The Real Ramblings

I originally entitled this “Bulverde Mayor Opens Mouth and Inserts Foot”, but figured this  suited it better. That said, both are true. In an article he wrote himself (opens in new window), the Mayor proved he knows nothing of the laws and common decency, then threatened to abuse the police to target a class of law abiding citizens doing legal things - riding their bicycles.

In a recent article on the NYC Soda Ban, Mayor Bloomberg stated: “If we are serious about fighting obesity, we have to be honest about what causes it.” - NYC Mayor Bloomberg I could not agree more. However, the question is: Is he being honest about it? He is using this assertion that sodas cause us to be obese to justify banning sodas over a certain size. But is that the truth?

The U.S. is obese. That is the message from government and so-called health experts. There is no way around it, they say. And the only way to get un-obese is to do what they say. But are we really obese? Or are the alleged experts wrong?

Every drive to work, every drive home, every news clip, every pundit seems to have something to say about the so-called “Fiscal Cliff”. Each side claims the other is holding “the middle-class tax cuts hostage”, or that the other side’s plan is laughable or unworthy. Sadly, while there isn’t really a cliff, both sides are right about each other. Here is why. They are both wrong.

On election night we started hearing how Obama and the Democrats had a mandate. Why? Because of a substantial margin in the electoral college. For this article we’ll kindly forget their claims that Bush didn’t have one in 2000 despite a substantial margin in the Electoral College - this article is about why there isn’t one today.

Of late I’ve seen a lot of talk about “Time To First Byte” (TTFB). In a nutshell, TTFB is supposed to represent the time it takes for a web server to send the first byte of data to the client - usually a web browser. There are a variety of viewpoints regarding it’s usefulness.

My self-imposed election period hiatus is over. Since the mainstream media and blogosphere have lost interest in it, it is time to return to it. There are some interesting parallels with prior elections, but not the ones I’ve seen posted elsewhere.

Prior to the election there was discussion on whether Romney would be the Republican John Kerry. I think with the results in, there is a clear historical parallell , and it is with a Democrat presidential contender. Indeed I think this entire election is a repeat of that contender’s race; the 2000 Presidential Race.

Let us examine some key factors.

Once again we find ourselves in a war of idiocy regarding what the current POTUS running for office did do or didn’t do. As expected, anytime he failed to do something he promised he and his supporters blame it on Republican obstructionism. Just as Republicans do when it is their POTUS being called to account for his or her term. And, as usual, the challenger’s party will point out that the incumbent’s party controlled Congress for some amount of time, so what happened then?

Just thought I’d share that with those of you buying into the oft-repeated lie. When someone talks of it, ask them how it is fundamentally different from the “old economy”. New technology doesn’t make a new economy. Advances in how a business operates or interacts with purchasers do not change the economy - they improve or detract from that specific aspect. Think about this: Since the invention of currency, what has fundamentally changed about buying or selling something?