Monthly Archives: July 2013

New York Yankees And Free Market

Posted on July 8, 2013 | 1 comment

Yankees

This past Father’s Day I was in Minnesota where I took my 7 year old son to his first major league baseball game.  The Twins got beat by the Tigers but seriously, we could have been “10 run ruled” and I wouldn’t have cared.

It was a magic moment for me – a time in my heart that I’ll be able to revisit for the rest of my days.

However, my son is a Yankee fan – I HATE the Yankees- and it’s been HIS dream to see the Yankees.  Well, now that “the first game” is over, I relented and took him to Yankee Stadium this past Saturday.

Pettitte won, “Enter Sandman” played and Mariano saved.

Of all of it, I have to admit, “Enter Sandman” was moving.  Perhaps the greatest reliever in baseball was coming to go to work.  Pretty cool.

However, the story is about before the game.

Because the Yankees price their fan base out of the stadium, they never sell out.  And because I didn’t know where I wanted to sit, I bought tickets at the game.

We were in the ticket queue when a middle aged guy in his late 50’s approached us and asked if we were going to the game.  When I told him that, indeed, we were, he asked if we wanted to buy two of his 4 season tickets; he and his son were going and they had two extra.  “$125 tickets for $50 each.”

Sold.

We left the queue and stood in line at the gate.  We chatted.  His wife went to Duke – my son was wearing his Duke blues- and he and his family now lived here in New York.  The day was looking to be wonderful – nice guy, great weather and a Yankee game.

While standing there I reached into my wallet and gave him his hundred bucks.  Within 5 seconds we were surrounded by 3 NTPD officers.

The guy, shocked and stunned, tried to make the case that he didn’t “scalp” the tickets, we bought them for less than half value.  The officer became irritated and reversed the sale, taking the tickets out of my son’s hand and forcing the gentleman to give me back my money.  He further insulted him by making me count it not once, not twice, but three times “directly in front of me”.

I was free to go but the man was to be removed from Yankee stadium, arrested and fined.

God I hate the New York and the Yankees!

1 Comment

Posted in Economics, Liberty

Tagged , ,

Coming Apart

Posted on July 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

Coming Apart

I’ve posted extensively on a book by Charles Murray – “The Bell Curve”.

I bought the book and set it i my stack – forgotten for many many months.  Then I heard someone quote “Coming Apart”, bought it and remembered that I had “The Bell Curve”.  I read it without being aware of the controversy.  Then I hit the chapter that created the stir.

I remember thinking then that the book could have stood alone without the work on race; IQ and its impact on life outcomes is fascinating enough without adding the very difficult conversation regarding race.

Anyway, Mr. Murray received such grief for “The Bell Curve” that when he wrote “Coming Apart” he focused only on white analysis.  While I’m not going to do a chapter by chapter breakdown this time, I am going to post insights that I find interesting.

Starting with a 25 question survey.  Mr. Murray included it in the book to provide insight to the likely audience of the book and how far removed they are from “the rest of America”.

I found this neat engine:

Take the test.  And report your scores in the comments.

I scored 56.

I CAN NOT FATHOM a family that would score 2 on that test.  Can not do it.

Leave a comment

Posted in Life, Politics: National

Tagged , ,

Affirmative Action

Posted on July 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’m not sure if I’ve posted this before, but with the recent Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action, I thought it was appropriate.

Why is it okay to base entrance into colleges based on race but not entrance into the sports teams at those same colleges?

I get the point, that minorities are not getting into schools at the same rate that whites are, but that’s not because colleges are bigoted against minorities; hardly.  It’s because minorities are arriving with lower scores on college entrance tests and lower high school GPAs.

For validation, look at the rates that Asian students are being accepted into colleges – higher even than whites.  And it’s because they have higher test scores.

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National, Race

Tagged

Eating Like A College Student – My Take

Posted on July 8, 2013 | 4 comments

Food Stamps

About two weeks ago I posted on an attempt to eat on an average allotment of food stamp distribution.  My analysis:

I’m sure I could eat better on less than Mr. Ferguson.

This combined with nickgb’s critique of Ferguson:

…my combined total was $45.88, well over the challenge amount.  So, either Safeway has a 66% markup over Dollar Tree’s prices, or Ferguson is being deceptive with the items he bought, or he’s lying.  We report, you decide.

And his update:

This is really not a healthy diet for an adult, and that should tell you something about SNAP benefits.  It’s disturbing that Ferguson thinks that his canned meat diet shows that benefits are too high.

I thought I would see how I could do in living up to my bragging.

First breakfast.

So, in life I don’t eat breakfast, but I get that most people do.  So I’ll stipulate to breakfast.  Given that breakfast, when I do eat it, is highly repetative I’m going with this:

Yogurt:

Yogurt

At $0.50 a day that comes to $3.50 a week.  And adding a slice or two of toast:

Bread

The total for breakfast is $2.69 + $3.50 = $6.19.

Now lunch.

I’m going to use a combination of sandwiches and noodles for this.  First the sandwiches.  I already have the bread, so that’s free.  I’ll eat peanut butter sandwiches two times a week.  Adding the peanut butter:

Peanut Butter

I’m up to $9.80.  5 days to go.

The rest of the work week I’m going to go Asian – Raman:

Raman

And I’ll add broccoli:

Broccoli

The total for three lunches is $1.17 / 6 = $0.20 per day or $0.60 for the week for the noodles and the broccoli is $0.75 a day.  Per day total is $0.95 for a 3 day total of $2.85.

I have to buy lunch now for Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, I’ll go small and have a frozen meal:

Chicken Fried Chicken

That’s a buck and a quarter.  Add an apple:

Apple

Which is 2 per pound, $0.70 per apple, and you get a Saturday lunch for $1.95.

Sunday lunch comes later.

Now for dinner.

I have 7 to buy.  First two:

Pizza

That’s right – frozen pizza.  I eat half a pizza a sitting.  I can buy a deluxe pizza for 3 bucks.  That comes to $1.50 a night.

Next, beans and rice.  Not the nasty kind out of a can, but the kind you make yourself.

Rice:

Rice

And then Beans:

Beans

Together that’s $7.62.  But it counts for two meals -at least- so I charge $3.80 per meal.

Next comes a pasta dinner.  The noodles:

Pasta

And the sauce:

Sauce

That’s $3.28 for the both and I’ll eat pasta twice.  However, the sale is on the sauce so I get to save $0.95.  I’ll take it.  Total cost for my two pasta dinners?  $2.33.

My last dinner will be steak.  I can find it for:

Steak

Combined with the rice I’ve already paid for, I have a nice steak and rice dinner.  Add a veggie if you want to, broccoli, and the whole meal comes to $8.58.

But at 1.5 pounds, I get to eat it twice.  Call it my last lunch.

That’s every meal.  My cost so far?

$34.63

That’s significantly more than the $31.50 I was allocated.  What to do?

Well, I’ve noticed that my list includes items that I’m having to buy for the first time, things like peanut butter, rice and bread.  However, I’ll play by the rules and accept that I’m starting with a bare cupboard.  So, I’ll ditch the steak and exchange it for Raman but keep the broccoli.

That gets me to $26.80 plus $0.20 for the Raman and the total is a straight $27.00.

I have 4 bucks to play with.

Bananas:

banana

I’ll take 4 of ’em.  Two per pound and I’ve spent $1.14.

Some carrots:

Carrots

And now I’m up to $2.43.

How about some eggs:

Eggs

I’m over.  If I buy the eggs, I’m at $4.71.  I’ll keep the eggs and put back 1 banana.  I did it.  I get $0.27 back for the banana and my bill sits at $4.44.

Now, I have eaten for the week and have a nice beginning for next week.  I don’t have to purchase bread, peanut butter or rice next week.  In fact, I don’t have to buy eggs or carrots either.

I’ve noticed that I didn’t purchase anything to drink.  In my real life, I do not drink milk, but do have beer and wine with my evening meals.  I recognize that this is an issue, but water for a week is not unrealistic.  Further, it has occurred to me that I didn’t include butter in my budget, something that I do have on my toast and my eggs.  So I may have further tweaks, but the point is the same.

For $31.50, I have eaten for a week AND included veggies and fruits.  Plus I have a small beginning for next week to help me out even further.

4 Comments

Posted in Government, Life, Politics: National

Tagged , , ,