Category Archives: The Economy

Another Democrat jobs killer

Posted on January 4, 2014 | 1 comment

The Democrats love to prattle on (and on) about how they want to get those wretched unemployment numbers turned around. But they hate free markets and Wormtongue is the first to say so.

So whenever they get the chance, they go and whack small business (the No. 1 creator of new jobs) like their massive Obamacare tax this year that’s guaranteed to ratchet up the unemployment numbers.

“The research arm of the National Federation of Independent Business calculates that the higher insurance costs will shrink hiring by 146,000 to 262,000 jobs over the next decade, with 59% of those losses hitting small business.”

Keep this in mind the next time the White House’s principal occupant (when he and the missus aren’t on vacation) claims to be turning his undivided attention to the economy. Snort.

UPDATE:  How bad? This bad: “34%: The unemployment rate for Americans ages 16-17. The unemployment rate for teenage Hispanic Americans is 48%, and the rate for teenage Black Americans is 60%.”

As a commenter at Instapundit says: If this was a Republican admin, the moral outrage would be apoplectic, protests in the streets, etc. But with a Democrat one? Crickets.

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Posted in Obamalot, The Economy

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Goodbye instant-on 100 watt blubs

Posted on December 28, 2013 | 2 comments

“Lasts 11 years!” saving “$202 in energy costs” because its 23 watts deliver the same brightness as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. (The kind to be outlawed Jan. 1 for manufacture by our political overseers, the very best ones that money can buy, you can be sure.)

So says the box of two Sylvania Super Saver, CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp), micro-mini, Soft White, Mrs. Charm bought the other day. The promise is classic sleight-of-hand. Quick, look over here!

Ah, but the fine print on the side of the box says the 11 years is based on just three hours use a day for seven days a week. I can triple that usage even in the daytime in a room with only one (north-facing) window and no skylight.

Howsomeever. The brightness is, indeed, comparable to a 100 watt incandescent. And the light is no harsher than an incandescent. (Soft was in the eye of the copy writer, apparently.)

But it does take a while to get that bright. “Instant On” the box says in big green letters. Most of the box is green. Of course. But “instant on”? That’s no truer than “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”

The light comes on surprisingly dim. Takes about 30 seconds to get bright. Not a big problem unless you need the bright light for something important in a hurry. Then you’d be SOL. Maybe you could carry a flashlight, eh?

Don’t bother calling the politicians. They’re busy cashing their checks from Sylvania.

UPDATE: Shoot. I was wrong. It’s not just manufacture of 100-watt bulbs that ends on Wednesday (Jan. 1, 2014) but 60- and 40-watt bulbs, too. There are still some around, of course. And if manufacturers in Mexico are smart (and I’m sure they are) they’ll keep making them for sale here.

2 Comments

Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Have yourself a Jewish little Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2013 | 5 comments

The top ten Christmas songs? From Silver Bells to White Christmas? All written by Jews. Case you didn’t know it.

Enjoy them, one by one, on YouTube. Unless there’s a piano in your house, in which case, there’s liable to be sheet music available for almost every one of them.

Not a big surprise, this, considering the history of American popular music is largely a Jewish one.

Although I think we can skip over Rap. Mercifully. Do the rappers do Christmas? Well they “sing” Ho, Ho, Ho a lot.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Music, Rancho Roly Poly, The Culture, The Economy

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FDA to save us from evil soap companies

Posted on December 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Aren’t you proud? I know I am. Worth every penny of my tax money, these myriad federal regulators and their multiplying rules.

By Gad, the soap companies shall not advertise their soap as anti-bacterial unless they can prove it is safe and works better than ordinary soap at killing bacteria. Eventually.

From the NYTimes usual government-is-good narrative: “The proposed rule does not require producers of the soaps to take them off the market immediately. The F.D.A. has given companies a year to produce data showing that the chemicals are both safe and effective.”

So they’re bad enough to have to prove their safety but not bad enough to take them off the market right away? Sounds like an invitation for bribes. And if you like your anti-bacterial soap—as Mrs. Charm apparently does since she buys so much of it—you can keep it for at least another year. Unless the evil soapers fail to make the FDA happy. In one way or another.

And all you people working on the anti-bacterial soap line? Well, you could go on welfare. Millions have. The Food Stamp President is waiting to enroll you. Just don’t try to do it on a computer.

2 Comments

Posted in Mrs. Charm, Obamalot, The Economy

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Obama is my sheppard, I shall not work

Posted on November 24, 2013 | 2 comments

Obama is my Shepherd; I shall not work.

He maketh me to lie down and watch Oprah:

He leadeth me beside the still factories.

He restoreth my bling:

He leadeth me in the paths of idleness for Barack’s name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the sharing of the wealth, I will fear no workfare: For thou art funding me;

Thy lies and thy blade, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of people who actually produce;

Thou annointest my teeth with gold;

My pipe runneth over.

Surely rebates and Earned Income Credits shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Obama forever.

Snort.

Via Mouth of the Brazos.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, The Economy

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Hurricane ObamaCare is just the latest mess

Posted on November 22, 2013 | 4 comments

Seeing the Democrat daily quibble over whether Ted Cruz exaggerated about the economy getting worse makes me want to scream. Fortunately I have other distractions and the Rancho’s economy is doing pretty well.

The economy beyond Texas, however, is dreadful and five years on, Wormtongue and his mendacious party (and their news media cronies) are still blaming Bush. Or Fox News, or Rush Limbaugh, or Ted Cruz. Anybody but the crew of this train wreck.

Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Dan Henninger summarizes the reasons behind the disaster, with my bolding:

“The no-decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and its union jobs; the 2,000-page regulatory law draped in 2010 across the entire financial sector; the shutdown in 2010 and then the slow-walking of offshore oil drilling;

“Siccing the EPA on the utilities industry and the National Labor Relations Board on all industry; a 2010 FCC decision to regulate Internet growth; a significant tax increase this year; support this month for jacking up the federal minimum wage to over $10, certain to smother new jobs; the Justice Department’s $13 billion looting of J.P. Morgan bank; and of course Hurricane ObamaCare.

“Barack Obama has the U.S. economy on lockdown. It’s the worst thing this president has done. American resilience, and elections, mean it won’t stay this way forever. But for a lot of poor and middle-class folks, living with mom in the basement is getting old.”

Cynics say the basement dwellers and the rest of the un- or underemployed won’t vote in enough numbers to keep the new/old welfare class from re-electing the train wreck.

They’d better be wrong because things that can’t go on forever won’t. When something has to give, it will. One way or another.

4 Comments

Posted in Obamalot, The Economy

The ObummerScam Dozen, Sic ‘Em

Posted on November 15, 2013 | Comments Off on The ObummerScam Dozen, Sic ‘Em

Wish I could vote against ’em, just on principle. Maybe some of the dopes who voted for ’em and have since lost their health insurance will.

Comments Off on The ObummerScam Dozen, Sic ‘Em

Posted in Obituaries, The Economy

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