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Inside my mind

I've created this blog as a place to put some of the thougts I want to make public, but that don't pertain to the Empress Theatre. You're welcome to read 'em, and maybe even leave a comment or two if you want. Here you'll find movie and play reviews, thoughts on public, private and home education, and a host of other things that are of interest to me.

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Haiti Adoption Story

Most of us have seen or read stories of adoptions of Haitian children following the earthquake last month. Some of the stories have had a positive slant (the charity has saved children...) other's have had a negative slant (the "missionaries" who kidnapped and tried to smuggle 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic). At a family gathering yesterday, my wife heard a story about a couple that was "finally" able to adopt a child they've been trying to adopt for about 4 years. As the story was related to me, this couple had originally been matched with this child about 4 years ago, but the adoption was cancelled when the parents of the child took her back and parented her themselves. After about three years of caring for the child, the natural parents returned her to the orphanage because both of them had been diagnosed with tuberculosis; a death sentence in Haiti. (Mortality for untreated TB is about 67%.) The adoption was finalized just befo...

Agregate Demand and the US Savings Rate

In my last post, I touched on the differences between the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig von Mises. Immediately aftward, I was directed to this story in the New York Times. It seems that americans are saving more instead of spending the their money on consumer goods. Up until this downturn, about 70% of the US Economy was consumer spending, and in 2005, the US Savings rate was negative 2.7%. The "stimulus" is supposed to stimulate spending to get money moving again. But it isn't happening as planned. Folks are saving for down payments because they don't expect to get zero down home mortgages; they're saving to replenish their decimated retirement and college funds. The austrians believe that the best way to "fix" the economy is to allow the "malinvestment" created by the false signals in the economy (from the open market ops and deficit spending) to be liquidated and the resources repurposed into better investments. It...

Quick Updates

On Tuesday, Amy passed her Utah Life and Health Insurance test and background check. Only one more test to go. Ameriprise has set a tentative start date of July 30. She'll then go into a "pre-appointment" apprenticeship, working under the tutilage of the more experineced advisors. Lessa wrote and told us she's just gotten off crutches. It seems her feet got badly bruised with all the marching. One member of her platoon has already been sent home as unable to adapt to military life.