The latter part of a wise person's life is
occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions
they contracted earlier.
Jonathan Swift
Wisconsin DNR SWAT Team Kills 2-Week-old Fawn in Animal Shelter; the Shelter Called Her 'Giggles':
I Call Her 'Bambi'
I am not an animal rights activist, but I do hold a certain reverence for God's creatures. I remember commenting on young women torturing pregnant seals in San Diego area. So help me if I hear one more "rules are rules" bureaucrat trying to rationalize the morally bankrupt heartless execution of a baby animal; if your [expletive deleted] rules require a freaking permit for a shelter to hold a fawn on a temporary basis, you find a way to make that happen--or you issue a warning; it's common sense. As for the snitch whom made this atrocity possible: karma's a bitch. I want to hear Gov. Walker explain how the state can afford to spend so many state resources needlessly killing a tiny deer. Not even licensed hunters are that cruel!
Hawaii's Light Rail To Bankruptcy
Even older clips of the Snake Oil Salesman-in-Chief merits a mention in the Obama Economic Illiteracy Watch. This is a rail project which will lose money from day one and at best is expected to have at most a single digit percentage offset in congestion. Much more feasible solutions like improved maintenance, lane widening and private tollways get ignored under pressure from greedy politicians and crony engineering and unions. Incidentally some recruiter claiming to be from Hawaii recently cold-called me. Not interested in living in Hawaii (I have a sister and brother-in-law whom love Hawaii and once spoke of retiring there).
Autos: Personal Comments
I got a bizarre mailing from a local Toyota dealer telling me according to their records my Toyota was due to be served. (It was specifically addressed to me.) The only problem is I don't own and have never owned a Toyota; in fact, I don't think I've ever driven a Toyota, and I've never visited a Toyota dealership. A very weird hoax. Unfortunately, I'm driving my third Government Motors car (I also owned a Ford for several years)--and I don't know what the American record is for most power window repairs but I've now had 6 in 9 years from the same car, all first 4 windows repaired by a GM dealer, not willing to stand by their repairs. And I rarely open the back windows. So what's the deal? Last week I was parking in a supermarket lot in the middle of a sudden intense downpour. I suddenly realized my rear right window was open an inch, unknown to me. The window control didn't work; anyone who has experienced the problem knows what happens next--slowly but surely the window sinks into the door, no manual bypass. Repairs are to be expected as a vehicle ages, but when your repairs start failing...; I never had a single window failure in my prior cars. Will I go foreign make or buy a Ford when I'm next in the market (not likely in the short term)? Undecided.
I Love a Doctor Whom Welcomes a New Baby By Singing "Happy Birthday" To Him or Her
Cato Event: What Economists Think about Immigration: Some Comments
This presentation doesn't get into the familiar battle in Congress; they don't really get into policy prescriptions, but a general inference is that they don't think the Senate hill goes far enough in liberalizing immigration (quotas, temporary work programs) and I concur. When you hear a professor tell a talented alien that her best option to get citizenship is to marry a native, it's sad. I actually liked hearing the economists get a bit wonkish and show some scatterplots.
I will not review the presentation in detail except I would rather listen to economists rather than politicians on the issue. I did have some differences in opinion with Professor Madeline Zavodny. At some point, I think she's addressing possible adverse impact of low-skill immigrants on native low-skill worker compensation. (A conventional opinion might be a modest impact in the short run, but positive in the long run.) Zavodny starts talking about the declining real minimum wage, income disparity, and "jackpot winners", etc. Apparently Zavodny has a higher tolerance for activist government meddling in the economy than I do. Then there's a point where she seems to be dismissive of an adverse effect of H1B's, arguing that there might be more of an age problem.
Now granted, my experiences are more anecdotal (meaning I can't really generalize over the data as a whole), but I have seen on numerous occasions aggressive price cutting by Indian (Asian) contractors. There would be bids, for instance, where I had to factor business expenses or relocation into the rate for say a 6-month out of state contract and I was competing against H1B's living out of a suitcase. They could essentially arbitrage my overhead costs. My boss in Santa Clara needed to have some custom work done on a software product and found an Indian agency that billed at a deep discount (like 30-40%) to other agencies. I've sometimes had to bid below the market full-time rate just to be competitive (unfortunately, too many companies only look at the lowest blind bid, which is dangerous with you're talking about enterprise databases where a less-seasoned DBA can literally cost the clients thousands of dollars in a very short period of time. I've seen teams of billing functional consultants sitting on their hands for days or weeks, unable to make progress because of database unavailability.)
I don't believe that my experiences are anomalies, and I think we have to acknowledge it happens. Why do I still support H1B reforms? I have met a number of good Indian developers and entrepreneurs (DBA's, not so much), which can expand opportunities, and I don't mind having to market my strengths and compete for my next gig. There are some things beyond my control, like trying to get sponsored for a security clearance, which eliminates me from a significant number of opportunities in the local area.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel and Townhall |
Political Humor
Sunday, on his way home from Brazil, Pope Francis said it was not his job to judge gays. He said that's what the Tony Awards are for. - Jay Leno
[The pope is still upset that Obama decided instead to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to SCOTUS as the first Latino Justice...He was responding to criticisms by gays for ditching Pope Benedict's sharp red loafers.]
"Anthony Weiner has vowed to continue to fight. He said he is staying in the race because he cares deeply about the people of New York — except for the one he is married to." - Jimmy Kimmel
["We shall defend our reputations, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on Manhattan Island, we shall fight on the landing docks, we shall fight in the boroughs and in the streets, we shall fight in the subways; we shall never surrender."]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups Redux
The Beatles, "Rock 'N Roll Music"
