tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64682512024-03-07T00:12:14.712-06:00Puddle of NothingplopRandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.comBlogger945125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-83315529259703696232010-07-14T07:56:00.003-05:002010-07-14T07:59:29.402-05:00Bad Haiku Day<em>the vacation not taken:</em><br /><br />magical kingdom<br />tribe wandering desert<br />unresolved issues<br /><br /><em>Zen Warrior:</em><br /><br />dharma dilletante<br />mind, body awakening<br />taekwondo, really?Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-19001699424525094502010-01-31T07:06:00.004-06:002010-02-01T12:27:41.171-06:00Could it be?I looked at my blog's site meter for the first time in ages this morning and saw that I had been visited by someone from a mythological locale:<br /><br />Location Continent : North America <br />Country : United States (Facts) <br />State : Alaska <br />City : Wasilla <br />Lat/Long : 61.5235, -149.5748 (Map) <br />Distance : 3,373 miles <br /><br />Could it really be her?Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-50441401173200956252009-12-30T07:51:00.013-06:002009-12-30T09:33:34.929-06:00Christmas 2009: Wow, it really worked this time!After numerous disasters (Christmas 2007, for example, was the worst day of my entire life), irritations, and disruptions, we finally had a Christmas go right. It went well enough that I no longer officially hate Christmas.<br /><br />We drove up to Alexandria on the 23rd, set up our tiny hotel tree, and wrapped presents. We took out the boys one at a time on XMAS Eve, Adam first. They opened their presents, then went about their usual Alex routines with us. Next year, we'll take Toby out first. He was very upset when we got to Home Deopt and it was already closed. He took a HD book back to school with him a couple of weeks ago and had me draw a Home Depot, so I suspect he had built up a HD visit in his mind for a while. It crushed him when we couldn't do it. Everything should still be open in the morning next year. We repeated the routines on Christmas Day, though we could only take them to the hotel and not to any of their other places, all of which were closed. After we returned Toby to St. Mary's on XMAS Eve, DW and I bought pizzas for the overnight staff at St. Mary's, delievered the pizzas to the school, then drove to Natchitoches, Louisiana, for that town's spectacular lights display. They've been at it for 83 years, and it's quite a sight--and it's well worth a holiday visit to Louisiana. I'm just saying. <br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpp8Z1hu4XoYqJFn_ngMc0kIQ3Tz79GU04SLa0DPCguDqAQH6M0vpU8xAJXDVdjkR6P28I6yzlm5M2Wx3GnOoI5ZIKvgk_S5QG13_Ax1rOi2SCE_TZBTzaUkULG7Jb24R25g0/s1600-h/DSC01098.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpp8Z1hu4XoYqJFn_ngMc0kIQ3Tz79GU04SLa0DPCguDqAQH6M0vpU8xAJXDVdjkR6P28I6yzlm5M2Wx3GnOoI5ZIKvgk_S5QG13_Ax1rOi2SCE_TZBTzaUkULG7Jb24R25g0/s320/DSC01098.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />The Boy Tree at our house. I gathered up all of the plush toys we've taken from the claw machines at WalMart and used them as ornaments. The crowning touch is having Bat-Man serve as the star, a suggestion DW made.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMJTohWXWFmIAKsF58IPAaZSDxb41Qms-4L6vNm_urqHyCS2dzdEwU__kIMjVqdp4BCq6A6YpIAN9rzuTJSAwTt-_kXh1mrGfPJuet1mvuazSpRK7LTVzZ2h7qcXBQrqECJ0a/s1600-h/DSC01094.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMJTohWXWFmIAKsF58IPAaZSDxb41Qms-4L6vNm_urqHyCS2dzdEwU__kIMjVqdp4BCq6A6YpIAN9rzuTJSAwTt-_kXh1mrGfPJuet1mvuazSpRK7LTVzZ2h7qcXBQrqECJ0a/s320/DSC01094.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />The Girl Tree at our house. It's pretty and elegant, and DW added more color to it this year.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioQUvtVX7cmarvZvzs8DPko28Dlkp59ZC-gDJOZrnmlupSKHdHPEiPTqsCSk-Xtv-FtAA3k7i2iVtA7PvTeHIhcowrvPpxVTBghwmhS-Ztie3_G3bTpas0Uq94bJRXUpmrBuJ2/s1600-h/DSC01100.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioQUvtVX7cmarvZvzs8DPko28Dlkp59ZC-gDJOZrnmlupSKHdHPEiPTqsCSk-Xtv-FtAA3k7i2iVtA7PvTeHIhcowrvPpxVTBghwmhS-Ztie3_G3bTpas0Uq94bJRXUpmrBuJ2/s320/DSC01100.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />DW brought home a little WalMart one day, and shortly thereafter I became attracted to the WalMart Cowboy Christmas village and its saloon, outhouse, and windmill. I'd never put up a village before.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQZXhw6htK0JhDHWR9eblVhhxgfMuUdMOHOybgbfM7W3VinNen5Qdqgovyxb94MNGc_m-uRsePIO-daYg0pP_pOSF3ZjLw7qwkTh0jhJ_Fl-ezxsUikSHXtl1gkYDiFLyhNCh/s1600-h/IMG_0138.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQZXhw6htK0JhDHWR9eblVhhxgfMuUdMOHOybgbfM7W3VinNen5Qdqgovyxb94MNGc_m-uRsePIO-daYg0pP_pOSF3ZjLw7qwkTh0jhJ_Fl-ezxsUikSHXtl1gkYDiFLyhNCh/s320/IMG_0138.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />DW and I visited Celebration in the Oaks in New Orleans City Park this year. Major fail. The lights looked like they were purchased at WalMart or Target, and half of them didn't work anyway. Celebration in the Oaks used to be a big deal, with fabulous light displays and other seasonal junk. Now it's like a dinky county fair. So sad. Thankfully, we saw <em>Avatar</em> just before we went there, so the evening was a net gain.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgY7q0sFKl5EnIpMudFGEwaklAyWYaBNH2OMVuNE1Vvlg-HL28kffvfMJVQGSbT3IRrtBPHP73LBQgub8NpwlsW790nqrqrpBK4ZTNRhTDxMlLrWQsL-66Vp07QgQXNu1KOZ4/s1600-h/IMG_0145.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgY7q0sFKl5EnIpMudFGEwaklAyWYaBNH2OMVuNE1Vvlg-HL28kffvfMJVQGSbT3IRrtBPHP73LBQgub8NpwlsW790nqrqrpBK4ZTNRhTDxMlLrWQsL-66Vp07QgQXNu1KOZ4/s320/IMG_0145.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />My best seasonal photo of Toby has him choosing the perfect cereal on Christmas Eve. He bought Cookie Crisp, which I had to eat after he left it at the hotel.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaMQ5j_R6L1E53WpBwdAx_cddT0giuZl4qnsnbbrWqHIVqUCmGULC8YnMavhvhqe9_R6T1LD6JK6BbNZd9dT4mW-rUzndv_agM6OkHRGjOAmy7zRm2AoKKUZzD4NvNtLCaqxdi/s1600-h/DSC01105.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaMQ5j_R6L1E53WpBwdAx_cddT0giuZl4qnsnbbrWqHIVqUCmGULC8YnMavhvhqe9_R6T1LD6JK6BbNZd9dT4mW-rUzndv_agM6OkHRGjOAmy7zRm2AoKKUZzD4NvNtLCaqxdi/s320/DSC01105.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />Adam opened his own presents this year, for the first time ever. He usually could care less about them, but he kept a few for himself this time around.<br /><div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfw-MEMHXxUKW2fi5Z7WSzgwcn4AZUErMvl-rUhisKZNnaV5wjQ8kPLmFR7GcSkBD-pk84Zmj657uzPB5AEVq_zWgmi5WvwxSuDUdOf3zmBRDaYr9_V4a_2UoY1cZCgGrIgRD/s1600-h/IMG_0165.JPG'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfw-MEMHXxUKW2fi5Z7WSzgwcn4AZUErMvl-rUhisKZNnaV5wjQ8kPLmFR7GcSkBD-pk84Zmj657uzPB5AEVq_zWgmi5WvwxSuDUdOf3zmBRDaYr9_V4a_2UoY1cZCgGrIgRD/s320/IMG_0165.JPG' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><br />Adam and I saw this unattended fire engine outside one of the local WalMarts during his post-holiday home visit. He had some fun with it. No, I didn't open the door and turn on the sirens and lights, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-75834215110285164322009-09-18T08:28:00.000-05:002009-09-18T08:29:41.309-05:00Hey, America, welcome to the dark side!<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-16-2009/back-in-black---angry-outbursts'>Back in Black - Angry Outbursts</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:248933' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes'>Daily Show<br/> Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-17-2009/heal-or-no-heal---medicine-brawl'>Healthcare Protests</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-7346592849784407942009-09-15T14:54:00.001-05:002009-09-15T14:54:40.818-05:00Fools and Their Money<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6442950-fool-s-gold-how-unrestrained-greed-corrupted-a-dream-shattered-global" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe: How an Ingenious Tribe of Bankers Rewrote ... Made a Fortune and Survived a Catastrophe" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yZ1nNq5OL._SX106_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6442950-fool-s-gold-how-unrestrained-greed-corrupted-a-dream-shattered-global">Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe: How an Ingenious Tribe of Bankers Rewrote ... Made a Fortune and Survived a Catastrophe</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/205355.Gillian_Tett">Gillian Tett</a><br/><br/><br />My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71312380">5 of 5 stars</a><br />I've done a fair amount of reading about the Panic of 2008, and Gillian Tett's "Fools Gold" explains the exotic investment instruments at the heart of the panic better than any other work I've read. A group of derivatives traders at J.P. Morgan created commoditized credit default swaps in the early 1990s as a way to move risk off the company's books, freeing up capital for lending and investment that otherwise would need to be held in reserve. Morgan made payments to AIG, which assumed the risk that Morgan's assets would go into default. Derivatives traders at other firms began assembling securities backed by subprime mortgages, trying to put together instruments that would be just risky enough to obtain returns but safe enough to obtain AAA ratings. They then paid AIG to assume the risk of the mortgages underlying those securities going bad. However, many institutions kept what they thought were the least risky of these mortgages on their own books, as they could not obtain much in the way of returns on the securities that they would back. The whole thing was unregulated by government, and the ratings agencies were easily bamboozled into turning poo into gold (as it turned out). As the cruddy mortgages went bad, AIG began to take on water. When the less risky mortgages went bad, the financial institutions themselves sank.<br /><br />Interestingly, J.P. Morgan did not get into the business of mortgage backed securities. Morgan's mathematicians could not put together a risk model with the kind of integrity to which they were accustomed. First, they had no data on what could happen if real estate values ever declined. Second, they had no long-term data on default rates for the kinds of subprime mortgages that proliferated in the early and mid 2000s. Moreover, Morgan/Chase chairman Jamie Dimon pushed the concept of a "fortress balance sheet" containing rock-solid assets on which the bank could rely if things went to hell. Dimon pushed Morgan's derivatives traders to investigate getting into the business of mortgage backed securities a couple of times, but, consistent with the notion of a "fortress balance sheet," he accepted the traders' reasons for staying away from that business. <br /><br />The book contains a brief account of the events leading to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy that turned a situation into a panic, and concludes with Tett's cultural analysis of U.S. and U.K. investment houses.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1063283-randy">View all my reviews >></a>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-25333091146125803752009-09-07T08:04:00.002-05:002009-09-07T08:51:28.789-05:00How did Kazakhstan get me to Logan, Utah?Your humble correspondent spent a few days last week at a knda, sorta family reunion (my favorite kind of reunion) in Logan, Utah, and the better part of one day in Rexburg, Idaho. This was an entirely people-centric trip, meaning that I did not go hiking in the Bear River Range or any other local adventures in which one cannot participate 'round these parts. Also, one of DW's old friends left open the possibility of getting together for dinner. With such a short turnaround (Friday-Tuesday), I thought it best not to make any meeting arrangements with my own Utah friends. DW's friend crapped out on us, but that may have been for the best, as it gave us a free day.<br /><br />Present at said reunion were gentle readers Bill and Karen, along with Superbaby Sammy, guests of honor gentle reader KA and her family, DW's other siblings, and DW's parents. KA's DH recently took a position at the Agency for International Development, and he will be posted in Kazakhstan. As we know from one recent motion picture, Kazakhstan is friendly to Americans:<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KbTS7320n64&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KbTS7320n64&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />KA's DH is an agricultural economist by profession, so I am looking forward to photos of the Kazakhstan branch of the family, decked out in native costumes, standing amidst amber waves of grain. Anyhow, their imminent move to Kazakstan for a couple of years led us to have a gathering.<br /><br />The most fun person to observe at this mini-reunion was gentle reader Bill, who came to town and bought two cars in one day. And he and gentle reader Karen signed on a house in Idaho that morning. It was fun to follow Bill's odyssey as he went to the dealership and back a few times until he and Karen obtained the right two cars. Talk about taking a plunge.<br /> <br />On Monday, DW and I drove up to Rexburg, Idaho, where one of DW's sisters had a baby as the rest of us were reunioning in Utah. Rexburg's welcoming sign is just a bit aggressive as to every other town in the United States--"America's Family Community." I'm sure most of the people there are very nice, but I kind of formed the impression that the town itself looks as if it's 1955 and built to stay that way. DW attended college there for one year, and she confirmed that it looked exactly the same as it did 20+ years ago. It might be interesting to set a cultural anthropologist loose there. But not in my SIL's neighborhood, which is jarringly new when compared to the town we drove through to get there. We had a great visit up there and hated to leave. <br /><br />Anyhow, that's my Utah trip in a nutshell.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-77849418897611043502009-08-17T09:59:00.001-05:002009-08-17T09:59:00.705-05:00iGoogle ExperimentI discovered iGoogle yesterday, G's customizable home page. There is a gadget for blogger, so I placed one on my page. Also, I may move from hotmail to gmail, but I'm not sure about that one yet. The one advantage to gmail is that it will push e-mails instantaneously to my iPhone, instead of having to have them pulled via a third-party app. Also, I had to replace my Apple Mobile Me calendar with a Google calendar recently in order to sync my laptop and iPhone reliably (Mobile Me for Windows is ridiculously bad). Interestingly, Google uses Microsoft's Exchange servers for sync, while Microsoft itself will not use its own Exchange servers so its Hotmail and Windows Live subscribers can sync to their iPhones. Gotta love companies that don't play nice together.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-443087076877589522009-08-13T13:23:00.002-05:002009-08-13T13:29:49.384-05:00Mad World<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1119352258" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=24664293001&playerId=1119352258&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="300" height="225" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><p></p><br />Season Three of <em>Mad Men</em> commences on Sunday night. We just finished Season Two on DVD. IMHO, the second season put this show on the level of the best television shows in history, right up there with <em>The Sopraons</em>, <em>Seinfeld</em>, and <em>The Real Housewives of New Jersey</em>.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-6039677367907246492009-07-24T08:12:00.003-05:002009-07-24T09:07:15.944-05:00Can I Run for President Now?In the interest of full disclosure to my fellow Americans, I have reviewed my copy of my original birth certificate, exactly as it was presented to me, black-outs and all. My middle name at birth is blacked out, so it could be Muhammad or Hussein. Moreover, the certificate doesn't indicate my race or religion, so it could be that I was born a Black Muslim. However, my pasty skin and blue eyes, and the apparent absence of mosques from Somervell County, Texas, in 1962 would seem to call into question these possibilities. But, hey, someone will need to lean on the Denton, Texas, 16th District Court to gain definitive answers to any questions about my middle name, race, or religion. I've given you all that I can. Now, can I run for President when Obama becomes ineligible for reelection in 2016?Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-1787479116409107102009-07-08T08:00:00.000-05:002009-07-08T08:02:45.001-05:00Puddle of Evil<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oIOTeIix-2c&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oIOTeIix-2c&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />DW and I watched the first two seasons of <em>Damages</em> in marathon sessions stretching over one week. Glenn Close stars as Patty Hewes, New York's most celebrated plaintiffs' lawyer. Hewes is openly ruthless, but few know just how ruthless she really is. The show opens with a seemingly naive new lawyer, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), taking a job with Patty, in order to help common men and women fight for justice against big, evil corporations. In S1, those evil corporations are personified in the character of Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). Frobisher has a jolly exterior, but he is utterly ruthless and amoral on the interior, just like Patty. Frobisher's lawyer (played by Zejlko Ivanek) is Patty's nominal adversary, but Frobisher is the real adversary of S1. Patty sues Frobisher on behalf of his former employees after his company collapses in an accounting scandal, a la Enron. As the suit progresses, the main characters drag themselves down deeper and deeper in a puddle of evil. Ellen is compromised with surprising ease, but she rationalizes her actions as a necessary evil in Patty's crusade for the common folks. Patty and Frobisher, meanwhile, will stop at absolutely nothing to come out ahead. Murder and official corruption are not above these two eeeeevil people. Everybody, it seems, has a hidden agenda, and most of the characters are thoroughly rotten.<br /><br /><em>Damages</em> plays like a kind of <em>24</em> for s-m-r-t people, in that there are unexpected plot twists galore. Also, there are three or four storylines moving along simultaneously--some present, some past, some future. The storylines merge nicely towards the end of each season. The production values of this show are first-rate; the tinting and texture of the past and future scenes distinguish them from the present ones, though the producers added temporal subtitles in S2 (e.g., "6 months later"). Some scenes were filmed with handheld cameras, giving them a jumpy, neurotic quality matching the characters' mental state. The writing is excellent, but the quality of the acting really holds the show together, IMHO. Glenn Close and Ted Danson are over-the-top mean and evil, though both appear to be reasonable professionals to those who don't know them. Close and Ivanek took home Emmys for Season 1, and Rose Byrne, Ted Danson, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, and Timothy Olyphant all managed to hold their own.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-45925519402376018662009-06-30T10:38:00.000-05:002009-06-30T10:39:36.235-05:00I like the phone<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IKhs_GfJrts&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_profilepage&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IKhs_GfJrts&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_profilepage&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />I didn't realize there was a person on the other end until I watched the video.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-89685185879087027042009-05-27T07:28:00.004-05:002009-05-27T09:39:50.167-05:00The Good, the Bad, and the ClassicI've had a few first viewings of movies recently, and I've had recent repeat vieweings of what, IMHO, were the best films of 2007 and 2008 respectively. Rather than write them all up separately, I'm going to take them all in one post. <br /><a href="http://www.planetbollywood.com/Pictures/Posters/SM1P.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 384px; height: 569px;" src="http://www.planetbollywood.com/Pictures/Posters/SM1P.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><em>Slumdog Millionaire</em> is, at its heart, a romantic drama. This made me shy away from it at first; I'm usually not keen on romantic pictures (though one could argue that <em>Casablanca</em> falls into that category, and I certainly dig that one). Also, I wondered whether the movie would ignore the reality of the slums from which the slumdog protagonist came. I'm not one to have my nose rubbed in injustice and inequality, but sugarcoating offends me. <br /><br />My initial wariness about this film turned out to be unwarranted. <em>Slumdog Millionaire</em> brilliantly and boldly walks a fine line between pathos and fantasy as it tells the story of a boy and a girl who fell in love as children, lost each other, then found each other again after the boy found himself on India's version of <em>Who Wants to be a Millionaire?</em> The protagonists (Jamal Malik, his brother Salim, and their friend Latika) are Indian Muslims who are orphaned after a Hindu mob kills their mothers. Jamal (Dev Patel) falls for Latika (Frida Pinto), who is taken by a local gangster. Jamal rescues Latika, only to have her taken away and, presumably, raped by Salim, who murdered the gangster, and went to work for a second gangster. Jamal gets Latika's attention years later by getting himself on TV. He becomes a national hero as he answers questions correctly and Indians of all stripes make him the vehicle of their individual aspirations. In the end, boy gets girl and there's a fabulous production number at the main Mumbai train station.<br /><br />The movie does not minimize poverty, violence, or injustice--or, for that matter, enhanced interrogation techniques--nor does it emphasize them to the point of preachiness. Kids grow up in slums all over the world; some get bitter and cynical and go outlaw (Salim); some work legally and hang on to their dreams (Jamal). And everybody roots for the underdog.<br /><br /><em>Slumdog Millionaire</em> is a nice film to watch on BluRay. It is very colorful and vibrant, and some of the actors are attractive enough to want to see them in hi-def.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKO6e2fj27bl1KYqY6v6MGnmNdIZaFpyAmzTb8sNEN95ngWqbcTgBcRyxrwnEyLhDTbcV0odZbE-7n4Y7DnrU_ElZZ2aLmE_kVZnU7fY5jgR4iInqSIhPQrroZLQ9bxpwjoBWK1g/s400/angels_and_demons_movie.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKO6e2fj27bl1KYqY6v6MGnmNdIZaFpyAmzTb8sNEN95ngWqbcTgBcRyxrwnEyLhDTbcV0odZbE-7n4Y7DnrU_ElZZ2aLmE_kVZnU7fY5jgR4iInqSIhPQrroZLQ9bxpwjoBWK1g/s400/angels_and_demons_movie.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />My DW is a big Dan Brown fan, so, as a matter of public record, I liked <em>Angels and Demons</em> a whole hell of a lot. That out of the way, it was a pretty average movie, and, like the film version of <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>, shows that some visual images that work in the imagination on the written page do not work particularly well on the silver screen. <br /><a href="http://blog.afi.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/therewillbeblood-poster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 742px;" src="http://blog.afi.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/therewillbeblood-poster.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://tengossip.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/2008-the-dark-knight-batman-movie.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 420px; height: 631px;" src="http://tengossip.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/2008-the-dark-knight-batman-movie.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />IMHO, <em>There Will be Blood</em> was the best film of 2007 and <em>The Dark Knight</em> was the best of 2008. I recently viewed both films for the first time since the Panic of Fall 2008. The last couple of scenes of <em>There Will be Blood,</em> in which a crazed, wealthy oilman self-destructs, now seems an apt metaphor for the end of an era of dangerously self-indulgent, unregulated market capitalism. The Joker's wild anarchy in <em>The Dark Knight</em>, driving the citizens of Gotham into a state of utter panic, doesn't really seem so far-fetched in light of the near-collapse of the financial markets and the the near-panic of the pig flu--and this after the movie raised provocative questions about privacy rights and the lengths to which a civilized society can go against malefactors before we become malefactors ourselves. One point that Hurricane Katrina, the Panic, Al Qaeda's insanity, and some elements of our reaction to terrorism have driven home to me is that the veneer of our open, law-bound, refined, wealthy civilization that we've spent centuries pasting on top of the Hobbesian state of nature is thinner than many of us would like to think. The Dark Knight makes this point without being didactic or obnoxious about it.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-32439533294391850792009-04-27T09:06:00.002-05:002009-04-27T14:17:19.670-05:00Barbarians? On Wall Street?<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/781182.Barbarians_at_the_Gate_The_Fall_of_RJR_Nabisco" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178292800m/781182.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/781182.Barbarians_at_the_Gate_The_Fall_of_RJR_Nabisco">Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32587.Bryan_Burrough">Bryan Burrough</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54141320"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>I've been on a tear reading about smart people who do stupid things with other peoples' money, so I downloaded this classic to the Kindle and read it very quickly. RJR/Nabisco's President Ross Johnson was obsessed with his company's undervalued stock and with living the high life, and he hit on the idea of arranging a leveraged buyout. He evidently figured that a lowball bid would let him continue running the company as he saw fit. After he announced the idea to RJR's board, all hell broke loose. Johnson's team ended up losing out to Kohlberg, Kravis, and Roberts--in part because the company's board wanted to be rid of Johnson--and Johnson pretty much had run out of enthusiasm for the deal anyway (paying $112/share would mean a lot more cutting back than $75/share would). This book reads like a novel, with egos, ulterior motives, deceipt, grudges, broken friendships, and greed galore. The final sentence of the new edition of the book sums it up nicely: "you couldn't make this stuff up."<br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1063283-randy">View all my reviews.</a>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-59574940624144809712009-04-25T07:44:00.004-05:002009-04-25T07:58:34.175-05:00Yet another kid picture post<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWzcokDtV3JfmaEED9DpPyvQAVJDrAMwW7AZLmgSLBi8tlzRAQoUqAbKXq9-_HT7r17YGHIHfJZV4AaWj_fsU1gp5BTW3xFTvThYzeH29EbdLzGZp_JWM4V6ZYUtZoa0LjBL4/s1600-h/DSC00934.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWzcokDtV3JfmaEED9DpPyvQAVJDrAMwW7AZLmgSLBi8tlzRAQoUqAbKXq9-_HT7r17YGHIHfJZV4AaWj_fsU1gp5BTW3xFTvThYzeH29EbdLzGZp_JWM4V6ZYUtZoa0LjBL4/s320/DSC00934.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328609948793250450" /></a><br />I got so bored at a recent school fundraiser at which DW and I were in charge of arranging bowls and mugs that I spelled out the honoree's last name (Greco) with coffee cups.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnKeGvbJ6aNR0cfM6m6jU9ri8rvsMNWCIitH6z491AMSnlGVxNG2uTYW-Wm5yVKohihD9-HFnjW7O_wVqU0D-cWgWcrFTeCjh2wRinti9JbIJ5QO2VqAu_fVWTdCt-f-R0bs5/s1600-h/DSC00936.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnKeGvbJ6aNR0cfM6m6jU9ri8rvsMNWCIitH6z491AMSnlGVxNG2uTYW-Wm5yVKohihD9-HFnjW7O_wVqU0D-cWgWcrFTeCjh2wRinti9JbIJ5QO2VqAu_fVWTdCt-f-R0bs5/s320/DSC00936.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328609944712450354" /></a><br />A loves the penny arcade at the mall.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrbvjE6KwtlzGwoClO2Ck5ZU7opL4keXzLmc9uBsH9iVgQ_kwAP8EWYuKzVOVD0J30L53KtN7V6qV_zmrmJB6tDVHymHDcobqiLVv3LOu7n6y3RsGqpYUS40kr78Jp-yUEgmC/s1600-h/DSC00937.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrbvjE6KwtlzGwoClO2Ck5ZU7opL4keXzLmc9uBsH9iVgQ_kwAP8EWYuKzVOVD0J30L53KtN7V6qV_zmrmJB6tDVHymHDcobqiLVv3LOu7n6y3RsGqpYUS40kr78Jp-yUEgmC/s320/DSC00937.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328609942326744690" /></a><br />T is over his fear of the zoo train. Maybe we'll get him to ride it next time we go.<br /><br />I'm still decompressing from T's recent move crisis. He was moved from his mini-group home "pod" onto a regular dormitory with no advance notice to us. I was furious and immediately went into lawyer mode. It took a couple of weeks to get everybody together and straighten out everything. T's behavior warranted a move, based on the information I got after the fact, but it would have been easier on him had we been able to go up there and help transition him from one place to another. T still sees A on a regular basis, and the direct care workers on the dorm are being trained in Applied Behavior Analysis techniques for working with T (somthing that will help other kids who are not yet in the Autism Center program). Hopefully T's behavior will improve enough that he can move from the dorm into a group home when a new one opens up.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-53211486197660947842009-04-25T07:35:00.004-05:002009-04-25T07:44:14.608-05:00Waterboarding--all the cool kids are doing it!<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aEtFMj6ZiHM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aEtFMj6ZiHM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br />Does Shepard Smith think he's on MSNBC now?<br /><br />I've paroused the John Yoo torture memo--the most important one of the lot--and it's hilariously bad. No wonder the Bushies wouldn't let it be seen by skeptical lawyers in Bush's own administration.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-18048172957174230832009-04-22T08:41:00.000-05:002009-04-22T08:42:36.960-05:00And I thought bridge was an old ladies' game<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5881889.House_of_Cards_A_Tale_of_Hubris_and_Wretched_Excess_on_Wall_Street" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W1qaZU0UL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5881889.House_of_Cards_A_Tale_of_Hubris_and_Wretched_Excess_on_Wall_Street">House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/182504.William_D_Cohan">William D. Cohan</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53570240"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>I began reading financial journalism on a semi-regular basis during the Enron collapse, and began watching CNBC after the panic last fall. I have absolutely no background in business or finance, but the ups-and-downs of the markets fascinate me. Given my lack of any background, I know whether a particular book or article is well-written based on whether I can actually understand it.<br /><br/><br /><br/>William D. Cohan's "House of Cards: A Tale of Wretched Excess on Wall Street" ranks with Bethany McLean's "The Smartest Guys in the Room" as an accessible work of business writing that is so well put-together one doesn't want to put it down. Cohan's book is the tale of the late Bear Stearns & Co., which went from being the fifth largest brokerage house in the U.S. to being flat broke in ten days during March 2008. <br /><br/><br /><br/>The book takes its title from a peculiar aspect of Bear's corporate culture--its long-time CEO Jimmy Cayne was a championship level player of the card game bridge, and Bear entered teams in high-level bridge tournaments. Indeed, Cayne was off at bridge tournaments during key crises in the collapse of his firm and couldn't be bothered to return to New York.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Cohan's book opens with a riveting blow-by-blow account of the ten-day collapse of Bear and its ultimate forced absorbsion by JPMorgan Chase at the behest of Treas. Sec'y Henry Paulson, Fed. Chmn. Ben Bernanke, and N.Y. Fed. Pres. Timothy Geithner. Cohan then provides a history of Bear and its overbearing, colorful leaders, most importantly Cayne and his predecessor Ace Greenberg. Bear was unlike its rival firms in its contempt for family pedigrees, MBAs, and strategic planning. It was the street urchin with a huge chip on its shoulder, and the firm's strategy was simply to make lots of money. Bear's corporate culture was very much like a mens' locker room, and the firm had clients that other Wall Street firms viewed as unsavory. Bear's employees were loyal to a fault, and its leadership team rarely changed, with the dictatorial Greenberg and/or Cayne running the show. Greenberg and Cayne lacked formal educations in finance themselfves and they tended to hire based on instinct rather than credentials. All of these factors led to a firm full of very specialized moneymakers, with nobody really understanding the full scope of the business or the risks inherent in some of Bear's operations.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Bear pretty much originated the infamous mortgage-backed securities, and the firm went heavy into debt obligations backed by subprime loans. Once those became near difficult to value, they could not be sold. Cayne did not understand much of anything about these securities, and he fired the one person in the firm who really did shortly after two of Bear's hedge funds collapsed due to plunging values and outright fraud.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Rumors about Bear having too many illiquid assets and not enough capital began spreading on the Internet in early March 2008. Cayne was off playing cards, and then-CEO Alan Schwartz was off in Florida at Bear's annual media event. Neither understood the gravity of the firm's situation or the likely effect of the rumors in an already jittery market. The rumors turned out to be largely true--although the firm had a large cash cushion, it was nowhere near enough to take a massively leveraged firm (Bear's leverage was usually around 50:1) through any crisis of confidence, which is exactly what followed. Redemption calls were fast and furious; short sellers (some perfectly legit) drove down the company's stock value; other firms (notably Goldman Sachs) refused to stand as counterparties for their own clients against Bear; and the overnight lenders who financed Bear's day-to-day operations stopped lending to the company. A loan from the Fed to Chase (a regular bank with access to Fed funds) to be loaned to Bear (an investiment bank with no access to Fed funds) had exactly the opposite effect it was supposed to have ("oh my God, they're worse off than I thought!" instead of "well, now they've got the money and time to sort things out"), and, one day later, forced negotiations began with JPMorgan Chase.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Cayne and other Bear muckety mucks were interveiwed extensively for the book, as was current Treasury Sec'y Tim Geithner. The book is well-sourced and well-written, and Cohan doesn't pull punches even as to the major contributors to his work.<br /><br/><br /><br/>"House of Cards" shows how thin was America's veneer of hyper-prosperity, much as Hurricane Katrina showed how thin is the veneer of the infrastructure of our advanced society, and much as the release of the torture memos showed how thin is the veneer of our supposedly evolving standards of decency. I seeem to like veneer today; anybody for a patina instead? When it comes down to it, we're never far away from a Hobbesian state of nature, where life is nasty, brutish, and short. <br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1063283-randy">View all my reviews.</a>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-84690287711497203362009-03-29T08:04:00.002-05:002009-03-29T08:17:53.941-05:00Boilerplate HusbandDW saw a number on her caller ID this morning that she thinks is the local LDS bishop's cell number. The LDS Church has policy requiring the permission of a husband for his wife to accept any significant church assignment. IIRC, this is set out in the <em>Church Handbook of Instructions,</em> but it's been a while since I had a copy of that publication, so I could be wrong. Anyhow, I drafted this to take care of any possible consent issues in advance:<br /><blockquote><em>I, R, do not accept the premise that my consent or permission is necessary for my spouse, C, to accept any calling or assignment, or to do any action that is not illegal or, though perhaps technically legal, is an action that would shock the conscience of a reasonable citizen of those states of the United States whose public policies are in agreement with my own policy preferences. In the event of any action that is illegal or that would shock the conscience of a reasonable citizen of those states of the United States chosen by me, I disclaim in advance any knowledge of, or consent to, any such action, unless such action would further my own personal interests. <br /><br />However, in accordance with the policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I hereby declare that I agree to C holding any calling in the Slidell Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that she chooses to accept. Should C does not wish to accept a calling but does not wish to declare this wish, then I do not agree to her accepting any such calling. I hereby consent to C invoking this species of non-agreement at her discretion. <br /><br />I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on 29 March 2009</em>.</blockquote><br />She laughed, then folded it up and put it in her purse. Of course she won't use this document, but maybe she'll show it to some of the women of the ward who possess a sense of humor.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-10258742986571342492009-03-21T07:28:00.002-05:002009-03-29T08:19:00.437-05:00Res Ipsa Loquitur<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px; text-align:right'>M - Th 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220573&title=indignation-populist-uprising'>IndigNation! Populist Uprising '09 - The Enragening</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none' href='http://www.comedycentral.com'>comedycentral.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220573' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things w/ Demetri Martin</a></td><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Leave it to Fox to have a reporter so naive as to not realize he is suggesting that conservatives want to perform a particular sex act on the White House.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-70420637555581471042009-03-12T13:20:00.004-05:002009-03-12T13:30:44.410-05:00Basic Cable BrouhahaJon Stewart's war with CNBC should reach its apex tonight when Jim Cramer appears on <em>The Daily Show.</em><br /><br /><style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220252&title=cnbc-gives-financial-advice' target='_blank'>CNBC Gives Financial Advice</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220252' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' flashvars='autoPlay=false' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things With Demetri Martin</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/tagSearchResults.jhtml?term=Clusterf%23%40k+to+the+Poor+House'>Economic Crisis</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><br /><br /><br /><style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220510&title=basic-cable-personality-clash' target='_blank'>Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220510' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' flashvars='autoPlay=false' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things With Demetri Martin</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/tagSearchResults.jhtml?term=Clusterf%23%40k+to+the+Poor+House'>Economic Crisis</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-32542841231110232542009-03-09T09:18:00.003-05:002009-03-10T10:39:46.362-05:00"Fire!" Wait, didn't I just say that?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMN4PJ7hfZWQhXu8o-vv0irpoE3AD2mqbdJf7xhrw6ystq9OA3M3YBaxgnW7qAAIjuBIYY9I13i80S0goRF2zupv40cDmU6GXuxXDWB-073pc0ym7WoJC6v4jfbgnc0tkmYP-/s1600-h/EVAC031009.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMN4PJ7hfZWQhXu8o-vv0irpoE3AD2mqbdJf7xhrw6ystq9OA3M3YBaxgnW7qAAIjuBIYY9I13i80S0goRF2zupv40cDmU6GXuxXDWB-073pc0ym7WoJC6v4jfbgnc0tkmYP-/s320/EVAC031009.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311584241718202162" /></a><br />Ugh! I guess it's not so bad that I've only planned my upcoming fence project and haven't actually started construction yet. Also, I used the garden hose to build a little lake in the woods behind our house, so we're protected in case this fire gets close enough to be a problem for us.<br /><br />Airplanes plan to fly over forest fires in St. Tammany today<br />by The Times-Picayune <br />Monday March 09, 2009, 8:11 AM<br /><br />Airplanes will fly over forest fires that have been burning in Slidell and Mandeville as soon as the fog lifts today to make sure the fires remain contained, said state Department of Agriculture and Forestry District Manager Kirk Casanova.<br /><br />Firefighters worked through the night to bring the fires under control, Casanova said. So far, they have burned about 1,200 acres of timberland in Slidell and about 400 acres in Mandeville, he said. No homes have been affected by the fires, he said.<br /><br />The first fire broke out near the Slidell Airport and the Bellaire subdivision. Firefighters started fighting that blaze Saturday around 11 a.m. and stayed until about midnight, when it appeared to be under control, according to department spokesman Sam Irwin.<br /><br />They left the Slidell site to focus on the Mandeville fire, north of Fontainbleau State Park off U.S. 190 and west of Louisiana 1088, Irwin said.<br /><br />But the winds blew hard and the fire near Slidell jumped the fire-break and continued to spread before it was again contained, he said.<br /><br />Casanova no arrests have been made in the fires, but the investigation is continuing.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-79881270825195465262009-02-20T17:07:00.003-06:002009-02-20T17:12:15.708-06:001960s ReduxNYU student gentle reader Bill informs me that the 1960s have <a href="http://wcbstv.com/local/nyu.students.protest.2.939086.html">come back to life </a>at that school. These people don't really seem to know what they want, but they can take over a cafeteria. What's next, actual hippies in Haight-Asbury?Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-43449199032074168552009-02-17T14:48:00.004-06:002009-02-17T15:00:46.311-06:00Narcissism and the Panic?Bloomberg ran an opinion piece today about how <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=a_ac69DqFutQ">narcissistic Ivy League MBAs </a>killed Wall Street because they were too self-confident and trusting in their risk models. There may be something to that; the great book on the Enron collapse is titled <em>The Smartest Guys in the Room,</em> and, IMHO, the recent panic has rather a lot in common with the Enron collapse. However, I've also read that the risk models were adequate for evaluating the risks of individual security products, but did not take into account that CDOs, default swaps, and the like were really a chain of dominoes. All it took was a dip in the real estate market to start the dominoes going. <br /><br />What I always wonder in the wake of ginormous economic collapses is why so few people seem to want to take a look under the proverbial hood, check out the engine, and ask the question, "how do these people make so much money?" It seems pretty basic. Actually, it is a question that Warren Buffet considers, and he will not put his money into anything he can't understand.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-13073015726898164902009-02-14T16:13:00.002-06:002009-02-14T16:20:36.854-06:00Puddle of yearsGood gracious, gentle readers; this blog turned five years old on Thursday. I suppose I might have a moment of self-doscovery were I to read all my posts from 2004 forward, but I don't really have the time.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-65608865189527141962009-02-05T05:56:00.000-06:002009-02-05T05:58:30.005-06:00Congress on YouTube?<style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=217684&title=back-in-black-congress-on' target='_blank'>Back in Black - Congress on YouTube</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:217684' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' flashvars='autoPlay=false' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>Funny Political Videos</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things With Demetri Martin</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/funny_videos/index.jhtml'>More Funny Videos</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div>Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468251.post-71566789639824729802009-02-04T11:41:00.003-06:002009-02-04T11:55:31.043-06:00ABA in One Week?<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/04/autism.resolution/index.html">This CNN article</a> gives a pretty decent basic explanation of applied behavioral analysis, which is the most widely used autism intervention methodology. Based on my personal experience, I really have to wonder whether this ABA therapist was able to turn around this girl's behavior in a <em><strong>one week</strong></em> intervention. I vividly remember the day it took five adults to restrain both of my boys during in-home training, and A. still managed to bite a chunk of flesh from the psychiatrist. Moreover, most experts I've read speak in terms of years.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14225554333698783398noreply@blogger.com0