Concert Review - Social Distortion

Tuesday I saw Social Distortion here in Madison at the Orpheum theater. It has been a very long time indeed since I have seen a real live rock show.

Sx Dx is one of my favorite all time bands going way back. They have always been on my short list to see live, so when I saw that they were coming to Madison I was thrilled. Not so thrilled that it was on a weeknight and me having to go to work on 4 hours of sleep, but I just don't care. Had to go. I will deal with the lack of sleep later.

I was meeting some folks at the show so I got there around 7.15 - the show was supposed to start at 8 and surprisingly, started a bit early. I met my crew and we had a nice conversation while the two warmup bands were doing their deal. The first warmup band, Suedehead was like an Oasis clone that sucked more (believe it or not). Pretty lukewarm reception.

The next band was Chuck Ragan. It was a trio that had a guitar, violin and upright bass and did that Irish rock thing. Not my deal, but the crowd sure did like them.

I should add that at the first notes of the opening band I realized that I forgot something at home - my earplugs. Damn. I am getting old and just can't handle the volume of these shows anymore. I had to laugh because just 20 short years ago I was the first idiot up front and stage diving and all that insane behavior.

Social Distortion came on with a rousing roar from the crowd that was well lubed by that time, and a huge cloud of marijuana smoke enveloped everyone. I hadn't smelled that odor in a long time indeed and laughed.

I was stone sober having to work the next day, so it was interesting to notice the drunk and disorderly behavior of the crowd. The crowd was interesting to say the least. Many had that fifties greaser/mod look that Mike Ness has made a living out of for so long. A lot of the ladies looked like pinups with tattoos, always a good combination in my book.

I lasted two songs and couldn't take the sonic level anymore, and had to excuse myself to the foyer and watched the rest of the Sx Dx show from there. I could still see the band perfectly and the volume was cut in half which was about perfect for me.

The sound was dialed in wonderfully from back there (not far from the sound guy, of course) and I enjoyed the show immensely. It was good to see Mike Ness looking better than he has in the past. His voice is still in one piece too. I have seen some live clips of Sx Dx on youtube where he is a bit hoarse.

Ness did a bit of politicking as most artists tend to do these days, and as expected it was for the Dems blah blah. I didn't let it ruin my good time.

I highly recommend catching these guys if they come close to your area if you are a fan. The song "Bakersfield" was my favorite of the night, along with the classic "I Was Wrong".

I am going to suffer a bit today from lack of sleep, but it was definitely worth it.

Cross posted at ChicagoBoyz.

What Do Hungry Children in Oregon Have to do with Tax Policy?

The recent edition of "Parade" magazine when I saw a list of things that you can do to help others in need. I was struck by their plea to "Feed Hungry Children in Oregon" where they said that

Oregon has the nation's highest rate of "child food insecurity." About 252,000 kids - or nearly 30% of the state's youth - aren't sure where their next meal is coming from.

This surprised me because I never thought of Oregon as a state that had this sort of poverty. The example they gave in the article was as follows:

My husband and I both work full-time, but we make minimum wage, and some months it's either pay our bills or buy food, says his mom, Nichole (her child is featured in the photo, above).

While this is a sad and heart rending story, there is another connection as to why their parents are having a hard time finding higher wage work. Per the Tax Foundation:

Oregon's personal income tax system consists of five separate brackets with a top rate of 11% kicking in at an income level of $250,000. That rate ranks the highest among all states levying an individual income tax.

While tax policy may seem arcane to individuals worrying about food security, it is important to realize the CRUCIAL impact that state income tax rates play in state competitiveness. Of all the components of a tax burden, the ONE element that can be most easily modified or avoided is the personal income tax levied by a particular state. For instance, if you earn $1M a year, you'd be paying about $75,000 more in tax in Oregon than you would in Texas, Florida, Nevada, or other states that don't levy a personal income tax (it isn't $1M times 11% because of the graduated nature of the tax up to $250,000 and the fact that state taxes are deductible on Federal returns, so the $75,000 is a rough estimate).

A high marginal personal income tax rate falls DIRECTLY on those most likely to invest in a business that would hire someone like the family in this photo. A high marginal tax is analogous to seeking out the very individuals that could bring a state jobs and economic prosperity and telling them to invest elsewhere. You could go door-to-door and punch them in the face, or just set the nation's highest personal income tax rate, the net effect is exactly the same.

The biggest fallacy the high marginal tax crowd falls into is the "fixed pie" thinking - since businesses and high income earners are unlikely to move, if you tax them more they will just sit like sheep and take it and pay into the state to fund their myriad social programs. That may be true in the short run and for individuals that are tied to their community, but I guarantee that every wealthy person has an accountant who carefully tells them the negative impact of residing in such a high tax state and the benefits of moving elsewhere on their take-home pay. If they have a choice to invest more in Oregon or go elsewhere, other states look much more inviting. Over time, investment slows, and then there are more and more articles with the sad faced children just like this one, and pleas for the rich to pay their "fair share".

The problem is, the rich aren't stupid, and a high state income tax is basically pushing them to invest and live elsewhere, particularly somewhere warm with a tax friendly climate like Nevada, Florida or Texas.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

Monday Morning Blues

Saturday Night Sixties

It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.

Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.



Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Lex Green, over at this fine place.

Scoobie-ah-ba-doo-biddy.

Great Big Book Of Horrible Things

I recently read and highly recommend a book called "The Great Big Book of Horrible Things" by Matthew White with the sub-title "The definitive chronicle of history's 100 worst atrocities". Since it is the holiday season, not being involved in one of these events is definitely something to be thankful for...

As someone who has spent their entire life reading books about history and military history in particular, this "organization" of cataclysmic events is very interesting. The author has different types of events, such as major dictators, not just wars, as he attempts to "rank" and chronicle each occurrence. Here are the top ten items per the author:

1. Second World War 66m
2. Chinggis Khan 40m
2. Mao Zedong 40m
4. Famines in British India 27m
5. Fall of Ming Dynasty 25m
6. Joseph Stalin 20m
6. Taiping Rebellion 20m
8. Mideast slave trade 18.5m
9. Timur 17m
10. Atlantic slave trade 16m

(as a note the First World War comes in tied for 11th at 15m)

The first thing that came to my mind is that I didn't even know what some of these items were; I know relatively little about ancient Chinese regimes and I had never even heard of the Taiping Rebellion which occurred from 1850-64 and per this book at least killed more than World War I (of which I know a great deal). Here is a wikipedia article on the Taiping Rebellion which also quotes the 20 million figure (for what it is worth).

I also find interesting the separation of individual dictators from the military conflicts that they led or sponsored. He did not break out Hitler from WW2 since Hitler's atrocities were mostly contained within that time span. However, Stalin's atrocities occurred pretty much from the moment he took power until the day he died so he received a separate section dedicated to his crimes. The author also makes a special section on the communist crimes where he aggregates the various tyrants and crimes in one spot for sad if easy reading.

In order to "make the list" you needed to reach over 300,000 killed. At the back of the book the author lists some atrocities that failed to "make the cut" in case an atrocity had a particular cheering section. I didn't see the Sri Lanka civil war listed but a look at wikipedia put the death toll at 80-100k or so which means they weren't even close to the cut off point.

The author also attempts to attract readers with an interesting use of graphics. This is from the back cover and I found it to be very engaging.

All in all the book is excellent not because it necessarily shows anything new but that it attempts to look at disastrous events in this new "ratings" analysis. Many of the death totals are nothing more than guesses especially the ones in ancient times (and civilian deaths tied to even recent wars also range wildly, such as on the Second Congo War), but the orders of magnitude are good fodder for discussion, at least.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

"Too Big To Fail" Follow up

There was a made for HBO movie called "Too Big To Fail" about the 2008 financial crisis. I recommend watching it (even though it was controversial in some circles for showing Hank Paulson as a virtual saint) especially for people who aren't in the finance industry because it is intelligently written (based on a book) and they really got big name actors to play the part of Wall Street CEO's.

The Wall Street Journal has an "overheard" box on the back page of the financial section and they had some interesting observations on Wall Street in 2011 on how the various players have shrunk in market capitalization.

Here are the current market caps of the "Too Big To Fail" parties:

- Lehman Brothers (Dick Fuld) - bankrupt
- JP Morgan-Chase (Jamie Dimon) - 110B Corrected
- Vikram Pandit (Citigroup) - 69B
- John Mack (Morgan Stanley) - 25B
- John Thain (Merrill Lynch) - bought by bank of America (see below)
- Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs) - 52B
- Rickard Kovacevich (Wells Fargo) - 123B
- Bob Willumstad (AIG) - 38B (resurrected by Federal Government)
- PREVIOUSLY Bear Stearns - sold to JP Morgan-Chase

In the movie Wells Fargo was treated as an afterthought. Not mentioned are two banks listed below and Bank of America is given only a small part in the movie, even though they ended up buying Merrill Lynch (I don't even know who played Ken Lewis).

US Bankcorp 45B
PNC Financial 44B
Ken Lewis (Bank of America) 52B

The fact that these banks which are generally thought of as "regional banks" like US Bankcorp and even Wells Fargo have market caps in line or ahead of the giant Wall Street banks is a sea change in reality.

As these Wall Street companies become smaller what you are also seeing is the relative shrinking of the financial sector as a total portion of the US market capitalization. Financials returned -48% over the last 10 years vs. -17% for the S&P 500 (for the link to work change the time frame to 10 years and you can see the results).

These companies have an outsize impact on the economy of New York in particular because they pay out such a high percentage of their revenue in compensation. According to this article the compensation will drop 20 to 30% this year compared to the prior year.

In the first nine months of the year, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup set aside almost $93 billion to pay employees, up from $91.25 billion in the year ago period, according to Johnson Associates. The final number, however, is not set until the fourth quarter, when firms have a clear idea of their total revenue for the year.

While employee compensation as a percentage of market capitalization is not always a good metric to use for comparison purposes, in this case it is enlightening. Much of the outsize pay (some would say obscene) that these New York traders and executives receive is justified by the profits (and high stock prices) that result from their actions. But if the banks are paying out such a high percentage of their total market capitalization in profits every year, that justification starts to take on water a bit.

As far as alternative metrics, Business Insider had an interesting article on Wal-Mart, which employs 1% of the US work force. This analysis attempted to show what would happen to the average worker if Wal-Mart plowed back all their profits into employee wages (just a theoretical case). Per the article:

If Walmart took its entire $22 billion of annual pre-tax income and used all of it to give each one of its 2.1 million employees a raise, this would amount to about $10,000 a year apiece. In other words, if Walmart decided to use 100% of its operating profit to pay all of its employees more, the average store associate's salary would go from $20,000 to $30,000.

In an even sharper turn down the rabbit hole of linked causality, Wal-Mart itself is essentially moving off Wall Street to become a private company. This is obviously an exaggeration but Wal-Mart is using its profits to buy back stock, and much of its stock is held by the descendants of Sam Walton in the first place, so the outstanding stock metric is even lower than it appears. Wal-Mart has 3.46 billion shares outstanding but the "public float" is only 1.73 billion shares. And Wal-Mart is working hard to whittle away that public float, per this article...

Wal-Mart said on Friday that it would buy back $15 billion more of its shares to try to improve returns for its shareholders. The initiative, which was announced at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting here, comes after a previous $15 billion repurchasing plan that was announced last year. The company bought back 244 million shares, worth about $13 billion, under that program

So there you go. Wall Street, that icon of capitalism, justifies high salaries for traders and executives on the basis of stock capitalization values that no longer support this line of reasoning. And on the other hand, the core basis for Wall Street, the raising and allocation of capital, is turned on its head as one of the largest and most well-run companies, Wal-Mart, essentially plows its earnings into a de-facto move to privatization and off Wall Street in the first place.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

More Winamac

Going through photos from yesterday I found images worth publishing.

Here's both dogs on separate points in opposite directions. Enlarge and look close.


Penny and Scott, with a hen in the air.


Close crop of the same image.


Damn, that was a great day.

Go Beat Me Doggie, 8 To The Bar

Am I getting to old for this shit? Maybe, but I’ll never quit.

Just for fun.

Monday we arrived at Winamac ready to rock the birds. Sure wish someone told Dottie.


We got our limit for four hunters last Monday but not until after chasing my sweet ‘lil pup all through the bush for an hour or so. Not one to stretch the truth, my pup just lost it that day. It’s all in the game. Gun dogs have great days, bad days and Mothe%*#&in days. Monday was one of those Mothe%*#&in days.

The best I can hope for is a pup that will hunt close, within forty yards or less, and stay staunch on point. That’s all I ask. Dot has so much energy (being a pup) that her youthful exuberance causes her to just up and go nuts at times. She gets so jacked up on birds she throws caution to the wind once in the thick, at times. This is both good and bad.

Good that she has that natural ability, bad that she can screw up a hunt. But we did get our limit for four hunters (8 birds) Monday. Scott’s dog Penny saved the day. That’s the best thing about having two dogs in the field. At least we stand half a chance.

When training a gun dog the worst thing to do is sting the pup with the remote when it is out of sight. IF pup is on a bird it will will associate the sting with the point. Not good, not good. It's hard to tell if the dog is on point when it's out of sight and the collar bell goes silent. This one thing can drive a guy nuts when training or hunting. Patience is so necessary.

Wednesday was a good day for Dot. I only needed to sting her once and I did it early when I saw her 40 yards out and would not respond, running away. She got the message and all was well after that but we ended up one bird short of a three hunter limit (6) at the two hour mark. My lower back and feet were just killin’ me. Walking in soft, uneven fields and through nasty thickets may not be hard for a fit guy like Dan From Madison to do but it takes it’s toll on these old bones of mine. Two hours is about all I can take these days.

The weather this week has been nothing less than spectacular for late November and today was no exception with temps in the 50’s and a SSW breeze. It was the first day we had a bluebird sky this year . And Dot was on today.


Son Andy came home from Indianapolis so I surrendered my hunt pass to him. He carried the gun and shot, I took the opportunity to guide and snap some photos. Scott and Penny were along for the morning making our bag limit four.

From what I see most gun dogs at Winamac are English Setters, all with seasoned and knowledgeable hunters and handlers. They are in all shapes, sizes and colors and each one is a masterpiece. Second on the list would be German Shorthair Pointers with Brittany Spaniels coming in third. It’s been rare to see any English Pointers the past few years. But we did see some guys with a Beagle and a Golden Retriever. They didn’t do so well. I wonder why?

Dottie was very good today, she rarely got out of range and she held staunch on each and every point. She listened well and no stinger from the remote was needed. We limited out in 40 minutes. Then we headed for the lot and a mini-tailgate. Some other hunters came out and commented on our “buffet”. I told him we don’t need a football game to tailgate.

Dot’s coming along nicely. But I am sure there will still be a few of those Mothe%*#&in days to come from her. Patience will be needed.

Her legs are long, her body is lean and she runs like lightning. What a sight it is to see her rip through the thick stuff as if it isn’t even there. I am amazed that these dogs don’t poke their eyes out on the sticks and thorns. But she (as all my gun dogs have) manages to bleed at the muzzle and at times, the legs and paws after a day in the field. No big whoop. She could go all day (unlike me) and I am very pleased with her progress.


Next hunt is Monday and that will close the final day of the season at Winamac.

Trump Tower

The base of the Trump Tower parking garage is lit up for the holidays. Here is a view looking south towards the river.

It is difficult to get a photo from the ground that captures the entire height of Trump Tower and the lit up "pylon" on top. You can see the reflection from the lights of the adjacent IBM building alongside.

Cross Posted at Chicago Boyz

Michigan Avenue at Night

Chicago has cleaned itself up amazingly well. From the dumpy downtrodden almost-Cleveland it could have been (watch the Blues Brothers to see it at its bleakest) the downtown seems shiny and new. We also have been lucky this year with little or no snow so far (there was a bit of a flurry one day but it melted immediately) and a warm day for Thanksgiving.

Giving Thanks

I get a chuckle out of those folks who live and die by certain tenets, especially when they are completely and totally wrong. I hear a lot about "Separation of Church and State" here in Madison, because this is a liberal nuthouse and also because the Freedom From Religion Foundation always makes a stink out of the Christmas Tree in the Capitol Rotunda. Oh, did I just say that? Nah, Scott Walker did.

That's right. It is a Christmas tree. It isn't a holiday tree or anything else. I smirk at the fact that the Freedom From Religion folks don't necessarily object to the tree itself, rather to the what the tree is named.

This Thanksgiving as always, I re-read the Mayflower Compact:

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

Oh sure, no religion involved in the founding of this country.

I wish the Freedom From Religion folks and others would spend their time on seriously pressing issues, such as the fact that anyone who is not a Muslim in certain countries get summarily executed (or the right type of Muslim, if you want to get technical with Sunni vs. Shi'a). I always say that if you want to "free Tibet" you need to rip that silly bumper sticker off your car and get to the dirty work of sending them guns since that is the only way they will ever get "free". Same sort of deal. There is nothing here stopping you from being a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Christian or Buddhist. Work on those places where women are treated like cattle, or people are murdered in cold blood FOR their religion.

That said, I am very thankful for my family, blogmates, friends and commenters here at good 'ol LITGM. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. Pass the stuffing.

The Gun Dog Journal – 2011 Edition

So here we are, in the middle of hunting season. Dottie and me.


Saturday was the first time she has been on birds in the field in over two months but this was not a training session. Anticipation. How would my two-year old setter perform? Would she bolt and make me chase after her screaming like an idiot while pressing the shock transmitter? Would she find a scent, lock on point and allow us the opportunity for a clean shot? Would she flush the birds out of range? Would she be a blue ribbon field champ finding and pointing birds with reckless abandon while being obedient and responsive?

All of the above.


At the Winamac State Fish And Wildlife property we arrived Saturday morning half an hour before the 9am EST start to register at the DNR shed.

It wasn't long ago when all hunters needed to arrive three hours early to register in person, in the cold inky darkness on the day of the hunt. That meant waking up at 3am since Winamac is in the eastern time zone but only an hours drive away. They only allow 120 hunters on the property so showing up late meant you might have gotten up way too early for nothing. We would stand in line shivering for at least an hour waiting to register but I never missed getting in. The farther back in line meant you may not get one of the better zones. Late arrivals were SOL.

Then it was off to Nancy’s Lunch, a tiny diner in Winamac. I enjoyed going there. It was full of local farmers, cops and hunters in day-glo orange. The full breakfast that I ate with coffee while reading the Chicago Trib was about four bucks including tip.

On the menu it read, “ We’re a happy bunch at Nancy’s Lunch and there’s no time for sorrow. Eat your fill, pay your bill, come back again tomorrow.”

Yep, we’re those so-called bitter clingers out here in rural Indiana and I for one am damn fvcking proud to be one.

After breakfast it was about a three-hour wait between registration and hitting the field and that was a real pain, but an annual ritual I enjoyed so it was well worth my time.

The intertubes took over and four years ago the Indiana DNR opened online pre-registration beginning September 1. That means registering online at midnight, since this is a very popular spot for wing shooters. I stayed up, signed in and waited…and waited…and waited. The damn server was overloaded with thousands of others trying to register at the same time at all the other state managed properties as well.

Hunting buddy Scott and I kept touch over the phone while registering as a tag-team. We managed to get the days and areas we wanted but I didn’t get to sleep until 2:30am. I had my license and papers to prove I was pre-registered. Now I am able to leave the bunker at 6:30am instead of 3am. But I do miss eating breakfast at Nancy’s Lunch.

Last Saturday I showed up at the Winamac property DNR shed with the bro. The lady remembered me but not my name. I told her area 3, the name’s Gerry. Ooooh, you’re not on the list she replied. I showed her the paper and she said there must be some mistake as she looked at the paper and showed it to another DNR guy. After asking if this has happened before she looked up and said only once, a few years ago. Dang.

Other groups of hunters were arriving, festooned in day-glo orange caps and brush pants. It got busy quickly. So what would the DNR folks do about this mishap? I had the paper. We sat in chairs and waited watching others come and go.

Time was wasting and for a moment I thought she would probably refund my fee and we would go home to watch football.

Then, she called me to the desk and told me we were good to go. Another DNR guy told me that he called the Indianapolis DNRHQ and cleared it up. They would allow twelve hunters in area 3 instead of the usual ten and apologized. We asked about Monday, the other day we had registered for. He said to bring the paper and all would be good.

Not a good start for the day. We had just enough time to hit the field on-time and prepared for a beautiful morning hunt. The weather could not have been better.

One thing I love about Winamac is seeing the same guys each year in the area parking lot. Everyone is friendly and seeing all the fabulous gun dogs puts a smile on my face. Dogs, guns and gamebirds. This is my small slice of heaven in what to me is the best week of the year next to fishing in Canada during early June.

I don’t ask for much Lord, just these two weeks each year. Please hear my prayer and make it worthwhile until we meet.

Here we go. We always have a plan. I know area 3 well and where I think the birds will be. My plan would have us walk about a quarter mile down a dirt two-laner. A couple of very old doods followed with a black lab. I’ve seen them at area 3 before. Labs are not good upland bird dogs. They’re excellent for waterfowl but not so much for quail, grouse and pheasant. Stubborn those lab owners are. They think their dogs walk on water and while they may, I would never waste my time hitting the field with one.

Dotttie was leashed and almost jerking my arm from my shoulder. This is good. She knows what we’re doing.

So I finally release her and she does the zig-zag pattern. She ranges out far and I blow the whistle. She heads back. So far so good.

Then we hit a patch of standing corn and I lose her. She doesn’t respond. My remote has a beeper on the collar that I hit before hitting the zapper button. The idea is for the dog to associate the beep with the zap, become conditioned to the beep and obey without further stimulation. Then we see a rooster shoot up from the corn into the air well out of range.

The bro takes a very long shot with his Weatherby O/U using #5 shot and downs the pheasant. What a shot! He claims he led the bird by about four feet. The bro is one of the best wing shooters I have ever been in the field with. Damn, what a shot. But I am getting pissed at Dot. She is way out in front and flushes two more roosters that fly into an area being worked by two other hunters, so we pass on following them. Dot is trying my patience so I blow the whistle, yell DOTTIE COME! and nothing. I hit the beeper and nothing. So I again scream DOTTIE COME! then a beep and a sting from the remote. I hear a distant yelp before I can hear her collar bell and she returns.

So with Dot on leash we rested near some pines a while, about 45 minutes into the hunt. She wanted to run, but not yet little pup.

Upon release she stayed a lot closer and soon went on point. A hard point, this is good. We walked in and flushed a rooster. Bird down. Yes! Now we’re talkin’. Only a few minutes later another hard, solid point. Bird up, bird down. Three in the bag. Hot damn!

About ten minutes later in some tall brown glass her collar bell went silent. I could barely see Dot on another solid point. We walk in as I calmly say whoah, whoah Dottie. She stays staunch, on point. We flush, I shoot, Dot is on the dead bird, we limit out.


One hour and fifteen minutes and we bagged our limit. Not bad for a two-year old dog. We walked back to the lot with ear-to-ear grins heading for a cold beer.

The best things are worth waiting for. Many things that are worthwhile take patience and hard work. I have the time.

Dottie’s gonna’ be a fine bird dog. It’s just that she has some big paws to fill.

Monday Morning Blues

Bullying The Bully

When finally cornering a bully it must be brutal. A bloody nose, a black eye, and a Louisville Slugger to the kneecaps would work. It is so delicious to see this assclown get beaten up and, as expected, the bully doesn't take it too well. Unfortunately it will not be heard by many who should hear it. So I am simply doing my part to spread the word.

Click on the image and listen. It is so good I had to listen to it twice. Enjoy!

>

BAM! POW! BING!

Saturday Night Sixties

It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.

Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.



Fuzzy dice... bongos in the back... my ship of love is ready to attack.

Brown Sash With Two Stripes

Wednesday Night was another Muay Thai test. I didn't think I would ever do better than my last test, but I was wrong. I completely and totally kicked this test's butt. My partner was great too - and this is important.

I was counting the achievement certificates on the wall and that was my ninth test. It is my last before my test for the black sash. The ultimate goal in our gym.

As a reminder, there really is no rank system in traditional Muay Thai. Most people involved in the art in Thailand are fighting to feed themselves, not to keep in shape or enjoy an art as we are for the most part at the gym. We do have some fighters that have something to prove to themselves in that area, but for the most part we are all just people who want to learn an art, stay in shape, spar lightly and have fun.

I have been doing this for over four and a half years constantly now. I saw video of myself doing this last test and I have to admit, I looked pretty smooth. I was extremely pleased. So is my instructor. I have been molded into a western/thai hybrid artist that our gym is after. Note I said artist, not fighter. Sure I could fight, but that isn't in the cards for me, a business man, father, and responsibility holder. I could use a broken nose right now like a hole in the head.

So my black sash test is sometime next year. I am on a probationary period right now. I don't have to test with the other guys and girls anymore. I have heard that the black sash test will be in front of the whole gym and that there may be an essay and a speech involved as well as sparring the instructor and others, and all the rest. There has never been a formal black sash test at our gym so this will all be new to everyone. There is only one black sash holder at our gym besides the instructor, and he was simply handed his one day. It will be interesting. I have no idea how this will all go down.

When I get that black sash, although I know it means nothing in the "real" Muay Thai world, it will mean a lot to me. I have never achieved anything of real physical significance in my entire life that was publicly recognized. Sure I have had great times running and cycling, but never really "won" anything. I may break down and cry when this happens. I might jump for joy. I have no idea. I have given everything to this art for what will be 5.5 years of my life by that time. I have seen a ton of people come and go in the gym, and the gym is in its third different location since I started there.

Oh yeah, I am also training this winter for two more weeks in France on the bike in the mountains and all that comes with that such as biking on the trainer, running, strength training and so on.

I better eat my Wheaties.

Norway and Germany

I recently traveled to Norway and as a minor military historian was fascinated by their historical entanglement with Germany. I was not able to travel to see the coastal fortifications in the Northern part of the country that I wrote about here.

Balestrand and The Kaiser

Balestrand is a beautiful little community along a large fjord (Sogenfjord)in Norway. While we were there I stayed at the Hotel Kviknes, which has a long tradition as a fine tourist hotel.

The Kaiser brought a portion of his fleet up the fjord with him while he visited Norway as a tourist. I saw a photo from a local guide but I can't seem to find one on the internet. He had a touring vessel and it looked like a couple of light cruisers but am not certain.

This is the chair in the Hotel Kviknes where the Kaiser supposedly sat when WW1 was declared. There was a young couple having a drink at the table and they were nice enough to let me get a photo of the bottom of the chair which was marked accordingly.

Stalheim Hotel and the Kaiser

The Stalheim Hotel is one of the most famous hotels in Norway, known for its fabulous views as you can see below.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was the Emperor of Germany at the start of WW1. For twenty years in a row the Kaiser visited this hotel in Norway during the summer. Below is a monument to the Kaiser, which apparently is misspelled (per the manager of the hotel, who gave us an excellent historical tour).

This is a view of the Stalheim hotel today, which has been substantially rebuilt since the world war I era.

Bergen and WW2

The Germans attacked Norway in 1940. Here is a solid summary of the campaign at wikipedia. Per wikipedia the German soldiers had orders not to shoot unless fired upon; apparently they hoped that the citizens in Norway (and Denmark) would view them favorably. This likely factored in with their racial politics, and the long history that Norway and Germany shared.

But the Norwegians did resist. While they were ultimately defeated (and caught mostly unawares by the invasion) they had a major victory with the destruction of the Blucher, a heavy cruiser with 8" guns which was damaged by shore batteries and then sunk by land based torpedoes. At that engagement they also damaged the pocket battleship Lutzow, which had to reverse away full speed from the guns. This is a photo of a print on the wall in the Hotel Kviknes.

You can get a fantastic overhead view of Bergen if you take a cable car called the Fliobanen. I went up there looking for evidence of the German u boat pens that were constructed in Norway (and to have a beer and be a regular tourist, too). Apparently there are some remnants (it is damn hard to get rid of the immensely strong concrete structure) used by the Norwegian navy today but I wasn't able to find them.

The Norwegian merchant marine made very large contributions to the Allied war effort. After the fall of Norway in 1940 their ships sailed with the Allies under the name "Nortraship". One side of the "Sailor's Monument" in Bergen contains an engraving of a merchant ship with sailors drowned in the cold sea.

Voss

After Bergen fell quickly to the Germans the Norwegian army regrouped (and were receiving British and French help to the north) and made a stand at Voss. We visited there (it is a quick train ride from Bergen) and when I inquired about history the guide said that Voss was blasted by the Germans and ruined because the men made a stand there. Today it is very attractive and you can take a cable car up to the ski resort atop the mountain.

On Occupation

When researching the war effort there are many references to the resistance against the German occupiers. The famous "heavy water raid" in 1943 which was rated as "the most successful sabotage effort in WW2". There were many other books about individuals who resisted and / or escaped over the border to Sweden.

Due to the high amount of German soldiers present in Norway any acts of concerted resistance would have been suicide. I am not aware of a "standard" for occupation but in terms of soldiers as a percent of citizens Norway has to rank near the top of the list. There were hundreds of thousands of German military personnel in Norway at various points of campaigns with under 4 million inhabitants, a ratio that made serious resistance efforts impossible.

The biggest contribution that Norway made to the Allied cause, in my opinion, was the fact that the German navy was seriously degraded upon completion of the Norway campaign. Per wikipedia

At sea the invasion proved a significant setback. For the Kriegsmarine the campaign led to crippling losses, leaving the Kriegsmarine with a surface force of one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers and four destroyers operational. This left the navy weakened during the summer months when Hitler was pursuing plans for an invasion of Britain.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

Poultry Update

Below is a photo of an old pig barn that is on our farm and a hammock that I have not used one single time.

Have you ever been in a pig barn? Yes? Then you know the smell. That stench has faded for the most part, but I don't think it will ever go completely away. We were this close to tearing down this structure but we didn't and we are glad we kept it. On the right side is a lean to that the small horses go into when it is raining. It had to be shored up as it was in pretty sad shape when we inherited it.

On the left you can see a wire cage - it is actually a dog kennel type thing that we got from a hardware store pretty cheap. That is the outdoor section of the chicken area - it has to be fenced since we have predators like hawks, foxes and coyotes. When we are there we let the chickens out and they love to eat the grass. If you look closely you can see a small square door by the fenced in area with a ramp. The chickens can go in and out of the structure as they please but we shoo them inside for the night just in case a predator tries to get over zealous. Of course the inside is heated in the winter and has a fan in the summer. Most of the old pig barn is used for horse hay storage, grain for the horses and other things. We came to find out that you can't ever have enough "storage" when owning a place like this.

So here is the inside of the chicken area.

In the foreground is Angel, the white one, and Red, well, the red one. Behind them we have the taller silky rooster, which I have named "The Situation" and next to him is JWoww (you will have to brush up on your Jersey Shore to understand these names). Sitting in the laying box is Sammi and below her under the ladders is Snooki. When daylight is long we get up to three eggs a day. Right now we are getting about one every other day.

This is pretty much a money loser if you consider the feed and electricity to keep these things alive, but it is enjoyable, pretty cool to get fresh eggs, and the kids and I have fun with them. We handle them a lot so you can pick up most of them and pet them if you desire. I love watching these stupid animals cluck and scratch around. We are making another coop like this and will be getting six more exotic chickens for that area.

Horse Update

At our hobby farm we have cattle for beef, chickens for eggs, cats for rodent control, a dog for a warning system (and to kill a coyote/fox if needed) and horses for pleasure. I don't really do the horse thing but the wife and kids sure do love 'em. It is nice that we have our own grass hay to feed them, making their maintenance cost very low, just need to keep their hooves taken care of and the occasional vet visit.
Below are Cowboy, the miniature horse and Tanner, a Pony of the Americas.

Cowboy came to us virtually free from a farm that had too many. Tanner was totally free. There seem to be a lot of places that are trying to scale down during the difficult economic times. Cowboy is fully grown. He is pretty fluffy now since winter is coming. It is amazing to me how animals just do their thing when the weather comes. Tanner is also fully grown. Cowboy isn't trained yet, but Tanner participates in cart and sled driving and is ridden in kids classes.

Below is Lady Astor, we just call her Lady.



She is a Shire cross and stands 17 hands. She is a magnificent animal. She is ridden in dressage and hunt classes and also pulls a cart. My wife has won a competition with her driving cart already and we have only had her for a year and a half. It is hard to describe how large this beast it until you are right up on her. Very mild mannered though. That is a qualification to living on our hobby farm - if the animal is "hot" it isn't for us.

Winter is coming and that means sleigh rides. It helps make the season pass more quickly when you are doing fun things like that.

Monday Morning Blues

Saturday Night Sixties

It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.

Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.

The Creeping End Game of Government Bureaucracy

In today's Wall Street Journal there are two articles that seem to be completely disconnected but are really linked at the core. One is titled "Health System Reflects Greece's Ills" which summarizes Greece's public sector health policy:

Like nearly all Greeks, Mr. Gianakouras was covered by a state social security fund, which provided $13,6000 for the hospital bill. There was just one more thing: Mr. Gianakouras said he gave his surgeon "black money" - $5000 Euros in cash - to perform the operation.

'If you don't pay', he said, 'you don't get anything done'.

While we might be surprised by this type of situation in the United States and a few other western countries, it is the way the world operates elsewhere when the government or constitution gives "rights" to citizens without the means to pay nor proper incentives to get work done in an organized and systematic (market-based) fashion. This system was brought to a fine art in the former Soviet Bloc countries where the free-market was squeezed almost entirely into niches; a vast, parallel system of bribes, favors, and illicit goods and services ran alongside the "official" system which got little or nothing done.

Alongside the uselessness of utilizing the official channels is the general impunity of the government workers that run the sham system. Periodically there are calls to remove "corruption" but that implies that corruption is a deviation from the system when in fact corruption is the system itself. There is little or no motivation for the government workers to follow rules and bribes and favors are commonplace, so what is the point in going after them in the first place for participating in a system that can't work?

A different article discusses the "penalty" faced by SEC workers for their failure to spot the Bernie Madoff fraud, titled "SEC Discipline over Madoff" which can be easily summarized in the first paragraph:

The SEC admitted Friday that it has disciplined eight employees over their handling of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme without firing any of the workers.

In one of the most obvious cases of gross governmental negligence (there are entire documentaries about individuals that tried to bring Madoff's scam to light and were ignored by the SEC employees so I won't summarize them here), there is NO CONSEQUENCE for these workers for their failures.

The core concepts of moving away from the free-market to a governmental run system are 1) bribes , corruption and favors being built in to the system to make it work 2) general impunity of workers for participating in this sham "rights based' process.

My advice is to befriend governmental workers and medical care professionals in the future as our system moves more towards the "Greek" model of over-promising care to everyone and under-funding and not incenting the hard work necessary for quality care to occur. And be prepared for a wall of government workers who can rule with impunity based on arcane processes and standards not tied to the free market or any sort of accountability based system as our "investment" in government increases; the first thing these workers will do is build a system where they are put "first" before the mission that they are trying to accomplish.

I never thought that my classes on "command economies" would ever come in so useful, but it shows the long-term arc of our creeping end game in the West.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

Odd Movie Poster

Saw this on the way to work on Wacker Drive... maybe a damn Tw*light movie worth watching?

The automated poster got stuck halfway between two ads...

Doing Something Really Stupid

Will I ever learn?

I love sausage. Especially pork sausage. For years I loved eating hot links. Those are spicy pudgy sausages popular with the inner city urban types. Moo & Oink were always a favorite hot link brand of mine.

Yesterday while shopping at the grocery store I did a very stupid guy thing that most guys do shopping in a grocery store. I made an impulse buy. There they were. Scott Peterson Hot Links. Never tried them but Peterson makes a good frank so I picked up a pack for $2 on sale. Looked good at the time.

Reading labels is a fetish of mine. Seeing the price per pound, evaluating the value proposition and eyeballing the ingredients is a big part of my shopping experience especially when it comes to food. The wife hates when I do that because it slows us down when we shop together.

Once arriving home I took a look at the ingredients. The first ingredient on a label is known to be the most prominent ingredient. Not surprised to see chicken. Mechanically separated chicken? Ok. Most hot dogs now contain mostly chicken and turkey, which is why I usually prefer to buy franks which are all beef.

Then I spotted this: salivary glands and lymph nodes. Eeewww. Being fully aware that some by-products make it into commercially prepared sausages this never occurred to me. Using snouts, cheeks, scrotums and anuses is one what I expect but glands? OK, fine.

Is this what the meat processors do, carefully carve out salivary glands and lymph nodes, toss them into a lug marked ‘for use in hot links only’?

(O go ahead and click to enlarge, it's ok)


Sweet Baby Jesus, PLEASE DON’T LIST THIS CRAP ON THE DAMN LABEL!!! Call it meat and meat by-products so I don’t notice and leave it at that. Alpo can stuff offal in their cans but don’t sell it to people like me who prefer eating flesh.

Steve H has been writing about his recent homemade sausage escapades and noted that salivary glands were included in some chorizo he bought. I read his blog yesterday and yet, stupidly grabbed these hot links and tossed them into my cart without even looking. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Me and the bro have made bulk sausage for freezing quite a few times. We bought pork butt and extra fat, usually 20-40 lbs., spiced it up, let the chunks sit overnight then ground it and stuffed it into natural hog casings in my kitchen using my Kitchen Aide pro stand mixer with the grinding and stuffing attachment. We’ve made andouille since a good Cajun sausage is hard to find locally. The bro has a great smoker so he smokes it all up and we are good to go to make honest seafood gumbo for another six months.

We’ve made an outstanding Italian spicy sausage too. And I once made some decent chorizo but never considered using salivary glands. Who the hell even sells them? Where on God’s green earth can I buy them at retail?

I am way too grossed out to eat these hot links. I refrain from eating offal and innards. That’s for third world peasants and foodie nincompoops. So these will get tossed in the woods across the street for the raccoons, opossums and coyotes to fight for. Hell, I only feed my gun dogs the finest high-protein dry meal.

Gag. I will never be confused with this guy. And WTF is he eating in this image?


Don’t tell me, it looks way too personal.

Ag Update

That is a photo of Arthur, our prize steer. He is not quite a year and a half old. His confirmation is the best we have ever seen from our tiny herd of Scottish Highlands and of the Highlands we have seen on other farms. We suspect winter will be good to him and he will be enormous (for the breed) by next summer and ready for butchering. He was our first calf. Here he is back in May of 2010 right after he was born with his mom, Annabelle.


We butchered two steers this year and the beef is of a very high quality - my wife and I were both surprised at how good it is. We sold one full beef in quarters and kept the other for ourselves. It is pretty cool to have good ground beef and steaks in stock at all times.

The ground beef is extremely lean - well, all grass fed beef typically is. If you are used to grain fed steaks and aren't looking for a change, this probably won't be for you. We use no hormones and feed these animals nothing but pasture grass in the summer, and hay from our fields in the winter. The taste is not wild, but to me, "beefier". You don't get the buttery melt in your mouth taste of a well marbled ribeye from a place like Ruth's Chris, but the best cuts from our beef hold up well.

You have to be careful cooking the beef - this isn't a breed for well done steaks, if that is how you like them. Fortunately my family all likes medium rare to rare (barely cooked in my case).

Burgers are great too, but care again must be taken not to over cook them or you will have a sawdust sandwich. The burger is where you really get the beef flavor that everyone must have enjoyed a long time ago, before feed lots, hormones, grain and all the rest.

It was very easy for my wife to sell the extra steer - there is a high demand, at least in these parts for naturally raised grass fed beef. People like to come by and see the "happy" cows munching on grass. We say "organic" and that is OK as our tiny operation is so small that we don't have to be certified organic to say such.

We are ready for winter as the hay is all put up and ready to go.

More ag updates as time provides.

Those Pesky Local Elections

Tuesday morning there will be a local election. I will be among the first to vote, as always. Showing up fifteen minutes ahead of time has been a habit of mine after twenty years of commuting to Chicago. I never have missed a chance to vote. It gives me the right to bitch. The regulars are always there with me, waiting for the polling place to open.

There’s Betsy, the hot little MILF with big dark hair from down the road. She competes in marathons and stops by the polling place while on her morning run wearing that delightful tight black spandex. Woah, wouldn’t want to miss seeing THAT? And there’s Ted, a retired grizzly old steelworker who is as pissed off at the union bullshit as I am. We talk firearms and share hunting stories for a short time since elections happen during the hunting season. Small talk.

This election is local, one where the turnout is very light. This one is mainly for mayor of Valpo and a few other local seats.

Our current mayor is Jon Costas.


Jon is a neighbor of ours living only four doors away. He’s a good man. We have had a few conversations, but I wouldn’t call our relationship as being close. He has a band called The Conservatones and they perform at the Valparaiso Independence Day festivities. Jon beat a long time incumbent democrat attorney who was a do-nothing toad. Jon is a republican who promised to only serve two terms before returning to his lucrative law practice.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Jon a lot. He has helped Valpo lift itself from being a sleepy little rural county seat into a modern community that draws successful businesses. He oversaw the rebuilding of our town square that now boasts fine dining bistros and a vibrant nightlife. It draws folks from far away and they spend their money here. He found state and federal funds that the old mayor never knew existed in order to repair decaying streets and sewers in the older section of town. While I may have a slight problem with that, the money was there for the taking. If we didn’t grab it and use it some urban area would have stolen it and wasted it.

Last year the Indiana Chamber of Commerce gave Valparaiso their top award recognizing this town as their community of the year.

So why do I find myself as conflicted as Chaz Bono standing in front of a urinal?

We built a home on the outskirts of Valparaiso twenty years ago for a number of reasons. We liked the idea of living in a rural area and near a town that is not connected to that unending wasteland known as urban sprawl. Valparaiso is surrounded on all sides by rolling hills of woods and corn and bean fields, not connected to other communities with unending mini malls, chain restaurants, nail parlors, currency exchanges and auto dealerships.

The schools here are outstanding and while there is a drug problem like any other community there are no gangs to speak of. Violent crime is non-existent since everyone here is very well armed. When we go to a grocery store or any other business the employees smile and chat, not like the scowls we were used to living in Illinois.

We left Illinois to get away from urban problems, sprawl, government corruption, malfeasance and the insane intrusion of a state and local nanny government run amok. As they say, love it or leave it and we chose to leave it. We proved to be correct and have no regrets.

This is as close to living in Mayberry USA as Mayberry USA could be to me.

My main problem with Jon is he has bought into what is called ‘regionalism’. Here in northwest Indiana regionalism is a way of co-joining a few counties through a taxing authority in order to create a tax base that supposedly will go to The Greater Good™. Horsehockey!

Lake County Indiana to the west has suffered the loss of industry and failed to plan for any alternative. We never considered moving there. It is a prime example of the democrat industrial union complex that feeds on state and federal handouts without putting the money to good use. They steal it. Since Lake County is in such nasty financial shape their politicians and a lapdog local media have concocted this ‘regional’ concept where they intend on sticking their vacuum hose into the wallets of adjoining counties to pay for past malfeasance and corruption. In doing so they promise growth, jobs and a regional transportation system that will cost an estimated one billion dollars (and we know this is a fraudulently low estimate) that residents here in Porter County have overwhelmingly voted down in a state sanctioned referendum.

Jon is a regional advocate. He wants us to help pay for a shiny new choo-choo in Lake County. Strike one.

Jon also is a strong proponent of multiculturalism. We have waaay too much section 8 housing in Valpo as it is and he seems to welcome more. I have no problem with new neighbors but we need responsible new neighbors, not some Lake County taker transplant low-life grifters just for the sake of broadcasting some benevolent political correctness. Strike two.

I am a firm believer in term limits. Jon promised two terms and now he wants three. Jon considered running for Attorney General until Mitch asked him to step aside for the more conservative Greg Zoeller, who won. Being a good soldier Jon stepped down but he obviously has his sights set on higher office and a lifetime political career. Strike three.

What is our alternative?


Bob McCasland is Jon's only challenger. Bob has served the town as an elected republican official. He is going the independent route to challenge Jon for the second time. Bob stopped by our country bunker before the last election to meet and greet. I invited him in and we spoke.

A nice guy Bob is, he is a local native and a fine family guy who means well and has good intentions. I like him. I told Bob that Jon was doing a fine job. He’s a neighbor, I explained. I was being honest. Bob understood and parted as a friend. Getting to know local politicians in this way helps keep my faith in the system.

This time Bob might get my vote. Bob is against regionalism in any way shape or form. He wants to keep our community tight and exclusive. I just don’t know yet how I will vote and probably won't until I have the punch card in my hand.

It’s a tough choice. Out here. In the hinterlands.

But no matter what happens, our town will still win. That's why I love living here.

Monday Morning Blues

Cool Photo

When we were at Cafe Benelux in Milwaukee where I had this beer flight I also took a photo of a cool Heineken windmill with one of the servers walking by. I liked it, at least.

Around Milwaukee October 2011

Recently I traveled up north to Milwaukee. You can see the Miller Brewery Tour highlights here. The inside joke among me and my friends is that Milwaukee's motto should be

It's better than you think

Because that's the truth.

Upper left - I was impressed with their conversion of older industrial buildings into condominiums as well as new construction. But I think that the sign for "The Point on the River" that said "It Reminds me of Amsterdam" was pushing it a bit too far... Upper middle - great buildings being renovated downtown. Upper middle - near where a friend of mine lives someone put some yard sculpture together with what appears to be buried cars in their front lawn. Upper right - a cool brand new building in the arts section of town. Lower left - a Ford Falcon used to deliver Jimmy John's. They built this car from 1960-1970 so someone has kept this guy running a long time. Lower middle - the famous city hall. Lower right - The Fonz! We were in our high end hotel and someone came right up to us to see if we had directions to the Fonz statue, and we were able to accommodate. Apparently he is a real tourist attraction.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

Saturday Night Sixties

Damn, what a week. My contract has been fulfilled so this Saturday is special.

Back into semi-retirement mode for me, I've got a lot of livin' to do.

Time to set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.

Tonight, I'm pouring a Rusty Nail. Make it a double. On the rocks.



Ring-A-Ding-Ding!

Miller Brewery Tour

Recently I went on the Miller Brewery Tour in Milwaukee. You can get more information about the tour here. The tour is free and highly recommended.

After a short 10 minute movie featuring an animated "Fredrick Miller", the German immigrant who purchased Plank Road Brewery and turned it into what is now Miller Brewing (technically part of Miller / Coors), the tour begins.

The highly automated process that fills the bottles and cans is very impressive. You overlook these processes from a hallway above and they have a short movie on flat screen TV's at this stage in addition to narration from the tour guide.

You can see the beer stacked up in the huge distribution warehouse. There is a north and south building with a "beer bridge" and conveyer connecting the two facilities. In addition to brewing the usual beers here they also brew Leinenkugel's, and Pabst (gulp) on contract.

The buildings connected together are in "Miller Valley". As you can see it is a valley and this is apparently the worlds largest hand painted sign (per the guide, at least).

At the end you tour the caves where the original Frederick Miller stored his beer to keep it cool in the summer, packed in ice from nearby lakes.

They give three free samples at the end of the tour. For us it was Peroni, Miller Lite, and one of your choice. The beer actually tasted excellent, cold and right out of the keg. Someone I was touring with said that it seemed strange to get a "free lunch" (beer without paying and a free tour) and I said that I had paid for this tour hundreds and hundreds of times over in my lifetime of "investment" in Miller products.

Another Beer Flight

While in Milwaukee at the cool Benelux Cafe in the third ward I got the following beer flight. I texted a photo to Dan and his comment was

I'll bet you aren't going to work tomorrow

And he was right. But what a good flight.

Delirium Tremens
Maredsous Blonde
Saison Dupont
Tripel Karmeliet

Pitfalls of Banking

As I walk to work every day I pass a series of "Payday lenders". These companies offer an advance to individuals without cash at a high interest rate, which is implied in the "fee" for providing cash as well as the short duration of the loan (a couple of weeks or a month). These practices are often frowned upon in the media as "taking advantage" of the poor.

As I pulled cash from an ATM I had to pull out the receipt of the prior person at the cash station (they had already left long ago) in order to get at my receipt because they just left it in the ATM. You can see the receipt below (it didn't have any identifying information).

This person is not someone who should be banking at all. They had a balance of $141 or so in their account, but they withdrew $140 with a $3 fee for using an out-of-network ATM, meaning that they were now going negative in their account. I don't know what bank they use (it isn't Chase) but many of these banks charge $20 or $30 or more for every single overdraft. Thus the "true" cost of pulling out this cash is really $3 out of network fee plus the $30 or so overdraft fee. This is a huge cost as a percentage of the money withdrawn ($33 / $140) = 23%, and if you assume any sort of "time" in order to compare it to a loan such as you'd get for a payday then it is astronomical. Let's assume 1 month duration and that it isn't APR just straight interest then let's multiply by 12 and you get 276%. Under any sort of "compounding" model it would be much higher.

The wikipedia entry under "payday loan" is surprisingly balanced, given that the industry has an overwhelmingly negative connotation in most media.

Payday lenders do not compare their interest rates to those of mainstream lenders. Instead, they compare their fees to the overdraft, late payment, and penalty fees that will be incurred if the customer is unable to secure any credit whatsoever. The lenders therefore list a different set of alternatives (costs expressed here as APRs for two-week terms)

$100 payday advance with $15 fee = 391% APR;
$100 bounced check with $48 NSF/merchant fees = 1,251% APR;
$100 credit card balance with $26 late fee = 678% APR;
$100 utility bill with $50 late/reconnect fees = 1,304% APR.

The banks too prey upon those who are low income or (relatively) financially illiterate; the fees by transaction can add up very quickly even for a small account. As a percentage of the account or if any sort of "time" basis is factored in, the results can be significant.

While I am not an expert in the system and don't know all of the alternatives it seems obvious that giving people access to credit, the immediate ability to withdraw cash, and not limiting their ability to accrue fines and fees is a sort of recipe for disaster. The person who withdrew this sum from the ATM, for certain, isn't the type of person who is going to fare well in a modern banking system.

Cross posted at Chicago Boyz

Crappy Beer Challenge "Bar Wear"

One time I was walking through a mall years ago when I saw a store that sold "bar wear". I wasn't sure what they meant but...

I was recently on the Miller Beer Tour in Milwaukee and I noticed this line of hats. Ha! Virtually the only drinkable beer on this entire list is Blue Moon. Dan should put on a hat each time he tries a different awful beer. Don't forget Olde English 800!