Coyote Blog » Other http://www.coyoteblog.com Dispatches from a Small Business Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:18:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The Myth of Past Cultural Integration http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/02/the-myth-of-past-cultural-integration.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/02/the-myth-of-past-cultural-integration.html#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:14:33 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15743 Virginia Postrel had the same reaction to Charles Murray’s recent book that I had — it’s a myth to think that there was some sort of greater cultural integration in the 1950′s than there is today.  Because, you know, Wally and the Beav had so many black kids at their school.

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/02/the-myth-of-past-cultural-integration.html/feed 7 American Ingenuity http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/american-ingenuity.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/american-ingenuity.html#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:31:49 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15669 My college roommate and long-time beer pong adversary sent me this.

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/american-ingenuity.html/feed 4 A and An. Random Thought of the Day http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/a-and-an-random-thought-of-the-day.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/a-and-an-random-thought-of-the-day.html#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:44:14 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15569 Someday, I need to look up how the actual rule for use of “a” vs. “an” is written.  Most people, including me, have always said that “an” is used in front of a vowel.  ”This is an unusual task.”  But this is not always true.  How about, “this is a useful item.”  In this case, I suppose we use “a” because despite starting with a vowel, “useful” really starts with a “y” consonant sound, as in “you.”

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/a-and-an-random-thought-of-the-day.html/feed 27 If You Need To Get Fired Up Today http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/if-you-need-to-get-fired-up-today.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/if-you-need-to-get-fired-up-today.html#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:53:11 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15347

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/if-you-need-to-get-fired-up-today.html/feed 6 Someone’s Been Sleeping in My Bed… And He’s Still There http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/someones-been-sleeping-in-my-bed-and-hes-still-there.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/someones-been-sleeping-in-my-bed-and-hes-still-there.html#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:49:09 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15344

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/someones-been-sleeping-in-my-bed-and-hes-still-there.html/feed 4 Meta http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/meta.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/meta.html#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:47:34 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15119 I have tried to write this post several times but we are having some kind of Internet problem and I keep losing the post just before I get it finished.  Anyway, let’s try again.

Yesterday my daughter was reading after school.  Like many freshman English classes, they are doing Greek mythology.  I was asking her questions about her day when she yelled at me, “dad, I have one more paragraph left in Sisyphus, just let me finish.  Every time you interrupt me I have to start over”.  So of course I had to wait about ten seconds, just when I estimated she was about done, and I interrupted her again.  I kept doing this for a while, thinking it was simply hilariously apt.  Unfortunately, I don’t think she

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/meta.html/feed 12 OWS and Philip Rearden http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/ows-and-philip-rearden.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/ows-and-philip-rearden.html#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:10:49 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15079 I have been reading a lot of the data flying around of late about income inequality and mobility.  And it struck me that income mobility may be a large part of what is driving many OWS protesters.

Despite assumptions to the contrary on the Left, wealth is not a zero-sum game.  Steven Jobs got richer by making me better off.  But the one thing that is zero-sum is presence in the top 1%.  When someone joins the club, someone, by operation of basic math, drops out.

That does not mean that the other person who drops out is poorer, it just means that they are no longer as rich relative to their peers.  This same effect works int he top 10% and 20%, etc.

Looking at OWS protectors, they seem to be disproportionately children of the upper middle class or even of the rich.  They have expensive college educations, live in nice homes, and have gobs of stuff (OWS must be the most iPhoned event in history).  My guess is that they are of the upper two quintiles, or at least their parents were.

I am wondering if the problem is not income inequality but too much income mobility.  After all, a third of the top two quartiles in 2001 had dropped into the bottom three in 2007 (while an equal number moved up). Are these the angry proletariat, or are they children of the well-off who are upset their college degree in puppetteering did not automatically keep them up with the Joneses?   Are they, in other words, Philip Rearden?

 

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/ows-and-philip-rearden.html/feed 15 Reasons I Love the 1% http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/reasons-i-love-the-1.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/reasons-i-love-the-1.html#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:42:10 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=15037 The 1% make many beautiful things possible in the world which the rest of us could not afford.  Yes we could celebrate the ballet and the opera and the symphony, none of which would likely thrive without the 1%, but today lets celebrate something a bit more material.  I will never own anything like this.  In fact, I would feel like a sucker if I paid the asking price for one.  But I still enjoy the fact that they exist and I can admire their beauty.

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/reasons-i-love-the-1.html/feed 25 Subjunctive in English http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/subjunctive-in-english.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/subjunctive-in-english.html#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:58:32 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=14998 I prefer “If I were a rich man” to “If I was a rich man”, though apparently I am in the minority.  This despite the fact that someone who is as bad at proof-reading and litters his posts with grammatical and spelling mistakes cannot afford to be snooty about verb tense.

I vividly remember the year in Spanish when subjunctive verbs were introduced.  After slogging for years learning verb conjugation on all kinds of tenses, it came as a rude shock that there was an entire second set of parallel subjunctive verb conjugations.  Eeek. It was like completing your tool box after years of careful purchases, only to discover you needed a second set in metric.

I have forgotten most all the Spanish, but since then I remain fascinated by what, to my knowledge, is the only remaining subjunctive verb conjugation in routinely-used English.

]]> http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/subjunctive-in-english.html/feed 18 Time for Some Individual Action in NY http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/time-for-some-individual-action-in-ny.html http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/10/time-for-some-individual-action-in-ny.html#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:39:59 +0000 admin http://www.coyoteblog.com/?p=14985 Folks in the OWS neighborhood in NYC are fed up and want the city to kick out the protesters.  While they grow old waiting for that, I would suggest taking some individual action right out of the army psi-ops manual (actually, its also from a Sopranos episode).

  1. Find some big-ass speakers
  2. Find the biggest amp you can
  3. Place speakers in window, point out at park.
  4. Find the single most annoying recording you can, and play it at volume 11 .. over and over and over and over, day in and day out.  I might try “I’m turning Japanese” or maybe “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.”  Possibly the song they used to play over and over in FAO Schwartz stores, or “It’s a small world.”   Or maybe something like a Joel Osteen sermon.  It almost doesn’t matter once its been repeated 12 times an hour for 3 days.
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