Sun Bowl: The perfect complement to USC's crappy season.

If you're going to stink up a year, there's no better time to really stink it up -- and I mean stinking it up to high heaven that even the hogs come running to greet you -- than the last day of the year.  USC obliged.

I feel so dirty that I think I need to go take another shower, just to take the stink off this game and the entire season.  Some Sun Bowl stats, sure to slime you up:

• 20% 3rd down completion rate.
• 2.9 yards per pass was worse than the 4.5 yards per carry.
• 205 yards of total offense.
• First six possessions of the second half = 21 total yards, 4 punts, 1 fumble and 1 failed 4th down play.
• Last two possessions of the second half = 2 INTs.
• 7 punts and 7 points total.
• The only team to score fewer points against Georgia Tech, was the Presbyterian Blue Hoses

Frankly, I think Max Wittek may have broken some sort of obscure record of passes batted down or partially tipped -- I'm sure he had one on nearly every series.

Three season stats, sure to embarrass:

• First team ever, to go from preseason #1, to six losses.
• Second team ever, to go from preseason #1, to unranked.
• Ends the season with more turnovers than any FBS team, except 1-11 Idaho.

That was the crappy, soul-sucking, life-shortening, frustrating season we never want to see again (at least for a generation), and that was the crappy, soul-sucking, life-shortening, frustrating game to cap it.

DC: We're announcing that we're almost ready to announce an agreement.

OMG, you have to be kidding me.  The President comes out this morning to announce that they're close to agreeing on a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff?

If you read between the lines, this is what he actually said:

"We can't get a deal done before the end of the year, but we don't want markets to panic."

In the mean time, no agreement over the debt ceiling.  What the fiscal cliff compromise saves, the debt ceiling slices, and a whole lot more.

So here's my fictional dialogue to reflect upon the situation we're in:

Nurse: "Doctor, this patient cut his finger off, then accidentally sliced into a primary artery; what should we do?" 

Doctor: "Nurse, we'll treat the finger first, because it occurred first." 

Nurse: "Shall we let the patient know what we're about to do?" 

Doctor: "Great idea!  Stop what we're doing and get the patient conscious so that we can tell him the good news!"

Seriously, stop focusing on the fiscal cliff.

We go over the fiscal cliff come 12:00.01 am.  We can deal with a fiscal cliff through many ways, including absorbing a short-term recession or retroactively apply a fiscal cliff deal in the new year that would restore any cuts / funds.

We hit the debt ceiling at some point in the next three months, depending upon how long the US Treasury can move money around or delay payments.  The sort of long-term cuts that both sides have been talking about on the fiscal cliff, is what will be cut over the next year.  This is what the Tea Party Republicans have advocated for; it's a de facto Balanced Budget Amendment that nearly all Republicans have lobbied for (including Paul Ryan and John Boehner), and it's exactly what we'll get to experience in 2013.

If you believe what Republicans have told you -- that a Balanced Budget Amendment would improve growth -- then once again we've set up the perfect experiment in macroeconomic policy to allow you to see if your beliefs are correct.  The House and Senate should take up / down votes on increasing the debt ceiling, NOW.  That way, we'll record exactly where each politician stands on the issue of the debt ceiling.

A month (or sooner if massive protests explode across the country) after the debt ceiling has been hit and the government has issued worker furloughs, entire departments are closed and the economy has collapsed, we'll take another straight up / down vote on raising the debt ceiling.

I call it the plan to crush this issue (the debt ceiling), once and for all, and to squeeze the Tea Party out of the GOP.

(Made to look) Dirty Denim.

I really don't get it.  I was at the store last week, when I spotted a denim shirt.  It was perfect, except for the fake worn-in look with brown stains, as if someone had been wrestling with a pig.

Now, you can have a fake tan, fake boobs,wear fake dirty denim shirt with your fake torn-up jeans, to go with your made-up bed head.  Next up, fake black eye makeup and fake Twitter followers?

WTF? Google Music Match is a FAIL.

I spent all this time ripping and uploading music, only to get "remastered" versions of my music, that I don't want?!?

WTF, Google?  I want my original George Michael albums, not the "remastered" (aka bastardized) ones you think I uploaded!!!  Instead of Faith, I get the karaoke version of Faith...are you freaking kidding me?  How many more albums did you FUCK UP!?!

Let me have the option, you idiots.  I don't want you to fuck up my whole collection of music!

FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!

Can you tell how angry I am, at you, Google?

Okay, at least you didn't fuck up Prince's Erotic City; I would have been raging if you screwed that up.

The demographics of gun owners in America.

I was looking over Gallup's 2011 gun poll, and it occurred to me that there are some distinct markers for the typical gun owner.

Compare the baseline (add up the first two columns) of gun owners against the demographic with no guns in their household (last column), based on sex, education and party affiliation.  The difference between the baseline and the characteristics below (sex, education, etc) highlights the over-representation or under-representation of specific characteristics of gun owners and no-gun households.

Geolocation can be correlated to political disposition, as well can age and education.  Thus, it seems logical that what the poll is telling us, bottom line, is that Republicans like guns.

How much do Republicans like guns?  Some math:

76% of US population is 18 years old and older.
47% of US population 18 years old and older, own a gun.
315M Americans in the US.
300M guns in the US.

300M / 0.76 * 0.47 * 315M = ~3 guns an average gun owner has.

(If that assault rifle with a 100 bullet magazine can't hit and kill an elk, you need a regular shotgun to shoot it up close as you approach it, but if that fails, the glock on the skull of the elk will surely kill it.)

Baffled: that so many people use "irony" incorrectly.

I was watching the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, and near the end of the game, one of the announcers -- Brad Nessler -- commented that it was ironic that Michigan State, involved in several close games decided by 4 points or less this season, was involved with another close one, with a minute left to go.

No Brad, not ironic.

Perhaps it can be described as coincidental or a fitting outcome, but there was no irony involved; in fact, it was completely opposite of being ironic.

irony 
noun
"Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result."

If a team repeatedly ends games in close fashion throughout the season, to do so again would not be unexpected; in fact, it would be expected.

This isn't exactly an uncommon problem of misunderstanding, either.

"An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic... don't you think"

Well no Alanis, an old man dying is what you'd expect; that he died a day after winning the lottery is tragic and terrible timing; so is getting a pardon two minutes too late.  I haven't a clue why a black fly in your Chardonnay should be any different than getting a black fly in your soup, on your sandwich, or in your soda; they're all lousy circumstances, but not ironic.

Come on people, is it that difficult to learn the meanings of the words you use?

From now on, I'm using "denomination" and "numeration" in place of "denominator" and "numerator" (respectively), just to screw around with people: To cancel out a fraction on the one side, you simply multiply both sides by the inverted fraction from the opposite side; i.e. the denomination over the numeration.

The oddly warm PDX Winter of 2012, and some historical notes.

We're now in Winter, but some trees still have their leaves!  I've also learned that, when maple and pear trees shed their leaves late, they don't show any red or orange; they turn yellow and brown.

Just as odd, this weekend will be the first below-freezing temperatures in Portland, since last Winter!

I thought it worth grabbing some NOAA climate data from PDX airport (records go back to October 1940), of extreme low cold snaps.

Lows of 32º F or less:

• 38 days Jan. 1-Feb 7, 1949
• 25 Dec 9-Jan 2, 1985-86
• 20 Dec. 24-Jan 12, 1978-79
• 17 Jan. 14-30, 1957
• 15 Jan. 22-Feb 5, 1985
• 15 Jan. 23-Feb 6, 1950

Lows of 20º F or less:

• 9 days Jan. 27-Feb. 4, 1950
• 7 Dec. 19-25, 1990
• 7 Dec. 7-13, 1972
• 7 Jan. 24-30, 1957
• 7 Jan. 13-19, 1950

Lows of 10º F or less:

• 7 days Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 1950
• 3 Jan. 26-28, 1957
• 2 Dec 30-31, 1968
• 2 Dec 16-17, 1964
• 2 Jan. 16-17, 1950
• 2 Jan. 23-24, 1943

Lows of 0º F or less:

• 1 Feb.2, 1950
• 1 Jan 31, 1950

Notice something?  The colder the cold snap, the less often it has occurred in the last 36 years (last 36 years highlighted in orange), compared to the previous 36 years (for comparison, I divided the total years of records at PDX airport in half).  Not a single cold snap in over 20 years, as a matter of fact.

One last thing: PDX Airport Heating Degree Days.  In the previous century it (in conjunction with Cooling Degree Days) was used a great deal to compare the heating and cooling needs for different climates.  Now however, we can use it to peek at climate change, and see if there are any long-term trends.  The Heating Degree Day is the mean daily temperature, subtracted from the baseline of 65 degrees; negative numbers are simply discarded. For an entire season, you add up each day's degree days; the higher the number, the cooler the season is.

It has been getting warmer over the last 70 years, as you can see by the trend line (dashed green).

Please stop wasting time worrying about the fiscal cliff.

As I mentioned the other week, the weekly tax increase is a relatively minor, if you're a net-saver -- more on this later.

Since Republican House Leader John Boehner decided to pull out of talks last week and pull his little stunt (that failed miserably), any chance to pass a bill has practically disappeared.

But there are too many Tea Party Republicans in the House, to craft a meaningful compromise -- something Boehner made clear when his stunt failed last week.  So, following a new Congress, there will be more Democrats, which translates to needing fewer Republicans straying from their fidelity to Grover Norquist.  It may even push Tea Party Republicans to have to compromise, to regain at least some of their precious Bush tax cuts.

If they wanted to, they could pass a continuance bill, that is, a bill that would continue everything as it is, for another month, until the next Congress could settle in and find a compromise.

But it shouldn't matter that much to you, despite the growing media rhetoric.

As I mentioned, the weekly tax increase is minor.  But let's say it was critical for you.  Congress has the power to make any compromise bill in the new year, retroactively applied.  If your paycheck had higher taxes withheld, it would be returned back to you in the next paycheck.

Additionally, those large, automatic spending cuts aren't critically effective until later in the year, as all areas of government affected can simply move cash around, until it is restored.

And, any emergency unemployment funds, can simply be retroactively applied, so that people who have been out of work will still get their checks.

So despite all the BS you're hearing on the news, it's simply not true that we're going over some scary fiscal cliff.

THE REAL PROBLEM, IS THE DEBT CEILING!

Republicans have been using the debt ceiling the last several years to extract cuts from Democrats; there is not enough fear in Republicans, that the debt ceiling is a serious threat to the US economy.  Unless the debt ceiling is dealt with, we may see IMMEDIATE cuts to federal spending, which would truly plunge the US economy into recession, because it means that the US cannot borrow any more money, and no amount of shifting funds around will change this.

Fear the debt ceiling, not the fiscal cliff!

Google's Santa Tracker (and Village) now offline.

If you missed it, you missed out on all the fun and games of Google's Santa Tracker and its Village games.

Major SketchUp 8 Pro Maintenance 5 release bug?

If you've already updated to Maintenance 5, you might come across a major bug in SketchUp 8 Pro that I've just begun dealing with, and I think I have a workaround, but it's a lousy workaround.

The first time I got a bug splat on this bug, was when I tried to restore my toolbar locations (View/Toolbars/Restore Toolbar Locations).  As soon as I hit the command, it crashed my SketchUp model that was only 2.1 MB.

The second time I got a bug splat related to this same bug, was when I tried to physically move a rubyscript toolbar.

The third time I got a bug splat related to this bug, was when I tried to open SU; it simply shot straight to a bug splat, unable to open SU!

I then realized the workaround: temporarily relocate the rubyscripts that contain toolbars, so that SU can't find them.  The lousy part, of course, is that it means that these rubyscripts which worked fine under the previous maintenance releases, now are useless.

At least I can now open SU, though; a panic spread through my head as I thought about the consequences of not being able to use SU just when I needed it most to produce conceptual designs!

I should add: I've been able to verify and replicate this bug, first by temporarily removing rubyscripts with toolbars, then opening up SU8, and then returning those same rubyscript files to the plugins folder and again opening up SU8.

Again, MAJOR bug in SU8 Pro, Maintenance 5 release prevented me from using rubyscript toolbars.

---

Add: If you haven't installed SU8 M5, and you want to continue to use your rubyscript toolbars, I suggest you avoid installing it!

---

Update!: Okay, it wasn't SU8 that was necessarily the problem. It turns out, it was Nvidia's driver update (310.70) for GeForce 555M. It was the only software affected by the video driver update as far as I could tell, but it was a significant problem. Another problem that I noticed, was that it was taking a very long time for SU8 to start up, and everytime I minimized then maximized or changed focus back to SU8, it would take a long time to refresh all of the detached toolbars.

It took a while, but I finally turned back the clock with System Restore. That brought up its own problems, including Chrome, and of course I had to reinstall all of the critical Windows updates since three weeks ago.

So, some 5 hours later and it's all fixed: The Rubyscript problem is no longer, even with SketchUp 8 Maintenance 5 update.

I felt that I may have wasted my time.

During my primary and secondary educational experience, not a single person ever talked about social responsibility, in the context of using the gift of intelligence to solve the big problems.

It had been gnawing at me for the last decade, that my chosen profession -- design -- while demonstrative of a society with higher goals (beyond practical labor) and proof of wealth (through an industrious society), does not and can not solve the big problems.

But then I reminded myself that 2% of the population (the cutoff limit of intelligence test scoring that qualifies one to become a member of Mensa) was equal to 140 million very smart people on this planet.

And in truth, life isn't very pleasant without the opportunity to enjoy the little things such as nice foods, clothes, buildings, printed materials, movies, music, etc.

So maybe my time hasn't been wasted.

Cheers.

Baka Kuma Winter Greetings.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All, Including Bears.

Don't forget to open up Draw Something on Christmas.

500 free coins.  Eyes exploding in 3, 2, 1...

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices.

Merry Christmas
And Happy Holidays.

And apologies to those who did not receive a card this year; per usual, even with an extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have been preoccupied.  I always harbor faith and hope that next year I'll be better prepared!

Let us pray for hope: that people who do not have it, will soon find it; for those who have lost it, that they will once again find it; and for those who have already have it, that they may never lose it.

Google's Santa Tracker (and village)

About as good as their April Fools Day jokes and their Olympics games, Google's got a comprehensive site set up to track Santa, and along the way play some games and explore Santa's Village.

Explore enough, and you will find an assortment of games and visually entertaining scenes.

Santa's not bringing you Google this year.

You were bad, you didn't buy soon enough, and now most Google-related devices are sold out.  Santa's not bringing you new Google gear this year.

Via Google Play store, all models of Nexus 10 and Nexus 4 are sold out; Nexus 7 16GB is also sold out, while Nexus 7 32GB versions are 1-2 weeks out; Samsung's Chromebook is also sold out, while Acer's C7 Chromebook is 3-5 days out.

At brick and mortar stores, most of those same products are sold out or hard to find.

Google's hot; Microsoft's not.

The most exciting NFL team right now: Seattle.

Towards the end of every season of any sport, you always hear about the team that is firing on all cylinders and peaking at the right time.  At the end of 2012 and going into January playoffs, that team is the Seattle Seahawks.

Russell Wilson, image from Seahawks.com

This is no Cinderella team; they're winning by being aggressive on defense and using brute force on offense, pounding teams with the quarterback option read.  Quarterback Russell Wilson seems destined for Rookie of the Year award; he can throw the ball 50 yards down field accurately and equally run 50 yards for a touchdown.  He's been absolutely spectacular.  Between Russell and Mr. Beast Mode Marshawn Lynch, it's a lot like thunder and lightning in the running game.

Love the attacking defense, too.  Rated near the top in nearly every category, Pete Carroll is the masterful coach most of us thought he was.  When he left USC for Seattle, it was bittersweet.  I didn't want to see him go, but if he was going to go to the NFL, no better team than Seattle!

And with the move by Jim Harbaugh to the 49ers (and their tremendous success), we now have one hell of a rivalry between Harbaugh and Carroll move from the college ranks to the NFL.  Expect to see Carroll show zero mercy; Harbaugh likewise.

Dwell slideshows now work well.

Last month I wrote about how I hated Dwell slideshows, because the pages would refresh rather than just images and text.  Voila, it's fixed!

Now their slideshows are perfect for viewing on my tablet.  :D

The Windows 8 coal in Microsoft's stocking.

I'm not saying that Windows 8 is a flop...aw heck, who am I kidding, of course it is.

Four slaps in the face:

1. A Chromebook is in the top 20 of Amazon's top 100 sales in electronics, far above any Windows computer.  That's got to hurt, a lot.
2. The highest Windows computer, is a laptop that gives you an option of Windows 7 or Windows 8, with the Windows 8 option carrying a $70 premium.  No rush to buy Windows 8 computers.
3. The second highest Windows computer is a Windows 7 laptop.  
4. Windows 8 Pro upgrade ranks just one slot higher than Windows 7 Home Premium system builder pack, in Amazon's top 100 software sales.  Windows 7 is about as popular as Windows 8?  Yikes!

Here's to a New Year and Service Pack 1 that includes a complete bypass straight to desktop mode with the Start button back.

Safeway 15% off gift cards.

After last night's online experience of buying flowers, today I enjoyed my 15% off gift cards at Safeway with my Safeway card.  All is better now...as I saved a lot of money today. :D

The gangification of America -- why the NRA's got the paradigm backwards.

I keep hearing this idea, "I have a right to protect myself (with guns); if you don't want to protect yourself, that's your choice."  Alternatively and related, I've also heard, "Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun."

And I keep thinking, these are exactly the same justifications you hear from gang members.  They are taking the law into their own hands, and protecting themselves; they don't trust the police and they don't think the police can protect them.  They know the other side has guns, so they feel the pull to equally arm themselves for a confrontation: KILL OR BE KILLED.

If you do not trust society, you are not a part of society.

We are well onto the American Dystopia.

Online flower shopping -- a complaint.

It has to be a non-competitive market, because they now all have these massively exorbitant fees.  I just got a Groupon, but the discount was more than swallowed up by the delivery fee.

I checked the other major online florists, and they all now have these massive, hidden fees.

It's all a sham(e).

What were they thinking: NRA wants armed guards at all schools.

I didn't realize the NRA had imbeciles in charge.  One of the hallmark reasons for a strong Second Amendment, anti-government undercurrent in the United States, is that Libertarians are concerned about the growth of a militaristic state.

And then Wayne LaPierre proposed today to have an armed guard at every school in this nation.

Talk about pushing America towards a dystopian future.

They just don't get it.  It reminds me of Laurie Olin's critique in the November issue of Metropolis, lamenting the failed responses to terrorism which has left us with physical barriers that say, "Stay out, keep away, don’t come near."

Just as disturbing for Libertarians, the NRA's proposal would massively expand government spending.

We could just ban or require special licenses for high capacity magazines, cap and limit the number of assault rifles any individual may own, and we could limit the sales volume of bullets, while buying back rifles and high capacity magazines.  That's a lot cheaper, and doesn't turn the United States into a police state.

December 21, 2012: It's the End of the World

Enjoy.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak, grunt
No strength the ladder starts to clatter with the fear, fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games with a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of West and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop.
Look at that low playing! Fine then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed.
Dummy with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light,
Feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour.
Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive.
Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
This means no fear - cavalier.
Renegade, steer clear!
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
And I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide.
Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein.
Leonid Breshnev, Lester Bangs and Lenny Bruce.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right?
Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine... fine...

(It's time I had some time alone,
It's time I had some time alone,
It's time I had some time alone
I feel fine...)

Is Plan B dead? (Boehner doesn't have the votes)

Ah ha ha ha ha ha!  Boehner is such a loser.  He spent the last 24+ hours talking up how the Republicans were going to pass their "Plan B", only to end up postponing the vote on it, because he doesn't have the votes to pass it!

Talk about egg nog all over your face.

You see, his plan wasn't about compromise; his political posturing was meant to position Republicans such that they wouldn't take a hit for the fiscal cliff.  But his political calculation was off; as I mentioned, what he needs is to get nearly all Democrats on board and pull enough moderate Republicans with him.  He chose to go the other way and appeal to as many members of his own party as possible.  The problem is, Tea Party Republicans will not vote for any perceived tax increase, but most of all they do not want to compromise.

Boehner doesn't get it; he needs Democrats, not Republicans.  He actually has to learn how to compromise, not to push for more partisanship.

But anyway, we're going over the cliff; the Senate won't even take a vote as they're going home for Christmas and won't be back until December 27th; even House Republicans have decided to ignore Boehner and have gone home for Christmas.

True, the fat lady hasn't sung, but Boehner doesn't even understand the dynamics of what he's got, so he'll only waste more time when they come back after Christmas.

The Boehner Dictionary
compromise
noun
1. To capitulate.
ex: Democrats refuse to compromise, and therefore Republicans reject any blame for failing to pass a bill.

Why the fiscal cliff doesn't matter to me.

So what if tax rates go up?
Average tax increase = $3500 / year = $67.31 / week
Middle quintile ($40K ~ $60K) = $2000 / year = $38.46 / week

That is your weekly contribution to lowering the deficit, and onto a path to cutting the debt.

In my case, it wouldn't cut down on my spending, since I already don't spend that much.  But it would slow my savings rate.  I'm guessing if most people are net-savers and not net-borrowers, they will be in the same boat, as well.

So what happens when you slow the savings rate?  Credit growth slows for borrowers.  But that's not a problem, as firms are holding onto cash or pushing out one-time dividends to beat the tax increase; for companies, it's not an issue of too little credit.

If you're going to have upward pressure on wages, now is the time, when inflation remains low.  Having downward pressure on wages (cutting federal spending and jobs) when inflation is already low, could be devastating, pushing us into deflation.

So here's to higher taxes.

GOP Senators:If you voted for Obama, we're going to cut your funds.

Wow, just amazing.  Republican senators have decided that Hurricane Sandy victims only need $24B in help.  That's a major cut in the proposed $60.4B Democrats floated for relief.

Under Republican control of Congress and the White House, Congress handed out over $62B just over a week after Hurricane Katrina had devastated Louisiana and parts of Alabama and other states.

Republicans, having lost the vote for the White House, have seemingly decided to hit back at upper Northeast voters by sticking the costs of cleaning up, temporary housing and rebuilding to the people who are net payers, as opposed to the net takers (Southern states).

Leave it to Republicans to carry out rank retribution against their fellow Americans.

Plan "B"

Take it.

Plan "B", I think must stand for Boehner, because it is steeped in political posturing.  According to the AP, Plan "B" maintains the Bush tax cuts for everyone making under $1M (which adds up to $300B in revenues over a decade) with no spending cuts; hardly adequate, if Republicans were serious about balancing long-term debt.

Take it.

Boehner is obviously planning to use the debt ceiling to extract spending cuts, so let Boehner and Republicans take full responsibility for the debt ceiling and let them take the heat for not continuing funding for emergency unemployment benefits.

Take it.

It's what Tea Party Republicans want, anyway (to cut off emergency unemployment benefits and keeping the debt ceiling in place); why bother sharing the blame for not getting a fiscal cliff deal done, when you have the odd opportunity to blame the entire mess (long-term debt, the debt ceiling and the economic drop that will occur from a fixed debt ceiling) on Republicans?

Take it.

If Karl Rove thinks the "B" plan is advantageous for Boehner, I'd take that as proof that it really is helpful for Democrats, to switch their tactic at the last second, then pin the entire debt ceiling and emergency unemployment benefit issues on Republicans.

Take it.

Further proof that Louie Gohmert is wrong.

This is the story about a former CTC guard, with a legal, concealed gun on his person, and the wise thought process he went through, as the CTC shooter went on his rampage.  It is worth paying attention to, because this is exactly the sort of mindset you'd expect from an intelligent, composed person, when in a live situation.

And it also serves to disprove Louie Gohmert's assertion that, if only the Sandy Hook principal had had a locked away M-4 in her office, that she could have minimized the tragedy.

People like Louie Gohmert construct scenarios where, devoid of reality, having a gun always ensures greater safety.  It simply isn't true; you have to consider many variables when you have a weapon in your hand, prepared to confront a violent situation.

300 million guns and 240 million Americans, 18 and older, but we're not safer today than we were two decades ago, from firearms homicide.

The entitlement changes that could help the deficit and debt, and why the GOP are silent on them.

With the fiscal cliff looming, a new report suggested that John Boehner would like to slow Social Security spending, as part of a grand compromise, by using chained-CPI-U to slow down benefits growth.  I've mentioned this numerous times: If you cut $1 from Social Security, you don't save $1 from the deficit and debt.  This is a non-starter, period.

Yes, Social Security solvency is an issue, but it has no relationship to the issue of federal debt and deficit spending.  Sometimes people will refer to the term, "intragovernmental transfers", as proof that government spending on Social Security contributes to the deficit by moving money around as in a card game; they either do not understand what they are citing, or they are trying to obfuscate what that means.  Intragovernmental transfers indicate that the Social Security Trust Fund is investing money into special, non-marketable US bonds, as required by law.  By doing so, there is less publicly available US debt in the global markets.

If you're going to try to cut the deficit and the accumulation of debt, wouldn't you want to look at programs that contribute directly to both the deficit and debt?  I know I would look there first, if I was serious about cutting the debt and deficits.

Well, it is true that within Medicare, parts of it are directly funded by Congress, and do directly contribute to the federal deficit and debt.  But you have to be careful what you do with Medicare, or else you end up having little or no effect on the federal debt and deficit.  Let me explain.

KFF's 2012 report on Medicare

Within Medicare, there is the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund, which funds Medicare Parts B and D.  Both Part B and D are about 75% funded from the federal government's coffers.  If you make changes to Medicare, this is the area where you'd want to focus on, because by acts of Congress, this percentage is more or less set into law.

Part B, is the medical insurance portion of Medicare.  Part D is the drug benefit created by Republicans in 2003 under the MMA.  Part C is the private health care insurance plan, otherwise referred to as Medicare Advantage.  For 2012, Part C is nearly equally funded by Part A and Part B.

So how do we effectively reduce federal spending that would reduce annual deficits and limit Medicare's federal debt contributions?

• We allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices at group rates, which would, without any pain on the part of retirees, save the federal government money on Part D.
• We tell seniors that, if they wish to enroll in private health care plans under Part C, they have to pony up the difference between public Medicare coverage; you still have a choice, but if you choose to use the private plans, you have to be willing to pay the difference.  Since public Medicare has lower administrative costs, it is only fair that people who wish to use private plans, must foot the difference, or force those private insurers to become more efficient.

I would consider these to be the least painful means of cutting federal spending in Medicare.  But those are the very things Republicans have been highly resistant to, or at least have failed to address in their broad outlines for deep Medicare cuts.  In fact, as we saw during the 2012 presidential campaign, many Republicans would like to expand Medicare Advantage, which would tend to increase federal spending and deficits.

Start with these small steps that directly impact federal spending, right?  Or unless your real agenda is to destroy entitlement programs.

Sources:
1. Kaiser Family Foundation review of Medicare funding.
2. University of Maryland study on Medicare Part B for the Congressional Research Service.
3. 2012 Board of Trustees report.

---

Update: Forgot to add the KFF chart on Medicare funding.

Nexus 7's Swype-like keyboard.

I had fun today, sitting next to someone (my client so to speak) working with his iPad.  His keyboard wasn't charged, so he was taking notes using the screen keyboard.  After a while, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was staring at my Nexus 7 as I was using the gesture keyboard.  Much faster than typing.

I love this tablet.  I'm getting this dock when it becomes widely available.  Maybe even get myself a WiFi-based hard drive, too.

It's 2012 -- do you have your gunfire safety plan?

It's a sad reminder of the times we live in, in the US, that following the rash of shootings, retailers are now looking at documenting and planning a strategy of escape and safety, in a case of gunfire.

In a meeting today, I brought up the possibility of increasing the bullet-resistance of the storefront retail windows by adding a laminate to the glazing, as we talked about different strategies to protect customers.  In the late 80s, the first time I ever saw bullet-proof windows, was at the post office across the street of the USC campus in Los Angeles -- one-inch thick solid acrylic.

Anyone living in Los Angeles can attest to the random gun shots late at night; you know they're gun shots, because they come in short, quick succession.

300 million firearms -- isn't that more than enough, for a population of about 240 million adults over 18?

RIP Daniel Inouye, Dec. 17, 2012.

Daniel Inouye, Hawai'i's biggest name and most popular politician has died.

Thanks for all that you've done for Hawai'i and for your country.

An excerpt from his office's press release:

"Senator Inouye began his career in public service at the age of 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He served with 'E' company of the 442 Regimental Combat Team, a group consisting entirely of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Senator Inouye lost his arm charging a series of machine gun nests on a hill in San Terenzo, Italy on April 21, 1945. His actions during that battle earned him the Medal of Honor.

Dan Inouye was always among the first to speak out against injustice whether interned Japanese Americans, Filipino World War II veterans, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians."

442nd, Go For Broke!

The fallacy of Louie Gohmert's assertion.

Texas Republican Louie Gohmert asserted today that, had the principal had an M-4 semiautomatic rifle in her possession, the tragedy at Sandy Hook could have been minimized.

Idiot.

People like Gohmert set up scenarios where the outcome is always on their side, irrespective of the potential variations of intervening events.

Gohmert's simplistic scenario takes no account for a wide range of circumstances, where the principal:

• Already knows how to handle an M-4;
• Would have been nearby the locked M-4, and had the lock on her;
• Wasn't on vacation or sick;
• Could shoot accurately from 50 yards away, without accidentally hitting other children directly or by ricocheting bullets or fragments;
• Has no issue with killing people and can do so without thinking;
• Was willing to kill any human shield to get to the killer;
• Knows how many killers there are and knows exactly where they are;
• Isn't the killer's first target.

And after all, if Gohmert was correct in his conclusion, then there would be no point to all the SWAT training and the development of specialized police forces, as well as sending in teams of SWAT members, into live situations.  No need to wait for SWAT; heck, no need for SWAT.

I can't even imagine what the school's insurer would think, if the school kept a locked M-4; what happens when someone breaks in and steals it?

We can even extend this to make a simple examination of the case of where conservatives believe that we need more guns, not less.  In this variation, everyone with a gun pulls out their guns out and tries to kill anyone they see with a gun; a free for all gun fire.  Now you have to profile every person with a gun and figure out which M4-toting chump is the killer.  Worse yet, now it's even easier for some loose cannon to blend into the crowd then suddenly go nuts.

More guns equals more violence, period.

Guns don't kill people...

But they do enable people to kill.  And high capacity magazines enable people to kill a lot more and faster.

The sort of logic that people use, in order to defend high capacity magazines, is at best tortured.

In this self-proclaimed Jewish rabbi's letter, he conjectures that, if only Reginald Denny had had a gun with a high capacity magazine, he wouldn't have been beaten.  Uh huh.

And right after the clips ran out or his gun misfired and jammed, he'd be dead.  Instead of being severely beaten, he'd be killed by someone with a gun no less.

You can read horror story after horror story, and they all involve high capacity magazines.  In the fight between absolute freedom and ethics, what you could do, might do, might need or could use a high capacity magazine, far outweighs the innocent deaths of young Americans left, right, middle and apolitical.

You'd think that a Christian nation that holds high regard for unborn life under the guise of protecting life, would have the common decency to defend their own children from high capacity magazines.

Why Windows Phone cannot compete.

I've written about this before, but it bears repeating: Live tiles is boring; Android users have far more customization choices and widgets to turn their phones into their phones.

Specifically, mycolorscreen is just amazing.  Check out their youtube account if you want to drool.

Until the folks at Microsoft eat some humble pie and admit that they were wrong, they will continue to lose market share, no matter how many millions they spend in endorsements, ads and product placement.

Heck, you can even make your Android phone look like a WP phone, if you wanted to!

What a messed up country we live in.

America is a severely violent nation.  Gun advocates believe the answer is to allow everyone to carry guns, but the contrary appears to be true.  In Japan where firearms are illegal, their homicide rate due to firearms is 0.  In the US where there are few legal restrictions in owning firearms, our homicide rate is 3.2 per 100K.  In Canada, it is 0.5 per 100K.

It's safer to live in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel.

No matter whose statistics you use, the US is violent.

Google Maps now available in iOS 6.

You'd think it was Christmas...so many people openly excited and joyous that Google Maps has reappeared for iOS 6, aka the iPhone.

• USA Today: "Google Maps app - welcome return of an old friend"
• Bloomberg Businessweek: "New Google Maps App Restores Order to the Universe"
• WSJ: "With Google Maps for iPhone Finally Out, It’s Now Safe to Upgrade"
• Vanity Fair: "Turn Left at Irrelevance: Google Maps Is Here, Sayonara Apple Maps"
• Ars Technica: "Google Maps for iPhone shows Apple how to do mapping right"
• Time: "Problem Resolved: Google Maps for iPhone Is Here, Looks Good"
• Wired's Gadget Lab: "Hallelujah! Google Maps Returns to Apple’s iPhone"
• Guardian UK: "Google Maps: thanks for the app, here's my personal data"
• Business Insider: "Google Hit A Home Run With Its iPhone Maps App"
• Discovery News: "HURRAY! GOOGLE MAPS FOR IPHONE: DNEWS NUGGET"
• Atlantic: "Time to Upgrade to iOS 6: The Google Maps App Is Now Available for the iPhone"
• CNN / Mashable: "Google Maps puts Apple Maps to shame"
• Forbes: "At Last, Google Maps Returns To The iPhone"
• Tech Crunch: "As Google Maps Humiliates Apple, The Silver Lining Is Millions Will Finally Upgrade To iOS 6"
• MIT Technology Review: "Google Maps for iPhone Saves the Day"
• The Verge: "Google Maps for iPhone is here: how data and design beat Apple"
• San Jose Mercury News: "iPhone users rush to download Google Maps, in a triumphant return for an Apple rival"

Wait, I thought fanbois insisted that Google copied Apple?  Oh man, Apple just got owned, big time, by Google...never before has Apple's market share relied so heavily on a competitor's product, and in full spite of its own!

Republicans knock off Rice; don't seem to understand karma.

Republicans don't know how to pick their battles at all.  They beat back Elizabeth Warren's appointment to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, only to watch her take back the senate seat that they had won with Scott Brown.  Now they think that they've knocked off Susan Rice, when she asked to be taken out of consideration for Secretary of State in Obama's second term.

Big mistake.

For one, they have angered liberal Democrats. No one is counting on right-wing Republican Tea Party folks to support a compromise, but everyone is counting on liberal Democrats to go along with a compromise on the fiscal cliff.  If Republicans wanted to cut even just a little part of entitlement spending, they've lost liberal support for a compromise.  Going over the fiscal cliff is almost a guarantee, now, seeing that conservative Republicans have never had a desire to compromise, and now they've angered liberal Democrats.

Second, the same thing will be true on the debt ceiling issue.  Conservative Republicans will not vote for an increase, and so Boehner will need help from liberal Democrats.  This time, it'll be even harder to gain support from liberal Democrats.

Third, you don't knock down an intelligent, powerful woman, and expect her to stay down.  Much like Elizabeth Warren, she will come back, and she will come hard to haunt the pettiness of Republican politicians.  Imagine if she becomes a two-woman tandem Democratic presidential ticket, with Hillary Clinton  or Elizabeth Warren -- we're talking about a huge shattering of the glass ceiling in politics.  Rice will have the last laugh.  As it stands, the Russian UN Ambassador seemed to suggest that he would welcome her for another four years; she seems to be honestly well-liked outside of the Republican Party.

Fourth, McCain just painted a red target on his back for his petty attacks.  If he chooses to run for re-election in 2016, Democrats will find a woman candidate to challenge him -- maybe a triumphant return of Gabrielle Giffords?  With the changing demographics, Arizona will be competitive in four years, and McCain will be painted as out of touch unless he supports the Dream Act -- something he's flip-flopped on, many times.

Fifth, Senate Republicans have repeatedly shown why Democrats should push forward with filibuster reform, and the threat of blocking Susan Rice's appointment is the final straw.  They lost the presidential election, they lost seats in Congress, but they insist on blocking Democrats and President Obama.  Filibuster reform will happen, and it will be shoved down the throats of Republicans with a fat fist that is Harry Reid's gavel, for better or worse.

Violent youths in the Pacific Northwest?

Not a good statement for the youth of the Pacific Northwest, when in a span of less than a week, we've had:

• A pair of 7 and 11 year old children use a loaded gun to attempt to rob a young woman and threaten to blow her brains out;
• A 22 year old man goes on a shooting spree at a shopping mall;
• A school in Springfield Oregon goes into lockdown as a teen brings an air rifle to school;
• A school in Vancouver Washington goes into lockdown as a rifle is found lying around.

Sheesh...are we in Afghanistan or the Pacific Northwest?

Ellen's audience got free Nexus 10 tablets.

Don't ask why, I just happened to have the TV on, while working, when Ellen DeGeneres gave her audience free Nexus 10 tablets.  Color me jealous!

EU court rules that CIA tortured prisoners under Bush.

One word: SODOMIZED.

Khaled el-Masri, who was captured and tortured, was later released because -- are you ready for it? -- they realized that he wasn't involved in terrorism.  One of the means of his torture was sodomy.

Let me rephrase that: Under George Bush and the Republican rush to secretly allow torture (thanks to John Yoo), the CIA felt it necessary and legal to stick objects into the butts of prisoners.

Could the same have occurred if, instead of Bush stealing the presidency, Gore had been sitting in the White House?  Sure.  But I'd still be disgusted and opposed to torture.  As far as I'm concerned, if you don't know where the line in the sand is, you're no less evil than the people you're trying to catch or stop.

$@!*&!#%%? are you supposed to do?

People reported that the CTC shooter fired off dozens of bullets and chaos as people realized what was going on.

What the $@!*&!#%%? are you supposed to do, when someone runs into an enclosed area with a semiautomatic weapon, with a high capacity magazine, and just starts shooting?  What if there were multiple shooters, all with semiautomatic weapons and high capacity magazines?

How did the shooter die?  Self-inflicted wound after his gun jammed.  In other words, it could have been a lot worse; luck was all that stood between a massive death toll to the (currently) two dead.

$@!*&!#%%? man...$@!*&!#%%?.

So what's your 1000' mega-tsunami evacuation plan?

Yikes!  Just read this article on a study by UH oceanographer Gary McMurtry, that the Hawaiian Islands have periodically (every 100,000 years or so) experienced so-called mega-tsunamis -- in this case 1,000 feet high, triggered by underwater volcano landslides.  And here's the kicker: They coincide with rising oceans, as seen during periods of global warming.

Now, even if you don't believe that global warming is anthropomorphic in nature, the fact of the matter is, that the Earth is warming and there are many consequences that have yet to be fully understood.

1000 foot tall tsunami wave...a black swan event that would trigger a global catastrophic reaction.

Hey, if I'm in the islands when this hits, I'm going straight to the beach to take photos and upload them for the world to check out, while enjoying the once-in-a-lifetime view.  There just isn't enough time and land that is high enough to accommodate even half the population; anyone still alive would have practically nothing to eat, no way to communicate with the outside world, and no way to get out of the islands -- Wheeler and Schofield are both below the 1000 foot elevation!

Our Amazing Planet via Honolulu Civil Beat

So...what exactly is your iPhone used for?

Helped out another lost person today...she had her iPhone in hand, but it wasn't working for her.  Pulled out my GS-II and in a minute, helped her find the closest BofA (I don't use BofA so I wasn't sure), and showed her on Google Maps.  I can imagine she probably didn't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.

So exactly what is your iPhone used for?

This is why you shouldn't be mean.

The hospital nurse who was subject to this prank by a pair of Australian radio DJs, committed suicide today.

Don't be mean.  You don't ever want to be in the shoes of these two DJs.

The sad politics of GOP lawmakers.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell pulled a 24 hour flip flop -- a highlight of how Republican lawmakers are using the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling for nothing more than political posturing.  The other day, McConnell put forth a proposal that would place the onus of the debt ceiling on the President.  The very next day, Senate leader Reid called McConnell's bluff and put it to a vote.

Naturally, McConnell filibustered his own proposal; he didn't really want to give the President the power to increase the debt ceiling.

As you might know, by law the House is responsible for putting forth a federal budget.  Even if taken at full face value, neither of Paul Ryan's budget plans (2011 and 2012) which were passed by Republicans, would have avoided a debt ceiling increase.

It doesn't get any more cynical than that: You hold the debt ceiling hostage, even when your own budgets require that the debt ceiling expands.

But like I've said previously, Democrats can simply call the GOP bluff (or identify their idiocy) and let the debt ceiling stay in place and let the nation go over the fiscal cliff.  GOP dogma dictates -- as pointed out recently by Bobby Jindal -- that a balanced budget is paramount to the nation's economic health, because a large debt is bad.  Going over the fiscal cliff would slice the deficit; keeping the debt ceiling in place would ensure it forever remain balanced.

Just once, can't we force them to own up to their dogma?

Despite Hurricane Sandy Nov employment growth continues.

7.7% unemployment

+146,000 non-farm jobs

There really are two stories here; excuse me for conflating the BLS and ADP reports to build the proper narrative.

The first story is that Hurricane Sandy, despite delivering tens of billions of dollars in damages and lost productivity, could not stall job growth.  As Mark Zandi noted in yesterday's ADP National Employment Report, Sandy cut 86,000 jobs from private payrolls.  And yet, ADP's private payroll report showed a growth of 118,000 jobs.  That's just remarkable, because it means that underlying employment is surging.

Not to get sidetracked, but the quiet story on the devastation of Hurricane Sandy points to an economic threat from anthropomorphic global warming with the combination of rising oceans and greater and more frequent extreme meteorological events.  

The second story is that, four years later, we can now see that Obama did good.

Chart from Nov ADP National Employment Report

When you look at this overlay of ADP and BLS jobs data, you can see that there was a strong "V"; now while this applied to monthly jobs data, obviously it did not exactly correspond to the unemployment rate.  If you shade the regions between the slope and the zero-line, the recession was an uncontrolled free-fall with millions of jobs lost, and there's still a lot of job creation to be done before the economy has fully recovered.

Here's an interesting tidbit: If you count the number of months from the bottom of the recession to the first month where job growth exceeded 150,000 jobs (the number many people point to, as the necessary amount to keep up with population growth, even though it is a false reference number), Obama's recovery has been faster than Bush's.  For the 2001 recession, it was 24 months.  For the 2008-2009 recession, it was 14 months.  That's amazing when you account for the depth of the 2008-2009 recession.

So look at the chart again, and ask yourself: When did job growth start to falter?  I'm betting most reasonable people can see quite clearly that job growth was showing signs of slowing down long before 2008.  You can see that during 2006 job growth started to slow down, just before it began to collapse altogether in late 2007 and 2008.

More on the relevance of detecting the early signs of a faltering economy and the state of our debt, in some future post.

Don't eat the miracle!

Repeat after me: Modifying Social Security WON'T reduce the deficit or debt.

I am not the smartest dog in the world, by a long shot.  So here's an admission: several years ago, I actually believed in the myth that social security spending contributed to the federal deficit.  That's because I took the news at face value.  The internet changed everything.  Now, information directly from the source, was readily available.

So let me say this as loud as possible: The media doesn't know what the heck they're talking about.

I'm going to lay it all out in simple bullet points:

• Social Security has a trust fund.
• The trust fund does not receive money from the general budget.
• The trust fund receives its money solely from that portion of your FICA / SE tax that is dedicated to Social Security.
• The trust fund does not spend money from the general budget. 
• If you cut a dollar of SS spending, it only saves the trust fund $1, not the general budget.
• If you cut $1M in SS spending, it only saves the trust fund $1M, not the general budget.
• If you cut $1B in SS spending, it only saves the trust fund $1B, not the general budget.
• If you cut $1T in SS spending, it only saves the trust fund $1T, not the general budget.
• The trust fund, by law, invests its money into special, non-marketable bonds from the Treasury. 
• Those non-marketable bonds are IOUs for the general budget's debt.
• If you completely eliminated Social Secuity, the Treasury would have to sell the equivalent of the trust fund's current bond holdings, to the general public, otherwise known as "debt held by the public".
• Eliminating Social Security would not help to reduce the US debt or the deficits adding to that debt.
• Without investing its money, the trust fund money would not keep pace with inflation.
• If the federal debt reached below the amount that the trust fund buys, in the form of bonds, it would start to fall behind inflation faster, if it was not allowed to invest in public securities (stocks and bonds).
• For this very reason, when, after several years of shrinking public debt, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan worried that having no debt would result in the Social Security trust fund having to invest in public securities.
• If you disliked the idea of Government Motors, you should understand therefore, why Alan Greenspan gave the green light to those Bush tax cuts: too little debt was a worse problem.
• Which is why George Bush pushed for the privatization of Social Security: If the debt were to shrink or eventually disappear, then the only way to alleviate this problem of Social Security come Government Motors, is to privatize the system to allow individuals to invest their Social Security into public securities.
• The problem, of course, with privatization of Social Security, was made all too clear when the stock markets crashed between 2008 and 2009, halving most people's 401K accounts.
• When "experts" tell you that the debt is smaller because of the Social Security surplus, it is a misunderstanding.  What IS smaller because of the surplus, is federal debt held by the public.  In this regard, the Bush Administration was able to hide the true cost of two wars.

Why conflate entitlement spending with general budget spending?  Because it gives you a more accurate picture of the total size of government, relative to total GDP, and some other metrics.  It does NOT give you something to cut, if you're trying to reduce the deficit and debt!

---

I should add, that some might point to the debt ceiling showdown in 2011, asking, "If Social Security wasn't part of the deficit problem, then why did Treasury Secretary Geithner say that he would divert SS payments to fund the federal government operations?"

The answer is, that the Treasury, which holds all government accounts, was positioning itself to put off payments on matured bonds held by the trust fund, thereby allowing the Treasury to divert money to general borrowing.  If there was no Social Security program, the Treasury would not be able to put off payments to matured bonds holders, without going into default.

Of course that seems silly because by not paying out on trust fund held bonds, it was a technical default, but the markets don't care because they were not affected by that.  The publicly held bonds holders were at the top of the priority list, not at the bottom or even in the middle, and for good reason: if they weren't paid in full, markets would have crashed as the US borrowing rate exploded, a la Greece.

Ever notice those four metallic conductor dots on your Nexus 7?

From the first day I received my Nexus 7 months ago, I wondered what purpose those four metallic contacts (called pogo pins) served.  If you look at the bottom-left edge of the Nexus 7, you'll find four little dots that looked like contact points.

The answer: charging / syncing / audio out.

Via Asus Japan's website, they have listed a new dock for the Nexus 7, which sits in landscape mode, on its left side.  Now obviously the dock is only decoration if it requires you to plug the microUSB on the bottom of the tablet to the dock, which in turn uses another microUSB to plug into the wall / computer.  That would not make much sense if you're charging upwards of 3480 yen ($42 USD).

And it's a good time too, because the microUSB plug that came with the tablet, got bent out of shape and requires some jiggering to get it to charge, or otherwise I have to rely on a different microUSB plug that I have for my bluetooth stereo headset charging.

But back to the dock.  Not that big of a surprise, since the Galaxy Nexus makes use of pogo pins for this dock.  This dock is definitely going to find its way into my home.

Republican counter to fiscal cliff sequestration: keep the cuts.

You have to hand it to Republicans.  Last year, to avoid a debt ceiling fiasco, Democrats agreed to the Budget Control Act to placate Republicans who had insisted on either keeping the debt ceiling in place or at least requiring deep cuts in spending.

Again, remember that Republicans wanted much deeper cuts than were agreed to, by essentially keeping the debt ceiling in place.  Their compromise was to agree to fewer cuts, which was the sequestration of spending cuts equal to $1.2T over the next decade.

So guess what they included in their fiscal cliff avoidance plan: In place of $1.2T in cuts to resolve last year's debt ceiling showdown, they want $1.2T in cuts, and to force more cuts by keeping the debt ceiling in place; they only quibble about where the spending cuts are made.

My eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets; they're still stuck in their echo chamber.

No need to bargain, just let them have their fiscal cliff and debt ceiling; why bother rescuing people from their own dogma?

Why would USC accept an invite to the Sun Bowl?

Why would the Trojans want to play a 6-7 Georgia Tech team?  There's nothing good to come out of it: If they win, no one gives a damn because it was against a crappy team that needed an exception from the NCAA to play; if they lose, everyone will be laughing at the pathetic season where the Trojans lost five of their last six games.

TBNT: They should have turned it down.  Monte's resignation is in effect after the bowl game, which should concern Trojan fans, because Monte's Tampa-2 will be facing a triple-option offense.  We all know how well that fared in 2012.  GT's coaches are probably licking their chops at the thought of getting to play against Monte's Tampa-2.

Thanks to the NCAA, for the second year in a row following a rules change, a 6-7 team will be playing in a bowl game, ahead of other teams with at least a 6-6 record.

Isn't Russell Wilson amazing?

Watching the Seattle - Chicago game, he just took it over with his arm and feet, playing the option and throwing sharp, accurate spirals.  He looks like a franchise quarterback, overcoming his short height (5'-10") to scramble and create plays.

Not bad for a 3rd round quarterback.

Can Seattle beat SF for the NFC West division?  They're 5-0 at home, and 3 of their remaining 4 games are at home, including one against SF.  That lone road game is against 5 - 7 Buffalo, in a dome.  Meanwhile SF has to go to New England and up to Seattle in consecutive weeks, and SF does not seem to know who their quarterback is.

Oh, and one more thing: Seattle's best personnel move from last year, without a doubt, was replacing Jeremy Bates as offensive coordinator, with Darrell Bevell.  Oh, and if you haven't noticed, Seattle's coaching cast is a third full with former USC players and coaches: Kenechi Udeze, Kris Richard, Rocky Seto, Ken Norton Jr., Pat Ruel, Carl Smith, Brian Schneider and Chris Carlisle.

Bing's actually scroogling you.

Microsoft's been airing ads lately, implying that Google is cheating you out of the best deals.  I'm going to demonstrate how, in fact, Bing is the site that is scroogling you, bad.  By the way, if regulators at the FTC and ECN are listening to the BS from Microsoft, then they're also being cheated out of a lot of money.

Search for: 834E1-055111-1001 under Google Shopping and Bing Shopping.  The lowest listed price under Google Shopping, is currently $1370; the lowest on Bing Shopping is $1413.  If you used Bing Shopping, you would have overspent $43.

Bing Shopping's results aren't the best. 

Google Shopping's results save you $43!

Next up, search for: 057E1-AB5111-1001 under both Bing Shopping and Google Shopping.  Both appear to list $867 as the lowest base price, but with shipping, Bing lists Newegg at $890, while, if you click through on CDW, is $877 with shipping.  If you used Bing Shopping, you'd overspend by $13.

Bing Shopping's lowest price isn't the lowest price.

Google Shopping's lowest price saves you $13, but Amazon is even cheaper.

Now, there is something worth noting here: NEITHER lists Amazon's price, which is $867 with free shipping.  If you skip their Shopping search and use the general web search however, Amazon's listing shows up.  Which brings up another interesting point worth noting: If you click at the Amazon sponsored ad at the very top of Google's web search, it'll take you straight to Amazon's lowest price, but if you click the highest numbered link in Bing's web search, you'll get sent to a much higher priced Amazon affiliate seller's price!

The bottom line, even with sponsored ads, Google's results will save you money, but no matter what you do, Bing will always lead you to higher prices.

Bing scroogles you, folks.  It may not be false advertising, but Microsoft's ads are yet again, highly misleading.

Portland's Union Station in the morning.

Not too early morning sunrise over Union Station in Portland, the first Sunday in December.  A little warm, too: 45 degrees.

How I reduce my carbon footprint.

To reduce my carbon footprint, I simply live in town where most everything can be accessed without driving.  After nearly 5 1/2 years, I'm averaging just about 2500 miles a year.

Also, I save a lot on gas, even with middling mileage (22 city / 28 highway).

F--- Nissan and their Heisman vote list.

Just saw Nissan's Heisman voting list on ABC: They left off Marqise Lee, the guy who has the third-most all-purpose yards in the NCAA FBS and second-most receptions and receiving yards.

Screw you, Nissan.  You're on the no-buy list.