The bond market is closed but the stock market is open this morning.
Since anyone with half a brain doesn’t care, at least until the Fed starts to raise interest rates and then all hell will break loose (they’ve as much as said this will happen).
So we are left to ponder the great questions of life like the growing evidence that cognitive dissonance (the gap between what you see and what you’re told) is creeping into media reports where it makes some people (like me) crazy(er).
Take for example this report about how “Scientists Plan to Use Robotic Drones to Study Melting of Sea Ice in Antarctica.” Let me carefully quote this part because it relates to the whole climate change argument:
“Dramatic increase in the melting of sea ice in the Antarctic has been puzzling scientists for long. Scientists as of now are not able to understand all the variables responsible for extreme conditions in the Antarctic region.”
The cognitive dissonance part comes if you have any kind of memory, whatsoever; something we get into in the Coping section following.
I refer to the report “Antarctic Sea Ice Hits New Record.” which came out in June. A careful, tiny, Fair Use quote from that:
“Sea ice extent in the Antarctic reached a record level in June with an anomaly of some 2.074 million square kilometers above the long term average, according to data published by the University of Illinois Polar Research Group .”
OK, I find myself wondering, which is it? “Increase in melting of the sea ice” or “Sea Ice Hits New Record”?
Like so much else in the news, this exemplifies in compact form, the contradictory inputs that make no sense, whatsoever, when taken as a whole.
Still, the fact that robots are being touted seems to point to where we have suspected for a long while: Climate Change mantras will be used as another large government spending boondoggle, now that War has sort of run its course in Afghanistan, but the rerun in Iraq seems to be coming along nicely.
All of which gets us down to the matter of this being Veterans Day and as always we accord highest honors to those who have served, many of whom are still paying the high cost of Liberty ranging from death to long-term health issues of all sorts.
The fact is government would not exist without people paying for it…and the way to have people lining up to pay is to have a big external ENEMY. Not that they aren’t real…despots are always waiting in the wings as a special breed of people who want to bully and abuse the hard workers, steal their goods, and do as little as possible except turn people on one-another for blood sport.
We need to honor those who keep the despots (foreign and domestic) at bay.
Parking Meter Dissonance
A semi-holiday like this one bothers me. I should have slept it and taken my brother in law to breakfast. Instead, up at 4 AM to sort out how this holiday works.
In a state like Texas, you don’t have to go very far to find genuine respect for those both in, and retired from, uniform. Free parking meter day in Tyler, Texas, just up the road from us.
Some cities are a bit confused how to behave. Take Honolulu…most parking meters are free, except reports KHON TV “…for the meters on Kal?kaua Avenue along Kapi‘olani Park and metered parking lots.”
Some cities (Like Phoenix, AZ) are entirely disrespectful of the Holiday, apparently viewing all holidays with distain: “Since August 18, 2014, all meters have been enforced 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day including weekends and holidays..”
So there you have it: city streets, paid for with public money, and the public gets to keep on paying and paying and paying…even on…..
Remind me not to move to Phoenix. A idea that ought to be uniformly applied, as I see it.
More after this…
About that Internet Decision
President Obama is getting as much (or curiously more) done in China than in Washington. Not only naming the Eric Holder replacement for Attorney General, but also announcing support for net neutrality.
Or, did he?
While Obama’s heart is in the right place on net neutrality (at least what he says publicly, what he and his FCC do is another matter), there are some like Texas senator Ted Cruz who have rushed right into saying stupid things like calling the decision “Obamacare for the Internet.”
The reason to wonder is the report in Forbes about how the FCC is about to make a run at charging more internet taxes. Just because courts have rules against them, doesn’t mean they’ll stop trying to bend the law to steal your wallet.
Bad move, Ted. And let’s throw in stupid while we’re at it. Did you miss the Internet Slowdown Day? Say, this isn’t a campaign fund-raising deal, is it?
Meet Your Job Replacement
Fine report on Google’s robotics development plans.
Is this what’s going on at Moffett Field?
Just remember: up to 50% of all jobs will be replaced by robots by 2025 and there’s no viable economic system in place to redistribute the “wealth” from robotically performed work to “actual humans.”
Pardon me while I run down the street yelling “The Golem are coming, the Golem are coming!”