This year, my daughter went to school dressed as a cop. Sort of a Serpico cop, wearing mostly denim. They don't allow toy guns, so instead of a gun, she just held her hands together in a gun shape and shot at people this morning around the house before going to school. A lot. Here's a set of cop sayings as I believe she would interpret them.
"You have the right to remain dead!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Come out with your hands up! You're easier to shoot that way!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, it hardly matters!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Did you see anything suspicious? Did it look like this?" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Your registration has expired! And so have you!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Do you know how fast you were going? It wasn't faster than a bullet!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"I'll get you and your little dog, too!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
That last one isn't very cop-like, but in our house it just works. Hope y'all have a great Halloween!
Links: Over at The Temple of Mut, Halloween is being celebrated most, err, EgyptianGoddessally!
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Beach Boys And Church
... make an odd combination, but there it is.
We were at Mass yesterday and right as the priest was starting his homily, the sound system developed a strange feedback effect that sounded like nothing so much as the electronic rhythm at the beginning of the Beach Boys' Do It Again. I love that song anyway, so I didn't really need any more prompting to post it.
Enjoy.
We were at Mass yesterday and right as the priest was starting his homily, the sound system developed a strange feedback effect that sounded like nothing so much as the electronic rhythm at the beginning of the Beach Boys' Do It Again. I love that song anyway, so I didn't really need any more prompting to post it.
Enjoy.
San Diego Sunrise
I shot this one yesterday morning from my backyard with the camera pointed 90 degrees off of sunrise. I picked the angle because it gave me the best shot of the horizon. After playing with it, I've figured out I could do a lot better if I shoot from my upstairs balcony. It's only 60 seconds long, so it won't take too much of your time.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
European Shell Game
Greece is saved. That much we know. The Euro banks are going to take 50 cents on the dollar for Greek bonds so Greece doesn't have to pay back what it borrowed. Hurrah!
Not so fast.
The banks that loaned Greece that money rely on Greek bonds retaining their value in order to claim the reserves they need to loan money to businesses and to pay out money to depositors at the ATM. Now that the Greek bonds are cut in half, they need to restore their reserves from somewhere. Where are they going to get that cash? Well, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is going to provide that. And where does the EFSF get that money? It borrows it.
In effect, the obligation for the Greek debt has gone from Greece to the banks to the EFSF. EFSF debt is serviced by ... members of the EU ... who can't pay their bills now. The real backstop to this is the European Central Bank which can print money.
Guess who's going to end up paying the tab and how they're going to do it.
Mach schnell mit der Druckerpresse!
Not so fast.
The banks that loaned Greece that money rely on Greek bonds retaining their value in order to claim the reserves they need to loan money to businesses and to pay out money to depositors at the ATM. Now that the Greek bonds are cut in half, they need to restore their reserves from somewhere. Where are they going to get that cash? Well, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is going to provide that. And where does the EFSF get that money? It borrows it.
In effect, the obligation for the Greek debt has gone from Greece to the banks to the EFSF. EFSF debt is serviced by ... members of the EU ... who can't pay their bills now. The real backstop to this is the European Central Bank which can print money.
Guess who's going to end up paying the tab and how they're going to do it.
You Loaned A Company $529M So They Could Make A Sportscar For Multimillionaires
... but at least it is (mostly) all-electric. Don't you feel better now? Our Monks of Miscellaneous Musings have a video of the fellow who received our cash donations, err, loan.
In any case, meet the Fisker Karma.
$529M buys a whole lot of neighborhood drug rehab work and repairs on rundown schools. It can provide scholarships to deserving, underpriveleged kids. It can be given back to businesses who employ people. Best of all, it could be not borrowed in the first place. $529M can do a lot of things.
Right now it's building $100K sportscars. In Finland. For rich ecofreaks.
Awesome.
In any case, meet the Fisker Karma.
Business partners Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler are visibly on edge. While they want to dedicate every ounce of their focus on this all-important launch of their first baby, the 2012 Fisker Karma, their attentions are being constantly pulled away from it by big conference calls regarding the money and logistics of launching the whole Fisker Automotive franchise. Are they really and truly answering a $95,900-$108,900 question with this bold effort that enough people are asking? ...What's it look like, you ask? Try this.
By late 2009, Fisker Automotive was coming out of essentially a nine-month hiatus during which Lucifer rose from Hell and swallowed mankind whole. Or so we thought. But investors finally felt like investing again, and just short of half a billion bucks had been promised to our heroes, much of this attracted by the imminent huge loan being talked about from the Department of Energy. Everything rode on that razor edge – not just for the Karma itself, but also for any future plans. That $529 million loan from you and me came through in September 2009 and Fisker Automotive went directly from vaporware to a $1 billion, fully-funded company with big cigar-chomping (but from sustainable tobacco farms) plans.
$529M buys a whole lot of neighborhood drug rehab work and repairs on rundown schools. It can provide scholarships to deserving, underpriveleged kids. It can be given back to businesses who employ people. Best of all, it could be not borrowed in the first place. $529M can do a lot of things.
Right now it's building $100K sportscars. In Finland. For rich ecofreaks.
Awesome.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Losing The Future
... not winning it. Dig this.
The cordial 40-year-old Greek website designer Thanos Sioris never dreamed he would spend his life with his wife and son anywhere but at home in Greece, where he worked hard for 12 years to build up his company.They "invested" in their country to the point where their younger generation of top talent is leaving. That doesn't sound like Winning the Future to me.
But the debt crisis that has rocked the euro zone abruptly shattered his world. The country's worst recession in 40 years and skyrocketing taxes are now threatening his business and forcing him to uproot his family to survive.
"Here in Greece, everything is so depressing and so expensive ... My clients are closing down, firing staff, they owe money to banks," Sioris said as he prepared to leave for Hong Kong for one month to develop contacts there.
"Why live here without work, without income?"
Sioris, who is making plans to move to the Asian financial center by next summer, is part of a new wave of emigration of thousands of qualified Greeks seeking to escape their country's record high unemployment.
Must-See Movie: The Way
Last night, my wife and I went out and saw The Way.
I can't recommend this film highly enough.
I found the trailer for the movie on YouTube, but I fear it gives away too much. Instead, here's a tiny clip of Emilio Estevez, the director and producer and Martin Sheen, the star, discussing the film.
The movie is beautiful on so many levels. It follows the path of a grieving father who decides to walk a pilgrimage road from southern France into Spain. It's one of the deepest and most moving films I've ever seen.
It's not going to be around long in the theaters. The cinematography makes it worth seeing on the big screen. Go see it if you get the chance.
I can't recommend this film highly enough.
I found the trailer for the movie on YouTube, but I fear it gives away too much. Instead, here's a tiny clip of Emilio Estevez, the director and producer and Martin Sheen, the star, discussing the film.
The movie is beautiful on so many levels. It follows the path of a grieving father who decides to walk a pilgrimage road from southern France into Spain. It's one of the deepest and most moving films I've ever seen.
It's not going to be around long in the theaters. The cinematography makes it worth seeing on the big screen. Go see it if you get the chance.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Occupy Cupertino, Dude
Seriously.
This was a nasty, vindictive man who laid off workers en masse, bragged about stealing ideas from competitors, belittled his employees with screaming tirades laced with oaths and imprecations, overburdened them with heinous work schedules, cheated his best friends and oldest colleagues when it came time to distribute shares, outsourced everything he could to Chinese factories that employ child labor under dangerous conditions, practiced a cruel Darwinian meritocracy that disdained diversity, lied constantly out of pure habit, sicced the government on his chief business rival, possessed a “Nietzschean attitude that ordinary rules didn’t apply to him”, and even denied paternity of his firstborn child. Then he took credit for the work he practically whipped out of people while posing as a benevolent sage.
Grillades and Grits
I made this last night and it was delicious! It's my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant in the DC area, Southside 815. I used this recipe for the Grillades and Grits, this one for the seasoned flour and this one for the cheese grits. Note: I used cheese grits rather than normal grits as that's what they do at Southside.
The result: Pure deliciousness!
The result: Pure deliciousness!
Film Noir Bible Research
At the suggestion of a local parish priest, I'm listening to Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Lee was a legal reporter for the Chicago Tribune who was an atheist. When his wife converted to Christianity, he decided to research this Jesus fellow in the manner of his court reporting.
The Audible version is read by Dick Fredricks like a film noir narration. It makes the whole thing come across like an old movie. It's a little distracting, but in a fun way. As the story moves along, Lee interviewing one scholar after another, trying to get to the truth of the matter, I imagine him in a smoke-filled office, fingering the .45 in his pocket, wondering if the suspect he's grilling is lying to him or is about to pull out a gun and shoot him.
The Romans had found him guilty and executed him, but something just seemed fishy to me. A couple of phone calls had led me to ask some questions the cops didn't want asked. When I returned to my office, they were there waiting for me. It was going to be a long night.
The Audible version is read by Dick Fredricks like a film noir narration. It makes the whole thing come across like an old movie. It's a little distracting, but in a fun way. As the story moves along, Lee interviewing one scholar after another, trying to get to the truth of the matter, I imagine him in a smoke-filled office, fingering the .45 in his pocket, wondering if the suspect he's grilling is lying to him or is about to pull out a gun and shoot him.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
White, Southern Tea Partiers Are Racist
We know this because they are the intersection of two known racist groups - the Tea Party and white Southerners.
Right?
Right?
Mitt Romney Has Real World Business Experience
... or so they say. He makes the most boneheaded marketing errors, so I'm not sure about the whole thing.
Left Coast Rebel has the round up on Mittens' latest foray into the world of Edsel and New Coke. Ohio governor John Kasich is trying to face down the public employee unions whose pensions and contracts are threatening to do to Ohio what they did to Rhode Island. There's a controversial and unpopular ballot initiative that Kasich is supporting which tries to bring some fiscal sanity to Ohio. When questioned, Mitt refused to support it.
Huh?
Mitt's biggest problem is that he is seen as a spineless worm, someone full of blather, but not full of fight. Here was a chance to flex his biceps without any risk at all. The general election voters would never know or remember his support for the initiative, but the primary voters, particularly the Tea Party and punditry zealots, noticed it immediately. It was another wimp-out by Mittens.
Mr. Capitalism had a chance to deal with his biggest marketing problem for free and he didn't understand his own marketing problems enough to take it. I don't think he's the business genius everyone says he is.
Over at Ricochet, they're going bonkers against Mitt as well. I think a lot of big name Republicans stayed out of the race for fear of Mitt and his "organization" and money. I don't think it will be too long before they smack their foreheads in anguish, realizing that Mitt is nothing more than inert material, going nowhere. You can effectively remove his 23% support from the polls and use the rest to figure out who is going to win the nomination. Chris Christie, in particular, really blew it.
Left Coast Rebel has the round up on Mittens' latest foray into the world of Edsel and New Coke. Ohio governor John Kasich is trying to face down the public employee unions whose pensions and contracts are threatening to do to Ohio what they did to Rhode Island. There's a controversial and unpopular ballot initiative that Kasich is supporting which tries to bring some fiscal sanity to Ohio. When questioned, Mitt refused to support it.
Huh?
Mitt's biggest problem is that he is seen as a spineless worm, someone full of blather, but not full of fight. Here was a chance to flex his biceps without any risk at all. The general election voters would never know or remember his support for the initiative, but the primary voters, particularly the Tea Party and punditry zealots, noticed it immediately. It was another wimp-out by Mittens.
Mr. Capitalism had a chance to deal with his biggest marketing problem for free and he didn't understand his own marketing problems enough to take it. I don't think he's the business genius everyone says he is.
Over at Ricochet, they're going bonkers against Mitt as well. I think a lot of big name Republicans stayed out of the race for fear of Mitt and his "organization" and money. I don't think it will be too long before they smack their foreheads in anguish, realizing that Mitt is nothing more than inert material, going nowhere. You can effectively remove his 23% support from the polls and use the rest to figure out who is going to win the nomination. Chris Christie, in particular, really blew it.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Dear OWS, Rhode Island Is Bankrupt
Deep blue Rhode Island has bankrupted itself through government compassion.
I've spent a lot of time on this blog pondering what it must be like to live in Greece where the government has bankrupted the nation through hopelessly generous social spending and public employee pay. How is it possible that the populace is rioting for yet more money when they've already spent everything they've got and all of the future's money, too? How does the human brain handle that cognitive dissonance?
Wonder no more, my friends, because the Occupy Providence movement is here to answer that question. That link takes you to their website. For the life of me, I can't make heads or tails of the thing. It's worth popping over to it and spending some time clicking around. Please let me know if you see anything even resembling coherent demands. To me, it looks like a transcript from a particularly politically-obsessed sleepover by a bunch of 14-year-olds. It's like a posh private school's Model UN gone very, very wrong.
If Occupy Providence is any guide, the answer to the Greek conundrum is just about what it seems. Decades of compassion have divorced the population from reality to the point where they think they can vote themselves money - the primary business of the nation is politics. When the money spigot gets shut off, their only answer is political action.
Good luck with that.
ON the night of Sept. 8, Gina M. Raimondo, a financier by trade, rolled up here with news no one wanted to hear: Rhode Island, she declared, was going broke...Meanwhile, the OWS movement has metastasized yet again and is now showing up as malignant in Providence.
After decades of drift, denial and inaction, Rhode Island’s $14.8 billion pension system is in crisis. Ten cents of every state tax dollar now goes to retired public workers. Before long, Ms. Raimondo has been cautioning in whistle-stops here and across the state, that figure will climb perilously toward 20 cents. But the scary thing is that no one really knows. The Providence Journal recently tried to count all the municipal pension plans outside the state system and stopped at 155, conceding that it might have missed some. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions, including the big one: Are these numbers for real?
“We’re in the fight of our lives for the future of this state,” Ms. Raimondo said in a recent interview. And if the fight is lost? “Either the pension fund runs out of money or cities go bankrupt.”
I've spent a lot of time on this blog pondering what it must be like to live in Greece where the government has bankrupted the nation through hopelessly generous social spending and public employee pay. How is it possible that the populace is rioting for yet more money when they've already spent everything they've got and all of the future's money, too? How does the human brain handle that cognitive dissonance?
Wonder no more, my friends, because the Occupy Providence movement is here to answer that question. That link takes you to their website. For the life of me, I can't make heads or tails of the thing. It's worth popping over to it and spending some time clicking around. Please let me know if you see anything even resembling coherent demands. To me, it looks like a transcript from a particularly politically-obsessed sleepover by a bunch of 14-year-olds. It's like a posh private school's Model UN gone very, very wrong.
If Occupy Providence is any guide, the answer to the Greek conundrum is just about what it seems. Decades of compassion have divorced the population from reality to the point where they think they can vote themselves money - the primary business of the nation is politics. When the money spigot gets shut off, their only answer is political action.
Good luck with that.
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Best Bond Girl Of All Time - Janice Rule
... and she wasn't even in a Bond film. Let's just call her the best Spy Girl of all time.
Janice plays Sheila Sommers in the Matt Helm spy spoof, The Ambushers. Dean Martin is Matt Helm and the movie is over-the-top camp with Dino leering and drinking his way through the scenes. The plot is thin, the extras are silly and the gadgets are ridiculous. Having said that, the chemistry between Dean Martin and Janice Rule is terrific. Unlike the wooden sex toys that are the Bond girls, Janice's character is sassy and fun. The interplay between the two of them is on par with The Thin Man love-sparring between William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Janice and Dino. A great combination.
It may be that the lively, perhaps ad-libbed banter between these two would have been impossible in a Bond movie where they had to at least try to be serious. The only Bond girl that comes close to Janice's joie de vivre is Miss Moneypenny and that's probably because she was played for laughs - the running joke being that she would never win James Bond.
The Ambushers is not a great movie or even a decent spy film. It's a fun way to blow 90 minutes and wonder what the Bond films could have been like had they been a little more human.
Janice plays Sheila Sommers in the Matt Helm spy spoof, The Ambushers. Dean Martin is Matt Helm and the movie is over-the-top camp with Dino leering and drinking his way through the scenes. The plot is thin, the extras are silly and the gadgets are ridiculous. Having said that, the chemistry between Dean Martin and Janice Rule is terrific. Unlike the wooden sex toys that are the Bond girls, Janice's character is sassy and fun. The interplay between the two of them is on par with The Thin Man love-sparring between William Powell and Myrna Loy.
It may be that the lively, perhaps ad-libbed banter between these two would have been impossible in a Bond movie where they had to at least try to be serious. The only Bond girl that comes close to Janice's joie de vivre is Miss Moneypenny and that's probably because she was played for laughs - the running joke being that she would never win James Bond.
The Ambushers is not a great movie or even a decent spy film. It's a fun way to blow 90 minutes and wonder what the Bond films could have been like had they been a little more human.
Why Aren't Actors Buddhist?
... or Hindu?
Over the weekend, I listened to Shatner Rules: Your Key to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large. It's William Shatner's reflections on life at age 80 and it's a lot of fun. While he's not terribly deep, he's charming, entertaining and thoroughly understands his success.
Shatner spends most of the book giving you rules for living illustrated by cute anecdotes from his life. There is a brief detour into seriousness where he talks about the environment and how he thinks we're all going to die because we're killing the planet, but the audiobook is well-constructed and it's easy to flip to the next chapter.
Shatner's sophistication is confined to life and career advice. His science and metaphysics leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, he spends very little time on those. Having said that, as he is 80, Shatner reflects on his own mortality near the end of the book and spends a little time stumbling around the meaning of life. (Hint: his conclusion involves having fun.) He refers to himself as a Jewish boy from Montreal, but that reference just illustrates his ignorance.
Rule: You can't claim to be Jewish if you don't go to synagogue and you profess your atheism / agnosticism in your book.
When he was younger, Shatner fashionably visited the Himalayas to find enlightenment. What happened? Whatever his experiences might have been, they didn't take root. From the existential questions he poses at the end of the book, it's clear that there was no serious change in him from the experience.
Before: Act, ride horses, party.
After: Act, ride horses, party.
Rule: A trip to find enlightenment that only results in a couple of brief anecdotes is called a "vacation".
Shatner's not the only one of the Hollywood set to have gone to Tibet. So why doesn't Studio City have more Buddhist temples?
This is not a photo from Hollywood and Vine.
Over the weekend, I listened to Shatner Rules: Your Key to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large. It's William Shatner's reflections on life at age 80 and it's a lot of fun. While he's not terribly deep, he's charming, entertaining and thoroughly understands his success.
Shatner spends most of the book giving you rules for living illustrated by cute anecdotes from his life. There is a brief detour into seriousness where he talks about the environment and how he thinks we're all going to die because we're killing the planet, but the audiobook is well-constructed and it's easy to flip to the next chapter.
Shatner's sophistication is confined to life and career advice. His science and metaphysics leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, he spends very little time on those. Having said that, as he is 80, Shatner reflects on his own mortality near the end of the book and spends a little time stumbling around the meaning of life. (Hint: his conclusion involves having fun.) He refers to himself as a Jewish boy from Montreal, but that reference just illustrates his ignorance.
Rule: You can't claim to be Jewish if you don't go to synagogue and you profess your atheism / agnosticism in your book.
When he was younger, Shatner fashionably visited the Himalayas to find enlightenment. What happened? Whatever his experiences might have been, they didn't take root. From the existential questions he poses at the end of the book, it's clear that there was no serious change in him from the experience.
Before: Act, ride horses, party.
After: Act, ride horses, party.
Rule: A trip to find enlightenment that only results in a couple of brief anecdotes is called a "vacation".
Shatner's not the only one of the Hollywood set to have gone to Tibet. So why doesn't Studio City have more Buddhist temples?
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Mitt Romney Has A Superb Campaign Organization
... and I hope they've all got day jobs on the side.
Politics is a sales job. The product is the candidate and the voters are the prospects. There are four different states for a prospect:
If I was one of his field operatives, I'd bring along a nice set of non-stick cookware to sell at the same time. At least I'd be able to see what success looked like.
The ScanPan is a top-of-the-line skillet and I can offer easy payments!
Politics is a sales job. The product is the candidate and the voters are the prospects. There are four different states for a prospect:
- He knows what you're selling and wants it. Easy sell!
- He doesn't know what you're selling, but wants what it does. A few demonstrations and you've probably got the sale!
- He doesn't know what you're selling and doesn't think he needs what it does. You have to convince him he needs it and that your product is the right choice. Tough job.
- He knows what you're selling and hates it. Get another product to sell because you're going to take a bath on this one!
If I was one of his field operatives, I'd bring along a nice set of non-stick cookware to sell at the same time. At least I'd be able to see what success looked like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)