The Harvard School of Economic Theory

Fire the Janitor!

This must be where well heeled conmen and thieves go to get their Masters degrees. Paulson, Bernanke, and Cox all carry this stamp on their resumes.

In a year of economic disaster the three most immediately (short term) responsible people all hail from the same ivy league den of thieves. Vox assserted that the executive class consisted of a bunch of pirates out to bilk the stockholders of the companies whose fate they are hired to shepherd, but I tend to look at them as no different from welfare queens who view the world as a system set up specifically to entitle them. The silver spoon Harvard MBA has a sense of entitlement in that he views solid functioning companies (the result of the sweat and risk of the entrepreneur, the innovation of the engineer, the effort of the laborer) as a construct set up solely for his economic benefit whether it be through the dissolution of a company or the burdening of one with crushing amounts of debt to service.

This reminds me of an instance where the founder of a medium sized manufacturing business, who was still active in its operations, called a meeting with his staff and some representatives of the largely cooperative union there (from whom this story comes). On the table were some day to day product flow and sales issues which were reported on and quickly dispatched. The Boss opened the floor for discussion of any cost cutting ideas those present could bring to the table in response to overseas competition and a shrinking market.

The new ivy league Finance Manager's hand shot up, "Sir, I have looked at ways for us to tighten our belts and from my time out on the production floor the one thing that stands out as not contributing to productivity is the Janitor. I know it's a lot to ask of our hourly workers, but in the interest of preserving their jobs I think they can clean up after themselves in the restrooms. Perhaps we can ask for volunteers to do housekeeping off the clock? Or organize a rotating committee?"

The union man relating this tale told me he was aghast at this, suspecting the whole tableau of being some bizarre rehearsed scenario designed start a process to encourage general wage concessions. "I just sat there with my mouth hanging open." A pregnant silence persisted. Finally...

The Boss, "I just asked for suggestions on how we can cut a a half million dollars in cost and your idea is to fire somebody making $25,000 a year?! That's a helluva place to start. Maybe you don't understand; when the day comes we can't even afford to keep the restrooms clean I'll close the damned doors and we can all go home."

The new Finance Manager didn't stick around much longer.

What idiot would hire someone with a "Harvard MBA" now? In a sane world the buildings of Harvard Business School would be razed to the ground while it's spawn burn in effigy on the lawns.

Hey, Old Man

Happy Birthday!

I Know, I Know

But I've been busier than a one-legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen pond.

Definately Catch and Release.

Pronto!

"These guys are dangerous"

Louisiana still hasn't repented from it's gun confiscating ways.

There are risks to exercising one's rights, especially in this society where those educated in modern and particularly leftist leaning schools have become public officials and law enforcement officers. Folks who have the authority to arrest you (no sense in using the word "illegitimately" here as it has been proven time and again damned near any bullshit excuse will do), incarcerate you, prosecute you, and imprison you have been taught the leftist "way things should be" as the way they are.

The linked example is an isolated incident where right won out - in the end, but don't be fooled. The fifteen or twenty grand the city dished out is regarded as just a cost of doing business which they will no doubt pass along to mall management (if the management didn't actually write the check in the first place) and the amount is undisclosed so local taxpayers can't get pissed off enough to raise hell.

So, the lesson folks take from this story is, "Carry your gun - get arrested" which will have the effect the cops, mall management, and city officials (elected and otherwise) desired of prohibiting the casual implementation of open carry. No one with someplace to be is going to opt for strapping their pistol on for a quick stop by the mall. Then again, if you are looking to buy a new motorcycle and have a day and a half to kill.....

Greatest Southpark Episode

My eldest daughter agrees.

Why FoxNews Beats CNN

Everytime


Folks, this lady has the democratic socialist party scared shitless. I haven't heard them this shrill since I listened to the lamenting of NPR during the 2000 election recounts. The female columnists are the best with "loaded" words and outright bitchiness. I read one yesterday (by a black woman) that used the words "smell" and "fishy" in the same paragraph! Clever girl probably thought it was subtle.
Karl Rove and Dick Morris (badass consultant and nearly always right) certainly are tickled shitless with the pick, in part probably for the same reasons I am; we get to watch the democratic socialists try to tear down a woman. A smart, successful, pretty woman. It kills them that she is not one of their hideous harpies being forced upon people.

Call me entertained for the next couple months!

Waterboy has gotten out the cattleprod

These are part of a set from WB including some motorsports items, but these shots put me in mind of Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. Death can be picked up at any library's surplus sale for a whopping 25 cents and is well worth the time.

Death in the Afternoon is an extended investigation of Spanish bullfighting as it existed in Hemingway's time and fascinating in it's detail and also in the choices of the aspects of this ferocious activity that Enrie chose to illuminate. This is not a stay-up-all-night read, but a casual pickup and put down book. Don't let that fool you, though. There are things in Death that will never leave you.

So, sit out on the porch in the evening with a good cigar and this book and travel to a time when men were unashamedly men and the bulls were demons in bovine clothing.

Black Folks in Charge

To a conservative individual the fact that something doesn't work on a small scale is an obvious indicator it won't work on a large scale. A liberal, on the other hand, upon seeing an implemented idea fail locally will always espouse the idea that it will still work but only if universally applied.


I give you the microcosm:

Helena Arkansas is under a 24hr per day curfew; Mayor James Valley has effectively declared martial law:

Thursday night, 18 to 20 police officers carrying M-16 rifles, shotguns and night-vision scopes patrolled the "curfew zone." They arrested about eight people and confiscated drugs and loaded weapons.

The Macrocosm:











Remember the old jokes about "Stupid signs"? A fella is said to have done something stupid and the comedian hams the line, "Here's your sign!" somewhat akin to the running "You might be a redneck..." gags.

Well,

Here's your sign:

Do Try and Keep Up.....

Enter the Dragon

What you are lookin' at here is the last pulloff before starting up the hill to The Dragon proper. I had to take a pick to torment those who couldn't go.

Hey!, What are friends for?

Harley Riders Caught in a Time Trap

Somewhere about 1976 a whole boatload of american otherwise males stepped out of the flow of time and into the Twilight Zone of a time trap. Ya' every been sittong around a campfire with a bunch of fellas and some asshat pipes up with the old chestnut, "Guys, it just doesn't get any better than this." Now this is, at any given time, a demonstably untrue statement but some folks looked around in 1976 and thought that very thing.

In fact, they thought it so hard they managed to step outside the steady flow of time by which the rest of us gauge past events. An example of this is the fellow below:

Don't think Screamin' Eagle, think NRHS or Zippers.

An 883 can be taken out to 1250cc with just bolt-on parts. 90rwhp, 75lbft/tq at the rear wheel is attainable on pump gas.

If you REALLY wanna get your hands dirty, an 88" kit is available that should yield 110+rwhp, 100+ lbft tq, again on pump gas.

Or you could just leave it as an 883.
__________________
rubber side down,

derek

http://azbiker.smugmug.com

I lifted this from a thread over on ADVrider.com wherein a fella was lookin' to slow down a bit and asked folks to chime in on which Harley's were preferred among the herd. The thing to note is the horsepower number being touted. Keeping in mind this is a 2008 thread, I will point out to the uninformed that a modern 600cc bike carries better numbers from the factory for a less princely sum. Add up all the time wasted and money burned (thousands) to bump the old wheezer up to less that respectable numbers and you have found yourself an idiot or a timewarp victim. You pick.

For Angela: Supermoto Madness

I know this is a repost, but I gotta take care of the homegirls.




No squealing with delight while at work, Angela.

Why NASCAR sucks

This may be a repeat, but...


Moto GP Animals - Funny home videos are a click away

Why does anybody do business in california?

The Nestle company wants to build a water bottling plant in california and the attorney general of california has threatened to sue if they build w/o some bullshit study about the plant's impact on "global warming". Nestle is planning on doing the "study" over the next few years. Why?

Why the hell would you not just pack your shit and leave? No tellin' what this "study" will cost! Screw 'em! It would be entertaining to hear about california's employment problems. I would advise anyone with stock in Nestle to sell as the management has lost its collective mind.

Hey, morons: jobs come from factories. Sorta like electricity comes from power plants. Remember that one?

Hmmmm

TSA Screeners Abusing Power! Shocking! Nobody Saw this Coming, eh?!

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Mean Green

Suzuki makes good stuff, too:


One from the Home Team:

Dragon Tale

The GS made it's maiden voyage to The Dragon this past Tuesday on a daytrip with some friends and riding buddies including a fella on a Big Dog "Mastif", a Wing, an FJR and other less notable bikes. Been there done that (hung parts on the tree), but it's always nice to have the memory refreshed that it really IS that tightly curved and there really ARE 318 curves in that little 11 mile stretch. Riding heaven y'all.



The GS did great, of course, though it took a bit to get into the groove with it. It really does handle like a dirtbike and I was able to go as deep into the corners before initiating lean as on the KLR and the great ready gobs of low RPM torque saved me from worrying over gear selection in the Gravity Cavity. I did, however, fail to drag a valve cover. Maybe next time.....

The Dragon is not for everyone and I really don't see the allure of it for the cruiser "riders" (herders?) among us. Whilst sitting shaded on a bench, cigar in hand at The Crossroads of Time (this refers to the propensity of locals to engage in quantifying the units of time required to personally traverse the dragon and back for comparison to other riders and has nothing whatsoever to do with relativistic physics or The Twilight Zone) motorcycle resort with a good view of the incoming porcine aficionados I was drawn to make a few observations about the poor sisters of the motorcycle world. Near as I can tell there is a "rite of passage" or "initiation" element to it for them. They don't enjoy it; this is obvious from the shaking and obvious relief upon dismounting. Many a sweaty brow is self-consciously wiped at the Crossroads of Time and often it takes two or three tries to get the kickstand down in a rush to plant feet to terra firma.

Another interesting phenomenon exhibited by the porcine herdsman is his/her perplexing tendency to critique much faster riders. I first observed this at The Overlook which occurs after about 30 turns into The Dragon; as riders of the smooth, fast, and often unicycular variety zip by the wide eyed herder he can be seen to shake his jowly head and prognosticate the eminent demise of riders of "them crotchrockets" just around the next bend. I will optimistically attribute this not to a wish for the death of a faster rider on better equipment, but to a complete and total lack of comprehension of the gap in technology, refinement, design, and power that can only be expressed in orders of magnitude. Effectively a War of the Worlds level of technology deficit. There is also the juxtaposition of those out playing "dress up" to those out pushing their personal performance envelope which comes into play. Perhaps the pig herder thinks "them crotchrocket" riders are just playing "dress up" too, and sees no sense in them riding faster since the perception is everyone is out playing "dress up" and all should ride slowly so as to display his costume better. Beats me.

Presumably to compensate for their inability to wisely choose a two wheeled conveyance or perhaps from frustration at having folk on sportbikes, hell - even dirtbikes and scooters!, pass them as water passes 'round rock in a stream whilst they struggle to even continue without leaving the road surface many will gamely twist the ear of their porcine mount causing it to emit a cacophony all out of proportion to the motive force being applied to pavement. Perhaps they seek to make up in annoyance what they lack in prowess. Whatever the intention, the result is comical; akin to a septuagenarian trying to pick up chicks by "tempting" them with his new Viagra prescription.


Words of wisdom:

A Harley Davidson is the most efficient means yet devised for converting petroleum into noise without the side effect of power.

Badass KLR650sm

Dude drilled the rims himself. Rode it all the way from ontario.

JACIII