Medary.com

An ongoing series . . .

Among the things that annoy me are blogs that decide to go video (as a full vlog, or producing "shows" of greater or lesser lameness using easily available cameras and microphones and stuff), apparently on the theory that people have nothing better to do than spend hours and hours sitting and watching whatever silly-a$$ interview or commentary that they're all hot-to-trot to post.

A hint to those sites: provide a text transcript, or don't bother. I don't watch video via the Internet as a rule unless I have a really, really good reason to do so. Otherwise, I have better things to do with my time--like going to some other site that I can read, scan, browse.

I learned to read for a reason, people. I like reading information on the Internet. Watching it? Not so much. Maybe I'm just a stick-in-the-mud, reactionary fuddy-duddy, but give me readable text articles, or give me death!

Another Congressional Budget Office report states that the economy, left alone, would recover by the second half of this year.

The CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II.
. . .
In preparing its economic forecast, CBO assumes that current laws and policies governing federal spending and taxes do not change.

Of course, after Congress passes Obama's trillion-dollar panic attack, the recovery may be delayed by a few months, but you can be sure that the triumphalists will be shouting "Success! Success!" of the big-government plan no matter what the objective facts on the ground might be.

That's what the Non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says about Obama's 'Stimulus' porkfest:

President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

I'm finally on the upswing after getting ill Wednesday. Really ill. "Coming out both ends" ill, combined with "not being able to sleep" ill. Pretty miserable combination.

I'd have taken a picture but . . . there's no reason for you all to get sick, too.

Update: You want to know how bad it was? Snookums tells me I got sick Tuesday night. I completely lost Wednesday somewhere. Yikes.

Economists Harold L. Cole from the University of Pennsylvania and Lee E. Ohanian of UCLA write in today's Wall Street Journal:

The most damaging policies were those at the heart of the recovery plan, including The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which tossed aside the nation's antitrust acts and permitted industries to collusively raise prices provided that they shared their newfound monopoly rents with workers by substantially raising wages well above underlying productivity growth. The NIRA covered over 500 industries, ranging from autos and steel, to ladies hosiery and poultry production. Each industry created a code of "fair competition" which spelled out what producers could and could not do, and which were designed to eliminate "excessive competition" that FDR believed to be the source of the Depression.

The success of the New Deal is a myth. I'd feel better about our future if the Democrats showed any sign of understanding that.

Hey, I just got one!

From - Sat Jan 31 08:49:52 2009
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: chevrontexaco@chevron.ng
Delivered-To: (me)
X-Envelope-To: (me)
Received: (qmail 83716 invoked from network); 31 Jan 2009 04:39:38 -0000
Received: from (my mail host)
by (my mail host) with SMTP; 31 Jan 2009 04:39:38 -0000
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by (my mail host) (Postfix) with SMTP id 9A51161E31
for (me); Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:39:37 -0500 (EST)
X-Virus-Check-By: (my mail host)
X-Spam-Check-By: (my mail host)
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=4.2 required=5.0
tests=HTML_MESSAGE,MILLION_USD,MISSING_SUBJECT,US_DOLLARS_3 autolearn=disabled version=3.002005
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Level: ****
X-Spam-Filtered: 3fb1f9f7ab704c253f74ed1f59c68c0f
Received: from smtp-out1.iol.cz (smtp-out1.iol.cz [194.228.2.86])
by mailwash39.pair.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17EB961E24
for ; Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:39:37 -0500 (EST)
Received: from iol.cz (unknown [194.228.2.126])
by smtp-out1.iol.cz (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A58B10BA58;
Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:02:54 +0100 (CET)
Received: from [192.168.30.62] (Forwarded-For: [80.255.59.243]) by
sxiolpkg.ux.to2cz.cz (mshttpd); Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:02:54 GMT
From: Chevron Texaco chevrontexaco@chevron.ng
Reply-To: chevronoilpetrolemclaims@gmail.com
Message-ID: (redacted)@iol.cz
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:02:54 GMT
X-Mailer: Sun Java(tm) System Messenger Express 6.2-7.04 (built Aug 17 2006)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Language: en
X-Accept-Language: en
Priority: normal
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--4220e9d7778ab481eb6"
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

----4220e9d7778ab481eb6
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

CHEVRON/TEXACO OIL COMPANY
Head Office 8,Macarthy Street,
P.M.B Box 166 Abuja, Nigeria.
Tel:+2348 - 05649 - 4593

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million, United States Dollars,
($1,000,000.00) for this year 2009 Lotterypromotion which is organized by CHEVRON TEXACO
OIL/PETROLUEM 2009.

These are your identification numbers:

Batch number....................(redacted)
Reff number......................(redacted)
Winning number...............(redacted)

These numbers fall within your Location file, you are requested to contact the events manager/Claims
Department, send your winning identification numbers to him,to enable him verify your claims.

(CONTACT FINANCE DEPARTMENT)
Name: Dr. Anthony Moore
Tel: +2348 - 0564 - 94593
Fax: +2347 - 0388 - 65054
E-mail: chevronoilpetrolemclaims@gmail.com

Also provide listed informations:

Full Names:
Forwarding Address:
City/State:
Country of Residence:
Marital Status:
Sex:
Age:
Occupation:
Email:
Phone no:

Thank you and Accept my hearty congratulations once again

Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Mary Jones

Thank you, Mrs. Mary Jones, from somewhere in the Czech Republic, for making me smile--AGAIN.

Seen in a tree in Broadland, SD, January 30, 2009.

Collected all in one handy location for your reading pleasure, our posts from the recently completed Holland America Hawaii Circle Cruise.

Part 1, San Diego, CA
Part 2, at sea
Part 3, at sea
Part 4, Kona, HI
Part 5, Nawiliwili, HI
Part 6, Lahaina, HI
Part 7, Honolulu, HI
Part 8, Hilo, HI
Part 9, at sea
Part 10, at sea
Part 11, Ensenada, Mexico, San Diego, and home

This guy is on board the Regent Seven Seas Mariner. He likes it.

Nearly all of the food served on Regent is fresh, not frozen, says Mark Mulder, chef de cuisine on Regent Seven Seas Mariner. He adds that Mariner has 4,000 recipes in its database, and menus run on a 21-day cycle before being repeated. Regent employs “destination cuisine,” using local ingredients and flavors whenever possible.

--by name. AP/Sports Illustrated:

"We've got some non-competitive people on this team and that's not going to get it. They're not going to play,'' Summitt said.

Yikes.