Archive for September, 2008

My dad is a professor of Finance at Oklahoma State, so he understands what’s going on with all this economic/credit brew-ha-ha.  I’ve been asking him to explain it to me, and he sent me this link to an episode they did on This American Life that explains it all - from the people who got the bad mortgages, to the people who sold them, to the people who bought them, to the people who sliced them up and sold them to the “Global Pool of Money”.  Very well done and very enlightening.  Ira Glass rocks.

http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355

I listened to a couple of minutes of Bush’s economic speech last night. He said two things that caused me to stir. I am paraphrasing, we (the government) expect to get paid back nearly all of the money that we loan. Yeah, right. With words like expect and nearly all, and with no oversight. Puhhhlease. There’s gotta be a loophole in there the size of the US/Mexico border. These golden parachute receivers are getting an angel investor - its like their country died and left them a big inheritance. Oh wait, maybe it did died. I think I’ve been hearing the death rattle for the past eight years.

The other thing he said is that our country is in dire need of this money, we need it now, and we need it without regulation, we can regulate later. I call shenanigans. I know their tricks too well to fall for this one. Why don’t we approve the loan with the stiffest of regulations and deregulate later? It is the same logic, just flipped. Why don’t we tell them that the can have the 477.978832 billion Euros if we get 10% off of our respective mortgage? I’d go for that. Plus they still have to pay the $700 billion back.

What ever the case, just please no more freebies for BushCo. He’s done enough damage. I feel sorry for the next President. They are walking into a world devastated by down home, good ol’ boy, Texas swagger. And that’s hard to walk off. It leaves you tingly and extremely rigged.

Vote at this PBS site as to whether Palin is qualified or not.

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

Voting started at about 66% No, 30% Yes.  This is now changing.  The right wing has an email campaign going to turn the results around.

Here’s a link to a download of the new Bond theme song Another Way to Die, by Jack White and Alicia Keys for the upcoming Quantum of Solace.

I dig both these artists. I think if Keys starts to take more risks like this one she can have the Stevie-Wonder sort of career for which she hopes.

The song’s pretty intense from start to finish, but as it progresses the complexity of the songwriting really emerges. Bring in the horn section. Suddenly the harmonies start to become just a little discordant in an aggressive sort of way that hopefully helps the opening credits build excitement. Then Alicia riffs a little scat, trading musical phrases with Jack’s guitar. He’s always been so respectful of the power of the female vocalists he’s accompanied.

The hook in the chorus is catchy, but not super singable … i.e., this may be a hit song, but it won’t be astronomically popular as the tune on people’s facespaces, ringtones, and whathaveyou.

I’ve been eyeing my Nalgene suspiciously lately, and though I love that bastard I fear it’s poisoning me.

Nalgene’s website does a great job of talking about BPA and which of its products are already in a BPA-free version (the classic, the on-the-go with the flip top lid, one that looks like its for bikes, and one for kids). More designs come out this month and next.

I’m sure Sunflower sells the BPA-free “Everyday” line. (Everyday is code for not-the-poison, and even though one of the Everydays has the number seven recycling number on the bottom, it’s still not-the-poison.) However, I have no bike shop close, so I’m buying it from the site. I found a coupon code (simply the word choice) that offsets some of the shipping cost.

Actually, I find the cover shot to be the first in a long time that doesn’t look old-man-creepy. The photographer’s photoshoped use of the the rest of the pics from the shoot is out of hand and eye-rollingly juvenile, but it offers an interesting view into the ethics of photography:

“One thing I do know is that if I, or any other editor or art director, ever caught a photographer using images held back for secondary profit outside of the contract, or using images in a way that would undercut our publication, we would pull that photographer’s card out of the assignment rolodex. Not only that we would make it out business to tell other editors and art directors at other publications that such a photographer was never to be trusted again.”

This post offers some great analysis, links, and even two song downloads to celebrate the abiding dude.

I love it when my side is right!

An article that outlines how multiple indicators of economic health have improved with Democratic presidencies and declined with Republican presidencies since WWII.  (Lots of good stats for you academic types.)

Is History Siding With Obama’s Economic Plan?