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Friday, July 31, 2009

Common in Paris: “[That] is forbidden. But possible.”

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I did a volunteer stint at the tourism booth at the county fair (the next county over) yesterday. Man, that's a sad fair. It's really just an overblown carnival, very little on the usual county fair offerings. Mostly just rides, lots of "bad-for-you" food, and those knock down the clown and win a teddy bear booths.

I came home to change and wash and eat before going to the movie last night, and found no electricity. With a well, when there's no electricity, there's no water. And no microwave for the Nutri-dinner. So, I didn't go to the movie. House was hot, so I went to the diner in the village and had tea and a sandwich.

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Stupid commercial for a whole-grain cereal: "Studies have shown that people who eat mostly whole grains have a healthier body weight."

False implication of cause-and-effect.

By the same logic, since people who live half the year on their yachts are wealthy, if you want to be wealthy, you should buy a yacht.

People who want and work for health are simply more likely to eat whole grains.

People who have more money are more likely to buy yachts.

People get paid for this kind of lying-by-implication? Nobody had the courage to say, "Uh, that's not honest."

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I'd like to remind folks who complain about bailout/stimulus money about the "bailout/stimulus" efforts of the past administration. In January of last year, Bush gave 53 billion dollars in advanced weaponry to seven Islamic nations, some of whom are already the richest nations on Earth. There's an article here that talks about part of it.

Note that "sales" doesn't mean the US gets paid. The purchase price is discounted and is a loan which will be forgiven. I don't have the links anymore for the rest of the $53B.

Who was he bailing out, and what was he stimulating?

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In an effort to get out more, I signed up for several Meetup groups. The two I enjoyed most - a dinner group and a dinner/movie group - are dying. They've both been very active for literally years, but the organizers of each has decided to resign, and no one is picking up the reins.

I don't know about the dinner group, but the movie lady is sick and tired of getting emails from people who were too stupid to be on time, or too dense to know that the ten people standing in the middle of the lobby WAS the group (they expected a sign), or who didn't like the movie and restaurant choices. As the group got larger, the proportion of inconsiderate idiots went up.

But gee. The groups have been around for ages. Why now? Is it ME? Kiss of death?
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