2011 archive
Cantor’s Cant 0
Bob Cesca comments on Eric Cantor’s casual dismissal of the soon-to-be-unemployed so I don’t have to:
Afterthought:
Recent history shows that Republicans will say whatever they think voters want to hear, then go back to doing just what they were doing before: Making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Where No Google Has Gone Before 0
Google deploys street-view tricycles.
Follow the link for pictures. The trike looks like a cross between a giant Big Wheel and the Seattle Space Needle.
Good Hands? 0
Allstate, which has already sued several banks, alleging that the banks sold Allstate mortgage-backed insecurities which the banks knew to be hinky, has allded Credit Suisse to its list of targets.
“The systemic (but hidden) abandonment of the disclosed underwriting guidelines led to soaring default rates in the mortgage loans underlying the certificates,” Allstate said in the Credit Suisse complaint. “The value of Allstate’s certificates has plummeted, causing Allstate to incur significant losses. These losses were not caused by the downturn in the U.S. housing market, but by the defendants’ faulty underwriting.”
I tend to root for Allstate, but not by much. I suspect that no big corporate players in the high-falutin finance field have clean skirts.
But I sure as shootin’ want to see this go to trial.
The testimony in open court should be delicious.
A Pizza To Go with No Ratatouilles 0
This guy has no future in black tomato ops.
Nickolas Galiatsatos, a pizza shop guy in Upper Darby, had a simple plan, according to police.
He allegedly tried to infest competing pizzerias with mice.
The plan, however, quickly unraveled when Galiatsatos, 47, owner of Nina’s Bella Pizzeria, tried to slip a bag of mice past two uniformed police officers eating lunch at Verona Pizza around 3 p.m. Monday, authorities said.
Read the whole story. You need a chortle.
QOTD 0
Ben Hecht, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.
Daffodils Can’t Read 0
The calendar says it’s too early for this.
Stray Thought 0
If every shopper returned his or her grocery cart, rather than leaving it in the parking lot, the effort would likely reduce obesity by 9.63%
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source.
What: Monthly TWUUG Meeting.
Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.
Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk-Employee Cafeteria. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.)
When: 7:30 PM till whenever (usually 9:30ish) on Thursday, March 3.
Directions:
Lake Taylor Hospital
1309 Kempsville Road
Norfolk, Va. 23502 (Map)
Pre-Meeting Dinner at 6:00 PM (separate checks)
Uno Chicago Grill
Virginia Beach Blvd. & Military Highway (Janaf Shopping Center). (Map)
Diving while Black 0
In a post last week, I suggested that one of the insidious aspects of bigotry is that most bigots do not see their prejudices and bigotry as what they are, but see them as normal and reasonable.
In today’s local rag, local columnist Roger Chesley tells a little story. Here’s the short version; follow the link below for the full story:
- A young black lady and her friend went to the “residences-only” pool of the predominantly-white development in which her family owns a house. She made sure to have her credentials establishing herself as a resident of the development, having forgotten them once before.
After some unspecified period of time, an old white guy from the homeowners’ association demanded her credentials (“May I see your papers, please?”), telling her that she didn’t “look like” she belonged.
She felt singled out, as no one else was being challenged, (Jeez, ya think?) and refused. He called the police. The police inspected her credentials and told the old white guy to leave her alone.
When Mr. Chesley contacted the old white guy, who happened to be a member of the homeowners’ association, he told Mr. Chesley (emphasis added)
I rest my case.
Tie Breaker, WorSecDef 0
Shaun Mullen wonders who was the worst Secretary of Defense (or Secretary of War, to use the original name of the office) in U. S. history.
He narrows it down to two persons,
- Donald Rumsfeld, who’s currently making the round the talk shows flogging his new book, a tua culpa, or
- Robert McNamara.
You can follow his reasoning at the link. Here’s the tie breaker:
But without McNamara, there still would have been a Vietnam War, while there would not have been an Iraq war without Rumsfeld.
QOTD 0
Ralph Nader (who, for all he has made himself into a joke, used to get some things right), from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Competition, free enterprise, and an open market were never meant to be symbolic fig leaves for corporate socialism and monopolistic capitalism.
Obligatory Oscar Post 0
Who cares?
A. Chris Christie 0
Q. What would you get if Snooki entered politics?
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Facing South publishes some numbers about Buccaneer Petroleum’s wild well.
Here’s one:
Follow the link for the rest, if you think you can stomach them.
RICO in Robes 0
The child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is in the news again. This time, the statute of limitations has not expired and there have been arrests, including the arrest of a church official in charge of overseeing priests for endangering children.
I tend to avoid discussing this; I’ve known enough good, dedicated priests, priests who work hard to do right and to do the right things that I do not wish to see them wounded more than they already have been by the actions of their management.
For it has ultimately a management problem. Weakness amongst clergy of all religions and persuasions is not uncommon. The crime was the cover-up.
In this situation, the cover-up was truly worse than the crimes, for the cover-up protected abusers so that they could continue to abuse.
Nevertheless, in the face of this, in which an honest man is punished for honesty, . . .
(snip)
On Friday, though, the college issued a statement accusing him not only of being gay, which it called contrary to traditional Catholic doctrine, but also of misrepresenting before he was hired that he was a member of an independent branch of Catholicism.
He denied both accusations Saturday, saying he never hid his sexuality or his affiliation with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of the Americas from school officials.
The college recruited him, not the other way around, he said. In a meeting with officials, he recalled asking: “You know I’m not a Roman Catholic priest, right?“
. . . it is difficult to think that the American Catholic Church–the management, not the persons on the ground trying to do right–has become little more than RICO in robes.
Afterthought:
Ronnie Polaneczky addressed the firing of the professor, Father Jim St. George, in her column yesterday.
Quality Construction at a Price That’s Fright 0
This is the type of entitlemennt spending that needs re-examined.
In October, after spending more than $40 million on repairs, the Navy announced that the San Antonio wouldn’t be ready to deploy in the spring with the rest of its amphibious group, and another ship was named to take its place.
While the service has insisted with each setback that the San Antonio eventually will live up to its promises, there has been little to report in the way of progress, because each time crews have come close to fixing one major defect, more have cropped up. Many defects have extended to later ships in the class, though to lesser degrees.
The price tag for taxpayers has been enormous. Delivered several hundred million dollars over budget, the San Antonio has cost nearly $2 billion.
Lots of details at the link,