tfl: The Flatiron Life

Jonah Goldberg asks if there should be a test to determine competency for voting.  He opens with a set of possible questions,

Can you name all three branches of government? Can you name even one? Do you know who your congressman is? Your senators? Do you even know how many senators each state gets?

On Independence Day, Joscelynn and I talked about this.  We ultimatly came to the conclusion that a test would be unacceptable.  However, we think encouraging people generally to vote should end and discouraging the uniformed to vote should likely begin.  I don’t think low voter turn out is inhearantly bad.

For fun, let’s assume we are creating a test.  What questions would you like to see your fellow citizens know in order to vote?

(Note: The political nature of deciding what to test is probably reason enough to not have a test.)

Yesterday Free Exchange harkened back to a juicy bit of political duplicity that is too good to pass up:

Back in January, the Washington Post reported on a minor foofaraw in Congress when Democrats attempted to bring the Northern Marianas Islands under the new federal minimum wage regulations, now that interests on the islands were no longer under the protection of Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Republicans in turn accused Democrats of a double standard for exempting American Samoa, where canneries, such as those owned by tuna giant Starkist, employ about 40% of the workforce at an average wage of $3.60 per hour—well under the new minimum. It turns out that Starkist is owned by Del Monte Foods, which is headquartered in San Francisco, which is represented in the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The post goes on to discuss the measures Del Monte may take to mitigate the increased cost of labor, including moving its canneries out of Samoa. I’m certain that enlightened Samoans will thank Speaker Pelosi and her minimum wage happy friends for lowering their hourly wage from $3.60 to $0. I’m hopeful that their employer will deliver the message for them.

This morning I felt bad for having neglected financial news since I started my new job, so I made a resolution to start taking a peek at the markets throughout the day. I picked the second worst day in 2007 to take up my new habit.

I’m breaking into cold sweats just thinking about the first worst day in 2007. February 27, 2007 may haunt my dreams for the rest of my natrual born life. Today, I think God sent me a little reminder of just how lucky I am not to be working at Smith Barney.

I have been trying to think of what to say about CashCall for 4 days.  I am mostly still baffled by this so let me lay out the fact.

Jos and I were watching a bit of Pulp Fiction on Bravo on Saturday.  During a break, up popped Gary Colman selling quick loans to us.  I assumed these had high rates like most payday loans.   However I had a “What you talk’n ’bout?” moment when the fine print popped up.

I thought, “Did that just say 99.25% APR!?”  Power of Tivo activated and yes, it did say 99.25% APR.  For a loan of $2600 you will make 42 easy payments of $216.55!  This loan will cost you over $9000.

Now this might be a good deal for some people with bad credit.  However you still have to pass a credit check.  Are they just checking if you credit score isstill in the triple digits?

I realize there might be a situation where you just have to get the cash NOW.  However I have advice for those who might be taken by these loans?  Before you call for cash make sure all of the following options are not posible.

Can you…

• Go to a bank with walls and deposit accounts!
• Go to a loan shark!
• Talk to a Rabbi/Priest/Preacher/Imam!
• Beg at least the first 100 people you see on the street!  (100*$26 might be east to come by if you explain you are about to agree to 100% interest!)
• Come to me! I will give you a small loan for only 75% APR.

Today’s “Ask Tom Why” article addressed if it is safe to swim indoors during a thunderstorm. It is not safe. However Tom Skilling ends with,

This particular lightning threat is gradually being recognized and swimming in any pool during thunderstorms is now illegal in Michigan, New Jersey and Delaware.

Although there may not be any “P in our OOL”, there might be the Police in your pool. I going to file this in the over flowing file of things a charity should be educating us about and government has no reason to be regulating.

Like a lot of the commenters at Asymetrical Information, I’m just not sure I understand the adult excitement surrounding Harry Potter these days. I thought the first book was great and was fairly excited about the second and third, and then I sort of lost interest. Jane Galt has a humorous take on where J.K. Rowling may have lost me:

For example, I cannot be the only person who found myself unconvinced, to the point of queasy embarrassment, by this passage at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

“But did you not wonder why it was not I who explained this to you? Why I did not teach you occlumency? Why I had not so much as looked at you for months?”
Harry looked up. He could see now that Dumbledore looked sad and tired.

“Yeah,” Harry mumbled. “Yeah, I wondered.”

“You see,” Dumbledore continued, “I believed it could not be long before Voldemort attempted to force his way into your mind, to manipulate and misdirect your thoughts, and I was not eager to give him more incentives to do so. I was sure that if he realized that our relationship was - or had ever been - closer than that of headmaster and pupil, he would seize his chance to use you as a means to spy on me.”

This could have redeemed only if Dumbledore had continued:

“You realize, Harry, that this makes no sense. For one thing, I have been coddling you for years, despite having known all this, until I—suddenly and for no apparent reason—decided to drop you this year like a hot rock. Too, you might ask why, if I was so worried, I had allowed you to learn many so things that it would be incredibly useful for Voldemort not to know, such as the fact that a cadre of wizards is plotting against him. Why, in fact, the one secret I kept from you is that Voldemort can read your mind, when presumably this is, by definition, the one thing that Voldemort certainly already knows.

But had I displayed the sense God gave a mussel in this situation, you would probably have acted more like a normal teenager, and less like a severely brain damaged refugee from The Dirty Dozen. And then there would have been no book. So I am sorry that you were upset, and Sirius had to die, but publishers get very shirty when you slip your dates.”

I confess, I am afraid to find out how Harry Potter ends. It seems all too likely that Harry, and th rest of his band of merry madmen, expire–not through the evil agency of Lord Voldemort, but through forgetting to do something basic, such as breathe.

I’ll get around to reading them all some day, they’re just not at the top of my reading list.

Jos at 21wks

Originally uploaded by flatiron32

I weep a little for my Pilates abdominals.

Jonah!

Originally uploaded by flatiron32

He’s a stubborn little bugger, that much we know.

The ultrasound started out quite smoothly on Friday; the technician quickly told us that little Jonah is a boy and proceded to take images of his organs. It turns out, however, that the full organ scan includes an image of the crown of the baby’s head, and ours was cozied up against my pelvic bone. The technician jiggled my belly, no movement. Then she asked me to lie on my side for a few minutes, no movement. She tilted the bed upside down, no movement. I sat up for a while, this was supposed to be the real ticket, no movement. Finally, exasperated, she told me to just get up and walk around or something. I did a little hula dancing just to be sure and voila, that did the trick.

It put this mama’s mind at ease to see that little mouth opening and closing and the four chambers of his heart pumping away. I haven’t stopped smiling about it since Friday. I can hardly wait to meet my baby boy.

I have also been working out how to construct the whale costume that Jonah will wear for his first Halloween.

Jos doesn’t think we should air our dirty laundry. I agree, we should deal with our private issues privately; but I don’t think it is out of school to announce that we fight from time to time. However, I think our fights have a little different character than most married couples. We quickly resolve issues about chores and “typical” married issues you might find on sitcoms. However, if it comes to the role of government, you had better watch out. If a modern liberal is for 50% of a role and a modern conservative is for 30%, Jos is for 0.0001% and it is safe to say I am for less.

A while ago we were shopping and started talking about Andrew Speaker’s TB induced quarantine. Our opinions differed and we agreed to disagree. Now Robert P. Murphy has an article that sheds some new light on the case. I learned a lot that I did not know concerning what Mr. Speaker was told for the last 6 months. Also Mr. Murphy has a premise that I think Jos and I can agree would make America better

But suppose the government did act as if owners really had the right to control who used their property. What voluntary institutions would spring up to help a free society cope with the problem of contagious diseases?

I am not sure this will square the libertarian quarantine issue for Jos, but I found it a good read.

After weeks of wondering and speculation, we learned the sex of our growing unborn child.  It is a great relief to not have to refer to him as it.  I would be just as happy to know that he were a she.  We have pictures from the ultra-sound to be posted and I know Joscelynn with have more motherly things to saw.

The birth of all the children GOD blesses us with will be met with great fanfare.  However now, it is with great pleasure I announce…

In late November, Jonah Jacob will be born the eldest son of Jacob Daniel the eldest son of Daniel Earl the eldest son of Deward Earl Tomaw!  The next Tomaw generation comes!  His arrival will be grand and heralded throughout the land.