The End of An Era

 So, my Athletic subscription expired today, and... I sort of miss it already, given that it is college football season and the best way to follow the sport is to subscribe to a website that aggregates lots of local writers alongside a few national ones.  Ditto for college hoops; their Duke coverage was always pretty solid.  On the other hand, certain other sports I do not follow at all, so...plus, they are owned by the NYT, and one's capital must support one's values.  One of the Fun Runners suggested that given ALL my progressive friends, one of them could subscribe and pass on to me -- as I have so often done for them -- certain articles.  As you could imagine, we all had a good laugh about that.

Speaking of following one's values...

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/02/a-right-wing-answer-to-vogue-00054520

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/02/mag-weiss-kidsbooks-00053509

Oh, I don't know... one, if you think about it, this is a market-based choice; if you think there is a market for these things (no one watches Fox News, ever, right?), why not try to capitalize on it?  Given that the Left does this all the time, no one should be surprised that the Right is now trying it as well.  My second point is that while on the one hand, no one should have to choose where they shop and such based on politics, it is the left that has went there -- with cancel culture, Chick-Fil-A wars (no one ever eats there), etc., -- so again, no one should be surprised if the Right does as well.  I suspect this is the Left's biggest fear, that some of these ventures will succeed and traditional (lamestream, as the still-unemployed Sarah Palin would say) businesses dominated by the Left will see a hemorrhage of readers/income.  I mean, if the clevelandbaseballteam is seeing a 25% drop in attendance and TV viewing -- and can survive because they make so much money from the media contracts (for now), think of how badly publishing would suffer.  Hell, I sort of want to subscribe and buy the kids' books myself.

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2022/09/savers-of-the-world-rejoice-yield-is-back/

This is good, but given the inflation rate, I would counsel against saving anything at all, unless you are saving for something... if not, either retire debts (so you will have more spending capacity when things normalize) or, if need be, buy something now (if a good deal), because eventually, it won't be.  I realize I am cheap, and I have debts, but right now I don't even save spare change (used to roll it and turn it in at the bank in the emergency fund).  If not spent at stores, it is added to the kitty when I make a HELOC payment, not that 60 cents every bank trip makes a colossal difference.  Indeed, I admit the effect is psychological (though an extra $20 a year should not be dismissed), but every bit helps...

Finally finished A Generation of Sociopaths.  This brings me to 29 books for the year, well of the pace of 50 I had wanted to do.  Alas.  Anyways, the book itself, I rather liked it.  I think it is largely true, and yes, the Boomers have to pay for what they have wrought.  On the other hand... I think the author doth protest too much?  I don't any other generation would not have tried to do what they did; they just had the numbers to push it through.  Nor do I think all of their misdeeds are that; some of the stuff in the tax code will benefit other generations, for instance, once they start to enjoy their benefits, and in other ways...well, the author is just wrong, such as his look at crime and the supposed superiority of Social Security; if anything, experience shows that private savings, not pensions -- private or government supported -- are the way to go.