JayB

Show me the stats on private versus public sector layoffs relative to their percentage of the labor force and then you'll have a case. How many Boeing workers lost their jobs between 2001 and 2004?

What's amazing to me is the repeated assertion that climbing unbolted trad lines invariably involves acts that are either terribly difficult or dangerous. Most lines that see any traffic, which constitute ~95% of all of the climbing that gets done feature moderate climbing, with abundant protection, which is easily obtained. It wouldn't surprise me if the limiting factor for most people wasn't the difficulty or risk, but the price of the gear.

cost of living and health insurance! OMFG! you want competent employees you have to pay for them. cut wages and benefits, people leave and it will end up costing you more to do less In cases of highly skilled employees, perhaps. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, programmers, executives, etc. What percentage of public employees actually fall into this category? When it comes to the folks performing manual, clerical, or other jobs, their total compensation likely exceeds anything that they could get in the private sector. If you think otherwise, I invite you to ponder the size of the line the next time that the Washington State Ferries announce that they'll be hiring. Or, the next time that you are in MA, ask the guy in the booth where else he'd take home total compensation averaging $66K a year for making change. Taxing people who are subject to economic realities, in order to insulate those who subsist on their taxes from the said economic realities - will only go on for so long. I suspect that simple economics will force the issue before the voters do.

The public sector unions should be glad that the folks who are subject to layoffs, salary freezes, who shoulder a greater share of the cost for their health insurance benefits, who work for enterprises in which wages are governed by the value of the goods and services that they generate, etc are feeling so generous.

"King County threatened with $45 million deficit Balancing budget likely requires cuts in services By GREGORY ROBERTS P-I REPORTER With a cooling economy pinching tax revenue even as government costs rise, King County faces a $45 million budget deficit in 2009 unless services are cut below current levels, county officials said Tuesday. That projection is gloomier than the $25 million general fund shortfall for 2009 forecast by County Executive Ron Sims in October. And the years beyond 2009 look worse still, county Budget Director Bob Cowan said. Thanks to a strong regional economy, the county has not had to cut services since 2006. Although costs grew slightly faster than revenue in that period, budgets have been balanced by tapping accumulated reserves. Some reserves remain -- including those designated for specific purposes -- but overall, they've been significantly depleted, Cowan said. And the revenue outlook for 2009 looks dim because the projected revenue set against the projected cost of maintaining the current level of service won't be enough. In a presentation he's to give Wednesday to the County Council, Cowan focused Tuesday on the general fund, which accounts for $645 million of the county's total 2008 budget and goes mainly for jails, courts and the Sheriff's Office. The rest of the $4.9 billion spending plan includes construction projects and specific services such as Metro Transit and county road maintenance. The general fund relies primarily on sales and property taxes. The recent rapid growth in sales tax revenue is slowing with the economy. Property tax growth also is faltering: Although overall tax increases on existing property are capped at 1 percent in any event, new construction is exempt from that limit, and the housing slowdown has put a crimp in that revenue source, Cowan said. Meanwhile, the county's unionized employees receive annual cost-of-living salary adjustments and the expense of their county-supported health insurance is increasing faster than revenue. Energy costs, too, are soaring. Balancing the budget likely will mean cuts in the existing level of services, Cowan said. The county hopes it can contain employee health costs and realize savings in the courts, he said. Revenue could increase if the Legislature authorizes counties to collect the kinds of utility taxes that cities impose. Sims is asking departments to look for savings, his top aide, Curt Triplett, said. Sims is to present the 2009 budget to the council in the fall, with the council adopting a spending plan by the end of this year."

Net financial liabilities as percentage of GDP. "Tax burdens are difficult to compare internationally, even at the highest level of aggregation — total taxation revenue as a proportion of GDP. One area that causes particular difficulty is the inter-temporal dimension of the tax burden, or public finance more generally. * Countries may choose to have lower tax burdens in the short run, without reducing their levels of expenditure, if they are willing to run budget deficits and accumulate government debt (or conversely, by reducing their holdings of assets). * Countries with relatively large levels of government debt may need to have a higher tax burden in the future, or reduce expenditures relative to revenues, in order to finance that stock of debt or repay it. Periods of strong economic growth can also help to improve the fiscal position. * Large fiscal imbalances or large levels of debt may not be sustainable for long periods, and choices may need to be made to reduce expenditures or increase revenues." Source same as above.

I don't think that the "watch dog" specific breed traits are all that important if you are just looking for a dog that will bark if it hears strange noises at night. Not being a thief myself, I can't say for sure whether the tone of the bark is important, but I'd imagine that a major part of the home intruder's plan is to get into the home undetected - and barking by any kind of dog will probably get the job done. I suspect that if you are dealing with a genuine psycho who wants to get into your home whether the occupants are on alert or not, a hefty sounding bark is more of a deterrent than a high-pitched one - but that scenario is so wildly implausible that it's really not worth factoring into any reasonable analysis. I'm sure having a big dog around is more psychologically reassuring to most owners, though. As far as breeds go, I'd try to get the breed that will be the best match for your disposition, domestic situation, etc and wouldn't really worry about any qualities beyond that. If you have a dog that is too large, energetic, and independent for you to handle and train properly - the odds are that you are going to be very unhappy with the dog whether it consistently barks at strange noises in the night or not. I'd also suggest doing a careful self-assesment before getting any dog, and if you aren't familiar with dogs, plan on training yourself to be a good master/owner before attempting to train the dog to be a good pet.

OECD-30, total taxation revenue as a proportion of GDP, 2003 Table 3.1: Ranking of OECD countries in descending level of tax burden(a) Selected years, 1965-2003 ECD-30, total taxation revenue as a proportion of GDP, 2003 http://comparativetaxation.treasury.gov.au/content/report/html/05_Chapter_3.asp

Just bought a new macbook 2.16Hz, 2GB RAM/160GB hard-drive plus freebie printer for $949. Almost afraid to ask how much cheaper a PC would be - but I wanted a machine that I could run an intuitive video-editing program on without the thing crashing. On a related note, I like the idea of being able to run a "pc" in a windows format inside the mac "window." I've heard that there's more than one program out there that does this better than BootCamp. Any recommendations/prices?

I found Buckley entertaining, but that's about it. For most of his life he seemed to be arguing on behalf of an orthodox conservatism that had little to recommend it over orthodox socialism, except perhaps that unfettered conservatism would at least preserve functioning economic arrangements instead of replacing them with synthetic arrangements doomed to fail in short order. The ends - a yearning for particular social order based on fixed and pre-conceived notions of merit, brought about by state coercion - were different, but the means largely the same. Hayek on Conservativism and Socialism: "Let me return, however, to the main point, which is the characteristic complacency of the conservative toward the action of established authority and his prime concern that this authority be not weakened rather than that its power be kept within bounds. This is difficult to reconcile with the preservation of liberty. In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule - not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them. Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people. When I say that the conservative lacks principles, I do not mean to suggest that he lacks moral conviction. The typical conservative is indeed usually a man of very strong moral convictions. What I mean is that he has no political principles which enable him to work with people whose moral values differ from his own for a political order in which both can obey their convictions. It is the recognition of such principles that permits the coexistence of different sets of values that makes it possible to build a peaceful society with a minimum of force. The acceptance of such principles means that we agree to tolerate much that we dislike. There are many values of the conservative which appeal to me more than those of the socialists; yet for a liberal the importance he personally attaches to specific goals is no sufficient justification for forcing others to serve them. I have little doubt that some of my conservative friends will be shocked by what they will regard as "concessions" to modern views that I have made in Part III of this book. But, though I may dislike some of the measures concerned as much as they do and might vote against them, I know of no general principles to which I could appeal to persuade those of a different view that those measures are not permissible in the general kind of society which we both desire. To live and work successfully with others requires more than faithfulness to one's concrete aims. It requires an intellectual commitment to a type of order in which, even on issues which to one are fundamental, others are allowed to pursue different ends. It is for this reason that to the liberal neither moral nor religious ideals are proper objects of coercion, while both conservatives and socialists recognize no such limits. I sometimes feel that the most conspicuous attribute of liberalism that distinguishes it as much from conservatism as from socialism is the view that moral beliefs concerning matters of conduct which do not directly interfere with the protected sphere of other persons do not justify coercion. This may also explain why it seems to be so much easier for the repentant socialist to find a new spiritual home in the conservative fold than in the liberal. In the last resort, the conservative position rests on the belief that in any society there are recognizably superior persons whose inherited standards and values and position ought to be protected and who should have a greater influence on public affairs than others. The liberal, of course, does not deny that there are some superior people - he is not an egalitarian - bet he denies that anyone has authority to decide who these superior people are. While the conservative inclines to defend a particular established hierarchy and wishes authority to protect the status of those whom he values, the liberal feels that no respect for established values can justify the resort to privilege or monopoly or any other coercive power of the state in order to shelter such people against the forces of economic change. Though he is fully aware of the important role that cultural and intellectual elites have played in the evolution of civilization, he also believes that these elites have to prove themselves by their capacity to maintain their position under the same rules that apply to all others."

Spitzer resigned this morning. Right move, IMO.

Yup. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/11/131343/863/667/474282

The spontaneity vs rehearsal argument is an interesting one. Kinda hard to draw the line, depending on what you consider rehearsal. In the past few months I had spontaneous moments that marked personal highpoints for me in a couple of my leisure pursuits. The first three were clean kayak descents, with what felt like a solid margin of safety and control, down drops or creeks that I knew I had no business being on in the fall of '06, but that stood out as personal benchmarks that I wanted to shoot for the following year. In some sense, everything that I had ever done in a kayak was a rehearsal for those moments, and for a full year every time I got in a boat I was consciously using the experience to get me to the level I'd need to be at on the moment I chose to commit or walk away. The fact that nothing I'd done in the outdoors had ever been as humbling, provoked as much fear or doubt on so many occasions, or had taken so much work to master as kayaking made those moments as satisfying and memorable as any I'm ever likely to have in the outdoors. The other was hopping on my skis and nailing a clean 540 over a respectable sized kicker. Silly as it sounds, it was something I'd been dreaming of ever since I first became aware of the possibility back in late 1998. Two knee injuries in the moguls, four seasons of rehab on a snowboard, one terrible snow-season and a few other obstacles got in the way. Much doubt, much pain, many crashes, and literally years of preparation lead up to the moment when it all came together a couple of weeks ago. These are just a couple of arbitrary, silly (almost embarrassingly so), and profoundly inconsequential-to-anyone-else goals that I set for myself. Neither is quite like "working" a climb in that you have to commit 100% before each, and beyond a certain point there's no lowering off, hanging, or reversing your moves. However, when all was said and done, the feeling I got from each was almost identical to the feelings I've had on the rare times when I've found myself at the anchor after a first clean ascent of a line that I've grappling with - physically or mentally - for quite some time. In all cases, it was the months or years of doubt, effort, struggle, and yes - preparation - that made the events meaningful and provided the real payoff. If she's never had to struggle/rehearse/prepare for several months to nail a line before - I would wager that doing so made topping out on this route quite a bit more meaningful and satisfying for her than all of the others that fell more easily.

Or so says Geraldine Ferraro: "Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who appeared on the Democratic ticket in 1984, is the latest high-profile figure to cause a stir with comments about one of the Democratic presidential frontunners. “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro told California's "Daily Breeze" newspaper. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." As Politico's Ben Smith reports, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "we disagree with her." But Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice is nonetheless calling on Clinton to repudiate the “outrageous and offensive" comments by Ferraro. Last week, after Obama foreign policy advisor Samantha Power called Clinton a "monster" in an interview, numerous Clinton supporters called for Power to be fired. She issued an apology and later resigned. Ferraro, a Clinton supporter, made the comments while arguing the former first lady hasn't gotten a fair shake from the press. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her," Ferraro said. "It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign." More diversity chickens coming home to roost amongst the Democrats. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/03/11/politics/horserace/entry3925257.shtml

Same guy in street clothes...

Original caption: "Note for the curious: yes, his scrotum is the size of a cantaloupe; he's a regular at San Francisco anti-war protests who's a fan of a procedure called "scrotal inflation" in which the testicular sac is infused with saline solution until it almost bursts. If you would like to try scrotal inflation yourself, click here to order a Scrotal Inflation Kit." Figured I'd use a text-link instead of a hotlink to spare the innocent.

Jim McCarthy and Rich Goldstone were sieging their hardest leads in the Gunks in the early 1960's, John Stannard sieged the hell out of Foops before getting the FFA in 1967. The horse was out of the barn way before sport climbing came along. Miriam Underhill in 1957, commenting on the use of pitons to protect the leader during free ascents: "that is exactly the same climb it was before, only safer. It most definitely is not the same climb. These modern climbers are getting from their pitons an enormous help, without admitting it or, perhaps, even realizing its extent...It is not the same climb, because the piton removes or greatly mitigates the penalty for failure...For even if the modern climber never needs to use these pitons, they are there, removing from his mind a great weight of responsibility." The interplay of ethics and technology dates to an era well before the widespread use of the expansion bolt.

Whither the Love Children...

There is something charmingly rude about the east coast that I miss out here. This would never happen in Seattle. I'll know I've been gone for a long, long time when "charmingly" is the adjective that appears before the word "rude" when describing my recollections the average Bostonian...

Take it easy on the guy. It's not as easy to find good interns as it used to be...

I would argue that many women are coerced into prostitution and legalization will not change this fact - and not even improve the situation (it could make it worse). That's a possibility, but not one that's equally likely under all regulatory regimes. I think you'd have to consult the statistical record to make a convincing argument one way or another. I think it all comes down to: 1)Whether or not there's a moral case for prohibiting things that mentally competent adults do to themselves in private, or that they choose to do to one another in private. 2)Whether or not you think it's likely that the coercive apparatus devised to limit one particular variety of behavior that fits the description above will remain confined to the said activities. Personally, someone using heroin concerns me far less than the state's enforcement apparatus seizing their assets because they choose to consume a substance that others don't think is very good for them. You have SO got to be an attorney, aren't you?! No, but like many, I often dreamed of a career as such as a child. When I wasn't dreaming of being "Credit Analyst" or other acts of childish whimsy... speaking of which, who ever dreams of becoming a proctologist? One of the many wonders of "the invisible hand" taking over where other motives would fall fall short of providing the incentives necessary to do the job. From what I hear, the combined effects of an aging populace and a high-fat, low-fiber diet means that these guys are, and will, for the foreseeable future, be - making money hand-over-fist. Or hand-over-probe....

Some of the biggest strides in institutionalizing the health and safety of prostitutes have made by sex-workers unions. Here's a link to one of the largest. Lots of info here. Hopefully the Teamsters will be inspired by their example. Since they are both out to make money by screwing the public. Badump-chink. Thank-you, thank-you very much. Anyone out there? But seriously...

I would argue that many women are coerced into prostitution and legalization will not change this fact - and not even improve the situation (it could make it worse). That's a possibility, but not one that's equally likely under all regulatory regimes. I think you'd have to consult the statistical record to make a convincing argument one way or another. I think it all comes down to: 1)Whether or not there's a moral case for prohibiting things that mentally competent adults do to themselves in private, or that they choose to do to one another in private. 2)Whether or not you think it's likely that the coercive apparatus devised to limit one particular variety of behavior that fits the description above will remain confined to the said activities. Personally, someone using heroin concerns me far less than the state's enforcement apparatus seizing their assets because they choose to consume a substance that others don't think is very good for them. You have SO got to be an attorney, aren't you?! No, but like many, I often dreamed of a career as such as a child. When I wasn't dreaming of being "Credit Analyst" or other acts of childish whimsy...

Some of the biggest strides in institutionalizing the health and safety of prostitutes have made by sex-workers unions. Here's a link to one of the largest. Lots of info here. Hopefully the Teamsters will be inspired by their example.