Smack, Smack

My husband brought me some peanut butter. It means he loves me.

Remember what your mother always told you..

So it's about two weeks until the due date for my e-portfolio and I have a lot of last-minute writing to do. (I'm the Queen of Procrastination) I also have my new job to work at as well.

So after a 15-hour day, Rob and I come back from getting something to eat (at 4AM- I love this city), and I'm getting ready for bed, and I realize that I have my underwear on inside-out.

Good thing I wasn't hit by a car tonight.

More Economic Myths: The Income Gap

Here is an excerpt from an article, again by Sowell, discussing the "income gap."

"Anyone who follows the media has probably heard many times that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and incomes of the population in general are stagnating. Moreover, those who say such things can produce many statistics, including data from the Census Bureau, which seem to indicate that.

On the other hand, income tax data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service seem to show the exact opposite: People in the bottom fifth of income-tax filers in 1996 had their incomes increase by 91 percent by 2005.

The top one percent -- "the rich" who are supposed to be monopolizing the money, according to the left -- saw their incomes decline by a whopping 26 percent.

Meanwhile, the average taxpayers' real income increased by 24 percent between 1996 and 2005."

Sowell explains why IRS data is a better indicator for income statistics than census data:

"That is why the IRS data, which are for people 25 years old and older, and which follow the same individuals over time, find those in the bottom 20 percent of income-tax filers almost doubling their income in a decade. That is why they are no longer in the same bracket.

That is also why the share of income going to the bottom 20 percent bracket can be going down, as the Census Bureau data show, while the income going to the people who began the decade in that bracket is going up by large amounts.

Unfortunately, most income statistics, including those from the Census Bureau, do not follow individuals over time. The Internal Revenue Service does that and so does a study at the University of Michigan, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Following trends among income brackets over the years creates the illusion of following people over time. But the only way to follow people is to follow people."


The complete article is Here

Econmic Myths

If you tell people they don't have enough money, they will usually agree. Reports like these always make the front pages of money magazines and websites:

Harder to handle widening income gap in recession - Apr. 9, 2008: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Poor and middle-class families are entering the recession in a precarious situation due in part to declining or stagnant income growth, a study released Wednesday has found."

Here is a video that briefly addresses the fallacy:



A longer podcast with Thomas Sowell discussing more economic myths is here

But...But...Javier! Noooooooo!

Coppola character not for a man - BostonHerald.com: "Javier Bardem has pulled out of Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming flick “Tetro” and has been replaced by a woman, the Hollywood Reporter reports."

Oh, no! This is going to be filmed in Buenos Aires, and I was hoping to apply for the job of Javier Bardem's stalker!

Rats.

Dealing with Abundance

People don't deal with abundance very well. It's why many lottery winners become broke after a few years, and why as American dinner servings have increased in size, so have Americans' waist lines.

It's why, when I found a pub two blocks from my apartment that offers free beer for women from noon to midnight (Yes, you read that correctly. FREE BEER for all ladies for TWELVE HOURS each day)- it resulted in more hangovers than I would like to admit. (I'm normally a once-a-year hangover type of person.)

Not to sound arrogant, but having more disposable income than most locals affords an abundance that I am not used to in the U.S. In addition to free beer, there seem to be social engagements every night that can keep me awake for a straight week, I can have whatever food I want delivered right to my door, at less cost than it would take for me to cook something back home. Or, I could just walk down the street to the schmorgusborg.

If Art Devany is right, humans haven't adapted genetically since we were hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago, living with a series of boom and bust cycles. When offered all we want, we take all we can, because part of our wee brains is telling us that this won't happen again for a while.

What happens when you live boom to boom, and no bust?

When that part of your brain clicks on that says, "Oh my God! More XXXX (fill in the blank) than I ever imagined! When will this ever happen again?" You tell yourself, "Calm down. It can happen every night if you want. You don't have to say yes to everything."

Finally, things become clear. The mindset changes. My stomach is not a savings account. No more grasping for things like a kid in a candy store, or a person who rarely travels filling their suitcase with shampoo.

Powerful.

Hey, Kids! Learn Spanish and Get Married!

While reviewing online Spanish learning sites, I came across Spanish
for Kids.

Not that interesting, except for the advertisement on the left for an online service to help find an Indian bride. (You can click on the picture to make it bigger)

It says, "Looking for a homely Tamil bride? Register free! Chat & Marry"

Are they aware of what "homely" means in English?

Argentine government Seizing Private Property

This strike thing is heating up. Beyond the scarcity of meat here in the city, things are hot and heavy in the campo. Apparently, the Argentine government is seizing cattle of strike supporters. Yanqui mike (farmer) has stopped posting and receiving comments on the matter because of concerns for his own safety.

yanqui mike buenos aires argentina: My last post... for my own safety: "Today's print and web edition of La Nacion reports that 50 members of the Argentina's Federal Police forcibly seized five truckloads of cattle from the ranch of a strike supporter near the town of Brandsen, southeast of the provincial capital of Buenos Aires, La Plata.

The story has not appeared in any other media outlets."

Seizing private property? We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

BTW: As a self-decribed socialist, I wonder if Yanqui Mike still supports the tax increases.

Filed Under: Why didn't I think of that?

Libraries and the occult - Boing Boing: "Cecile Dubuis wrote a master's dissertation for University College London titled 'Libraries & The Occult.' I've only read bits of it, but the challenge she identifies is that occult books are, by their nature, anomalous and hard to categorize, much like the phenomena discussed in their pages. As a result, they are often unsearchable in the context of traditional library classification systems."

Irish Expat in Buenos Aires: Government in Argentina extends LENT

Irish Expat in Buenos Aires: Government in Argentina extends LENT: "In a drastic measure aimed at tackling the widespread food shortages in Argentina, the government here has extended the religious period of Lent."

"Czech" It Out

An invitation from the Czech embassy to see the inaugural film of the Czech film festival. It will be in Czech with Spanish subtitles. I hope there isn't a lot of dialog.


***** Update******
Just got back from the film, "Secretos," and it was fabulous. I understood enough to grasp what was going on. I'll have to keep my eye on this director, Alice Nellis

She Bangs! She Bangs!

Last night, as I went out to my friend's good-bye dinner, I was annoyed that the kid in the apartment above us was banging on pots and pans again. As I left, I realized it wasn't just the neighbor. It was the whole city, protesting the taxes levied on the farmers. (See yesterday's post.)

The stores are running out of meat and dairy products. Only entrails are left on the shelves. This hits home in a country that has the highest per capita meat consumption in the world. People are pretty angry.

My taxi driver was honking all the way across town, and every neighborhood we passed through had a group of people banging, singing, and shouting. By the time I was n my way home, the streets were blocked off, and this is what I found two blocks from our apartment:




The same thing is happening tonight: I can hear the banging and signing that started promptly at 8:00PM.

Where's the Beef?

Bloomberg.com: Latin America: "March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina may face worsening food shortages, threatening to undermine support for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's three-month-old government, as a farmers' strike over higher export taxes goes unresolved."

Export taxes have been raised in some cases as high as 44% and farmers are refusing to take their food to market. According to the above article, we're supposed to run out of meat and milk soon in the city.


Surreal.

Chavez Watch: Countdown to Dictatorship

Chávez raises heat on opposition TV - 03/21/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

CARACAS --

President Hugo Chávez's dismantling of the critical press looks to be continuing as the leftist leader whips up public support to shut down Globovisión -- less than a year after he refused to renew the license of the country's most popular TV station.

Tea at the Park Hyatt

Ojos

My eyes are dark brown. Really dark brown. About the darkest brown you can get without being black.

Today, Rob and I were in the café at the MALBA museum and we noticed that among the 30 people or so sitting at the tables around us, I was the only one with brown eyes.

Almost no one in the whole museum had brown eyes. The waiter, green eyes. I go into the restroom, and casually look at the women at the sink. All of them: blue eyes. Men and women walking past me: green, hazel, blue, gray.

Coming from southern California, this was a little twilight-zone for me.

I know most of the people here are descendants of Germans, Italians, and Spaniards. But WTF? I thought brown eyes were a dominant gene, no? Is everyone wearing contacts? or was it just a very Northern-European day at the MALBA?

Wow. I'm a minority.

Acclimation

When Rob and I first arrived here a few months ago, I was spooked by every noise from outside. I slept lightly, and woke up between 7 and 8 every morning.

Oh, how times have changed.

This morning, there was an exchange about 8:00AM that went something like this:

BANG! BANG! BANG! (Noises from outside. Gunfire? Fireworks? Construction?)

Me (half asleep, rolling over in bed): What was that?

Rob: Armageddon.

Me: O.K. Just let me sleep another half an hour.

Rob: O.K.

(I roll over and go back to sleep.)


End Scene.

Stereotypical Americans

I saw an episode of Faulty Towers once, where a stereotypical American comes to the Inn- he is loud, obnoxious, and asks for things that they don't have.

Tonight, one of these stereotypically loud and obnoxious Americans was having dinner in the same restaurant as us. He was from Texas- I could tell by his accent. He was wearing cowboy boots, was tall, overweight, drunk, and his voice was about twice as loud as it needed to be. To top it off, he was talking loudly about money, and how inexpensive everything is. Not so endearing, I'm sure, to the other people in the restaurant who have suffered through the economic collapse.

He also callously called the delivery boy over and asked him to box things up at the end of the meal. First, the delivery boy doesn't speak English (yes, he asked in English), and second, it's not his job.

Everyone else in the restaurant was subtly rolling their eyes and was relieved when he left.

A local asked Rob in a bar a couple of months ago, "Why are Americans so loud?" I was surprised by this at the time, because I thought the stereotype was outdated and relegated to European sit-coms.

Now I realize it's not. *Sigh*

Today at the Grocery Store

• duraznos
• ojo de bife
• ensalada mixta
• huevos
• suprema de pollo
• mortadella
• salame
• queso barra

Sound track at the store: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

Can't I name my baby Dweezil?

Supposedly, here in Argentina, when you have a baby you have to choose his or her name from a list of "approved" names (mostly Catholic saints). This explains why I have met at least five Augustins in three months. My name, Julia, is very familiar to people here- I guess there was a Saint Julia. Juliana and Julieta are also popular.

I haven't met any Summers, Karas, or Dylans.

If you want to name your baby something different, you have to get approval from the government. If you are a foreign national, you have to have a letter from your embassy stating that the name you are choosing for your child is "common" in your native country.

What I think is interesting about this is the original reason behind the law (I guess it goes back for quite a long time)- an attempt to control the culture- and I think not just of the culture that they are trying to maintain, but the cultures that they are trying to keep out.

Indiginous names are not on "the list."

A holler out to my Aunts Mareda, Wynona, and Mozelle (may she rest in peace.)