Kyoto Uh-Oh

Nice little article hidden on page 6 of today's WSJ. According to the UN, over the 2000-2004 period, the US is actually doing a better job controlling it's CO2 emissions than several Kyoto participants.

Highlights

US 1.3% UP
European Union 2.4% UP
Spain 11.4% UP
Austria 12.4% UP
UK 1% DOWN
Germany .7% DOWN
Canada 4.6% UP

So....
Blame Canada!

Hot Apple Pie -Like stuff

Long time poster Jimmy Burns has submitted a recipe for all to enjoy - perfect for campsite or fireplace:

Get an apple; biggest size you can.
Hollow out the center--remove core.
Throw in a glob of butter, brown sugar, cinammon, some raisins
Wrap it in some foil
Put it in or near a fire. If you have >1 apple, put them in a foil tray and then cover it, or wrap them up in a bigger piece of foil.
Wait 45 minutes; open the foil and (this is key) put t in a bowl--there will be hot apple juice coming out of it and you don't want to spill it on yourself.
Eat.

Record Review: Trout Mask Replica

Lately I've been picking up CDs at the library, figuring to burn them if I like. Imagine my unbridled pleasure when I saw one of rock's greatest albums of all time (according to Rolling Stone and countless professional and amateur reviewers), waiting for me to bring it home for a spin. Finally, my chance to hear Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replicahad arrived.

Too bad - it just is not good.

Critically acclaimed for it's "sophisticated" arrangements and "unconventional" approach to music, TMR has been praised as a benchmark album, that requires many listens to really "get". Among the best ever, with the Captain up there with Mozart, Beethoven and those guys.

Ummmm - no it isn't, and he's not.

What the Captain has done here, and I give him all due credit, is execute an "emperor has no clothes" album, at once revealing the ignorance of his reviewers, and his contempt for them. For that I applaud him, with enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, legions of Rolling Stone readers are still subjected to fawning reviews of this album, which was almost certainly created as a joke. Oh TMR has it's moments, occasional amusing lyrics, bizzare babbling children's songs, and snippets of real melody, but too much of it sounds like out of tune instruments being cleaned, or teenagers experimenting after breaking into Frank Zappa's basement. No doubt there were drugs involved, but somehow Pink Floyd and The Beatles still managed to be able to write listenable music.

It's worth a listen, just so you can say you did it.

Does anyone have a copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico?

More trouble in Europe....

...and - Surprise - the French are involved! While I think their (always romantic little) hearts are in the right place, making it illegal to speak freely, albeit, falsely, with respect to the First World War's Albanian Holocaust is a bit late, non? Previous French goverments have bowed before Hitler, and the current regime has it's hands full with domestic issues, but a spotty past and present won't stop our allies from jeopardizing Europe's future.

C'mon guys, quit rattling Turkey's chain, and deal with the problems and opportunities in front of you, not 90 years behind.

The difference between men and women

If only more messages from the Middle East were this simple, concise, and easy to understand....

French Revolution, Part Deux?

The opening line says it all:

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.

I suppose this is, somehow, Bush's fault, or maybe tied to global warming. Whatever the root cause, change is brewing in Europe, and it does not appear to be developing in a peaceful fashion.

I was recently leafing through a few books about the world wars of the last century, noting how much of Europe was destroyed, especially in terms of Eurpean lives sacrificed. It will be interesting to see if this turns out similarly. I'm not sure that England and the US are prepared to rescue the continent, again, though Russia's always up for a brawl.

A hard rain is gonna fall.

So far, I like the approach of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He seems to be a straight shooter, perhaps a bit cautious, but avoids being as tedious as his predecessor, Alan Greenspn. When it comes to the elephant in the room, he and Greenspan called it the same way: Social Security / Medicare is in need of major change.

Bush tried to promote "privatization" as a solution, and based on my understanding of the proposal, I believe it might have helped. The problem with privatization, and the reason it will never happen as Bush presented it was that it was way too complicated. Most Americans struggled to understand how it worked, and if they couldn't understand it, they couldn't trust it. The President, with all due respect, has difficulty articulating and selling relatively simple ideas; privatization was way harder to explain than the current program:

Pay some taxes, now - get some checks and medical benefits, later.

There is a simple solution, though painful enough that whoever proposes or endorses it will not get reelected:

Raise the retirement age, significantly.

One of the recommendations of the Greenspan Commission, in 1983, was to raise the age from 65 to 67. This change will be implemented.....eventually. It was a small step in the right direction. I propose that by raising the age to 75, or better yet, 80, Social Security will serve it's original purpose of protecting the elderly, while forcing a much simpler form of "privatization" on those who are not yet old enough to collect: you either live off savings or keep working - no Federally administered "privatized" accounts are needed.

Best of all, my proposal maintains the marketing beauty of the the current program:

Pay some taxes, now - get some checks and medical benefits, (even) later.