Carnival of the Capitalists Up At DFMoore

Daniel Moore has this week's Carnival of the Capitalists, chock full of biz and econ goodness. Don't miss it!

For more info and to see future locations, visit the Carnival of the Capitalists hosts and info page. To explore previous CotC posts, check out the Past Locations page.

The March 8th Edition will be hosted at Catallarchy.net. As always, submit your posts on business and economic topics to capitalists -at- elhide.com.

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Linkses

You may have noticed that my sidebar links have changed.

I found that there were a few blogs I clicked to every day, no matter how limited my time, and if my time was not so limited, clicked back to preferentially over and over again, between other visits.

I attempted to reflect them in my "Top Clicks" better than I had in my 'Solarans" section previously. This list will no doubt change from time to time as I figure out I am going to others excessively, or ceasing to read often ones currently there.

"Major Clicks" are ones I will generally make a point to read at least once a day, but might miss if I am busy. This is even more likely to change than the other section. It's what I was attempting to do with the second section down under my previous scheme, except some of those I read regularly I had to scroll to other classifications to get.

"Scattered Linkses" is everything, including the ones in the first two sections, based on my gathering up all links and alphebetizing them using the "scattered asteroids" as a starting point. I also did something I have long intended, adding everyone who has hosted or plans to host Carnival of the Capitalists to my main page links if they weren't already there. Lots of good blogs there.

Part of the reason for this was I tended to click on the asteroids with more frequency than most of the blogs in most of the categories above them. So why not put them all together. Another reason is I may someday trim what shows on the main page, and in the process of listing them alphabetically, I created what can be used as a separate links page.

There are still blogs that link me, or link the CotC page, that I ought to recip link to and have not yet. Perhaps next time I am feeling ambitious enough to spend half of a Saturday on the blogroll.

The next section is the blogs that are backup sites for when a hosting company is down or some other internet trauma causes an outage long enough to need to at least comment on what is happening over on the backup.

Finally, the links that are not necessarily blogs.

If you are missing and think you ought to be linked, feel free to beg and bribe liberally ask nicely and I will probably add you.

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Social Insecurity

I have always assumed I would see nothing from social security, and in my life it would function as an additional tax to bring me down financially, and a government mandated ID number. Which of course is "not for identification purposes."

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Mmmm.... Chocolate

Heart of Chocolate


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Jen, here

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Haiti

Acidman has a superlative commentary on Haiti specifically, and government control and tracking of economies generally. Good comments too; especially the one by Joan of Argghh!

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140

Maddy has a post linking to an IQ Test. As usual, I scored 140. I've been generally at or near that number since the first time I ever took one of these tests, back in my early teens.

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Stop. Listen. Sell.

Rob has a particularly good post up today on the standard methods for closing a sale being a bad thing. He had personal experience being a better salesman by explicitly avoiding those tactics and focusing on customer desires instead. Excellent stuff I couldn't agree with more.

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A Smart Business Idea

Put out takeout menus for your customers to bring home with them, but don't include your phone number on the menus.

I have menus from the local Papa Ginos that are like this. I shouldn't have to go to the phone book to find the number, and that tends to make me decide not to bother.

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Community Support

Lest I forget, Dean and Rosemary need help and good wishes, in case you missed the announcement there or on many other fine blogs.

Not only do they have a fine blog, they are also fine people. I got to know Dean a bit more than some bloggers, early in my own blogging, via e-mail and AIM. He has freely given me advice when needed. Dean was responsible for helping vast numbers of blogs migrate from BlogSpot, and has never withdrawn that offer. What a great service to the community.

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To Sleep, Perchance To Have Misplaced Insomnia

Last night I went for a sleep lab study.

This was never necessary before I had a wife, who would like to be in the same bed when we are sleeping, rather than being driven to the other side of the house in order to get a bit of undisturbed sleep. For that matter, I never got around much, and anyone who might have heard me snore never remarked on it.

Yet it makes sense. I have had a chronic fatigue problem since I was sixteen. This came along at the same time as chronic sinus and other problems. The sinus problems can be reduced, but never go away completely, by avoiding known irritants. Part of my problem back then was I developed reflux at the same time as the sinus problems, but it all seemed to be one thing.

The chronic fatigue has never been resolved, nor a proximate cause discovered, nor even taken seriously enough by the medical establishment for me to have done more than try to live with it for the decades since it was made crystal clear that there was nothing wrong with me; the fatigue, cough, throat, sinuses, headaches, etc. were, because no doctor could think of a better reason, all in my head. No pun intended. This is why I hated doctors for many years and remain wary of them, despite having a superlative doctor I can also count as a friend. Pro baseball's loss was medicine's gain. (He just missed the major leagues.)

Some days I barely function because I can barely stay awake, or am barely coherent, even if I had plenty of sleep. It's hard to imagine having the energy I see exhibited by average people.

Sleep apnea could do this. Who knew!

Recently it's gotten so I can wake myself up with my own snoring, especially if it starts just as I am falling asleep. This explains part of why I sleep so well with a source of white noise, such as a fan or air purifier. My wife has been sleeping on the couch much of the time. I don't run the fan when she's in the same bed with me, and that's when I wake myself up.

Lately I had also noticed myself waking up in the night panting for air. It seems strange to feel like I'd just been running while I slept.

So anyway, guess we'll find out.

I'm geek enough to have found the hardware part of things fascinating. I wish I'd known enough to bring a camera, as I looked amazingly funny with the wires rigged to me and the goo in my hair holding the electrodes to my head.

They have you get into whatever you'll wear to sleep. After that, the stuff goes on. There are electrodes on the lower legs, to catch movement there. Ditto for the arms. A band goes around the chest to measure breathing effort. There are electrodes on the chin, forehead, neck, and in various places on the scalp. Rather than having to cut any hair, those are held on by water soluble paste with gauze over it.

A sensor straps around your head, with the business end between the nose and mouth. There is a loop under the nose to detect respiration there, and another that points down toward the mouth. Bizarrely, when that was first put on me, it triggered my overactive gag reflex. Just mildly, but there. Moving it a bit made that go away. That was something the lab person had never seen happen before. Yep, I managed to be different. The annoying thing about that item was I kept wanting to scratch my nose right where it was in the way. I also had to be careful when drinking or spitting. Speaking of which, the lab person got to witness me taking a sip of water and choking as if I had swallowed bones, as sometimes happens. Can't help wondering if it's all related.

There is also a pickup that records any snoring. That's important!

Finally, when you're in bed, a plastic clamp goes on your left pinkie. It has a red LED on the top, and a detector on the bottom. The LED lights up the whole finger. It measures blood oxygen, but is also used to call the lab person if needed during the night. Just remove it and an alarm goes off.

The whole mess of wires attach to a box perhaps the size of a paperback. That, in turn, has a cable with a connector resembling a large parallel or SCSI connector. When you're in bed, the tech plugs that in.

There's a check of whether the computer picks up everything. I had a defective unit on my chest and that had to be swapped out. Then there's a series of benchmark or callibration exercises they have you do. For instance, look up toward your eyebrows, then down toward your chin several times. Now back and forth. Now blink five times. Wiggle the feet a few times. Wiggle the hands a few times. That sort of thing.

Then you try to sleep.

One thing that differed from what I expected is the "bring a book" aspect. I almost always fall asleep by reading. I read until I am right at the edge of sleep, then reach over and turn out the bedside lamp and put the book down. Nope. You suddenly are in a strange, dark room, needing to try to sleep.

I had insomnia.

Again. I had it the night before too, if not as outright. That night I slept shallowly and got up to use the bathroom five or six times. My legs twitched. My snoring disturbed me when it started before I was even fully asleep. It was a disaster. But I was sleepy for the test as a result, and I limited my caffiene to almost none all day.

Nope, didn't help. I found myself grumbling aloud that this was a sleep test, not an insomnia test dammit. My first need to call the tech so I could use the bathroom came before I ever fell asleep. After that I eventually managed to sleep. But not until I got on my stomach. Which reduces snoring. And we were trying to measure, in part, snoring. Before I fell asleep, I kept getting close and then... CLICK.

What was that? Shrug.

Zzzz....CLICK.

This kept happening, over and over, sometimes to the point where I sat up and looked around, listening inquisitively to try to identify the source. It almost sounded as if the lab person kept closing a cabinet door, or something like that, and it clicked loud enough to disturb me. At semi-regular intervals. Without end. Argh!

Got past that, got some restless sleep in a couple stretches that I can't imagine amounted to more than three hours. After a while, with me all tangled in the covers, partially awake, the lab person came in. "Is it that time?" I asked. Nope, the clip fell of my finger. "I didn't even notice!" I took advantage of the break to use the bathroom again.

And then? Couldn't sleep! For the rest of the night, another two hours, I dozed fitfully for a few minutes at a time, but that was it. I kept starting to doze, hearing myself snort or make some snore-like noise, and coming to again before I could get far.

When I finally settled into that "I am really sleeping now" state, it was 5:30 and time for the little adventure to end.

When I got home at about 6:00, I went to bed rather than giving in to the urge to shower then and there and go to the office uncharacteristically early. I may as well not have bothered. I didn't actually sleep any more, and then at 8:00 a call came in regarding insurance for my wife.

All of which explains why a couple hours or so ago I could barely stay awake and was about to nap at the office, when someone needed help. I got away from the "must nap now" state and back to the "need to do work but too drowsy to function even though sleep is probably out of the question" state that I spend all too much of my waking hours in.

Here's hoping the results of the test are useful! Never mind allowing my wife to sleep better; it could change my life completely from the way it has been for more than 26 years. Wouldn't that be nice!

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It May Be A Silly Quiz, But Hey, It's Trek!

You're a Vulcan! Cool and collected, you represent
the epitome of self control.

What Star Trek Race Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

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CotC Reminder

Carnival of the Capitalists visits the exotic Munuvia this week, with the March 1st edition being hosted by DFMoore, sometimes also known as The Nanopundit.

Send your business and economics related posts to capitalists -at- elhide.com through Sunday evening (typical cutoff is about 9 PM eastern time). The hosts and info page has more on what types of posts and so forth. For examples of past entries, or simply to enjoy some of the capitalist goodness you may have missed, check out the links from the past hosts page.

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But I Served In Vietnam!

I am sooooo glad I noticed this great post! It's John Kerry, as you might like to see him.

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Hey Kids, Do You Know What Time It Is?

It's blogiversary time!

That's right, it's been a whole year. And in honor of that, how about some ceremonial song mutilation...

It was one whole year ago today, Jay Solo joined the blogosphere fray
It may not always be just your style, but it's guaranteed to raise a smile
So may I introduce to you, the blog you've known all year
Jay Solo's Verbosity weblog

We're Jay Solo's Verbosity weblog, we hope you will enjoy the posts
We're Jay Solo's Verbosity weblog, come back and visit here the most

Jay Solo's Verbosi-, Jay Solo's Verbosi-, Jay Solo's Verbosity weblog.

It's wonderful to write here, it's certainly a thrill.
You're such a lovely readership, We even took one home with us,
We're glad we took one home

I don't really want to stop the post, But I thought that you might like your host
Before these lyrics go all wrong, To move the silly post along
So let's reintroduce to you, The one and only Jay Solo
And Jay Solo's Verbosity weblog

And on that, ahem, note, off I go to do some actual... work. Maybe later I will come up with a "year in review" or "highlights" post for your reading pleasure. Here's to year number two!

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Hard To Choose

The poll at this site is a tough choice! There are four all but equal amendments in degree of urgency. And one on that is utterly trivial and, if passed, would be as much a joke from this far out in its future as prohibition is looked at from our time.

Repealing the 17th is one of my favorite ideas.

I was mystified by the need for declaring the Constitution the supreme law of the land. After all, any citizen with a brain knows that is already the case. It simply is. But I guess maybe it has to be stated explicitly to avoid creative circumventation from the forces of evil and/or ignorance.

Eliminating seizure without due process is a good idea. Even though in my humble opinion - which must make it a fact - it already is unconstitutional, and the folks who do so or make doing so possible should be, er... I dunno, thrown in jail or something. Sort them out later. In a few years.

Eminent domain is, I suppose, a necessary evil on rare occassions. When I first heard of the concept, when I was a kid, I was aghast; horrified. I had thought we had a good government or something. Thus my concluding it might sometimes be needed is quite a change for me. However, there are way too many trivial abuses, and making matters clearer would be worthy. This also applies to partial seizure in the form of regulation, by the way. If a regulation is imposed that takes away most of the value of you property, without being honest enough to take the property outright, that is still a taking. Not that I need point that out, as a brain is required to learn to read, and you are reading this. Given the presence of a brain, you already knew that.

I still don't know which to vote for out of the five four! Sheesh. My wife likes repealing the 17th, despite the merits of the others and the spite value of that other one that we shall not name. I am inclined to agree with her, but damn, it's a tough choice.

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Care To Join Me?

I hereby declare this blog to be a "Gay Marriage-Free Zone."

There will be no posts on that topic. Come here for a refreshing change! Go elsewhere for gay marriage ad nauseum.

How about some of you other bloggers? Care to make it a trend?

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Insurance Companies Suck

I have a really cheesy health insurance plan that is basically just better than nothing. It's through The Alliance For Affordable Services, underwritten by Mid-West National Life of Tennessee, and administered by PHCS.

What made me start this post is I just found out I could log onto their web site and look at my entire claims history. Their are fewer than I thought there would be; 22 since 7/29/2002.

I was dismayed to tally up that the insurance has paid a mere $283.50 during that time. My premium is $288.18 per month, up from around $240 when I started with them. The total claims have been $1553.75, which is misleading because at least one claim was a duplicate. The actual is probably closer to $1200.

There are claims still "pending review" dating as far back as October 2002.

There is one here that says:
$60 Total charges
$0 Discount
$73 Deductible
$35 Amount paid

That's just bizarre. And here's another:
$60 Total charges
$4 Discount
$69.80 Deductible
$31 Amount paid

Looks like I can't really trust any of their numbers. Including maybe on the claims they paid nothing on because I'd exceeded the allowed benefit for that type of claim. How does that happen when they have paid almost nothing and I don't, to the best of my rememberance, have particularly low limits. There are a few stipulations, but the bulk of the plan can be described as I pay $500, they pay 80% of the rest, and at $1,000,000 over the life of the policy they no longer pay - except I have a standing right to raise the lifetime limit coverage (and pay the higher premium) any time, for any reason. Routine checkups are supposedly not covered, and that's about it.

Meanwhile, the discounts come to $167.25, so the plan is almost as useful for me as a way to get a discount on my medical services as it is for what it pays toward them.

I certainly hope I can make better use of this insurance someday. It appears that had I not bothered to obtain insurance, and simply paid the bills myself, I would be on the order of $7000 better off today.

It gets better.

I need to add my wife to the plan. We have a choice of her COBRA, or adding onto mine. Since mine is about $80 less per month, that's the logical course.

They basically have to accept her onto my plan, period.

Well, I got the form, signed it, faxed it to her while she was still in California, packing. She filled it out and faxed it to them.

They turned her down.

Why?

Because on the signature line, in addition to the date, they have a space to put where you are. Being in Fresno at the time, she put Fresno. As a result, they decided the application was bogus and we were trying to get coverage in California that they don't provide, or something. I didn't get a very good answer, and they couldn't help me beyond having us reapply.

In the course of moving, the original was lost, so we tried to have them fax us what we had filed so it could be duplicated exactly but for the part that freaked them out. They have yet to fax it, and I am reduced to needing to call the agent who sold me the policy to try to get her to whip their asses into gear for me.

Sheesh.

How frickin stupid. I soooo need to get different coverage, but not until after we have her taken care of one way or another.

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One Track Mind

I drive my wife crazy when she talks up a topic, or poses some great question, and I say "you should blog that."

She responds variously with "is that all you ever think about?" or by reminding me I have been home, and she has not had unfettered access to my computer in order to catch up and post again. She was on a roll a few days ago.

It's time to get the wireless router and PC card and set them up so she can use the laptop online even if I am here at my computer.

So is it bad that I automatically notice when a topic would make a cool post?

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Outside The Employer

James Joyner, one of the finest bloggers out there, is now on the job market. Go take a look and let him know if you have any leads.

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Dean On A Roll

Dean has a couple posts today that I found particularly grabbed me.

The first he posted was on whether the economy has developed an entrepreneurial element that is confounding the number on unemployment (low) versus overt job growth(also low). Once upon a time, Dean made the decision to cease being an entrepreneur in order to have a more stable environment for the family. That is certainly appealing. I commented:

Self-employment definitely has its drawbacks, but I always found working for other companies to be surprisingly arbitrary and capricious. You could be out of work any time, for any or no reason. Your job could change in insane ways.

In self-employment, you still aren't exactly your own boss; the customers are. You just eliminate a potentially capricious middle layer and take control of it all yourself, succeed or fail.

I got so sick of how things could be working for others that in five years since I took the leap into self-employment I have seldom been tempted back, despite an income as little as a third of what I could potentially make, and other problems. Then again, perhaps it has been long enough for me to have shed my "all employers are scum" attitude with which I arrived at my previous job. Which, ironically, proved superior as an employer to most of the ones I have had, even after they went downhill by merging a geek company with a manufacturing company.

The second is a fascinating history of Dean's lengthy time online; since the early to mid eighties. I found this paragraph near the end to be fascinating:

Computers used to be all I thought about, all I wrote about. Now I can't imagine anything more boring than sitting around talking about computer hardware or the latest software. I'm far more interested in the way people use technology to enhance their lives, to collaborate, and to disseminate information. Especially to collaborate, since I'm increasingly convinced that collaboration and information sharing are the main benefit offered by computers and the internet.

Go read them both!

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Gennie Does Columbine

Gennie finally brought herself to watch Bowling for Bullshit and reacted rather explosively to it. One little snippet:

At this point in the movie, I'm so disturbed that I can't find it in myself to be pissed. But mostly, I'm just disgusted. Disgusted that so many people laud this man and his movie as something great. I'm also a little sad, mainly because so many people lack the intelligence to see this man for what he is...a lying piece of human waste.

But why does she persist in linking the wrong miserable failure? Oh well. At least my miserable failure is in second place currently.

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Interesting New Blog

Via a comment in this week's CotC, I discovered a rather new blog some of you may be interested in checking out. It's called Illustrated Ideas and says it is on art, military, politics, and religion.

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CotC Is Up

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Forgotten Fronts.

Once again, if you sent an entry and it seems to have not made it in, let me know, let Sorge know via sld1776 -at- hotmail.com, or simply resubmit it for next week.

Next week's CotC will be hosted at DFMoore, aka The Nonopundit. As usual, send entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com.

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Lest We Forget The Miserable Failure...

My wife mentioned the miserable failure today. That made me realize how long it has been since I last mentioned the ultimate miserable failure.

So here we go! Miserable failure has been dutifully mentioned again. Perhaps some of you will join me in celebration of such an outstanding miserable failure.

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Peanutty Goodness Quiz

You are Lucy!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Jen here (and no, I don't remember that character either).

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Carnival of the Capitalists Lost Entries APB

If you submitted entries for the February 23rd edition of CotC through the middle of Saturday, February 21st, please resubmit. Some entries were likely lost due to spam filter issues. Thanks!

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Everybody Loves A Quiz

And this one has 64 possible results!

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Never read it!

Quiz via Ghost of a Flea, aka The Guns of August here.

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Dredging Up A "Valued" College Paper

I stumbled across a paper I did for my Accounting Theory class in college. It was more of an economics paper masquerading as something I could slip by, and the professor was correct that I should have emphasized the accounting theory relevance more. Her comments I will reproduce at the end, after the footnotes that signal the end of the paper I transcribed.

Accounting Theory was basically the capstone course for an accounting degree as the major existed at the time. That was where we went into the operations and decisions of FASB, the theoretical ways things could be done versus the practical accomodations that were sometimes made, and also some advanced or breaking topics like capital leases.

What follows, contents of the title page through the footnotes, is my paper on theory of value and money:

December 8, 1986

The Value Of A Thing...

...Is what that thing will bring. What does this maxim mean, and what relevance does it have to the accounting realm?

The concept of value is most central to accounting. We attempt to measure and record value and changes in value. Such an elemental factor to accounting, indeed, to the entire theory of capitalism, deserves to be examined and understood by the profession. Just as it is necessary to check your moral premises at times, so should we check our most basic premises when seeking to solve or evaluate accounting issues.

This paper seeks to explore, though far from exhaustively, the notion of value and its cognates. The objective is to provoke some thought on a most basic topic, pointing out the advisability of considering such root issues in formulating accounting policy.

When we think of value, certain things come to mind. There must be something to value. There must be someone to whom it is of value. In fact, this is a key point to the value concept, one to which we shall return.

When people think of value, they might think of property, money, wealth, worth, or other allied terms. As a starting point, the dictionary becomes handy.¹

¹Value _n 1: a fair return or equivalent in money, goods, or services for something exchanged 2: the worth of a thing: market price, purchasing power, or estimated worth

²Value _vb 1: to estimate the monetary worth of 2: to rate in usefulness, importance, or general worth

²Worth _n 1: monetary value: the equivalent of a specified amount or figure 2: the value of something measured by its qualities or by the esteem in which it is held 4: wealth, riches

Wealth _n 3: all property that has a money or an exchange value; also: all objects or resources that have usefulness for a man

Money _n 1: something accepted as a medium of exchange 2: wealth reckoned in monetary terms

Property _n 2: something owned

Utility _n 1: usefulness 2: something useful or designed for use

This last term is included due to its common use in economics.

So where do all these definitions lead us? Certain factors are in evidence: usefulness - to someone, property - owned by someone, exchange - of something with someone. Permeating all of this is money.

Before continuing with a discussion of money, let it be clear that "property," or "goods," or "commodities," as used henceforth in reference to value and exchange, should also be construed to include "services." Aside from the convenience in lumping terms, this is in keeping with the premise that a man owns his own life, and is free to utilize or exchange his services freely to obtain wealth. Thus property rights assume property as an extension of man's life.

Money is a medium of exchange. Money is not true wealth, though often mistaken as such. Money arose to make exchange transactions easier, since barter has limits. According to Robert Ringer: "Money, then, is nothing more than a commodity. But it has one great distinguishing feature: It is highly acceptable to most people as a medium of exchange. In order for people to accept money in exchange for goods and services, they must have confidence that others will in turn accept it from them in exchange for things they subsequently will want to acquire."²

Ayn Rand had much to say about money: "...it is a tool of saving, which permits delayed consumption and buys time for future production. To fulfill this requirement, money has to be some material commodity which is imperishable, rare, homogeneous, easily stored, not subject to wide fluctuations of value, and always in demand among those you trade with."³ "Money is a tool of exchange which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must give value for value."⁴ "Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more."⁵

Why so much on money? The theories of value and money are so intertwined that a discourse on one can not exclude the other. More to the point, money is the unit of measurement of accounting. It provides the means for recording values and comparing values in a meaningful way. It is vital to the transition from subjective to market value.

A serious accounting problem has been "price level" changes. The historical cost principle has been battered around by inflation. The profession has developed methods of varying merit in an effort to cope with it. Measurement is difficult indeed if the ruler keeps changing length. There lies the problem: the current status of money. Fiat currency which can be arbitrarily manipulated at the whim of the issuing government is the problem, rather than just flaws in accounting theory. There is merit to the question of whether issuing currency is even properly a function of government. Regardless, stable money would make easier the measurement of real fluctuations in values. Monetary theory should not be left solely to economists, for accountants are end users of sorts in the practical application of such theories, and would do well to make their input heard.

The idea of value, as stated previously, rests on the existence of someone to whom a thing is of value. It is a subjective judgment by a living, thinking entity capable of rationally making such judgments. A comparison is made, in which two things may be judged equivalent, or one may be deemed more valuable. This implies that different individuals may not apply equal assessments of value to the same object. In a voluntary exchange, the item given up is of lesser subjective value than the item received, leaving both parties better off. One may indicate examples in which this is apparently untrue, but this can be explained by non-physical utility derived from the exchange. Exchange transactions lead to creation of wealth. An individual may apply his efforts to his property to improve it, thereby increasing his wealth. If human action and free trade is the source of wealth, then it is constantly being created , summarily dismissing the notion of static wealth.

Clearly, the previous discussion simplified matters into pre-monetary, barter terms. That does not diminish its significance. Before continuing further, it behooves us to sample what others have to say on value.

From Rand: "The market value of a product is not an intrinsic value, not a 'value in itself' hanging in a vacuum. A free market never loses sight of the question: Of value to whom? And, within the broad field of objectivity, the market value of a product does not reflect its philosophically objective value, but only its socially objective value."⁶

She goes on to explain philosophically objective value as that "estimated from the standpoint of the best possible to man." Socially objective value is "the sum of the individual judgments of all the men involved in trade at a given time, the sum of what they valued, each in the context of his own life."⁷

"The economic value of a man's work is determined, on a free market, by a single principle: by the voluntary consent of those who are willing to trade him their work or products in return."⁸

"'Value' is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. The concept 'value' is not a primary; it presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what?"⁹

From Von Mises: "Value can rightly be spoken of only with regard to specific acts of appraisal. It exists in such connexions (sic) only; there is no value outside the process of valuation. There is no such thing as an abstract value. Total value can be spoken of only with reference to a particular instance of an individual or other valuing 'subject' having to choose between the total available quantities of certain economic goods."¹⁰

He goes on to speak of the unmeasurability of objective exchange value, and the misleading but convenient use of money in doing just that.¹¹

From the discussions to this point, certain things are evident. The economic term "value" has a basis in philosophy, and is related to "value" or "values" in the non-physical sense. This is especially true to whatever degree utility is subjectively attached to intangible or psychic properties, rather than objectively reckoned characteristics.

Market value is not unrelated to the value judgments of the market participants. In an unrestricted trading environment, the market price is derived by the dynamic interaction of the relative valuations of the various parties involved. Market value is not the same as optimum value. Optimum value is the judgment of the individual most knowledgeable, whose personal context is most pertinent to judging value of a specific object.

Finally, money is inextricably involved in valuation as a measurement tool. It makes value seem conceptually less abstract. Money has value in terms of the commodities it can be exchanged for, but it is not inherently valuable unless it is itself a physical commodity. (for example, gold or stringently gold based currency) According to Von Mises: "The subjective value of money must be measured by the marginal utility of the goods for which the money can be exchanged."¹² He discusses the establishment of an exchange-ratio between money and commodities, and the fact that there is a continuity of influence of past value on current valuation.¹³

A most notable factor in favor of money as a unit of measurement is its universal nature. That is, it may be used in exchange for a vast array of dissimilar goods, while itself maintaining uniformity enough to compare amounts expended with a degree of objectivity. The danger lies in making comparisons over time. When the exchange ratio of money to goods changes more rapidly than the subjective value of commodities, comparability between time frames ceases.

There is much to be learned about value and monetary theory. Failure to consider these, at the very basis of accounting, would be culpable indeed. Von Mises pointed out problems in accountancy in the early 1900's: "But there are also shortcomings in accountancy that are due to the uncertainty in its valuations that results from the liability to variation in the value of money itself. Of this, the merchant, the accountant, and the commercial court are alike unsuspicious. They hold money to be a measure of price and value, and they reckon as freely in monetary units as in units of length, area, capacity, and weight. And if an economist happens to draw their attention to the dubious nature of this procedure, they do not even understand the point of his remarks."¹⁴

It is time for the profession to strive harder for economic understanding, to attain realization of the economic basis of our purported aims, and to achieve more realistic results by so doing.

1. All dictionary definitions come out of The Merriam Webster Dictionary, New York, New York, Pocket Books, 1974



2. Ringer, Robert J., Restoring The American Dream, New York, New York, CBS Publications, 1979 p. 257



3. Rand, Ayn, Philosophy: Who Needs It, New York, New York, The New American Library, 1982 p. 127



4. Rand, Ayn, For The New Intellectual, New York, New York, The New American Library, 1961 pp. 88-89



5. Ibid, pp. 88-89



6. Rand, Ayn, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, New York, New York, The New American Library, 1967 p. 24



7. Ibid, pp. 24-25



8. Ibid, p. 26



9. Rand, Ayn, The Virtue Of Selfishness, New York, New York, The New American Library, 1964 p. 15



10. Von Mises, Ludwig, The Theory of Money and Credit, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 1953 pp. 46-47



11. Ibid, pp. 47-49



12. Ibid, p. 109



13. Ibid



14. Ibid, p. 204

And that was it. The professor had the following to say, beside assigning it an A- grade:

Very well written. An interesting discussion of the concept of value.

I would have spent a little less on the theory of value and a little more on specific problems as they relate to accounting theory.

She was completely correct. As I recall, this wasn't as last minute as most of my papers were, but the bulk of it was done late in the semester, just before it was due.

I found it fascinating to read it again after all this time. It was in a box I looked in while attempting to find something in the new apartment when all was yet to be unpacked. It still has yet to be. I was sure I had lost it forever, much as I did when I loaned my Cost Accounting tests to Barbara Princiotta for her to study from, only to lose touch with her and never get them back. Which is mainly a matter of pride, since I got 100 or near it on each one.

Speaking of which, my Cost professor and Theory professor were one and the same, so she expected a lot of me. A strange thing happened in that class. There were only five of us. The professor clearly favored the one female student in Theory, who was decent but not stellar. I helped the female student get through the semester, including briefing her outside the door of the class when she hadn't studied. It was a participation class and we couldn't hide, with so few. It was always a bit freaky to hear the female student repeat back what I had told her before the class verbatim when she had to answer. These papers were a large component of our final grades. I read hers, and found it was adequate but nothing special.

The female student I nursed through the class got an A on the paper and an A- for the semester. I and my sometime rival for most favored student in the department were both B+ for the semester. In my case I didn't consider that unfair or inappropriate. I was just floored in the end by the results of my having propped up the student who was also gender-favored by the professor.

But I digress. I posted this paper for posterity; now it's in more than one form and place, and to see what people think.

[2] comments (998 views) |  link

A Toast To The Game

Steven Taylor has the latest Toast-O-Meter up, full of linky fun regrding the dems and their antics playing White House Pursuit.

[0] comments (1035 views) |  link

Capital Arcana

Oliver Willis observes that "Something happens to normal human beings when you become a member of the senate. " He's right. Plain, straightforward language will serve any candidate better. The sky is blue. Well, today it's rather grey, but you know...

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Comment Spam? Here!? Sheesh...

Well whaddaya know... my first comment spam! On pMachine, no less, when that is known as an MT plague.

To their credit, it appears to have been by hand, by a company whose web site has not been picked up by Google yet at all, in an effort to get listed and well ranked for various translation and globalization-related services. They included their URL, obviously, and a valid contact e-mail that matches that on their contact web page.

Really, I give them some credit for that. And for doing this only to two posts, both, appropriately, for Carnival of the Capitalists, and in one of them actually typing "Gr8 work!!" before listing 34 links to themselves.

The smart thing would be for them to have created a blog as an adjunct to their site, covering internationalization and other business issues. Then they could have introduced themselves to me (and other bloggers) for a plug or a link, or maybe offered to get on the list of future CotC hosts. Boom, you're on Google! Heck, contacting someone like BusinessPundit with a "press release" of sorts might have gotten you a mention. Just as you'd hope to get by sending press releases to the mainstream business press.

Soooo... semanticscorp dot com, you will not even get mentioned in the form of a URL in this post. Even though you tickled me as much as irked me by being my first comment spammer, and even though you appear more targeted about it than most, and even though you had a fairly spiffy site. I don't know whether to applaud your audacity or deride your method.

The comments are going away. They don't belong. See above for my advice on how to get attention on the web and listing by Google et al.

Update:

While the two comments appear to be from the same place, they are from two different web sites that could very well be operated by the same people in New Delhi. I am now far less amused.

[2] comments (1042 views) |  link

One-Party Rule In MA Must Die

This move by the Massachusetts Commiecrats is utterly vile, absurd, and pretty much par for the course.

Thanks to Eric, your source for all things Kerry (aka Senator Splunge), for pointing this out.

[4] comments (1025 views) |  link

I Am A Nerd Geek

Sugarmama has an amusing list of potential geek traits, only she spells geek "nerd." And where do I stand? Sadly...

Been there, done that.

Sometimes, but not for that reason.

Too close for comfort, if not quite.

Monster Truck Madness, several years ago.

And what is wrong with that?

How about for the past 5 years?

Nemo! Nemo! Nemo!

Sometimes, absolutely.

Talking programming is unsociable? Even when you're not just talking to your other personalities or imaginary friends? Who knew!

Ick. I mean really, in a restaurant? Keep it at home dudes.

What is this "sports" thing of which you speak?

That's just wrong.

Why get excited over the inevitable?

Oooh, fun! However farfetched.

There I go, acting younger than my age again!

IMHO, WTF is wrong with acronyms?

Naw, stopped expanding once my feet were blocked from view.

Certs are suspect for reasons like this. Real world depth and the ability to solve problems rule.

Naw, I haven't known everything since sometime in my twenties.

Once in a while, sure. What's wrong with that?

I would say I fit in enough for concern. But then, I take pride in my geekdom.

[2] comments (1147 views) |  link

Speaking of Which...

I'm not going to take the time to write it now, but I find myself contemplating a business-oriented post in which I ask for advice on direction and marketing of my own company. This was inspired by a back of the envelope budget calculation indicating I need to increase gross service revenue and/or product sales gross margins by at least $2000 a month as soon as possible. More is always better. I tend to be able to look at other businesses and say "oh, they should just do that," but when it's me, I get fuzzier. Figured it might also make an interesting CotC entry.

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Help A Blogger Out

I meant to post this sooner and then forgot. Sheesh.

Kathy has run into problems that have led her to ask for work referrals, or even donations. She'd prefer the work, and it can be tiny jobs. Check it out!

[0] comments (976 views) |  link

CotC Reminder

Just my usual Thursday-ish reminder about Carnival of the Capitalists. This week it will be hosted at Forgotten Fronts. Send entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com by Sunday evening for Monday's edition.

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Sex

It's what's for dinner blogging.

Mickey wants to talk about sex over at "Girls," and who are we to disappoint her? Is it not everyone's most favoritest subject, admittedly or not? Get on over there and chime in already!

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The Heat Is On

But damn, it costs me!

So I mentioned previously my shock when I got my bill for the first month I was in the new apartment. During that month, I normally kept the heat at 68, turned down to 64 at night, and 60 when I was at work. Sometimes I splurged for a few hours at 70 here and there.

For twelve days of that month, I was completely away, with the heat left at 58 or 60, except a few of those when my brother stayed at the apartment. I chalked it up to being like a normal month, given that there were two adults and three kids for a couple days, taking showers and such. It was also a tremendously cold period, the entire month.

That bill was $161.37 and I was floored, having expected around $100, give or take a little.

So now we have been through month two. For nine days I was completely away, with nobody borrowing the place, and the heat set at 56 to keep the pipes from freezing and stuff. Before the trip was par for the course, and since the trip we have been at 66 rather than 68, with very few exceptions, but we don't turn it down at night or when I leave for the day. Temps have been warmer than the previous month.

Also, during the four days of the month when two of us were there, we had more showers and used the dishwasher a couple times.

So this month's bill went "down" to $206.56!

If someone had told me that this apartment, nicer, better located, and only marginally larger than my old one, would not only be $100 a month more in rent, but would effectively be $100 more a month in gas - as opposed to the $50 or so I expected - I might have continued looking.

What's worse is there are walls that are obviously not properly insulated, and a heating and hot water system that doesn't appear to be as efficient as it could be. The funny thing is, the obsession with saving water, which costs the landlord almost $100 per month per apartment, is also not helped by the same inefficient system. Go figure.

For what it's worth, the tenant there a year ago used 190 therms in the same billing period we used 167. We saved about $25. Woohoo. And that isn't saying much, given that nobody was in the apartment and the heat was at an absurdly low setting for 31% of the billing period.

And yes, I like to gripe. This post has little other point than simply venting as I prepare to write a check for almost $400 that I can't really spare. There's nothing I can do, apart from moving, which we intend not to do any time soon if it can possibly be avoided. At least if I had my own house and gas were totally out of hand compared to oil, I could make a decision to switch, or I could decide to put in a wood stove, solar collector, or whatever to bring down the net cost. As it is now, we're paying through the nose to be always a little cold - sometimes a lot cold - and for lousy hot water.

[8] comments (1039 views) |  link

Blogger In Waiting

Jim has come up with some amazingly funny writing, in what could almost be a customer service anecdote from the customer's perspective for inclusion in CotC. That's certainly fair game, as relevant posts go. Especially since we always wanted CotC to get readership beyond the blogosphere, from the business world. There is nothing quite like waiting room environments, at times. Perhaps improving that part of the experience in the Next Big Thing in marketing certain services...

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They're Aminals!

Cox & Forkum's latest gem reminded me of an anecdote I'd meant to blog about.

In my limited time in the Fresno area when I went out to spirit my wife away from the crazy place, we fit in dinner at the home of a friend of hers. This had a lot to do with their inability to forgive her had she not let them meet me. Naturally I met with approval.

Especially by their daughter, Dana, age 2 or thereabouts. She was utterly fascinated, smitten, and latched onto me as if she'd found a new daddy or something. The other daughter, Sophie, age 4 or thereabouts, with knock 'em dead, flirtatious, girly-girl looks that usually make her the center of attention, seemed a bit taken aback by her sister's preemption of most of my attention. Their poor father, in about ten years or so...

Anyway, eventually I ended up with Dana's little counting book to read to them. It featured various animals throughout and, as I discovered, had a cute ladybug doing its "Where's Waldo" thing on every page. Naturally rather than reading it as written, especially on the second and third passes through, I made things up that warped the tale of the numbers one through ten. Deb is convinced we will have wonderfully warped children, given my tutelage. The kids were amused by some, oblivious to most, and at least some of the time knew full well that was not what the book said.

So eventually I was on the last page of the book, after the counting's done, where all the animals are pictured. I started pointing to them, wih Sophie looking on, and saying things like "mmmm... chicken breast, hamburger, Peking duck, roast pork..."

That's when Sophie declared, with four year old outrage, "they're not food, they're aminals!"

It was too funny! Especially since in the course of ad libbing through the book I had, on one page, said "don't tell PETA."

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Erectile Overfunction

While this scenario sounds very funny - especially knowing they warn of it in a commercial - and leads one to wonder just how they... um... relieve the problem (apart from specially trained nurses...), apparently it's a very real danger. Your tissue gets oxygen starved, or something like that, and essentially dies. That's no fun to contemplate at all.

And yes, I do have actual work to do. Why do you ask?

[1] comments (1318 views) |  link

California

It just keeps striking me as a stranger and stranger place.

[0] comments (982 views) |  link

Ducking Out

Before I forget to mention it, Sean Hackbarth has a final Duck Hunt up. After this, you won't have Dr. Duck to kick around any more, since he told his fellow Americans he is not a candidate.

I guess instead of going to New Mexico, and Minnesota, and South Dakota, and yada yada, he will be going to Burlington, and St. Johnsbury, and Rutland, and Brattleboro, and Newport, and White River Junction, and Montpelier, and Stowe... Yeeeeaaaarrrrgghhhh. It's just so sad.

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Hard To Believe

In just one week, I will have been doing this blogging thingie for a whole year. And what a year!

I set out to see if being a participant wouldn't add to the fun of being a spectator, with no idea whether I would like it or keep it up. Though I had my suspicions, knowing my writing proclivities. Heck, I could always get a good grade by being in a class that relied heavily of writing for part of the work.

Still, for all I knew, I would grow bored or uninspired.

Instead, I got me fans, friends, a wife of all things, and the feeling that there really are intelligent, like-minded people out there. Heck, even not so like-minded people who are intelligent. I wasn't feeling as lost in the wilderness as I have at some times in my life, but it's nice to have that... what's the word? Not moral support, but yeah, that too. Not kinship, but yeah, that too. Aw heck, I hate it when a key word flees just over the edge of my conscious mind and hovers there laughing at my confusion.

What a great year! Well, 51 weeks and counting, but this saves me having to type anything long or thoughtful next Wednesday.

I'll get to start off the new blogging year with a sleep clinic test the night of the 26th. That should be interesting.

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He Has My Vote

Things that Deskmerc would try to do if he were President. I especially like the first one! Too bad real candidates aren't so straightforward. This is a must read, and hey, maybe it has some good ideas for debate or interview questions for the real candidates.

[1] comments (1011 views) |  link

Competition Can Be Fun

Seeing this report on Intel caving to AMD sensibility over at OTB made me laugh for two reasons. One is because competition is just so cool and look... it worked! The other is because my supplier sent me an offer just a day ago for a system based on the AMD 64. First sentence: "Our factory partner is the only MFG to have AMD Athlon 64 2800 Systems available." The price for the configuration was impressive enough to make me stop and consider.

Hooray for wasteful, slimy, capitalist competition!

[1] comments (1021 views) |  link

Kerry Versus The Constitution

Jeff is back from vacation and blasting away! He tears Kerry apart on his Second Amendment stance. It's a joy to read.

[0] comments (964 views) |  link

The American Dean

Sean Hackbarth has a nice analysis of the Wisconsin primary results. And lest you forget, he's been the place to go for Dean coverage, in and out of features (gimmicks?) like the Duck Hunt. It's a most worthy blog I sometimes forget to read as often as I should.

[0] comments (959 views) |  link

Observations of a Jedi

The lovely "Mrs. Solo" has posted some of her first impressions of her new home, here in "having the surname Kennedy is enough to get you elected" land.

Interesting observations, if brief. One thing she mentioned to me and left out of the post is the other night when she suddenly realized there are few fences. That gives it a different feeling.

[0] comments (965 views) |  link

Friendly Graffiti

Some of you might find this idea interesting, but even if not, it's impossible to tell if you aren't even aware of it. Lee has created a link site called Friendly Graffiti. It's sort of a perpetual, self or reader-submitting Carnival/Bonfire/Best of the/me Vanities/Capitalists/Canucks/Gunslingers/Symphony deal where links may be pimped and found freely.

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More Odd Dreams

This time I was in Monterey, California and vicinity, driving around, doing this and that. At one point I went into an adorable, tiny cottage a little off a bend in the road in a high spot, fell in love with it, and by the end of the dream had bought it as a secret getaway place nobody but me knew about.

I ended up dealing with a guy I used to do business with, at a shack-like headquarters located on a beach, with a few of us attempting to resolve some dire problem. I ended up having the opportunity to buy his business and merge it with mine, so I did that, which made me wealthy enough to afford the getaway cottage, and stressed enough to need it.

I don't recall any of Monterey's fine denizens having been in the dream, but I could be misremembering. The funny thing is, I was just telling my wife yesterday how much I regretted not living closer to them so we could hang out with them again without absurd time passage. Perhaps that inspired the dream.

[1] comments (1006 views) |  link

CotC Is Up

Carnival of the Capitalists is finally here and appears to have much fascinating stuff entered this week, well laid out.

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Happy Birthday

I almost forgot...

Happy birthday to Acidman! He's a youthful 52 today, a mere 9 years ahead of me in age, if lifetimes ahead in living large.

[0] comments (1046 views) |  link

Dynamic Planning

If this one is not in Carnival of the Capitalists for 2/16 or 2/23, it ought to be. Craig has an intriguing and sensible post on strategic planning, and how the useful lessons of such planning in the military have yet to make their way into the business world.

[0] comments (1010 views) |  link

Bizarre Dreams? Yup, Got Those

Last night I had a crazy dream sequence that included the threat and then actuality of a giant snow storm, very large computers, a cow pasture, and various relatives, most notably my grandmother who died in 1976 and my grandfather who died maybe ten years ago.

I don't remember much about it. It included a modern building into which I was installing a big computer. In the course of transporting that, I stopped various places and had to avoid being out in a storm. One place was my grandmother's living room where I talked with her for a while. Remember nothing of it, but the house in question no longer exists and it was uncanny.

As an aside, this took me back to when she died. My grandparents lived on the second floor of our house, and we had to go up there to use the bathroom with the tub in it. One Saturday night I went up to take a shower and, as usual, stood in the doorway to their living room talking with them. Suddenly I thought "she could die any time" and instead of rushing into the shower, I sat down and talked with my grandparents, mostly my grandmother, at length. Monday morning she was dead of a heart attack.

Anyway, I stopped at a point on the way from there to my grandparent's and was walking around a cow pasture, looking for something. Then a couple guys came along and started walking around it too, with an air of ownership, even though I knew they didn't. They seemed to be pointing out droppings that would need to be removed, or something. Next thing you know, we're all in a trailer on that pasture, even though one hadn't been there before, sheltering from the snow. I still thought they were vaguely menacing, so I distracted them by discovering there was a dartboard, and hanging it up for people to use.

Next thing you know, I was in my grandmother's kitchen, sitting around the table with my late grandfather and someone else, maybe my sister. He was emptying his pockets of a massive amount of stuff, primarily dollar coins. Then my uncle and someone else entered the kitchen from the back porch. My grandfather felt threatened and didn't want them to see what was on the table, so he threw a handkerchief over the stuff, hiding it quite poorly.

I believe around then I woke up, thinking it was odd I'd dreamed of my deceased grandparents so vividly. Wish I could remember more detail.

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CotC - Yes, There Will Be One!

It's slightly irregular, but Ryan will post the February 16th edition of Carnival of the Capitalists over at Tasty Manatees tonight sometime. It is a holiday, after all. Stay tuned for an announcement when it is up.

In the meantime, last night toward 10:00 PM eastern I switched the capitalists -at- elhide.com alias for entries over to the next host, Forgotten Fronts. Feel free to send your topical posts to Sorge for the February 23rd edition any time now.

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Lying Rat Bastards

Ian has had an inspiringly evil customer service experience with T-Mobile, which he describes in detail in a post titled "T-Mobile is a Lying Bastard Company."

It's a great tale of how not to treat people.

[0] comments (989 views) |  link

Help Fisk This

I received an e-mail today that I found amusing, yet also disturbing. It fits the tactic of shouting things long and loud enough to make them the truth into the digital age. It puts forth as fact things that in my world have been debunked and even made laughable, but not everyone is going to know that.

I do not have time right now to do it, but I think this e-mail needs a form of fisking applied to it. Basically a point by point refutation or "so what?" with citations. This could then be sent as a viral mail the same way, and posted on blogs. In particular, it could be sent to folks who err in forwarding you the below mail and, if they didn't use BCC and sent to multiple recipients, to all the people they sent to as well. Heh.

I invite you to help me with this.

If people send me appropriate text and links that respond to points in this e-mail, I will be happy to sort through and compile them, then post and e-mail out the result for all to start using. Let's use e-mail to get it spread well outside the blogosphere echo chamber. Send your input to jay -at- elhide.com and help me out. I can't promise to use it all, but I will try to edit it up to include the best and most lethal refutations from what I receive.

Here is what I received, included the header not the sender to me had added:

Nice Guy Huh???
How sad is it that most of this is absolutely fact!?
Make sure to read this when making your decision for our next president.

Do we have this resume on file?

GEORGE W. BUSH

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

202-456-1111

president@whitehouse.gov


LAW ENFORCEMENT:

I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been lost and is not available.

MILITARY:

I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard I avoided combat duty in Vietnam.

COLLEGE:

I graduated from Yale University with a C- average. I was an active cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. Therefore, I began a career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but found no oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt just after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal, which acquired land using taxpayer money. With campaign help from my father and donations from our right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas Treasury by billions in borrowed money. I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history. With assistance from my brother, governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing the election by possibly 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in US history to enter office with a criminal record. I spent the US surplus and successfully bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S.history. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continued every month throughout my Presidency to date.

I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her. I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time US and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S.History, Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during the election decision of 2000. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating any one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history. I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government. I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history. I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to US. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest main public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

I have invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost to taxpayers of over one billion dollars per week. I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, preemptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation (under the guise of searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction). I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens, and the world community. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on our British friends. I am now supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. This is to fulfill my so far failed pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to justice.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in war time. I am also the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%)view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

PLEASE CONSIDER ME WHEN VOTING IN 2004.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW

[10] comments (1616 views) |  link

If Vibrators Are Outlawed...

Only outlaws will have vibrators. This is just too wrong for words. Grow up and get real, lawmakers and law enforcers. It's 2004 and we are not under sharia law. Yet.

[1] comments (1015 views) |  link

Al Gore Goes Marching On

The Battle Hymn Of The Loser is just too awesome to miss.

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Because It's There*

I got partway through this post and exclaimed "why do they need to regulate them? Why not let them just happen!" Which of course was Bill's point toward the end.

Silly government.

* Shamelessly borrowed from one of the commenters.

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Feeling Tipsy

Here's a topic that was hot in the blogosphere a while back, but is always worth revisiting. Tipping the pizza delivery person. How much?

For my part, I have never tipped less than $2, and have a few times seen rather impressed reactions. I once delivered papers. Therefore, I tip adequately to well.

[4] comments (1068 views) |  link

What Would Bugs Do?

This is just hysterical, because you can picture it, and the point is so true. A post ostensibly about the Disney buyout segues into a comparison of what Bugs and Mickey would do in reaction to being caught up in a titty bar raid. Disney Delenda Est indeed.

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So Much For That Idea

Back in this post I mentioned ExpressionEngine, which I believe to be too expensive to become a popular blogging tool, despite its apparent leapfrogging into the position of superior product.

I had downloaded the 14 day trial version, and decided to attempt setting up a demo blog on my business domain.

I have to say, EE is way easier even than pMachine, as far as the installation steps and interface go. Until it gets to the part where pMachine had no problem at all with recognizing the MySQL database and EE won't. No matter what. Claims it can't open it, despite having 100% correct, perfect, accurate information, and all the variants that might have been what it was really looking for in many attempts to make it go.

Oh well. ExpressionEngine, we hardly knew ya.

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Reminder: Carnival of the Capitalists

The 2/16 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by Ryan at Tasty Manatees. Be sure to send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com by Sunday evening for inclusion this week.

This would be business and economics-related posts, as described at the permanent Carnival of the Capitalists page listing hosts and info.

To see all the great links in past editions, check out the past CotC locations page.

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Something In The Water?

Blogger parentage seems to be going around, as reported by Dana. Congratulations everyone!

[2] comments (915 views) |  link

The Exodus Continues

JawsBlog has moved of BlogSpot! We can thank that other Jay for helping things along. Good job!

Update your links accordingly, to http://brandeiswiz.onefinejay.com/. What!? You don't have a link to update? Well, then it's a good time to add him to your blogroll menagerie.

[1] comments (967 views) |  link

Maureen For President! NOT

Maureen asks that you not write her in for President this year, and throws her support elsewhere. Great stuff!

[1] comments (954 views) |  link

Northeast Through New Eyes

I hope Deb will post her impressions of the area eventually, after she has experienced it longer. Meanwhile, I am finding it interesting to get her reactions. For instance, driving through an area where I consider the houses too smooshed together, on overly small lots, she expressed amazement at how far apart the houses were.

I was driving her down a numbered east-west route and saying "this is a major east-west route." She was amused at these "major" routes that are fairly narrow, two lane roads. It is kind of funny. Especially driving through a long stretch of trees and houses at that time, making it look like a spacious, woody residential street.

It's extremely cool to get a different outlook on the area. Back when she saw pictures of my building and parts of the streets it is on, she thought it looked like something out of a storybook. Driving around, there is still a little of that reaction to what I take completely for granted.

On a completely unrelated note, which will be of interest mainly to my in-laws, we had our first "cooked by Deb in this apartment" dinner last night. It was absolutely wonderful! Bob should have stayed for food after he helped us unload the trailer. Then apparently I forgot to read the part of the "how to be a husband" manual that says "don't help clean up." Shocked the poor girl.

Anyway, got to do some work and shake down my client for money today, no matter how much more fun it would be to blog...

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ExpressionEngine -- What Do You Think?

MedicMom pointed out that pMachine has a new product in beta, which is called ExpressionEngine.

It appears from all the info on their site that it is astoundingly well done. Easy, secure, modular, full-featured...

Deb and I were drooling over it as a possible tool for a new blog. We'd been planning to use pMachine so as to avoid the chronic security problems and constant tweaking MT seems to need.

It even has a dozen ready-made templates that can be readily modified to be exactly to your blogging taste. We picked one out already.

Then we looked at the price.

There is a trial version good for a mere 14 days. I've been known to take that kind of time merely to get things tweaked and a test post or two up. Yet it is the full product, so at least you get a true indication what it is like.

The full version is $199. We can't afford that. For a personal blog, I am not sure we'd ever justify that. For the business, where I intend to add at least one blog in the course of revamping the site, that might be possible. If my large client ever pays me again.

So we were thinking when the cash is on hand, get it for the business and throw in use for a personal blog, justified by this statement:

ExpressionEngine supports an unlimited number of weblogs. You can separate your weblogs into independent pages, or you can put multiple weblogs on the same page.

However, this does not mean what we thought it meant. The license says:

A purchased license is required for each installed instance of ExpressionEngine. One license grants the right to perform one installation. Each additional installation of ExpressionEngine requires an additional purchased license.

So in one brief flurry of activity, we went from curious to all excited to totally disappointed. Looks like the personal blog will be pMachine and we'll just deal with the fact it's missing features. We were ready to do that anyway, as a trade for it being more secure, or at least less prone to abuse, and easier to use than MT. If I do a blog for the business site, I will probably try ExpressionEngine. Commercial licenses for these products already tend to approach what they're charging.

I am curious what other people think, either in reaction to looking the product info over at pMachine's site, or to having tried ExpressionEngine in fully licensed or trial form. Am I just whining in the manner of a broke person who ought to get a real job with consistent, large cash flow? Or is it really too high for what the product is? I think the price narrows their target market in a big way. Does it look as superior to you as it does to us? Multiple pings, roll your own pings, easy trackbacks, built in comment spam protection and high security, modularity where plugins work simply by placing them in the right folder, and so forth... sounds and looks amazing (there is a tour of the product so you can see what the interface looks like.

Discuss away!

[1] comments (1049 views) |  link

It's Just A Spring Clean For The May Queen

My lovely wife has been wondering what is up with the lyric in the title.

Thoughts? Opinions? What the heck does it all mean and stuff? Comment away...

[3] comments (971 views) |  link

Sorry Guys

I have been such a slacker about posting! As you might imagine, coming back from the trip to tons of work settling into the apartment and at the office has kept me away. Along with lack of inspiration, or what inspiration there may be being TMI in nature. Some people will post about anything, but my wife wouldn't appreciate it if I did that.

I am sure I'll get back to blogging semi-regularly before long, even if it's never quite the same as at the height of things. Stay tuned...

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Carnival of the Capitalists Is Up

Carnival of the Capitalists is up at The Trommetter Times.

Next week's host will be Tasty Manatees. Mmmm... tastes just like chicken. Send entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com per usual.

Of course, for a complete list of upcoming hosts at any time visit the permanent Carnival of the Capitalists host and info page, and the previous locations page to check out past installments.

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There's No Place Like Home

We made it!

Today we drove from just north of Richmond, Virginia to Massachusetts in a bit under 12 hours including stops. For almost 2 hours we've been settling in, with Deb seeing the apartment and learning just how cut out for her her work is. She's about to go to sleep while I see what is up in my 761 e-mails, take care of CotC, and post this quick, final update.

Tomorrow promises not to be much of a work day for me, considering all the settling in and provisioning that must be done. In fact, this is going to be a hectic few weeks...

Despite the crazy weather across the country that coincided roughly with our trip, we managed to miss it once we got through with the Fresno deluge delay. Things were nippy, and in Alabama there were some quick flurries, but that was about it. Today was beautiful.

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Boy Named Sue Meets Princess Bride

Demonstrating that you never know what I will say during a long drive:

"Hello. My name is Sue Montoya. You are my father. Prepare to die."

[1] comments (968 views) |  link

Almost Done!

Saturday saw us leave Bessemer, Alabama and drive to Ashland, Virginia, which is just north of Richmond. Neither of us realized how big Richmond was. Anyway, we put a few states behind us and have roughly five and a half hundred miles to go. We've managed to avoid all the nasty weather! We got very slightly flurried on in Alabama, and it's been rather cold and windy, but mostly nice enough.

Tomorrow my wife gets to add six states to her "states I've been to" list. In one day. This trip I have added three, rather than six as planned.

Too bad we are in such a hurry! And hadn't planned ahead. I could have visited people I know in Charlotte. We could have visited bloggers in Atlanta and Virginia. Guess some other time.

I am debating whether to go 95 along the CT coast and up through RI, or to hitch up with 84, via 91 or sooner, to the Mass. Pike (90) and home from there. Distance looks more of a tossup than I'd remembered. My father says I ought to avoid 95 pulling the trailer.

Speaking of which, we have discovered that above a certain speed our mileage goes all to helll pulling the trailer. As in, 13 or 14 MPG. Ick.

Gotta sleep now! I am about to drop, as Deb already did. Looks like we ought to be home by 8 PM Sunday. Woohoo!

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Sleep... I Just Want To Sleep

So here we are with another trip update. But wait! More than 24 hours has passed since my last post, so that must mean we didn't get from Shreveport to Bessemer in a single day's drive...

We were pathetic yesterday, after the big push of the day before. We spent the night a Red Roof Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the plan was to go from there to somewhere past Atlanta or into South Carolina. Ha! I did all the driving while Deb felt sick, worn and sleepy. And I wasn't so far behind. We treated ourselves to a sit down lunch at Cracker Barrel, which I highly recommend. Neither of us had been to one, but I believe this is a place my father has raved about.

Then we sat and ate supper at an IHOP in Tuscaloosa! Also yummy. Then we decided to wimp out and stop around Birmingham. We saw an "every motel you could want" exit shy of there, in Bessemer, and exercised our newfound brand loyalty to Hampton Inn.

Today ought to be interesting. We need to drive at least as far as Richmond, over 700 miles, and if we can get north of DC it's all the better. The idea is for Sunday to be a short day. Enough so that we can get friends over to help us unload the trailer, and have time for Deb to react to the unsettled state of the apartment, and recover herself before it's time for bed.

What makes today truly fun is that neither of us got much or decent sleep. I was up about every hour or so, cursing my bladder or worse, wishing I'd not left the Maalox in the truck, and wishing I'd not run out of reflux pills three days ago and failed to make time to get more. That was my night. Deb's night was not bothered by my constant up and down, but was made a disaster by my snoring. The doctor is sooooo getting a call ASAP. Any suggestions in the meantime? Don't they make nose clippy things, and do those help?

So we have at least 700 miles of driving ahead of us. Yay! Not so bad, if we don't dawdle much. We made good time yesterday, when we were on the road. Just have to stay on the road. We're getting good at keeping me awake at the wheel, which mostly involves not being too comfortably warm, the air not being stuffy, and the music not being boring. I told Deb that if I start slapping myself repeatedly she should make me pull over; that's my last resort method of shocking myself to attention.

Stay tuned for the further adventures of Jay "chain saw snorer" Solo and the Accidental Jedi...

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Don't Forget!

There is still a Carnival of the Capitalists this week. It's hosted by The Trommetter Times.

Send your entries by Sunday evening to the usual alias: capitalists -at- elhide.com

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Trip Update

They said it couldn't be done!

Undaunted, we drove from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Shreveport, Louisana in one day. That was fun. Though not that bad. Ironically, I started out the day driving and felt like I could go all day without tiring. My wife felt the same way! So she ended up doing most of the driving, and I just did the last maybe 170 miles, as well as the first few hours.

Feels like progress.

In the morning, we have to decide whether it is safe to go to Ohio and, if so, whether doing so makes any sense from a timing standpoint. Weather is primary, but not the only factor, since we started a day behind.

Still, I had projected we'd be in Kentucky to see Businesspundit Rob circa 6:00 PM Friday, just a few hours or less before getting to my brother's. And we are farther north. Originally we expected Friday to be a drive from about Mobile, Alabama to Cincinatti, Ohio. Instead we will be setting out from Shreveport. West of where we'd expected, but comparatively far north too.

I have to remember to post specifically about Hampton Inn, where we stayed in Las Cruces.

El Paso has evil traffic.

Driving east through multiple time zones sucks. Makes it feel so much longer.

Did you know this cool driving trick? You get impatient about being behind someone. You pass them, preferably pausing off their rear left such that the driver is blinded by your lights in her mirror. Then you get in front and promptly slow back down to below what the car you passed wanted to be maintaining.

When the car you just passed tries to pass you, speed up again to discourage their passing. If they give up and settle back behind you, slow way down again. Rinse and repeat in variations as needed top provoke road rage and encourage a random stranger to assist 100% in your obviously desired suicide.

Then there is the lane closed ahead! When the left lane is close way ahead, rather than getting over well before, zip down the left lane, now light in traffic due to the portion of drivers who do the right thing, and insist at the last minute on cutting in front of all the cars you just passed and pissed off. This benefits everyone by slowing traffic more than would otherwise be the case when there has been an accident-induced lane closure. After all, going slower must be safer! And it gives everyone plenty of chances to test their brake functionality.

Anyway, we made it all that way in one day with no subtly invited Kevorkianesque incidents.

I am posting and checking mail while Deb gets to sleep. When we get back, one of the soonest orders of business will be a doctoral study of my sleep functions and snoring. Leading, I hope, to far more rest all around. Since there is a good probability it's at least partly sleep apnea, fixing that might be the answer to the "chronic fatigue" problem I have had since my teens. Meanwhile, poor Deb! At least when she snores it sounds almost dainty, rather than being a crypt-rousing performance.

[2] comments (1130 views) |  link

Trip Update

We had a rain delay packing the trailer and leaving. Finally fled Fresno late Tuesday afternoon. The first day we got to Indio, CA. The second day we got to Las Cruces, NM, from where I write this report.

Did you know rush hour in Phoenix sucks? It's true!

Not only that, the truck stops there don't believe in signage where you can see it until after the exit. Before the tank ran out, I risked a random surface road, since most exits seem to lack gas stations visible evn after passing them, and as so often happens, lucked out by finding a Circle K that worked perfectly.

The original plan would have had us around Alabama by now. Instead of today being an absurdly long driving day (we only went 12 hours including stops; what wimps), tomorrow will be. Lucky for us, so far being behind has kept us behind the obnoxious weather. However, we seem destined to drive in some of it sooner or later, and appear increasingly likely not to visit my brother in Ohio this trip.

I am hoping my frequently uncanny luck kicks into gear so much that we totally miss the crud and can take it more or less as planned. We shall see...

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Elemental, My Dear Watson

Water. Whatever you do, where or when, you do it
with all of your heart. You listen to your
heart and all of your emotions are true
non-acting. Friends are very importent to you
and you will do anything for them. You're the
most dreamy of all 4 elements.


What is your element?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Drumwaster here

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History is fundamental (or Herstory for the P.C. crowd *grin ironically*)

I just finished reading - America's Women : Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins (Author). I have been thinking about women, particularly the linkage between technology and social equality.

I'm one of those people who read history for fun. Anything that is well written, as well as a new treatment of a subject tends to capture my interest. So, I picked this up from the library the other day, and read right through it. Anybody else read the book, or interested in the topic?

Fact: Do you know that only 1 woman (a teenager) at Seneca Falls in 1848 was still alive by the time she got to vote for the first time in 1920, 72 years later?

Why I remembered this: Next year is only the 85th anniversary of the 19th amendment which is why that 72 year number seems significant to me, I tend to forget how early Seneca Falls occurred, and how long it really took women to get the vote.

Fact: Kotex pads were originally WWI bandages made out of wood pulp etc. They were 1st used by nurses to replace a shortage of cloth/rags, and packaged for the first time in the 1920s for sale to the general public. Such products had been available for sale earlier, in the 1890s, but newspapers wouldn't carry the ads because mentioning menustruation, even obliquely, was considered obscene.

Why I remembered this: Think about how EASY it is now. No washing and hoping it'll dry by morning, no improvising a belt, or attaching some kind of cloth to your clothes with pins... Doesn't this demonstrate a close connection between products which make women's lives easier, and social progress for women overall? I mean, the anniversary of Kotex is also the same for the 19th amendment... More...

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