After that we can try a somersault

Wait, I've realized how we can fix our economy, get out of Iraq and do whatever it is we wanna end up doing to brown people (I dunno, sterilization seems to be a good means to what our ends seem to be).

I can't believe we didn't think of this before, but all we have to do is:

DO A BARREL ROLL!

And The Chances Are Good ...

Still waiting.

"There's a good chance that I will take a nap and then head out to our nearest Wal-Mart to blog it for you"

And sad.

UPDATE (29 November 2009 @ 0025): Nothing yet.

Happy Turkey Day!

Yay! We won! Let's celebrate with a turkey.

Be Still, My Beatng Heart

25 Nov 2009 01:34 pm

Looking Ahead to Black Friday

Thanksgiving is here, which for some people means the start of a month of overeating.  For others, of course, it marks the start of a month of overspending, kicked off by Black Friday.

Damn fat people again. But we can not wait for this.

And Wal-Mart is staying open on Thanksgiving, ostensibly in order to prevent the traditional crushing deaths that regularly occur when they open their doors.  There's a good chance that I will take a nap and then head out to our nearest Wal-Mart to blog it for you, and also (she mumbled) to maybe buy a Cricut Expression for all the wedding stuff we have to make over the next six months.

Oh, I hope she means it. Do not disappoint us.

I Hope You Heal Up Real Quick

25 Nov 2009 12:49 pm

Holiday Moderation

Ezra Klein has a nice column on how you might keep yourself from overeating this Thanksgiving.  I cannot actually recommend my current strategy, which is to get bilateral un-crowned root canals¹, so that you have to spend the next three weeks eating only foods which are squishy.  But it does seem to be working.

¹ Before you start in with the inevitable aspersions on my oral hygeine, they resulted from two prior fillings which shrank away from the tooth, letting bacteria underneath. After all my teeth are repaired, I am going to track down the dentist who did both fillings and give him a sound lashing* with my portable waterpik.

Poor Megan expects her comment crew to attack her oral hygeine. Maybe this is the libertarian version of self-criticism: They all sit in a circle & accuse each other of failing at personal responsibility.

*Elements of Style©: Is the imaginary "lashing" from this? Stop mixing metaphors. Please.

Just for starters, one can't "lash" anyone w/ a solid object. A lashing w/ the cord from her Waterpik® would at least have made sense. And I do sympathize, having had a couple of older fillings fall out completely. So "track down" & sue the bastard dentist, or don't. But don't threaten him or her w/ mixed-up passive-aggressive metaphors.

Being Wrong

We can be wrong, too. I was actually going to post on this anyway, but -- as Megan notes -- the police now say that the census worker we all thought was killed by some anti-government loon in fact killed himself.

It doesn't really change the fact that Michelle WachWoman and Glenn Bleck are dangerous loons, and I don't feel too bad about thinking that a man who intentionally tried to make it look like he was murdered was murdered. I was still wrong. Shame on me.

A Big Pixies Photo Post

apologies to those with a slow internet connection. I got a spot up front, and Kim Deal's setlist. Me happy. The setlist doesn't include everything from the encores. There was also Isla De Encanta, Vamos, Nimrod's Son, Where Is My Mind?, and Gigantic.

TMI

23 Nov 2009 03:57 pm

We're Going Broke Anyway, So Why Not Spend Like Drunken Sailors?

I don't pretend to be an economic expert, but that sounds like a good idea. Even better if phrased "We're drunken sailors, so why not go broke?"

Anyway, info & advice from one who's lived it, & somehow finds it pertinent to expanded health care:

Anyone who has dated a manic-depressive has heard some version of this argument.  "I can barely make ends meet now, so I might as well use my tax refund check to buy a boat!  After all, if I can't figure out a way to fix my budget, I'm going to go bankrupt anyway."

And anyone who has dated a manic-depressive knows where this ends.

She won't share w/ those who haven't dated bi-polar sufferers where it all ends. We're not sure if that's good or bad. This is definitely bad:

I also have no idea why anyone would think that there is no difference between going bankrupt for a huge sum, and going bankrupt for a smaller amount.  I mean, there's sometimes no difference for the debtor, but of course, there are a whole bunch of creditors who are also people, and who are not going to be paid back, some of whom may end up in bankruptcy themselves if you default.  Since in this case, many of the creditors are the American people, I would think that even the most corporation-hating, bank-despising, littleguyophilic liberal would sort of worry about this.

Is there any point in going on? [Reads the remainder. Alright, scroll-scannned the rest of it. C'mon.] No, it's something about the gov't. going bankrupt ("but of course, there are a whole bunch of creditors who are also people," See, you're going to pay for the boat your manic depressive boyfriend bought, thinking it was health insurance — she's not kidding — if this bill is passed.) because "a bunch of people are going to leave their employer health insurance under this plan for some subsidized plan--millions of them, according to the CBO." Bunches of millions of people.

Too, our new boat health care plan may have unexpected maintenance costs, as health care plans, and boats, are wont to do.  Since we've already spent our spare source of cash, and our budget has no margin for error,  our new purchase obviously places us at much greater risk of fiscal disaster.

Just as a possible bankrupt would be better off putting the cash in the bank than spending it on some new desire, we would be fiscally better off doing nothing, than we would in taking on a gargantuan new entitlement.  Yet, most of the responses to those of us who worry about the fiscal effects have so far been about the same as you get from your favorite manic depressive:  "But think how great it would be to have a BOAT!"

Should've quit while I was ahead. My sincere apology to anyone who read what little I posted. I take full responsibility.

The Law of Averages Would Indicate You Did Something Wrong at Some Point

Shorter Megan McArdle:

My expertise in the methods of scientific researches as well as a few cherry picked quotes leads me to some very important conclusions. If only people would stop romanticizing scientists and maybe start calling them "out of touch" or "elitist" or something. The defenders of these scientists are completely biased as shown by their failure to acknowledge that the researchers that they back aren't completely perfect.

This Compass Points South

FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

If the favorables stay above 40%, I think we stand a very good chance of getting a bill before next March.

Let's hope she's only wrong about the March part.....