Wednesday, March 14, 2012

It's like they're trying to distract me...

So, the stock market is back up, which means stocks are more expensive. Everybody with a vehicle has also noticed that gas is way more expensive, too. Coincidentally, I've noticed that prices on Roseholme grocery staples like milk, eggs, and bacon have darn near doubled over the last couple years.

I say "coincidentally" because my government assures me that there's no inflatin' goin' on here. (Incidentally, it worries me that the guy with his hand on the money throttle thinks that higher oil prices might cause inflation, which is like saying that tides cause the moon. It's like being wheeled into surgery and seeing your cutter waving a chicken-foot-and-feather fetish around or seeing the bus driver throw his hands up and yell "Wheee!")

Meanwhile, look! Solar flare!
.

34 comments:

Bubblehead Les. said...

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Great and Powerful Oz has Spoken."

Firehand said...

Had to make a long trip last week: gas in CA and AZ was way over $4/gallon, with some places in AZ being $4.89/4.99. If they think that doesn't affect other things...

I usually buy bread flour in a 25lb bag and stick it in the freezer. Last time I got a bag it was about $5.50; yesterday it was $7.50, that's over the course of about eight or nine months. 'No inflation' my ass.

Bram said...

Hey, the official inflation people called "no countsies" on groceries and gas. Just because they printed a whole bunch of new money and everything costs more now doesn't mean we have inflation.

Anonymous said...

And they cook the unemployment numbers too. We lost 2.7 M jobs in last month's figures. We usually lose 2.9M so you see we gained 200,000 jobs.

taylor said...

"...which is like saying that tides cause the moon"

Epic! You would think this was an easy concept...

rickn8or said...

But all of this would go away if we ban gay marriage, overturn Roe v. Wade, and make everybody buy their own contraceptives.

Anonymous said...

To rickn8tor- 1. when gays can procreate, they can call their union "marrage". I believe they should have ALL the legal rights of married hetro couples, I'm just sick of being beat on as a "breeder". 2. Roe v. Wade is now the law of the land. (course, so was dred scott) 3. Yes, buy your own damn condoms. Fluke is an admitted activist who wants you to pay for her pro tection,not from disease, but from babys. Govmint isin't buying me a 1911, should'nt buy her pills. 3,000$ per 3 yrs.,my arse.... JohninMd(help)

Tam said...

JohninMD,

"1. when gays can procreate, they can call their union "marrage""

If that's the litmus test, do we perform fertility tests before issuing the marriage license, or just annul it if they don't manage to swim upstream and spawn within a set amount of time? ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey They LIED!!!! who would have thunk it!!


Walt

Keith said...

Remember that the important thing is not saving the ship but making sure that our god of choice finds the deck chairs arranged in a festive manner when the ship goes down.

Anonymous said...

Guess I was a little too Litteral there. 15,000 yrs. of history is having teh Shaman o' yer chioce bless a man and woman to go at it, and be legit. Hell,the case can be made that "marriage" is a religious, not a state licence thing. The fouling up of the language kinda bugs me. "Gay" now is a sex reference, instead of a feeling, so it's only fair that 'straights' can claim 'marriage', sez I.....B-) JohninMd(help)

Borepatch said...

Interesting that we have to parse our government's economic data the same way we had to parse the data released by the Soviet government.

Good times, good times.

RWC said...

I'm just happy that I managed to save $4.2 million last year by not purchasing that oceanfront property.

Things are looking up! :)

Stuart the Viking said...

It's just like the "religous" to push restrictions onto others that they do not put on themselves.

Never mind that the book of the bible that they usually point to and shout "SEE! "A man shall not lie with a man!" Has all sorts of other restrictions that they could give fuck all about.

How would all you Christians like it if MY religion of choice came into power? Huh? Oh wait, my religion preaches leaving others to practice their beliefs in peace... guess that's not a very good example...

s

Anonymous said...

Hey, Stuart, didn't say a thang 'bout stopping folks from finding happiness. In too short a supply, sez I. But loud, obnoxnous minorities beating all others about the head-n-shoulders because they want attention gets wearing after a while.... JohninMd(help)

Josh Kruschke said...

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics...,

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/11/12/dow-11000-worth-less-now-than-2001/


Ewww... Look at the pretty collors.... What was I saying.....

Joseph said...

I roll my eyes every time I hear that inflation "figures" don't include energy and food costs because those costs are "too volatile". However, those two items also comprise a very large part of most household budgets. I make over median income and my house is valued at below median value for my state. I don't have a car payment. And I am starting to have trouble making ends meet.

Kristophr said...

Obama want to tax the middle class.

He found a way to do it without needing a vote in Congress. They just closed their eyes and let the federal reserve do their dirty work for them.

50% taxes on wages and savings over the past four years in the form of inflation.

Josh Kruschke said...

Screw You China!!! We will just pay you back in worthless dollars... Mumumuhaaaahahaahaaaa.

Robert said...

And then there is the grocery shrink ray. That's where they don't chnage the price, but you get less in the package. Buyin diapers for the youngun got more expensive recently. Same price, but box now holds 129 instead of 144...

Stuart the Viking said...

Robert,

That's gross... or not gross...

dang, confused again.

s

Stuart the Viking said...

JohninMd,

Where is it one ounce of skin off of your ass if two homos hook up "perminately" and decide to call it marriage? Your "That's the way it's been for 15000 years" argument is just stupid (and likely incorrect anyway). If you are looking back 15000 years, there has been many things that have been perfectly fine for most of that that we have now believe is wrong (slavery, witch burning, various others).

Your religion argument WOULD have some merit if Christianity owned the consept of marriage, but I'm pretty sure it's been around longer than Christianity has (btw, so has being gay in the first place).

You want some peace and quiet? Stop trying to tell the rest of the world how to live. How about that?

s

Josh Kruschke said...

Stuart next you will be telling us you believe in dinosaurs. Don't worry JohninMD I got your back.

Josh Kruschke said...

PS. People don't forget they changed the definition of inflation from an expansion of the money suply to just rising prices.

Windy Wilson said...

The inflation has been "quiet" because:
1. Like Bram and anonymous said, the things that make up the "shopping basket" for measuring inflation have been manipulated.
2. There is a two year lag between the growth in the money supply and its manifestation in price increases.
3. Economists are saying there has been no, as in almost zero, velocity to that increase in money supply these last two years, due to the general crummyness of the economy.
4. The Fourth Estate has been on vacation since November 2008.

SiGraybeard said...

The part that got me was that the Bernanke said that QE was keeping the stock market up (a larger number of dollars chasing a fixed amount of stock) while it had no effect on oil prices (a larger number of dollars chasing a fixed amount of oil). And he said it with a straight face, as if he really meant it!

I just can't believe he can be that stupid. Ergo, it's malice.

Justthisguy said...

Being quite poor, m'self, the stuff I buy, such as food and fuel, has increased in price immensely, in just the last few years.

The books are even worse. I miss my 35-cent paperback SF books, from when I was a kid!

DukkButt said...

The "Bernank" is either an idiot who doesn't see the crash coming, a liar who sees it but is keeping up appearances while his buddies continue their looting spree or, most dangerous of all, a "true believer" who genuinely thinks that he is smarter than all of us peons and that the levers he is pulling are controlling the economy.

The idiot will drive off the bus off of the cliff and wonder where the road went.

The liar will tell you everything is under control and jump out of the bus just before it goes over the cliff.

The "true believer" (again, possibly the most dangerous one of all) will be absolutely convinced he can make the bus fly, right up until it impacts the bottom of the canyon, with all of us in it.

Anonymous said...

JohnnMd. here. Josh K., thenk yew vurra much. Stuart, ya kinda missed my point. Got no wish to "control" anyone's life. Too busy trying to avoid all the liberals attempting to control or regulate mine. As for marriage, and human history, Christanity simply carried on w/ traditions started by earlier cultures. Virtually all cultures from the dawn of history had some form of " legitimizing"(?) the union of man and woman,with the goal of progeny. Read your history. Village Chief, Shaman, elder matriarchs, take yer pick. Many so-called Pagan cultures were matriarchies. Why? FERTILITY. Now, unlike a lot of (liberal)folks, I don't care what gender floats yer boat. Not my business, If you are happy,that's good. My wife treats me w / respect. (she ain't shot me in 32 yrs., I'm a winner!) But the preponderence of history treats marriage as a male - female enterprize, and works fairly well. Perfect? No, it involves humans! (and isin't inherently evil, re your allusion to slavery) In short, not your enemy, we might agree more than yew think! ;-) JohninMd.(help)

Shrimp said...

All I know is, the "bread and circuses" they are serving up suck. What else can one expect of .gov-supplied bread and circuses, though.

Goober said...

I love it when people get all tied up in the semantics of things with one thing, and then vehemently call the next guy getting hung up on semantics as being a "politically correct nazi".

If you are all for gay unions that are identical to marriage in every way, why do you care if they also call it "marriage"? Most of the folks that have this argument are the same folks that go on and on about how political correctness is a disease and that anyone trying to call some item X by another name than it really is so that others can feel good about themselves is a moron - unless we are talking about marriage.

If you demand that we call a marriage something else so as not to offend you and your peeps' sensibilities, how are you any different from the guy that you all hate so much who demands that we call a fat person "weight challenged" so as to not hurt his feelings?

Josh Kruschke said...

I guess I need to recalibrate my SnarkO'mitter.

Hmmm...

Monogamy ....

Windy Willison,
W.e need to also look where all that new moneys parked, and that is over seas (2/3rd's ruffly sit in world banks, foreign held treasury notes, and the commodities markets.)

We loose reserve currency status.....

Josh Kruschke said...

...Wilson....

Oopsy, Sorry.

Josh Kruschke said...

Why should I Thog might hunter share women creatures with lesser hunters.....