Quote of the day
"Sam, you are a pyromaniac in a field of straw men" George Will to Sam Donaldson during a debate on the stimulus on This Week
Today's Fun Fact
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the MLB all-star game. And since the day before the all-star game has the Home-run derby, that really makes only one truly sportsless day.
I continue to be unbelievably swamped at work and I continue to know that no one cares about my excuses.
This week I took two great leaps forward into the 21st century. The first leap was with my cell phone. I no longer am stuck with my wife's used, pink Razr that I have been toting around for the last year. Even though I had purchased a Cubs cover for it in a feeble attempt to hide my shame, all that really did was manage to call attention to the little pieces of bright pink that shone through. I had been hoping to hold out for an iPhone but with our T-Mobile contract that wasn't going to happen for another year, so I went with the G1 (i.e. the Google phone) instead. Haven't had time to try out all the bells and whistles yet but so far I like it. Surfing the net is fast and just as convenient as on the iPhone and I like the one-touch access to Gmail. Another feature that I think is really cool (although I haven't used yet) is that it has a UPC scanner so if you're in a store and see something you like you can scan it and it will instantly do a search for the best price for that product so you can avoid getting hosed on the price and/or making another trip to return it.
The other leap forward was that I finally got my Kindle yesterday. I had ordered it on Christmas day but everything was backordered for so long that I just got it now. Personally, I think the reason everything was backed up was because they knew that they were releasing the Kindle 2 in late February and they didn't want to keep shipping 1st-generation Kindles and then come out with the upgraded version a month later. I always joked that the new Kindle would come out a week after I got mine, but I truthfully would have been super pissed if that had really happened. Fortunately, they upgraded everyone who had not received their Kindle yet so I can now say that I am one of the 1st people to receive a Kindle 2. Have only played around with it a little since I am (gasp) still reading an actual book, but everything I've tried has worked exactly as advertised. It accesses the Kindle store via a wireless network and you can easily download almost any book you can think of in about a minute. I also signed up for a 2-week free trial of the New York Times and when I woke up this morning it had already downloaded it and it was waiting for me. I also found out that you can e-mail Word documents and PDFs to it so that you can read those as well on it. You basically never really need to carry around a piece of paper ever again (except for my Economist, which isn't available for the Kindle yet). A couple other neat things: you can underline and save passages you like to "My clippings" to share with other people later, you can add notes anywhere, it can hold over 1500 books and even after you delete them off the device Amazon stores them for you and you can add them back at any time, you get instant access to Wikipedia, and you can also just move the cursor to any word you don't understand and it instantly gives you the definition. Lastly, they have this interesting but weird "text-to-speech" function where the device will actually read to you. It's an odd robotic voice that obviously can't get the intonation and emphasis right but it does work. Probably something I'll never use, but it's still neat. OK, here ends the commercial for the Kindle.
Both of these new toys will get good use during our trip out to Phoenix next week! We leave on Friday and are seeing 4 Cubs games (including 2 Cubs vs. Sox). We're also taking a side trip up to Vegas next Wednesday to see the Cubs game there and also see Love, which I have heard amazing things about. It would also be nice if during that trip I could leave Vegas a winner for once but we all know that's not gonna happen.
In any case, I will try to get a blog of some substance together before we leave or, if nothing else, will blog from the laptop poolside just to make everyone jealous.
Hope everyone is having a good week!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Roland With the Punches
Quote of the day:
"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times." - Mark Twain
Today's Fun Facts:
A bit of alternate universe movie history for you. Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones but had to turn it down when the producers of Magnum P.I. wouldn’t let him out of his contract. Eric Stoltz was cast as Marty McFly for 6 weeks before being dubbed “too intense” by producers. The role of Sigourney Weaver’s neighbor in Ghostbusters (Louis Tully) was specifically written for John Candy; when he couldn’t commit it was given to Rick Moranis instead. Both Will Smith and Ewan McGregor turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix. Cary Grant turned down the role of 007 in Dr. No and it went to Sean Connery instead. Connery paid it forward years later by turning down the role of Gandalf, as he reportedly had never read the Tolkien books and didn’t understand the plot.
So Donald Trump's Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy today. I really don't care too much about that, but I did find it amusing that the Yahoo! news article about it used this picture of him:
So our dearly departed governor is back in the news in a roundabout way via the new controversey over Roland Burris. Mr. Burris recently decided to enlighten us that former Gov. Blagojevich did in fact hit him up for cash to get the inside track on the Senate seat. Mr. Burris doesn't see it as a big deal that he failed to inform us of this earlier. In fact, apparently it's the impeachment committee's fault for not asking him the correct question: "There were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony." Nevermind the fact that this new statement contradicts an earlier sworn statement and the testimony he made about his contact with the governor's office. I just have to ask the question: has it finally gotten ridiculous enough that we can agree to have a special election rather than let governors appoint replacements? If not, I'd like to know what else needs to happen. One thing's for sure. Even if Burris does survive this, he can kiss his re-election chances goodbye. In fact, I doubt he even makes it out of the Democratic primary.
And once again on the stimulus (set to be signed by Obama today) I have a new rule. Democrats, stop quoting the Moody's Economy study like it's the Bible and Republicans stop quoting noted economist Marty Feldstein's opposition to the stimulus. They both were legitimate points but you have made them and made them again. And then kept making them for another 2 weeks. Now let it go. Find some other sources.
"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times." - Mark Twain
Today's Fun Facts:
A bit of alternate universe movie history for you. Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones but had to turn it down when the producers of Magnum P.I. wouldn’t let him out of his contract. Eric Stoltz was cast as Marty McFly for 6 weeks before being dubbed “too intense” by producers. The role of Sigourney Weaver’s neighbor in Ghostbusters (Louis Tully) was specifically written for John Candy; when he couldn’t commit it was given to Rick Moranis instead. Both Will Smith and Ewan McGregor turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix. Cary Grant turned down the role of 007 in Dr. No and it went to Sean Connery instead. Connery paid it forward years later by turning down the role of Gandalf, as he reportedly had never read the Tolkien books and didn’t understand the plot.
So Donald Trump's Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy today. I really don't care too much about that, but I did find it amusing that the Yahoo! news article about it used this picture of him:
So our dearly departed governor is back in the news in a roundabout way via the new controversey over Roland Burris. Mr. Burris recently decided to enlighten us that former Gov. Blagojevich did in fact hit him up for cash to get the inside track on the Senate seat. Mr. Burris doesn't see it as a big deal that he failed to inform us of this earlier. In fact, apparently it's the impeachment committee's fault for not asking him the correct question: "There were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony." Nevermind the fact that this new statement contradicts an earlier sworn statement and the testimony he made about his contact with the governor's office. I just have to ask the question: has it finally gotten ridiculous enough that we can agree to have a special election rather than let governors appoint replacements? If not, I'd like to know what else needs to happen. One thing's for sure. Even if Burris does survive this, he can kiss his re-election chances goodbye. In fact, I doubt he even makes it out of the Democratic primary.
And once again on the stimulus (set to be signed by Obama today) I have a new rule. Democrats, stop quoting the Moody's Economy study like it's the Bible and Republicans stop quoting noted economist Marty Feldstein's opposition to the stimulus. They both were legitimate points but you have made them and made them again. And then kept making them for another 2 weeks. Now let it go. Find some other sources.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Another Week Another Lonely, Solitary Post
Quote of the day:
"God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett from the book Good Omens
Today's Fun Fact:
Climate change too boring of an apocalyptic scenario for you? Here's a new thing you can lose sleep over. Right now scientists calculate that there is a roughly 1 in 45,000 chance that the asteroid Apophis will collide with the Earth sometime in 2036. Just as a point of comparison, the odds of you winning the jackpot in the IL state lotto is 1 in 20,358,520. That means that it is 450 times more likely that all life on Earth will be extinguished in 2036 than it is that you will win the lotto. Regardless, I'd still recommend doing all we can to keep Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck alive till 2036, just in case.
So it's been another busy week for me again at work and alas, that has meant another skimpy week for you, my loyal reader(s). As I am sitting down to write this the House has just passed the new compromise version of the stimulus package and the Senate may pass it later today so that Congress can take their planned recess. Funny how fast things can move when people are itching to get to vacation. I also have always found it amusing that we use the term "recess" in government, since the only other place it's used is in grade schools. Something about the image of John McCain, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Lindsey Graham all running out of the Capitol at 3:00 to get a big game of kickball together just makes me smile. But I digress . . .
I don't want to go into too much depth on the stimulus bill; I'll just say that I think it's definitely imperfect but it's better than nothing so I'm glad that it's passing. There is one particular aspect about this entire stimulus debate that has really irked me, and it is again the lack of ideologues to find a middle ground. All I have heard from the right the past 2 weeks is overtures urging all of us to bow down and prey at the altar of the almighty tax cut. And from the left you get the opposite, an urging that the stimulus should be no tax cuts and all spending.
Well, what does the empirical data tell us? Rachel Maddow (and other liberals) have been quoting ad nauseam this report from Moody's:
"God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett from the book Good Omens
Today's Fun Fact:
Climate change too boring of an apocalyptic scenario for you? Here's a new thing you can lose sleep over. Right now scientists calculate that there is a roughly 1 in 45,000 chance that the asteroid Apophis will collide with the Earth sometime in 2036. Just as a point of comparison, the odds of you winning the jackpot in the IL state lotto is 1 in 20,358,520. That means that it is 450 times more likely that all life on Earth will be extinguished in 2036 than it is that you will win the lotto. Regardless, I'd still recommend doing all we can to keep Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck alive till 2036, just in case.
So it's been another busy week for me again at work and alas, that has meant another skimpy week for you, my loyal reader(s). As I am sitting down to write this the House has just passed the new compromise version of the stimulus package and the Senate may pass it later today so that Congress can take their planned recess. Funny how fast things can move when people are itching to get to vacation. I also have always found it amusing that we use the term "recess" in government, since the only other place it's used is in grade schools. Something about the image of John McCain, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Lindsey Graham all running out of the Capitol at 3:00 to get a big game of kickball together just makes me smile. But I digress . . .
I don't want to go into too much depth on the stimulus bill; I'll just say that I think it's definitely imperfect but it's better than nothing so I'm glad that it's passing. There is one particular aspect about this entire stimulus debate that has really irked me, and it is again the lack of ideologues to find a middle ground. All I have heard from the right the past 2 weeks is overtures urging all of us to bow down and prey at the altar of the almighty tax cut. And from the left you get the opposite, an urging that the stimulus should be no tax cuts and all spending.
Well, what does the empirical data tell us? Rachel Maddow (and other liberals) have been quoting ad nauseam this report from Moody's:
The highlights being that food stamps, unemployment benefits, and infrastructure spending are all vastly superior to tax cuts. This is being used as one of the justifications for why the stimulus plan should be void of all tax cuts. Of course, that's just one study. Here is one from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) via the Economist:
What strikes me most about this table is the incredible range of each category. Almost all of them can be either a negative or positive multiplier (i.e. really good ideas or really bad ones).
The bottom line for me on this is that no one really knows what is best. I see absolutely 0 evidence to support a stimulus package of all tax cuts and I don't really see a reason to go all the other way either. It seems to me that the prudent option is a mix of both, and that's exactly what the current stimulus bill is (about 60/40 spending and tax cuts). Personally, I'd prefer there be a lot more going to infrastructure, green energy, and education but you know what? I'm not going to demand perfection because I realize that there are millions of other American taxpayers that will be asked to pay for this whose goals aren't exactly in line with mine and I just wish there was more of that spirit in Washington. Even though I politically understand why the Republicans have chosen such a hard line with regard to this bill, it still saddens me. The doomsday cries of "if this legislation passes, it'll be a very bad day for America" (John McCain) are met with the over-optimism of "this bill is the right size and scope necessary to truly help us turn things around" (Rep. Ed Perlmutter). As usual, the truth lies in the middle. And, suprisingly, you know who actually has it right? Bill O'Reilly: "I wish I could predict what will happen, but I can't. And I believe no one can. This economic collapse is simply too complicated and chaotic."
Friday, February 06, 2009
All Talk and No Stimulus Make John an Angry Boy
Just to clarify, the above is a movie reference. For those that have seen it, I'm sure it's obvious.
So, predictably, after having my most consistent posting week ever I follow it up with a very weak one. And certainly not for lack of interesting things to talk about. It's just one of those weeks where I have been completely slammed at work and by the time I get home I just want to do something mindless and not have to form coherent sentences either verbally or in print.
Anyway, I've got about 20 minutes before my next meeting so I'm gonna go with some rapid fire thoughts here.
In terms of our government, I can basically summarize by saying this: right now I'm pissed at everyone. A rundown of my grievances:
Obama - Remember that pledge to not have any lobbyists in his administration? Yeah, well apparently he doesn't . I do understand that there are about 8,000 people in total that are being hired by the administration and not all lobbyists are evil, but much with the case of the campaign finance flip-flop, none of the facts changed between the time when he made a promise and when he went back on it, so why has his position changed?
McCain - I got a lovely e-mail from Sen. McCain on Tuesday urging me to sign an online petition saying that I want Congress to vote no to the stimulus bill. That's it. Just tell them to vote no. Not tell them to work closer with Republicans to craft a better bill, not tell them to support a different bill that they think is better. Nope, no new ideas. Just vote no. That's crap. I know that there are a lot that different economists in different camps disagree on, but the one thing that there is almost unanimous consent on is that even an unbelievably crappy and pork-laden stimulus package is superior to doing nothing right now.
Republicans - Screw you guys and all your faux-concern about budget deficits and wasteful spending. I remember very clearly the days of Newt Gingrich and the "Contract with America" that brought Congress to the Republican party in 94. It was one of the core reasons why I became a Republican in the first place. But suddenly as soon as you controlled both Congress and the White House, fiscal discipline wasn't a concern anymore. Do you all need to be reminded of 2003, when you voted for a reform of Medicare that added $8 trillion of unfunded liability. For those doing the math at home, that's over 8 times the amount of the current proposed stimulus package. Where were the budget hawks then?
Furthermore, in their list of grievances with the stimulus package, about half the items really are things that will create or help retain jobs. Isn't that the point of a stimulus bill? Case in point, here are some things they list:
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
That's just a few. All of the above are tasks that will need to be performed by people. People who, presumably, will be paid to complete said tasks. When they are paid, they will use this money to purchase goods and services, which will stimulate the economy. Stop me if I'm getting too technical here.
Democrats - Screw you guys for putting a bunch of wasteful crap in this stimulus bill. This was not the time to shove through all your pet projects that you've been denied the last 8 years. I can blame the Republicans for pulling the trigger, but I blame you for loading the gun and handing it to them. Among some of the legitimate grievances that the Republicans have with the bill:
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $150 million for honeybee insurance
And not only can you not bring in bipartisan support, you apparently can't even get partisan support! The vote in the Senate was supposed to occur last night, but Harry Reid called it off because he didn't think he had the votes. At least the Republicans knew how to shove a bill down the throats of the opposition when they had the numbers.
In the words of Homer Simpson: "When will people learn? Democracy doesn't work!"
So, predictably, after having my most consistent posting week ever I follow it up with a very weak one. And certainly not for lack of interesting things to talk about. It's just one of those weeks where I have been completely slammed at work and by the time I get home I just want to do something mindless and not have to form coherent sentences either verbally or in print.
Anyway, I've got about 20 minutes before my next meeting so I'm gonna go with some rapid fire thoughts here.
In terms of our government, I can basically summarize by saying this: right now I'm pissed at everyone. A rundown of my grievances:
Obama - Remember that pledge to not have any lobbyists in his administration? Yeah, well apparently he doesn't . I do understand that there are about 8,000 people in total that are being hired by the administration and not all lobbyists are evil, but much with the case of the campaign finance flip-flop, none of the facts changed between the time when he made a promise and when he went back on it, so why has his position changed?
McCain - I got a lovely e-mail from Sen. McCain on Tuesday urging me to sign an online petition saying that I want Congress to vote no to the stimulus bill. That's it. Just tell them to vote no. Not tell them to work closer with Republicans to craft a better bill, not tell them to support a different bill that they think is better. Nope, no new ideas. Just vote no. That's crap. I know that there are a lot that different economists in different camps disagree on, but the one thing that there is almost unanimous consent on is that even an unbelievably crappy and pork-laden stimulus package is superior to doing nothing right now.
Republicans - Screw you guys and all your faux-concern about budget deficits and wasteful spending. I remember very clearly the days of Newt Gingrich and the "Contract with America" that brought Congress to the Republican party in 94. It was one of the core reasons why I became a Republican in the first place. But suddenly as soon as you controlled both Congress and the White House, fiscal discipline wasn't a concern anymore. Do you all need to be reminded of 2003, when you voted for a reform of Medicare that added $8 trillion of unfunded liability. For those doing the math at home, that's over 8 times the amount of the current proposed stimulus package. Where were the budget hawks then?
Furthermore, in their list of grievances with the stimulus package, about half the items really are things that will create or help retain jobs. Isn't that the point of a stimulus bill? Case in point, here are some things they list:
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
That's just a few. All of the above are tasks that will need to be performed by people. People who, presumably, will be paid to complete said tasks. When they are paid, they will use this money to purchase goods and services, which will stimulate the economy. Stop me if I'm getting too technical here.
Democrats - Screw you guys for putting a bunch of wasteful crap in this stimulus bill. This was not the time to shove through all your pet projects that you've been denied the last 8 years. I can blame the Republicans for pulling the trigger, but I blame you for loading the gun and handing it to them. Among some of the legitimate grievances that the Republicans have with the bill:
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $150 million for honeybee insurance
And not only can you not bring in bipartisan support, you apparently can't even get partisan support! The vote in the Senate was supposed to occur last night, but Harry Reid called it off because he didn't think he had the votes. At least the Republicans knew how to shove a bill down the throats of the opposition when they had the numbers.
In the words of Homer Simpson: "When will people learn? Democracy doesn't work!"
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