Too long a wait till September in Egypt

It's a long tedious wait till Egypt's president Mubarak's planned departure from office in September. Meanwhile the country is turning itself inside out. He should push up his departure, maybe March 2011 instead of making people wait till September.

Hope Egypt goes more democratic and doesn't go some other way that would be more dictatorial or violent.

Free speech doesn't have to cost much, but other economic improvements take a lot of patience. Bringing 80 million people out of poverty sounds like a daunting task. Especially as recent protests in Egypt has slowed the tourism industry. There's plenty to worry about including availability of water in Egypt as other countries down the Nile make claims to scarce water as well.

Making new wealth can be hard, but incomes can also be better distributed. Technology can help in squeezing new wealth out of scarce resources. Freedom of speech and Facebook can be seen as wealth. One can't eat Facebook, however.

Rain, rain, rain

Window display at Hilton's shoe store in Bellingham.

Bellingham weather is often cloudy and drizzly while harder rains are less common. It's usually just threatening to rain.

Lighted peace sign yard art

Lighted peace sign near Key Street in Bellingham.

From the back side it almost looks like a new moon.

Nice yard art.

How being a locavore might add to global warming

A locavore is someone who tries eat foods that are mostly grown locally, like within 100 miles from home, but in much of USA, local agriculture is cattle ranching. Beef cattle.

Cattle grazing is a lot of what one sees within 100 miles of towns in places like eastern Montana. Not the best place to grow tomatoes, but cattle can graze. Problem is, cattle create methane which is a greenhouse gas. One recommendation for reducing greenhouse gas emission is to eat less beef. That might mean being less of a locavore for folks living in the vast areas of USA where cattle ranching is easier to do than growing, say, avocados.

Maybe beef isn't all bad. I hear that folks are working on modifying the cow's digestive tract to create less methane. Science can come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, there are many reasons to increase fruits and vegetables in our diet while reducing beef consumption. Health reasons as well as the global warming worries. In winter, that most likely means food being shipped from distant places like southern California.

Some people try growing tomatoes here in Bellingham, WA. but our summers are a bit too cool and cloudy. The slugs get them. We just aren't the best place for tomatoes, except maybe in hothouses. Some years, people have good tomatoes, but it seems rare.

Maybe we can have a diet of kale in the winter. Kale is nice, but might get boring after while.

Shipping from distant places creates greenhouse gas as well. Trucks, rail and so forth. Hopefully this isn't as big of an emitter to greenhouse gas as the driving that average Americans do each day.

Being a locavore may not do that much for reducing global warming. Eating less beef does more. Also figuring out how to live without driving, or at least less driving. Possibly living near the bus line or a bike path.

Buying local has some advantage for supporting local business and farming. Also increasing one's social life knowing the producers and meeting folks at places like farmer's markets.

Speaking of cows, I love locally produced Twin Brooks Dairy with it's returnable glass bottles. For some reason, it seems to taste better. I often start my day with their chocolate milk. It's my version of morning coffee.

I don't drink coffee. My reason for not drinking coffee is not because it doesn't grow around here. I just never learned to like the flavor.

Interesting to follow uprisings in Egypt and other parts of the Arab world on the news

Hope it goes in the direction of more social freedoms.

Social freedoms can bring more economic prosperity by encouraging innovation, but economic prosperity may be slow in coming. Even if improved economic conditions don't come that easily, a society of greater freedom can still take place. Greater diversity in lifestyles, religion, human rights and free expression doesn't necessarily have to take a lot of natural resources or bring more material wealth, but it's an improvement in quality of life.

Piano stairs

Making the healthier route fun. Steps of the staircase are like piano keys and play notes as they are stepped on.

One of my Facebook friends found this and shared it. I decided to add it to my blog also.

Food shortages may be less of a problem than other things due to peak oil

Blog post I put on the Transition Whatcom web site. Transition Whatcom members can post. Everyone can read. That discusses strategies for building new lives and economies as availability of fossil fuels diminish. Many fear food will be in short supply as oil is used in agriculture. I have a different take. Food may not be as impacted as some fear.

Re localizing manufacturing more than agriculture

Screenshot, NPR Science Friday.

Buy local.

That's the mantra for many folks seeking a better world. With so much of our manufacturing done in China and salads nicknamed "the thousand mile salad" because of foods coming from far afield, "local" is cherished.

A yearning for return to local "farm to market" commerce has been around for years. Gives rise to farmers markets and places advertising food from within 100 miles.

Manufacturing is another activity that can come back to local communities and we may have more luck localizing this than we do food.

I recently saw this segment of NPR Science Friday on the 3D printer. Interesting little video.

3D printing is getting versatile enough to even make a lot of things in the home shop. I think Alvin Toffler has discussed the term "prosumer." Consumers who can produce a lot of the products they consume.

Home gardeners can be called prosumers as well, growing some of what they eat. Re localizing the production of food is an idea that has been around for years, but we may have more luck re localizing other things than food. The problem with agriculture is climate. Most things grow outdoors and stuff like oranges don't grow in places like Washington State. We've become addicted to a very diversified diet and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll keep drinking orange juice.

Maybe someday, more food will be grown indoors, but the cost of that would be prohibitive for now.

Like the convenience of the automobile, it's hard to give up the great diversity of food we now enjoy. I've lived without the automobile, but I'm rare. Most folks wouldn't give up their cars and it seems unlikely their diets either; except maybe going to healthier diets. Fresh lettuce and tomatoes from places like southern California is hard to beat since lettuce doesn't grow here (Washington state) in the winter. The thousand mile salad will be hard to drop, but other things, like manufacturing, may come easier, with new technology.

Local food production is great. I enjoy Twin Brooks Dairy (here in Whatcom County), but salad greens from southern California are awful nice this time of year.

Printing out lots of household items like bottle openers.

Unencumbered by the confines of what will grow in this climate is manufacturing. New technologies are coming that can decentralize some of the manufacturing sector. Less products will have to be shipped from places like China. Local people may be closer to the process again.

As home manufacturing develops some of the work will be done by hobbyists. By prosumers spending less on being consumers.

One reason behind the call to re localize is our depletion of cheap fossil fuel and the related problem of global warming. Shipping food and products worldwide can take energy, but in some cases economies of scale means reduced energy consumption per unit of production. Big farms may not be as bad as some folks fear, while local agriculture can have it's problems as well. Small farming can mean putting more people in rural settings. Often I've thought that it takes less energy to ship an apple across the globe than it does to ship people who live in a small apple orchard to work if they have to work in the city to pay for that apple orchard.

For years, people have spoken for the virtues of local food production. The idea has caught on a bit, but propensity to seek vast diversity in diet keeps this from going real far. At the same time, we may see a revolution for the decentralizing of many other services such as manufacturing. Technology is likely to drive this revolution in future years.

Other services, such as banking may be "ripe" for a bit of decentralization as well. While there are some advantages to financing on a global scale, we should have learned recently, with the problems caused by loans being sliced, diced and bundled all over the world, that bigger isn't always better. Local bankers will often know local consumers best; doing business face to face.

So "buy local" may catch on more and more in the future, but I would guess, unlike what some others might think, it's leading edge will be in other sectors besides food production.

Economy and traffic picking up

Seems like businesses are starting to get busier again and traffic is backing up more. I'm reminded of the gas ceiling that the US economy labors under. As things pick up, oil gets more expensive.

Supply and demand.

Since we import so much oil, it's a tax on the American people. Money sent overseas. Rather than a glass ceiling it's a gas ceiling.

Change to a less fossil fuel based economy comes too slow.

One piece of good news: Canada benefits as we import a lot of oil from Canada.

Sarah Palin could say she is getting a shellacking

That would be taking a page from Obama's play book. Instead, Palin is taking a different stance. Rather than bowing to criticism and seeking compromise, she's defending the heated rhetoric of her campaign style in spite of so many people's comments that vicious politics can be loosely associated with the shooting spree in Arizona.

She did take the symbols of gun sites off her web site however. Those symbols that were posed over congressional districts where she wanted to see democrats defeated.

She's still fighting and basically standing up for her campaign style. Whether that's good or bad, it's different than Obama's reaction to the 2010 election after republicans gained so many congressional seats.

Should Obama take a page from Sara Palin's play book and defend his stands more aggressively?

Compromise and backbone. Two somewhat opposite poles of a spectrum. Both have their virtues and drawbacks. Seems like democrats are on the defensive more often than republicans.

Painted entryway to dance space of Presents Studio

One of the places I like to dance. Free form jam session. Too bad nothing is planned for New Year's Eve at that studio, but looking forward to things next year. See you next year.

Evolution of car phones to cell phones

Back in the 1980s, cell phones were new, but they were usually called car phones. Now they are called cell phones which is better since the car is not the best place for them; especially the moving car.

Last bastion of the middle class - public employment

The gap between high income elite and low income masses is more pronounced in private sector. A larger percentage of public sector employees seem to be middle class. Not wealthy, but still having pretty nice benefits like health insurance that's more likely to be missing in private sector employment.

As the middle class disappears in private sector, it will get harder to sustain it in the public sector as well. Following leads from Facebook friends, a video from CBS News 60 Minutes came to my attention. Sure points out how far in the hole so many state governments have gone borrowing from their own pension funds and so forth. Looks like a lot of the pensions that were negotiated by state employee unions were unsustainable. Some are generous by private sector standards, except for the golden parachutes near the top of private sector. One governor was quoted saying that if he talked about needs to trim state employee pensions, many of his constituents would say, you mean there are still people who have pensions?

Yes, it's hard to justify middle class living in the public sector when many of the taxpayers are no longer living in the middle class. Part of the energy behind the Tea Party movement; no doubt.

As the gap between wealthy and low income becomes wider, in private sector, it's harder to maintain an economic "middle ground." in the public sector.

On another note, I remember how the middle class was derided during hippie movements of the late 60s and early 70s. Middle class was seen as materialistic, stuffy, the suburbs, conservative, mainstream and living in little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Now, the middle class is being missed by quite a few folks on the left. Folks are holding protest signs for "family wage" jobs. Even Lawrence Welk (a pastime in many middle class homes of the 1960s and 70s) is now remembered with fondness and nostalgia by folks who often derided the show in it's day.

Farthest artificial object from Earth

Launched September 5th 1977, while Jimmy Carter was still president. Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled more than 10 billion miles in space. It's now well past the orbit of Pluto and still sending data back to Earth about the boundary area between solar wind and interstellar space.

Artist's rendition of Voyager from NASA and Wikipedia.

Traveling at 10.5 miles per second (that's from around downtown Bellingham to Ferndale every second!) it's moving. The universe is so large that it would still take this craft over 80,000 years to get to the nearest star.

Why is it making news now?

Scientists are confirming that it has reached another goal in it's long journey. A region where the outward motion of solar wind stops. Probably just a few more years till this probe reaches the environment of interstellar space.

What does that mean? Lot's to astronomers. Instruments on board the craft are still measuring the nature of charged particles. Learning about the energy and magnetic environment farther and farther away from the sun.

33 years of science from one spacecraft launched when I was in college and more to come. On it's way out of the solar system, Voyager 1 passed Jupiter and Saturn returning lots of photos.

There's also a sister ship named Voyager 2. After also taking pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 sped past Uranus and Neptune getting the only close up images we've had of those distant planets. Neptune in 1989. Voyager 2 is also headed out of the solar system, but on a different route so it isn't as far out as Voyager 1. It went the "scenic route" past Neptune; so to speak.

That's a lot of scientific "bang for the buck."

How are these spacecrafts powered?

Well, they are just coasting out into space. Without air resistance, they can just coast once being revved up to speed. The electric power to run their radios and instruments comes from plutonium generators. Like little nuclear reactors, the plutonium in their "RTG" units keeps giving off energy. Eventually the heat will run out, but NASA expects these spacecraft to have several more years of life.

Several more years of learning about the outer reaches of our solar system.

When launched in 1977, scientists put some information on a plaque and I think even a CD (new technology back then) which was placed on board the spacecrafts. This is an "information brochure;" so to speak in case its ever found by some alien civilization. It's basically a "hello" and introduction to Earth as it was in 1977.

Kind of a cosmic version for "chamber of commerce brochure."

That's catering to a possible audience which may not read the brochure for thousands, or even millions, of years.

It's called long range planning. Thousands of years beyond the next quarter's profit statement. Now that's human thinking at it's finest.

Don't ask don't tell victory for Obama's strategy

With the filibuster finally breaking and DADT passing the Senate, it looks like victory in the lame duck session of Congress. The White House's strategy, which just a few weeks ago got some flack from us "liberals," did pay off.

Congress worked. Amazing.

Actually it wasn't just liberals that were skeptical that Congress would act. It was Log Cabin Republicans, the gay Republican organization that was leading a court challenge against DADT. When the justice department of the Obama administration temporarily defended DADT against that court ruling, many wondered what was wrong with the Obama. If Obama opposes DADT, why didn't he just go with the court ruling that tossed it out instead of waiting for Congress to act? It didn't look like Congress would do anything; especially in light of Republican sweep of the 2010 elections, but Obama held out.

Obama held out hope that the lame duck session of Congress would do something and it looks like he was right.

Now all that wrangling over strategy seems like "water under the bridge."

There are several ways to "skin a cat" as the old saying goes. Court challenges is one strategy, Congress is another. It looks like the Congressional strategy finally worked for Obama and DADT will be repealed.

There's still some life in the Obama Presidency.

DADT isn't one of my biggest issues, even though I am more attracted to men than women. Personally, I wouldn't have desire to serve in the military, but I do support basic fairness for those who do. DADT wasn't one of my top issues.

Still, I've tried to not become too cynical about President Obama. It's frustrating at times, and compromise tends to rule most often in just about any politics. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I see why they say that following the process of legislation is like watching the making of sausage.

Hopefully it's now water under the bridge and another step forward. Time to take a deep breath and do some cautious celebration.

Not enough healthy people paying into America's health insurance pools

Broadening the base toward universal coverage; that's one way other industrialized nations bring down their health insurance costs. Getting more people to pay in, so when someone is sick, a larger pool can cushion the blow.

That's what insurance is supposed to be about and President Obama has tried to work toward that goal, but a federal judge has ruled against him.

Judge Hudson's recent ruling tossed out the part of Obama Care that would go into effect by 2014 requiring most Americans to buy insurance; a provision known as "the individual mandate." If this ruling stands up to appeal, it's likely to cripple the whole bill since lots of healthy people need to pay into insurance to cover the sick people taking money out of insurance.

In light of this ruling, it looks like the "Obama compromise" between private health insurance and government "single payer stile" plans is dead.

Single payer "government based" insurance may be the way to go.

Maybe it's unconstitutional to require Americans to buy a particular product, or service, but it isn't unconstitutional to levy taxes. If we want coverage, especially for those sicker than average, we all will have to pay, if not premiums then taxes.

One good thing about taxes is that they can be put on a sliding scale. "To each, according to ability to pay, from each according to need." Sorry for quoting Marx, but that's what insurance is about.

Private enterprise is great, but there isn't profit in caring for the needy.

In the past, private insurance models worked somewhat well, but that was when there wasn't such a wide disparity of income between different groups of Americans. Today, the costs are higher and large segments of the population can no longer afford the premiums. This means lots of folks are left out of the system, including healthy people that could pay in more than they take out, but they can't afford the premiums.

Obama's plan attempted to put more folks into insurance pools, but subsidize the costs for lower income folks. At best, this plan was held together with duct tape and bailing wire.

Trying to maintain everything from the spirit of universal coverage to the current system of private corporations to the idea of not raising taxes is an improbable act of juggling.

No one wants to give ground.

There are a lot of people making good livings in the health insurance industry. Lobbyists on Capital Hill, for instance, but there's more to it than just that.

Some fear that government based insurance would be too much of a "one size fits all" solution. It could threaten marketplace innovation.

Yes, innovation is good, especially when the goal is healthier people in a healthier society. That's what healthcare should be about; healthier people.

Private companies have done some innovation. Offering free free gym memberships, for instance, to promote healthier lifestyles among members of their insurance pool. The goal: more healthy people paying in, less sick folks taking out.

One problem with private companies is the fact that public health is such a large picture that one company's efforts is just a mere "drop in the bucket" when it comes to improving the health of the nation. Governments are larger so when it's in their interest to invest in healthier societies, they can make a difference.

Sure, a private firm can buy gym memberships for it's policyholders, but usually we look to government to fund such things as a bike path system all over town. Governments tend to do a better job investing in things like public parks, education and sanitation.

Private insurance can innovate, but it seems like it's biggest skill is "risk assessment." That's figuring out how to cut off sicker people and target healthy folks for inclusion in the pool.

I'm sure a lot of talented people are employed in risk assessment. Figuring out how to deny care to folks with preexisting conditions. Learning how to steer around the "gauntlet of regulations" so as to "target market" your insurance pool to healthy folks. This brings down average costs.

I think there's even a term called "risk corridor."

Imagine that. Probably work for lots of demographers.

It's figuring out which demographics to target your insurance company toward and how to write your rules to keep out folks that would drive up your costs. Driving up costs, that is, not counting the money you pay your own bloated corporate executives.

Lots of innovation and energy goes into risk assessment. It may help to keep people on their toes. Keep folks working out at the gym so as not to fall outside the preferred "risk corridor."

Still, there's a problem. What do we do with folks who's care costs more than they could ever hope to pay in. Do we slam the door in their faces? Tell them to die early? Dump their care onto the taxpayers?

Maybe the taxpayers just need to be part of the solution all along.

Without government to prop it up, home prices keep falling

Hardship for some current owners, but could also be good news as the home market seeks balance with the job market thus setting the groundwork for increasing affordability. One line says, "buyer tax credit that expired in July is sorely missed." That means Without government to prop it up, home prices keep falling.

Relative prices for various things. Yahoo finance article about are Americans as poor as they feel

I found an interesting article on Yahoo about what I've been thinking a long time. Inflation rates vary widely depending on what is being measured. Housing and health care costs have gone up, but prices for many products as well as food and energy have gone down relative to average incomes.

Public sector ivory tower?

Part of the Obama stimulus plan went to state and local governments to keep them from having to layoff as many folks as would have been laid off given their dwindling budgets. This kept more teachers, police and so forth on the payroll so their services could remain mostly intact while those incomes could continue to provide customers to local business. It was partially a strategy to keep pumping life into consumer spending so the business downturn would be less sharp.

What made sense economically didn't work politically, however.

This plan may have backfired leading to part of the Republican sweep of 2010 elections. It looked like public employees were exempt from the belt tightening of this recession. The old "ivory tower" issue. People grumbling that government workers are exempt from the needed belt tightening that is happening across other parts of our economy.

Politics of the ivory tower has been around for a long time. When I was a student at Western Washington State College, back in the mid 1970s (changed to WWU my last year), there was something called "Reduction in Force." Layoffs of campus personnel during lean times and also adjusting to what was then a drop in student enrollment.

Reduction in force had the acronym "R.I.F" which folks picked up and called "Ripoff in Force."

By the mid 1980s, mindsets were changing. Education funding was getting strong champions in high places. In spite of the Reagan and Bush Sr. presidencies, large pay raises were being proposed for university faculty by (here in Washington state, if I remember correctly) an advisory body called the Council For Post Secondary Education. Our Democratic governor, at the time, was a man named Booth Gardner. He joined the call of these advisory committees with proposals for large teacher and faculty pay hikes.

I don't know if all of that pay raise ever actually materialized, but the suggestions were circulating in media back then. It was an era of "brain drain worry." Government and public sector pay scales trying to catch up with what was perceived as much higher salaries in the private sector. Also competition with pay scales in other states. Fear that talent was being "brain drained" away to higher paying positions elsewhere.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

Back then, even Reagan administration officials were testifying before Congress about the need to increase salaries for key government officials. They feared loosing staff to the likes of such things as "mega Washington, DC law firms" with starting salaries higher than even Supreme Court justices were making at the time.

Congressional salaries were going up also, pegged to various government pay scales that were recommended for raises in order to keep up with comparable jobs in the private sector.

Ironic for the Reagan administration being champions of "small government."

I remember, at that time, wondering why these pay scales needed to be raised. Here in Bellingham, jobs in the public sector and at the university were much sought after. They were among "cream of the crop" in local job offerings.

There seemed to be a disconnect. Part of the problem was that Bellingham was not Seattle. State employees looked well off in Bellingham's economy, but thinking about the bigger picture includes Seattle; a somewhat different world. In Seattle's metro area, large corporations like Microsoft were getting started and Boeing was paying "big time." State pay scales looked real good in Bellingham, but not so good in Seattle.

There's the disconnect between urban economies and much of rural America. This is related to another phrase called "inside the beltway;" meaning reality inside Washington, DC and government is different than in the hinterlands.

Bellingham is mid sized and kind of borderline between urban and rural mindset.

During the technology boom of the 1990s, incomes in many sectors of the economy were on the rise again. Government pay seemed to be loosing ground a bit as everything is relative. Also rising health care costs continued to take their toll. I would read about teachers getting raises, but not seeing much of the money as it went into rising health insurance costs before they saw their paycheck.

Other folks would say to the teachers, "at least be glad you've got health insurance."

The housing bubble got going, big time, in the 90s as well. After the tech boom subsided, the housing bubble extended well into this decade. Around 2005, it looked like the best paid job was just being a homeowner. Sitting back and allowing one's house to go up in value without even necessarily working. That eventually had to come to an end as a lot of chickens came home to roost by 2008.

"Chickens coming home to roost" from the "rising tide to lift all boats."

House values went up, but so did the cost of living. Tuitions have been making big jumps also as more of the cost of running state supported schools was falling on the students. Back when I was in school, the state paid a much larger percent of the bill. This becomes a double whammy for students caught between state budget tightening and rising costs of running schools.

Then there's the folks leaving school with large student loans demanding higher salaries so they can pay back their loans.

It seems like no one is satisfied with how much they make relative to someone else. This is especially true when salaries for corporate executives rise so high that everyone else feels poor by comparison. It poisons the stew and politics keeps getting nastier and nastier.

The constant comparing of pay scales has caused a lot of hard feelings over the years. Corporate executives certainly set bad role models to follow.

Hopefully some new thinking can emerge going forward. Looking at life from a slightly less economic perspective.

Frosty sunset by Lake Padden ball field

With two jackets, I was plenty warm for my bike ride around the lake on Saturday.

Being a janitor can turn Facebook privacy issue upside down

Some folks worry that things they confess to on Facebook can leak out onto the open web where, for instance, future employers might see it.

This is not a worry for me.

If I had a post I thought would be somewhat embarrassing, I would rather share it on my blog which is on the open web than my Facebook wall. Who looks at this blog? Yes there are a handful of folks around the world that stumble upon it in various searches.

On the other hand, things on my Facebook wall automatically go in front of my friends in their "news" or "most recent" feeds. More folks, especially folks I know, see things inside Facebook than on this blog even though this blog is available to the whole web. Why worry about things leaking to the open web from Facebook?

As for employers doing searches on the web, it seems unlikely that I'll apply for another job before I reach retirement age. What else would I do in this economy besides being a custodian?

My main web site is selling some text link ads. Maybe I should be careful what I put on my main web site, rather than this blog as it does have more volume of readership.

As for my current boss finding what I write here, he'd rather use the vacuum cleaner than a computer.

Update on this topic I wrote 11/26/12.

Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commission has some good ideas

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has come up with a lot of recommendations for reducing the deficit.

Folks are grumbling, but many of the recommendations don't seem that bad.

Here are two of their suggestions that come to mind.

Raising retirement age to 68 by 2050 and 69 by 2075. It sounds drastic, but 2075 is a long ways off. Few folks alive today will need to worry about that.

Who knows, by then the average lifespan may be a lot longer than today, assuming breakthroughs in medical science dealing with the genetics of aging.

If lifespans increase significantly, we'll have to make many adjustments to accommodate the population. Dealing with increased lifespans would mean adjusting more than just Social Security. World population explosion, for instance. Maybe we'll start building colonies in space to accommodate all the people.

Who knows, after 2050, machines might be doing most of the work. Maybe folks will already be semi retired even before retirement age.

As for dropping the home mortgage deduction, that sounds like a good idea to me. All these breaks for home buyers are supposed to make buying a house more affordable, but the opposite might be true. The incentives just push up the value of owning a home thus helping to inflate the real estate bubble and making first time home buying less affordable.

It's a good news bad news situation. The good news is, you get a tax break on interest for buying a home. The bad news is, the home is now a lot more expensive as these policies have inflated the market. For every step forward in the name of affordability, we slide back two steps due to the housing inflation these steps promote.

The mortgage interest deduction may have done us no good in the long run. Houses are just more inflated in price and the government has lost this revenue.

Today, I hear that Obama has ordered a pay freeze for federal employees. Another step that sounds okay to me. Saving some money, but also making a symbolic gesture. We've got to start somewhere if we are going to control the deficit.

Too bad so many need Black Friday

Whatcom Museum above the snow. I walked past on my way to some friends for Thanksgiving dinner.

Today is the so called "Black Friday." Think of how many things have to sell to keep the economy rolling paying for people's rents, mortgages, medical costs, education and so forth.

Here in Washington State, we are especially aware of the role sales tax plays in funding state and local government. Washington gets a high percent of its revenue from sales tax.

Wouldn't it be nice if sales didn't have to be so brisk for people to be able to pay their rents. If folks could relax and enjoy a slower sales season it might be better for the environment. Better for taking time to walk in the snow.

There's still plenty of new Ipods, TVs and so forth trading across sales counters to bring us a cornucopia barely dreamed about just 20 years ago. The products keep getting richer in technology. Many get cheaper as well. Just think how much has to be sold now, at today's low prices, just to pay the high fixed costs in today's economy, like mortgages.

Black Friday is even starting a bit early with some stores opened on Thanksgiving. Can it ever rest? Can there ever be moderation, or has the cost of living and staying in business just gotten too high? It's probably a good thing that property values are dropping.

It's not really the products that are the problem, it's the pace people have to maintain to keep up. Things like housing, health care and education need to be fed.

Images taken at Faerie Coffee in Bellingham

Thanks Kevyn, also sometimes known as Haggrid, for the hug at Saturday Faerie Coffee (I drink hot chocolate) which meets in Three Trees coffee shop. I'm pictured on left.

Thanks to Rick for the shirt and pants sent up from Ecuador.

Hagrid took my picture at Faerie Coffee in Bellingham around Halloween.

The pink bag is from Haggen's supermarket and says, Pink Power. My bicycle headlight made it glow at the Purple Church dance last night and I'm planning to walk the streets tonight.

Someone ask me if I planned to show it to Bellingham's favorite drag queen Betty Desire and I said "seeing her on Halloween would be like meeting the President of the United States." Halloween is a busy time for Betty. Just getting into Rumors Cabaret, where she often resides is most likely a long, long line on that day.

Surprise, Betty did make it to Faerie Coffee this late morning so I feel privileged.

I think Halloween is actually safer than Christmas and Thanksgiving. Those other days are so totally "family centered" that people travel to be with their scattered families. Auto accidents. Flying might be better, but stressful airports.

Meanwhile, Halloween has things for singles as well as families. Who ever you are, or want to be, you can stay in your own town.

There's trick or treat for families and kids. Often at malls or downtown where we trust merchants more than dwellers of our residential areas with handing out candy.

Then for adults, single, married or whatever, there's costume parties.

Hope people don't get too drunk.

I did actually see a tombstone store in Michigan that said, "Drive carefully, we can wait."

Here is another image taken of me at a local event.

Dancing and socializing at Rumors Cabaret which I do on rare occasions. The $5 we paid at the door that day benefited Whatcom County based Community Empowerment Network. A group that promotes self reliance in Brazil.

Hard to hear conversation, so I spent a lot of time on the dance floor.

It was fun.

A cold front to remember

From west window just below Nimbus on top floor of Bellingham Tower.

Every once in a while, a cold front whips through Bellingham bringing winds over 40 mph and temperatures below 20 F. I remember a real intense one in about 1988. Some years have one or two episodes of what they call the "Nor easterly." Wind down the Fraser Valley. Other years are spared. Some years we hardly get much winter.

It's too icy for my bicycling, but living near downtown allows me to walk where I need to go. Icy sidewalks. For those who ride the bus, they are still running.

I visited Nimbus in top of Bellingham Tower (Bellingham Towers, but there's only one tower). Wanted to see if building swayed in wind, but it's not really that tall, only 14 stories. Basically felt solid as a rock, but wind was howling and rattling windows. Building built in around 1928.

I had a vegetable soup.

Interesting views from the top as light snow was blowing off rooftops below.

With my heater on, my own room is now down to 46 F. I only set my heat to 600 watt setting to stay within one breaker. Electric blankets keep me warm in bed and sitting at my computer. I'm draped in an electric shawl. Looks like this year we can say we had a winter. Last year it was kind of a "non winter."

Below: Steam rising from power plant which is still operating near the old Georgia Pacific site on Bellingham's waterfront.

Demise of the white pages started in the 1980s

In 2010, I read that several phone companies are phasing out distribution for the printed versions of white pages to all their customers. White pages are still available by request, though. Most people look up phone numbers on line these days.

Another example of how the old world has been deteriorating for some time now while a new world is emerging.

Back in the heydays of Ma Bell, before the 1980s, folks got one local phone book, but the public library was full of directories from all over the country. People could look up numbers in just about any city by visiting the library. Browsing that shelf of phone directories was a window into local life across America.

Then came the 1980s and the situation started to change. Instead of getting one phone book to your home, you got several redundant phone books all with the same local listings. There were the Plaid Pages, the regular phone book and a whole stack of others. Competing directory companies all offering similar listings. Meanwhile at the library, that shelf for out of town directories started to dwindle. There wasn't money in providing directories to out of town libraries.

It took the on line world to save the day again. One can now look up out of town things without even having to go to the library and that stack of paper phone books dumped at each home is receding to history; sort of. I guess the Yellow Pages are still filling one's doorstep with redundant local directories.

Bike touring today and in the 1960s

An MP3 player. Wonder of our modern economy. It's a radio, record player and even the record collection all in this tiny device.

I took it with me on my last bike tour. Listened through a set of headphones that only covered one ear, so other ear could be available for traffic.

A friend of mine jokingly suggested I bring a portable record player from the 1960s by Magnavox. Strap that to my bicycle. Looks like a suitcase. Speakers unlatch and swing out to the sides on hinges while the turntable tips down out of the case. It's real heavy and doesn't even include the record cabinet.

Are we economically better off than we were in the 1960s? It's kind of like comparing apples and oranges. They didn't even have mp3 players; this tiny kind of "record player" in the 1960s.

600 billion dollars created by the Federal Reserve

Some fear this could trigger inflation, but compared to the housing bubble, I think the inflation would be relatively mild. The housing bubble was significant inflation. Just 600 billion more dollars dumped into the economy now would not likely be that significant. Part of the reason why the Fed may be taking this action is to continue trying to prop up parts of the housing bubble. The inflation has already happened and the Federal Reserve may be attempting to curb the deflation that comes after the inflation of the housing bubble.

Some bad consequences of money flowing into a country

There is fear that nations all over the world will try and devalue their currencies. When your currency is devalued, your products are cheaper on the world market which helps your export industries. This puts your people to work and gives them purpose.

Is money now becoming a toxic asset?

When too much money flows into a country, the value of that country's currency rises. Prices rise and the country prices itself out of the world market. The country becomes a debtor nation.

What's wrong with this picture?

In the past, money was considered an asset. Money created capital investment which put people to work. Now capital puts people out of work.

I'm sure there are a lot of complex reasons why money seems to be less of an asset for putting folks to work than it was in the past. One factor is that there are so many of what used to be called "third world nations" emerging as industrial centers where the cost of living and doing business is low. Manufacturing and many service jobs, such as call centers, can move there. Then the money from this industrialization comes back to formerly wealthy nations in the form of loose money for investments.

In the past, people thought the rich nations could use their money to create higher end, high tech products and services to stay in the market. Now, even that advantage seems less viable.

Money is becoming more of a toxic substance. Money is a good tool, to a point, but it also has it's downside.

As export industries exit the rich nations, capital has less meaningful activities to invest in. It floats around causing trouble, in some cases. Money can inflate prices for real estate, for instance, pushing up the cost of living thus pushing up the cost of doing business in a country. This can push business overseas to cheaper nations.

Money can flood into politics also, creating a toxic situation. I hear that the last election, in USA 2010, had more money invested in it than any previous election. Even more than the last presidential election in spite of the fact that it was only a bi year election.

A "buy election?"

Then there's all that money flowing to Washington DC lobbyists and the toxic situations that creates.

Of course, there's also the money flowing through government that is producing many services which people still want. Police and fire protection, school teachers, health care and the like.

That money may be going to good use, though some might argue things like the military are not good use. Others might think we have too much education and health care, but not enough wisdom or health.

Much of the government money is now "borrowed money." It carries worry with it toxic worry like "can this ever be paid back?"

Part of the problem is that money is just taken too seriously. We need to step back and see how irrational it can make us. Money is a useful tool, but it can turn toxic. Money has both it's good and it's bad aspects. There's got to be more to life than just money.

This election is ready for the recycling bin

Click on image to see some of the slogans, or maybe you're sick of them.

If you don't like the political mood of the country, just wait a minute. It seems to change on a dime. So many contradictory interests among the people who are upset if they can't have it all; interests that are exacerbated with all that campaign rhetoric bloated in money.

It's time to dump another election into the recycling bin and just wait a few, figuratively speaking, moments. Our political climate keeps changing.

At least, for now, there's a place to recycle all that paper.

One thing we have needed for many years, and not gotten, is a bit more patience. Patience among the people and especially patience among all the special interests, which are somewhat the people's interests in disguise.

Special interests are the people's interests jacked up with money and on steroids. Special interests have been hyped, sliced and diced.

Now it's time to take all that campaign stuff and grind it back up into pulp. Make new paper.