Well, looks like we all made it into 2010. Congratulations. Dr. Dotnetsky is not
very enthused about where this country has been going economically and politically,
and even less enthused about the steps having been taken to “fix it”:
From IMF Data published in an obscure corner of the Wall St. Journal last Thursday:
In 1999 the dollar comprised 77% of the world’s “reserve currency”; by 2009 it was
57.5 %. (The Euro went from 18% to 25.5%).
My guess is that in the next year it will drop to about 50-55% and by 2019 to 30%.
Some very foolish people (and some very politically motivated banks) are buying treasuries.
This is described as a “successful auction”: 2.1 Trillion (with a “T”) of US
debt was sold in 09….by far the record and three times the 08 sales. In 2010
Treasury plans on selling 2.45 trillion.
These fools (Summers, Geithner, Bernanke, et.al.) will destroy the economy within
36 months. This business about a “recovery” is pure horse manure. All you’ve
got to do is look around you.
They are even trying to kill the market with this idiotic tax on “transactions”.
This kind of Keynesian voodoo economics was shown to be useless decades ago,
yet these buffoons (including even Obama) want to take us back to the 1930's.
Dr. Dotnetsky really believes that you would have to completely forbid the sale of
debt (treasuries) as well as moving to a bullion backed currency because it has
really gone too far. The entire tax code favors debt over equity and that’s the
way the investment banks / big government want it. While I think this country
is already finished as a world power, the problem is that there are few, if any,
sanctuaries from this nonsense.
In California, they absolutely refuse to cut spending so that they are now begging
the federal government for money i.e., contributions from Iowa and New Hampshire,
etc. This has become so endemic to the American character that it’s difficult
even to envision a solution.
What we really needed was a shrinkage of government and the “invisible hand” to clear
the markets normally. Instead we get Keynesian Government spending and a “TARP”.
It’s interesting that GM is now in a position to shut down Saturn, Pontiac and Saab
rather than to sell at firesale prices. The only reason they have the luxury
of doing this is because they are now, literally, “Government Motors”. Had they
gone into receivership, those brands would have been sold for trademark value
and the hard assets bought by Toyota and Nissan. Thus the truth is revealed:
the progressive/liberal franchise is expanded through the unholy alliance of
Organized Labor, Investment Banks and the usual Useful Idiots in Congress. Combine
this with continued mega- expansion of government workers and new agencies contained
in the Healthcare fiasco and …voila! An authoritarian state with benign serfdom
for you and me.
The Roman Empire lasted longer than the United States and it too fell to the hands
of barbarians who replaced it with nothing like the economy, literature, art
and science that had flourished - that decline lasted for thousands of years
after.
Enough ranting.
Dr.Dotnetsky’s Holiday Vodka Lime Salsa
This is not salsa for sticking Tostitos into while watching football. This is for
Carr’s Table Water Crackers, perhaps with a thin slice of apple and some Double
Gloucester or Cheshire cheese on them, before a nice dinner, along with other
tasty hors d’ouvres.
4 Roma (or similar small) tomatoes (chopped)
2 Shallots or one medium onion (diced)
6 Cloves of Garlic (diced)
2 Cerrano or Jalapeno Peppers (diced)
1 teaspoon Cumin
3 tablespoons Fresh Cilantro or "Culantro" (chopped)
½ Cup High Quality Vodka
4 Limes - only the juice
Black Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Directions:
First off before dinner is prepared, you'll want to make your vodka-lime salsa, so
it can marinate in the fridge for a hour or two. Put your tomatoes, shallots,
garlic, peppers, cumin, cilantro, vodka, lime juice, salt, and pepper into a
bowl, and mix it all together with a spoon, making sure that the tomatoes are
all fully covered with the liquid so that they nicely marinate. Put this in the
fridge.
And voila, you have done it!
As alluded to above, this should marinate for at least an hour.
It can marinate for far longer than that, so you can make it well in advance.
Dr. Dotnetsky’s Coolest Silverlight (and related) Links
These are the most popular Siverlight (and related) links from the last week or so,
as calculated by the Official Dr. Dotnetsky Link Smoke Test Algorithm:
BCL Team Blog : Introduction to Code Contracts [Melitta Andersen]
Peter Bromberg's UnBlog: ASP.NET MVC " Do I Really Need It
Primary Objects - Creating Silverlight Web Applications with Linquify, LINQ to SQL,
WCF
Driebier.net - Large file upload using Silverlight, ASP.Net and WCF, Part 1
Jeff Blankenburg | Blankenthoughts: Day #25: Silverlight Outside The Browser (Part
3 of 3)
Snowball - The Blog - Silverlight Advent Calendar: December 19th: Entering credentials
via ClientHttp
Property Value Editors for Silverlight Controls
Silverlight tutorial: CommandLink Control with Blend 3 and Behaviors
Go forth and be merry, ye brethren developers! Mmm, that salsa goes great with this
Sobieski Martini!