I…agree…with…Justice Thomas. I will now light myself on fire. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/business/16bizcourt.html
Archive for December, 2008
Opposite Day
Posted in Supreme Court on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
More Madoff
Posted in Corruption on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Hard to tell who the bad guys are in this story. Not sure the guy realizes that his wife’s family – the folks who think they lost $30mm – are the persons who gained from the scam. The “entire family had been in the fund for decades and lived well off the returns” – those [...]
You Fight Like a Woman
Posted in George W. Bush, Middle East on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two thoughts on the Iraqi shoe sideshow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3Z_Kskl_U http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/15/news/ML-Bush-Arab-Anger-Analysis.php 1) If Bush had said “who throws a shoe…” and gone into the Austin Powers routine, my laughter would likely have made me forget the disaster of the last eight years. It would have been that easy for Dubya. Luckily, he said something about the shoe [...]
Cuba
Posted in Cuba on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In a country full of incoherent and inexplicable policies, our approach to Cuba has to be among our nuttiest. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/magazine/07cuba-t.html
Economy
Posted in Finance, Housing Policy, Meltdown on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Reasonably serious economic perspective, if more bearish than most: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/12/deflation-has-become-inevitable.html Nutty guy, but probably right on this: http://www.reuters.com/article/InvestmentOutlook09/idUSTRE4BA5CO20081211 I missed this at the time, but if it stands, it would be terrifying: essentially MA is looking to nullify some subprime loans. Barring the loans going forward could be a reasonable decision, but retroactively voiding them [...]
Precious Bodily Fluids
Posted in Food on December 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Good article in the Times about something that won’t happen: reforming the Department of Agriculture. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/opinion/11kristof.html Speaking of things that won’t happen, one powerful change that would only require Congressional approval would be the removal of the 1911 cap of the House of Representatives at 435 members (the House was originally 120 and had grown [...]
House Arrest
Posted in South Asia, Weapons of Mass Destruction on December 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
House arrest? Wow, way to crack down. They must be really mad. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081211/wl_nm/us_india_mumbai_85 Extraditing him would show serious cooperation. Killing him would show practicality – in an Indian prison, LeT’s long history of working with the Pakistani government in Kashmir is going to come out – but still show some amount of course correction. But [...]
The Bomb
Posted in Weapons of Mass Destruction on December 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Astonishing and almost impossible to believe: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/science/09bomb.html Rumor has it that when the clock in the town square of Prague was finished, the city leaders had the clockmaker’s eyes gouged out to prevent him from building something so beautiful for anyone else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock). I doubt we would have done that to our victorious scientists in [...]
Wow
Posted in Corruption on December 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Good Lord: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/blagojevich_corruption_probe Two observations: Given the impeccable logic of Rod’s thoughts on the value of a Senate seat, why discuss selling it at all? That’s like selling the family silver; Rod gets some money but remains stuck in Springfield while whoever gets appointed has the national post, corporate contacts, role for the wife, etc. [...]
Drugs
Posted in Domestic Policy, Drugs on December 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When I was in high school and college, I was sure I was one of the only kids who would ever have to deal with a 21 year-old drinking age. The drinking age had been 18 in Connecticut when I got there, and it only moved up under Reagan Administration pressure. I had a middle [...]
