QOTD

Please take it as a given, if I have not given full details of a situation, a person's identity, or whatever else I happen to be writing about, that I have my reasons for not doing so. What I choose to divulge is up to me, not my readers. It is rude and intrusive for readers to demand further details, whether they do so publicly in a comment or privately in an e-mail. So please don't. If it were any of your business, I'd tell you. — misia

(no subject)

I've been told that this project will run through the end of February, and I've spoken to the appropriate person to make sure my ID will open the doors that long. In the meantime, the current task is proceeding very much by fits and starts, depending on who else needs the relevant files, and help from the people who can sort things out, most.

The sky has been mostly various blues of late, with interludes of gray, gray-blue, and white clouds floating against the blues.

I got to the gym last night: 15 minutes of cardio, Xpressline (with the added 5 pounds on the overhead press, 12 reps on everything, including that, except the leg extensions), and 15 reps of adjustable row at 100 pounds. One of these months I will remember that even very mild menstrual cramps are a very bad combination with crunches before lying down and trying it. Finished with stretches, of course.

(no subject)

I've been told that this project will run through the end of February, and I've spoken to the appropriate person to make sure my ID will open the doors that long. In the meantime, the current task is proceeding very much by fits and starts, depending on who else needs the relevant files, and help from the people who can sort things out, most.

The sky has been mostly various blues of late, with interludes of gray, gray-blue, and white clouds floating against the blues.

I got to the gym last night: 15 minutes of cardio, Xpressline (with the added 5 pounds on the overhead press, 12 reps on everything, including that, except the leg extensions), and 15 reps of adjustable row at 100 pounds. One of these months I will remember that even very mild menstrual cramps are a very bad combination with crunches before lying down and trying it. Finished with stretches, of course.

Politics: numbers do matter

Paul Krugman points out that the advocates of Social Security privatization are lying. Not just mistaken, lying. They know their numbers don't and can't work:

Which brings us to the privatizers' Catch-22.

They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.

Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.

It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.

Politics: numbers do matter

Paul Krugman points out that the advocates of Social Security privatization are lying. Not just mistaken, lying. They know their numbers don't and can't work:

Which brings us to the privatizers' Catch-22.

They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.

Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.

It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.

Memory: email from Mom

I got a nice email from my mother, who apologized for forgetting my friend Jenny. And mentioned another Japanese student, Keiko, who I have forgotten. Memory is a weird and fallible thing.

Also, apparently we were each conflating events with regard to school, snow, and my being put into a different class: she had walked me to kindergarten in the snow, after letting me go by myself in nice weather because I wanted to, I was reasonably sensible, and there was a crossing guard. And that got thrown in with being put in a different class because of a teachers' strike.

Mom, FYI: you can leave comments here by clicking where it says "Toss me a curve", and read other people's comments where it says "[n] conic sections". (Those are my versions of the LJ-default "Leave a comment | n comments" links.) Edited to add: how odd: it seems to have lost that customization, and be showing the bog-standard versions.

Memory: email from Mom

I got a nice email from my mother, who apologized for forgetting my friend Jenny. And mentioned another Japanese student, Keiko, who I have forgotten. Memory is a weird and fallible thing.

Also, apparently we were each conflating events with regard to school, snow, and my being put into a different class: she had walked me to kindergarten in the snow, after letting me go by myself in nice weather because I wanted to, I was reasonably sensible, and there was a crossing guard. And that got thrown in with being put in a different class because of a teachers' strike.

Mom, FYI: you can leave comments here by clicking where it says "Toss me a curve", and read other people's comments where it says "[n] conic sections". (Those are my versions of the LJ-default "Leave a comment | n comments" links.) Edited to add: how odd: it seems to have lost that customization, and be showing the bog-standard versions.