Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Scary thought for the day
This jackass runs half of Congress and is in the line of Presidential Succession.
{h/t Hot Air}
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Hey, has everyone gotten their prizes?
They were sent out last week, but I haven’t heard from any of you…
Let me know, m’kay?
Friday, July 25, 2008
The Savior Has Come
I love satire.
Gerard Baker has written one of the funniest pieces of satire about B. Hussein Obama that I’ve seen lately. Too bad he’s going to be tossed out of the cool-guy club for opposing the word of the savior. Enjoy the laughs:
As word spread throughout the land about the Child’s wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.
And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child’s journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.
The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.
And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.
Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.
Try to read it if you have a few minutes.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I must be really popular in Russia
I keep getting these requests for membership from guys who are using some Russian anonymizer site as their e-mail address.
Just as an FYI, I delete those summarily, because if you can’t use a real e-mail address (including at Yahoo or G-mail), you don’t need to be able to comment here. If you feel you must be anonymous and comment about something I or my other Authors have written about, then start your own blog and comment away.
I promise that I will never know who you are. Or care much.
The rest of you? Thanks for hanging out… 
Sunday, July 20, 2008
President Scheisskopf
Is this any way to heal our image in the world?
In one of the glorious fuck-ups that we’ve come to know and love from der leerer Anzug, he has once again managed to upset the Germans by ignorantly stepping on barbed terrain. I discussed this last week here and recall that Bill Galston from the Brookings Institution had said something interesting when Barack Helmut Obama foolishly tried to use the Brandenburg Gate as the location for his speech:
Bill Galston, a member of Bill Clinton’s White House staff and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank, told The Telegraph that the Obama campaign “had been a bit naïve”.
“It shows a certain inexperience about complex foreign issues, which is of course the opposite of the impression they are trying to create.”
However, he added: “Obama is a quick learner and he will learn from this.”
Yeah. Not so much, Mr. Galston. Obama actually topped it:
Finally, it’s official. Barack Obama, when he arrives in Berlin on July 24, will hold his speech at the Siegessäule monument in the heart of the city, according to an announcement made by his campaign office in Chicago on Sunday. In his speech, he will speak about the “historic US-German partnership” and about the importance of strengthening trans-Atlantic relations, according to his campaign team.
That sounds fine. What could possibly go wrong?
The exact location of Obama’s speech had become a matter of intense speculation in Berlin after his campaign team originally suggested an appearance at the Brandenburg Gate. Many, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, questioned whether the site—where Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both spoke when they were in the White House—was appropriate for a candidate Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is a major figure in Germany’s Social Democrats, was in favor of the Brandenburg Gate site and the Obama visit quickly became yet another excuse for German politicians to fire off barbs at each other.
The Siegessäule is located about a kilometer down the Strasse des 17. Juni from the Brandenburg Gate. His speech is set to begin at 7 p.m. and Berlin is expecting a massive number of Obama fans to show up—between 10,000 and a million according to one city official quoted in the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel.
Still, even as the issue of his speech’s location has now been settled, a number of politicians in Berlin are still dissatisfied with the site. The Siegessäule—or Victory Column—was erected in memory of Prussia’s victories over Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870/71). The column originally stood in front of the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, but was moved by Adolf Hitler to its current location in 1939 to make way for his planned transformation of Berlin into the Nazi capital “Germania.”
Oh, that’s just perfect! Not only is it pissing off the Germans, we have the potential to irritate the Danes, Austrians, and French; along with everyone else who disapproves of Hitler.
Hot-f*cking-diggity!
Yippee and other such expository fillers.
My all-time favorite musical is ramping up for the Big Screen
Because great things are expected out of Mamma Mia! (we may not see those results initially, but this thing will be in theaters around the world clear through Labor Day), Universal is skimming the cream of Broadway again, reaching a deal to bring Wicked to theaters.
Talk about a movie that’ll make a lot of money…
The musical has been an enormous hit, it’s based on a very popular book, and with musicals suddenly getting as much play as comic book movies - and wouldn’t be something to counterprogram every superhero movie with a musical, like they’re doing this week? - I’m frankly very surprised that this one hasn’t already happened.
You folks have already been treated to some of the best that Wicked has to offer…
So I want to ask who you would think would make a good fit with the movie version?
Results of the contest
Okay, here are the correct answers for the twenty questions.
A - How old is Mimi Marquez at the finale of “Rent”?
20. She was 19 ("but old for her age") during the first Act, and the finale is set exactly one year and one hour later.
B - What is the sum of the digits of the number of meters light can travel each second in vacuum?
55. 299,792,458 meters per second; 2+9+9+7+9+2+4+5+8=55.
C - What was Maxwell Smart’s Agent number?
86
D - How many days does each President serve in a typical term (for at least the last century)?
1,461. 4 x 365 = 1,460, plus one day for Leap Year.
E - How many board feet are in a piece of lumber measuring 4” x 6” x 54”?
9. 4 x 6 x 54 = 1,296 / 144 = 9.
F - What is the hull number of the vessel named after the person who was the most senior member of the US Senate on Christmas Day, 1988?
74. John C Stennis was the senior-most member of the Senate before his retirement on January 3, 1989, and the USS John C. Stennis is CVN 74.
G - According to Tina Turner, what is the speed limit in Nutbush?
25. The lyrics are here
H - What is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of three squares three different ways?
54. (7*7) + (2*2) + (1*1) = (6*6) + (3*3) + (3*3) = (5*5) + (5*5) + (2*2).
J - What is the only positive number that lies directly between a square and a cube?
26. Three cubed is 27 and five squared is 25.
K - There are four major entertainment awards, depending on the media being used to entertain - the Grammy (for music or spoken word), the Academy Awards (aka the Oscar, for movies), the Tony (for stage productions), and the Emmy (for television). Including Special and International Awards, how many performers have won all four?
13. The list is here
L - How many James Bond movies have a one-word title?
5. Goldfinger, Thunderball, Moonraker, Octopussy, and GoldenEye.
M - What is the minimum number of people you will have to have in order to have more than a 50% chance that any two of them share a birthday?
23. You can find the intensive math here
N - What is the only number that can be written both as X^y and Y^x, where ‘X’ and ‘Y’ are different integers?
16. I had a complaint about this problem, because I clearly failed to use the correct HTML language to get a superscript, even though my preview of it worked. However, no one actually got it wrong, so the complaint, while valid, was moot.
P - How fast did Doc Brown’s DeLorean have to be travelling to activate the flux capacitor?
88 mph to get the 1.21 gigawatt reaction.
Q - Measuring in nanometers (billionths of a meter), what is the greatest-sized particulate that can fit through a filter built to HEPA specifications?
300 nanometers, or 3/10 of a micrometer. The actual text is on page 4.
R - What is the most number of points a player can count up in a hand of cribbage?
29. 555J in hand with the starter 5 of the same suit as the Jack (8 points for four J-5 combinations, 8 points for four 5-5-5 combinations, 12 points for six pairs of 5s and one for His Nobs).
S - How many points was the Irish national team leading by when Viktor Krum caught the Snitch at the Quidditch World Cup?
160. The final score was 170-160 when Krum caught the snitch, earning 150 points. That means the score before he caught it was 170-10.
T - What is the largest number divisible by all whole numbers less than its square root?
24. The only whole numbers lower than the square root of 24 (4.898979+) are 1, 2, 3 & 4, and all four of those numbers are divisors of 24.
U - How many legs does the creature described in the following riddle have?
First, think of the person who lives in disguise
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend
The middle of middle and end of the end.
And, finally, give me the sound often heard
during the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now, string them together and answer me this:
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?
8. This was also from “Goblet of Fire”, and the clues added up to ‘spy’+’d’+’er’ = spider.
V - What is the lowest whole number whose letters are in alphabetical order when written out?
40. F-O-R-T-Y.
Okay, now the scores.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
12 hours to go
Last chance, folks. Send those cards and letters right away.
Contest closes tomorrow morning…
Friday, July 18, 2008
Barack The Egomaniac
As I’ve been saying...
Since Barack Jesus Kennedy Hussein Obama arrived on the scene, he always came across to me as the guy in your high school class who was loved by the teachers, loved by the cheerleaders, loved by the lemmings, and loved by everyone who is just looking for someone to love because that’s all they know how to do. No one knows why they love him, they just need someone to look up to and admire. Surprisingly enough, Charles Krauthammer agrees with me.
Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?
Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted “present” nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.
Take a few minutes and read the whole article. It’s great. The United States is about to vote for a guy that claims to be a fearless leader that is smarter than everyone else in the world, but he has no way to back it up, and his claim to fame is being able to put a worthwhile sentence together. Outside of that, he’s black. Or at least half black. And I hate to say it… but…
The only thing that makes Barack Hussein Obama different from the next guy in line is that he’s black.
That’s it. He’s nothing special, he’s not that smart, and he’s not the messiah. Read the whole article. It’ll give you that much needed ammo to fight the masses that swear he’s the best thing that ever hatched.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Contest is still open
We have two winners so far, but the third place slot is still available if anyone comes up with all 20 questions and the correct solution.
Drop your entry into the comments or send me an e-mail…
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Can you hear me now?
Just got a new laptop and tied it into my home network. How does my voice sound?
I know, it’s a joke.
Another tough point is that this laptop has Vista as its OS, and I hate the constant popups.
We’re back
Just to update everyone, we have three entries with 20 correct answers, but only two of them have the correct solution.
That means that third place is still winnable, with 20 out of 20 correct answers AND the correct solution.
I won’t give any details as to who, when, what, etc., until we get the third complete and correct entry.
I came upon one amusing sign yesterday… I’m tucking it below the fold to save the front page.
Rumors of Mitt
Is this what CBS thinks is going to happen or is this what they hope happens?
Scott Conroy writes about Romney’s work as a “McCain surrogate” and speculates that he may be the Number 2.
Despite his deep summer tan, Romney has been anything but a beach bum as of late. Since dropping out of the Republican race in February, he has gone from being John McCain’s fiercest rival to one of the Arizona senator’s most visible surrogates. What was inconceivable during the height of their primary battles, the prospect of a McCain/Romney ticket, is now a real possibility.
The most obvious assets that Romney would bring to the Republican ticket include his economic expertise, fundraising prowess and potential to give McCain a boost in more than one battleground state. But a less talked about plus side to a Romney vice presidential candidacy is that despite his perpetually sunny demeanor, the former Massachusetts governor is not afraid to unleash razor-sharp political attacks against the opposition.
You know, my first choice in the primary was Thompson--like most of you here--and I embraced Romney when that campaign stalled and failed. I even said many times that he was the single best qualified candidate in the race based on his exceptional executive experience. Still, I have concerns with his possible selection as VP and it has nothing to do with magic underwear.
Even with so many qualities that could potentially benefit the ticket, the fact remains that Republican voters already had a chance to back Mitt Romney, and most of them chose not to. Throughout the latter part of 2007, Romney held strong leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, which seemed to evaporate as voters there honed in on other candidates…
“In the big primaries like California and Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, I don’t think faith played a particular role in those events,” he said. “And perhaps in some small segment or in a caucus or two, that may play a larger role because there are much smaller numbers of people.”
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The IndyMac Fiasco, Part I
I’ll do my best to expose what I can.
The more I learn about the IndyMac fiasco, the more angry I get. First, a news article from The Guardian:
Hundreds of worried IndyMac Bancorp Inc customers descended on the company’s branches on Monday to withdraw their money, after regulators seized what was once one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States.
Regulators took over the Pasadena-based lender on Friday after a bank run in which customers—panicked over IndyMac’s survival prospects—withdrew $1.3 billion over 11 business days, regulators said.
At a branch at IndyMac’s headquarters, customers began arriving at 4 a.m., five hours before the doors opened. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp now operates the thrift’s 33 Southern California branches.
“I didn’t think anything like this would happen,” said retired teacher Charles Tengeri from Pasadena, who was first to emerge from the branch after withdrawing $171,000—about two-thirds of his life savings. “I withdrew as much as I could. I know it’s going to take a little time.”
The FDIC said the renamed IndyMac Federal Bank will cover insured deposits, mostly up to $100,000, and initially cover 50 percent of uninsured deposits.
“I have $360,000 in this bank, and I was misled by this bank,” said Robert Clark, a Glendale resident. “I gave the names of my mother, my sister and my brother on the account so I thought I would be insured. I don’t know what to do. I really don’t know what to do.”
Let me break this down for you - the FDIC insures your deposits up to $100,000 dollars, and if a shady business like IndyMac happens to go belly-up, anything over $100,000 dollars is probably gone with the wind (note: I changed my tune a little bit. While I still think that Schumer caused IndyMac to take a long walk off a short pier, I now also believe that IndyMac’s shady business dealings would have eventually led them to this point. But more about that in another post). That means that all the money you worked hard to earn would be tossed in the trash --- literally. If you thought you were taking the safe route by putting your money in a savings account versus the rollercoaster of a stock market, IndyMac proves that is not always the case.
Which brings me to my next point. Given the current state of the economy, and being that IndyMac is proof-positive of how the housing and mortgage industry is tossing our economy to the wolves, how is putting a lump sum of cash in a bank any better than stuffing it under your mattress? If you ask me, a safe deposit box is the best way to go if the market becomes any more volatile.
But I digress. Going back to what caused this IndyMac incident, my research indicates that the housing boom and the mortgage industry is the root cause of IndyMac’s demise. As with most trends, I miss the cool times where things like “stated mortgages” come into play. A stated mortgage means that you state your income and you get a mortgage. Most of these mortgages were adjustable rate mortgages (ARM’s), meaning that when the good times are over, your $1200 dollar monthly payment jumps to $5500 dollars a month. That ARM sounded like a great idea at the time, didn’t it? Well it wasn’t.
IndyMac, along with a bunch of other banks that are still in business, made a killing off of the signature ARM’s. The housing boom was a trends, but as with all trends, they come to an end and take a hard fall when it’s over. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the last biggie, the tech boom. It took a hard dive and thousands ended up jobless and working at Starbucks.
Again, I digress. I hate the fact that people who decided to park their life savings at IndyMac might not be getting a lot of it back because of IndyMac’s shady business dealings. The money has to be somewhere, and I’m going to keep digging until I find out where it is. I have a bad feeling this is going to happen with more big banks, and common sense indicates that a lot of people have their hard-earned cash in these banks. That alone is giving me an ulcer.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Taking Down IndyMac
Wow, that was easy.
Imagine being the Democrat that will be remembered for causing the demise of IndyMac bank via hate and harmful published letters to the public. Enter Chuck Schumer.
IndyMac came under fire last month from Schumer, the Democrat from New York, who said lax lending standards and deposits purchased from third parties left it on the brink of failure. During the 11 business days after Schumer explained his concerns in a June 26 letter, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion, the OTS said.
``This institution failed due to a liquidity crisis,’’ OTS Director John Reich said in the statement. ``Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process.’’
Schumer blamed IndyMac’s own actions and regulatory failures for the bank’s seizure.
``If OTS had done its job as regulator and not let IndyMac’s poor and loose lending practices continue, we wouldn’t be where we are today,’’ Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in an e-mail yesterday. ``Instead of pointing false fingers of blame, OTS should start doing its job to prevent future IndyMacs.’’
The failure will cost the federal deposit insurance program about $4 billion to $8 billion, the FDIC said. Some $1 billion of uninsured deposits are held by about 10,000 customers, the FDIC said. Those depositors will get an ``advance dividend’’ equal to half the uninsured amount, according to the statement.
In one fell swoop, Schumer caused the loss of jobs for hundreds, if not thousands of people, threw the financial world into distress, and caused general disarray in the banking industry. That doesn’t even include the tax dollars that will be needed to back IndyMac until Federal regulators can sell it.
Good job, Schumer. Much like Tony Villar (a.k.a. Antonio Villaraigosa), your career can best be described, and will be remembered, as failure after failure in the public eye.