Shaun Kenney

Oh noes! Geithner says unemployment is going to go up in the short term?!?!  Well of course it is:

“When they see a little hope that there may be jobs out there, they start to come back in again. And that can cause the measured unemployment rate to go up — temporarily,” Geithner told “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview. “But what we expect to see, and I think most forecasters expect this…is an economy that’s gradually healing, gradually strengthening, businesses starting to add people back.”

Of course, this is a quick reminder that unemployment rates don’t effectively translate into those-out-of-work rates.  Unemployment only ticks up because those who are not working are attempting to find jobs again… which gives credence to the real figure of between 16-19%.

Solution?  Certainly not to end the Bush tax cuts… you’re talking about a $3 trillion drain on capital and credit should that occur, one that will stall any recovery.

Hopefully the policy wonks won’t let politics interfere with economic theory — however unsound I may believe Keynesian economics to be, this is precisely how you recover from a crisis of credit such as the one we’ve experienced thus far.

Holidays in Mongolia aren’t much different than any given holiday in Central Virginia.  We all go out, go hunting, have about a quart of arkhi to get drunk stay warm, and find some local varmint to shoot:

The first thing you’ll want to do is get fantastically drunk; Exceptionally so. There are many ways to achieve this, but for those seeking authenticity, a quart of fermented horse milk vodka, arkhi, will do the trick. After this, hunting and pursuing your prey will go much smoother (or if not smoother, perhaps more enjoyable). That’s just where those berries come in handy—acquire a decent sized handful, place them under a box held up with stick tied to a string—just like you saw in those roadrunner cartoons. Should this take too long, mount up and blast the varmint with a rifle, Yosemite Sam style.

Frankly, looking at the pictures, these guys know how to make a meal…

Yet is there a single reason in the world why George Allen should not respond to this?

“We vehemently disagree with your analysis and wonder if serving in the elite, rich, United States Senate has skewed your vision of the world in which we live,” wrote executive director King Salim Khalfani.

“Your opponent then and coming, George Allen, would not have had the gall to write about the ‘myth of white privilege’ even though I am sure he feels that way.”

Huge opportunity to find out what’s really on George Allen’s heart, and maybe have an honest conversation on affirmative action and race in Virginia.

Having just tried a clay pipe at home, I noticed a couple things about it. Not only is the smoke much cooler, but it burns extremely well. Thought the bowl itself is small — no larger than the size of one’s thumb — I surprisingly enjoyed the very brief smoke to contrast a good half-hour one would enjoy from a traditional pipe. What’s more, it burned very cleanly, tasted fantastic, and was surprisingly very clean when I tapped out the old tobacco.

The pipe I’m talking about is nothing more than your $1 colonial era pipe you’d find at any tourist shop, which beats a $120 bulldog briar any day of the week in terms of price.

So like any other self-supporting Virginia farmer, I wanted to see precisely how they were made. Surprisingly, there’s quite a cottage industry… or there was…

Continue reading →

I watched this last night and was surprised by two things: (1) how objectively fair Anderson Cooper was to this gentleman from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and (2) how… well… how some folks will believe anything to whitewash the Confederacy.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I squarely oppose the idea of Lee-Jackson Day and truly abhor the display of the Confederate Flag for any other reason but the purely historical.

This gentleman from the SCV did not do his cause any favors.  Historical revisionism is a wild thing, and one is constantly reminded how people will deceive themselves to the point where one’s ability to even recognize truth is distorted so much, they can’t recognize it anymore.

Doesn’t mean supporters of Confederate Heritage Month are any less sincere.  Doesn’t even mean they are lying or covering up.  But it does mean that perceptions of reality, when sold as reality, are dangerous concepts indeed.

If you see radical changes here over the next few days, ignore them — I’m playing with some PHP code and need a bit of a test bed for the new layout.  So… if it looks funny here, it’s because I’m goofing off.

Site should go back to normal within five minutes (I promise).

In the meantime, discuss my budget proposal for Fluvanna County, which I presented before the rate was advertised on 17 March.

Short scenario — we’re facing a $0.71 (or more) tax increase over the next three years due to two primary factors: (1) the debt service for the high school, and (2) replenishing the cash reserve.

Other factors include a need to spur economic infrastructure (water and broadband), new cruisers for our deputies, an E-911 system for Fluvanna which is 10 years overdue, a solution for post-secondary education, and budget reform.  By including those short term costs, we stand a better chance at growing the economy and relieving the economic pressures on taxpayers.

No fun solutions here.  But taxpayers deserve to know just what kind of bill we’ve been stuck with, and they most certainly deserve a budget that protects their interests while spurring local growth.  Whether we get there is another question altogether.

Do not watch this if you are squeamish.

Liberia is a nation suffering from a 20-year civil war that stands on the brink of re-emergence at any given time. It is also the 4th poorest country in the world, and one a very direct history with the United States.

If Liberia had oil…

Delegate Ward Armstrong (D-Henry) is entertaining statewide ambitions.  Speaker Bill Howell is… well, just entertaining.

For those not familiar with the antics of Virginia’s House of Commons Delegates, this is wholly appropriate.  Whether or not Ward Armstrong will ever be able to sell himself as something other than a socialist remains to be seen.  For those who remember, Armstrong defeated Frank Hall for the spot of House Democratic leader in 2007 after some bruised feelings and a bit of contention.

Three years into the role, it seems as if Armstrong would like to follow Brian Moran as the next failed Democratic statewide candidate to hail from the House of Delegates.  Bon voyage!

…I mean, I get that pendulums swing and all, but do the House Democrats really think this environment is going to propel any liberal/progressive into statewide office in 2012?  2013?  That’s four years, I know, but that’s an eternity to be counting chickens.

(h/t Mason Conservative)

You gotta hand it to Rep. Tom Perriello — he’s holding firm on no federal funding for abortion in health care. While I certainly don’t believe this is enough (as a Catholic he should be much more pro-active in defending human life), it’s a lot more than most folks expected.