No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for December 23rd, 2008

The Morni…er, Evening Scramble – 12/23/2008

by @ 19:47. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Let’s see if I can still remember how to do this…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2nQZPC2uTs[/youtube]

Yes, it’s evening, but it is morning someplace.

  • Jason Pye brings good news for music pirates – RIAA will no longer be going after you with lawsuits. The bad news – if your ISP isn’t using anti-bit-torrent software, it likely will in the near future.
  • Donna Martinez has sad news for VHS holdouts – the last shipment of movies and shows on tape are out the door.
  • JackBoot found Treasury Department Form EZ-CASH. Given Hank Paulson and company are handing out my cash like it’s, well, my cash in a politician’s hands, I’m not so sure that it is a parody.
  • Mark Pribonic shows a benefit of a classical education, quoting Cicero on the folly of depending on the government for a bailout.
  • Jib gives a word of wisdom to the potheads that want legal pot. If you think that taxes on alcohol and tobacco are high, wait until the government gets its hands on the weed.
  • Dean finds the ‘Rats not so trusting of the voters when things don’t go their way. I’m shocked, SHOCKED, especially since…
  • …Nice Deb outlined how they stole the Norm Coleman seat. Shoebox? Big G?
  • Earl Glynn wonders how the population of Kansas could go up steadily while the voter registrations show wild swings.
  • Bob Weeks bemoans the coming death of “newspaper journalism”. I only hope he wasn’t refering to outfits like the New York Times.
  • Why did I put that caveat in there? Exhibit #1 – Michelle Malkin caught them getting punked by fake Frogs.
  • Exhibit #2 – Bob Owens prints the op-ed piece rebutting Friend Of Barack (and admitted, yet untried terrorist) Bill Ayers they refused to print.
  • Dan Riehl says the news isn’t all bad – the NYT may go under next year.
  • The Game lists the top ten media blunders (so far) of 2008. To quote Bachman Turner Overweigh…er, Overdrive, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Guess it’s time for song #2…
    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnd8ArBkKtA[/youtube]
  • Tom Blumer proves that The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ does not practice what Bob Weeks wants, as they strip the ‘Rat from local stories they crib. Bonus item – it is against the latest publicly-available AP Stylebook guidance, though that may have changed since 2000.
  • Gorebal “Warming” Acolyte Stupidity Watch, Part 1 – lawhawk reports Seattle refuses to use salt on the roads because it might get into the salty Puget Sound.
  • Gorebal “Warming” Acolyte Stupidity Watch, Part 2 – Dad29 reports the Wisconsin DNR prohibits the dumping of snow into the local rivers that feed into Lake Michigan, so Milwaukee stores the snow under the Hoan Bridge until it melts into Lake Michigan. Oh yeah; between today and tomorrow, there’s another foot of snow to go on top of the nearly-3 feet we’ve picked up so far this month.
  • Mary Katharine Ham wonders why the Obama Camp self-whitewash happened at 4:30 pm Christmas Eve eve.
  • Why, Part 1 – Michelle Malkin opened a red flag store on the 5-page whitewash.
  • Why, Part 2 – Charles Johnson found a media outlet unwilling to swallow the whitewash whole. In the interest of full disclosure, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times was driven into bankruptcy partially because of actions by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D).
  • Rob Port found the denials from Team Obama a wee bit unconvincing.
  • Hugh Hewitt wonders what happened when US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating Blagojevich, interviewed Barack Obama (D). Bonus wonder – why did Fitzgerald wait until after interviewing Obama to interview Obama chief-of-staff-designee Rahm Emanuel (D) when he already had Emanuel on tape?
  • J.D. Tuccille found the perfect present for the speed cameras in Arizona.
  • Mark Hemingway found high school students in Maryland using the power of the state and speed cameras to crush their enemies. They’re future bureaucrats, no doubt.
  • Speaking of presents, Owen found a DeWalt Rapid Fire Nail Gun. I wonder if that’s the weapon the boys at iD were thinking about when they made Quake.

Web news profitable? Not quite yet.

by @ 14:00. Filed under Business.

(H/T – Patrick McIlheran via Dad29)

Jeff Jarvis ran with a “throwaway” line from Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton stating that the LAT web revenue now exceeds its editorial payroll costs, and speculates that the LAT could switch to a web-only model. There’s a few problems with that:

– The editorial staff is a small part of the newsroom, even the local-only newsroom.
– The web server and technical support for a high-traffic website is not cheap.
– A major metropolitan daily cannot, despite claims to the contrary, focus solely on local and get away with it. Does anybody believe depending on, say, the Washington Post for DC news or the Sacramento Bee for Californai statehouse news is going to be cheaper than relying on The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ (that would be AP), or Reuters?
– Fee-based content, as a rule, does not draw enough to cover the costs.

Maybe if they got rid of the editorial staff, which is the largest bit of aggravation, they could be profitable. I still doubt it, though.

Looking Through a Glass Darkly

by @ 5:24. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

As the bail out of The Big 3 has been discussed the past few weeks, much has been made about the unsustainable cost structures that they have.   Depending upon the report you see, Detroit’s automakers pay  somewhere around  60% more  per labor hour than their domesticated foreign competitors.   The UAW President, Ron Give-U-the-finger, will quickly contend that Detroit is only paying a dollar or so more than their competitors.   The truth is that both statistics are accurate.   How can that be?

When UAW Ron gives you a labor rate, he wants to talk only about the wages that are actually paid to workers that are assembling cars today.   While that is a labor rate, it’s not the one that is used by accountants in determining costs.   The labor that is 60% higher includes not only the costs of the people on the line today but also includes the costs of providing retirement benefits for folks who worked that line year and year ago.

Mark Steyn provides some information of how challenging the Big 3’s labor issue is in a column from Friday:

General Motors, like the other two geezers of the Old Three, is a vast retirement home with a small money-losing auto subsidiary. The UAW is AARP in an Edsel: It has three times as many retirees and widows as “workers” (I use the term loosely). GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.

Holy upside down, Batman!   It’s not hard to understand why the Big 3 have profitability issues when they are paying for 10 employees for every 1 they have working!

Now to be fair, GM, Ford and Chrysler each negotiated contracts that provided for this level of benefit.   The UAW retirees are getting no more or less than what was agreed to in those contracts.   My point here is not to argue what should be done about those agreements, just to let you know they are there.

In 1960 there were 5 workers for every individual who was receiving  Social Security.   Today, that ratio is around 3.3 to 1.   Most analysis of the solvency of Social Security suggest that in the future we will see 2 workers supporting 1 retiree.   Anyone noticing a trend?

Many people are upset with the Detroit Big 3.   They are upset about the bail out.   They are upset that the auto makers have had an unsustainable cost structure for years and have either moved slowly or done nothing about it.  

It’s funny how many in Congress and the general public are quick to point to the Big 3 executives and brow beat them for not anticipating their problems and dealing with them.   Yes, many people willing to point the finger at someone else but when it comes to dealing with a similar problem that they control or are impacted by…..say Social Security, they are perfectly willing to turn their head and look the other way.

If you think the bail out of Detroit’s retiree’s is a problem, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

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