Writing to the desktop and taskbar without asking is so 2001. (more)
Browsing through the political section of a US Book store is a disappointing task. The books themselves are rubbish. Hard to believe that the modern publishers are the end result of the same ones that published The Rights of Man and The Federalist Papers. Via TE, Stephen Pollard [UK] offers some insight:
The key to these books is the serialisation. They turn a book into a news story. And they provide the real money behind the mega-deal advances. I made some money from sales but almost all my advance came from the serialisation. The same will be true for Cherie Blair and Prescott.I don't recall seeing a lot of books serialised in the US, though some are, maybe the guaranteed blockbuster ones, like "Bush at War". I think it is the cable news networks and the book merchandising that follows on from them is what has lowered the tone of American political discourse. (reply)
Yesterday, Bio-Diesel was $4.76 per gallon. That's the bad news. The good news is I can drive a long way on one of those gallons and I make an OK salary.
Others are not so lucky. I call them the Driving Class. (more)
This article is correct, but it is also an inside window into the fall of American conservatism. It is written in populist terms with some mythical conspiratorial elite and supposedly non-elected policy makers:
That is the deal the Federal Reserve has made on behalf of the public. It's the latest chapter in the socialization of risk and its corollary, moral hazard. Anyone who works long enough on Wall Street knows, at least subconsciously, that this is the way things work: if the going gets tough, a small coterie of unelected and mostly unaccountable officials in Washington will probably decide that your employer is too important to fail. In an effort to keep that from happening, wages, savings, fixed-income streams, and Social Security checks will be inflated away to "ensure the stability of the financial system."I agree that this risk shouldn't be socialised, and there was a time when US policy makers would let big companies fail without being bailed out, however this article serves more as insight into conservatism's lost nature. You can imagine a populist like Chavez railing against the government with the same language. (more)
Currently reading; War and Liberty (more)
Paid $3.79 USD a gallon yesterday making this quickly out of date.
Despite appearances my car is pretty easy on petrol averaging 23 to 24 mpg in commuter driving and nearly 30 mpg when on the highway. Better than a family sedan, most smaller cars and certainly an SUV. The issue isn't the gas price itself, it is the rabid inflation that has come with gas prices recently. It was not long ago when I came to Arizona that I was paying $2.50 a gallon. (more)
Despite appearances my car is pretty easy on petrol averaging 23 to 24 mpg in commuter driving and nearly 30 mpg when on the highway. Better than a family sedan, most smaller cars and certainly an SUV. The issue isn't the gas price itself, it is the rabid inflation that has come with gas prices recently. It was not long ago when I came to Arizona that I was paying $2.50 a gallon. (more)
Spartan coin was iron rods - ie rusty nails. (more)
Workchoices and judicial activism in striking it down? Wouldn't that have been judicial conservatism, not activism?
The Federal Government should never have gotten the power over Industrial Relations. It mostly hinged on the definition of 'constitutional corporation' along with the ignoring of the head of power (xxxv) which is an explicit grant of power that limits a broad reading of constitutional corporation. (more)
