Well, that was bound to happen

Bart, your questions answered.

I got laid off today. More specifically, my "position has been eliminated." The company won't pay for my boss to have an assistant anymore.

So: Between my savings and small severance, I have living expenses through the end of my current lease, which April 30. My immediate plans include hitting up the temp agencies and filing for unemployment.

So: Advice? Ideas? Leads? (No, really. I'll send you my resume).

Searching for Extraterrestrial Life ("Where are They?")

I stumbled The Bloop on Wikipedia today. I innocently found my way over to SETI, which refers to the collective Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. The rest of my day was gone.

(Before you decide to make fun of me as you think about the fact that I blew my day on this - remember that you're helplessly intrigued by the space elevator)

Typically this wouldn't have happened - I can Wiki-chain or whatever you want to call it and then go on with my day. But I found that my view on the existence of Intelligent Extra-Terrestrial Life (I'll call it IETL or better yet IL) appears to be in quite the minority, at least as best as I could surmise from Wikipedia. I'll try to sum up my view thus:

There is almost certainly intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and it's probably not that uncommon. However, it is unlikely that there is life anywhere "close" to us - essentially a zero probability of being close enough to reach by either manned or unmanned space travel, and not much better odds that we are close enough to intelligent life to have any sort of one-way, let alone two-way, communication.

There's a whole Wikipedia page devoted to the topic of what's called the "Fermi paradox" - assuming IL exists, why haven't we found it? (Often, "Where are They?") Variations on my (I suppose, uninformed) opinion do exist on the page but are not very prominent, which surprised me. So I got interested in reading about this stuff (and bored at work) and ended up on all kinds of interesting pages, which I've listed below. (Some I have not yet read)

SETI
Fermi Paradox
Megastructure
Kardashev scale
Rare Earth Hypothesis
Interstellar Travel (Last one I've read)
Drake Equation
Bracewell probe
Light cone (I'm really interested in this one but haven't gotten there yet)

The article on interstellar travel seemed to imply that we might be able to reach Alpha Centauri within 50 years. The star is 4.3 light years away, or 25 trillion miles. This would require traveling 57 million miles/hr, or approximately 1,500 times the current record of 38,600 mph.

Talking again about IL, one article had an interesting take on life-favoring characteristics on earth. The moon, it claims, is the result of a Mars-sized object colliding with a young earth. This favorably increased our rotation speed, which minimizes intra-day temperature variation, and also put us at a favorable tilt on our axis (too much tilt results in too much inter-seasonal variation, but too little of such variation would slow evolution and thus delay the existence of IL)

That's all I've got for right now. Except that apparently one (very) unfortunate side effect of hypothermia is a literally-unstoppable urge to remove one's clothing.

Thank you, 23/6

I was wondering last week about who the hell voted against impeachment last week.  Of course, I had all the information I really needed the whole time:

Number of times "Milton" appears in name: One
Number of Nobel Prizes won: Zero

Relief

A long time ago, in a post far, far, away, I mentioned that you wouldn't hear from me for a weekend while I studied for an exam.

On their infinitely mysterious scoring system, I have today been informed that I scored a 6 - the minimum passing score, and thus I am not quite looking to change career fields yet. 

I'd love to celebrate, but it's 8:30 in the morning.  (Add some Bailey's to my morning coffee, perhaps?)

Top 10 Signs of Evolution in Modern Man

This article fooled me because, by discussing useless human features that evolution has not yet rid us of, it was basically the exact opposite of what I was expecting. It's interesting, nonetheless.

One More Reason the Republicans Need to Shift to the Center

Demographic trends are really not in their favor.

It always warms my heart when one of my home-state representatives refers to the governor as a "freak show"

Blago impeached, duh


UPDATE: this photo, for obvious reasons.

Sorry, I just really needed to share

You '30 Rock' fans remember Jason Sudeikis, aka "flower guy" Floyd, right?



Well I totally have a crush on him so I was REALLY excited to pass him on the corner of 6th Ave. and 8th St. yesterday. A couple seconds after passing him I dorkishly turned around to look again, and HE WAS TURNED AROUND LOOKING AT ME.

Obviously, we're in love.

Yes, I'm still stumbling

From Poo Poo Platter.

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and
announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys
for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys
around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply
started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He next announced that he would now buy monkeys
at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers
and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people
started going back to their farms. The offer increased
to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so
scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone
catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys
at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city
on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers:
‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man
has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and
when the man returns from the city, you can sell them
to him for $50 each.’

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought
all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only
lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the
WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK !!!!

Catholics vs. Protestants, 21st Century Style

Stumbling at work is not recommended.

How are none of us in this group?

So unemployment has hit a sixteen-year high of 7.2%. How in the hell are none of us among the unemployed? We are all smart, but I know that at least Katie, Chris, and I have all made comments along the lines of, "Well, I guess I'll be fired soon. Damn." Good work staying employed so far everyone. Let's hope the 2009 unemployment peak doesn't hit this blog too hard.

25 Most Anticipated Movies of 2009

The article's title is over-the-top, but it's worth a look.

I'd watch anything with Ricky Gervais, Jason Bateman, and Tina Fey in it, and I could stare at that Brad Pitt picture for hours trying to think of various scenarios that could result in that image.

Obama/Senate honeymoon over?

I saw this paragraph in an NYT article (as in, the paper version) this morning and thought the phrasing was hilarious:

"President-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan ran into crossfire from his own party in Congress on Thursday, suggesting that quick passage of spending programs and tax cuts could require more time and negotiation than Democrats once hoped."

Don't you hate it when quick passage requires more time?

I could add some analysis of the stimulus, but 538's is more interesting. Apparently public perception of the "stimulus" is way better than the "bailout," so the opposition that the bailout saw from moderate Republicans just before the election is unlikely to be repeated, and Obama will likely get most of what he wants.

The Most Carthatic Thing I've Ever Seen

I probably didn't use the word "cathartic" correctly.

Kit Bond retiring

Missouri's senior senator, a man who inexplicably took the perfectly fine first name of "Christopher" and decided to abbreviate it as "Kit," will not seek reelection when his term expires in 2010.

Kit Bond is one of those senators you never hear about, which leads me to believe he's probably super corrupt, though I don't know this for sure. I do know he sucks, and he won't be missed, at least by me. Hell, even some group called "Republicans for Environmental Protection" hates him so much they gave him a rating of "-2."

Electoral-vote.com is mostly correct in asserting that Secretary of State Robin Carnahan would have a huge leg up in the race if she decided to run for the seat. Even though Missouri is undoubtedly tinting redder these days, the Democrat is quite popular. And if the name rings any bells, it may be because in 2000 her father, Governor Mel Carnahan, won his bid for election to the US Senate against John Ashcroft - three weeks after he died (wife Jean was appointed to a two-year term. Jim Talent, who is mentioned in 538's assessment of the situation, won the election for the remaining four years in 2002. He was then narrowly defeated in 2006 by Claire McCaskill, who herself was narrowly defeated in the gubernatorial race in 2004).

538's analysis is intriguing but premature (an example of precision over accuracy). Despite his analysis, I'd have to say that the best two Republicans on that list are Todd Akin and Roy Blunt. William Lacy Clay might not be a bad candidate for the Democrats - he represents most of St. Louis and doesn't even run against opposition anymore.

All-in-all, given the climate and the candidates available, it's quite possible that despite the fact that Missouri is quickly going red, the state could go from having two Republican senators going into the 2006 election to having two Democratic senators coming out of the 2010 election.

Oh my, this should be interesting

Hannity's new partner: Al Sharpton.

How to sit: 135 degrees?

I've been working full time for a little over six months now. Even in this short time, my physical health has been in fantastic decline. I'm more likely to eat out (even eating healthy foods doesn't help because food portions when eating out are always greater than what I would eat at home). I get far less exercise - I don't walk anywhere. And I'm always tired when I get home.

Add that to the fact that I've always had a bad back (probably mostly due to bad posture) and it's clear I need to do something. While researching things I can do to help my back and my posture (Wii Fit has been good as well) I came across this BBC article, which claims that the best angle at which to sit is 135 degrees. Anybody ever heard this before?

Wow

There must be some other way to ensure our President's safety, right? Because this seems kind of unreasonable- no email while in office?

Ouch.

"Army sends 'John Doe' letter to 7K relatives of Iraq, Afghanistan war dead"

I know that this is simply a mail-merge gone wrong, but it also fits nicely into my stereotyped vision of internal military functioning. Seriously, though, how did the 'culprit' mail 7,000 John Doe letters without at least noticing that two of the names are the same?

Maybe you've seen this before

What's the longest sentence you can construct in the English language using only one word?

So, I'm not actually sure it's the longest, and it uses different words that are spelled the same, but this is good anyway. I'll leave it as a comment.

Burris Appointment is Tainted

If you missed it, here's a Colbert Report report on the taint that Burris brings to the Senate (skip to 2:30).

Presidential Gathering

All the living presidents gathered the other day, as you probably know. Here's a short video of Bush being awkward and Obama being awesome.

Here's a really depressing line from the article:

"All of the living presidents were last at the White House in 1981: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and the incumbent Ronald Reagan. On that day, all the presidents stood in a circle inside the White House, discussing news of the world. The dominant topic? Then, as now, it was the Middle East. "

Dammit

At least I was clear about rescinding my post, but this didn't take long: China doesn't like our debt anymore.

Atheist bus ads

Moderately interesting article about atheists putting ads on London buses. Some of the ads read "There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

The article says that Richard Dawkins opposes putting the word "probably" in the ads. In my opinion, though, that turns atheism into a religion, but maybe I'm missing something.

Am I a bad person?

There's some sort of web award for the best political coverage. Internet users can vote. So I went over there (directed from 538) and, even though I had heard of fewer than half of them, and thus had no basis on which to vote, voted for 538, the best one I had actually read. Of course, I don't care as much as the title of this post suggests, but is such a decision morally acceptable?

Quick Heads Up

Maybe you saw it maybe you didn't. I don't know how much of an effect this will have, but the new EU president is Czech, and when it comes to global warming, he and Sarah Palin have a lot in common.

Is China Going to Call in our Debts?

(So, I wrote nearly this whole post before completely undermining it at the very end.  But I didn't really feel like throwing it away, so even if I'm basically an idiot here, at least it could bring about some discussion.  But keep in mind that, somewhat ironically, I no longer stand by some of what I've written here.)

With the economy tanking one of those comments you hear from time-to-time is that China, whose holdings of US debts amount to $585 billion, or over 4% of our entire economy, will suddenly call in our debt, crushing our economy.

Is this scenario plausible?  Might China actually do this?  I can't say it more strongly: no.

Unless I'm missing something, I can base this conclusion on two three things.  For one, "China" is not one entity.  There's about 1.5 billion people there right?  Now sure, the debt is likely to be pretty consolidated among more powerful actors, but it's not like there's one guy in the government who sits in front of two buttons all day that say "hold" and "call," just waiting for the moment to trash the economy.  So for "China" to call in our debt, that would mean that some circumstance would have to change that would result in the many different Chinese debtholders simulateneously wanting to call in that debt.

OK, I'm going to kind of gloss over number two because I did not follow this in my intermediate macro class, but I'm pretty sure this issue of debt is tied into trade deficits.  So for China to call in the debt would mean that China would also not be able to continue selling us more than we sell them.  And I don't think they want to do that.  (If anyone can correct me on this one, please do)

But the third one is also pretty key.  Let me add here that Japan holds almost the same amount of debt that China does, and combined they hold about 9% of our debt, or $1.15 trillion.  So, I was going to assume that the treasury rate was about 4% returns on this debt.  Unfortuantely, I just looked it up and realized it's closer to 0.4%.  This really kills my argument, but I'll keep going anyway.  So, 4% of $1.15 trillion means a return of $46 billion per year on this investment.  By contrast - think about how much fuss there was over the $25 billion for the automakers.  Even at today's rate of 0.46%, this results in annual interest of $5.29 billion.  And that's not a bad take.  OK, you're right it kind of is.  Dammit.

Good sources of information, round two

I just re-organized my Firefox bookmarks and decided to update my list of where I get information in the hopes that if I tell you I read all of these then I will actually continue to do so (see the post on the value of hypocrisy). I hope this works, as I both believe these to be valuable sources and also my non-reading of some of these sites has not been aggressively called out by someone else.

Academic blogs:

• Calculated Risk: Finance & Economics;
• Common Tragedies: Thoughts on Environmental Economics;
• Dani Rodrik's weblog: Unconventional thoughts on economic development and globalization;
• Electoral-Vote;
• Five Thirty Eight: Politics done right;
• Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything;
  
• Grasping Reality: The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: A Fair, Balanced, Reality-Based, and More than Two-Handed Look at the World;
• Greg Mankiw's Blog: Random Observations for Students of Economics;
• Marginal Revolution: Small steps toward a much better world;
• The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman.

Periodicals and news blogs:

• Al Jazeera;
• The Atlantic;
  
• BBC;
• The Daily Beast;
• Drudge Report;
  
• Economist;
• Huffington Post;
• The New Republic;
  
• New York Times;
• Real Clear Politics;
  
• The Week.

Any others to be added to my overly long list?

An Effect of a Ban on Indoor Smoking

An email from my Aunt Marcia (I have no idea when she is quoting and when she is using her own words, so I will just give you the entire email):
"Heart Attack Rates Still Fall 3 Years After Indoor Smoking Bans

Myocardial infarction rates continue to fall 3 years after indoor smoking bans are implemented, according to a study in MMWR [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report].

The CDC notes that nine studies have shown quick drops in hospitalizations for myocardial infarctions after laws go into effect prohibiting smoking at work and in public places, but the report is the first to show this reduction continues for several years.

The study examined the rate of hospitalization for myocardial infarction in Pueblo, Colorado, after a smoke-free ordinance took effect in 2003. Rates dropped 27% in the first 18 months and an additional 19% in the next 18 months.

'These findings provide support for considering smoke-free policies an important component of interventions to prevent heart disease morbidity and mortality,' the CDC concluded."

Hypocrisy as a tool

Here's an interesting Washington Post article about how one can motivate a person to do something that may not be the most appealing activity but is for their own good in the long run. The basic idea is that if you can get a person to publicly declare something to be true/better/their habit (e.g. exercising regularly, eating healthily, or using a condom), then that person becomes significantly more likely to actually do that something. (Two caveats: 1. The person has to believe that you are correct in what you are asking them to declare; and, 2. You have to be supportive in pointing out their hypocrisy rather than aggressive.)

The examples provided range from using condoms to going to the gym, and in each case those who were made to feel publicly hypocritical about their own actions were much more likely to make the 'right' decision in the future. No spectacular methodology and no real long-term follow-up on the results, but a pretty interesting (and intuitive) result (and even six months of increased condom use is pretty impressive). Perhaps Blagojevich needed to be appointed head of a committee to fight corruption...

So it looks like stepping-on-a-kitten porn is illegal

Here's an interesting story about the intersection between animal cruelty and free speech (that intersection is, in fact, pornography. yeah, ew). Here's the gist:

"...In 1999, Congress made it a crime to sell “crush videos” and almost all other depictions of unlawful cruelty to animals.

The conduct itself is disgusting, of course. But the law does not criminalize the cruelty, which was already illegal in all 50 states, only its depiction. By making such expressions illegal — adding a new category of speech to the very few that are entirely unprotected under the First Amendment — the law raised profound constitutional questions about whether and when the government can decide that some sorts of information have no social value at all...

...The law does contain an exception for materials of “serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical or artistic value.” But Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the exception was small comfort. “What constitutes serious value,” Professor Volokh said, “is very much in the eye of the beholder.”"

Gotta agree with Volokh, whose name sounds like Harry Potter character's to me, on this one. And making it a crime to sell videos depicting illegal acts sounds like a very slippery slope.

Also, the article ends with, "[the chief counsel of the Human Society] provided a reporter with links to two examples, one involving a kitten, the other a puppy. May you never see them." Ew.

Let's hope Chris keeps his job

If any of us should want to keep our jobs it should be Chris, at least according to Career Cast (rankings based on work environment, income, future prospects, physical demands, and stress). Basically the best jobs in the country are mathematician (ranked 1), actuary (2), and statistician (3) while the worst are lumber jack (200), dairy farmer (199), and taxi driver (198). It is in my best interests to have friends in that first set, so I really hope Chris is fortunate enough to hold that area down until he can hire the rest of us as we are fired from our less appealing jobs.

I currently sit at ranking 127 on the list (teacher). As it turns out that is below piano tuner (76), teacher's aid (106), and sewage plant operator (118). Damn it.

Update: I meant to include the full list before.

Don't know if I should laugh or cry

As you probably know, when a hockey player scores three goals in a game, it's called a "hat trick."

Devout hockey fans are also familiar with the "Gordie Howe hat trick," named for (by far) the greatest pre-Gretzky player in NHL history. It consists of a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game.

Well, Wikipedia has taken it a whole other step further with what it calls the "Mario Lemieux hat trick." (For non-hockey-obsessives, various health issues kept Lemieux [Luh-myoo] from playing a full and lengthy career. Nonetheless, his averages are actually very similar to Gretzky's, and he's certainly in the top five of hockey players all time.)

In 1993 Lemieux received radiation treatment for cancer on the day of a game in which he went on to score a goal and an assist, thus the "Mario Lemieux hat trick." Wow.

******************

As a side note, another thing I found absolutely amazing was the unnamed (though referred to as the "quintella" or "Lemieux cycle") is a feat which will probably never be repeated in hockey history - on December 31, 1988, Lemieux scored a powerplay goal, shorthanded goal, even-strength goal, empty-net goal, and a penalty shot. This was the first of four five-goal games for Lemieux, which ties him with Gretzky for second all time, though the record holder, Joe Malone, played in the 1910s.

Finally, I'll just add that I watched a game where Lemieux scored five goals in a game once. It was March 26, 1996, and he was playing Wayne Gretzky and the St. Louis Blues. He would add two assists for a total of seven points in the Penguins 8-4 victory.

Get him out of here

Sorry, Roland. You refer to yourself in the third person, and your whole life's list of accomplishments goes out the window in my book. I don't care if you brought world peace and ended world hunger.

Maybe if you're Wayne Gretzky, though.

Well, that didn't take long

As much as I hate to borrow from idiot Republican mouthpieces, we've got Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel, Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, Bill Jefferson, Eric Holder ... throw in less offensive but still hateable figures like Rahm Emanuel, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden (annointing his son), Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and possibly Caroline Kennedy, and even I've got to ask if the Democrats will use their power any more nobly than the Republicans did. Because they haven't even taken office yet, and it ain't lookin' good.

(Let me just add, since I'm begging the question above and I've been knocking it around in my head for a while: the role of Chris Dodd's political contributions from Fannie and Freddie in this economic crisis has been horribly overlooked. And I think it's Barney Frank who's playing the same role in the House, but I'm not as sure about that.)

Great Sports Article

RealClearSports hit a bullseye with its article "10 Most Underreported Sports Stories of 2008." Though it's given in the annoying one-at-a-time-and-click-to-see-the-next-item-on-the-list format, it's even worth a quick look for the non-sports-fan.

Also worth a read (maybe not so much for non-sports-fans) is the "10 Most Inaccurate Sports Predictions of 2008," though even I have to admit that giving top honors to the prediction that the Patriots would win the Super Bowl (last year) is pretty lazy.

Israel and Gaza Strip

So, can anybody help me understand what's going on here?  I haven't read anything (not that I've tried especially hard) that hasn't been filtered by the writer's own politics.

How not to bring back the Republican Party

I really wanted a different headline, but it wouldn't fit.

So Chip Saltsman recently distributed a CD to other Republicans with a song parody that is pretty hard not to describe as "racist."  Now look - this is clearly stupid and idiotic, but you never know.  Maybe it was just a joke.  Maybe Chip's new to politics, or doesn't really get involved in the political side of things that often.

In fact, as you probably know, this isn't the case at all.  Saltsman is a candidate to become chairman of the RNC - essentially, a position where one's knowledge of how to handle political situtations is all that matters.  More amazing, though, is the fact that this issue has become something on which (some) Republicans are actually rallying around him!

I don't understand!  Your party just got demolished in an election, and your response is gonna be, "Yeah, I know he didn't realize that race is a sensitive issue in this country, but I still think he's got enough of a pulse on the people to be our party's chief political strategist."  Seriously?!

I don't care what your party stands for or what you think the country stands for - if you don't try to claim the center/moderate ground you're merely endangering yourself as a party.

Probably our first poetry post

My uncle's friend wrote this. It's kind of stupid, but also kind of entertaining. It's timely, at least. I also don't know why the last few lines are slashed-though or how to fix them.

T'was the night before inauguration and what to my dismay
The market was tanking, I lost my 401K!
The stocks were hung, in downfall they stuck
While Bush did nothing, a truly lame duck

The republicans were nestled, their heads in the sand
With visions of defeat of the republican brand.
And Cheney with his gun, his heart a pace
Looking for someone, to shoot in the face.

When out on the house floor, there came such a clatter
I sprang to the internets to find what was the matter.
Away to my screen I ran with a flash
Hoping the market, had not c rashed.

The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
Showed me someone I needed to know.
When what to my eyes, I paused, with a comma
But a vision of hope, It was Barack Obama!

With excitement and conviction in each of his steps
I wondered what he and his elves, would do next.
More rapid than eagles his appointments they came
And he whistled and shouted, and called them by name.

Now Emanuel! Now, Dashle! Now Richardson and Biden!
On, Clinton, On Napolitano, and Gates, no sense in hidin’!
To fix the economy, our reputation and more.
And to stop the killing of this unnecessary war.

As Obama stood still, the republicans they trembled
Remembering 8 years of a disaster they had assembled.
They have broken our banks, and doubled our debt.
They scared us to death with weapons of threats.

They squandered a surplus, They started a war.
They shredded our constitution, littered on the floor.
They attack our unions, our immigrants and those who are gay.
They claim to be Christians, yet on the sick they prey.

We may never recover from this hole they dug.
But we will climb to the top with a American tug. The republican party have destroyed all that matters
They deserve nothing more but to hold the damn ladder.

But his voice did change, along with a smile.
Thinking of the bills that soon would be filed.
Protect those who are old and young alike
Restore our honor and our military might.

Protect our planet, and clean our air.
While creating a surplus we can leave to our heirs
Fix our economy, and health care for all.
And honor those who fought, and those who fall.

Obama sprang to his feet, to his team he gave a shout.
The challenges seem impossible, hard work needed no doubt
But I heard him exclaim ere he talked and ran.
Hey! It is not just a slogan, YES WE CAN!

News Flash: Elections 2010 and 2012 possibly still too close to call

Continuing my series on "Hey, the Republicans aren't going to lose forever," I present this WSJ article about the last time the Democrats won over 360 EVs, 58 Senate seats, and 257 House seats.

Two years afterward the Republicans took the Congress for the first time in 50 years.

What the hell, man?

Michael Cera screws up my Christmas

Scary Christmas

I always enjoy the Trib's annual "Scared of Santa" gallery.

Teams of the Decade

Continuing an earlier post on NFL history, I wanted to comment on the teams of this decade.

First the best:
It's actually unbelievably close. The New England Patriots thus far have the best record of this decade, at 101-42. However, the Indianapolis Colts are close behind at 100-43. At distant third is the Pittsburgh Steelers with a record of 93-49-1. Philadelphia is also over 60% for the decade.

The race for the bottom is not nearly as close. At 40-103, the Detroit Lions need to have a perfect season next year to have even the slightest hope of catching the Houston Texans (39-72) for the bottom. Put it another way: Houston didn't enter the league until 2002. So their records indicate that Detroit could have lost every game in 2000 and 2001, and then essentially tied the Texans thereafter. Arizona, Cleveland, and Oakland are also below 40% for the decade.

Damn You Boston

So the Patriots beat the Rams in the Super Bowl a few years back. The Red Sox followed it up with a World Series victory over the Cardinals. No worry, I thought. At least the Bruins and the Celtics are terrible.

Well these days the Bruins are 2nd in the NHL in pts. They have scored more goals than any other team, and they've allowed fewer goals than any other team.

But as all Bostonians (?) know, the Bruins are the second best Boston team in session right now. The Celtics are 27-2 after winning their 19th consecutive game. (Who'd have thought the Patriots would be third, not to mention they're behind Miami via tiebreaker for the division lead!)

So I figured I'd do the work, and I found that the feat ties them with none other than the Los Angeles Lakers for 4th all time. The Celtics play the Lakers in their next game.

Upping the ante, the Lakers also hold the record for the most consecutive games won. In the 1971-72 season, the Chamberlain-led team won on November 5 and didn't lose until January 9, for a total of 33 games and good for a 50% longer streak than the second place team, 2007-08's Houston Rockets with 22. To beat the Lakers' record, the Celtics will have to win every game up through their home-and-home with Toronto on January 11 and 12.

Finally, their one-way magic number against the Nets (currently 2nd in their division) is 41 out of a total of 107 games. So if 38.3% of those games result in a Celtics win or a Nets loss, Boston wins the division. Wow.

Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety

At the risk of seeming somewhat critical of Obama on something, I must say I pretty much liked this article.

Screw you, Drudge

I've got to say - the right wing media largely deserves credit for being nicer to Obama than I was expecting (except you, Sean.)

Well, add Matt Drudge to the list. Don't know how long it'll still look like this, but despite it being increasingly apparent that Obama had nothing to do with the Blagojevich scandal in any way, Drudge Report has a black-and-white (read: menacing) photo of Obama and Blagojevich (possibly whispering?) with the headline PRESIDENT-ELECT INTERVIEWED BY PROSECUTORS.

That's not helping this country, dude.

To punt or not to punt?

When I read that some whacko high school football coach in Arkansas decided to stop punting for the year, I was a taken back a little.

As I read down the article, however, I came to find he's got a mind for probability and a Class 5A State Championship.

A new sin tax

To begin: "A study by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest showed that soft drinks were the single biggest contributor to calories in the American diet [...]"

That's right, soda beat out meat, starches, grains, fruits, and vegetables; it beat candy, cookies, and cakes. That quotation makes me feel uncomfortable drinking a soda, even if I am able to ignore the various environmental reasons for avoiding the drinks (e.g. creation of plastic bottles and draining of aquifers near bottling plants, particularly in impoverished areas in other countries (e.g. India)).

Now it seems as if Gov. Patterson is trying to change this frustrating/disgusting consumption pattern. Under Patterson's new budget plan for 2009, "[...] consumers will have to pay an 18% tax on non-diet sodas and sugary drinks." Obviously this faces resistance from drink companies and the American Beverage Association, but I am all for this policy. Sin taxes are (or at least should be) designed to discourage behavior that has a demonstrable negative effect on the person or a negative spillover effect on the community as a whole (e.g. soda leads to obesity which raises all health care costs). I think that taxing what largely amounts to a luxury good as a manner of both improving the overall level of health in the community and as a budget deficit filler is a fantastic idea. I would love to see the price of soda skyrocket to the point where it becomes as unappealing to consumers as its lasting effects are to those who actually study these effects.

Also, I have no qualms about the fact that this policy is regressive. Poverty is highly correlated with (and sometimes causally linked to) obesity, which is also causally related to soda consumption. At this point soda needs to be made a less appealing option so that money spent on calories is directed at the (slightly) healthier available alternatives as economic pressures force people to buy cheaper foods. I know that the healthy foods are the expensive foods, so it is all the more important that we push people toward the healthier end of their available consumption spectrum as their available spectrum shifts to a lower dollar level. We can take this recession and use it as a tool to shift preferences so that they take into account the true cost of the decision to drink soda. Basically, if we can get poor people to make healthy decisions we will be taking a lot of the burden off our health care system, which helps everyone and will hopefully create a positive-feedback loop that leads to lower levels of poverty (as, say, total time out of work due to poor medical treatment declines).

In the end I am actually also just happy to have another, better excuse to quit drinking soda. I hope that was coherent; I am very cold and it is pretty early.

Dangling Modifiers

I'll keep it short: I read this blurb in NYT about dangling modifiers ("As the Blues forward tried to deflect the puck past the goalie, he snatched it with his glove.").

Hardly any time at all later, I read this article at HuffPo, which began with this sentence:

"A friend of French money manager Thierry de la Villehuchet told a paper that he committed suicide in his New York office early Tuesday morning."

Wow. I've never heard anyone report their suicide to a newspaper before.

Topless presidents

Huffington Post has a pretty funny slideshow of presidents without shirts on. Now, most of these pictures are fine, but I have to ask two questions: 1. Why is Nancy Reagan's top sooo low. No one wants to imagine, let alone see, what dwells under her clothing; 2. Is the former Chinese president being helped out of the water or kidnapped? In either case, what is the explanation?

Somehow Obama's and Clinton's pictures are the only ones that do not creep me out. Perhaps that is a product of my own familiarity (I can test this hypothesis by finding a topless Bush 43 picture and gauging my level of revulsion, though it would be hard to discern the basis of my disgust); perhaps they are not the physical monsters that many presidents have been (Taft, I am looking in your direction). Whatever the reason, I am glad that we do not have to see Reagan without a shirt ever again.

Notes on Congress

CQ politics has a really cool tool that for each Congressman shows the proportion of the time they (1) voted with the president, (2) voted with their party, (3) voted at all.

No senator voted with the president less often than Ted Kennedy. Interestingly, no senator voted with the president more often than John McCain. The two senators from Maine, both Republicans, were the least loyal senators to their party.

Of those not campaigning (or cancerous), Senate artifacts Robert Byrd and Daniel Inouye (71 combined years in the Senate) missed the most votes.

********************************

In other news, it's already been a big deal that Vietnamese Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao brought down uber-corrupt William Jefferson (try as you want, you can't add "Clinton", nor can you make a "movin' on down" joke) in Louisiana. Well, as if that wasn't enough, when a reporter asked, Cao (Anh?) said he would be interested in being a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (One Two Three). Just for reference, though others have tried, there has never been a non-black member of the CBC. There have been two black Republicans in congressional history, one was a member of the caucus (and generated frequent controversy) and the other declined to join.

And if that's still not enough for you, just enjoy what my current Congressman is bringing to race relations.

Wow, outsourcing is unpopular

A group of my coworkers just gathered around one of the cubes to give our AA a Christmas gift. When we found out that one of the people they all know (financial industries seem to be rather incestuous) had just gotten laid off, the conversation eventually ended up on outsourcing.

Now, I understand that, to a greater degree than anything I can think of, outsourcing typifies the NIMBY problem. So it's not surprising that economists love it and the people hate it.

(Let me say quickly that my underestimating the unpopularity of outsourcing in the first place is why I'm writing this. I'm writing it assuming the audience is pro-outsourcing, but as I've guessed incorrectly before, speak up if you are opposed.)

Boy, was I surprised to hear them talk about it. These are all people in a consulting industry, all of whom make more money than I'm going to for a long time, and yet they could not have felt much more strongly about it. They went so far as to say that the government should not be allowed to send a single government job overseas, nor should it be allowed to do business with companies that outsource.

(My company, Buck Consultants, is owned by ACS, which does many other things but is largely an outsourcing company. As a side note to this side note, it also administers student loans, so you may actually get mail from them for that. I do, and it really confused me the first time, since I'm also an employee.)

Again, I was just really surprised by this. I wish that whenever a job got outsourced we could magically bestow the unlucky American with all the skills he needed to get a new job. Still though, there are benefits to it, and its the inevitable wave of the near-to-medium future, and not one of them showed even the slightest hesitation about their opposition.

(I was interrupted a number of times while writing this. Also, today's been one of those extra-caffeine days. If either of those things is overly apparent/distracting in my writing I apologize.)

The more things change, the more they stay the same

As always, I really liked this Christopher Buckley article in The Daily Beast. My favorite line was "the fugitive." I stared at that French phrase at the beginning for a long time trying to translate it ... once I was quite satisfied with myself I read the line that follows, only to have one of those Homer "doh" moments.

Slavery

Here's an interesting article on modern slavery and its prevalence around the world. Apparently there are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in history (though I have no idea if that is adjusted for population size/growth).

Last week was a busy week for me, but I should be back to posting regularly this week.

So I Guess the Question Is: How Powerful *Are* the Kennedys?

Basically, unless I'm missing something, it seems apparent that while Caroline Kennedy might not be a terrible choice for Senator, she's certainly less than ideal in a state with a number of big names (with big qualifications) who also want the seat. I just don't see any way that the governor's best choice is to appoint her.

Unless, of course, being a Kennedy somehow gives her special leverage over the governor. While this is certainly possible, I'm not sure I really see it ... though it is difficult to imagine someone saying "no" to the Kennedys without there being any ramifications.

So I don't know. Thoughts?

Pointless Thought

How much fun do you think Christmas time was for this guy growing up?

Seven Pounds

Curious about movies coming out and how good they are, I decided to check out some reviews this morning. One that stood out (I'm not even done) was Will Smith's Seven Pounds, which all-in-all got average reviews. One review that was not average, however, was A.O. Scott's review in The New York Times:

"Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration."

UPDATE: On the other hand, The Wrestler got astoundingly good reviews. (Yahoo, RT)

Bristol's in the news

Her future mother-in-law got nailed with six felony drug charges by an undercover operation.  Also, apparently, Bristol is due tomorrow.

I Still Hate Sean Hannity

Yesterday on Radio Show (paraphrase):
And now we hear that Rahm Emanuel is on the tapes having 21 phone calls with Governor Blagojevich! And they won't tell us what's on the tapes. But we know Rahmbo is a bitter partisan Clinton-era official, and since they won't tell us what's on the tapes, it's seems pretty clear that he was willing to play with the governor's scheme.

Today on Radio Show (paraphrase):
And now we hear that there's hardly anything incriminating at all on the tapes, and that the usually-bitter Rahmbo was calm and straightforward! And this is just more Clinton-era politics, folks. First the scandal breaks and they make it seem as huge and incriminating as possible, and then when things aren't so bad, nobody pays attention. The Clintons did it to us before, and now their acolytes are at it again!

(almost without a pause to think)

And now there's one more question. We need to know what Obama knew and when he knew it. He has not gone on record about this whole thing and we the American people cannot stand for what he and liberal friends are trying to do to corrupt Washington.

*******************
All smartassery aside, I really don't know how you live with yourself, even if you take the angle that you're playing a character on the radio. This is obscene.

it's gonna be weird to have a hot President

He was especially fine during his college years.

Law and Adultery

A prominent South Korean actress has been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to a suspended six-month jail sentence, apparently meaning she won't have to actually serve the time.

This reminds me of an argument I don't often get to have. I have no problem with adultery being illegal.

Now let me say first that I don't think it should be treated as a criminal matter at all and the idea of serving jail time for adultery is ludicrous. Nonetheless, marriage is a binding legal contract and, like all contracts, the involved parties should be liable if the contract is broken.

Now, I have no idea how this plays out in court. It could very well be that cheating spouses get shafted in divorce proceedings. Either way, I take the typically-unpopular stance that I don't have a problem with laws on adultery.

PS - South Korea? Really? You guys can't be pulling that 18th century crap anymore if you want to be part of the real developed world.

Good Article on Economy

There's nothing particularly outstanding about the content of this article, but as I read it, I realized I wish all economic articles were written this way. It assumes the reader doesn't have a Ph.D. in economics but is smart enough to grasp an outline of the ideas. I really appreciate that, and apparently I'm not alone in wishing more articles struck the balance.

Interesting Obama Pics

Collage
"Change"
Main Slideshow

More cities I wouldn't have expected

King of Prussia, PA

In other news, I apparently am descended from Prussian royalty. Yeah, that worked out pretty well.

News and Notes

I'm sure you've thought to yourself before how annoying (and similar) the "extreme" graphics employed by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are.  Well, if you've ever thought the same thing about their sound effects, you're not alone.

In other news, the Arena Football League is cancelling its 2009 season.  It was, however, quick to point out that it is cancelling only the 2009 season.  Here's my favorite quotation: "This is the farthest thing from the league folding.  This is, in my opinion, just showing us the league will not fold."

Finally, despite my knowledge that it is grammatically imperative to use the word "quotation" where I did above, I felt like losing part of my soul for not using the more conversational "quote."

NY budget

So I know very, very little about NY State politics, so I could be way off-base here, but Governor Paterson's plan to balance the budget sounds like bullshit to me. Higher sales taxes, higher fees in state parks, higher tuition to CUNY and SUNY, cuts in government aid to education, Medicaid, and public employees' benefits...and no income tax increase on the highest income bracket.

I have no idea whether there was a better way or or his hands are tied, but it doesn't feel good...

He's gone

Hall & Oates did a great tribute to Alan Colmes (who's leaving Hannity & Colmes this year) on Thursday's TDS in a reworked version of "She's Gone." I thought the lyrics were worth posting:

Anytime you need a token liberal
Nothin' but a body to fill a chair
The barest shadow of a person
Alan Colmes is always there.

But all those years of non-existence
Can really run a person down.
Now he's leaving Hannity forever
Alan, please don't go!
You're the only non-douchebag on that show

He's gone. Bye bye,
Oh why
He was the Tango to his cash
And he's gone.
Oh why
To the extent
That I hadn't noticed he was there
But he's gone.
Oh why
What went wrong?
He's gone. Bye bye
Oh why?
He was the Laurel to his Hardy
He's gone
To spend
More time
Not being seen with his family
He's gone
What went wrong?

The Year in Ideas

I love the yearly issue of NYT Magazine that contains the "Year in Ideas." Some of these are pretty amazing. Enjoy.

Two Bailout Proposals

OK, so I didn't even read the first one. It apparently says that only two automakers should get bailout money, based on whoever will bid the lowest price. More interesting than the idea? The source. What's Eliot Spitzer doing back in the news?

Another idea ... Why do the taxpayers have to cough up this dough? How about the government does a 401(k)-style match, essentially a subsidy for investing in the automakers specifically, so that most of the money is still coming in from the private sector? Administratively complicated, but theoretically superior, at least as far as I can tell.

MN-Sen: What's going on?

So, Intrade contracts on Franken winning the election in Minnesota have held tight between 30 and 35 for about a week and a half now, which is rather remarkably consistent. In the last two hours, however, the price has shot up to very close to 50.

HuffPo has allegations about Coleman corruption all over their front page, but that wouldn't have any bearing on the election. So if anyone's got any idea about anything else that might be making this happen let me know. If it's just reaction to the allegations, well, just one more bit of evidence that political betting markets aren't efficient.

Well that didn't take long ...

"Hey, you think we've waited long enough? Can we start calling our opponents un-American now that we've got the power?"

"Long enough? Jenny, we just won the election. Like, barely a month ago. I mean, hell, we haven't even taken office yet. There's still only 51 Democrats in the Senate and there's still a Texan in the White House. I'm not sure that counts as 'waiting'."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But this auto bailout thing - I really want it! I can't believe I have to wait even longer. This is totally unfair!"

"Dude, you can just wait a month and then we'll be in power."

"But I want it now! You know what? Screw it, I'm calling the Republicans un-American."

"No! You can't do that! That'll make us look just like those oth- ... too late."

"Inhaling Fear"

...is the title of a NYTimes op-ed today (side note: "a NYTimes" or "an NYTimes"? the latter sounds right to me (thanks to vowel sound at the beginning of the pronunciation of the letter "N"), but, N being a consonant, I though maybe it should be the former...).

Anyway, it's about how brain studies have shown that anti-smoking ads actually lead people to crave a cigarette more and how anti-smoking efforts should be reformed.

I don't know how to fix this, because I don't really understand why people smoke at all (because it's relaxing and looks cool, of course, but the health risks just seem so obviously a deal-breaker, for me), and I don't even know if it's the government's place to tell people not to do something that's legal. Acccording to the op-ed, they're using money from a Big Tobacco settlement on these ads, which is better than taxpayer money, but are public funds being used for similar campaigns, like encouraging kids to exercise? I'm not really cool with that (despite the fact that I obivously think that children should exercise and not smoke cigarettes).

And I couldn't have said it better

OK, so it appears that the aforementioned constitutional crisis, wherein Hillary Clinton would be ineligible to be Secretary of State because she was in Congress when Congress gave the position a pay raise, has been averted. And I couldn't have said it better myself:

"She’ll make $4,700 less per year than the current black Secretary of State, because that’s how Barack Obama’s America rolls."

Cynical Politics?

OK, so it's possible I'm just being overly political here, but do you think it stands to reason that Barack Obama appointed Janet Napolitano to DHS as an olive branch to John McCain, as it removes a very large (and really the only) challenger to his Senate seat in 2010?  Just a thought ...

I try to get out, but they just pull me back in.

GMail just introduced some pretty great new features. Not only does AIM now integrate with GChat, but now GMail supports Tasks. It really is upsetting how happy these features make me.

Blagojevich Update: Jesse Jackson, Jr.

As you've probably heard by now, Jackson is allegedly implicated in the tapes as being willing to pay for the Senate seat in question. If so, a potentially enormous political career has ended before it even begun.

Quick Thought on NY-Sen

Hillary's Senate seat is also open to a gubernatorial appointment. While speculation flies fast that Governor Patterson is looking to Caroline Kennedy, I for one do not buy this at all. NY has plenty of good candidates and she just doesn't seem like the Senate type. Notably, Patterson has more or less said he doesn't want to appoint a white male from NYC ... Carolyn Maloney has been endorsed by "Women's groups" according to electoral-vote.com. Also there's Andrew Cuomo, but this guy on NPR just said Patterson doesn't want to give him the seat (competition for him?)

GoogleWatch continues!

Here's the latest information on trends in searches on Google. Nothing mind blowing, but the list did introduce me to a few things I had never heard of (e.g. Tuenti, a Spanish-language equivalent of Facebook).

I mean what if 'Cloverfield' happened, right?

(as an aside, I really liked the first half or so of that movie, which was about what this post concerns - "what if you were just living your life, at a party or whatever, when all of a sudden real shit starting going down?" - but I wasn't so crazy about the whole alien/monster thing).

Anyway, Carly should really be writing this post, as she knows more than I do about this stuff, but our conversation about it yesterday sparked me. I don't have any real insight, just questions: What kind of "major disaster" should we be worried about? How should we prepare? Whose responsibility is it to help protect us, and they preparing effectively?

Some peoples' answers to these and other questions are in these articles:

A report on "Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism," courtesy of Carly

An op-ed about how to distribute the Anthrax vaccine, should there be another attack

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism's report, saying there probably will be, and it will be soon

A discussion of how to protect people in fancy hotels in dangerous places, in the wake of the Mumbai attacks

Homework

OK I need your help. I've basically got the go-ahead to implement some sort of voluntary office competition, in which whoever reduces their utility bills the most wins a prize.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to out-do all of the logistical complications. First, you obviously have to go by percentage since we don't all live in the same-sized houses. But do you go month-by-month? If so, I could write off every other month by putting my heat on 85 degrees and easily winning the following month. And creating a baseline represents difficulties ... ideally we would compare all the bills for 12 months of 2009 to 12 months of 2008, but that's too administratively complex.

So I'm throwing my hands up. Ideas?

This is pathetic.

Apparently MSNBC chose to play the same footage of five Blackwater contractors walking across the street fifty-four times in fifteen minutes. That is correct: 54 in 15. That would be 3.6 plays per minutes, or one play every 16 2/3 seconds.

The most frustrating part of this for me is that I know this happens all the time. Watching TV news is unbearable because the repetition and simplification is so drastic and blatant. This is really not okay.

What is the Republican Party to do? (Part 47)

If you remember my superboring lecture way back in the day, I compared the left-right spectrum of politics to ice cream stands along a beach.

Looking at the senate, let's start from the left. First off, there's a lot of Democrats. Secondly, there's quite a spectrum of them. There's your Schumers and Kennedys, sure, but there are also Landrieus and Byrds. So let's imagine that the Democrats start at the far left (say point 0) and extend halfway over (point 50).

The Republicans? Well, there's not very many, as you know, and you may also know that the Republican senators who lost were pretty moderate. The ones left are much more often the DeMints and the Chamblisses of the world. So if you start at the far right (point 100) and extend left, you'd probably only go, say, 30 points over (to point 70).

This leaves a 20-pt gap (again, everything is obviously quite arbitrary) from points 50-70 that is up for grabs. I'm not sure if I've presented this in a manner that makes any sense, but if so, you'll see that the Republicans have the option of moving to the right (and into obscurity) or taking up some of that middle, at least for now. If they don't move at least in the short run, there's gonna be a long night in store for them in November 2010.

Joe the Annoyer

He may still be getting publicity for the wrong reasons, but at least he is lowering his own credibility in the process.

Corruption in Government: What to Do?

Why did this all happen? In my opinion, the answer is simple.

As governor of a state like Illinois, I'm sure you frequently meet with some of the most powerful people in the country. And some of the richest. And you probably help a lot of those rich people become richer (not necessarily in corrupt ways). Yet the governor of Illinois makes a salary of $150,000, more or less. And what was he trying to get? In real terms, not very much: a position with a salary of $300,000 (and other stuff, sure, but really not that much - not a $120M no-bid contract anyway).

In one of my econ classes we studied Singapore or Hong Kong or somewhere like that, wherein government employees were given huge salary increases. The result? There was more competition for government jobs so better individuals ended up getting the positions. Also, since salaries were already high, the temptation for corruption was less because (1) it took more money to even be worth it and (2) the fear of losing one's job made it even less likely the person would want to engage in corrupt activites.

So my counter-intuitive solution is to pay these guys more. Because if one of the most powerful people in the state is only making $150,000, what else should we expect to happen?

Also, by the way, Blagojevich is under no legal pressure to resign his seat, and could even appoint a senate replacement today, should he desire.

Better version of our gameshow...

Well, I think this may be the death knell of Bush, Kennedy, or Other, our fantastic quiz show. Who (Allegedly) Said It? asks contestants to who said each phrase, Rod Blagojevich or Tony Soprano. Well done, Beast.

Stimulus/Rebate

I've heard from a number of source, not the first of which is this one, the following bailout proposal. Since the $350B left to spend in the bailout package is approximately equal to two months of federal government income, just have a two month holiday on all taxes of all forms.

This sounds totally reasonable, but the same way a flat-dollar rebate (though there were adjustments to fix this) is extremely progressive, this tax holiday would be extremely regressive. Many poor Americans pay no tax at all (and I suppose the shut off valve for taxes wouldn't take away earned income tax credits ...) and of course those who pay the most in taxes would see the most benefit. So of course conservatives are all over this but don't be fooled - it's a (thinly) veiled regression of the tax code.

My turn

OK, if Bart gets to post cute animals (which I haven't looked at yet) then, even at the risk of being that crazy guy who likes cats, I'm taking a turn, too.

These are my two cats, Pax (the tigerish one) and Rex (the pantherish one). They're both in the 8-9 month range. I swear this wasn't my intention; I needed pictures off my camera for a project, but as I was going through them (277 of 'em) I couldn't help but appreciate these few.

Corruption, Part II

Rod Blagojevich, governor of Illinoise, has been arrested this morning for getting financially friendly with potential Obama Senate replacements.

Democrat Pat Quinn is temporarily in charge of the gubernatorial responsibilities.

Liberal Media? Perhaps so ...

It makes sense right?  The media should totally follow the story of a guy if he's in Congress, making laws on behalf of his constituents, and ends up clearly guilty of accepting bribes, yet nonetheless manages to stay extremely close in his reelection bid, only to finally be declared the loser of the razor-thin election roughly a month after the fact?  It's totally fair that the media follows that story, right?

Well, the media has not been doing it's job in following around Bill "Cold Hard Cash" Jefferson.  Jefferson, or BCHCJ as I call him for short (not really), was finally defeated in his re-election bid in Louisiana's 2nd district.  To speak to the relevance of his defeat, the Democrat was defeated in this heavily black district by none other than Vietnamese Republican (don't laugh) Anh "Joseph" Cao.

I know the bribery aspects of his story are older, but I have no idea why this guy got almost no coverage when Ted Stevens was all over the news.  I guess Senators have roughly 4.35 times as much power as Representatives (though Stevens got more than 4.35 times as much coverage) and I suppose the whole 60-seat thing really drove the narrative on the Senate election this year.  Either way, even very involved people I know don't know about BCHCJ, so I think the story was underreported.  Either way, he lost, so hurrah to that!

Woot off!

Well, time for another day of checking Woot far too frequently.

Dulling the pain of being broke...

There's an article in Times blogs today about Prohibition. To tell you the truth, it's not actually that interesting, but one thing did make me think: Along with the amendment's unpopularity by '33, another factor contributing to its reversal was the revenue it would generate, in its sales and large tax, to bolster the depressed economy. This has always been one of the most convincing arguments I've heard for legalization of marijuana (not that I need to be convinced, obviously, I mean one of the most compelling things to tell people who do): legalize it, tax the shit out of it, and inject an amount of money that I can't even fathom (because I'm bad at math) into the (legal) economy. Given our current economic conditions, no time like the present...

(btw, if you guys are, I'm very interested in having a conversation about drug policy in general...)

The Democratic Senate Majority, Prisoner's Dilemma Style

Nate's got a particularly good article on how it's possible for 58 seats to be better than 59.

(In response to the article: of course, the moderate Republicans in question could work out deals with each other ahead of the vote)

OK, so now the back-patting is legit

Anybody ever heard of this magazine anyway?

(And, for the record, I called MN-Senate for Coleman, a result that is currently trading at 69% on Intrade)

Football History

So, probably only Bart will be interested in this, but I'm working on putting an Excel spreadsheet together with a win-loss record for each team throughout its history. Long story short, Cleveland is officially regarded as being one team throughout its history. As part of the deal to move the Browns to Baltimore, Art Modell agreed to let the city keep the team's "history," so Baltimore is regarded as a 1996 expansion team and Cleveland is regarded as a 1946 expansion team that suspended operations from 1996-1998. I'd have never guessed.

Ugh

I know you're sad to see Tom Brady out this season, but at least you don't have the Rams. We've got two touchdowns in our last five games. We're also 2-0 this season when scoring 17 pts.

No Comment

It just seems so wrong.
Eh, let's double down while we're at it.

Dammit, I just realized this was my 200th post.

"At Least He Kept Us Safe"

In this group, it's hard to imagine many missed the Peggy Noonan article last week, lobbing a Hail Mary attempt to hold on to something positive about the Bush Administration, and citing the fact that there were absolutely no terrorist attacks at all period totally zero not a single one during Bush's presidency, unlike lazy-ass Bill Clinton, who let the USS Cole (is that a book? Why am I italicizing it?) get blown up by al-Qaeda.

Anyway, of course I threw up a little in my mouth reading the original article, but I think this summary is a little more interesting than what I would have written.

(Oh, and if I hear Bill O'Reilly or Peggy Noonan make one more comment about how we should have had more regulation before the collapse I'll lose it completely)

Bush's Final Days

Despite everybody being all Hopey and Changey, don't forget that one of the worst presidents in American history is still in the oval office, and for the first time since 9/11 has, in some ways, a sympathetic image, not to mention the fact that no one is watching.

Here's a mediocre but interesting "by the numbers" on his presidency.
(What struck me most was FOIA requests vs. FOIA processors over time)
The same site is also keeping a watch on his 11th hour activites.

An exception for servants...

Bush's new neighborhood did not allow non-whites to live there until 2000. Fantastic way to continue the legacy of a terrible presidency.

The train Nazi (Not the Nazi train)

Here's a pretty entertaining article by Christopher Buckley about how it feels to have public enforcer responsibilities fall to you. Damn free-rider problem.

I also recommend everyone check out at least a book or two of Buckley's, as the tend to be fluffy fiction with some fun laughs along the way. Thank You For Smoking is the best of his book that I have read.