Am I Missing Something?

Was this supposed to be attractive? I get that fashion is sometimes over-the-top and avant-gard and all, but this looks like the woman has completely lost her mind.

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Link Of The Day And Matthew 25:40

Here's the link. Here's an excerpt:

At one of the stops, a group of young men and a woman came in. They must have been in their twenties, or early thirties at most. As soon as they walked into the train (it was filling up at that point), they start being completely obnoxious. They literally start making fun of the homeless guy, pretending that they are spraying themselves with deodorant, and pretty much being the worst examples of humanity that they could possibly be. They start loudly making fun of everything about this homeless man. They loudly make fun of his weight, his smell...treating him like he has no dignity whatsoever. They start laughing raucously and some other passengers start joining in with the laughing.

Matthew 25:40: Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

Enough Is Enough With OWS

They've now got a TB outbreak in Occupy Atlanta.

The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted through air contact.

The Occupy barnyards ought to be shut down immediately. This isn't a matter of free speech any more, it's a matter of public health and safety. I know no one in power wants to be all Squaresville and make the kids end their sleepover, but enough is enough with this.

If Tuberculosis isn't enough to make us clean out these man-made disasters with fire hoses of Lysol, then what is?

When It Hits The Fan, Socialists Turn To The Greedmongers To Save Their Skins

Dig this.

After yields on Italian government bonds soared above 7% on Wednesday, President Giorgio Napolitano unexpectedly announced that he had named Mr. Monti, a former European commissioner, as senator for life. By bestowing an honor reserved for just a handful of other Italians in the upper house of Parliament, Mr. Napolitano made it easier for Mr. Monti to take up a government post, even though he isn't an elected official...

The moves were aimed at reversing what seems like an unstoppable decline of faith in Italy. On Wednesday, investors sent Italian shares into a tailspin and drove up yields on government bonds maturing as soon as 2013 to levels unseen since 1997...

That Mr. Napolitano, a former member of the Italian Communist Party, has sponsored a free-market economist shows how serious the head of state was in seeking the fastest way to take market pressure off his country.

Emphasis mine.

Huh. I'll bet that two years ago, Mr. Napolitano was telling everyone who would listen that Mr. Monti was a greedy, plutocrat, racist homophobe. Now that the progressives have turned Italy into a economic basket case, it's time to bring the greedmongers back to save the day.

I Resemble That Remark!

Click here.

How Fast Was The Italian Meltdown?

It was so fast that the Italians haven't even had time to riot. I'm not being flippant or snarky here, either. This has all blown apart so fast that the populace hasn't reacted yet.


Rates on Italian bonds. Note that this chart, only a few days old, is woefully out of date. The upper bound on the graph is well below the current bond rates of 7.4% or whatever they are right now.

Italian Bonds Break 7%

Oof.

Italian bond yields have now surely passed the point of no return. With 10-year bonds now yielding more than 7.3% and rising, it is hard to see how Rome can possibly stop this dangerous spiral. The mother and father of all bailouts looks inevitable if Italy is to avoid a catastrophic default: it has more than €300 billion of debt to refinance in the next year alone. But who is going to provide the money to keep Rome afloat?

Mach schnell mit der Druckerpresse!

Cheezburger of the Day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

And Now On To The Main Event., Italy.

Greece is saved! Or maybe not. At least the banks that hold worthless Greek debt are saved. That's what matters there. At least for 2011. For 2012 and beyond, Greece and the rest are doomed, but Eurosocialism was never about the future, only about the present.

Greece was a sideshow and everyone knew that. The chain of frantic bailout efforts and "austerity" budgets was not about Greece, it was about Spain and Italy. The typically short-sighted theory was that if the Eurosocialists could convince bondholders that Greece was going to be OK, they wouldn't panic about Italian and Spanish debts blasting out of orbit and heading for Neptune. That was never going to work for reasons that are becoming all to obvious.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote this:

You can't have the kind of debts (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy) has with (olive oil, sardine, tourism, lousy Italian cars) income. This is like a runaway freight train and the bondholders and European Central Bankers keep getting surprised every time the thing smashes through another flimsy barricade.

The last barricades are coming up very soon as Italian bonds are getting killed. Whether Greece was "solved" or not means nothing to bondholders who are deciding that the market for their allegedly convertible Italian securities is rapidly drying up and it's time to unload the things. It's not the number of Italian bonds the Italian government is trying to sell, it's the total number of Italian bonds up for sale and with an overall debt of $2.6T, there's a lot of Italian bonds out there waiting to be be thrown onto the market. More and more people aren't waiting.

With Italian bond yields surging higher, analysts said Italy is at the brink of being unable to afford to borrow in the public markets.

Less than two weeks after European leaders unveiled an agreement that was designed to bolster confidence in the region, the yield on Italy's 10-year debt drew close to the 7% mark, a line in the sand of both practical and psychological importance to the market...

"I don't know if 7% is the upper limit, or if it's 6.9% or 7.25%, but I do know [Italy] can't go on for very long having these kinds of bond yields," said Gabriel Stein, director at Lombard Street Research in London.

The MSM is watching the fate of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Will he resign? Will his allies stick by him? Will he grow a beard? It doesn't matter. Socialized medicine, free college education, massive pensions, a huge government workforce, it's all gone. We're watching the final days of Eurosocialism no matter what. Even if they fix things in 2011, they'll return to the same problems in 2012, 2013 and on until it breaks down for good.


Silvio Berlusconi now has a beard. We're saved!

Long Beach And Los Angeles After A Rain

I spent last Thursday night at the Long Beach Courtyard. I was visiting my son, who goes to CSULB, and on Friday morning had to drive back to the LA Convention Center for BlogWorld. It rained Thursday night and Friday morning was spectacular. Here's a photo I took from my room at the Courtyard before I left. Note that you can see the mountains in the distance. The mountains! From Long Beach! The smog was all washed away. I deliberately left the image large so you could make out the details. Click on the image for the big version.


Driving in to LA on the 110 was breathtaking. When the smog has been washed away and there are big, puffy clouds in the sky, the LA skyline is beautiful. Set against the backdrop of the mountains in the north and east, the skyscrapers were clear and bright and beautiful. It was one of those moments when everything comes together to give you something wonderful to enjoy. I really wanted to stop and take a photo, but I was in a hurry to get to the conference. I probably should have pulled off and found a way to do it, but I chose the conference over the photo opportunity. Oh well.

BlogWorld LA 2011 - Google+ For Business

The first big keynote talk of the Expo was Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan describing how they used Google+ and comparing it to Facebook. In short, they both love Google+. They're of the opinion that it will be bigger than Facebook. Yes, Facebook has all the people now, but Google+ has Google behind it and in the end, that's going to be a big deal. Major points from their talk:

• Facebook is for friends and family, Google+ is for people who share your passions. It's more community-centered.


• A good way to use Google+ is to search it for keywords related to your hobbies and passions. That will reveal plenty of others in your field.


• Surprisingly, Guy Kawasaki does not use circles in Google+. Circles are what allow you to group your connections into subsets based on topic or location or whatever you want. With the people that I know, it is the primary reason to move to Google+, but he doesn't use it at all. Instead, he uses it in one, giant stream.


• Guy said the technology was going to be used in unanticipated ways. For example, there was recently a Google Hangout where a group got together to cook online. That's an interesting idea.


• Social networking in general allows you to get to know people before you get down to business. (That's been said many, many times before.)


• Guy and Chris hated avatars. They think you ought to have a photo of yourself and not something wacky. Like a cat.

Both Guy and Chris are atypical users. Most of the audience probably couldn't relate to them - I know I struggled with that. As soon as they got on Google+, I'm sure they immediately picked up 10-30,000 followers. I'm on Google+ and I'm not sure of the value of the thing, but after this talk I'm going to spend some time searching for folks with my interests and seeing where that leads.


Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan.

Occupy Boston Invades The Egyptian Consulate To Protest The Slaughter Of Coptic Christians In Egypt

... just kidding! Of course they didn't do that. They occupied the Israeli Consulate to protest the Joooooos!

Julius Streicher would be so proud!

Blogging Has Really Gone Mainstream

... you can tell because this year's BlogWorld in LA was dominated by corporate bloggers and social media experts. For most of the people I talked to, it was their first time at a BlogWorld Expo. Many had their own blogs on the side, but almost everyone I met was working for a company in the public affairs or marketing department doing the company blog or Facebook page.

It's good to see that blogging has become so accepted, but it made for a pretty subdued conference. It might also have had something to do with the fact that the event was held in LA instead of Vegas.

More later.

Courtyard Is Better Than Marriott

... because it gives you the same things a Marriott does, but without all the pretension.

I'm up in LA for Blogworld Expo and the first night, I stayed at the LAX Marriott (LAXM). I always stay within the Marriott chain in order to save rewards points and the LAX hotel was the closest to the LA Convention Center that still had vacancies. Big mistake.

I drove up, missed the self parking turnoff and got jumped by the valets. $37 later, my car was parked. Self-parking was something like $29 so I was paying either way. Gahhhh!

The hotel itself was gorgeous, but I don't care about gorgeous. Here's all I want:

• Internet


• In-room coffee


• Two beds - one to sleep in and one to throw my stuff on

I checked out the next day and went down to the Long Beach Courtyard (LBC). I was going out to dinner with my son who is at CSULB, so the place was convenient enough for me. Here's how the two compared.

LBC had a carafe for the in-room coffee meaning it brewed two cups. LAXM brewed a single serving into a paper cup. Advantage: LBC.

LBC had free Internet. LAXM charged $11. Advantage: LBC.

Both had two beds. Advantage: Even.

The LAXM had high ceilings, but while sleeping, surfing the web and blogging, that means nothing to me. The LAXM was in better shape, but while doing the aforementioned activities, I don't really notice the ratty carpet in the elevators or the aging paint on the hallway walls. Since I'm not interested in bringing some chick back to my hotel room, I don't care if it's a little shabby. I just want the hotel to be in a safe part of town with basic amenities.

I don't need my hotel to be near my meetings, either. I have this crazy box on wheels called a "car" that makes distances seem like nothing. If I listen to 10 minutes more of Mark Steyn's After America while driving to the conference, that's fine with me. I'm not coming home to kids or cat or dogs or wife, so getting in a little late at the end of the day means nothing. As far as locations go, what I really want are photo opportunities after working hours so I can post interesting shots on the blog.

Resolved: From now on, I'm staying at Courtyards in interesting locations.

Blogworld Between Sessions

I clamped my camera to a door handle in a hallway outside of the session rooms at Blogworld LA and ended up with this video. Enjoy!

G-20 Decides Not To Invest In Toads

The Euros hunt for a sugar daddy to keep their infantile social welfare states alive had better move on to Mars and Saturn because the people of Earth aren't interested in throwing mountains of money down their particular rathole.

Europe emerged Friday from the two-day Group of 20 industrial and developing nations summit with precious little to show. No G-20 country committed to help seed the euro zone's bailout fund, and the nations resolved only to continue talking about providing additional firepower through the International Monetary Fund.

Here's a fun little excerpt about Italy.

One small step emerged: Italy, the focus of substantial worries in European debt markets, agreed to permit the IMF to monitor its progress with fiscal reforms. IMF inspectors will head shortly to Italy and will report regularly on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's efforts to reduce Italy's huge debt burden, which is second only to Greece's in the euro zone.

And now, a hypothetical foretaste of where we're headed here in the US, an excerpt from a WSJ article in the not-too-distant future.

One small step emerged: America, the focus of substantial worries in global debt markets, agreed to permit the IMF to monitor its progress with fiscal reforms. IMF inspectors will head shortly to the US and will report regularly on President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce America's huge debt burden, which is second to none.

If you thought living under our government was problematic, just wait until you live under our government living under the IMF. Sovereignty is yours only so long as you can pay your bills.

Cheezburger of the Day

At Blogworld

I've been blessed to be able to attend all of the Blogworlds since the beginning and this year I'm in LA for the 2011 Expo. In the past, I've blogged right from the conference sessions, but this year I'm going retro and am not bringing my laptop. For one thing, I didn't get many hits on my posts and for another, my new laptop is basically a Lamborghini, both in speed and size. I don't want to sit with a sports car on my lap all day, so it's not coming into the buildng with me.

Instead, I'm going to be That Weird Guy Over There Who Clearly Doesn't Get This Whole Blogging Thing and will take notes with pen and paper. I'm bringing my camera, so I'll get some shots, but I'll wait until tonight to post them and my takes from the day's sessions here.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come - Capping Loan Payments

President Obama feels the pain of the poor college students who have taken out six-figure loans and are now expected to pay them back. Here's his proposal.

That’s why we’re making changes that will give about 1.6 million students the ability to cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their income starting next year.

I like this idea and think it needs to be extended to other areas as well. How about these:

• We will give you the ability to cap your tax payments to 10 percent of your income.


• We will give you the ability to cap your house payments to 10 percent of your income.


• We will give you the ability to cap your car payments to 10 percent of your income.


• We will give you the ability to cap your credit card payments to 10 percent of your income.

I think this will get America working again. After all, if we do this, I can afford a $2.5M home, a Lotus Exige and $350,000 in credit card debt. Talk about throwing the economy into high gear! Pass this bill, Mr. Heartless Republican Plutocrat Homophobe Racist!

A Lotus Exige. We can't wait!

A Little More On That Greek Referendum

Two caveats. First, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, quoted below, likes apocalyptic scenarios and dislikes the EU. Second, it's possible that the Greek Parliament may find a way to stop the referendum on the debt deal before it goes much farther. Having said that, Ambrose made some good points in his column yesterday afternoon.

The spokesman of French president Nicolas Sarkozy ... said the move was “irrational and dangerous”. Rainer Brüderle, Bundestag leader of the Free Democrats, said the Greeks appear to be “wriggling out” of a solemn commitment. They face outright bankruptcy, he blustered.

Well yes, but at least the Greeks are stripping away the self-serving claims of the creditor states that their “rescue” loan packages are to “save Greece”.

They are nothing of the sort. Greece has been subjected to the greatest fiscal squeeze ever attempted in a modern industrial state, without any offsetting monetary stimulus or devaluation.

The economy has so far collapsed by 14pc to 16pc since the peak – depending who you ask – and is spiralling downwards at a vertiginous pace.

The debt has exploded under the EU-IMF Troika programme. It is heading for 180pc of GDP by next year. Even under the haircut deal, Greek debt will be 120pc of GDP in 2020 after nine years of depression. That is not cure, it is a punitive sentence.

... The Greeks were made to suffer IMF austerity without the usual IMF cure. This was done for one purpose only, to buy time for banks and other Club Med states to beef up their defences ...

(L)ike the Spartans, Thebans, and Thespians at the Pass of Thermopylae, the Greeks were sacrificed to buy time for the alliance.

I would argue that the cause of the credit crisis has been a societal one - a belief in a secular Santa Claus. If you voted the right way, the government would shower gifts upon you, gifts that came from ... from ... from, well, from somewhere. Perhaps it was magic. In any case, you didn't have to work and save, you could just have what you wanted. Sort of like that magic piece of plastic you carry around that lets you buy whatever you want, only with many fewer and much smaller bills sent to your door.

The dream of every OWS protestor. Magical money.
So the Greeks have been getting a good, old-fashioned caning for doing exactly what the rest of Europe, the US and Japan have been doing for decades. We're teaching them a lesson and looking on them in scorn for having done it faster and more flagrantly than we did. Why shouldn't they call a referendum? Why not flip all of their creditors the bird and go back to the drachma?

You don't think we're going to pay our creditors back, do you?