G.R.U.N.T.E.
The author’s family coat of arms.
I’ve been brain doodling some thoughts. Hopefully they’ll congeal enough to make a cogent post. I highly doubt it. Ideas flit around inside my head but somehow lose their luster by the time they get translated for the rest of the world.
G.R.U.N.T. represents my latest attempt. It stands for GRand Unification Theory of Economics.
In short, the theory states that things, economically speaking, are fucked up. (Please excuse the technical jargon.) And, when things reach the state of being fucked up too well, then Bad Shit ™ may be the result. Irrationality is the term I like to use for systems that produce unexpected and undesirable results. GRUNTE predicts a period of Bad Shit heading our way.
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BlogFather: Wealth gap? Forgetaboutit! Challenge
I know I’m getting too political these days. Hopefully this too will pass. Which reminds, part of the reason for the political posts is that so much effort is going onbehind (heh!) the scenes to get ready for the London 2012 Poop Capades. I just invented that term but – alas – as always an internet search tells me I’m a day late and a dollar short. Wow. A lot of Poop Capades out there!
After this spate of political posts passes, I promise to fertilize the internet with a few poop posts to equalize things a bit.
Speaking of a dollar short, what’s up with the separation of wealth in the United States, anyway? Are you ready to take the challenge? I’m offering a wealth gap prize of incredible value. (Adjusted for the 99 percent.)
How do you win? Explain and convince me of all that’s beneficial about an ever increasing gap in what the experts call “income inequality.” Sounds like fun, right?
Along the way we’ll see one-percenters in their natural habit and there will even be a bonus banned TED video. What’s too ribald for TED? Keep reading to find out!
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Gin One for the Gapper
Don't invade my bedroom, asshole. Didn't you see what happened to Ravi?
Today I’m going to attempt to go biggie size, stay serious and explore a topic for which my brain is three sizes too small. If you’re the sort that enjoys the crashes more than the actual racing, then this post may be for you.
The topic? “Wealth gap.” Or, as Wikipedia likes to call it, “economic inequality.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported recently that the wealth gap hasn’t been this bad since the “roaring 20’s.” Obama says the gap is “unfair.” And Romney supposedly represents the side of “hard work and business savvy.”
Well start with what I’m going to call my “opinion hypothesis.” This is a collection of unsubstantiated and vague feelings that, when taken together, represent an opinion from my gut. I’ll share it with you before I dig across the net for graphs and actual facts. Then we’ll see how divergent the two things really are.
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See the Light
I can occasionally be photographed. It looks a lot like this. Enjoy!
It’s rare, but sometimes the Abyss has visitors.
We’ve lived in this house for over three years now. Three bedrooms feels like the lap of luxury after our single-wide. Before we moved in, we scouted the house. I brought a tape measure and scoped out the smaller bedrooms. One was slightly larger than the other. I called dibs for my home office. (I was still working at home at the time. Something the Universe snatched away the day after we moved in.) The smaller room went to one of our gerbils that was still home nesting.
Eventually that gerbil moved out and entered his “no permanent residence – mooching” phase. (Where he remains to this day. It’s not a specific place. It’s a state of mind.)
The room he left behind was devastation. Firefighters showed up with sniffing dogs to look for survivors. The Governor declared a state of emergency. The President himself even circled the scene several times in his helicopter while on the way to the links, and although he didn’t land and actually step out, that still held a lot of symbolic meaning for us.
The walls were covered in gerbil spray. As my wife cleaned, she found dishes we hadn’t seen in years, in various states of decay. At last our collection of flatware was almost fully restored. (Many pieces, unfortunately, were lost forever when tossed in the garbage by our disinterested gerbildentia.)
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Shouts from the Abyss 
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