Welcome to jimjustsaying (formerly SZSEZ). Same wine, new bottle. Thanks for visiting; I hope you like what you see and visit here again....Jim Szantor
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Celebrity endorsements
--"If Jim writes it, I'm there!"--Larry King
--"Almost too entertaining!"--David Letterman
--"Almost too entertaining!"--David Letterman
--"Blogaschizzle!"--Snoop Lion
--"The one thing I DO read!"--Sarah Palin
--"About what you'd expect from a dopey, sniveling piece of execrable skunk vomit from Wisconsin!"--Don Imus--"The most fun you can have with your clothes on (but DO take a shower afterwards)."--Dick Cavett
POPCORN
BY JIM SZANTOR
Rhetorical questions, questionable rhetoric and whimsical observations about the absurdities of contemporary life:
- No-salt potato chips go very nicely with non-alcoholic beer.
- Next to "legend," "icon" and "genius," let me add another term that's probably over-applied: "Expert."
- "No one wants advice--only corroboration."--John Steinbeck
- Peak performance: Mt. Everest is not only the highest point on Earth (29,035 feet), but it's still growing by about half an inch a year.
- The End of Civilization As We Know It, Exhibit 2,384: Among the new CDs capsuled in the April 23 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we learn of a new release by one Rob Zombie titled "Venomous Rat Regeneration." We're told "that enjoyably dark and nutty guy from White Zombie maintains his solo music career alongside his filmmaking with a disc that should please metal fans." Words fail me . . .
- "One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats."--British author-philosopher Iris Murdoch
- Audio book howlers (thanks to whatever mechanism it is that handles abbreviations, etc., failing miserably): St. Paul became Street Paul, and IV needle rendered as . . . "four needle." Also: Type Eye diabetic--for Type I diabetic.
- Boggling Burger Fact: According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, 6.5 pounds of greenhouse gases are produced to make a quarter-pounder. If you were willing to give up one hamburger a week, it would be like not driving your car 350 miles.
- (And when, I wonder, is someone going to green up Fast Food Nation? A sandwich that's going to be eaten in two minutes comes in packaging that won't disintegrate for 10,000 years.)
- For whatever reason--and there must be one--the left side hull of a Venetian gondola is longer than the right by 9 inches. (Trust me on this.)
- "More than ever. I now think of writing as a privilege—as a gift that's been given to me. Any day that I don't get to write something—anything—is a day I have to spend being someone other than who I am."--Comedy writer Larry Gelbart ("M*A*S*H," "Caesar's Hour," "Tootsie" and dozens of others).
- Jimjustsaying's Book Title of the Week" "The Complete Idiot's Guide for Lawsuits," by Victoria E. Green, J.D.
- Musings on the new Misinformation Age: "“We have all these new channels and tools to understand the world as it happens, but there’s no reliable algorithm for sorting through the morass. It used to be, read the morning paper on the way to work and read the evening paper on the way home. Now we have to invent a new personal methodology every day. And if we’re waiting for things to settle down and become simple, that’s never going to happen.”--Author Jim Gleick in the New York Times
- "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.--John Lennon
- Word never uttered by anyone who hasn't served in the military: Latrine.
- Another product you'd be amazed that is sold by Amazon.com: Canned Unicorn Meat by ThinkGeek ($12.99 plus shipping).
- Permatern: A person, usually in his or her 20s, battered by the recession and working at an apparently endlessly unpaying position, holding out hope that the conventional career wisdom that an internship leads to a job isn't folklore from a bygone era.--The Week
- Things that don't seem to exist anymore: Hayrides, scavenger hunts and come-as-you-are parties.
- "[T]he drive for austerity has lost its intellectual fig leaf, and stands exposed as the expression of prejudice, opportunism and class interest it always was. And maybe, just maybe, that sudden exposure will give us a chance to start doing something about the depression we’re in. "---Economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times. (Aside from my agreeing with Mr. Krugman, this is my nominee for best--and perhaps first--use of the term "intellectual fig leaf.")
- Insult of the Week: "The more I think of you, the less I think of you."
- Newspaper Obituary Headline of the Week: "Squirt." As in Donna "Squirt" St. Thomas (Green Bay Press-Gazette obituary, March 5, 2013). R.I.P., Ms. St. Thomas.
- It's uncanny and been true my entire life: The person in in front of me at the grocery checkout always has at least two items I've never seen before (usually some weird-looking rootlike vegetable or some Ho-Hos-type of snack containing about 7,000 mg of sugar). And if it's an overweight person, count on about ten 2-liter bottles of non-diet soda as well (usually Mountain Dew).
- Another jimjustsaying Media Word, a word you see or hear only in print or on news broadcasts: "thespian."
- Today's Latin Lesson: "Permissum mihi ulciscor vobis in ut." ("Let me get back to you on that.")
THE QUOTE RACK
The IRS mess
The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups is outrageous. Those who did this should be fired immediately. That’s obvious.
. . . The President has been very proud of the absence of scandal in his administration, and rightly so. The inability of his opponents to find any significant corruption in the historic $800 billion stimulus package was a real achievement, given the speed of the payout. None of his top aides have been caught up in taking bribes while in office–although their race through the revolving door into lucrative private sector positions is well beyond nauseating.
As in most presidencies, there have been an awful lot of political hacks populating the mid-reaches of this Administration. In the Obama instance, these have shown an anachronistic, pre-Clinton liberal bias when it comes to the rules and regulations governing many of our safety net programs, like social security disability. And now they have violated one of the more sacred rules of our democracy: you do not use the tax code to punish your opponents.
Lois G. Lerner, the IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, said the "absolutely inappropriate" actions by "front-line people" were not driven by partisan motives.
Does anyone actually believe this?
Yet again, we have an example of Democrats simply not managing the government properly and with discipline. This is just poisonous at a time of skepticism about the efficacy of government. And the President should know this: the absence of scandal is not the presence of competence. His unwillingness to concentrate–and I mean concentrate obsessively–on making sure that government is managed efficiently will be part of his legacy
.
Previous presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Barack Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is.
Too many doctors in the house
If you go around calling yourself "doctor," you should have a medical degree. Unfortunately, the country is now lousy with people who insist on being called "Dr." because they once wrote an arcane thesis. Vice President Joe Biden’s wife relentlessly calls herself "Dr. Biden," even though her doctorate is in "‘educational leadership,’ whatever the hell that is."
Why use this title? It confers a certain better-than-thou status, proving that Dr. Biden is "smart." Other faux doctors who exploit the title include the impressive sounding Princeton philosopher Dr. Cornel West and the author Dr. Maya Angelou, who has 30 honorary doctorates from various colleges. A Ph.D. literally means you’re a "doctor of philosophy," and in practice, it simply means you’ve spent a lot of time in academia, and are now qualified to teach in a university. In a professional context, a doctor of English literature is justified in using the title--but of what relevance is it in everyday life? When people cling to "trophy credentials" to prove they’re smarter than everyone else, it suggests that maybe they’re not.
Facing facts on illegal immigration
. . . Today, the government spends six times as much (in inflation-adjusted terms) on the Border Patrol as it did in 1993. What does Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, propose now? Tripling the number of Border Patrol officers and quadrupling outlays on surveillance gadgets. But if carpet-bombing the Rio Grande with cash hasn’t worked so far, it probably isn’t going to work in the future. . . .
If the concern is that foreigners here illegally will impose a fiscal burden, it makes sense to get them out in the open--where they will remit taxes like other legal workers. They can already get free emergency medical care, and their kids can attend public schools. It’s not as though the current situation is a fiscal bargain.
One of those young dreamers who is barred from going to college or joining the military is more likely to become a public burden than one who is free to pursue her vocational ambitions. A youngster whose parents are deported may not be able to get the education to be a productive citizen.
If the concern is that immigrants here illegally drive down the wages of American workers, it likewise makes no sense to keep them in the underground economy, where unscrupulous employers can pay them less than a normal market wage. Once they can work legally, their wages are likely to rise, reducing any downward pressure on earnings.
No one relishes the task of finding useful ways to address the long-standing results of illegal immigration, but they require attention. Congress can make an omelet, or it can try to unscramble the eggs.
Institutional bankruptcy
"People have stopped trusting institutions. We live in a society in which The New York Times
feeds us government lies, the U.S. government presides over the systematic torture of prisoners, and the Vatican presides over a global conspiracy of child rape. Do you really expect anyone under 30 to trust institutions anymore?
Insurance and freedom
. . . [T]he old trick of blaming the needy for their need doesn’t seem to play the way it used to, and especially not on health care: perhaps because the experience of losing insurance is so common, Medicaid enjoys remarkably strong public support. And now that health reform is the law of the land, the economic and fiscal case for individual states to accept Medicaid expansion is overwhelming. That’s why business interests strongly support expansion just about everywhere--even in Texas. But such practical concerns can be set aside if you can successfully argue that insurance is slavery.
Of course, it isn’t. In fact, it’s hard to think of a proposition that has been more thoroughly refuted by history than the notion that social insurance undermines a free society. Almost 70 years have passed since Friedrich Hayek predicted (or at any rate was understood by his admirers to predict) that Britain’s welfare state would put the nation on the slippery slope to Stalinism; 46 years have passed since Medicare went into effect; as far as most of us can tell, freedom hasn’t died on either side of the Atlantic.
In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they need. Over time, as people come to realize that affordable coverage is now guaranteed, it will have a powerful liberating effect.
But what we still don’t know is how many Americans will be denied that kind of liberation--a denial all the crueler because it will be imposed in the name of freedom.
Decision in Syria
If [President] Assad manages to win this war . . . the message is loud and clear: Weapons of mass destruction represent a get-out-of-regime-change free card for aspiring despots. Syria is a textbook case of what happens when there is a vacuum of U.S. leadership on an issue. Nature might abhor a vacuum, but Iranians and groups such as al-Qaeda do not. If we fail to get Syria right--and that means deposing Assad--then the Middle East will become a cesspool of violence and anti-Americanism for generations.
Arming the rebels with light weaponry does not foretell another post-Soviet Afghanistan, nor doom the country to a decades-long civil war, as some analysts predict. Nor does installing a no-fly zone in the north mean we will "own" Syria, any more than we are mired in Libya or Kosovo now. And both places are arguably better off than they were before we intervened.
. . . We owe it to intervene on the side of the oppressed. Somebody tell [President] Obama to stop sleepwalking through this historical crisis.
Don't let terror change us
[T]he signature of modern terrorism: to turn routine items from our lives into bombs: the shoe, the backpack, the car, the airplane, the cellphone, the laptop, the garage door opener, fertilizer, the printer, the pressure cooker--so that everything and everyone becomes a source of suspicion.
This can pose a much greater threat to our open society than the Soviet Red Army ever did--if we let it--because this kind of terrorism attacks the essential thing that keeps an open society open: trust. Trust is built into every aspect, every building, every interaction and every marathon in our open society. Terrorists can steal it for a moment or even a while, but we dare not let them fundamentally erode it, and I don’t think we will. When you watch the video of the bombing aftermath, notice how many people you see running toward the blast within seconds to help, even though more bombs easily could have been set to explode there
.
Fortunately, we don’t frighten easily anymore. You could feel it in the country on Tuesday morning. We’ve been through 9/11. We probably overreacted then, but never again. We tracked down Osama bin Laden with police and intelligence work, and we’ll do the same in this case. But meanwhile, even in this age of terrorism, let’s keep heeding the advice of an advertisement that you could see hanging in a Boylston Street window in a picture taken after the blast. The picture showed a marathoner sifting through unclaimed runners’ bags left behind after the explosion. Behind him, in the window, the ad poster says: "Your home should be a place to rest easy."
Only we can take that away from ourselves--not some terrorist with one despicable spasm of madness. So hug your kids tonight, but also encourage them to start training for the next marathon tomorrow. Now that I think of it, maybe we should make this one longer--from Boston to the site of the World Trade Center to the Pentagon--to remind ourselves and anyone else who needs reminding: This is our house. We intend to relax here. And we are not afraid.
Legal pot profits are a bust
Across the country, the business of growing pot is fast becoming mainstream. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have approved the use and production of marijuana for medicinal use, including two states, Colorado and Washington, that also allow recreational use. That has spurred on a cottage industry of professional growers, with an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 businesses now producing the plant for legal purposes. Total sales: $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion last year, according to the National Cannabis Industry Association.
But it turns out that trying to make a profit in this business is harder than expected. When grown and sold legally, marijuana can be an expensive proposition, with high startup costs, a host of operational headaches and state regulations that a beet farmer could never imagine. In Colorado, for example, managers must submit to background checks that include revealing tattoos. The state also requires cameras in every room that has plants.
Prices for pot, meanwhile, have plummeted, in large part because of growing competition. And bank financing is out of the question: Federal law doesn't allow these businesses, and agents sometimes raid growers even in states where it is legal. . . .
A major drag on earnings for marijuana growers is the labor-intensive nature of the business. Payroll can make up more than a third of production costs, says Jason Katz, chief operating officer of Local Product of Colorado. Managing workers is challenging too, he adds, in an industry where many learned their trade by growing clandestinely. His company went through six growers in three years before one worked out. "They aren't used to being part of regular society," he says.
Costs and management issues aside, the biggest shock to most marijuana growers has been pot prices. As the industry becomes more competitive and there is more pot available, the price for a pound of high-quality weed in Denver has slid from $2,900 at the beginning of April in 2011 to $2,400 in the same period in 2012 to $2,000 this year, according to Roberto's MMJ List, a service that connects wholesale sellers and buyers. At the height of summer demand in 2011, a pound sold for as much as $3,900.
The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time-White-House Players
. . .[T]he White House Correspondents Dinner has become . . . the D.C. version of the Friars’ Roast, with a late-night talk show host competing with the president to see whose team of writers can come up with better jokes. (Granted, the bar is lower for POTUS, but [on April 27], President Obama clearly outperformed Conan O’Brien, who rattled off mostly lame jokes you could see coming down Connecticut Avenue.)
Even more off-putting is the competition among news organizations to see who can land the biggest celebrity as a table guest.
As Tom Brokaw so aptly pointed out [recently], when Lindsay Lohan becomes a star attraction at your annual event, the joke’s on you. (Also, reporters lining up to get their picture taken with some actress or reality star is just cringe-inducing.)
The prevailing hashtag and media label for the White House Correspondents Dinner is "Nerd Prom." But when you’ve got John Legend, Sofia Vergara, Kevin Spacey, that "Gangnam Style" guy, Amy Poehler, Claire Danes, Kerry Washington, Gerard Butler, broken-legged Louisville hoopster Kevin Ware, Katy Perry and Hayden Panettiere working the red carpet at your event, that ain’t no Nerd Prom--that’s an event that’s going to be covered by "Extra," "E!" and "Entertainment Tonight."
It would take a mighty act of professionalism and perspective for the organizers of the WHCD to realize how shameless and tone-deaf they look, and to announce they’re scaling back the event next time around.
I think we have a better chance of seeing Sarah Palin getting a "No Assclowns!" tattoo before that will happen.
Why rugby is the ideal fan sport
Rugby may be the most dull, plodding game on earth, but the passion in the stands makes it sport at its purest. The rules are arcane, and nobody who isn’t a devoted fan can figure out what all the penalties are for--but then, the beauty of a sport doesn’t lie in the rules or even the scores.
Sports are a tribal rite, not an aesthetic exercise, and no sport does tribalism better than rugby. An England-Wales match, for example, is a titanic clash of cultures, histories, and identities. The anthems go on nearly the length of a half, as fans of both sides sing not only their respective national anthems but a few other popular songs as well, and the singing often continues during the game itself. This is a sport not of the brain, but of the heart, or the gut.
The actual playing, of course, is utterly unwatchable, since the ball disappears under a heap of bodies for long periods, and the scrums, in which several players interlock arms and bang heads together, are endlessly set and reset as referees struggle to impose discipline. Yet the stupefying nature of the action is the key to rugby’s greatness. Because the game is so awful to watch, the drama has to be created by the nations willing their representatives on to victory.
The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups is outrageous. Those who did this should be fired immediately. That’s obvious.
. . . The President has been very proud of the absence of scandal in his administration, and rightly so. The inability of his opponents to find any significant corruption in the historic $800 billion stimulus package was a real achievement, given the speed of the payout. None of his top aides have been caught up in taking bribes while in office–although their race through the revolving door into lucrative private sector positions is well beyond nauseating.
As in most presidencies, there have been an awful lot of political hacks populating the mid-reaches of this Administration. In the Obama instance, these have shown an anachronistic, pre-Clinton liberal bias when it comes to the rules and regulations governing many of our safety net programs, like social security disability. And now they have violated one of the more sacred rules of our democracy: you do not use the tax code to punish your opponents.
Lois G. Lerner, the IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, said the "absolutely inappropriate" actions by "front-line people" were not driven by partisan motives.
Does anyone actually believe this?
Yet again, we have an example of Democrats simply not managing the government properly and with discipline. This is just poisonous at a time of skepticism about the efficacy of government. And the President should know this: the absence of scandal is not the presence of competence. His unwillingness to concentrate–and I mean concentrate obsessively–on making sure that government is managed efficiently will be part of his legacy
.
Previous presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Barack Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is.
--Joe Klein in Time
Too many doctors in the house
If you go around calling yourself "doctor," you should have a medical degree. Unfortunately, the country is now lousy with people who insist on being called "Dr." because they once wrote an arcane thesis. Vice President Joe Biden’s wife relentlessly calls herself "Dr. Biden," even though her doctorate is in "‘educational leadership,’ whatever the hell that is."
Why use this title? It confers a certain better-than-thou status, proving that Dr. Biden is "smart." Other faux doctors who exploit the title include the impressive sounding Princeton philosopher Dr. Cornel West and the author Dr. Maya Angelou, who has 30 honorary doctorates from various colleges. A Ph.D. literally means you’re a "doctor of philosophy," and in practice, it simply means you’ve spent a lot of time in academia, and are now qualified to teach in a university. In a professional context, a doctor of English literature is justified in using the title--but of what relevance is it in everyday life? When people cling to "trophy credentials" to prove they’re smarter than everyone else, it suggests that maybe they’re not.
--Charles C.W. Cooke, NationalReview.com
Facing facts on illegal immigration
. . . Today, the government spends six times as much (in inflation-adjusted terms) on the Border Patrol as it did in 1993. What does Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, propose now? Tripling the number of Border Patrol officers and quadrupling outlays on surveillance gadgets. But if carpet-bombing the Rio Grande with cash hasn’t worked so far, it probably isn’t going to work in the future. . . .
If the concern is that foreigners here illegally will impose a fiscal burden, it makes sense to get them out in the open--where they will remit taxes like other legal workers. They can already get free emergency medical care, and their kids can attend public schools. It’s not as though the current situation is a fiscal bargain.
One of those young dreamers who is barred from going to college or joining the military is more likely to become a public burden than one who is free to pursue her vocational ambitions. A youngster whose parents are deported may not be able to get the education to be a productive citizen.
If the concern is that immigrants here illegally drive down the wages of American workers, it likewise makes no sense to keep them in the underground economy, where unscrupulous employers can pay them less than a normal market wage. Once they can work legally, their wages are likely to rise, reducing any downward pressure on earnings.
No one relishes the task of finding useful ways to address the long-standing results of illegal immigration, but they require attention. Congress can make an omelet, or it can try to unscramble the eggs.
--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune
Institutional bankruptcy
"People have stopped trusting institutions. We live in a society in which The New York Times
feeds us government lies, the U.S. government presides over the systematic torture of prisoners, and the Vatican presides over a global conspiracy of child rape. Do you really expect anyone under 30 to trust institutions anymore?
--Andrew Sullivan, Vanity Fair
Insurance and freedom
. . . [T]he old trick of blaming the needy for their need doesn’t seem to play the way it used to, and especially not on health care: perhaps because the experience of losing insurance is so common, Medicaid enjoys remarkably strong public support. And now that health reform is the law of the land, the economic and fiscal case for individual states to accept Medicaid expansion is overwhelming. That’s why business interests strongly support expansion just about everywhere--even in Texas. But such practical concerns can be set aside if you can successfully argue that insurance is slavery.
Of course, it isn’t. In fact, it’s hard to think of a proposition that has been more thoroughly refuted by history than the notion that social insurance undermines a free society. Almost 70 years have passed since Friedrich Hayek predicted (or at any rate was understood by his admirers to predict) that Britain’s welfare state would put the nation on the slippery slope to Stalinism; 46 years have passed since Medicare went into effect; as far as most of us can tell, freedom hasn’t died on either side of the Atlantic.
In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they need. Over time, as people come to realize that affordable coverage is now guaranteed, it will have a powerful liberating effect.
But what we still don’t know is how many Americans will be denied that kind of liberation--a denial all the crueler because it will be imposed in the name of freedom.
--Paul Krugman, New York Times
Decision in Syria
If [President] Assad manages to win this war . . . the message is loud and clear: Weapons of mass destruction represent a get-out-of-regime-change free card for aspiring despots. Syria is a textbook case of what happens when there is a vacuum of U.S. leadership on an issue. Nature might abhor a vacuum, but Iranians and groups such as al-Qaeda do not. If we fail to get Syria right--and that means deposing Assad--then the Middle East will become a cesspool of violence and anti-Americanism for generations.
Arming the rebels with light weaponry does not foretell another post-Soviet Afghanistan, nor doom the country to a decades-long civil war, as some analysts predict. Nor does installing a no-fly zone in the north mean we will "own" Syria, any more than we are mired in Libya or Kosovo now. And both places are arguably better off than they were before we intervened.
. . . We owe it to intervene on the side of the oppressed. Somebody tell [President] Obama to stop sleepwalking through this historical crisis.
--Lionel Beehner, a fellow at the Truman National Security Project, in USA TODAY
[T]he signature of modern terrorism: to turn routine items from our lives into bombs: the shoe, the backpack, the car, the airplane, the cellphone, the laptop, the garage door opener, fertilizer, the printer, the pressure cooker--so that everything and everyone becomes a source of suspicion.
This can pose a much greater threat to our open society than the Soviet Red Army ever did--if we let it--because this kind of terrorism attacks the essential thing that keeps an open society open: trust. Trust is built into every aspect, every building, every interaction and every marathon in our open society. Terrorists can steal it for a moment or even a while, but we dare not let them fundamentally erode it, and I don’t think we will. When you watch the video of the bombing aftermath, notice how many people you see running toward the blast within seconds to help, even though more bombs easily could have been set to explode there
.
Fortunately, we don’t frighten easily anymore. You could feel it in the country on Tuesday morning. We’ve been through 9/11. We probably overreacted then, but never again. We tracked down Osama bin Laden with police and intelligence work, and we’ll do the same in this case. But meanwhile, even in this age of terrorism, let’s keep heeding the advice of an advertisement that you could see hanging in a Boylston Street window in a picture taken after the blast. The picture showed a marathoner sifting through unclaimed runners’ bags left behind after the explosion. Behind him, in the window, the ad poster says: "Your home should be a place to rest easy."
Only we can take that away from ourselves--not some terrorist with one despicable spasm of madness. So hug your kids tonight, but also encourage them to start training for the next marathon tomorrow. Now that I think of it, maybe we should make this one longer--from Boston to the site of the World Trade Center to the Pentagon--to remind ourselves and anyone else who needs reminding: This is our house. We intend to relax here. And we are not afraid.
--Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
Legal pot profits are a bust
Across the country, the business of growing pot is fast becoming mainstream. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have approved the use and production of marijuana for medicinal use, including two states, Colorado and Washington, that also allow recreational use. That has spurred on a cottage industry of professional growers, with an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 businesses now producing the plant for legal purposes. Total sales: $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion last year, according to the National Cannabis Industry Association.
But it turns out that trying to make a profit in this business is harder than expected. When grown and sold legally, marijuana can be an expensive proposition, with high startup costs, a host of operational headaches and state regulations that a beet farmer could never imagine. In Colorado, for example, managers must submit to background checks that include revealing tattoos. The state also requires cameras in every room that has plants.
Prices for pot, meanwhile, have plummeted, in large part because of growing competition. And bank financing is out of the question: Federal law doesn't allow these businesses, and agents sometimes raid growers even in states where it is legal. . . .
A major drag on earnings for marijuana growers is the labor-intensive nature of the business. Payroll can make up more than a third of production costs, says Jason Katz, chief operating officer of Local Product of Colorado. Managing workers is challenging too, he adds, in an industry where many learned their trade by growing clandestinely. His company went through six growers in three years before one worked out. "They aren't used to being part of regular society," he says.
Costs and management issues aside, the biggest shock to most marijuana growers has been pot prices. As the industry becomes more competitive and there is more pot available, the price for a pound of high-quality weed in Denver has slid from $2,900 at the beginning of April in 2011 to $2,400 in the same period in 2012 to $2,000 this year, according to Roberto's MMJ List, a service that connects wholesale sellers and buyers. At the height of summer demand in 2011, a pound sold for as much as $3,900.
--Wall St. Journal
The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time-White-House Players
. . .[T]he White House Correspondents Dinner has become . . . the D.C. version of the Friars’ Roast, with a late-night talk show host competing with the president to see whose team of writers can come up with better jokes. (Granted, the bar is lower for POTUS, but [on April 27], President Obama clearly outperformed Conan O’Brien, who rattled off mostly lame jokes you could see coming down Connecticut Avenue.)
Even more off-putting is the competition among news organizations to see who can land the biggest celebrity as a table guest.
As Tom Brokaw so aptly pointed out [recently], when Lindsay Lohan becomes a star attraction at your annual event, the joke’s on you. (Also, reporters lining up to get their picture taken with some actress or reality star is just cringe-inducing.)
The prevailing hashtag and media label for the White House Correspondents Dinner is "Nerd Prom." But when you’ve got John Legend, Sofia Vergara, Kevin Spacey, that "Gangnam Style" guy, Amy Poehler, Claire Danes, Kerry Washington, Gerard Butler, broken-legged Louisville hoopster Kevin Ware, Katy Perry and Hayden Panettiere working the red carpet at your event, that ain’t no Nerd Prom--that’s an event that’s going to be covered by "Extra," "E!" and "Entertainment Tonight."
It would take a mighty act of professionalism and perspective for the organizers of the WHCD to realize how shameless and tone-deaf they look, and to announce they’re scaling back the event next time around.
I think we have a better chance of seeing Sarah Palin getting a "No Assclowns!" tattoo before that will happen.
--Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Why rugby is the ideal fan sport
Rugby may be the most dull, plodding game on earth, but the passion in the stands makes it sport at its purest. The rules are arcane, and nobody who isn’t a devoted fan can figure out what all the penalties are for--but then, the beauty of a sport doesn’t lie in the rules or even the scores.
Sports are a tribal rite, not an aesthetic exercise, and no sport does tribalism better than rugby. An England-Wales match, for example, is a titanic clash of cultures, histories, and identities. The anthems go on nearly the length of a half, as fans of both sides sing not only their respective national anthems but a few other popular songs as well, and the singing often continues during the game itself. This is a sport not of the brain, but of the heart, or the gut.
The actual playing, of course, is utterly unwatchable, since the ball disappears under a heap of bodies for long periods, and the scrums, in which several players interlock arms and bang heads together, are endlessly set and reset as referees struggle to impose discipline. Yet the stupefying nature of the action is the key to rugby’s greatness. Because the game is so awful to watch, the drama has to be created by the nations willing their representatives on to victory.
--Stephen Moss, The Guardian
THE LINK TANK
What you'll do next
Big data and the nuances of predicting human behavior
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/opinion/brooks-what-youll-do-next.html?hp
President Bystander
Barack Obama has lost control of his agenda
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/GWSCIY/A7VDYK/NPSAAR/VPHNMA/NSDFUL/XL/h
Psychic's pratfall
Other practitioners discuss the Cleveland 'prediction'
http://elink.thedailybeast.com/4e556ea1e018bee76c35b66dzu7t.14z3/UY1HE8JSiK2NmKxtD3ebb
It's scandal-less
The GOP witch hunt over Benghazi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-republicans-lead-a-witch-hunt-on-benghazi/2013/05/09/ca565d10-b8de-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
The chutzpah caucus
Fuzzy conservative thinking is wrong time and again
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/opinion/krugman-the-chutzpah-caucus.html?hp
The debt percentage coding error . . .
. . . underscores the need for skepticism
http://www.jsonline.com/business/error-in-debt-analysis-proves-value-of-skepticism-9399chf-207055601.html
Was Boston just the beginning?
Al-Qaeda has a world of strategies to choose from
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/KYNZS9/UUF1XU/RTN55P/JKW6MD/M9XV6V/ZH/h
Putting American together again
Carbon tax could solve many problems
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-put-america-back-together-again.html?hp
The psychology of small packages
As more foods try smaller wrapping, how to decipher the cues that make people eat more or less
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324485004578424650545311848.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_0
Grand Bargain not hopeless
Bipartisan budget deal could still get done
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/3873VC/JIXS87/AK7115/38OLCO/D4V7CD/GX/h
Why so little terrorism?
U.S. relatively unscathed for a variety of reasons
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/why-so-little-terrorism/?src=rechp
It's a 401(k) world
More than ever before, an individual can control own destiny
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/friedman-its-a-401k-world.html?hp
Every effort is made to ensure that all links are still operative.
Big data and the nuances of predicting human behavior
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/opinion/brooks-what-youll-do-next.html?hp
President Bystander
Barack Obama has lost control of his agenda
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/GWSCIY/A7VDYK/NPSAAR/VPHNMA/NSDFUL/XL/h
Psychic's pratfall
Other practitioners discuss the Cleveland 'prediction'
http://elink.thedailybeast.com/4e556ea1e018bee76c35b66dzu7t.14z3/UY1HE8JSiK2NmKxtD3ebb
It's scandal-less
The GOP witch hunt over Benghazi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-republicans-lead-a-witch-hunt-on-benghazi/2013/05/09/ca565d10-b8de-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
The chutzpah caucus
Fuzzy conservative thinking is wrong time and again
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/opinion/krugman-the-chutzpah-caucus.html?hp
The debt percentage coding error . . .
. . . underscores the need for skepticism
http://www.jsonline.com/business/error-in-debt-analysis-proves-value-of-skepticism-9399chf-207055601.html
Was Boston just the beginning?
Al-Qaeda has a world of strategies to choose from
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/KYNZS9/UUF1XU/RTN55P/JKW6MD/M9XV6V/ZH/h
Putting American together again
Carbon tax could solve many problems
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-put-america-back-together-again.html?hp
The psychology of small packages
As more foods try smaller wrapping, how to decipher the cues that make people eat more or less
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324485004578424650545311848.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_0
Grand Bargain not hopeless
Bipartisan budget deal could still get done
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/3873VC/JIXS87/AK7115/38OLCO/D4V7CD/GX/h
Why so little terrorism?
U.S. relatively unscathed for a variety of reasons
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/why-so-little-terrorism/?src=rechp
It's a 401(k) world
More than ever before, an individual can control own destiny
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/friedman-its-a-401k-world.html?hp
Every effort is made to ensure that all links are still operative.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
POPCORN
BY JIM SZANTOR
Rhetorical questions, questionable rhetoric and whimsical observations about the absurdities of contemporary life:- Never join a club that requires you to use a secret handshake.
- When was the last time you saw someone smoking a pipe? (And video footage of Hugh Hefner, either vintage or current, doesn't count.)
- Wisconsinites, please don't be too hard on Gov. Walker. He's destroying the state as fast as he can.
- Jimjustsaying's Book Title of the Week: "The Three Stooges Scrapbook," a whopping 355 oversized pages and touted by the Washington Post (!) as "The official Three Stooges bible."
- (Oh, by the way, it's labeled as an "updated edition." Whew. Sure wouldn't want any stale, outmoded Stooges material!)
- Fine Print Follies: Do you know anyone who stops to read "click-through" agreements on websites in the middle of performing a task?
- One company, PC Pitstop, deliberately buried a clause in its end-user license agreement in 2004, offering $1,000 to the first person who e-mailed the company at a certain address. It took five months and 3,000 sales until someone claimed the money.
- (The situation hadn't improved by 2010 when Gamestation played an April Fools' Day joke by embedding a clause in their agreement saying that users were selling them their souls.)
- Why do they call them barbershop quartets? I've never heard one guy singing in a barbershop, much less four!
- "She had the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe." --Former French president Francois Mitterrand on the recently deceased Margaret Thatcher.
- Most people know that Amazon sells just about everything--but did you know they even sell wolf and coyote urine! (Coyote Urine Pee Pure will set you back $14.95 for 16 ounces.)
- "Never marry a man you wouldn't want to be divorced from."--Nora Ephron
- "Ever wonder why a pirate wears patches? It's not because he was wounded in a sword fight," says Dr. Jim Sheedy, a doctor of vision science and director of the Vision Performance Institute at Oregon's Pacific University (and jimjustsaying's go-to guy on pirate-related vision issues).
- It seems that seamen must constantly move between the pitch black of below decks and the bright sunshine above. Smart pirates "wore a patch over one eye to keep it dark-adapted outside." Should a battle break out and the pirate had to shimmy below, he would simply switch the patch to the outdoor eye and he could see in the dark right away—saving him 25 minutes of flailing his cutlass about in near blindness, Sheedy relates.
- Jimjustsaying's Media Word of the Week (a word you see only in print and never hear an actual person use in real life): Plethora. As in, "2013 has seen a plethora of mass shootings."
- You either understand the appeal of haiku (pretentious and overrated in the extreme) or you don't. It's sort of like . . . literary rutabaga.
- According to news reports, Justin Bieber, who got trashed for showing up two hours late for his London show, has been spotted twice wearing a gas mask while shopping. (And here you thought the white Michael Jackson would never show up!)
- Time is like money in many ways--some of it well spent, some of it wasted . . . and some of it has you wondering: Where oh where did it all go?
- T. Boone Pickens is probably a very nice and very smart guy, but what's up with these pretentious first initial people? The T. is for Thomas, by the way, but apparently that is too common . . . or something . . . . (Now, T-Bone Walker--now that's an entirely different breed of cat!)
- Got milk (plants)? A recent news story noted that there are 400 milk bottling plants in the U.S. right now. In 1975? 2,500!
- More numbers: In 1980 the average credit-card contract was 400 words. Now? Many are more than 20,000.
- "Fine print" complexity costs us money in the form of hidden fees (about $900 per year for the average consumer, according to research conducted by the Ponemon Institute), denied claims and unanticipated charges ($2 billion in one year for landline phone customers, according to the Federal Communications Commission). --Wall St. Journal, March 3
- Newspaper Obituary Headline of the Week: "Jigger." As in Frank "Jigger" Bogda (Green Bay Press-Gazette obituary, March 5, 2013). R.I.P., Mr. Bogda.
- Do people still play canasta, and if so, why?
- Jocular Book Titles (via Vanity Fair): "Too Soon to Call," by Karl Rove and "The Audacity of 'Nope,' " by Paul Ryan.
- Today's Latin Lesson: Totus res in temperantia - comprehendo temperantia. ("All things in moderation--including moderation!")
Monday, March 11, 2013
POPCORN
BY JIM SZANTOR
Rhetorical questions, questionable rhetoric and whimsical observations about the absurdities of contemporary life:- Never eat at a place called Mom's, never play poker with a man named Doc, and never admit to having owned a beanbag chair.
- Who dreams up these goofy apps that are constantly being offered to us on tablet devices?
- Recent examples: "Doodle God," "Blue Sleep Therapy" and "Supermarket Mania 2." (Which came first--the name or the actual app?)
- I can never remember if things expand or contract when it's cold. And if it's so very cold, why do windows sweat? (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
- No one has ever used an entire tube of ChapStick. Never. They could fill the bottom half with axle grease or cyanide paste, and no one would ever know!
- You know you're a success when your credit card has no expiration date.
- I saw someone using a Dirt Devil vacuum the other day. Devil? Why not Dirt Angel? Dirt Saint?
- Dirt Altar Boy would be better than Dirt Devil! Why the demonic reference? (I'm just saying. . . )
- Another in a series of jimjustsaying's Media Words (words you see or hear only in news reports and never, ever hear used by a normal person in real life): "Burgeoning." (As in, "The burgeoning cost of health care is going to bankrupt America!")
- Weather fact: Because of its shorter length, February is the only month of the year that can pass without a full moon. (A full moon repeats every 29.5306 days, and February has at the most 29.) So when that happens, another month--January or March--can have two full moons, something that last happened in January of 1999, a Triton (Ill.) College astronomer reports.
- Drunk Driver Quote of the Year: When an Indiana man was pulled over in Kenosha (Wis.) County and a sheriff's deputy asked when he had stopped drinking, he replied: "Honestly, when you pulled me over.” (Mr. Genius was sentenced to 18 months for his fifth DUI conviction.)
- I cringe when I hear someone refer to their toddler as a "rug rat." Very disrespectful! (Myself, I much prefer "carpet rodent!" Classier.)
- "In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods. They have not forgotten this."--Author Terry Pratchett
- "There is something entirely appropriate about holding the State of the Union address on the same day as Mardi Gras. One is a display of wretched excess, when giddy and rowdy participants give in to reckless and irresponsible behavior. The other is a street festival in New Orleans."--Dana Milbank in the Washington Post
- Obituary Headline Nickname of the Week: "Bird." As in Lucena "Bird" Paradise, Green Bay Press-Gazette obituary, Jan. 28, 2013. (R.I.P., Mrs. Paradise.)
- "You have no kind of coherence whatsoever in terms of the population in Florida. People aren’t from here; everybody’s from somewhere else, and they liked that place better."--Dave Barry
- Why are there handicapped parking spaces at the Y? If you're able enough to work out, why do you need to park closer? And if you can't work out, you shouldn't be there in the first place, so those spaces are unnecessary. (All those who "fall between the cracks" are probably so few in number that no such spaces are needed for them, either.)
- I know they make adult diapers, but as far as I know--no pacifiers.
- Is the world ready for an Italian comedian in government? In fact, according to a Wall St. Journal report, Beppe Grillo and his Five-Star Movement could well become one of the most powerful forces in Italian politics.
- ("Grillo was taking votes from the left, now he's growing on the right. He's like a bus. Anyone who has a gripe about government gets on!"--Ilvo Diamanti, a professor of politics at the University of Urbino.
- Do they still make Paint By Numbers kits? (Actually, yes. Does anyone buy them? Probably, but not in huge numbers . . . .)
- Snack food prediction: At some point there will be caviar-flavored potato chips. (And, perhaps, cat food.)
- The world was a lot simpler when presidents had nicknames like Ike and celebrities didn't try to make a new song out of the "Star Spangled Banner." (Memo to R&B and country-and-western singers: It's not the "Star-Spangled Blues"!)
- The New Yorker reports that last year, for the first time, the percentage of U.S. women with tattoos--23 percent--surpassed that of men, at 19 percent .
- (The temptation to say "Feminism marches on" is tempered by the overriding thought: How do they know this? Was there some kind of Epidermis Census taken while I wasn't paying attention?)
- Today's Latin lesson: Ego would non vado illic si Ego erant vos. ("I wouldn't go there if I were you!")
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