Month: October 2008

Oh wow, it’s the end of the month already

Happy Halloween, folks!

Here are a few of my favorite October posts over the last 5 years:  How to Make Money Selling Cars is strangely new again; Post Partum Depression is still too common and too rarely treated; seriously, Just Say No to Voter Initiatives; School Fundraisers are a terrible waste of time for students and faculty; I wish I was Special; and Rent Control does the exact opposite of what proponents think it does.

In closing: Nebraska Governor thinks only cute little babies are worth saving from parents who can’t take care of them; banks would rather outright give money to people who don’t need it than lend it to people who do need it; the Government economists can no longer hide the fact that the economy sucks; a voter’s guide straight out of the Bible; finally somebody who is really Pro-Life instead of Anti-Abortion or Anti-Sex; speaking of which, a real pro-life stance admits that expecting mothers are living beings too; and remember to VOTE Tuesday if you haven’t already.  I hope to have an item on the philosophy of voting by then, but you never know.  Have a great weekend!

The House with Laughing Shorties

What would you suppose is the greatest breakthrough in public health? The discovery of germs, perhaps?  Vaccines? Doctors washing their hands?  Pasteurization?  Nope.  The Toilet!

It’s (not) all in your head: If a  modern preacher in a mainline demonination suggested that you shun antibiotics in favor of trusting in the healing power of God, he’d be laughed out of most congregations, perhaps with an admonition that “God gave the power to heal that into the hands of doctors.”  Yet one out of three people who confide in their preacher about diagnosed mental illness get a fast ration about demons, sin, and lack of faith! (Warning, there is an image that may offend people with too much time and not enough real things to worry about on that site.  I’d apologize, but unless you are under-aged, I’m not sorry.)

Where have all the lenders gone? Well, banks have better things to do with the taxpayer provided money than actually lend it out.  Seriously.  I am hearing experienced Realtors grumble that “you have to have cash or walk on water these days.” However, just today President Bush told them “come on guys, cut it out already!” so everything should be ok soon. I have a nice bridge to sell you, cash only please.

Huh, that’s not what they said last time: The Republicans are warning that putting one party in charge of both Congress and the White House would be Very Very UhohUhoh Bad.  Just in case we were unclear on this, Governor Palin reiterated the idea, explaining that somehow or another, it would lead to Gridlock!  Funny, 4 years ago we were told that if we did not put one party in charge of both Congress and the White House things would be Very Very UhohUhoh Bad and Terrorists would rule the world or something.

The President and the Constitution: Commander in Chief?

TSA to see reason: The airplane carry-on ban on anything liquid may be lifted in 2009.  Please keep in mind that the Europeans are already ahead of us on this one, and security experts have openly asked “if this stuff is so darn dangerous, why are we piling it all in one bin again?”

Oh no, there might be more high school dropouts if we expect students to learn stuff: At least that’s the warning bell being sounded by USA Today. Forgive me for failing to see why this is a bad thing. We have a lot of jobs in this nation that don’t really need a high school education to do properly. Second, the idea that “everyone” needs a diploma devalues the diploma itself.  Third, the diploma needs to mean that a certain level of mastery has been acheived (and frankly, if you can pass the GED at 14 I am not sure why you shouldn’t).

Your dose of Tama: Stationmaster Cat Tama has been knighted. That medal looks pretty cool on him!

Mercurial: Cool pictures of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

I seem to recall having said this: Counting calories is making a comeback, because calories matter!  Now, if only common sense would make a comeback as well….

The consumer is down: I think Business Week said it all when they said “The Conference Board said on Oct. 28 that its consumer confidence index has dropped to an all-time low, from 61.4 in September to 38 in October.” Wow. The Economic Policy Institute adds “American consumers shopped but have now dropped”. Unbossed points out that the real problem is crappy wages. This is apparently not true if you happen to be a football coach (here’s an idea for balancing the university budget, cut this number drastically!). And finally, the election as viewed by the homeless.

Write to Marry

And last but surely not least: It’s Write to Marry Day. Thanks to Last Left Turn Before Hooterville for pointing it out.  If someone can explain to me how my marriage can possibly be threatened by George Takei or Pam Spaulding I’d really appreciate it. Am I supposed to suddenly leave my partner of 17 years because I can kiss a girl??  Why should the gay and lesbian people I know who are in long-term committed relationships have fewer rights than [insert vapid and short lived but heterosexual relationship here]?  Furthermore, this is not about sex.  It’s about property rights and medical care and companionship and tax benefits and all the other stuff.  Here’s what the head of the ACLU has to say on the matter.  He’s writing from the heart.

Piper Palin Picked a Peck of Pickled Pocketbook

Ok.  I’m not the first person to post this picture:

Piper Palin

According to Buzzflash, that’s a $650 Louis Vuitton handbag. For a 6 year old.  Just for reference purposes, I have been an adult *ahem* somewhat longer than Little Miss Palin has been alive, and I haven’t spent that much on handbags, total, in my lifetime. To get anywhere near that total, you’d have to add briefcases, backpacks (ranging from K-Mart cheapies to L.L. Bean), and a computer bag.  Sure, I know people who would buy that kind of bag for a kid (well, a teenager anyway);  I also know people who can barely afford the gas to get to work in the morning.

But according to Shaun at Kiko’s House, it’s even worse.  The bag isn’t real, but a counterfeit!  Buying a stupidly expensive handbag for a first grader is merely bad taste.  After all, they can afford the real thing — particularly if the RNC is paying.  Counterfeiting is a crime.  Supporting it is theft of intellectual property.  Oh, yeah, the money made from these bags may also support organized crime and terrorism.  Way to be “America First” there.

In Closing: My what big borders you have; a creepy doctor’s office (thankfully, abandoned); cut Federal spending all you like, but you won’t touch the National Debt without letting the blood out of some sacred cows; the downside of public transit?; Agent Greenspan Is Just Shocked!!; ok ok fine split the baby and each of you can have half, or Fake Centrists taken to task; and sign of the economic times as much as the academic times, today’s kids less likely to graduate high school than their parents. Forgive me for not seeing this as a problem in any way;  nobody needs a diploma to sack groceries or scrub floors or dozens of other tasks that are menial but necessary. Furthermore, no school administrator is able to wave a magic wand and make poor families able to do without the meager income brought in by a working (ex-)student.

Johnny Sunshine Maximum Shorties

Before I get too far: Stay classy, Senator!  What was this man thinking?? McCain Showing Respect

Life is not like the movies: Thankfully, given Shorties titles!  But seriously, life is even less like the movies when you are a computer.

Tips for running a small business: particularly in the worst of times.

Leaders must also be servants: Taza, son of Cochise.

The whole truth: “The ‘living beyond our means’ argument, with its thinly-veiled suggestion of moral terpitude, is technically correct….  But this story leaves out one very important fact. Since the year 2000, median family income has been dropping, adjusted for inflation.”  Robert Reich is off telling the truth again. And it’s only going to get worse according to the IHT.

More truth: Underemployment is at a 14 year high at 11%.

May I have some more?: Ok, have some inflation data!

I hope you never need this: Advice for New Paupers.  Unfortunately it’s all too easy a slide into a really bad place from which it’s hard to climb out.

Schneier shows us that conventional wisdom about terrorists is wrong: Terrorist groups are a lot more like gangs (or all those little independent Jewish groups in Life of Brian) than political movements. In fact, there are 7 ways they are highly ineffective.

An interesting view of the bailout: What if Mr. Paulson really started playing hardball with the banks that want to take government money but not really give anything up/back in return?

Another Missing Link: A newly found fossil explores a transition between fish and the land-dwelling vertebrates that followed 375 million years ago.

Anime explained by alien visitors?: Some documents support the idea that in the early 1800s, Japan was visited by strange-featured little people with pink faces, red eyebrows, and impossibly long white hair, who arrived in round, glass covered “boats.”

Iraq wants the United States to follow some rules: Specifically, they want our soldiers to not commit crimes, they want us out of the cities by next June, and they want us out of the country altogether by 2011. So, assuming no catastrophes, whoever is elected President next month can take credit for bringing troops home.  All he has to do is abide by the existing agreement.

Nite, folks.  Stay sane.

A quick stock-trading lesson

At this time, today’s range on the DJIA has been 7882.51 – 8687.11 according to Yahoo Finance. If you panicked last night and put in a market sell order, that order executed at or near the bottom.  On the other hand, if your order didn’t go in until after 10 AM Eastern, that order executed much closer to the top of today’s range.

If you are going to pick stocks, I have an ironclad rule for you.  Never ever place a market order for a stock that is not currently open for trading. Why?  Because you have no idea what that stock will be trading for when it opens, and you have no control over what price you will pay/receive.  If your schedule dictates that you must place your orders outside of trading hours, learn to use stop and limit orders, and use them every time you trade. You may pay a slightly higher transaction fee, but you might save your transaction!

Seriously.

In closing: some thoughts to get you through a tough day; the TSA proposes killing business travel altogether screening private plane passengers too (how do they think they are going to pull that off at the kind of airports such flights generally use?); and fix the credit problem, let the pesky symptoms take care of themselves.

Tomorrow ought to be interesting

A couple weeks ago, I (privately) said that if the Dow punched through 10,000, there was absolutely nothing stopping it from going down to about 8600. And we’ve now dropped below 8600.  I was thinking of more-or-less a 20 year chart.  If we go higher from here, I think it will head right back to the mid 10k range.  If it goes lower, something around 7500.  In the extremely unlikely possibility that the Dow should break below about 7300, there is absolutely nothing stopping it before 4000. However, that would require financial carnage including complete collapse of Dow components — without Dow Jones changing the rules by subbing a more viable player.

By way of disclaimer, this is not financial advice.  My ideas are little more than the office football pool of the stock market.

In closing: why did it take two months to arrest this drunken nutcase?; if you are still somehow confused about the candidate’s issues, MahaBarbara has links for you; support your local animal shelter; the Treasury Department is considering taking an “ownership stake” in banks, and the thing that bothers me is that they even want to own a peice of healthy banks (um yeah, which party are the “socialists” again?); and a couple things about illegal immigration. Now on one hand, I don’t know what to make of these big public raids.  Can you prove you are a citizen with stuff you normally keep in your pockets?  More to the point, they never seem to arrest any company officials who hire these illegal workers.  And it is true that legal immigration is a broken system that needs fixing — and temporarily doubling the INS staff to work backlog if necessary. But what we will find if we are able to get that done is that the employers who are currently “forced” to hire illegal workers will continue to find cheap, easily exploited sources of labor until such time as they are held accountable to laws already on the books.

Goodnight!

Survey Says!

Good morning, readers.

This morning I have a post by special request from a research team at New York University. They would like you to participate in a political opinion survey.  According to the site, the initial set of questions should take 15-20 minutes, and there will be a follow up that might take another 15 minutes.

Please, take the time to help them out.  Here is the link to the opening page of the survey, with more information. You will notice that comments are turned off;  that is by request of the research team.  They don’t want the comments thread to accidentally color the results.

Aw heck, it wouldn’t be much of a post without In closing: you clearly need a cardboard box opening simulator; 100 skills every man should know; a wise open letter to Hank and Benny; a comic that captures my sentiments; The Money Meltdown; the Economist’s View of What The Heck Happened; Ok we have a bailout, but it won’t fix everything; in fact, some think it will only help if the housing market gets better (locally, it’s happening but nationally, even the NAR is guessing); Economists Prefer Obama; parents prefer telling kids the truth about sex; the employment situation sucks, particularly when you include “the underemployed”; peacekeepers in a neighborhood near you?; not to scare you but the presidential election could end in an electoral tie (remember that when you vote for a Representative in Congress, ok?); and Stationmaster Tama is still a cat, but he’s driving tourism to his local Eki (train station).  I suppose he actually runs the local worldgate as well.

Long Hair of Shorties

Word to the new source of titles: If you love horror movies as much as I don’t, you will want to bookmark Doomed Moviethon.

Succinct Scientific Analysis: from Fafblog on Global Warming.

But it’s just a little airport in a big city: Chicago is going to privatize Midway Airport. Midway is, well, Chicago’s Love Field, with slightly smaller buildings surrounding it.

Have you bothered to register to vote? Well how about you BotherVoting too. Nobody says you have to vote for one of the major candidates. You can register your distaste for all of the above, if you so choose, by selecting an obscure candidate or even writing in a favorite cartoon character.

USA Today asks the same question many of us have wondered: Does the Border Patrol single out people who are brown or look “ethnic”?

Evolved: Scientists now think that HIV has been around for about 100 years, quickly and quietly mutating. Yeah, that’s what we call evolution when it happens to germs.

Kudos to everyone who commented: the HHS has had to (temporarily, I fear) back down on new guidelines that would let medical professionals decide not to allow certain medications for women on the grounds that it might cause an abortion in someone who was not yet pregnant.

Overweight people eat differently: Ok, sounds like a missive from the Duhpartment of Research. It turns out that overweight people and normal weight people have very different behaviors at a Chinese Buffet.

I’ve been asked to link: Army of Women is an organization for the prevention and cure of breast cancer.

Strangest story you will read all day, I promise: In Britain, “A road rage driver was burned to death after ramming another vehicle and setting her own car on fire by furiously revving her engine….” Be sure you scroll down to the pictures of the “ladies” involved.

It’s a little late to debunk Dan Quayle: I know, I’m on about the wrong Veep Debates, but do you remember when Danny talked about all the jobs that would evaporate if the proposals in Al Gore’s book were implemented? Well a new study says that renewable energy could create millions of jobs.

Oh, Okay, a few words about the current Veep Debate: Courtesy of Defective Yeti.

Stop using code-words: Conservatives want to argue that all our current foreclosure problems are due to a 1977 law (talk about your time delay) that “forced” banks to lend to “unqualified minorities.” For pity sake, if they came out and said “it’s the fault of black people” — which is what they are thinking — they would be laughed back to 1863. Don’t let them wink-and-nudge us into some kind of Jim Crow America.

Things are tough all over: I guess you’ve probably heard that jobless claims are the highest they’ve been since just after 9/11. Did you also hear that entrepreneurs are struggling? Did you know that many “entrepreneurs” are nothing more than people who couldn’t get a job and so they started working for themselves? And to top it all off, are you aware that the day after voting for a huge financial rescue bill, he said that same bill was “putting us on the brink of economic disaster”?

Not Trivia, or at least Not Trivial: Did you know that one in every 6 Americans has a criminal record?

That’s it for now. Have a great Friday.