I took some pictures of the fireworks in Minneapolis on July 4th, and they are available here. Samples below the jump.
Author: Nathan Hunstad
Hoover, take two
George Will thinks we need to stop extending unemployment benefits because it just subsidizes unemployment: clearly, those who have been unemployed for 99 weeks are choosing to live off their unemployment checks instead of filling all those empty jobs that are available. Alan Greenspan is warning us that the bond markets are going to put… Continue reading Hoover, take two
The Patrician Legislature
Representative Tom Emmer, running for governor, has a lot of ideas about “redesigning government”. One of those ideas, apparently, is ending benefits for legislators. Emmer thinks that legislators and other elected officials should not get health insurance, pension contributions, or per diem payments. If Emmer wants a legislature that does not reflect Minnesota, then this… Continue reading The Patrician Legislature
If I didn’t remind you before, back up your stuff!
Hey, is this blog still on? It appears that I haven’t updated it in quite a while. The end of session got in the way, then the MSST program started and then we moved to a new place. During the move, I had yet another example of how important it is to back everything up… Continue reading If I didn’t remind you before, back up your stuff!
Fun with science!
So my nifty SportyPal app on my new phone, which keeps track of my bike ride home, tells me that I pretty reliably burn about 420 calories during the trip. Because I’m a geek, that got me wondering how much less energy is used while biking versus while driving. I crunched a few numbers, and… Continue reading Fun with science!
Crazing Arizona
Arizona and Oklahoma have been battling it out lately over which state can be the kookiest, but come on, the anti-immigrant law that Arizona has bletcherously vomited onto the national pscyhe definitely wins. It’s got it all: racial profiling, forcing people to do things they have no expertise doing, and opening cities to huge lawsuits… Continue reading Crazing Arizona
Fighting over financial reform
Lately, FrumForum has been the only bastion of fairly reasonable conservative thought. Take, for example, this post in which Peruvian free-market thinker Hernando de Soto Polar lists what he thinks is necessary for effective derivatives regulation. His list is something I wholeheartedly agree with, especially the reminder that the financial system only helps create wealth,… Continue reading Fighting over financial reform
Easter photos
I took a few photos on Easter at my brother’s house, they are in my random gallery. Here’s one of his dog Sophia:
Conservatives against multi-modal transportation
I’ve noticed a trend lately when it comes to transportation issues: conservative Republicans are doing everything they can to argue against a complete, multi-modal approach to dealing with transportation issues. It’s happening at the national level, where Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (a former Republican Congressman, it should be noted) announced a more bike-friendly transportation policy,… Continue reading Conservatives against multi-modal transportation
Book Review: Too Big To Save?
Finance is pretty fascinating to me, and the recent financial crisis is an incredible study into how financial systems blow up under stress (if only it were a purely academic study and not a disaster for hundreds of millions of people). Probably the best complete rundown of what happened, and what to do about it,… Continue reading Book Review: Too Big To Save?