Teach kids The Declaration of Independence

It offers a fine educational opportunity for kids of all ages.  Obtain a printed copy or download it and print it out.  Have the kids read parts of it aloud.  Start with the second paragraph of the Declaration, the one that starts off "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,..."  If you have daughters you might point out that "Men" as well as "Mankind" meant (and still means) the whole human race, women and men together.  That usage persists until the rise of feminism.  Tolkien, writing in the 1950's would write of "races of Elves and Dwarves, and Men".  You can also point out to both sons and daughters that this clause prohibits titles of nobility (Duke, Earl, Marquis, Baron, etc) in America and to Americans.  This occurred at a time when the Great Powers, England, Spain, Russia, and France, all had hereditary nobles.  The first part of the Declaration is still alive and meaningful.  Jefferson's later list of specific grievances against the British Crown are of lesser importance today.  The grievances are political grievances from 250 years ago and their time has largely passed.  In 1776 they were important.  The Declaration of Independence was also a declaration of war against the British Crown, and Jefferson wanted to rally as many Americans to the patriot cause as he could.

Should US States be able to declare bankruptcy?

Been some discussion of this on the TV news.  We have some states that are pretty deep underwater.  They keep themselves running by borrowing from banks and Gawd-knows-who.  Right now I believe the states are considered “sovereign risk”, which means they will never go bankrupt and can always pay back the loan by raising taxes.  So it is perfectly legal to loan states more money, all the money they want.  And if the state looks flaky, charge them a good stiff interest rate. 

   Should there be a state bankruptcy option, some deep under water states will take it, and the banks will loose money big time.  Which ought to make the banks more wary lending to states that will never be able to pay them back.  Sucker banks in New York loaned Puerto Rico $80 billion over the years.  Puerto Rico is never going to be able to pay that off, so they just got a special act of Congress allowing them to declare bankruptcy.  The sucker banks will have to kiss off $80 billion, which is enough to hurt even the big banks.  Puerto Rico is going to have to tighten its belt, because nobody in their right mind is going to loan them a dime for many many years. 

   It is reasonable for a state to borrow money for a long term capital project like new school buildings, new bridges, and new flood control projects.  It is not reasonable for a state to borrow money for ordinary operating expenses such as paying state workers salaries or pensions, plowing the roads, or fixing potholes.   If states could declare bankruptcy the banks would be more cautious lenders.  States that do declare bankruptcy will find that nobody will loan to them, which ought to be incentive enough to avoid doing bankruptcy.

   In short, allowing states to declare bankruptcy will save tax payers money, save the banks money, and cut down on “waste, fraud, and abuse” by the states.

Consumer Reports is all about foreign cars, Detroit is dead

I picked up the New Cars version of Consumer Reports, big thick one topic special magazine.  I'm an old car buff, I thought I would see what CR thinks about the current crop of cars.  You never know, I might need to replace my fifteen year old Buick sometime.
   They wrote 57 pages comparing cars, best cconobox, best minivan, best this, best that, and so forth.  Virtually every single car they listed was a foreign car, Japan, Korea, Germany, and others.  A few, very few, US cars listed.  Chevy scored occasionally, so did Ford.  Very occasionally Dodge, Buick, and Cadillac.  Poor old Caddy was down to a single listing.  But 95% of all the listings were for foreign cars.  Better sell your Detroit motor stocks.  Detroit is doomed.
  One problem Detroit has is brand dilution,  Chevy is offering 16 different models, 7 SUV's or SUV wannabe', 4 sedans, 2 hot rods, 2 pickup trucks, and some odd balls.  That's too many.  Seven of 'em were things I had never heard of or seen before.  And I am a car buff and pay attention such things.  Average car buyer is less informed than I am.  If we have never heard of it, it ain't gonna sell.
  One problem is Chevy doesn't advertise on TV anymore. And the car rags like Road and Track, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and their ilk are dying out.
   Another problem is Chevy isn't really serious about the econobox market.  The bulk of the cars on the road these days are little cheap econoboxes.  Chevy's offerings ain't cheap ($13K and $16 K) for Sonic (Sonic is a hedgehog and Beretta is an Italian handgun) and Spark (Spark suggests electrical trouble). Good names there.  Behemoths like GM need to sell into the high volume market.  There ain't enough guys with Corvette money to keep GM alive.

A New Windows loophole?

Got a kind of scary email this morning.  The From address was the password I use to log into my home desktop.  Dunno how he got that.  Windows has so many loopholes, he must have found another one.  I don't use that password for anything other than logging into the desktop.  The email claimed to have captured all my porn watching, and made an obscene movie of me and threatened to email both to all sorts of people.  I doubt the obscene movie part since the desktop lacks a camera and I have a piece of masking tape over the camera in the laptop.
   Any how I changed my password and started running anti virus programs. 

I went Grocery shopping today

Depressing.  Most everybody, including yours truly, was wearing face masks.  More empty shelves.  Higher prices.  Hamburger up to $6.99 a pound.  Beef running between $10 and $20 a pound.  The only chicken was 4 packs of skinless boneless tasteless breasts $3 a pound.  Far more than I can eat before it goes bad.  Consumer Reports magazine $13.  Supply chain is breaking down.
   Only good sight was gasoline at Exxon Mobil for only $1.84 a gallon. 

Thinking of purchasing your first firearm?

If you are new to firearms, you need to know the basic safety rules

1. Always treat every gun as loaded.
2. Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill
3. Keep your finger off the trigger and outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.
4. After picking up a firearm make sure it is unloaded.  Always open the chamber and make sure no cartridge is lurking therein.

Guns are made that shoot various different cartridges of vastly different powers, starting with .22 Long Rifle and working up to Dirty Harry’s 44 magnum and .223 and 30-30 and 30-06 and .308 Winchester and 12 gauge shotgun.  I can recommend firing the more potent cartridges before buying a gun chambered for them.  You may find that the report and recoil of the more potent cartridges is so bad that you cannot shoot them well.  In which case buy a gun chambered for a lesser cartridge that you can shoot well. 

    Guns need to fit you.  It’s like buying clothing.  Long guns want to have the correct length of stock, so that your trigger hand can reach the trigger comfortably.  Hand guns are pickier about feel.  I learned hand guns in the Air Force.  At the time, the Air Force issue handgun was a .38 caliber revolver of the sort the police used in those days.  That was one miserable gun to shoot.  The grip was too small, the grips were old and soaked in gun oil and slippery.  The piece would twist in my hand with each shot, making the second and third shots harder.  About that time I acquired an Army .45 automatic.  That was a joy to shoot; the grip filled my hand nicely, and was at the right angle to push straight back rather than twisting.  The piece was always just right in my hand for the next shot.  I strongly recommend getting to a range and shooting off a box of ammunition in the handgun you want to buy before laying out the money to buy it.  Long guns are not so critical; if the stock feels right in the store you will most likely be happy with it.   Little pocket pistols chambered for full house cartridges lack the weight to soak up the recoil and the short barrel creates an ear shattering report.   Full sized service pistols will serve you better with the full house cartridges.

   Once you have the gun, you need to shoot it if you expect to hit anything with it.  Once a month is good, a couple of times a year is the bare minimum.   Buy a pair of ear defenders and wear them.  Other wise the recoil and the report will shock you into a flinch that ruins your chances of hitting much of anything.  Use both hands to shoot a hand gun.  Before firing take a half breath and hold it.  Center the front sight on the target bullseye; line the front sight up in the rear sight. notch. Squeeze the trigger slowly and gently.  It should be a surprise when the gun fires. 

That digital TV cable is noisy

The sound is full of clicks and pops and just roaring sounds and musical score leaking in from other channels.  To say nothing of ringing telephones, furniture moving noises and emergency vehicle sirens.  From the sound of it they have a fire truck, an ambulance, or police cruiser zipping by every few minutes.  They need to move the studio to a quieter part of town and keep telephones out of the studio.  And get maintenance to track down and eliminate those annoying electronical noises in their sound channel.