Please let this piece of amoral crap run for president. Please.
Month: April 2010
Volcanic Ash
If I Had A Boat
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band:
Family History
One of my cousins is the family genealogist, and I just found out from him that my great-great grandmother’s name was Elizabeth Lamon – or, as I like to think, Liz Lemon! (She was from Belfast and married John H. Stone of Liverpool, England. So I’m probably related to the Beatles, too. John was a cabinetmaker. After his death, Liz became a confectioner. That’s where I get the sweet tooth!)
Liz Lamon lived at 945 Carpenter St. in the 1870 census (the Google map address is wrong):
Another Reason To Dump Comcast
You might remember I’ve mentioned what a bad idea it is for a major cable provider to buy NBC? Here’s the latest proof: Comcast is introducing a right-wing cable channel called “RightNetwork” – because, you know, all those liberal channels are just too infuriating to watch:
This one’s a show where wingers play poker and make fun of liberals – an hey, the ever-popular Andrew Breitbart! (No, this isn’t an Onion spoof.)
You remember Andrew Breitbart. He’s the guy who’s always wrong and never admits it. Apparently this is a quality that makes him well-suited to appear on countless “news” shows – but you know what low standards librul media has.
Our mission is clear: to entertain, engage and enlighten Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.
RightNetwork will become an integral, relevant piece of their
daily media consumption On e that consistently impacts the
political and cultural discussions of Americans. Accessible
anywhere, anytime, from every device.[…] The lineup focuses on entertainment with Pro-America, Pro-Business, Pro-Military sensibilities — compelling content that inspires action, invites a response, and influences the national conversation.
This would be a good time to find another cable provider. Personally, I’d pay extra to a company if it meant I wasn’t supporting exploitive crap like this.
I urge you to file an FCC comment opposing the NBC purchase here.
No Conflict There
I mean, if you were a suspicious, paranoid person, you might think they have a financial interest in making you sick – but of course you’d be wrong!
(CBS) The investments of large insurers of health, disability and long term care in fast food chains like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut have raised the interest of a study in the American Journal of Public Health, reports CBS Radio News’ John Hartge.
The Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Wesley Boyd, an author of the study, finds it ironic that these firms would invest nearly $2 billion in companies that sell food often linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease.
“The insurance industry, so far as it seeks to make a profit, it does so in an amoral way,” Boyd said.
[…] According to the study, Northwestern Mutual owns $422.2 million in fast-food stock, with $318.1 million invested in McDonald’s. Massachusetts Mutual owns $366.5 million of fast-food stock, including $267.2 in McDonald’s.
Holland-based ING, an investment firm that also offers life and disability insurance, has total fast-food holdings of $406.1 million, including $12.3 million in Jack in the Box, $311 million in McDonald’s, and $82.1 million in Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell.
New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc. sells life insurance and long-term disability coverage. With total fast-food holdings of $355.5 million, Prudential Financial owns $197.2 of stock in McDonald’s and also has significant stakes in Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box and Yum! Brands.
SEC Accuses Goldman Sachs of Civil Fraud
Somewhere, Matt Taibbi is laughing his butt off as the Vampire Squid goes down. Now when do we see the criminal charges – not just against Goldman Sachs, but the rest of the gang involved in crashing our economy for their own gain?
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges Friday against Goldman Sachs, one of the most successful but vilified banks on Wall Street, for misleading and defrauding investors in selling a financial product based on subprime mortgages.
In filing the civil suit against Goldman Sachs, the agency is targeting one of the banks that largely escaped the wreckage of the financial crisis and, with the help of various forms of government aid, emerged stronger.
The SEC’s suit strikes at a practice that was one of the main causes of the financial crisis: the creation of poisonous investments derived from home loans made to borrowers who couldn’t afford the houses they were buying.
The suit also drags into a legal maelstrom Paulson & Co., the firm of legendary hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made billions of dollars by betting against the housing market in the years before it went bust. He and his firm have not been accused of wrongdoing.
Goldman Sachs had no immediate comment. Paulson & Co. also had no immediate comment.
In this case, the SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs created and marketed a financial product known as a collateralized debt obligation, often referred to as a CDO, whose value was linked to that of home loans. The SEC says the bank failed to tell investors important information about the investment — in particular that Paulson & Co. played a central role in helping Goldman assemble the CDO while the hedge fund at the same time placed bets that the CDO would lose value.
And from the American Prospect:
One note of caution: These are hard cases to prove. Even if Goldman Sachs officials knew how crappy these financial instruments were, they also got solid ratings from the bond-ratings agencies, giving Goldman a real out. If the SEC brought this case, they must have a high level of confidence, but now they need to execute what will undoubtedly be one of the most high-profile financial fraud cases since Enron.
Incidentally, the fact that hedge-funder John Paulson played a role in picking these securities helps confirm the argument that I made in my review of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short: Even the investors with the foresight to see the bubble and bet against it were acting as pernicious speculators who helped drive the bubble up and exacerbate its consequences, not as hero intellectuals tweaking the nasty big banks. These were symbiotic relationships that hurt regular Americans and the economy, make no mistake about it.
This news will only give more momentum to the Democratic financial-reform plan and, hopefully, more impetus toward strengthening the bill in any number of key areas where it could be improved.
Time To Fix The Real Problem
Even the New York Times is calling for allowing mortgage “cramdowns” in bankruptcy court:
The hearing investigated a specific obstacle to widespread modifications: Investors, including pension funds and mutual funds, often hold the first mortgages. Banks often hold home-equity loans and other second mortgages. Investors reasonably believe that second liens should be reduced before the primary mortgage is modified, but banks balk at that because it would prompt write-offs they don’t want.
Some investors, notably the powerhouse group BlackRock, have called for a special bankruptcy process to resolve the standoff. The court would seek to reduce bankrupt borrowers’ total debt to affordable levels, starting with unsecured debt like credit cards, then undersecured debt, like second mortgages, and then, if necessary, the primary mortgage debt.
We have long called for using bankruptcy court to help resolve the foreclosure crisis. A big advantage of bankruptcy over government-subsidized modifications is that bankruptcy is a difficult process that does not entice anyone to purposely default in order to get better repayment terms.
Banks have argued for the status quo, in which bankruptcy judges are not allowed to modify the terms of primary mortgages, and they have prevailed in Congress and, apparently, within the administration. The result is an ongoing foreclosure crisis. It is time to revive the fight to open the courthouse door to bankrupt homeowners.
Blechh
I’m so depressed. My hands hurt, my neck hurts. I’m frozen in time. If I don’t get a job soon, I’m screwed – but there are few jobs, and the ones for which I’m suited don’t agree that my two decades of experience mean as much as the abilities of an English major fresh out of college.
But the “motivational” talk I’m listening to right now tells me to fall in love with what I need to do and I Can Make It Happen! He says you can simply become an (unpaid) intern and suddenly You’re In The Movie Business! Or The Music Business! And you have The Work You Love! And it all Flows From There!
Obviously, there’s something I’m not doing right.
Blinded Me With Science
There is a logical explanation. It’s just one that “scientists” are reluctant to consider because of their emotional biases!
A Crotian teenager from the southern town of Knin awoke from a 24-hour coma speaking fluent German. She had been studying the language in school and watching television programs in German but was just a beginner. The case is so unusual that experts are being called in to examine the girl, but it isn’t the first time something like this has happened. “There are references to cases where people who have been seriously ill and perhaps in a coma have woken up being able to speak other languages—sometimes even the Biblical languages such as that spoken in old Babylon or Egypt,” psychiatric expert Dr. Mijo Milas told the Daily Telegraph. In the past, though, they were called miracles. Dr. Milas is hoping to find a “logical explanation.” “You never know when recovering from such a trauma how the brain will react,” hospital director Dujomir Marasovic told theDaily Telegraph. “Obviously we have some theories although at the moment we are limited in what we can say because we have to respect the privacy of the patient.” The girl is communicating with her parents through an interpreter.