The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis

In simple to understand terms...



[beware there is a few four-letter works, nothing you wouldn't hear in an R-rated movie]

Is Splenda making me fat?

OK, maybe not "fat" exactly - more like slowing my metabolism down?

Does this mean I should go back to sugar in my morning tea at least so that my body gets started with a big dose of real sugar instead of a fake dose of sweet?

"Tower, this is Ghost rider requesting a flyby."

"That's a negative Ghost rider, the pattern is full."

Apparently after saving the world from communists, Maverick became a pilot for Cathay Pacific. Well unless he pulled one of his trademark stunts!

Seems like Maverick might be looking for a new line of work as well.

The Chronology of my Vote

I have an announcement. If Hillary somehow manages to become the Democratic nominee for 2008, I will "quit" the democratic party and officially change my affiliation to Independent. Plus, I will write in Barack's name on the ballot.

How did I get to this place? Here is the chronology of my vote for 2008:

• I read Audacity of Hope, and told Nina that Obama should run.
• Nina said "What? He will never win." I said, "I don't care, he would make the primaries better by his presence and change the conversation for the better."
• Many months pass - Nina is slowly worn down by my unbelievablely great rhetoric about Barack's candidacy. :) (more importantly, she reads his book)
• I announce one night - and this is at a point that Obama is well behind and Hillary is "inevitable" - that I more impressed with Hillary and her command of the issues. I tell Nina that I would be "OK" with voting for her if Barack doesn't pull it out and she becomes the nominee.
• Nina says "What?!?" I explain that she would be a good president and certainly better than any of the Republican candidates at this point.

So, a little break. At this point I was still an Obama supporter, but planning to vote for Clinton if she pulled it out. So Democratic candidate either way. (If is was Edwards, I would have voted for McCain or wrote in a name). Back to the timeline...

• Flash forward many months - now Obama-mania has captured more of the country. He wins Iowa, loses New Hampshire, etc. I am feeling good about things.
• Super Tuesday comes and goes and Obama is still Barocking the Vote.
• People start talking about super-delegates. Nina says, what if the Superdelegates make Hillary the nominee. I say, "that won't happen, the Democratic party can't shoot itself in the foot. They have a chance to win a voting bloc for a generation." (That voting bloc is voung people, btw).
• Hillary and her camp start talking about Florida/Michigan, and getting superdelegates to vote for her. I start to get annoyed, but still think that the world and the democratic party is a bright and shiny place.
• Hillary goes postal and "angrified" waving flyers around.
• Nader gets in the election as a useless third party candidate.

So I reach the decision this morning - that for me staying a Democrat is simple. Obama as a candidate, I am in. Hillary I am out. For good.

I am at the end of the day, only one vote and one person. But I am serious.

Democratic Party - what will you do?

TiVo shows on my iPhone

I need to figure out how to make that happen.

One piece of the puzzle.

Now I need to figure out how to get my TiVo content to my iPhone so I can watch the stuff Nina doesn't like to watch on my commute!

Anyone know how?

Point. Counter-point

Just make sure you have headphones on or won't offend your neighbors...

Round 1:



Round 2:



The rap section in the first video is priceless...

Funny mash-up with Barack

Bollywood and Barack. The wife will love this...

Yes, the site looks different

I flipped the layout and changed the font to Arial. Exciting stuff I know.

Maybe a surprise to no one...

...but I am a nerd. Or most certainly I am turning into an economics nerd. If these articles don't prove it, I don't know what will. Between my interest in blogs like this, and reading Age of Turbulence, I think I would have been an Economics professor in an alternate universe.

On the popcorn article, given that theatres are in trouble these days, I wonder why some theatre chains don't just drop the price of a movie really low and charge better food? Kind of like how the "upscale" bowling alleys are remaking themselves into bars and places to hang out with younger folks. If the margin on food is way higher then why don't they just have the movies on as a way to drive people into the "store" and then sell better food and drinks to the audience?

Finally, some of the dumbest people seem to be cashiers at movie theaters. That is in fact a gross generalization, and I have interacted with some really great cashiers at theaters, but by and large I avoid food at movies because of the long lines, slow processing, and rude service, and that is on some of the highest margin goods in the place!?!

Nader and Clinton - the Obama foils

So, Ralph Nader is running for office. For some reason (well, assuming that Obama is the nominee), this doesn't really worry me that much. Seriously, how egotistical can one man be? I would support a Ron Paul or Bloomberg candidacy WAY more than Nader. For one reason, his time has passed him by, and second, Barack Obama is able to dis a person with so much more class than I can:

"You know, he had called me and I think reached out to my campaign — my sense is is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don’t listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you’re not substantive. He seems to have a pretty high opinion of his own work. Now — and by the way, I have to say that, historically, he is a singular figure in American politics and has done as much as just about anybody on behalf of consumers. So in many ways he is a heroic figure and I don’t mean to diminish him. But I do think there is a sense now that if somebody is not hewing to the Ralph Nader agenda, then you must be lacking in some way."

Touche!

On the Clinton front, she has managed to piss me off, feel for her (just a little), a bit of schadenfreude, and a bit of a "Dead Woman Walking". I don't for a minute think that Hillary is out of the race by any means or couldn't be a good president. I just don't think at the end of the day she is in the race for the right reason (to that end, I think McCain falls into the same trap as well).

To further the point, here is a quote from a NYT article:

In interviews with 15 aides and advisers to Mrs. Clinton, not a single one expressed any regrets that they were not working for Mr. Obama. Indeed, some aides said they were baffled that a candidate who had been in the United States Senate for only three years and was a state lawmaker in Illinois before that was now outpacing a seasoned figure like Mrs. Clinton. And to a person, these aides and advisers praised Mrs. Clinton and said that she had been a better candidate than her campaign strategy and operation reflected.

If they don't get it (and are baffled) at why Obama is surging, then that just proves that there were too many yes-men in the Clinton campaign that couldn't get out of the way of their own aura of invincibility and had convinced themselves of facts not in evidence.

Any sadness I might have had for Hillary evaporates in a cloud of incompetence. If she can't run a winning campaign or a health care initiative, she now has two strikes in my book.

So, will we have a big or small family?

I always had the opinion that the "richer" a society, the smaller the family. Japan and a lot of Western Europe being a prime example of negative population growth. On the flip side, I was under the impression that developing nations had larger families since there wasn't a "Social Security" type of program or a safety net, so having a larger family was the alternative in order to have more kids survive to adulthood and eventually take care of the parents.

But this article was interesting and thought provoking. I have to admit I was drawn to it by the title and the fact I would figure out what made me so special as an only child! But it actually talks about family sizes and when you look in an already wealthy country, the ultra rich actually have larger families than the middle class, etc.

I bet if you drew a graph with net worth on the X axis and number of children on the Y axis, you would get a inverted bell curve or something with larger families at both extremes.

Picture is a Kennedy family picture to prove my point. :)

Justice

So, this guy has to pay a pretty penny for being a dick (and a skeeze).

Course, one would think the cost of diverting a flight, and having to land, refuel, and time, etc. would cost more than a nice watch, right? Especially as seeing as how he has to pay a fine that is more than the cost of diverting a flight.

Of course, if I was on that flight I would sue the guy just for spite in small claims court for my time. :)

Title Inflation at work

300 VPs? Seriously? No wonder they have looked lost the last few years...

Back in the Big Apple

So, I am back in NYC after about a week of traveling, first to San Francisco, where I stayed here, and went to an offsite here. Weather was beautiful and a big break from NYC, who was going through this.

So Sarah said she was waiting for a post - so to ensure that she has something to read when she and Rob get back from vacation... I promise a few posts in the next few days (note to self, a way to post from my iPhone would be kick ass).

Yes We Can...

I am not as cool as the folks in this video, but yes we can...