The lady at the Kum and Go counter in Humboldt tried to be pleasant to the robber that night. He wanted smokes and cash. She handed them over. So he shot her dead.
He was in practice. An hour earlier he killed a another nice lady at an Algona convenience store.
Of course this makes me think of a fellow luckier than the two unarmed convenience store clerks. That good citizen forgot to obey his employer's (Walgreen's) Compromise Policy. His punishment was less permanent.
'course, the Humboldt/Algona killer kid (17) had a pretty good excuse. Earlier in his recent adventures he had swiped a pack of ramen noodles and feared getting caught. So he stole a family gun and his mom's SUV and took off for Mexico, or maybe Amsterdam, via my neighborhood.
And a technical note if you please: The first version of the Register story had the young man armed with a 40 mm handgun. Bofor long, multiple layers of fact checking and editorial oversight (which is to say a wry reader comment) prompted a correction to .40 caliber.
Jun 22, 2011
Pixie Dust
The baited* breath of Chairman Bernanke is due to be expelled at 2:15 p.m. in his second-ever press conference as Fed boss. The presser follows a 12:15 p.m. interest-rate release from the FOMC, (an acronym for the Federal Payday Loan Committee).
Ordinary folks like you and me await all this with bated breath. We have played along with the Fed's monetary gag for so long that, like it or not, we have a personal stake, survival, in the Charminization-rate of the American dollar.
I'm going to suggest a certain questioning attitude in listening to Ben. As he speaks, try to get a handle on just how he proposes to continue printing our way to something a majority of American voters will accept as "prosperity."
There's something to be said for the view that it's already too late, but Ben has to try. He has formidable enemies in the welfare classes as represented by vote whores in our legislatures and executive mansions. Further, he may have an enemy in his personal economic dogma. As smart as he is, the man's soul is larded with Keynes as propagandized by Samuelson.
And he is very smart. So are his fellow Federal Reserve Board governors. They're too bright to bless policy which they expect could lead to an American Weimar -- inflation coming at lightning speed and increasing exponentially.
(The German currency stabilized after the Armistice at something like 60 marks per American (gold- and silver-backed) dollar. That in itself represented massive inflation, but at least it held until June of 1921. That summer brought further bad policy which devalued the mark to about 320 per dollar in September. By December, 1922, it took 8,000 marks to buy one Greenback.
(Translate the number to the United States, 2011, and use our favorite benchmark, the price of bacon, now about $5 per pound. That Weimarization level would boost it to $666 per pound. Your grandma starves. Your kids resemble the photos from Biafra, 1967-70.)
And that will not happen in the United States. The Washington, D.C. powers in which Ben is embedded understand that that level of misery would lead to a United States version of the putsches. Someone will remind them of the Reichstag elections of April 10, 1932.
The president, whomever he might be at the time, and all our subordinate electees could not endure in the face of that kind of upheaval short of trying to impose martial law upon a people less docile than the demoralized and defeated Germans.
So summon up what optimism you can and, for the time being, rule out the sort of hyper-paced borrowing and printing that would, in a relative eye blink, instigate the putsches.
Instead, watch for Ben's hints at something as bad, but en route on slower train, possibly buying enough time to tinker the economy back into something viable for another generation or two.
How much room does he weasel for a QE3 and a QE4? How much of our problem does he blame on, say, Greece rather than Washington and the 50 state capitols? How does he explain the 50-1 leverage of his balance sheet? How forcefully will he hammer home to the political masters that they have long since bought the last vote we can afford?
---
*Correct. Baited with, among many other adulterants, a concoction of unicorn methane, pixie dust, smoke, mirrors, and ethanol subsidies
Ordinary folks like you and me await all this with bated breath. We have played along with the Fed's monetary gag for so long that, like it or not, we have a personal stake, survival, in the Charminization-rate of the American dollar.
I'm going to suggest a certain questioning attitude in listening to Ben. As he speaks, try to get a handle on just how he proposes to continue printing our way to something a majority of American voters will accept as "prosperity."
There's something to be said for the view that it's already too late, but Ben has to try. He has formidable enemies in the welfare classes as represented by vote whores in our legislatures and executive mansions. Further, he may have an enemy in his personal economic dogma. As smart as he is, the man's soul is larded with Keynes as propagandized by Samuelson.
And he is very smart. So are his fellow Federal Reserve Board governors. They're too bright to bless policy which they expect could lead to an American Weimar -- inflation coming at lightning speed and increasing exponentially.
(The German currency stabilized after the Armistice at something like 60 marks per American (gold- and silver-backed) dollar. That in itself represented massive inflation, but at least it held until June of 1921. That summer brought further bad policy which devalued the mark to about 320 per dollar in September. By December, 1922, it took 8,000 marks to buy one Greenback.
(Translate the number to the United States, 2011, and use our favorite benchmark, the price of bacon, now about $5 per pound. That Weimarization level would boost it to $666 per pound. Your grandma starves. Your kids resemble the photos from Biafra, 1967-70.)
And that will not happen in the United States. The Washington, D.C. powers in which Ben is embedded understand that that level of misery would lead to a United States version of the putsches. Someone will remind them of the Reichstag elections of April 10, 1932.
The president, whomever he might be at the time, and all our subordinate electees could not endure in the face of that kind of upheaval short of trying to impose martial law upon a people less docile than the demoralized and defeated Germans.
So summon up what optimism you can and, for the time being, rule out the sort of hyper-paced borrowing and printing that would, in a relative eye blink, instigate the putsches.
Instead, watch for Ben's hints at something as bad, but en route on slower train, possibly buying enough time to tinker the economy back into something viable for another generation or two.
How much room does he weasel for a QE3 and a QE4? How much of our problem does he blame on, say, Greece rather than Washington and the 50 state capitols? How does he explain the 50-1 leverage of his balance sheet? How forcefully will he hammer home to the political masters that they have long since bought the last vote we can afford?
---
*Correct. Baited with, among many other adulterants, a concoction of unicorn methane, pixie dust, smoke, mirrors, and ethanol subsidies
Jun 21, 2011
The Magnificent Seven
Some very alluring ankles here.
I can't find enough resolution to say much about the rifles. They look Mauser-y. The knockouton the second from left bears one with a finger-grooved stock. Third from left, a lady sports a chic fabric forearm accessory.
EDIT: Pardner JohnW found a much better repro.
I can't find enough resolution to say much about the rifles. They look Mauser-y. The knockout
EDIT: Pardner JohnW found a much better repro.
Jun 20, 2011
Oh For Gawd's Sake, Another One
George Pataki has been background noise for a while now, even as he digs his toe into the dirt and aww schuckses that he ain't about to try to be president. Jist yet, anyhoo.
But today he spat on his hand and patted down the cowlick.
He's here. He's making a speech. He also narrating a new Iowa cable teevee ad saying we're spending too much money. And he's having breakfast with Governor Branstad tomorrow. Reporter Jennifer Jacobs made me smile with:
He delicately expressed some discontent with the current lineup of candidates.
Just like us. We often express delicate discontent with nose warts, don't we?
(Dr. Paul and Gov. Johnson are excepted, of course.)
We'll watch the George show a while before we put him on the official candidate list.
----
One of the dynamics here is deep concern by the Iowa political class is that that our caucuses are beginning to produce more yawns than a Joe Biden speech. I think I see a quietly desperate move by the GOP pros to do anything they can to return to those thrilling days when Iowa was the center of the universe. Padding the candidate field is one way to do that, and I'm thinking of having New Dog Libby call a presser to announce that she will make a decision in July.
But today he spat on his hand and patted down the cowlick.
He's here. He's making a speech. He also narrating a new Iowa cable teevee ad saying we're spending too much money. And he's having breakfast with Governor Branstad tomorrow. Reporter Jennifer Jacobs made me smile with:
He delicately expressed some discontent with the current lineup of candidates.
Just like us. We often express delicate discontent with nose warts, don't we?
(Dr. Paul and Gov. Johnson are excepted, of course.)
We'll watch the George show a while before we put him on the official candidate list.
----
One of the dynamics here is deep concern by the Iowa political class is that that our caucuses are beginning to produce more yawns than a Joe Biden speech. I think I see a quietly desperate move by the GOP pros to do anything they can to return to those thrilling days when Iowa was the center of the universe. Padding the candidate field is one way to do that, and I'm thinking of having New Dog Libby call a presser to announce that she will make a decision in July.
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