COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Every High Tide would be like Japan a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteEach month, Blue California would be washed away, leaving only the impoverished Reds, and all the illegals that didn't vote.
When Hollywood was
ReplyDelete...different.
Being deaf and dumb, I missed Dean's first one-liner.
ReplyDelete...any help would be appreciated.
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ReplyDeleteWe'd be up shit creek w/o the Moon
ReplyDeleteThat's a fact, jack. If the moon didn't just happen to be the right size and at the right distance, life on earth may not just happened to have developed from lifelessness. Amazing isn't it?
DeleteGood Empire number, and a very strong Industrial Production read. It's amazing what a little improvement in housing will do.
ReplyDeleteIndustrial Production/Capacity Utilization
Go Obama Go!
DeleteA truly splendid debt-free recovery into the New Age of Smaller, less-intrusive Govt.
An Empire of Debt.
The pages that turn you on are cause for concern.
DeleteThe Urge of Empire.
DeleteColumbia Airlines
ReplyDelete70 year old DC-3's over the Amazon.
Meanwhile, the "folks" ain't happy. Consumer Sentiment plunges - falls to 71.8 from the 78ish range.
ReplyDeleteHigher gasoline prices?
Higher Everything.
DeleteWe ain't seen nuthin yet.
You just wait 'til Obamacare Kicks In.
...not to mention "clean coal power"
DeleteTakes a genius electorate to choose a candidate that PROMISES to bankrupt a significant sector of the US Economy.
Diesel Powered Rotary Clearing Snow in Soda Springs, CA
ReplyDeleteDiesel power generation soon to be outlawed in Hawaii.
Currently installing 10 kw Solar for kid.
Rufus and 'Rat yet to produce 1 oz of Ethanol.
But the US, as a whole, now producing a million barrels of ethanol per day.
DeleteGrow baby grow!
Bakken production plunges 32,000 bbl per day in January.
ReplyDeleteBakken Production
On May 17, 2010, E.ON, the biggest electricity utility in Germany, opened a brand new 860 MW combined cycle gas-fired power station in Bavaria, which it had built at a cost of $520 million. Less than three years later, having hardly been used and losing money, the owners of Irsching-5 (pictured below) are threatening to close it.
ReplyDeleteIt’s just one illustration of the dramatic changes that are sweeping the European energy industry because of the growing impact of wind and solar, and falling demand. E.ON this week said it was thinking of closing 13 GW of coal and gas-fired generation in coming years – but it may be only a fraction of what is needed.
Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/15/centralized-energy-beginning-of-the-end/#Gg67iRo2k9tFZidS.99
Renewables kicking ass in Europe
How are you, everybody?
ReplyDeleteWord on the street is ole eraserhead Kim Jong thought Dennis Rodman was actually Obama visiting him last week. I mean, you know, could have been an honest mistake. After all, they are both..., well, never mind.
I sure do miss Hu Dat.
And Whit (the voice of reason).
ReplyDeleteIt's 80 degrees in North Texas today. I'm thinking I ought to pull the plug and go have an adult beverage out on the stoop with my child bride.
ReplyDeleteHow to make free money, everybody!
ReplyDeleteSteve Brill’s massive Time article focused national attention on the price of health-care services in the United States. Sarah Kliff got further data showing an MRI can cost anywhere from $400 to $1,861 in Washington, DC alone. But as startling as the price difference between one hospital and another, or one insurer and another, can be in America, the difference between America and other countries is even more extraordinary. I wrote this piece in March 2012. But it’s worth revisiting now.
ReplyDeleteThere is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher.
That may sound obvious. But it is, in fact, key to understanding one of the most pressing problems facing our economy. In 2009, Americans spent $7,960 per person on health care. Our neighbors in Canada spent $4,808. The Germans spent $4,218. The French, $3,978. If we had the per-person costs of any of those countries, America’s deficits would vanish. Workers would have much more money in their pockets. Our economy would grow more quickly, as our exports would be more competitive.
There are many possible explanations for why Americans pay so much more. It could be that we’re sicker. Or that we go to the doctor more frequently. But health researchers have largely discarded these theories. As Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey and Varduhi Petrosyan put it in the title of their influential 2003 study on international health-care costs, “it’s the prices, stupid.”
As it’s difficult to get good data on prices, that paper blamed prices largely by eliminating the other possible culprits. They authors considered, for instance, the idea that Americans were simply using more health-care services, but on close inspection, found that Americans don’t see the doctor more often or stay longer in the hospital than residents of other countries. Quite the opposite, actually. We spend less time in the hospital than Germans and see the doctor less often than the Canadians.
“The United States spends more on health care than any of the other OECD countries spend, without providing more services than the other countries do,” they concluded. “This suggests that the difference in spending is mostly attributable to higher prices of goods and services.”
On Friday, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — released more direct evidence. It surveyed its members on the prices paid for 23 medical services and products in different countries, asking after everything from a . . . . . .
It's the prices, stupid
DeleteAmericans ge better health care- that's why it is so expensive! Better costs more, right Doug? 4 buck gas gotta be goooood gas!
DeleteBe careful or me be regular again in Deuce’s new Liberation state. Me joke. RMAFFLOO I have to go now.
ReplyDeleteKim Jong alias Hu Dat. Everybody.
ReplyDeleteWant to Debate Medicare Costs? You Need to See this Chart, First
ReplyDeletePenguins Walking (trying to walk) on Ice
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteSpam is getting harder to ignore.
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DeleteIt is getting to be work cleaning it out.
ReplyDelete