Fallout Shelter

... and yes, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

"Thank you very much, Chevy. 

"Hi.

"What's all this fuss I hear about a stimulus package?  I'm here tonight to protest against big stimulus packages.  You even see intelligent women on TV prattling on about how big it should be.  And the men, well of course they all want it to be bigger, but you'd think at least some of the ladies would be smarter about this thing!  Even the schoolkids these days know it's not just the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean!  So will everyone please stop talking about this big stimulus package or that HUGE stimulus package....

"What, you don't get it?  You think just because a woman is over 40 doesn't mean her juices don't flow?  What's the matter with you?  And pretty soon we'll be talking about another damn Presidential Erection again....  Oh, oh....  [fans herself]

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have gotten carried away.  Never mind."

[Edit:  "I know it’s been a tough week, little Obamaites. You’ve been feeling ... unstimulated."]

I CAN HAZ BALEOUT?

Sometimes it seems like the only things going on with the web are political commentary and adding funny captions to cat pictures.  So how long was it going to take before there was a mashup?  Even the NYT has taken notice.  [Via jenlight.]

The Week In Business

"Capitalists" Rejoice at Getting More Capital
Other "Capitalists" Complain At Being Left Out, Ignored

"Thank god this 'Republican' administration is regulating the hell out of us and giving us someone else's money" said Dick Smallberries, an executive in charge of taking people's money at a large Wall Street business.  "'Cause if we don't have any money, we, uh, can't do anything."

Up next week on Capitol Hill: a plan to bail out every business that's lost money over the last century.  Could your childhood lemonade stand get a Federal handout 50 years after it closed? 

"may have been deliberate" my ass

Heparin Contamination May Have Been Deliberate, F.D.A. Says

Even if China executes 81 of their upper muckety-mucks, or 81 of them commit suicide, I don't think I want to be using much of anything from China, especially if it's going in my body, and especially since an intermediate company "tried to find the original source of the contamination but was stopped by the Chinese authorities." 

Subprime mortgage crisis for dummies

A deposition distillation, posted by Mr. James Urbaniak [courtesy St.Rev]:

"Aaron Wider: An Important New American Voice," or "Fuck You, You Fucking Fucking Fuck!"

And now, via Google Docs, for the more visually oriented among you [courtesy Romelia; took a long time for me to load under M$ IE]:

"The Subprime Primer," or Stick Figure Theatre: "Blow Me In My SPV"

LiveJournal Strike News

I'm limiting my posting and web browsing today (21 March 2008: Good Friday and the spring equinox).  I'm doing this out of sympathy with today's LiveJournal Strike.  Since all my blogs are explicitly fed to LiveJournal, even posts I make here are fed out through the LJ community.  Had I planned better, I would have not made those explicit feeds at all, or at least made this post earlier.  Whatever. 

I think what might be an even better message would be for people not to browse LJ blogs.  OTOH, it's hard to get the word out on something related to a policy decision only announced a week ago.  So posting about the strike, especially to get the word out to those browsing wherever, seems reasonable.   And even users within LJ differ on their opinions about what to do.  :)  Personally, I'm not posting anywhere, except for this very post, and am also trying to limit my blog browsing today everywhere. 

For those of you who don't know WTF I'm talking about: Shortly after LiveJournal was purchased by SUP and LJ/SUP completed their 100 Day Plan, LJ abruptly ended their Basic (free) account system, which has been in place since LJ's beginning.  The strikers think LJ is stripping itself of content (among other things), while SUP clearly has a different opinion.  The whole idea of a random group of people, some of whom are not even paying for a service, going "on strike" against that service might be way out there.  But why not?  Again, my personal opinion:  Look around; make up your own mind. 

Thanks. 
 

Drama on Ottawa

There are probably very few people who live in Durham, read this blog, and don't read Endangered Durham already.  But just in case, check out Gary's post today. 

BTW, I live in a house not horribly dissimilar from the one pictured in Gary's post, and only about a mile from there. 

Schadenfreude

OIT seeks fix for Blackboard

Hm.  Seems like I remember busting my ass to get the back end of some Blackboard stuff working about this time a year ago, with basically everyone working against me, usually with no knowledge of WTF they were doing.  I wonder if canning their only AFS person had anything to do with their current problems? 

YASS!

....Or "Yet Another Sex Scandal!" 

I haven't been following this story until now, but I'm actually glad Palfrey, the operator of a Washington, DC escort service, is coming out of the closet. She's also bringing the emperor's clothes with her: there's an incredible amount of hypocrisy in Washington, and Palfrey is going to reveal it.  She's going to ruin a lot of lives.  But it doesn't have to be this way. 

Police officers and district attorneys have wide discretion on who is arrested and prosecuted for crimes.  If Ms. Palfrey were operating in, say, San Francisco, it's unlikely she'd be charged.  If she operated in France or certain counties in Las Vegas, she wouldn't be.  The woman even filed IRS returns, which probably helped along her demise.  But as it's illegal not to report illegal income, she was doing the more legal thing, according to our somewhat convoluted senses of what's illegal in this country.  And if you had trouble parsing that sentence, it's not because you're stupid. 

In the meantime, you might enjoy reading the entries on this page of "reviews" for "Pamela Martin & Associates."

Money, money, money, money....

My dictionary defines "reserve currency" as "Currency kept in reserve by a government for the paying of international debts." That sweeps a lot under the rug: a country can print more of its own currency, affect the purchasing power of another country's currency via foreign policy, etc. Visit mg's Reserve Currency blog for more information about this somewhat obscure, yet interesting topic. For instance, did the U.S. invade Iraq because Iraq re-denominated its oil sales from dollars to euros?