Fritz Catches a Jackrabbit
Fritz was always with me while I was cricketing around on my crutches. He chased ground squirrels and tried to catch meadow larks and now and then flushed a jack rabbit. Usually he knew enough not to try to catch a jack, but one afternoon he flushed the biggest, fattest jack I’d ever seen and it didn’t want to run. Fritz knew it. He took after it. Continue reading →
I have noticed that most autobiographers begin with ancestors. As a rule they start out with the purpose of linking themselves by blood and birth to some well-known family or personage. No doubt this is due to egotism, and the hazy, unscientific notions that people have about heredity. For my part, I seldom think about my ancestors; but I had them; plenty of them, of course. In fact, I could fill this book with their names if I knew them all, and deemed it of the least worth….
It is obvious that I had nothing to do with getting born. Had I known about life in advance and been given any choice in the matter, I most likely would have declined the adventure. At least, that is the way I think about it now. There are times when I feel otherwise, but on the whole I believe that life is not worth while. This does not mean that I am gloomy, or that this book will sadden the Tired Business Man, for I shall write only when I have the inclination to do so, and at such times I am generally almost unmindful of existence. Continue reading →
In my view it is rarely “government” per se that is the real problem; that just looks at half the reality. It is almost always corrupt government, bought government, in short, government controlled by big money. It’s accurately been called “friendly fascism” or “corporate socialism.” If you understand what is going on in Europe right now, and in the US, you will understand. Its essential weapon of mass manipulation is the theological dogma that “free markets” (markets open to crony capitalism and big money without any interference) acts as a deus ex machina to ensure liberty and justice for all. It is ideology, pure and simple, and it has convinced millions who passionately embrace it. It also implies a central bank apparatus in which the private banking industry acts as a kind of giant tapeworm on the national treasury. Continue reading →
I took a walk around the block of our house in Bucerías, Nayarit today and snapped some pictures. We’re in the low rent district 6 blocks from the beach. We must cross the highway and walk 10 minutes to access the beach. We have been lucky that we found a rental house in the best town in the area. We don’t like Puerto Vallarta because it was built long ago and doesn’t meet the needs of tourists today. The sidewalks are uneven and there are few safe places to ride a bike; beach access points are rare, so only hotel guests can enjoy the beach; walking on the beach is a chore because every resort obstructs the path by marking the property lines with a row of boulders on each side all the way to the water. Continue reading →
The Yamaha Tenori-On is another interesting instrument. Although the hardware version in the video below is expensive, Yamaha sells an iPad version for $20. It’s not available for Android because Google only recently learned to program audio with low latency between user actions and sound output.
Mary and I celebrated the New Year last night by watching for the first time Chinese Sky Lanterns, floating fireballs that travel with the wind. We shouted with awe as much as Venus did when she saw turtles for the first time last summer. Venus thought the lanterns were interesting but not as shockingly beautiful as turtles. She reserves her bark for special occasions and the lanterns failed to reach her threshold. Launching a sky lantern is probably illegal in most (all?) of the USA because it’s a potential fire hazard.
A Canadian group brought about 20 lanterns to their beach condos and a light wind blew them over Banderas Bay. The lanterns launch symbolizes the release of worries and problems. The Canadians accidentally burned about 5 lanterns because it’s necessary to hold the lantern for about 5 minutes before the air becomes light enough to lift the balloon. When the lantern is tilted the wrong way, the flames from the fuel pad ignite the paper sail.
Lanterns at a Thai festival courtesy of Wikipedia.
Once the lantern is ready, it flies for about 10 minutes and rises several hundred feet above the bay. The Canadians flew as many as 3 simultaneously while Asians fly hundreds in their celebrations.
The midnight fireworks were far less extensive in the small town of Bucerías than in the big city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, where we passed several winters a few years ago. Venus was grateful that we chose Bucerías over La Paz. The revelers ferociously attack every downtown house for several hours in La Paz; fireworks ought to be illegal downtown. La Paz has plenty of beaches more suitable for fireworks than a densely populated residential area. La Paz is a Mexican city while Bucerías is Little Canada.
Mary and I are passing a vacation in the town of Bucerías, Nayarit, Mexico, about 20 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. I drove our van here taking Venus and my bike, piano, two 25 inch monitors, and luggage; Mary flew down after visiting Mom and sister Sue in Fort Collins.
We’re staying a few weeks in an apartment 6 blocks from the beach. Murray, a Canadian married to a Mexican lives above us. They have a quiet old dog that sometimes hangs around with Venus. A Californian family without a dog lives across the street, a Mexican with two noisy Dobermans live on one side and another Mexican lives on the other side with two noisy mastiffs. Noisy dogs annoy us, especially considering that the neighborhood is safe. Sometimes I wonder if Mexicans would be less enamored with guard dogs if there wasn’t gun control; people always seeks ways to protect themselves against real and imagined enemies. Continue reading →
Mary, sister Carol, dog Venus, and I visited the whales of Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, in February 2008 while we were passing the winter a few hours away in La Paz. The bay is stuffed with whales giving birth and although most keep away from humans, a few come close enough to touch. Venus enjoyed watching them as much as we did.
Chilean fuel and forestry conglomerate Empresas Copec SA (COPEC.SN) and pulp and paper producer Empresas CMPC SA (CMPC.SN) each will post a one-time tax charge in their third-quarter earnings, the companies said in separate filings with the local securities regulator late Thursday.
Copec will post a $168 million tax charge that will lower net income by $113 million, while CMPC will report a $114.3 million charge that will decrease net income by $57.8 million.
The charge is a result of a new tax law that increased the corporate income tax rate to 20% from 18.5%.
After an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in central and southern Chile in 2010, the Congress approved a temporary increase in the corporate tax rate to 20% from 17% to finance post-quake reconstruction.
This year, the corporate income tax rate retreated to 18.5%. It was expected to return to 17% next year, but the new law permanently set the rate at 20%.
Nothing is as permanent as a “temporary” tax. Nearly all governments expand until they destroy the citizens and their businesses. The Adam Smith Institute adds:
Milton Friedman used to say that nothing was so permanent as a temporary government programme. He was right: Britain’s income tax was brought in as a temporary measure to help fight the war against Napoleon (at six pence in the pound on incomes over £60), and it’s still with us. They say (can it still be true?) that Bismarck introduced a tax on champagne corks to fund the fleet; the fleet’s now at the bottom of the ocean, but the tax remains….
How can this happen? Well, I used to think it was just a product of democracy. I’m not suggesting we ditch democracy as a bad job, but it does tend to produce profligacy in government. Politicians have every incentive to promise us greater and greater benefits today, and put off paying for them until tomorrow, shuffling the cost on to a minority (usually ‘the rich’, whoever they are) or on to our children, and our children’s children. That is a sure recipe for living beyond our means, at least until it all blows up because it is no longer affordable.
Democracies always accumulate debt and destroy themselves. As soon as the machinery is refined for people to enrich themselves by voting, people naturally prefer voting rather than working hard to create wealth.
