April 24, 2010

Naked Economics (and some other random crap)

Has anyone read this book? I picked it up yesterday at Barnes and Noble because the title caught my eye and because I am revisiting Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the wake of the current financial crisis. (Just trying to see if it rings any more true now than it did before. So far the answer is no.) Anyway I am about a chapter in and so far it seems a pretty coherent explanation of economic principles without all the math mumbo jumbo.

Speaking of the financial crisis:  For some interesting viewing watch The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Warning and then compare the players in the Enron scandal, the 1998 problems and look at who got bailouts.  To me there seemed to be some correlation.  If you watch "The Warning" one of the things that jumps out is just how intellectually dishonest Lawrence Summers is.

Finally, I don't know if anyone ever participates in these things but this year The Big Read is "The Things They Carried" which is about infantrymen in Vietnam. I don't think I will be doing any of the discussion groups but I am going to read the book just to be part of the cultural zeitgeist (didn't think I knew that word did you).

*Disclosure - the book links go to my Amazon page.  If you buy anything there I get a kickback.*

Posted by: chad98036 at 03:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Dead by cubicle

Some guy in a telemarketing company has shown me a use for Twitter.
It's about funny as he notes some of the.... problems with the staff.

Many employees begin to complain about Lori's distinct "pelvic odor." I am too distracted by her crystal meth smile to notice.
...
Dee hasn't shown up for a week because her husband pushed her into a plate glass window. No one knows what to put on the attendance sheet.
...
During lunch, Alonzo slams his girlfriend's head into a keyboard. I immediately wonder how long it will take the I.T. guy to replace it.

It's funny because it's not me.
I forget where I saw this. Sorry.

Posted by: Veeshir at 07:42 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Once in a while...

...rules are meant to be broken. And this is, I'm pretty sure, only the second time that I've broken the rule about linking anything written by Andrew Sullivan.

I hate to drive any traffic his way, but Fair Use is the law, and I would have to quote his entire post in order to demonstrate just how hilariously stupid it is.

Okay, here's a sample:

And that means the uncomfortable task for real conservatives of stoutly defending this president as the best option we now have. The epistemic closure on the right is how other conservatives still manage to blind themselves to the pragmatic virtues of this president's remarkable 15 month record at home and abroad.
To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds (who is mentioned in Sullivan's clusterfuck about "real conservatives"), read the whole heh fucking incomprehensible mess indeed.

Posted by: Sean M. at 05:29 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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April 23, 2010

Draw Mohammed Day

May 20th, we'll be accepting drawings/paintings, anything of Mohammed and posting them on the blog.

Because?

Fuck censorship.  Fuck your stupid limitations on human expression.

Grow up.  Get over it. 

Send any submissions to dpudtips -at- gmail -dot- com.  Don't be overly offensive.  That's not the point.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:14 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Bare breasts for SCIENCE!

I don't know how the author of this diabolically brilliant plan is going to feel about me pimping said diabolically brilliant plan on a foul-mouthed conservative blog, since the descriptor on her blog is that she is a "liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted atheist feminist trapped in Indiana," who has written at least one post about evil teabaggers.  I can't help it, though, because it's fucking brilliant, and, damnit, all the wimmins should participate.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you - Boobquake

This brilliant experiment is designed to combat the obviously fucking stupid prattling of a senior Iranian cleric who decided to finally connect the dots and say that earthquakes are 'cause women dress like whores.  (I think he may have used the word "immodestly" in place of "like whores".  Maybe.)  The idea is that women throughout America wear "immodest" clothing on Monday, 4/26.  (She wisely points out that what you deem immodest and what I deem immodest might be different things.  Since I have been paid to pose in a corset and a tutu on a stripper-pole, she's probably right.) 

In the name of SCIENCE!, she will monitor the number of earthquakes that occur on 4/26 to see if, in fact, the 112,000+ women who have committed to the Facechimp event caused more earthquakes to happen.

Ladies - just remember.  It's for science.

Posted by: Ember at 09:43 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Second time's the charm?

I'm getting a "1990s" vibe out of this. (I figured I'd throw the puppy blender some traffic)
Quoth John Kass
Obama’s former patron and real estate fairy, the convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko, is a key player in the government’s case. Blagojevich’s aim is to undercut what Rezko has told investigators. And now Blago wants the president to do the undercutting from the witness stand, with the nation riveted to his every recollection of his days in Chicago politics, hanging with Tony and the guys, with the midterm November elections approaching.”

Quoth the blender of puppies:
Or, you know, to make the case go away.

Think about that. First, I'm not thinking about the elections, I'm thinking about the players in this little drama. They're Chicago machine politicians. Only Daley himself could be more at the center of everything.
They're used to Chicago politics and Obama is used to a compliant press.
So what happens if they do make it just go away or other shenanigans go on? Sure most Minitru outlets will go along, but not all.
And what happens if people's stories start not matching up? Are Obama's peeps going to take the fall the way Clintonistas would?
Imagine a replay of the 90s, except this time a little different.
Now if we can just keep the GOP from nominating Bob Dole, we'll be all set.

Posted by: Veeshir at 08:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Dodd #FinReg bill will cripple Angel Investing

So sayeth Angel Investor (and former Congressional candidate) Steve Welch [emphasis added]:

In its current state, Senator Chris Dodd’s legislation would make two sweeping changes to the way in which angel investors and entrepreneurs can operate. First, the bill would redefine who would be qualified to be an angel investor. Currently, individuals with either $1 million in investable assets or $250,000 in income qualify as accredited investors. The new bill would change this to individuals with $2.3 million in assets or $450,000 in income. According to the Kauffman Foundation, this would eliminate 77 percent of accredited investors. This would single-handedly reduce the amount of capital available to early stage businesses and stunt our much needed job creation.

In addition, the bill would require any company attempting to raise angel investment to seek SEC approval, which would take up to 4 months. As an active angel investor myself, I can say with certainty that companies in this stage can rarely wait four months for funding. They will simply be forced to close up shop.
Please go read the whole thing.

Posted by: JoeCollins at 06:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I Heart Arizona

I forgive Arizona for John McCain.  Awesomeness like this deserves respect.

Arizona's governor has signed into law an immigration bill seen as one of the toughest in the US, despite strong criticism by President Barack Obama.

The bill signed by Governor Jan Brewer will require state police to question people about their immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion".

The bill - which takes effect in 90 days - also makes it a crime under state law to be in the US illegally.

President Obama has described the law in the US border state as "misguided".

Gov Brewer signed the bill into law live on television, saying it "protects every Arizona citizen".

She said the measure would strengthen border controls in the state, which borders Mexico.

The governor also said she had to act because the federal government had failed to tackle illegal immigration.

It goes on to say that Teh Won has asked the Justice Department to review the legality of this law, 'cause it might be mean and discriminatry against hispanics and stuff.  I know, shocking that he would say that, right?

Posted by: Ember at 05:35 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak

Apcray, updated below the fold with Stylebook required, possibly mostly but maybe not safe for work pic from the movie.
Well, Amazon came through. it was in the mail.
I haven't seen it since the mid 80s at the latest so I didn't remember the movie so much as remember that I loved it.
I had a girlfriend who "lost" a lot of my favorite stuff when she moved in. It still pisses me off.
It's not quite Megashark vs Giant Octopus, but it's the movie Sci Fi wishes they could make.

The plot is silly, Tawny ran away from her convent with her friend in a crate because of a dream (you learn that in the first 5 minutes) and ended up in a crime-ridden Asian cities with slavers, cutthroats and loose women and then set off through jungles, rivers, swamps, murderous pirates, savages and the worst desert in the world to get a rare butterfly after her father disappears on just that mission
The fight scenes are poorly choreographed and acted, Tawny Kitaen cannot fake cry to save her life and the hero is about as cheesy as cheesy can be.

It would actually be a good Sci Fi movie if not for the R rating.
I'd rate it as definitely above Sasquatch Mountain and Ogre, it's up there with Pteradactyl (which is high praise from me).

But....It's not a TV movie, it's very early Skinemax.
We learn that Tawny can fake having sex as well as, if not better than, Meg Ryan and that she has spectacular breasts.
She doesn't flash them the way every other of the dozens of actresses do. Except for here and there you have to work for it with Tawny, surprisingly enough. Maybe she still had fantasies of being an actress at that time.

The rest of the actresses aren't so reticent.
This movie has one of the highest breast/frame ratios I've ever seen and its hot-butts in thongs/frame ratio is nothing to sneeze at either.

I can also say, without hyperbole, that it has absolutely the greatest chariot race ever filmed. It's absolutely stunning.
I sincerely hope it was based on a Charlton Heston/Hugh Hefner party.
4 or 5 chariots were each pulled around a track by 3 half nekkid women as the half nekkid drivers fought. They actually crashed just like horses would and the chariot would tumble over them.
It was obviously meant to resemble Ben Hur except it was a lot less dusty and hairy and a lot more breasty, assy and leggy.

As good as I remember. It was slow at times with some laugh out loud moments. Well worth the effort if for nothing but the chariot scene.

Three thumbs up.
more...

Posted by: Veeshir at 05:29 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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In which I admit I don't know what to do

This is an utterly depressing article about the state of Africa today.  I'll admit it, I try not to think about what's going on in much of Africa because it's far too depressing.  Prof. Reynolds linked to this and commented that this is the state of nature.  This is what civilization is designed to combat. 

I'm trying to hunt down the link, but I recently read that there are now more human beings in slavery then there were at the height of what we consider the slave trade.  That's so horrifying that my mind simply stops.  It's as if those words make sense individually but not in a row.  It's 2010.  How can there still be slavery?  Oh, I understand intellectually that mankind is fallen and is innately corrupt.  Reading about human trafficking and war by rape and the Eastern European sex slavery rings and all the rest is just too much.

Do I have a solution?  No.  No, I don't know what to do.  I can't even begin to wrap my mind around where to start.  There are portions of Africa where the most basic elements of society, such as not beating to death newborn babies, must be rebuilt. 

The one thing I do know?  I will hit my knees tonight and thank God with every fiber of my being that I was born in America.  It is a blessing beyond compare. 


Posted by: alexthechick at 12:44 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Tell Me Once Again Who The Intolerant Ones Are

By now, I am sure you have seen this story, but what a fucking joke this is.

Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district.

"I outed him as a straight person," Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, "and now he goes around telling people, quote, 'I swing both ways.' That's quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy's a gem."

Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs' comments offensive.

"That kind of taunting is going to make it more difficult for closeted members of the LGBT community to be comfortable with themselves," Kravitz said. "It's damaging."



Again, note the political party behind this squabble, and tell me that the GOP has a "Teh Ghey Bashing" problem. Go on, I'll wait.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:15 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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We're gonna need a bigger blog!

Behold! The Sharky Tea Infuser



As a friend of mine said, add some roobios and a little Lego person and tea time just became AWESOME.

Sadly, it looks this isn't in production yet.  The universe should not taunt Happy Fun Alex like that. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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What, no Holocaust references?

Hey, if it was my shady, arguably criminal organization under scrutiny ox that was being gored, I might think the whole situation was kind of dire, too:

McCarthyism? Jim Crow? Segregation? Japanese internment?

Child's play. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis says the times people are living in now will "dwarf" all those stains on America's history. And she points to the Tea Party movement -- or "bowel movement," in her words -- as a harbinger of the persecution to come.

Oh, but, wait. While that's interesting, here's my favorite part...

"They are coming. And they are coming after you," the embattled head of ACORN said during a talk last month to the Young Democratic Socialists, the youth branch of the Democratic Socialists, the U.S. branch of the Socialist International.

It should be noted, of course, that President Obama has never, ever worked in conjunction with ACORN. Furthermore, any implication that he might harbor socialist sympathies is beyond the pale. Because"socialist" is a racist code word...

"Any group that says, 'I'm young, I'm Democratic, and I'm a socialist,' is all right with me..."

Lewis, is, um, a notorious white supremacist who hates Barack Obama.

Yeah.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:47 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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April 22, 2010

Iowahawk's yearly Earth Day celebration

All I have to say is I want those Packards and that DeVille, that Plymouth coupe is awesome too.  Why can't car companies just make me a car that looks like that?  Sure, I can accept some compromise for modern reliability and safety, but where is the style anymore?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Socialism: Moron-Style!

You know, this is so close to making sense it's scary.
In this bar, some of the costs are covered by taxpayer money from the city treasury. ... Most of the people who frequent the place are serious alcoholics and are allowed to bring their own cheap beer and sangria. The bar itself only serves soft drinks and strong coffee.

So instead of having their drunken bums littering the streets they have them sitting in a tax-funded place giving them mixers.

Think of it as a salt lick for hobos.

Instant update
Via the Jawas who linked Interested Participant, which blog I should be reading but there's just so much blog reading in a day.

Posted by: Veeshir at 06:35 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Preach it Brother!

As someone who deals with lawyers for a living I have to say this judge is one of my heroes.
Quote
...“Compare the meaning of ‘Now, therefore, it may be and is hereby ordered that' with ‘It is ordered.’ ”
Kressel also observes that “lawyers love to capitalize words. ...not quite randomly, but certainly with great abandon.


There's more juicy, how-about-you-write-what-you-mean? goodness and a PDF with the guidelines at the link.

I have to admit that when I'm responding to especially verbose and ignorant (it's funny how often they go together) attorneys I try to put in lots of that high-faluting lawyer talk with "whereby"s and "heretofore"s. I'll occasionally go overboard on "thusly"s, but I like them.
I really get into talking about myself in the third person. That makes me laugh every single time.

Via a guy I work with. You wouldn't know him and I don't want him reading the blog. He's one of the few people at that office who likes me. I'm the evil conservative, global worming denying, gun-monger who doesn't think Bush is evil on the 5th floor, he's a Vietnamese boat person who got here as a child shortly after Saigon fell. He's kinda conservative. (Gee, ya think?)
He's even more disliked than I am. He hasn't learned to keep his mouth shut and over the past 4 or so years my floor turned from weird geeks to hard leftists.

Posted by: Veeshir at 02:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Those damn Hawaiians are screwing up everything

First one of them becomes President and starts dismantling the country piece by piece, now some 17 year old girl decides to screw up 2000 years of Geometry by making it easier to find the area of a triangle.

What is it with these people?


Posted by: chad98036 at 01:58 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Philly politician outed -- as straight

In the city of brotherly love, Democratic State Rep Babette Josephs outed her primary opponent Gregg Kravitz as not being bisexual, but straight.

"I outed him as a straight person," Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, "and now he goes around telling people, quote, 'I swing both ways.' That's quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy's a gem."

Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs' comments offensive.

"That kind of taunting is going to make it more difficult for closeted members of the LGBT community to be comfortable with themselves," Kravitz said. "It's damaging."

In case you didn't pick up on it, this is another red-on-red situation. Score!

Posted by: JoeCollins at 01:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Disgraceful

I almost forgot, Comedy Central censored the hell out of last night's South Park Episode going so far as to censor even the use of the word Mohammad.  Of course, images of Bhudda snorting cocaine and Jesus making cum jokes was totally cool by them.

Fucking spineless, douchetools.  I don't know why Trey and Matt don't tell them to get throat-fucked by a horse and go independent.  I'm sure they have enough money and the internet would provide more than enough exposure. 

They finally have the creative freedom not allowed by that bunch of ball-gagged extremist rape-slaves.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:08 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Ask A Moron

Alright morons, I've been working on my super secret project for a while now but I'm ready for some questions and to finish my long-overdue Zombie question.

Anyway, I demand that you ask me some stupid questions starting now.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 09:07 AM | Comments (57) | Add Comment
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