tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-247990322010-02-07T21:09:05.070-08:00Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comBlogger3098125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-63945698736271343702010-02-07T20:53:00.000-08:002010-02-07T21:09:05.080-08:00

The IRS may be an evil, malevolent force but it's strictly impersonal. They don't care whether you're up or down. When you're up they kick you in the nuts and when you're down they kick you in the teeth. It's all the same to them.Last year I was up, and I earned about 30% more in income. The IRS wants 100% more in taxes. Which means that I basically worked October through December last year for

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-4289614631398678712010-02-06T21:28:00.000-08:002010-02-07T09:06:18.485-08:00

Professor Reynolds has some backstage snaps of Sarah Palin at the Tea Party Convention.Those heels! I'm sorry if I'm being disrespectful, but I was just a little bit reminded of this.And for all the ladies of a certain age that think she's too pretty to be President: Nobody, not even Sarah Palin, gets to be 45 with a 17-year-old body.

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-67472176728053100832010-02-05T17:15:00.000-08:002010-02-05T17:25:08.420-08:00

John R. Lott, Jr. explains that 9.7% number. There are two ways economists measure the number of jobs, the establishment survey that asks about 370,000 employers how many people they are employing and the household survey that asks about 110,000 people each month whether they are working.... The problem is that the two surveys have reached different estimates, with the household survey showing a

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-7593227466530473482010-02-05T07:00:00.000-08:002010-02-05T16:02:32.064-08:00

This illustration is from The Bell Curve by Charles Murray, p. 46.Study it for a moment. If, like me, you find that most of your friends, co-workers, and acquaintances have college degrees, then it is quite possible that you don't know anyone with an IQ much below 100.

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-66690604862919176522010-02-04T21:30:00.000-08:002010-02-04T21:41:20.148-08:00

Would it be too much to ask you to place the question of whether we want light rail in Forest Grove on the November ballot? With all the problems it brings and with its exorbitant price tag, I think it should be the people of Forest Grove -- and not you alone -- to decide if we want this boondoggle. Before you start spending our money -- and make no mistake, the money Obama is printing is still

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-82415428518290338342010-02-04T20:11:00.001-08:002010-02-04T20:14:24.468-08:00

Innominatus. Jim Treacher... got Kerrigan'd be the Secret Service last night. They used to say "beware the black helicopters" but because of Barry's unholy deficits they can't afford them and are now using black SUVs. Keep your head on a swivel, people! UPDATE: Now they're saying it wasn't Secret Service but rather State Department Security. Translation: Hillary going for a drug-induced

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-88554287173900087912010-02-03T17:42:00.000-08:002010-02-03T17:52:55.562-08:00

Thanks to local blogger My Back Pages who found this at the Guardian. They, in turn, found all their numbers at the OMB.You too can download all sorts of official budget numbers, including historical trends (my favorites), in convenient XLS spreadsheet format. Play with them, make your own graphs, look upon them, ye taxpayers, and despair!

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-29419843684251833292010-02-03T17:06:00.000-08:002010-02-03T19:25:16.475-08:00

Mountain View, CA: Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't IndexExecutives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to "organize the world's information," announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index."Our users want the world to be as simple, clean, and accessible as

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-28968395079237665972010-02-02T08:36:00.000-08:002010-02-02T21:55:19.590-08:00

I set the can of ground hog outside this morning and it cast no shadow at all. I believe that means an early spring.Update: It's a new tradition. In the morning I'll divine the climate forecast with tinned meat products, and in the evening we'll celebrate with a ham loaf, baked by my lovely bride.

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-11113751547245216632010-02-01T21:13:00.000-08:002010-02-01T21:18:14.637-08:00

In the New York Post. Savage beagles terrorize East End These floppy-eared terrors are no lovable Snoopys -- they're abandoned hunting dogs that live in packs and have gone from humble pets to hounds from hell. Another sign of the end times.(Via Taranto)

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-82356393485514927402010-01-31T17:48:00.000-08:002010-01-31T17:54:43.822-08:00

John Mauldin says "Look at the graph below, and weep."Via the professor.

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-30854072299370727672010-01-31T13:52:00.000-08:002010-01-31T14:16:31.120-08:00

AS 02.35.110. Emergency Rations and Equipment. the following minimum equipment must be carried during the summer months: rations for each occupant sufficient to sustain life for one week; one axe or hatchet; one first aid kit; an assortment of tackle such as hooks, flies, lines, and sinkers; one knife; fire starter; one mosquito headnet for each occupant; two small signaling devices such as

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-78508915913091667612010-01-31T04:39:00.000-08:002010-01-31T05:33:50.728-08:00

Steven Malanga discusses plummeting birthrates. The resulting population dive will be breathtaking. Japan's population, projections say, will decline by about 21 percent over the next four decades. South Korea's population, which swelled by two-thirds over the last 40 years, is estimated to shrink by nearly 10 percent in the next 40. Europe's population will peak in about five years and contract

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-61488506042933718652010-01-31T04:26:00.000-08:002010-01-31T05:35:05.659-08:00

(This is a paper I wrote six years ago, before I started this blog. I referred to it in another post above, so I decided to reproduce it here.)Copyright © Gordon R. Durand, 2004Falling Fertility RatesA number of articles have noted the decline in fertility rates in recent years. In much of the developed world fertility rates have fallen below the replacement rate of 2.1, and the population of

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-78801757166541384292010-01-30T10:12:00.000-08:002010-01-30T10:15:04.140-08:00

Mayor Daley on Oregon's new taxes. It will help our economic development immediately. You'd better believe it. We'll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago. I'll be very frank. I make no bones about that. If those states want to do that, so be it. Hat tip to Oregon Catalyst.

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-46560390280126555102010-01-30T09:08:00.000-08:002010-01-30T09:08:00.724-08:00

SnarkyBytes presents Charlie Brooker with a tone-perfect news report: How To Report The News. (It's almost like these guys all went to the same school.)Mark Steyn reviews Obama's State of the Union speech. T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII presents a counterpoint of sorts.Steven Greenhut explains how California's government workers rank above the rest of us. (Via Instapundit.)Tony Blankley wants to

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-45912950174148272562010-01-30T08:35:00.000-08:002010-01-30T12:00:34.349-08:00

WSJ Trading in the credit-default swap market this week shows that investors now view a default by the U.S. Treasury as more likely than a default by the Coca-Cola Company. Until very recently, this scenario seemed about as likely as Coke winning a taste infringement suit against Coke Zero. Now the United States has taken its place next to Italy and Spain in a special club that no major country

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-32981626223895265322010-01-29T17:00:00.000-08:002010-01-29T17:07:42.244-08:00

I woke up at four o'clock this morning and couldn't get back to sleep for worrying.Some years ago as a member of the Libertarian party I got a copy of the voter registration for Jackson County in digital format. Ten floppy discs. We wanted to send our fellow Libertarians, all five hundred or so, a mailing. I parsed the files into a database and printed out the mailing labels.Then, having a little

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-67046127618979609222010-01-29T16:57:00.000-08:002010-01-29T16:57:00.241-08:00

Sometimes we find good news in The Oregonian. Oregon's leading anti-tax activists are quietly rolling out a new strategy to limit government by partnering with frustrated small-town residents across the state. "We're going full bore at the local level all over the state," said Jeff Kropf, a former state legislator and director of Americans for Prosperity Oregon, the state chapter of a Washington

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-34641559645224809442010-01-28T17:49:00.000-08:002010-01-28T18:01:22.670-08:00

Obama's State of the Union address...There's only one thing I want to know about Obama's State of the Union address. You want to know what I want to know?What I want to know is... Who gives a rat's ass? That's what I want to know!

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-19353611701674621172010-01-27T21:47:00.000-08:002010-01-27T22:15:16.752-08:00

The Wall Street Journal lies. It's not often that citizens vote for higher taxes, but 54% of Oregonians have done precisely that. Man that really chafes my butt.Oregon has an estimated population of 3,825,657, of which 2,062,607 are registered to vote. (If that number seems suspiciously high, it is. In Oregon you register by mail and your ballot is mailed to you. You fill it out in the privacy of

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-31870271073569742602010-01-27T13:37:00.000-08:002010-01-27T18:24:46.672-08:00

(Click the pic to see the entire map in glorious technicolor.)Even in bluest Multnomah county 29% voted with the resitance, and even in reddest Sherman 28% had imperial sympathies.I notice that the steepest red-blue gradient is between Roseburg, the timber capital of my childhood, and Eugene, the hippie haven of my twenties.For the benefit of you out-of-staters, Lane County (Eugene) is the home

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-23166625823767345912010-01-26T21:08:00.000-08:002010-01-26T21:27:11.308-08:00

The majority have voted for poverty, and poverty they shall have.Measure 66 is favored by 54.2% of the voters.Measure 67 is favored by 53.8% as of 9:00 PM.Click those links for county-by-county breakdown. Multnomah, a hotbed of communist, socialist, and anarchist scum, is going for hell by a 71 to 29 percent margin. Lane (65%) and Benton (63%), home of the tenured "intellectual" brand of scum,

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-32760819824199642842010-01-26T17:16:00.000-08:002010-01-26T17:26:33.086-08:00

This is for David Handy, AKA the "Roseburg Mac Guy," who introduced me to the Apple Macintosh way back in, what was it, 1983?

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24799032.post-14921916929875456652010-01-25T22:00:00.000-08:002010-01-25T22:06:08.251-08:00

Is it, smartass?

Gordon R. Durandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153840447094854854noreply@blogger.com