Why Your Car Doesn’t Start

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Brian

80% You brought it on yourself
10% You are to be available to someone else instead of driving around.
9% You have a character area to learn from such inconveniences.
1% You are living the life of Job.

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National Debt Doesn’t Matter Blather

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Brian

Federal debt doesn’t matter. So say MIT and Univ of Connecticut professors Simon Johnson and James Kwak in their book “Thirteen Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown”. I recently read a review at the USA Today website.

The book claims national debt is not like debt of your family. National debt only matters because the government, and thus its citizens, must pay it back and pay interest on it. What? Isn’t that the same as a family burden? Isn’t that why I should care about it? What are you saying?

With such logic, Johnson and Kwak set up a tangential issue (size of debt = size of government), and then proceed to discuss bogus reasons to dismiss the tangential issue.

Government spending isn’t related to government impact. A little agency can make a cheap rule that a huge impact. Right, and so why does this make debt okay?

Government spending doesn’t always, or even usually, reduce liberty. In fact, increased government spending causes freedom from want.  The concept of “freedom from want” is unconstitutional heresy started by Roosevelt in 1941.  For Pete’s sake, it seems anybody could keep wanting more and more to get more and more from the government.  My opinion is that you are free to figure out what this phrase means and fund it from your own resources, if you wish. However, your desire to help others to be  “free from want” has no constitutional authority to invade our national resources, collected as taxes from my wallet.

More blatantly, our constitution provides the opposite.  It claims all are endowed with rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Looking at the last of the three, I would propose that you pursue because you want. If you do not want, you do not pursue. And thus it is revealed that this fabricated freedom is a source of our National entitlement problem.

The author’s last argument is that having the private sector do it instead of the government doesn’t succeed. Uh.. yea.. and you’re implying that government programs do? This is insane logic that has nothing to do with why Federal debt doesn’t matter.

Remember, they’re making a claim that National debt doesn’t matter. I cannot fathom why any of their arguments matter. It seems as though the entire book is a bait and switch. Uggh.. what blather..

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I Am Not Taxed Enough – by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Brian

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have been making noises about wanting higher tax rates. In a recent BBC interview Bill Gates said, “Well, the United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everybody else. That’s just justice. … I hope we can solve that deficit problem with a sense of shared sacrifice where everybody would feel like they’re doing their part, and right now I don’t feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should.

The logic of nearly every phrase of Mr. Gates opinion is corrupt, but rather than a ramble down that path, I have a simple request. Please, Mr. Interviewer (whoever you are), next time ask the obvious question. “Okay. I understand. If you feel that way, why don’t you go ahead and pay what you think you should?”

It’s obvious to anybody listening that they won’t DO what they say because their real issue is about YOU living differently, not themselves.  Dear Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffet: “Stop being a hypocrite!” It’s not about where you’re “at in life” or “how rich you are”. Both rich and poor people alike accommodate to tax rates that are levied on them.  The real issue is that higher tax rates demotivate people from earning more and prevent people from bettering their position in life.  Bluntly, people realize that if so much is taken away in taxes, why bother working harder to get it?  A rich person saying “raise taxes on the rich” is really espousing a self-preserving opinion making it harder for others to do what they’ve already done.  If you’d like a specific example, do a search for my blog and wiki entry about FAFSA and EFC college costs.

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Pure Color

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Brian
Television Color Wheel

Color wheel removed from a rear-projection television.

Each year, I separate out the best photos of the year.  For 2010, this photo made the cut.  I think it’s because of my chemistry and physics background.  Most colors you see in the world are chromatic or chromophore colors.  In other words, some chemical compound has loose electrons that absorb certain colors, leaving those you see.  However, this device is not about chemistry.  It is about physics.  The colors are like the colors on beetle wings.  The colors come about because of interference in thin layers, giving constructive interference only across a narrow band of wavelengths.

As shown in the picture, physical interference colors tend to be more vivid and pure than chemical chromophore colors.  Notice also, the orthogonal color sets all visible on the same wheel: Red-Green-Blue and Yellow-Magenta-Cyan.

 

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