CA $$$
CA government spending a lot of $$$, right?
Courtesy my fave Mad Hedge guy (source), CA is spending a ton of money on prisons:
  • CA spending on prisons has "soared from 3% of the state’s domestic product in 1979 to 11% last year"
  • And "80% of that spending is going to compensation"
  • "It costs $6 billion a year to pay 60,000 prison guards, most of whom make over $100,000 a year with overtime"
  • CA prison spending is "more than it costs the state to educate 670,000 college students"
And how can this crap like this happen?
CA prison guards have "the state’s most powerful" union.
And IL's most powerful union: teachers?
And USA's most powerful union: federal employees?

Cormac 2
Book: "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... excellent!

I was 250 pages into an easy 5-star book. Then, dop. The last 50 pages.

Cormac also wrote "The Road", and his writing style is so emotive of the material he is covering. "The Road" was bleak, so his style was bleak and barren. "Pretty Horses" is set in the rugged west with a couple of teenage cowboys escaping to Mexico for, I don't know, for some air, some freedom. Anyway, his style is rugged and wonderful to read. Some examples:
  • Sparse punctuation with no quotation marks. Conversations just flow with the story and you figure out who's talking.
  • Few apostrophes... sort of like how people talk.
  • Some Spanish is thrown in here and there as the cowboys head into Mexico. It wasn't tough to follow what was going on.
Alas, the ending died. The plot got squirrely. The descriptions got a bit winded. The last 50 pages were a struggle.

Oh well. This is still an outstanding book and a great vacation read. This is great guy reading with cowboys and the outdoors and riding free and hot Mexican chicks and... There are two more Cormac books in his "Border Trilogy". I'll hit em and let you know.

QOTD
You still aint told me what answer you give her, said Rawlins.
I told her I'd do whatever she asked.
What did she ask?
I aint sure.
They sat watching the fire.
Did you give your word? said Rawlins.
I dont know. I dont know if I did or not.
Well either you did or you didnt.
That what I'd of thought. But I dont know.
- "All the Pretty Horses", page 138-9
En homage... an wild, wild west (cough) picture from AZ:
Sedona, AZ

Cub Lose
Who's got the better team in 2010: Cub or Cardinal?
Well, let's go position by position:
  • C - Molina, Stl
  • 1B - Pujols, Stl
  • 2B - Lopez, Stl
  • 3B - Aramis, Cub
  • SS - Lugo, Stl
  • OF - Holliday, Ludwick, Rasmus, Stl, Stl, Stl
And F pitching. That's an even worse rout than the hitting comparison.
The dang Cub stink.
Next year.
he he... yow, bill

Labels: , , , , ,