2011: Reality check

It’s been a rough year economically in the US for most people. Next year will be rougher. The ‘new normal’ will keep sinking in terms of most people’s ability to borrow and spend money, find jobs, take long car trips and dine out. Not ideal, not terrible, more flight to quality over quantity, more focus on basics. At least it will be for people with brains and open eyes.

Here is what Governor-elect Jerry Brown (former Oakland mayor) said about California’s 2011 budget this past Tuesday a while ago per LATimes:

“We’ll present a budget on Jan. 10. It will be a very tough budget, but it will be transparent,” he said. “We’ll lay it out as best I can. We’ve been living in fantasy land. It is much worse than I thought. I’m shocked.”

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What’s in a Store?

Good vibes apparently, if all goes to one entrepreneur’s plan. A Good Vibes-style store called “Feelmore 510” will open on Telegraph at 17th near Bench & Bar and Somar in the near future.

@VSmoothe asks if this is a good idea, so here are my thoughts on pros and cons. Nothing brilliant here, just pragmatic concerns.

PRO:

Sex-positive establishment is counter to all the other stuff out there – movies, smutty mags, what-have-you.

Another NEW BUSINESS in Uptown!

Supplements adults’ social/personal needs which aren’t met in the workplace, restaurant, bowling alley, etc. In a fairly positive or at least realistic way. Particularly meets needs of gay patrons who support many existing downtown Oakland nightlife establishments.

CON:

Near Oakland School for the Arts (charter middle school) – but who is going to keep kids from learning about sex? In any case kids aren’t allowed into the store unlike, say, DeLauer’s.

Overall, I support this business opening.

I also support the opening of a bowling alley in Jack London Square if anyone is listening.

Municipal budget fire to keep adding alarms

Today’s Opinion

Pensions. Unions. Full-time jobs with benefits. Dinosaurs. What do these four things have in common?

Reasons to (still) consider locabucks

Oak Leaves, Acorns, whatever you want to call them they are a way to rebel against our centralized coercive economic system. (Specifically Wall Street’s IOU dollar currency debasement — in which the banks (ie “Federal” Reserve mega-bank) create more of all the time via inflation, debasing our existing savings held in dollar currency format, driving down the purchasing power of their dollar currency which we have in our wallets. Remember when a condo in Orinda “used to” cost $25,000 in the mid 1970s? US factory workers earned $25,000 a year, then. That’s a 1:1 housing affordability ratio. Now compare that to today’s Bay Area housing affordability.)

Read about locabucks here.

I’ve written about “Oak Leaves” before, and you’ve no doubt heard of Oakland currency (Acorns) being disbursed via City of Oakland issued “municipal ID/debit cards.” I don’t really support the ID card, but I do like local currency.

Read about what worked in Austria in 1933 until the central bankers/despots found it too competitive.

The anti-post. Not antiposto.

I write this after eating dinner. It has nothing to do with Oakland’s infrastructure redevelopments but everything to do with “food justice,” “saving money/being cheap” and “eating locally.” It’s not my typical post.

What was it? Fresh pasta made from scratch by yours truly. Sure, eggs aren’t super cheap, flour prices are rising like joint smoke. It’s just satisfying to hand roll and cut your own pasta though. No intimately involved industrial machinery.

This is a fluff post. I wish I could say the pasta was too; it wasn’t. The pasta was hard. Note to self: knead dough for less time using less flour.

Otherwise, quite good. See stupid easy recipe here.

Stay tuned for next week’s piece: Oakland 2010 Review. It will be as superficial and fluffy as possible, like our new mayor and I.

And you’ve heard, right? We’re down at least, oh, ten officers. There are mutterings about Batts. I don’t quite buy them yet. On the other hand, if crime is down it’s because he (a)  has improved morale and (b) rich(er) would-be Oakland theft/mugging victims have less stuff for thieves to steal. It’s a recession for crimanimals too. Or (c) MJ joints are taking biz from the corner dope dealer, (d) the dealers are killing each other off, (e) there are fewer dealers per capita, (f) and latter-day dealers are becoming present-day pimps.

See stupid easy recipe here.http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-make-pasta2.htm