“Black Ace” by Black Ace Turner is probably my favorite pre-war blues song. Turner was a self taught guitarist from Texas, and originally recorded this tune in 1937 for Decca Records.

Continue reading this post…

Fox commentator Glenn Beck has been getting a lot of media attention lately. He’s been pulling around 2 million viewers every night appealing to the populist anger over our current financial woes. I’ve watched a couple of his viral youtube clips, and generally agree with a lot of what he’s been saying lately. But for some reason, I just don’t trust the guy.

On March 3rd, he said something on Fox & Friends that really got my spider-sense tingling. Check out this clip, around the 1:55 mark:

Continue reading this post…

Bush signs stimulus package into law: Rebates of $300 to $1,200 go out beginning in May

Where’s my handout? My bailout money?

Continue reading this post…

Omnibus? wtf is that?

An OMNIBUS BILL packages together several measures into one or combines diverse subjects into a single bill. Examples are reconciliation bills, combined appropriations bills, and private relief and claims bills.

-C-SPAN Congressional Glossary

So what’s the deal with Omnibus?

The $410 billion omnibus spending bill that is crawling to final passage and an unenthusiastic signature comes nearly halfway through the fiscal year. It covers spending for pretty much the entire domestic side of the government — yet none of the nine bills merged into the single giant package were ever considered on the floor of the House or Senate.
[...]
The uproar over the omnibus has centered on earmarks or, as defenders would have it, congressionally directed spending to the tune of almost $8 billion. No doubt some of these projects are egregious, others worthy. Certainly, it’s fair to question whether Mr. Obama, fresh from boasting that “we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks,” has abdicated the bully pulpit when it comes to this measure. But the amount of earmarked funds in these measures is down this year.

-Flat Tires on the Omnibus

Continue reading this post…

Transcript taken from RAW DATA: Transcript of Obama’s Address to Joint Session of Congress

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has - a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this:

Continue reading this post…

I was originally planning on doing a post on the theory of generations to follow up “The History of America’s Future“, but I stumbled upon Dave Sohigian’s “The Gen X Files.” He’s got some really awesome webinars set up. Take a peek:

Generations Explained: Understand Generational Cycles in just 10 Minutes for a quick overview of the subject

Talkin’ bout My Generation for a more in-depth look at generational cycles

How Generations Predict the Future for a better understanding of how predictions are made

The Millennial Generation’s Rebellion for more information about Millennials

This is a follow-up to my post on Millennials which will have Strauss & Howe’s predictions. I know this may be one of those “TL;DR” situations, so feel free to click the “Continue reading this post…” link at the bottom.

I ordered a bunch of books by William Strauss and Neil Howe but the first one I started with was Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. Although it was written in in 1991, it was their first book they wrote together on this subject, so I thought it’d make a good starting point.

The preface goes on to describe how they started their book while researching trends in American history:
(Note: I know this quote is long; if you don’t want to read the whole thing, skip down to the bolded section.)

As we stretched our search for analogues back through the centuries, the panoramic outline of our generational saga began emerging. Again and again, this lifecycle approach to history revealed a similar and recurring pattern, one that coincided with many of the well-known rhythms pulsing through American history. We found ourselves with new answers to old riddles that have puzzled historians: why, for example, great public emergencies in America seem to arrive every eighty or ninety years - and why great spiritual upheavals arrive roughly halfway in between.

If we had in fact discovered a cycle, we knew the proof had to lie in its predictive possibilities.[...]

But it is not our purpose to predict specific events; rather, our purpose is to explain how the underlying dynamic of generational change will determine which sort of events are most likely. No one, for example, can foretell the specific emergency that will confront America during what we call the “Crisis of 2020″ - nor, of course, the exact year in which this crisis will find its epicenter. What we do claim our cycle can predict is that, during the late 2010s and early 2020s, American generations will pass deep into a “Crisis Era” constellation and mood - and that, as a consequence, the nation’s public life will undergo a swift and possibly revolutionary transformation.

Strauss & Howe. Generations pages 14-15

Keep in mind, this was written in 1991, back when H.W. Bush was in office; before the “peak” of when Clinton was in office.

Once I read this, I was hooked. What were their predictions? Were they right? I wanted to know.

Continue reading this post…

I’m currently reading a book. Yes, you read that right, a book. Before I get into it, a little back-story. If you want, you can skip this part of the post and click on the “Continue reading this post…” link at the bottom.

While at work a while ago, a co-worker of mine was claiming he was a “Baby Boomer.” I told him, “You’re definitely not, because Baby Boomers are starting to retire, and you’ve still got about 20 more years to go.” We argued a bit and asked the opinions of other co-workers.

At first, I told him a “Baby Boomer” is someone born after the end of World War II. My co-worker defined this as 1945-1965 saying a generation is about 20 years, and since he was born in 1965 that qualifies him as a Baby Boomer. Ultimately he responded, “Well, you’re a computer tech geek or something, right? Look it up or whatever and let me know what you find out.”

The U.S. Census Buraeu defines it as someone born between 1946 and 1964. This link is a birthrate chart from Wikipedia (I’ve highlighted the “Baby Boom” period). I printed out the information and told him, “Sorry buddy, you missed it by one year.” He then asks, “Well, what does that make me then?”

Apparently, he’s from Generation X or a “Generation Xer.” The world around him collapsed. I found this odd, because I thought *I* was a Generation Xer.

Continue reading this post…

President Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. From various sources:

Obama orders 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan

The announcement comes while the White House is still conducting a broad review of U.S. policy on Afghanistan.

The deployment provides two of three extra combat brigades requested by the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army General David McKiernan.

The units had originally been scheduled to go to Iraq.

Obama has pledged to pull out all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, but commanders are pushing for a slower withdrawal, warning that security gains are fragile.

US troop surge in Afghanistan is just a ‘teaser’

President Barack Obama’s decision to send an extra 17,000 US troops to Afghanistan is in many ways a teaser. His generals wanted a further 30,000 troops, which would have almost doubled the number of American forces already there.

Obama is waiting. He is waiting first for a review of the whole situation in Afghanistan by General David Petraeus, credited with the “surge” in Iraq which brought relative – emphasise relative – stability to that country and a man by whom so many set so much store.

Obama: Troops alone cannot win in Afghanistan

Diplomacy will play a bigger role in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan in future even as the Pentagon announced a significant troop increase, President Barack Obama said Tuesday in an interview on Canadian television.

“I am absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means,” Obama told journalist Peter Mansbridge as part of a wide-ranging interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “We’re going to have to use diplomacy. We’re going to have to use development.”