Terrible Timer (kitchen timer that is)

It was cheap, $3 and a skosh at Wally Mart.  It ain't loud enough.  The all metal sixty year old timer it replaced, had a good loud single "ding" loud enough to be heard all over the living room.  This new cheap all plastic wonder timer just ain't loud enough.  I have burned half a dozen things to a crisp because I failed to hear the too soft, too short, buzz the new plastic one makes. 
   The maker was ashamed of his product and failed to put his name on it.  It does have "Made in China" stamped in the inside.  It's all white, about 3 inches wide by 3 inches high, half round top.  If we ever get the stores open again I will look for something better. 

Teach the kids the US Constitution

At the end of the American Revolution there were 13 independent colonies.  Each colony had its own legislature to make laws, a governor to execute them, courts to enforce them, an army, a navy, a diplomatic corps, taxes, and an establishment that ran things.  In short everything you need to become an independent nation.  And the people who were the colonial establishment, the colonial legislature, the administration and the courts, wanted to keep their jobs, their influence, and their position.  They all feared a Continental government would usurp their powers, position and livelihood. 
   On the other hand they all feared the British would be back for round two. They all knew that none of them were strong enough to stand off the Redcoats single handed.  They knew they needed to present a united front to a hostile world.  They also knew that the existing Articles of Confederation were not working.  The Confederation lacked even the power to levy its own taxes. 
   So, when the call to a Constitutional Convention went out over George Washington's signature, all the colonies sent a delegation.  All the delegations were intent upon setting up a federal government to handle foreign affairs and national defense  but not one that took over their jobs back home.  Hence a lot of careful language in the Constitution outlining just what powers the new federal government might have, and those powers it would not have. 
   Kids ought to understand the separation of powers into the three branches of the Federal government.  Article 1 creates the Congress to make the laws.  Article 2 sets up the Executive branch to execute existing law but without power to make new law.  Article 3 sets up the federal courts and defines their jurisdiction.  Note that the state courts existing at the time handled ordinary criminal and civil matters and the federal courts were restricted to matters of federal law.  They cannot try a defendant for murder, murder is a state crime, not a federal one. 
   The Constitution had a lot of compromises and on the whole was a very successful document.  It still controls the United States today, with a mere 27 amendments over 230 years.   Of those 27, ten were applied right after the adoption of the Constitution and should really be considered part of the original deal.  That leaves a mere 17 amendments over the course of 230 years, a pretty good record for stability. 

Testing Corona virus to death

Tests don't cure disease.  For a doctor treating a patient, results of a Corona virus test are useful, and can guide his treatment.  Numbers I saw yesterday showed we have nearly one million Corona virus cases and we have conducted five million Corona virus tests.  Sounds to me like we have tested all, and more than all, the patients that doctors are treating.  
   But on TV I see various talking heads,  the network kind and the medical kind and the political kind, calling for more and more testing and claiming that we cannot let people get back to work until we have tested more and more people.
  Why?  If we are testing all the patients, what good does testing everyone in the country do?  Especially when the test is suspicious.  Testing comes back positive on a lot of people who are in good health and show no symptoms.  The medics all say these individuals are "asymptomatic" which is true but doesn't tell us much.  We more practical people might say the test shows a lot of false positives.  With such a test, more testing will make the Corona virus epidemic look worse.   The political and network talking heads are fine with that, they think news of worse Corona virus infection hurts Trump, and they are all dyed in the wool anti-Trumpers.
   Me, I think we need to get the country back to work before we run out of stuff, like food, fuel, clothing, personal protective equipment, prescription drugs, toilet paper and a zillion other things. You can see the shortages in every grocery store, lots of  empty shelves.

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.