Category: Shorties

Time Traveling Senator: There is some hint that Senator McCain knew what questions would be asked at Saddleback ahead of time. It is worth noting that Rev. Warren did not say “We haven’t discussed that yet”, but rather “You’re jumping ahead.”

Duhpartment of Homeland Security: Secretary Chertoff says we need to crack down on smugglers. No kidding, Skeletor. Did you come up with that on your own, or have you been watching a Miami Vice Marathon?

Walk softly, but carry a big stick: The doctors who run the New England Journal of Medicine say that lawsuits are important to keep our medications safe. Truth be told, fear of lawsuits is probably a more powerful regulator than the Government in many industries.

Smoke on the Blackwater: It looks like some Blackwater employees may actually face murder charges for murdering 17 Iraqis in the street in the middle of a traffic jam.

Speaking of Iraq: It turns out that the whole war is little more than a huge corporate bailout for Halliburton, and that the “deal” to control that sovereign nation’s oil reserves was made months before the invasion. Disgusting.

Oh look, honey, there’s a nice one: It’s an official steal-my-laptop TSA approved computer bag. For people that think it’s cost effective to pay $220 for a bag that saves them 3 minutes every time they fly. Wake me when TSA approved shoes come out.

I’ve heard of Italian sausage, Polish sausage, and breakfast sausage, but Japanese sausage is a new one on me: The Japanese learned to make sausage from German POWs during The Great War. Rare pictures prove it.

Beauty is more than skin deep: and here are some special beauticians who prove it.

How do you like your red herring served?: Paul Krugman weighs in on corporate taxation.

Got Pens?: USA Today points out that many families have trouble getting school supplies together. Please think to put an extra package of things like crayons and paper in your cart for your local school supply drive!

Excuse me, there’s an elephant in the room: Business Week says “But the fiscal policy dispute, while informative and fascinating, has focused too much on tax regimes and not enough on the real challenge: health care. When it comes to domestic, nonmilitary fiscal policy in the new millennium, everything is dwarfed by health care.” Well put.

It’s called a No Fly List, not a No Answers List: A judge has made a ruling that “would allow individuals to demand information from the government, present evidence on why they should not have been on the list, and take the case to a jury….” How about that, the 5th and 6th Amendments apply to the No Fly List!

mmToasty: Bank Stocks That Are Toast.

This is not a crazy conspiracy theory: A computer security expert says that Diebold is stealing elections. The kicker? He’s a lifelong Republican.

Keep your wits about you; there’s always something to smile about. How about some cute kittens? Seriously, have a great week.

Japanfilter: I couldn’t let the 63rd anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb pass without some sort of remembrance. Please check out the Japanese American Relocation Project Archives, renovation of a trail through the woods that used to be a Japanese neighborhood, and a virtual noblewoman reading what is widely regarded as the first novel ever written in Japanese or any other language.

You know what other anniversary it is?: Harriet handing George a report warning that some guy named Bin Laden wanted to attack the United States.

Clean, Clear, Water: preferably without getting killed.

Good advice: The folks who brought us P90x and 10 Minute Trainer (which is a very good workout, by the way) tell us to Think Thin.

A damn shame: The CDC reports that average waits at American Emergency Departments have risen from 38 minutes to almost an hour. What makes matters even worse is that’s an “average” number, not a “typical” number. About half those people actually waited less than 31 minutes, but the other half had much longer waits. Why? More visits and fewer ERs to take patients! Oh, and 17% of those patients had no insurance. No word on the relative acuity of those patient’s complaints.

Running Argument: The USPS says private companies always do things better. Congress says prove it. The USPS replies duh, private companies always do things better. Now think about this. For under $0.50, I can get an envelope delivered almost anyplace within a hundred miles the next day, and delivered almost anywhere in the lower 48 within 2-5 days. How much does FedEx and UPS cost to get the same letter delivered in the same time frames? How much would a courier for a local letter cost? In what possible way could privatization make things better?

I love Paris?: I have to admit, Paris Hilton is classier (and smarter) than most people give her credit for. Her reply to the McCain ad is clever, polite, and cutting.

Maybe e-passports weren’t such a good idea: They’ve already been cracked.

Get BAC: The Countrywide merger with Bank of America is threatened by bondholder lawsuits. That’s over and above the State AGs that want a piece of Countrywide.

Oh Freddie: Freddie Freddie Freddie, what’s with the losing so much money? How on earth did you end up with a situation where 10% of your portfolio accounted for half your losses?

Where’s Poochie?: (Reference) Diane Duane (yes, that Diane Duane) points out GPS for dogs, and notes that it should work for cats too. Some nut suggesting using it for your kids in 3… 2… 1….

And finally: why bailouts stink but why we need them anyway.

Lessons Learned in Ireland: Unfortunately the folks who really learned anything from the British troubles with the IRA were the Iraqi resistance!

The Economy is Great: No it isn’t, in fact some people will die. Job losses will continue through 2009, and all the problems caused by people not having enough money will likewise continue. Oh, and it turns out that the “official statistics” — which my readers know undercount both inflation and unemployment — also undercount poverty. So sure, the economy isn’t that bad, as long as you look at it with government approved rose-colored glasses.

We don’t need no steenking NDA: Diary of a Government Whore. Oh, he means “software designer”.

I Wonder If They Keep Kosher: Some people think Mr. Bush needs a third term as President. From their FAQ: “Presidential term limits are not in the Bible. And they were not in our Constitution until added by an activist congress in 1951.” The very idea of a “President” isn’t in the Bible either.

Speaking of the President: Just this morning, Mr. Bush reiterated some of his comments on oil and energy prices. One of the things he specifically said was that prices will drop when supply increases, and that is why we need more drilling. The problem is that the drilling he discusses — if it does come to pass — will not increase supply until 5 to 10 years from now. We can’t control supply in the short term. And frankly, as long as “developing nations” such as China and India continue to increase their demand for petroleum products, we can’t control supply in the long term either. What we can control is demand. And that is just what any consumer that has a choice is doing. That’s why auto sales are at their worst level in 15 years “as [auto manufacturers] try to meet call for small cars.” Meanwhile, even as consumers are saying “give us efficient cars!”, those same car makers are saying “fuel-efficiency targets, timing are too tough”! Funny, the Asians and Europeans are able to deliver.

It feels like something is wrong here: This commemorative silver dollar — it is not intended for circulation — has a picture of Louis Braille on it. “On the back of the coin, the Braille code for the word Braille — or ‘Brl’ — is inscribed, above a depiction of a school-age boy reading a Braille book with a cane resting on his arm.” If we are going to the trouble of putting Braille characters on the coin, don’t you suppose it would be more useful to have the denomination of the coin? That way people who actually use Braille could read… oh never mind.

They get you going and not going: Upgrade: Travel Better points out that Spirit Airlines‘ fare schedule is completely misleading. Not only do they charge extra for an aisle seat or a window seat, they even charge extra for a middle seat! If you refuse to pay for a seat, do they cram you in the overhead compartment? Do you get a complementary beverage? Meanwhile, airports have figured out that when you are stuck waiting for a flight, you have little choice but to wander around the airport, hopefully eating, drinking, and buying stuff. And since you weren’t allowed to bring your own water bottle behind the security checkpoint, they’ve got you cornered.

Since we’re on the topic of “security”: Don’t do anything remotely suspicious — such as drawing pictures or buying pool chemicals — in Denver. Oh, and the “Justice” Department is considering letting the FBI investigate people as potential terrorists not because of anything suspicious they may have done, but because they may fit a “terrorist profile”: “The new policy… would let agents open preliminary terror investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, could be deemed suspicious.” Just tell me one thing — would this “profile” have located William Krar, or Tim McVeigh, or Ted Kaczyncki? Or is the real purpose to create an excuse to spy on people who are Brown or don’t agree with the Majority party?

Gosatsu Hon: Or, 5 Books.

And finally: It turns out the Long Tail is a nice theory, but nothing more.

Have a great Independence Day, and remember what the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) were really fighting for: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for themselves and their posterity.

I officially hate this version of WordPress.

Anyways, on to the Shorties! My main browser window is bursting with tabs, so pull up a diet soda and enjoy.

Follow up on Student Loans: Remember when I talked about how the student loan program was federally guaranteed because it needed to be, and that the current “crisis” started right about the time they shifted the program into the public sector and spun off Sallie Mae? Well we’ve got yet more fallout. “Apparently, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and several other major lenders have stopped providing student loans to students at many community colleges and some less-tony four year schools.” Here’s more via AMERICAblog. From a servicing standpoint, it does make more sense to lend more money to fewer students — they save money on paperwork, reporting, even mailing bills! From a risk standpoint, it makes less sense because it’s far, far less diverse and ignores the fact that these schools often have niche majors where the students are hired before graduation (I believe that DeanDad mentioned nursing; at my undergrad institution we had a tradition of producing music education majors and backstage theatre types). And from a society standpoint, just what we don’t need is to make it harder to get an education at the very schools whose mission often is to provide education to people who can’t afford the Big Uni experience.

The LA Times reports on Reality: Specifically, they point out His Name is Henry Paulson went to the Middle East not to beg for more oil production, but to beg for investment within the United States by the Sovereign Wealth Fund run by the government of Abu Dhabi. Next thing you know, they will talk about how much of the United States’ debt is owned by foreign nations like China (click on the link at the end of the first paragraph for a pie chart. mmPie).

What do you mean, you lost it? Well, apparently an entire lighthouse was misplaced back in the 1920s. Most people thought it was taken down, but it turns out to have been moved across the country, where it is still in use. I guess I still have a soft spot for lighthouses.

Sex and the Nation: The federal government still says that if our schools want money to teach adolescents about sex, they have to teach little more than Just Say No. Compared to the rest of the modern world, this makes us some kind of ostrich puritans. Even historically Catholic nation Mexico has embraced comprehensive sexual education, and so should we. I mean, unless we like having double the teen pregnancy rate of Canada.

I’ll drink to that: Yet more research that says red wine — and specifically the resveratrol it contains — is good for you and appears to help you live longer. Not news to me, but still good to know more research is confirming it.

John Bolton’s ideas are looking more quaint every day: Remember John Bolton? The guy we tried to send to the UN who said things like “There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States, when it suits our interests, and when we can get others to go along”? Well, in today’s news “The Reverend Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, an outspoken leftist critic of the United States and a former foreign minister in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, was elected president of the UN General Assembly. D’Escoto, 75, an American-born Roman Catholic priest, said he would not use his new position as a platform to disparage the United States, but he wasted no time in taking a few oblique swipes at Washington.”

Down on the Farm: I’ll leave it to Expert Ezra to talk about the Farm Bill.

A short film on video game violence: See commentary and a link to the video at GamePolitics.

I’ve got good news and bad news: It would seem that initial unemployment claims unexpectedly fell last week! Bloomberg concedes that might just be because the unemployment office was closed on Memorial Day.

What is hopefully the last Hillary round-up: I got the news in my email early this morning, and the New York times confirms that she will endorse Senator Obama on Saturday. As for her being the Vice Presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter and Robert Reich both say “don’t do that!” For some other reasons, well, I’ll let JurassicPork take that one. Don’t forget to scroll to reason #1.

The continuing adventures of Failboat: Fail Blog has had some great Failboats before, but this one is one of the best. How long until they add this one?

The First Computer Programmer: It turns out she — yes, she — was the daughter of Lord Byron. Meet Countess Lovelace, Ada Byron King, without whom Babbage’s machine would have been a complicated bit of scrap. Even though the machine was less powerful than many pocket calculators, “Ada predicted that a computing machine could compose music, draw graphics and find application, so to speak, in business and science.” You can read more about her at these links.

Treason: The Independent reports that “A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.” This is against the will and the long term security of both the United States and Iraq. Permanent troops will not only limit our ability to respond to real threats to American security, they make it more difficult to recruit new military personnel, and they cost a lot of money. Furthermore, they act as a flashpoint worldwide, breathing evidence of an “occupation” that is resented by the overwhelming majority of Iraqis. This must not be allowed to come to pass.

And finally: War on Photography. You didn’t really want a picture of yourself in front of [insert monument here], did you? Because in the movies, terrorists take pictures….

The Smartest Thing You’ll Read on Illegal Employment and Immigration All Day: Alternet tells us the truth — with supporting statistics — that it isn’t “jobs Americans don’t want,” but “exploitable employees that unscrupulous employers do want”.

Speaking of Statistics: Here’s a guy who understands the employment and inflation stats and how they are manipulated. In short? the recession is here now.

Bill Moyers has the last word: At least, when it comes to Rev. Wright. Here’s the video, here’s the text.

Burma, shaved: A couple items on the aftermath of a huge cyclone in Myanmar Burma. The death toll is estimated at well over 20,000, getting supplies to survivors is difficult, and our own First Lady accuses the government of not warning people and leaving them to die (oh, the irony).

Obligatory crap about the primaries and related Democratic detritus: IHT cleverly tells us one of three things could happen today; a sad but true prediction; Hillary’s nuclear option, if it in fact exists, could nuke her; does she honestly think the 3.5 million newly registered voters want politics as usual?; if we can’t win we’ll change the rules; lessons learned; and the Edwardses are classy people.

Cinco de Mayo gave me gas: OPEC; Harry Reid; and stolen grease.

To get your war money, you have to give money to unemployed people: well, I guess if we have to take the combo meal, we may as well supersize it.

The Duhpartment of Research: the race gap in drug arrests (uh, sure, white people never do drugs, riiiiight); and a researcher finding more antibiotic resistant bacteria calls the trend “very worrisome.”

The One-Minute Manager has met his match: Ten Tips from Florinda.

And now for your dose of Shorties Japan-Filter: Giant Kites; it’s easier than working; nothing to crow about; and The Prince meets A Dog [Hisohito-sama wa ookite shiroi inu wo mimashita. Kirei-na inu deshita, ne.].

In Florida, they consider him a “wizard,” but in Vegas we would consider him a barely passable illusionist: Teacher fired for making a toothpick vanish up his sleeve.

You knew I would slip health care in someplace: Granny Bashers.

A Dyre Situation: Blogger food drive.

And finally: Goodbye to the Spindle.

Taser Follow Up and Then Some: True stories and film compiled by an Earth-Bound Misfit.

Taking Stuff Away: We aren’t even secure from the people who are supposed to be insuring our transportation Security.

So much for the Republicans being the party of fiscal restraint: Deficit at record levels. At least “tax and spend liberals” have the money before they go spending it.

Maybe striking the head of the snake is a bad strategy: Chicago braces for “a long, bloody summer” after “a deadly breakdown in discipline among gang members after a crackdown over the past few years put many of their leaders behind bars.” With no leaders, rank and file are left to their own deadly devices. Ultimately, disorganized crime is proving more dangerous than organized crime. Of course, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with an influx of inexperienced gang members as legit jobs become more scarce, could it?

“It is never a good thing if many of your customers can no longer afford what you are selling.”: The topic is Health Insurance. More about that topic here and here.

Wow, who spiked his Kool-Aid with Rational Juice?: Defense Secretary William Gates says we should try to avoid getting into another Middle East war, that we should think and use “loyal dissent when the situation calls for it,” and that he feels personally responsible for all those young men and women at West Point.

Someone’s in the kitchen with Tama, Someone’s in the kitchen I know….: Sumimasen, eki-chou wa neko desu! [Excuse me sir, the station master is a cat!] Why are you surprised? Cats end up in all sorts of professions these days.

Speaking of the Japanese: A robot built by Honda will conduct the Detroit Symphony.

Judge finally decides that subpoenas are a good thing: What part of “The Fourth Amendment says you need a search warrant and FISA says you can even get the damn thing 3 days after the fact” was it that was giving you trouble?

Burma hasn’t gone away: The Junta is still in charge.

Slow Motion Business Implosion: Sure, you can buy a gizmo that makes an annoying sound only teenagers can hear, and it will keep them away from your place of business. And you know what? They will remember that 10 or 20 years from now when they are your target demographic. For that matter, are the prevented fights worth the prevented sales from keeping them away from the mall?

Middle Path: Ok, marrying off and/or impregnating girls as young as 12 is a bad idea. But is there a shred of evidence that any boys or any kids younger than puberty have been abused in any way? Save yourself and Child Protective Services a big headache, Your Honor, and once the DNA tests are done send everyone under the age of 10 home.

An interesting program [probably not] coming to a community college near you: Pre-Ninja Studies.

Great timing there, Senator: John McCain picks a heckuva time, Brownie, to condemn the government handling of Hurricane Katrina. Somehow I think that is not what he was thinking in this picture.

It took a man to reclaim feminism: Shaun Mullen on why Hillary is not a feminist.

The Shoes! We may no longer be able to control shoe costs by just shipping production to a cheaper country.

Insert appropriate Homer Simpson noise here: Beer prices on the rise, just like everything else.

Become part of the regulatory process: Start Here.

And that’s it for this, the anniversary of the Trojan Horse. Peace, Out!

Follow up Friday is a little early: faulty nipple ring searches; top 10 false reasons Hillary should keep ripping the party apart stay in the race; a majority of doctors — particularly in the disciplines that see the most people — think Medicare For All is a good idea (Hey, AMA? AOA? Listening?); all 50 states have gotten extensions to comply with REAL ID, even those that didn’t want any extension (way to tell them off, Chertoff!), and don’t forget that REAL ID mandated the much hated border fence.

Just maybe letting the fox bunk in the henhouse is a bad idea: lawmaker thinks the FAA is too cozy with the folks they are supposed to be regulating.

Now we know what it takes to get us to drive less: Average gas prices of $3.28 have (at least partially) caused the first drop in miles Americans drive since 1980. Other potential factors? Oh I don’t know, maybe losing the job, losing the home in exurbia, and internet shopping. Oh, don’t forget that rising fuel prices result in rising food prices.

At least the kids are alright: yet more babies being dropped off at the Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto, Japan.

Short version of the memo: The president doesn’t have to follow the law. He doesn’t have to follow international law, and he sure as heck doesn’t have to follow the laws Congress passes, even if he signs them. Now get back in there and give ’em the ol’ Abu Gharib!

Don’t forget France: They’re sending more troops to Afghanistan. “Hundreds” of French soldiers will soon be on their way. That’ll show everybody who’s in charge of Kabul!

Meow? Presented without comment, the Swiss Cat Controversy.

Yes, that does summarize it nicely: The BondDad points out at the end of his commentary called The Financialization of the US Economy the following: “Notice we’re still paying more interest than our total growth rate… You have to pay back debt at some point. Yes, you can refinance it etc…. but that doesn’t eliminate the basic problem — you still owe the money. And at some point, that’s going to bite is hard.”

I’m still a Deaniac: even if the IHT thinks Howard Dean doesn’t have what it takes. He got Lieberman out of the party, didn’t he? He managed to take out Hillary’s status as Presumptive Heir, even if she’s not out of the race, didn’t he? I like a little subtlety in my politicians. (Note to Harry Reid, not that much subtlety, mmkay?)

Uhhh, what? Meatscapes.

On that note, I’m out of here.

My timing is off. I figured J.P. Morgan would own Bear Stearns with help from the Fed by the end of the week. It turns out to be this morning’s big business news. And such a deal. Wow.

You couldn’t put that in a movie plot, nobody would believe it could happen. “Police believe [ABBA drummer] Brunkert may have fallen against a glass partition separating his home’s kitchen from the garden, and the glass broke and fatally cut his throat…. He was found in the garden and is believed to have bled to death…. An official cause of death is pending until after an autopsy.”

Make sure your anti-virus and anti-spyware software is up to date. Researchers think as much as 85% of spam may be generated by a mere 6 spybots distributed on unsuspecting computers across the world.

You go girl! Susie at Suburban Guerilla is great at finding quotes like this and this.

Eliot may have liked screwing expensive call-girls, but he didn’t like banks screwing his constituents. A month ago — before he was exposed as a hypocrite and forced to resign — he wrote this piece for the Washington Post about how the various state attorneys general tried to stop certain lending practices and were shut up by the feds.

Nancy on FISA. Yeah, oversight of the Administrations surveillance activities. Let us know how that works out for you.

It’s raining Yen, hallelujah…. Yen are now worth more than pennies, since the dollar has dropped as low as 96 Yen. Sure makes you feel like this:

Speaking of the economy, 3/4 of us think we have a recession on our hands right now. “‘Forty-two percent of those polled say the economy is the biggest issue on their minds, nearly double the amount who felt that way in October, the last time Iraq topped the list as the most important issue,’ said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director. Iraq ranks as the second most important issue, at 21 percent, followed by health care at 18 percent, terrorism at 10 percent and immigration at 7 percent.” Oh, and “Nearly nine in 10 Americans say it’s important to know presidential and congressional candidates’ positions on open government, but three out of four view the federal government as secretive, according to a survey released Sunday.”

And last but not least. Don’t Forget Tibet.

Does that coin have another side? American teenagers don’t know much about history (no word on “the French they took“). On the other hand, the adults who made the report might not know much about methodology.

Speaking of French, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose [Origin and Translation]. Look familiar? Try to guess the date on the comic before scrolling down.

I haven’t forgotten Burma, I just don’t know what to do about it. I am not the only one either. Do I take my tourist dollars to Myanmar Burma to support the locals, or do I stay away to avoid supporting the illegal government there?

Just maybe the most profitable companies in the history of the world don’t need a tax break. Let’s see if the repeal of tax breaks for oil producers passed in the House of Representatives survives the Senate and a threatened Presidential veto. I wouldn’t count on it.

Don’t be stupid, eating cows too sick to stand up is a good thing and you’re just paranoid. At least that’s what the USDA is saying to The Humane Society. As for me? I’ll continue to stay away from American beef until such time as common sense prevails — and maybe beyond that.

Tim’s at it again. A provocative item Tim Iocono wrote for the Market Oracle.

I wonder what that’s doing to the economy. More than 1 out of every 100 American adults is in prison. Imagine the taxes we are paying to keep prisons running. Think about the fact that the unemployment rate would be 1% higher if we counted these people. No great shock that these numbers are even worse among minorities: “One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.” What the heck? Do we have more crime than ever before? Are sentences too long? Are we handing out prison sentences for offenses that don’t warrant it? And with all those people behind bars, we are still not free of violent crime.

Does this surprise anyone? Really? It turns out the RIAA hasn’t exactly been turning settlement money over to the artists like they were supposed to.

“Insurance company profits” and marketing budgets still don’t provide any health care. The GAO says that private Medicare plans costs seniors more than the Real Thing. Needless to say, President Bush and insurance companies both dispute this finding.

Quote of the Day: “It’s very easy to outrun a lava flow.” Some stuff you can’t make up.

BACON! Lots of delicious pork for big, profitable, corporate farmers in the latest version of the Farm Bill. What a shame this is likely to get us in trouble with the EU and the WTO.

Follow-up: Don’t panic, but if you have more than $100,000 total deposits in any single bank, it’s time to, um, diversify. The FDIC admits they expect 100-200 bank failures over the next 12-24 months. It is not mattress-and-piggy-bank time, but keep in mind that if a bank fails, the most a depositor can get from the FDIC is $100,000.

Even the UN thinks the Feds are messing up when it comes to rebuilding New Orleans. The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a strongly worded reply beginning with “Nuh-uh!” and calling the UN “misinformed”.

This land is your land, this land is my land. This freeway, not so much. Unbossed.com has a great item on privatization of highways, and this is only part one!

Stock it to me. Economic roundup for the day includes brutal Wall Street sell-off, record prices for oil, gas prices straining budgets, flat spending in an inflationary environment, consumer confidence at the lowest level since the Original Bush Administration.

No big shock. Vermont is thinking maybe it’s 19 year olds could use a good stiff drink more than it really needs highway funds.

Oh, and many thanks to Carrie of Carrie’s Nation for putting me into her list of 10 of My Favorite Things.

Senate Traitors need to watch their backs: Here’s a handy pocket reference from Defective Yeti.

On Manufacturing: a lengthy piece from the EPI, and another one from the CSM.

About Freaking Time: The House of Representatives has voted on contempt charges for two Bush Administration officials who have demonstrated contempt for the Constitution and the House of Representatives.

Ever wondered what it would take to shock Henry Kissinger? Apparently it takes an offer of thousands, no wait make that millions of Chinese women. Now we know.

Apparently the “Two Americas” theme is extensible: Here we see that there are “two Americas” in the housing market too. Does Mr. Edwards get a cut for his intellectual property?

This should scare the snot out of you: The BondDad lays out for you why a credit crunch isn’t just bad, but downright disastrous for our economy. Oh, and the Feds overruled State laws that would have cut down on the predatory lending problem.  And what if the new stimulus bill actually caused hyperinflation?

Slow and Steady: CNN brings us yet another diet success story.

“Huh, judging from the outcry maybe this wasn’t such a good idea”: Blue Cross decides maybe getting doctors to snitch on their patients and then dumping patients who actually needed medical care was unwise.

Keep shouting about Socialized Medicine and somehow it loses its punch: Couldn’t have anything to do with that Blue Cross debacle. People who survive cancer only to outlive their health insurance coverage. Or the increasing number of baby boomers who are looking at the Medicare they will be getting in a couple years and thinking it’s better than what they have now. But socialized medicine isn’t as scary sounding as it used to be. Here’s some more reading.

The Straight Poop on the Snoops: The ArchCrone tells you everything you need to know about the current FISA situation. Don’t blink, it could change any time now.

Well at this rate we will at least go broke a little slower: It seems that in 2007, the trade deficit shrank for the first time since 2001.  We still import more things than we export, and export more money than we import.

Just how big a problem does Countrywide have: Over 7 out of every 100 mortgages they have is overdue.

Keep repeating, “The Saudis Are Our Friends”: particularly when they use the threat of terror attacks for extortion to prevent investigation of certain arms deals.

I worry that this will result in normal people being forcibly institutionalized: The NIU gunman was insane.  He stopped taking the medication that made him functional, drove over 100 miles to a different college town to (legally!) buy his guns, and made a second trip to pick them up after the mandatory waiting period before doing what he did.  Insane people don’t see the world the way you and I do. Sad but true.  But how do you make somebody take the medications that make them “not insane”? And — unless you can prove they are a danger to others — is it ethical to do so?  I don’t pretend to know the answers;  nevertheless my thoughts for peace go to the families effected by this tragedy.

And Finally: MTV has officially been running pretty much anything but “Music Television” for 18 years.

Have a great weekend, folks.