Shaun of the Shorties

Happy Nevada Day from Las Vegas.

“Is your uh, is your wife interested in….photography, ay?” (reference) Ay? Well now you no longer have to keep records proving that she was of legal age at the time.

What’s twice the size of Texas, disgusting, and getting bigger every day? Unfortunately, it’s a massive garbage dump at sea. It’s so big, one expert says “At this point, cleaning it up isn’t an option.” Since 80% of the trash-continent’s contents come from land-based sources, experts propose measures that reduce reliance on plastic bags and packaging as a means to slow its growth.

Oil’s Well that Ends Well. Oil is up again, now hitting over $92 a barrel. Oh, and the dollar continues to slide. Add to that this item:

On September 29th…, the government of Iraq announced that the next annual renewal of the United Nations Security Council mandate for a multinational force in Iraq — the only legal basis for a continuation of the American occupation — will be the last. That was… the first shoe to fall. The second may be an announcement terminating the little-noticed, but crucial companion Security Council mandate governing the disposition of Iraq’s oil revenues.

Tax overhaul proposals blooming in the sun? There must be an election coming up.  This one comes from Congressman Rangel.  It allegedly would reduce taxes on roughly a third of Americans, repeal AMT, and place a surtax on people who he thinks make too much money ($200,000 per year).  You want a simple sensible tax overhaul proposal that can be explained to anybody in less than 10 minutes?  Make the standard deduction equal to the poverty line, indexed annually.  Cap itemized deductions at three or even four times that, making AMT obsolete.  Add no more than a half dozen “over and above” deductions for stuff most of us agree are beneficial to society, like charitable contributions. Recalculate tax brackets and rates accordingly.  The End.

I wish my inner conspiracy theorist would shut up.  Seriously.  Not to make light of what is still happening in California with the fires, but now we are finding out that several of the fires were arson,  there were delays in getting firefighting aircraft into the skies, the stadium shelter was just short of being a free festival, the number of evacuees turns out to have been greatly exaggerated, and Mr. Bush arrives (stopping all other flights, including those firefighting planes) just in time to look like a conquering hero.  I don’t want to think that anybody could have set this in motion just to show how well the government can respond to a disaster. I want to believe all that is mere coincidence. I really do.

Interview with a MythBuster.  Ok, interview with both the MythBusters.

Declare War on Stress. (referenceAmericans have more stress these days, fueled by housing costs and terror fears.

Won’t somebody think of the children.  Firedoglake has a fascinating item called “From The Cradle to Uncertainty”, but be sure to click through to the  CDF called  “The Cradle to Prison Pipeline”.  I could do without the ethnocentric preachyness of Marion Wright Edelman (hint, not all religions worship on Sunday, and what the heck does that have to do with kids being doomed to prison?), but the idea that some kids — by the very circumstances into which they are born — may be funneled into a life of crime is sobering.  Oh, and on a related note, a cartoon relevant to SCHIP and other Medicare For All plans.

Stop worrying about the War on Terror.  It’s the War on Freedom we need to be concerned about.

And finally.  If the economy is great, and corporations are making lots of money, and the consumer is buying stuff,  how are corporations getting that stuff to the consumer?  Because they sure aren’t putting it on trains and trucks. He cites not just one, but 4 shipping companies whose earnings are soft on “reduced demand”.

Have a great weekend.

MOTHERS Act

BlogHers Act: Blog Day for the Mothers Act

Last week, in a town called Otsu, a woman dropped her 10 month old baby boy out a 6th floor apartment window.

For the moment, let us assume that people who are perfectly sane do not go tossing babies out of apartment windows. Allow me to furthermore point out that mental illness effects the way people think; this should be obvious, but nobody is able to “just snap out of it” or “get a hold of yourself” when it comes to mental illness. Someone who is mentally ill might not even be able to tell they are not thinking rationally.

But why do I care about one baby boy and one mentally ill mom on the other side of the world? Why should you care?

Today is the Blog Day for The MOTHERS Act, the first event in an active targeted campaign by BlogHer to improve maternal health around the world. The MOTHERS Act stands for “Moms Opportunity to Access Help, Education, Research and Support for Postpartum Depression Act.” You can find out more about postpartum depression and its more serious form, postpartum psychosis from the nice folks at the Department of Health and Human Services. Here’s more:

Bottom line: Of the more than 800,000 women annually who are affected by post-partum emotional and mental issues, a mere 15% get treatment. The MOTHERS Act aims to change this by requiring screening of women who have given birth.

Before anybody goes off about how this is going to cost money, the type of “screening” we are talking about involves a few questions asked by a discharge nurse. These questions could result in someone getting treatment they desperately need; these questions could save a baby’s life.

Mahablog has a very nice post on this issue, including some insight through the voice of experience and a list of Congressmen to call.

Update 5/10/2012: I was contacted by a licensed social worker to inform me of a dead link (now corrected). She also gave me this great source on drug and alcohol abuse in women.

Something in the $250,000 range

No, not talking about housing prices.

Compare and contrast:  Peter Gabriel’s $250,000 “The Shed” is a 240 square foot state of the art recording studio you can have drop-shipped to you; or MC Lars’s “Post-punk laptop rap,”  done in a “studio” that probably cost less than $5,000 and can fit in a sufficiently large notebook bag.  Maybe Peter Gabriel is more successful, more creative.  But I bet he’s not 50 times as creative, and 50 times more successful over the long term remains to be seen.

If you want to know some of my thoughts on Asia, be sure to check out my latest item over at Central Sanity.   Otherwise, in closing: 54 random thoughts from Digital Penguin; Farmers want to grow a proven, useful crop but the Feds won’t let them because it might be mistaken for drugs; best item to date on the biggest problem facing American families that we don’t talk about; and the item I originally intended to rant about, on any typical day thousands of American teenagers are drinking, smoking, doing drugs.  I notice they specifically did not mention having sex, being involved in a gang, or any other ways they could be getting into trouble.  Well gee, people, maybe if the high school didn’t dismiss before 2 PM they wouldn’t have time for drugs!  I hate being the voice of reason on this.  I encourage everyone to send this article to the local school board, along with an article about how teenager’s brains aren’t awake at 7:30 AM.  Reasonable high school hours == instant achievement + reduced trouble.  It’s a good thing.

Pro-“Life” My Foot!

President Bush has appointed someone to “oversee $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, counseling and preventive screenings.” The problem is that the person he has appointed “applauded a Bush proposal to stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to cover a broad range of birth control”, saying that “fertility is not a disease”. You can read more about her rather outlandish views here.

Now, let me make sure I understand this. The person in charge of seeing to it that low-income families are able to control the size of their families — a critical factor in escaping poverty — has a history of being opposed to contraceptives? What?

Here’s the deal, folks. Contraceptives prevent abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies. Frankly, I have no idea where to begin discussing this woman’s views because there is no hope of common ground. The idea that someone with views so out of touch with mainstream America — where 2/3 of all people think we should have access to contraceptives, over half think our insurance companies should pay for it, and 95% of women will use contraceptives in their lifetimes — could be put in such a role boggles my mind.

In closing: sometimes old recipes are the best recipes; Fox Business News, insulting your intelligence and playing dirty; haw haw haw panic, naw he’s only kiddin; and 10 questions for umpteen candidates.

Economy-filter

It is fitting to discuss the American economy on a day when three Americans have won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Here’s what Tim Iocono thinks about that.

Speaking of expert opinions, I’ve been hearing a lot over the last day about a superfund to help provide liquidity in something called SIVs. Now, I’ve followed the markets for some years now and yet I don’t know much about these things. And the first several things I saw on the matter didn’t even mention what the letters stand for — which makes me wonder if the journalists know what the heck they are. Luckily for us all, the BondDad was kind enough too run down what these are and what the problem is. Oh, and SIV stands for Structured Investment Vehicle.

The American mortgage problem continues to have international repercussions as Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings decides to get out of the mortgage backed securities business in the United States. Actually, I enjoyed this item in my local newspaper yesterday. A now unemployed mortgage broker explains what happened: programs that allowed people to buy homes with nothing down; mortgage brokers that were using programs with such shoddy documentation that there are “brokers who have never made a fully documented loan”; an industry that would rather hire some young recent graduate than somebody with actual experience in bad times.

No discussion of the American economy today would be complete without addressing the anniversary of 1987’s Black Monday. Could it happen again, MSNBC asks. My answer? A big drop in the Dow could happen over the course of several weeks — remember that we are at Dow 14,000, it was just over 8000 in September of 2001. But it won’t happen in one day. There have been too many changes in the way the stock markets work since then: trading curbs; an increase in electronic trading; the rise of online trading, enabling Joe Average to put in a market order that goes much more quickly to execution than it could in 1987.

Now oil is trading at roughly $85 per barrel. Oh, and the dollar is flirting with new lows, which is making the oil problem worse. Breathe. Today, Marc Faber was on CNBC and he said what I have maintained for quite a while: the core inflation rate does not reflect what you and I see when we pay our bills. The day of reckoning is coming when it will no longer be able to hide inflation in the statistics.

A couple items on wealth and the lack thereof: this very nice article on the problems of getting out of the “underclass”; paired with EconoSpeak asking what a service economy does to the middle class (answer, nothing good!). Well, there is a little silver lining, American toy manufacturers are having a mini-boom as people avoid Chinese toys.

And one last thing, Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee is for a tax simplification program that boils down to a flat, national retail sales tax. For the record, I’d like to point out that a retail sales tax puts the entire tax burden on Joe and Jane Average. Corporate profits would be completely untaxed. Now then, corporations use taxpayer-funded services and facilities too. They ship things on our roads. They call the fire department and the police department in emergencies. They benefit from the actions of our government, whether it is our Coast Guard preventing drugs from getting into the country and workplace, or the Department of Education providing funds to teach future employees to read. Do you think it’s fair for them to be exempt from taxes?

In closing: John Edwards points out that Hillary Clinton hasn’t so much as won a primary yet; needless to say China is not happy about the Dalai Lama visiting President Bush and receiving a Congressional Gold Medal; Qwest was approached about wiretapping Americans months before 9/11 and punished for refusing; it’s fun to work at the USDA!; the Farm Bill matters because you eat food; thank goodness, a new designer of clothes for people like me, who are too short for petites; permission to fly in or over the United States is now required; and finally, when economics and markets news source TheStreet.com is running a piece on your First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, we have a big problem in the civil liberties department.

Attack of the Killer Shorties

The Better Late Than Never edition on some items.

Europe’s not so bad after all. It turns out you can afford socialized medicine and a vibrant economy after all.

Delicious Pickled Red Herring. Two things bother me about this AMERICAblog post concerning the “bad judgement” of the various Wall Street firms that stood to make a lot of money had Mr. Bush actually gotten his Social Security Privatization plan rammed through. The poster points out that a bevy of such firms have pre-announced bad earnings numbers and written off a lot of bad debt. The thing is that all these firms are trying to “get out in front of the numbers,” that is, get all the bad news out so that there will be no unpleasant surprises. In one case, a bank is writing off any debts more than 3 days overdue. Now I don’t know about yours, but my mortgage payment coupon says I have a 15 day grace period; these banks are making their numbers deliberately bad so that it will appear that they have a miraculous comeback next quarter! Of course this still doesn’t address the biggest problem with Social Security Privatization: you can’t solve “not enough money” by having less money.

Take your anti-contraception propaganda and shove it! Contrary to what some activists would like us all to believe, “The Pill” doesn’t cause cancer; it may prevent cancer.

The Math is a Harsh Mistress. Somebody figured out that a lot more jobs were created in Mr. Clinton’s administration — after a tax increase — that Mr. Bush’s administration. Even if we want to cut Mr. Bush some slack and not count those pesky jobs lost during the last recession and start counting at August of 2003, that’s 4 years and one month ago. Jobs needed per month (150,000) times months (49) is 7.35 million. That’s somewhat more than 5.8 million. In other job creation data, I am not the only person noting that the only real areas of job growth are in three rather narrow service fields. But something I should have wondered and did not: “If these three sectors contributing all of net job growth over the last three months were to be an indication of a healthy economy, then the source of the funds ultimately used to pay the salaries of all these new workers would be an important question to ask. Just where does all the money come from?”

Because just what everyone needs is another bank account. Hillary wants us all to have access to “401(k)-style retirement accounts for all Americans and provide federal matching money to middle-income people who save at least $1,000.” Excuse me, is there some reason we can’t raise the contribution limits on IRA accounts to achieve the same goal? Why can’t the dollar-matching happen with accounts many Americans already have? Time to stop reinventing the wheel, people!

Speaking of politics…. Some states don’t have primaries. They have caucuses. They’re a little more intimidating to Joe and Jane Average, but really, if your state has a caucus, you should go participate.

Fashion Controversy. Just where did the traditional Japanese “sailor” styled schoolgirl uniforms come from originally?

The Real Intellectual Heir of Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush. Oh, and bonus Krugman thoughts on the side.

Concentric Waves. The ripple-effect from America’s credit crunch is perhaps just beginning.

History is re-written by the survivors. I’ve said for a long time that “eating fat makes you fat” is a “you are what you eat” taken to it’s most ludicrous conclusion. Well, it turns out there never was any real evidence that dietary fat causes heart disease either.

You Tell ‘Em! Bravo to Mr. Nadler for speaking common sense when everyone else wants to look “tough” on terror.

Potato, potahto potato. Last week Mr. Bush said that we don’t torture people; this week Mr. Carter said that um, yes you do.

Where is that crazy elf when you need him? There’s good money in dentistry. Such a shame so many people are choosing to do without it.

The Last Thing in the Circus. Every time we have yet another scandal involving a secretly gay conservative and/or Republican figure, I wonder if we will ever know how and why a gay male prostitute had extensive access to the White House.

Numbers

This morning, the President decided to make some comments during the first half hour of trading on Wall Street, well before the close of trading in Europe. Let’s look at what he said:

I want to thank members of my economic team for coming in the Oval Office this morning to bring some good news here for America’s families and America’s working people. The — last month our economy added 110,000 new jobs. And that’s good news for people here in our country. It’s an indicator that this economy is a vibrant and strong economy.

The folks briefed me on the fact that they are — numbers for July and August were revised — job numbers, job creation numbers. And this economy added 118,000 new jobs in July and August, as well. This means — with these revisions, it means that we’ve had 49 consecutive months of job creation. And that’s the longest uninterrupted job growth on record for our country.

I could go on about this, but the BondDad did such a nice job. We need about 150,000 to absorb new people into the workforce; we failed for the last 3 months. What about the other 46 months of “job creation”? Where are those people who just never got jobs? How interesting that some business schools are specifically designing programs for people who have been out of the workforce for several years.

You know, I am really pleased with the economic news, but I don’t take good news for granted. I understand people are worried about their mortgage payments, or concerned about sending their child to college. I know that people are concerned whether or not they’re going to have enough money to meet their needs. And so my call to the United States Congress is, keep taxes low. If you want this economy continue to grow, and if you want to reinforce the fact that we’ve got — entrepreneurship is strong and people are working, don’t raise taxes.

Entrepreneurship is “strong” because there are not traditional jobs. A few bucks here and there writing code or mowing lawns or selling the multi-level-marketing crap of the month is “entrepreneurship,” but it isn’t necessarily making a living. Oh, and the tax cuts didn’t have much to do with it.

And I’m looking forward to working with the Congress to set priorities on how we spend the people’s money, but I also am going to make it very clear to people in Congress that we’re not going to raise their taxes on the working people.

And so I’m real pleased. I thank you all for coming in to bring this good news to me. It’s — this good news is a real tribute to the hardworking Americans, the people out there working hard to put food on the table. And it’s a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of the country.

What, he picks now to pretend to be fiscally responsible? Spending hundreds of billions with a b every year for the next who-knows-how-long on war and crony contractors, yet willing to veto a mere tens of billions over 5 years on health care for those very same hardworking Americans that are working hard to put food on the table? Sheesh. And the Republican presidential candidates are following him right off the edge.

I want to say something else. There’s been a lot of talk in the newspapers and on TV about a program that I put in motion to detain and question terrorists and extremists. I have put this program in place for a reason, and that is to better protect the American people. And when we find somebody who may have information regarding an — a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them — because the American people expect us to find out information — actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.

No problem. Take a couple days. Charge them or release them when you are done.

Secondly, this government does not torture people. You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.

That’s not what he said in 2004.

Thirdly, there are highly trained professionals questioning these extremists and terrorists. In other words, we got professionals who are trained in this kind of work to get information that will protect the American people. And by the way, we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you.

Highly trained professionals like Lynndie England. Using methods like this and this and this. Warning: Explicit photos, NSFW, not for those who are easily disgusted!

And finally, the techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress. The American people expect their government to take action to protect them from further attack. And that’s exactly what this government is doing, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.

Appropriate members? Who would those be? Sen. Vitter? Sen. Craig?

I really ought to stop listening when he does these market-open speeches.

In closing: famous pictures of Tokyo before they started calling it Tokyo; everyone loves the zoo, here’s about 150 years of pictures to prove it; the best health plan proposed by a presidential candidate is the one by Mr. Kucinich; duck-billed dinosaur; yoink! way to turn 2600 soldiers into rabid veteran’s rights advocates (I guess nobody remembers that these guys have been trained to use weapons); why is it that incarceration rates have risen about 600% since the 1970s?; Korea talks “exceed low expectations“; the death of a housewife in TSA custody still makes no sense; and last, Burma-filter — Monks fleeing, military leader may agree to meet with the actual elected and imprisoned leader, but only if she drops her “attitude”, and “Who is left to challenge the junta?