Miscellany: 6/13/12

Quote of the Day

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart...
William Wordsworth

Congratulations, Matt Cain: Perfect Game!
Second Perfect Game in MLB This Season

SF Giants pitcher Matt Cain, SF Giants, pitched perfect game #22 in MLB history with 14 strikeouts, as the Giants defeated Houston Astros 10-0 with 14 Strikeouts.



Sweet and Sour Government Pork

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) proposed an amendment to strip anti-consumer Big Sugar support from the farm bill, but it was tabled 50-46. (Thumbs DOWN!) I have written multiple commentaries against this egregious form of crony capitalism which has existed from the early years of the republic.



Michael Bloomberg Speaks on Being 
the First Nanny of New York City

Just a few takeaways/comments on his CBS interview:

• "If government's purpose isn't to improve the health and longevity of its citizens, I don't know what its purpose is."

Obviously, you don't know what the purpose of government is, you Big Nanny! LET ME THINK: maybe, just maybe, the purpose of government is to guarantee unalienable human rights of life, liberty, and property. This includes an independent judiciary, which protects negative rights of the individual from arbitrary majoritarian rule (including public legislators or executives), and public safety.

The point is that it is NOT the government's role to serve as citizens' doctors. The private sector already does that adequately. The government has limited resources and the budget necessary to underwrite an inexhaustible supply of do-gooder schemes is unbounded. There are diminishing returns to how we invest the people's money.

• "We're not here to tell anybody what to do. But we certainly have an obligation to tell them what's the best science and best medicine says is in their interest."

First, heuristics like amount of salt intake or how much water to drink daily are disputed in the health literature, and many health guidelines have not been tested under rigorous scientific conditions. Second, the private sector, including physicians, books and  medical websites, does an excellent job providing citizens health information, and government bureaucrats are hardly competent on making those assessments. Third, you have been telling people what to do, not by merely talking about, but rather regulating the salt intake, size of sugary drinks, and trans fats in restaurants (and likely other things as well).

• "We have gone to a society where everything is fast food, everything is high calories. The average person today is much heavier than they were. Airlines have a problem: Their customers can't fit in the seats anymore."

First, again, we don't need the government to tell people what to eat: there are hundreds, if not thousands of sources in the private sector telling people what to do and how to exercise.

But let me deal with the major point. There are two sides to a healthy lifestyle: diet and exercise. And obesity also reflects a number of other aspects including the amount of sleep and health conditions or treatments mitigating metabolism, e.g., hypothyroidism and/or certain prescription drugs.

The market reflects people's preferences; if and when healthy foods are presented in an attractive manner (e.g., McDonald's premium salads), sales can take off. In fact, restaurants can and have marketed healthier lifestyle menu options. Note also that many people, including myself, rarely eat out: what are you going to do? Regulate Internet or grocery stores so they can't sell table salt,  margarine with trans fats, Twinkies or God knows what else? Even if Bloomberg outlaws restaurant salty soup, customers can make and consume their own salty soup at home: what's the point?

I think that Bloomberg is incredibly naive when he talks about airline seats and personal size. Even assuming what he's saying is true: the answer is not a Procrustean one to fit a fat person into some small seat. The answer is NOT to outfit with airliners with seats that comfortably fit only a small percentage of potential customers: the correct response of the airliners is to outfit with plane with seats that can accommodate the vast majority of its passengers comfortably.

• "Bloomberg pointed out that life expectancy in New York City exceeds the national average by three years, noting that all the progress has come since he took office a decade ago."

OH, GIVE ME A BREAK! The idea that Bloomberg's Nanny behavior has resulted in higher life expectancy is totally absurd. Even assuming the statistics show what Bloomberg says is true, there are likely apples-and-oranges methodological issues, not to mention a number of other factors reflecting higher expectancy (net emigration of poorer risks, significant decrease in the rates of violent crimes, etc.)

• "If you want to smoke, I think it's pretty ridiculous, you shouldn't. But I don't think we should take away your right to smoke."

"The Bloomberg administration will ask the City Council to amend New York City's antismoking law to include all restaurants and bars, making it one of the toughest in the nation." - Gray Lady, 8/9/02



Boom...Boom...Boomtown

There is something quintessential Americana about pioneering, the Western frontier, and various boomtowns. I remember when my Dad was stationed in France, we lived a few miles outside the base in Mars-la-Tour. Our rented house on the outskirts of town was interesting, particularly the backyard; the owners had fruit trees, the sweetest grapes I've ever tasted, berries, etc. (and lots and lots of snails). There was a small French farm bordering the house, and one day a young redhead French boy my age came over to introduce himself; he wanted to play--cowboys and Indians.

Mark J. Perry is constantly updating (probably at least once weekly or biweekly) his Carpe Diem blog with news items about oil and/or gas boomtowns in the Bakken formation (particularly Williston, ND) and elsewhere. Note that in many boomtowns, infrastructure and local businesses have short-term capacity problems: there are only so many apartments or restaurants in towns or counties with a few hundreds or thousands in population, easily overwhelmed by surges in new workers. Here are some additional takeaways, from an energy investment website post:

• Boomtowns/counties include (but are not restricted to): Williston, North Dakota; Haynesville, Louisiana; Marcellus, New York; Harper County, Kansas. Other states cashing in on the boom: Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
• "Some towns are seeing negative unemployment rates, indicating a labor shortfall. Skilled oil workers are making $100,000 salaries. High school graduates with no other education are averaging $60,000 in Kansas."
• "Pizza Hut is paying workers in these areas almost twice minimum wage — and driving in campers for them to live in."

What's that, you say? Oil workers without college degrees are making $100K, while President Obama's planned economic growth and jobs program in green energy isn't working out so well? What about those high-paying jobs in Solyndra? Whoops. That's right: the US government has to pay off those loans Obama guaranteed for the bankrupt company. There were others I believe that I mentioned in my Valentine Day's post.  (And we can't forget that the administration narrowly avoided further bankruptcy debacles at First Solar and Solar Farm when conditions for the guaranteed loans weren't met.)

Could you imagine how much more we could lower our dependence in highly-bid, unreliable global supplies if the Obama Administration and its EPA weren't resisting every step of the way development of federal properties offshore and oil shale properties, particularly in the tri-state area of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Most of the current uptick in domestic oil and gas is based on private- and state-owned lands, but of course, Obama is disingenuously attempting to take credit for it, not to mention improving fuel efficiency (not, of course, to Obama's pretentious goals--once again, we have seen incremental technology change for increased fuel efficiency, not because of governmental policy but based on the private sector itself, motivated by the high cost of fuel and improved technology. Just as production becomes more labor-efficient as time goes by, so does fuel-efficiency of motors, etc.)

For an image of US oil shale deposits, click here.



Entertainment Potpourri

• The Return of Dallas. THUMBS UP! I think J.R. Ewing is the greatest antihero in the history of television. I was jealous of Larry Hagman in his early career as Jeannie's (Barbara Eden) Master, Major Nelson. But when he played the unflappable, brilliant, scheming, ruthless, double-crossing, dominating character J.R. Ewing with the wicked smile, it was the role of a lifetime.   Of course, an invulnerable JR Ewing would have been as boring as Superman without Kryptonite.  

I was a faithful viewer to the end of Dallas' run as one of the longest series in the history of television spanning from the 1970's to the 1990's. I think the ratings started to erode after NBC, in a baffling programming decision, decided to throw its ultra-cool dominant Miami Vice into the same time slot. (I seem to recall that Dallas won the ratings battle but lost some of its momentum.)

I don't want to write a full synopsis of the first episodes tonight. I think they wanted to build cousins John Ross Ewing and Christopher (Bobby's adopted son) as the Ewing Brothers, Next Generation. John Ross strikes oil on the Ewing homestead, Southfork, controlled by Bobby Ewing.The Ewing matriarch, the late Miss Ellie, forbade oil exploration at the ranch. Christopher is anti-drilling, instead preferring (I believe) methane clathrates (at the bottom of deep water floors as a "cleaner energy" source). It turns out John Ross is a chip off the old block when it comes to scheming, and he's determined to regain Southfork from his Uncle Bobby. Mother Sue Ellen seems to have become a political force and suggests to John Ross that she can be a powerful ally behind his ambitions. 

If I had written the episode, JR would have been in the first scene. I understand the show wanted to focus on developing the characters and conflict of the Ewing cousins.  I would have liked to see more of a bridge to the present. For example, John Ross joins a small oil company where JR is on the board. The company runs into a rough patch, JR stages a boardroom coup and installs John Ross as CEO and himself as chairman. JR has a health problem and John Ross succeeds him as chair. 

Bobby does appear early in the show, obviously in bad shape and gets some bad medical news. The introduction of JR (I believe as a patient in a nursing home) occurs several minutes into the episode, and he initially looks unresponsive to others in his presence.  Long story short, JR snaps out of it and is willing to give a desperate John Ross whatever it takes to regain Southfork from Bobby. But it becomes clear that JR and John Ross have their own agendas as do some of the other connected wheeler-dealers.  At one point, in a Hallmark moment, JR tells John Ross that he "forgives" John Ross for not visiting him during his convalescence. Yeah, right. If I'm translating JR correctly, he's letting John Ross know that he's aware of John Ross' disloyalty and he won't forget it:  JR may have been out of commission and he may be older, but he's the same old JR.

There are a number of rivalries (including love interests), swerves and double-cross schemes. Some of the storyline seems contrived: it turns out that Southfork is sitting on two billion barrels of oil, but Bobby is telling John Ross' crew, "Sorry, guys; I know it means you won't get paid today, but it's important for me to keep my word to my late mother: no drilling." (It would be far more believable that the federal government was trying to stop drilling because rare lizards breed on Southfork....) But, to be honest, I was surprised to the upside; I can't wait to see the next episode.

Political Humor

"A new book claims President Obama smoked a lot of marijuana while in college. And in a related story to boost his street cred, Mitt Romney admitted he was once hooked on phonics." - Jay Leno


[Nope. Mitt Romney hearts Ann, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G....

]

Mitt Romney visited a restaurant in Iowa, and had trouble thinking of the word for donut. [“Can you see that one of those chocolate, um, uh, chocolate goodies finds its way to our ride?”] Newt Gingrich merely responded, "That never would have happened if I were the nominee." - Jimmy Fallon

[The Obama campaign promptly attacked the Congressional GOP for standing in the way of more policemen enjoying their own "chocolate goodies"....]

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups

Tom Petty & Heartbreakers, "Breakdown"