The NY Times has an article up about how conservatives lost the election Tuesday because they weren’t conservative enough. Now we’ll see the crazy really flow.
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Category: News
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Holy Blitzer, Wolf
Great, now CNN has acquired the hologram technology. What fancy technology can they use next to dress up mediocre reporting?
Below is a brief letter from a Philly-area paper recently.
Hottie Joe
Am I the only one to have given serious thought to the manly appeal of Joe Biden? Are we immune to his warm, sweet smile? Are we not stirred by his broad shoulders? Are we incapable of fantasizing? He’s not merely sexy – he’s hot!Ruth Rosen
Philadelphia
If you find yourself with about 10 minutes to kill, I strongly recommend this debate between two candidates for a seat in the Alaska State House.
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Those Crazy Internet Rumors
Ever wonder where Internet rumors come from? The NY Times has an article that traces the history of the “Obama-As-A-Secret-Muslim” story.
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Politics: Obama the Radical
The NYTimes does a decent write-up on Obama’s relationship (or lack thereof) with Bill Ayers. This coincides with McCain & Palin picking up on this topic again as a part of “going negative” on Obama. Meanwhile, another group proposes their idea for how Obama should hit back at McCain over his relationship with G. Gordon Liddy.
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Brilliant – Forget This Value Thingy
CNN has a fun article up about how some people believe the concept of “mark to market”, which states that companies have to report the value of their assets as though they would be sold today (i.e. the market value), is behind the financial crisis. Specifically, that because companies have to mark down the value of the mortgage-backed securities they own since the market value has collapsed, they can no longer afford to lend because they cannot maintain adequate capital ratios.
“The SEC has destroyed about $500 billion of capital by their continued insistence that mortgage-backed securities be valued at market value when there is no market,” said William Isaac, a former chairman of the FDIC.
I love the inherent contradiction in the line above. That mortgage backed securities should not be valued at their market value since there is no market, which is largely because they are considered worthless.
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Minimized Government, eh?
I laughed when I read the following line in this NY Times article: “Ms. Palin displayed little familiarity with economic policy details in her interview last week with Charles Gibson of ABC News, but the instincts she articulated matched Mr. Bush’s preference for minimizing government’s role.”
Really? From the guy who ran the administration that launched two wars, took over Fannie and Freddie, created a whole new entitlement with Medicare Part D worth hundreds of billions in new spending (while tying the government’s hands in negotiating fair deals), pushed heavily for the “Patriot” Act to allow spying on US citizens without warrant or notification, sanctioned and encouraged the use of torture on foreign residents, and created a whole new Department within the Federal Government, he believes in minimizing government’s role? Seriously, how can you write that with a straight face? He might believe in minimizing government’s competence, but he certainly doesn’t believe in minimizing government’s role.
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R U Ready for Some Schedule Whining?
Yes, it’s that time again. As we head in to the first college football games of the season, it’s time for those mighty prognosticators to get out there and spin and whine about who has the easiest and hardest schedules. ESPN, always a favorite of mine, posted theirs the other day.
What I love about these annual articles so much is how the writers spin tales that make it sound as though the college football schedule slate is wiped clean every year, with the schools able to decide entirely on their own who they want to play. It ignores the reality that these games are often scheduled years in advance, through long-term contracts and football conferences. It ignores how the fortunes of teams rise and fall, so that a young and growing program when a contract is signed can be considered weak then but become stronger with time.
A few years back, I invested for a time in a blood testing company called Immucor (Ticker: BLUD). They followed the razor / razorblade model so popular today – sell your razor around or at cost while charging nice margins on the razorblades. The custom testing reagents had lofty profit margins.
One of the only drawbacks was the potential for “artificial blood” to come to market, something that sounds a bit further off based on this Wired article. Too bad I sold the stock, missing out on a fantastic run.