February, 2009 archive
I Get Voicemail 0
And more and more of them are like this (*.wav, 27 seconds, edited to remove name and phone number).
No, I’m not calling him back. Given the terms of my mortgage, he can’t do any of the things he promises to do.
You Can Bank on It 0
The Masters of the Universe aren’t.
Stray Thought 0
This bozo causes me to be ashamed of being a Virginian.
Bankruptured 0
Shorter Adam Posner: Let grown-ups run the banks. Time to consider
. . . nationalizing or come close to nationalizing part of the banking sector . . .
Via TPM.
Teh Stupid 0
P. Z. Myers, via CC.
I Get Mail 1
From the L. A. Times, an advertisement for
(Follow the link above to bid. Yeah. Right.)
Here’s the details:
Location: Phoenix AZ 85048
Details: 3 bed / 2 bath; SFR
List Price: $234,900
Starting Bid: $70,470Location: Peoria , AZ 85382
Details: 5 bed / 3.5 bath; SFR
List Price: $379,900
Starting Bid: $113,970
I find it interesting that the “starting bids” are about 30% of the “list prices.” Wonder whether they’ll even get their starting bids.
(Aside One: You’d have to pay me as much as an investment banker’s bonus to get me to live in Phoenix. I’ve spent far too much time in Phoenix already. Nice people, but without air conditioning, it would be just another rickety town in a just another Clint Eastwood western.)
(Aside Two: The Los Angeles Times does not abuse the privilege of having my email address. I get about one email from them every three months or so. And they usually give me the blogger’s biggest need: material.)
Over There 0
Tom Ricks on Fresh Air discussing the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq:
Follow the link to listen to the interview.
From the Dept. of Tautology Dept. 0
Discussion of TARP (you know TARP, the big green blanket that get$ thrown over a pile of tra$h to hide the stink).
About 40 minutes into the interview:
Diane Rehm: But that can’t tell whether they’re happy with the management until they go down . . . .
The guest went on to say that that “depends on how skilled an investor you are.”
Nothing about the truthfulness or integrity of the organization.
Classic blame the victim.
Follow the link above or click here (Real) to listen.
________________
*I couldn’t figure out which guest and I was too lazy to listen all the way through a second time, but I think it was Robert Hartheimer.
Corporate Citizenship 0
No. Really.
Back in the olden days, when I was a beardless boy, it was taught that the purpose of a business in a capitalist system was to provide goods and services of value, act as a responsible corporate citizen, and, in the process, make a profit.
That has morphed into provide goods and services of value, act as a responsible corporate citizen, and, in the process, make a profit.
“Pay for Performance” 0
Incompetence is not its own reward.
The bonus reward for destroying a company: $121,000,000.00.
In all, Merrill “secretly and prematurely” awarded $3.5 billion in bonuses, with Bank of America’s “apparent complicity,” Cuomo said in a Feb. 10 letter to Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Committee on Financial Services.
Pay for performance my anatomy.
Oh, My. 0
This is beyond disgusting.
Report from the Field 0
In yesterday’s local rag:
The colonel finally relented and turned over a battered prisoner to me, saying, “This man knows a lot, but he will not talk to me.”
We treated the prisoner’s wounds, reunited him with his family, and allowed him to make his first visit to Saigon. Surprised by the city’s affluence, he said he would tell us anything we asked. The result was a flood of actionable intelligence that allowed us to disrupt planned operations, including rocket attacks against Saigon.
Torture is not an “interrogation technique.”
It is pornography for sadists.
End the Politics of Hate 1
From D-Day, reflecting on the Unitarian Church shootings last summer.
Unspoken but clear is his concern of more violence from the Right.
What I find truly maddening is that many of these haters wrap themselves, not just in the American flag, but also in the Christian flag.
Doesn’t seem right. But it is Rightwing.
More on Being Illerate Illiterate
1
Techfun looks into where people get their news (emphasis added):
“Dow Theory” 0
Bonddad summarizes what it is and how it works, in understandable terms.
I’m Proudly Illerate Illiterate
0
I’ve never been able to bring myself to read a Jane Austen novel and I’ve never been required to.
Maybe I’ll try this one.
Via Wait! Wait!
Bailouts for Bozos 0
I am bemused by all the leftie hand-wringing over the Geithner bailout plan. Not because I’m a fan of the plan, but because persons are acting like it’s somehow immutable.
I think that we will find that it’s very mutable.
This administration is not hampered by ideology that prevents it from recognizing when something’s not working.
In contrast, consider the Republican loyalty to tax cuts as the only way to do anything.
Even though that loyalty is based on the demonstrably false Laughable Curve (and, if you don’t want to research the economic theory, just read the stock market pages and the weekly jobs reports), it has become a central tenet of their ideology: They are incapable of considering any economic strategies other than tax cuts for the rich. Making the rich richer is their Eleventh Commandment.
They, like the Blues Brothers, believe they are on a mission from God. (The Blues Brothers had a better script.)
Supplementary Material:
Very interesting interview about executive compensation on Radio Times yesterday. Go here and search for February 9, 2009, and select Hour 1 or listen here (mp3).
Video via TPM.
“I Get Aid. You Get Welfare.” 2
Just like money for workers is “pork-barrel spending” and money for bankers is “asset relief.” (Aside: Jeez oh man! you can’t make this stuff up.)
It’s just a question of symantics I’ve been doing computers too long semantics (emphasis added):
“In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program … and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare,” he said. “They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare.”
Via Skippy.
Extremely jaundiced commentary here, via Sullivan.