From the "Only in Boulder" Department

It isn't too rare in this town to see something strange going on around town which elicits the response "Only in Boulder". To those who think Boulder is an evil place full of commie pot-head freaks, this is a pejorative statement. But to those proud commie pot-head freaks with advanced degrees and high IQ's who live here, well, we say it proudly.

Last night I was doing a tour on the Banjo Billy bus and pulled into the parking lot at the Justice Center around 6:30. My intention was to tell my tour guests the story of William Tull, the only man ever lynched in Boulder, whose ghost haunts the path along Boulder Creek. However, I never got around to it. When we pulled in, there were about 30 people with a boom box and costumes performing the dance from Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" video. I certainly wasn't going to compete with that, so we all just enjoyed the show. Turns out they were rehearsing for their plan to perform it on Pearl St. about an hour later, which you can watch below.

I told my riders that Banjo Billy had arranged for that bit of entertainment. Maybe they believed me, because they tipped really well!

Oh, and from the "This is Colorado" department, today, 3 days after posting that snow-filled picture below, I was riding my bike in shorts. I love this place!

Where is Jimmy Griffin when we need him?....and other thoughts

Some random thoughts on a snowy day in.....October?

We have received almost 2 feet of snow here in Boulder since Tuesday night, closing schools and canceling important things like Banjo Billy Bus tours (I was supposed to drive 2 today). Yesterday it snowed hard all day, which reminded me of Jimmy Griffin, Buffalo's crazy Mayor back in the 1980's. When a big blizzard hit Buffalo, Jimmy got on the TV and told everyone to "Get a couple of six packs and stay home". Can you imagine the uproar today if a public official were to say that? In fact, it was damn good advice (although, where is the beer going to come from?) and one of the more sane things "Hizzoner" ever said. He also once said that Buffalo's population had declined so much since it's peak in the 1950's because of all the abortions.

Being snowed in last night, I had the pleasure of trying to watch game 1 of the World Series, the Avalance-Flames game, and the Nuggets season opener. Made me think how this is the best time of year to be a sports fan. The Series is going, hockey has started, the NFL is in mid-season, and now the NBA. And, for those of you who care about college football, there is that too. Oh, and we have the EPL and Champions League on Fox Soccer Channel, along with the start of the MLS playoffs, for those few Americans who are fans of the World's most popular sport. This, along with my own busy life, is why I put my Netflix membership on hold in October.

There was a story in the NY Times yesterday about attempts to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in California. It appears to be a serious discussion, fueled by the state's huge budget problems. If the Great Recession can get people seriously discussing this type of sensible policy, then it is worth the pain.

Those of you from Buffalo, enjoy the photo, taken moments ago from my dining room.

Bloviators Backgrounds

Since, as we learned from the Balloon Boy incident, only people with their own TV shows matter at all in our society, it seemed to me a good idea to check on the backgrounds of the media blowhards on both sides who now seem to be more important in setting government policy then anyone who is actually an expert in such matters.

Being an Economics teacher, I was wondering what credentials TV's most well known talking heads have to speak about Economic issues, since, you know, they all know exactly what should be done. So, for the leading big mouths on the right and the left, here are their academic careers:
Righties
Glenn Beck: High School diploma, took one religion class at Yale.
Rush: High School Diploma, dropped out of SE Missouri State U. after one year of "failing everything".
Hannity: Dropped out of NYU and Adelphi

Lefties:
Olberman: BS in Communications from Cornell, which he entered when he was 16.
Rachel Maddow: Bachelors in Public Policy from Stanford.

(All info from Wikipedia)

Gee, other than Maddow, not a lot of background there for people who seem so confident on telling us what our economic policies should be. And you can see how liberals got that "elitist" label, what with them actually going to college and attending class and getting degrees. How dare they! And certainly we can believe all the conservatives when they deny that global warming is taking place, since, with their high school educations and all, they are clearly better qualified to speak on the subject then those elitist scientists with their fancy degrees and knowledge. I'm sure Rush learned just as much while flunking Ball Room Dancing.

So, the next time you here one of these talking heads telling you how to fix the economy or the environment, remember, they really don't know shit about shit.

Sensible talk from a former Supply Sider

If, like the George W. Bush administration, you believe that tax cuts are the way to solve all problems, you should read this article by Economist Bruce Bartlett, one of the original "Supply Side" economists. You might also read it if you don't believe that. He helped shape the tax cuts during the Reagan administration. While he doesn't say those cuts are wrong, he does make some interesting points about conservatives adopted the ideas that tax cuts would solve any problem, and that the idea of "starve the beast" was nonsense. ("starve the beast" suggested that if you kept cutting taxes, government would have to shrink. It has instead helped cause our huge deficits). He also had some positive things to say about Keynes....very surprising for a guy with his background...and the idea of TARP.

It's a bit long, but very interesting reading...at least to me.

Our Murder Mystery Group in the Paper

The Boulder Daily Camera did a story on our murder mystery group yesterday, and even put some video from one of our shows at the Boulderado on Youtube. To read the story GO HERE. As for the video, I must call and thank the photographer for shooting me from a low angle, making me look even taller and thinner. Enjoy.

Dire Predictions, and wrong too

A week or so ago I ran into a woman named Ann, who I met back in 1995 when we both worked on the political committee responsible for passing Boulder's smoke-free restaurant law. We laughed about the dire predictions made by our opponents at the time, mostly the closing of all bars and restaurants in Boulder and the destruction of the sales tax base. Pretty laughable, particularly since, within months of the law's passage, investors started million dollar remodels of 2 downtown bars. In fact, Boulder restaurants found they could comfortably invest in making their places nicer, knowing that smokers wouldn't yellow the interior.

It got me to thinking about other dire predictions that never came true. Of course there is the original dismal scientist, Malthus, who predicted mass starvation as the population outgrew the world's food supply (he may be right some day, but probably not in this century). Then there were the conservatives who, back during the depression, were sure that Roosevelt's New Deal would lead to communism and economic destruction.....much like the Glenn Beck crowd proclaims today (I guess if you are a Beck follower you would say this has all happened already, but you would be nuts!). Sounds alot like the health care debate today.

I also seem to remember that it was certain that measures to clean up the environment would also destroy the economy. Didn't happen! Remember that one as the world debates what to do about global warming (which, contrary to the lies on Fox News, is not in doubt to half the scientist who study it, but only a few).

Since we crazy Boulder nutjobs passed our radical smoking law back in 1995, 21 states have now passed similar legislation. Oh, and the horrible results? Well, read this story from today's Denver Post to see what has happened regarding heart disease.

More about oil money.

Yesterday I spewed out a not-very-well-thought-out rant decrying the idea that oil producing nations should get compensation if a global warming agreement causes lower oil consumption. I am not the least bit sorry for using the "f-word" to suggest an appropriate reply to this idea. I am a bit sorry I did not take the time to explain why this such a criminal idea. Fortunately, it appears, based on this book review in the Economist, that Peter Maass may be doing that in a book called "Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil".

Here is a fact: Countries with natural resource based economies tend to do far worse than those with more diverse economies. This is contrary to what we might reflexively think, but look at who is rich and who is poor in the world. Oil does not make a people rich, and in fact, according to Maass' book and most other studies, retards the development of the rest of the economy. Here are a few quotes from the book review, paraphrasing the book itself (I have not read this book, but hope to!)

Oil weakens the bonds between governments and people by flooding public coffers with money, removing the need for wise spending. And it rends societies, making them vulnerable to civil war

The recurring tragedy of oil is that it produces wealth but not what is needed most in poor countries: jobs. Once wells or refineries are built, they take few men to run them. So the money just pours out of the ground, much of it hauled off by foreign companies, and the rest sucked up by greedy regimes. Equatorial Guinea’s tiny population and recent oil discovery should make it one of the richer countries in the world. Its capital, Malabo, has a direct flight to Houston. Yet most of its people remain miserably poor while its cartoonish and bloodthirsty ruler gives himself a presidential Boeing 737 with gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

So, I guess what I should be wanting to say to the Saudis is....well, pretty much what I said yesterday, adding "...We'd be doing your people a favor by getting your country off it's addiction to oil money".