The Corpus Clock

Check this out on the Last Visible Dog. Fascinating!

Fun With Statistics

Every four years there is a Presidential election in this country, and every four years we have to filter through the cacophony to figure out exactly where the candidates stand on the issues.

Well, good luck with that. It seems like every candidate tries to state his or her position in such a way so as not to offend anyone. And a significant part of the population is not savvy enough to understand the issues, let alone to separate the wheat from the chaff. That isn't elitism, it's a simple matter of fact.

The big news lately is the US government bailout of the financial sector. My inclination is to let those institutions fail, because the market is meant to punish those who make terrible business decisions, as surely was the case with all those bad mortgages. Would it be painful? Yes. Would it cause a malicious ripple through the entire economy? Yes. But it would also put out of business those firms that took on risky loans, and they deserve to be out of business.

The proposed bailout is large. But the numbers do have meaning, although you wouldn't know it from some of the things you can read on the web. Take, for example, this e-mail I received from someone whom I shall not name:

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let¹s assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college it'll be there
Save in a bank create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car create jobs
Invest in the market capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we¹re going to re-distribute wealth l et¹s really do it...instead of trickling out
a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy") economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here¹s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn¹t.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned
instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

I'll be kind to the person who sent the e-mail, but not so kind to the person who wrote it. I hope the person who wrote it is not a voter.

I pointed out to the sender that $85 billion divided among 200 million people would come to only $425 apiece, not $425,000. So the sender replies that the bailout is actually $850 billion, not $85 billion. To which I replied -- that's not what your e-mail said, and even if it were $850 billion, that would still amount to only $4250 apiece, not $425,000.

No wonder our economy is a mess.

Political Humor

This is not a partisan message! Follow this link for some good political entertainment.

10,000 Maniacs

Human beings like round numbers.

We don't talk about wanting to be worth $283,500; we talk about being millionaires.

We don't go shopping for 9 karat gold; we shop for 10 or 14 or 24 karat gold.

And fortunately for all of us, the band in the name of this post did not call themselves 10,145 Maniacs. I don't know why they chose 10,000 Maniacs as a name for their band, but you must admit it has a nice ring to it.


So it is with great fanfare that I make this announcement: some time this week, The Golden Hill will have its 10,000th hit.

There are no prizes for the lucky person who makes that hit, and in fact, I've had more than 10,000 hits already - I didn't put a counter on it until the blog was about a year and half old. But it still gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that people are actually reading what I post. Even if some of those people are merely looking for a sly way to post a derogatory comment that I won't post anyway...and you know who you are.

Boomer Ball and the Road to Philo

An old friend of mine from Bellevue, Jim Ball, went to law school and wound up in Chicago, where he made a gazillion dollars. So he quit practicing law and moved to California to make wine. Jim invited me and some other Bellevue people to the grand opening of his winery last May, but I was not able to go. I wish I had. Several of my old school mates were there, and I'm told it was just a great place to be. I'll get out there one of these days to visit.
Here is his winery. If you have a few minutes, take a look at the movie. Great soundtrack!

Barney: Unnecessary Censorship

This is wrong on so many levels...

Who Is John Doe?

The title of this post is a play on the first line of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, but it is an interesting question.

According to Wikipedia, the practice of using the name John Doe as a placeholder originated in England, yet the practice there is now rare or non-existent. I wonder what they call him there?

I came to know John Doe in 1968. I remember waking up one morning to see my mother glued to the television set, watching the news of Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassination. The black and white images were not real sharp, and I'll never forget the sight of Kennedy lying on the floor, his head being cradled by a bystander. As the picture went back to the news desk, Walter Cronkite said that the suspect, known as John Doe, was in custody.

At that time, I was not aware of the convention of using the name John Doe as a placeholder. But someone explained it to me that morning.

At school, one of my classmates said that the name of the assassin was John Doe. I, of course, knew better, and explained how these things worked. Due in some measure to days like that, I developed a reputation as a know-it-all. I used to think that was a bad thing, but now I know better.

And the whole purpose of this post was to sneak in that little pun...