Crazy, stupid, positive mind meld

1. Crazy and stupid

Movie: "Crazy, Stupid Love"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good.

This movie is yet another Steve Carell vehicle. It's fun and funny and light... a great date movie. It's very similar to "40 year-old virgin", except:

• It's more gender neutral, rather than the male-dominant "Virgin".
• It's not as funny.
• The ending is overwrought, so the last 15 minutes or so are tedious.

All-in-all, two thumbs up.
Oh yeah, check that cast list over there in the movie poster... 40-somethings Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore are absolutely stunning. Yow!

2. Forbes positivity

Steve Forbes is effusive in this editorial... incredibly positive about America and the prospects of rightie changes to our government in the future:

forbes - News flash! Positive change coming

I definitely felt a mind meld with Forbes in his writing. There is such an opportunity for the citizenry and rightie pols in the coming election year to change the direction in our country and revitalize it.

3. More positivity

A recent CERN experiment calls into question some of the basic global warming tenets:

ibd - Watching a green fiction unravel

Hey, it's not that CERN has figured everything out.

1. It's that Al Gore and the green religion haven't figured everything out. 
2. It's that, even if global warming is real, the solution is NOT raising taxes, slowing growth, and creating a bureaucratic behemoth to centrally plan the planet.
3. It's that when someone says that debate is stupid or racist or whatever... they are 100%, completely wrong.

Positivity!
yow, bill

Neon blue running shoes

1. Two Ty Firsts

Two Ty firsts last weekend:

• We both bought the same shirt. I'm a large. Ty's a men's small. The price and selection of crap at Kohls is amazing. We had coupons up the wazoo and ended up saving more money than our total bill was.
• We went running. Ty got the loudest running shoes they had at Kohls: neon blue. He he. He loves them. The run was about a mile and a half from The Castle to DQ on a beautiful Sunday morning. Ty was huffing and puffing, but he finished strong.

It's a wonderful life.

2. The big three

Hey, fantasy football is a pale shadow of fantasy baseball, but it's still fun. The fantasy football industry is cranking full throttle.

ESPN
ESPN is the big Daddy, I suppose. Most everything is free, but it's annoying that some of their stuff is only for subscribers. Whatever.

• Main page: games.espn.go.com/frontpage/football 
• Player list: sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=NFLDK2K11ranksTop300

Fox Sports
They seem to feature three different guys and put their stories/predictions in a blender. Goob.

• Main page: msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football
• Their player list that is based on where players are being drafted in their leagues: msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football/commissioner/Draft/Rankings.aspx

CBS Sports
CBS Sports is (wonderful) information overload.

• Main page: fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball
• Their player list is a composite of two guys, but the formatting kind of stinks: fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/rankings

3. Can't stop laughing
I saw this guy's name on some stupid Yahoo story or something.
There's some guy, a singer, who calls himself Ne-Yo. 
Ne-Yo.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne-Yo

Really?
Snort.

QOTD

"It’s a reference from the movie The Matrix. He said I see music the way Neo sees the Matrix. So, out of the blue he just started calling me Ne-Yo, and the name stuck."
- Ne-Yo, link

Ne-yo. "It's a reference from the movie The Matrix." He he he.
Ne-yo yo yo.
jesu cristo... yow, bill

PS - Oh, Ty did this last weekend with a buddy: Extreme Trampoline. I can't quite figure out how they don't get sued every day of the week, but the boys had fun.

PPS - And hey, just FYI news flash!

Shutterfly is better than Snapfish. I just got our baseball trip photo books and Shutterfly is incredible!

Infinite Storage!

 "Inflating"

1. Conversation with a 12 yo
Driving past Infinite Self-Storage in Bolingbrook today...

Ty: I doubt you can really store an infinite amount of stuff there.
Bill: Yeah.
Ty: I should sue them for false advertising.
Bill: You'd need an infinite amount of stuff to store though.
Ty: No, not infinite stuff. Just more stuff than they can handle.

2. Yes. No.

Will we have another debilitating credit crunch, ala 2008?

• Yes, probably: big picture - Is credit crunch 2.0 imminent?
• No, meh: mad hedge fund guy - Why this is not 2008

So... who knows. I find this chart a little titillating though. It's the total value of the market as a percentage of our GDP. I didn't know that it is a fairly new thing that the stock market is worth more than the GDP for a year.

Source: big picture - Secular bear markets

3. WSJ huzzahs!

Two mighty huzzahs for today's WSJ:

1. France Gets Buffeted: France's billionaires are calling for massive tax increases and no spending cuts. "There's no Tea Party in France".
2. School Choice is Here to Stay: Many school choice programs are gaining momentum throughout the country. "The 2010 elections had many obvious effects, but one of the lesser-known is that they revived the school-choice movement in a big way."

If we only had a prez candidate to champion these efforts. It looks like we will be settling for a repub candidate whose primary campaign message will be "I'm not Obama". Weak. So weak to miss the opportunity... the opportunity for a candidate to herald the American values of freedom and choice.
huzzah huzzah... yow, bill

The Razzball guy - the best blog

QOTD

"That's quote of the day."
- Ty

This one from our recent baseball trip to Baltimore: Oriole 3B coach and ex-Yankee great Willie Randolph... who I heart. He tossed Ty a foul ball during the game. Excellent.

"Willie Randolph"

1. The best blog
The unholy four from Google: google search, gmail, blogger, and google reader. I heart my Google Reader. Eyeballing it, I follow almost 100 blogs effortlessly, and in a sliver of time, each day.

The best blog out there, regardless of category, is a fantasy baseball blog called Razzball:

www.razzball.com

The Razzball guy (Grey) is hysterical. Just from today's post (razzball - All a-twitter about Logan):

• "I’m dictating this post to a Montessori-taught monkey that I’ll occasionally catch looking at me like he wants to kill me and take over Razzball, which makes dictating that even more awkward."
• "Personally, I don’t like guys like Infante or Prado outside of NL-Only leagues, but I also don’t like people who write personally either, so there’s that.  I’m a contradiction wrapped inside of lazy writing pitfalls."
• "Picking up Kouzmanoff leaves a fantasy baseballer (<–my Mom’s term) in a spirited debate with themselves over God, free will, morality and why there aren’t any other 3rd basemen to pick up."

I think I know his secret though and you see it above: self-referential posts and mentioning his mother. I'll have to sneak those into some of my williamt fare. OK, maybe the real secret is: 1) he is almost always positive, 2) he doesn't take his fantasy baseball too seriously, and 3) it sure seems like he's having fun.

2. Not the best of anything

It'll be a media-free weekend. Thank you, Hurricane Whoever.
yow, bill

Parking lot SUV's

"Parking lot SUV's"

1. Nerd alert!
Huh? Germany has a shortage of engineering workers:

bloom - Shortage of engineers in Germany

Nerd enrollment in colleges has taken a hit over the last decade. Computer science has been especially hard hit because of 1) outsourcing, and 2) hey, it's hard work. You can google up a gaggle of articles on CS professors and such proclaiming that their CS curriculum has to be less demanding and focus less on the discipline of programming.

I just don't think that's the answer long-term though. You work hard in college, immerse yourself in some hi-tech shit, and run faster, man. As long as you dig it, I still think that's the way to go.

2. Facebook vanity plate

Do you have a Facebook vanity URL/address/username? Yeah, me neither. I haven't done it yet, but I think it's free and I don't think it's hard to do:

www.facebook.com/username

3. Karate and bullying
Great article on kids learning karate in response to bullying (the good part is at the end):

As Real As It Gets: Bullying Victims Can Fight Back With Help From Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Royalty

I don't believe for a second that bullying has increased in schools. I'll bet a dollar that it's decreased significantly. But still, giving a kid the tools to deal with this kind of crap, as a kid or an adult, is empowering and builds self-esteem. That's why Ty and I do karate: www.changshapkido.com
hi-YA... yow, bill

Not Likely

(my t-shirt) QOTD

"A little REBELLION now and then is a good thing"
- Thomas Jefferson

Worthy bobblehead from the SF Giants coming soon on Tony Bennett Tribute Night.

1. Likely/unlikely

From about.com, top 10 most likely ways we Americans die (about link):

1. Heart disease: 1 in 5
2. Cancer: 1 in 7
3. Stroke: 1 in 24
4. Motor Vehicle Accident: 1 in 84
5. Suicide: 1 in 119
6. Falling: 1 in 218
7. Firearm Assault: 1 in 314
8. Pedestrian Accident: 1 in 626
9. Drowning: 1 in 1,008
10. Motorcycle Accident: 1 in 1,020 

10 least/unlikely ways to die (about link):

1. Fireworks discharge: 1 in 340,733
2. Flood: 1 in 144,156
3. Earthquake: 1 in 117,127
4. Lightning: 1 in 79,746
5. Legal Execution: 1 in 62,468
6. Hornet, Wasp, or Bee Sting: 1 in 56,789
7. Hot Weather: 1 in 13,729
8. Alcohol Poisoning: 1 in 10,048
9. Accidental Electrocution: 1 in 9,968
10. Accidental Firearm Discharge: 1 in 5,134

Or, similar data in crappy graph form, if you like:

Source : National Safety Council (PDF)

Well, I'm signed up for my 50 yo physical soon. The medical community comes at you pretty hard when you turn 50... annual physicals, colonoscopy and other tests, medications, etc. I know I'm not signing up up for all that. I'll do a physical every 5 years or so, and the standard tests. Invasive and expensive tests like a colonoscopy are another question/level altogether.

At age 50, the incidence of colo-rectal cancer for the average white guy each year is about 60 in 100,000. That's a 0.06% chance. I'm healthy as a horse and without any family history of this stuff, I figger my odds are somewhat lower than that.

Just cherry-picking from all the nattering above, the odds of dying from a pedestrian accident are 1 in 626. That's about a 160 in 100,000 chance. So, over the decade of my 50's, the odds of getting colo-rectal cancer are about the same as getting hit by a car over my lifetime.

So, regarding the questions, "When do I fully insert myself into the whole medical complex thingie?" I look at CDC data on cancer and such and there seems to be a jump in cancers and other disease at around 60. So until I hit 60 or have some kind of ailment, I'm on auto-pilot... assuming I don't get hit by a bus running some hot, humid afternoon. Ha!

QOTD

For just a minute there
I was dreamin
For just a minute
it was all so real
For just a minute
She was standing there
With me
- Tom Petty, Southern Accents

yow, bill

Keeping up with the Joneseseses

Jeez. Couple-a links that simplify and explain two important topics: our debt, our bailouts.

1. Simplifying US debt

Here's a great blog post that simplifies the US debt situation. Strip off all the zeroes and ask, "What if we were a family?"... the Jones family (ha!)

relstr guys - Federal Budget 101

If it seems a lot has changed over the last 10 years. It ain't my old age or just geezer talk...

• In 2000, the US total debt was $5.7T
• Now, we're barreling past $15T, so in a little more than a decade, we've piled another $10T in debt.

www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm

President Obama has pitched in here. "[fed debt] has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever." (latimes story)

Keeping up with the Joneses. Dop.

"The rhino beetle lady. Yikes!"

2. Flame

On TARP and the bank bailouts... this is an old school flame, a torching:

big picture - Forget TARP: Wall Street borrowed $1.2T from The Fed

QOTD

"Instead [of reform], we bailed out the bondholders and management, choking off hope for a robust recovery. We are in fact slowly turning Japanese, awaiting the next recession (and the next and the next)."
- Barry Ritholtz

Huge deficits and debt. Massive bailouts without reform. Yet, the national politics to address any of this are lagging. The repub presidential field is unresponsive.

QOTD2

"I just have yet to see a strong and principled articulation of the kind of limited government, opportunity-society path that we would provide as an alternative to the Obama cradle-to-grave welfare state."
- Paul Ryan, on current repub pres candidates, wsj - Paul Ryan shuts the door to 2012 run

yow, bill

QP

Quickie potpourri. QP.

QOTD

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Cicero , 55 B.C. (Howard Lindzon post)

This stock chart is from that Lindzon link as well:

Source: http://chart.ly/2k6yeuq

You can click on that chart or link for a bigger view. Two things pop out from a chart like this:

• US stocks have REALLY struggled when this "condition" has happened twice before
• US stock, after their struggles, then bounced back, but only after a few months of tough slogging

S&P no math error - Only the Obama admin could make S&P look competent. The most telling thing in the whole downgrade nonsense, is the Obama admin attack response to the action.

yahoo - States where no one wants to buy a new home - Illinois is 3rd worst out of the 50 states in building permits for new homes in 2011. This bad news. Duh. But it's also good news going forward as the market slowly absorbs all the existing houses that are already on the market.

Cub fired Jim Hendry, but this ain't right. Cub #11 is my all-time fave ballplayer, Don Kessinger. He's a shortstop, not an outfielder.

Source: trib - Scott Stantis cartoon

Last, but (definitely) not least.



huzzah... yow, bill

The Crossing

QOTD

Look yonder, he said.
I see it, said Boyd.
Why didnt you say somethin if you seen it?
I'm sayin it now.
- Cormac McCarthy, "The Crossing"

Book: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... outstanding!
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/200374657


I heart Cormac. This is a 5 bill-star book with a so-so ending.

"The Crossing" is the 2nd in Cormac's "Border Trilogy". The first is "All the Pretty Horses" which is an easy 4 bill-star effort (williamt review). That book had a similar review: great reading with a slack ending.

This is wonderful guy fiction. Here are just some of the things I loved:

• Riding free along the Mexican border... no watch, no calendar, no nothing
• Wonderful, deep characters, and the main characters are likeable and complex
• Exciting plot with wolves and bandidos and stolen horses and hot chicks and everything
• Great, fun dialog. He has folksy fun with it too... "it was darker than the inside of a cow"
• Plenty of smokin and drinkin and cussin and starvin and hustling and shootin and dirt and tortillas and...
• Cormac's wonderful, sparse writing style gets you into the feel of a Western.

The whole package is totally engrossing. At the end, the action slows. We bump into a blind soldier who prattles on for way too long with his nihilistic view of the world... blah blah blah. Perhaps, Cormac got a little caught up throwing his own philosophy into the mix, but what do I know.

Cormac McCarthy is genius. His writing style seems to adapt to the story he's telling. The pace of the story varies greatly from one page to the next... from wild action to quiet introspection to just hanging out in the Mexican mountains. Everything in Cormac's writing feels true and honest. His sparse, folksy Western style is totally engaging. It's all in the context of guys doing guy stuff, in this case, adventures riding horses around the Mexican border.

QOTD2

Have you always been crazy?
I dont know. I never was much put to the test before today.
How old are you?
Sixteen.
Sixteen.
Yessir.
Well you aint got the sense God give a goose. Did you know that?
You may be right.
- Cormac

On to the 3rd book in the trilogy:  "Cities on the Plain".
yow, bill

Pink Hydrangea

"Pink Hydrangea"

1. CPS Thread

See if you call follow along with this Chicago Public School (CPS) thread...

Well, first off, former CPS chief Arne Duncan is now President Obama's Education Secretary. Arne Duncan yesterday expressed how concerned he is with education in Texas.

QOTD1

"I feel very, very badly for the children there."
- nabob Arnie, Obama's Education Secretary Says Perry's Schools Left Behind

Arne was in charge of the public schools in Chicago for, like, 8 years, until he became Education Secretary in 2009.

OK. Some guy named Jean-Claude Brizard is now in charge of the Chicago Public Schools.

QOTD2

"I was surprised by the level of incoherence in the system."
- new nabob Jean-Claude Brizard, trib - The fourth revolution

And toss this into the fire: "Only 7.9 percent of juniors [in Chicago public schools] are college-ready."

Finally, this is just for (dysfunctional) fun. Chicago's Bud Billiken parade is held each year to commemorate, in part, the beginning of the new school year. The grand marshal of the parade this year was notorious singer R. Kelly.

QOTD3

"A man [R. Kelly] who admits he cannot read and famously beat child-porn charges might not seem the most obvious honorary grand marshal of a children’s back-to-school parade.

But there was nothing but love for superstar R&B crooner R. Kelly at the Bud Billiken parade. Families cheered for Kelly — who has been recovering from throat surgery last month — the entire parade route. As his sexually charged tunes blared from a sound system, he smiled and waved back."

- suntimes - Cheers for R. Kelly at Bud Billiken Day Parade

Well, back to Arne for a second. Arne. How is the $100B in stimulus funds that you doled out on education doing? And, I guess, do you feel "very, very badly" for the 92% of kids left in your old school system that aren't ready for college?

2. Authenticity

Good blog, The Big Picture. Nice post called "Authenticity:

big picture - Authenticity

I don't even really like those 5 Guys burgers that he talks about. But the point that authenticity is at a premium these days is a good one.

QOTD

"Yes, the public is craving something real. And we’ve got a whole industry built on not providing it... The public craves authenticity."
- Big Picture guy

You can heap lots onto the definition of authentic: of undisputed origin, genuine, made or done in the traditional or original way, based on facts, accurate or reliable.

It's a very geezer thing to say that things are "authentic"... like they used to be "back in the day". Arne Duncan is a good example of someone who is not authentic, less than genuine and unreliable. I would say Paul Ryan and motive motives for reforming entitlements are authentic and true.
yow, bill

1% charitable

1. MJ spam
Big & Tall. Jeez, Michael. Cmon.

2. Soc Sec Fix

In the debt ceiling crisis, President Obama warned that social security payments could be delayed as a result. This is only possible because there is no real social security fund. The social security money we pay every year is immediately spent by the Congress.
 
Steve Forbes has a simple fix:

forbes - Social security's Madoff trust funds

Piece a cake... put our social security funds into individual accounts containing real marketable securities, like treasury bonds, etc. The feds can serve two actually useful roles in this: 1) regulate annuity and investment products made available for social security investors, and 2) insure annuity products that people could purchase with their soc sec money, ala the FDIC's role with savings accounts.

President Obama wants to take us in the opposite direction: the European model. Germany and France propose a larger, more powerful central government for Eurozone countries.

Merkel, Sarkozy propose Eurozone government

If, cross my fingers, the Obama expansion of the federal government is thwarted, then the US will be at an even greater advantage versus

3. Edward Hospital

Here's a fascinating article on hospitals and property taxes. Should Edward Hospital be considered a charity when a mere 1% of their revenue goes toward charitable patients?

Illinois denies tax exemption to Chicago, Naperville hospitals

Hey, I'm as anti-tax as they come, and Edward is an amazing hospital. But there is something wrong over there. My grandmother was an average patient at Edward years ago with average maladies. Her room was a single and the walls of her room were mahogany-lined. The campus and lobbies at Edward are ostentatious. There is a fundamental disconnect at Edward to basic questions of cost in addition to their lack of charitable works.
yow, bill

Head shot

We were playing video games in Times Square. Right before losing his virtual life and quarter, Uncle Brad registers a quality head shot... he he!

"Head shot"

1. As exciting as a cucumber sandwich

Book: "If Morning Ever Comes" by Anne Tyler
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... meh.
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/198905330

I finished this bad boy on my Ty-Da baseball trip.

I heart Anne Tyler, and she's one of my favorite authors. This was her first published book. The writing style is wonderful, as usual, but there's really not much there. It's that and it really hurts that the main character isn't very interesting or appealing.

Hey, Anne says it best.

QOTD

"The reviews I don't remember, except that one person said the book was 'about as exciting as a cucumber sandwich,' which hurt my feelings at the time but now seems apt."
- Anne Tyler, interview at the end of "If Morning Ever Comes"

Apt, indeed!

Not to worry. I cleansed my literary palette (ha) with some Cormac McCarthy. (much better) Review coming soon!

2. Pitch count

It's always interested to look back over the last (50-1) years at what has changed and ask "Has this change improved things?"

Baseball has a new dogma regarding pitching: the number of pitches thrown by a pitcher must be limited so that arms don't wear out. This notion spawned the idea of a pitch count, counting the throws a pitcher makes in each appearance, so that this total can be controlled. I think that every major league baseball now posts the pitch count somewhere on the stadium as the game is progressing.

Trevor Bauer is a top college pitcher, just drafted, who disagrees with this. His belief is to throw more and longer to make his arm stronger and more flexible.

si - Trevor Bauer will not be babied

QOTD2

"With the big signing bonuses, people were afraid to push the envelope, because if something happened, it was, How dare you? But maybe that thinking hurt us in the long run. Maybe it's why we have so many problems now. Guys don't go deep into games, and then when they do, they're not used to it. Thirty years ago, you threw and threw and threw. To me, that's healthy."
- Kevin Tower, San Diego Padre GM

They even have pitch counts in Ty's little league. It's crazy. I have a sneaking suspicion that little league in Latin America and Japan and everywhere else doesn't do this. The kids' arms are taught to be weak and unaccustomed to throwing a lot of innings from a very young age.
throw zee ball... yow, bill

The Lottery

1. The Lottery
Movie: The Lottery
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good.

"The Lottery" provides a good glimpse into the lives of parents in Harlem waiting to see if they will be afforded, via lottery, a choice for a better education for their children.

The hero in this film is Eva Moskovitz, the lady who runs the charter school, Harlem Success Academy. Her courage and dedication to bringing a choice to these kids is incredible to see.

And then you have the other side: teacher's unions and pols. The head of the teacher's union makes an appearance. Some of the NY pols do, too. President Obama's group Acorn also makes an appearance to protest the expansion of Harlem Success Academy. Can you imagine? There's a great shame, an ugliness, at the blatant disregard that these leftie groups have for children and their futures.

This was a better documentary than "Waiting for Superman" (williamt post) which garnered a 2 bill-star review. The two movies were very similar in structure. "The Lottery" was shorter and more reason-based than the maudlin "Superman".

Like this movie, I am optimistic moving forward. School choice has come too far to be ignored. It would be great if it were the centerpiece of a repub (or dem) campaign in 2012. It should be!

2. Sean Burroughs

I saw Sean Burroughs in a boxscore, and I was like "What the..."
Sure enough, Sean Burroughs is back in baseball, playing for the Arizona D-Backs. He last played 8 games total in 2006. Amazing. And it's an incredible story:

espn - Sean Burroughs focusing on the positive

This is a good one.

QOTD

"I knew it would be a long journey, but it shows when I put my mind to something and want it and persevere, it's possible. It really is. It's incredible I'm where I'm at. People are lucky to even have me alive, forget to see me play baseball and smiling every day.

My worst day now is better than my best day then.''
- Sean Burroughs

Of course, I'm more familiar with Sean Burroughs old man, Jeff Burroughs... of the Ranger and the Brave and such.
peace... yow, bill

Bon-ah Beef

My Sunday morning took an odd turn when a woman on the sports radio alluringly asked how big my bon-ah was?!? Indeed, it was all brought to me by the marketing genius at Buona Beef:

I want to be at that meeting. You know, the one where the guy in the dark three piece suit explains in his PowerPoint presentation how Buona Beef should base their expensive multi-media ad campaign on a boner joke.

Marketing guy: "You know, it works because your company name sounds like boner to people who don't speak Italian."

Mr. Buona guy: "Oh, right. I get it. Good one."

I've never had Buona Beef. I'm not figuratively driving past a Portillo's to get to some other Italian beef place. Sorry, marketing boys. Just typing the word "Portillo's" sparks a craving. Oh, there it is again.
portillos... yow, bill

Plastic Surgeon General

"Chicago Stadium flag"
   

1. Onion me

My Onion calendar is so good, you can fill in the pictures and punch lines yourself:

• July 4 - Shirtless Biden washes Trans Am in White House driveway
• July 12 - Plastic Surgeon General warns of small breasts epidemic
• August 16 - Man somehow getting worse at sex

He he!

2. Monkey movie

Movie: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good.

This is a crisp action movie. Crisp action, script, acting, CGI... crisp, crisp, crisp. There's nothing new or earth-shattering as it's just a regular, old movie. But you worry about a movie like this being incredibly dumb, and this movie wasn't. Hey, it's not the original Planet of the Apes, but it was good,  simple (monkey) fun.

Three main characters:

1. Lead Actor - I can't understand James Franco's popularity. He is plain jane.
2. Lead Actress - Freida something-or-other, is off-the-charts stunningly beautiful. Cha!
3. Lead Monkey - The monkey CGI was really great and definitely a highlight of the film.

Oh yeah... I was caught off guard by two good previews before the movie:

• "In Time"... looked like a potentially interesting sci-fi effort (imdb)
• "The Sitter"... looked very funny and stupid (imdb)

3. Ten debt lessons

The investment guy, Barry Ritholtz, has a good blog: The Big Picture.
It's especially relevant/interesting in these chaotic times.

The article below is as crystal clear and non-partisan a take on the whole financial system/housing/debt crisis thingie that I've ever read. Interestingly, it was written on July 29, during the height of debt ceiling theater. Definitely worth noting: it was written before before the debt ceiling deal, Italy woes, the recent market turmoil, and the S&P downgrade:

Debt ceiling: 10 lessons beyond that crisis

Barry's proposition: "look back over the past decade at the mistakes made by our institutions, private sector and government." Go:

1. Fed rates too low
2. Crappy bond rating agencies
3. Deregulation of derivatives... "AIG, for example, wrote $3 trillion of credit derivatives with a grand total loss reserves against any payout of zero dollars."
4. Subprime loans... "The irony is that dropping credit standards is a key factor in just about every bubble and financial crisis in history. Call it a lesson never learned."
5. Increasing bank leverage... increasing bank leverage from 12-to-1 to 25-to-1 or more.
6. Dropping mortgage standards... no verification, no money down, interest-only, etc.
7. Automated underwriting... allowed greater loan fraud
8. CDO's... banks blew it, mathematicians and their models, too (ha!)
9. Repeal of Glass-Steagall... "Think back to the 1987 crash — it had little impact on the broader banking industry."
10. Fannie and Freddie

It's interesting to consider that if any of these factors were not present, then this financial crisis would have been averted or greatly lessened: easy money, better regulation, Glass-Steagall, no Fannie/Freddie, etc.

My only quibble with the list: Barry neglects the nearly $8T in federal debt added from 2000-2012.
But Barry's QOTD is dead on.

QOTD

"The debt ceiling is the least of our worries."
- Barry Ritholtz

Long-term, I am optimistic. Americans are industrious and entrepreneurial and love a good (monkey) fight... digging out of this ditch will be a good one, indeed.
peace out... yow, bill

Debt Milestone

1. Central division baseball

Why do the Cub and Sock stink? Well, here's a wonderful WSJ treatise on the seemingly endless woes of the AL and NL Central divisions:

wsj - Fighting the flyover-land label

Tasty stats!

• No team in the AL Central had a positive run differential.
• The two worst teams in the N.L. Central, the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros, have been outscored by 105 and 132 runs. No other NL teams had been outscored by more than 40.  
• Central division teams represent the five smallest metropolitan areas in the game: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

2. Vouchers common sense

One county in Denver is trying a new voucher program to enhance school choice. To some, this is war.

wsj - County ups the ante in voucher war

QOTD

"This is a radical idea."
- nabob, on vouchers in Denver

School choice is not radical. It's simple common sense. For example, just a couple pages later in the same WSJ today... we spend about $13K per student in public schools.

wsj - Do we really need to spend more on schools?

3. Debt milestone
Dop.

QOTD

"Quietly, with the debt-ceiling imbroglio behind us, we've entered a new era... Our debt now exceeds the size of our entire economy."
- IBD editorial, ibd - An Unwelcome Debt Milestone

Down the rabbit hole we go.
yow, bill

PS - Couple-a fun last-minute quickies:

1. Cool monster solar flares: Massive Sun ‘Twister’ Swirls Up 12 Earths High 
2. Kelly Leak baseball card. Ha! Chico’s Bail Bonds Player of the Week: Kelly Leak

No order

Quickies. No order.

1. Helicopter Ben
I heart The Onion.

QOTD

Witnesses also confirmed that near the end of the evening, Bernanke put money into the jukebox and selected Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" to play five times in a row.

"This is what it's all about," said Bernanke, who reportedly danced alone in the middle of the dark tavern. "Fucking love this song."
- The Onion, on Ben Bernanke's trip to the local bar (link)

13. Research nabob

I'll bet a dollar that we paid for this.


QOTD

"Some people have implied that our results suggest that black men in particular would be better off in prison, which is not only a ludicrous and offensive sentiment, but it’s also misinformed."
- research nabob on his study showing that black men live longer in prison than out (freak post)

52. Bobblehead MIA

This Saturday is Brian Matusz bobblehead night at Camden Yards in Baltimore. I heart the guerrilla marketing by the boys in marketing for the Baltimore Orioles.

Argh, the best laid plans... alas, Brian Matusz (and his 9 ERA, 2 Whip, and .350 batting average against) has been demoted to the Baltimore's minor league team in Norfolk.

7. Paul Ryan rules

I heart Paul Ryan.

QOTD2

"There is a better way—structural reforms that empower patients with greater choices and increase the role of competition in the health-care marketplace."
- Paul Ryan, on choice in health care (wsj op-ed)

2. Anti-Mitt
I love me some Mormon, but Mitt Romney... forget it. The Mittster laid back on the stupid debt ceiling crap until the dust cleared. Then, he puffed his chest about this and that. Mitt is just what President Obama needs next November... a political coward.

cnn - Romney critics milk debt ceiling issue

550. Android
Let's get your tiny heads around this one.

QOTD

"More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers."
- google nerd

Half a million per day. OK.

And if you can do the math, this is equally sick (in the parlance of our times): "He also said that the rate of growth was increasing by 4.4 percent each week".
jiminy... yow, bill

Cowboys and Aliens

Nice action shot...

"Tyger"

1. C & A

Movie: "Cowboys and Aliens"
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not good.

2 stars for the action at the beginning. That's charitable. I also thought that James Bond guy, Daniel Craig, did a good job.

The script was bad. They decided to make the movie more serious than funny. You know, because aliens attacking cowboys in the old west is a big problem. I did laugh out loud (LOL) when Daniel Craig was accosted by movie Indians. The aliens were really dumb too.

The acting and casting was bad. Actors either looked out of place (Harrison Ford) or looked like actors dressed up to be in a western (everyone else?). The supermodel girl they have in the movie is incredibly beautiful, but she really struggled in the acting department. But shit, at least she's good-lookin.

2. IL Lending

Maybe President Obama and the feds should borrow money from Illinois. We are flush with cash in Illinois... enough to start new college scholarship fund specifically for illegal aliens:

ibd - Illinois' Bad Dream

This one is an odd bird. It's a state-run scholarship fund of private money. Huh?

• "...state money will go to support a nine-member commission to establish and dispense these scholarships"
• "State money goes to fund another interesting part of the law, the requirement for high school teachers and counselors to get special sensitivity training on the needs of illegal immigrants."

So, we're paying for a 9 member commission and sensitivity training. We must have tons of cash here in Illinois. Huzzah to that. Maybe Illinois should have its own currency. And army and such. Like Petoria. Gov Quinn can have his face on the flag and everything.

Some repub pol: "Why are we setting up a state structure to handle private money? It doesn't make sense to me,"
Yeah. Me neither, bub.
yow, bill

Rudolph crossing

"Rudolph crossing"

1. Asymmetry

Catch the not-so-subtle irony in this one... first, Gabrielle Giffords dramatically showed up for the debt ceiling vote:

ap - Giffords' vote the most memorable of all

Second, the NY Times runs this op-ed:

nytimes - Tea Party's War on America

Now, the WSJ caters to us righties. The NY Times bears the standard for my leftie brothers and sisters. I don't, however, mean to imply any symmetry between the two publications. The WSJ has never run an op-ed like the one above, equating Tea Party activism to terrorism. Go, emphasis mine:

• "Never negotiate with terrorists [the Tea Party]"
• "Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people"
• "Their goal, they believed, was worth blowing up the country for"
• "Our enemies could not have designed a better plan to weaken the American economy"
• "For now, the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests"

There is no analog to this style in the WSJ. None. Ever.
Shit. We all have our stupid, dang political beliefs and values. For me, it's a warm blanket to be on the side opposite the NY Times.

2. Irony, number 2

So, the debt ceiling nonsense is done, and President Obama gets another couple-a trillion dollars to throw into the bonfire over the next 15 months. Think about that one... in 15 months, the fed debt will increase from $14T to $16T. That will officially put us over 100% of GDP for fed debt.

Irony of irony, on the same day, the Obamacare apparatus announced that: "Beginning on Aug. 1, 2012, insurance providers will no longer be able to charge co-pays or other additional fees for government-approved birth control or a handful of other medical services."

In the US, free birth control is born

And it's all... wait for it... Free! Woo-hoo! Free free free free. This is great. Shit, I'll take two then.

The Nov 2012 ticket/platform is like falling off a log:

• Reduce fed spending to 20% of GDP
• Repeal Obamacare

yow, bill

Donkey Kong and Trekkies

1. Bad nerd

Movie: "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.

This movie started out really great. They interviewed a bunch of the hard-core nerds still playing Donkey Kong and Pac Man and Q-Bert and Galaga and (skip a bit, brother)... anyway, it was really good fun. It started out as just a lot of good, nerdy fun.

Then, the second half of the movie is all about some guy trying to set a new Donkey Kong high score record, and they try and actually turn it into a dramatic quest or something. Blech. It was boring, and you got to see some bad nerds who were actually just there to be "famous" or make a couple bucks.

This is also a lazy documentary. The director follows these Donkey Kong guys around, but there's precious little else. For example, how about talking with the guy who created Donkey Kong? Well, at least Wikipedia can help a little bit on this front:

• wikipedia - Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong was designed in 1981. This page is pretty spartan.
• wikipedia - Shigeru Miyamoto: This guy was the original designers. He "eventually settled on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girl. He meant to mirror the rivalry between comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl." And this is interesting too... "Donkey Kong marked the first time that the formulation of a video game's storyline preceded the actual programming, rather than simply being appended as an afterthought."

"Love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girl"... he he.
Jeez, those were fun games: Donkey Kong, Joust, Q-Bert, etc.

2. Good nerd

Movie: "Trekkies"
Review: 5 bill-stars (out of 5)... wonderful!

This is a beautiful, human documentary. There isn't a disingenuous moment in "Trekkies". There are no highlights or clips from Star Trek TV shows or movies. It's all just interviews with the nerds, geeks, losers, etc. from Star Trek conventions and such. From start to finish, you can there's a warmth and positivity to the film.

I think the whole deal was conjured up by Denise Crosby, Tasha Yar of Star Trek fame. She does most of the interviews. A number of cast members from the various Star Trek shows are interviewed: Spock, Bones, Scotty, Captain Janeway, etc. Each of them had some terrific story about the fans and amazing things that have happened to them as a result of  being on Star Trek. In many of the stories, the actors reached out to fans that were sick or disabled or depressed, and they really made a difference in the lives of those people. There was a level of humility amongst the Star Trek actors that they were part of something bigger. It was really refreshing.

"Trekkies" is a low-budget affair, to be sure. But the show really captures a positive vibe amongst all the trekkies. I'm definitely biased toward nerds and Star Trek, but the movie was definitely fun, funny, and inspiring.

And BTW, the best thing about Netflix isn't instant downloading or streaming video or whatever. The truly valuable thing about Netflix is the old and odd movies that they have available on DVD. I got the Donkey Kong movie from Netflix. Trekkies is also available on Netflix, but I own that one. Ha!
beam me up... yow, bill