Tag: yikes

Today is threatening to be a ‘bye’ day.

We have contractors over to fix the walls and bathroom after a pinhole leak in the pipes finally manifested itself last year. The racket is, honestly, kind of frustrating. My kids are already in headphones and whatnot and I kind of want my own.

I dunno what I can do about it, too. Except maybe order my kids pizza, by way of apology. It’s hard enough to concentrate normally.

Wow I am out of practice after a month.

Or I’m just tired. Or maybe it’s just that now it’s the cat throwing up.  This is apparently not as worrisome as one would expect, at least according to my wife. We didn’t have cats in my family, growing up.

Anyway. Regular posting will resume. In fits and starts over the weekend, apparently.

So. Yes. The bullfighter incident.

I am not going to link to it, because the images are, well.  It involved a bull literally shoving its horn… do I need to finish that sentence?  No, I suspect that I do not.

[pause]

Look, I’m fine with eating meat. And hunting. And even sports hunting, although if you really want to be impressive, go hunt your big game with a knife. But bullfighting? It’s just a bit… lopsided normally, isn’t it? I don’t want to say that the matador had it coming, because it was a horrible injury, but honesty requires me to admit that if I saw the bull trying to make a getaway afterward it might be a while before I reported in to the police.

Moe Lane

I think that we’re going to have a grim week, on the geopolitical front.

I suggest that people try to handle it by being more kindly to each other. And don’t be afraid to turn off the computer from time to time, when it gets too rough. Well-informed is one thing; obsessively-following for no good reason is a different story entirely.

#rsrh Hey, the BLS report is out!

Just now:

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing.

Well, that’s… not great, but not too bad…

The civilian labor force participation rate declined in April to 63.6 percent, while the employment-population ratio, at 58.4 percent, changed little.

OK, that’s bad.  That number represents half a million people leaving the working force (H/T: @cayankee).  And here’s the thing: those half million aren’t going to go live in a box by themselves for the next six months.  They’re going to be continuing on with their lives… and reminding other people that no, we’re not actually in a recovering economy.  Quite the contrary.

So I invite the administration to tout that 8.1% unemployment; because this isn’t sympathetic magic.  Over a third of the civilian workforce isn’t in fact, well, working: and while many of them can’t work, many of them can.  If there were jobs, which there are not.