Boulder is a Stoopid Place

9 years, 190 days according to Algore.

Yeah, right. What a nimrod.

By this date in 2005 there had been 5 named tropical storms of which two, Dennis and Emily became full fledged Hurricanes. So far in 2006 there have been two tropical storms, Alberto and Beryl. At least the Hurricane season isn’t starting out with a “bang”.

I really really wish this surprised me. Unfortunately, after seeing what passes for math in the St. Vrain Valley School system, and I believe other local school systems, I’m not surprised in the least.

As shown on the “Rampant Speculations” blog, the last time the ratio of the price of cruce oil to the price of natural gas was this high (apx 12.7:1) was in January of 1995. Seems like crude oil would fall and possibly natural gas would rise? If only in were that easy!

Thanks to hedge fund manager James Altucher I learned about this web video. He can’t understand why it’s been downloaded 30 million times (according to him), but it’s damn entertaining!

Well according the the site, the number of downloads as of this evening is… 29410569. That’s close to 30M!

As you can tell from this excerpt….

For her part, Rossi said she understands the tax hike may be better than the previous alternative — shutting down the government. “I do think it’s a necessary measure to fix the problems in the state, and it’s a way that will get things solved.”

… small business owner Lisa Rossi of Flying Carp Gallery in Ocean City, NJ still has faith in New Jersey state government. Perhaps she needs to buy some common sense? Read about the increase in New Jersey sales tax here.

A 7% sales tax, damn, New Jersey must be one special place. Seems like I’ve read that people are leaving the state. Wonder why? Duh.

Whatever happened to it? I stole this from the signature line of an e-mail I received…

In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If
you don’t have any Common Sense – get some and use it. If you can’t
find any common sense, ask for help from somebody who has some common sense.

I like it.

DenverPost.com – OPINION

so I’m back again. One days letter to the editor followed by an editorial that only a far left wing liberal could write was enough to get me back in the saddle again.

Day to day life has gotten the best of me recently so blogging lost out. I can now tell that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an approaching train so hopefully I’ll find time to blog some more. It’s certainly a bad time to miss blogging with the recent supreme court Kelo land use decision. Oh well.

Geez, Blogger’s spell check doesn’t even recognize “blog” or “blogging”, how stoopid!

In the “About Me” section, I mention closing in on 50 fast. Well I made it today. It was a good day, I’ll take it so far.

Mary Catherine Ham supplies some background on the property rights case…

UPDATE 4: Just in case you don’t know about Kelo, here are the basics. Some folks in New London, Conn. owned their homes and businesses for years in a little middle-class neighborhood. Then along came a big pharmaceutical firm that wanted to build a plant and high-end condos and hotels in the same spot these New London homeowners lived. The City handed over eminent domain powers to a private development group, who then notified citizens their homes would be bulldozed by such-and-such date and they would be compensated. So long! The entirejustification for this eminent domain taking is that the high-end development will produce more tax revenue than regular old citizens living in their houses, so it’s actually a public use. (emphasis
added)

This sounds scary to me. I’m in little danger of having my property “seized” but think of it this way, the worse financial shape the county or city you live in is, the better the possibility that eminant domain could be used to “take” your property and turn it into a better tax revenue generator. I don’t think this is a poor interpretation of the 5th amendment.

Read the whole article with additional links here.

The Supreme Court handed out a blow to private property rights today.

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court (search) ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

Sandra Day O’Conner had this to say…

“Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random,” O’Connor wrote. “The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.”

She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Read it and weep.

I’ve never encountered pit bulls, but I have encountered neighbors that don’t give a 2nd thought that their dogs believe part of my yard belongs to them and protect it as such. From the June 23 Rocky Mountain News…

Poor, misunderstood pit bull time bombs

Pity the poor misunderstood pit bull. Now they have their own underground railroad (“Pit bulls go underground,” June 11).

I’ve noticed that when a pit bull kills a child, it receives a small notice in the paper but whole stories will be written about the people who just want to save the gentle dogs.

You won’t find the story of the person whose 13-year-old Australian shepherd had its throat torn out by the four pit bulls who broke through the fence separating the yards or the person walking down the stairs of his apartment house whose face was rearranged by the nice pit bull who lived next door. You won’t see the blood-soaked living room of the two pit bull mixes who decided one of them had to be top dog.

This happens every day, over and over.

You blame the owner and not the dog, but you cannot take away instinct and breeding. The dog was bred to be tough and tenacious and to fight. They will go through wood fences and chain link alike. The only real way to solve this problem is to make sure they are spayed and neutered at an early age. Take the time to teach them some obedience. And pray that when that instinct kicks in, nobody dies.

Rita Grable Bennett

If you wonder why, in general, Men make more money then women, read John Stossel’s explanation.

Job choices explain the pay difference, Farrell argues in his recent book, “Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap.” They also explain, Farrell said, why more top corporate executives are men.

“We have been suckered into believing that because there are more men at the top than women at the top, that this is a result of discrimination against women. That’s been the misconception. It’s all about trade-offs. You earn more money, you usually sacrifice something at home,” Farrell said.

are here.

Unfortunately there are way to many Grasshoppers in our society as noted in this article at Bankrate.com.

Americans as grasshoppersThe philosophy that best describes our national psyche might be the grasshopper’s. In a survey of 38 countries released last week by ACNielsen, the United States ranked first — top in the world — as the country with the highest percentage of consumers living paycheck to paycheck. More than a quarter of us — 28 percent, to be exact — said we “have no spare cash” after paying for our essential living expenses.

What’s your excuse?

The special education student basketball team manager earns a jersey and gets to play the last four mintes of the game. Does he score? It’s a very touching story. One night, one shot changes a life, a school and a town

The prairie dogs at North Foothills Community Park are still alive and kicking. From reading the article, looks like they might have until the end of July. One would think that enlightened Boulder citizens would be lining up to rescue these rodents.