Painting

Been busy painting a garage converted into a mudroom/storage room.
Hate most:
1. Cleaning up especially since I'm a slow painter and am doing one or two walls a day.
2. Taping. If there's a better idea I'm all for it. Was also a little disappointed that when I peeled off the tape, some fresh paint came off with it. Either it wasn't completely dry when I put the tape on or it was the tape.

I would hire someone except that I would expect a perfect job. I don't expect perfection from myself of course - so is this a fair performance measure? I noticed that the drywall wasn't completely smoothed out especially near the corners and the parts near the registers and electric outlets. I expected perfection - so as far as painting is concerned - even if it is not perfect, at least they're my imperfections. As for the drywall and the paint job - in time, I'm not even going to notice the annoyances that I had when I was scrutinizing everything.

Now, I've been moving stuff into the room - mainly to de-clutter the rest of the house. And its gotten spring cleaning into my system so I may have to take another hiatus from blogging.

DC Bag tax

There are many not to like the bag tax but after several months of this it doesn't really bother me that much. What I don't particularly like is the following:

... the remaining 3 or 4 cents go to the new Anacostia River Protection Fund. DDOE will administer this fund. We will use it to provide reusable bags, educate the public about litter, and clean up the river.

3 or 4 cents? Come on - why does it sounds so wishy washy?

Water, water, water

Came across the EWG Tap Water Database and I looked up WSSC which to me didn't seem to fare all that well. Neither did WASA. While I get the point that drinking tap water may (or not) be bad for our health I am left with more questions:
1. Is it safe to wash fruits and vegetables?
2. Is it safe to cook with - e.g. boiling pasta?

Too Damn Much Money

I enjoyed this tremendously. By Robert Kaiser and a expansion of The Citizen K Street Project it gave me a great view of how lobbying became such an industry. Cassidy and Associates were not the first lobbyists but they were the first to popularize and use "earmarks" for their clients which were mainly universities seeking federal funds for building new centers and renovations of existing buildings.

The strange thing was that I had expected to be angry at all the waste of tax dollars but I was not. There was no clear cut reason for coming down on one side or the other of the earmarks that the universities were seeking. It all goes to show that whether it is waste or not depends on your point of view.

The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal really goes to show that it is a matter of degree (and perhaps it is a fine degree) whether lobbying is a legal and above board or distasteful and illegal.

In all this was a great retrospective on lobbying in Washington DC.

Green shoots in DC?

1. Noticed two houses on the market for almost a year (listing north of 1.5 million) now have "Contract" on their realtor signs.
2. Have been trying to get some home repairs made - plumbing and roof but 2 out of 3 contractors I called were either too busy (or not accepting new work) or didn't bother to show. (Then again, this might be a result of the winter storms rather than a structural improvement.)

Are these positive signs for the country? Probably not. Washington DC is only a microcosm of itself.

Chile's GDP

Krugman looks at Chile's GDP over time and uses it to slam Milton Friedman and the Chicago school. Tyler's reaction as always, is more measured. I look at the graph and see a lack of consistency in anything - be it policy or government or ideaology.

Are auto sales comparisons still meaningful

Jim Hamilton summarizes the latest auto sales numbers. My reaction? Given that American consumers have been over-consuming on cars for the past 10 years, are these comparisons still useful?