Can Government Create Jobs?

The answer is no. This explains it better than I:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9825

I think the naming is incorrect, the government can create work, but not jobs. Jobs are productive behavior and achievement producing a good or service. Government "jobs" are financed by taking money from productive people, creating work and then giving the people who do that work the money taken from the taxpayers. That is not, in any sense of the word, creating a job.

Only private, individual people can create jobs, no one else.

Movie Seen

Last Saturday my wife and I went to "Black Swan" which is about a ballerina who is slowly losing her mind due to the strains of competition and her relationship with her mother. After the film, my wife informed me that very few people would be able to fully comprehend the picture unless they themselves were a ballerina or anyone who must devote their lives to practice and performs in front of an audience.

Good film, however, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Three Little Pigs

Unbeknownst to just about everyone in the world, the Three Little Pigs actually have names!

They are: "Niff Niff", "Noof Noof", and "Nuff Nuff".

If you have any trouble remembering their names, think of IOU, (a comman abbreviation for I owe you).

Useless trivia for today.

Music

Listening right now to "There's Never Enough Time" by the Postal Service on "Such Great Heights". Great!

A Joke for Our Times

And the Lord spoke to Noah and said: "In six months I'm going to make it rain until the whole earth is covered with water and all the evil people are destroyed.

But I want to save a few good people, and two of every kind of living thing on the planet. I am ordering you to build Me an Ark."

And in a flash of lightning he delivered the specifications for an Ark. "Ok," said Noah, trembling in fear and fumbling with the blueprints.

"Six months, and it starts to rain, " thundered the Lord. You'd better have my Ark completed, or learn how to swim for a very long time."

And six months passed.

The skies began to cloud up and rain began to fall. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard, weeping. And there was no Ark. "Noah," shouted the Lord, "where is my Ark?" A lightning bolt crashed into the ground next to Noah.

"Lord, please forgive me!" begged Noah. "I did my best. But there were big problems. First I had to get a building permit for the Ark construction project, and your plans didn't meet code. So I had to hire an engineer to redraw the plans. Then I got into a big fight over whether or not the Ark needed a fire sprinkler system.

My neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.

Then I had a big problem problem getting enough wood to save the owls. But they wouldn't let me catch any owls. So no owls. Then the carpenters formed a union and went out on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations board before anyone would pick up a saw or a hammer. Now we have 16 carpenters going on the boat, and still no owls.

Then I started gathering up animals, and got sued by an animal rights group. They objected to me taking only two of each kind.

Just when I got the suit dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn't complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn't take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of a Supreme Being.

Then the Army Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the Proposed new flood plain. I sent them a globe.

Right now I'm still trying to resolve a complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over how many Croations I'm supposed to hire, the IRS has seized all my assets claiming I'm trying to avoid paying taxes by leaving the country, and I just got a notice from the state about owing some kind of use tax. I really don't think I can finish your Ark for at least another five years," Noah wailed.

The sky began to clear. The sun began to shine. A rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. "You mean you're not going to destroy the earth?" Noah asked, hopefully.

"No," said the Lord sadly, "Government already has."

Music

Listening right now to "The Approaching Night" by Philip Wesley on "Dark Side Of The Soul". Very nice.

Movie Seen

Last night my wife and I watched "Shock Corridor". This movie was made in 1963, but was very good and had many excellent scenes. The story follows a reporter who wants to find out who murdered a patient in an insane asylum. He poses as a patient who has a mental illness to gain admittance to the place.

He wants to write the story of the year and win a Pulitzer prize by revealing the answer to this unsolved murder.

He eventually finds out who the guilty person is, but in turn becomes catatonic because of his experiences with the other patients and the treaments he endures, i.e. shock and hydra therapy.

This begs the question: if this place can drive a sane man insane, what hope is there for the other patients to recover? If the treaments and environment are so hideously awful that it makes a man lose his mind, something might just be wrong with the methods they are using.

The movie starred many actors that I fondly recall from "The Twilight Zone" series. I think just about every one of them was in an episode or two of the Rod Serling series.