I get sick and tired of being berated, castigated, censured, chewed out, cussed at, railed at, reprimanded, reproached, reviled, scolded, told off, vituperated all because I’m in the upper incomes.  Every time I turn around some ungrateful bastard is going on about how rich people suck and the upper incomes need to pay more.  The upper incomes start at a measly 50k per year.  Seriously people, shut the @#$% up.  Even people making over that go on and on blindly about how horrid those upper incomes are, how the rich suck.  Which mind you, you might be amazed where rich starts (and what is rich anyway?).

It's a horrible thing to attack someone verbally and especially physically for the color of their skin, the religion the follow, or other such thing, but all restraint and civil behavior goes out the window when someone is rich or an upper income earner.  I don’t know who gives someone the right.  When meeting face to face, how many blue collars know white collars, how many rich know poor people?  How many rich feed and cloth and save millions a year?  Millions, that is how many.  But still the berating, scolding, reproach, and negativity continues.

Simple fact, we're all in this together.  The rich guys that escape the market wrath on the media are the rarities.  Most get railed when they screw things up.  But a few escape unscathed.  Most of us upper income earners have busted ass for years, risked a lot and some risked little.  We’ve spent years in college, years working, years getting experience and learning our trades.  We’re now making upper incomes and we get attacked in papers, socialists despise us, and we’re used as scapegoats for the world’s ills by those that make less.

I’m not going to rant on about the lower incomes not risking things or whatever might go on, because it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that some people deem it necessary to always blame the successful.  The successful aren’t to blame.  If you ever find yourself blaming the rich, the upper incomes, the successful, or someone of that sort you probably should stop and look inward.  The person to blame is probably you.

So chill, take a look inside, and think really hard the next time you feel like pointing a finger.  As for me, I’m going to take my upper income and live a good life.  If that bothers you, I’m NOT sorry.

Ok, there are a lot of different kinds of not for profit businesses.  I was just contemplating two, that are polar opposites, and makes me really wonder why we don't have a more truthful description of what these businesses are.

Portland Streetcar - Not for profit

Portland Streetcar is an honest to goodness, negative profit, can't exist on its own business.  It literally loses about $3-4 Million dollars per year just on operations.  The revenue it gains from fares in less than a million dollars, and when one adds all the TID/LID and whatever other fees, it still comes out a massive money loser in every way.  It doesn't even cover the standard 50-60% of operational expenses based on fare box recovery ratio. So this business can truly be called a not for profit.  Another more realistic name for this business would be Heavily Subsidized Unsustainable Business.

Then the other that popped into my head is a Federal Credit Union.  Take any credit union you want to, then look at the bottom line.  They don't receive subsidies, which means, technically, they're profitable.  No entity in the world can pay the salaries of its employees without reaching profitability.  Just because it might maintain very low or negligible margins doesn't mean it isn't profitable, it just isn't as profitable as it could be.  This begs the question, is this really a not for profit business?  The business is obviously turning a profit.  Should it be a called something like a subsistence business or subsist accounting business?

I do honestly know what a not for profit entity is, but I can't help but wonder how the definition became so...

not true?

Imagine tomorrow, just work with me on this one, imagine that every person smoking pot, doing cocaine, or some other variant of illegal drug usage was arrested.

Imagine ALL of those people.  Can you imagine them all?  How many people really have any idea how many people that would be?  The real estimation of how many people are caught and arrested in relation to illegal drug distribution and use is maybe 5-15%.  That estimation is really only among the lower income.  So what about everyone else?

Imagine 5-10%+ of the software industry employees are all of a sudden in jail.  Imagine tomorrow that hundreds of medical professionals are in jail.  Imagine hundreds and hundreds of doctors in jail for illegal prescriptions.  Imagine the thousands upon thousands of truckers, taxi drivers, and other professionals that would be thrown in jail because of off hours recreational use.  Imagine the service sector losing hundreds of thousands of employees that serve, prepare, deliver, and make the food that millions of Americans eat.  Imagine the stock market losing 50-80% of the traders (some estimates are even higher).  Imagine the number of police officers pulled off the street or firemen pull away and tossed in jail.

Imagine the well over trillions of dollars these people contribute to the economy gone, shoved into jail?

Yeah, keep saying to yourself that these people don’t do some type of illegal drug.  Keep telling yourself they don’t smoke pot or pop some pills to stay alert.  Just keep lying to yourself like that.  Keep imagining that these people aren’t really there or they aren’t that important.

Now imagine, all of those people, doing all of those jobs, critical or not are lost.  This current financial collapse, the great depression, all of it would pale in comparison.  Our entire society would come to a screeching halt within 24-48 hours, you can bet your ass on it.

So why do we perpetuate the idea we should arrest non-violent recreational users?  Why are these recreational uses not ok but alcohol, smoking, and other bad for you activities are ok now?  The laws need reviewed, and all those people that turn away and ignore this abhorrent ongoing action by the Government to enforce something that is impossible to do in the first place, desperately need to think.

In the past 30 years we’ve spent enough on the drug wars to do ALL of the following.

• The money spent on the drug war could have provided high speed rail of 200mph+ to every major city pair in the US; Seattle to Portland, San Francisco to Sacramento, LA to San Diego, Houston to Dallas, New Orleans to Mobile, Jacksonville to Tampa, Tampa to Miami, and dozens more.
• Every city could have expanded services to deal with drug issues for over 10 million people.
• We could have developed and supplied the needed electrical infrastructure for GMs electric car, in the mid-90s.  GM thus, most likely wouldn’t be hurting like they are and America would again be leading the world in something, instead of falling behind like it is now.
• Thousands of South Americans, US Citizens, Officers and others, would most likely still be alive.
• The increase in taxable product would be in the positive billions for the Government, and the industry could possibly employ over a hundred thousand Americans.  The drug lords of today would immediately lose power with the veil of illegality removed.
• The safety of these drugs could easily be monitored and increased, so that they do not cause the intense and drastic dangers that some of the heavier drugs cause.
• Freedom and choice of individual citizens is restored.  A choice that has been removed now for about 30-60 years.  A choice that hundreds of millions of Americans had not thought twice about until the last 30-60 years ago.

…and there would probably still be a couple dozen billion dollars left over still.  Maybe it could pay for our ever encroaching bailouts of today.

So maybe, someone should think a bit more about our dire and draconian drug laws.

I got up today at 5am.  I had a few things I expected to get done on Friday which I had not.  Since I needed to get those done I got up at 5am today.  After breakfast & the other necessities of rising for the day, I now sit at Stumptown on 3rd in downtown Portland.  The morning screams in silence at me as I prepare to start churning out code.  Nothing is focused yet, nothing is real, and now that music plays in Stumptown all is even more surreal.

...and so far, that's all I got.

But the Federal Government still offers 3% downpayments.  When will the stupid Federal Government realize, along with the people of this nation, that it is not a right to access to low liquidity, high interest, outright dangerous loans for housing!  This is STUPID.  But on a positive note, banks have gone back to the much more logical and market relative 10%, 20%, and 30% down payment options.  They should have never been enabled/pushed (emphasis on enabled/pushed) into giving 0% loans in the first place.  The fact that banks are forced into this to keep a part of the mortgage industry market is absurd.  The Federal Government should NOT be in business providing loans.  Read more about all this in the End of 0% Loans.

The Government allows this absurd and dangerous loans, wait, not they don't allow they provide these stupid loans.  These loans are what has WRECKED THE FINANCIAL SECTOR!  The Government and insurers aren't able to back these things up fast enough and now the lending has stopped cold.  An artificially created spending bubble has ended all because of this artificial inflation through efforts to redistribute wealth by the Federal Government.

This leaves me with two questions.

1. Why can people not see this more clearly?
2. Why do we continue to allow this entitlement mentality to ruin us over and over?

It appears every time we get close to NOT bailing out the dumb asses (the mortgage buyers, Federal Government mortgage lenders, and the few dumb banks that actually jumped on the band wagon) and allowing the market to punish and eliminate this type of behavior the Government steps in these days to save them.  Why perpetuate the leaching bastards in the first place?  Why do the Democrats AND Republicans not seem to understand this?

Idiots the lot of them.

These reports are from the Lake Oswego, Oregon police report.  Lake Oswego is a small"ish" town just south of Portland.  Often one would or could confuse Lake Oswego as being a suburb of Portland, which in most ways, it is.  I've followed up each one with a little commentary by ME.

• 11/24/08 1:12 p.m. A cat was stuck behind a heater on Rosalia Way.  ME:  Are you serious?  People dial 911 because of this?  We're dumping tax money and risking other peoples 911 calls don't go through before this because of a cat that is merely stuck!!!!????  Whoever called for this is an idiot.  Make a standard call to the fire department and they can schedule a rescue or something - JEEZ!!
• 11/25/08 6:21 a.m. Four loud thuds were heard on Sixth Street.   ME:  ?  seriously.  Someone called in some sounds?  At this point I'm amazed we continue to survive as a race.  Sounds, someone called in because of sounds.  SOUNDS!!!  Oh my god it is loud thuds - it must be the end of the world!  Oh my god no we're all going to die!  Egads oh dear oh my!
• 11/26/08 9:59 a.m. Two men got out of a car on McNary Parkway, then walked in the area of Greenwood Circle and returned.   ME:  What?  Whoever called this in should be put in jail for the night and questioned to derive the level of stupidity.  Someone parked, and walked around the greenway.  Maybe they lost their marijuana!
• 11/27/08 11:00 a.m. A group of adults was playing soccer on a closed field on Jean Road.  ME:  Oh SHIT!  People playing soccer!  Oh dear they're playing soccer on a field!  No it can't be!  Soccer in America, No, not here, not that crazy European nonsense!  Please stop them immediately!  Grab them all and throw them in jail for playing soccer on a field!
• 11/27/08 1:17 p.m. A black lab and a yellow lab were running on Hemlock Street, then some girls yelled for their mother. ME:  Hahahahahahaaaaahahaaahahaaahahaaaaa.  Two of the most harmless breeds on the entire planet scared some little girls!  hahahaa, mwhahahaahahaaa, doohooohoohoaahahaaa!  Seriously, where the hell are the parents?  Yo, parents, start doing your job, teach these kids that labs are big happy doggies.  Teach them that pit bulls will eat them.  Teach them how to tell the difference.  AND STOP CALLING THE POLICE ABOUT IT!  Again, they have more important things to do.
• 11/27/08 5:59 p.m. A 14-year-old boy became lost while walking the family dog. ME:  Again, this is insanely bad parenting.  If a 14 year old boy, or girl for that matter, gets lost walking the dog you have done an EXTREMELY POOR JOB AS PARENT.  ...or maybe this should include some other adjectives like; incapable, stupid, incompetent, or sheltered before the subject of boy.  Then it might make a little more sense.  No 14 year old boy should be able to get lost though - this is one more completely wasted phone call and more wasted police time.
• 11/29/08 5:37 p.m. A TriMet driver was accused of swerving in a bus on Fourth Street.  ME:  Really, are you sure?  Maybe?  Maybe the bus was leaving the curb and pulling back into traffic?  How old was the person who reported this?  Was it an old fart?  Was it a young new driver?  Was the bus avoiding something?  Hmmm, offly suspicious of stupidity here.
• 11/30/08 7:13 a.m. Police were summoned to help with an out-of-control 11 year old who was upset over that night's proposed dinner selections. ME:  Holy crapola!  You gotta be kidding me.  Parents can't handle an 11 year old who was upset about dinner?  BEAT that kids ass and send him to his room.  Reading this the only thing that comes to mind is A: I kind of hope the police didn't respond to this.  B:  How pathetic have parents become to not be able to handle their 11 year old child?  What the hell is going on here?
• 11/24/08 10:27 a.m. A woman reported an Internet scam in which she was asked to send excess cash from a cashier's check.  ? Internet scam?  Ok, so the person is kind of a dunce for reporting it, but it is a police problem.  However I also realize they are completely unprepared for this type of report.  How can police do this?  It is more of an FBI issue or some type of interstate enforcement agency.  Something the FBI should be doing instead of chasing around pot heads.

Overall, I'm very glad to know what a small percentage of the population actually ever needs police assistance.  I'm reassured to know that most of the population still gets along just fine without police assistance, and MOST people do not call in these types of reports.  I'm often reminded when the police are rude, crass, or sometimes dumb in response that it is primarily because they don't get to interact with the capable and intelligent parts of society very often.  Generally speaking, smart people don't get involved in the parts of society the police do have to interact with.

Thankfully.

I started churning through the articles, the country is baffled by this insanity with the automakers.  If anyone is confused about my opinion, here's a quick summary.  I'm 100% against any bail out, subsidy, or even a loan.  I however, with what I know about the history of the Union, The Federal Government, and GM itself I can't bring myself to blame GM entirely for this mess.  If I was going to call a split of responsibility it would go like this;  Union 30% of blame, Federal/State Governments 30% of blame, and a whopping 60% of the blame is on the shoulders of GM itself.

For more summary of my take on this situation, here's some quotes and their respective articles;

Why America Is Shunning GM by Rick Newman

There was, for instance, that little exploding gas tank problem on the Pinto, which Ford denied for years. The Vega came with a cheap aluminum engine that couldn't withstand its own heat and often warped or melted before the car reached 50,000 miles. On Detroit creations like the Citation, the Nova, the Omni, the Aspen, the Fiesta, the Mustang II, the Skylark, the Cavalier, the Cimmaron, and many others, fenders rusted after just one or two winters, engines seized up, radiators leaked, switches broke, headliners drooped. In short, bottom-rung benchmarks were set. Millions of customers—many from families with a long history of loyalty to Ford or Chevrolet or Chrysler—swore off domestics forever. Detroit builds better cars today, but many spurned customers from the past don't care. To them, Detroit's predicament isn't a national emergency. It's justice.

I agree, it is justice.  That list of cars just reminds me of the embarrassment they've put us, the citizens of this country through.  How COULD someone have pride in companies that build such unbelievable crap?

Detroit lost its lock on Congress. When Congress approved $1.5 billion in aid to help Chrysler avoid bankruptcy in 1979, the vote in the Senate was a comfortable 53 to 44. In the House, it was even more decisive: 271 to 136. As there are now, there were critics who argued that a failing company should work out its own problems. But the automakers had factories in many states and deep leverage in Congress.

This just points out how the market works.  No matter how much you egg something on, it doesn't guarantee success.  LET THEM FAIL.  The business model is outdated.  We've subsidized the bloody freaking auto industry long enough.  Open up real transportation markets again.  Let it get cut throat.  NEVER again should America ever rely so heavily on a single company in such a way.  Let the viciousness of the market kill it, and also let that market provide alternatives!

All told, foreign-based automakers build cars or their components in more than 20 U.S. states, accounting for more than 150,000 jobs. And they buy parts from many of the same American suppliers that serve Detroit.

Get that now, 150k people employed by the new American manufacturers!  We don't really think it a problem to not have any legitimate TV manufacturers that are American anymore, why keep a car company?  Yeah, it's sad, but why cut our legs off so that we can keep our nice fur coat.  Weird analogy but it makes the point.  Aside from that, if the Domestics die, which really it looks like Chrysler and GM area going, not Ford.  But if they go, that just means that much more demand for Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas, and maybe even some high end BMWs and low end Hyundais.  Either way increased demand means more jobs at those factories.  Someone will build those cars and it will most likely be Americans in American factories working for cars built by one of those non-American companies designed for an American audience.

Another article by Rick Newman titled The 7 Worst Ways to Rescue Detroit is great.  The italics are my immediate responses.

1.  
   1. Treat the Detroit 3 all the same.  - Yeah, definitely not a good idea.  GM != Ford != Chrysler.
   2. Force them to build "green vehicles."  -  Yup that's stupid too.
   3. Pre-empt the possibility of bankruptcy.
   4. Appoint a federal car czar.  -  Wow, couldn't agree more on how dumb this is.  The Big Three Domestics are building BAD CARS as it is still, they don't need an entity (The Federal Government) with a PROVEN track record of inefficiency and poor ability to operate in a business context.  The Government IS NOT A BUSINESS.  Never will be, never can be, and will always operate at the LOWEST ability of all entities.
   5. Place the whole restructuring burden on Detroit. - They've screwed it up this far, don't let them continue.  If a restructuring occurs, maybe a board made up of people from some automotive tuner shops, some people that definitely know the business, and general all around smart people should be put together to reform this (and the others) company.
   6. Subsidize cars.  - That's disgusting.  We have a dead transportation industry.  A single choice, automobiles, that is available in large part because of already massive subsidies in the realm of infrastructure, world stability, and other costs.  There is ZERO reasons, since the competitors (transit, rail, etc) have been destroyed by assistance from the Government already, to encourage something that was already artificially pushed on society (look more closely at serious history if you don't believe me).
   7. Penalize their competitors. - Hopefully no one in Government would even contemplate this.  As mentioned in a quote above, 150k people are employed, AT ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE INCOMES, and do not deserve to be haphazardly attacked.  They did this with rail workers and hundreds of thousands of them lost their jobs or were displaced by the harsh onslaught of trucking companies.  No reason to repeat that and then shuffle it under the carpet of history.

Then another article, again by Rick Newman, 4 Myths About Free Markets—and Their Demise really brought up the standard apologetic auto fan.  He brings up the fact that we haven't been in a free market in decades.

They're unregulated. In theory, the less government regulation, the freer the market. But the economy we're used to has multiple layers of regulation that have formed over decades, with general approval from most corners of society. Teddy Roosevelt interfered in free markets by helping break up mammoth monopolies in the oil, railroad, and banking industries—to great popular appeal. After the Depression, we got bank deposit insurance and dozens of other free-market intrusions that most people still favor. The "free market" of just one year ago—before anybody was talking about a bailout—featured all manner of government intervention, from unemployment insurance to federal car-safety standards to an activist Federal Reserve able to pull various levers to keep the economy humming. So when people invoke the power of the free market, which free market are they talking about? The one of 150 years ago, with very few consumer protections? Or the one of a year ago, already heavily regulated?

Fact is, automobiles became accessible because of Government involvement.  Only the upper incomes (as in the past in the US, and even now in Europe) would have been able to get them, and only after decades of pooling the riches money would real road systems been built (like the Interstate, but I'm sure it would be 10x better).  If we'd left the market to do that we'd have vastly more capable infrastructure as we did in the past, often owned and expanded by railroad and transit companies.  Companies that at the time didn't suck off the teet of the Government, but now are authorities with Government powers acting like companies.  Auto manufacturers won against these companies because the Government kicked off the auto age by funding the infrastructure and even the initial exploration for oil and protection of foreign interests.  To me, that doesn't, nor has it ever, sounded like a good deal.  Simply put, we've been getting ripped off in massive ways, the more money an individual makes, the more that individual has to pay for even the simplest of transportation.

It's all really disgusting from and immoral from an ideological perspective.  But back to the articles.

Last article of this write up is by Horacio Marquez titled Buy, Sell or Hold: GM's Too-Big-to-Fail Myth.

When I downloaded the balance sheet for General Motors back in the third quarter of 2000, I was stunned. Something just wasn’t right. These numbers I saw just couldn’t be correct.

“Surely I had made a mistake and downloaded the wrong one,” I thought to myself. “I must have downloaded a subsidiary’s or maybe the parent company’s unconsolidated balance sheet.”

I checked and re-checked. I had the right one. The company’s equity-to-assets ratio was only about 2% – and that was before counting its under-funded pension liabilities. With that deficit factored in, GM had negative equity.

In other words, the leading U.S. car maker was technically bankrupt.

That last sentence really tells the story.  The US car maker has been bankrupt for a long time now.  They've only stayed afloat by a lot of accounting magic (kind of like Enron probably).  Not that I'm against a little accounting magic here and there, but when it is this freaking obvious, it just isn't worth saving when it gets to the point that it is now.

At this juncture I'm done writing about this automobile debacle for a while.  I'll be off to new topics soon.

I never really thought too much about the difficulties a photographer has during the course of taking pictures.  There are so many considerations to take into account, from the uncontrollable weather, to the adversity in taking pictures of things that don't cooperate, or even people in natural environments.  Taking pictures of natural settings is difficult too, as often natural settings aren't setup for the camera, but instead it is up to the photographer to setup the camera for these shots.  I have several things I like photographing and each has a unique set of difficulties I have to work around.

Architecture - I really like the certain architectural designs and I try various methods to capture the essence of certain buildings.  This is one of those particular objects that just does not come across easily in photographs.  Think of a building like the Empire State Building in New York or even the Twin Towers in New York.  If one has seen either of these buildings one knows that they don't impart their massiveness that they purveyed in person.  This is the most difficult challenge I have found in architectural photography.

The other difficulty in architectural photography is trying to capture the shots to begin with.  Buildings, as anyone knows, are freaking huge.  Houses that have grand architecture are a little easier but skyscrapers and such are obscenely difficult to capture.  I've pondered getting a helicopter ride or something of that sort to try some different views, but this is expensive and somewhat difficult to organize.  Taking into account the difficulties of weather and other such things, trying to catch high viewpoints of buildings is very difficult.

Another attempt to resolve the angle is to take photos of buildings from other buildings, especially taller buildings.  However this poses the security problem.  How does one get permission to take photos from other buildings.  Often it is as easy as just going inside the building a looking for an observation deck or something.  In other buildings it means asking for permits, getting security clearance, and a hole host of other annoyances.

Trains, Buses, Airplanes, and Transportation - Trains in the United States haven't gone according to an accurate schedule in probably 40 years.  Airplanes are a little easier, buses are too, and general transportation is a bit more difficult.  Trying to capture railroad activity is difficult without a lot of patience and a good bit of monitoring.  The other subjects are also quit a challenge, even when scheduling makes things a little easier.

...that's all I got for this entry so far...

I have tons of other photography frustration but I'm saving that for later... for now it's back to figuring out some good shooting projects.  :D

It isn't because of competition, it isn't because of quality even.  They've made HUGE strides in the last 2 decades.  But they haven't made those strides in the United States because of the UAW Union.  As pointed out here and here we are shown exactly why Ford, GM, and other domestic makers have fallen so far behind in so many ways that they are dying.  Make sure to listen all the way through, the last 15 seconds of the film hits the nail on the head.  The UAW will NOT allow GM, Ford, and other domestic makers to build plants like this.  The UAW, is essentially biting the hand that feeds.

Instead of America staying competitive we sit, laying limp to the mobster rules of the UAW.  Our manufacturers forced to ship more jobs out of country to places like Brazil and more technology out of country.  I'm all for helping out Brazil, but don't particularly like the fact that we're killing our own country, making it harder for our children, and generally screwing our future - this I'd say is NOT a good trade off.  All this in an attempt to stay alive in the face of shrinking sales and even more strict, draconian, and harsh rules and regulations enforced by the unions and their politic minions in office.

In addition to that, listen toward the end of the video.  Another thing they say is unique is the port that the factory has.  This is something a factory in the United States can no longer build, start, or create.  The regulations and monopolistic control of ports via city port authorities throughout the country, it is almost unfeasible except through political manipulation to build or utilize a port in the United States without excessive and burdensome red tape.  There are numerous other reasons that make the addition of ones own port for a factory a major plus, but this is just the slight tip of the ice berg.

A sick and twisted irony if you ask me.

Meanwhile Toyota, Honda, BMW, and even Hyundai all with the intelligence of Reagan and his lot, have all built competitive plants in the United States.  Almost all of their plants are high tech plants that now employ thousands upon thousands of Americans.  In a way, American Government and American Unions have functionally forced American Manufacturers to seek refuge out of country while foreign makers are becoming the true American Manufacturers.

The ironies continue.

I've seen this a million times before.  I can't blame the union employee, usually they have to join against their will anyway if they want a job.  Often to get a job is impossible with the Union protection rackets that exist.  A LARGE part of the auto industry bail out is right at the feet of the UAW for instance.  This blog entry points out the obvious "Bailing Out Union Greed".

The sad fact is, Unions cause the worker to cost more without getting the worker that much more.  The first comment is rather off kilter too, stating that Toyota and others will run into the same problem, but this isn't true either.  Fact is, between the UAW, the poor management at GM & Ford, Toyota will keep kicking along with Honda, Nissan, BMW, and others.  All the employees at those facilities make just as much or more and live higher standards of life than those at GM or Ford.  Really, it is time, to let the dinosaurs die the death they now deserve.  Yes, it would be painful for the retirees and such, but if we keep bailing them out just how much more of the economy exactly, do we have to wreck to keep them afloat?  How much inflation will be incurred?  How much will their retirement be worth and what could they live on at the rate we're wrecking out financial system?

Either way, those companies are screwed.  They haven't gained share or made competitive cars in years.

This whole bailout of the domestic auto makers is just disgusting, and the Union greed along with the whole lot of other dishonest and immoral mess that put the country here is just bullshit.