Teleprompter Por Favor

Prediction:  As this Presidential campaign continues, Barack Obama is going to continue to get himself in trouble by being asked simple questions and making impromptu statements. In Georgia on Tuesday he gave us all some great advice on raising kids:

Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.

Really?  Is that what we should be doing? Is that what you’re doing Mr. Obama? Do your kids speak Spanish? (Disclaimer:  Our kid is learning Spanish from her mom, but not because Barack Obama or any other asshat running for public office thinks it’s what we should do. It’s mostly so she and her mom can tell secrets and make jokes about me behind my back–at least that’s what the voices tell me.)

Seriously, what the hell does this have to do with running for President? Is this part of your platform–a mandate that everyone should teach their kids Spanish? Is this really part of your stance on immigration? Does it really consists of a component that tells parents which and how many languages their kids should speak?

Some advice–stop improvising and get back to your bread and butter–saying “change” every other word without any details about what this change will entail.  When you start going off on random tangents about trivial things like policy you just confuse everyone.

Anyway…

It’s not fashionable to say so in the circles that Obama travels in, but the power and universality of the English language confirm and strengthen America’s way of life.

Exactly. And Obama is actually right about one thing–immigrants to the U.S. should learn English. But not because of some moronic legislation, and not because some politician suggested it. They should learn English because doing so gives them an economic advantage.

Fed Plans to Meddle…Again

Because further regulating lending is the best way to protect consumers from predatory lenders who are in danger of not being paid.  Who are they trying to protect again?  Sure some people may lose their homes, but they are still free to go rent.  Last time I checked there were still plenty of houses and apartments for rent, and there’s nothing in the Constitution that guarantees us home ownership.

The real losers in this situation should be the institutional lenders who were handing out money like it was popcorn.  The people running these companies are supposedly educated and able to assess risk.  Of course, there really isn’t a need to assess your own risk if you know the tax payers are going forced to assume it for you courtesy of your old college classmates and buddies in the gov’ment.

Washington is so afraid that Wall Street may have to suffer through a bump in the road that they are willing to sell us down the river to keep it from happening.

Hell, why not take over the FICO and every other credit rating system while you’re at it?  You could tie it to income tax returns, making sure that only people who filed taxes had the opportunity to even rent.  And why not handle payroll for every company in the country while you’re doing that so that you can make sure that everyone’s being paid fairly?

More regulation=more expense for the consumer.  Thanks gov’ment!  You’ve effectively made yet another thing more expensive.

AdSense Money Available On Your Feed

This isn’t much of a surprise…it was pretty obvious that the very reason Google bought Feedburner in the first place was so they could roll AdSense into it. And no complaints here either–to their credit, Google immediately made all of the “pro” features of Feedburner available for free as soon as they took ownership. These features are plenty valuable, and I’m happy to have them.

MoneyI’d expect the number of publishers enrolled in the AdSense program to go up (Go here to
). It’s still the easiest way (ok, maybe second easiest way) for small publishers to monetize. And including ads in a feed is even easier than displaying them on your site–no need to add code in the right place or worry about placement and layout, which is the “art” in displaying ads directly in the template. Feedburner is a great way to start playing with AdSense if you’ve never used it and were curious.

The downside? I don’t really see one. The ads are optional. It’s totally up to the feed owner as to whether or not to serve ads. It doesn’t cost anything to display the ads, and while you may not get rich, you may at least make enough change to pay for gas beer hosting. I am a little surprised it took Google so long to integrate AdSense. Then again, they still haven’t fixed the problem with reporting subscribers that shows up every month or so and makes everyone freak out.

So…why aren’t you seeing ads in this feed? I decided a while back that I was going to keep my feed ad free as sort of a “thanks” to the people who subscribe. In that vein, I’ve also made some changes on the actual site layout to make the site a little more friendly to returning visitors by eliminating one of the ad components in the sidebar and eliminating the ad at the end of each post.

That move isn’t entirely unselfish, as I’ve also added a “related posts” component that will hopefully make the site a little more sticky and get more traffic for older posts. Hopefully I’ll be paid off there, as each post older than 7 days now has an ad component at its beginning.

My other idea is to add a “donate” button. That way people who were just about to comment that I should eliminate all ads (you know who you are) could just give me money and feel like they really deserved ad free content.

The Root Cause of the Insurance “Problem”?

I think Coma has hit it pretty much right on the head, and many people may not be seeing the complete picture…

If I didn’t need health insurance, I sometimes wonder how my life would be different because I think I would have probably gone down a different path in the last five years.

That’s strong. So let’s think about this. What would be the result if health insurance were disconnected from employment? I mean, it’s not a far-fetched idea–they don’t pay for your auto-insurance do they? But most people need their car to get to and from work every day. And you’re not even required by law to have health insurance like you are auto insurance (at least in Tennessee).

I realize when I read posts like this that I’m not the only one who is a slave to my health insurance. I wish it were different but it’s not.

Would I be self-employed if it weren’t for this issue?

The answer is yes.

For all of the complaining large companies and corporations do about rising health care premiums and cost of insurance, taking the power (because that’s exactly what it is) of providing health insurance away would be even worse for them. Imagine a mass exodus of people away from their “real jobs” and into other sectors of the work force. We’d probably see a rise in entrepreneurial ventures–would this be a bad thing for our country as a whole? Or maybe lots of people would choose to work for smaller established companies that are doing interesting and innovative work–doing exactly what they love to do all day instead of something they hate just for the “benefits”.

Sounds crazy and paranoid, right? Maybe. But have you ever asked yourself why Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) are only available only to people with high deductible insurance? I can’t think of any reason other than the fact that making HSAs available to everyone would result in a large number of young people saving like mad during their first 10 years in the workforce so that they could afford the risk of striking out on their own in their 30s and 40s. And who would that hurt? I can’t think of anyone who would be more hurt by this than large companies. An easy solution? Lobby to make sure their employees are not eligible for HSAs because the deductible of the health insurance provided by the company is too low.

Let’s take that line of thinking to its logical end, and I’ll ask the question again in a different way. Who has the most to lose by people being able to obtain health insurance without an employer?

As an aside for all of you out there who are supporting one presidential candidate or another because they’re promising you they’ll have *shudder* the gov’ment “give” you health care, I hate to break it to you…

Not. Going. To. Happen.

There are too many people with too much money that can’t afford for this to happen. They’d lose every truly industrious and intelligent worker they have. And if you truly believe that any of the three candidates with a shot to win aren’t in the back pocket of some large business; if you truly believe that any of the three wouldn’t sell “hard working average Americans” down the river in favor of big business in a heartbeat, you probably aren’t smart enough to read this post to the end and understand it anyway. But thanks for trying.

The Blogosphere Is Going to Implode? Nah.

According to Gawker’s Nick Denton, yes.

Gawker head honcho Nick Denton explained to Silicon Alley Insider that the decision to sell the sites was based on the economy, lack of advertising, and his desire to get lean before the blogosphere implodes.

Wait.  Don’t panic.  One prognostication does not a bubble burst.  Don’t rush out to the nearest convenience store to trade in your shares of www.itfrom.us for beef jerkey and (used) scratch of lottery tickets just yet.

Any reasonable person knows that the blogosphere is not going to implode, at least not until someone invents a cheaper and more efficient way than blogging to waste time and money.

HT–Michael Silence

You Wanna Know Why?

I’ll tell you why.  Or I’ll let MonsterNoodle explain it:

Keep on loaning to people that can’t afford it, for things that are not worth it. Enough said.

Read the whole post.

My Only Remodeling Tip

Light blogging (and other stuff) for the last few weeks because I’ve been pouring a lot of time and energy into remodeling my old place (yes that place).  I’ve learned a lot during this process, not only how to do a lot of stuff I didn’t know before, but also some tricks and lessons.  I’ve also learned that I hate doing remodel projects.  I’m not a carpenter (or plumber, or electrician) and I don’t want to be.  I have a ton of respect for people who are good at these things, but that’s just not me.  So what tip could someone who sucks at handy work give you?  It’s pretty simple really:

The amount of time you have left on a project is directly proportional to the amount of money you’ve spent at your most recent trip to Lowe’s.

To clarify, your third trip of the day because the water to the entire complex is off and you need a tool to complete the job so you can turn it back on doesn’t count.  I’m talking about the trip you made based on the list you made of things left to complete.

For example, on my first trip to Lowe’s when starting the project I spent a lot of money on tile and wood flooring.  My subsequent trips were less expensive, but the cost went back up when the real estate agent said to replace everything in the kitchen and baths.  So I was back to spending a lot of money (again) on appliances and vanity tops.  In general, I spent less money on each trip.

Yesterday I had to buy a set of masonry bits and some new light switches–around $16.

Today I bought 5 magnets for cabinet doors and a sponge–just over $6.

Tomorrow I’m taking some stuff back and not buying anything.  That’s right.  They are going to give me money.

That means I’m finished!

What is a Recession?

According to Hoyle“…

Recession Two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP is commonly taken to be a recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private organization, effectively decides when recessions occur, however, and the actual dating process is determined by judgment rather than a formal rule.

So which is it? Is there a firm definition, or is it completely up to judgment? I’d say both. Examining the clinical data, according to the BEA:

  • 2007 Q4 GDP — 0.6%
  • 2007 Q3 GDP — 4.9%
  • 2007 Q2 GDP — 3.8%

That doesn’t look like the classical definition of a recession to me. It looks like growth of the GDP is slowing, but not in decline. The economy is still growing, just not as fast. It’s very interesting that you hear so much about us being in a recession, or headed for a recession, or whatever. It’s almost as though someone is trying to convince us that there is a recession, huh? I think that’s where judgment perception comes in. It seems as though we are in a recession, mostly because everyone perceives we are. And that’s probably the only thing that really matters. I just hope that no one is using that perception for something like political gain.

Nah, that would never happen.

Blogging Yourself To Death

An NYT article about the dangers of blogging

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

But don’t these types of things happen to workaholics in any field?  I get the fact that if you fall behind one time with a big time blog someone else will be there to fill in the gap you left, and I suppose that’s stressful (for some people), but these people are the .0001%.  Most bloggers are doing it just for fun anyway.  The few pennies we get on AdSense here and there is more of a justification validation that we’re actually “working” while we do this than anything.  Of course, some of us find a way to turn our blogs into a one-stop-shop for aircraft sales.  Then we’re talking about some serious money stupidity.

I am a little worried about someone who posts as feverishly as this guy.

Airplanes For Sale–Lots of Them

I was brainstorming earlier tonight on how I could make this whole internet thing really pay off. Then it hit me–sell airplanes. Airplanes are a high dollar item, yet something that everyone would like to have. And even though I’ll only get a percentage of the purchase price, I figure that if I only sell 4 or 5 airplanes a day it should add up to a pretty handsome sum–enough to pay for my web hosting at least.

Then I realized there was a problem with this plan. Airplanes isn’t really a niche. And everything I’ve read says you have to have a niche. So I decided I’d only sell Cessna aircraft. I checked on eBay and there seemed to be a lot in stock, so I figured I’d just go ahead and offer myself a job selling Cessna’s for eBay.

So before you buy your next airplane Cessna, don’t forget to stop by here and check out my great deals in the sidebar! Here are a few of our most recent listings.