Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Income chasm widens in San Diego
Sadly, but typically, you've missed the point yet again, Jeff. The point, (re-read please), is that creative people don't need low taxes as incentive for creating. Since you don't create anything (you may have a share in those agricultural enterprises, but from your blog it's clear you have little physical involvement) you have no standing to declare that all the creative IT people will stop producing because of higher marginal tax rates. I refuted you very clearly. Would you like to rebut what I wrote instead of going off on yet another self-indulgent tangent? Best, Fred— October 29, 2011 7:13 a.m.
Income chasm widens in San Diego
Jeff, your point is that high taxes discourage innovation. If geeks like me don't get to keep all our big pay, we won't contribute to society. Jeff, I've worked in IT for decades, around the world, with all kinds of talented hard-working creative people, some true geniuses...and none of them was particularly money motivated. We make what we make because of the desire to see things work. We create new products because we want to show off to our peers, because we think it's inherently interesting, or could be useful to someone. We want to control complex systems, get the satisfaction of knowing we've created something no one else could make, and not least we like to feel smart, smug, and superior to the "ordinaries" who will never understand what we are able to do. Money? Are you kidding? Once we've got enough for ordinary purposes, we don't really care that much. Witness the extravagant and wasteful splurges we are famous for. When I was 15 I was at the first US Festival, paid for by Steve Wozniak (who is much more of a geek hero that Jobs), where he was explicit about his motivations and the role of money in his world view. Jeff...you simply don't know what you're talking about. You can speak for what motivates speculators and money managers and day traders...and it's probably true that these parasites are motivated simply by greed to "innovate" new tricks and scams. But Jeff, you have zero authority or credibility when it comes to explaining the motivation of those of us who actually PRODUCE something of value in this world. We do it for higher and better moral reasons than explained in your narrow world view. Best, Fred Williams— October 29, 2011 12:49 a.m.
Income chasm widens in San Diego
From the income statistics, it's clear that Jesus was misquoted. What he really must have said: "The geeks shall inherit the earth."— October 29, 2011 12:36 a.m.
Income chasm widens in San Diego
...no escape from the chambermaid's poison. Thanks Twister...may I use that? fred— October 29, 2011 12:30 a.m.
Family talks about dead Coronado woman Rebecca Zahau
hmezei, I'm forced to admit that for all the sound and fury, nothing has happened. The California Attorney General opted not to review the case, meaning it's going to stand as is unless a much higher power intervenes... It stinks. It really, really stinks. As an old song goes, "Justice isn't blind, it just looks the other way".— October 23, 2011 4:13 a.m.
San Diegans on bringing in the feds
Twister, I applaud your optimism. I do wonder how this era of capitalism is going to be viewed in fifty years. During the cold war, talk of class conflict was seen as quasi-treason. After the collapse of Russia, the triumph of capitalism was assumed, and talk of class conflict was seen as passe. Yet communism did serve a purpose. It acted as a counterweight to the worst excesses of capitalism. When it vanished as a political force, what replaced it? On the left, mostly "tribal" isssues, expanding rights for interests groups, but challenging the economic status quo was verbotten. Economic policy, for most of the world rich or poor, is focused on promoting growth. Endless ever expanding growth. In a living organism, we call endless growth cancer. Keynes compares the economy to a machine that can be regulated and tinkered with to change its performance. Hayek compares the economy to an organic system which is best left alone and flourish in its own way. Strangely, it's the Hayekians, deep free market advocates, who are most blind to the growth as cancer analogy. What comes in fifty years? Will our children look back in shame at our wasteful indifference to the future? Will they forgive us for ignoring the obvious? I enlisted in the Navy at 17, in large part to fight against communist totalitarianism. Now I think our fight has to be against capitalist totalitarianism, a cancer that is growing out of control, enriching primarily parasites. Interesting times we live in...unfortunately. Best, Fred— October 22, 2011 9:02 p.m.
San Diego unions push transaction tax
Don and Jeff...here is Kahneman explaining the "illusion of validity" and how it leads intelligent people to think their good luck is actually due to skill. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/dont-b… Market traders have been richly rewarded, and can tell all kinds of tales of how hard they worked to earn the money. But the facts are stark...they got lucky, and just can't admit it. Best, Fred— October 22, 2011 8:46 p.m.
San Diegans on bringing in the feds
An "eidetic memory"? Uh, yeah. Right. Sure. Can you also leap over tall buildings at a single bound?— October 19, 2011 9:31 p.m.
San Diegans on bringing in the feds
I've seen this justification before. And it used to hold a lot of truth... But today, you're not buying individual small holder's futures contracts. You're buying collateralized, pooled, bundled, derived, and highly leveraged SIDE BETS on the nominal value (many times artificially amplified, WITHOUT the wheat or corn itself changing its quantity, quality, or location, or any demand/supply fluctuating) which in turn is produced by the combined psychological gamesmanship of the traders trying to outsmart each other. This system is quite different from what you describe above. Please disabuse me of my misunderstanding. Show me that the market gyrations reflect REAL changes in value rather than factors like momentum or rumors of big players' trading positions or other insider/arcane and non-agricultural/transport/retail factors. Today, I believe the side bets far outway the influence of the underlying assets when it comes to market pricing, and it's likely to get worse...and then people starve. best, Fred— October 18, 2011 12:08 p.m.
San Diegans on bringing in the feds
The character of Polonius is a pompous climber whose trite advice is windy at best. Hamlet stabs him "through the arras". He deserved it. :-) Fred "2B+/-2B(?)" Williams— October 18, 2011 11:58 a.m.