, no one showed from the wireless company. I'd better cool down before the phone tech, who that nice man in Calcutta said would be here today (Ha!), arrives. Either that or he should be very large.
*Deep Breethes*
Oh ya. Hello boodle. Howzit goin'?

Mo (MoDo), I'm sure that if Hercules was contemporary "in vain" would surely be one of his labours.

SCC I should have added that my connection has been dropped four times in two hours.
*snap crackle pop*

It's TGI-frickin'-F, Boko.

Can't be TOO bad, now can it?

:-)

Where's our weekend kit? Tell that Joel guy to quit lollygagging.

Joel who?

Hidey-ho fellow boodlers. Been back-boodling a wee bit, and remembered that I, too, have seen the Northern Lights -- I think in the late 50s when I was a kid at summer camp. It was a YWCA camp along the shores of Lake Huron maybe an hour or so north of Port Huron. We spend the night on the beach, gazing at the waves of light. It was really very cool. Makes me wonder what the Southern Lights look like. Anybody been to Australia or Tazmania or (*brrrr*) Antarctica who can tell us?

It's been a strange week. Was witness to (and, um, object of) a tantrum by a colleague -- I won, of course. I had provided tons of help to her as she was launching a practice similar to mine. I've gotten help from colleagues (and still do when I need it) and am very pleased to pass it forward. I gave her books (okay, a year old, but still very helpful), gave her a lot of my time and even invited her to become a member of a local organization of which I was one of the founding members 25 years ago, for networking purposes which she would probably not otherwise know about. Maybe she went once. When I set limits on her coming over to use some of my books (as in "please get your own books if you're really interested in this kind of practice) she whined, but gave up on that. She complained, even, that going back to the local law school where she went nights to get her Masters degree, was "too far away" (we live 10 minutes apart). Her problem, of course. I also had a second set (somehow) of Copyright books which I decided to sell her (it cost me about $650 and I offered the set to her at half price -- very generous I thought) -- it took her more than 3 months to pay me. There's more, of course, but in her tantrum she told me that I had taken enormous advantage of her. Needless to say, I've made enormous mileage out of her behavior. And, no, it all has come to a close. And, yes, I win.

I really find it amazing that those people with entitlement fantasies really, really neither recognize nor appreciate what people do for them. It's all "what can I make them do for me next" -- and I'm done. I will still pass forward to people, but I'm done with her. I don't think she has a clue as to what she's lost. And more's the pity.

Have a nice weekend, all.

All this talk of aurorae makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I've seen them a few times; two occasions stand out.

One Christmas eve about 25 years ago in Northern Ontario, I was walking home from a friend's house and the lights covered half the sky, dancing, shimmering, sparkling in the most amazing colours. I stood there, in the -35C air, with my head tilted back and mouth open until my neck cramped up. The normally 10-minute walk took me half an hour as I kept stopping to gape.

Fast forward about 18 years: we were driving south on Highway 11 when the Lovely Mrs. byoolin spotted something in her passenger-side mirror. We pulled off the highway near Katrine, ON, and the lights were spectacular. We drove further off the highway until we found a clearing, stopped, gaped and then picked up The Kid from the back seat where she was sleeping.

I woke her up and said, "Look." She looked at the sky and when her eyes finally focused she exclaimed, "WHOA!" and promptly fell back asleep.

She has no recollection of this.

*faxin' a high-five to firsttimeblogger* :-)

Thanks, Snukey. I'm apparently the latest on a long (and getting longer) list of people who she's alienated. And it won't help her law practice any. While the number of attorneys in DC make us the second largest bar in the country (after California, I think), it's still a small town and word does (dontcha know) get out.

Nobody can use you without your permission, ftb. Good for standing up. I get brain-picking calls all the time, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

bc (calling in from the beach, the lucky so-and-so) sez he's in agony that his comments regarding the stock car science blog will have to wait until tomorrow.

:-)

A delegation of Space Hamzters marches up to the Boodle. "Where's the Kit?"Chief Hamzter demands.
"There's not Kit."
Serious grumbling rumbles from the mob of Hamzters. "We want Kit, We want Kit."
Boodlers deploy fire hoses and repel the unrully Space Hamzters.

Some of the Space Hamzters got lost in the very interesting stock car link this morning.

By the way, thanks too for the neat football link, Wilbrod.

New Kit

New Kit --we've been saved!

Most homeowners, who are economically illiterate, are probably ecstatic about this bill. The government has made it impossible for them to lose on their home, and it will do everything to drive prices up further. The only problem is that there aren't enough poor renters to subsidize all the homeowners. Therefore, general inflation will outpace housing inflation.

This probably won't matter to most homeowners, who don't grasp economic concepts such as inflation, supply and demand, the efficient allocation of resources, etc. The Dems and Bush have a solid majority of dumbed down supporters who are prepared to embrace socialism.

I can't see capitalism going away. The understanding of it might become confused and these are confusing times. In the end if we became more dependent on government, the mess we have now would be bigger. I see everything going toward more private control. Wealth is now being changed from public to more private control. We will always have wealth and the more private it is, the more secure. Go private. Going public has not worked. Look at the Fannie Mae mess. I'm not paying for it. The same is true for airlines. Private jets will increase as large jets decrease. It's a big change.

Of course the old Socialism is still an option too.