Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

canoes by my house

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

China is criticized for undervaluing its currency. This leads to Chinese exports being artificially cheaper imports to China being more expensive, a de-facto Tariff. At the same time the dollar is dropping relative to the Euro. All you hear in the news in relation to that is how expensive it is for American tourists to travel to Europe right now. You never hear about how this makes our exports to Europe cheaper or how it might make American tourist spending in China a better bargain. All I’m trying to illustrate so far is that the conventional wisdom in relation to international trade policy is shaped by superficial analysis. So what are we to think of the ‘lead scare’ from the Chinese exports? Parents in America have been awash in news of lead contaminated children’s toys coming from China. Very identifiable, mainstream toys; the Sarge jeep from Toys and Polly Pocket (she had dangerous magnets rather than lead) baby bibs have also been recalled because of lead contamination. Talk about a shot to the psychological gut. This is the sort of news that every parent I know will spend some time reading and thinking about, talking about on park benches while the kids hang off the jungle gym. It seeps very quickly into consciousness. And before that it was tainted dog food from China killing our pets, not to mention toothpaste. Really no quicker way to tap into American sentiments than through our kids and our dogs. There was a story on NPR a few weeks ago about a family that decided not to buy any products, food shoes etc, from China. As you can imagine this was quite difficult, and apparently, even more difficult than you imagine. This news cycle is likely better than any tariff that the US would be able to get past the WTO. Of course there is little mainstream coverage of Brazil’s complaints about prohibited cotton subsidies in the US.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.

Exceptionalism; a pity that no one else understands its dangers.

Whether it is the city upon a hill or the realization that only little people pay taxes, each one of us knows, deep down in our heart, that we are a little bit better. Sure we may not be as rich or strong, but that is all circumstantial. Everything else being equal, there is a certain something that makes our county or our kid exceptional.

The concept of American exceptionalism has been well hashed out. What has been less thoroughly explored is the portrayal of exceptionalism in animated feature films. I am speaking, of course, of The Incredibles.

It is this sort of hero worship instilled throughout our lives that encourages our society to define itself through its greatest achievers, Charles Lindberg, George Patton and Barry Bonds. Of course it would be worse than futile to judge these heroes by the same rules that we apply to the lowly commoners. Because of the importance of their calling it is their duty, really, to carry out their designs; if a few toes get stepped on, it is small price to pay. But of course each of us believes that we are that exceptional individual, or at least could be, who is left to carry the water?

Why not judge the quality of our society by the norms rather than the exceptions. It would by definition be more relevant to most people.

I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I've met.

This evening, just now really, I crossed a line. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming.

I had thrown its predecessor under the stairs in the basement of our old building; I say under the stairs but it was more like a hole in the wall behind the water heater. At the time, water was rushing in from the storm drain that emptied into that space knocked out of the wall.

Eventually this one, the replacement, started having trouble with one of its feet. It was able to amble along for a while until I finally called someone. They said there was nothing they could do but there were products on the market that would serve to make it almost as good as new. I never looked for that product, rather, I looked through my toolbox and ended up taking a piece out of my plumbing repair kit. I cut it to size with an Exacto knife and carefully crazy glued it in place, it was almost like new. Well it did not look like new but it stood level and did not wobble. When the other foot gave me trouble I already knew just what to do.

Recently I thought it was dead, unexpectedly unresponsive and no signs of life for days despite all my efforts at revival. But after a couple of days everything seemed to be ok again; later, unresponsive again. 3 days without any signs of life this time, but, like Lazarus as good as new after that. Ann knew someone who was willing to take a look but the diagnosis was completely inconclusive, he could find nothing wrong. Back home, after much consternation and some trial and error, I finally crossed the line;

I duct taped the battery back into my laptop.