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Read Coyote

Or maybe not, you may want to sequester yourself for a while. Here are a few of this week’s treats:

 

But one thing I thought was funny was this bit illustrating pre-sequester government staffing prioritization:

NPR’s David Greene brings on Yvette Aehle, director of the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany, Georgia, to talk about the terrible danger that passengers will face now that Aehle’s airport stands to lose its air traffic controllers:

AEHLE: Well, I don’t really want to say anything is less safe. It’s just a better opportunity for people to listen and to be heard and to understand where they are. And also, I’d like to point out that we don’t have 24-hour tower coverage here currently. Those air traffic controllers are only directing traffic between 8 am to 8 pm seven days a week. And most of our heavy traffic is outside of those hours.

So the government chooses to staff the control tower only half the day.  But they choose to staff the tower during the 12 hours of lightest traffic, presumably because the unions wanted day jobs rather than night jobs.

Or try this one:

“The Low Information Voters Will Inherit the Earth”

Via Eugene Volokh

Gator Country 101.9 morning deejays Val St. John and Scott Fish are back on the air today after a one-day suspension for an April Fool’s Day joke involving Lee County’s water supply.

The hosts of the “Val and Scott In The Morning Show” on the Bonita Springs-based country music station were suspended Monday after perpetrating the joke that involved telling listeners there was dihydrogen monoxide in the county’s water. Dihydrogen monoxide is another way to describe water.

Some listeners didn’t get the joke, however, and began calling the Lee County Utility asking about the issue….

Tony Renda, 101.9 general manager, said in a message to The News-Press today that suspension of the two deejays remained in effect until the following was accomplished:

“Although the VAST MAJORITY of our listeners got the joke, some didn’t. We needed to ensure that ALL of our listeners understood that there was no problem with the water,” Renda said in the message, adding that the station had to ensure that both the Lee County Utility and Lee County Health Department were both satisfied with the efforts.

After seeing the very funny Penn and Teller episode (where they have environmental activists signing a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide), I am not surprised that people did not get the joke.  The amazing thing is the fact that the radio station, and society in general, felt the need to pander to this ignorance by actually suspending the radio show hosts.  In effect, they were forced to apologize for the public’s appalling ignorance.

This is the society that progressives have been fighting for — one in which the listener defines acceptable vs. unacceptable speech based on his or her own hurt feelings and ignorance.

Or how about this one:

How Alarmists Make Water Vapor Look Scary

Here is another example, with extra points for artful photography and use of lighting conditions to make the white steam look dark and scary.

Or try his retirement rant, in which he echoes something I am SURE will happen – that the only place there will be any money left to be raided in 25 years is our accumulated savings. In fact my current lifestyle choices are being made in part because I am assuming that a portion of my accumulated wealth and savings is going to be expropriated from me to pay off some interest group in the future and it will be done in the name of, “if we don’t do it, someone will shoot you and it would be even worse”:

First, I will say that I am perfectly happy for folks who are either good earners or good savers or both and who choose to use their accumulated wealth to stop working at some age.

However, I am completely lost as to how we have somehow decided that multi-decade end-of-life paid vacations, starting as early as age 50, is somehow an inalienable right that must be guaranteed by government.  I suppose I can see a safety net for folks who, though age and disability, simply get too old to be productive (but remember that I have nearly 500 people mostly over 65 who work for me, mostly doing manual trades, so don’t tell me older people can’t be productive).  And that was what Social Security initially was — the age 65 was chosen as a retirement age not because it guaranteed 10-15 years of senior leisure but because it matched the life expectancy at the time.  The equivalent age would be well into the 70’s today.

Of course, others think differently.  A group is now proposing an expanded Social Security program that would guarantee nearly 100% of earnings to low-income retirees (there are smaller increases for higher income workers but most all the change is for low-income folks).

While they are proposing higher taxes to support this, my guess is that it will not be long before a wealth tax is suggested.  After all, they are hoping to replace 401K’s as a savings vehicle.  If so, why not seize those funds to help pay for the plan.  The other day, Kevin Drum mocked those who fear a government seizure of 401K’s as the tinfoil hat brigade.  I would be willing to bet him that within the decade, it will become a mainstream idea in the progressive community to fund shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare with a full or partial seizure of 401K’s.

Happy Thursday. At least the snow just stopped flying here. I even see some crocuses starting to come up. By the way, when it is unseasonably warm, it’s not weather it’s global warming. When it is unseasonably cold, it’s just the weather. Both can’t be right, and yes I am happy to admit that either both or neither are signs of global warming – I have no idea how weather works.

2 Responses to “Read Coyote”

  1. Harry says:

    Coyote is a respite from a troubled world.

    He might make it as easy to comment on his blog, as Wintercow does.

    Thanks for passing on the idea fix of the day, WC.

  2. jb says:

    Correction: when it is cold it is not “just the weather” it is “climate change.” Get with the proper pseudo-science sound bites pal.

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