Stratification

As America sees record numbers of new millionaires (see posts on Justus for All) the poverty rate also continues to increase. America has the highest poverty rate of any industrialized nation, and it continues to slowly climb each year. According to the US Census, the poverty rate was 11.7% in 2001, and up to 12.7% by 2004 (the latest figures). This shows wealth being concentrated in the hands of a smaller elite. When the upper class and the impoverished class both continue to grow, the middle class necessarily decreases. This effect is more pronounced in the rest of the world. Between 1989 and 1998, the number of people living in Latin America on two dollars a day or less grew from 33.7% to 35.8%. This number is even worse taking into consideration that those are real dollars, not inflation adjusted.

UPDATE: As an example I lifted this chart from the IMF webpage. It shows growth in per capita income for all people in the world, but more striking is the growing difference in the income of the upper quartile and lower quartile. Not shown is a chart of inflation to compare this against. Also, it is noted on the IMF website that although this chart gives the impression that all per capita incomes have increased, some poor countries have actually seen an inflation adjusted decrease in per capita income. Others have seen a real decrease in actual dollars. I am still looking for a chart that breaks down exactly how much wealth is controlled by the upper quartile versus the other three.

Corruption in America

John Gotti, Jr was recently acquitted (although by a hung jury) and House Majority Leader Tom Delay was recently indicted by a grand jury. Is it possible that the Mafia is more upstanding than our own Congress? If Delay is convicted will that be a sign that we need to change some of the fundamentals of the way we choose our leaders?

A bigger safer budget

Does a larger defense budget make our country a safer place? The Skeptical Optimist hints that our reduced spending in the late 90s left the country vulnerable to attack, and could be responsible for our current entrenchment in two wars. Is this believable? Was Iraq emboldened by our cutbacks? Probably not, because evidence has shown that they had not resumed programs to created WMDs. Was Al Qaeda cowed by our impressive array of weaponry? Didn't look like it. We are currently involved in a "War on Terror", which makes our probable opponents terrorists. Terrorists by definition fight against overwhelming odds by attacking soft targets and avoiding direct conflict. Because of this, a military of immense size does little to deter their activities. But when the terror was connected to a state sponsor (Afghanistan's Taliban), surely our ability to shock and awe caused them to cringe? No. They still refused to hand over Bin Laden. We continue to fight insurgents in both of the countries we occupy, despite an overwhelming military superiority. So the War on Terror is not necessarily helped by building new aircraft carriers and stockpiles of missles. We are the world's biggest spender in terms of military budget. In fact, it takes the next 27 highest countries to equal our budget. Are we that much safer? Perhaps its time to focus more on providing security and quick response at home instead of expanding our network of over 700 overseas bases (not counting bases in Iraq or Afghanistan).

Delay...

I hope the fillet Delay (here is a link on how to say that word if you your are a moron) .

As much as I like some of the things the republican party does, they are still politicians. As a rule, politicians are not a group I admire for their outstanding morals. Ohh sure their are some good ones, just like some people are innocent on death row.

The GOP should exorcise Delay for several reasons. I will concentrate on the one they might relate to (as morals and ethics don't translate when you are talking to politicians). It is bad for the party even if he wins.

Also, memo to Delay, saying your are innocent does not convince anybody of that fact. Remember OJ and Micheal both do that.

cube

Go M-Town

Source: "Among those eligible to receive food stamps but not getting them, the widest gap was in Oakland, California, where an estimated 23 percent of eligible people in Alameda County get food stamps.

Next was San Diego County, California, with 26 percent of those eligible getting food stamps, and Houston, where an estimated 40 percent of Harris County residents got food stamps.

The highest levels of participation were in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and the Memphis area in Shelby County, Tennessee. In those communities, 90 percent of people eligible for food stamps received them."

Go memphis...oh wait....that is not a good thing.

cube

Disappointed

Today I watched "hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy". I was at the local blockbuster and I thought that I was in the mood for some Sci-fi. I then saw this movie and I thought I was in the mood for quirky Sci-fi. I now feel more depressed than I did before I watched the movie. You know sometimes Hollywood should just keep their hands off of books. Sometimes they do a great job of taking books to movies. I cite lord of the rings and the Harry potter movies as my evidence for that statement.

Other times they do a good job with the movie, but the movie fails to capture the magic of the book. I cite Hitchhiker as an example. The movie as a stand along piece was actually good. On a technical side of things, I could not find anything wrong at all. The fit and finish was good. They set was nice and the characters were fun. Though somehow this movie failed to capture even one percent of the greatness of the books. It could be that the book(s) took their time with the story. Or it could be the story in the books was better because it was spread over several books, which allowed for a better story. It could be that the magic of the book was just impossible to capture on film. I really don't know, but if you liked the books I doubt you will like the movie. If you have never read the books, I doubt that you will like the movie. You can't win with this movie, so don't even try.

cube

Skeptical Optimist

Cube linked to one of his articles, and I have found several things that I take exception to. However, he has no functioning links for commentary, so I have decided to take up the debate here. I don't know where to begin. First, he argues that any amount of debt is ok as long as we are spending it on things that we need. He assures all of us that the United States will continue to have a large, prosperous economy for the rest of our lives, and any amount of debt can be carried by this economic colossus. Because we have never had a recession before, have we? He attacks one commentator for pointing out that China owns a significant amount of US debt. Japan owns more, and he is outraged that China was the only country singled out as a threat. Could that be because Japan's economy is for better or worse heavily dependent on ours and they have no military to speak of? Anyone else see that as non-threatening? He also says that we are in better shape economically now than at the end of the Clinton presidency because we spend less of our budget (percentage wise) on debt interest. And could that be due to the balanced budget that Clinton left? I don't see how Bush's rampant spending could be the thing that saved us from debt payments. This is getting long so I will wrap it up with a quote from Optimist's blog "Every time I see this chart it makes me wonder: What if we could have mustered the courage as a nation to keep national security spending on an even keel, and managed it effectively; might we have prevented a war or two?"
Wow. Because we have seen from Bush that a large military is the best deterrent, and we won't attack anyone preemptively, even based on evidence that is later proven to be nonexistent.

Mining the Moon

The only way that I could see NASA justifying their budget is if they began to produce some useful results. If they found a resource that we could use on the moon, or even Mars, then I would be all for them building space elevators and spending millions of dollars on old rockets and space shuttles. Even if they built a permanent base on the moon I think that would help to caputre the imagination of a country that hasn't noticed them accomplish anything significant for the last 36 years.

Because we have nothing better do with our money...

NASA is hoping to build an elevator to outer space. A carbon filament ribbon will stretch from a platform floating above the equator to a space station. A lifting device will carry cargo from the platform into space. If it works it will drastically decrease the expense related to moving equipment into space. Which makes sense, but do we really need it right now? And what is the purpose of going back to the moon? Is it just to prove that the space program has not slipped past their 1969 capabilities? I know there are a lot of happy sci fi fans out there, but we have much more pressing issues here on this planet, and there are millions of better ways to waste money.

Those crazy British

Now this comes from Drudge. Here he does what he does best; finds the crazy stories and brings them to our attention.

Source:""Many of these couples are simply not having sex or not having enough sex," he said. "Conception has become medicalised. It's too clinical. There has been a trend away from having sex and loving relationships towards medicalised conception.""

That is just odd. Which is more fun, going to the doctor or playing doctor. Which is cheaper, going to the doctor or playing doctor. There is no upside to medicalized conception, if you can conceive naturally.

"Mr Dooley practices at Westover House clinic and the Lister Hospital, both in south-west London, and a clinic in Poundbury, Dorset. He said: "I have people who come to me for IVF who haven't got time for sex. Those people don't care about looking for a lifestyle or maximizing their natural potential."
....
....
"People want everything now. If they can't have a baby now, they want IVF. They think it's no different from putting your name down for a handbag. Some people are horrified by the idea that they have to have sex two to three times a week. About 10 per cent of people I see don't have time to have sex. It's usually when you have two professionals who are based in the city and are very busy."

If you don't have time for sex, what makes you think you have time for kids! Before you have kids you had better have time to take care of them. Think of them as a particularly needy pet.

I wonder how long these doctor visits take. In Britain, people are going to private clinical, so their is probably very little wait time in the waiting room either due to the fact no one uses private clinics or they are better ran than the national health system. But remember that you still have to extract the genetic information from the donor to combine with the host. That takes time. Also, each participant in the medical process would still have to drive to the clinic or take public transportation. Come one people...JUST...GET...A...ROOM.

""Mothers might be working or their children sleep in their bed. I told one of my patients who is going through IVF that another IVF patient had just conceived naturally. She said: 'What? She's having sex? Bloody Luddite'.""

Send the kids to mothers. Call me traditional, but for me and my household we will choose the natural (if possible) method of reproduction.

cube

Bipartisan Bashing

I have said enough about Republicans for the time being and would like to take aim at Democrats over two issues. The first one is opportunistic partisan finger pointing over the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The problems were more a failing of United States emergency response than any party related policies. The bickering between the two only obscured the actual issues that need to be addressed. Although Bush may have been slow to respond, I applaud his stand in taking the blame as head of state and moving on to recovery. The second issue is the appointment of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. I have been quiet so far because I have been exploring the arguments. But there don't seem to be any. I have yet to hear one complaint about his qualifications or views. The only thing I have seen him criticized for is the fact that he is not known well enough. He has had a long career in the judiciary system, and he did not seem to be holding back during his Congressional investigation. Either there is a reason to oppose him, or he should be supported and appointed with minimal fuss. There are a plethora of other issues that are far more deserving of public debate at this point. It's time to move on.

Rogue State?

Would you consider a nation that is currently in possession of nuclear weapons, and developing more, a rogue state if it declared its intention to use them preemptively, as it saw fit? What if that nation refused to abide by standards of international law, even charters and treaties that it had not only signed but actually sponsored? What if the nation declared its inalienable right to attack other nations unilaterally, and without publicly divulging its reasons for doing so? Would you be less likely to label this nation as "rogue" if you lived there? Check out an analysis of the new Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations at www.nukestrat.com

That is one view point

Source

""Criminalizing abortion requires women who have unwanted or nonconsensual pregnancies to go forward with the pregnancies, and there is nothing comparable with men," said Robin West of Georgetown University's law school. "The most straightforward constitutional argument is that mandatory or nonconsensual pregnancies impose a requirement of 'Good Samaritanism' that is not required of men.""

Except that the law also requires men to pay money for this child each month for a very long time. If that is not a requirement of "Good Samaritanism" for men then I do not know what is.

I love how the speaker wraps the "Oh damn, I pregnant" pregnancies up with the "Oh damn, I pregnant because I got raped" pregnancies. The issue of unwanted consensual pregnancies is completely different than the issue of unwanted nonconsensual pregnancies. Basically the woman had the choice to not get pregnant with the consensual cases. They could do any number of things: Not have sex, use birth control, or use a condom (male or female). They made their choice and used that card. They now should not beable to make a belated choice because they were irresponsible, especially when a another's life is involved.

""What strikes me as the most burdensome of this requirement of mandatory pregnancy is that it imposes on a woman that she use her body in a certain way. We're all required to pay taxes, etc., but we're not required to do with our body things we don't want to do. ... It is a striking anomaly in the law ," West told FOXNews.com."

That is a load of bull crap also. The same people who are telling me I cannot smoke in some areas are the same people telling me that a woman has supreme right over her body because...well...she is a woman. We are a required to do things (or not do things) with our body that we don't want to do. Where do you think those taxes come from...from the time our bodies put in at work. There are probably some states where I girl can get an abortion but still cannot get a tattoo. I am forced to go the speed limit. I am sure I put some time on this list; I could come up with more items.

cube

Can anyone say Mexico?

Source: "Only a few hours after those on the coast began fleeing the area news outlets were reporting that given the sheer numbers of evacuees there was not a hotel room available in the entire state of Texas. This means that people without relatives or friends outside the storm zone would have to go all the way out of state to the north or to the west to escape. The staggering amount of cars trying to flee the area means that such a trip could easily take 24 hours to get to a safe destination. Right now every single route out of the area is bumper to bumper in traffic that is barely moving, trips through Houston of just a few miles are reported to take over 5 hours! For many in the area there is simply nowhere to go."

I am fairly sure that if a large number evacuees tried to get into Mexico that they would quickly overwhelm the border infrastructure, though it does seem to be were people are NOT going. It is kind of like if you want lunch at noon. Where do you go? The worst place in town, their is always room there.

cube

Houston

My girlfriend has two older sisters who are still in Houston. They did not leave two days ago, so there was not really much use in trying to leave through the chaos. They figured they were safer in their house than in their car. They have no guns, though they do have a few swords. I guess that is better than nothing. Their house has flooded before, so there is a real good chance that their house will flood again. One sister was sent to buy food and bottled water, it was chaos at the stores.

Prayers are in order.

cube

Free Solar

I was having a conversation with a recent Hurricane Katrina victim. She said that FEMA is either paying for generators, or reimbursing people for their purchase if they lost electricity for a significant amount of time. She wondered if a solar generator would be covered as opposed to one that ran on gas or diesel. Solar generators have several advantages. One being the obvious environment-friendly, tree-hugger factor, but a more practical one being that they don't need to be refueled. If your electricity is knocked out, chances are that you also don't have readily available access to open gas stations (as they are also closed due to power outages). Even if you do, who would want to buy gas when they can have free sunlight? Hurricanes typically draw up most available moisture and provide a few beautiful sunny days after they pass. The added value of the solar generators would be that you could still use them to lower your monthly bills after your normal electricity is restored. Since the common complaint about solar energy is that it is too costly to purchase initially, this may be a great time to get it for free. If you have friends or family affected by a hurricane, mention the idea.

New project

The applications for this type of tool could be with out limits. If you are not going to click. Lets just say it is a homemade sentry gun. Like the kind they have in video games

cube

A great fisking

Here is a great fisking by the The Skeptical Optimist.

cube

The first in a bunker series

Part One: Welcome to My Underground Bunker
Updates....
Part Two: How to Hide a Fallout Shelter in the Middle of Suburbia
Part Three: Is There Good Reason to Hide Your Shelter?

cube

About time

If you wanted a good shooting tip, this post (On Shooting) at Texican Tattler is a good place to start.

I personally think this might help out my girlfriend, who does not quite have the strength to control the recoil from my gun in the weaver stance I taught her. Heck, i did not even know there was a "modern isosceles" stance until i read that post.

cube