gwadagibeht's Xanga

Monday, March 16, 2009

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:02:51 GMT

CCLXXXII

Parts of Jupiter have gotten 10 degrees hotter--in just 10 years! I'm calling on President Obama to put together an intergalactic cap-and-trade carbon credit system to help limit extraterrestrials' emissions from their space cruisers before Jupiter springs a hole in its atmosphere and becomes uninhabitable.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:35:02 GMT

http://blogmaverick.com/2009/02/09/the-mark-cuban-stimulus-plan-open-source-funding/

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:33:23 GMT

CCLXXX

In my daily commute to work, I briefly experience four neighborhoods. To come home, I leave work in Abington by boarding a bus. This bus goes to Logan. There, I descend underground to enter the subway to Center City. Under 15th and Broad, I transfer to another rail service and exit north of Penn's campus. At both ends of my underground journey, "hack" cabbies offer sketchy rides. I have never understood their service; regular old taxi cabs pass both the 40th and Market and Broad and Olney areas fairly frequently. Since they drive unmarked cars, they stand outside. Since they're cab drivers, they have lots of cash. Since they're in a city, they keep their cash on them. Since I'm a daily commuter through this space, the hacks don't chant their spiels as I walk by. But they're right there; I walk in between them to get to my bus or to go down the stairs.

Friday night I got out of work late. Thank goodness. As the bus pulled toward Olney, it stopped and several police cars flew by. Between the two sets of stairs to the subway, someone tried to rob the drivers. The police confronted the robber, but the robber shot one of the policeman with a gun he had concealed in his coat pocket. The police shot the robber. The policeman died of multiple gunshot wounds; the robber has undergone surgery and has survived so far. All of this apparently happened while our bus was stopped, waiting in the traffic to get to the stairs. To be clear, I was probably still several blocks away while the gun fight occured, based on the reported time that the shooting occured.

We walked through a corridor of police tape to get down our stairs, hearing rumors that a cop was dead. People stopped and stared.

The transfer under City Hall was less dangerous. A man was involved in a drug purchase and a domestic dispute at the same time. The woman stomped away and sat down on my bench. Actually, on my duffle bag. He came over and jawed with her and knocked her earring off. The entire time, I was assuming that this was a scheme to distract me and steal things from my bag. Fortunately, I only had tissue paper in the bag, so it wouldn't have mattered. She tried to tell me which trolley to take.

There were no cabbies at my exit at 40th and Market. Could have been the news of what happened at Olney; could have been an earlier incident. Apparently that day one of the hacks picked up a girl and raped her.

The hacks were back at work today, peddling their services on the same corners.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:20:19 GMT

CCLXXIX

As a firm supporter of President Obama's plan for hope and change, I am disappointed. Here I was hoping for "transparent," "ethical," and "new" politics. You know, like he promised. (And like the "new tone" former President Bush ran on in 2000!)

The list of tax cheats, lobbyists, and questionable choices runs quite long. This seems more like left-overs politics. Or Chicago politics--the land where the sequel to a political career is jail time.

-President Obama tried to appoint Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico Commerce Secretary. Gov. Richardson is under investigation for corruption. The best part is that the company to which he allegedly sold contracts for donations is also being investigated for antitrust violations.

-Obama's second appointee to CIA director--his first one withdrew after Obama felt pressured by blogs--was a lobbyist for various banks which received federal bailout money. One of Obama's campaign promises was "No lobbyist appointments." The new Director also has ties to the EVIL CARLYLE GROUP, for the conspiracy theorists out there.

-Other appointees to the health and defense departments are lobbyists, too.

-Back during the campaign, Obama chose former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson to head his Vice Presidential selection committee, and for advice on housing matters. Clearly, Jim Johnson is a wise man whose opinion should be sought out.

-Obama's appointment for head of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, is late on several years worth of taxes. The ambiguous wording of the article's headline is especially funny. When you read Obama's actual quote, you see that he says that "this [is] an embarrassment for him [Geithner]"--not an embarrassment for Obama.

-Nancy Killefer was tabbed to be Obama's new Chief Performance Officer. She has withdrawn her candidacy over back taxes.

-Then there's Mr. President's appointment to Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton has been investigated for many things, including, but not limited to, Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate... Anyways, to keep the theme going, the Clintons have at least admitted that they did not properly file their taxes regarding the Whitewater matter.

-Obama has finally admitted an error--actually, a "screw up"--in his appointment for head of Health and Human Services. (Still no apology for the other choices.) Former Senator Tom Daschle has also suffered from an allergy to taxpaying. (No wonder these guys don't mind raising taxes... they don't pay them!) Note that this article calls Obama's transition smooth and praises his managerial prowess--totally ignoring this list of issues, situations, and scandals. Also note that you have to look pretty far down in most articles to find out that "taxes weren't the only issue being raised about Daschle's finances."

Obama has an ethics problem in his administration (already). He should fire whoever it is that is recommending these "rivals" and "all-stars" to him.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:24:40 GMT

Hawaii ends universal child health care and other programs

Unfortunately, federal programs never die, so once the US switches to federal health insurance, it will be a permanent annual drain on the budget.*

*I almost never say that something will "lead to a deficit." Why? Because generally, no one thing leads to deficits. We're talking about a debt of $11 trillion, and an annual budget of $3 trillion. How does spending $700 billion "lead to deficits", but the original $3 trillion budget didn't contribute to the deficit at all? Therefore, it unfairly assigns relative value to different items in the budget if one program is targeted as "leading to a deficit" (unless that one thing single-handedly exceeds the revenue for an entire year--which is north of $2 trillion).

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:07:26 GMT

CCLXXV

With electoral fraud becoming an epidemic in America, the need for voter identification laws has become clear. So has the need for an investigation of certain "voter registration drives."

Some congressmen have begun arguing over whether some of these groups, such as ACORN, receive or should receive federal funding, with the potential result being cutting off or banning allocations to these organizations.

Distractions!

The goal of the investigations should be to find exactly which organizations or individuals participated in these schemes. The result should be prosecutions! Cutting off federal funds should be the least of our worries; the commission of a crime involving our most basic freedom deserves to be criminally punished.

Note: "Becoming" is a joke.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:06:09 GMT

CCLXXIV

When a jogger goes by, I have an inner urge to give them a high-five.

Why?

Come on, wouldn't most people be more likely to jog if they were getting the encouragement of a personal trainer, but for free? Think of it as WikiTrainer.

The problem? High-fives are sweaty when delivered by a runner. Yuck!

Therefore, there would be rules.

1. In lieu of a high-five, a bystander may offer a fist pump, or fist bump..

2. Only a bystander may offer the high-five. Runners may not solicit, demand, feel entitled to, or earn high-fives.

3. Runners may elect to turn down any offered high-five or fist bump. However, if the runner is running in the opposite direction that the bystander is traveling, the runner may not accept any offerings until turning a corner or traveling 1.5 blocks. If the runner is traveling the same direction as the bystander, the runner may not accept any offerings until turning 2 corners or traveling 2 blocks. If the bystander is not traveling in the opposite direction of the runner, the bystander shall be considered the same as if they were traveling in the same direction as the runner.

4. The bystander may not feel bad, sad, overlooked, or negative if they are turned down.

5. A new crime, to be known as run-mauling, shall be defined as any action during a high-five offered to a jogger which one party causes contact to last more than 0.5 seconds.

There. I think my rules take care of feelings, sweaty runners, and creeps, and offer runners more encouragement when they're running.

This is my plan to solve the obesity epidemic. I've thought hard about it, haha.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:50:59 GMT

PS.

Irrationality...

Yesterday: Dow falls nearly 800 points. Hundreds of billions of dollars sold. Because the bailout bill was delayed a few days, did everyone's pieces of paper really become hundreds of billions of dollars less valuable than they were the day before? Probably not.

Today: Dow rises nearly 500 points. Hundreds of billions of dollars up. Did everyone's pieces of paper really become hundreds of billions of dollars more valuable than they were the day before? Probably not.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:56:15 GMT

CCLXXII

Some Republicans claim that the entire housing situation can be blamed on federally-mandated lending policies (by Democrats), which looked for "non-traditional" ways to give someone enough credit to get a mortgage.

Some Democrats blame Bush.

Both sides lob much blame at Wall Street's greed. (So do I.)

So, was it Clinton's fault, or Bush's fault?

In this case, the question is wrong. Clearly, "both" and "neither" are possible, and in my opinion, the answer is "both."

1. If it's the Democrat's fault, it's Bush's fault: Bush has had plenty of time to change any policies he didn't like. Bush didn't change those housing policies Republicans are railing against. (Of course, if he had, imagine the outcry! Newspapers would be running headlines saying "Bush changes lending policies, thousands lose their homes." That said...) It's definitely Bush's fault, as well as the Republican congress he brought with him. (Some people point to a hearing in 2004 on Freddie/Fannie where Republicans tried to add some accountability to them. That doesn't change the fact that accountability wasn't increased, we weren't warned, and said Republicans had two years after that hearing to get something done and they didn't.)

2. But: When I hear phrases like "non-traditional" means to evaluate readiness for a mortgage... let's just say, I'm not confidant that Democrats don't deserve some blame here, too. I'm not an economist, but you can afford it or you can't, right? Everything that's happened was in the contract, right? By the theory in the above paragraph, the Democrats have had 2 years to get something done, and they haven't. (What, in fact, have they done? I thought they were bringing home troops, cutting deficits, and stopping evil Republican oil companies from doubling gas prices. Good job: MORE troops were sent, and, uh, risen, and doubled, respectively. And finally, don't forget: Originally heading Obama's vice presidential search committee: former CEO of Fannie Mae, Jim Johnson.)

Let's go with "all of the above" with blame on this one.

(Good thing we're electing a current congressman to be the next president--they're doing such a great job! That's like what the St. Louis Rams did yesterday, as reported by Gregg Easterbrook on espn.com/page2: "[St. Louis Rams] coach Scott Linehan is now fired, replaced for the rest of the season by defensive coordinator Jim Haslett. The Rams' defense has given up 147 points, by far the worst in the league. So put the defensive guy in charge!")

At any rate, I'm pretty sure the past week was the "stick a fork in it" moment for McCain. He made an effort--suspending his campaign, tried to get the House Republicans to join, offered to postpone the debate--but at the end of the day, people blame the current President for the current problem. It's why the early 2001 recession was popularly blamed on Bush, even if none of his policies could possibly be in effect at that point. [Note: the previous sentence does not say that the current situation is not the current president's fault. Reading above, you can see that I think it is!] The media frenzy over this credit situation is not going to calm down, and McCain can't change the fact that the letter after his name on the ballot is the same as the current president's: (R). Basically, he's hoping for Palin to save him in her debate with another bounce, or else hoping that the polls' assumptions of high turnout are wrong. (Which wouldn't be the first time.)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:54:00 GMT

9/11

7 years