Well, the Milwaukee Public Schools are first in the nation to establish a MIDDLE-SCHOOL for gays.
Milwaukee's Alliance School, one of the few officially "gay-friendly" high schools in the country, has been given clearance to extend their pro-homosexual curriculum to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
The proposal went through easily last month, with the city's board of education unanimously approving it by default, as it was not pulled for further discussion or a vote. Tina Owen, Lead Teacher of Alliance, said they would be accepting applications from middle-school-age children for the 2009-10 school year immediately.
Marty Lexmond, the director of school innovation for Milwaukee Public Schools, told U.S. News and World Report that such an institution was needed to help adolescents, who are now increasingly publicly identifying their sexual orientation as early as middle school.
What we really need: good old-fashioned segregation! Even Chicago wouldn't put up with that.
The original Alliance high school opened four years ago, also with little opposition. Other similar plans across the country, however, have not had it as easy as the Milwaukee school.
In Chicago, plans for a "gay-friendly" high school were recently delayed due to concerns from both sides of the debate, as some feared that the plans amounted to segregating homosexuals.
And when Manhattan's Harvey Milk High School opened in 2003, named for an openly homosexual politician of the 1970s, students met with protesters outside the school's doors
Another reason to simply close MPS altogether.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Squirrel-Hunter? There's a Job Over There!
You only have to migrate across the pond and learn English.
These days in farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in.
“Part of the interest is curiosity and novelty,” said Barry Shaw of Shaw Meats, who sells squirrel meat at the Wirral Farmers Market near Liverpool. “It’s a great conversation starter for dinner parties.”
...there is a war raging in Squirreltown: invading interlopers (gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century or more) are crowding out a British icon, the indigenous red squirrel immortalized by Beatrix Potter and cherished by generations since. The grays take over the reds’ habitat, eat voraciously and harbor a virus named squirrel parapox (harmless to humans) that does not harm grays but can devastate reds
There will be a test to determine if you are color-blind.
HT: Scelata
These days in farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in.
“Part of the interest is curiosity and novelty,” said Barry Shaw of Shaw Meats, who sells squirrel meat at the Wirral Farmers Market near Liverpool. “It’s a great conversation starter for dinner parties.”
...there is a war raging in Squirreltown: invading interlopers (gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century or more) are crowding out a British icon, the indigenous red squirrel immortalized by Beatrix Potter and cherished by generations since. The grays take over the reds’ habitat, eat voraciously and harbor a virus named squirrel parapox (harmless to humans) that does not harm grays but can devastate reds
There will be a test to determine if you are color-blind.
HT: Scelata
Goodwill Industries: Swatted by the Feds
We mentioned that there's a new Gummint regulation coming into effect early in February which will effectively put mom/pop toymakers out of business.
That's not the only effect.
Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing.
The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.
"They'll all have to go to the landfill," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops.
The new regulations take effect Feb. 10 under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed by Congress last year in response to widespread recalls of products that posed a threat to children, including toys made with lead or lead-based paint.
HT: Dreher
That's not the only effect.
Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing.
The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.
"They'll all have to go to the landfill," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops.
The new regulations take effect Feb. 10 under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed by Congress last year in response to widespread recalls of products that posed a threat to children, including toys made with lead or lead-based paint.
HT: Dreher
Georgetown U Puts the High Hardball Past the Prots
...but it's not exactly what you think, folks.
Protestants at Georgetown University have been directed to sponsor an event to be "welcoming" to the new campus gay rights center.
Leaders of Georgetown's council of 12 Protestant ministries are meeting Jan. 12 to discuss just how to do this.
I began calling around. Four evangelical Protestant chaplains, all of whom are from ministries that believe homosexual activity is sinful, confirmed they got this mandate from the Rev. Constance C. Wheeler, the lead Protestant chaplain, who was passing along instructions from the president of Georgetown University, John J. DeGioia
So G'town, a Jesuit (not necessarily Catholic) university, sticks it to its Prot campus ministers by "requesting" that they honor the Vice Which Will Not Shut Up.
Somewhere near irony cubed.
HT: Creative Minority
Protestants at Georgetown University have been directed to sponsor an event to be "welcoming" to the new campus gay rights center.
Leaders of Georgetown's council of 12 Protestant ministries are meeting Jan. 12 to discuss just how to do this.
I began calling around. Four evangelical Protestant chaplains, all of whom are from ministries that believe homosexual activity is sinful, confirmed they got this mandate from the Rev. Constance C. Wheeler, the lead Protestant chaplain, who was passing along instructions from the president of Georgetown University, John J. DeGioia
So G'town, a Jesuit (not necessarily Catholic) university, sticks it to its Prot campus ministers by "requesting" that they honor the Vice Which Will Not Shut Up.
Somewhere near irony cubed.
HT: Creative Minority
Break for Lexicography
Fun with words.
Let's start (and end) with barbarian (or Barbara, if you know one of those whom you dislike intensely.) The word is a disparagement:
Disparaging terms for foreigners in some other languages also reflect their unintelligible speech. The best-known example is Greek βάρβαρος (barbaros),
...Hjalmar Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, compares Sanskrit barbara- (stammering), Sumerian barbar (foreigner), and Babylonian-Semitic barbaru (enemy).
The word is an adjective, a "reduplicative onomatopoeia" that captures how an exotic language sounds. A modern American creation would be something like "blah-blah-ous."
Well, now. "Blah-blah-ous" fits a lot of people, not all of them foreign.
Take, for example, Congress. Please take them.
Plenty more interesting stuff on 'barbarians' at the link below.
HT: Laudator
Let's start (and end) with barbarian (or Barbara, if you know one of those whom you dislike intensely.) The word is a disparagement:
Disparaging terms for foreigners in some other languages also reflect their unintelligible speech. The best-known example is Greek βάρβαρος (barbaros),
...Hjalmar Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, compares Sanskrit barbara- (stammering), Sumerian barbar (foreigner), and Babylonian-Semitic barbaru (enemy).
The word is an adjective, a "reduplicative onomatopoeia" that captures how an exotic language sounds. A modern American creation would be something like "blah-blah-ous."
Well, now. "Blah-blah-ous" fits a lot of people, not all of them foreign.
Take, for example, Congress. Please take them.
Plenty more interesting stuff on 'barbarians' at the link below.
HT: Laudator
McCain/Feingold II
Not a bad list of co-sponsors, folks, and some reasonable ideas, too.
Joining the old reformers are young guns Claire McCaskill, Tom Coburn, and Lindsey Graham. CongressDaily (subscription required) details what the reform package will look like:
[T]he measure would allow individual senators to raise points of order against unauthorized earmarks in appropriations bills. Earmark backers would need 60 votes to overcome the objection and the cost of the bill would be reduced by the amount of the earmark.
The measure also requires appropriations and authorizing conference reports to be electronically searchable for 48 hours before the Senate considers the conference reports and requires that recipients of federal funds disclose payments to registered lobbyists.
This is a big improvement over the current earmark process
HT: Sunlight Foundation
Joining the old reformers are young guns Claire McCaskill, Tom Coburn, and Lindsey Graham. CongressDaily (subscription required) details what the reform package will look like:
[T]he measure would allow individual senators to raise points of order against unauthorized earmarks in appropriations bills. Earmark backers would need 60 votes to overcome the objection and the cost of the bill would be reduced by the amount of the earmark.
The measure also requires appropriations and authorizing conference reports to be electronically searchable for 48 hours before the Senate considers the conference reports and requires that recipients of federal funds disclose payments to registered lobbyists.
This is a big improvement over the current earmark process
HT: Sunlight Foundation
RIP Fr. Richard Neuhaus
Mercifully quick. Fr. Neuhaus went into the hospital only a few days ago, and had time for the most important things--the Last Sacraments.
First Things, his handiwork, was (and remains, so far) an intellectual feast.
Requiescat in Pace, Father.
HT: Southern Appeal
Much more comprehensive obit here.
First Things, his handiwork, was (and remains, so far) an intellectual feast.
Requiescat in Pace, Father.
HT: Southern Appeal
Much more comprehensive obit here.
Soak the Rich?
Looks like "the rich" may not be quite as 'soakable' as they used to be.
December sales reports:
Costco posted a 4% drop in December same-store sales.
Family Dollar gained 8%; Same store sales gained 6%;
Target same-store sales fell 4.1%;
Macy’s December sales fell 4%;
Gap stores sales fell 14%;
Abercrombie & Fitch fell -24%;
Neiman Marcus reported a 28% drop off...
That Madoff thing really hurts!
HT: Ritholtz
December sales reports:
Costco posted a 4% drop in December same-store sales.
Family Dollar gained 8%; Same store sales gained 6%;
Target same-store sales fell 4.1%;
Macy’s December sales fell 4%;
Gap stores sales fell 14%;
Abercrombie & Fitch fell -24%;
Neiman Marcus reported a 28% drop off...
That Madoff thing really hurts!
HT: Ritholtz
Tooth-Grinding TV Promo Yapping
If I EVER AGAIN HEAR Mike Jacobs say "LOOK AT THIS!!" before he intros another story on Channel 4, I'll likely have a serious negative reaction.
Jacobs is old enough to know better, and so is Meekins (sorry, Carol.)
This is obviously the work-product of some 28-year-old twit "consultant"...
Jacobs is old enough to know better, and so is Meekins (sorry, Carol.)
This is obviously the work-product of some 28-year-old twit "consultant"...
Eric Holder v. the 6th Amendment
Besides his monomaniacal obsession with voiding the Second Amendment, AG-nominee Holder isn't all that enthused about the Sixth Amendment, either.
“In his controversial directive to line prosecutors, Holder strongly suggested that, when deciding whether to indict a corporation — and indictment can be a death sentence for companies in certain businesses — they consider whether the company has “cooperated” in the investigation. “Cooperation” was partially defined by whether the corporation agreed to waive the legally protected attorney-client and work-product privileges ...Another factor, suggested Holder, would be “whether the corporation appears to be protecting its culpable employees and agents” by advancing or paying those individuals’ attorney fees. A further sign of possible noncooperation would be whether the corporation kept the employees on the payroll or entered into a joint defense agreement with any of them. Put simply, the Holder Memo suggested that, by facilitating the ability of employees to continue working and to vigorously defend themselves, the company was demonstrating a noncooperative attitude that could get it indicted. It was a serious affront to the basic adversarial and rights-driven structure of the American legal system.”
This is the same sort of trickery and dirty pool practiced by another "liberal" AG: Andy Cuomo of New York State. "You have a right to representation. And if you exercise that right, I'll make sure you're banko."
Nice.
HT: RedState
“In his controversial directive to line prosecutors, Holder strongly suggested that, when deciding whether to indict a corporation — and indictment can be a death sentence for companies in certain businesses — they consider whether the company has “cooperated” in the investigation. “Cooperation” was partially defined by whether the corporation agreed to waive the legally protected attorney-client and work-product privileges ...Another factor, suggested Holder, would be “whether the corporation appears to be protecting its culpable employees and agents” by advancing or paying those individuals’ attorney fees. A further sign of possible noncooperation would be whether the corporation kept the employees on the payroll or entered into a joint defense agreement with any of them. Put simply, the Holder Memo suggested that, by facilitating the ability of employees to continue working and to vigorously defend themselves, the company was demonstrating a noncooperative attitude that could get it indicted. It was a serious affront to the basic adversarial and rights-driven structure of the American legal system.”
This is the same sort of trickery and dirty pool practiced by another "liberal" AG: Andy Cuomo of New York State. "You have a right to representation. And if you exercise that right, I'll make sure you're banko."
Nice.
HT: RedState
"Representative" of Whom?
Theoretically, Congress represents the people of the US, district-by-district.
District-by-district, American citizens are paying a LOT for home heating and gasoline.
So what does QueenNancy's House propose?
A provision that takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would nearly match the annual production levels of our two largest natural gas production states — Alaska and Texas.
Eat cake, you stinking proles!
Rummaging around in the 'net, we find the following text:
...that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
Umnnnhhh....heated housing is a component of "life," right?
HT: Van Helsing
District-by-district, American citizens are paying a LOT for home heating and gasoline.
So what does QueenNancy's House propose?
A provision that takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would nearly match the annual production levels of our two largest natural gas production states — Alaska and Texas.
Eat cake, you stinking proles!
Rummaging around in the 'net, we find the following text:
...that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
Umnnnhhh....heated housing is a component of "life," right?
HT: Van Helsing
Global Warming Goes Euro
The Gore-ites predicted this, right?
Freezing temperatures and exceptional snowfall caused travel delays Wednesday across Europe and were blamed for at least 12 deaths, including that of a man in Milan who was crushed when a canopy collapsed under the weight of snow
...The winter weather temporarily closed Milan's two airports, halted trains in the normally sunny south of France and pressed into service ice breakers in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. But it also sent Dutch skaters storming onto canals, and earned chimpanzees in Rome's zoo hot tea and cookies for extra calories
And just about that time, Putin & Co. cut off natural gas supplies to Europe.
HT: Cramer
Freezing temperatures and exceptional snowfall caused travel delays Wednesday across Europe and were blamed for at least 12 deaths, including that of a man in Milan who was crushed when a canopy collapsed under the weight of snow
...The winter weather temporarily closed Milan's two airports, halted trains in the normally sunny south of France and pressed into service ice breakers in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. But it also sent Dutch skaters storming onto canals, and earned chimpanzees in Rome's zoo hot tea and cookies for extra calories
And just about that time, Putin & Co. cut off natural gas supplies to Europe.
HT: Cramer
The Sick Solution
As expected, the mandatory paid-sick-leave ordinance is problematic. And as I predicted, the RadioMouths are blaming the Heinemann closure on the ordinance (ignorantly), but the problem is hardly confined to businesses which are on the bubble (as was Heinie's).
McIlheran happens to write about the issue.
...the ordinance makes Milwaukee workers more expensive - another $100,000 a year for Capitol [Stampings], Wenzel [the President of the Company] estimates. "We'd very strongly consider moving that work," said Wenzel. He'd rather not: He serves on a group promoting the 30th St. industrial corridor. Still, "we just can't pass that on to our customers," not when the plant competes with China.
And it's not just manufacturing.
...Take construction, which employs about 20,000 people in southeastern Wisconsin. Many of the big contractors are unionized. On average, such contractors pay tradesmen about $45 an hour, including benefits.
...That work force doesn't get paid sick leave. It's just never been part of the bargain, say union guys and contractors. Contracts include money in other ways. Many put extra "vacation" pay in union-run accounts from which workers can draw when they're off - for whatever reason, including illness.
That last phrase contains the real solution to the problem, for most businesses: informally allow paid sick-days by calling it "vacation," which is usually paid.
There are limits. A lot of very small businesses don't offer paid vacations. Sick time is unpredictable, meaning that scheduling will be a problem. But of course, scheduling already IS a problem when someone gets sick, right?
The real nutcracker? Right here:
It's all enforced by legal complaint, via lawyer. "It's going to be open season on employers after Feb. 10," as one consultant put it.
Informal, trusting employment relationships are history when the lawyers get into it, and there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.
So yes, unless MMAC is successful at obtaining the injunction and then defeating the ordinance in court, there will be one of two results: either more costs will be passed on to customers (if the customers choose to pay them), or less businesses will be operating in the City of Milwaukee.
Not a good way to go into a recession.
McIlheran happens to write about the issue.
...the ordinance makes Milwaukee workers more expensive - another $100,000 a year for Capitol [Stampings], Wenzel [the President of the Company] estimates. "We'd very strongly consider moving that work," said Wenzel. He'd rather not: He serves on a group promoting the 30th St. industrial corridor. Still, "we just can't pass that on to our customers," not when the plant competes with China.
And it's not just manufacturing.
...Take construction, which employs about 20,000 people in southeastern Wisconsin. Many of the big contractors are unionized. On average, such contractors pay tradesmen about $45 an hour, including benefits.
...That work force doesn't get paid sick leave. It's just never been part of the bargain, say union guys and contractors. Contracts include money in other ways. Many put extra "vacation" pay in union-run accounts from which workers can draw when they're off - for whatever reason, including illness.
That last phrase contains the real solution to the problem, for most businesses: informally allow paid sick-days by calling it "vacation," which is usually paid.
There are limits. A lot of very small businesses don't offer paid vacations. Sick time is unpredictable, meaning that scheduling will be a problem. But of course, scheduling already IS a problem when someone gets sick, right?
The real nutcracker? Right here:
It's all enforced by legal complaint, via lawyer. "It's going to be open season on employers after Feb. 10," as one consultant put it.
Informal, trusting employment relationships are history when the lawyers get into it, and there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.
So yes, unless MMAC is successful at obtaining the injunction and then defeating the ordinance in court, there will be one of two results: either more costs will be passed on to customers (if the customers choose to pay them), or less businesses will be operating in the City of Milwaukee.
Not a good way to go into a recession.
Cost of Taxes
This is not exactly "new" news, but we'll post it anyway.
The No. 1 problem facing U.S. taxpayers? A tax code so complex that Americans spend $193 billion per year just trying to figure out how much they owe, said Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, in her annual report to Congress on Wednesday.
That amounts to 14% of all income taxes collected, according to Ms. Olson. Tax-code changes have averaged one per day over the past eight years -- with 500 changes in 2008 alone, she said.
She suggested simply dumping the AMT.
(Wanna bet on that?)
The CPA/Tax Lawyer lobbyists have defeated all "simplification" moves to date, rather handily. You can expect they will continue their success record, although there is always that 1% "Black Swan" factor.
The No. 1 problem facing U.S. taxpayers? A tax code so complex that Americans spend $193 billion per year just trying to figure out how much they owe, said Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, in her annual report to Congress on Wednesday.
That amounts to 14% of all income taxes collected, according to Ms. Olson. Tax-code changes have averaged one per day over the past eight years -- with 500 changes in 2008 alone, she said.
She suggested simply dumping the AMT.
(Wanna bet on that?)
The CPA/Tax Lawyer lobbyists have defeated all "simplification" moves to date, rather handily. You can expect they will continue their success record, although there is always that 1% "Black Swan" factor.
Why Fan/Fred Collapsed, Part 34,586 UPDATED
Interesting little sentence here:
Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute and Charles Calomiris of the Columbia Business School suggest $1 trillion of this debt was subprime and "liar loans," almost all bought between 2005 and 2007. This bulk-up in risky paper made it possible for banks to lend imprudently on a massive scale.
That $1 trillion is about 20% of the Fan/Fred portfolio.
The pieces keep falling into place, and Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide will eventually take his (well-earned) place next to Mr. Madoff as one of the US' greatest flim-flam men.
UPDATE:
Ritholtz provides more info, not all friendly to Rove's editorial. Since I have no particular love for ANY of the players in this mess, I'll run R's comments, too:
Fannie and Freddie were cogs in the giant mortgage machine, but they had nothing to do with the abdication of lending standards from 2002-07. That was a function of the Lend-to-Securitize business model of the sub-prime mortgage originators. THAT was the primary cause of the housing boom and bust, along with Ultra-low rates and a lack of Fed regulation of these sub-prime lenders
Rove somehow fails to note the GOP controlled Congress from 1994-2006, including the first 6 years of the Bush Presidency. If the President wanted to rein in the GSEs, he needed only make it a major priority, and not a footnote in the 2001 budget.
GSEs bought $ trillion of subprime debt and “liar loans,” [says Rove], but Facts are correct, conclusion is wrong. By 2005, the die was set. The GSEs were very late to the party, buying sub-prime at the top of the market
OMISSION: Bush thwarted attempts to make lenders behave responsibly: Gee, somehow Mr. Rove forgot this one. Bank regulators had proposed new guidelines for writing risky loans. These were internal administrative rules; had they been enacted, the worst of the housing and credit crisis might have been avoided. The Bush administration backed away from proposed crackdowns on the subprime, no-money down, interest-only mortgages that were critical contributors to the credit and housing crisis
There's a military description of the mortgage mess that begins with the adjective "cluster" and ends with an AngloSaxon crudity.
Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute and Charles Calomiris of the Columbia Business School suggest $1 trillion of this debt was subprime and "liar loans," almost all bought between 2005 and 2007. This bulk-up in risky paper made it possible for banks to lend imprudently on a massive scale.
That $1 trillion is about 20% of the Fan/Fred portfolio.
The pieces keep falling into place, and Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide will eventually take his (well-earned) place next to Mr. Madoff as one of the US' greatest flim-flam men.
UPDATE:
Ritholtz provides more info, not all friendly to Rove's editorial. Since I have no particular love for ANY of the players in this mess, I'll run R's comments, too:
Fannie and Freddie were cogs in the giant mortgage machine, but they had nothing to do with the abdication of lending standards from 2002-07. That was a function of the Lend-to-Securitize business model of the sub-prime mortgage originators. THAT was the primary cause of the housing boom and bust, along with Ultra-low rates and a lack of Fed regulation of these sub-prime lenders
Rove somehow fails to note the GOP controlled Congress from 1994-2006, including the first 6 years of the Bush Presidency. If the President wanted to rein in the GSEs, he needed only make it a major priority, and not a footnote in the 2001 budget.
GSEs bought $ trillion of subprime debt and “liar loans,” [says Rove], but Facts are correct, conclusion is wrong. By 2005, the die was set. The GSEs were very late to the party, buying sub-prime at the top of the market
OMISSION: Bush thwarted attempts to make lenders behave responsibly: Gee, somehow Mr. Rove forgot this one. Bank regulators had proposed new guidelines for writing risky loans. These were internal administrative rules; had they been enacted, the worst of the housing and credit crisis might have been avoided. The Bush administration backed away from proposed crackdowns on the subprime, no-money down, interest-only mortgages that were critical contributors to the credit and housing crisis
There's a military description of the mortgage mess that begins with the adjective "cluster" and ends with an AngloSaxon crudity.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Heinemann's?
No more Heinie's.
If you read the story, there's a lot that's not said.
Byron and Dorothy Heinemann founded their namesake restaurant in 1923. Heinemann's operated as many as 11 locations during its peak years.
Heinemann's is paying its employees, the statement said, but lenders will take possession of the company's assets. After the lenders are paid, the company's creditors will be paid their debts from any remaining assets.
Some pundits want to blame the 'sick time ordinance.' That doesn't wash, given the "lenders will take possession" line. The problem of the ordinance is at least 1 year away. The banks got nervous following the year-end statements of 2008.
Looks more like a profits problem, which could be related to the somewhat awful pre-packaged breads they were trying to sell. And yes, their crowd was definitely skewed "old."
If you read the story, there's a lot that's not said.
Byron and Dorothy Heinemann founded their namesake restaurant in 1923. Heinemann's operated as many as 11 locations during its peak years.
Heinemann's is paying its employees, the statement said, but lenders will take possession of the company's assets. After the lenders are paid, the company's creditors will be paid their debts from any remaining assets.
Some pundits want to blame the 'sick time ordinance.' That doesn't wash, given the "lenders will take possession" line. The problem of the ordinance is at least 1 year away. The banks got nervous following the year-end statements of 2008.
Looks more like a profits problem, which could be related to the somewhat awful pre-packaged breads they were trying to sell. And yes, their crowd was definitely skewed "old."
Problems in MadistanLand: Overture Center
Seems that the arts in Madison are having a hard time.
Overture Center's owner wants to give the $205 million arts facility to the city of Madison or another entity for $1 as part of a complex deal to secure its long-term future, a letter obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal shows.
City officials are balking about taking responsibility for the gleaming but financially strapped facility on the 200 block of State Street.
The alternative may be a bank foreclosure on the building, the letter says.
Do you s'pose that Madoff had something to do with it? From the "victims list":
Support Organization for the Madison Cultural Arts District
Wisconsin cultural organization
$18 million invested with Fairfield Greenwich until September.
A spokesman for the Overture Center in Madison, Wis., built with SOMCAD funds, said, "Speculation that SOMCAD could be on the hook is not outlandish."
Meantime, Madistan's Gummint is looking a $200million+ gift horse in the mouth. Classy!
Overture Center's owner wants to give the $205 million arts facility to the city of Madison or another entity for $1 as part of a complex deal to secure its long-term future, a letter obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal shows.
City officials are balking about taking responsibility for the gleaming but financially strapped facility on the 200 block of State Street.
The alternative may be a bank foreclosure on the building, the letter says.
Do you s'pose that Madoff had something to do with it? From the "victims list":
Support Organization for the Madison Cultural Arts District
Wisconsin cultural organization
$18 million invested with Fairfield Greenwich until September.
A spokesman for the Overture Center in Madison, Wis., built with SOMCAD funds, said, "Speculation that SOMCAD could be on the hook is not outlandish."
Meantime, Madistan's Gummint is looking a $200million+ gift horse in the mouth. Classy!
Ramos and Compean: Keep Them in Prison
There's a lot of foofoodust being spread about regarding Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.
Here's the rest of the story, from the National Review (not a lefty bunch,) quoted in a more lengthy article.
...Compean admitted to investigators early on that the smuggler had raised his hands, palms open, in an attempt to surrender. This jibed not only with Aldrete-Davila’s account but with that of another Border Patrol agent. Compean opted not to take surrender, not to place the smuggler under arrest so he could be prosecuted.
...Compean, to the contrary, tried to strike Aldrete-Davila with the butt of his shotgun. But it turns out the agent was as hapless as he was malevolent. In the assault, he succeeded only in losing his own balance. The smuggler, naturally, took off again, whereupon Compean unleashed an incompetent fuselage — missing Aldrete-Davila with all fourteen shots.
It was only after the surrender attempt that Ramos opened fire as the unarmed smuggler neared the border. Defending his decision to bring the case, U.S. attorney Sutton later explained: “Border Patrol training allows for the use of deadly force when an agent reasonably fears imminent bodily injury or death. An agent is not permitted to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.” The fact that Aldrete-Davila was a drug-dealer — something the agents may have suspected but had not yet confirmed at the time they were shooting at him — did not justify the responsive use of potentially deadly force under standard law-enforcement rules of engagement.
The red-highlighted sentence is absolutely critical to the discussion. Regardless of any other considerations, shooting someone in the back is flat-out wrong and immoral (unless it's accidental and connected to shooting at another perp who IS firing at the LEO e.g.)
HT: The Agitator
Here's the rest of the story, from the National Review (not a lefty bunch,) quoted in a more lengthy article.
...Compean admitted to investigators early on that the smuggler had raised his hands, palms open, in an attempt to surrender. This jibed not only with Aldrete-Davila’s account but with that of another Border Patrol agent. Compean opted not to take surrender, not to place the smuggler under arrest so he could be prosecuted.
...Compean, to the contrary, tried to strike Aldrete-Davila with the butt of his shotgun. But it turns out the agent was as hapless as he was malevolent. In the assault, he succeeded only in losing his own balance. The smuggler, naturally, took off again, whereupon Compean unleashed an incompetent fuselage — missing Aldrete-Davila with all fourteen shots.
It was only after the surrender attempt that Ramos opened fire as the unarmed smuggler neared the border. Defending his decision to bring the case, U.S. attorney Sutton later explained: “Border Patrol training allows for the use of deadly force when an agent reasonably fears imminent bodily injury or death. An agent is not permitted to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.” The fact that Aldrete-Davila was a drug-dealer — something the agents may have suspected but had not yet confirmed at the time they were shooting at him — did not justify the responsive use of potentially deadly force under standard law-enforcement rules of engagement.
The red-highlighted sentence is absolutely critical to the discussion. Regardless of any other considerations, shooting someone in the back is flat-out wrong and immoral (unless it's accidental and connected to shooting at another perp who IS firing at the LEO e.g.)
HT: The Agitator
Mke-Area RE Prices: Counter to National
We've mentioned that the Case-Shiller index of home prices dropped by 18% last year.
But not Milwaukee-area prices, according to this article.
Bucking the national trend during the recession and housing market collapse, home prices in the Milwaukee area increased 5.3 percent from October 2007 to October 2008 according to New York-based Radar Logic Inc.'s Monthly Housing Market Report.
Milwaukee was the only one of the nation's 25 largest metro areas to post a year over year increase in home prices, according to the report.
...Homes in the Milwaukee region sold for $116.37 per square foot during October of 2008. Milwaukee per square foot home prices ranked 15th most expensive of the largest 25 metro areas.
...The Milwaukee residential real estate market also performed well in the longer term, according to the report. The area's residential real estate prices increased 3.0 percent over a two year period, which led the top 25 metro areas, and grew 4.2 percent over a five year period, which ranked 4th in the top 25 metro areas.
....Residential real estate sales have dropped dramatically in the Milwaukee area, according to the report, down 30.7 percent in October of 2008 compared to October of 2007. That was the fourth largest decrease of the 25 largest metro areas. The biggest increases in transaction volumes occurred in the Sun Belt, including San Diego, Sacramento and Los Angeles, which have been driven by foreclosure-related sales, according to the report.
Historically, the Milwaukee metro area has seen much less high/low variance in housing prices, not least because Milwaukeeans tend to squeeze nickels very carefully.
At the same time, it is also true that Wisconsin as a whole tends to be "last in, last out" of recessions. Thus, the acid test for home prices will happen in the next 2 years.
But not Milwaukee-area prices, according to this article.
Bucking the national trend during the recession and housing market collapse, home prices in the Milwaukee area increased 5.3 percent from October 2007 to October 2008 according to New York-based Radar Logic Inc.'s Monthly Housing Market Report.
Milwaukee was the only one of the nation's 25 largest metro areas to post a year over year increase in home prices, according to the report.
...Homes in the Milwaukee region sold for $116.37 per square foot during October of 2008. Milwaukee per square foot home prices ranked 15th most expensive of the largest 25 metro areas.
...The Milwaukee residential real estate market also performed well in the longer term, according to the report. The area's residential real estate prices increased 3.0 percent over a two year period, which led the top 25 metro areas, and grew 4.2 percent over a five year period, which ranked 4th in the top 25 metro areas.
....Residential real estate sales have dropped dramatically in the Milwaukee area, according to the report, down 30.7 percent in October of 2008 compared to October of 2007. That was the fourth largest decrease of the 25 largest metro areas. The biggest increases in transaction volumes occurred in the Sun Belt, including San Diego, Sacramento and Los Angeles, which have been driven by foreclosure-related sales, according to the report.
Historically, the Milwaukee metro area has seen much less high/low variance in housing prices, not least because Milwaukeeans tend to squeeze nickels very carefully.
At the same time, it is also true that Wisconsin as a whole tends to be "last in, last out" of recessions. Thus, the acid test for home prices will happen in the next 2 years.
Infrastructure Spending Already Massive...
Those are constant 2006 dollars. What you see is a CapEx increase from $60+Bn in 1956 to $140Bn in 2006--not bad at all, folks.
The more portentious one, of course, is the top chart, which shows Ops/Maintenance increasing by 400% in the same period.
Measuring the cost of the road or dam is irrelevant without factoring in the projected cost of maintenance and operation--which is why the City of Milwaukee cannot get ahead of its pothole problem.
HT: RedState
L. Walker's Selective Reporting
I suppose that if you can't deal with all the facts, then just print the ones you like.
Here's L. Walker of the JS, commenting on the Elmbrook sex-ed situation.
A newly reported study last week from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that teens who took the virginity pledge were just as likely to engage in premarital sex as those who didn't take the pledge.
More disconcerting, they were less likely to use condoms or other precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
The findings reaffirm earlier studies that found that abstinence-only education just isn't effective, no matter how much parents hope or say it is.
Since it follows that teens will indeed engage in sex, even when they say they won't, they need to be armed with accurate and complete information about the risks and other prevention methods.
Better too much information than not enough.
Unhhhhh, yah.
Then there's Bob Rector's take:
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow on domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, questions the new study from Johns Hopkins University.
“It was really quite extraordinary that you find in this survey that kids who took this very brief exposure to virginity pledges have dramatically better life outcomes compared to kids from the same socio-economic background,” Rector told CNS News.
He said it included “dramatically lower rates of teen births, abortion rates down, teen sex down, out of wedlock births down, number of sexual partners down a third to a half compared to kids from a similar socio-economic backgrounds."
And note the adjective used in this sentence:
Other studies back up Rector's views and put the JHU study at odds with the bulk of the research on abstinence education
Another take on the same study:
The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."
The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of both the Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health. Today she serves as health editor for U.S. News & World Report. And in her dispatch on this study, Dr. Healy pointed out that "virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general -- a fact that many media reports have missed cold." (--McGurn)
Ms. Walker could take a short course in "Google," but that assumes that she actually has an interest in the children whose futures are at stake.
And she could have discovered what McGurn did--after all, it's in the Wall Street Journal. Maybe she'd have learned something.
Here's L. Walker of the JS, commenting on the Elmbrook sex-ed situation.
A newly reported study last week from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that teens who took the virginity pledge were just as likely to engage in premarital sex as those who didn't take the pledge.
More disconcerting, they were less likely to use condoms or other precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
The findings reaffirm earlier studies that found that abstinence-only education just isn't effective, no matter how much parents hope or say it is.
Since it follows that teens will indeed engage in sex, even when they say they won't, they need to be armed with accurate and complete information about the risks and other prevention methods.
Better too much information than not enough.
Unhhhhh, yah.
Then there's Bob Rector's take:
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow on domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, questions the new study from Johns Hopkins University.
“It was really quite extraordinary that you find in this survey that kids who took this very brief exposure to virginity pledges have dramatically better life outcomes compared to kids from the same socio-economic background,” Rector told CNS News.
He said it included “dramatically lower rates of teen births, abortion rates down, teen sex down, out of wedlock births down, number of sexual partners down a third to a half compared to kids from a similar socio-economic backgrounds."
And note the adjective used in this sentence:
Other studies back up Rector's views and put the JHU study at odds with the bulk of the research on abstinence education
Another take on the same study:
The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."
The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of both the Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health. Today she serves as health editor for U.S. News & World Report. And in her dispatch on this study, Dr. Healy pointed out that "virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general -- a fact that many media reports have missed cold." (--McGurn)
Ms. Walker could take a short course in "Google," but that assumes that she actually has an interest in the children whose futures are at stake.
And she could have discovered what McGurn did--after all, it's in the Wall Street Journal. Maybe she'd have learned something.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Internecine "Conservative" Wars
From an essay by Deneen, who enlightens from actual history, not the "made-up" history prevailing since 1980 or so...
...American “conservatism” became considerably anti-traditional. In occupying the abandoned space of Lockeanism, it resided with the deep anti-traditionalism that lie at the heart of Locke’s philosophy. “Traditionalism” is, of course, almost as meaningless a word in the abstract as conservatism: what it most fundamentally seeks to signal is the legitimacy of authority – lodged in “the ancestral,” practice and longstanding custom, culture, and tradition – as the basis of rule and power. That rule is represented by the paternal, the authority vested in an older generation by dint of their inheritance of tradition and their responsibility in its transmission to subsequent generations. Locke’s mostly unread First Treatise on Government is devoted to a lawyerly (and very devastating) evisceration of the theory of Patriarchy as devised by Robert Filmer; while Filmer sought to meld parental authority with a defense of Kingship (i.e., that Adam was the first King and then-contemporary Kings were Adam’s heirs), the larger game that Locke was hunting was the de-legitimation not simply of hereditary monarchy, but of all forms of traditional authority. As developed in the Second Treatise, legitimate authority could only be chosen authority. Hence, even the authority of fathers and mothers eventually gave way at the age of “nonage”: children no longer owed parents any filial piety once they reached the age of maturity, unless, that is, the children chose such piety. Locke’s overarching ambition was the dissolution of all authoritative claims based in tradition: because things had been done in some way by previous generations was no basis for its legitimacy. The only basis of legitimacy was the free choice of successive new generations. The authority of the ancestral was displaced by the authority of choice.
Burke, of course, saw that, too.
What (at least partially) redeems this decidedly anti-nomian view?
In the context of 20th-century history and philosophy it is possible to regard this position as “conservative.” Compared to communism or theories of justice that hold the possibility of ever-greater moral perfection of human beings, Locke’s view of humans as endowed with a basic and unalterable nature – self-interested individuals – at least resembles aspects of pre-modern anthropology in retaining some recognizable elements of the Fall.
"Perfectibility" underlies the political/philosophical "evolution" theory; in its far more crass manifestation, it also underlies the "global warming" hysteria. That is, the climate theorists (Gore-ites) believe that man can be 'perfected' with the result that the climate can be 'perfected.'
Laws of thermodynamics (esp. entropy) be damned!
Finally, we are here:
Growing numbers of social traditionalists (let’s not call them “conservatives,” lest we confuse the issue) are realizing that the coalition they joined was a devil’s bargain. While communism was successfully combated, market capitalism did its work undermining most of the traditions that held together communities, folkways and customs. Communities were undermined by multinationals while elite universities scoured the land for any talent that could be strip-mined from localities and turned into productive material in the international market system. If you weren’t a winner in the cosmopolitan, meritocratic sweepstakes then you deserved some kind of welfare and re-education; the norm of success was defined by one’s distance from traditions and culture
It's true that Deneen paints with a broad brush; there is a wealth of nuance that he avoids for the sake of the essay form.
But he's right.
...American “conservatism” became considerably anti-traditional. In occupying the abandoned space of Lockeanism, it resided with the deep anti-traditionalism that lie at the heart of Locke’s philosophy. “Traditionalism” is, of course, almost as meaningless a word in the abstract as conservatism: what it most fundamentally seeks to signal is the legitimacy of authority – lodged in “the ancestral,” practice and longstanding custom, culture, and tradition – as the basis of rule and power. That rule is represented by the paternal, the authority vested in an older generation by dint of their inheritance of tradition and their responsibility in its transmission to subsequent generations. Locke’s mostly unread First Treatise on Government is devoted to a lawyerly (and very devastating) evisceration of the theory of Patriarchy as devised by Robert Filmer; while Filmer sought to meld parental authority with a defense of Kingship (i.e., that Adam was the first King and then-contemporary Kings were Adam’s heirs), the larger game that Locke was hunting was the de-legitimation not simply of hereditary monarchy, but of all forms of traditional authority. As developed in the Second Treatise, legitimate authority could only be chosen authority. Hence, even the authority of fathers and mothers eventually gave way at the age of “nonage”: children no longer owed parents any filial piety once they reached the age of maturity, unless, that is, the children chose such piety. Locke’s overarching ambition was the dissolution of all authoritative claims based in tradition: because things had been done in some way by previous generations was no basis for its legitimacy. The only basis of legitimacy was the free choice of successive new generations. The authority of the ancestral was displaced by the authority of choice.
Burke, of course, saw that, too.
What (at least partially) redeems this decidedly anti-nomian view?
In the context of 20th-century history and philosophy it is possible to regard this position as “conservative.” Compared to communism or theories of justice that hold the possibility of ever-greater moral perfection of human beings, Locke’s view of humans as endowed with a basic and unalterable nature – self-interested individuals – at least resembles aspects of pre-modern anthropology in retaining some recognizable elements of the Fall.
"Perfectibility" underlies the political/philosophical "evolution" theory; in its far more crass manifestation, it also underlies the "global warming" hysteria. That is, the climate theorists (Gore-ites) believe that man can be 'perfected' with the result that the climate can be 'perfected.'
Laws of thermodynamics (esp. entropy) be damned!
Finally, we are here:
Growing numbers of social traditionalists (let’s not call them “conservatives,” lest we confuse the issue) are realizing that the coalition they joined was a devil’s bargain. While communism was successfully combated, market capitalism did its work undermining most of the traditions that held together communities, folkways and customs. Communities were undermined by multinationals while elite universities scoured the land for any talent that could be strip-mined from localities and turned into productive material in the international market system. If you weren’t a winner in the cosmopolitan, meritocratic sweepstakes then you deserved some kind of welfare and re-education; the norm of success was defined by one’s distance from traditions and culture
It's true that Deneen paints with a broad brush; there is a wealth of nuance that he avoids for the sake of the essay form.
But he's right.
Natural Law
Briefest (accurate) description, from Roeser's memory bank:
“That is the notion of natural law, gentlemen-knowable to the intellect, higher than the state, higher than a people. ...It is a pagan doctrine postulated by the Greek Aristotle and the pagan Roman Cicero. They believed the same and said the same. Cicero the pagan Roman became the channel which, beginning with Aristotle, churned the flow of natural law from Greeks to early Christians and on from there to Augustine and Aquinas
Useful for discussions with those who think homosexual marriage is merely a matter of positivism.
“That is the notion of natural law, gentlemen-knowable to the intellect, higher than the state, higher than a people. ...It is a pagan doctrine postulated by the Greek Aristotle and the pagan Roman Cicero. They believed the same and said the same. Cicero the pagan Roman became the channel which, beginning with Aristotle, churned the flow of natural law from Greeks to early Christians and on from there to Augustine and Aquinas
Useful for discussions with those who think homosexual marriage is merely a matter of positivism.
Valkyrie--A Good Review
Doino likes it--and thinks that Tom Cruise did a good job (!)
...On its own terms, its an engrossing thriller—far better than the usual Hollywood fare. Moreover, apart from its artistic and entertainment value, the film has educational and moral elements, and—gratefully—avoids political correctness. Certain academics have an “unappealing habit” of dismissing the 20 July plotters as reactionaries, “while earnestly extolling the self-sacrifices of the underprivileged Communists,” to quote historian Michael Burleigh. But there are no heroic Communists in Valkyrie, and shouldn’t be: most Communists opposed to Hitler, after all, were Stalinists, who simply wanted to replace one murderous dictatorship with another. The honorable Resistance, in contrast—ranging from social democrats to conservative aristocrats—were fighting to rescue and preserve Western civilization.
Von Stauffenberg was a Catholic, and opposed the Holocaust (although the film doesn't mention that, and really doesn't get into character development.)
Peter Hoffmann, the leading authority on the German Resistance, and Stauffenberg’s biographer, has praised the new film for its historical accuracy (ranking it higher than an acclaimed 2004 German production); and at least one member of the family, who had initially expressed apprehension about the project, has praised it as well: Stauffenberg’s daughter, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg—the same child who was in her mother’s womb at the time of Operation Valkyrie—was at the New York premiere, and announced the film “a success.”
If so, Cruise deserves much of the credit, for without his interest and backing, Valkyrie may never have been made, let alone received international exposure. In a recent interview the star admitted that he had “no idea,” until recently, about the German Resistance, and regretted that most people in the world have never even heard of Stauffenberg. Thankfully, as a result of this film, that will no longer be true. The Good Germans, at last, have finally gotten their due
Yes, there were such folks---a LOT of them.
...On its own terms, its an engrossing thriller—far better than the usual Hollywood fare. Moreover, apart from its artistic and entertainment value, the film has educational and moral elements, and—gratefully—avoids political correctness. Certain academics have an “unappealing habit” of dismissing the 20 July plotters as reactionaries, “while earnestly extolling the self-sacrifices of the underprivileged Communists,” to quote historian Michael Burleigh. But there are no heroic Communists in Valkyrie, and shouldn’t be: most Communists opposed to Hitler, after all, were Stalinists, who simply wanted to replace one murderous dictatorship with another. The honorable Resistance, in contrast—ranging from social democrats to conservative aristocrats—were fighting to rescue and preserve Western civilization.
Von Stauffenberg was a Catholic, and opposed the Holocaust (although the film doesn't mention that, and really doesn't get into character development.)
Peter Hoffmann, the leading authority on the German Resistance, and Stauffenberg’s biographer, has praised the new film for its historical accuracy (ranking it higher than an acclaimed 2004 German production); and at least one member of the family, who had initially expressed apprehension about the project, has praised it as well: Stauffenberg’s daughter, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg—the same child who was in her mother’s womb at the time of Operation Valkyrie—was at the New York premiere, and announced the film “a success.”
If so, Cruise deserves much of the credit, for without his interest and backing, Valkyrie may never have been made, let alone received international exposure. In a recent interview the star admitted that he had “no idea,” until recently, about the German Resistance, and regretted that most people in the world have never even heard of Stauffenberg. Thankfully, as a result of this film, that will no longer be true. The Good Germans, at last, have finally gotten their due
Yes, there were such folks---a LOT of them.
Truth to Power: Cdl. Biffi
A few excerpts from a book by Cardinal Biffi (retired) which will stir up a few of the usual suspects...
Sometimes, in some areas of the Catholic world, people even come to the point of thinking that divine Revelation must adapt itself to the current mentality in order to be credible, instead of the current mentality converting in the light that comes to us from on high. And yet one must reflect on the fact that it is ‘conversion’, and not ‘adaptation’, that is the evangelical term.
As to whether Christ might have been disciplined by his mother here on earth:
...As paradoxical as this statement may seem, the Arian question is always the order of the day in ecclesial life. The pretexts can be many: from the desire to feel that Christ is closer and is more one of us, to the proposal of making it easier to understand him by exalting almost exclusively his social and humanitarian aspects. In the end, the result is always that of stripping the Redeemer of man of his radical uniqueness, and classifying him as someone who can be managed and domesticated. In this regard, it could be said that the Council of Nicaea is much more relevant today than Vatican Council II.
And as to homosexual "marriage," and the proponents of normalization of homosex:
Regarding today’s emerging problem of homosexuality, according to the Christian conception there must be a distinction between the respect that is always due to persons, which involves the rejection of any social and political marginalization (with the exception of the unalterable nature of marriage and the family), and the necessary repudiation of any exalted ideology of homosexuality.The word of God – as we know it in a page of the letter to the Romans by the apostle Paul – even offers us a theological interpretation of the phenomenon of the rampant ideological and cultural aberration in this area: this aberration, it is affirmed, is at the same time the proof and the result of the exclusion of God from collective attention and social life, and of the refusal to give him due praise.
The exclusion of the Creator leads to the complete derailment of reason
...In fact, Saint Paul is careful to observe that extreme abjection occurs when “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).
Reading through the lengthy post, one also discovers that Biffi loved John XXIII, but looked askance at his teaching abilities, too.
Sometimes, in some areas of the Catholic world, people even come to the point of thinking that divine Revelation must adapt itself to the current mentality in order to be credible, instead of the current mentality converting in the light that comes to us from on high. And yet one must reflect on the fact that it is ‘conversion’, and not ‘adaptation’, that is the evangelical term.
As to whether Christ might have been disciplined by his mother here on earth:
...As paradoxical as this statement may seem, the Arian question is always the order of the day in ecclesial life. The pretexts can be many: from the desire to feel that Christ is closer and is more one of us, to the proposal of making it easier to understand him by exalting almost exclusively his social and humanitarian aspects. In the end, the result is always that of stripping the Redeemer of man of his radical uniqueness, and classifying him as someone who can be managed and domesticated. In this regard, it could be said that the Council of Nicaea is much more relevant today than Vatican Council II.
And as to homosexual "marriage," and the proponents of normalization of homosex:
Regarding today’s emerging problem of homosexuality, according to the Christian conception there must be a distinction between the respect that is always due to persons, which involves the rejection of any social and political marginalization (with the exception of the unalterable nature of marriage and the family), and the necessary repudiation of any exalted ideology of homosexuality.The word of God – as we know it in a page of the letter to the Romans by the apostle Paul – even offers us a theological interpretation of the phenomenon of the rampant ideological and cultural aberration in this area: this aberration, it is affirmed, is at the same time the proof and the result of the exclusion of God from collective attention and social life, and of the refusal to give him due praise.
The exclusion of the Creator leads to the complete derailment of reason
...In fact, Saint Paul is careful to observe that extreme abjection occurs when “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).
Reading through the lengthy post, one also discovers that Biffi loved John XXIII, but looked askance at his teaching abilities, too.
State Retirees Doing Just Fine, Thank You!
Bruce Murphy, no stranger to pension plans, shines a light into the darkness.
...Wisconsin’s massive retirement fund – the 10th-largest public fund in the country – has performed marvelously (averaging an annual return of 7.8 percent) and has regularly increased payments to retirees at a rate faster than inflation. Most retirees (79 percent) are in the “Core Fund,” which guarantees the payments they get will never go below the amount promised when they retire. In addition, this fund provides “dividends” to retirees based on the market returns of the investment and smoothed out over five years. From 1982 (when the pension system was created) through 2007, the dividends boosted annual payments to retirees by an incredible 370 percent, when you multiply the annual increases contained in state figures over this period of time. This compares to the increase in inflation of 112 percent over this time. (Depending on what year someone retired during this period, they may have done less well or better in their return than the cumulative increase over this 25 year period.)
Few, if any, states make such generous adjustments
There are actually two different fund options, but the other one (variable) is almost as generous as the "core" fund. And no State retiree is allowed to place more than half of their pension funding into the "variable" fund, anyway.
...Wisconsin’s massive retirement fund – the 10th-largest public fund in the country – has performed marvelously (averaging an annual return of 7.8 percent) and has regularly increased payments to retirees at a rate faster than inflation. Most retirees (79 percent) are in the “Core Fund,” which guarantees the payments they get will never go below the amount promised when they retire. In addition, this fund provides “dividends” to retirees based on the market returns of the investment and smoothed out over five years. From 1982 (when the pension system was created) through 2007, the dividends boosted annual payments to retirees by an incredible 370 percent, when you multiply the annual increases contained in state figures over this period of time. This compares to the increase in inflation of 112 percent over this time. (Depending on what year someone retired during this period, they may have done less well or better in their return than the cumulative increase over this 25 year period.)
Few, if any, states make such generous adjustments
There are actually two different fund options, but the other one (variable) is almost as generous as the "core" fund. And no State retiree is allowed to place more than half of their pension funding into the "variable" fund, anyway.
UW-Mad: You Are Warned!
Evidently the UW Madison has a new plan for dismembering babies.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Tuesday, asking that the institution refrain from implementing its secret and potentially illegal plans to perform second-trimester abortions in a jointly-operated clinic. The plan would likely compel unwilling employees to aid or participate in dismembering preborn babies, which would violate their religious conscience rights and may constitute an unlawful state funding of abortion
....ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman [said] “Pro-life employees shouldn’t be forced to violate their conscience by participating in the killing of preborn, developed babies. The university’s plan is morally and legally flawed and should be abandoned.”
It's a supply/demand thing:
University of Wisconsin medical residents are expected to train and take part in the killing of the second-trimester babies. In recent years, UWHC researchers have experimented on almost fully-formed body parts obtained from second-trimester abortions performed nearby, and now all of those abortions would be performed in UWHC’s joint venture
...and what's this about "residents are expected to train/take part in...??
That's potentially illegal, is what it is...
Source: ADF Email.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Tuesday, asking that the institution refrain from implementing its secret and potentially illegal plans to perform second-trimester abortions in a jointly-operated clinic. The plan would likely compel unwilling employees to aid or participate in dismembering preborn babies, which would violate their religious conscience rights and may constitute an unlawful state funding of abortion
....ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman [said] “Pro-life employees shouldn’t be forced to violate their conscience by participating in the killing of preborn, developed babies. The university’s plan is morally and legally flawed and should be abandoned.”
It's a supply/demand thing:
University of Wisconsin medical residents are expected to train and take part in the killing of the second-trimester babies. In recent years, UWHC researchers have experimented on almost fully-formed body parts obtained from second-trimester abortions performed nearby, and now all of those abortions would be performed in UWHC’s joint venture
...and what's this about "residents are expected to train/take part in...??
That's potentially illegal, is what it is...
Source: ADF Email.
ACORN in the News: Guess Why!
Ah, you already know.
A voter registration worker with the group ACORN has been indicted on two felony counts of voter registration fraud.
Deidra Humphrey, 44, of East St. Louis, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis this week after a grand jury indicted her on the charges Dec. 31, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Humphrey is accused of submitting forged and false voter registration cards for the Nov. 8 general election — including forging cards for nursing home residents — U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Monday.
One of the three plays in Jim Doyle's playbook is "vote fraud." Watch those nursing homes in 2010, folks.
HT: Gateway
A voter registration worker with the group ACORN has been indicted on two felony counts of voter registration fraud.
Deidra Humphrey, 44, of East St. Louis, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis this week after a grand jury indicted her on the charges Dec. 31, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Humphrey is accused of submitting forged and false voter registration cards for the Nov. 8 general election — including forging cards for nursing home residents — U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Monday.
One of the three plays in Jim Doyle's playbook is "vote fraud." Watch those nursing homes in 2010, folks.
HT: Gateway
The Packers' Last Season
I think we've found the answer.
The health of the air in Brown County ranks among the worst in the United States, according to a recently released study of fine particle pollution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Brown County is one of 54 new counties that received a negative designation based on three successive years of being graded below the federal government's soot standards
Defense, hell!
It's the particulates.
HT: Berry Laker
The health of the air in Brown County ranks among the worst in the United States, according to a recently released study of fine particle pollution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Brown County is one of 54 new counties that received a negative designation based on three successive years of being graded below the federal government's soot standards
Defense, hell!
It's the particulates.
HT: Berry Laker
About Time to Look at Cleaning the Stable
The EPA has long been a cesspool for over-the-top crusaders whose agenda is principally anti-human. Most recently, they caused the FDA to order a stop to selling Albuterol (all that ozone-killin' goin' on, yahknow,) which is having serious effects on actual asthmatic human beings.
Now they have a new proposal:
The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said.
“Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”
Perhaps it's time for the EPA stables to be cleaned out.
Bring the pitchforks and torches, folks....
HT: Lott
Now they have a new proposal:
The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said.
“Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”
Perhaps it's time for the EPA stables to be cleaned out.
Bring the pitchforks and torches, folks....
HT: Lott
More Progress in Financial Indicators
Calculated Risk gathers these items regularly.
The three month LIBOR has decreased to 1.42%. The three-month LIBOR rate peaked (for this cycle) at 4.81875% on Oct. 10. (Good.)
The TED spread is at 1.34, sharply lower. (Also good; normally around 0.5, but improved.)
The A2P2 spread has plunged to 1.92%. This peaked at 5.86 after Thanksgiving
The two year swap spread from Bloomberg: 77.75.
Of course, all those rate and spread decreases could also signal a total lack of borrowing (or lending) which means that the 'frosting' is spread onto a very thin cake, indeed.
The three month LIBOR has decreased to 1.42%. The three-month LIBOR rate peaked (for this cycle) at 4.81875% on Oct. 10. (Good.)
The TED spread is at 1.34, sharply lower. (Also good; normally around 0.5, but improved.)
The A2P2 spread has plunged to 1.92%. This peaked at 5.86 after Thanksgiving
The two year swap spread from Bloomberg: 77.75.
Of course, all those rate and spread decreases could also signal a total lack of borrowing (or lending) which means that the 'frosting' is spread onto a very thin cake, indeed.
"Better Informed than Belling"
We've already mentioned that Belling has engendered attention deficits when he guest-hosts Limbaugh.
Now it appears that Belling has his own attention deficit:
...voters would be better served by commentary more informed than Belling’s.
That is the final line from Mike Dean's letter which explains why Belling is dead-wrong regarding Judge Koschnik's judicial philosophy.
HT: Patrick
Now it appears that Belling has his own attention deficit:
...voters would be better served by commentary more informed than Belling’s.
That is the final line from Mike Dean's letter which explains why Belling is dead-wrong regarding Judge Koschnik's judicial philosophy.
HT: Patrick
Monday, January 05, 2009
The REAL Democratic Way
Cadged from AB:
Reforms to the House Rules as part of the Contract with America were designed to open up to public scrutiny what had become under this decades-long Democrat majority a dangerously secretive House legislative process. The Republican reform of the way the House did business included opening committee meetings to the public and media, making Congress actually subject to federal law, term limits for committee chairmen ending decades-long committee fiefdoms, truth in budgeting, elimination of the committee proxy vote, authorization of a House audit, specific requirements for blanket rules waivers, and guarantees to the then-Democrat minority party to offer amendments to pieces of legislation.
Queen Nancy of the 747 will eliminate every eingle eeform of House governance listed above.
Every single one.
And you wonder why we suggest that you Buy More Ammo??
Who did that old rock song "The Bitch Is Back," anyway?
Reforms to the House Rules as part of the Contract with America were designed to open up to public scrutiny what had become under this decades-long Democrat majority a dangerously secretive House legislative process. The Republican reform of the way the House did business included opening committee meetings to the public and media, making Congress actually subject to federal law, term limits for committee chairmen ending decades-long committee fiefdoms, truth in budgeting, elimination of the committee proxy vote, authorization of a House audit, specific requirements for blanket rules waivers, and guarantees to the then-Democrat minority party to offer amendments to pieces of legislation.
Queen Nancy of the 747 will eliminate every eingle eeform of House governance listed above.
Every single one.
And you wonder why we suggest that you Buy More Ammo??
Who did that old rock song "The Bitch Is Back," anyway?
Bp. Vigneron Returns to Motor City
Interesting turn.
Mgr. Vigneron was the much-celebrated Rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and was appointed to Oakland, CA. as the Archbishop.
Now he will return to Detroit.
A friend and very astute Church musician served as the music-guy at Sacred Heart during Vigneron's time as Rector (training the seminarians in CHANT and sacred music principles, as well as handling music requirements for the Seminary) and was extremely enthused over Mgr. Vigneron's orthodoxy and understanding of music in the Liturgy.
The Midwest is strengthened!
Mgr. Vigneron was the much-celebrated Rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and was appointed to Oakland, CA. as the Archbishop.
Now he will return to Detroit.
A friend and very astute Church musician served as the music-guy at Sacred Heart during Vigneron's time as Rector (training the seminarians in CHANT and sacred music principles, as well as handling music requirements for the Seminary) and was extremely enthused over Mgr. Vigneron's orthodoxy and understanding of music in the Liturgy.
The Midwest is strengthened!
Managing the Press: The O's Method
Roeser digs out an interesting item while interviewing Lynn Sweet, a journalist and Democrat activist/player from Chicago.
Yesterday Marin revealed [Chicago Tribune] that in Obama’s news conferences in this city, many reporters don’t ask questions-because the procedure has been for the Obama-ites to cherry pick the questioners…and a list is picked early of the reporters who will be allowed to ask the Messiah questions. Marin indicated that increasingly there is too much reportorial deferentiality. Sweet denied this, saying that’s the way it always is. Oh really? Doesn’t this come close to management of the news? Since the Obama people know who’ll ask the questions, isn’t it a short jump to assume they know what the questions will be…so as to prepare the Great Swami for the correct answers? The stonewalling by Sweet was surprising because she has been in the forefront of pushing the Obama people to be more transparent.
As always, Roeser is worth the read.
Yesterday Marin revealed [Chicago Tribune] that in Obama’s news conferences in this city, many reporters don’t ask questions-because the procedure has been for the Obama-ites to cherry pick the questioners…and a list is picked early of the reporters who will be allowed to ask the Messiah questions. Marin indicated that increasingly there is too much reportorial deferentiality. Sweet denied this, saying that’s the way it always is. Oh really? Doesn’t this come close to management of the news? Since the Obama people know who’ll ask the questions, isn’t it a short jump to assume they know what the questions will be…so as to prepare the Great Swami for the correct answers? The stonewalling by Sweet was surprising because she has been in the forefront of pushing the Obama people to be more transparent.
As always, Roeser is worth the read.
Archdiocesan Planning: The Real Problem
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has all sorts of planning going on--mostly concerned with how to manage the large decrease in native-born (USA) Catholics who have remained in the Church.
Yes, I said "decrease." This is an analysis of the Pew Study released last year, written by Fr. Jos. Sirba (excerpted).
...Massive losses among native-born Catholics have not only been significant but staggering, so much so that those who conducted the survey wrote in their analysis, “Catholicism has lost more people to other religions or to no religion at all than any other single religious group.” It should be noted that this statement is true both in terms of absolute numbers as well as in terms of percentage of the U.S. population. However, it is not true when figured as a percentage of the Catholic population alone. Figured that way, Catholic losses as a percentage of the Catholic population were 24 percent, behind only Methodists, whose losses stood at 25 percent. By way of comparison, Presbyterian losses were at 21 percent, Baptists were 18 percent, and Lutherans and Episcopalians were each 16 percent. On the other hand, nondenominational Protestants grew a whopping 200 percent, the percentage of unaffiliated grew 120 percent and Pentecostals grew 12 percent.
10.1 percent of the adult population in the United States now consists of people who have left the Catholic Church for another religion or for no religion. To put it another way, one out of every ten people in the United States (or 22,725,000) is an ex-Catholic. It should be noted here that these are not non-practicing Catholics who, when asked about their religion, would identify themselves as Catholic. Rather, these are individuals who were baptized and raised Catholic but who no longer identify themselves as Catholic.
The author suggests that the root of the problem is what we mentioned below.
Saint Paul said, “If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?” (1Cor. 14:8) Clearly, for those Catholics of the baby-boom generation, uncertain notes were the only ones being played...our problem has been dissent tolerated by weak leaders, which in turn has led to confusion as to what we as Catholics believe and how we should live.
...the survey results reveal that the faith is weakest among the young. We must act immediately to reverse this trend before we loose the better part of yet another generation. Consequently, our parish religious education programs must be reformed
...We should reconsider what role Catholic schools should play in the twenty-first century and where we can get the greatest bang for our buck. Perhaps parish funds could be better spent on well-designed religious education programs or by supporting online schools that don’t require expensive infrastructure
As the author admits, the Church will never retain all its baptized members. Never. But the Church could do a bit more, to say the least.
Maybe this will be plugged into the Plan?
In fairness, "nondenominational Christian" churches have grown partly because of the Church's teachings on matters.....ahhhhh......beneath the belt-line. IOW, a lot of them disagree about the nature and purpose of sex, and/or prefer a new wife/husband to the older model without all that moral fuss.
The first group has bought the teachings of Woodstock, more or less. The second? Who knows?
By complete coincidence, this appears in another blogspot today:
...a few years back, as the 'Curly Red-haired Girl' known as my wife, with the help of the Blessed Mother, dragged me closer and closer to a real relationship with Christ and His Church, she got a gift that sealed the deal. We were blessed with a priest that was put in our lives that did more to change me than he would ever probably realize. I was privileged to see a truly brave man, unflinchingly, yet charitably speak on such matters as abortion, gay marriage, contraception and premarital sex, to a liberal Catholic audience that was in no way ready to hear his message. He got a hard time for some of his homilies. The Cassock he wore made some role their eyes as it did not resemble the 'Mister Rogers' look they'd grown more accustomed to.
But anyone with a real set of eyes saw something that I view as what is hopefully the new norm of the Catholic Church. Courage.
It was this type of priest that provided the final tug back into the Church that my sorry behind needed so badly. God knew what I needed to get me fully on board with my faith. While people like cops and firemen and Marines will always be "Top Shelf" in my order of manly respect, there is now a mantle placed above this shelf. It is a mantle set aside for those with the courage to answer Gods calling to be a priest. Priests that are true to the Magisterium and to Gods teachings.
Corragio!! In season, out of season...
Yes, I said "decrease." This is an analysis of the Pew Study released last year, written by Fr. Jos. Sirba (excerpted).
...Massive losses among native-born Catholics have not only been significant but staggering, so much so that those who conducted the survey wrote in their analysis, “Catholicism has lost more people to other religions or to no religion at all than any other single religious group.” It should be noted that this statement is true both in terms of absolute numbers as well as in terms of percentage of the U.S. population. However, it is not true when figured as a percentage of the Catholic population alone. Figured that way, Catholic losses as a percentage of the Catholic population were 24 percent, behind only Methodists, whose losses stood at 25 percent. By way of comparison, Presbyterian losses were at 21 percent, Baptists were 18 percent, and Lutherans and Episcopalians were each 16 percent. On the other hand, nondenominational Protestants grew a whopping 200 percent, the percentage of unaffiliated grew 120 percent and Pentecostals grew 12 percent.
10.1 percent of the adult population in the United States now consists of people who have left the Catholic Church for another religion or for no religion. To put it another way, one out of every ten people in the United States (or 22,725,000) is an ex-Catholic. It should be noted here that these are not non-practicing Catholics who, when asked about their religion, would identify themselves as Catholic. Rather, these are individuals who were baptized and raised Catholic but who no longer identify themselves as Catholic.
The author suggests that the root of the problem is what we mentioned below.
Saint Paul said, “If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?” (1Cor. 14:8) Clearly, for those Catholics of the baby-boom generation, uncertain notes were the only ones being played...our problem has been dissent tolerated by weak leaders, which in turn has led to confusion as to what we as Catholics believe and how we should live.
...the survey results reveal that the faith is weakest among the young. We must act immediately to reverse this trend before we loose the better part of yet another generation. Consequently, our parish religious education programs must be reformed
...We should reconsider what role Catholic schools should play in the twenty-first century and where we can get the greatest bang for our buck. Perhaps parish funds could be better spent on well-designed religious education programs or by supporting online schools that don’t require expensive infrastructure
As the author admits, the Church will never retain all its baptized members. Never. But the Church could do a bit more, to say the least.
Maybe this will be plugged into the Plan?
In fairness, "nondenominational Christian" churches have grown partly because of the Church's teachings on matters.....ahhhhh......beneath the belt-line. IOW, a lot of them disagree about the nature and purpose of sex, and/or prefer a new wife/husband to the older model without all that moral fuss.
The first group has bought the teachings of Woodstock, more or less. The second? Who knows?
By complete coincidence, this appears in another blogspot today:
...a few years back, as the 'Curly Red-haired Girl' known as my wife, with the help of the Blessed Mother, dragged me closer and closer to a real relationship with Christ and His Church, she got a gift that sealed the deal. We were blessed with a priest that was put in our lives that did more to change me than he would ever probably realize. I was privileged to see a truly brave man, unflinchingly, yet charitably speak on such matters as abortion, gay marriage, contraception and premarital sex, to a liberal Catholic audience that was in no way ready to hear his message. He got a hard time for some of his homilies. The Cassock he wore made some role their eyes as it did not resemble the 'Mister Rogers' look they'd grown more accustomed to.
But anyone with a real set of eyes saw something that I view as what is hopefully the new norm of the Catholic Church. Courage.
It was this type of priest that provided the final tug back into the Church that my sorry behind needed so badly. God knew what I needed to get me fully on board with my faith. While people like cops and firemen and Marines will always be "Top Shelf" in my order of manly respect, there is now a mantle placed above this shelf. It is a mantle set aside for those with the courage to answer Gods calling to be a priest. Priests that are true to the Magisterium and to Gods teachings.
Corragio!! In season, out of season...
Teaching the Yout' About Catholicism
This item came up a couple of days ago.
If the church wants to reach young people today, it must avoid the temptation to "fudge" on core Catholic beliefs in an effort to make them more agreeable to contemporary tastes, a Vatican official said.
Instead, it should confront with courage the major barriers in modern evangelization, including cultural resistance to the proclamation of Christ as the unique savior, said Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"No one in his or her right mind will be interested in a faith about which its exponents seem too embarrassed to communicate forthrightly," Father DiNoia said.
"We have to be convinced that the fullness of the truth and beauty of the message about Jesus Christ is powerfully attractive when it is communicated without apologies or compromise," he said.
So happens that a close friend of mine has quite a bit of experience in Catholic yout' education, and it is her opinion that the Diocese of Green Bay's program is far superior to anything offered in Milwaukee.
From observation, that friend tells me that Milwaukee programs tend to avoid actual catechetics in favor of interpretives and 'feely' stuff--which is the same observation, more or less, that Terry Berres has made from his trench in Milwaukee, too.
Perhaps Bp. Callahan will see the need and remedy this...
If the church wants to reach young people today, it must avoid the temptation to "fudge" on core Catholic beliefs in an effort to make them more agreeable to contemporary tastes, a Vatican official said.
Instead, it should confront with courage the major barriers in modern evangelization, including cultural resistance to the proclamation of Christ as the unique savior, said Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"No one in his or her right mind will be interested in a faith about which its exponents seem too embarrassed to communicate forthrightly," Father DiNoia said.
"We have to be convinced that the fullness of the truth and beauty of the message about Jesus Christ is powerfully attractive when it is communicated without apologies or compromise," he said.
So happens that a close friend of mine has quite a bit of experience in Catholic yout' education, and it is her opinion that the Diocese of Green Bay's program is far superior to anything offered in Milwaukee.
From observation, that friend tells me that Milwaukee programs tend to avoid actual catechetics in favor of interpretives and 'feely' stuff--which is the same observation, more or less, that Terry Berres has made from his trench in Milwaukee, too.
Perhaps Bp. Callahan will see the need and remedy this...
The Economists Take a Beating
Two different bloggers slam the Economists this morning. Here's Ritholtz:
Why did Economists, as a group, miss the warning signs of housing, credit and market crisis?
...several professional Economists got it right; Academics like Nouriel Roubini of NYU and Robert Shiller of Yale, as well as a few Wall Streeters, such as David Rosenberg of Merrill Lynch and Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust. Too many bloggers to name also got it right. Meanwhile, the vast majority of professional economists, strategists and analysts — the “Herd” — totally missed it.
BigPic has a list of reasons, all of which are.....reasonable.
Here's VoxDay, in the midst of a critique of "Free Trade" theory:
...it is becoming ever more clear that the foundational assumptions of economics, based as they are on the concept of a rational homo economicus, are incorrect. An increasing number of studies are showing that the basic model of man as a rational consumer capable of reliably acting in accordance with his objectively calculated economic benefit is not only the gross oversimplification that it was always known to be, but may in fact be altogether incorrect. This is significant, because if the foundations of the theories upon which the huge and complex macroeconomic models are constructed are flawed, those models are rendered effectively useless.
Ritholtz mentions the 'error of homo economicus' as number 6 in his list.
The presumption of rational behavior is erroneous, indeed.
Why did Economists, as a group, miss the warning signs of housing, credit and market crisis?
...several professional Economists got it right; Academics like Nouriel Roubini of NYU and Robert Shiller of Yale, as well as a few Wall Streeters, such as David Rosenberg of Merrill Lynch and Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust. Too many bloggers to name also got it right. Meanwhile, the vast majority of professional economists, strategists and analysts — the “Herd” — totally missed it.
BigPic has a list of reasons, all of which are.....reasonable.
Here's VoxDay, in the midst of a critique of "Free Trade" theory:
...it is becoming ever more clear that the foundational assumptions of economics, based as they are on the concept of a rational homo economicus, are incorrect. An increasing number of studies are showing that the basic model of man as a rational consumer capable of reliably acting in accordance with his objectively calculated economic benefit is not only the gross oversimplification that it was always known to be, but may in fact be altogether incorrect. This is significant, because if the foundations of the theories upon which the huge and complex macroeconomic models are constructed are flawed, those models are rendered effectively useless.
Ritholtz mentions the 'error of homo economicus' as number 6 in his list.
The presumption of rational behavior is erroneous, indeed.
Richardson Story Old (If You Read REAL News)
For some, the Richardson pay-for-play story is NEWS!!
We caught it on December 15th, from Ace, who picked it up at NRO, who got it from Bloomberg.
Where was the MSM?
Who cares??
We caught it on December 15th, from Ace, who picked it up at NRO, who got it from Bloomberg.
Where was the MSM?
Who cares??
Sunday, January 04, 2009
The MSM Missed a Few (Dozen) Stories
There's a teapot-sized tempest over 'whether bloggers actually provide reporting.'
Malkin stomped on the dustup with a major-league boot.
As Mark Steyn said Friday afternoon: the US newspapers are almost incomprehensible and they are the most boring newspapers in the English-speaking world.
Want to know why? Then look at the list of news-items the MSM did NOT originate in the last 12 months:
...an exclusive on William Jefferson’s bribery charges to several posts investigating the 9th Circuit Justice Alex Kozinski online obscenity controversy (Patterico), ...Maloney’s story on KGO nut Charles Karel Bouley threatening Joe The Plumber; financial turmoil at Citadel Radio; (Radio Equalizer) ...Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed scooped the national media on the comedian’s tax troubles ...Charles Johnson once exposed fauxtography in the form of a Photoshopped Iranian missile launch disseminated by the Agence France Press (Little Green Footballs) ....Veteran investigative reporter Ken Timmerman did yeomen’s work on Barack Obama’s credit card donation fraud (NewsMax) ...Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek published numerous investigative reports on Obama’s abortion extremism in the Illinois legislature
There's plenty more at the link.
When Pimentel finishes wetting his pants over Doylie's predicable "victory over spending" in the Wisconsin budget, maybe he'll assign a few reporters to dig up the waste, fraud, and abuse in that very budget.
And maybe not.
Malkin stomped on the dustup with a major-league boot.
As Mark Steyn said Friday afternoon: the US newspapers are almost incomprehensible and they are the most boring newspapers in the English-speaking world.
Want to know why? Then look at the list of news-items the MSM did NOT originate in the last 12 months:
...an exclusive on William Jefferson’s bribery charges to several posts investigating the 9th Circuit Justice Alex Kozinski online obscenity controversy (Patterico), ...Maloney’s story on KGO nut Charles Karel Bouley threatening Joe The Plumber; financial turmoil at Citadel Radio; (Radio Equalizer) ...Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed scooped the national media on the comedian’s tax troubles ...Charles Johnson once exposed fauxtography in the form of a Photoshopped Iranian missile launch disseminated by the Agence France Press (Little Green Footballs) ....Veteran investigative reporter Ken Timmerman did yeomen’s work on Barack Obama’s credit card donation fraud (NewsMax) ...Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek published numerous investigative reports on Obama’s abortion extremism in the Illinois legislature
There's plenty more at the link.
When Pimentel finishes wetting his pants over Doylie's predicable "victory over spending" in the Wisconsin budget, maybe he'll assign a few reporters to dig up the waste, fraud, and abuse in that very budget.
And maybe not.
ID to Fly? Not If You're an Illegal
A seven-minute local news story (Las Vegas)!!
(Evidently reporters actually report on Government stupidity in Vegas.)
Federal Air Marshals are concerned that illegals fly out of Vegas regularly without proper identification.
You're taking off your shoes, allowing your luggage to be rifled, and maintaining sheep-like stances in lines?
You must be a US citizen!
Suckah!!
By the way, it's not the Mexicans the Air Marshals worry about. It's the Middle Easterners.
As you might expect, Homeland Security doesn't give a rip...
HT: Moonbattery
(Evidently reporters actually report on Government stupidity in Vegas.)
Federal Air Marshals are concerned that illegals fly out of Vegas regularly without proper identification.
You're taking off your shoes, allowing your luggage to be rifled, and maintaining sheep-like stances in lines?
You must be a US citizen!
Suckah!!
By the way, it's not the Mexicans the Air Marshals worry about. It's the Middle Easterners.
As you might expect, Homeland Security doesn't give a rip...
HT: Moonbattery
Modest Proposal, Indeed
P-Mac visited with an economist, who had a modest proposal for Wisconsin's next legislative session:
"Become the first northern right-to-work state and you'll clean up."
Ned Hill of Cleveland State made the suggestion; McIlheran repeats it because automobile-building is a huge economic boost.
The State of Wisconsin still has a 'manufacturing' tradition and mindset--not to mention a very strong base of metalbending companies and machinery-makers. Although the State lost a large number of manufacturing jobs since 1990 or so, by no means are we a "service" State.
It's worth a try.
"Become the first northern right-to-work state and you'll clean up."
Ned Hill of Cleveland State made the suggestion; McIlheran repeats it because automobile-building is a huge economic boost.
The State of Wisconsin still has a 'manufacturing' tradition and mindset--not to mention a very strong base of metalbending companies and machinery-makers. Although the State lost a large number of manufacturing jobs since 1990 or so, by no means are we a "service" State.
It's worth a try.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Naked Henry Paulson: Not Very Pretty
Market Ticker finds a real lulu from Henry Paulson, who is now competing with the former FEMA Director for "Jackass of the Decade".
“Excesses . . . built up for a long time, [with] investors looking for yield, mis-pricing risk,” he said. “It could take different forms. For some of the European banks it was eastern Europe. Spain and the UK were much more like the US with housing being the biggest bubble. With Japan it may be banks continuing to invest in equities.”
This argument – already advanced by a number of economists and largely endorsed by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke – suggests that the roots of the crisis do not simply lie in failures within the financial system."
--quoth Henry. (At this point it is useful to recall that Henry is from Chicago. "FIB" applies.)
Ticker has a memory.
Investors mis-priced risk?
Or did you mis-price risk Henry? Perhaps on purpose?
Why would your company, for example, short something it was selling to investors unless it thought it was overpriced? (This would be Goldman, Sachs...)
Now there's nothing wrong with shorting a stock or bond, of course. Its the expression of an opinion that the price is too high. You believe it will decline in value, so you short it.
Except for one problem - in this case you were one peddling the stuff you were shorting!
So on the one hand we have you telling your customers that this is "Grade AAA mortgage paper", and on the other hand your firm was shorting that very same paper, implying rather strongly that you thought your customers were paying too much for it.
The "Press" in the room nodded, and resumed scarfing up the free noshes...
Now let's talk about what else happened Mr. Paulson.
In 2000 you do recall that you went to the SEC and Congress to request that the leverage limits that bound Goldman Sachs (your company) and the other investment banks be removed, right?
You also remember that in 2004, following that failed attempt, you tried again, and this time your request was granted, right?
You do recall that every one of the failed firms - Lehman, Bear, Fannie, Freddie and AIG - all had leverage more than double that of the previous limits when they blew up, right?
The FIB also had other wisdom to impart!
May 2007: "We think it is near the bottom. It will take a while to work its way through (the system). Fortunately for us, we have a very diverse, healthy economy. ..... housing will be contained......
March 2008: "The worst is likely to be behind us." (In reference to Bear Stearns going under.)
Not only wisdom, but you had ACTIONS!!
September 15th 2008: You congratulated yourself (and Treasury) for not rescuing Lehman - but the very next day you committed the taxpayer to an eighty five billion dollars rescue for AIG, and less than 72 hours after that you threatened martial law and a total collapse of the entire financial system if you were not given $700 billion more to spend in any way your heart desired.
Oh, there's an "imbalance", alright.
It's in Henry's mind.
“Excesses . . . built up for a long time, [with] investors looking for yield, mis-pricing risk,” he said. “It could take different forms. For some of the European banks it was eastern Europe. Spain and the UK were much more like the US with housing being the biggest bubble. With Japan it may be banks continuing to invest in equities.”
This argument – already advanced by a number of economists and largely endorsed by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke – suggests that the roots of the crisis do not simply lie in failures within the financial system."
--quoth Henry. (At this point it is useful to recall that Henry is from Chicago. "FIB" applies.)
Ticker has a memory.
Investors mis-priced risk?
Or did you mis-price risk Henry? Perhaps on purpose?
Why would your company, for example, short something it was selling to investors unless it thought it was overpriced? (This would be Goldman, Sachs...)
Now there's nothing wrong with shorting a stock or bond, of course. Its the expression of an opinion that the price is too high. You believe it will decline in value, so you short it.
Except for one problem - in this case you were one peddling the stuff you were shorting!
So on the one hand we have you telling your customers that this is "Grade AAA mortgage paper", and on the other hand your firm was shorting that very same paper, implying rather strongly that you thought your customers were paying too much for it.
The "Press" in the room nodded, and resumed scarfing up the free noshes...
Now let's talk about what else happened Mr. Paulson.
In 2000 you do recall that you went to the SEC and Congress to request that the leverage limits that bound Goldman Sachs (your company) and the other investment banks be removed, right?
You also remember that in 2004, following that failed attempt, you tried again, and this time your request was granted, right?
You do recall that every one of the failed firms - Lehman, Bear, Fannie, Freddie and AIG - all had leverage more than double that of the previous limits when they blew up, right?
The FIB also had other wisdom to impart!
May 2007: "We think it is near the bottom. It will take a while to work its way through (the system). Fortunately for us, we have a very diverse, healthy economy. ..... housing will be contained......
March 2008: "The worst is likely to be behind us." (In reference to Bear Stearns going under.)
Not only wisdom, but you had ACTIONS!!
September 15th 2008: You congratulated yourself (and Treasury) for not rescuing Lehman - but the very next day you committed the taxpayer to an eighty five billion dollars rescue for AIG, and less than 72 hours after that you threatened martial law and a total collapse of the entire financial system if you were not given $700 billion more to spend in any way your heart desired.
Oh, there's an "imbalance", alright.
It's in Henry's mind.
MSM: Colluding With Doyle for 2010
Jimbo Doylie has recently danced with the question "Will you run again?", (while he goes about holding campaign fundraisers.)
That's a stupid question. Doyle was not offered a slot in the O Administration, is not particularly liked by the national Democrat Party bigwigs, and is not even able to be liked by his fellow State Democrats. He's machine politician, and "machine" describes his personality, too.
He's electable as Governor of this State, and that's about it. Even then, it's dicey; he relies on massive "contributions" from special interests (WEAC), vote-fraud, and flat-out lying ("....we cannot, we must not, we should not raise taxes....") for his victories.
It's also helpful to have weak Republican candidates.
But the 2010 election will be different. The State, along with the nation, is in a recession, and it will get worse here even as the country pulls out. (Wisconsin has always been a "last-in, last-out of recessions" State.) Worse, Doylie's Party controls both houses of the Legislature. That means that Doylie will take the brunt of voter unhappiness in 2010.
So. What to do? What to do?
Doyle reached into his playbook (remember, there are only three plays) and pulled out the "LIE LIKE HELL" card.
No problem for Jimbo. He'll invent a $5++Billion dollar "deficit," and then save the day by making cuts in State spending. Mighty Mouse will be proud!
And the damnfool reporters at Channel 12, Channel 4, Channel 6, and the Milwaukee JS will play right along, because it's too difficult to actually mention that Doylie's numbers are fabricated from whole cloth.
Fortunately, Mary Lazich, supported by actual real-live research, brings up the inconvenient facts.
"I have to wonder if the governor isn't purposely sounding like Chicken Little, painting the dire picture of the worst budget crisis in Wisconsin history, whipping state residents into a collective depression of epic proportions," Lazich wrote in her piece.
"Why the bearer of such bad news? Think about it. The governor overstates the budget debacle by a country mile, allowing him to offer dramatic, headline-grabbing spending cuts as solutions.
"If a Republican posed such measures, she stated, the press would label them "draconian."
"Editorial boards would rave, though, about Doyle, calling the governor and his moves, 'courageous,'" Lazich wrote.
"Undoubtedly, the governor and legislative Democrats will also salivate at the opportunity to seek new revenues, i.e., raise taxes. At the end of the day, when the dust clears and the true budget deficit is actually much smaller, the governor and Democrat lawmakers will claim victory and come off as fiscal conservative heroes." (Cited by Berry Laker, HT!!)
What facts underlie this assertion?
Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX) [released a report on] Dec. 4, [attributing] $2.76 billion of Doyle's projected deficit to new spending requests and further said Doyle's numbers were "heavily based on assumptions" that could be misleading.
"[The report] notes that granting those spending requests and funding past state promises (the "structural deficit"), would result in state expenditure growth of 8 percent next year and 3.1 percent the year following," WISTAX said in a statement summarizing the study. "The report questioned that assumption since annual state general fund spending increases have averaged only 3.4 percent over the past decade."
Here's what that means. The Lying Liar's Administration cooked up $2.76Billion in new spending requests ("I wanna buncha new cars, extra buildings, about 60 dozen new employees, and 300 gold rings, no partridges, thanks, but what about More Retirement Bennies??").
In about 60 days, Doylie will "cut" the new cars, buildings, employees, and gold rings, deliver more retirement bennies and fatter AFSCME contracts, enable property-tax increases for school districts, and find "fees" and "taxes" which affect only "the rich." They will be: 1) hospital patients, 2) people who buy gasoline, and 3) smokers who are stupid enough to remain in Wisconsin.
(Of course, those property-tax increases also will only affect "the rich"--like the entire population of the City of Milwaukee.)
"Whatta Fiscal Conservative He Really Is!!" will be the headlines. Ricardo Pimentel will wet his pants repeatedly, ecstatically, and rhythmically. "Reporters" for other MSM media outlets will fall to their knees to......ahhhhhh......worship the Doylie-god-of-restraint, (perhaps a little too closely for cameras to record without 'standards-of-decency' pixellation tricks.)
And the Lying Liar will then advance-auction the rest of the State's assets to WEAC, the AFSCME, and the Trial Lawyers while bussing hundreds of Illinois residents to Milwaukee to same-day register and vote. (They will not be voting for Blago, after all...)
The Republicans will run someone.
And, by the way, actual reporting will be confined to newspapers like this one. Big Hat Tip to Richard Moore, who will never, ever, get a Madistan/Milwaukee journalism slot....
That's a stupid question. Doyle was not offered a slot in the O Administration, is not particularly liked by the national Democrat Party bigwigs, and is not even able to be liked by his fellow State Democrats. He's machine politician, and "machine" describes his personality, too.
He's electable as Governor of this State, and that's about it. Even then, it's dicey; he relies on massive "contributions" from special interests (WEAC), vote-fraud, and flat-out lying ("....we cannot, we must not, we should not raise taxes....") for his victories.
It's also helpful to have weak Republican candidates.
But the 2010 election will be different. The State, along with the nation, is in a recession, and it will get worse here even as the country pulls out. (Wisconsin has always been a "last-in, last-out of recessions" State.) Worse, Doylie's Party controls both houses of the Legislature. That means that Doylie will take the brunt of voter unhappiness in 2010.
So. What to do? What to do?
Doyle reached into his playbook (remember, there are only three plays) and pulled out the "LIE LIKE HELL" card.
No problem for Jimbo. He'll invent a $5++Billion dollar "deficit," and then save the day by making cuts in State spending. Mighty Mouse will be proud!
And the damnfool reporters at Channel 12, Channel 4, Channel 6, and the Milwaukee JS will play right along, because it's too difficult to actually mention that Doylie's numbers are fabricated from whole cloth.
Fortunately, Mary Lazich, supported by actual real-live research, brings up the inconvenient facts.
"I have to wonder if the governor isn't purposely sounding like Chicken Little, painting the dire picture of the worst budget crisis in Wisconsin history, whipping state residents into a collective depression of epic proportions," Lazich wrote in her piece.
"Why the bearer of such bad news? Think about it. The governor overstates the budget debacle by a country mile, allowing him to offer dramatic, headline-grabbing spending cuts as solutions.
"If a Republican posed such measures, she stated, the press would label them "draconian."
"Editorial boards would rave, though, about Doyle, calling the governor and his moves, 'courageous,'" Lazich wrote.
"Undoubtedly, the governor and legislative Democrats will also salivate at the opportunity to seek new revenues, i.e., raise taxes. At the end of the day, when the dust clears and the true budget deficit is actually much smaller, the governor and Democrat lawmakers will claim victory and come off as fiscal conservative heroes." (Cited by Berry Laker, HT!!)
What facts underlie this assertion?
Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX) [released a report on] Dec. 4, [attributing] $2.76 billion of Doyle's projected deficit to new spending requests and further said Doyle's numbers were "heavily based on assumptions" that could be misleading.
"[The report] notes that granting those spending requests and funding past state promises (the "structural deficit"), would result in state expenditure growth of 8 percent next year and 3.1 percent the year following," WISTAX said in a statement summarizing the study. "The report questioned that assumption since annual state general fund spending increases have averaged only 3.4 percent over the past decade."
Here's what that means. The Lying Liar's Administration cooked up $2.76Billion in new spending requests ("I wanna buncha new cars, extra buildings, about 60 dozen new employees, and 300 gold rings, no partridges, thanks, but what about More Retirement Bennies??").
In about 60 days, Doylie will "cut" the new cars, buildings, employees, and gold rings, deliver more retirement bennies and fatter AFSCME contracts, enable property-tax increases for school districts, and find "fees" and "taxes" which affect only "the rich." They will be: 1) hospital patients, 2) people who buy gasoline, and 3) smokers who are stupid enough to remain in Wisconsin.
(Of course, those property-tax increases also will only affect "the rich"--like the entire population of the City of Milwaukee.)
"Whatta Fiscal Conservative He Really Is!!" will be the headlines. Ricardo Pimentel will wet his pants repeatedly, ecstatically, and rhythmically. "Reporters" for other MSM media outlets will fall to their knees to......ahhhhhh......worship the Doylie-god-of-restraint, (perhaps a little too closely for cameras to record without 'standards-of-decency' pixellation tricks.)
And the Lying Liar will then advance-auction the rest of the State's assets to WEAC, the AFSCME, and the Trial Lawyers while bussing hundreds of Illinois residents to Milwaukee to same-day register and vote. (They will not be voting for Blago, after all...)
The Republicans will run someone.
And, by the way, actual reporting will be confined to newspapers like this one. Big Hat Tip to Richard Moore, who will never, ever, get a Madistan/Milwaukee journalism slot....
Card Check Dead?
Well, it's dead for the time being.
...the political ground is already shifting under Big Labor's card-check initiative. The unions poured unprecedented money and manpower into getting Democrats elected; their payoff was supposed to be a bill that would allow them to intimidate more workers into joining unions. The conventional wisdom was that Barack Obama and an unfettered Democratic majority would write that check, lickety-split.
Instead, union leaders now say they are being told card check won't happen soon. It seems the Obama team plans to devote its opening months to important issues, like the economy, and has no intention of jumping straight into the mother of all labor brawls (WSJ article)
The concept of "card-check" (forced unionization by other means) was not popular in the first place.
But the UAW's obstinacy and (frankly,) piggishness in the 'death of the Big3' drama may have put a stake through the heart of this, at least for the next year or so.
HT: PowerLine
...the political ground is already shifting under Big Labor's card-check initiative. The unions poured unprecedented money and manpower into getting Democrats elected; their payoff was supposed to be a bill that would allow them to intimidate more workers into joining unions. The conventional wisdom was that Barack Obama and an unfettered Democratic majority would write that check, lickety-split.
Instead, union leaders now say they are being told card check won't happen soon. It seems the Obama team plans to devote its opening months to important issues, like the economy, and has no intention of jumping straight into the mother of all labor brawls (WSJ article)
The concept of "card-check" (forced unionization by other means) was not popular in the first place.
But the UAW's obstinacy and (frankly,) piggishness in the 'death of the Big3' drama may have put a stake through the heart of this, at least for the next year or so.
HT: PowerLine
Friday, January 02, 2009
Next Shoe Drops in Automotives
The company mentioned used to be owned by FoMoCo; it was their parts division, IIRC.
Automotive supplier Visteon Corp. said Friday it will shift more than 2,000 workers to a four-day week and cut their pay by 20 percent as tight credit and collapsing sales cause huge industry losses.
The moves will begin on Monday and affect all 2,000 workers at Visteon's headquarters in Wayne County's Van Buren Township and 50 at a testing center in Plymouth. --AP Wire
Waiting for Delphi (the ex-GM (Delco) parts biz to announce....)
Automotive supplier Visteon Corp. said Friday it will shift more than 2,000 workers to a four-day week and cut their pay by 20 percent as tight credit and collapsing sales cause huge industry losses.
The moves will begin on Monday and affect all 2,000 workers at Visteon's headquarters in Wayne County's Van Buren Township and 50 at a testing center in Plymouth. --AP Wire
Waiting for Delphi (the ex-GM (Delco) parts biz to announce....)
Atheism: Bad for Children and Other Living People
Why is it bad?
Because children and other living people often turn up dead under atheist "leaders."
...the statistical analysis will show that the 58 percent chance an atheist leader will order the deaths of more than 20,000 people is much greater than the 16 percent probability that a lifetime habit of smoking cigarettes will cause lung cancer. Correlation is not causation, but such a strong degree of correlation is, at the very least, evidence of a systematic influence...
It's not just atheism sole, however.
...it is not atheism alone, but rather the lethal combination of atheism with an ambitious vision of secular progress that has such a high probability of leading to the guillotine, the gulag, and the gas chamber...
Alliterative death mechanics. Sweet!
What Day doesn't cover in his entry (and which deserves some examination) is the "practical atheist;" the one who is nominally religious but whose life-habits don't agree with the label.
That group, I suspect, occupies a lot more room than the Declared Atheists, and is far more influential in the Post-Modernist "secular progress" machine than are the "Declared."
Because children and other living people often turn up dead under atheist "leaders."
...the statistical analysis will show that the 58 percent chance an atheist leader will order the deaths of more than 20,000 people is much greater than the 16 percent probability that a lifetime habit of smoking cigarettes will cause lung cancer. Correlation is not causation, but such a strong degree of correlation is, at the very least, evidence of a systematic influence...
It's not just atheism sole, however.
...it is not atheism alone, but rather the lethal combination of atheism with an ambitious vision of secular progress that has such a high probability of leading to the guillotine, the gulag, and the gas chamber...
Alliterative death mechanics. Sweet!
What Day doesn't cover in his entry (and which deserves some examination) is the "practical atheist;" the one who is nominally religious but whose life-habits don't agree with the label.
That group, I suspect, occupies a lot more room than the Declared Atheists, and is far more influential in the Post-Modernist "secular progress" machine than are the "Declared."
Let's Bury Greenspan, Not Praise Him...
BigPic's Ritholtz is on a rant today.
One of the biggest outright lies of this housing, economic and financial collapse is that “No one saw it coming.”
This is a patently absurd comment. Anyone who makes it — and there have been lots and lots of people saying as much – reveal themselves as either clueless or liars or both.
BigPic then mentions the August 2005 (Yup. THREE and one-half years ago) speech given at a party feting "Easy Al."
Mr. Rajan, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business, chose that moment to deliver a paper called “Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?”
His answer: Yes
The proverbial fart at the dinner table...
Summary of Rajan's points:
1) Incentives were horribly skewed in the financial sector;
2) Credit-default swaps generated big returns, but failed to consider the risk if defaults occurred;
3) Banks were holding a portion of the credit securities they created, putting the banking system itself at risk.
4) Banks might lose confidence in one another;
5) If that occurred, the interbank market could freeze up. This would cause a full-blown financial crisis.
If it sounds vaguely familiar, congrats! You've been paying attention!!
Mind you, this speech was delivered at a highly-visible event, in front of "all the right people." You know, the Best and Brightest, Ivy League MBAs, Econ Ph.D.'s, Movers and Shakers...
The overcompensated idiots.
One of the biggest outright lies of this housing, economic and financial collapse is that “No one saw it coming.”
This is a patently absurd comment. Anyone who makes it — and there have been lots and lots of people saying as much – reveal themselves as either clueless or liars or both.
BigPic then mentions the August 2005 (Yup. THREE and one-half years ago) speech given at a party feting "Easy Al."
Mr. Rajan, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business, chose that moment to deliver a paper called “Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?”
His answer: Yes
The proverbial fart at the dinner table...
Summary of Rajan's points:
1) Incentives were horribly skewed in the financial sector;
2) Credit-default swaps generated big returns, but failed to consider the risk if defaults occurred;
3) Banks were holding a portion of the credit securities they created, putting the banking system itself at risk.
4) Banks might lose confidence in one another;
5) If that occurred, the interbank market could freeze up. This would cause a full-blown financial crisis.
If it sounds vaguely familiar, congrats! You've been paying attention!!
Mind you, this speech was delivered at a highly-visible event, in front of "all the right people." You know, the Best and Brightest, Ivy League MBAs, Econ Ph.D.'s, Movers and Shakers...
The overcompensated idiots.
10 Manliest Firearms
Well, it's opinion, you know, and everyone has a few...
The essay contains a lot of wry humor; I'll excerpt a bit, but you'll have to mine it yourself for the rest.
This was a hard piece to write, because guns by definition are manly, except for Berettas, gold-plated TEC9s, .25 caliber pistols or anything made by the French. To simplify things, I have limited it to modern cartridge firearms a man might, can, and should collect and shoot. There are certainly other manly weapons, and you may have a different list. As long as the list contains nothing French, gold-plated, .25 or with pearl grips (which Patton correctly observed are the mark of a New Orleans pimp), it is a good list.
Yup.
He goes on:
#8: GLOCK
The GLOCK is feared by liberals. It's called "plastic" and "ceramic" and "capable of going through airport metal detectors." If this were true, it would be the coolest gun on Earth. But these things are total lies, and serve to point out that liberals are not men, and have no honor
Yah, we knew that, too...
His opinions are not necessarily shared by all:
However, the only acceptable caliber for a man to carry is .45 ACP. 10mm is good but hard to find, .40S&W is a wussified 10mm that the FBI created when it found out its agents weren't manly enough for 10mm, .357 Sig is excellent but hard to find, .45 GAP is new and untested, .380 is only acceptable as a backup caliber, and no man would be found dead with a 9mm. Actually, a man knows he WOULD be found dead with a 9mm, because a 9mm is a .45 set on stun, and real men do not believe in stun.
(Actually, real men know how to aim. A .36" hole in someone's head is just as effective as a .45" hole in someone's head, and usually less messy.)
By and by, he gets to the #1 Manliest Firearm.
#1:
Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle
Ronnie Barrett is a true modern Viking. He hunts big game. He plays with guns. One day in the late 70s, he thought to himself, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a RIFLE that fired the same .50 BMG cartridge as Saint John Browning's Heavy Machine Gun?" So he built it. That's manly.When the metrosexual Kalifornia wusses were wetting their pants over "assault rifles," he got dragged into the argument. You see, Ronnie sells many weapons to police departments, for use in stopping bad guys, so they claim. By "bad" guy they sometimes mean tattooed gangbanger. They also sometimes mean balding, pony-tailed, pot-smoking hippie, though. After all, this IS Cretinfornia
...They had a ban on "assault weapons" (An "assault weapon" is a semantically null political term that means "It can be used to hurt people." As the REAL commies in Russia, who were men descended from Vikings (at least the ones in charge) would note, "Of course hurts people. Is weapon." You may as well refer to your "house home." The wussy definition of "Assault weapon" bears no resemblance to the US military's definition. It comes down to, "It's black and makes us poopoo in our panties!"
(That IS an accurate description of the Congressional AWB definition, by the way.)
California banned the M-82; its citizens may not purchase that weapon. But that's not the end of the story.
A few weeks later, LA SWAT sent one of these rifles [an M-82] that they use for shooting fleeing mopeds back to Barrett for maintenance…and Ronnie sent it right back to them, untouched, contract cancelled, with polite instructions to stick it somewhere dark and smelly and ride it straight to hell. Not only that, he publicly and proudly announces in all his advertising that he WILL NOT sell to or deal with ANY government entity in communist third world Kali
As it turns out, California couldn't pay for the services, anyway. Ron's better off...
The essay includes some very interesting bio material on Clint Eastwood in its S&W 29 section (#5 on the list), and a whole lot of rollickin'readin' along the way.
HT: Moonbattery
The essay contains a lot of wry humor; I'll excerpt a bit, but you'll have to mine it yourself for the rest.
This was a hard piece to write, because guns by definition are manly, except for Berettas, gold-plated TEC9s, .25 caliber pistols or anything made by the French. To simplify things, I have limited it to modern cartridge firearms a man might, can, and should collect and shoot. There are certainly other manly weapons, and you may have a different list. As long as the list contains nothing French, gold-plated, .25 or with pearl grips (which Patton correctly observed are the mark of a New Orleans pimp), it is a good list.
Yup.
He goes on:
#8: GLOCK
The GLOCK is feared by liberals. It's called "plastic" and "ceramic" and "capable of going through airport metal detectors." If this were true, it would be the coolest gun on Earth. But these things are total lies, and serve to point out that liberals are not men, and have no honor
Yah, we knew that, too...
His opinions are not necessarily shared by all:
However, the only acceptable caliber for a man to carry is .45 ACP. 10mm is good but hard to find, .40S&W is a wussified 10mm that the FBI created when it found out its agents weren't manly enough for 10mm, .357 Sig is excellent but hard to find, .45 GAP is new and untested, .380 is only acceptable as a backup caliber, and no man would be found dead with a 9mm. Actually, a man knows he WOULD be found dead with a 9mm, because a 9mm is a .45 set on stun, and real men do not believe in stun.
(Actually, real men know how to aim. A .36" hole in someone's head is just as effective as a .45" hole in someone's head, and usually less messy.)
By and by, he gets to the #1 Manliest Firearm.
#1:
Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle
Ronnie Barrett is a true modern Viking. He hunts big game. He plays with guns. One day in the late 70s, he thought to himself, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a RIFLE that fired the same .50 BMG cartridge as Saint John Browning's Heavy Machine Gun?" So he built it. That's manly.When the metrosexual Kalifornia wusses were wetting their pants over "assault rifles," he got dragged into the argument. You see, Ronnie sells many weapons to police departments, for use in stopping bad guys, so they claim. By "bad" guy they sometimes mean tattooed gangbanger. They also sometimes mean balding, pony-tailed, pot-smoking hippie, though. After all, this IS Cretinfornia
...They had a ban on "assault weapons" (An "assault weapon" is a semantically null political term that means "It can be used to hurt people." As the REAL commies in Russia, who were men descended from Vikings (at least the ones in charge) would note, "Of course hurts people. Is weapon." You may as well refer to your "house home." The wussy definition of "Assault weapon" bears no resemblance to the US military's definition. It comes down to, "It's black and makes us poopoo in our panties!"
(That IS an accurate description of the Congressional AWB definition, by the way.)
California banned the M-82; its citizens may not purchase that weapon. But that's not the end of the story.
A few weeks later, LA SWAT sent one of these rifles [an M-82] that they use for shooting fleeing mopeds back to Barrett for maintenance…and Ronnie sent it right back to them, untouched, contract cancelled, with polite instructions to stick it somewhere dark and smelly and ride it straight to hell. Not only that, he publicly and proudly announces in all his advertising that he WILL NOT sell to or deal with ANY government entity in communist third world Kali
As it turns out, California couldn't pay for the services, anyway. Ron's better off...
The essay includes some very interesting bio material on Clint Eastwood in its S&W 29 section (#5 on the list), and a whole lot of rollickin'readin' along the way.
HT: Moonbattery
How Cold Can It Get?
Well, folks, maybe all those Florida and Arizona properties will recover their value real soon!!
Global thermometers stopped rising after 1998, and have plummeted in the last two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. The 2007-2008 temperature drop was not predicted by global climate models. But it was predictable by a decline in sunspot activity since 2000.
When the sun is active, it's not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop near zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year, the start of a new cycle, the sun has been eerily quiet.
...The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913.
According to the publication Daily Tech, in the past 1,000 years, three previous such events — what are called the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums — have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called the Little Ice Age (1500-1750). . . .
Call your bank! Look at housing in a warmer climate.
But take along your mittens and scarves when you move...
HT: Lott
P.S. Whatever you do, don't tell Folkbum about this. He still thinks it's getting warmer...
Global thermometers stopped rising after 1998, and have plummeted in the last two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. The 2007-2008 temperature drop was not predicted by global climate models. But it was predictable by a decline in sunspot activity since 2000.
When the sun is active, it's not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop near zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year, the start of a new cycle, the sun has been eerily quiet.
...The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913.
According to the publication Daily Tech, in the past 1,000 years, three previous such events — what are called the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums — have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called the Little Ice Age (1500-1750). . . .
Call your bank! Look at housing in a warmer climate.
But take along your mittens and scarves when you move...
HT: Lott
P.S. Whatever you do, don't tell Folkbum about this. He still thinks it's getting warmer...
Bottom Line on Israel/Gaza
From Counterterrorism Blog's Walid Phares:
The big picture is obvious. The current conflict is not really about the classic Arab-Israeli process, which can resume between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League anytime it is not obstructed. The Gaza fight is about Iran’s confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the U.S. globally. A global strategic reading leads us to conclude that — just as we saw in Lebanon in 2006 -Tehran is pulling the strings and very smartly. Timing the Hamas end to the cease fire between two American presidencies in Washington and just before the Israeli and Palestinian elections, the Mullahs thought they would drag Israel into the Gaza battle on an Iranian timetable, triggering a “street” show of anger, boosted by the jihadi propaganda machine in the region with all the usual ramifications in the West. The astute Iranian move is to drag Israel enough into Gaza’s mud to indict it internationally so that any future Israeli strikes at Iran’s nuclear program will be seen as catastrophic. Tehran is calculating the minutia hoping Hamas will win at the end of the day, and that the Obama administration will begin its “talks” with Iran from an inferior position (since Israel will be blamed for the violence not the jihadists in Gaza). But the game has lots of risks, including the possibility that Hamas may lose its ability to be a military event maker after this campaign is over.
Phares mentions the notable reluctance of Egypt, the UAR, and Saudi Arabia to pitch in with the Hamas, and makes it very clear that the Palestinian Authority group is still in a civil war with Hamas over control of non-Israeli Palestine.
What a mess.
The big picture is obvious. The current conflict is not really about the classic Arab-Israeli process, which can resume between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League anytime it is not obstructed. The Gaza fight is about Iran’s confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the U.S. globally. A global strategic reading leads us to conclude that — just as we saw in Lebanon in 2006 -Tehran is pulling the strings and very smartly. Timing the Hamas end to the cease fire between two American presidencies in Washington and just before the Israeli and Palestinian elections, the Mullahs thought they would drag Israel into the Gaza battle on an Iranian timetable, triggering a “street” show of anger, boosted by the jihadi propaganda machine in the region with all the usual ramifications in the West. The astute Iranian move is to drag Israel enough into Gaza’s mud to indict it internationally so that any future Israeli strikes at Iran’s nuclear program will be seen as catastrophic. Tehran is calculating the minutia hoping Hamas will win at the end of the day, and that the Obama administration will begin its “talks” with Iran from an inferior position (since Israel will be blamed for the violence not the jihadists in Gaza). But the game has lots of risks, including the possibility that Hamas may lose its ability to be a military event maker after this campaign is over.
Phares mentions the notable reluctance of Egypt, the UAR, and Saudi Arabia to pitch in with the Hamas, and makes it very clear that the Palestinian Authority group is still in a civil war with Hamas over control of non-Israeli Palestine.
What a mess.
Dairy Farm Problems? Nope. There's a Bailout for That, TOO!!
The Milwaukee JS ran a story about the difficulties down on the old dairy farm. Seems that prices paid to producers are dropping fast (although you might not notice that if you purchase milk at the store.)
Don't worry. Bossy's not going to the slaughterhouse.
[W]hile the government has price-support programs for about two dozen agricultural products, so far milk powder is the only commodity that has sunk low enough to trigger the flow of government dollars. Some expect that taxpayers will soon be buying blocks of cheese, too, given the plunging price. (NYTimes, quoted by Calculated Risk.)
Somehow, the JS story didn't mention the Milk Powder Bailout, though...
Don't worry. Bossy's not going to the slaughterhouse.
[W]hile the government has price-support programs for about two dozen agricultural products, so far milk powder is the only commodity that has sunk low enough to trigger the flow of government dollars. Some expect that taxpayers will soon be buying blocks of cheese, too, given the plunging price. (NYTimes, quoted by Calculated Risk.)
Somehow, the JS story didn't mention the Milk Powder Bailout, though...
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Mass Wanderings
Circumstances, exigency, results.
Went to Holyday Mass at the Basilica. Nice job of decorating the place for Christmas, relatively straight-up "say the black/do the red" conformity (a few digressions, nothing horrific.) Organist is decent, vocalist was very, very well-trained and nicely voiced.
A woman came in about 5 minutes before Mass and sat down next to me. Looked innocent, didn't sing a note of the stuff in the "liturgy guide," but then came the (spoken) Our Father.
Turns out she's a Dramatic Speaker. You know, "Our FAaaa ther, Who AAAArt in HEEEEAAAAAven,...." (Lento, not quite Largo--the objective is (apparently) to get to the end of the prayer about 20 seconds after everyone else.)
And that, my friends, is disconcerting.
I'm certain that 'Dramatic' is not listed as a 'quality of the Mass.'
And I am not convinced that Dramatic Pray-ers will go to the head of the line at St. Pete's Gate.
But if they do, you'll know who she is: all in purple winterwear, with a purple T-shirt underneath which quotes one of the Gospels.
Purple/white Adidas, too.
Won't be hard to see or hear. She'll converse Dramatically with St. Pete.
I hope he's patient.
Went to Holyday Mass at the Basilica. Nice job of decorating the place for Christmas, relatively straight-up "say the black/do the red" conformity (a few digressions, nothing horrific.) Organist is decent, vocalist was very, very well-trained and nicely voiced.
A woman came in about 5 minutes before Mass and sat down next to me. Looked innocent, didn't sing a note of the stuff in the "liturgy guide," but then came the (spoken) Our Father.
Turns out she's a Dramatic Speaker. You know, "Our FAaaa ther, Who AAAArt in HEEEEAAAAAven,...." (Lento, not quite Largo--the objective is (apparently) to get to the end of the prayer about 20 seconds after everyone else.)
And that, my friends, is disconcerting.
I'm certain that 'Dramatic' is not listed as a 'quality of the Mass.'
And I am not convinced that Dramatic Pray-ers will go to the head of the line at St. Pete's Gate.
But if they do, you'll know who she is: all in purple winterwear, with a purple T-shirt underneath which quotes one of the Gospels.
Purple/white Adidas, too.
Won't be hard to see or hear. She'll converse Dramatically with St. Pete.
I hope he's patient.
What's the Discount, Harry?
News item:
If you expect you'll be getting a refund from California when you file your 2008 state income tax return, be prepared: you may instead receive a "registered warrant." Translation: an IOU.
California is rapidly running out of money. Blame it on the state budget deficit that continues to bleed billions of dollars from California's reserves. Facing inadequate credit to make up the difference, California's Controller John Chiang warns that by the end of February, the nation's most populous state may not be able to pay some of its debts, and instead be reduced to issuing those creditors IOUs
So...
Let's assume (ass u me) that these "warrants" will actually have a value measurable in USD.
What's your guess as to the discount? I.E., will you get 90 cents on the dollar when you sell your "warrant" for cash? 80 cents? GM-like 40 cents?
Ideally, you buy the damn things at 50 cents/dollar and Obama bails out Californicate, meaning you hit the jackpot!
If you expect you'll be getting a refund from California when you file your 2008 state income tax return, be prepared: you may instead receive a "registered warrant." Translation: an IOU.
California is rapidly running out of money. Blame it on the state budget deficit that continues to bleed billions of dollars from California's reserves. Facing inadequate credit to make up the difference, California's Controller John Chiang warns that by the end of February, the nation's most populous state may not be able to pay some of its debts, and instead be reduced to issuing those creditors IOUs
So...
Let's assume (ass u me) that these "warrants" will actually have a value measurable in USD.
What's your guess as to the discount? I.E., will you get 90 cents on the dollar when you sell your "warrant" for cash? 80 cents? GM-like 40 cents?
Ideally, you buy the damn things at 50 cents/dollar and Obama bails out Californicate, meaning you hit the jackpot!
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