1. Reading the WSJ these days is unsettling. What do you do when even banks are losing money? That's actually the one and only thing that banks are asked to do - not lose our money.
I personally say we let Fannie and Freddie fail. And let the banks fail too. Let the market correct itself, let predatory lenders feed on each other's diminishing reserves until they have to start lending with some semblance of standards, and for God's sake don't make taxpayers save these incompetent institutions.
2. NASA - why do we still have it? I just looked up the budget - $17 billion for 2009, add another billion a year for the next seven or so. What has NASA done for America ever? As far as I can tell, we won a pissing contest and some bragging rights against the USSR by getting to a worthless rock first, and we got velcro. Can't we at least pause NASA for about a decade?
3. Iraq - $10 billion a month cost should be the only justification we need for getting out.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Things I Don't Believe in
And I mean don't believe in a tooth fairy type of way.
Metabolism
I'll allow for the possibility that different people can eat different amounts and have different body types, but I don't get the idea of "boosting" one's metabolism at all. I find especially amusing the idea that you can lose weight by "boosting" your metabolism by eating more often. I think this is all part of the health/food industry's grand plan to keep us trapped in a mobius strip of cyclical diets, exercises and fads, but that's a conspiracy theory for another day.
The Runner's High
I'm by no means a runner, but I run, and I've been running a lot more frequently lately. At no point did I ever feel a high of any sorts, in running lengths ranging from 2 to 5.5 miles. Not once. There have been times when I felt terrible, and I felt a little less terrible later. Maybe that's the "high?"
The Economy
I give up. I don't understand it. How does anyone ever make money? Far as I can tell, banks, builders, speculators, and their brethren are pretty much just borrowing against the future, through a currency that has no concrete value, and simply charging each others fees along to way to generate temporary gains.
The Softball Pitch
There are some cute women's softball players on tv lately, but I can't get over that pitch. It has to be one of the most unattractive motions the female body is capable of. Why can't they have a slow wind up that accelerates like a baseball pitch? Also, the motion reminds me of how a crazy trashy violence-prone woman would practice an uppercut to the nuts.
Metabolism
I'll allow for the possibility that different people can eat different amounts and have different body types, but I don't get the idea of "boosting" one's metabolism at all. I find especially amusing the idea that you can lose weight by "boosting" your metabolism by eating more often. I think this is all part of the health/food industry's grand plan to keep us trapped in a mobius strip of cyclical diets, exercises and fads, but that's a conspiracy theory for another day.
The Runner's High
I'm by no means a runner, but I run, and I've been running a lot more frequently lately. At no point did I ever feel a high of any sorts, in running lengths ranging from 2 to 5.5 miles. Not once. There have been times when I felt terrible, and I felt a little less terrible later. Maybe that's the "high?"
The Economy
I give up. I don't understand it. How does anyone ever make money? Far as I can tell, banks, builders, speculators, and their brethren are pretty much just borrowing against the future, through a currency that has no concrete value, and simply charging each others fees along to way to generate temporary gains.
The Softball Pitch
There are some cute women's softball players on tv lately, but I can't get over that pitch. It has to be one of the most unattractive motions the female body is capable of. Why can't they have a slow wind up that accelerates like a baseball pitch? Also, the motion reminds me of how a crazy trashy violence-prone woman would practice an uppercut to the nuts.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Quick Hits
Airplanes
Is there any more excruciatingly interminable period of time than the time between an airplane has landed, and it "taxis" to its gate? I swear it takes like fifteen minutes every single time. Then, as soon as the plane stops and the seatbelt sign goes off, everyone gets up!! Despite the fact that it'll be another 8-10 minutes before anyone actually gets off the damn plane. Really dampens the thrill of flying. On a related note, I wonder if there are people who fly so often that the thought of death doesn't occur to them every time they fly. It at least occurs to me every single time. I think it'd be strange not for the thought to occur.
Sports
As boxing is sputtering, tennis is blooming. Floyd "retired" again, Oscar's about as relevant as the Harlem Globetrotters, and Roy Jones Jr. is officially a minor league cash cow. But man, how amazing is Rafa's improvement on grass and his upcoming showdown with Federer? The way he blitzed Roger in Paris has everyone saying Federer's reign is over, but I'm just hoping for a killer final. Unlike the slapfest that was Roland Garros.
Obama
Does anyone dislike him? Anyone that isn't horsing around wearing white sheets that is. I bet even McCain secretly wants to vote for him.
Is there any more excruciatingly interminable period of time than the time between an airplane has landed, and it "taxis" to its gate? I swear it takes like fifteen minutes every single time. Then, as soon as the plane stops and the seatbelt sign goes off, everyone gets up!! Despite the fact that it'll be another 8-10 minutes before anyone actually gets off the damn plane. Really dampens the thrill of flying. On a related note, I wonder if there are people who fly so often that the thought of death doesn't occur to them every time they fly. It at least occurs to me every single time. I think it'd be strange not for the thought to occur.
Sports
As boxing is sputtering, tennis is blooming. Floyd "retired" again, Oscar's about as relevant as the Harlem Globetrotters, and Roy Jones Jr. is officially a minor league cash cow. But man, how amazing is Rafa's improvement on grass and his upcoming showdown with Federer? The way he blitzed Roger in Paris has everyone saying Federer's reign is over, but I'm just hoping for a killer final. Unlike the slapfest that was Roland Garros.
Obama
Does anyone dislike him? Anyone that isn't horsing around wearing white sheets that is. I bet even McCain secretly wants to vote for him.
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