Caturday: Economic Genius Edition

Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist who’s been wrong about everything from the internet to economic cycles (repeatedly)

has - gasp! - had his IP address embarrassingly compromised!!!!

Or so he claims. Some critics are a bit dubious, claiming he’s pulling an Eichenwald and trying to get out in front of the story (pardon the French, but we’re talking about progressive pervs here).

I ask you, does this serious economic journalist look like a pervert to you?

Of course he does but don’t hold that against his cats, they were brought there against their will.

“Yeah, I’m with pedo, but it’s strictly an economic arrangement; he buys me anything I want to eat and I leave hairballs in his shoes.”

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It’s Friday; Don’t Do Anything You’ll Regret…

Like take an ax to your computer.

Given my computer situation – new one’s on the blink and old one’s a dinosaur that’s nearly as unstable as the one I’m having fixed  – I will be pre-posting threads for today through Monday. I won’t be around much so you know the drill: have fun, behave (not mutually exclusive) and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Should you by some chance reach the end of the internet and have nothing else to talk about might I suggest you go back and replumb the Megxit story. Such royal virtue signaling is so full of comedy gold you could easily work this one story until long after my computer problems are resolved.

Throwback Thursday: Making Better Mistakes Tomorrow For Over 100 Years

“It was characteristic of the Jazz Age that it had no interest in politics at all. It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, writing about the Twenties in 1931

This year Throwback Thursdays will be dedicated to a look back at how we have changed – or not – during the past century. 

First I would update Fitzgerald’s quote for the Roaring Twenties of the 21st century:

“It was characteristic of the Jazzed Age that it had no interest at all other than politics. It was an age of miracles, it was an age of pseudo-art, it was an age of excess and it was the end of satire.”

It’s scary if you allow yourself to reflect too long: all of the excess, decadence  and modernity, but none of the fun. And this time instead of bathtub gin and bootlegged liquor it’s fueled by both legal booze AND weed!

What could possibly go wrong?

I strongly suspect this century’s Roaring Twenties will, once again, be chalked up as the Decade Dedicated to  Making Better Mistakes Tomorrow.

1920:

‘No throat irritation or cough’  but your lungs? Toasted.

2020…

Throat irritation, check, lung irritation, check, cough, check, brain…toasted

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Wednesday: Actually Doing The Things

As part of my helpful “How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions For Sure This Time” tutorial I would like to post this public service announcement. It’s a gentle reminder that the most important part of accomplishing any resolution is, well:

Henceforth Wednesdays are dedicated to actually doing all those things you put on your “To Do This Year List” - the one’s you’ve been wanting to do, meaning to do, threatening to do or just feeling guilty about not doing. For example, #1 on my list: re-grouting the shower.

Yeah, that’s not happening today. Maybe not even this year. Next!

Tuesday: A New Year (Day), A New You

Consider this my contribution to your New Year’s resolution:

Take as many as you’d like. You’re welcome.

And hang in there! At least through the end of the week.

Monday: Heinlein’s Crazy Years

If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Joey B has nothing to worry about.

It seems Joey voted for retaliation against Iran strikes against the U.S. in 1996 before he voted against it in 2020 A.D. (After Donald, in case you forgot). In fact he said straight out that Iran attacking U.S. service barracks In Dharan was an act of war:

As a U.S. senator in 1996, Joe Biden characterized a deadly bombing orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as an “act of war” that gave the United States latitude to respond with any level of force it deemed necessary, a far cry from his current calls for President Donald Trump to explain his decision to kill Qassem Soleimani.

I should point out that Joey was also one of several Democrats who later claimed to have voted against the Iraq war  – before they voted for it -  or something. He claimed that he had somehow been tricked into voting for the war by the diabolical President George W. Bush…or something.

“I did make a bad judgment, trusting the president saying he was only doing this to get inspectors in and get the U.N. to agree to put inspectors in. From the moment ‘shock and awe’ started, from that moment, I was opposed to the effort, and I was outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and the administration.”

Even the WaPo fact checker gave him a solid “false” on that claim, which is probably a good thing. Normally anyone that susceptible to brainwashing and mental confusion would automatically be disqualified from running for president; and if you don’t believe me just as Mitt’s dad.  But don’t expect any of this to make sense, as Glenn Reynolds has pointed out repeatedly, we are living Heinlein’s Crazy Years.

Everything’s Gotten Better Except Computers…and Democrats

In case you have forgotten - or didn’t need to take note at the time - I would like to remind you again to never, ever buy a HP computer. I’m having another (major) computer problem. Less than 2 years old and I’ve already had it repaired once (to no avail) and then replaced under warranty. The new one worked for 8 months until this recent snafu. All of my issues have a common thread: drivers that will not load or load incorrectly. I’m as far from a techy as you could imagine and if I can diagnose the commonality in what is obviously an ongoing problem with their very expensive computer why can’t they fix it?

I can’t send it in for repair until we arrive in Park City sometime in the near future so until then I will have use my old computer which was having its own problems or I wouldn’t have replaced it in the first place. All of which is a long way of saying posts will be short for the foreseeable future as both my computers have gone berserk. If I didn’t know better I’d think they were Democrats.

Newsflash: they already have.

It would be nice if an under 2 year old computer could work half as well as an over 50 year old camera. I know, I know: they’re much more complicated.

On an objective basis, and despite all my griping, most things have actually gotten better over the past half century or so. But it is important to identify the exceptions.