
Another successful trip to Priest Lake is in the books and I’m back in Sarasota. I didn’t read as much as I would have liked, but the weather was too good to spend reading. It seems I haven’t miss much news and the world hasn’t fallen apart. Priest Lake is a beautiful place and I can’t wait to return again.
I used to believe that the ultimate rock n’ roll mockumentary, or any mockumentary for that matter, was This Is Spinal Tap. After revisiting The Rutles recently on YouTube and after considerable internal debate, I now proclaim The Rutles and their Tragical History Tour as the reigning champion.
I first saw The Rutles, or the Pre-Fab Four, on Saturday Night Live years and years ago when the Not Ready for Prime Time Players were in their prime. I won’t mention how old I was at the time, because I simply don’t remember. Here’s the intro to The Rutles mockumentary, All You Need is Cash. You can find a number of other clips of The Rutles at YouTube, but for the full experience I suggest adding the DVD to your collection.
At 4:02 you’ll find rare footage of The Rutles at The Cavern in Liverpool performing Goose Step Mama. I’ve provided the lyrics below so you can sing along with Nasty, Stig, Dirk and Barry:
Goose step Mama, on the cover charge
Goose step Mama, taken by an’ large
Why you take on with a tailor? Someone sold you to a sailor
Goose step Mama, oh yea, Goose step Mama
Goose step Mama, boogie all night long
Goose step Mama, you can do no wrong
You know how to reassemble. Empty hands and knees that tremble.
Goose step Mama, oh yea, Goose step Mama, wah-hoo !
Girl’s got something that makes you something
Something tells me loud and clear
In the end it comes to nothing.
You’ve got nothing too, eins, zwei, drei, vier!
Goose step Mama, with your Rock and Roll
Goose step Mama, with your heart of gold
You don’t like to see me suffer
Love is tough, but life is tougher
Goose step Mama, oh yea, Goose step Mama, woo (awh) heh!

It’s time for my annual trip to Priest Lake, ID. This will be my fourth trip in a row and the first with my beautiful new wife. As per usual I’ve got a couple of books and the latest issue of the The Economist to read while I soak in the beautiful scenery. Technology is slowing creeping into park. Every year electricity and showers move closer to our quaint campground. While I can’t deny progress, there’s something very wonderful about being detached from this world for a few days.

Take a guess; which one of these is considered “high art” and which one is akin to “lynching?” Who said liberals can’t take a joke?
HT: Sonny Bunch
I’m a sucker for counter intuitive statistics. It’s probably why I love economics. Anyway, we’ve all heard that America’s obesity problem is contributing to rising annual health care costs. What about lifetime health care costs? Jacob Sullum at Hit & Run helps answer this question.
Far be it from me to deny the undeniable, but the fact that obese people have higher annual health care costs does not mean they have higher lifetime costs. It therefore does not follow that reducing obesity would reduce total medical spending in the long run. In fact, a study published last year in PLoS Medicine reached the opposite conclusion: Because obese people tend to die sooner than thin people do, the researchers found, eliminating obesity would increase spending on health care. “Although effective obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases,” the authors wrote, “this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in life-years gained. Obesity prevention may be an important and cost-effective way of improving public health, but it is not a cure for increasing health expenditures” (emphasis added).
I have never thought about the issue like this, but it makes perfect sense. Reducing obesity is an important issue, but it’s not going to help with health care costs. If we’re really committed to reducing obesity we should tax food that’s fattening. I have no problem increasing taxes on goods that harm the public.
In hindsight I feel a little bad about this next retail story. My co-worker Trey was there that day. The faithful day when some twelve year old boy wanted to talk about video cards. This was fairly common at Circuit City. Some kid spends four hours a day studying hardware reviews and then wants to talk to the tech head at the local store. There’s really no harm in it, but what do you do when the kid won’t go away.
Well, on one such occasion Trey and I were having to build end-caps. We were unpacking laptops to put them on display. This kid just kept going on and on while we were working. Finally I asked him the question.
Henshaw: Have you read about echo chamber distortion?
Kid: Yeah
Henshaw: All the high end video cards have them.
Kid: I’ve been reading a lot about that online…
There’s only one problem with echo chamber distortion; it doesn’t exist. The look on Trey’s face while this conversation took place was priceless. He could barely stop himself from laughing. Finally the kid left us alone. I realize now I really don’t much about video cards anymore. I can’t tell you what the best Intel chip is… all that knowledge is gone. Like Circuit City it’s gone with wind.
Anyway, what can be learned from this encounter? Culturally speaking Americans tend to answer yes to questions like “did you see this” or “did you read about that?” Admittedly this kid wasn’t the last time I’ve pulled out echo chamber distortion. It sounds technical. The real trick is convincing the person you know what you’re talking about. Our president has mastered this art.
John Stossel sums up something that should easy to understand.
Adam Smith wrote an obscure book about economics that explains why greed fuels innovation.


Recent Comments