In the Sunday Funnies (the comics section of the newspaper, for those of you who grew up without them) the local paper used to have something called “Fun Facts to know and tell”. I think Wrigley’s gum was the sponsor. If I remember correctly, there was always some obscure fact or two and an illustration. [...]
Also tagged Economics, PoliticsIn graph form, no less!
Also tagged abuse of power, health care, lie to me, Nanny State, PoliticsWhen talking about the economy, taxes, social programs, etc., most of us talk past each other. Get past the accusations of bad faith, and you generally find that we don’t understand how the other guy could possibly not see the truth of what we are saying because our basic assumptions about how the world works [...]
Also tagged Economics, Politics, tea partyI paid the hosting bill for Ratlands over the weekend. It comes out to about $10 a month. Not my most expensive hobby, by far. (And no, I’m not soliciting donations. This is my own personal addiction.) I’ve been blogging at Ratlands.com for 5 years now. I bought the Ratlands.com domain name in June of [...]
Also tagged Economics, lie to me, numbers, Obama, Personal, PoliticsApparently, according to the NY Post, the bad job New York City (union) sanitation workers did clearing the streets after the recent blizzard and the ridiculous amount of time it took them to do it were deliberate. “They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” [...]
Also tagged abuse of power, Economics, Politics, whining, workplaceCoyote talks about income inequality. Personally, I think that income inequality arguments are a cheap and specious justification for income redistribution based on the faulty premise that wealth is a zero sum game. Coyote talks about new research that suggests that the figures given to prove that the gap between rich and poor is increasing [...]
Also tagged Economics, lie to me, Nanny State, Politics, social justiceHere’s the stuff I’ve been accumulating for the last week, intending to write long, pithy essays about each: You may have heard that the poverty rate has increased lately (obviously, those of us who are employed need pay more taxes so the Government can do something about it, right?) Actual poverty rate numbers from Carpe [...]
Also tagged abuse of power, dog, Economics, numbers, Obama, Politics, wtf?It was only a matter of time until the health care “experts” started trying to justify the intrusions they want to make in our lives on the basis that me not doing what they think I should is costing the taxpayers money. They are already talking about how much us fat people are going to [...]
Also tagged abuse of power, Economics, food, health care, lie to me, Nanny State, PersonalIf you pay any attention to the debate over whether or not “stimulus” spending is a good idea, you may have heard a non-Keynesian mention the “broken window fallacy.” The Gormogons have posted a simple explanation of this idea in a nice, neat 3 minute and 32 second nutshell.
Also tagged Economics, PoliticsDid you ever see the movie The Fifth Element? Remember the scene where they are reconstructing the Fifth Element from a few living cells? Remember how the machine created various body parts, including the circulatory system, with all of the veins and arteries and such? It is now possible, using stem cells and a 3d [...]
Also tagged Economics, Politics, Science/TechnologyRatlands is using WP-Gravatar