Archive for September 2008
The monthlies.
The College Endowment Elite
I was talking to my wife about this issue last night,* and I’m glad someone else — in this case, Gregg Easterbrook — agrees with me. Measuring a university’s value with the endowment metric is entirely unfair (as is used in the oft-referenced U.S. News rankings), as it gives smaller schools literally no chance to [...]
Bills’ Throwbacks
I am going to repeat this. Actually, I am going to continue to repeat it until something is done about it, which by my estimation, will be sometime soon. The Buffalo Bills must wear their alternate throwback uniforms for every game. They simply are the best uniforms in the league (and they only wear them [...]
Iraq 2.0 (or 3.0, if you include the 1991 dust-up)
After spending nearly a decade creating the problem, the president has now found it convenient to come out of his hole and demand changes, demand fast action from Congress (including unprecedented power handed to the Executive branch), and to continue to lay out the potential threat that the financial crisis poses on the American people. [...]
Laura Bush Killed A Guy
Thank you, Family Guy… Image: Google This is for those who caught this past Sunday’s episode (which you can conveniently watch on Hulu*). * Hulu, by the way, is the best piece of evidence proving Michael Arrington’s (aka, TechCrunch) idiocy and insignificance.
Freeways Without Futures
The Congress for the New Urbanism has listed its top ten freeways that need to be removed, and three of them hit home for me… 3. The Skyway and Route 5, Buffalo, NY 6. Interstate 81, Syracuse, NY 8. Route 29, Trenton, NJ The textbook case history for a removed freeway reinvigorating a part of [...]
Tie
I just know you have been waiting for my thoughts on this, so here goes… Although Barack Obama won the first debate — on points, style, and “presidentiality” — the debate ended up being a tie because John McCain had such low expectations, and Obama had the exact opposite. In a week defined by the [...]
Triumph of the Nerds
This documentary of the rise of the personal computer is clearly dated, but it includes interviews with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, including the memorable “Microsoft has no taste” line…* This film does identify the basis however — for the record — the argument that Steve Jobs has exhibited the greatest second act in the [...]
Loose Ends
I’ve taken on the task of cutting some loose ends of myself around the web. Over the years, I have sampled a lot of services, most of them junk. Plenty of them were not worth re-visiting, and despite a username/password, there is nothing really there. Elsewhere, however, I have personal information of photos or videos [...]
Bailout Redux
I loved this description of the bailout… The American people have been asked to gift-wrap 700 billion dollars to a bunch of people that are either greedy or dumb. Take your pick. Anyone up for hedge fund tax reform?
Bailout
I am sure I am not the only one who thinks this way, but the bailout — any bailout, especially one nearing a trillion dollars — must include ownership for the taxpayer (in the form of shares of the companies involved). It wouldn’t be surprising if many Wall Street firms sour on the deal just [...]
Unforgiven
This is a good Western, no doubt, just a little slow, but it eventually gets there. (Returned 09/16/08.) Rent with Netflix.
Flawless
This is a clunker because, in the end, the story just isn’t that great. No nudity either. (Returned 09/09/08.) Rent with Netflix.
I am from Buffalo
With the Buffalo Bills still undefeated, here is one of those oft-despised list posts, this one celebrating the people of the City of Good Neighbors… I call them chicken wings. I drink Labatt Blue. Jack Kemp is a quarterback, not a VP candidate. I eat Mighty Taco, not Taco Bell. It’s snow, I don’t freak [...]
Financials Redux
Just to follow-up on last night’s half-drunk post ripping the financial industry… – Just because the wealthiest man in the room is unable to make as much money this year as he had hoped or expected (or wanted to), does not mean the public should cover his debts. – The U.S. economy would continue without [...]
Financials
I am too upset right now with the trillion-dollar bailout plan of greed-soaked incompetent unethical financial firms to really express any real thoughts on the subject. (All of this so they can stay in business, keep their jobs, keep their portfolios?!?) Plus, I am half-way to drunk. But I can say this, and I do [...]
Unfinished Business
There were two things I was interested in hunting down while in the Crescent City this week. First, find the locations related to Lee Harvey Oswald. Unfortunately, both 544 Camp Street — the office referenced in JFK that Oswald used that suggested a conspiracy — and the International Trade Mart, where Oswald was photographed handing [...]
Fixing the Airlines
I wrote this post during my flight, including the a-hrefs. As I sit in seat 19D — aisle, thank you — on my Continental flight to New Orleans, I have realized something: the airlines are not capitalizing on all of the space available for advertisements. In other words, if Google ran an airline (I am [...]
Blogging Live from New Orleans
At first I thought New Orleans, or New New Orleans, whatever, was a lot like Saint Louis, but I was greatly mistaken. I foolishly made my way to the waterfront, and just like Saint Louis, there really is none, except for a walkway (which was nice, although nothing special), but what more could you ask [...]
McCain Rips Palin
“I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn’t a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn’t a governor for a short period of time.” — John McCain, in a GOP debate last October. Cue the video…
Seven
A unique perspective before this day ends… It is ironic — or isn’t it? — that the three thousand Americans that died on this day seven years ago brought this country closer together, and the more than four thousand American soldiers that have died in this day’s name (potentially in vain) in Iraq have brought [...]
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