The Hackenblog

A Brief History of Modern Lying Authors.

Amazin’

“Mr. Paulson must have had some reason for doing what he did. No doubt he still believes that without all this frantic activity we’d be far worse off than we are now. All we know for sure, however, is that the Treasury’s heroic deal-making has had little effect on what it claims is the problem at hand: the collapse of confidence in the companies atop our financial system.

“Weeks after receiving its first $25 billion taxpayer investment, Citigroup returned to the Treasury to confess that — lo! — the markets still didn’t trust Citigroup to survive. In response, on Nov. 24, the Treasury handed Citigroup another $20 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, and then simply guaranteed $306 billion of Citigroup’s assets. The Treasury didn’t ask for its fair share of the action, or management changes, or for that matter anything much at all beyond a teaspoon of warrants and a sliver of preferred stock. The $306 billion guarantee was an undisguised gift. The Treasury didn’t even bother to explain what the crisis was, just that the action was taken in response to Citigroup’s ‘declining stock price.’

Three hundred billion dollars is still a lot of money. It’s almost 2 percent of gross domestic product, and about what we spend annually on the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation combined. Had Mr. Paulson executed his initial plan, and bought Citigroup’s pile of troubled assets at market prices, there would have been a limit to our exposure, as the money would have counted against the $700 billion Mr. Paulson had been given to dispense. Instead, he in effect granted himself the power to dispense unlimited sums of money without Congressional oversight. Now we don’t even know the nature of the assets that the Treasury is standing behind. Under TARP, these would have been disclosed.

“There are other things the Treasury might do when a major financial firm assumed to be ‘too big to fail’ comes knocking, asking for free money. Here’s one: Let it fail.

“Not as chaotically as Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. If a failing firm is deemed ‘too big’ for that honor, then it should be explicitly nationalized, both to limit its effect on other firms and to protect the guts of the system. Its shareholders should be wiped out, and its management replaced. Its valuable parts should be sold off as functioning businesses to the highest bidders — perhaps to some bank that was not swept up in the credit bubble. The rest should be liquidated, in calm markets. Do this and, for everyone except the firms that invented the mess, the pain will likely subside.”
How to Repair a Broken Financial World, by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, January 3, 2009 (this article actually starts at The End of the Financial World as We Know It. It’s all a time-worthy read.)

Yes! Nationalize it all! Then the taxpayers (like me!) would own it and we’re a Socialist/Capitalist Utopia! God, I never thought I’d live to see the day…oh, wait…I haven’t because the wingunts would go crazy if anyone other than bushco or zombieSt.Reagan tried to do anything remotely like that. Oh well. It was a nice thought while it lasted.

(So since it’s not going to happen, I might as well add that liquidating in calm markets might be trickier than it sounds. In The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry, by Martin Mayer, he spends much of the last chapters describing the near impossibility of buying defunct S&L assets, mainly property, from the government. No one even knew which departments were in charge of selling it to buyers, with CASH, who called to inquire. Crazy, very crazy. I’m not sure it’s any better even now.)

By the way, I think Paulson panicked and started throwing money at whatever scared him most. I really do wonder what the hell he’s so afraid of. Maybe I should be afraid of it, too.

to describe the thinking of Alberto Gonzales and also Laura Bush:

“Unusually, I’m having a vocabulary problem. There has to be some word for the kind of person who considers his mild discomfort the equivalent of torture, crippling injury, or death for other people. But I can’t think of it.”
Looking for a Word, Paul Krugman blog, December 31, 2008

I missed the comment deadline on this one, so I’ll have to put my contribution here. I believe the word Dr. Krugman seeks is

Always glad to be helpful.

And she’s already not very good at it:

“Looks like the GOP’s head cougar has gone from political attack dog to snotty celeb fashion critic.

“In her new book, ‘Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America’ Ann Coulter slams Michelle Obama for her hairstyle and clothes. Coulter calls Michelle an obvious Jackie Kennedy wannabe with her ‘flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses’ and ‘the short strands of fake pearls.’

“Good news: Coulter reportedly had to have her jaw wired shut. Bad news: She can still type.”
Coulter Calls Michelle O Jackie O Wannabe, TMZ.com, January 3, 2009

I really hate TMZ…except when I love it.

Forget Coulter - now, always and in general, too. Stick with Mrs. O for the low-down on Michelle’s look.

I usually don’t have problems with the USPS, I certainly like my local branch of it a lot, but this is turning into a bad joke:

Label/Receipt Number: 0305 0830 0004 5762 8913
Detailed Results:
Processed, January 02, 2009, 1:41 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Missent, December 30, 2008, 6:50 am
Processed, December 28, 2008, 11:21 pm, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 25, 2008, 12:13 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 24, 2008, 9:14 pm, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Missent, December 22, 2008, 7:21 am
Processed, December 19, 2008, 7:02 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 15, 2008, 5:20 pm, GREENSBORO, NC 27495
Processed, December 12, 2008, 4:54 pm, BELL, CA 90201
Processed, December 10, 2008, 9:11 pm, LOS ANGELES, CA 90052
Acceptance, December 10, 2008, 3:30 pm, LOS ANGELES, CA 90031

However, I am impressed that they work on Christmas Eve and Day, but then sat on it for eight more days over New Year’s, and still seem to be “processing” it. Weird. And, I mean, it’s just going to Virginia. For the past three weeks. Oh well.

And get Mummers!

These pictures are from the Philadelphia parade. Lynn L sent them to me.

“But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.

“The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.

“If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to ‘make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.’

“Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. ‘Government is not the solution to our problem,’ declared Ronald Reagan. ‘Government is the problem.’ So why worry about governing well?
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s ‘Southern strategy,’ which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: ‘You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.’ In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.”
Bigger than Bush, by Paul Krugman, NYT Op/Ed, January 1, 2009

This is so goofy and so neo-Republican thinking of the past 40 years. Trickle down has always been the euphemism for getting pissed on. We can only improve from the bottom of the economic strata up. What benefits the poorest and neediest of us, benefits us all. Even the predators at the top. A healthy, educated, employed population is a productive and happy one. If you need some examples of what doesn’t work, try the Louis XVI and the neo-Repubs, starting with Nixon and onward. Weren’t there moderate Repubs once? I seem to remember some guy, briefly VP, named Rockefeller once…or did I dream that?

Greed and stupidity makes them suckers, one and all:

“For reasons that, at this particular moment in economic time, make little sense—and border on the totally embarrassing—I was in Monaco recently at a business conference that attracted many private-equity types who are still traveling grandly on the 2 percent fees private-equity firms pay themselves on the money they’ve raised. At my table in the ballroom of the Hôtel de Paris, in Monte Carlo, at a dinner hosted by Prince Albert of Monaco, there was a gentleman whose company, backed by private equity, had gone public and risen to $130 a share, but had, through the terrible autumn, dropped to $17. To my left there was a gentleman from K.K.R.—the seminal name in the corporate-buyout business, having survived and profited off a quarter-century’s worth of bubbles and busts. Actually, the gentleman joined K.K.R. after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, where he had been for many years. (By my quick calculation, in all that time of being compensated with Lehman stock, he probably lost between $30 and $120 million in the collapse. Still, he seemed to have homes in London, Dubai, and New York.) I asked, lowering my voice, ‘So … who’s on the brink?’

“‘Carlyle,’ he responded darkly. Indeed, Carlyle Capital Corporation, the arm of the Carlyle Group that invests in mortgage-backed securities, had defaulted last spring on more than $16 billion.”

~snip~

“And Blackstone, at the top of the market—indeed doing the last big deal of the bull market—paid $26 billion for Hilton Hotels. (Hotels, where private-equity guys spend most of their time, form a big part of the P.E. mythology. Not only has Blackstone become the biggest hotelier in the world, owning at various times mass-market chains such as La Quinta and Extended Stay America as well as Claridge’s, in London—reportedly Mr. Schwarzman’s favorite home away from home—but the Carlyle Group is named after the Carlyle Hotel in New York, David Rubenstein’s favorite hotel.) Actually, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and a few other banks paid $26 billion for Hilton—they lent Blackstone the money. Or, in fact, because Lehman and Bear have collapsed and their debts have been bailed out by the U.S. government, you’ve paid for the Hilton hotels—with their dramatically devalued real estate on which their empty rooms sit.”
The Ultimate Bubble?, by Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair, February 2009 issue (go read the whole thing, it’s…fascinating)

I hope this is the ultimate bubble and no one ever has to live through this at all. I bet they said that in the Depression, too.

Suckers at the top? Sure, why not? But maybe bushco made us tax-paying, hard working, honest types are the biggest suckers of all with the bailout, the tax cuts, Iraq, and all the other fuck the working and middle class attacks over the past 8 years. Who paid for all that? You and I and generations to come. Unless the U.S. hits the lotto, which I don’t think it even plays. Wait…where did that come from?

So, anyway, good luck, Mr. Obama! You’re gonna need it.

“The bank (Bank Medici) — founded and largely owned by high-profile banker Sonja Kohn, whom media say has close ties to Madoff — said it would cooperate fully with the FMA.

“‘Bank Medici will in every way cooperate with the government supervisor and take all measures to ensure the most transparency and efficiency possible in solving the current challenges,’ it said in a statement.

“It said Medici, which is 25 percent owned by UniCredit’s (CRDI.MI) Bank Austria, remains sound, has good liquidity and will present a new business model in the coming weeks.

“It said clients’ assets were not at risk ‘because of its (Medici’s) strong capital base.’”

“Banks across the globe have unveiled billions of dollars in damage from the scandal, with a number of private banks catering to rich clients and fund-of-fund businesses particularly prominent victims.”
Madoff-exposed Medici under state supervision, by Christian Gutlederer, Reuters, January 2, 2009

Why would a bank, any bank, be this stupid? Bank Medici possibly has a $3B exposure. But why wouldn’t they, or other banks, figure Madoff out in due diligence? They’re banks, they’re supposed to be smarter than this. And if they’re not, then consumers and governments better wake up and get tough pdq.

And don’t blame it on Sonja Kohn. Unless she personally guaranteed the investment with Madoff, it was up to the bankers and lawyers at Bank Medici to see through Madoff before they went out on a $3B limb.

(More Madoff Madness from the NYT: Madoff Scheme Kept Rippling Outward, Across Borders, by Diana B. Henriques, December 20, 2008. Via Pen Elayne)
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: December 20, 2008

Yes, that’s what I’m doing, blogging before breakfast (yes, I know what time it is):

“But there’s also politics. And this crowd believes that the only focus should be Israel, and many also believe that only Republicans care about Israel (and yes, a lot are plain scared of Obama. *Shakes head.*)

“I am focused on Israel. I think it is important. However, I also believe that the best protection Israel has is not a US that says, ‘We support you’ but a US that is strong militarily and economically, and is respected overseas.

“That is not us. That has not been us for a long time now. We are fighting two wars, our economy is falling and the rest of the world thinks we’re willing to attack on a whim. All bad things. All under Israel’s great friend Bush. Who actually doesn’t care about Israelis anyway - just his religious goals.

“Anyway, I heard praises for Fox News, I heard men repeating rumors (we don’t know anything about Obama, we don’t even know where he was born, we haven’t investigated the Ayers thing - all things that were, in fact, investigated. And found to be nothing.) One man thought that the Republicans have found a connection between Madoff and Obama and therefore Obama would not become president.”
I’m spending New Year’s weekend in a country inn, Left of Centerist, January 2, 2009

She’s right, of course.

I’ve been thinking for a while that maybe the U.S. should break up. We’re just too diverse and huge to govern as one country. Strangely, this wacky Russian guy thinks the same thing and his map looks sort of like I’d imagined, at least the continental breaking into four parts. Coincidence? I certainly hope so. Although my break-up is more legislative than martial. I also think the (former) Confederate states would be one country, and the rest of the country would break up around economic hubs. But don’t quote me (or do, with a disclaimer), I haven’t given it nearly as much thought as Professor Panarin has.

(via Pen Elayne)

Not mine, thanks God.

“Michelle, As Well
“by Elinor Lipman

“I write this poem on matters slight
“By which I mean, Inaugural Night.

“My shallow values hence exposed,
“But someone’s got to mention clothes.”
And more if you follow the link (and may God have mercy on you)
Someone’s Got to Mention Clothes, Mrs. O, January 1, 2009

Plenty of people are mentioning clothes, maybe too many.

Utterly fascinating fact:

“‘Zag got into the fashion blogging business in September, after Mary Tomer, a 27-year-old account planner at Bartle Bogle in New York, hatched the idea for the blog. She noticed Mrs. Obama’s style during the Democratic convention, yet could not find information on what she wore.

“‘She decided to create a Web site, which she described as “a central resource for tracking her style and providing as much designer information and commentary as possible.”

“‘Instead of writing the blog in her spare time after work, like most bloggers with day jobs, she approached her employers to see if they would bankroll her new hobby. They readily agreed.”‘”
Mrs. O has No Regrets, B12 Partners, December 31, 2009

… she approached her employers to see if they would bankroll her new hobby. They readily agreed.

Yikes! Now, why didn’t I think of that? My employers would probably say no, but it’s a great idea for another time anyway. I mean, if you’re in the right kind of industry, why wouldn’t your employers kick in for the blogging? Hmmmmm…

A very useful sidebar widget:

As seen on Seeing the Forest.

Mahabarb knows about the coolest things.

Here’s my reading from Wengu - Book of Changes.

61. 中 孚 Chung Fu / Inner Truth:

“Nine at the beginning means:
Being prepared brings good fortune.
If there are secret designs, it is disquieting.
The force of inner truth depends chiefly on inner stability and preparedness. From this state of mind springs the correct attitude toward the outer world. But if a man should try to cultivate secret relationships of a special sort, it would deprive him of his inner independence. The more reliance he places on the support of others, the more uneasy and anxious he will become as to whether these secret ties are really tenable. In this way inner peace and the force of inner truth are lost.”

“Six in the fourth place means:
The moon nearly at the full.
The team horse goes astray.
No blame.
To intensify the power of inner truth, a man must always turn to his superior, from whom he can receive enlightenment as the moon receives light form the sun. However, this requires a certain humility, like that of the moon when it is not yet quite full. At the moment when the moon becomes full and stands directly opposite the sun, it begins to wane. Just as on the one hand we must be humble and reverent when face to face with the source of enlightenment, so likewise must we on the other renounce factionalism among men. Only be pursuing one’s course like a horse that goes straight ahead without looking sidewise at its mate, can one retain the inner freedom that helps one onward.”

“Nine in the fifth place means:
He possesses truth, which links together.
No blame.
This describes the ruler who holds all elements together by the power of his personality. Only when the strength of his character is so ample that he can influence all who are subject to him, is he as he needs to be. The power of suggestion must emanate from the ruler. It will firmly knit together and unite all his adherents. Without this central force, all external unity is only deception and breaks down at the decisive moment.”

I never understand the I Ching, but this site is very cool. And I think this is a good reading to start 2009 on.

“Tim DeChristopher announced Wednesday afternoon that he would pay the U.S. Bureau of Land Management $45,000 to hold the 13 lease parcels he won in a Dec. 19 sale. His aim is to fend off drilling at least until President-elect Barack Obama takes office and new officials are in charge of the federal Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management.

“‘This would be the most effective way of ensuring we could protect the land at least until the new administration came in,’ DeChristopher said.

“The 27-year-old economics major faces possible federal felony charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on 13 lease parcels that he admitted he had neither the intention nor the money to pay for.

“But since committing what he called an act of civil disobedience, DeChristopher has heard from hundreds of individuals around the country willing to chip in to keep drill rigs off the land and DeChristopher out of prison.

“So far, would-be benefactors have pledged $14,000, he said. ($14,050 now)

“DeChristopher, his lawyers and other advisers reckoned that if there were a specific reason for the fundraising, rather than just an ill-defined defense fund, enough money would roll in to allow him to write a $45,000 check to the BLM within the next couple of weeks.”
Land auction monkeywrencher has a new plan: Fundraising. DeChristopher hopes to run out the clock, by Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune, December 31, 2008

Tim DeChristopher Legal Defense and Land Paying For Fund. Totally worth it.

Disrupter of Wickedness Stupidity bushco:

“Just before Christmas, an economics student in Utah figured out a way to help the environment by messing up the mechanics of an auction. The Bush administration had Bureau of Land Management auction offer a last minute auction to sell off 150,000 acres near Arches National Park.

“Tim DeChristopher, 27, just started bidding when the government tried to auction off the land. That threw a wrench into the whole auction. He went home — after a brief visit with police — owning 22,000 acres of land and owing $1.7 million. But he also pushed the price up for oil developers. So much so that the whole auction results are now in question. The AP says buyers were given 10 days to decide if they paid too much. I don’t think that offer applies to DeChristopher himself. They may have to have a do-over for the whole auction — but that would be under the Obama administration.”

~snip~

“DeChristopher didn’t start off his day hoping to stand in the way of Bush’s last minute sale to the oil industry. Instead, he went to his scheduled final exam. …one of his exam questions was whether this very auction was fair since only the oil companies were bidding. That got him thinking.

“DeChristopher went straight from the test to the auction. He passed the protesters and went inside, wanting to do something more, but not knowing what. Then a woman asked him: ‘Are you here to bid?’ That gave him the idea.

“Patrick Shea, who is representing DeChristopher, says that when he ran the BLM under President Clinton he required bidders to show they could afford their purchases. The lack of a requirement was part of the “rush” of the Bush administration to sell the land before leaving office, Shea says. It looks like once again deregulation has not turned out to be the capitalist’s best friend.”

~snip~

“DeChristopher says the most surprising thing was that he bought some of the land at $2.25 an acre. ‘That’s shocking — that we can sacrifice our public lands for as little as $2.25 an acre.’ There is some talk of environmental groups buying DeChristopher’s land. His first payment of $45,000 was due Monday.”
The hero auction wrecker, by Carol Vinzant, WalletPop, December 30, 2008 (more on Mr. DeChristopher)

If there’s a legal defense fund for my new hero, Tim DeChristopher, I’d like to toss a few bucks his way. What a guy!

By the way, what’s the deal with no money down auctions of public land, bushco? Don’t you jerks know that even housing auctions require a $5K cashiers check to even get in the door? Serves you creeps right.

Advantage DeChristopher! Sorry about the legal problems, dude, where can I send a check?

Update 123108: “Tim DeChristopher announced Wednesday afternoon that he would pay the U.S. Bureau of Land Management $45,000 to hold the 13 lease parcels he won in a Dec. 19 sale. His aim is to fend off drilling at least until President-elect Barack Obama takes office and new officials are in charge of the federal Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management.

“‘This would be the most effective way of ensuring we could protect the land at least until the new administration came in,’ DeChristopher said.

“The 27-year-old economics major faces possible federal felony charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on 13 lease parcels that he admitted he had neither the intention nor the money to pay for.

“But since committing what he called an act of civil disobedience, DeChristopher has heard from hundreds of individuals around the country willing to chip in to keep drill rigs off the land and DeChristopher out of prison.

“So far, would-be benefactors have pledged $14,000, he said. ($14,050 now)

“DeChristopher, his lawyers and other advisers reckoned that if there were a specific reason for the fundraising, rather than just an ill-defined defense fund, enough money would roll in to allow him to write a $45,000 check to the BLM within the next couple of weeks.”
Land auction monkeywrencher has a new plan
Fundraising. DeChristopher hopes to run out the clock, by Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune, December 31, 2008

Tim DeChristopher Legal Defense and Land Paying For Fund

Agency auctions off moral high ground, by J. Scott Christianson, Columbia Tribune, December 30, 2008

Another good Tim DeChristopher story, more details.

There’s a blog that keeps and eye on Mrs. Obama’s fashion. Although it also seems to also be about First Lady fashion, it’s mainly about Mrs O.

A pal gave me some Obama water the other day. You can buy it in 711s here in LA. Sorry for the bad photography, but it’s a very nice photo on the bottle.

Another view after the jump.
(more…)

“While modification advocates say it is better for investors to accept a lower rate of return rather than nothing, bondholders don’t see much benefit if modifications just delay an inevitable foreclosure.

“Moreover, some securitizations prohibit modifications, as is the case with the pool containing the Goldrick mortgage. Such clauses are meant to protect bondholders — sometimes a hedge fund, sometimes a pension fund — who have been guaranteed a certain return.

“So even though the Goldricks could afford to stay in their home if the interest rate was 6.5 percent, and the bondholders would benefit by continuing to receive income on the loan rather than have it stuck in foreclosure, the servicer of the loan — Saxon — cannot budge.”

See, I have never understood why it’s legal to sell mortgages or other kinds of debt/loan. A loan is a risk, a fairly well researched one, and, in my mind, a risk should stay with the institution that placed the bet—I mean issued the loan, yeah, loan. That’s naïve, you say? Well then, okay, but I really understand moral hazard now.

“The Goldricks took out a $375,000 mortgage in 2005, when they refinanced a previous mortgage on their 1,800-square-foot (167-square-meter) house in semirural Hampton Bays, some 90 miles east of New York city.

“At first, the interest rate was 6.5 percent and the monthly payment was $2,370. After two years, it rose to 9.5 percent and suddenly the payment of $3,850 was beyond the means of a family living off Patrick Goldrick’s salary as a cable guy.”
How one family’s mortgage is linked to meltdown, Reuters, December 29, 2008

$2,370/month for a $375,000 mortgage for a one-income family? Man, how much do cable guys make?

Well, anyway, I wish the Goldricks all the best and hope they work it out. They really are between a rock and a hard place and it’s not all their mortgage’s fault, but getting some help on that would sure help in other areas. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t function when my home is in flux. (Unless that’s part of the plan, which is seldom.)

When did bankers get so stupid? I remember reading in the 80s that banks were in trouble and would be the next meltdown because bankers had ceased to be cautious, intelligent, responsible pillars of the community and had become financial idiots. Never mind Wall Street, they’ve always been in their own class. Previously and usually the good citizens of our country were protected from those wolves, simply because working people just didn’t have enough money to be interesting to those wolves. No more, folks!

Greed makes you stupid.

That could be one of those sampler things. If only I could sew.

“Once one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East, Baghdad Jews have now nearly vanished while the country has been consumed by sectarian war.”

~snip~

“Iraq’s Jewish community dates from biblical times. According to Charles Tripp’s History of Iraq, the country was home to 117,000 Jews in 1947.”
Reminiscences of old Baghdad by one of last Jews, Reuters, November 9, 2008

I didn’t know there were any Jews left in Baghdad.

“TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Teens who skip breakfast as middle school students tend to have sex at an earlier age than those who start the day with a proper meal, a government-backed Japanese medical researcher said on Friday.”

~snip~

“The average age of first-time sex for those who said they ate breakfast every day as a middle school student was 19.4, while for those who skipped breakfast, the average age was 17.5.”
Japan teens skipping breakfast have sex younger, Reuters, December 26, 2008

Considering how young kids start gettin’ it on in the US of A, 17.5 sounds very mature to me. But I think the US needs a study like this. It could lead to state funded breakfasts from K-12 nationwide!

Film Drunk’s Trippiest Video of 2008. And, yes, there’s more at the link.

Very disturbing, but you’ll be able to say you saw it here.

Hey, why not?

“I write today to raise an issue of the utmost significance — the Administration’s use of torture against detainees held in U.S. custody. Despite widespread condemnation from Members of Congress, policy experts, and human rights advocates, Vice President Richard Cheney stated in a recent interview with ABC News that the torture policies used against detainees were appropriate and admitted that he played a role in their authorization. In fact, when asked if any of the tactics — including waterboarding — went too far, he responded with a curt ‘I don’t.’

“I find Vice President Cheney’s response deplorable, particularly in light of a recent report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee following an eighteen-month investigation. In sum, the bipartisan report found that ’senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.’ The report, led by Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, concluded that ‘those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.’ I fully support Chairman Levin’s proposal for an outside Commission with subpoena power to investigate this matter further.”
Senator Boxer Calls for Hearings on the Use of Torture, December 19, 2008

Let us hope this does not lead to last minute prophylactic pardons. Of course, bush is so insane, he probably thinks they’ll all get Nobel Peace Prizes when they leave D.C. Criminal activities? What criminal activities?

On the other hand, Senator Boxer and your Senate colleagues, where have you been keeping this demand all these years? Better late than never, I guess.

Is it January 20, 2009 yet?

Oh, I might dream a thousand dreams

But how can they come true?

When there will never ever be another you?

Eartha Kitt 1927-2008

She rocked everything she did, so being the best Catwoman ever was probably a breeze for her and lucky for us.

Rest in peace, Ms. Kitt. I’ll miss you, but we’ll always have this:

No one before or since has but so much into the word “daddy,” and a grateful world salutes you.

And also C’est Si Bon.

“Barrack Obama has just under a month until he’s sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and so before that he’s taking a two week vacation in Hawaii, as seen here, in pictures from CelebBuzz. Say what you will about his policies, but he is probably the only sitting President who could dance for tips if he had to, so I guess that counts for something.”
President Hunk, WWTDD, December 22, 2008

I wonder how long Obama will look like that. The Presidency takes a terrible physical toll in everyone who holds that office.

Of course the prison guard unions would hate it, but the libertarians would love it. They’ve been saying this for years.

“I’ve been using my trial membership in Netflix to watch the Showtime series Weed, about a suburban housewife who starts dealing pot to keep her household afloat. As the economy tanks, this has caused me to wonder if changing our approach to marijuana could free up enough money to help offset our state budget shortfalls.

“A study done in June of 2005 by Jeffrey Miron, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Harvard, investigated just this question. He concluded that the annual cost of enforcing current weed prohibition was around $7.7 billion, split about 2/3 to the states and 1/3 to the federal government. (The Office of National Drug Control Policy does not agree with Miron’s conclusions.)

“Miron further concluded that, if the drug were legalized, it could yield an annual tax revenue of $2.4 billion if the tax matched prevailing sales taxes, and $6.2 billion if it were taxed at the rate of alcohol or tobacco. I suspect that many farmers would also appreciate having another cash crop to bolster their income.

“Adding the two figures together, Miron conjectures legalization could improve our nation’s balance sheet by $14 billion annually.”
State budget crisis - time to kick the potheads out of prison? by Tom Barlow, WalletPop, December 22, 2008

$14B is nothing to cough at. And it would bail out Philip Morris or Altira or whatever it calls itself now and their tobacco farmers in a big way. They could just switch to hemp production - smoke some, make paper and whatnot out of some - and hopefully not put too many chemicals in the final product. Yes, I know pot will never be legalized and mass produced, but a girl can dream, can’t I?

(Yes, I know there are problems with pot smoking, mainly that it’s illegal, but if you swap lung damage for liver damage, pot’s about the same damage as liquor, which is legal. Full disclose: I am not a canibis expert by a longshot.)

Oily Boy - the new Japanese fashion magazine for mature men.

“‘Oily Boy’ is the actual nickname of the late Jiro Shirasu, once the coolest guy in Japan.

“Tall, rich and movie-star handsome, Shirasu was educated at Cambridge University, where he drove a Bentley. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, his excellent English and smooth demeanor helped when he was called on to negotiate the terms of the U.S. occupation with Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

“Shirasu was one of the first Japanese men of substance to allow himself to be photographed while hanging out in jeans. He owned and often tinkered with fine automobiles. On social occasions, his pants and shirts were sometimes stained with oil.

“‘That kind of man never forgets the ‘boy’ in him,’ says the OilyBoy Declaration, which can be found in the magazine’s first edition. ‘The boys became not adults, but ‘elder boys.’ And that is why we cry out loud: We are Oily Boys.’”

~snip~

“With 22 percent of the population already older than 65 (compared with about 12 percent in the United States), and with the old predicted to outnumber the young 4 to 1 by 2040, Japanese retailers, marketers and publishers are all trying to tease more purchases out of the elderly.”
Fashion Guidance for Aging Japanese Lads. Slick Magazine Entices Young-at-Heart ‘Elder Boys’ to Trade a Little Cash for a Lot of Cool, by Blaine Harden, Washington Post, December 17, 2008-12-21

I can certainly wait for the elder lad fashion mag to get here.

“I’m going to guess that the reason why there are so few female writers at Marvel and DC is because editors aren’t approaching them to invite them to pitch ideas. I’m also going to take another shot in the dark and guess that female writers aren’t approaching Marvel and DC editors in order to pitch ideas to them.

“The audience? Has nothing to do with it. Both male and female writers are perfectly capable of reaching any particular audience. There are a large number of male writers churning out soap opera scripts for predominately female viewers. I’m sure there are quite a few female writers who could crank out a popular Batman story.

“If Marvel and DC editors actually care about hiring more female writers, they should take a close look at the industry in order to see which women writers are producing material that appeals to the current superhero audience. And then they should approach those women and ask them to pitch ideas. And they should do it just as often and for the exact same projects as they approach male writers for. Who do superhero fans respond to? Which female creators (from any industry) do they speak highly of? Which female authors specialize in action/adventure sagas? Find out and go contact them.

“It’s not that difficult. Really.

“Finally, after you approach these women, make sure that they ‘get’ superhero comics. They have to understand the common tropes and the way that superhero universes and stories operate. Don’t grab an author who has spent her entire life writing love stories for teenage girls, pair her with a terrible artist, plunk her down on a Revanche miniseries and then throw your hands up in the air and proclaim women can’t sell superhero comics when nobody buys it! One, you hired someone who has no idea how to reach the superhero audience. Two, you gave the writer an unpopular character to work with. Three, you saddled her with a terrible artist.”
Where the girls aren’t, Digital Femme, December 20, 2008

No, really, maybe female comics writers should start blogging or put their superhero (and other) scripts online. If the story got a following or a scandal or some kind of buzz, it might get the attention of some editor at the Big Two. Y’know, if I liked a script online enough to follow it, I’d certainly start bugging the Big Two to make a comic out of it. But I’m funny that way.

Hey, why not? Beats waiting around for the phone to ring.

“In a surprise move, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate Proposition 8. He said the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage ‘deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution.’

“It is the attorney general’s duty to defend the state’s laws, and after gay rights activists filed legal challenges to Proposition 8, which amended the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Brown said he planned to defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California.

“But after studying the matter, Brown concluded that ‘Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.’”
Jerry Brown: Gay-marriage ban should be invalidated. Brown says the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage “deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution.’ By Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2008

See, that’s what I think: Constitutions are for what you can do, your rights, not what you can’t do, which is the purview of the legal system, religion and parents of minors.

Good for you, Jerry Brown. And thanks. I keep saying this isn’t my fight, but it’s really everyone’s fight. You know what Ghandi said: “A civilization can be judged by the way it treats its minorities.” We might be broke in California, but we can still be good people.

“The group representing the U.S. recording industry said Friday it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyright and will work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings.

“The move ends a controversial program that saw the Recording Industry Assn. of America sue about 35,000 people since 2003 for swapping songs online. Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits settled, on average for around $3,500. The association’s legal costs, in the meantime, exceeded the settlement money it brought in.

“The association said Friday that it stopped sending out new lawsuits and warnings in August, and then agreed with several leading Internet service providers, without naming which ones, to notify alleged illegal file-sharers and cut off service if they failed to stop.

“It credited the lawsuit campaign with raising awareness of piracy and keeping the number of illegal file-sharers in check while the legal market for digital music took off. With two weeks left in the year, legitimate sales of digital music tracks soared for the first time past the 1 billion mark, up 28% over all of last year, according to Nielsen Soundscan.”
Music industry stops suing song swappers. The RIAA shifts its anti-piracy efforts to working with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access, LA Times, December 19, 2008

Hmmm….