Wells Fargo gets with it, I think

I was looking at the Wells Fargo site the other day, and noticed the above picture. Two dudes sitting on a step, one looking kind of dreamily at the other, in an add for home mortgages. Gee, I wonder what demographic this is supposed to appeal to?

I loves me sum gummint regulations

Especially the CALM Act.  I hate it when I'm peacefully trying to watch some program or other, and suddenly a commercial blares onto the screen with the volume loud enough to scare my dog and blow the paper off the coffee table.  The CALM Act authorizes the FCC to do something about that.

I know, I know, nanny state.  Well, if so, I say bring it on.  The flipping free market does not work in that instance.  Me scrambling for the mute button on the remote is completely unknown to the advertiser.  My resolve to note the offender and boycott the product inevitably fades between watching the show and whenever I might be in the market for laundry soap, or whatever.  Plus, lots of the loud commercials are for stuff I don't buy anyway.

You know, some people just can't be trusted to do the right thing.  They will take advantage and exploit and do anything that they perceive in their interest, and yours be damned.  That's why we have prisons.  Disrupting the calm in my household is a tiny thing, but it happens umpteen times a day, so that adds up.  In some cases it causes me to completely turn off the show or the TV, denying me the pleasure of being a total couch potato slug.  A pleasure that's difficult to defend, but neverthless one that should not be someone else's to deny.

Government regulations have their place.  And praise be for the CALM Act.

Sisyphus

I heard Erick Erickson of Red State say that Newt Gingrich is "The Great American Sisyphus."  Obviously, he doesn't know Idaho's own Sisyphus, who's pretty great, IMHO.

I wonder

I have a friend whose job brings him in contact with claim of embezzlement by various businesses and institutions. He was telling me about a recent case of a woman embezzling from her employer. I asked him what is the ratio of men to women in the embezzlers he's run across.

He thought for a bit and got a funny look on his face and said, every one has been female. Since then I've asked others and gotten the same answer. And of the few cases I've run across, it's also always been a woman.

Now, I'm not saying that only women embezzle; of course not. Just, at least around these parts, it seems to be way more likely to be a woman than a man.

I wonder why.

Focaccia's restaurant

The Statesman ran an article in today's (Sunday) issue about the Boise restaurant, Focaccia's.  It has been struggling with reduced business, and now the owner's wife has become gravely ill. They could use some help.

If you have never eaten there, you'd be happy if you did.  They have very high quality food, nicely conceived and prepared.  The wait staff is friendly and well trained, attentive but not constantly bugging you.

And one additional selling point is that you can get in and out, easily, in a hour, so it's a great place for lunch.  Food arrives in minutes after you place your order.

It would be a real loss to Boise for this fine restaurant to close.  Please consider having a meal there soon.
404 E. Park Center Blvd, Boise.

Spend your way to prosperity

Two posts ago I discussed how government spending can make some people rich, and cited Halliburton.  Well, I have an example that's closer to home.  You'll see that government spending did get this guy going.  With that help, he took his hard work ethic and parlayed that into even more riches, and along the way he created wealth and jobs.  But he got his start with government help.

Then the war came on. We got in the onion drying business. The real money, the first money I ever made that amounted to anything, was when I got into the onion dehydration business. The first month we ran that onion plant we made fifty thousand dollars clear. That was more money than we ever made in a year...

The Army sent a colonel by the name of Logan. He said, "Simplot, you are going to work for the Army. You're going to dry vegetables..." I said, "Fine, give me the tickets and I'll do them the best I know how." That got me in the dehydration business in a big way. I built plants all over America--Maine, North Dakota, Colorado, California, Oregon... I finally wound up supplying more potatoes to the Army than anyone else. That led into the fertilizer business. I had to have fertilizer to grow the potatoes, and I couldn't buy any. So I decided to make some. And I did.

So, without government spending, who knows whether this guy would have made it big.  But, once he got the big government contract, he took off.  And that's in J.R. Simplot's own words.  Government can and does play a role in wealth creation.  It's just a question of whether you like what government is spending it's money on.

Also, I like the irony of our current governor, who profited immensely from his association with Simplot, now talking about getting along without government help.

Newtmentum, and the Idaho fallout

Pretty much every leading Republican politician in Idaho lined up, early, behind Romney.  Easy at the time, given that he appeared to be the anointed one, and given his base of support among the LDS community in Idaho.  But, I think that the tea party leaners in Idaho weren't so much behind him.  Adam Graham, for example, is a Cain supporter, even now.

If Romney's campaign destructs, where will our Red Pols land?  They'll support whoever the nominee eventually is, but if there is still a race going by the time of Idaho's presidential primary, you have to wonder.

Just remember, out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia, emerged Gingrich.

You can’t tax your way prosperity.

Man, I hate this trite phrase, especially since almost nary a day goes by that I’m not subject to some Republican repeating it into a microphone. Republicans are good at repeating these banal talking points, so good in fact that this is their chief advantage in elections. They certainly don’t have the advantage in smart policy.

Anyway, yes, this bit of blather is true. If those are the only two variables – tax and prosperity – they’re right. Taxing you means taking money away from you. And if the government is taking money away from you, that will not necessarily lead to you being prosperous.

The problem is, obviously, that’s not the end of it. You see, once government takes away that money, it spends it. Now, using the limited variable set of this phrase, the government can spend you into prosperity by spending that money on you. (Just ask Halliburton.)

 But, if you have more than two brain cells to rub together, and you choose to do the rubbing, you’ll easily figure out that both views - taxing≠prosperity, spending=prosperity – ridiculously understate the complexity of the situation. If for no other reason than such policies affect more than one individual.

So can we stop with this bumper sticker mentality?  What?  No, we can't?

Sigh......

Times, they are a changin'

You know how people like to depict their families in the back of their SUV windows? Here's one I saw in Boise while driving during the afternoon rush hour.

Heather has two mommies. So does Heath.

Who stole Christmas?

From Mitt Romney? The Gingrinch.