There’s an old saying, widely attributed to Will Rogers, that describes three types of people: “The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

So yes, I’m a week or so late.

I don’t even watch tv myself, I just turn the tv on for the birds when I leave, and turn it off when I walk in the door.

I get at least three channels. No idea what they are, except I did watch a couple of minutes of some CSI show.

Though, the picture is about a zillion times better.

One thing that has annoyed me about Obama’s rise to power – the insistence by his more dedicated followers that we need bigger government. They ignore the hallmark of the Bush years – the biggest growth in government since the founding of the U.S. So, since the largest growth in government ever got us into a truly sorry mess, its obvious that the answer is more government growth, right?

/boggle

Now, I like Obama. He’s got some good ideas. Its pretty obvious he’s going to be an improvement, but that isn’t exactly praise. Waldo would be an improvement. He’s not doing bad so far, but he still isn’t doing good. So far, he is the poster child of mediocrity. Which again, is a hell of an improvement, but its not what we need.

What WON’T be an improvement, will be increasing the size and role of government.

A dying ten year old girl wanted to see the Pixar movie UP. She was near death and too ill to go to a theater.

Pixar sent an employee with a DVD to her house.

She died seven hours after seeing the movie.

A reminder to myself to pick up this book -The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance

A love story that embraces the business and economic issues of the day? The Invisible Heart takes a provocative look at business, economics, and regulation through the eyes of Sam Gordon and Laura Silver, teachers at the exclusive Edwards School in Washington, D.C. Sam lives and breathes capitalism. He thinks that most government regulation is unnecessary or even harmful. He believes that success in business is a virtue. He believes that our humanity flourishes under economic freedom. Laura prefers Wordsworth to the Wall Street Journal. Where Sam sees victors, she sees victims. She wants the government to protect consumers and workers from the excesses of Sam’s beloved marketplace. While Sam and Laura argue about how to make the world a better place, a parallel story unfolds across town. Erica Baldwin, the crusading head of a government watchdog agency, tries to bring Charles Krauss, a ruthless CEO, to justice. How are these two dramas connected? Why is Sam under threat of dismissal? Will Erica Baldwin find the evidence she needs? Can Laura love a man with an Adam Smith poster on his wall? The answers in The Invisible Heart give the reader a richer appreciation for how business and the marketplace transform our lives.

I’m all for learning more – life is all about learning new things, and in particular, that means reading and studying things that are directly opposed to your ideology. Conformity is bad, and I’ve witnessed with a self described bleeding heart liberal friend, who has grown increasingly conformist over the last few years.

Another fascinating science article ….

Unlike their wild ancestors, house pets and other domesticated animals share the trait of tameness, meaning they tolerate or even seek out human presence. New research, which is published in the June issue of the journal Genetics and involved the interbreeding of friendly and aggressive rats, reveals gene regions that influence the opposing behaviors.

Of course, my main interest lies with parrots. Due to parrot nature, I wonder if parrots will ever become tame. Mated pairs of parrots are very rarely friendly to humans, even if both individuals had previously been friendly. Thus, you can’t mate your pet parrot – its either a pet, or a breeder, but not both. Thus the friendliest parrots become pets, and the meaner ones become breeders. I think you can see the potential problems…..

Wow, how the time flies!

EQ has sucked up a ton of my time, of late. But thats my choice. I can stop anytime I want to. Really.

I will have ten consecutive days off in July, due to slow work at work. So its a shutdown. I’ll mostly get paid. I’ll probably miss a day or two of pay.

I’ve got to work on gaming stuff, and on my Uncle’s computer.

I carried Harley with me today, while I went by the vets, work, petsmart, and to pay my auto insurance. He was quite well behaved. For him, anyway. I got pinched twice at work. Nothing bad – it barely drew blood. He was scared of the buggy at Petsmart, and teleported from my arm to my shoulder. Where he knows he isn’t allowed, but he wasn’t having anything to do with that buggy, so he stayed there for a few. He only talked at the auto insurance place. He let out a blood curdling scream in petsmart when that buggy moved toward him, which made half the store jump. Talkative at home, a mute around strangers. Thats life with a macaw.

2.5 pound macaw lost fight with a 3 ounce dustpan.

The sad thing is, this isn’t unusual.