Rico Penguin

  Well to be fair it’s more a case of Inanition and myself however referencing old posters or instructional videos tends to get a laugh from people old enough to appreciate how terrible the particular thing one is referencing was.

  I looked today at the word of the day and found that it was oddly appropriate. For those that read this post at a later time the word is Inanition which is defined by the friendly folks at reference.com as:

inanition \in-uh-NISH-uhn\, noun:
1. The condition or quality of being empty.
2. Exhaustion, as from lack of nourishment.
3. Lack of vitality or spirit.

  For those that might be curious as how this pertains to the current state of affairs on this side of the internet it’s pretty simple. I have chronic insomnia which anyone that knows me has a pretty good knowledge of, last night I was blessed with 2 hours of sleep (between the hours of 10 PM and 12 AM). It was certainly an unpleasant event but it’s better than nothing.

  However! This is not supposed to be a random blog (folks get enough of that on facebook and twitter) and there was another point that arose today that fits the wonderful word of the day. Currently in the US political sphere (always a sphere) there is much banter about earmarks and while I am not here to berate or support earmarks there is something that has aggravated the hell out of me with the entire martyr march of folks who are against it.

  Whenever a politician (like say John McCain since he’s the particular one I saw ranting) banters on about the cost of a project, like for instance, 1 million dollars for research into a locust like insect that has in the words of a USA Today Reporter:

Sometimes the migration involves only small bands. Their numbers, however, gradually increase over several years and may reach densities of 100 per square yard — outbreak proportions. Then the crickets migrate in hordes (ten to fifty thousand) to foothills, rangeland, and crops. The high densities may persist for 5 to 20 years. At the peak of the 1938 infestation, Mormon crickets wiped out 19 million acres in 11 states.

Run George! The Cricket is coming for you!
(Source: Web.Mit.Edu)

  Now when he says that we are spending 1 million dollars on research it sounds like a money sink and in fact anyone who doesn’t take the 8.23 seconds of time opening their Firefox and Googling (should officially be a verb soon) the topic of Mormon Crickets returns some startling information (that is pretty much unanimous). These insects in particular can start out relatively unassuming and grow to massive proportions utterly devastating the surrounding landscape (and you know…food supplies). In 2000 these devious little bastards cost the state of Utah alone 22 million dollars in damage that means that a single state (you know of the 50 we have) lost 22 times the cost of this bill because of a similar bill not going into effect sooner than 2000 and addressing the issue. In 2003 these little guys caused at least 25 million dollars. So over the course of a single presidential term we lost 47 times the cost of this bill.

  Indeed the quality of our politicians (in uncomfortably large amounts) and there motivations are in a state of Inanition. They lack substance and are frankly utterly wasteful uses of the television frequencies that they transmit over (for CSPAN and such). Telling someone the cost of a bill means absolutely nothing without equally telling the estimated return on that investment. When someone hears 1 million dollars in expenditures they feel cheated until they realize that it could have already potentially saved them almost 50 million dollars. I’m quite certain if just about any of John McCain’s(and to be fair anyone else he just happened to be the one I saw ranting) complaints would fall utterly flat if we examined the estimated return on the investments. I’m relatively confident that even the lowest expected return would still be quite promising for a good deal of the planned expenses on the bill.

  If we overlook potentially outbreak (I like the word pandemic but I think that’s misused) prone insects to roam free without any sort of research or control we risk losing a whole lot more than monetary resources. Indeed if large quantities of crop lands were lost I’m sure that people would be all the more used to the term Inanition because they’d be suffering from it.

  It will be the smallest of things that fells the largest of things with the utmost grace and swiftness, the second we assume that size denotes importance is the second we surrender to the most deadly of adversaries.

  I think as a whole our country is starting is starting to slowly realize that you cannot live beyond your means for very long before it comes back to haunt you. Many have lost their homes while others are struggling to hold onto what little they have. I don’t necessarily blame anyone in particular in fact if you take my college loans into account I too am living beyond my means and it will be something I have to deal with for years to come. Although I was given the choice of either waiting till I was 24 or getting into college now and considering my last place of employment just went under across the entire united states I feel I made a sound one. But I digress.

  The most recent noticeable victim in the vicinity of where I live is Western Washington University. They are looking at a possible 36 million dollar shortfall and they say that this sort of cut will show noticeably upon their quality services. While I could easy attack the ludicrousness of western providing quality server I will instead carry on with my point. This college lived beyond its means for quite some time, hoping that each year would be a mirror of the past and that it would be able to keep on running in the negative. I know many would argue that state funding doesn’t put you in the negative but when you run in a manner that without someone else’s financial support you cannot function then you are living beyond your means.

  This will be a good wake up call for Western if they take the event to heart. Much like this could be a great turn around for many people. The credit system is (without making conspiracy theories) a very corrupt one. The smallest bits of information are permissible in granting someone a credit card in your name, this has been an obvious shortfall for a decade or more and nothing has been done about it. I hope that with this big crash people will look towards living within their means. Enjoying all the things that are around them and if that isn’t enough working hard to gain legitimate access what they love (or at least want) most.

  Since at one time I’m pretty sure that’s how the US worked. If you wanted great things you worked hard and accomplished great things. We’ve entered a weird period (which perhaps has been longer than I’ve been alive) where you can get an major in business move to New York and make millions off the efforts of others. It’s a weird world where those who work make less than those who observe. The last time that was a major source of income in the US it ended up leading to a war and being abolished. Not to sound too much like a dramatist of course.

  Questions emailed in (depending on legitimacy) will be answered in the order they are received. If they are good enough (IE. Not complete nonsense) I’ll answer them on the here. If you don’t want to comment or can’t figure out where my email is hiding feel free to posit things via the comment system. I’ll also re-open the forums sometime down the road for people to ask things there.