Alkahest

Welcome to the new socialist state… comrade.
From Propublica, an inflation adjusted comparison of bailouts.

Oh, on an entirely unrelated note, the U.S. Constitution was signed 221 years ago today - happy birthday!  Okay, it wasn’t ratified for a couple of years after that, but still…
If you’ve got some time, take a read.  It’s still the most impressive government document I’ve ever read.
A few years ago, I wanted to start [...]

So, one more update on Gustav in Baton Rouge and then I’ll return you to your regularly scheduled odd musings, rants and wildlife pictures.
First, the good news - I got a text message from my mother last week.  They got power back!  Only 10 days without power.  I suppose that’s not too bad.  No word [...]

I spoke to my mom for a little while this evening and got an update on where things stand in Baton Rouge or at least in her corner of it.  A summery for those of you interested in Baton Rouge:

The news keeps talking about how mild things were in New Orleans, but the only time [...]

Just got back from a mini-reunion of Cramers in Tennessee.  This was all of my uncles and cousins on my father’s side with the exception of my sister who has a three-week old baby at home.  To answer the obvious question, no.  No one lives in Tennessee, it’s just a more or less central place.  [...]

I knew that there were a lot of chemicals that when ingested could make you stupid.  Drugs, sure.  Lead and mercury, definitely.  But apparently even thinking about oil makes people stupid.  Consider the following:
For weeks, republicans have been pushing the idea that either a) the Cubans are drilling in Cuban waters off the coast of [...]

From etselec and because it amused me, my fortune as told by a random selection of my music with interpretive accompaniment by yours truly:
1. How does the world see me?
Lightnin’ Hopkins - No Education
Ouch. Apparently the world sees me as an academic poseur. I guess I can live with that, but it’s a [...]

Just a couple of minor updates:

my keyboard came in yesterday and it’s everything that I hoped it would be.   I feel sorry for the folk in my office suite.  It is a bit loud
I cropped some of the photos using the original sized images, so all that’s left are captions and fixing the lens [...]

I listened to the president’s speech tonight on the radio and then on the television when I got home.  I don’t know why I do it.  Listening to the president makes my ears want to explode, my eyes want to pop out of my head and my foot want to go through the television.
As near [...]

last week saw the 300 millionth American. I happened to be online about that time and saw the U.S. census office’s population clock hit 3×10^8:

I don’t have too much to say about hitting 300 million people.  It seems like something of a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, population growth helps increase the level [...]