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Sunday, August 7, 2016

Journal: 8/07/16

Nearly 2900 posts into the blog I'm going to experiment with a new format apart from my signature miscellany posts. I find that given the highly structured format of the latter's newsletter type format, it is more awkward to introduce more personal reflections and anecdotal items. This one, which I'm titling "journal" will be more free-form. Like the miscellany format, its structure and publication schedule will likely evolve over time; it will likely not be a daily format: I suspect it may be published 2 or 3 times a month, but the frequency depends on a sufficient batch (say, 3 or more) entries. Whereas this blog is primarily political, my journal entries or segments may vary in topics.

 1. Change is Good. (8/7/16)

As an MIS PhD, I have often been on the leading edge. For example, I bought an early VCR when they cost over $1000. Within a year or two, you could buy one for maybe a quarter of the price. It was cool but pricey. I bought a copy of  "The Sound of Music" for around $70, and I hosted a rare dinner party for my Catholic Newman Association friends at U of H (ham and potato salad). My VCR was well-made; I "lost it" several years later in Milwaukee. I had been selected as a Nielsen TV rating household, and they claimed a need to make some adjustment to my VCR. They later claimed it got damaged in the process and replaced it with a newer model. I had also been an early adopter of CDROM drives: a Sony bundle that included a number of CDROM's valued in the hundreds of dollars.

But in other things I was a later adopter. I have an extensive LP collection (currently in storage). I eventually shifted to CD's when I found it difficult to get newer albums in vinyl. I was also late to the use of smartphones (just over a year ago); I make few personal calls or texts and mostly use it for more urgent needs, like calling for roadside assistance. For the most part, I was more motivated by more reasonably priced plans, maybe $10-15 more a month than for a bucket of minutes with older phone. I've found new uses for the phone, like being able to connect to a brokerage account during a work break or find another barbershop if it turns out my original target is closed.

Over the past few years, I know family members who have gotten newer large flat-screen TV's, but to be honest I don't really watch that much TV, and my old color portable set (with a semi-elliptical shape) I bought several years back probably in a WalMart for $130 or so  got good results with a coaxial cable from the cable box. I've used Time-Warner and Comcast as cable vendors over the past decade or so and have never run into an issue connecting into a cable box--until now.

I, of course, am aware of smart/flat-screen TVs, and perhaps I should have known when I had to deal with movers over the last couple of weeks. I told the moving and cable people that I have an older color portable, and it's like there was a total disconnect. They didn't understand what I meant. The movers had a specialist partner which requested a visit to pack my flat-screen TV. What flat-screen TV? I never told the moving consultant I owned a flat-screen.

So in requesting cable service to my new home, with a cable provider that I used 2 years ago when I lived in WV, I specifically told the cable service agent I had an old color portable TV. But the cable guy comes in with a cable box with NO coaxial cable outputs (which I need to connect to the portable). The cable guy looks totally confused and tries to explain connecting the HDMI cable to the TV set. It's like he can't conceptualize a traditional color set or a set without an HDMI connection. He basically shrugs his shoulders as I explain the problem and said that he doesn't have cable boxes with coaxial cable outputs. What are my options? "You can buy an HDMI-connection TV at nearby WalMart for as low as $130."

So yesterday I went out and bought the cheapest TV I could find. Unfortunately, I don't think I brought a screwdriver with me, so I still have to attach the stand. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to access the HDMI input connected to the set (the quick-start guide doesn't really address this configuration). So the first thing I saw on my new TV was a Brazilian women's soccer game. The much bigger screen is more impressive, of course. I'm not sure what I'll do with the old set, probably put it in my bedroom, buy a digital converter and an antenna.

2. In-N-Out Burgers  (8/7/16)

I never understood the hype associated with In-N-Out Burgers when I lived in California for 20 months or so in 1999-2001. I think the first time was at a work site in Orange County. Client personnel had invited me along. I knew this was different because parking was full and it was tough finding a spot to sit and eat. I thought the burger and fries were very good, but they weren't, say, specialty burgers. Burger joints are a dime a dozen. It wasn't like a Fuddruckers. Don't get me wrong; it's tasty, but I don't like having to find a place to sit and eat my food; it's just not worth the hassle.

Well, given I now live very near California, I should not have been that surprised to find someone's In-N-Out wrapper in the hotel parking lot. So I just did a quick Google search and discovered there was a restaurant probably a 10-minute drive away.

So yesterday I noticed in driving to a nearby Sam's Club that their parking lot was jammed at 11 AM; I thought that was odd, rather early for lunch, right? I made a mental note to drive there well after 1 PM. It turns out the parking lot was still nearly full, just like hours earlier.

Now as an MBA and former business school professor, I tend to focus on different types of things. The most obvious thing is In-N-Out has a very simplified menu: they serve burgers and fries. Their combos: burger; cheeseburger; double burger. (They have a self-serve soda fountain.) This is a variation of Taylor management that Ray Kroc would love: keep it simple, stupid. We don't try to be all things to all people--no chicken, burritos, fish, etc. Now, to be honest, I as a low-carber almost never eat fries or other potatoes. The cheeseburger was thick and tasty, but the fries really stood out. To be honest, I've never wanted any ketchup or anything else on my fries other than a dusting of salt. As I dug to the bottom of my bowl, I read a message that they peel and dice potatoes at the local stores every day.

3. Posner On Trump  (8/7/2016)

Several weeks back I subscribed to Posner's blog articles. Posner is perhaps one of the most brilliant jurists in recent times, a polymath who has also been influential in the discipline of economics. Although he's sometimes classified as a "conservative" judge on the Chicago Court of Appeals, his legal writings, e.g., on "gay marriage" and abortion, are hardly conservative. He has also all but generalized Bork's famous position that the Ninth Amendment is an inkblot to the Constitution as a hole. Let's simply say that I have some disagreements with the judge.

Posner recently published an article which is essentially dismissive of the concerns I and others have had about the challenge of Trump to our constitutional order; this may be the article or an earlier version of it. Now before I go further, I need to note that Posner is no Trumpkin, he does not care for the idea of Trump being President, and he is concerned with Trump's apparent authoritarianism. He does think that the way Trump has captured the nomination by steering clear of ideological promises, Trump is not your typical nominee which would give him unprecedented flexibility.

I don't want to be accused of oversimplifying Posner and setting up a straw man. But there is enough of Trump's volatile temperament, his thin-skinned nature, his incompetence on the issues of economics and trade, his self-serving views on libel law, his willingness to defy the Geneva Convention and to target families of terror suspects, his self-serving positions on libel law and eminent domain, his willingness to conscript Apple to disable privacy safeguards for its products or to sanction businesses for foreign operation investments, his attack on Judge Curiel (re: the Trump University scam case): I have little doubt we are dealing with a potential Constitutional crisis where an overruled Trump resurrects FDR's plot to pack the Court with his minions or defies SCOTUS' ability to enforce rulings like Andrew Jackson or abuses his powers like Richard Nixon. Too many of Trump's heroes are authoritarians. It's true that he relishes making deals, but his only principles are self-promoting, for his own power and glory. I think the judge underestimates the damage Trump could do to our form of government.

4. The Weather is Too Damn Hot (8/7/16)

When you take I-8W just south of Phoenix for Yuma/San Diego (about 180/360 miles away), there aren't a lot of interim spots, and you drive past miles of cactus-growing desert; there are spots where you don't get much of a cellphone signal. You wonder what might happened if your car died in the middle of nowhere in the heat surpassing 100 degrees. Now I've lived in hot places before: I went to high school in south Texas, and I was on faculty at UTEP. Not be mention that 95 in Charleston, with high humidity, feels almost as bad as the dry heat. But I swear, when I've gone to lunch the last 5 days, the lowest temperature reading registered by my car was 113. You learn to use sunshades when you leave your card at work. Many shopping centers and apartment complexes have carports, not to protect from the rain.
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Saturday, August 6, 2016

Miscellany: 8/06/16

Quote of the Day
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau

Tweet of the Day
Political Humor on Campus



 Should A Libertarian Vote for HRC?



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Michael Jackson (with Justin Timberlake), "Love Never Felt So Good". This posthumous collaboration concludes my Jackson retrospective. Next up: Diana Ross.

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Friday, August 5, 2016

Miscellany: 8/05/16

Quote of the Day
A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.
Jack Dempsey

 Tweet of the Day

The Unintended Effects of Government Labor Policies



Political Correctness



Facebook Corner

This is a note to a niece's emotional thread after posting ambivalent posts on Trump. Her Trumpkin husband responded to the more favorable post, saying a vote against Trump is a vote for Clinton, to which I responded with "bullshit!" My niece didn't like the Pandora's box she opened; in fact, I generally don't publish political posts (some comments to the posts of others, yes) on Facebook and most of my friends are relatives. I don't mind expressing my feelings about Trump in colorful language she doesn't like. I said something to the effect, "Hey, if you leave a banana on the floor, don't blame the victim for slipping on it because he didn't look where he was walking." Trump is a divisive figure with up to a 70% unfavorable rating. I have literally written several hundred anti-Trump tweets, only a few with colorful language. I'm not going to go through a litany of dozens of times Trump has engaged in completely off-the-charts behavior that would have killed most political candidacies.

At any rate, a Trumpkin responded; I won't even quote him here, because my responses basically respond to his points (I'm getting sick and tired of people calling me a "liberal", which amounts to left-fascism):

 Another retard un-American Trump cultist. I'm actually a libertarian-conservative who doesn't want an ill-tempered, unqualified, incompetent, unprincipled, flip-flopping authoritarian son of a bitch in the White House. No conservative would ever vote for the bastard demagogue.

You pathetic fascist Trumpkin loser in a state of denial. Trump has an INDISPUTABLE temperament issue. For one typical psychological analysis of the bastard authoritarian loser who FOUR TIMES put his major businesses into bankruptcy: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/

 Qualifications are not criteria or fitness for office. The fact the demagogue is 70 years old and has the emotional stability of a schoolboy bully is not the point. He hasn't so much as managed a snow emergency in NYC, never mind public sector experience, administrative or legislative. He lost each and every debate so badly on points, it was absurd. His "debate" rhetoric amounted little more than rehearsed, absurd soundbites and insults of other candidates. He does not even know basic strategy of our nuclear military, as Rubio pointed out. An absurdly ignorant man who I could beat in a debate if he had 58 minutes to speak and I had only 2; I know 50 times more about economics than this economic illiterate bastard.

 I'm Claire's uncle. She knows better than to bring up Trump; she's unhappy because her Trumpkin husband said anyone not voting for the retard Trump is voting for Clinton, to which I said "bullshit"; Trump is a miserable asshole who has said everything I've said and worse about other people. She apparently has loser friends like you. She knows what I think about Trump; she posts a Trumpkin piece, and she doesn't like my response.

 Listen, loser, I have 4 degrees, including a double major in philosophy and math with a 4.0 GPA (none of this inflated GPA bullshit). I have a considerable background in logic and argumentation, and I posted detailed analysis on each of the GOP debates, until Trump decided he didn't want to do anymore. That tells you all you need to know: if he thought they were helping, he wouldn't have walked out of them. All the debates have transcripts and videos on the net. He literally placed last in each debate. He's completely ignorant on policy, he never made a substantive counterpoint, he has flip-flopped on just about any policy you can think of, including immigration and abortion and refugees. It's part of the record, indisputable. HE HAS NEVER SERVED IN GOVERNMENT, not even a mayor, governor, served in an administration. 

 Yes, it's true the Constitution he doesn't believe in allows natural born citizens 35 and older with a significant period of residency to be ELIGIBLE for office. That doesn't make the local garbageman to be QUALIFIED for office. Qualifications for POTUS reflect knowledge and experience expected to run a country. Trump has NONE.
I consider Trump so unacceptable that if I thought Trump might beat HRC, I would vote for her. It's not that I like Clinton, but like the article pointed out, Trump is like Nixon on steroids. Trump literally would kill the GOP as a party.

Youtube Place: Hanson on Mexifornia

Very odd Liberty Pen would promote an anti-liberty perspective on migration.
unless the only libertarian things you care about are pot, prostitution and open borders, mass third world immigration is pretty bad for liberty because these people love giant government
You uttered a self-contradiction: liberty and giant government. The right to migrate is fundamental. To maintain otherwise puts you in a prison. There are literally thousands of economics studies refuting your nativism.
+Ronald Guillemette no one is entitled to move here. It's not a right and until 1965 we've had much stricter immigration laws than we do now. Prove
+Ronald Guillemette prove me wrong most people from the 3rd world love big government, it's part of the reason their countries are terrible.
You are not a pro-liberty conservative. Restrictions on immigration were, with a few racist exceptions, not implemented until the WWI era. Restrictions on immigration are inconsistent with liberty, period. CASE CLOSED.
I don't give a damn why you think other people want to live here. It's not your place to judge them or decide why the hell you think you have the moral authority to tell other people what they can or can't do. These people have to put up with assholes like you when they come here.
+Ronald Guillemette Then enjoy living in a socialist hell hole, just remember those libertarian principles will matter so much to a million chavistas, just translate a bunch of libertarian literature into Spanish and they'll turn into Jefferson loving objectivists! You seem like an intelligent person 
You don't know what the hell you are talking about. Some of the hardest-working, honest, God-fearing people I've ever met are Latinos. It's just they don't want anything to do with xenophobes like you, and I don't blame them.

 Political Cartoon
Courtesy of Glenn McCoy via Townhall
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Michael Jackson, "You Rock My World"

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Thursday, August 4, 2016

Miscellany: 8/04/16

Quote of the Day
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
Albert Einstein

Tweet of the Day
Image of the Day

via Pro-Life Libertarians
Mexifornia

On  a number of points I depart from Hanson, including his assertions of cheap labor and his negative tone on "illegal" immigration. I do think assimilation is an issue, but it is one exacerbated by highly restrictive immigration barriers, bad public policy.



 LP Townhall



Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Michael Jackson, "You Are Not Alone". His last #1 song. We'll conclude this retrospective with his final 2 Top 10 hits.


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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Miscellany: 8/03/16

Quote of the Day
He who builds to every man's advice will have a crooked house.
Danish Proverb

 Tweet of the Day

I am not going to copy and paste a Twitter war against Trump cultists, including alt-right thugs. Typical crap: they get personally insulting, make fun of a cropped photo, my weight (again), absurdly accused me of being gay  (using politically incorrect terms), argued I'm a nobody loser with only 34 followers, etc. It's what happens when people can't argue the issues. The kerfuffle attracted thousands of eyeballs (I don't suffer fools glady), but there's got to be an easier way.
Image of the Day

DEAD WRONG: Energy Use "Destroying" the Planet?



Libertarianism in Brazil



Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Michael Jackson, "Childhood"

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Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Miscellany: 8/02/16

Quote of the Day
Utility is when you have one telephone, 
luxury is when you have two, 
opulence is when you have three
and paradise is when you have none
Doug Larson

Tweet of the Day
Well, It's Getting Hot in Here...

I remember when Dad got stationed in south Texas for my high school years. We had one inch of rain the first 9 months, and on Christmas it was 95, and the grass was brown.

I went out to get a bite to eat at noon today (in AZ). My car measured the temperature as 114 degrees. It could be worse--if there was more humidity. But hot is hot

Image of the Day


Zappa Explains Clinton



Jillette On Election 2016 and More



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Steve Breen via Townhall
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Michael Jackson (with Janet), "Scream"

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Monday, August 1, 2016

Miscellany: 8/01/16

Quote of the Day
How far you go in life depends on you 
being tender with the young, 
compassionate with the aged, 
sympathetic with the striving and 
tolerant of the weak and the strong. 
Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver

Tweet of the Day
Another Point During My Recent Cross-Country Trip

I have other, less published blogs, including SoftDoc which often deals with usability issues in technology.  A theme I've discussed is wrong or misleading documentation. One of my favorite examples was a Commodore 64 disk drive which warned against leaving a diskette in the drive, e.g. past a system bounce, and while the power light was on the drive. I quickly realized this would make the device unusable; clearly the writer meant while the drive was writing data to the diskette--but how could the author have made such a glaring error?

I have run into issues with various street map software vendors. I missed at least 2 job interviews where an agency didn't get directions to the client. This morning I was going to a federal government facility.  The directions were exactly backwards. If I was headed east, I take the exit, turn left, and drive 6 blocks. But my boss called last night. What he mentioned was that I should pass a Love's gas/convenience store, go over a bridge, and should see a Jack in the Box and a Chevron station near the entrance. While waiting at the exit, I saw the Love's at my right. How could a government website make such an obvious error?

Keep it Simple, Stupid. Have you ever run a Google Maps or Mapquest and found all sorts of complicated directions.  They seem to modestly complicate things, like instead of going between major points of intersections, they try to shave a few miles, here or there. For me, the recent trip was clear; I-26W to I-20W to I-10W to I-8 W. But Google Maps complicated things by suggesting, e.g., shortcuts. If you're driving alone, it's insane: it's hard enough to drive without checking each intersection for street signs.

A B.A. From McDonald's University



 Freedom of Speech




Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

 Michael Jackson, "Will You Be There?"

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