Madi Christmas

Madi got a FlipVideo for Christmas - she's a budding filmmaker. She made this short in the car yesterday and has now gone through one set of batteries rewatching it and giggling to her heart's content. I don't think it's quite ready for Sundance, though it is better than a few movies I've seen with significantly higher budgets.

Tall Enough

Does Mom look a bit concerned that son's caught up to her height?

My favorite things about Christmas

We get quite a few Christmas cards since we have shown ourselves so adept at moving as soon as we get on people's Christmas lists. All of them are great, so don't take offense, but two of them are now my favorite holiday traditions - Eric and Dennis take the cake. They should blog. Daily. I just read Eric's - Emmy nomination worthy. As soon as Dennis' arrives I'll go ahead and put the tree out on the curb because the season's over.

One side note - Eric and Dennis are both lawyers. Who knew that the best thing about law school is that they teach you to write incredibly funny Christmas letters? I'm glad they teach you something you can take with you and make you a useful part of society. Word of warning to the rest of you lawyers - the bar is set and it is high.

Last side note - I can be particularly saucy toward my lawyerly brethren these days since my consulting days are numbered. Consultants generally don't engage in lawyer jokes since most of them can easily be made less funny and hit too close to home by simply replacing the word "lawyer" with "consultant". Or someone can simply call you Bob.

Suburban for sale

We're 95% likely to get Katie a new car in the next week or two to upgrade her Suburban. We're planning on trading in her Suburban on her new car. I don't want to deal with the hassle of selling it. That said, trade-in value's pretty low on cars so if anyone's interested in a 2003 Suburban (4x4) with 73K miles, I'd be happy to give it to you for whatever the assessed trade-in value turns out to be. I'd rather a friend is the beneficiary of the trade-in/retail gap that some nameless/faceless car dealer. Just send us an email if you're interested. KBB's like $8-9K, but I suspect they'll offer far less.

Mormon videos to catch

I have to admit that I have not been a consumer of much Mormon media, particularly movies. I haven't seen any of the mission, home teacher, single adult or whatever comedies. I did see Sons of Provo, hoping it would be a Mormon Christopher Guest flick (it wasn't - but not horrible either). However, there's one show I'd like to see - New York Doll. Apparently it was good enough that it is creating a new genre - documentaries of people you would never expect to see at the ward dinner. The newest one of these sounds like it was fairly well done and I may have to see it - Mario's Conviction - about a member of the mob that converts and leaves the mob without losing his life.

I don't mind watching these sorts of documentaries (even better if they are mockumentaries), but harbor a deep and irrational fear that they'll find themselves all the way down the list of candidates and decide to do "John's Mullet". I've been pretty energetically hiding all evidence of this blockbuster story.

Merry Christmas

Truth in advertising

This is generally a profanity-free zone, so apologies for the PG-13 post. Don't read this while drinking milk unless you want to buy a new keyboard.

Oh my aching 401k

Mankiw had this graph on his blog. This is a histogram of stock returns by year. The black box on the left is this year. Gives you a sense of the historic nature of the current economic environment. I'd sure hate to be trying to sell a house in this market...

I love my job

Secret of my job revealed

Happy Holidays, fellas

Now I know where I'm supposed to shop for Katie's gift? Too funny.

Cars

My conscience is working overtime right now.

My car, as I've stated here before, needs replacing (I'd say it's a piece but since my brother's talking about buying it I shouldn't say that). It has 150K miles, is limited to NPR, and needs new brakes and power steering hoses. I've got to upgrade before the next NPR pledge drive.

This is the first time in my life that I'm in a position to consider buying a new car. Dean, Mason and I drove a bunch of them on Black Friday. Then I fell in love with a slightly used car that's much nicer but has 20K miles on it. Either way, it's a lot of coin compared to the $7K I spent on my current car six years ago.

Aside: I had a $10K budget, but spent $3K on a mtn bike, figuring that the impact of that $3K was going to be much more meaningful on the bike than the marginal value on the car.

Now I'm having guilt. With the economy in the gutter; protectionists, regulators, plaintiff's attorneys and union organizers moving into the White House; people losing their jobs left and right; our pets heads falling off; etc., should I really splurge and get a big boy car, or should I just buy another modest car? If I go modest, do I spend the savings on a new mountain bike, a real-live Texas smoker, new lenses for my camera, and board games that I'm sorely lacking (spend it anyway); give it to my dear wife to spend on new flip flops, cool shirts with large buttons and scrapbook supplies (spend it anyway); put it in our rainy day fund (lose it along with the rest of my invested capital); or give it to the poor and needy?

Wait a minute. The fact that I considered doing something good with this money instead of spending it on myself makes me feel good enough that maybe I don't actually have to do so. I feel better. Definitely get the car. Right?

If you comment, relieve my guilt. If you increase my guilt, I'll delete your comment. LOL.

Food storage and brimstone

If you think you or someone you know might need to have more than an afternoon's supply of Dorito's in the pantry in preparation for potential and pending doom, and if you or someone you know just haven't gotten around to it despite decades of admonishments and exhortations, you or someone you know might want to read The Road.

If I was brighter and more literary, I might have gotten a lot more out of this book than I did. The writing is fantastic and unique, but mostly I just got the bajeebers scared out of me. I bought a "survival handbook" sort of book a few years ago that I've never really picked up. Katie noticed that I seemed suddenly interested in it after finishing The Road. Fortunately I don't go load up on guns and ammo after every Patricia Cornwell book...

The Road also made me want to hug my boys and take them camping (with LOTS of food). So The Road inspired me to do things I should already do - maybe it should be bundled with Nudge, a sort of practicum to go with your theory.

Obama's economic team

Interesting set of quotes from Mankiw.

Twilight, cont.

Well said. Thanks Eric for the link.

Twilight

I think I've probably mentioned on here at some point that I read Twilight to see what the buzz was about. I probably also mentioned that I didn't like it and haven't read any of the subsequent books. I may have mentioned that I didn't mind the story, but the fawning weakness of the protagonist was like a five hour car drive with a love-struck 14 year old girl. Cool if you're 14 and her best friend, agonizing if you're 14 and male, worth running into pylon at full-speed if you're old and jaded.

You can probably guess that I didn't go to the midnight showing last night. Apparently many did. Apparently I'm not alone in my opinions of Bella.

I looked up the stats on imdb and they are pretty incredible. I realize there are probably a lot of shill votes tainting the picture. Nonetheless, the votes currently look like this:

64.2% rate it a 10
22.6% rate it a 1
That means that almost 90% of people either love it or hate it absolutely. No other vote got even 3%. Wicked bimodality. (Jaded, old and geeky)

Men rate it a 4.7 with little variation by age.
Women rate it 7.8, with women under 18 rating it 8.6
Whew, I'm not alone.

But that means ~50% of men LOVE it. Not just like it. Not just went to be nice to their significant other. Holy shamoley. I'd continue, but speculating on who these guys would be is just going to get me in trouble.

Suffice it to say I don't think any of the men reading my blog will be in the 10 column. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'd put me in the 10 column for even having read the book. Sorry Ty.

This website analyzes blogs to see what the Meyers-Briggs type is of the writer. This is what it says about my wonderful wife:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

This is what it says about mine:

ESTJ - The Guardians

The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they´ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

When I took the test I was actually ISTP - so this isn't perfect, but not bad either.

The New Immaculate Reception

I never get to watch football anymore, but caught this on ESPN. Unbelievable catch.

Downside of populism

Nice editorial at Newsweek on historical consequences of policies that will sound familiar.

I find it interesting that we generally look back fondly at FDR, yet his economic policies seem to be a large part of why the Great Depression is not known as the late 20s recession.

Things we know about the Great Depression:
* Spawned by stock market declines driven down by heavy borrowing (check)
* Accelerated by worsened consumer confidence and bank failures (which created liquidity and credit crises) (check)
* Driven deeper through government policies of protectionism, regulation, labor control, increased tax rates on capital gains and high income brackets (please don't check)

Huxley by a furlong

I heard another tired, misused allusion to Brave New World in a business setting today. When people use that phrase they seem to be using it in an Ariel from Disney fashion (even though that's a Whole New World, not a Brave New World), not an Aldous Huxley way. I don't think that's intentional though. No one alludes to The Circle of Life or To Infinity and Beyond for inspiration. Brave New World sounds good because it has a ring of the literary to it. The problem is the brave new world Huxley described was not what a business leader is generally envisioning (i.e., a drug-induced societal orgy). I think people should read the book before they allude to it. Either that or they should quote all Disney movies equally - it's more progressive that way.

Anyway...

Made me look up this great summary by Neil Postman comparing the totalitarian futures envisioned in 1984 and Brave New World. I think Huxley's left poor Orwell in the dust as far as where western culture is headed. Here it is:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

Please don't title a presentation "Brave New World" ever again unless you are head of marketing for Soma.

SLC feels a long way off today

Too close to Fort Worth, too far from Rice-Eccles. November 22 is also a long way off.

It's the Economy, Stupid, Part II

Interesting factoid of the day. Obama won all but two of the states whose median home prices have fallen (those two were Arizona and Alaska). McCain won 18 of 27 states whose prices went up.

Let Redistribution Reign

Intrade says Obama has this in the bag.

Wasatch Back 09

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Wasatch Back team. Just need a name. And few training miles.

Note: Will is only included in the pictures because he will be driving Van A. Not sure why Dean's picture came out as Gigantor - will have to edit later.

Lacking self-awareness - the middle class

I've had a poll running on my blog for the last week asking people what the upper limit is on the middle class. It would be interesting to graph people's responses against their income. A mentor of mine has said that "rich" simply means 10x more than I currently make, whatever that may be.

The median of my statistically insignificant poll was $150K and the mean was $235K (such graphs always skew right. Here are a few stats for you:
* 80% of Americans define themselves as middle class (effectively everyone)
* 4% of Americans define themselves as upper class
* 67% of Englishmen define themselves as working class (lower class - effectively everyone)

Statistically, the true middle (median) in the US is $42K. The question is how far above that median can still be called "middle". If you want to call the middle the middle three quintiles of income, that would be $91K. Leaving only 5% at the top, the upper limit would be $166K.

My readership seems to believe (like most Americans) that while their children are all above average, their income is modest and should be much greater, but for now we'll be contentedly middle class. I'm with you.

Tax summary

Greg Mankiw's summary of the candidates' tax plans. At a 93% effective marginal tax, why do we push for that extra $1? Sobering analysis.

Happy Halloween

Have you seen my cinderella?

Searching, searching. It's now after midnight.

See story here.

Happy Halloween

Go Katie!

So proud of you. Wish I was with you. Wish I was running the leg right after you. Especially since there aren't passes to climb between San Antonio and Austin.

Follow their race here.

For the lawyers

Google Analytics says that "Lawyer" is the second most common profession of readers of my blog, right after "Immediate Family Members". I came across this graph and thought you'd enjoy it. This is the distribution of starting incomes of lawyers. Most starting income graphs are bell-shaped. Interesting how bimodal this one is. Any ideas on which mode is associated with which political party?

Apologies for the size.

McCain's Last Chance?

According to The Economist. I think I agree.

Tension of Principles and Tolerance

I found this editorial by George Will very interesting about the decline of the Episcopal church in America. In particular, his conclusion struck me as poignant:

As the church's doctrines have become more elastic, the church has contracted. It celebrates an "inclusiveness" that includes fewer and fewer members.

It is an interesting principle to consider - how can one effectively abide by principles he believes in in a way that does not demean or alienate those that see the world differently, while not diluting institutions that advocate those principles to the point of irrelevance. This seems to me to be one of the primary contemporary challenges of churches, political parties and other philosophical vehicles.

Buy American

Says the Sage of Omaha.

Griffin

What Milan looks like on business

Good thing the $ is strengthening against the Euro. That means these are only $680.

Interesting tax facts

As you consider next month's vote and gouge your eyes out trying to decipher fact, fiction, hyperbole and lie in these horrible debates, here are a few things I've learned recently and found interesting:

1) Under either candidate, 43-44% of tax filings would result in zero tax liability. To be clear, this does not mean they get a refund - it means they would pay absolutely zero income tax. Currently this number is 33%, up from a historic norm of 21%. Hard to cut taxes on the poor when 44% of those filing returns don't pay them.

a) Implication #1 - Tax policy and social policy have comingled to an enormous degree. Over a third of all people have no sense for the cost of government. It used to be that people would pay taxes and then receive checks for programs - these might net out. Now they net out pre-tax, which means fewer checks to cut but also means income tax is not meaningful for most. The irony is the perception that cutting taxes on the poor will stimulate the economy or substantially help the poor. Not really so.

b) Implication #2 - Federal tax revenue is now far more unpredictable and volatile since it is now more reliant on taxation of the wealthy, which is harder to predict - large returns are frequently dependent upon one time events (capital gains realization) or broader economic conditions. As the economy staggers, tax revenue plummets.

2) Housing is the most subsidized industry by tax revenue, to try to make sure everyone can afford a home. Are we seeing the downside of trying to make sure everyone owns a home, even if they can't afford it?

3) In 2006, Exxon Mobil had earnings of $39.5B, which has made it a target for the windfall tax advocates. That's a lot of money, huh? We should tax these guys more heavily? How much did they pay in taxes in 2006, by the way? $27.9B. Hmmm. That's a pretty high % already isn't it? That's more tax that 50% of taxpayers paid collectively in 2006. As I've noted before, their earnings are about 10%, which is about the same as many good companies, including GE, which Obama would like to not tax, but subsidize, as they invest in more green energy (which Exxon Mobil's also doing).

4) 4 out of 5 Americans consider themselves middle class. Now you know why politicians talk about cutting taxes for the middle class. Oh, 2% of Americans consider themselves upper class.

5) The highest income tax bracket isn't all that high by historic standards. It was 94% during WWII and 91% for many years thereafter. Who brought it down the levels we're acquainted with? A famous Democrat named JFK.

Editorial: Biden hit a nerve with me last night in the veep debate (just one). The word I've been trained and then sensitized to avoid is "fair". Usually when someone says something isn't fair, it just means they don't like it. I have six kids and hear it all the time. It doesn't describe the problem, it simply applies a person's judgment on whether they find it favorable. In Biden's, he said that increasing taxes on the wealthy to decrease taxes on the middle class is fair, not redistribution. By definition, obviously, it is redistribution - increasing taxes on one group of income earners so you can lower it on another group is inherently a policy of redistribution (see: Robin Hood). Whether redistribution is desirable or not is arguable, whether it is "fair" is hard for me to understand. If it is "fair" that we need greater wealth redistribution, facilitated by the tax code, my next question would be - when is it fair enough? Remember this graph that I've showed before? How steep should this slope be before it feels fair enough?

The Soup Can Story

By request, here's the soup can story.

When Katie and I were first married Judd came to our little apartment for one reason or another. At some point he wandered into our pantry and foolishly I didn't send in a chaperone. A few minutes later he came out with the labels from a few of our cans (we probably only had a few) and a grin on his face. We spent the next few weeks eating mystery food. There's the story.

Since then he's written for Jeb Bush and chased black helicopters. The seed of mischief has always been there...

Best of April 2008

Overall not as hard to select this time around. October 2007 was more impactful for me - probably more a comment on me than the talks. Here's my top five to remember, in descending order (last being the top talk I want to remember):

A Matter of a Few Degrees - Uchtdorf

The Lord requires not only outward acts but also your inner thoughts and feelings to be close to the spirit of the law. God “require[s] the heart and a willing mind.”

Daughters of God - Ballard

There is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood.

Concern for the One - Wirthlin

The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole.

My Words...Never Cease - Holland

In a sense Joseph Smith and his prophetic successors in this Church answer the challenge Ralph Waldo Emerson put to the students of the Harvard Divinity School 170 years ago this coming summer. To that group of the Protestant best and brightest, the great sage of Concord pled that they teach “that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.”

Ask in Faith

We can move beyond routine and “checklist” prayers and engage in meaningful prayer as we appropriately ask in faith and act, as we patiently persevere through the trial of our faith, and as we humbly acknowledge and accept “not my will, but Thine, be done.”

Editorial Notes:
1) Is it not striking how frequently Joseph Wirthlin makes this list despite being the speaker most likely to cause me to wake up in a pool of drool? He and Neal Maxwell are the LDS versions of straight-to-DVD, but for different reasons.
2) One of the first lists ever not to contain Henry B. Eyring. Maybe I should reread.
3) I think like a good stable Utah ward, David Bednar can probably stake his claim on a pew near the front and keep it for the next generation. He and the Hollands will likely be sharing Cheerios. Makes it tough for the rest of the group when these two and Henry Eyring are so good and boxing out.
4) Am I going to a warm place when I die because the prophet is frequently omitted from these? Am I in trouble for making this seem like a competition? (By the way, it's not, it's a way for me to remember)
5) Really, reread Bednar's discourse on prayer and try it for a week. If you're not satisfied, I'll refund the price plus shipping.

Hand over the loot...

I'm pretty fiscally conservative, but as long as we are thinking we're going to hand out $700B, I have an idea. There are 100M households in the US. Why don't we just give everyone $7,000. I have a feeling that would put the economy back on track - it would certainly save a few mortgages.

I know, I know, it isn't a handout...

Nudge

Dear NPR Pledge Drive Manager,

Please find enclosed my donation to your pledge this year and a complimentary copy of Nudge, by Dick Thaler. I thought you would like to read it and realize that you couldn't come up with a worse strategy for securing pledges than to constantly reinforce that most listeners don't pledge. As you'll read in the book, it is far more productive for people to believe they are one of the few that doesn't contribute, than one of the many. Just thought you'd like to know - once people's memories fade maybe you can start collecting your donations more quickly so we can be done with this nonsense within the first day or two in the future.

Best regards,
John

Dear Reader,

If you listen to NPR, donate. If you listen to NPR and donate, please do so on the first day of the pledge. These pledge drives should be like a day long. Everyone that's going to pledge eventually does - get it over with.

Best regards,
John

P.S. We gave our donation today, like a week into this. Hi kettle, I'm pot.

Down with Joe

I've always admired Joe Torre, even as he presided over the Evil Empire. No offense, Joe, but I'm not rooting for you, Manny and the feel-good story of the season. I hope you sprain an ankle and wish Manny only the worst of health over the next two weeks. Go Cubs.

Sound advice a century and a half hence

I'm currently reading Arrington's biography of Brigham Young. It's taken me a long time to get through it, even though it isn't horribly long or heavy. Some chapters are much more enjoyable than others, but overall a good read and recommended. Here's a line I read today that I thought was nice:

"Let every father and mother make their homes so interesting that their children will never want to leave it. Make your homes pleasant with foliage and beautiful gardens, with the fragrance of flowers and fruit blossoms. Teach your children to remember God, and that from Him proceeds every good thing."

Sage advice. I think our home's pretty interesting, with six energetic kiddos. In fact, I'm sometimes concerned, as I look around at other adults with adult children still living at home, that my children may indeed never want to leave it. Perhaps we need to be a bit less interesting...

Kia Kaha

Very cool to see Highland Rugby on the big screen and all it represents. What a cool program to be familiar with, and all the men that have been affected by it, directly and indirectly. I hope the movie makes people ask themselves why. Go see Forever Strong if it's playing near you. Good work, coach.

About to snap

I drive a beater - it has 150K miles on it and a radio that barely works. The CD player no longer works. The tape player no longer works (so no iPod). It will no longer change stations. So I'm stuck with one station all the time - NPR.

Usually this means I drive in silence or with my iPod on the weekends because my local NPR station carpet bombs our market with Prairie Home Companion each weekend. Other than Car Talk, every weekend is a Lake Woebegone marathon. Non-stop fingers on the chalkboard. I can live with it - I don't drive all that much on the weekends.

However, I have a pretty good commute and this week my lack of radio has almost driven me to drink. First, it's that time of year (or month or week - seems constant) when NPR is using 98% of their airtime to ask for contributions. Ugh. Another drive. I hate this.

More importantly, the economy is on the brink of collapse. For most this means anxiety about their jobs, their homes, their families and their livelihood. For me, it means I rarely squeeze in a commute without having to hear an interview with Barney Frank (shown above), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. He's a pleasant enough looking guy, but has the worst voice on Earth. Does he have teeth? A tongue? Is he perpetually slightly drunk? I can't take it.

I want Congress to give Bernanke his $750B just so I don't have to hear from Congressman Frank again on Monday morning. I'm willing to write my check today for the Wall Street cronies if that's what it takes. I'm willing to pull out of Iraq and send the troops to Massachusetts to unseat Frank's wicked regime. Just please, please, stop interviewing this drunken fool!

I gotta go charge my iPod...

In case you don't trust me, here's your moment of zen - just make sure you don't have sharp objects or firearms close by.

Geekfest

I'm pretty sure there's a geek or two that read my blog unless google analytics is more buggy than I suspect. May I suggest you get your plane tickets now to fly to Dallas for the largest boardgame conference of the year Nov 20-23? You have a free place to stay and can stay an extra week and I'll even cook you a turkey. Only concern I have right now, other than being up to my eyeballs in work and unable to attend is the fact that it's our sell weekend, which means I will have work/social commitments. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to letting my hair down and having non-stop geek action for a weekend.

Katie, can I take the kids for a whole weekend soon so you can crop till you drop so I don't feel so guilty asking for time away to geek? :)

Katie asks herself this all the time

Captionless

Careful Mr.

You laugh at the old pics of me in a mullet. That bushy -do is likely to engender the same snickers here in a decade or two. I look forward to listening to my grandkids poke their fun.

Congrats Boo

She landed her first backflip yesterday. Now she lands it every time. So cool. Wish I could do it.

Also congrats to Lu who can finally get a pigtail in her hair. It doesn't last long though.

Black Helicopters have landed

A few months ago, I noted that a friend of mine was doing some cool reporting on naked short selling.

As it turns out, two things happened.
1) None of you read the articles I mentioned. Not one of you. Of course, there are only three of you, but you should still know better.
2) He was right. Regulators have now frozen short selling altogether (uh, overkill) because they've realized that naked short selling has massively contributed to the destabilized financial sector. (Note to regulators: short selling creates liquidity, naked short selling creates pandemonium. You might want to look into the difference.)

Now that you're paying attention, remember you heard it here first, second or fiftieth: the next generation of Michael Milkens will be going to jail within the next year or two and this time it will be because of naked short selling. Actually, I know it is illegal but don't know if it is a felony. Given the damage to the economy, it should probably be capital punishable. Every crisis has its hangings - glad I'm not one of the hedge fund managers that pulled down $20M/year over the last couple of years - the proletariat are going to drag you through the streets on the way back to the Bastille.

Did I just say I'm glad I didn't get $20M bonuses. Must be late on a Friday...

Kindle

So I've never considered buying one for myself, but I was generously given a Kindle this week. Far more cool than I expected it to be - I'm practically giddy. Time will tell how fiddly it is, but I'm already well into my first book on it and I expect it to now be my scriptures when away from home, including church. My kids are especially wowed. If they weren't already bookworms I might invest in their own to get them interested in reading. Thanks Brian.

Magic Number down to 4

Now's the time for Cubs fans to start inflating our heart chambers so we have that loud popping sound in a few weeks.

Mankiw scraping - charity

Interesting on multiple layers.

* Biden's an idiot?
* Cold-hearted conservatives are generous?
* Bleeding heart liberals are not?
* I'm generous?

Four things I did not know when I woke this morning.

Today's paradox

3 out of 4 economists are Democrats. Still trying to come to grips with this. I'll repost if I figure it out. Someone educate me. My econ education would lead me to believe that economists would be libertarian or lean in that direction. Is it that Republicans say they'll tax less, but actually tax more? Or is it because economists tend to be educated and live on the coasts, which favors Democrats? This is the strongest "endorsement" Obama's had for a while for my vote. Not that this swings it heavily in his direction since the fact that he'll tax the bajeebers out of me still weighs awfully heavily in the other direction.

Mankiw scraping

Two items I couldn't pass up. Very interesting. Sorry to plagiarize another blog, but I suppose it isn't plagiarizing if you source it?

I.
Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

1. Dodd, Christopher J, D-CT
2. Kerry, John, D-MA
3. Obama, Barack, D-IL
4. Clinton, Hillary, D-NY

N.B.: Senator Dodd is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

II.
It is widely assumed that health care, like most aspects of American life, shamefully shortchanges the poor. This is less true than it seems. Economist Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution recently discovered this astonishing data: on average, annual health spending per person -- from all private and government sources -- is equal for the poorest and the richest Americans. In 2003, it was $4,477 for the poorest fifth and $4,451 for the richest. Probably in no other area, notes Burtless, is spending so equal -- not in housing, clothes, transportation or anything. Why? One reason: government already insures more than a quarter of the population, including many poor.

How's that for a daily dose of economic enlightenment?

What Athens looks like on business

In Defense of Rote Memorization

As a kid in school, I was not a fan or any good at memorization. I remember struggling to learn my 20 lines of Shakespeare, the various rules for hydration and oxidation in organic chemistry, the dates of the Civil War, etc. No fun and I questioned the value.

A few years ago, prompted by my patriarchal blessing, I decided to give memorization another shot. In the ensuing four years or so, I've memorized quite a bit of stuff. I laid it all out this morning to take an inventory (to see what the girls had lost when they got into it earlier this week). Each morning I recite a handful of these to make sure I don't forget that which I've spent time memorizing. These are the contents of my "memory box". At this point, I've gone through the Book of Mormon, part of the Doctrine & Covenants (both of which I purchased study guides for that were written in the 70s by a friend's mom)and am currently creating my own New Testament study guide. The contents of my box are:

A snippet from each chapter heading in the Book of Mormon
A snippet from each section heading for the first 28 sections of the D&C
Four long summaries (Articles of Faith, For the Strength of Youth, Duties of the Aaronic Priesthood, Definitions & Contents of the D&C)
53 Book of Mormon scriptures
22 D&C scriptures
1 scripture from the PoGP
3 scriptures from the Bible
1 miscellaneous quote
Still lots left to do.

This post is not meant to be a pat on the back, but an idea for something I have found tremendously useful. This memorization creates a framework on which every lesson, talk or discussion I listen to now hangs. It is now more meaningful to me when someone starts reading a verse about free agency from 2 Nephi 2 to know that this is the chapter right before Lehi dies when he shares his last works with his son Jacob (right before his words to Joseph), who was born in 1 Nephi 18 right before they sailed to the promised land and that this same Jacob would later denounce unchastity, share the allegory of the olive tree, relate the story of Sherem and then give the plates to his son Enos, who would in turn testify of the character of his father Jacob as he received his own conversion. If you're in a rut in your personal or family study, give a bit of memorization a try. I've been in a bit of a rut from reciting so much - this morning's inventory has got me re-energized to get back to it.

I'm also glad I figured out which two cards were missing...

The number of the beast

I remembered something interesting the other day that I had once heard about the number of the beast in Revelations. The number is 666, but would have been written in Greek, the language of the New Testament. This is what 666 looks like in Greek. If you look at that number upside down, and in the last days nothing could be bought or sold without it... Kinda interesting...Brings a whole new meaning to the idea that sex sells.

My favorite smile

Happy birthday, Hot Tamale!

So sad to miss two really important birthdays, two weeks in a row. I hope your birthday party with cousins is wonderful.

Holy Tornados, Batman!

We had a pretty good storm blow through tonight as I was leaving work. When I got home stuff was blown all over my driveway. The basketball standard was blown down (again), our little garden trailer was blown over and junk was strewn everywhere, but I didn't think much of it and couldn't assess much damage because it was dark by the time I got home from work.

I took Cooper out in the backyard to play catch for a while (in the dark), not really noticing anything amiss. I had to run inside to get the phone and it was my neighbor. "Hey", she says, "Do you want to come get your trampoline out of our pond?" Huh? "Yeah, did you notice your trampoline is missing? It's in our pond."

Ladies and gentlemen, they have a six foot fence around their yard. Our trampoline is the biggest you can find. It went aerial, over the fence and landed, vertically, in their pond, so now they have a 16' disc sticking up against to their house, right in the middle of their new pond. Holy smokes, I hope it hasn't damaged their house. We'll try to remove it tomorrow evening, after we get some pictures. No clue how we're going to lift it back over the 6' fence.

Let that be a lesson to you - her kids have been praying for a trampoline!

Day One of Two - A Pretty Boring Birthday

Now complete

Gushing

I don't do movie reviews. I don't generally gush over actors. Dumb physical comedy is great acting from my point of view.

That said, Heath Ledger wins my all-time award for greatest villain, stolen directly from the iron fist of Darth Vader. Wow. Wow.

I liked this movie enough to give it space in my right nav - Harvey Dent for Mayor.

If you haven't seen it, wow.