All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Over the course of the next eleven days or so there will be about eight duck pictures in the Photo of the Day post.
My apologies. I really have to get out and take some different subjects. I intended to go to a car show but the weather was predicted to be rainy and I chickened out.
Mea culpa!
Princess Sack of Potatoes is enjoying her first pair of roller skates and I guess it triggered this memory. I remember when this was a goofy fun song when I was in grammar school. Ah, those were the carefree days.
It’s once again time in Dunwich to produce the town budget. And even though it’s a slightly unusual place, we still have to go through the whole public hearing thing with the First Selectman leading the proceedings and calling for the vote. Of course, when the budget is rejected, it always leads to “problems.”
Last year when First Selectman Cthulhu asked for a show of hands on the nays it was very noticeable when one of the nay sayers was snatched off her feet by that irascible public servant and crunched and swallowed. This was regrettable but it was noted that several nay voters seemed to change their mind in mid-count. So, there is a history of gentle persuasion being brought to bear at these meetings. That probably explains why over the years the voting population has progressively skewed pro-budget.
And that’s fine. We really do need to be flexible when it comes to the finances. With the COVID funds now completely dried up and New England state budgets straining under the weight of “sanctuary guests” from the third world filling residences and hospitals we can no longer expect the state to fund all the various mandates that they seem to invent by the hour.
Of course, Cthulhu has taken a decidedly idiosyncratic policy twist to the question of sanctuary guests. He has been housing all of them in his own residence. Funny thing is none of them have reappeared. Strange kind of sanctuary.
But it is important that we keep our spirits up when the question of the “mill rate” surfaces. In Dunwich what that refers to is the rate at which Bishop’s Mill is sinking into the swamp. This year it was determined by the town engineer that it was sinking at a rate of two inches a day. Now this doesn’t sound so bad but by the end of March the main entrance was entirely submerged and so the various flour products were being delivered to the customers by ejection from the third story window. Which is fine except that a couple of times they crushed some of the customers.
This year the budget has included a special charge for the First Selectman’s rigging enterprise to raise and relocate Bishop’s Mill to higher ground. Now this was done once before. And it didn’t go completely without a hitch. The mill broke up in the Great Old One’s claws and when Gerontius Bishop complained he sort of fell into the First Selectman’s mouth and sort of got eaten. Kind of.
To obviate the same kind of situation the Bishop family has agreed to pay a special fee for extra reinforcement of the structure to allow for any miscalculations. But the town has agreed to defray some of this cost and thus the Budget debate. The estimate for this town expense by the riggers (the First Selectman) is $2,500,000. Yeah, that’s a lot.
So as a kind of compromise action a few of us got together yesterday and went down to Bishop’s Mill and soaked it with gasoline and burned it down. The First Selectman, who is also the acting fire chief of the volunteer force, arrived at the scene about twenty minutes after the flames had guttered out at the water line. He announced that the rigging operation would obviously no longer be needed but that the contract would still be honored and the budget would proceed on the same basis. He really is a very determined fellow. And he is incredibly “persuasive.”
You know, you really learn how to roll with the punches in Dunwich. You really do.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.
Thomas Paine
What makes America great is Americans, not some global economic think tank idea about “Cosmopolitanism.”
We’re not a group of backwoods rubes crouching in fear of the outside world. What we are, and should always be, are people who care more about the well-being of each other and not the stock portfolio of a multinational corporation that will pull the rug at the first chance of increasing profit shares. This nation’s initials are USA not GDP. The overly misused phrase of collectivism when describing Marxist-style ideologies has woefully made it a dirty word for those of us on the Right-wing to employ. It needs to be reclaimed and utilized often. It is the proper attitude to have for our fellow Americans’ living conditions. We are all in the same boat, whether some are in first-class cabins or third-class.
Are protectionist tariff policies the silver bullet solution that will restore American labor and wage loss woes? Will the Rust Belt be revitalized with a glut of new manufacturing jobs by next year? Of course not. But it’s a start. Prepare for pain and embrace the understanding that it is needed and long overdue. The medicine that cures does not always go down easily. To go down fighting is better than to simply accept the current state of affairs.
Legacy media reporting tries to lead one to believe that tariffs will be the only strategy Trump will use. That is folly and only propaganda for the low-information citizen as they like to call most of us. Stronger tariffs are only one piece of the equation that (might) correct the dismal path we are on.
Things are very wrong with how the game is set up. Many of us know this. The promised results of NAFTA, free trade (Ha!) and WTO platitudes were a siren song that mainly enriched a select few. Brave voices spoke out on this such as Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot. They were right.
It is time for something different and if it takes burning my 401K to the ground so that my kids do not have to be serfs to the worship of an almighty GDP Excel spreadsheet God of Globohomo, then I say burn it to the ground.
So, after performing all of my chores and watching another installment of “Lonesome Dove” with Camera Girl, I checked on my feed on X. And Iowahawk was going on an anti-tariff rant.
About six rants down he posted:
David Burge (@iowahawkblog):
Sioux City used to have a Zenith TV assembly plant. Even if our patriotic trade war kills grain exports the farmers can get new jobs soldering Quasar circuits there after the revitalization of the American Console TV industry.
This was an ironical jab at our lost electronics manufacturing industry.
So, I replied:
Orionscoldfire:
You want to know something? I’d trade the circa 1955 economy, technology and culture for what we’ve got now any day. At least you could tell a man or a woman by sight. I could do without the 80” television.
So, he replied:
David Burge @iowahawkblog:
If only I had the power to grant your wish I would give a personal time machine trip immediately
I thanked him for this wish.
Then there were several other opinions and replies by me. See below:
Robert Longo @RobertL37046977
Orionscoldfire:
I’ve seen what those ten years look like. A massive heart attack at eighty is my exit plan.
Econymous @EHPlimsoll1
You can do that already. No need to force everyone else to live your chosen lifestyle. Cut you income by 2/3, halve the size of your house, buy a crappy car, watch classic TV and movies, refuse any healthcare developed after 1960, and live in a conservative town.
Orionscoldfire:
Sounds promising.
RobustFeedback @FeedbackRobust
Wait until your kid was diagnosed with leukemia, and instead of a 90% chance of survival, your child had a 4% chance. Or you had no ac when it was 98 degeees, with 70% humidity.Or until you had to work substantially more hours to feed and clothe your kids.
Nostalgia is stupid.
Orionscoldfire:
“Nostalgia is stupid.” Interesting statement. I could think of some counterexamples but then we’d just argue. I’ll just enjoy the thought of that console tv playing Bonanza on a Sunday evening with the family all watching together and roast beef sandwiches and pastries and coffee to come.
Alboalt @albo_alt
The post-war American economic dominance isn’t coming back unless you want to put huge chunks of the world back into communism and hoeing yam fields all day.
Orionscoldfire:
I don’t want us to dominate anyone. I’ll settle for an economy that keeps men employed and families living comfortably. I don’t need to drive a Mercedes I can drive a Ford. It’s not as good but it gets you there.
Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress:
ok so you’re a white male and you’re looking to die around 65 am I hearing you correctly?
Orionscoldfire:
Well, then I missed my mark!
Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress
there’s a lot you missed
orionscoldfire
Nothing too important. The important things keep you busy. Everything else is just background.
sum_dude44 @sum_dude44
ah yes polio, nuclear annihilation, 10 hr flights to go 1000 miles, lead everywhere
orionscoldfire:
Ah, those were the days.
Totally_not_a_Bot:
sorry i used to be able to afford a time machine.. but these new tarrifs put it out of range
orionscoldfire:
I’m rooting for you.
WCB @Si3rraDrive:
That’s a pipe dream. Tariffs don’t get you there, nothing gets you there. You can choose to make that life for yourself, but society won’t be structured thusly.
orionscoldfire
Okay.
A @2006ImageMacro
You’ve posted 4000 times in 3 years. You literally could not live in an environment that doesn’t support your internet addiction
orionscoldfire
Mercy sakes! What can I do?
A @2006ImageMacro
Hey I’m sorry for some reason I thought you were being snide to Dave but looking now I see that I was shitty to you for no reason, my bad!
Orionscoldfire:
I was just putting in my two cents. No problems. Dave’s got definite opinions. If I get on his nerves, he can tell me to butt out. Or ban me or something.
So, this is all very silly. David Burge (@iowahawkblog) is a favorite of mine. Back during the Iraq war, he was a humorist that poked fun at our enemies and even into the Obama years his satirical posts always made me laugh. Now he likes to identify antique cars from old family album photos and he talks a bit about Iowa basketball. He definitely isn’t a fan of tariffs.
But it was just the sight of this 1955 television set that made me react. I was just thinking that if tariffs had kept American industry in this country, we’d be 1000% better off than we are now. Apparently, most of Mr. Burge’s readers disagree with me but apparently, I couldn’t resist the urge to put in my two cents.
Well, it was kind of fun.
Update:
Neil Dunn commented:
I want the USA to be as totally self sufficient production wise as possible. No more of China producing most of our antibiotics is my #1 example = some Pharma corporate
executive(s) looking to increase profits, America be damned. Google “how many American car dealerships are in Japan?”. My Google answer = zero. And not one word about tariffs, but lots of other reasons. I say raise the tariffs on Japanese imports until Japan lets US cars into their market. And no more of the 80 year freebee Marshall Plan that taxes the US to make things easy for Europe and the UK. I think Trump was too kind with his Tariff plan.
All barriers to entry from one country toward another country should be equal both ways.
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.
Thomas Paine
Ah, the Spring Honey Do List. The most fiendish accumulation of annoying indoor and outdoor chores imaginable to the fevered brains of wives. I had just finished what I thought was my chores for the day and had taken a shower when I saw Camera Girl raking the leaves off of the edge of the woods and her flower beds. Now there is no more useless pursuit than raking leaves out of a forest but what can I say? Female fastidiousness is as powerful as it is inexplicable to the mind of man. When I saw the piles of leaves she had raked I foresaw her stooping to pick up all those leaves and painstakingly haul them to the other side of the property to her mulch pile and knew it would take days and break her back. So, I rushed out and told her to leave the leaves(!) to me and I’d chop them with my push mower. Hearing that I would be doing this she then proceeded to finish off the other woods for the sake of completeness. Ah Chihuahua! Well, no good deed goes unpunished.
But honestly chopping leaves with my trash mower is kind of fun. After four to eight passes (depending on how wet they are) the leaves just about disappear into thin air. It’s remarkable what steel and kinetic energy can achieve. And I did get to see all the plants she uncovered along the woods. The day lilies are about four inches tall.
The hostas near the woods haven’t appeared at all and some small woodland plants are already out and about.
After she left, I spent another half hour disintegrating the remaining leaves. When I returned inside Camera Girl came running over and thanked me profusely for sparing her all that stoop labor of moving the leaves to her mulch pile. And I thought to myself, “I am a good person, amn’t I? Why else would she be so happy. So, over the course of the evening several times I reminded her of how nice it was of me to come to her rescue and take care of the leaves. But what I noticed was that after each iteration of my reminder her gratitude seemed to diminish. And, in fact the decrease accelerated. At the end I believe it tailed off sort of like the curve of y=1/Xn where n= the number of reminders and y= her enthusiasm for the reminders. So, her enthusiasm approached zero as a limit but never quite reached it.
I brought up this observation to her. She used some Italian hand gestures from her distant past and went back to the cooking tasks that she was busy with. It’s a shame that her high school back in Sheepshead Bay didn’t do a better job of preparing her mathematically for her life ahead. Being able to graph and recognize the various curves of common functions is a basic requirement of our technological age. But we all have to be flexible and adapt ourselves to people as we find them. And that is a tenet of my relationship with her and I remind her of it from time to time.