Death and Destruction

I've had some thoughts rattling around in my brain for a while so I'm gonna try and write them down.

Israrel should not not let up until they have eradicated Hamas. Hamas is guilty of bad think, much like the Nazi's and the Nips in WW2. We didn't just punish them with retaliatory raids, we pummeled them into oblivion. Hamas needs the same treatment.

Iran probably deserves the same treatment, but there are a bunch of Muslim countries in Asia. Are we going to lay waste to all of them? We were able to rebuild the moderately sized countries of Germany and Japan but would we be able to rebuild all of central Asia?

I'm reading Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard and he paints the Spaniards as a very vicious group. Massacres, summary executions, torture and starvation are the order of the day. But then I got to wondering how did they get this way? And I remember some old stories of white explorers encountering natives in the new world. At first they got along, but there was more than one incident where the natives came back and massacred the explorers who had let their guard down because the natives seemed to be peaceful people.

The natives were guilty of bad think and the Spanish pummeled them into near oblivion. Western Civilization has standards of behavior that uncivilized people don't. That's what makes them uncivilized and guilty of bad think.

Darwin's theory of evolution applies to civilizations as well. Those civilizations that can organize themselves to produce more and better weapons are going to crush those who can't.

Property Taxes - Plutocratic SF Inbox

Remember the California Property Tax Revolt?

On June 6, 1978, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, a property tax limitation initiative. This amendment to California's Constitution was the taxpayers' collective response to dramatic increases in property taxes and a growing state revenue surplus. - Assessor's Office County of San Luis Obispo

That's just to get you warmed up to hear what California Bob has to say about property taxes:

SF property tax increases are capped using some formula like "lesser of CPI or 1.5% per year." It's like rent control for property owners. I was paying my property taxes and started digging around on the tax website.

Picking a random block near me, with all pretty similar, typical Sunset crap shacks, I found that taxes on the street ranged from $962 per year to $19,600 -- a 20x difference. My own block ranges from $2800 (for a large duplex, interestingly) to over $18K. Happily I'm nearer the lower end.

Scanning Nancy Pelosi's neighborhood, taxes on this $8 million place are about $4500/year -- considerably less than we pay, and equivalent to about 5 basis points on value. Surprisingly inequitable for a city committed to progressivism (TBF this is state law, not local)

This comes from properties remaining in the family for generations. So Cal voters recently passed a proposition which will limit heirs' ability to inherit their parents tax base. Unless the heirs make it their primary residence, the tax base will reset. So if you keep the property as a second home, or a rental -- no tax protection.

I can't help but feel this will increase property turnover. For single family homes, some heir will have to make it their primary residence, or face tax resets. The greater impact will be on rental properties, which have their own rent protection. I see owners dying, taxes resetting ten-fold higher, and the kids realizing that rent control makes it uneconomic to operate, and they have to sell. Haven't seen much movement yet but that's my theory.

BTW rental properties with existing tenants are dirt cheap here. Running a rental in SF is an investment death sentence.

Random residence in Pelosi's neighborhood 1

Random residence in Pelosi's neighborhood 2

Notes:

BTW - By The Way

CPI - Consumer Price Index

SF - San Francisco

TBF - To Be Fair

basis points - A basis point is primarily used to denote changes in interest rates. Common abbreviations of the term include “bps,” “bp” and “bips.” One basis point is equivalent to one one-hundredth of one percent. In other words, 50 basis points equals 0.50 percent, and 100 basis points equals 1 percent.

Skagway

Skagway, Alaska

Picked up a copy of Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard yesterday afternoon at Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland. I was expecting a hard-boiled murder mystery, but it turns out to be about the Spanish-American War.

It starts with a couple of Americans looking for a way to make some money. They've got some horses so maybe they can sell them to someone who wants them. Skagway comes up as a possibility, there's a gold rush going on up there, and boy does that ring a bell. I haven't heard anyone mention Skagway in a long time.

I can't remember why, but it seems like there was a time when everyone was talking about Skagway. Could it have been a TV show? There was a TV show called Klondike which aired back 1960-61, which would have been the right time frame. I looked at a couple of clips on YouTube, but none of it seemed familiar.

Anyway, I looked up Skagway in Wikipedia and thought this picture was very cool. Now you might be wondering, like I was, just where it is.

Skagway, Alaska

Google Maps has slipped a cog. I expected Google Maps to stick one of their place markers on Skagway once I had zoomed out far enough, but not this time. Anyway, Skagway is about two thirds of the way up the Alaskan panhandle, about halfway between Juneau and Whitehorse. 

The Blade Itself

The Blade Itself

Just finished this book, an entertaining tale of swords and sorcery with some well done action sequences. Joe Abercrombie has written maybe a dozen books about his fictional world. I might have to read another one. I've been trying to read books for several months but haven't been making much progress. Didn't quite understand what the problem was. A couple of weeks ago, after four months of fiddle-fartin' around,  I finally got the heater fixed on the SUV. The next day I was reading again. Weird.

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Gloves

Old Gloves

I threw my old gloves away today. I was proud of those gloves. I've been using them for years whenever I had some work to do. Admitted there wasn't a lot of work, not like I was putting in 40 hours a week. I'd pick up a little project, or my wife would decide something needed to be done and I'd put my gloves on and go tackle it. I dunno, it was probably 20 years ago when I realized cuts were taking longer to heal and maybe I should start wearing gloves whenever I am working with tools, and so I did.

If you, or least I, don't take particular care of your gloves they will wonder off into the weeds and the next time you need them you will spend so much time looking for them that you will decide to just buy another pair. What do leather gloves cost these days? $20? Shoot that's lunch money. So I started taking care of where I kept them. Right now my newer gloves are in one of the pockets of my jacket. My knit hat is in the other.

I like leather gloves. I've tried plastic and rubber gloves a couple of times and I can't stand them. Can't explain it. I would rather get my hands dirty and risk getting a cut than wear rubber gloves. I can tolerate dishwashing gloves because they aren't skin tight. I still don't use them.

Most of the finger tips on my old gloves are missing. Still, they comforted me. I am sad to see them go, but I have newer gloves and they are only missing one fingertip and I wear them. I probably haven't warn my old gloves in a couple of years. Time to let them go.

Turn and Burn

GIRAR UNA MOTO +230 KG SITUACION EMERGENCIA
Kirian Mirabet Vidiella

Cute trick. Via IAman.

Sea Shanty

I wrote a sea shanty
Elle & Toni

The video starts with a minute long introduction. The song starts at 1:25.