Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I’ve been on the road for the last 9 days, having combined two longish trips into one long trip. I left work Friday and went to Charlottesville and then onto Clemson for the Virginia game. Clemson won but didn’t look great (sadly I had convinced myself that they were just saving their best for the South Carolina game). Drove back to Charlottesville on Sunday. Then I spent 2 days doing Christmas shopping for my family. I find shopping to be much more tiring and difficult than real work. On Wednesday it was off to Ohio for Thanksbirthmasdaygiving. Good times were had by all… at least until Saturday when Clemson and most of the rest of the ACC shat their respective beds. Sunday (today) I drove home via Charlottesville. It adds up to over 2000 miles. I’m pooped.

Dell is selling a 42″ Sharp LCD for $599 on Black Friday only. I’m tempted to buy one, but I’m having a hard time justifying it.

And let me add, Dell has some of the best discounts on Sharp LCDs that I’ve seen anywhere. Their current promotions appear to go through 12/3/09.

From People of Walmart: (more…)

Dear Coach Groh,

Please don’t screw this up for me.

- Nobrainer

PS:

• I’m looking forward to being at the Clemson-UVA game, the first home game I will have attended this season.
• A dinner last night at the highly regarded Restaurant Eve confirmed that I can glean every bit as much satisfaction from cheap wine and home grilled steaks as I can from wine and steak that cost 10 times as much. Hooray for my delightfully unsophisticated pallet!~ The upside for me was the crab fritters; they were quite tasty. The downside was the restroom. The urinals were so closely positioned near the bathroom door that the architect should have gone the extra fraction of a mile and had the urinals mounted on a glass wall overlooking the stairwell. It would also have been nice if the latch on the lone bathroom stall actually latched or if there had actually been towels of any kind in the restroom for the civilized among us to be able to dry our hands after washing them. That I have more to say about the restroom at this place than the food might suggest something about the overall unremarkable state of the food.
• My new motto coming out of last night might be, “Jack Daniel’s tastes the same no matter how much I’m charged for it.”

Whatever else I was going to mention is now forgotten. Maybe I’ll remember later.

From NYT:

If large majorities of Americans favor increased government support for clean energy, as polls suggest, why are so many people reluctant to back such programs when it comes to paying extra themselves?

I won’t call that a stupid question. But I will call supremely ignorant any adult who can’t figure out the answer in under 2 milliseconds.

Obamacare could have the unintended consequence of raising health insurance premiums and causing a decline in the number of people with insurance….

In short, for those who are now privately insured through employers or by direct purchase, there would be substantial incentives to become uninsured until they become sick. The resulting rise in the cost to insurance companies as the insured population becomes sicker would raise the average premium, strengthening that incentive.

Normally I would consider this to be an unintended consequence. However, this is par for the course and the end result will be the “need” for more government involvement after, what will be referred to, without irony, by the Pelosis, Franks, and Obamas of the world a “failure of the free market.”