Mass Transit - Another Way

Everyone likes mass transit and thinks it should be used more by other people so as to make their movement, by POV (privately owned vehicle) easier. It's been noted that 95% of transport is by POV because public transit is slow, dangerous, and over priced. Drew Willsey has an idea to address the overpriced part: pay the riders.

This would add to the cost of keeping and maintaining the RTD, but since fares contribute very little to the costs, making them a payment to the riders wouldn't change things much. That is until you actually change the dynamic of riding transit. I'm retired so I don't regularly go anywhere. Thus if I decide to go downtown for some reason, the $2.60 for a day pass seems reasonable, especially in light of the car-hostile nature of downtown with respect to parking.

If I had to go to work there, I might need more incentive. After all, the 1 hour ride each way 5 days a week, is a significant chunk out of my life that I could be using for something else. Pay me $1 every time I get aboard, and I've got a start toward entertaining the family on the weekend.

RTDs operating budget is what it is and tripling demand for services will necessarily triple the budget. They get their money from a dedicated tax plus 50% of auto license fees right now and I don't see the taxpayers voting a big tax increase to cover this. If they quit trying to build a railroad empire, costs would also drop significantly but I'm having a hard time seeing the upper management giving up the prestige of being rail barons either.

Sartorial Splendor

Or maybe I'm just a fan of H.P. Lovecraft:

Everything is available on Amazon, conveniently enough.

Added link. The hoodie is from Gamiss. If you visit their site your browser will be plastered with their ads for the next 2 months. 

Commenting On Womens Appearance

May soon be illegal in France. May also soon be a non-issue in France when the new immigrants pass a mandatory burka law, but in the meantime, one imagines the following comment:
Pierre: "Oh look, Jaques, at the amazingly attractive building behind the woman in the red dress over there!"

Fun With Headlines - Trump-Mueller

From Gateway Pundit today:

IT’S A TRAP=> POTUS Trump Says He Would “Love To” Interview With Mueller Under Oath

 

My thought: What makes him think Mueller would tell the truth even under oath?

Birthdays

Sometimes the gags just write themselves. D'wife got me a card:

So she posits this question and asks that I tap my cane 3 times if I agree.

Me: What?
Wife: Asks again, louder.
Me, trying to remember which button makes the hearing aid louder: What?
Wife, now about ready to hit me: Asks again, very loud. Yes, I did find the right button.
Me: No cane, bangs knuckles on table slowly, "Knock,   knock,..., " How many if I agree?"

Shutdown Benefit

It seems the budget deal, for 3 whole weeks, includes a few easter eggs for us peasants that we didn't know about. The part that affects me is the repeal of the Obama Medical Device Tax. For those of you who don't know, there are 2 categories of things used to help the hearing impaired: Personal Sound Amplifiers, and Hearing Aids. Sounds like the same thing, no? The difference is about $1500-$2000. Each.

The PSAs on the low end simply amplify everything which doesn't really help much since hearing loss tends to favor certain frequency ranges and if you can't hear the upper frequencies very well, amplifying the other ones won't help much. The better ones have programability built in to make some ranges louder while affecting other ranges less. These run $500-$600 each. Real "Hearing Aids" are programmable across a wider range and are considered "medical devices" and are subject to the tax. They also can include features as connectivity to your phone and/or TV so as to specifically amplify those appliances.

Don't know if this will help me as I'm getting new aids next month, but one can hope.

Russian Methodology

More properly, Czarist methodology. Back in the day, one of the Czars had a royal garden to supply fresh produce to the palace, including cabbages. He reputedly appointed several of the cabbages to his cabinet. When policy didn't work out, he would publicly announce that several members of his cabinet had been beheaded for their incompetence. This worked as long as no one asked which ministers had been executed or demanded to see the heads on pikes at the palace gates.

The technique survives today although with a bothersome press on the loose, a scapegoat must be named and publicly shamed or fired. Since the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore, the mayor has had to walk a PC tightrope between reducing the police presence while at the same time, reducing an unacceptably high crime rate. Naming a "kinder, gentler" police commissioner seemed like a good start and the usual suspects acclaimed the reduced enthusiasm of the cops on the streets.

The reduced enthusiasm was probably more a reaction of the street cops to the well founded feeling that upper management no longer had their backs, thus arrests went down and crime went up. Last year set a record for murders in Baltimore. The mayor has risen to the occasion and fired the police commissioner, arguably for doing exactly as he was told.

This bodes poorly for his replacement who would take the job knowing that he needs to do what the boss wants or get fired. The boss wants both less crime and fewer arrests. Sucks to be commissioner in Baltimore.

Trump Is...

First off he's not Hitler. No one who was Hitler could have that many Jews in his family and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capitol.

Second off, he's not Stalin, the lefts current fallback position. If he were, most of the Democrats would love him and besides he hasn't sent anyone to the gulags he hasn't built. No matter how richly they might deserve it. The walls he wants to build are specifically to keep people out, not in.

Now imagine a figure whose existence inspires fierce loyalty among his followers and terror among his enemies. A figure who causes insanity to afflict his enemies just by getting up in the morning. A figure who seemingly cannot be stopped but only delayed.

Yes!

Trump is Cthulhu!

Flying Cars, Sort Of

Boeing has acquired a smaller company that has itself developed an "octorotor" craft capable of lifting 500 lbs. The reactions on the military oriented blogs run toward panic at the thought that the crazy in the basement next door could attach a 500 lb bomb to his new drone and drop it somewhere socially unacceptable.

Here at Billlls, we look at things a bit differently. Take that 8-rotor, add 4 spindly legs and a canvas bosuns chair, and you're off to work driving with the same controller you use for your drone toy. Probably get some extra distance too from you weighing less than half the machine's rated capacity.

Land in a designated EV parking space and charge up your batteries while you're charging up the company ladder, and buzz back home at 5 PM laughing at the traffic below. The best part is that no long runway is required, just roll out the garage and up you go.

Even better, do away with the wireless controller and put a small joystick on a hanging stalk, then forget about high tech jammers down below. Cup holder goes on the other stalk. Just stay away from the high tension lines and radio antennas (don't ignore the guy wires) and you're good to go. License this as an experimental aircraft to get around some of the bothersome FAA regs and hope it doesn't make so much noise as to bug your neighbors.

Russians and the NRA

From the Colorado RKBA newsletter:

A media frenzy has erupted in the wake of a Thursday morning report by McClatchy that the FBI is possibly looking into whether a “top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin” may have “illegally funneled” money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump’s White House campaign.

http://libertyparkpress.com/fbi-trump-russia-probe-reportedly-now-includes-nra/

So:

 

Spying - How It's Done

Inspired by someone's poster of Al Capone saying "Capone Foundation, Why didn't I think of that?", and in view of evidence seemingly confirming that one of the main functions of the infamous "Trump Dossier" was to bamboozle a judge into signing a warrant that would allow eavesdropping on the Trump campaign under the guise of a national security investigation, here's my contribution.

Taprooms vs Bars

One of the biggest suppliers of beer to local type bars, Molson-Coors, is complaining that local microbreweries with taprooms are cutting into their business in a noticeable way.

Bummer dudes. First let's see what exactly is being compared.
Beer:
N.B. = Coors, Miller, Bud. Options = regular or light.
T.R. = The house brews. 6-12 variants ranging from light to black. May include fruit or other flavorings. YMMV but you knew that in advance.
Food:
Neighborhood bar = grill in back producing burgers and fries. Probably better than fast food but not greatly.
Taproom: These places seldom have a food production facility, but they cover the legal requirement to supply eats by contracting to a food truck to park outside. The truck is sometimes as much of the attraction as the beer inside and every one is unique, some much better than others.
Ambience:
N.B. = Loud background music, usually R&R, and wall-to-wall TV's tuned to various sports channels. Noise level demands yelling to make yourself heard across the table.
TR = Softer background music and probably only one TV, frequently tuned to a news channel. Fox if you're lucky, CNN if you're not. If you're really lucky, there won't be a TV. Conversation is easily possible.

So why did you go to whichever place you went to in the first place? My idea of a drinking establishment is a dimly lit place with many small (2-4 seats) tables with classical music playing softly in the background and a couple of larger tables in the back room for party groups. Craft beers and single malt whisky. Food = appetizers.

Relocating The BLM

There has been much talk lately about moving the BLM out of Washington to a location closer to the lands they allegedly manage. While on the one hand, this is greeted with horror, as the social scene out in the sticks is comparatively non-existent, there might be some saving features to the idea.

First off let's consider just how far out in the sticks the BLM might get moved. For most in D.C., Denver might be about as far as anyone could reasonably be expected to tolerate. In spite of being in the middle of nowhere, it does have a decent airport so junkets to necessary meetings wouldn't be all that difficult. Keeping in mind that top management would, of course, have to stay near the government teat in D.C. and no one would reasonably expect them to travel to the middle of nowhere to meet with underlings.

The locals would probably not notice the move at first, at least not until the imposing 20 story building with the glass facade was opened on the Federal Center out in Lakewood at which point the traffic situation would become so bad as could be no longer ignored. 6th avenue, the main feeder to the center, could be made a toll road from I-25 to Golden which would keep the hoi-poloi out of the way of the nobility. Free toll passes to all government employees, of course.

Next up we'd consider locations further west and closer to the federal principalities. Boulder comes to mind where the political climate very closely matches that of D.C. Problem with that is that no one under the grade of GS-21 can afford to live there.

Next up would be Dillon or Glenwood Springs. Both small towns with a limited supply of Opera houses, but plenty of upscale shopping and dining as they cater to the upscale skiers, especially Glenwood, the low income bedroom community to Aspen. Keep in mind that low-income is a relative term here.

Left up to me, I think I'd put them in Cortez. This is convenient to 2 Indian reservations and several national forests, parks, and monuments, plus being near to the big city amenities of Durango and Shiprock N.M.

Odds Of Dying - Fun With Statistics

Click here for an article listing the 25 most common reasons for your demise. It is with some satisfaction that I note that riding a motorcycle is less dangerous than walking or driving so I think I'll keep the motorbike. The bicycle is listed as being safer than either one of those so I'll keep that too.

Of course more people die in car accidents than motorcycle accidents simply because more people are driving, but don't let that get in the way of your argument for a nice bike.

Deportations - QOTD

To paraphrase Joe Stalin:

The deportation of one person is a tragedy.

 The deportation of 1 million is a statistic.