October 11, 2008

The Featherweight Café.

DSC_0324

Where everything is light and airy. If your concerns are ponderous or morose, I must direct you back to The Willow Lounge.

53 comments:

Meade said...

It is time for you to laugh instead of crying

George M. Spencer said...

You are in one far-out mood this morning, Professor.

The plants are our friends. They are not like Blackwood's willows. Now is not this side of paradise. It is not another day in Santa Mira.

Relax. Take a Claritin. The fundamentals? Strong. The numbness? The stupor? Both normal. And to be expected. Chill. After a great pain a feeling does come. A 'Formal' feeling. (very end of the article...)

Sissy Willis said...

Pure fireworks (try squinting your eyes): Celebrate!

Sissy Willis said...

Pure fireworks (try squinting your eyes): Celebrate!

John Kindley said...

I am an economic featherweight, so perhaps here is the place to pose a question provoked by the comment thread having to do with the secret ballot, unions, and the wage rate.

I've long been partial to Thomas Paine's argument in his essay Agrarian Justice, that every person born into the world has an equal and inalienable right to the earth (as opposed to improvements made upon the earth), and his proposal in the same essay that this right could be vindicated for the landless by providing a certain sum of money (paid for out of property taxes on the unimproved value of land, a la Henry George) to each citizen upon attaining his or her 21st birthday. (The same result could be approximated by providing each citizen a certain minimum regular income approximating his share of the "rent," rather than a lump sum on the 21st birthday that is liable to get blown on hookers and cocaine.)

My question is this: Wouldn't such a policy have a positive effect on the wage rate, on a naturally justifiable basis? It's generally recognized that when women came into the work force en masse, thereby effectively doubling the supply of labor, this had a depressing effect on wages. If we had a guaranteed minimum income (which may or may not be enough for bare subsistence), wouldn't this make people less desperate to get jobs, and wouldn't this presumably require employers to pay more in wages to get people to work for them? It would naturally raise the wages of those who do choose to get jobs. I am sensible of the fact that employers have an interest in keeping wages low, but wouldn't our economy be a better place, and more closely approximate American ideals of self-sufficiency and equality, if more people worked for themselves rather than employers? A guaranteed minimum income would increase the incentives and the ability of people to gather a little capital and become self-employed.

garage mahal said...

Good time to que up The Skatalites, the most influential band you never heard of. And good luck getting that sound out of your head. Or this one. The world would be a dreary place without this 40 year institution.

Wince said...

John K,

by providing a certain sum of money (paid for out of property taxes on the unimproved value of land, a la Henry George) to each citizen...

Two immediate flaws in your reasoning:

First you have the "fixed income" folks who don't reap an annual cash rent from the land. So, after the sob stories, we'll need to tax the income of producers to make up for it... to give money to people so that they can choose not to be productive.

Second, much of the tax would be passed on to renters. Receive with one hand and pay with the other, while costing the economy the "dead weight" loss of taxation. And, of course, the politicians would have to "wet their beaks" in the process.

reader_iam said...

Just for the hell of it, and to make my son laugh, for breakfast I ate two of those Halloween lollipops that turn your tongue blood red.

See? 0>

Did you know that if after eating two of those, you let your mouth get all dribbly and then touch your nose with your tongue, it'll leave a pink smear? That's some powerful lollipop dye going on there. I'd wonder if it'll leave a smear all the way through the ol' alimentary canal, except I don't really want to go there.

Anyway, ain't life grand on this beautiful Saturday morning in autumn?

ron st.amant said...

It's Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada. I'm wondering what sort wine to serve with the turkey on Sunday?

rhhardin said...

When is Halloween in Canada? September?

Christy said...

Soave?

Has anyone seen the new series of commercials for the VW Bouton? They have Brooks Shields as a reporter type claiming that women everywhere are getting pregnant to get a VW Bouton and making statements about couples that are obviously untrue or spun. I'm I nuts to see this as a send up of the average MSN reporter? What do you think?

chickelit said...

ronst.amant wrote:

I'm wondering what sort wine to serve with the turkey on Sunday?

Just serve the house whine: liberals can fix anything.

:)

TitusIsBackInTown said...

I am the last of the famous international playboys.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Titus, I thought you had a subscription to Playgirl.

Trooper York said...

Is there really a car called the Bouton?

That's Italian gutter slang for a whore or for a vagina.

Why didn't GM think of that? Maybe they wouldn't be going out of business if they named their cars after sex organs.

The Chevrolet Vagina. Great Ride. Tight fit. Always smells great.
Ride away in a Chevrolet.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Trooper, they do have Vulvas, I mean, Volvos.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Where everything is light and airy. If your concerns are ponderous or morose, I must direct you back to The Willow Lounge.

After my Sox victory I was invited to a sortie were I'm somehowe have survibed the use of what i believe to be my fertile imagination.

Quisiera decir mas pero estoy reportando de la casa de una mujer ajana cone el hombre ajeno que me invito.

Se trata de algo divino

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

No puedo quejarme.

Para una persona que piensa y mide como yo estoy de vacaciones.

por favor no me ataquen a Ann sin un permiso democratico. Cuba.

Ann es oro como tu lo saves.

John Kindley said...

EDH said: "Two immediate flaws in your reasoning:

First you have the 'fixed income' folks who don't reap an annual cash rent from the land."

The guaranteed minimum income idea, which is similar to Milton Friedman's proposal for a "negative income tax," would take the place of things like welfare and social security. Everybody would ultimately be entitled to it, though if you are an "owner" of land your entitlement would presumably be debited from what you're paying in property taxes on the unimproved value of land. This would not mean a large increase on property taxes for homeowners, for whom the value in their property is mostly in the improvements rather than the land. It would presumably mean a significant tax increase on owners of oil fields and holders of valuable urban land. Even the oilman would be entitled to this guaranteed minimum income, but he'd be paying out significantly more to compensate others (through the guaranteed minimum income) for his exclusive possession of such valuable land.

"Second, much of the tax would be passed on to renters."

I do know enough about economics to realize that most economists agree that a peculiarity of the tax on land is that it can not be passed on.

I apologize for making this argument to those who've heard me make it all before. I am one of the more predictable of Althouse commentators. My response to everything is some combination of anarchism and Georgism. But then again, it seems to me that the concerns of most people who wrangle over politics are various flavors of the same mess of pottage, and are indicted by this observation of Thoreau: "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Lem, la profesora y yo no tenemos problemas. Ella tiene sus opiniones y yo tengo las mias, pero eso no significa que yo no reconozca sus cualidades humanas y su inteligencia. No te preocupes,hermano, que siempre me enseñaron a respetar a los que se dan a respetar y eso es algo que practico como una religión.

Sim embargo, no puedo respetar a los falta de respeto, los que se creen guapetones de barrio y los comemierdas. Para esos sólo guardo desprecio y sorna.

Como dijo José Martí:

"Ni hombres ni pueblos respetan a quien no se hace respetar"

Y hablando de Martí, nosotros los cubanos nunca nos olvidamos de uno de sus grandes colaboradores y amigos: el Generalísimo de Todas las Guerras, Máximo Gómez Báez. Lo mejor que hemos compartido los dos pueblos.

Saludos

Alex said...

Why does Althouse hate plants?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

profesora y yo no tenemos problemas. Ella tiene sus opiniones y yo tengo las mias, pero eso no significa que yo no reconozca sus cualidades humanas y su inteligencia. No te preocupes,hermano, que siempre me enseñaron a respetar a los que se dan a respetar y eso es algo que practico como una religión

El yegar a un acuerdo con usted seria una superfluidad.
Usted es un cabayero de los cuales ya brillan por su ausencia.

Máximo Gómez Báez

el molde que dio a conocer a ese patriota ya lo retiraron ace muuuuucho ;)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Cuba - tambien also ;) visite su boveda internediaria (le suplico a la real academia que aprueve con prisa esta ya nacida palabra) la cual me impresono por sus graficas de figuras historicas.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

guapetones de barrio

Exelente en forma e obserbasion y ejecusion.

Perdonen my faltas ortograficas, yo era unos de esos estudiantes que pasaba con la fuerza de locucion ;)

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Lem, hermano, usted es tambien todo un caballero. Gracias por el cumplido.

Saludos

Jeff Gee said...

ow-hay ome-cay o-nay ody-bay is-ay eaking-spay english-ay?

knox said...

The kids are with the grandparents. Just got a sassy haircut and went shopping for the first time in ever.

I am doing my part for the economy, and I am a new woman.

reader_iam said...

The ads along the side in my gmail inbox are currently all in Spanish, and all reference Cuba.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

ow-hay ome-cay o-nay ody-bay is-ay eaking-spay english-ay

Hubo una ves y dos son tres ;)

XWL said...

Real featherweights

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

knox, going shopping rocks. I'm a big fan of it.

reader_iam, I'm sorry.

Lem, ese no entiende ni papa.

Chip Ahoy said...

husband: "What are you having, Pumpkin?"

wife: * coughs *

husband: looks at wife. "Are you OK?"

wife: * coughs *, * nods *, * coughs *

husband: "Ha ha ha. You sound like a little kitten when you do that."

wife: * scowls *

husband: "Awww. Sure you're OK?"

wife: " Yeah, sure. Just got a little feather in my throat."

husband: "Decided?"

wife: * nods *, * clears throat *, "Yeah. Let's go back to the kitchen and see what Chip is up to."

husband: "K"

Chip: "GET OUT ! I'm busy."

wife: * flirty voice * "We just came back to see what you're up to."

Chip: * easily charmed * "Well it's rainy and cold so I'm making buttered noodles with cut up chuck roast and sweet pepper topping. "

wife: * pours on the flirt * "Can we watch?"

Chip: "You guys, sure."

Kirby Olson said...

Obama is a featherweight. Light and fluffy as a dandelion seed, bright and airy as the first zephyrs of spring.

McCain is a heavyweight. Heavy as a chunk of lead, he's got gravity, and is hard as lead.

If you need lead, you need McCain.

If you need lightness, you need Obama bama fo fama, fie fi fo moma, Obama!

I think we'll be more in need of lead than light, so point me to the weeping willow, will you?

Chip Ahoy said...

Lead crystal contains 22% to 35% lead. <---100% of fact. I saw this on "Modern Wonders," so that means it's indisputable. The breezed over the explanation about how lead becomes transparent by saying at high temperature there's molecular change. I thought that part was chincy.

Donn said...

ronst.amant:
I'm wondering what sort wine to serve with the turkey on Sunday?

Sauvignon Blanc is excellent with Turkey.

blake said...

What if you have no concerns?

I guess that would be the ultimate in light.

Anonymous said...

"U.S. OUT OF TURKEY! Please send us some more turkey." -- Obama's Radical Pals

TitusIsBackInTown said...

I just had phone sex with my 21 year old trick from Queens.

It was hot.

He had to excuse himself every five minutes so the customers could pay at the gas station. I actually heard him using the cash register. That made me more horny. How fucking blue collar.

TitusIsBackInTown said...

I love having sex with hourly employees.

I love owning them.

TitusIsBackInTown said...

I love hourly, blue collar trash coming to my loft in Chelsea and worshiping my fabulousness.

In that respect I am very Halston.

I can't be with anyone who is comparable to me in terms of wealth, career, body, and education. I can't deal with the competition. It makes me feel insecure.

TitusIsBackInTown said...

Is there something wrong with me?

Do I need help?

How long can I act like this?

What should I do?

Alex said...

Porno troll alert.

TitusIsBackInTown said...

I need help.

TitusIsBackInTown said...

It is not porno Alex.

I am crying out for help.

Hug me, embrace me, tell me to stop.

Zachary Sire said...

Wrong, Alex. You haven't been coming here very long, have you?

blake said...

Titus: Yes, there's something wrong with you and you should stop.

Did that help?

Trooper York said...

Oh oh
Wee-ell-Now!

Relax don't do it
When you want to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
When you want to come

Relax don't do it
When you want to to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Relax don't do it
When you want to suck to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Come-oh oh oh
(Relax, Frankie Goes to Hollywood)

Alex said...

Cum on feel the noize...

Jen Bradford said...

Is Titus' problem with the over-doing or the over-sharing?

And has anyone else felt a little guilty for bursting out laughing at the graphic of EmoBama?

Alex said...

Come into my life
Regress into a dream
We will hide
And build a new reality

Draw another picture
Of the life you could've had
Follow your instincts
And choose the other path

You should never be afraid
You're protected
From trouble and pain
Why, why?
Is this a crisis
In your eyes again?

Come to be
How did it come to be?
Tied to a railroad
No love to set us free
Watch our souls fade away
And our bodies crumbling
Don't be afraid

I will take the blow for you

And I've had recurring nightmares
That I was loved for who I am
And missed the opportunity
To be a better man
(Hoodoo - Muse)

TitusIsBackInTown said...

Cuming is overrated.

Can we all agree that there are two levels of cum?

The first is yea I just came, big fucking deal.

The second is lord I just came and can see the promise land.

Chennaul said...

How is that the thread ender....

Chennaul said...

Wait...

I just undid my own observation.

That's almost...

Why I'm a master debater!