We're Number One!

Illinois has the worst (most expensive to insure) debt of any state in the good ole United States of America.

Source: Bespoke Investment Group - State Default Risk

I blame W.
he he... yow, bill

Fashion for the 11 yo

"Fashion for the 11 yo"

a) Couple-a fun links

Conservative or Liberal - Based on a google API, here's a tiny site that parses text and deems it either "Conservative" or "Liberal". He he.

www.jebruner.com/decider/decide.php?query_id=3

Mousemail - Mousemail is a texting and email filter product for parents.

www.mousemail.com

Charts in Java - Google directory of Java-based class libraries for charts and graphs.

directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Java/Class_Libraries/Graphics/Charts

b) And a little pol fun
Giggle giggle. Oh, guilty pleasure.
CBS News doing an online poll to rate President Obama:

Grade Obama's First Year in Office

Giggle giggle some more... the unscientific, and extremely fattening, results:

Obama's Overall Job as President

---

A:
6.28%

B:
4.03%

C:
3.69%

D:
22.25%

F:
63.76%

The grade on "Health Care" was 78% F.
Amen to that brother.

And finally, a quickie political article:

Last Refuge of the Liberal

QOTD

"Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed... It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting"
- Krauthammer, www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=186380

Um, that's refudiated, Chuck.
he he... yow, bill

PS - Almost forgot... read the quickie below. "We have so much oil right now, more than we've had in 27 years. Why is it 27 years? Because that's how far our records go back."

Oil Should Be Around $10 a Barrel

Katrina side effect: Better schools

"Cabo shoreline"

So interesting.
Katrina swallowed New Orleans 5 years ago. One of the unforeseen side effects... rather than rebuild traditional centralized public schools, New Orleans opted for a charter school setup. Here's the (subscription) link:

After the Deluge, A New Education System

The performance of the charter schools is blowing the doors off their centralized predecessors:

• The number of fourth-grade students who pass the state's standardized tests has jumped by almost a third—to 65% in 2010 from 49% in 2007.
• Since 2007, the percentage of [high school] students meeting the state's proficiency goals is up 44% for English and 45% for math.

But of course.

QOTD

"These independent public schools formulate their own budgets, control their own academic affairs, and make their own hiring decisions... This decentralized system has encouraged educational entrepreneurship. Just as businesses may use different methods to deliver their products or services, so do New Orleans's charter schools."
- New Orleans new charter schools, source

"Educational entrepreneurship"... so dreamy!
Just close your eyes and imagine Chicago's (crappy) public school system with at least some level of choice.
huzzah to that... yow, bill

PS - And huzzah to New Orleans Saint cheerleaders!


PPS - The Saints cheerleaders are called the "Saintsations". Good Lord. He he. And their website has one of the all-time annoying things you'll find in a website... noisy menus. www.saintsations.net

Kindle close

a) Kindle close
I'm close to getting me one of them $140 Kindles on Amazon.
Then I can read on the beach like this hot chick:



I'm still trying to figure out... OK, I buy all these books for my Kindle. Then, I want a different e-reader or Amazon sucks or whatever... how do I get my e-books from the Kindle, to some other platform. I don't think there is a way out (unlike iTunes), so I'm still pondering.

b) Islamophobia Trivial Pursuit
President Obama and my leftie brothers and sister are bawling that Muslims are being wronged and discriminated against in this fine country. Well, let's do some math.

2008 is the latest date for FBI hate crime data. Go:

• Here's their main page: www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2008/index.html
• I'm using this table: Incidents by Bias/Motivation table
  

So, here goes...
300M people in the US. Couple-a million Muslims.
How many hate crimes did the FBI call "anti-Islamic" in 2008?

... drum roll...

OK, this is a toughie.
Here's a hint: The FBI says there were almost 8,000 "hate crimes" in 2008.
OK, so how many anti-Islamic?

... drum roll again...

OK, hint #2: OK, this will help... There were 137 hate crimes listed as "anti-Asian/Pacific Islander". So, how many anti-Islamic?

Enough already... the answer: 105.

105 anti-Islamic hate crimes
in the whole flippin US of A
over a whole flippin year.

7,780 total hate crimes... 105 anti-Islamic... that's 1.3%.
There were 54 hate crimes against Eskimos for gol dang's sake.
And it looks like 60% of hate crimes are against people, 40% against property.

Anyway. So, 70% of Americans think the Ground Zero mosque is inappropriate (poll). Duh. It is interesting that this close to the 60% of people nationwide who support the AZ immigration bill.

The Ground Zero mosque thingie is not a constitutional question. It's a value question. And as in so many other areas, President Obama's values are the opposite of those of the American people.

c) Bad movie, patooey!
Movie: "In Bruges"
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... golly, that's bad

I can't remember where I heard about this movie. BTW, Bruges is a city in Belgium.

It was like some act of Zen mastery that I made it through the first hour of this clunker without any fast forwards. I like ole Irish Colin Ferrel, but patooey. Bad. Bad everything: plot, script, acting, yadda, yadda, yadda.
patooey... yow, bill

Get it, don't get it

a) I don't get it
If obesity were just an American problem then, I'd get it.
But it doesn't seem to be:

• The commies in China are mandating exercise of their "workers" to counter obesity (source).
• The poor schlubs working in the copper mines of China (sounds like a Cecile B. DeMille movie) are so fat they fit through the rescue tunnel (source).

So, why is everyone everywhere so flippin fat?
Got me.

b) I get this one

This stupid Ground Zero mosque story keeps breaking through my media bubble. Dang it. This story is stranger-than-fiction dumb, but I guess our President and the mayor of NYNY are even dumber than that.

It's not news any more, just politics. So, in that spirit, let's handle it like we would in picking floor hockey teams in Jr. High. OK, this should be fun.

OK, you go first... and you get Obama.

I'll take Miss USA over there to the left. She's hot, I mean, a Muslim chick from Michigan.

OK. Now, you take Mr. Imam 15 Minutes of Fame who wants to open the Ground Zero mosque.

I'll take Salman Rushdie.
And his ex-wife Padma Lakshmi.

Ah, enough already... I'm just being a smarty pants. Back to Mr. 15 Minutes knucklehead for a couple-a quotes.

QOTD

"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than Al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims"
- 15 minutes of fame imam, source

And shit, I absolutely remember this one (below)!

QOTD2

"You may remember that the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations,"
- the 15 minutes of fame imam, source

Before we invaded Iraq, we had sanctions. I remember reading tons of leftie news crap/websites back in the day talking about the thousands of children we were killing. Cha.

Of course, it's simple.
There is no suppression of Islam or any other religion in NYNY.
The good people of NYNY can zone their city as they see fit, just like any other building.

So, pick a side... President Obama has.
And vote accordingly in November... and beyond!

c) New Home Sales
I posted earlier on existing home sales. Well, new home sales really stink too. (LA Times Story)
Some interesting stats in there and some not:

• The headline number was "a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000 units"... or, 23K houses sold in July.
• The number of new houses sold in July is lower (not adjusted for anything that I can see) than any month since 1963. Shit, what was the US population in 1963? Ok, it was 190M (source). So, 100M more people or so, and less houses sold. Interesting!
  
• Now, some dude chimes in with a wild stat: no new homes over $750K have been sold in 2 months (source). That sounded pretty incredible to me. Alas, it's not. Here's the federales' data on new home sales by price: www.census.gov/const/ussoldbypricem.pdf. Well, it's been 2 years that # mcmansions sold were 1K units or less. Even in boom times, the number was never more than 4K. So, I got duped by that one. Not interesting!
  

Anyway, this will eventually (cough) be good news for me. Someone building a new castle will have to spend a lot more money than it would be to just buy mine. It'll just take time for the market to shake out.
How much time?
I don't get that one either.
peace out... yow, bill

PS - This is messed up. Below... Padma Lakshmi, Salman Rushdie's ex. WTF?!?!

Couple-a pointers

a) Awfully Bad
Yikes.
"Awfully bad" existing home sales number... down 27% from June to July (story).

Source: An Awfully Bad Number

Those B.I.G boys make some tasty charts.

Couple-a quotes:

• "[Home] Inventories are at their highest level in more than a decade." Dop.
• But... "Much of the decline can be explained by the expiration of the home buyer’s tax credit, which probably pulled some home purchases forward that might have otherwise occurred in July or later." I don't know. Still sounds like a dop to me.
  

b) Yankee
Fun pointer...

Yankee retired jersey numbers

Who'll be added to this (amazing) list:

• #2 - Derek Jeter
• #42 - Mariano
• #13 - A-Rod... NOT!

Go: Wikipedia Top 500 MLB Home Run hitters

So, 4 of the top 10 home run guys are tainted by the steroid era: Bonds, A-Rod, Sammy Sosa, and McGwire.

Question: Will any of these mopes a) have their jersey retired by any team, or b) get into the HOF?

Hope not.
a-fraud... yow, bill

Wind power blows

a) Windmills
3 strikes and you're out. Eh?

I ain't a big nature guy, but wind farms are a stinking eyesore. Strike one.


But so what... the point of all these wind farms is to generate energy without any carbon dioxide.

QOTD

"A slew of recent studies show that wind-generated electricity likely won't result in any reduction in carbon emissions—or that they'll be so small as to be almost meaningless."
- more global warming stupidity, source

Wind power is intermittent. This means starting and stopping conventional power plants to fill the void when the wind dies down, which reduces their efficiency and increases their carbon dioxide output.
Oops. Strike two.

Finally, wind power subsidies from the feds dwarf that for conventional power (200x). This makes wind power one of the most expensive energy options we have. Strike three.

This stuff is from a (wonderful) subscription WSJ piece, but here's the link.

Wind Power Won't Cool Down the Planet

And this is the point.
Wind power and so much of this stuff isn't about anything real... it's about the warm and fuzzy of pretending to do something.

QOTD2

"Wind energy gives people a nice warm fuzzy feeling that we're taking action on climate change... the reality is that it's not doing much of anything."
- Kevin Forbes, director of the Center for the Study of Energy and Environmental Stewardship at Catholic University (aka nabob)

b) Investment Book
Book: "Diary of a Very Bad Year" by www.nplusonemag.com
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... worth reading

This book is pretty dry, but interesting enough. It's an interview with a hedge fund guy over the time period of the market meltdown in 2008-09.

I was happy to be able to follow it all pretty easily. I already understood most of what he was talking about regarding the credit crisis and housing and the stock market and China and blah blah blah.

The most interesting part was hearing about how things worked at the hedge fund during the most dire and tense times of the crisis. The guy's hedge fund had agreements with banks about borrowing money and this and that... when the shit hit the fan, people said "Screw You" and just broke their agreements. The recourse of the hedge fund is to eventually sue the bank (or whoever), but of course, by that time, you're dead in the water.

And yes, for the record... "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is a better book... and movie! He he.
wind power blows... yow, bill

PS - Ah, New Zealand...

I heart Lou

a) I heart Lou
Lou retired yesterday.
I heart Lou.

Best Cub manager in my lifetime.

Easy.

L
O
U
!

b) I heart Ozzie
Loser journalist (redundant) Jay Mariotti got arrested for popping his girlfriend:

‘Jay the Rat’? Mariotti arrest dredges up old animosities

Who cares. Though the $50K bail is pretty hard core.
Anyway, the point is... "The Rat" is recipient of one of the best Ozzie rants of all-time.

QOTD

"He's garbage, still garbage, going to die as garbage."
- Ozzie on Jay the Rat, source

BTW, this whole article is worthy: Rating Ozzie's Most Memorable Blowups
I heart Ozzie.
And yes, Ozzie is the best Sock manager in my day.

c) Loser MVP's
The Cub lead the league in one category: most league MVP's on losing teams. He he.
Only 7 guys have won the MVP while playing on a losing (well, non-winning) team.
Source: Your Team Loses, You Aren't Valuable

• Alex Rodriguez, 2003 Rangers (71-91)
• Cal Ripken Jr., 1991 Orioles (67-95)
• Robin Yount, 1989 Brewers (81-81)
• Andre Dawson, 1987 Cubs (76-85)
• Ernie Banks, 1959 Cubs (74-80)
• Ernie Banks, 1958 Cubs (72-82)
• Hank Sauer, 1952 Cubs (77-77)

Impressive... 4 out of 7 are Cub.
Not.

d) Potpourri
Jerry Rice's honest, simple HOF speech... excellent:

Jerry Rice HOF Speech

I saw an NFL preseason blurb comparing TO and OchoCinco to Jerry Rice and John Taylor in the 1980's. I spit at my TV and changed the channel in disgust. OK, maybe I didn't spit, but still...

Finally, two funny videos:

1. Forget the blue-haired repubs in the crowd... but how bad is this crappy cover band: Republicans Don't Like 80's Cover Bands
2. The great Packer/Niner "Dirt Bag" commercial getting play these days: Ad exposes seamy underbelly of NFL fan rivalries

good luck lou... yow, bill


...

...

See Bill Run

a) Champion's Run 100
I did a 10K Saturday... the Champion's Run 100 in Montrose Harbor, downtown Chicago.
And the (fairly) happy totals are:

50 minute, 28 second
8:08 / mile

I know. I know. Over 8 minute miles in a lousy 10K!?!? WTF?
Well, conditions were adverse, my friends:

• It was humid as the rain forest out there.
• I was still only about 80% from last weekend's illness.
  
• The course was more like a steeplechase than a run with puddles, crowded with people, bikes, trails, cars... really bad
• I was running with a group of 4-5 runners and we veered right and people started yelling... we were going the wrong way. The flippin' course wasn't really marked in a lot of locations.
  

So, nuts to the course, but we had fun. I ran with runner Matt who completed his first race of any kind. So huzzah to that!

No marathon or half marathon this summer, so I'm going to look for real 10K to scorch this Fall. Maybe.


b) Fibbers galore
The fibbers are out. In full force.

President Obama (speaking of fibbers) recently signed a bill to spend $26B to "avert a crisis for this year", as Education Czar Arnie Duncan called it (source). Arnie's "crisis" was impending spending cuts coming the way of public schools this year.

Two things:

1. As with "emergency" funding of unemployment benefits, President Obama could have used remaining stimulus to do this. He opted to leave his slush fund alone, undisturbed.
2. Public education is an ugly, bloated ogre (sorry, Shrek). The private sector has responded to the recession by getting lean and mean. The public sector has responded by printing money.
   

Here's a good example of the state of public education. Los Angeles features about the worst, broke-ass, piece-a-crap public school system you can find. So, their answer... build a nearly $600M school.

LA unveils $578M school, costliest in the nation

Maybe you're saying... well Bill, maybe this building houses a lot, mega-mega lot of students. Nope. Just about 4 thousand. In fact, did you catch this stat: the LA "Taj Mahal" of schools cost more than $600/square foot!!! To be honest, I've never even heard of a $600/sqft residence.

And no, this isn't an LA problem... it's (as ZZ Top would say) nationwide.

QOTD

"Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks."
- bamboo nooks?, source

c) Bill Gross and Freddie and Fannie
In the investing world and especially in bonds, Bill Gross is as big a muckety muck as there is. He founded monster investment firm Pimco (source).

Anyway, I saw Bill on CNBC over lunch last week. He made an interesting point. It will be very difficult to chloroform Freddie and Fannie because the private mortgage market has shriveled and will be unable to service the quantity of home mortgages that are generated in America during normal times. Here's a summary article:

How Expensive Would Mortgages Be Without Government Backing?

I know this is tough to follow, especially in a stupid blog. The feds juiced the housing market for a couple decades, and now people (home buyers) are used to unsustainable levels of low, low interest rates and down payments. If you were running a mortgage business, you would never loan John Doe $500K for 30 years at 5% interest rate with only 10% down.

So, broadly speaking, we have two options:

1. Bite the bullet - phase Fannie and Freddie out and return to private mortgage companies
   
2. Let it ride - let the feds continue to dole out the dough, screwing the pooch even worse over time
   

Option 1 is the obvious choice, but the short/intermediate-term pain will be tremendous. I think Gross' point is that the American voter won't tolerate the real solution to our problem.

The most negative thing about this is that it's not just Fannie and Freddie. We've seen the feds create bubbles in education, health care, etc... wrecking the free market in these just as profoundly as in the housing market. All these markets have seen their prices far out-strip inflation for years now.

Well, how will these bubbles and their dependency on the feds be unwound?
Maybe this unwinding is our next big test as a nation.
We confront and defeat this morass; we keep our spot as a superpower.
We don't; we fade into that shadows, ala weak, socialist Europe.

We shall see.
bikini elle... yow, bill

I'm under attack!

a) Yet Another Bad chart (YABC)
This it the chart people (um, investors) don't like... our jobless, slow recovery:

Source: Bespoke Investment Group (BIG) blog

Yuk.
Hey, it's (still) all W's fault.
We'll see how that plays in 10 weeks.

b) Under attack
I'm under siege over here!

First, in this WSJ tome, Slow and Steady Loses the Race, slow, crappy recreational runners (um, me) get blamed for Kenyans (and everyone else) running laps around our professional distance runners. I can't follow that bogus logic, but he has some great stats in there:

• The average marathon time has gone from 3 1/2 hours in 1980... to 4 hours 15 min today. That's because of all the knuckleheads (cough) who run marathons these days. BTW, I needed a time of 3 1/2 hours to qualify for Boston. Rejected!
• This one is harder to explain: "... in 1978 more than 2,000 runners broke three hours at the Boston marathon. In 2002, with a field nearly three times as large, only about 1,000 runners broke the three-hour barrier." That's a head-scratcher.
  

Joe Asswipe, the author, really pounds me by trashing the "just do it" attitude of amateur marathoners these days. Shit. Crappy marathoners are a new phenomenon. I don't see how we are accountable for "real" marathoners getting slower. It's a totally different category of people.

Second, I'm listening to sports radio blather about pitch counts, shaking my head and trying to recall as many Fergie Jenkins stats as I can, when the guy offers, "Of course, if you're a white guy over 50, you think all this pitch count is nonsense... regardless of all the evidence to the contrary."

Hey! I like evidence. And I'm not 50. Yet.
I just don't understand why pitchers are so frail these days. I see in Ty's league that they have all kinds of crazy pitch counts and such for 10 year-olds, and I ask you this... did we have pitch counts 20 years ago? Do you think they have pitch counts in Latin America or South America or Japan? No way.

Just pick up the dang ball and throw it.
Whippersnapper.
he he... yow, bill

PS - More on this next post... unless I forget.
QOTD

"They should be abolished."
- Barney Frank (asswipe) on Fannie and Freddie

PPS - It's nice to have a bikini shot of a girl (Jennie Finch) who's eaten a sammich once or twice in her life.

Blago

QOTD

"File this under CS... for Chicken Shit"
- American Graffiti, sorting his glove box full of tickets

American Graffiti and Blago, eh.

a) Blago
The Blago verdict: hung jury on 23/24 charges: story.

QOTD2

"Let me also point out... we didn't even put a defense on."
- Blago, hung jury on 23/24 counts

Blago had a good ole run at prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald after his non-verdict. Here's the video. Or here's just the audio.
Ahhhhh.

Now, please don't count me as a Blago fan, but a corrupt pol in IL is not the story.

The story is prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. I remember the first time I got queasy about Fitzy... at his press conference announcing the charges against Blago. He sounded like he thought he was on a reality show or something... prattling about Blago's "crime spree" and Lincoln rolling over in his grave and blah blah. He acted more like a teenage girl than an officer of the court.

And then:

• Why did publicly Fitzy drag Blago out of bed at 5 in the morning to arrest him?
• Then, Fitzy starts releasing choice bits of Blago swearing on the tape.
  
• Blago's most egregious offense was supposedly "pay-for-play" on Obama's Senate seat. OK, then why wasn't Congress-creep Jesse Jackson Jr. indicted for actually answering Blago's supposed pay-for-play request on the tapes?
• 24 counts. OK. And the one count Blago was convicted on: lying to the feds in 2005 that he was involved in raising campaign dough. No real corruption. No real nothing. Crap.
  
• Finally, it's ever so curious that Fitzy's investigation suddenly stopped when the likes of ole Rahmie Emanuel and Jesse Jr. started dialing up Blago's tapped phone line?

So yeah, F you Fitzy.
Now, without a pause, he re-upped on the charges in a new trial. But the verdict is already in on Fitzy: unprofessional and hip-deep in politics himself.

Here's the dumbest commentary I stumbled upon... that Blago wasn't persecuted by the feds (story). No, Blago's right here. They threw the kitchen sink at him, every dirty trick in the book, and he wriggled free.

Maybe that's Fitzy's #1 verdict: somehow making Blago look good.
Speaking of looking good, Patty Blago... not a bad-looking 40-something. He he.

b) Good charts
I don't know about this one, but here's the link.

Business Activity Actually Strengthening

They include charts on industrial production and capacity utilization that show a V-shaped recovery. Seems a little weird/fishy to me, but what the heck.
yow, bill

PS - Bikini verdict... not guilty! He he.

Vestibular Neuritis

"Lobster Attack in Cabo"

a) My diagnosis
Well, my 48 hours of dizzy barfing seems to be over. It wasn't the everyday cold/flu because I didn't have any aches/pains, and I was crazy dizzy. So, I like Dr. Holly's diagnosis:

Vestibular Neuritis

Crazy inner ear nerve.

b) Simple Values Statement
President Obama fibs and says that Muslims have the right to build a mosque wherever they please:

Obama Supports Muslim Group’s Right to Build Mosque in New York

If I were the repubs (and I am not), the campaign commercial writes itself... roll... aaaand, ACTION!

OBAMA: "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan...”

NARRATOR: "As President Obama knows, this isn't an issue of religious rights. It's a value statement. We don't share the President's values, and we don't think most of you do either. Vote for us.

[cue the cute baby with the flag waving in background]

The end.
A deeper analysis takes me to huckleberry John Cougar:

QOTD

"You gotta stand
For somethin'
Or you're gonna fall
For anything!"
- John Cougar Mellencamp

Also, PLEASE NOTE: the good people at Bloomberg has changed the title of the article!

• The original is as I copied it above "Obama Supports Muslim Group’s Right to Build Mosque in New York"
• New version: "Obama Says Right to Build Mosque Isn’t an Endorsement"

Fucking toadies.
There is no lower endeavor than American journalism.

c) Jobs
A novel way to add jobs and grow the economy... break the logjam of more than one million patents applications that need attention:

A Patently Obvious Way to Add Jobs

d) Good example
This is a good example of the shit that has to stop... Buena Vista, VA put up their fucking city hall as collateral on a $9.2M golf course... which is now going under.

A Fight Over City Hall - Literally

I love this one...

QOTD2

"People are not playing golf."
- Brian Kearney, Buena Vista, VA City Attorney

e) Movie Review
Movie: "Taken"
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... yawn.

Hey, even Liam Neeson has bills to pay. I never quite bought wrinkly, old 60-something Liam beating the crap out of everyone he encounters for 90 minutes.
Yawn.
peace out... yow, bill

Limbo!?!?

a) Movie review
Movie: "Inception"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.

I sure am getting soft in my old age... giving this turkey 3 bill-stars. Stupid plot and crappy ending, but I still thought it was (barely) worth seeing.

Now, my fave moment of the movie is when little Ellen Page (from Juno) pauses, turns directly into the camera and exclaims "Limbo!?!?" He he. I laughed out loud. You know... the kind of laughter that sort of escapes involuntarily. If I was drinking from a milk carton in the lunch room, it would have squirted out of my nose. That kind of laughter. It was one of those wonderful bad writing/bad acting combos that demands unintended laughter.

Since the movie, I've said "LIMBO!?!?" about a hundred times... so I'm waiting (patiently) for that to get old.

Ending Spoiler Alert - The worst part about "Inception" is the ending. We all f'ing know that Leo is in a dream, but the ending doesn't elaborate. That was weak, punk-ass crap. If you can't fool Bill Krieger in a movie, then you have some big, big problems.

b) Creepy, cynical
Ah, the vanilla pol who occupies the Presidency of this fine country.
This is a classic creepy, cynical pol gesture:

Obama Signs $600 Million Border Security Bill

Yeah, that should do it President Obama... $600M and 1,500 guys and two drones (he he). I wonder how much the federales are spending in their lawsuit against AZ?

Limbo?!?!?!?!?
limbo... yow, bill

fauxpathy

"Cabo Mall View"

Well, we have empathy, sympathy, apathy, antipathy... and I humbly submit to the lexicon:

fauxpathy [fo-puh-thee]
noun

1. the state of pretending to identify with, or care about, the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another
   
2. a false caring, common in the 21st century and typically associated with political correctness: Buffy's fauxpathy toward the issue is exacerbated by his frequent cable TV viewing.
   

Origin: 2010; williamt blog

Oh, and telepathy.
He he.
fauxpathy bar... yow, bill

I saw it

a) Yankee Win
I saw the Yankee come-from-behind win over the Ranger last night... fantasy baseball MADE me watch. He he.

Now, the Yankee have incredible (and expensive) talent, but I saw something else that makes the Yankee win so much. In the bottom of the 9th, with Mariano on the bump, Austin Kearns (buster) made a nice catch in RF of a diving liner to preserve the win/save. The interesting thing was the look on his face after the catch. That look was fear. It was too soon for relief, which presumably would come later. Kearns was fearful of costing the Yankee a win. Costing a hall-of-fame like Mariano a save. And facing the cranky Yankee fans.

Now, does Kearns make that catch as a Cincy Red or whatever other team the journeyman has been on over the last 5 years? I don't know. But I do know that these guys who come over from buster teams to play for the Yankee feel tremendous pressure to perform, and it has to have an effect. Other examples on this year's Bomber squad: Lance Berkman, and Kerry Wood.

Speaking of Kerry Wood. Here's a disturbing and disorienting photo of Kerry in a Yankee jersey. WTF?!?!


b) Headlines
Just (great) headlines from today's WSJ:

• "You Sweat, and the Shirt Changes" - on apparel where designs show up when you sweat. Huh?
• "Golf Looks for Its Lost Bearings" - on post-Tiger golf... what is this "golf", anyway?
• "Science Stimulus Funds Called Wasteful" - on wasteful spending on fed-sponsored science neck-deep in stimulus $$$. My fave: $2.5M to UCLA to "improve its graduate, post-doctoral and undergraduate training in algebra and number theory." Outstanding.

God bless the WSJ.

c) Paul Ryan... own your own stuff
WI Congress-guy Paul Ryan is one of my 3 pol faves. Here's a good WSJ article on the Washington establishment (pols and media) sniping at Ryan:

Washington vs. Paul Ryan

Part of Mr. Ryan's plan is to shift power from the feds to individuals. Example: Give seniors who want it vouchers so that they can get their own dang health insurance. Sort of along the lines of the williamt mantra: own your own stuff!

QOTD

"Mr. Ryan wants to remodel Medicare by giving seniors a modified voucher to buy private insurance. Mr. Orszag, et al., concede that the roadmap would make the entitlement permanently solvent, as confirmed in an analysis by their icon the Congressional Budget Office, but they claim that the amount of the voucher would not keep pace with rising health-care costs."
- WSJ source

Well, you can judge for yourself. Paul Ryan's roadmap is a great start and not a bad/long read. I doubt you'll see this in any media source or talking head show.

Paul Ryan's Roadmap

And this is just a funny pol QOTD.

QOTD2

"I will say, you know, I watch a lot of cable TV, and you don't have to watch long to get frustrated by some of what's said"
- White House press guy Robert Gibbs

Dear Mr. Gibbs. Turn off the talking heads and watch a ballgame. Or play some Frisbee or something.
yow, bill

Pink toenails

a) Pink toenails
Ah, internet dating...

QOTD

"I never let distance stop me. Why? SLEEPOVERS!!
I would even paint your toenails pink.
Let me know if you change your mind.

Oh, unfortunately, I'd have to call you William.
My X is a Bill (that would be too weird, right?)"
- My all-time fave POF email, from a hot 40-something who lived far, far away

Too great.

b) Death Trinity
Well, there have to be some corrupt pols shaking in their boots, as the third leg of the death trinity ominously awaits:

1. Ted Stevens - corrupt Alaska Senator bought it in a plane crash
   
2. Rosty - corrupt IL Congressman gacked "peacefully at home"
3. ???
   

The candidate list is too long and boring to list, but I do wonder what George Ryan is up to these days.

Of course, the current spotlight is on a couple-a wonderfully corrupt dem pols: Chuckie Rangel and "Mad" Maxine Waters.

QOTD2

"He [Obama] could set in motion forces that may actually make the American system of government less dysfunctional.
I won’t be holding my breath."
- media nabob on how President Obama might respond to the Rangle/Waters scandals in Congress (source)

hot pink... yow, bill

Jeejah

a) Public sector nonsense
The WSJ today documents some egregious CA public sector pension numbers. They focus on a city manager whose pension will be $600K/year... he "managed" a city whose population is 40,000.

But here's a better (more nauseating) number... and our QOTD

QOTD

"9,111 retired California government workers receiving pensions in excess of $100,000 a year"
- WSJ source

Let's see... 10,000 x $100,000 = $1B.
A cool billion a year for the pension of less than 10K public "servants".

And a Bill-anecdote... in Cabo, we were in a mini-van en route to do some zip-lining and other shenanigans. I think it was 14 people in total, 4-5 couples. I think every couple included at least one public school teacher/administrator.

Jeez, this stuff has to change.



b) Anathem
Book: "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.
Website: www.nealstephenson.com/anathem

Well, it was a tale of two books.

The first 2/3 of the book... I was into it. Tthe author details his fantasy world, and it was fun. Lots of nerdy science and philosophy references. And he creates some new vocabulary words, reminiscent of "A Clockwork Orange" that make the book challenging, but you get used to it... sort of like subtitles in a movie. This (long) introduction (Anathem is almost 1,000 pages long) was 4 bill-stars. The pages really flew by.

The last 1/3 of the book... Then, we jumped the shark. Aliens land. And we're floating out in space. And we're visiting multiple cosmos (um, cosmi, excuse me). And we have ninja monks. And blah blah blah. Worst of all... the sugar sweet happy ending. Dop. 2 bill-stars.

It was worth reading, but the action at the end was pretty dang tedious.

I bow to Anathem in this respect... I will forever refer to my cell phone as a jeejah.
he he... yow, bill

(Nasty) Chart of the Day

a) Nasty Chart
This one is flying around a lot of investment blogs out there... nasty unemployment chart:

Source: Business Insider

So, chart-reading 101 from high school:

• 6% from the peak job losses is the worst since WW2
• In every other recession, save 2001, job losses were already recouped by now
  

Dop.

So much for the Obama laser beam focus on jobs and the economy.

It seems to this humble blogger that the focus has been more on health care, fed spending, the global warming bill, and not getting routed in November.

QOTD

"A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price."
- CEO dude on the increasing costs and uncertainty of hiring people, wsj source

laser... yow, bill

Cabo Wabo

Huzzah to my Catholic brothers and sisters in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

"Cabo cross"

a) Cabo Wabo
Still recovering from my Cabo trip... some fun to relate:

1. Best native people-watching: There were, presumably poor, guys walking the streets of Cabo and San Jose with coolers of water and such to sell. I presume they are poor because, jeez, get a bike or something, eh. Anyway, my fave was a deserted cooler on the sidewalk I saw running one day. "Where's the dude?" I thought. Then I spied him sitting in the shade under a tree... texting on his cell phone. He he. Small, weird tech world.
2. Best tourista watching: I saw a guy poolside reading "Cliff's Notes - The Bible" (link). Swear to, um, God. Another one: cudos to the Kindle. I saw a lady reading one poolside in the blazing sun. I might need to do more research before I pound the table on the iPad again.
   
3. Best restaurant: Edith's in Cabo San Lucas. 5 bill-stars. Jeez! 5-star food, service and atmosphere. Grab a filet and a flaming Edith's coffee. www.edithscabo.com
4. 2nd Best Restaurant: Tropicana Inn and Restaurant... my volcano filled with Mexican goodies was awesome! 4 bill-stars. Get your ass some of that lobster bisque! www.hoteltropicana.com/tropicana_los_cabos/index.php#home
   
5. Best Bar: The Giggling Marlin. He he. www.gigglingmarlin.com. For the record, Cabo Wabo, the bar, was not all that.
6. Best tourista tour: It's a tie (gasp) between the Caborey dinner cruise and the zip-line adventure thingie.
   

Of course, the best thing about Cabo was the Pacific, the sun, and relaxing by the pool. Ahhhhh!

BTW, you still don't drink the water in Mexico... beer and bottled water only! I was fastidious about this until our last night... nice pizza place where I had some bottled water mixed in with ice cubes. Dop. I got dinged from even this little bit of exposure to alien cooties.

b) The Canadian Dream
Canada is recovering from their recession, and their unemployment rate is down to 7.9% from its peak of 9%. Why is Canada emerging more quickly and powerfully than the US? Well, it ain't rocket science... Canada has moved over the years toward smaller government and lower taxes. Nice quickie WSJ article on this:

Canada, Land of Smaller Government

Up next for the Canucks: health care. A number of provinces are dabbling in market-based health care solutions to reduce cost and increase consumer options with more and more to follow.

Related, there's another WSJ op-ed on how bogus the ObamaCare numbers are.
Is it November yet?!?

QOTD

"The Five Year Party"
- Great book title... on how crappy a college education is these days, amazon source

There's some anonymous chick at the Giggling Marlin to the right. He he!
cabo wabo... yow, bill

95%

QOTD

"95%"
- Percent of people claiming that the performance of their fantasy football team affects their mood, WSJ

100% for fantasy baseball, eh.

Also from the WSJ... the real-life version of the Simpson's comic book store guy.

He he.
wocka wocka wocka... yow, bill