Author: DOuG pRATt

Blowing ownership smoke

On BBC Radio 4 today I heard an American, whose named I didn’t catch, in a panel discussion. He stated, as a matter of fact, that the Wall Street meltdown in 2008 was caused by the government requiring banks to issue subprime mortgages. This is nonsense. Enabling? Yeah, OK, but requiring? No. He’s simply pushing the story that Republicans are using to counter the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have, if nothing else, brought income inequality into the discussion on government taxes and spending. Would increasing the marginal tax rate on the richest Americans by a reasonable percentage lead to Communism, and discourage the next Mark Zuckerberg from pursuing his ambitions? Of course not.

This past week I’ve been hearing, over and over, the laughable assertion that blame for the residential real estate bubble belongs to Barney Frank alone. Was Barney Frank involved? Sure, as I wrote six months ago. Was Frank completely wrong in denying there was a residential real estate bubble? Yes.
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But if any single politician is to blame for pushing mortgages on unqualified borrowers, it’s George Bush, with his “ownership society” initiative.

http://youtu.be/kNqQx7sjoS8

Beaucoup Arlo & Janis

I am very happy to report that cartoonist Jimmy Johnson has published Beaucoup Arlo & Janis, a 256-page, hard-bound collection of over 900 carefully selected A&J comic strips.

If you don’t already know about this, you’ve missed your chance to pre-order an autographed copy, but starting next week Jimmy will open sales to any and all, for the fantastic price of only $25. Arlo & Janis is one of my all-time favorite comic strips, and after years of Jimmy’s fans begging him for a book, I am delighted that he’s made it happen.

Twofer Tuesday

Here’s the exciting follow-up to last night’s suspenseful post. I managed to get both the refrigerator and garage door working.

  • Refrigerator: With the fridge turned off and emptied out I could see through a hole in a sheet metal panel at the back of the freezer section that the coils were iced over. (The dehumidifier in the basement will ice up like this if I leave it set too high in the fall.) With a small hex wrench and some effort, I pulled off the panel, then I used Carol’s hair dryer to melt the ice enough that I could pull it off in big chunks. When the coils were clear I put the panel back on, Carol got the food back in, and a couple of hours after turning it on the fridge compartment was below 40 and the freezer was below zero, so I know the compressor is still working. My guess is the defrost cycle got messed up because of the days-long power failure, but I really don’t know.
  • Garage door: The motor was clicking and humming, but it wasn’t moving the belt. The door has been hitting the floor too hard since the torsion springs were replaced last month by Precision Garage Door (the outfit that I will never use again). I suspected this was knocking the switch out of kilter that turns off the motor. I pulled the release cord to disconnect the motor from the door bracket, then I slid the switch back and forth and opened and closed the door manually a few times. I got up on the stepladder, opened the back of the motor, and adjusted the closing force for a lighter landing. After the release cord was reset I hit the switch and the door opened. When closing, the door now touches the floor gently.

Tonight’s episode: Double Trouble

When I got home from work I was greeted with two emergencies: the garage door opener — again! — and the refrigerator. The garage door motor just clicks and hums and the refrigerator sounds like it’s working but it isn’t cooling. There’s nothing I can do about the door, but I had Carol empty the fridge and I discovered that the coils are coated in ice.

Anakin and Padme… Obi-Wan and Petula Clark??

As I have said numerous times, when Petula Clark burst onto the American Pop music scene with Downtown, we had no idea that she had been in the entertainment biz for 20 years. For a long time she was better known for being in English movies than for her singing. One of those movies is The Card, with Alec Guinness.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Nov/TheCard.flv 512 384]

Pet arrived here as an unknown, and what a thrill it must have been for her to start all over and be such a huge success on her own terms. Happy Birthday, Petula!