Disqus - Latest Comments for Greg

Re: The State of Learning

Greg — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:13:00 -0000

Hi, I just wanted to invite you to have a look at my new site TheSEO-rank.com. Here you find valuable information concerning business optimization
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Re: Update on the Quiet Cars?

Greg — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:48:00 -0000

It will take some time before most riders understand the concept of the quiet car. SEPTA conductors need to also enforce the quiet car like in thesimplicity's comment. If passengers would like to courageously and respectfully remind those passengers who are in the quiet car yet aren't being quiet, that's fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if that (rare) person is a complete idiot in return. It'll catch on, just don't let it die.

Re: http://blog.candystand.com/electric-box-level-pack-vol-1-582.html

Greg — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:44:40 -0000

this is my level
{!0""0"#0"$0"%0"&0"'0"(0.+0",0#/0$00"10"21.30G60#90#;0D?0$C0.D1&E0)G0#I0#Q2DS0#X2+[2D]2Ab0#e0)g0#l0#q1%r0"~%'2%'~!G"(#9+C,2-05|6D}

Re: http://blog.candystand.com/new-release-electric-box-572.html

Greg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:58:45 -0000

How do you beat cotsios's done with the wind?

This one: Done with the wind:
{!0$"1(#3B&0"'05+0#-0#/0"00"10#30#50/70#80"90#;0#=0#A0"C0#G0#I0GJ0"K0"L0"Q0#S0"T0#U0D[0#_0$`0"a0"b0"c0#h3/j1%r1Dt0"u0&~(#/43)/3~!6"6#A+2,2-A526272?)@)A)I.J.K+SCTC}

I'm so close but this is the first one I can't figure out... anybody??

Re: KickFlip is live!

Greg — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:22:00 -0000

I love the game. It reminds me a lot of Tony Hawk, a lot of things you can do at once. Flip while kickflipping, to manual, to shuvit, to grind, etc. (p.s. I have the high score of 90k right now. Woo!)

Re: http://www.thefrogblogg.com/2009/03/welcome-twitter-ers.html

Greg — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:26:00 -0000

Much different then I was expecting, considering how annoyingly persistent your "tweeting" is, solid blog, will check out in the future, good luck

Re: Öl!

Greg — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:07:57 -0000

Haha det där skulle lika gärna kunnat vara jag. Prioritet ett: RÄDDA ÖLEN

Re: The miniature earth!

Greg — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:32:34 -0000

Tobbe även om jag inte håller med dig fullt ut måste jag säga att du plockar många poäng där. Men samtidigt hjälper vi ju människor här hemma i Sverige som inte förstår sitt eget bästa så om vi ska hjälpa ska vi även göra det där.

Re: Meteor Garden 2

Greg — Sat, 07 Jun 2003 05:53:22 -0000

sana walang katapusan ang meteor garden i love u dms

Re: http://hitormiss.org/2001/06/04/has-anyone-used-a-diamond/

Greg — Sat, 11 Aug 2001 11:36:20 -0000

I am using my Diamond Mako in place of my Laptop for doing my work on the internet. My columns and stories are written where ever I happen to have a minute because there is no boot-up unlike a laptop. I can also use all my databases for reference. Text-wise, this handheld does everything my laptop does and it's always in my pocket ready to go. I find myself being more productive because I can write when the mood strikes, where it strikes instead of OK, I'm at the office, I HAVE to be creative NOW!

Re: Indonesia Web Standards situation

Greg — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 05:10:29 -0000

This could burn down the house ;) …

There are two main aspects to designing a web page: the communication/interaction design and the technological implementation.

Whether the layout is CSS or table, or a hybrid, refers to the technology behind the site (and makes no difference to the user). You are right, the makers of websites need to inform the browser makers about the needs for technological standards.

But the standards debate (like the OS debate) ignores an issue of equal or greater significance: clear visual communication and coherent interaction paradigms.

So saying that DESIGN matters refers also to the graphic and interaction DESIGN. The technology that supports this design is important to refine, but let us not neglect the full spectrum of design issues.

People come first, technology second.

Re: Indonesia Web Standards situation

Greg — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 04:49:08 -0000

To feed the fire:

The problem with web standards compliancy is that most browsers that people use (sorry folks, that is Internet Explorer) are NOT standards compliant. So why not use CSS where appropriate and let each designer have their own style and taste. Whether or not a site registers as perfectly compliant on the W3C code tester or not - no user will ever know or care! So let each designer choose their own style…until most browsers are also standards compliant.

Re: The Absolute Best Songs of 2009 (Half Way There)

Greg — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:45:15 -0000

What's up with the Animal Collective lovefest? #1 and #5? That's a little overboard. I didn't think "Summertime Clothes" was that good of a song in the first place.

My top 3 songs of the year are:

Grizzly Bear "While You Wait For The Others"
Animal Collective "My Girls
Bon Iver - Blood Bank

Re: Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi - ExChristian.Net - News and Opinion

Greg — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:58:00 -0000

Astreja,

First I'd like to say that God shows us in the Bible that he loves human beings very much. If He didn't love us, he wouldn't have willingly died for us.

In John 3:16, Jesus says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

I strongly disagree with your interpretations of the Biblical stories that you listed, but no amount of debating can change a person's heart. I challenge you to take the words of the Bible to heart to see how much God loves you.

---Greg

---Greg

Re: Harvard's God-Free Chaplaincy Turns 30 - ExChristian.Net - News and Opinion

Greg — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 15:12:00 -0000

I am appreciative that people are discussing this. We don't believe Dawkins, Harris, etc. are nearly as bad as religious fundamentalists. We aren't "against" them in the sense that I think there is a lot of deserved anger out there against traditional religion, especially on a site like this, which I support. But the fact is that the anti-religious, religion needs to be defeated perspective does not represent most of us non-religious people and Humanists. We are looking to be treated equally as citizens, not to denigrate others. We don't expect everyone to think the way we do about religious matters and we don't kid ourselves into thinking the world would suddenly be problem-free if everyone did. We're damn proud to be Humanists and atheists. And we will respond strongly to discrimination against others like us. But we endorse and affirm a pluralistic vision of society, acknowledging that many of our religious neighbors want the same good, decent lives we do. Until Dawkins and Harris incoroprate this point into their public statements more, or until other voices saying so are heard more loudly, we feel we have to bang the drum a bit.

Thanks for reading and all the best. Hope some visiting this site will come to our conference!

Sincerely,

--
Greg M. Epstein
Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University

Re: Cycliquette

Greg — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:15:10 -0000

Great idea!

Cool - letting another cyclist know you are about to pass them

Uncool - passing on the left

Re: Champion System Clothing

Greg — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:19:24 -0000

Team kit is usually changed over every year or two anyway due to new sponsor logos, colors, etc. As long as its comfortable for those one or two years that's good. I'd hate to be putting my "Assos quality" team clothing in a box and never seeing it again after a year of use just because our team colors have changed...

Re: A Pharisee of Pharisees - Testimonies of Ex-Christians

Greg — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:02:00 -0000

Hi John, Rich, and Larry,

Reformed Baptists? Been there, done that:-(
Al Martin tapes? Been there, done that:-(
Jesus Christ Himself? Still there, doing that:-)

Here's what I learned from 10 years in the RB's. (The following article applies to only some, not all of RB's.)
"8 Signs of Immature, Carnal Christians"

9. Which movement is true?

A. Anabaptist
B. Reformed
C. Puritanism
D. Sovereign Grace Baptist
E. Pentecostalism/Charismatic
F. Fundamentalism
G. Evangelicalism
H. Church Growth/Seeker-Sensitive/Purpose Driven
I. There is no perfect movement - only a perfect Savior.

A better question to ask is, "How much of each movement is true?" All movements consist of imperfect individuals. If we don't believe in individual perfectionism, then we shouldn't believe in corporate perfectionism, right?

All movements are passing fads, and mixtures of truth and error. Let's learn from their strengths, while being aware of their weaknesses. Christ and the apostles started only one movement in the first century, for all believers, for all time: The Church. Do you love His Church (all who are regenerate) like He does? "The Who Are You Following Quiz?"

Greg

Re: A Pharisee of Pharisees - Testimonies of Ex-Christians

Greg — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:37:00 -0000

Hi Webmaster Dave,

As I read your testimony, one of the major reasons you stopped believing in Christ was because no one could answer your questions. In a sense, I can't blame you. If I had questions doubting the Bible, and no one could answer them, then I couldn't believe the Bible anymore.

But, when I saw your quiz about alleged contradictions in the Bible, I was surprised that someone as well-read as you would really struggle with questions as simple as those.

Many of your questions are alleged contradictions like, "Were there 1 or 2 people there?" The simple answer is both! Your questions are structured as false dichotomies:

1. One person
2. Two people
3. Both (this should be your 3rd option.)

It always amazes me when skeptics assume the Bible must use language different than we do in everyday speech and writing. Here's an example of why your numbers' contradictions are wrong...

Back in the 90's, do you remember when the Chicago Bulls won 6 NBA championships? Now, after one of those championships, imagine you turned on the TV news and heard these 3 reports...

ABC: Michael Jordan lead the Bulls to the championship.

CBS: Micheal Jordan and Scottie Pippen lead the Bulls to the championship.

Fox: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman lead the Bulls to the championship.

Which report is true? They're all true, yet from different perspectives.

The problem with the alleged contradiction between "1 or 2" is that you're reading the word "only" into verses. But, they don't say, "ONLY one." If they did, then that would be a real contradiction!

Here are some more examples...

1. Did you talk with a co-worker yesterday? Did you speak only with that co-worker, or also with other co-workers?

2. If I say I drank orange juice for breakfast this morning, does that mean I didn't drink orange juice and coffee also?

3. Did you speak to your wife yesterday? Does that mean you didn't speak with your wife and children also?

4. Did you go to work yesterday? Does that mean you didn't go to work and to the store also?

Can you see the false dichotomies in those questions? We need to beware of reading the word "only" into verses.

Dave, I hope this helps you to think through some of your questions. If you're interested in more info. on such questions, you might enjoy the New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer.

Greg

Re: The straw that broke the camels back - Testimonies of Ex-Christians

Greg — Fri, 25 May 2007 05:50:00 -0000

The Christian life is a difficult one, and, as the last poster said, prayers are often not anwered...especially if you are asking for yourself.
And many Christians can behave like jerks, human beings being as prone to error and self absorption as they are.
I have no doubt that your rejection of Christ has made things easier in this life, and that you will probably have a productive future.
In fact, a very full life, probably happier than you would if you had stuck with Christianity.
Enjoy the ride.
But in the end, Hell will still be waiting.

Re: I am definitely not a Christian anymore - Testimonies of Ex-Christians

Greg — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:45:00 -0000

I really liked reading your story. I can identify a lot with what you said. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:53:00 -0000

Faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something. That's from the dictionary on my Macbook. I have complete trust and confidence in SOMEONE (Jesus) while you have complete confidence in SOMETHING (no God).

The question was asked about throwing mountains in the sea "if I had the faith". So I guess I am to question my faith because I have yet to cast any large hills into some ocean. The scripture is found in Matthew chapter 17 and it finds Christ talking with His disciples regarding a struggle that they had dealing with a problem in a young boys life. Their ministry to this boy went completely without result and after Jesus successfully dealt with the issue they asked Him privately why aren't we as productive as you. So I want to respond on just a few points as to the words of Christ and especially as to my faith:

1. The word "faith" in the text used here (and in most places in the Bible) is defined as a moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), abstractly, constancy in such profession. As in reading any text there can be so many interpretations and as I write this I can only speak as to my interpretation of this scripture. I believe that here (as in most places in scripture) we could plant the word faithfulness where we see faith. If you were constant/faithful/convicted of a truth then you could move a mountain. Do I believe that Christ was literally talking about moving literal mountains? Personally I do not. I have "mountains" in my life. Some are in my checkbook, others in my marriage, some in my mind; and I've found that only when I show this kind of faith are those mountains removed. Did He really mean that we should not throw REAL pearls before REAL swine; did He really mean that I had to eat His LITERAL flesh and drink His REAL blood or was that a metaphor also? As a point Jesus later said that this kind of problem/devil can only be dealt with through much prayer and fasting (or faithfulness).

2. If He spoke literally concerning moving mountains with faith. I have studied some about faith and have found that "faith is the substance of things hoped for". Substance by definition is the quality of being important, valid, or significant. Jesus was asked once that since He was the Son of God and had this faith then He should throw Himself off the pinnacle and His faith in God would save Him. He answered by saying that He would not tempt the Lord which in my language means He said, "I don't have to prove my belief by doing some trick". Faith to me is real, about helping me deal with real problems, not doing some David Copperfield trick. If you need that trick to prove that faith is real then you don't have faith. I can hear some one now saying "here's someone else saying they have faith but I'll just have to believe them". I have seen some mountains moved in my life with real bonfide (bad spelling) miracles but I would rather my life, my faithfulness, be the trophy I hold up that speaks of my faith. About the Sox, they won't win without Big Poppy. If you don't believe they'll win then you must have a "strong confidence" that someone else will win. That's still faith.

Finally, maybe I have mustard seed faith, maybe I have turnip seed faith, maybe I have boulder sized faith. Time will tell! Paul said "he that endures till the end shall be saved". Check back with me in a few years; if I'm still running the race, still overthrowing mountains, then I had/have faith.

Jesus was asked repeatedly to PROVE, give EVIDENCE, that He was the Christ. He said that the only sign they would be given was that of Jonah. Three days in the earth and the grave (last I checked) was empty. Believe it or not, that's up to you. I believe it with every fiber of my being.

Thank you again for the civilized conversation.

Greg

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:55:00 -0000

P.S. I hope you did not get tha idea that I meant that only Christians live by a moral code; or that only we live good lives. I simply said that what I have learned of Christ pushes me to live a great life. Pushes me everyday to live better than the last.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:10:00 -0000

Are you saying that you don't have complete confidence that Jesus Christ is not God. If you are completely convinced He is not God then you have faith.

Wow you are awesome at this. I admire your faith, faithfulness to what you believe; or is it what you don't believe. I forget because you don't have faith, or you do have faith.

How did your parents prove that they loved you? How did your spouse prove it? Your kids? Your friends? By what they said or by your faith in them. PS if you've never believed that someone loves you I'm sorry.

I'm running out of comp battery I'll talk again after a quick charge...

To Be Continued

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:34:00 -0000

Is erverything you say literal or is everything a metaphor? If you are one of those rare breeds that actually mix it up how do you let people know you're speaking literally or vice versa. Do you say "I'm as hungry as a horse, metaphorically?" I suppose you just expect people to figure out by the CONTEXT of what you're saying that you're just trying to prove a point that you're very hungry. Jesus was trying to show them that it takes very little faith/faithfulness to do something very large. I think even Tony Robbins would agree that when someone is sold out to something, convinced of something, that doors of opportunity seem to open. "if you can believe it you can achieve it" LOL Just a joke there.

CONTEXT: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea. The context was that they were unable to do something right on the spot so Jesus says, "if you can just be faithful" you can do big things. These come out by "prayer and fasting" only. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse, metaphorically speaking of course.

Quick question to webmaster: If you are against all gods (you said you were an athiest) why don't you have a picture of Calvin taking a leak on Buddha or Mohammed. Have you ever heard the saying "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much". Do you really believe in nothing or are you just angry at Christ for not satisfying your intellect? I ask this question very sincerely. I am always troubled when I see pictures like that but I just don't get why everything is about Him and not about all of the gods you say aren't real.

Jesus I guess gave us credit that we would be able to differintiate between metaphor and literal. I will tear down this temple and rebuild it in three days - metaphor. The Son of Man must be crucified and rise from the dead - literal. I will make you fishers of men - metaphor (man would that hook hurt). I send you as sheep among wolves - metaphor. For God so loved boomSLANG and Greg (literal) that He gave His only begotten Son.

Peace

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:59:00 -0000

SO you're saying that when Jesus died for me that wasn't proving His love. (I do get the fact that you don't UNDERSTAND why His death is at all important spiritually. It makes no sense why God would become flesh and die so that i could have relationship with Him. I don't UNDERSTAND why when my wife has a bad day all I have to do is buy a couple of flowers and her whole day changes. They're just plants that will die but I KNOW it works. Faith I guess.) I have read that there is more historical proof in the life and death of Christ then there is of George Washington. He proved it. You may doubt the spirtual validity of that death but the proof historically that a man named Jesus died on a cross on order of Pontius Pilate in the city of Jerusalem exists. I've been to the place where great historians and archeologists (both Christian and non-Christians alike) say He was crucified and where He was most probably buried.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:04:00 -0000

I understand now. Since I could never be as smart as you. Forget my degrees, my life accomplishments: I must be too weak brained to carry on a conversation with such a mind as yours so you will take your ball and go home. I will go home as well. I will spend some time redaing though. I will not be reading Calvin or someone's theological exegesis; I will read God's Word and continue therein. I was truly hoping that this would remain at least civilized and non-accusational; but your fruit have found you. I'm so dumb and you're so smart. You win! I lose.

Otay!

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:16:00 -0000

Last one. I do see now. You lashed out at my apparent lack of intellect because of my last comment concerning your fixation with Christ. Good luck with that. The Devil doesn't keep me up at night but I think Jesus keeps you busy. Is that a still small voice?

What would it take for you to believe again? I'll pray it happens for you. This is a very serious proposition. Give me something within reason that if it happened you would believe. Maybe someone to say a specific phrase to you in the next few days. Let me know and I will pray fervently that God would show up. Don't do something like say I want a dinosaur.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:21:00 -0000

I apologize. I was not am not enraged. I am emotional, this to me is more than life and death. I am however an ameteur though.

Again please forgive me if I have come off angry. I tried to even throw a little humor in. I am happy.

Good luck tp you.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:25:00 -0000

OK. I do understand then why the pictures and the like. I am sorry you feel that way about anything. I have wasted my time in a career only having to start over so I guess I know a little how that would feel. I was so hoping we could be friends or at least friendly. Usually when I talk to people like you (great intellect and self assurance) I will speak candidly because people like you can take what more shallow people might get offended by.

Again forgive me and I will not visit this site again.

Adios.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:27:00 -0000

That's exactly what I will pray for. An amputee to recieve an authentic miracle. New arm, hand, finger, leg. I'll check back in a day or so.

Awesome. It has been a joy to discuss with you. You are obviously well read and studied.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 10:16:00 -0000

To Ben:

I did answer your questions to the best of my ability. You asked about faith. I tried to define faith; where the word originated and what it meant from Matthew chapter 17 which you my friend quoted, not me. Faith is the strong conviction or trust in someone or something. I also showed you the definition of the Greek word pistis which is used in Matthew chapter 17 and translated as faith in English. That definition was the belief in something and abstractly constancy in the following of that belief - or faithfulness.

The word, or idea, of faith does not originate from the Bible or even from the Christian belief. People have had faith (of course it would be called something else in their language) before the days of Abraham. Egyptians had a "strong conviction" in their gods. People in the Far East would sacrifice their children to their gods before Abraham was ever born; that is pretty strong faith.

You asked me if I had mustard seed faith and I answered you by saying that I might have mustard seed, turnip seed, or boulder size faith. That faith is faithfulness to what I do or don't believe. I guess my life will speak as to whether I remain faithful. I also tried to show that I believe that Christ was not trying to quantify faith. He was using a metaphor that His followers would understand. A mustard seed is small and if you have even just a very small amount of faith, again faithfulness, you can see great things happen in life.

I know everyone here hates what I'm saying but I think you all have a lot more than "mustard seed" faith. You believe and practice your faith. Your belief that there is no Supreme Being known as God. Something does not have to be a god; a noun is defined as a person, place, or idea! You believe in the idea that there is no God.

I've learned something however in my studies of human behavior and that is the intimidation of an intellectual bully. What do you do when you feel superior to anyone who thinks something, believes something, you feel is foolishness? Call them an idiot. If that makes you feel better about yourself ok. I am fully prepared to say that I do have the intellect that you obviously possess. I have never read one book on the ideaology of Athiesm so I do not quote its verses.

I have gone through a few of these pages just to scan the great writings of Ben "Ironic how people revert to kindergarden name calling and teasing when someone steps on their mental delusion." That was one of his. He called a 13 year old boy a fool, and idiot. Yet time would not allow me to tell you the sand he has kicked in the faces of others who don't toe the line of his reality. How many people called Columbus an idiot for thinking the world was flat? And yes that analogy works both ways. I like chocoloate milk and you like strawberry. Am I an idiot because strawberry is obviously a more intellectual choice. I live my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ; you live your life as a disciple of someone (insert name here) by the books you've read. You folks talk about being free thinkers but I've yet to read one original thought from ANYONE (Christian or non-christian alike). Someone said that if God would just make an amputee grow a arm he would believe; so being a computer geek I scoured the internet for hours and found that even that request was not original. I found countless pages (dating back as much as 5 years) of people saying the exact same things. You say I am living in a fantasy world for quoting a Bible yet you quote a scientist. Are you the original atheist?

Smooth...

Re: http://igorandandre.blogspot.com/2008/11/little-dazed-confused.html

Greg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:37:00 -0000

thats so so brilliant. I'd be shocked if you don't win. it puts my entry to shame haha.

Re: http://igorandandre.blogspot.com/2008/11/little-dazed-confused.html

Greg — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:26:00 -0000

hello, just wondering if you've heard from dazed yet?
I got an email yesterday saying my design would be featured!
wahoo
i hope yours is too, and i hope yours makes the front cover!

Re: http://igorandandre.blogspot.com/2008/11/well-first-off-i-want-to-say-thank-you.html

Greg — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:22:00 -0000

whoaa
this is probably one of my favourite illustration of yours
its amazing!

Re: http://alt-tab.org/?post/1491

Greg — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:54:55 -0000

Le canon le plus phallique du monde !

Re: The Absolute Best Songs of 2009 (.25 of the way through)

Greg — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:43:30 -0000

i feel the jack in the box song with the midgets singing about cattle is missing from most (ok all) of these lists. also i liked phoenix 1901 & fyi the entire album n.a.s.a. is hard to listen to except the kanye track listed above.

and that new yyy album - yes very excellent. been on repeat for weeks now.

Re: Mark Cuban Is Just Your Average Mac Convert, and I Can Relate, Welcome to the Age of Apple

Greg — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:15:00 -0000

I started to use macs in 10th grade of highschool and now I'm a senior and I'm using them a lot and ..... I love it. I am very satisfied. I'm not sure why but it feels so great (ok, I could actually give you reasons.)

But I am now faced with a problem, I just built my own PC last chirstmas for $1000. I kinda want to make the switch to a mac but I can't aford a new computer right now and I would hate to waste my new computer.

So I could buy a mac laptop for college but I fear I might just want to use that and never my pc. The second thing is I want a laptop for highschool, like now. I was looking at some netbooks because I want thing very small, lite and portable. I also think it would be a waste to get a netbook then a mac laptop fall 09. So theres my dilemma.

Re: Liverpool Through to Quarterfinals, Neutrals Cringe

Greg — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:16:48 -0000

Now Raed(#13), i agree to a certain extent that Liverpool were more than lucky to win the Champions League in '05 as Milan were distinctly better than us, especially in the first half. However, your comments about the o6/07 Final baffle me, did you actually watch the game at all? Or were you spending the evening trying to find a suitable anagram for your name (ironic in itself, even more ironic if there were an additional r and t present)?
Liverpool were clearly the better of the two teams and if Torres had been present in that side we would have had the finisher that we so desperately needed to clinch another UCL title. Milan had two chances in the game which they took, very similar to Liverpool's champions league exploits of two seasons previous. All in all the two final's evened themselves out.
Winning the Champions League "by luck" does not make Benitez a better manager than Wenger, however, by acheiving the feat of reaching two finals in 3 years and consistantly reaching the knock-out stages of the tournament does. This is amplified when you consider the side present in the '05 final consisted of Djimi Traore and other Houllier signings of similar calibre.

Re: 10,000 hits | a public defender

Greg — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 05:07:51 -0000

Here's to thousands of more visits. After all, knowing nothing is highly underrated, since true ignorance beats false wisdom every time. And those of us who know less than nothing appreciate the help.

Re: How much was the Topix deal worth?

Greg — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 04:09:15 -0000

Whoever paid that much should be fired. No one else was even bidding for these guys. No one uses their site. A clear example of the traditional media being duped!

Re: Joel Johnson on Gadgets

Greg — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 01:46:33 -0000

Awesometastic! At first I was expecting to be reminded of a certain Newborn Christian Japanese teacher we had at high school whose favourite line was "I spent years bumming around in Tokyo smoking pot, just so I can now tell you it will ruin your life... don't do it, kids!". But on furthertastic investigation, I wholeheartedly concur! It's exactly the reason that, even though I'm heading a digital company, I still have my Nokia 0.7G phone instead of a new N73i (the "i" stands for "argh, I just spent *how much* on something that steals 3 hours a day from my life while I try to understand how it works, and reboot it when it doesn't?!")(although I just cracked myslef up by looking for the model number and noticing the time: 13:37, snort snort...).

Cue memory #2: sitting with the APAC Marketing Director for Motorola handsets while trying out their first 3G phone, and discussing the launch campaign:
Him: "And here it is..." (passes it across the table)
Me: "Cool... (60 second pause) ...how do I turn it on?"
Him: "Oh, sorry, like this" (turns it on)
Me: "OK... (seriously, like 90 second pause now) ...so, it's still starting up?"
Him: "er, yeah..."
(LATER IN THE SAME MEETING)
Me: "So it doesn't actually work, and we're supposed to advertise it as being great?"

Come on, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola... give me a freaking product that you've TRIED YOURSELF and are HAPPY TO LEND TO YOUR WIFE.

Re: Kanye West Murders 50 Cent (Saleswise That Is…), Who Inadvertently Saves Music Business

Greg — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:23:13 -0000

How long before their rivalry turns to murder, 2Pac and Biggie style?

And how the hell do those NOW compilations ALWAYS rank so highly on the charts?

Re: Pretty Much Amazing: The Mixtape II – Rap Acts You Are Allowed To Like

Greg — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:51:28 -0000

This is a lot of Kanye, haha - you really are one of his sheeple

Re: La Rioja’s Traditional Liqueur: Patxaran

Greg — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:18:10 -0000

I have been looking for Pacharan here in Los Angeles for years and have never been able to find it.

Does anybody know where I can buy it here in the USA?

Thanks!

Re: La Rioja’s Traditional Liqueur: Patxaran

Greg — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:44:27 -0000

Eskerri asko, Marlene!

That's "Thank you" in Basque" :-)

Greg

Re: Morals lost in Politics at Scattered

Greg — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:11:29 -0000

Appreciate your thoughts..

Re: Avery Bonnie Cameron at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:14:54 -0000

BEAUTIFUL...WAY TO GO GUYS

Re: Sara resting up at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:16:01 -0000

Looking good sara, about to dive into the CMH feast..Get some rest...

Re: My breakfast at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:17:55 -0000

Sorry Dan...though the dannon smoothie thing is really good, not sure about that tortilla that looks like a wet paper towel on a plate..You might want to truly ask Gods blessing on that, and if you ahve already finished, might get a book or 2 and take some devotional time in the bathroom....

Re: Our view at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:19:58 -0000

well, besides the beauty of wife and new baby, you are surrounded by the beauty of creation... Think about that, your surrounded by the gracious touch of Gods creation, wife, new baby, view.. Take it all in Dan, give praise and take it all in...

Re: Foot print and measurments at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:20:49 -0000

A mark of beginnings...

Re: Our room at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:21:29 -0000

yep, been in a lot of these...

Re: Wants some burrito at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:22:15 -0000

reminds me of you in the HG days....

Re: Aaaahhhh at Scattered

Greg — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:23:21 -0000

now, remember this picture, you want to know this face, this quiet as much as you can...

Re: Video Casting at Scattered

Greg — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:25:09 -0000

Yes secrets, and no one will ever find out, never i tell you, never...hahahahaha

Re: Announcing the PUSSY CAT

Greg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:48:00 -0000

i'll work a stop,
im sure jeremy would be down too

my email= GRHebard@gmail.com

Re: Bicycle Poem/Rant

Greg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:06:00 -0000

that was interesting to read.
...it feels like lately motorists have been messing with bikers more and more. usually, when i hear someone yell something while im riding it doesnt really bother me. but i guess someone really bugged me on friday afternoon and i spat in their face at pointblank range a few intersections later. it ended up being quite an experience

thats a nice poem/story tho

i dig it

Re: This is what is ‘New PussyCat’. Photos, Video of PussyCat 2008.

Greg — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:31:00 -0000

goood video.

id like to take pics at bike porn. thatd be fun!

Re: halloween masquerade mass 2008 UPDATED

Greg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:04:00 -0000

dang. i wanna see the video.

Re: halloween masquerade mass 2008 UPDATED

Greg — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:27:00 -0000

cool, that works :)

nice job on the video as always

Re: Tomorrow! Cranksgiving!

Greg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:11:00 -0000

ESTHER.
making thing difficult since 2008.

jussttt kiddiinnggg :)

shes got a point tho, maybe make a few manifests for the veggies and vegans.

P.S. im stoked on this alleycat, sounds like a good time!

Re: Sprints in Ogden this Saturday

Greg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:29:00 -0000

there is a lot of writing on that flyer... it took me a minute to take it all in...

Re: Thrash’n Thursdays!

Greg — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:43:00 -0000

epic.
i cant wait!

Re: Thrash’n Thursdays!

Greg — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:49:00 -0000

that was a fun event, i was hungry the whole time tho haha.

next week, we eat pizza first!

pics soon

thanks to Cory!

Re: Thrashed on Thursday.

Greg — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:56:00 -0000

we're sorry if anyone got left behind at ESTE, i guess we got a little bit anxious to ride.

every week we will be meeting at the same place, same time. but we will probably meet inside and eat pizza before we head out. so bring a few bucks for a slice

for people who decided not to come because of the temperature, the parking structure was very warm. and most of us weren't even wearing sweatshirts

Re: CBC Begs Presidential Candidates to Re-Join Fox Debate

Greg — Fri, 25 May 2007 03:18:00 -0000

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Champions Fox News

By

Greg Fuller

In the view of many, mine included , the Black Community consist of people with diverse viewpoints and interest , but it is also true that many in the Black community understand that we still have an common interest in maintaining , and expanding to those still left out of ,the political and economic gains of the past 40 years . Moreover, the Black Community common interest still has as goals : solidifying our position in new arenas we now find ourselves , and breaking down the barriers to arenas we are still excluded from . The CBC was founded in recognition of and to further these goals.

If one analyzes the struggle for Blacks to attain parity in this society , there is no doubt that ,since 1964 and to this very day , the GOP has opposed those goals in action if not in principle . Moreover , it is a matter of fact and beyond dispute, that Fox News Network is one of the GOP’s most pronounced and effective tools in actively opposing the goals many in the Black Community are unified on . That said, the CBC needs to explain it self: Why is the CBC cooperating with Fox News on any level?

In General, Fox News is a bastion of political operatives who champion views and agendas that are an anathema to the interest of the majority of Black people in particular and the middleclass in general .

At the highest political levels in America, powerful interest function within a framework of having no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interest . One of the few exceptions to this rule has been in the area of racial politics. Since at least 1964 when Barry Goldwater opposed civil rights as part of his presidential campaign , the GOP has employed racial politics without reservation or regret . To further the larger economic interesting of the Republican Party racial politics has been a central organizing strategy ; it is used by preying on America’s history of racial division to keep a sizable segment of the White population voting and supporting the GOP. Now that racial politics in its unvarnished form is considered unacceptable and bad for business by the large commercial interest who are political contributors , Gay marriage and abortion are now used more prominently than racial politics ,but racial politics is still very much with us as it has for all of this Nation’s history . This history being to exhaustive to recount here, I’ll limit my examples to just a few anecdotes that I vividly recall.

During the 1968 Presidential Campaign, Richard Nixon co-opted George Wallace’s law and order politics (anti-civil rights) and labeled it his southern strategy. Nixon used lingering White resentment over the passages of voting rights and civil rights laws to bring voters with those resentments into the GOP .The Southern Strategy has been a touchstone of GOP politics ever since, giving rise to the present day Red State , Blue State dichotomy . Some will I’m sure ,try to hoodwink their present day followers’ into thinking Red and Blue is about other things but that is revisionist history by any factual standard .

Since Nixon, the southern strategy playbook has included ,to cite just a few examples :

Roland Reagan’s 1980 Philadelphia Mississippi(the site of KKK murders of Civil Rights Workers ) “ State’s Rights Speech “, George Bush Senior’s operative Lee Atwater’s (Carl Rove’s patron saint ) use of the Willie Horton ad’s to inject race into the 1988 Presidential Campaign , in 1990 Senator Jessie Helms used ads that suggested that Blacks where displacing Whites from jobs they should have gotten but did not due to Affirmative Action . Affirmative Action is typically mischaracterized and used by the GOP as a proxy for race as are Welfare Recipients despite facts that refute the racial stereotypes of Welfare Queens and etc. Since 2000, the George W. Bush administration attacked Affirmative Action as one of its first initiatives. Moreover, Bush’s Department of Justice now operates under the philosophy that that pursuing religious discrimination is a higher priority than racial injustice . And let us not forget Other Bush family favors, like Jeb Bush’s secretive removal of Blacks from Florida’s voter rolls and similar vote suppression efforts by the GOP in Ohio and elsewhere .

For a long time the GOP has sought out “everything is cool” Blacks ,for appointed and elected positions, who seemed to represent the extreme minority of Blacks who feel our quest for full inclusion in American society has been achieved , and that race is now a hindrance no greater than having red hair or big feet . Apparently hiring even “everything is cool Blacks “ is no longer good enough . Breathtaking in its raw arrogance and potential for malevolence, we now find out that in the George W Bush administration , Blacks have been routinely ruled out as hires for the position of attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division .

And should the current members of the CBC think the lack of Black attorney hires in Civil Rights is an anomaly, and that the GOP age of racial politics is over , they should recall the GOP’s treatment of their former member Harold Ford during his Senatorial bid , when the “Call me Harold “ ad was used to exploit any anti-miscegenation campaign contributors or voters in the Tennessee electorate .

So again I repeat : Why is the CBC cooperating with Fox News on any level ? Is it that they think Fox News is no longer an appendage of the GOP ? Or do they think an agreement with FOX reduces Fox’s ability to cut, paste and frame the content or distort it for later use ? Why would any credible Democratic Candidate for President risk such distortion, given Fox’s record of extreme bias.

I have long thought Democrats in general demonstrate strategic idiocy by appearing on the Fox News Channel. Needless to say, that makes any CBC and Fox News cooperation highly suspect both strategically and as a matter of principle .

Comments and feedback are welcomed .

Greg

Re: The CBC is Out to Lunch

Greg — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:45:00 -0000

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Champions Fox News?

By

Greg Fuller

In the view of many, mine included , the Black Community consist of people with diverse viewpoints and interest , but it is also true that many in the Black community understand that we still have an common interest in maintaining , and expanding to those still left out of ,the political and economic gains of the past 40 years . Moreover, the Black Community common interest still has as goals: solidifying our position in new arenas we now find ourselves, and breaking down the barriers to arenas we are still excluded from. The CBC was founded in recognition of and to further these goals.

If one analyzes the struggle for Blacks to attain parity in this society, there is no doubt that, since 1964 and to this very day, the GOP has opposed those goals in action if not in principle. Moreover, it is a matter of fact and beyond dispute, that Fox News Network is one of the GOP’s most pronounced and effective tools in actively opposing the goals many in the Black Community are unified on. That said, the CBC needs to explain itself: Why is the CBC cooperating with Fox News on any level?

In General, Fox News is a bastion of political operatives who champion views and agendas that are an anathema to the interest of the majority of Black people in particular and the middleclass in general .

At the highest levels of American politics, powerful interests function within a framework of having no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interest. One of the few exceptions to this rule has been in the area of racial politics. Since at least 1964 when Barry Goldwater opposed civil rights as part of his presidential campaign , the GOP has employed racial politics without reservation or regret . To further the larger economic interesting of the Republican Party, racial politics has been used as a central organizing strategy ; it is employed by preying on America’s racial division to keep a sizable segment of the White population voting and supporting the GOP. Now that racial politics in its unvarnished form is considered unacceptable, and bad for business by the large commercial interest who are political contributors, Gay marriage and abortion are now used more prominently than racial politics, but racial politics is still very much with us as it has for all of this Nation’s history. That history being to exhaustive to recount here, I’ll limit my examples to just a few anecdotes that I vividly recall:

During the 1968 Presidential Campaign, Richard Nixon co-opted George Wallace’s law and order politics (anti-civil rights) and labeled it his southern strategy. Nixon used lingering White resentment over the passages of voting rights and civil rights laws to bring voters with those resentments into the GOP .The Southern Strategy has been a touchstone of GOP politics ever since, giving rise to the present day Red State , Blue State dichotomy . Some will I’m sure, try to hoodwink their present day followers’ into thinking Red and Blue is about things other than race, but that would be revisionist history by any factual standard.

Since Nixon, the southern strategy playbook has included ,to cite just a few examples :

Roland Reagan’s 1980 Philadelphia Mississippi(the site of KKK murders of Civil Rights Workers ) “ State’s Rights Speech “, George Bush Senior’s operative Lee Atwater’s (Carl Rove’s patron saint ) use of the Willie Horton ad’s to inject race into the 1988 Presidential Campaign , in 1990 Senator Jessie Helms used ads that suggested that Blacks where displacing Whites from jobs they should have gotten but did not due to Affirmative Action . Affirmative Action is typically mischaracterized and used by the GOP as a proxy for race as are Welfare Recipients despite facts that refute the racial stereotypes of Welfare Queens and etc.

Since Y2K, it is notable that the George W. Bush administration attacked Affirmative Action as one of its first initiatives. Moreover, Bush’s Department of Justice now operates under the philosophy that pursuing religious discrimination is a higher priority than racial injustice. And let us not forget Other Bush family favors, like Jeb Bush’s secretive removal of Blacks from Florida’s voter rolls and similar vote suppression efforts by the GOP in Ohio and elsewhere.

For a long time the GOP has sought out EICBs (everything is cool Blacks), for appointed and elected positions. EICBs typically represent the extreme minority of Blacks who feel our quest for full inclusion in American society has been achieved, and that race is now a hindrance no greater than having red hair or big feet. Apparently, hiring even EICBs no longer meets GOP needs : Breathtaking in its raw arrogance and potential for malevolence, we now find out that in the George W Bush administration , Blacks have been routinely ruled out as hires for the position of attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division .

And , should the “keepers of the flame” at the CBC think the lack of Black attorney hires in Civil Rights is an anomaly, and that the GOP age of racial politics is over - they should think about the GOP’s treatment of their former member Harold Ford during his Senatorial bid , when the “Call me Harold “ ad was used to exploit any anti-miscegenation campaign contributors or voters in the Tennessee electorate . As Harold is one the Blacks that the GOP crowd supposedly likes , his sense of betrayal must be especially acute ?

After thinking about Harold’s experience , his CBC colleagues should view the clips at : “Fox Attacks Black America” http://foxattacks.com/2007/03/fox_attacks_black..., they will find that the clips are threads from the same GOP shroud of racial politics as the “Call me Harold “ ad .

So again I repeat : Why is the CBC cooperating with Fox News on any level ? Is it that they think Fox News is no longer an appendage of the GOP ? Or do they think an agreement with FOX reduces Fox’s ability to cut, paste and frame the content or distort it for later use ? Additionally ,why would any credible Democratic Candidate for President risk such distortion, given Fox’s record of extreme bias.

I have long thought that ,in general ,Democrats demonstrate strategic idiocy by appearing on the Fox News Channel. Needless to say, that makes any CBC and Fox News cooperation highly suspect both strategically and as a matter of principle .

Comments and feedback are welcomed .

Greg

************************************************************************

Twenty-six members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have signed letters to Sen. Barack Obama

By Alexander Bolton

May 23, 2007

Twenty-six members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have signed letters to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) urging them to reconsider their decisions to skip a debate cosponsored by the CBC Institute and Fox News.

Last month, under pressure from liberal activists, Obama, Clinton and Edwards, the front-runners in the Democratic presidential primary, announced that they would skip the debate scheduled for September because they consider Fox biased against Democrats.

Obama in particular has had a rocky relationship with Fox. His campaign froze out the conservative-leaning news network for a few weeks after it erroneously reported that Obama had received schooling at a radical madrassa — a Muslim school — during his youth in Indonesia.

Members of the Black Caucus say that by skipping the Fox debate, Obama and other candidates risk missing a chance to share their views on issues important to minority voters that are often given short shrift at other debates.

“Reconsider,” said CBC Institute Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), summing up the letter to Democratic presidential candidates. “Basically, it would be in your best interests to talk to the communities we represent.”

Black Caucus leaders sent the letter to the entire field of Democratic presidential candidates, but the primary targets were Obama, Clinton and Edwards.

The caucus has 43 members from 22 states, who together represent about 40 million Americans, an official with the group said. Seventeen members of the Black Caucus represent districts that are less than 50 percent African-American, said caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who argued that the issues at the debate will also be of interest to other minority constituencies, such as Hispanics.

“It’s not just a black thing,” Kilpatrick said.

Thompson said presidential debates often ignore issues that are important to minority voters.

“Nobody is talking about the disproportionate statistics that we have in this country as it relates to minority population,” Thompson said. “You can look at healthcare, you can look at education, you can look at employment, you can look at housing, you can look at lending. All those [statistics] show a very bad picture for many constituents we represent.

“So we think Democratic and Republican candidates alike should have an opportunity to say what they plan to [do to] level the playing field,” he added.

By framing their decision to skip the debate as a missed opportunity to communicate to an important Democratic constituency, caucus leaders are ratcheting up the political pressure on the Democratic front-runners.

Thompson said that the CBC Institute, not Fox, would set the debate format and select the questions to be asked. He said Fox merely will broadcast the event.

So far, liberal opinion leaders have praised the Democrats’ decision to snub Fox.

Left-leaning columnist E.J. Dionne wrote last month that Democrats were well within their rights.

“Tell me again: Why do Democrats have an obligation to participate in debates on Fox?” Dionne wrote. “I am an avid reader of conservative magazines such as National Review and the Weekly Standard. But if these two publications teamed up to sponsor a Democratic debate, would anyone accuse Edwards, Obama and Clinton of ‘blacklisting’ if the candidates said, ‘no thanks’?”

The pressure may be particularly acute for Obama, who is a member of the Black Caucus. Obama has irked fellow CBC members by failing to respond to a request made early last year that he host a fundraiser for the Black Caucus’s political action committee (PAC). Clinton received a similar invitation and quickly followed through by headlining a CBC PAC fundraiser in March of 2006.

If Obama were to change his mind and attend the debate, it would put pressure on Edwards and Clinton to follow suit. Otherwise, it might look as though they were snubbing African-American voters, an important bloc of the Democratic electorate. For instance, in South Carolina, which will hold the country’s second presidential primary, black voters are expected to make up nearly half of Democratic voters.

The 26 Black Caucus members who signed the letter wrote that they strongly support the debate sponsored by the CBC Institute and Fox. The signatories emphasized that the Black Caucus is separate and distinct from the CBC Institute, but their very action also illustrated the close affinity between the two groups. Four caucus members sit on the institute’s board: Thompson, Kilpatrick, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.).

Thompson and Kilpatrick noted that when the CBC Institute asked cable news networks to air presidential debates it hosted in 2003, only Fox responded. They said the debates drew impressive ratings.

Thompson said loyalty is a factor in the CBC Institute’s decision to stick with Fox. In total, the institute plans to host four presidential debates, two for Democratic candidates and two for Republican candidates. Fox and CNN will split the broadcasting evenly.

“Given the importance that African-Americans and others hear from you on your position on critical issues that affect their lives and the country, we urge your participation,” a Democratic source who described the letter’s conclusion said.

But the debate is not without controversy in the black political community.

“I think what we have are candidates who understand that Fox is a propaganda outlet and not an appropriate place for political discourse to be treated as news,” said James Rucker, the executive director of ColorOfChange.org, who applauded Obama, Clinton and Edwards for skipping the debate. ColorOfChange.org describes itself as an online community of 90,000 Americans dedicated to amplifying the voice of Black America.

Signatures

Greg Fuller

Re: A Must-See, Listen, Read on Race, Gender and the Election

Greg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:51:00 -0000

Gloria Steinem: Pitting race against gender & Gloria Steinem and the CIA

Gloria Steinem: Pitting race against gender

by Racialicious guest contributor Jennifer Fang, originally published at Reappropriate

Since 2004, when rumours abounded over an Obama candidacy, pundits have cast this year's Democratic election as a battle of identity politics: will Americans choose a Black man or a White woman to be their nominee for president? And by extension, will this finally settle the debate over which is the more subjugated identity: race or gender?

Yesterday morning, Gloria Steinem, influential second-wave feminist, weighed in at the New York Times with an opinion piece titled "Women Are Never Front-Runners". I guess we can tell where she stands in this debate.

(Incidentally, if women are never front-runners, than how did Clinton get as far as she did on the "inevitable pseudo-incumbent" campaign she's been running that made her the front-runner for most of last year? I find the headline of this piece to be a wee bit of hyperbole.)

We've heard many argue that it's time for an African American president, and many more argue it's time for a female president. But, nowhere in the race vs. gender frenzy that has swept the nation has anyone challenged the very validity of the question. How can one compare racism to sexism - and if one tries, where do those of us who are disadvantaged both by our race and by our gender fit in?

In truth, the juxtaposition is disingenuous, divisive, overly simplistic, and ultimately harmful, because it redirects our attention away from efforts to break the White male patriarchy that excludes all the Others, but towards in-fighting where we all compete to see both who's more oppressed, and who will make it out of that "Oppression Box" first.

Scholars like Steinem have only fueled these divisive attitudes. Though she writes, "I'm not advocating a competition for who has it toughest", Steinem opens her article with the observation that "gender is probably the most restricting force in American life". She continues by implying that the race barrier has largely been resolved, because "Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women".

While Steinem is correct in observing that women are still oppressed by the gender roles that expect us to remain in the kitchen over the White House, how can we compare those gender roles to the racist expectation that Black men be either athletes or in jail? How does that compare to the plight of Native Americans, who suffer from almost non-existent healthcare or educational opportunities? Or to the on-the-job harassment faced by Asian Americans seen as perpetually untrustworthy and foreign?

Steinem's argument that women were denied the vote for a half-century after Black men were made voting citizens ignores two truths: 1) had the right for women to vote been included in the 14th and 15th Amendments, those Amendments were unlikely to have passed, and 2) despite being granted the right to vote in the Constitution, it took nearly another century before the Voting Rights Act allowed the majority of African Americans to exercise that right in the face of profoundly institutionalized racism and apartheid. But Steinem essentially argues that these details are irrelevant: because women were not granted the vote when Black men were, Black men face fewer barriers today compared to White women, and thus are less deserving of affirmative action when it comes to the highest position in the country. By extension, Steinem suggests that if White women don't benefit from a step towards civil rights, than no one should - which is why we need a female president before we need a Black president.

Steinem further suggests that negative treatment (or impossible expectations) of Senator Hillary Clinton stem exclusively from a sexism "as pervasive as the air we breathe". She notes that a fictional Achola Obama (who, unlike Senator Obama, doesn't seem to have achieved anything more than state legislator) would not be seen as electable while Senator Barack Obama - by virtue of his gender, says Steinem - is. Not only does this ignore the very "un-electable Obama" argument that has been a core component of Clinton's stump speeches, but Steinem carelessly paints all criticisms of Senator Clinton with the same sexist brush. She notes "Clinton could not have used Mr. Obama's public style - or Bill Clinton's either - without being considered too emotional by Washington pundits". But, Hillary Clinton has tried: notably in Selma, Alabama earlier this year, when Clinton and Obama delivered back-to-back speeches in neighbouring churches. Obama's speech was generally heralded as rousing and inspiring. Clinton's was not criticized as being "too emotional", but too robotic and fake. In fact, I suspect that Clinton can't get away with Obama's or Clinton's style of speaking not because she's a woman, but because she's simply not that charismatic a speaker.

On the question of biology, Steinem again contradicts herself. Though she argues that sexism has remained pervasive because of how it is "still confused with nature" (i.e. women are naturally or biologically different), she goes on to underscore and praise Clinton's innate differences as a woman by citing how she has "no masculinity to prove". And when it comes to emotion, Steinem recognizes that Washington pundits are quick to charge female politicians with being "too emotional" but then she lauds Clinton for having "the courage to break the no-tears rule". Steinem seems to want it front-ways, back-ways, and every ways but Sundays when it comes to Clinton - she believes Clinton deserves our vote in part "because she's a woman", while arguing that Clinton shouldn't be seen as "divisive by her sex".

But the contradictions on how to consider Senator Clinton's gender seem to run deeper - all the way to the Senator's campaign. Senator Clinton repeatedly cites the change that will be affected by electing a female president, but then dismisses the charge that she is playing the "gender card". (By contrast, not once has Obama said that he should be elected because he would be the first Black president). Senator Clinton claims to be the candidate of feminists (indeed, Steinem herself basically questions the gender authenticity of young women for daring to choose a male candidate over Senator Clinton - going so far as to suggest that "women are the one group that grows more radical with age") and yet Clinton expected to ride the wave of her husband's accomplishments all the way to the White House. And in case we found out that she actually had very little to do with those accomplishments, she and her husband have carefully chosen to exclude White House documents pertaining to the First Lady's role during the Clinton years from the public eye.

Ultimately, however, Steinem's piece (intentionally or unintentionally) draws a line in the sand between people of colour and women, essentially disregarding the everyday racism faced by Black and Brown people, and claiming the Oppression Olympics gold medal for women. Further, by casting the debate as between Black men and White women (despite her imperfect creation of Achola Obama), Steinem renders the woman of colour invisible, reaffirms the binary Black-White paradigm of race, and demands we take a side in the epic battle between race and gender. Is it no wonder, then, that women of colour have long felt alienated by feminists like Steinem? Where do we fit when we're being asked to choose between Obama and Clinton as a metaphor for race versus gender? And how are we supposed to react when an incorrect choice labels us as "less radical"?

Gloria Steinem wants us to able to say we're supporting Senator Hillary Clinton because she'll be a great president and because she's a woman. But if we're really ready to take "equal pride in breaking all the barriers", then how can we be expected to make the call between voting for these candidates based even in part on their identity? Regardless of whom we decide on, by making the identity politics of our candidate a factor in our decision, we are implicitly establishing a "separate and unequal" relationship between race and gender barriers that only fuels the continued clash between race activists and feminists.

So, I'm supporting Senator Barack Obama because he'll be a great president. And, not because he's Black.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/01/09/gloria-steinem-pitting-race-against-gender/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html?_r=1&oref;=slogin

Now and then

The Day before the NewHamshire Primary vote The New York Times printed an op-ed by Gloria Steinem, "Women Are Never Frontrunners." It was at once an excuse for why Hillary Clinton lost in Iowa and an attack on men for the sexism that oppressed Hillary. She even suggested that racism is gone but sexism endures.

Now, up until Iowa Hillary was the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, and by winning in New Hampshire she is again the frontrunner. So Steinem's premise was wrong. But what was the point of the op-ed?

Let me give you a hint as to whom Gloria Steinem is and why she said what she did. Here is an article from the same New York Times from forty years ago:

The New York Times, February 21, 1967

Gloria Steinem and the CIA

The New York Times

C.I.A. SUBSIDIZED FESTIVAL TRIPS; Hundreds of Students Were Sent to World Gatherings

February 21, 1967, Tuesday

Page 33, 584 words

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res... ;sq=Gloria+Steinem%3A

C.I.A. Subsidized Festival Trips

Hundreds of Students Were

Sent to World Gatherings

A New York freelance writer disclosed yesterday that the Central Intelligence Agency had supported a foundation that sent hundreds of Americans to World Youth Festivals in Vienna in 1959 and Helsinki, Finland, in 1962.

Gloria Steinem, a 30-year-old graduate of Smith College, said the C.I.A. has been a major source of funds for the foundation, the Independence [sic -- Independent] Research Service, since its formation in 1958. Almost all of the young persons who received aid from the foundation did not know about the relationship with the intelligence agency, Miss Steinem said. Ironically, she said, many of the students who attended the festivals have been criticized as leftists. The festivals are supposed to be financed by contributions from national student unions, but are, in fact, largely supported by the Soviet Union.

Miss Steinem said she had become convinced that American students should participate in the World Youth Festivals after she spent two years in India.

"I came home in 1958 full of idealism and activism, to discover that very little was being done," she said. "Students were not taken seriously here before the civil rights movement, and private money receded at the mention of a Communist youth festival."

Hears of Funds

Miss Steinem said she had talked to some former officers of the National Student Association, who told her C.I.A. money might be available to finance American participation in the seventh postwar festival scheduled for Vienna in the summer of 1959.

The former association officers had had ties with the C.I.A. while serving the association, which last week conceded it had taken money from the intelligence agency since 1952.

"Far from being shocked by this involvement, I was happy to find some liberals in government in those days, who were far-sighted and cared enough to get Americans of all political views to the festival," Miss Steinem said. She noted that most Americans who had attended various festivals were sympathetic to Communist policies.

The Independence [sic] Research Service, originally called the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Festival, was organized with headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. It concentrated, Miss Steinem said, on disseminating information about the festival and urging young persons who espoused flexible, but non-Communist, foreign policy views to attend.

Miss Steinem was a full-time employe of the service till following the Helsinki festival in 1962.

About 130 youths who had made contact with the foundation did attend, although few of them received significant financial help, Miss Steinem said.

Recruits for Festival

Before the Helsinki festival in 1962 the foundation again recruited young teachers, lawyers, scholars, linguists and journalists -- most of whom would consider themselves very liberal Democrats -- to attend.

The Independent Service financed a newspaper, a new [sic -- news?] bureau, cultural exhibits and two jazz clubs during the festival. However, its most important work was to convince youths from Asia, Africa and Latin America that some Americans understood their aspirations for national self-determination, Miss Steinem said.

Miss Steinem insisted that the C.I.A. had never tried to alter the policy of the foundation.

"I was never asked to report on other Americans or assess foreign nationals I had met," she said.

Miss Steinem noted that since the foundation was started in "the post-McCarthy era" the Federal Government could not openly finance the foundation. Overt government support would also have "alienated" youths from other countries who were suspicious of the United States, she said.

"The C.I.A.'s big mistake was not supplanting itself with private funds fast enough," she observed.

_______

From Kai Bird, The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), pp. 483-84, 727.

In the summer of 1959, just before McCloy took his family for an extended trip to Europe, C.D. Jackson wrote to remind McCloy that later that summer a World Youth Festival was scheduled to take place in Vienna. Jackson asked McCloy to contribute an article, perhaps on the "benign and constructive aspects" of the U.S. occupation of Germany. The piece would appear in a daily newspaper to be published in Vienna in conjunction with the festival. McCloy agreed, and the article was published (in five languages) in a newspaper distributed by a twenty-five-year-old Smith graduate named Gloria Steinem.138

McCloy's connection to Steinem went beyond contributing an article to the propaganda operation of which she was an editor in Vienna. Late in 1958, he and Jackson had discussed how the United States should respond to the expected Soviet propaganda blitz in Vienna. Previous gatherings of this kind had always been held in Moscow, East Berlin, or other cities in Eastern Europe. These events were major propaganda circuses, and the CIA was determined, in the words of Cord Meyer, a career CIA officer, "to compete more effectively with this obviously successful Communist apparatus."139

Washington expected some twenty thousand students and young scholars from all over the world to converge on Vienna that summer for the three-week festival. Consequently, the CIA wanted an organized student presence in Vienna in order to counter Soviet propaganda.

C.D. Jackson recognized the Vienna Youth Festival as "an extremely important event in the Great Game." He explained, "This is the first time commies have held one of these shindigs on our side of the iron curtain; and what goes on, how it goes on, and what the follow-up will be is, I think, extremely important."140

By the time Jackson first approached McCloy, in the autumn of 1958, he and Cord Meyer, head of the CIA's International Organizations division (IO), had a plan. The Agency would provide discreet funding to an "informal group of activists" who would constitute themselves as an alternative American delegation to the festival. The CIA would not only pay their way but also assist them to distribute books and publish a newspaper in Vienna. Among other individuals, Jackson and Meyer hired Gloria Steinem to work with them. Steinem had recently returned from a two-year stint in India, where she had been a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow.

"I came home in 1958," Steinem later explained, "full of idealism and activism, to discover that very little was being done.... Private money receded at the mention of a Communist youth festival."141 Convinced that a contingent of liberal but anticommunist American students should go to Vienna, she heard through her contacts at the National Student Association that there might be funding available to finance American participation in the festival. Working through C.D. Jackson and Cord Meyer, Steinem then set up an organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts called the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Festival. She obtained tax-exempt status, and Jackson helped her raise contributions from various American corporations, including the American Express Company. But most of the money came from the CIA, to be managed by Jackson in a "special account." The entire operation cost in the range of $85,000, a not inconsiderable sum in those years.142 (Steinem's organization, later renamed the Independent Research Service, continued to receive support from the CIA through 1962, when it financed an American delegation to the Helsinki Youth Festival.143)

Steinem ended up working closely with Samuel S. Walker, Jr., vice-president of the CIA-funded Free Europe Committee. Because the Austrians did not want to be associated with the Free Europe Committee, the Agency set up a commercial front called the Publications Development Corporation (PDC). Walker was made president of this dummy corporation, funded in part by "a confidential one-year contract" worth $273,000 from the Free Europe Committee.144 His job was to supervise the book-and-newspaper operation at the Youth Festival.145

...

138. C.D. Jackson to McCloy, 6/12/59, DDE [Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS]; Cord Meyer, Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), p. 103.

139. Meyer, Facing Reality, p. 102.

140. C.D. Jackson to Frank Stanton, 7/13/59, DDE.

141. NYT, Feb. 21, 1967.

142. C.D. Jackson to Cord Meyer, 12/16/58; Samuel S. Walker, Jr., to C.D. Jackson, 2/2/59; Gloria Steinem to C.D. Jackson, 3/19/59, DDE.

143. When this covert operation was revealed by Ramparts magazine in 1967, Steinem told The New York Times that she approved the Agency's role. "Far from being shocked by this involvement, I was happy to find some liberals in government in those days who were far-sighted and cared enough to get Americans of all political views to the Festival." (NYT, Feb. 21, 1967). Steinem's definition of a liberal then included such young men as Zbigniew Brzezinski, an assistant professor at Harvard, and Tom Garrity, a lawyer with Donovan & Leisure. She arranged though Jackson funding for both men to attend the festival. (She also tried to get Michael Harrington to attend, but he dropped out at the last minute.) Steinem's politics then appeared to be typical of many 1950s anticommunist liberals. She told the Times in 1967, "I was never asked to report on other Americans or assess foreign nationals I had met." But in fact, in response to a query from C.D. Jackson, Steinem wrote Jackson in great detail on the left-wing affiliations of various Americans associated with the allegedly Soviet-backed U.S. Festival Committee. (Gloria Steinem to C.D. Jackson, 3/19/59, DDE; NYT, Feb. 21, 1967.)

144. S.S. Walker to C.D. Jackson, "Status Report," DDE.

145. Samuel Walker eventually made a career out of publishing, becoming president of Walker & Co., a New York City publishing firm founded in the same year as the CIA funded Publications Development Corporation. In Vienna, he and Steinem worked well together. Their organizing efforts led to a split in the official American delegation. Their propaganda machine pumped out four hundred thousand copies of a daily newspaper for three weeks with articles by McCloy, Irving Kristol, Czeslav Milosz, Hubert Humphrey, Willy Brandt, Isaac Deutscher, and a broad range of other intellectuals and politicians. They also distributed some thirty-six thousand books by such left-of-center but anti-Soviet writers as George Orwell and Milovan Djilas. In the midst of it all, Walker reported back to Jackson, "Gloria's group continues to do yeoman service, distributing books etc. to the point where the cry has gone up 'Never before have so many Young Republicans distributed so much Socialist literature with such zeal.'" Walker praised Steinem's "female intuition" and wrote, "Gloria is all you said she was, and then some. She is operating on 16 synchronized cylinders and has charmed the natives...." (C.D. Jackson to Cord Meyer, 7/14/59, with attached Walker diary; Walker to Jackson, 7/31/59, DDE.)

_______

Addendum

In 1975, a radical feminist group called Redstockings published their research on Steinem and Ms. magazine. Four years later, Random House was preparing an edition of Redstockings' Feminist Revolution. Steinem, Clay Felker (who launched Ms. and once worked for Steinem's CIA front), Katharine Graham, Warner Communications (Graham and Warner were major Ms. stockholders), and Ford Foundation president Franklin A. Thomas complained to Random House. The offending chapters were deleted and an "Abridged Edition" was published.

See also: Gloria Steinem Spies on Students for the CIA

NameBase book reviews

http://www.namebase.org/steinem.html

Re: Marginal Utility

Greg — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:21:00 -0000

Hello friendly Blogers if you are thinking about do it yourself repair and do it yourself repair Ideas for Home Construction projects. If you own a home and need to work on do it yourself repair then al I want to say is Yea.... I wood love to let you in on a secret about home repairs... People ask me all the time about do it yourself repair and they want to know simple ways to solve ther problems ...well I have the answers and If you go to http://2theguide.com do it yourself repair and go through the site you will find what you are looking for... what can I say butt get going ...

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:44:59 -0000

i really wat to see this movie in the first one every thing happens at the right time in the right place the directing was really good ihope that the next one is like that the cast and crew is really good too

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:45:43 -0000

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:46:21 -0000

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:47:01 -0000

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:47:38 -0000

Re: Zeta-Jones Joins “Oceans 12″

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:48:32 -0000

Re: PHP Lesson 2: Behind the Scenes of Threading

Greg — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:15:13 -0000

Thanks for a tutorial on this, I've googled everywhere and haven't found anything all that helpful on the subject. I was hoping that you might clarify the final working code. It's in bits and pieces throughout the tutorial and it'd be helpful to see it all put together at the end, from hitting the database to outputting the threaded comments.

Re: Livestrong, die now!

Greg — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 02:48:55 -0000

I think those people who backorder them for months are SO STUPID. Cool you'll get a stupid yellow bracelet that's worth about 30 cents and you payed 15 bux. LAME

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » 5,000 Year Old Recordings Caught On Pottery

Greg — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:02:31 -0000

Um... Might want to hold off a little while before you forward this to your friends or co-workers. I can't find the URL now, but I saw a site earlier today that found that this was someone's April Fools' joke from last year. Maybe someone else will post a followup here if they happen to have seen the same information. This would be amazing if it were true, but I don't think that's likely. Besides, if this recording were really from 3,000 BC or earlier, they wouldn't have been speaking Latin...

Re: Renova, Toilet Paper For The Rich

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 03:28:20 -0000

you guys got to see this one at www.sogreg.com

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » MS’ Natural Ergonomic Mouse 6000 Reviewed. Verdict: It Loves Your Wrist

Greg — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:09:28 -0000

The title of this post was mistyped. It should say "Verdict: It Loves Your Right Wrist. Your Left Wrist, Not So Much."

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » A Geek’s Memories

Greg — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:24:43 -0000

I remember getting my first computer C64
I remember Pool of Radiance and having to flip those eight 5.25" disks
I remember getting my PS/1 and having the "big" hard drive. 40 MB.
I remember my 2400 baud modem and my sister picking up the phone during a BBS download.
I remember playing multiplayer (TWO PEOPLE) Doom using a serial cable and realizing that I suck against a real person.
I remember emailing my girlfriend in BC when she want to university without sending pictures.
I remember phone rates of 28 cents a minute, but only after MIDNIGHT.
I remember that Pentium 233 MHz were fast machines.
I remember having to zip files across 5+ floppy disks.
I remember using Autocad with the text based command interpreter.
I remember playing my first choppy 150x80 video on my computer and being amazed.
We've come a long way...

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » Onkyo Brushed Aluminum Keyboards

Greg — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:22:10 -0000

Sadly, it appears that it's just the perimeter of the keyboard that's aluminum. The keys are just plain ol' plastic.

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » The Pronto Condom Revolutionizes Prophylactics

Greg — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:12:53 -0000

What is she saying in the second commercial? "Pronto Condoms! You're shiat out of luck if your cock looks like a beet, a garlic, or a lemon."

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » Dual Bladed Clam Shell Opener Saves Your Fingers

Greg — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:09:24 -0000

I have one, it works OK, but for $11 the 'Zibra Open It' is MUCH better (plus, it comes in different colors!)

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » Dual Bladed Clam Shell Opener Saves Your Fingers

Greg — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:11:45 -0000

...and here's the missing link:
http://www.enjoyzibra.com/openit/

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » Livescribe Smartpen Gets Realer

Greg — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:00:41 -0000

this thing is amazing. its also a translator . i just hope it works on a mac.

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » OGCC Day 14 - The Greatest Christmas Invention Of All Time - Cadbury Ornament Creme Eggs

Greg — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:36:36 -0000

The "normal" eggs are stocked year round in the stores around here as they are licensed and manufactured by Hershey's.

Re: OhGizmo! » Archive » Fuel Checker Makes Sure You Grabbed The Right Handle

Greg — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:34:37 -0000

As the owner of a 50 MPG diesel beetle, I can tell you that a) there are many diesel pumps that use the exact same nozzel b) I have to double check that some joker didn't swap the nozzels as they are usually close to the gasoline ones. Not that i would ever dream of buying this stupid toy.

Re: Sluggish Today

Greg — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 09:17:39 -0000

I've just installed SquirrelMail and it seems to work fine. I'll have a look into the RSS feeds.

Re: Crash, Band, Wallop, What a Rehearsal!

Greg — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 09:43:29 -0000

Uh oh, what have I done! :)

And I got the Celtic Moors piece wrong, it should be Celtic Moods.

Re: Sailing the High D

Greg — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 12:46:22 -0000

'Tis true I suspect! Trouble is our trombone section comprises of three excellent players, one of which is a pro who's played with people like Robbie Williams, Glenn Miller Orch., etc. We'd really like to come up to their level but the rest of the band really isn't up to it (yet!) So I think we'll have to compromise.

Re: More King Kong

Greg — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:27:07 -0000

Generally, what Jim said -- but to add a little more...

Tim> Copyright law doesn't substantially impede the creation of low-budget independent movies. In fact, dozens are made every year.

But that is a comparison of apples with apples, since low-budget and high-budget films are both protected by copyright law. (Unless you're arguing that we should invent a difference in the protections for those two forms to reflect the revealed preference for blockbusters over low-budget movies?)

The reason I didn't say anything to the fellow from NBC is 1) I think he was raising the specter of "no more copyright protection"--which seems to me a flight of fancy more than anything, and 2) he was asking how we'd all do without King Kong and the $100 million movie. Personally, I don't see the loss of the $100 million movie (I'm not sure what the evidence is that we're losing it, btw!) as a significant problem for society. If we were to have no $100 million movies produced in 2010, I imagine we'd all be doing something else (maybe reading books?). Dominant forms of cultural production and entertainment come and go -- some people like blockbusters and some like ballet, but should the government really be in the business of rescuing a particular genre that claims it is in peril?

More broadly, I'm not sure I get the point of your reply. When the state creates (any) property right out of thin air, you're almost inevitably going to see some markets emerge, but that doesn't always mean that we've increased net social utility, as Jim notes. Some forms of property are more efficiently held in commons-type arrangements (see Carol Rose or Benkler on this).

The standard utilitarian copyright story, as you know, is that we're all better off with the copyright bargain. I personally think this is true, but from an analytical viewpoint, if the only way you gauge the utility of new varieties of IP protections is through the question of whether they lead to new market exchanges, you've got (as Jim notes) a pretty myopic view of what could be factored into a net calculation of social utility.

Re: More King Kong

Greg — Tue, 16 May 2006 20:53:20 -0000

Tim -- yes, I think we're probably agreeing much more than disagreeing. I guess part of my difficulty here is understanding who this fabled "no copyright" crowd is (other than RMS) and what chances they think they have of passing a constitutional amendment. My sense is that the argument in the main over (c) today is about more or less, stronger or weaker, not about existence or non-existence. And when it comes to specific legislation that reforms the law, one is lucky to even get to a cogent policy debate about stronger or weaker (though perhaps I'm being too cynical).

Tim> ...it's not clear to me how the existence of copyright law impedes the emergence of non-copyright-based markets. For example, the blogosphere largely operates without benefit of copyright law, not because we couldn't invoke our rights under copyright if we wanted to, but simply because we've found that copyright isn't helpful for the sorts of things we're trying to accomplish.

So the analog to the blogosphere in film would probably be something like You Tube, I suppose. And yes, I think that's a model that seems viable in this technological moment. It isn't exactly a replacement for blockbusters, though -- that's one of the interesting things about these new extra-copyright models -- they are different creatures.

(And I should add that blogs and You Tube are clearly covered by copyright, they just don't seem to be functioning in a way that depends upon the property markets that copyright envisions.)

Re: More King Kong

Greg — Wed, 17 May 2006 09:37:20 -0000

Yeah, we're definitely agreeing too much here. :-)

Final comment: if Jim and David Levine want to question the copyright bargain, I say more power to them, honestly. In a way we're all operating on hunches here, aren't we? There hasn't been a controlled experiment with a no-copyright culture in the last few centuries.

(To some extent, that's what we had in the 19th century here in the U.S. re European copyrights, but obviously that's not an ideal comparison -- more of a "pirate" culture. We could also, I suppose, go back to pre-modernity and note that there was a pretty healthy production of superior cultural products back then, but again there are too many differences to feel comfortable with that comparison.)

So the evidence is out, I think, on whether the copyright bargain is working. Personally, I think we need some degree of IP protection for works of authorship (and I think the general sentiment of the public leans that way, but out of -- as Jim suggests -- something other than a sense of the social utility of the system), but getting the exact calculus of the bargain right is tricky (and inevitably involves ideological issues).

Btw, on the utility of economics in the contemporary IP debates, I'd recommend Jamie Boyle's Cruel, Mean, or Lavish? piece if you haven't read it yet: http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/cruel.pdf

Re: Anyone Listening to Peter Schiff Now? | Short Sale Solutions

Greg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:01:50 -0000

just imagine all the people who were swayed and bandwagoned that Schiff was somehow a "kook". the problem with people in the world is that they bullhead off-the-cuff thoughts as if they're beyond self analysis. I've been wondering many years why everyone pretends there's happiness and as if addressing "bad times" makes you a negative person. Peter only called out the problems spots that needed fixing, but everyone called him a clown. Isn't this an offshoot of the "emperor's new clothes"?

Re: Cool Temps/Cool News!

Greg — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:36:00 -0000

That's fantastic! And see, last year, they won the game that clinched the division. Who says rubbing a gay man doesn't bring good luck...Oh, wait....hmm...

Re: Brain Fuzz

Greg — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:58:00 -0000

My roommate and I had the same feelings about Bush and Bin Laden a while ago. I think that he has already been captured, but the GOP is waiting for the right moment so Dubya can steal the election.

Puppies: Woot! You go, puppy! Someone should call Alanis Morrisette and tell her "that's" ironic.

Re: September 11, 2001: Where Were You?

Greg — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 13:43:00 -0000

That was an awful morning. I couldn't stand watching the TV anymore so I went to the office, which is across the street from John Wayne Airport. The drive to the office was strange; the streets were nearly empty of cars and pedestrians. Closer to the airport, it was eerie not seeing or hearing the planes taking off. At the offie, the phone rang like crazy with our talent afraid to go into work, and with our clients calling to say they were closing for the day.

We stayed oepn the entire day, re-assuring callers, re-assuring each other and trying to keep things "Business as usual." Back at home, my ex and I did the same as everyone else, watched the videos over and over until we were numb.

Re: Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex (Nothing Much) Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex

Greg — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 13:47:00 -0000

Twinkies and sex....that'll pull a lot of new readers to your blog. :)

Re: Tweakin’ the Blog

Greg — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:27:00 -0000

Nice header! Wait, that sounds dirty....

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 10:30:00 -0000

Ouch I meant to say "How many thought Columbus an idiot for thinking the world was NOT flat?"

I'm really not that dumb just totally stink at typing.

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:07:00 -0000

Ok you have a lack of faith. Semantics I guess.

Are you astrong atheist or a weak atheist? Do you KNOW there's no god or just lack a belief in god?

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:47:00 -0000

Thank you Ben. That last comment was so very civilized and I could actually understand your logic. You didn't need to lash out as much as usual. Though I still come off as a pious, better than you, hypocrite. I have said repeatedly in this post that I do NOT measure up in intellect with most I have talked to. I admire your intellect; just not your outcome (and I mean by that what conclusions you have come to). I have and will continue to study the idea of atheism and will get back on this site very soon to hopefully discuss this more intellectually. I have been given a gift by knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior. Not because I am special.

I am coming to the conclusion that most of you find great solace in logic. That it is not logical to believe what I do, and it is very logical to think as you do. I've found that you most think there is no absolute truth, so I'm guessing that truth and morality must be subjective or relative?

Ben would you consider yourself a "weak atheist" or "strong atheist"? Do you KNOW that there is no God or do you just not have a belief in that there is a God?

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 10:39:00 -0000

To Ben:

Then he's back. Civilized for only one moment.

That last comment was at least long, but since I have been convicted of not answering questions, I must say you never answered mine. You just regergitated the same stuff I've read from you over and over. It's obvious that you don't believe (got it).

I went to answers.com (non-christian research website) and did some research into atheism. There is implicit (weak) atheism and explict (strong) atheism. My question was which are you? A strong atheist states that there is no God. He knows there is no God. A weak atheist, basically, 'lacks belief' in a god of any sort. Maybe this time instead of just calling what I believe dumb you would answer as to what stance you've taken. Weak or strong? Implicit or Explicit? Ignostism? Well forget that last one if you were ignostic you wouldn't even be here fighting about it.

You are right in saying that I heard from various sources that I needed a savior. It also bore witness with how I felt and what I had experienced in my life. I eat brocoli because my mom said a million times "you've got to eat more than just hamburgers and fries". Should I not eat vegetables because it was not an original thought. I think the people who told me a "million times" that I needed Christ are great people. They are not authors from a book I've never met they are people I know. I know their lifestyle, their sincerity. Matter of fact after watching (reading) you I would rather listen to them than anyone like you my friend. A person who feels he must build his case on the degredation of other peoples intellect. Wow. You must feel pretty small when no one's around; I mean when you've got no one to try to step on.

Let me say this as well: You're not saying anything Ben that YOU haven't heard a million times. I don't think that makes you weak. I heard a million times my teachers in school tell me that 1 + 1 = 2. Because someone else told me doesn't make it un-true.

Once you've answered at least this one question we can talk about the Bible. I would love to talk about the validity of God's Word!

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:40:00 -0000

Webmaster,

It is in deed a pleasure to talk to you. You seem to be level headed and your comments very well thought out. I am not really trying to sell my faith. To me that would be like selling ice to eskimos. You don't recognize the need for what I have to offer. What I am attempting to do was explain my faith, or for lack of a better word, defend it.

The entire reason I got on this site was because of some disparaging comments blanketly laid on all Christians because of one very bad apple. This bad apple (youth pastor) was a member of a church in my area (Atlanta). I know the people of this church, I have extended friends and family that attend there. They were devastated by this man's terrible lifestyle and mistakes. There's just no way that because one leader in the church is corrupt then the whole church is corrupt. I know that there have been and will be corrupt politicians and/or leaders but I don't believe they're all corrupt. I don't think the Great Ben represents you; you are both proclaimed atheists yet I feel as though you are reasonable and he is not. Should I think that all atheists are angry blow-hards because one is. NO I shouldn't. I don't think all white people are racists, I don't think all black people are thugs, I don't think all Hispanics are illegal immigrants, etc...

I don't think all Christians are non-intellectual; and I don't think all atheists are intellectual. I don't think all Christians have faith; I don't think all atheists serve logic.

I am a pastor of a small church and I hope and pray that as a leader I am not a hypocrite. I do think about that everyday and this site has helped me to focus more on my fruit.

Thanks

Greg Out

Re: "A Sabbatical?" or "My Anti-Testimony" - ExChristian.Net - Articles

Greg — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 15:01:00 -0000

To BoomSlang:

"I've told several different ways that Atheists--"weak" or "strong"--- can say with 100 % certainty that the Christian biblegod DOES NOT exist as a supernatural being."

Based on the very definition of logic how can you possibly KNOW 100% that the bibleGod does not exist. Your atheism is illogical. You cannot know that He is not God. To do that, you'd have to know All things to know. I know you're smart but come on. You can not KNOW 100%. You are assuming BASED on what you KNOW that He's not God. Tomorrow you will learn something you didn't know and so will I. We used to know that the cell was the smallest fabric of life; yet everyday we learn it's not. What's smaller than the atom? We can't KNOW 100%. We assume based on the information we have. I read just the other day that they have removed Pluto as a planet. When I was in school I was taught the truth, the fact, that we had 9 planets and now we KNOW there's 8. WOW! What will we know in 10 years? What if what you know changes and that assumption is broken? Scientists used to KNOW the world was flat then Columbus and the like found it was not.

I risk attack by saying this but I don't even KNOW 100% that Jesus Christ is God! I take what I know and combine it with faith and get my belief. Jesus said to Thomas blessed are you because you believe by seeing but more blessed will they be who without seeing are willing to believe. (that is a Gregory paraphrase).

Thanks again.

PS are you a strong atheist or a weak a theist? Not one of you have answered this yet and I'm just curious. If you think there is an Universal God (even if it's not Jehovah) then you are NOT an atheist you are an agnostic.

Re: 100 Posts + 2000 Hits = WOW!

Greg — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 12:28:00 -0000

Congratulations!

Re: I feel witty, Oh so witty…

Greg — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 15:15:00 -0000

Carpoling with a cute chorus boy? The two of you alone in a car? And he called you adorable?

Will you even make it to the event??

Re: Lost in Translation

Greg — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 14:07:00 -0000

Matthew Foxx: Mmmmm..... the episode of "Lost" was pretty good, too. That is one creepy island those folks are on, and I'm hooked!

As for the Cheney-Lesbian thing, you'd almost believe that Lynne is ashamed of having a lesbian daughter based upon her reaction. And after her's and Dick's remarks about "Freedom for everyone," it's as if she were now the flip-flopper.

Re: See This Shit-Eating Grin?

Greg — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 13:47:00 -0000

Woo hoo! Go Rick!

Re: Dilemmas

Greg — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:55:00 -0000

I agree with Mark, because the longer you don't say anything, the more damaged feelings might result if your friend finds out on his own. Communication is very important in every kind relationship.

Re: The Shit (Eating Grin) Hits the Fan

Greg — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 21:42:00 -0000

Forget about him and move on. There's nothing to be gained by wondering "what if." The guy's apparently a flake, which you do not deserve.

Re: Missed Connection - Connected!

Greg — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:27:00 -0000

An former co-worker use to tell us about all these "small world" stories,of peope she'd breifly met only to meet them and run into them months or years later. It does go to show how small our community really is, and I'm glad you ran into Chris again. Please tell me you took more home than just a few pics? You did get his phone number, right?

Re: Need some laughs?

Greg — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 12:28:00 -0000

Those were great! Love the "how many Bush supporters" list, and the emotional baggage strip was priceless!

Re: Lost in myself

Greg — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:54:00 -0000

I'm right there with you for numbers 1, 4 and 6. I know it's only been two months, but I think I'm ready to get back into the dating pool; I just went back to the gym after a 2-1/2 month absence (thank goodness for the eye candy! I missed that!); I volunteer a little bit but need to get out there more, especially after the results of 11/2. As for #3, I'm a book whore and if you need any recommendations, I have tons to tell you about.

I'm here pulling for you!!!

Re: Bloggers’ Block

Greg — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:37:00 -0000

I'm envious of all the NY bloggers you're going to meet! have fun, take tons of pictures, and don't worry about nothing to blog about. It does come in cycles, but you'll have plenty to blog when you return.

Re: Start Spreadin’ The News…

Greg — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:12:00 -0000

Very dashing! Have a blast in NY!

Re: Thanksgiving - My mother, My hero

Greg — Sun, 28 Nov 2004 12:50:00 -0000

That was one of the best tributes I've ever read. Simply beautiful.

Re: Christmas Songs - My Favorites

Greg — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 14:30:00 -0000

"Merry Christmas Darling" by The Carpenters, Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," and Geroge Wisnton playng "Carol fo the Bells" are my absolute favorites. Winston's ablum "December" is one of my favorites around this time of year.

Re: I say it’s my birthday

Greg — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 15:36:00 -0000

Happy Belated Birthday!!!!!

Re: The Rainbow Arch strikes again

Greg — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:59:00 -0000

Oh! My friends and I played with our Twangers this weekend. Until someone broke his Plucking Instrument. :(

Re: Have a New Year!

Greg — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:58:00 -0000

Best wishes for a Prosperous and Happy New Year!

Re: Holy Shiz!

Greg — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:42:00 -0000

I loved "Wicked" (the novel) and am envoius that you get to see it in June! Who knows when - or if - it will make its way to SoCal. And, I agree with you 100% when it comes to books; I can't get enough of them!

Re: Quiz #1: IRAQ

Greg — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:25:20 -0000

you people are way over the edge, out of touch with reality and scary!

Re: The Global Church and America’s War (by Jim Wallis)

Greg — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:54:36 -0000

Amen, amen and amen, Jim.

You've elegantly reminded us of the Christian presumption against war and, sadly, of the idolatrous foregrounding of the god of patriotrism in the hearts of many. Apparently, including in the heart of the US president. As a believer and a US citizen who has lived outside the US for ten of the last seventeen years, it saddens me to be associated with the the foreign policy choices of Mr. Bush and his administration. These choices have strayed from the two strong historical stands of Christians regarding war, pacifism and just war.

Re: Case Logic HDC1 la sacoche idéale pour le EEE PC.

Greg — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:28:19 -0000

Je confirme c est le top cette pochette !
tout rentre nickel comme expliqué par Pierre, les 2 qui etaient dispo a la Fnac sont parties en 5 minutes (1 pour moi bien sur !)
Foncez !

Re: AMD entre en jeu, un concurrent du EeePC 900 pour bientôt ? - By Pierre Lecourt - - Blogeee.net

Greg — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:48:17 -0000

n empeche qu il est supermoche et si ca continue il va peser bien lourd.
Les charnieres n ont pas l air solide.....bref Asus reste en tête !

Re: AsTray Plus : Les hautes résolutions sous Windows pour votre EeePC - By Pierre Lecourt - - Blogeee.net

Greg — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:22:22 -0000

testé et approuvé, trop cool comme info !

Re: Besoin d’aide pour Blogeee.net - By Pierre Lecourt - - Blogeee.net

Greg — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:25:37 -0000

Une plateforme type "Joomla" ne serait pas plus adaptée à une éventuelle dimension plus globale de Blogeee ?

Même si Wordpress reste excellent, peut être serait ce plus simple pour développer l'ensemble. Maintenant je ne sais pas trop, je ne suis pas plus que ça utilisateur des deux :]

Re: Crobar BoraMusic Housecast Episode 72: Sarah Main

Greg — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:44:22 -0000

really love the mixes here! great work!

Re: Having faith

Greg — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 18:10:05 -0000

Not to jump your case, but wise mountain bikers and bicycle racers wear helmets, and not 'cause of cars. The human skull evolved to protect the brain from damage at human running speed, if that; bicycling subjects you to "unnatural" speeds so it just makes sense to have a little unnatural protection. "Nobody ever won a war by dying for their country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for his country."

Re: Stupid Lawsuits

Greg — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 15:04:51 -0000

I don't think all the outrage should be directed at the fact there was a boob flashed on TV, but why it was flashed.

I don't believe for a second that this was accidental and the fact that Janet has a new album coming out shortly only adds to the notion that this was done as a publicity stunt.

I can't find the article now, but someone commented that there was an article published before the half-time show was over that one of her new singles was being released early (or something like that) to feed the overwhelming demand for new Janet material after her 'surprising' performance at the Super Bowl.

Re: Travel Map

Greg — Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:53:11 -0000

They actually do have a Euro map: http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedEurope

Re: Video Essay for 915 (56). El Topo (1970, Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Greg — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:14:32 -0000

I don't know, I saw the old version, and I kind of like this one better. It makes the whole event seem like a secret society meeting, where you can view people enter from across the street but not be allowed in. It adds sort of a mystique to the whole thing.

BTW, I'm the guy who posted the "name dropping Bergman" comment, and I stand by it 100%

Re: Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club goes high fashion

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:02:50 -0000

what an idiot

Re: NBA Live 09 soundtrack includes Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, N.E.R.D.

Greg — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:02:21 -0000

the title and author j is bust a move by young mc (rave kid remix)

Re: CELL Project : All PS3 Themes

Greg — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:21:09 -0000

Yeah, it's not. The theme is fine, your HD just failed.

Re: Michael Jordan : All PS3 Themes

Greg — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:00:41 -0000

rodman!

Re: Facebook on the Intranet? No — Facebook AS the Intranet.

Greg — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:40:47 -0000

I can't even imagine using Facebook as an Intranet. It is already pushing too far into our personal data already!

Re: We’re Number 2!

Greg — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:22:51 -0000

congrats on #2! really an accomplishment considering the numbers out there

Re: PMQs Cancelled

Greg — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:36:00 -0000

Hi first post,

I immediatly lept to this site to reassure myself that even Guido would sneer at this tragic news. What a surprise.

One would also suspect that Guido would be a bit of a cunt for this, but I'm assuming that Guido has suffered the death of a child and got on quitely with his blogging.

Oh well

Re: Clement update

Greg — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:41:00 -0000

Good to hear about Matt Clement - it seems he is at least motivated to become a $9 million pitcher. At least we know he isn't going to sit on the sideline and collect his check.

If the closer situation is still unknown in June, I think we'll all be talking about giving him a chance at it, which I think would be a great idea! He's a ground ball pitcher and though he is infamous for losing composure, it usually only happens after a bad inning. Derek Lowe is a somewhat similar pitcher and obviously had success in that rols, albeit temporary.

Re: From coast to coast

Greg — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:19:00 -0000

Wow! I've been reading you're articles for a good long while but I'd never checked out the blog until now. At least until Spring training is over this is my new homepage. If there was justice in the Boston sports media, you'd be the head writer at the Globe.

Re: From coast to coast

Greg — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:27:00 -0000

A question I have that you might be able to answer is this: How are Breslow and Lopez looking? The way both looked in small samples last year, coupled with how little faith I have in Romero, makes me question why, other than Romero's higher salary, we haven't heard more about these two lefties.

Re: Found in translation

Greg — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:34:00 -0000

so much better of a article and information than what was published in the globe thanx

Re: So true it hurts

Greg — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:23:26 -0000

Stupid solomon grundy.

Re: Mitt Romney is an unapologetic fearmonger

Greg — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:42:23 -0000

Fascinating. Stuff.

I've yet to find a candidate who floats my boat - which surprizes me considering the vast numbers available to me.

In a way, I hear all these promises that candidates give and I don't believe they can really do what they promise. Good or evil, I don't think the presidency is really responsible for most of what goes on with america. I think it's better that way. I don't like the idea of one person holding vast power over me, whether I elect him or not. People who make big promises: "I will do ___." are people who want big power.

I don't know where I'm going with this, so: the end.

-Greg

Re: Ron Paul on the Dollar, Gold, and Oil

Greg — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:46:07 -0000

Just a note: I don't know if you saw, but MSNBC was reporting that the majority of viewers of the GOP debate felt that the 'winner' was Ron Paul.

Re: Backing up my (online) brain

Greg — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:36:24 -0000

I'm looking forward to the flickr one since my photos moved from yahoo photos to flickr to I don't know where since I don't own a pro account.

Re: New Slacker Screenlet released

Greg — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:00:32 -0000

as soon as I figure out how to install screenlets I plan on adding this one.

Re: Wrangling my finances

Greg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:28:41 -0000

That's pretty neat, Ryan. I'm always impressed at how you manage to make things work. Too bad your amazon wish list is so lame. now THIS: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3BVQ... is a wishlist.

Re: Is Ryan going to jail?

Greg — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:28:38 -0000

Program the robots to help you escape. Problem solved.... sortof.

Re: In Pursuit of the Aggressor

Greg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:11:01 -0000

I think it's amazing how an act of violence against myself changes my whole perspective of reality - and drastically.

I used to be a firm believer in the general goodness of all mankind. Most of the time I still believe that the person I'm meeting or seeing face to face is an inherently decent person; yet I can't help but remember how, as an example, the Cedar City walmart experiences theft in the hundreds of thousands every year and I'm forced to say that some of that is from local people who I probably have seen or even talked with in the past. And if a small town like this can have such a rampant problem, I wonder how pervasive this selfish and violent attitude is throughout the U.S. and the world.

Some days I distrust the enforcers of our system, sometimes I am really grateful for them.

Re: Review: Black Panther #1

Greg — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:08:00 -0000

I have no interest in buying this, for various reasons, but I can still comment on it! First, I think the idea of Wakanda as an unconquered African country is freakin' fantastic, and if I read that Hudlin is doing some things with its history, I might actually get interested. In my dream world (when I'm writing X-Men) T'Challa plays a big role in international politics. Of course, I love the history of imperialism, and a country like Ethiopia, which successfully resisted European colonization, is neat. Second, I object to the racist general simply because he was so ridiculously over-the-top. I'm sure there are plenty of racists in high command, but to show he's racist by using a stupid term like "jungle-bunny" in front of the Secretary of State (or whatever government position "Reese" occupies) is just silly and below a good writer. The fact that the general can't believe Black Panther beat Captain America shows his racism much more subtly. I would love an examination of racism in this comic (another reason I might pick up the book), but not if Hudlin's going to hit us over the head with it. The only Priest issues I read were the first few (collected in trade) and he made some points about racism much more subtly.

Re: ménage à trois: 2/2/05

Greg — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 15:21:00 -0000

Damn. I swore off Wizard, and I don't want to keep giving the piece of excrement that was Identity Crisis any more press, but 14 pages of breaking down key scenes and plot points ... I'm so tempted. Wizard=Satan!

Re: ménage à trois: 2/9/05

Greg — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 18:08:00 -0000

Guy: I hate to bug you, but what issue of Captain Gravity are you talking about? I have the first two, and didn't know if the next one came out. If it's #3, I'll have to have a chat with the guys at my store ...

Always fun to read what others are reading! Keep it up!

Re: Review: Fade From Grace #1-4

Greg — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 13:35:00 -0000

I like this book, but don't love it yet. It's a nice story but doesn't really break any new ground. It should be selling better, however, I agree, because people who whine about expensive comics keep plunking down 3 bucks for crap, while this very nice book goes unnoticed. We deserve all the crap the Big Two sell us if we're not willing to take a chance on interesting, cheaper stuff. Nice to see this getting some press!

Re: Comment: Giving the People What They Want

Greg — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 15:19:00 -0000

This is a topic that bugs me, because I agree, Marvel could, with the right push and a degree of patience, get people to try other, more experimental books. Are you telling me they can't use some of the money they make from all the movie licensing to push books that initially don't make money? Maybe the money doesn't cross paths and movies remain separate from the comics, but that's crap if true. Unless a product is an instant hit (and comics no longer are) a company has to be willing to be patient, and I don't see that from Marvel or DC. It's annoying, because I do like superhero stuff, but not mediocre superhero stuff, and that's the majority of what Marvel and DC put out, and most people are buying it based on nostalgia. Nostalgia dies out, though, and I don't see Marvel and DC doing enough to refresh, not the audience, but their product. I heard a comment about hockey that applies to comics -- you're a viable product when your hard core fans accuse you of selling out. Hockey has become marginalized because it has no casual fans, and comics books are as well.

Re: Comment: Giving the People What They Want

Greg — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:11:00 -0000

It's interesting you bring up retailers, because I agree totally. I frequent two different stores, and one is run like a business and the other ... not as much so. I like the one that is less business-like, because it's a single owner, old school kind of place, but the owner's not interested in dipping into his profit and trying to spend money to bring in new readers. The space next to his in the strip mall came open not long ago, and I asked his right-hand man why he didn't rent it (or buy it), knock the wall out, and make his business more accessible. The right-hand man said he was happy with his clientele and didn't want to risk his profits. His clients are people like me -- definitely not teenagers, but older males who are, let's face it, comic book geeks. The other place I go to is more sterile and, while they're friendly, it's more of a salesperson friendly than anything else, but there are a lot of kids in there (okay, they're playing games, but they're still there) and it looks like a store rather than someone's converted garage. Parents feel go about taking their kids in, as opposed to the one I usually go to, where there's a bunch of guys sitting around on Wednesdays talking about how hot Vampirella is.

Re: Comment: Making Comics Thin-Skinned

Greg — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0000

Excellent - I just bought Planet of the Capes and asked what the point was, and Larry Young also gives me much press on his blog. I will have to respond at a later date. Comics creators should have thicker skins, especially since they're actually doing the creating and we, the peons, are just commenting on it.

Re: Adopt a Comic: Win Elk’s Run #1

Greg — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:02:00 -0000

Finally!!!!!

First of all, Scott - you're a big LIAR! Since when is Atomic Comics in Tempe? Mesa, Chandler, Paradise Valley - sure. But Tempe? I don't think so. No soup for you!

On to the indy title I recommend RIGHT NOW! Man, that's tough. Can I do two? Both are six-issue mini-series, so they're not really ongoing titles, but GrimJack: Killer Instinct and 303 are excellent. If you're more into noir, pulpy-type action, or really dig sci-fi/fantasy, get GrimJack. Ostrander and Truman are at the top of their game. If you're a fan of Ennis and his war stories, get 303 - Jacen Burrows is a great artist, and Ennis throws in all sorts of things about the futility of war, American imperialism and consumerism, the hypocrisy of American immigration policy - heavy stuff for a simple comic! My favorite ... tough call, but I'll go with 303. It's really good.

Re: Adopt A Comic: Elk’s Run / Fade From Grace Winners

Greg — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:00:00 -0000

Shit. Now I have to go, you know, find the damned thing. It's go time, Gonzalez!

Re: Buzzscope Reviews: 6/2/05

Greg — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 19:08:00 -0000

Well, shoot. I didn't even know the column was up yet. Thanks for pointing it out and for the nice comment!

Re: Pull List Review: June 2005

Greg — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:54:00 -0000

Damn it. I keep forgetting to get Elk's Run and Western Tales of Terror. I suck. I'm glad you're around to keep reminding me.

Re: Blogaround Challenge Met!

Greg — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:55:00 -0000

Thanks for the love! I keep meaning to take my blog off the list, because I don't want to mislead people, but what the hell - life isn't all comics, is it???

Re: COMMENT: On Snobs and Good Comics Shops

Greg — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:29:00 -0000

But ... Whatever I read IS great, and everything everyone else reads IS crap, except where it coincides with my reading material. I thought that was just a given.

Re: COMMENT: Who Cares About Journalism?

Greg — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 23:50:00 -0000

Wait - I'm not getting paid? I wondered where the checks were. I may have to rethink my commitment ...

Re: LINK: Making Comics Better

Greg — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:29:00 -0000

Well, I bought some comics yesterday ...

I will take Erech's comment as a compliment, since I blog at Comics Should Be Good. Thank you, Erech (even if you're not talking about me).

Re: On the Shelves: 10/25/06

Greg — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 12:33:00 -0000

You'll probably hate Godland just to be contrary. Just like we all know you have big posters of Morrison on your bedroom wall, but you have to pick on him in public. If you don't like Godland, by the way, the terrorists win.

Re: COMMENT: Previews is Your Friend?

Greg — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 23:17:00 -0000

All right, gentlemen, cool your jets. I will say, Guy, that I read Previews every month, and I get a lot of stuff out of it beyond the front of it. The guys at my store are nice, but they are locked into superhero titles for the most part, and I would not have gotten stuff like, say, Elk's Run, or lots of Larry's stuff, without Previews. It's not perfect by a long shot, and my store gives it away, so I don't pay for it, but it's not the worst comic-buying tool in the world.

Re: COMMENT: Previews is Your Friend?

Greg — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:10:00 -0000

Guy - yes, the Internet did get me interested in plenty of the smaller stuff, but for ordering things, Previews is the easiest way. I could get it through the various on-line places, but I've heard enough horror stories about the poor and late service that I prefer to get them through my comic store after ordering them through Previews. Again, I agree it's not perfect, and I wish there were better options, but for me, it's the best way.

Re: COMMENT: $25 Pop Quiz

Greg — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:11:00 -0000

Actually, for all the comics I buy, I often go under $25 a week, although I don't buy trades every week and usually don't count them if I do. I got 8 books this week - 3 from Marvel, 1 from Image, 2 from IDW, I from Boom!, and I from Fantagraphics. So I'm doing pretty good.

(I know, no DC. What the crap is wrong with me?)

And why would you buy Essential Moon Knight if you already have most of them? Is it just so they're in a convenient place all together? I will probably buy it, too, but I have fewer of the issues. Just wondering.

(And I hope you're not mad at me for "camel jockeys." That would make me cry.)

Re: LINK: Read The Expatriate for Free!

Greg — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 00:04:00 -0000

Doesn't do those of us who bought the first four issues a whole hell of a lot of good, does it? Does it???? He should get to work on the fifth issue, because you're right - this is a good title. What's up with Moore and excruciatingly slow work?

Re: LINK: TCJ Breaks Taki Soma Story

Greg — Tue, 02 May 2006 13:13:00 -0000

I don't know any parties involved, but it sounds like your suggestion to censure him and suspend him for a while is a good one, because he did admit to "invading her personal space" at the very least. As for anything further, it sounds like it has devolved into a "he said, she said" kind of thing, so it probably won't go anywhere. It's kind of a shame that stuff like this often doesn't go further, because it needs to come out more often.

I'm not expressing much shock that someone would do this, either in the comics industry or in the world at large, because this is the sort of thing that happens when we equate sex with "funny." Boobies are funny. Dicks are funny. It's all fun and games. This is how it is. I'm sure this guy wouldn't do something like this if he were sober, but alcohol makes sex even funnier. Sad.

Re: On the Shelves: 5/17/06

Greg — Tue, 16 May 2006 22:44:00 -0000

Someone at Image got on your case? I'd laugh if I weren't so busy waiting for new issues of Hawaiian Dick, The Atheist, Fell, Bad Planet, Common Foe, The Expatriate ...

Re: HYPE: Elk’s Run Hits the Big Time

Greg — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:14:00 -0000

This is very cool news, even though I also bought the "bumper" edition. I don't mean to be snotty, but does this mean it will actually come out now? I've been jonesing for an issue for a while now.

Re: POLL: Niche Comics Sites?

Greg — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:18:00 -0000

I'm sorry, boss. I feel like such a sell-out. How can I make restitution?????

I may be biased, but I really dig PopCultureShock. Newsarama focuses a lot on mainstream news, and PCS does some of that, but also gives interesting insight into lots of other stuff. Plus, Jason's column is excellent and really crucial, I think.

Re: POLL: Niche Comics Sites?

Greg — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:37:00 -0000

One thing on my ideal site would be a column dedicated to runs of comic books by certain creators that might not be collected in trades and might be overlooked but are still essential comics. Comics, perhaps, that you should own. Where oh where could I find that????

Seriously, though, one of the reasons I started doing that was because Wizard used to do something similar and I thought it was neat. We can't buy everything, after all, and I'm always looking for suggestions of things that are buried in the long boxes. The Internet focuses too much on the here and now and the future, so a bit of focus on the past is always cool.

I'd also like to see more of what Jason is doing. I really do think his column is crucial, and I'd like to see a column written by industry newcomers about how they got into the business and the problems they faced. It wouldn't have to be by a single person - maybe a rotating roster. I don't have a big interest in breaking into the field (if Quesada calls and asks me to write Uncanny X-Men, I won't say no, but I'm not going out of my way), but I think getting the perspective of people who are in the business would help us appreciate the final product more.

The idea of doing a preview of Previews is good, too. So good that before I even read these comments I started doing it at the blog. And not only a canceled list, but a "where the hell are they?" list too. Seven Soldiers #1 could be on it!!!!

Re: On the Shelves: 8/23/06

Greg — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:20:00 -0000

The Action Philosophers book is new. It's late, but new. It's the issue where the fans could vote on which philosophers they wanted.

Re: On the Shelves: 10/4/06

Greg — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:53:00 -0000

Andrew: I saw an issue of Done to Death on the shelves last week - I'll check out to see if it's #3 or #2, but it was with the new stuff.

Guy - I've reviewed both issues of Mystery in Space - issue #1 here and issue #2 here. In case you're wondering.

Re: On the Shelves: 10/4/06

Greg — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:41:00 -0000

Andrew, if you're out there, Done to Death #3 made it to Atomic Comics in Mesa, AZ. So that's something ...

Re: Shadowline Slimline Offer Less for More

Greg — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:01:00 -0000

You know, I love a lot of Image books, but they are just not filling me with confidence about the way they do business. Why even "create" a format that supposes a cover price of $1.99 and then not sell books at that price? How stupid is Image? Why is the comic book industry in general so very, very, very idiotic?

Re: Ghost Rider’s Qualified Success and What it Means for DC

Greg — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 18:56:00 -0000

Plok speaks the truth, it seems. Nice analysis of this phenomenon.

Re: Fake Coachella 2008 Line-Up: Why Must They Mess With Us?!

Greg — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:05:25 -0000

Umm.... Portishead is playing. Get excited about that.

Re: http://www.aeropause.com/2006/08/phil-harrison-the-gilligan-of-gaming/

Greg — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 10:29:03 -0000

Lots of Sony hate these days. Some people need to grow up, as they can't handle that Sony is No. 1.

Who are they going to attack next in the Sony Corporate hierarchy?

By the way, just to piss you off even more, Sony is No. 1. LOL!

Re: http://www.aeropause.com/2006/08/make-your-own-next-gen-games/

Greg — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:10:35 -0000

I agree with JR. XBOX360 more like halfbox 360 everything cost extra. extra for rechargable batteries, extra to play online, extra for hddvd, 10 bucks extra for an old format(dvd games), overpriced hdd (100 bucks for 20gbs), Overpriced controllers (40 bucks for a WIRED controller wtf), Overpriced wifi adapter (100 bucks damn), overpriced memory cards (64mb for 40 bucks? and I thought memory stick was expensive). 360=hidden cost

Re: An introduction to Real Racing online leagues

Greg — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:21:40 -0000

It's still not clear to me how to join a new league. The game says a new league has been added to my calendar but I don't see anything in the league section, even after syncing. On the cloudcell site, I don't see anything on the league page about joining, only results and ranking. I do see my division and so on changing in the two default leagues. Am I missing something?

Re: NimbleBit » Global Game Jam Postmortem

Greg — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:51:00 -0000

Definitely agree with the whole LAN Party analogy. For me, I usually liken it to 6th grade sleep-overs. They were the pinnacle of 6th grade life. Sugar, caffeine, sega, trampolines, impromptu tag and so on. Those were the days.

But now we have game jams! The most fun a grown-up kid can have these days.

Re: One Year of Tombuntu

Greg — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:33:05 -0000

All the Best :)

Gregor from Poland :)

Re: What’s Been Bugging you in Ubuntu 8.04?

Greg — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:04:28 -0000

Sometimes my wireless aplet doesn't startup to connect to the internet when I turn the computer on. Other times it starts just fine. Dell Inspiron E1705 with Broadcom wireless.

Re: Ryan Adams

Greg — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:44:00 -0000

i have not listened to heartbreaker in forever, but the last time i listened to it, i couldnt stomach it. maybe its cause i listened to it not stop for like two years. great site and thanks for the link.

Re: Music In Schools

Greg — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 22:23:00 -0000

i posted a link, and a cry for help on my site. hopefully it did some good.

Re: Good Bye Microsoft

Greg — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:35:00 -0000

Picasa is available for linux. Point your browser at http://picasa.google.com/linux/. So between F-Spot and Picasa, uploading to sites like flickr shouldn't be a problem.

And as the previous poster mentioned, gaim is a great little app that should be able to handle most of your IM needs.

Unfortunately, gaming for linux is horrible. You said you didn't want to use wine, but it or cedega (http://www.transgaming.com/) are probably your best bet.

And don't forget to check out beryl (http://www.beryl-project.org/) for a very slick Windows Aero replacement!

Re: Oracle HTML DB 2-Day Developer

Greg — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:06:00 -0000

This blog is awesome! If you get a chance you may want to visit this 100 computerbrat.com seo top site, it's pretty awesome too!

Re: Oracle HTML DB 2-Day Developer

Greg — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:50:00 -0000

Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a really greatSEO site. It pretty much covers company diego san seo related stuff.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

Re: iTunes Podcast Help

Greg — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 18:30:40 -0000

Radio DTB hasn't been included in the iTunes directory yet, either. I've submitted it a few times, and I think other people have submitted it, too. I wonder if the folks at Apple are checking the podcast to see if it's "acceptable" for inclusion and balking at including them because they play music and Apple doesn't want to risk RIAA ire?

Re: Thoughts You Have While Falling Asleep

Greg — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:14:00 -0000

If 'Balloon Time' inflated the balloons with Nitrous Oxide, you might just be on to something.

Re: I’m on Red Eye tonight; dogs

Greg — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:04:00 -0000

Miniature Dachshund or Miniature Pincher...small but not yappy. Large rib cages give them a powerful bark for their size.

Re: Seasons of chickenhood

Greg — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:54:00 -0000

too much talking. not enough sharing. : )

Re: How To Get Awesome Tasting Coffee at Home (Part 3)

Greg — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:25:00 -0000

Good advice, but Blade grinders pose another problem (Don't know about burr grinders, I've yet to get one) The coffee grinds inconsistently depending on the proximity to the blade. The solution is to grind for 1-2 seconds, then stop & tap the grinder to realign the larger bean parts. Do this until the proper grind is achieved.
(This is especially important if you, like me, brew using a French press. You use a coarser grind. If you do not do this, you wither end up with 1/3 of your coffee too fine, 1/3 just right & 1/3 too coarse or, if you try to get more of the coffee right, you'll find 1/2 too fine & 1/2 just right.)

(If you like coffee & people, follow me on Twitter so I can get to know you @gwn :)

Re: Cockroach controlled Robot?

Greg — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 14:13:57 -0000

i might need this for my cockroaches at my home huh?

Re: DIY - Build you own MP3 Player

Greg — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:50:40 -0000

where can I get one of these?
looks neat!

Re: DIY - MP3 Player in a Altoids from MIT

Greg — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:51:49 -0000

wow this is really cool

Re: Πάει κι αυτός

Greg — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:28:00 -0000

Έχω έγκυρες πληροφορίες ότι τη μουσική του την βάζει η Άντα! Άρα δεν έχει ευθύνη...

Μια ερώτηση μόνο ρε παιδιά εσείς που ξέρετε και τα εγγλέζικα... Αυτό το

Fellow (CFIA) του Κέντρου Διεθνών Σχέσεων
Harvard University, Cambrdige, MA, USA (1992-1993)

στο βιογραφικό του, σημαίνει

Φίλος της CIA;

Re: Θέλω χάρη

Greg — Wed, 03 May 2006 21:05:00 -0000

Ότι κι' αν είναι αυτά τα ροξάκια, ζήλεψα...

Να σας κάτσουν στο γοφό παλιοεμιγκρέδες :-D

Re: Λέω ναι στην ανέγερση τζαμιού

Greg — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:06:00 -0000

Ποιός αρνείται την ανέργεση τζαμιού;

Για τη θέση του συζητάμε.

Ας πουμε θά 'θελε ο μέσος αγγλοσάξων τον μουεζίνη στην πλατεία Τραφάλγκαρ (ή απέναντι από το παλάτι) να ωρρύεται κάθε μεσημέρι και τους πιστούς απ' εξω γονυκλινείς;

Δράττομαι δε της ευκαιρίας να παρακαλέσω από εδώ όσους χρησιμοποιούν τον όρο "Ελληναράς", για λόγους ισονομίας και ισοπολιτείας να χρησιμοποιούν και το Τουρκαλάς, Μουσουλμαναράς, Αλβαναράς κλπ. Μερσί!

Re: Λέω ναι στην ανέγερση τζαμιού

Greg — Fri, 12 May 2006 17:09:00 -0000

Ξαναρωτάω μια κι' απάντηση δεν παίρνω...

ποιός είπε "όχι στο τζαμί;

Ακόμα χειρότερα

ποιός γκρέμισε τζαμί;

Επ' ευκαιρία μια και διαβάζω κάτι "κουζουλά" πιο πάνω :-D οι Τουρκικής καταγωγής (για τους οποίους τόσο πολλοί πονούν ορισμένοι ) δεν κατοικούν στην Αθήνα! Στην Θράκη κάθε χωριό έχει τζαμί και κάθε πόλη 2-3...

Εκτός αν πίσω απ' όλα αυτά υποκρύπτεται πάθος κατά της χριστιανικής εκκλησίας, που λανθασμένα πιστεύετε ότι θα τους πειράξει το τζαμί, μια και κάθε τι θρησκευτικό τους αυξάνει τον κύκλο εργασιών!

Re: Λέω ναι στην ανέγερση τζαμιού

Greg — Sat, 13 May 2006 20:58:00 -0000

Ωραία, τις μάζεψαν τις υπογραφές!

Η καθ' ύλην αρμόδια υπουργός όμως Γιαννάκου, εδήλωσε εχθές ότι αίτημα δεν της έχει υποβληθεί από κανέναν!

Το μόνο που θα μπορούσε να κατηγορήσει κανείς την πολιτεία, είναι το ότι ενώ είχε σαν στόχο και κύρια επιδίωξη τα τελευταία 15 χρόνια την ενίσχυση του "δουλεμπορίου" μεταναστών για να κονομήσουν οι Μπομπολοβωβοί, δεν φρόντισε in advance να έχει κι ένα τζαμί έτοιμο!
Εδώ θα με βρείς σύμφωνο...

Άρνηση όμως δεν υπήρξε. Δεν θα ταίριαζε βρε αδελφε με την οικονομική πολιτική και το όραμα των δύο εξουσιαστικών κομμάτων της χώρας!

Re: Η “άλλη” άποψη για την γενοκτονία - UPDATE

Greg — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:50:00 -0000

Όσο και να ρωτάς απάντηση δεν παίρνεις...

Re: Dirty Little Secrets Of The Seduction Guru Biz

Greg — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:24:00 -0000

Yo Ross,

I feel for you. Realize, in the end, we all figure out who THE godfather of Pick-up is.

-Matt Sharky

Re: Facebook, numero un pour le partage de contenu… devant l’email !

Greg — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:30:23 -0000

Génial, exactement ce que j’avais besoin pour mon mémoire aussi. La majorité des études de rumeurs électroniques se focalisant sur l’email (et dans une moindre mesure les forums), j’avais besoin d’une source montrant que les réseaux sociaux commencent à occulter l’email. Merci bien Oli

This comment was originally posted on <a href="http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog/2009/07/21/facebook-numero-un-pour-le-partage-de-contenu-devant-lemail/#comment-3561" rel="nofollow" title="“Facebook, numero un pour le partage de contenu… devant l’email !” (http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog)">Blog de nuit

Re: Facebook, numero un pour le partage de contenu… devant l’email !

Greg — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:32:56 -0000

Il faudra aussi voir comme Google Wave vient s’insérer dans tout ce mix. Imagine toi que Facebook intègre un truc « àlà » Wave pour remplacer son inbox. Ca serait la folie

This comment was originally posted on <a href="http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog/2009/07/21/facebook-numero-un-pour-le-partage-de-contenu-devant-lemail/#comment-3562" rel="nofollow" title="“Facebook, numero un pour le partage de contenu… devant l’email !” (http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog)">Blog de nuit

Re: Par respect pour les concombres… Sara’s secret, boutique érotique

Greg — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:13:52 -0000

pas mal

This comment was originally posted on <a href="http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog/2009/08/04/par-respect-pour-les-concombres-saras-secret-boutique-erotique/#comment-3700" rel="nofollow" title="“Par respect pour les concombres… Sara’s secret, boutique érotique” (http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog)">Blog de nuit

Re: Philip Ng finds 'Somebody to Love'

Greg — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:03:19 -0000

thats one hilarious trailer. i need a good laugh cant wait til it comes out. HONG KONG COMEDY IS MAKING A COMEBACK!yehah!

Re: Corps Visits

Greg — Thu, 26 May 2005 21:56:00 -0000

Thanks for your commitment to the front lines, Colonel.

Re: Sunday Night Meetings

Greg — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 20:07:00 -0000

i am pleased to see a forum where there is some discussion on this topic. community comes in a variety of forms and sometimes without form.
creativity breeds community too.

if christ is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself. the last thing we need however, is yet another prescribed program or 'exciting initiative' that must be done.

we have so many resources in our existing structures and people.

see you sunday night!!

Re: Changes

Greg — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:33:00 -0000

Life does change and so it should. In using the terms of Rick Warren we as Christians must continually strived to go to the next step, go to our next point in our Christian growth, to become more holy day by day. We do this in the assurance that God's love doesn't change, Heb. 13:8. Praise God and bless you TC for this reminder.

Re: Right Fit

Greg — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:20:00 -0000

In the late 80's Hauerwas and Willimon wrote a book about Church growth entitled "Resident Aliens". To me that's a very good title for us as Christians as we are a colony, a holy people, a chosen nation, a family standing for Christian values in a devalued world. Thanks for the reminder of our staus T.C. and to all the other aliens out there live long and pray.

Re: Who will defend us?

Greg — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:29:16 -0000

I'm sure the media would be surprised to find out that atheists support Gov. Palin. They'd be surprised to find out that the gov is supported by people of all faiths (and those without), people from all states in the country, and many from overseas, and has supporters who are republicans, democrats, and independents. She is far from the narrow based politician they paint her as.

Re: Barley Legal II: Activist Judges Gone Wild!

Greg — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:41:00 -0000

A minority government, freely elected by a minority of the people.

Re: Google Tip: Find a Defination

Greg — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 12:15:11 -0000

hardware

Re: My wife and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary today

Greg — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 02:00:00 -0000

Congrats, from Argentina.

(I'm Argentinian, hahaha)

Re: kooaba: Bilderkennung mit dem iPhone

Greg — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:03:57 -0000

Mmmhh ... auf die Verbindung der Autorin zu der Firma kooaba sollte meines Erachtens bei solchen Artikeln hingewiesen werden.

Schade :(

Re: Anthony Bourdain Takes A Shot At Alice Waters

Greg — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:47:28 -0000

I love Chez Pannise!

Re: don’t worry, be … what?

Greg — Tue, 30 Jul 2002 21:31:07 -0000

I thought the best comment was from Drew Carey..

"So, you hate your life and your job? there's a support group for that. It's call EVERYONE and they meet down at the bar..."

Re: Creative Networking for Your Job Search, “101″

Greg — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:24:18 -0000

This is just poor advice and a good way to waste people's time! This is the same old advice every recruiter gives...."network!...it is the only way to get a job". There is a difference between networking and stalking and this is definitely stalking. Conferences are NOT for job hunters to disrupt and every job hunter that does so should be (and most likely will be....) thrown out! Oh, and by the way, not everyone has a drinking problem as you suggest. Maybe you should consider your drinking habits before filling an article with drinking jabs.

Re: My Xbox 360 can Kick Your PS3's Ass

Greg — Wed, 18 May 2005 11:38:21 -0000

This is funny because you lot are doing exactly what the article is about. Good work.

Re: 5 Phases of a Forex Trader

Greg — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:46:22 -0000

Very enlivening post. With the wide array of advise out there this is perhaps a sobering description. What I learned is that it is a longer journey than I thought. So I had better adjust my thinking accordingly. I wish that there were more straight talk like this.

Re: 7-2 at half-throttle: Good or bad?

Greg — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:07:09 -0000

Its a good thing. Being a Bronco fan up here in New England, I've seen a Pats team that always gets better in the second half. On the other hand, the Broncos start fast each year, seemingly dominant, but become mediocre down the stretch. Shanahan has tried to emulate the Pats' success and there may be something to holding a bit back thru the season.

The next 2 games will go a long way in telling the tale, both in the division and for a possible bye.

Re: AFC West’s top spot up for grabs

Greg — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:41:20 -0000

We don't have a quarterback, running back or defense ready for primetime.

You watch a guy like LT and realize this flavor of the week running attack isn't the way to go. The defense is getting shredded against any decent offensive team. Indy, Pitt and SD all seemed to move the ball at will. Pittsburgh's 6 turnovers are the only reason they didn't win.

And in our two biggest games, Indy and SD, at home, Jake has had a chance to take us down for a win and simply put, he failed.

SD's defense is injury riddled, but their first year starter outdueled our veteran quarterback.

Up 24-7 with this "great" defense... should be a win at home. Getting outscored 28-3 to end the game is pretty pathetic.

Not giving up, but I've seen this defensive act for years now. Great defensive teams don't just dominate terrible offenses like Oakland, Cleveland, etc. They hang in there against the good teams.

Re: AFC West’s top spot up for grabs

Greg — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:04:51 -0000

I agree Jake needs to take plenty of heat... if we just score a couple times after going up 24-7, we likely win...

BUT...

When is the blame going to start falling on this defense??? We keep putting all kinds of resources into the defense to come up with a dominant unit.

A "facade".... exactly anonymous... the best corner, the best linebackers, big hitter at safety??

You know what, they are getting SMOKED in these big games. SMOKED.

Still, a couple plays and we beat both Indy and SD... gotta turn around quick and beat KC. A loss there and we may not even make the playoffs.

Re: Broncos limp into K.C. for holiday

Greg — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:05:46 -0000

We'll see what they are made of... this is a must win. If they lose, they will have gone from division leader looking for a bye week, to fighting for a playoff spot worrying about tie-breakers... all in 5 days.

If they lose, KC is suddenly right there in the wildcard race.

A win and they show they are still a very good team that basically lost 2 close games to possibly the best 2 teams. They would be essentially 3 games up on the chiefs due to the sweep. And they keep the division close, b/c a win in San Diego would put them in control of the division based on division record (5-1 vs. 4-2).

A win and they would be 2 games up on the nearest wildcard team.

I'm not trying to overstate things, but this is a playoff game for them.

Honestly, if they can't respond by beating a shakey KC team, I think they aren't a championship team.

Re: Cutler gets the nod

Greg — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:32:44 -0000

I was not a fan of the Plummer signing to begin with, but I grew to like parts of his game. I have been really rooting for him to prove us all wrong. Unfortunately, I think he's had ample time and it just ain't happening.

Last year showed us that, when we had it all set up. But, I liked the moves. Give him a big weapon (Javon), run the ball and play great defense. Draft Cutler and give him a year to learn, while giving Plummer one more shot to go one game farther. Seemed like a perfect situation.

I had no idea that Jake would react like this.

I kept thinking Jake would come around this season. I kept thinking for once, we'd get hot and dominate at the end of a season versus early like we do every year. The Indy and Pitt games gave me hope with that.

But that offense simply is not doing the job. I'm not letting everyone else off the hook at all. The D is not getting key stops in any of these losses. The special teams stink. And the running attack is very inconsistent.

But the running game and passing game go hand in hand. Both have to have some success or the opposing D can focus on the part that is working. People always talk about needing to run to open the pass. Same goes the other way. Jake needs to be able to drop back and complete some passes and HE JUST CANNOT DO IT!

Teams are protecting against the boot-game and he just looks bad when he is forced to drop back and throw from the pocket. He doesn't set his feet, he doesn't step into his throws... he looks uncomfortable. This isn't really news.

I think this is what Shanny is thinking. He even mentioned the drop back passing as a problem last week. Cutler is a classic drop back passer and will hopefully be more comfortable in that role. If he can make some throws from the pocket, the running game should gain more consistency and the boot game will probably be there again to hit some big plays.

I don't want this move to happen, but Jake's play has forced the issue.

All those saying Jake isn't the only problem are dead on. I'm more disappointed with the defense than anything else b/c I thought we really had a dominant D for once, but Jake also isn't saving any of these games and that is his job. He is the quarterback and he needs to lead this team to wins.

Re: Graceful exit from center stage

Greg — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:19:08 -0000

I think anyone talking down about Jake's the "road rage" incident here, and the obsene jesture should take a step back and look at themselves. I would venture to guess you were upset at least one occasion in your lives driving, or gave the one finger salute to someone. But then again, maybe you're just too perfect.

Re: Seahawks entering the unknown

Greg — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 21:03:25 -0000

Pretty shaky early...

We get great field position and effective running on first 3 drives and get a field goal.

Special teams does their typical thing and allows a 40 yard return to change the field position battle in Seattle's favor.

Defense needs a great game because we aren't going to score much.

Re: Seahawks entering the unknown

Greg — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 21:18:39 -0000

OK, there's a couple nice throws from Jay... the third down pass to Alexander and the TD.

10-0... OK defense, re-establish that nastiness from early this season.

Re: Seahawks entering the unknown

Greg — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 21:38:52 -0000

Nice play Rod.

Why has everyone reverted to this type of play??

Rod, the guy fell down, don't just back into him and fumble. If he opens his eyes, he might just run past him.

Its just an uphill battle right now

Re: One chance to beat the Chargers

Greg — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:42:38 -0000

Steve, Claudia, etc

The Chargers have pretty much stunk throughout history except for a few blips here and there. You've never won anything to date.

I agree, you are better this year. I'm rooting for you guys to win it if Denver doesn't figure out a way to turn things around.

I'm a Denver fan living in Boston, so anyone but the Pats would be great.

I don't hate the Chargers like I do the Chiefs and the Raiders.

But living in the past?... Denver went 13-3 last year and have been to the playoffs 3 straight years. Its not like they aren't a good team.

If SD wins today, good luck the rest of the way, but don't count out Denver being right there during those next few years. We're breaking in our own "new" QB.

You might want to remember the success Denver has had since Elway with mediocre qb's... if Cutler even ends up being just good, I think you'll be seeing plenty of the Broncos for a long time.

Re: Cutler’s second take at 2:15 p.m.

Greg — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:40:30 -0000

Wow, we need some beef up front on defense. The Chargers O-line is beating us down.

Ouch, they just threw one up to Gates. 28-3.

We've been on Gates both TD's but he's too strong. I don't think we have many guys who fight for balls like that.

Well, I was expecting a loss, but this is embarassing. Another great return by our special teams.

I think we may be seeing our Broncos giving up a bit. Just can't stop the avalanche...

Re: Cutler’s second take at 2:15 p.m.

Greg — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:33:37 -0000

There's some fight in that team... one thing you gotta give Cutler... that arm is scary.

I'm impressed with the effort, we'll see what happens.

Re: Cutler’s second take at 2:15 p.m.

Greg — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:28:53 -0000

Guys, easy... I think in our hearts, we knew we were playing for next season when we lost to KC and went to a rookie QB. I was hoping for some lightning in a bottle, but we're getting what you get with a rookie quarterback.

I think Shanahan sees alot of potential with alot of young guys like Cutler, Marshall, Sheffler, even the Bells. DJ, Darrent, Foxworth, Dumervill on defense.

We'll have Champ and Javon in their primes to build around.

They have alot of work to do on the D-line and a couple spots on the O-line. You know they will spend the money.

I like the fight I saw in that team even when they were getting blown away.

The 4th down calls... I'm not real fond of, but they are from desperation. Sure made the final score look ugly.

Let's give Cutler a chance to show some things over the last few games and see what happens. That Cincy game may be for a playoff spot. Who knows.

Re: Take the good; expect some bad

Greg — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:48:50 -0000

How did we become so bad?

Hanging on for muffed extra points and blown onside kick attempts. Could we put a game away with a few first downs? Could the defense make a stop?

How many games did we give up in the 4th quarter? Seattle, SD, Indy...

You can see the potential of some of these young guys on offense and that's encouraging, especially Cutler.

I know we haven't had alot of luck this year, so maybe we deserved this one, but I don't feel that we are a better team than Cincy. They missed about 4 TDs. Our defensive zone has holes the size of Colorado.

Our D made some big plays, but overall, they did little to give me any confidence going into the playoffs.

On the good side... That 99 yard drive was awesome... if we could do that a little more, we have potential.

Well, merry Christmas, congrats to the Broncs... we should handle the 9ers at home. If nothing else, one extra game of experience for our youngsters.

Re: Take the good; expect some bad

Greg — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:49:22 -0000

Is it me or is Darrent often right there, but can't play the ball?

Seems like he's got good cover skills, but bad ball skills.

I agree that Cutler isn't a problem, but they did not do enough on offense. If Cincy makes a couple more plays that were wide open, we lose. Their strength is not there D, so we need to put up more points.

But he is a rookie and that's what we'll see... some good, some bad.

Every game he gets behind him (Cutler), the better off we are.

Re: Broncos survive Bengals, elements

Greg — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 12:32:11 -0000

Hey Houshmandzadeh - nice mile high salute. Oh, I guess the game does not end on your touchdown. Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha

Re: Cutler proving coach prescient

Greg — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:07:28 -0000

I need to comment on the criticism of the O-line. I totally agree. Its been a problem for years now. Its sometimes hidden in the stats.

Obviously, we have alot of success in the running game over the course of the season. But if you really pay close attention, we often struggle in short yardage and also have not been able to put together late drives to seal leads.

Despite racking up the rushing yards, the other teams defenses don't seem to be worn out and beat up. In short yardage, teams attack our zone blocking scheme creating easy penetration.

And no, we don't protect the passer very well in passing situations. I've seen our line get overwhelmed over and over. Pittsburgh ran right through our line last year. For all everyone wanted to single out Jake, he had almost no chance on alot of plays.

One of the reasons it worked in the Super Bowl years is we had warriors out there. Zimm, Schlereth, Tony Jones and Nalen were smaller, but they were great players with loads of heart. Nalen is still there, and he's still good, but Hamilton and Carlisle and Foster just aren't those same players.

We've seen it with Cutler too... sometimes he's got guys in his face as soon as he plants.

I think they have things they do really well. Obviously, when they get into rhythm, they flow and run that scheme really well. But against the elite defenses, or if we fall behind, they get beat pretty badly. And let's face it, we don't want a pretty good line and a wild card birth each year. We want a great line that will protect our new franchise QB and lead our dominant running attack to a bunch of super bowls.

I think they're addressing it. They've taken Myers, Eslinger and Kuper in the past couple years. From what you hear, they are high on all these guys and they are a tad bit bigger.

I don't really have much confidence for this year. I expect to play well this week and take care of the 9ers, but I don't think we'll go to NE or Indy and win.

But you've gotta like the potential of this teams youth.

The D-line is a separate post.

Re: Cutler leaves game with injury

Greg — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:38:06 -0000

Anyone who went today deserves their money back for that effort. I can't remember a more pathetic effort... oh wait, maybe KC on thanksgiving. Seattle comes to mind... the Raiders game was bad.

You know what, this team just is not very good.

I thought they were. I was just wrong. We didn't play well on offense, the special teams kicking and coverage was poor, and the defense collapsed as usual in the second half.

The niners are a bad NFC team.

The defense could not stop them in the second half... and I don't necessarily mean points, but once again, we seemed backed up because of the "bend but don't break" philosophy.

Each time we pressured Smith, he threw wild. What does Coyer do with the game on the line in OT, 3rd and long, drops back into coverage.

I am completely disappointed in this team, from gameplan to execution to effort.

Sloppy, questionable play calls, fumbles, picks, penalties, Lang not getting that fumble at the end of the first half... could go on and on.

Goodbye Jake, Tatum and with any luck Larry Coyer and his soft, swiss cheese-like zone.

Re: Denver’s season ends in overtime

Greg — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:17:42 -0000

To all you KC fans... save your yapping for when you win something.

You did back in and that's fine. Things broke right and 2 overtime games went your way. Its the most wins over a 16 game schedule with a few tie breakers in there.

After you upset Indy at Indy, go to San Diego and win... and then go to Baltimore or New England and win again.... then come on this site and run your mouths.

You beat us out by a tie breaker.... good for you. We stunk the second half of this season. If we'd have won, we would have lost next week. This turned into a transition year with rookies and 2nd year players all over the lineup.

If I was you, I'd start the party now... I doubt it will last long.

Re: Broncos squander playoff berth

Greg — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:48:38 -0000

I was as mad and frustrated as anyone with that effort, but to see that news this morning made me forget about their season. Its just sickening.

Darrent took a lot of abuse (some from me), but he accounted himself pretty well considering the amount of action that came his way. He could cover, but was still learning to play the ball. He was gonna be a good one. I feel this a huge loss for the team.

But even worse, is his loss as a friend and family member. I feel for his family and the team.

The "escalation of violence" in our society is so ridiculous. Why does an altercation at a club have to lead to a shooting? That element of society has so little value for life. Someone "disses" you so shoot 'em.

Good thinking.

I have 3 young children and I feel sick sometimes about the world they are coming into.

Goodbye Darrent and good luck. We will miss you.

Re: Broncos squander playoff berth

Greg — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 20:25:09 -0000

OK, all the genius, classy Chiefs fans who were spouting off here... Well done. Hail to the Chiefs.

One and out as was expected, and now you'll be picking below us. As of now, you are worse off.

If you win a game, I say it was a success cause you are making strides. You BACKED in with 3 other teams losing, 2 in OT... your coach made a fool of himself spouting off... you all made fools of yourself spouting off and now your team is the same place as Denver....

Except we have what looks to be a long term solution at QB, not to mention alot of young talent.

Green will be 36? Gonzalez is slowing down rapidly, the OL is a mess... I'll give you LJ and Tamba because I'm a Penn Stater.

Neither team is super bowl ready, but I like our future better.

Whooohoooo... you got in the playoffs... you guys rock!

Re: Broncos squander playoff berth

Greg — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 20:30:48 -0000

Oh yeah, and we had that bruising back to set up Tatum's break away speed.

Ron Dayne... But we kept Cedric Cobbs who was the biggest non-factor on the roster.

I didn't like that move then and like it even less now. Pounding the ball could have helped us in the SD, Chief, Seattle, Cincy and 9er games. It could have locked up those games late.

With a bruising running game, we would have been much more of a threat this season.

How would Dayne have looked in some of those 1st and goal situations?

Not sure what Shanahan was thinking with that one... Cedric Cobbs?

Re: Broncos bid adieu to Coyer

Greg — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:31:10 -0000

Absolutely the lack of adjustments as the game went on was the problem.

Even in the last game against a poor 9ers team we had them almost shut out (and if they fall on a fumble it would have been a shut out) in the first half. Second half, they moved the ball up and down the field. We held them to field goals mostly, but obviously the other team made adjustments and we couldn't keep up.

Indy, San Diego (at home), Seattle and the 9ers... all with 7 points or less at halftime.

Some of that was probably getting tired, but most was one team seeing holes, and Coyer unable to fix them.

Obviously, the talent was there, because you don't dominate like they did without the talent.

Yes, the offense needed to be better to give them more rest and score more points. Yes you can pick 4 or 5 games that we could have put away with one more drive... but your D has to make a stop to preserve leads and they didn't against Indy, SD, Seattle, Cincy, or SF... add Pittsburgh to that cause their sloppy play stopped themselves.

At the point a team has scored on you 4-5 straight drives, could you try to change up a bit?

Hey, I know we had some injuries and definitely need a couple pass rushers, but we have the best corner in the league by far and one the best linebacking corps. There's plenty of talent around them... you gotta be able to come up with a better scheme than rush 4 and drop into a soft zone.

Ian Gold is the fastest linebacker in the league... he can't disrupt other teams like a Merriman? You can't design blitzes to get him coming free on a qb?

Coyer is a great guy, and he comes into games with good game plans, but you need to adjust and he either was unable or unwilling.

Re: Broncos bid adieu to Coyer

Greg — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:53:15 -0000

Here is a key question?

Did we have a championship defense under Larry Coyer?

NO.

In 4 years, we got blown out of the playoffs in 3 straight years, and the defense definitely faltered this year giving up lead after lead in the second half.

Nobody is blaming Coyer for everything, but it just wasn't working. And he had no answers when other teams started gashing the defense after halftime each week. You can't question that.

The offense and special teams definitely had their hands in the meltdown this year, but that doesn't excuse the defensive schemes and the lack of adjustments by the defensive coaches.

Obviously, the talent is there... yes, they need a dominant D-lineman or 2 to complete a dominant unit... but the talent was enough to hold off teams like KC, Seattle and the 9ers. Or to hold the chargers to under 80 points in 2 games. No excuse for that.

The offensive struggles had alot to do with Jake and Tatum playing poorly, not coaching. If Jake had played even OK, we might still be playing. If Tatum had stepped up to be the #1 bigtime back he's claimed he could be for 3 years, we might still be playing.

Its a team game, if the O is more consistent, the D would have looked better and been fresher. If the D didn't bend so much or created some turnovers, the O wouldn't need to drive 80 yards all day... if the special teams didn't stink, both units would have been better.

No one is solely to blame, but it doesn't mean you can't try and bring in someone who can do a better job.

Re: Coaching carousel commences

Greg — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:40:08 -0000

I think Jay will make strides this offseason. He will have his first full offseason with Shanahan to learn the offense. He will go into the offseason with the job. That alone will change the amount of work he gets. Remember, he was slated to be the backup this year... his work in practice reflected that.

He will get a chance to work with Walker, Marshall, Rod and Sheffler on timing, not to mention the rest of the offense. The 5 games will be very valuable experience for him.

Do I expect him to look like Brady or Manning or dare I say #7? No. He'll be learning on the job for years, just like every other QB in NFL history.

Can he be better than Jake? Can he be what Rivers was this year? Absolutely, I think he has the best chance to succeed of all these young QBs.

We've been a good team with a bunch of average QB's since John left... the Griese, Gus, Beurlein, Jake Plummer... even Chris Miller won some games. Jake had alot of success here, but we just couldn't make it to that elite championship level b/c sooner or later, bad things happen and things get off schedule. At some point, you fall behind and you become one dimensional. Jake was great when we were up, running well and running that boot game... he made alot of great plays. But when we had to pass to get back in a game, he struggled and we faltered.

I truly believe we'd be in the playoffs if we'd have stuck with Jake... he'd have got us that one more win (probably Seattle, maybe San Fran... i know he struggled when he came in, but he'd been out of the loop for 5 weeks, we're assuming he was still starting).

Maybe we upset the Pats, but that's about it. At this point, I'm glad he made the switch.

Jay won't be perfect, but he'll be better.

Improve at RB and D-line, tighten up the special teams, and hire a defensive coordinator that can make a few adjustments late in ballgames... add in an easier schedule. We had no breathing room this year. Balt, Indy, NE, Cincy, Pitt, Seattle, SD and KC (2x)... that's alot of playoff teams.

All that and maybe some luck with staying healthy at key spots...

Isn't that worth a few wins?

Re: Coaching carousel commences

Greg — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:39:36 -0000

Jason Taylor is not a free agent, but Adelius Thomas (Ravens) is... he is an extremely versatile player who is young and flies off the corner. He is probably going to make alot, but I think he's the best pass rusher on the board and he can drop in coverage better than Ekuban (see San Diego and LT). I hope he's in Denver next season.

Dude, I would love Taylor on this team... that guy wins a few games for his team each year. Not affects them, wins them. Not alot of guys do that (we got one at corner). But I don't think he'll be available as he's there best player.

#27, I agree, I want to see Shanahan with a talented QB for a few years and then see if his best days are behind him.

When you name great coaches, they usually have some great players in front of them. Especially a QB. Look, I live here in Patriot hell and I know this team almost as much as I know the Broncs. Bellichek the genius... take away Tom Brady and Adam Vinitiari and he has zero championships. He's such a genius that they left Brady to the 6th round and started Bledsoe in front of him. For a year and 2 games until Bledsoe got injured.

Shanahan's a great coach. He had a great year last year, but not so great this season. The offense was poor this year, but its hard to blame him for the D getting torched in the second halves of games this season giving up 4 leads at home. We can blame him for decisions like getting rid of Dayne and Anderson this year... those big backs may have made a difference this year. You can blame him for relying on Courtney Brown at DE.

Re: Coaching carousel commences

Greg — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 11:58:43 -0000

I think we could have made the playoffs with Jake at QB. Jay made a few big mistakes which were even worse than Jake's mistakes.

I think we would have got that one more win.... and then, we'd have been one and done, or possibly we could have upset the Pats because we have alot of confidence against that team and match up well against them.

But Shanahan wasn't talking about best chance to win a few games, he was talking about he best chance to win the super bowl. Maybe that meant the super bowl next year or the year after.

And to be honest, if Jay wasn't unconscious for 2 quarters of that 49ers game, they probably get in anyway.

Hey, they didn't... at this point, fine. We get Tenn and Buff instead of Jax and NYJ... we get to pick ahead of KC.

Re: Denver to meet with Henry

Greg — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:11:59 -0000

John, I agree... he blocks well in the zone scheme, but can't line up and block anyone. Therefore, in short yardage or pass blocking, he's overmatched.

I've been worried about this for a few years now. The "light, athletic" O-line. Does well in between the 20's... does well when Denver is on schedule and has a lead... BUT...

If you fall behind and have to throw, they get blown up.

In short yardage when you need to move the sticks or get 7 instead of 3, they get blown up. Sounds like they've started to realize that and I've seen some articles quoting the organization regarding getting bigger on both sides of the line.

Re: Adams latest addition to D-line

Greg — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:02:03 -0000

He is past his prime, but worth a 1-year deal to see if you can squeeze one more year out of him.

They are claiming he's around 345 and may drop a few more going thru camp and conditioning programs.

If he and Warren can be healthy and motivated, that's a pretty stout middle.

If anyone remembers getting eaten up by LJ and LT during that 4 game losing streak last year, this could help out.

Re: 01772643207

Greg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:31:55 -0000

3D Marketing Group

Re: When Twitter Is Too Much

Greg — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:34:54 -0000

lol

Re: Back In Effect

Greg — Fri, 08 May 2009 23:59:40 -0000

no footage? damn sonnn lol

Re: SOUNDBITE: Determine To Succeed

Greg — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:02:51 -0000

amen!!

Re: http://blog.inc.com/archives/2004/05/formal_educatio.html

Greg — Tue, 25 May 2004 17:27:42 -0000

As someone who has an education in engineering and marketing, who has been wiped out twice by crashing 2 startups, who has worked under a mentor, and who is now prospering with my 3rd startup, here is what I have observed: B-school is good at producing employees (managers, directors, presidents - but still employees), but the shortcut to entrepreneurial success is working under someone who has successfully done it before, ie: a mentor. The teacher really does come when the student is ready, but until that time I suggest reading a book that speaks with authority on this exact subject, "Self-Made in America" by John McCormack.

Re: http://blog.inc.com/the-browser/2008/03/fear_and_doubt_in_the_valley.html

Greg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:29:55 -0000

Currently, we are raising seed capital from family and friends and have been for several months. Out of this experience, I have found that most who would have been very willing may hold back and wait until the prospects of the company appear more certain due to the economy. Though, we will be speaking with angel investors shortly and I am cautiously optimistic.

Re: New Radiohead and George W Bush – The Gloaming (Dj Shadow Remix)

Greg — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:58:46 -0000

I love the beginning! But doesn't this remix sort of sound like a Nine Inch Nails track?

Re: New Radiohead and George W Bush – The Gloaming (Dj Shadow Remix)

Greg — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:59:33 -0000

Greg
I love the beginning! But doesnâ€™t this remix sort of sound like a Nine Inch Nails track?

OMG -- yes! It sounds like God Given off Year Zero, does it not?

Re: Bloc Party in a State of ‘Flux’

Greg — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:24:35 -0000

Haha, yeah Bloc Party are a good band -- sometimes, other times, Kele is a fucktard

Re: Kanye West- 808s and Heartbreak Album Review

Greg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:28:59 -0000

Dont doubt it Naeem -- currently, the only way to make it in this industry (right now) is to release albums like CRAZY! You can't wait 2 years between albums anymore. Not if each album only peeks at a couple million in sales, each. Especially rap records. It's INSANE if a hip-hop record sells over 2 mill nowadays.

Anyway, GREAT review. I agree with about 95% of it. Lol, but really solid stuff.

Re: The Kodak on Vimeo [Rev]

Greg — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:33:00 -0000

Tim - Looks pretty good. The Kodak and the Flip have the same problem - No image stabilization. So it usually looks a little shaky. Supposedly, the new imovie fixes that, but I have not got ilife 09 yet.

Re: GM Fights Back: Volt Battery Pack "Hundreds Less" than $1,000/kWh

Greg — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:11:32 -0000

I tiptoe to work... It's quiet, it's efficient, it's cheap and the only place I have to park is my ass in my chair.

Re: The Dutch Master Bike (Super Duper Limited Edition) by Core77

Greg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:20:47 -0000

You could easily build this "limited edition" yourself for less than half the stated cost. Worksman cruiser bikes (of which this is a prettied-up example) cost $300 complete. Throw in a couple hundred more for Brooks saddle and grips, Schwalbe tires, and some nice platform pedals, and you've got it.

Re: Trailer Finally Released For Creation

Greg — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:12:34 -0000

This looks quite interesting actually, I'm a bit of a fan of Paul Bettanys work, it's a shame about DaVinci code but his other stuff is really good

Re: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen – Reviewed!

Greg — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:37:54 -0000

Great review! I can see where this film might have problems, although the kids want to see it so I think I'll be going anyway. Will let you know what I think

Re: Guggenheim Talks Green Lantern

Greg — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:12:36 -0000

I wish they would hurry up with this film. The have been talking about it for over a year now and not even managed to finalise the script? Not exactly fasttrack now is it?

Re: Cemetery Junction Films Today!

Greg — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:35:15 -0000

I can't abide Gervais, the guy is so far up his own ass he can smell what he ate for breakfast!

Re: Chris Nolan’s Inception Budgeted $200 Million

Greg — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:13:31 -0000

I think I would rather Batman 3, remember how bad The Prestige turned out to be?

Re: Wrecked Exotic Gas-Guzzlers

Greg — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 18:37:42 -0000

First of all, you should just accept that cars are going to be a necessary "evil" for many years to come. All cars pollute( regardless of how little or how much) and so these "assholes" with low volume, high performance cars are no less guilty that you owners of a Prius. And so i agree with Leunamme.

People will always think of themselves first and what they desire... its in our nature, we are hedonists( as much as we deny it). I think the few people who are concious of the state of our enviroment( such as yourselves) are very noble yet hopelessly out-gunned.

If you ride a bike thats great but ultimatly our race will consume everything on this planet. So get over yourself and enjoy your time here cause its probably the best its ever going to get.

Let it be...

Thanks Leunamme

Re: Less Silver Pollution Thanks to Digital Photography

Greg — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 21:27:33 -0000

Interesting poing, MGR, about the lifetime pollution of a product. But, in defence of Addled_B, how long do you think a digital camera will last? Even if it doesn't break (like mine did after 2 years,) soon they will make them with better resolution, or better optics, or both.

And a dilligent treehugger will say, "well, I'll just resist the urge because what I have will be good enough." But then OEMs will put out cameras that have better batteries, or some other 'green' feature.

Re: Top Three Gadgets That Can Actually Save You Money

Greg — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 22:22:24 -0000

the ray-o-vac charger works like a charm. I was skeptical at first, but after using it for about 2 years I'm convinced. I use the batteries in digital cameras, cd and mp3 players, flashlights, no problem.

Re: Technical Question: How is the Website Working for You?

Greg — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:48:35 -0000

I too have been waiting for up to a minute for the pages to load. This has only been happening for the last few weeks. I need my fix quick!

Re: Zerofootprint: What is offsetting?

Greg — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:52:42 -0000

Animal wastes are really the only way to put nitrogen back into farms without using fossil-based fertilizers. I hope this new 'green' fuel source doesn't create a new dependancy for these farmers.

Re: Pavers To Collect and Purify Rainwater

Greg — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:45:58 -0000

Most roads last only 25-30 years. If the road happened to be concrete it might be recycled, but not all used concrete is. Asphalt is a little harder to deal with, and if it contains a lot of tar it is already toxic and difficult to dispose of. Those heavy metals would exist 25 years from now whether they were absorbed by the tiles or distributed throughout the surrounding area. The advantage to having them all in one place is that it is easier to dispose of correctly. After 25 years many heavy metals would be into the upper levels of an ecosystem.

Re: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing

Greg — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:14:09 -0000

Your argument on the value of the American dollar was interesting, but if I wanted to buy one of these today it would still cost me $110. I agree completely with the fact that the hidden costs of commodities is often many times more what the final product costs, but assuming the binvention was made in England and shipped here (who knows what country the recycled aluminum would be from), there would be hidden costs for this product as well. To me most importantly, when you look at the binvention there is not $110 worth of material and labor in the product. Before I ever look at purchasing an item I consider it's build quality compared to it's price, many products are priced to earn as much profit off the consumer as possible (I would not say this is what the binvention creators are trying to do, but I would consider there product a designer item.)

Re: Making Some Green

Greg — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:19:30 -0000

very important point!

but less growth doesn´t have to mean less employment.

1. there is much to do cleaning up the destruction we did for years

2. employment could be shared

3. there are economy concepts beyond profitmaximizing and growth (read parecon by micheal albert)

"mobs are not going to take to the streets to demand less growth"

1. if we go on asking the developing world to stay poor they will collate and stop us

2. if you look at wto meetings and the like you can already see mobs that demand the end of consumerism and showing solidarity with the exploited

as a thought-provoking impulse i recommend:

surplus - terrorized into beiing consumers

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eeZ7hMd1tIU

(it comes in 7 parts; for german and french speakers there is a all in one version on google video)

Re: Making Some Green

Greg — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:35:48 -0000

"If we can cultivate businesses that are sustainable and eventually completely cradle-to-cradle, their growth will First, do economic good and environmental good, and Second, displace unsustainable businesses."

even if we reach a complete cradle-to-cradle industry the content of technical material circles (seprated from natural ones) consist of natural capital that is transformed into man-made capital. there is a limit beyond that natural and man-made capital are no longer substitutes but complementary factors. cause all economic growth is primarly based on transforamtion of natural into man-made capital there are also limits of growth as long as we regard planet earth as a limitted and closed system in respective of ressources (even the stream of solar energy is limitted although it is very big).

herman e. daly calls growth beyond the substitutional limit "uneconomical growth". this is what happens at the moment and could even happen within a complete cradle-to-cradle economy.

incontestable if we reach complete cradle-to-cradle there could be a period of growth that is good for people and planet but it never could be endless.

likewise growth of sustainable business is good as long as it replaces unsutainable business that would be pursued otherwise. but we should consider cradle-to-cradle as a solution for a sustainalbe fulfillment of needs and not as a key to endless growth.

at the end the question of growth is only relevant for those who think they always need to have more and more to be happy. no doubt growth on the micro-economic level is a strong driver of the innovations contemporary companies come up with. but do we need all this stuff they develope? people have always produced the things they needed long befor there were any thoughts about econimc growth. i am sure they will continue to do so when mankind has left the myth of the need of growth behind and they will be happier even if they will own less than some own today.

Re: San Francisco To Ban Plastic Shopping Bags

Greg — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:33:06 -0000

There are better solutions than carrying bags in car. You don't need bags at all. See http://www.autocarts.net for a clever alternative to bags. This is the best solution to the problem.

Re: Ten Canadian Companies that Think Green

Greg — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:47:51 -0000

When the misleading smear on Al Gore's energy consumption was thrown out on the blogosphere, The Financial Post's parent rag The National Post, ran with it on the cover without questioning it. Zero Credibility.

Re: New Battery Pushes Prius to 125 MPG

Greg — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:49:12 -0000

Has anyone ever followed the path & travels around the world in the manufacturing process of the Prius battery? Their longevity? Disposal methods? Replacement costs?

You might be shocked. You might get mad. You might gag.

Re: Cardboard Kids Slow Down Drivers

Greg — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:24:46 -0000

What a TERRIBLE idea! Imagine the implications of this from a "crying wolf" perspective. Sure, it might work for a little while, but for how long? Deception is rarely an appropriate strategy. How about cardboard signs posting the number of children killed each year by automobiles? How about more enforcement of speed limits? How about permamently removing a driver's license from anyone who injures a child through reckless driving? How about round-abouts? I mean, keep thinking here... there are better ways than what amounts to deceitful manipultaion.

Re: Tesla CEO Steps Down, Roadster Delays Possible

Greg — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:48:33 -0000

The solutions seem to pereptually exist only in the future. How sad. I really hope the Tesla makes it to market soon.

Re: UnTreeHugger: Onion Goggles

Greg — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:13:22 -0000

How nice to see treehugger post a product they want you NOT to buy. Usually this is a forum showcasing new stuff to purchase as an alternative to something else to purhase when the best choice is, of course: don't purchase!

Re: Brewing Up Change at Your Coffee Chain

Greg — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:33:20 -0000

OR, you could skip the imported, overpriced, addictive practice of coffee drinking and wake up with a nice set of sit-ups.

Re: Core77's Next One Hour Design Competition: Ban the Plastic Bag

Greg — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:42:45 -0000

There are better solutions than carrying bags in car. You don't need bags at all. See http://www.autocarts.net for a clever alternative to bags. This is the best solution to the problem.

Re: The E-Car: A Hit With Kids of All Ages

Greg — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:31:39 -0000

Cool! 0-60 in five seconds is better than I ever got outa my VW Thing! But, is there some sort of hidden subtext in getting kids interested in efficient electric cars by using a car modeled on the kubelwagen military vehicle of Hitler's Germany?

Re: Unveiled: Aptera Typ-1 100% Electric and Series Hybrid Vehicles

Greg — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:54:23 -0000

Frankie,

It uses car tires already in production on other cars. I'd read elsewhere they did rolling resistance tests with a cart and a steep hill.

How far it went up on the other side determined the winner.

The car uses a belt, just like most Harleys do. And it won't require removing the swingarm to replace the belt, which Harleys require.

Belt technology is quite advanced due to industrial needs. It will probably have a recommended lifetime of 50-100K.

Re: The Year Ahead With Laurie David

Greg — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:39:34 -0000

There are better solutions than carrying bags in car. You don't need bags at all. See http://www.autocarts.net for a clever alternative to bags. This is the best solution to the problem.

Re: Lester Brown: Time's Up, Coal

Greg — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:55:48 -0000

I second the comment about 'Jihad'. It's only a holy war if the coal companies think they are holy.

Re: Father and Son Team Build "Dream Car" EV Prototype

Greg — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:01:52 -0000

LOL i helped make this car and it gets over 500 miles on a charge with 80 TROJAN batteries and it will cost about 15k to make and this did not cost us 60k it cost like 5k wow daileyherald sure twisted what we said

Re: Father and Son Team Build "Dream Car" EV Prototype

Greg — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:05:50 -0000

lol not going to win design competions? healready did. Lipo batteries cost double and require special chargers and balencers let admit it lipo will never be practical

AND the REAL car of this will have a differnt front and will be more wind dynamic then a corvette

Re: California State Assembly to Consider Imposing 25-Cent Plastic Bag Fee

Greg — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:37:24 -0000

There are better solutions than carrying bags in car. You don't need bags at all. See http://www.autocarts.net for a clever alternative to bags. This is the best solution to the problem.

Re: 99K House Begins Construction

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:36:23 -0000

From the 99K House Competition guidelines.."The $99,000 construction limit must include construction costs, financing, closing costs, commissions, overhead, and profit. The actual construction budget in the Houston area will be approximately $75,000. The lot and infrastructure are not included in this figure." If your not from the Houston area, Texas has a very moderate cost of living. It would be a tremendous step forward to offer sustainable housing to a community that normally cannot afford the AC bill in the summer. Cross Ventilation and insulating properties will be very welcome in the gulf coast areas just like they are in NOLA. I can't wait to see the construction finished. Lots will run between 15 - 25 K, but land is available in under served neighborhoods for reasonable rate.

Re: The Slimfast Diet for Airplanes

Greg — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:12:14 -0000

The artwork Treehugger is using in this article is by artist Robert Grossman.

I'm assuming it's being used without authorization as not even a simple credit is given.

I'm really disappointed that my beloved Treehugger would display such flagrant disregard for copyright.

Re: The Slimfast Diet for Airplanes

Greg — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:12:34 -0000

You are right and I will add a credit.

Re: San Francisco Set To Vote on Greener Public Power

Greg — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:49:56 -0000

There's been a lot of confusion about this measure and it's important that in any discussion of Proposition H a couple of facts are brought to light. One, is that under Prop. H, renewable or clean energy is described as anything non-nuclear. This is a significant loophole, designed to allow a public power system to employ any power source, not just "clean" sources in order to keep the lights on.

Two, the measure is going to replace enforceable state standards (such as the 20% goal mentioned in the piece) with unenforceable local goals. Remember, all public utilities are exempt from California's standards, and given the loophole mentioned above, this means that the proposed public power system (wrapped in a green energy wrapper) could use coal, gas, or diesel power to ensure delivery of service.

If PG and E does not meet the 20% target by 2010 it MUST meet a stricter standard of 23% by 2013. That's the law and PG and E has to follow it. A public utility does not. And it should be noted that PG and E is on track to meet the state requirements – again it's the law.

Re: Crate Expectations: 12 Shipping Container Housing Ideas

Greg — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:23:21 -0000

common guys, do your homework.

the coolest container house is the freitag-tower (freitag bags) in zurich, switzerland.

http://flickr.com/photos/76283035@N00/168181440<br />

Re: 7 Executive Orders President Obama Should Sign to Protect the Environment: Center for Progressive Reform

Greg — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:24:45 -0000

yea..... when he said change.... he meant that the same companies and powers that be will still be in charge... and your going to get more of the same. I wish we could move towards a greener planet, but its not going to be as easy as putting in a new president. There's this think called globalization... and whoever can afford it now owns any nations national treasures and resources. And with the military industrial complex, we have been doing this to other countries for the past 50 years... so get used to it happening to us. What was McCains or Obama's stance on the Federal Reserve, and our monetary policy.... oh .. thats right, they didn't even mention that. You will all understand what I'm talking about in 20 -40 years when we've destroyed ourselves so much, that we will begin questioning these things. Until then, good luck

Re: Chill Out on Dubious Dubai's First Refrigerated Beach

Greg — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:26:06 -0000

Is it me, or is there something wrong with this? It absolutely amazes me that people think like this... Its no wonder that the planet has issues..

--G

Re: GM Fights Back: Volt Battery Pack \"Hundreds Less\" than \$1,000/kWh

Greg — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:11:32 -0000

I tiptoe to work... It's quiet, it's efficient, it's cheap and the only place I have to park is my ass in my chair.

Re: The Dutch Master Bike (Super Duper Limited Edition) by Core77

Greg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:20:47 -0000

Re: Sony VAIO sucks!

Greg — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:17:36 -0000

yeah, vaio rocks!

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2009/03/juggalo-arrested-in-missouri-road-rage.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:11:46 -0000

Thank you Nykalette someone who doesent further the stereo type that we juggalo are insane MMFWCL :cool: :cool: :cool:

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2009/01/bad-boyfriend-who-killed-family-is.html

Greg — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:46:41 -0000

Another ignorant assumption. So Juggalos are "dopers" too now. I am quite offended that you would say this. I do not deffend what the man in this story has done at all. We should deffend our families against any and all threats at any costs. The idea that someone would hurt their own family is disgusting to me. With that cleared up, you should think about any and all factors involved with this. Have you ever read a news story with a young black man or hispanic involved in a murder or robbery. Yes there are black, hispanic, and white gang members out there. That does not mean that all members of these races are criminals. You would be cricified for saying something like "blacks are all gang members" in a story. Don't profile, and don't be simple minded. Take this from a true Juggalo, we are not about murder, drugs, and violence. It is true that the music is quite violent, but a Juggalo does not actually go out there and do these actions. Who hasn't felt violent or angy at one point or another. These lyrics are how we deal with that stress. It stops at the music though. Anyone who does something like this to an inncoent person is not a Juggalo or a gang member. They are a criminal, and that is all.

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: It is about Educational Networking NOT Social Networking

Greg — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:01:00 -0000

Funny! Can we call it "e-networking?" ;)

http://networkredneck.blogspot.com/2007/12/e-networking.html

-greg

Re: New interactive Sig!

Greg — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:34:02 -0000

Best sig i have ever seen man Well done!

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2009/01/these-juggalos-are-social-disease.html

Greg — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:35:24 -0000

You know, it is funny how fast someone is willing to talk down to those that they know nothing about. "Juggalos are a social disease"? You are a biggot my friend. Judging someone else due to a stereotype. Oh, and for your information: Yes I am a Juggalo and always will be, I have a well paying job that I work hard at everyday, I earned a BS in Business Management, and I take care of my loved ones. I bet you figured I was what you would think of as trash. Don't be so quick to judge. You will only help the situation become worse. Take this from someone who is most likely inteligent than you, Juggalos are people just like everyone else. There is no gang or "social disease". I bet you would never dream of saying all blacks or hispanics are a disease. Well, don't do that to me.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/09/judge-doesn-dismiss-lori-drew-charges.html

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:59:39 -0000

Lorie Drew may be mean, but there is no law against being mean on the internet or in person.

At best they could have had an harassment case but they are handling this all wrong.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:51:54 -0000

And the only known way to change behavior is carrot & stick.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:49:02 -0000

Amyv it's not that you'll ever be able to change the nature of greedy selfish individuals. The best you can do is change their behavior. And thats all I'm advocating.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:36:34 -0000

utilitarian ethics

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:26:27 -0000

To clarify my position: Utilitarianism the results / outcomes justify the actions under utilitarianism, but this does not mean I favor terrible actions to reach positive results / outcomes if those results / outcomes can be reached in a better way.

At the end of the day I'm just looking for results.
I don't really put much emphasis on how we reach the results. The same philosophy applies to solving teenage violence, we should do whatever produces the best results.

Since most people are selfish, we should appeal to that. The reason capitalism beat communism globally is because most people were too selfish to accept communism. So rather than be trapped defending communism in a forever losing battle against capitalism, why not just use capitalism to produce the reality and results you wish to see?

Only the results matter

In the end I'd teach a teenager to focus on achieving positive results from all of their actions. These results should be both positive on them, and on people they care about. If they choose to sacrifice for the sake of others they can, but thats not an option that most people are going to take.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:59:32 -0000

And just for the record, I'm not currently a boss, I'm a wannabe.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:56:55 -0000

Amyv, the problem is that under capitalism the worth of each life is decided by their worth in dollars. There is no other way to measure the worth of a human life under capitalism.

So we have to ask ourselves why our bosses think we are only worth the ridiculously small salary that they choose to give to us, while they give themselves millions of dollars to essentially be "boss" and tell us what to do and how to live. The only solution I have is to try to make your life worth as much as possible, be a boss if you can, or if you can't be a boss then figure out how to blackmail your boss so they can't fire you.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:41:56 -0000

My philosophy is get what you can out of life while it lasts. If you want to help people, help those who you think are loyal to you as a form of reward for loyalty, but dont just help random people for free, always put a price on your time otherwise people will just keep lowering your salary and increasing your working hours, and stretching out the retirement age, and expanding your debt, the vampires will drain all the life and goodness out of you unless you selfishly guard it.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:51:51 -0000

While their are others like these girls that will torment without any emotion. Basic human feelings have to apply here. With out them, I honestly don’t know what the answer is to deter this type of behavior. If you don’t have the core values and morals to stop you from such an act, can that be taught?

If you want to be an effective teacher you have to recognize that whatever method of teaching you use, the same method wont work on everyone. You cannot apply emotions as your only method of teaching right and wrong. The worst thing you can tell a child is to follow their gut.

You have to learn to teach right and wrong from an emotionally neutral position. The outcome decides whether an action was right or wrong, not the intent. A person might save a life to win the reward. A bounty hunter might hunt down a criminal to receive the reward, all that matters is that their behavior is good, not the methods used to teach them to adopt that behavior.

You can say some people have better instincts than others, that fair, but you cannot rank people merely based on their instincts. People are the sum of their actions.

The good people do not require a reward for acting like a decent human being.

A lot of police officers, troops and others joined not out of the kindness of their heart but so they themselves could support their families and survive. They are in it for the money, but they still save lives and still count. Perhaps your doctor does not care about you or the lives he's saving, but he became a doctor because it's a high paying job.

You have to understand that emotions aren't a good way to make critical decisions. If you don't understand this then you wont understand why people have genocide even when it clearly is irrational. They are following their gut too. The nazi's believed they were the good people when they did that.

You aren't going to have any influence if you focus on emotions. We are too emotionally different for you to ever get anything done besides in your small clique/group of people who have emotions similar to your own. The only way to teach people with emotions different from yours is to adopt neutral positions.

In a way you are being emotionally partisan.
And this is just going to polarize things further.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:41:09 -0000

The entire argument I'm trying to make is that we have to teach our children not to follow their guts.

Gut reactions are what lead to bullying. Gut reactions are often wrong. To follow your gut is to leave your life up to chance and to live life by the feelings of your instincts. I'm advocating that we treat decision making like math, as problem solving, without any emotional connection to the objects that we weigh in making these decisions.

Victoria would be an object in a math formula. Even as an object, it's not rational to damage Victoria over $4. It's not worth the risk and the only reason I think people would want to do it is if they feel it in their gut, and it feels good to do it.

I'm going on record to say I don't feel anything towards anyone involved in this beating, but I recognize that the situation is wrong because it's unreasonable to torture a fellow human being.

I'm against torture because I don't want to be tortured, nor do I want my loved ones to be tortured. And beating up a person for 30 minutes like that will cause emotional damage which ranks up there with being waterboarded for 30 minutes. I'm also against bullying. And all of my reasons can be mapped out on paper and it's proven wrong based on the fact that bullying Victoria like that has had a negative effect on everyone involved.

It's a fact that it is wrong because all who were involved in it now have a permanent stain on their life that wont wash off.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:24:58 -0000

Mercades,

If you are serious about turning your life around, my advice to you is to stop physically bullying people and focus on the big picture. You and Victoria are both being bullied by society as a whole.

You are living in poverty, while many other people are living rich lives. Why don't you focus on making some money? Why don't you focus on bettering yourself?

You could have made a lot of money being a security guard protecting non-violent people like Victoria but you allowed your emotions to get the best of you. If you want protection from those who are stronger than you, learn to protect others. Victoria may have talked shit about you, but you shouldn't have hit her first, words are meaningless unless backed up by action.

If you don't listen to these warnings, a time will come where you are being bullied by people who have money/power, and more friends than you, there will be nobody willing to protect you, you'll be on your own, in a situation very similar to that which you placed Victoria in.

You wont be able to find a high paying job. You wont be able to get into a good college. When you go to people for favors, nobody will be willing to do anything in your best interest.

And most importantly, you wont have friends whom you can trust.

You need to understand, that being physically violent is not the most efficient way to get people to do what you want.

I hope you actually keep reading these discussions, from these discussions you could learn a lot. And BTW, whether you go to jail or not, read as many books as you can, strengthen your mind, and maybe eventually you'll realize that you are only hurting yourself when you have violent outbursts. The feelings you probably are feeling at this time were not brought upon you by Victoria, you created this reality for yourself.

I'm willing to bet that you actually are Mercades Nichols, I invite you to join our discussion, just don't discuss your legal cases. Discuss what you want to do to better yourself.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:59:28 -0000

"And where has it been used benefit human beings?"

In the military if you obey orders you get rewarded with rank, medals, and other benefits and if you disobey you get dishonorably discharged.

In prison you get privileges for having good behavior and you get sent to the hole for bad behavior. They increase the privileges of the model inmates while decreasing the privileges of the inmates who cause problems.

Capitalism itself is supposed to be a tool to reward good behavior, it was invented for that purpose. However due to the stupidity of our society, we keep rewarding bad behavior while punishing good behavior. A perfect example is the income tax which punishes everyone equally, rather than taxing people based on how irresponsible they are.

The reason we have bullying is not because operant conditioning does not work. It seems to work fine for our bosses who use it on us to make us go to work each day. It seems to work for fine the generals. It seems to work fine for the prison warden. The problem is it's not working for parents, and this is because parents are too soft on their children and now they fear their own kids.

The techniques are perfect, the science is correct, we just lack the guts to apply it. You don't believe in hitting your children? Yet you still buy the bad kid gifts for xmas? Spanking was the way that previous generations handled this, it was the stick while allowance was the carrot.

What we have done is abandoned the stick, and then we irresponsibly have given every kid the carrot. Why was Mercades given a cellphone? She doesn't appear to have a job and even if she does she probably cannot afford a cellphone, and all of these privileges.

Why did her parents buy her a car? She's spoiled. She's a spoiled brat who was given all this stuff to abuse and bully people with. It's directly her parents fault for training her into being a bully.

On the other hand we don't do much to teach the concept of reward and punishment to parents. All training and teaching is based on operant conditioning. Kids have nothing to fear from being bad and nothing to gain by being good.

"They wanted her to fight back, just so they would have a reason to beat her more."

She still should have fought back. Even if it were 12 on 1 she should have fought back. If you don't fight back then they'll beat you up every day because they'll feel like they were rewarded by beating you up, but if you fight back then it helps to condition the bully to expect to take a black eye in order to give one. In this case it was 6 on 1, in this case Victoria should have hired some bodyguards, but I don't think she ever saw it coming.

And about martial arts, sure bullies can become martial artists, but who do you think will be learning the true techniques from the master?

If you were the master would you teach your secrets to the bullies? Sure you'd teach basic punching and kicking, but not the secret techniques.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:28:23 -0000

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

Examples of Operant Conditioning

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us, such as children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions. In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behavior, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviors. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:12:53 -0000

The begin to implement the solution, one has to identify both potential bullies, and potential hero's.

The physically biggest, the smartest, the most popular, these kids are either potential bullies or potential heroes. It's these kids who have the 'power', who we must approach at a young enough age to properly train them on how to use their power for the right reasons.

Martial arts is one way to do it. By identifying the big/smart kids, we can then see that some of these kids aren't bad kids and select them for special training to turn a them into a hero. So they get taught martial arts because they aren't a bully and they are also strong enough to take on those who are. The best time to approach a person is right after their first experience with a bully, while they are still in a state of "shock".

An older kid or young adult who was bullied themselves as a kid, should approach them and mentor them, offer them martial arts training. This should include physical techniques, but also the mental techniques such as meditation and visualization so that they may be both physically strong and mentally strong. These kids should act as guardians similar to Plato's guardians, they guard the weak and defenseless when they see the weak and defenseless being bullied.

Think of a big kid like Shaq would have been, a kid big enough to make all the kids in the school fear them, but respected by the smaller kids. Or think of a popular kid who isn't big, but who everyone likes and who has political influence and is very smart.

Now how to deal with the actual bullies? I don't think bullies should be beat up or jumped by the guardians unless they break the rules such as the situation of 6vs1. Any fighting which is not 1vs1 in my opinion is a breaking of the rules. A duel is a duel, and if Victoria and her enemy must have a duel, it should always be 1 vs 1, and ideally it should have been in a boxing ring or sparring ring and not in a house. Those who break the rules of the guardians would risk being jumped and beat up by a gang of martial arts instructors. And afterwards Victoria the victim should be offered a chance to be recruited.

As for adults, adults should reward the heroes who defend the weak with rewards as a way to keep them doing it. If you run the martial arts school you reward the students who prevent violence without use of force the most. And as the situation becomes more and more violent the reward should change in nature in response, because ideally we want to promote peace not war.

If I were a kid, and a trained martial artist, I would be capable of defending or even providing protection duty to someone like Victoria, but i would only do this if there were some reward in it for me. The parents of Victoria should have been able to go to my martial arts instructor and explain that Victoria needs a guardian, that she's being threatened, and then assign me to protect her. And of course I should be rewarded for this, if they don't have the money to donate to my martial arts academy, they could promise to get me a job working for them or their friends, but a deal could easily be arranged.

This system is a very simple way to solve a very simple problem. It's going to take operant conditioning and training people to stand up and defend the defenseless, and there is no way around it, this is not going to be free.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:55:22 -0000

I've come to the conclusion that the best technology we have to help girls like Mercades Nichols is operant conditioning. And for those who don't know how operant conditioning works:

Everybody wants something, figure out what they want and use that as a reward.

In Positive Reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the consequence of experiencing a positive condition. For example:

A hungry rat presses a bar in its cage and receives food. The food is a positive condition for the hungry rat. The rat presses the bar again, and again receives food.

The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of receiving food.

In Negative Reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the consequence of stopping or avoiding a negative condition. For example:

A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again theshock stops. The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of stopping the shock.

In Punishment a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of experiencing a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is anegative condition for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again receives a shock. The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of receiving a shock.

In Extinction a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again nothing happens. The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative.

“In Extinction a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again nothing happens. The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative.”

If someone were to save Victoria and experienced extinction, instead of positive reinforcement, there is no incentive for them to continue with this behavior.

“A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of stopping the shock.”

The bullying creates a shock to the victim which is only ended when the victim fights back, thereby creating a shock to the bully. Bullying in school is conditioning children like Victoria who may start off embracing non violence, into adults who learn that violence is the only way to solve problems.

Thus bullying helps to produce war and violence, which gets blamed on Video Games, Music Videos, and Myspace rather than the very bullies who are conditioning kids into becoming violent adults. Anyone who has been bullied knows exactly what I’m talking about because they have experienced this conditioning.

When are we going to end it?

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/mercades-nichols-arrested-again.html

Greg — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:48:40 -0000

Enough is enough, F*ck that bitch, give her prison time.

Seriously if she's going to stalk people, put her in prison where she belongs. I hope she gets at least a decade, and she probably deserves even more time.

We need to stop rewarding and enabling stalkers and violent criminals.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/trashman-hoax.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:36:30 -0000

Matt, I know you and Trashman have a serious feud, and it's personal between you and him.

I don't know Trashman personally, but I knew he was pulling pranks all along, I don't see why we should arrest him although his threats against gerber were stupid. You can't threaten corporate American and get away with it.

He is lucky Gerber execs haven't hired hitmen to inject him with AIDS.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/08/trashman-hoax.html

Greg — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:49:03 -0000

They probably shouldn't have arrested this guy.

He's a satire artist, his intention and he says it in some of his "real" videos, is to bring attention to the fact that there are people out there tampering with our food and deliberately infecting our people with HIV.

I think Trashman actually does a public service, only his methods are a bit unusual, he's no different from any of the others, so why is he being arrested? Are we going to arrest Bill O'Reilly?

Trashman is not a criminal, it should go on record. And doing satire is not illegal. Finally there are white guys who do far worse(or better?) satire than trashman who aren't being arrested.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:13:39 -0000

"A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The ratӳ behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of stopping the shock."

The bullying creates a shock to the victim which is only ended when the victim fights back, thereby creating a shock to the bully. Bullying in school is conditioning children like Victoria who may start off embracing non violence, into adults who learn that violence is the only way to solve problems.

Thus bullying helps to produce war and violence, which gets blamed on Video Games, Music Videos, and Myspace rather than the very bullies who are conditioning kids into becoming violent adults. Anyone who has been bullied knows exactly what I'm talking about because they have experienced this conditioning.

When are we going to end it?

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:08:48 -0000

"In Extinction a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again nothing happens. The ratӳ behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative."

If someone were to save Victoria and experienced extinction, instead of positive reinforcement, there is no incentive for them to continue with this behavior.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:58:19 -0000

I'm college educated, my degree is in philosophy but I have taken basic psychology classes.

Operant conditoning is the only scientifically guaranteed way to modify behavior. Praise does not work very well as a reward because praise comes with the assumption that they respect you, that they already see you as a role model, and that you have some sorta supernatural power over them.

We need to stick to the scientific proven solutions.

Everybody wants something, figure out what they want and use that as a reward.

In Positive Reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the consequence of experiencing a positive condition. For example:

A hungry rat presses a bar in its cage and receives food. The food is a positive condition for the hungry rat. The rat presses the bar again, and again receives food. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of receiving food.

In Negative Reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the consequence of stopping or avoiding a negative condition. For example:

A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of stopping the shock.

In Punishment a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of experiencing a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again receives a shock. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of receiving a shock.

In Extinction a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again nothing happens. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:55:30 -0000

Gomp, lawmakers are not leaders. Lawmakers don't create change, individuals in society create the change and then bully the lawmakers into passing laws after the fact. So there will be no easy way out, passing a law or laws wont work anymore than before. Because the lawmakers only pay attention when the tide has already turned.

My advice is to try it on the small local scale, and once you can get it working in a school, a series of schools, a neighborhood, and can produce results, then you start a series of non-profits/NGO's to interface with Corporations.

Finally when you have the NGO's, the Corporations, the neighborhood associations, then you use your might to pressure the local lawmakers in your state's senate to pass a law funding the programs, the NGO's, to etc. Government is always the last group to change, and never on the forefront of anything.

Change starts with the individual, it works it's way through the local networks and as the networks and movement builds and gains power eventually it reaches the large NGO's and Corporations who can elect politicians and influence things.

Also you have to understand, a large number of politicians side with the criminals and are corrupt, unless you have some serious might and influence you wont get far. Just like you wont see a carbon tax for the same reason, and you wont see universal healthcare for the same reason, not because the USA wouldn't be better if we solved some of these problems but because corrupt criminal minded or in some cases criminals, are literally through force blocking all attempts to implement necessary changes on the federal level.

So skip the feds, focus on your local government, you can surely gain control over that. Finally you have to make greed work for you, eventually you'll have to apply corrupt tactics to get the job done, sadly thats still how politics work and you'll need your own army of corrupt lobby groups, you'll need your own set of criminals pushing for whatever laws you want to pass, and this means something has to be in it for them if they are going to pass anything.

The criminals and the corrupt don't care about victims like Victoria, if they cared they'd have outlawed bullying 20-30 years ago instead of letting Columbine happen and the Virginia Tech shooting.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:07:45 -0000

If I were Person A, I'd add Person B to a sort of hero list and pass this list up the chain of my social network. Soon business owners would know, doctors would know, all sorts of people would know, and the people on this list would receive favorable treatment/VIP status from me and my business partners.

This would encourage people to help those like Victoria Lindsey, and depending on what I have to offer would tell me what rewards I could give, but the point I'm trying to make clear to you all is that part of being a good person is rewarding goodness when you see it in others, especially when you see it in young people in very difficult situations.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:03:31 -0000

Amyv, What if you were Person A, Gomp is Person B, and Victoria is Person C.

Person B saves the life of Person C.

How would you Amyv, as Person A, reward Person B? Think about it, and get back to me. The reward does not have to be money, but it must be something measurable, it must be some form of reward.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:54:20 -0000

The way to create change is by creating the engines of change. This starts by determining a set of missions and then distributing the tasks and rewarding the people who complete the task.

Think of the concept like this, society operates through machines. Capitalism is the eco-system.

A corporation is a machine. Human behavior is controlled by these machines. A very simple machine can be constructed by using bounties, if you want certain behaviors, and you offer a reward the likely hood of someone accepting your offer increases as the size of the reward increases.

To give a more detailed examination of the concept, person A wants person B to protect/defend person C. Person A cannot simply ask person B to take such risk without offering something in return, so person A offers to pay person be to protect/defend person C.

Now let's take another look, let's say Person A does not have any money. Person A wants person B to protect/defend Person C, so person A offers to do a favor or series of favors for Person B if Person B defends Person C. This is barter/quid pro quo.

Now another look, Person A has no money or resources from which to influence the behavior of person B, however Person A has information which Person B wants to remain secret, Person A guarantee's secrecy in exchange for Person B protecting Person C. This is blackmail.

In all three examples Person A influences the behavior of Person B, thus Person A has what is commonly known as "POWER", and "POWER" is the fuel of all engines. All Corporations exist to concentrate power. If you are a good individual and you want to improve life of someone such as Victoria Lindsey, it requires some form of power.

Now, how could a reward mechanism work? Let's say you don't have any money, but you want Person B to defend Person C (Victoria is Person C), instead of offering a reward of cash to Person B, you could offer favor to Person B.
This would mean Person B would receive a social reward of favoritism, and these rewards could be far greater than what could be calculated.

Person B could save Person C's life, it's documented, Person A should have the resources and mechanisms in place to reward Person B. This is barter/quid pro quo, maybe Person B walks into a bar and gets free drinks from the bar, maybe the local businesses give Person B free services, a free haircut, price reductions, tax reductions, whatever we can think of.

Do you now see how the reward mechanism can work? The punishment mechanism could be social as well and be just as bad. Higher prices for services, no free support, no favor, long lines for everything. Do you see?

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:16:07 -0000

Gom I do think there is a social component.
An individual could be a moral genius but if you put them in a situation where they are surrounded by simpletons their genius probably wont be expressed.

Bill Maher's comment was ignorant, but it's not like he's known for being a good decision maker or a role model, he's Bill Maher.

In general, it appears that the differences in the brain are what help create the differences in behavior. This is why I suggest a neuro-economic approach to behavior modification.

If you understand how the persons brain works then you'll know precisely what kind of incentives to offer them, rather than the current one size fits all approach we apply which obviously is not working.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:59:24 -0000

Amyv dont be insulted by anything I said, just understand that moral elitism does not help you accomplish your goals. It only alienates people when you say they aren't capable of being good because they don't have the same brain capabilities as you do.

Again, the article BrainScan2

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:55:25 -0000

I apologize if my post is poorly written, it's late at night and I need sleep, hopefully my argument is more clear now. I'm advocating for a neuro-economic form of change to alter the behavior of the human species towards a more rational pattern.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:11:33 -0000

Amyv "She stood their and did NOTHING to help."

She did nothing to help because she expected to be punished by helping. Maybe they'd have kicked her ass next. It's not like we would have rewarded her for saving the girl and risking her life.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:08:37 -0000

Amyv "Being a good decent human being is reward in itself. "

It's this sort of thinking that causes people not to be good human beings. Just because you have some sort of emotional reward from being good, don't assume that I do or these kids do.

I need an incentive to be good, it could be cash, it could be drugs, but don't assume that any behavior is a reward in itself, this is what I meant by moral elitism.

People who say stuff like "I help people because it makes me feel good.", assume that this is why everyone helps people. The truth is, the majority of people help others merely because its in their best interest to do so and feel nothing at all towards the victim.

If you want more people to help, you have to increase the incentive, it's just like how capitalism works, if you want more people to work in a certain profession you pay them more money. Expecting people to volunteer is why there aren't many people who help.

If you want to help people for free, go ahead, I'd rather get rich.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:58:50 -0000

Navigator, prisoners should work for the victims, and all the money they earn should go director to the victims and the victims families.

Prisoners should be allowed work for the victims from within the prison as long as 90% of the profits go to the victims. And only the good prisoners should be allowed to repay the families.

Amyv, society is to blame. Society is what we use to shape the behavior of citizens. Capitalism continues to reward bad behavior, while the government continues to punish the good behavior by taxing good behavior, and creating laws like gun control to further disarm good people.

Criminals cheat on their taxes, and even th criminals who don't cheat, when a drug dealer gets arrested we don't raise their taxes to make them pay their debt to society, we instead make all the good people pay for the drug dealer, forcing good people to clean up their mess.

Society is at fault for rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior. Nobody gets rewarded for being a good role model, or for going decades without a criminal record, but you get punished for even the smallest offenses.

This leads good and bad alike to despise society and collectively hate the government, the police, the law, etc. Because the law is not reasonable, the law is emotional, it picks and chooses based on how powerful people feel at any given moment. This leads young people to believe there is no right and wrong, there is no moral difference between getting rich from a life of crime and getting rich honestly, because society treats all the rich people well and rewards the rich merely for being rich, and treats all the poor people bad, punishing the poor for being poor, regardless of who is good or who is bad.

This leads a poor youth to ruthlessly try to get rich so they can get the good treatment. They sell drugs, they hurt people along the way, just to keep themselves from being treated like shit by society. Perhaps if society offered another option, a clause, which says "Be a good person and we will help you get rich", perhaps the youth would choose to stay in school and have the honest living.

But if you tell the youth indirectly via the laws and the consequences "Do whatever you want to get rich, just don't get caught", then thats what people will do. People don't care about right and wrong because the law isn't about right and wrong, the law is about power games.

You can use the war on drugs as an example of a set of laws created merely for power games. Tabacco companies are allowed to get rich selling the most deadly and addictive drug, so young kids think it's okay, society doesn't really care how we get rich.

So they go and they sell drugs, they get arrested and punished for doing the same thing that other families are doing legally. It's these double standards that ruin the consistency of the law, it gives the indirect message to youth that there really aren't any laws, just the weak and the strong, and if you are strong/rich/smart, you can be above the law.

These kids who bully, they think they are too smart to ever get caught. They don't feel like it's wrong to bully because our entire society is built up around rewarding bullies. If you are tabacco company, you are just as much of a drug dealer as the cocaine cartels.

Maybe if society for once stopped rewarding the bullies, our children would stop idolizing and trying to be bullies. Our society makes bullies rich and then forces regular people to work for them.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:55:16 -0000

Laurie, some of us aren't capable of feeling empathy, remorse, or advanced moral reasoning associated with these instincts.

To communicate with our kind, you must apply positive reinforcement(rewards) to correct behavior, and negative reinforcement(punishments) to incorrect behavior. The reason the situation is out of control is because the moral elitists believe that everybody is capable of figuring out right from wrong.

The truth is, if you leave it up to the individuals, there will be no such thing as right and wrong. It's up to you, the people like you who have the ability to do the advanced moral calculus, to develop a formula for determining what right and wrong is, and then rewarding in a consistent manner based on this formula.

If you use the formula that it's always wrong to harm people physically who have not physically harmed you, then you must reward us in every situation where we decide to do the right thing and not bully or beat up someone smaller, or even defend a smaller person.

If we take it further, now we are men, and we decide not to harm women and children, we should be rewarded for this behavior. On the other hand the people who through their lives bullied smaller kids, animals, and beat their wives, should be listed in a database and punished.

This is not currently what happens, currently society has no consistent right or wrong. At best the right and wrong is based on the bible and not based on reason and science, therefore it lacks credibility with people who do not believe in Jesus or God.

Right and wrong must be measured based on cause and effect, the outcomes of ones actions. I can determine for example that it would be wrong to kill the bullies who beat up Victoria not because I'd feel any remorse, or guilt, or feel bad about doing it, but because the consequences of this action would lead to outcomes which would be both bad for me, for the victim Victoria, and for the people who care about me.

Do I get any sort of recognition or reward for figuring this out? No, it's considered an obvious conclusion. But it's not obvious for everybody, and in my opinion moral courage should be rewarded and moral cowards punished.

If this does not happen, then I can promise you that in 5-10 years you can re-read this post and you'll see that society will have become worse, and there will be more bullying, and even rapes and murders recorded and uploaded to the internet. And that's just the beginning, the people who do this will realize that as long as they get caught there will be minimal consequences, and the more we reduce the consequences the more violence we will create.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/07/mercades-nichols-mom-files-lawsuit.html

Greg — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:38:40 -0000

This is our fault. Society does not do a good job training people to be good.

Moral reasoning is a talent, just as some are good at math. While some may be a genius at decision making and determining right from wrong, others are morally retarded.

The way to deal with this as a society is to reward people who make the proper decisions and punish those who make the wrong decisions.

Currently society only punishes, nobody gets rewarded for being right, or being good. If one of us were there and were to get involved and rescue Victoria, society does not have any system set up to reward us with money or status.

This is why when girls like Victoria are in these situations we do nothing to help. Whats in it for me? Why assume I'm capable of advanced reasoning? My point is, rather than hating the girls responsible for this we should come up with some constructive solutions for how to properly train people into adopting correct behavior.

Pavlov conditioning works by offering rewards to reinforce correct behavior and dishing out punishments to discourage incorrect behavior.

How can we blame these girls if society rewards incorrect behavior and ignores correct behavior? Society does not care who gets hurt and has no compassion for victims, and so neither did these girls. Perhaps if people were rewarded for good behavior and rewarded when they end bullying there would be a lot less of it.

Maybe I'd give a damn if something were in it for me, but don't expect me to give a damn out of some enlightened moral reasoning because we don't all have that ability just like not all of us can do calculus or work on advanced math.

Lower your expectations and we can solve these problems.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/06/hardcastle-has-restrictions-eased.html

Greg — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:25:31 -0000

Have any of you read Might is Right?

Google preview: Might is Right

Might is Right

Most peoples first instinct is to ban a book like this, but I think this book should be required reading. Most people don't understand, that if there weren't laws protecting you, these people would proceed to kill without remorse and follow the laws of the animal kingdom.

Might is Right is a book which describes natural law, something most people today have forgot.
I don't endorse the ideas in the book, but if you want to understand the mindset that a lot of these youth are in, they are in the mindset that might makes right, and damn the law.

Understand that Hardcastle feels no guilt, no remorse, and no mercy. In fact Hardcastle likely blames the victim. It's all Victoria's fault for snitching and getting her caught.

And it's our fault for catching her. And trust me, if she thought she could get out of it by destroying each one of us, she would. The people who want to release her out onto the streets are her enablers, very much like how Hitler alone couldn't have done much without his enablers making excuses for him and passively letting him get away with murder.

Check out Might is Right, and post your comments.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/06/hiv-positive-man-accused-of-rape.html

Greg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:57:08 -0000

Wow this guy takes it to a new level. Deliberately infecting young girls with AIDS? WTF?

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/06/bebo-blackmail-and-rape.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:38:43 -0000

This guy deserves life in prison. He's a psychopath.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/05/lori-drew-indicted.html

Greg — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:04:57 -0000

Ok people your are missing the under lying issue. I can sum it all up in one phrase , its the same phrase that would have stoped the shootings at the schools, its the same phrase that would solve the problem with childhood obesity. Its called "parental involvement". Putting a kid on drugs is not the answer all you are doing now is medicating a social issue. Yeah, when you are druged up life is easier because you don't have to face it. The people that say hang Drew are the same people who say I am fat because Mc Donalds made me fat. No you are fat because you have no self control, because your parents did not see the importants of teaching it to you. I am tired of sociciaty telling people its ok to neglete your children. I don't side with people that side with parents that teach their children its ok to be a victum. Its not ok to be a preditor but at the same time if we teach our chidren to be victums someone or something will fill the preditor nich. We need to be more proactive when raising our children. Check their e-mails, know who their friends are if they don't like it simply tell them as long as they are your child you will love them. And they live in your house and when they get their own house they can have all the privacy they want. Be a parent. Its these same people that are afraid of being parents that blame Gran theft Auto for their kid going out on a murder sprey, when they are the one who bought the game in the first place. It is a tragic thing that happened. But this is also a wake up call for parents. more parental involvement less law suites. That lady Drew needs to got to an institution because prison is no place for someone who is mentally unstable.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/05/lori-drew-indicted.html

Greg — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:55:20 -0000

This child had some self esteam issues that were not nurtured by her parents. Yes, what Drew did was emoral and childish but, If you are a parent and you don't give your child the proper social tools to endure life at its worst then you shouldn't point your finger at another socially unstable person for something that was going to happen any way for your poor parenting. Drew is not that childs parent and it is not her responsiblity to safe guard or build that poor child's self esteem. America there is a social problem its not Drew, its not myspace its the our inability to except responcibilty for our own actions or inaction. We want to blame the school system, the government , other parents god forbid we blame our selves because then we will have to go through the hard work of fixing the problem. Life is hard and it can be unforgiving it is your job as a parent to build up your childs defences so they can survive. Not the government, not the school system, not they nutty lady next door.

Re: http://vixandmore.blogspot.com/2009/06/vxxvxz-ratio.html

Greg — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:32:58 -0000

Very nice Bill, I'll be watching also. It does appear to track close to the $vix:$vxv ratio.
Here is a chart I created to watch both ratio's at once.
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$VIX:$VXV&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=p23565380443&listNum=1&a=170448679

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2008/01/37-year-old-arrested-for-meeting-to.html

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:28:14 -0000

"Do we have any recourse against MySpace? Are they allowed to be a supermarket for predators like this?"

I despise these people are much as you do, but what exactly do you have to gain by suing the internet? Is this just an attempt to cash in or is it genuine?

I think this sick 37 year old would be molesting 12 year olds even if Myspace never existed, only he'd be more likely to get away with it because there would be no papertrail and no evidence.

There is nothing we can do to stop this beyond keeping 12 year olds off social networking sites. There is no excuse for allowing 12 year olds to mingle with 37 year olds on a dating site like Myspace. Facebook is part of the problem too, in their attempt to be greedy they changed their site from being a site which only allowed college students to being a site filled with childrens profiles.

If you truly want to sue the site, something needs to be done to keep children off of dating sites, children do not belong on Myspace or Facebook anymore than they belong in casinos and bars.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2007/11/evelyn-mezzich-fuguitve-from-justice.html

Greg — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:30:07 -0000

Elizabeth, this isn't about what kind of person she is. Nobody gives a crap is she has a big heart. Every state in this country has drunk driving laws and most of these laws include manslaughter. She broke the law, killed one person and paralyzed another because of an immature and illegal act. Now she must pay the price. I don't effing care how bad she feels...to effing bad. She should have thought about that before getting behind a wheel drunk. She thought she was getting away with it by running to Peru. Guess what, her running days are coming to an end. She's going to make some inmate a good bitch.

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2007/10/teen-wears-flak-jacket-to-school.html

Greg — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:06:10 -0000

I HOPE THAT SHITHEAD MADE PENIS PROOF ARMOR FOR HIS ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: http://www.crimene.ws/2007/07/is-stickam-run-by-porn-company.html

Greg — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:31:57 -0000

I have reported a few people on Stickam, and found that they completely ignore reports of abuse. One 25 year old male exposed himself and played with his penis on cam in a 14 year old boys room, and still has an active account on Stickam. He also tried to convince the 14 year old to get naked too.

Re: Oops

Greg — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 00:30:00 -0000

The AG sends you the forms to fill out... So does the Secretary of State... And the board of directors have a responsibility to ensure its done.

Re: Debate notes

Greg — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 20:31:00 -0000

The only thing that anyone has to say on the gay marriage issue is that when people vote on amendments to protect marriage they pass with nearly 80%. It may not poll that well, but it sure shows up at the polls and democrats have been panicked in states where it is on the ballot -- especially after Missourri. There was a concerted effort on the part of democrats to get marriage amendments off of state referendums because of the potential damage.

The only thing one has to do is point out all of the stupid cultural things that have been become synonomous with the Democratic Party, couple it with efforts to get marriage amendments off the ballot in other states and ask "Who do you trust more to protect marriage?"

The squeals and howls from the democrats will only reinforce to people who they can trust.

You would think that someone has experienced and educated as Alan Keyes could figure it out. No, he, like many, in the far reaches of the religous right (I don't even think he is mainstream, there) have to tie it to some repulsive act and tell us about it. When I hear crap like that I wonder who the sick one is...

...Sorry, saw your post and had to vent...

Re: Morning wrap-up

Greg — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 20:54:00 -0000

Moderates meet in phone booths. Rauschenberger gets that. The conservative vs. moderate thing is an artifact of the 60's and 70's. Moderate vs. conservative is Goldwater vs. Rockefeller, Reagan vs. Ford. Reagan won that battle in 1980. H.W. Bush's loss in 1992 and 1994's victory codified the Reagan Revolution.

Places like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois have been slow to become the party of Reagan because of their individualistic nature (you get in politics to get ahead and you take few risks) and that means the state is slow to change. In states where people move up a career ladder we are dealing with 60 and 70 year old party leaders who are as much waging old battles long lost as John Kerry's belief system hasn't evolved since Vietnam.

Look at Republicans who still support tax hikes? They tend to be older. In VA, GOPers who voted for Mark Warner's tax increases were on average 12 years older than those who voted against tax hikes.

It's nice to see someone as prominent as Rauschenberger finally figuring this thing out.

Re: The carnage continues

Greg — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 19:02:00 -0000

It will end when Illinois can compete with the Southwestern U.S. More jobs are going to the south and west from the east and midwest than anywhere. If Illinois wants to keep jobs, it needs to be competitive.

Re: Negativity

Greg — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:23:00 -0000

Negative advertising must be believable to be effective. They should reinforce or highlight attributes or decisions of the target. Ad hominems never work.

The image of John Kerry as a flip-flopper worked because it reinforced the fact that as a legislator he had a tenedency to behave in an opportunistic fashion. You could point to things and say, "See look at this, there he goes again."

Re: Goofiness

Greg — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 19:47:00 -0000

Is JBT that tribal? I've never had that impression.

I also think it's a mistake to lump all conservatives into the Keyes camp, or they should all be blamed. There are individuals to blame, not a class or group.

I'm conservative and I was among the first to say this was a bad idea. No one listened to me...

This whole Keyes thing is about as useful as people continuing to debate the reasons for the Iraq war... as if you can give it back or something... The Keyes thing is done, over, caput.... the horse dead all ready....Let's move on...

Re: No comment

Greg — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 18:55:00 -0000

Kerry apologists keep saying that President Bush and Senator Kerry had the same position: support marriage as between a man and a woman as well as support some sort of civil union for homosexual partners.

As articulated by the debates, is either one any better or any worse? I mean the libs are saying they agreed with Bush's position. Is there something about the democrat's position I missed? Is there a reason why the Pres. is singled out here? Amigo, what am I missing? ;-)

Re: Chambers scores again

Greg — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 18:52:00 -0000

Amen to that one.

Re: Taking care of one’s own

Greg — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:49:00 -0000

Amen. The guy does all that bellyaching and then boasts about how "conservative" the GOP is in Sangamon County when before audiences. Of course, like other "conservative champions" in the state, we rarely get any insight in what Smith means. This...I guess... gives us plenty of insight.

Re: Slone gives up

Greg — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 17:56:00 -0000

He will have to develop a home style that bridges that gap. One aspect he will certainly need to do is hone his communications operations as well as continue to knock on people's doors. If he can explain himself, focus on constituent service and he is well known personally around the community he can survive.

He can use his committee votes as well as support for alternative vehicles to bob and weave. There are myriad strategies he can use to not only survive, but thrive in a district like his.

Re: FreeFi

Greg — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:07:00 -0000

The Hilton in Springfield has free wi-fi in the lobby. If you are over at their Starbucks it's a pretty good deal.

Re: LaHood for guv?

Greg — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 21:53:00 -0000

LaHood has a reputation as a conciliator in Washington, but some of the comments he has made in Illinois have rubbed people the wrong way. He was the only republican elected in 1994 who didn't sign the Contract for America and many conservative leaders in Washington do not think highly of him... many lobbyists, however, do.

He's been a pretty decent constituent service guy and he has helped Illinois conservatives in Washington by supporting their nominations to government positions in the Bush Administration. This could, ostensibly, mitigate some of the ire that would most likely come from the right.

Finally, the congressional delegation from Illinois has been one of the few bright spots in the IL GOP. They've been doing fine. They are still considered among state political watchers as simply guys who bring home the bacon (not even Hastert gets his due among these party folk)...They don't have much in the way of patronage (Governor as King) some old hats ignore them. But since the demise of the state party we have seen these guys -- especially the Speaker -- assert themselves more forcefully. In sum, a La Hood candidacy is a mixed bag.

Re: Meaningless measuring sticks

Greg — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:25:00 -0000

I heard that Obama's "rock star status" has gone to his head. Reports from Senate staffers -- and these guys have friends on both sides of the aisle -- have told me that Obama has carried a real attitude into a meeting with his Senate colleagues.

I think this is to be somewhat expected as the media darling of the week, but it won't take long for more senior colleagues to bring Obama back to earth. I think then we'll get a better read on the guy.

Finally, even though his performance was very week, his comments to now Secretary of State Rice were Bush league, at best. You could tell he clearly felt he was in over his head when delivering unprepared remarks. Mike Van Winkle has caputred it quite well at the Chicago Report. You would've thought the "Blame America First" Crowd ie. the democratic wing of the Democrat Pary (those groups you linked to) would've been pleased with his performance -- of course he did, in the end, vote for her.

Re: Race to the bottom

Greg — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 13:33:00 -0000

NPR did a story on outsourcing to go orders. I imagine there have been integration problems as one poster noted, but the system works. The order takers like it better because they don't have to be around the food AND THEY MAKE MORE because their secondary purpose is to upsell the customer on supersizes (eek!) and deserts, etc.

It does take some time to adjust, but as in a lot of chain restaurants today, the order is entered into a computer terminal (the register) and is then printed off or delivered to a monitor in the kitchen. With telecom advances, it makes sense to outsource this kind of thing. An order taker can easily handle more than one location which cuts down on labor. They, themselves, can earn more money because of their upselling.

Finally, with regard to the minimum wage. This Federal Reserve study sheds some light on the relationship between minimum wages laws and unemployment.

Re: She’s out now

Greg — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:04:00 -0000

Ugh...I know you are on solid journalistic ground, but jeezzz I wish we could leave this stuff out...

Re: Tools

Greg — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:57:00 -0000

Thanks for the ammo. Good point.

Re: Balancing act

Greg — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:13:00 -0000

Moving younger workers to defined contribution pensions -- where they own their fund and govt. can't screw them out of it -- is the way out of that mess.

Super waivers from the federal government are applied for by SC and FL that would bring in private health insurance to manage the program. Vouchers for long term care and acute care, Medicaid Health Accounts for temporary assistance are all being addressed.

If we get screwed, it's because we are being poorly served.

Re: Sickening

Greg — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:07:00 -0000

Rich,

Lynne Kiesling (I hope I got the html correct) at the Knowledge Problem indirectly addresses your sickened feelings.

The problem isn't so much politicians shaking down regulated industries, it's the model of regulation that creates an incentive for politicians to shake down "utilities."

The public good model is obsolete -- if it were ever the best way of regulating what were thought to be "natural monopolies." If you cut the size and scope of government, you will have less sleaze in government. By promoting transparency, competition, private property rights, etc. you develop a regime -- however imperfect -- of markets that do a better job of providing services at lower costs.

Lynne, who writes from Chicago no less, does a better job of explaining this than I do. I also know that she in the past has worked with Lt. Gov. Quinn on electricity regulation.

The whole consumer vs. business paradigm is becoming obsolete. De-regulate properly, bring in competition and it becomes business vs. business seeking the good graces of consumers.

Re: Simply amazing

Greg — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 17:55:00 -0000

This could do serious damage to all the the cottage industry among reporters and editors who love to point out others' typos in order to make themselves fee superior while completely ignoring the substance of one's arguments.

Hat tip to Miller.

Re: http://reinventingsdawheel.blogspot.com/2007/01/shameless-plug-faith-house-manhattan.html

Greg — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 11:34:00 -0000

Am I the only one who is a little concerned about the lack of Christian emphasis in this ministry? Is being "culturally relevant" the greatest good, or is it introducing people to Christ? Based on what has been presented on Selmanovic's website so far, I don't see Christ as the focus. I'm also disappointed in the assertion that Christianity is somehow broken and in need of deconstruction and "re-imagining." If anything, we need to be more faithful to what God has seen fit to provide us in his Son and in his Word. This will bring true revival and is the most relevant thing we can do for the kingdom.

I've posted some more thoughts here.

Greg
www.forthegospel.org

Re: http://reinventingsdawheel.blogspot.com/2006/12/groupthink-of-former-sdas.html

Greg — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:22:00 -0000

Julius,

Just curious, which parts of Scripture do you have confidence in, and which parts do you disregard as "incongruous?"

Isn't it more consistent to agree with the apostle Paul, that it is all "God-breathed?" (2 Timothy 3:16)

Greg
www.forthegospel.org

Re: http://reinventingsdawheel.blogspot.com/2006/12/groupthink-of-former-sdas.html

Greg — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:03:00 -0000

Marcel,

You've made some good points, but you've also painted former Adventists with a broad brush. Furthermore, I think you've minimized the problems with the investigative judgment and you've overstated the level of change taking place within the church.

I have blogged a more extensive response to your post here.

Thanks for your thought-provoking post.

Greg
www.forthegospel.org

Re: http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2008/12/bundle-up-its-going-to-be-cold-winter.html

Greg — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:53:00 -0000

BTW, family premiums are a lot more than $13K (at least in CA).

Employers pay the difference.

At my law firm, I pay the full amount, no subsidy, and my PPO coverage for my family is >$21K (plus the deductibles).

Greg

Re: http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-wonder-why-stark-laws-dont-apply.html

Greg — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:39:00 -0000

Your lawyer was almost certainly not trying to screw you/soak you.

As a lawyer who often makes referrals to other lawyers at other firms for specialty issues, I tell clients to let them know that I referred them so that the lawyer on the other end will know that the person calling them is somewhat reputable and creditworthy.

As for compensation, once I got a Christmas can of kettle corn. Occassionally I get Christmas cards.

Otherwise, nada.

This is why I'm so careful to tell a doctor who asks me what I do that I'm a *corporate* lawyer.

Y'all are completely paranoid in your hatred of litigators.

Greg

Re: http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2008/01/mona-vie-diary-week-6.html

Greg — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:48:00 -0000

I have recently been using Mona Vie as well, and it's great! It gives me extra energy. Anyone who thinks we're full of it probably hasn't ever tried it. They would be in for a rude of awakening.

And I've been writing a blog on it too, so if you don't mind I'm going to post a link to yours because I'd like others to see the power of this juice.

Re: Dan Seals to run again

Greg — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:54:16 -0000

Anyone know where I can look up legislators' campaign funding sources? Like an opensecrets but for Illinois?

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:58:13 -0000

Anon,

If the mere inquiry into what may or may not become an issue is a sexist question, what do you think about, say, a women's studies program that examines the role of gender and politics? How does one rebuke a thesis without stating it. Just so I've got this straight: your argument is that inquiring into the role of gender/family in politics is equivalent to endorsing sexism?

If that's not your argument, then you need to re-read the question.

Re: Governor demands speed limit veto be upheld

Greg — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:51:10 -0000

I never like the "if one life saved..." argument. For better or worse, we make cost/benefit choices that synthetically put a value on life and safety. If safety were all that mattered, we would all drive BMW 7 series, and the speed limit would be 35. We'd also ban driving after midnight.

55/65 just happens to be the base line. For all I know, these limits may be perfectly rational. But I'd like a better cost/benefit analysis than "faster is more dangerous.". Price the risk.

Re: This just in… Republican already attacking Halvorson * Guv says veto opponents will kill people *

Greg — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:37:32 -0000

Chicago cynic,

"They" are just some conservative bloggers, and "going after" involves the relevant schip question: where should the income cutoff lie? If Reid offers an example, bloggers ought to examine that example, as it helps us all consider who should and should not be included. Once an example is submitted for review, why not review it?

But as for the rest of the bickering on this thread, it's becoming painful to read.

Re: This just in… Republican already attacking Halvorson * Guv says veto opponents will kill people *

Greg — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:33:18 -0000

Chicago Cynic,

Personally I don't care too much. I thought it worth defining "they," since the noun in the previous posts to which you were responding was "Republicans." I try to not generalize that much.

From what I've read, Malkin has spearheaded that thing. And you know what? I read her entire post, and then I read the (long) Kos responses to it. I try to take in everything and then filter out the bs. The bad stuff is from individual commenters, and we all know that we have to write a lot of them off, on both sides.

My personal conclusion was that reviewing this particular example was very helpful, because it illustrates the kind of family targeted. Of course the number of family members is relevant, as well as the income, as well as the significant property holdings. All of this begs the question: how (or should) we means-test entitlements?

Because we've got to think that one over very well, looking at the actuarial projections for all programs. Again, I'd say you submit an example, great; let's take a look.

Also, I'm not sure how many younger commenters we have here (I'm one of them), but I fully admit on behalf of my generation that we are a bit of a ruthless bunch, and I think we tend to not be as offended by invasions of privacy as previous generations seem to. Just a thought...

Re: This just in… Republican already attacking Halvorson * Guv says veto opponents will kill people *

Greg — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:48:39 -0000

I tried to do a bit of fact-checking, and it appears the address was first posted on Free Republic's message board during a discussion about their asset values.

So there's obviously a biased review coming from both sides: their assets appear to exceed the national median, their income is right around it, if a bit south, but they would struggle to buy insurance on the private market, and probably can't affors it without significant asset liquidation.

So again, my response would be that a rational review (of the kind I just very briefly summarized) is helpful, but of course, no one likes nasty attacks...

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:31:59 -0000

Skeeter,

You haven't once responded to my attempts to address the arguments you call indefensible, nor have you addressed your own inaccuracies about which I have written. What gives?

Re: Running from the truth

Greg — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:22:43 -0000

A Citizen,

Maybe I'm assuming too much about your proposal, but if you propose to tax mortgage payments, you are doing the same as taxing property. The timing of the payments will of course differ, but they will present value out to the same number.

Re: Running from the truth

Greg — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:25:34 -0000

to clarify: though it would be the equivalent to a sales tax on the house if you didn't index the tax payments to the interest rate. In that case, you would incentivize drawn-out payments

Re: Running from the truth

Greg — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:55:35 -0000

Ok, got it, that's different than what I assumed you meant.

Re: This just in… * Governor predicts all of his House loyalists will vote for transit bill * Hoffman claiming to be a “Yes” vote * HDEMS to see gaming bill tomorrow * Not loo...

Greg — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:20:49 -0000

Whoa, Unspun

I haven't exactly been reading this blog for ages, but you are clearly brand new.

Re: Expensive tastes

Greg — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:58:28 -0000

Skeeter's right. What's less sad than the ytd settlement total is what the ytd jury verdict total might look like. Almost every public company in America, for example, has paid a group of lawyers +/- $5M just to settle investor suits that could get ugly in front of a jury. So large settlements themselves don't necessarily raise red flags.

The problem with government settlements, however, is the lack of incentives to minimize the costs of all this, since it's basically costing "management" nothing.

Re: Expensive tastes

Greg — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:10:03 -0000

Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of elected management, but good to know that managers are being replaced.

Re: This just in… * Recall debated * Jones wants pay raise * RECALL AMENDMENT FAILS * Rollcall available * Halvorson slammed * Halvorson responds ***

Greg — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:13:33 -0000

What an embarassment. I'm writing a check for Halverson's opponent now, religious nut or not.

Re: This just in… * Recall debated * Jones wants pay raise * RECALL AMENDMENT FAILS * Rollcall available * Halvorson slammed * Halvorson responds ***

Greg — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:27:01 -0000

But Quincy without the caps wouldn't sound any better

Re: This just in… * Recall debated * Jones wants pay raise * RECALL AMENDMENT FAILS * Rollcall available * Halvorson slammed * Halvorson responds ***

Greg — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:12:13 -0000

But plenty of states do allow it, and it would be tough to argue that their governance is inferior to that of non-recall states. Recall elections have been exceedingly rare. The history of recall usage in the many states where it exists suggests that we'd see it used far more exceptionally than opponents fear.

Re: Not a banner day in the Senate

Greg — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:28:04 -0000

I hope that's not your party's campaign message in the fall, Bill. Might want to run that by a pollster, and possibly add something about "Change."

Re: Just how much did that recall vote cost? * UPDATED X3 *

Greg — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:27:09 -0000

Here's to Blago for confirming the definition of government as all of my colleagues see it: the inefficient allocation of resources for the benefit of political careers.

Re: Yet another banner day in the Illinois Senate * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:25:45 -0000

Here's an idea my boss proposed to me the other day: Start a huge charity fund to pay off problematic politicians in exchange for them vacating their posts. Given how desperate Jones and Hendon are for the cash, this fund might not even need to be all that big to be effective. If you all could find a way to do this legally, I think I could raise some decent $$ around my company and others.

Re: The politics of fear

Greg — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:53:16 -0000

That's a powerful last line in the NYT article.

Re: This just in… IDOT; Food prices; Stroger; DHFS

Greg — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:17:06 -0000

You can't even call Stroger's office, it just leads you to automated prompts. United Airlines is more person-friendly. Has it always been like this?

Re: Campaign roundup * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:24:13 -0000

It's really tough to isolate the effect of "speculators" from everyone else. I see that term thrown around a lot in the general media, but not in the industry. It's also difficult to define "speculators"; eg, is a pension fund a speculator because it wants to help inflation-proof its portfolio? There's no doubt that some regulations that I suspect Rich is alluding to (position limits, leverage limits, etc) would create downward pressure, but so would any legislation that curbs demand. Markets are great at defining scarcity, and they're basically saying "everyone in the world wants to own oil, nearly regardless of price." Bottom line: if demand for oil is totally inelastic (ie, the world doesn't start using less), then we can expect only higher prices.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:35:32 -0000

Concealed carry. A law that's worked well (albeit in many variations) in 48 other states, allowing it here would represent a move toward a classical liberal interpretation of individual rights, as opposed to reliance on a burdensome and incompetent government.

We'd probably have to figure out a way to automatically deny aldermen's pemits, though.

Re: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY – Is Froehlich Blagojevich’s best friend?

Greg — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:00:41 -0000

Regardless of the message, couldn't the House Republicans have outsourced the video production to their kids? I can't imagine the quality would have suffered. Let them do the voiceover, too.

Re: Jones loans himself cash

Greg — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:04:21 -0000

A loan with a below-market interest rate is a gift. End of story.

Re: Tax debate rages while drivers fume

Greg — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:00:23 -0000

No surprise that many politicians believe that every problem demands a political response. Of all people, Republicans should understand that cheap gas can't be legislated into reality. Until worldwide demand falls substantially in response to rising prices, it will only get worse.

Re: Tax debate rages while drivers fume

Greg — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:03:27 -0000

He Makes Ryan,

That's another political excuse. Oil companies aren't the ones setting oil prices. These companies are, if anything, selling futures.

It's not a corruption issue. It's a demand issue. Read the front page WSJ story today and tell me how eager you'd be to sell me 2010 crude contracts.

Re: Tax debate rages while drivers fume

Greg — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:14:28 -0000

A couple more points:

1. Although I think the tax suspension idea is silly, I don't think suspending it would affect driving tendancies. Demand has not responded much to this huge run-up; there's no reason to think elasticity would undo a 25 cent +/- cut.

2. Less than 10% of your gas expenditures are oil industry profits. I keep hearing a lot of hyperbole. If your costs were mostly profit, xom wouldn't be unched ytd. Further, these companies don't control exploration. Those are often different companies, and besides, everyone who owns an old drill is firing it up right now.

Re: Hit piece * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:47:42 -0000

Montrose, yeah, it's ridiculous. Must be weird for full-time political types, having to come up with a political reason for everything on Earth.

Unum, you've got your cause and effect switched. The oil companies are long a ton of oil. Asset values quadruple = profit rises. Profit margins aren't increasing. Like I said yesterday, xom wouldn't be unched year to date if they were.

Re: Hit piece * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:49:42 -0000

Ghost, good luck with taking down OPEC. Probably would be as effective as eliminating our sugar supports. Anyways, OPEC production is pretty close to the limit right now, albeit their capacities and reserves are totally unverifiable.

Re: Hit piece * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:35:37 -0000

Oh my gosh, can we stop with the partisan gas blame? That debate occupies approximately 0% of oil analysts' research. If you want blame, then we should all look in the mirror. But apportioning blame is not going to do bring down the cost of oil.

Re: Reform and Renewal * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:45:16 -0000

It's telling that the governor's only defenders can be explained away by their IP addresses. In the real world--in which I fortunately reside--I hear nothing positive whatsoever. Their opinions of your boss could not be lower, and yet they (as I) have not the slightest axe to grind.

Re: $38K pension windfall after just eight weeks

Greg — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:22:56 -0000

That is disgraceful. It's morally fraudulent, and demonstrates why so many private sector Americans (rightfully or not) dislike public employees as a group. Government at its worst.

Re: $38K pension windfall after just eight weeks

Greg — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:32:28 -0000

Leave a light on,

I only said that this kind of story explains why so many Americans dislike them. Didn't bash.

Re: The pension bomb

Greg — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:52:59 -0000

If I'm a pension fund manager, I love owning an 8.5% bond with the state as a counterparty. If I understand you correctly, the yield is so high because everyone assumed--for no good reason--that the fund would return 8.5%?

You'd only have to give me a 6% high grade bond in exchange for forsaking an expected 8.5% return on my portfolio. Crazy.

Re: The pension bomb

Greg — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:09:42 -0000

And Rich, it's not just the high interest rate, it's the laughable assertion that a practically-AAA bond at X% is necessary to compensate for an (unreasonably) expected X% portfolio return. If only Bear could have pulled such a stunt; it's like owning a printing press.

Re: The pension bomb

Greg — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:14:05 -0000

Steve and Bill,

I'm not disputing the 8.5% historical return, but no manager would consider that anything but far inferior to a 8.5%-paying high-grade bond. I promise you that I would get fired if I were on the state's end of that trade. I'm just objecting to equating historical portfolio return to bonds that right now are probably worth 3%.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:20:30 -0000

Although perfectly accurate, it's a bit problematic to discuss extremely short term loan rates in annualized fashion. If I borrow $500 for 2 weeks and pay 400% interest, my interest expenses are a bit under $100. Brought down to say 20%, the interest wouldn't buy the lender a sandwich. So the rate on the loan starts looking much more like a fee-substitute than a rate (of course, if you allow this loan to go unpaid long-term, God help you.) Anyway, that's just my "I don't like quoting small-principal hyper short-term loans in annualized rates" message.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:41:48 -0000

YDD,

Why would they be profitable at 70%? Because that rate sounds high? That's about a buck per $100 on a typical loan. Some are public; you can read their financials.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:52:03 -0000

Also, I'd like to meet these people who'd be thrilled to earn $5 on a $200 unsecured loan to someone who can't otherwise borrow. If they like that, they must love Keno.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:27:18 -0000

Shocking, a bunch of knee-jerk political responses...

I picked a lender at random and looked up its cash flows:

2007 Revenues: 410M versus 328 2006
Net income: -32M versus 7 2006

My God! Stop the fleecing!

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:35:51 -0000

Rich, multiple commenters here said that these companies would be quite profitable at far-lower rates, and waxed about their profits. Neither is true. I'm just trying to keep all you politicos grounded.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:08:16 -0000

Well I can't argue with that.

Re: Making sausage

Greg — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:51:29 -0000

AA,

Appreciate it. I do follow these companies, among others. I know you're upset that I consider the pension repayments a bond stream, but that's just my style. But then again, I am a simpleton.

-"greg"

Re: Caption contest!

Greg — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:51:26 -0000

Thanks for blocking my lapel, mayor. We don't need any more manufactured issues.

Re: Rezko watch…

Greg — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:24:18 -0000

Is it reasonable that a jury would say "guilty" on 23 counts, and then agonize over the 24th? Seems strange to me.

Re: Quote of the week

Greg — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:05:06 -0000

It would have helped if Rod had given life to the numbers. "$2B is $200M that we could give to 10 hardworking, uninsured Illinois families."

Re: Halvorson claims big lead * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:30:25 -0000

"PPS I liked the item about Blaggoâ€™s endorsement of Schock . That should be a thick noose around Mr. Fabulousâ€™ sweet young neck."

Seriously?

Re: Rezko Verdict * GUILTY ON 16 OF 24 COUNTS * SURRENDERS TO AUTHORITIES ***

Greg — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:21:49 -0000

Rich, you should be congratulated on the crash. That's a good sign.

Re: Rezko Verdict * GUILTY ON 16 OF 24 COUNTS * SURRENDERS TO AUTHORITIES ***

Greg — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:30:05 -0000

Isn't the coming indictment of a major state's governor enough of a story for the national press? I'm no Obama guy, but it's frustrating to hear the story told in an Obama-centric way, as if he's next. Stay focused!

Re: And some of the bad news for Blagojevich…

Greg — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:14:56 -0000

Good point, wait a minute. So if the capital bill passes, involuntary unemployment in Illinois drops below zero.

Re: Meet the new boss…

Greg — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:24:10 -0000

Nah, the hedge funds don't want Daley's guys. We want a bunch of kids who earned PhDs at US schools but can't work here due to visa quotas.

Re: Impeachmemt memo: Madigan’s “real” agenda? And possible blowback

Greg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:29:20 -0000

I agree with Rich's Bush/GOP analogy. Legislators ought to at least create the perception that they are unswayed by the party registration of the troublemaker(s)

Re: This just in… * Currie walks out, fears government shutdown * Childrens Museum approved by city council 33-16 * Jones: Olympics could disappear * Hoffman: Blame Madigan *** More au...

Greg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:43:46 -0000

Abby needs to alert the BLS about these job numbers. If the capital bill actually has anything close to that effect, it's going to seriously throw off job numbers expectations.

Re: Morning Shorts

Greg — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:32:21 -0000

This is embarassing. Some of those Sox pictures must have been sent in by Cubs fans in the form of psychological warfare. There is no other explanation.

Re: “Forgotten Illinois” * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:42:04 -0000

Since it's mostly farmland that's being flooded, it's not really a flood on "the people." So I think the governor is being consistent.

Re: Caption contest!

Greg — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:21:54 -0000

"...and the fifth bill I want my name attached to is..."

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:32:57 -0000

Skeeter,

I understand the CTA cynicism, especially as it applies to Daley, but I'm pretty sure Huberman represents the opposite. Blaming him for devastated track lines and stupid investments might be a bit like blaming the next president for the troubles he'll face in Iraq.

I actually like Rich's addition of Huberman's name, because everything I read about him suggests a reform-minded, efficient operator who cuts through union/patronage/etc waste. Of course, that's not to say that others on the list don't appear to share those traits.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:55:07 -0000

Maybe my comment got deleted. Anyway, Huberman is the new CTA chief who--and this will disappoint at least one of you--is very much white.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:35:44 -0000

What completely sold me on Huberman was a presentation I attended on his CTA reforms. He is absolutely cleaning house there--and it's not all talk. He's cut so much fat that a good chunk of HQ is empty. He's pursuaded all sorts of top private sector folks to donate millions of dollars worth of service, and can quantify every aspect of CTA performance, along with the metrics with which he measures improvement.

He collected masters degrees at Chicago while working as a cop, and it shows.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:43:00 -0000

I think Obwerweis made quite a reasonable analogy. It is difficult to explain why oil companies make much more money when crude goes higher. (Farmers are another example of being massively long a single commodity, and having your profit swing wildly around it. If anything, oil companies are more exposed, as they generally don't hedge, yet many farmers do.)

Obviously, farmers whose crops flooded this year are not making record profits, but I don't think Oberweis suggested that. Farmers unaffected by the floods, by the way, will make more money.

Politically, the statement may have been touchy, but I think the comparison is solid.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:54:22 -0000

No, I don't think that's right at all, but I've learned before on this blog that I shouldn't argue about companies' financials. I will just continue to learn about state politics (and I've learned a ton with a long way to go, thanks) and keep my mouth shut about my field.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:06:55 -0000

Sure thing: everyone's nervous that oil production is not going to keep up with demand. That, combined with a falling dollar, as well as a rush to buy commodities for inflation protection, has crude at 135. The oil companies aren't terribly involved in the energy markets (yes, I know, Enron, etc, etc) but that's a rounding error compared to even the pension funds. So unless you remove buyers, cap prices, and ration, the oil companies are still working with 135 crude. The benefit they receive from this price comes largely from the fact that they're long a ton of oil. There are also varying levels of spreads captured by refining (although those are often different companies.) Right now, the gasoline refining spread is low.

No one's saying these companies aren't quite profitable. But graph XOM ytd.

I still lie ethe farmer comparison. I know everyone is going to say I'm an idiot for my oil talk, but for what it's worth, I spend way too many hours/week looking at these numbers.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:21:35 -0000

Rich, they'd be sellers. Our energy traders think if xom started getting involved (ie, hedging with short positions) crude would drop up to $30.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:25:24 -0000

The companies you're referring to have basis risk, which can be hedged with cash v futures, but they're not the buyers that everyone's blaming.

Re: Congressional stuff

Greg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:53:46 -0000

Jed,

2 separate issues: refining and production. Refining capacity is not full, so expansion or lack thereof isn't much of a driver. Production is of course entirely different.

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:51:38 -0000

In both Chicago and DC, you'd still face an arduous registration process to legally possess a handgun. I don't see it changing much in either city.

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:18:55 -0000

The debate over activism is very much a party-line one, and one that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. As a libertarian, as a general rule, I support deference to individual rights--against federal, state, and local power.

I think Skeeter's right to the extent that almost everyone cares exclusively about the outcome of decisions, not the logic with which they're written. I admit to that truth.

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:48:27 -0000

But we can apply the 1st Amndt to the internet, right?

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:05:48 -0000

Daley ought to be happy with the decision. Everyone knew there were at least 5 votes against the ban, but this decision was explicit in its inapplication to most restrictions. The firearms hurdle in Chicago is licensing and registration, and that will be intact.

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:38:40 -0000

Since the court directs DC to allow the plaintiff a license, should he qualify, I think we can assume that registration is permissable.

Re: This just in… Supremes rule on guns * Daley suggests requring extensive insurance for handgun owners * Rifle Association files suit against Chicago ban ***

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:46:56 -0000

My prediction is that nationally, this ruling will be anticlimatic. Despite the obligatory Scalia wit, it strikes me as quite a moderate opinion that will have little effect, if any, beyond DC and possibly Chicago. It's a big moral win for some, of course. But I don't see gun control as a major issue in this election, particularly given Obama's shift on the subject.

This is coming from someone who cares about the issue (and other personal liberties) terribly, by the way.

Re: Attorney General sues Countrywide

Greg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:54:02 -0000

What Madigan is proposing would penalize Bank of America shareholders and mortgage bond owners, and that's about it. Kind of a weird solution.

As to the system's breakdown, that's mostly a housing bubble issue. I wish we could prevent such a thing, but I doubt our ability to.

Re: Somebody lied, but who was it?

Greg — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:33:05 -0000

This is getting silly. Multiple means more than 1, but somebody using "multiple" in reference to "2" is most likely trying to draw attention to magnitude, since 2 would only be meeting the word's definitional minimum.

Re: What impact will Second Amendment ruling have on Illinois?

Greg — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:27:02 -0000

The only potential application is to Chicago's outright ban, as well as those of the several suburbs with similar laws. It seems to have likely--but not certain--legal application.

The practical effect, however, is near zero. Chicago's registration process, as well as its myriad rules, will be left intact. I doubt you'll hear many stories resulting from legal, registered handguns; the process is cumbersome enough that for most people who want a handgun that badly, they are probably willing to ignore the law.

As to Daley's insurance idea, since the majority is elevating the standard above rationality, I'm not sure the city could justify that restriction sufficiently.

Re: What impact will Second Amendment ruling have on Illinois?

Greg — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:43:58 -0000

But Ghost, there's a big gap between governmental interest and the 1st amdnt hurdle. The court just moved the 2nd Amdnt hurdle above the former, though presumably below the latter.

Re: Question of the Day

Greg — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:14:51 -0000

Stop, Dumber, your wit is killing us.

Re: Pilgrim Baptist Church back in the newsUpdated x1

Greg — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:08:47 -0000

So we're supposed to believe that giving a million dollars to a church's secular-oriented building does not benefit its religious programming? Really? The church's money is not the least bit fungible?

Re: This just in… * House adjourns without taking action * “Worthless” Gatehouse? * House advances scaled back capital bill *

Greg — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:05:32 -0000

Rich, if you can figure out how to buy the company without the debt, then you should definitely turn into an investment bank. And can't a blog become too big to fail?

Re: This just in… * No funds sweep bill from House * Hospital, nursing home, SoS money restored in House * Pattern develops * Drug treatment override fails * Rollcalls Now Online * ...

Greg — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:16:18 -0000

Quimby, that's exactly the idea I mentioned a while back. I already have a short donor list of individuals who would donate to a charity fund that would pay off incompetent politicans to retire.

Re: The stunt was goofy, but the problem is real

Greg — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:46:39 -0000

I think today's Sun-Times cover demonstrates the level of respect everyone has for our Governor. That hilarious photoshop makes the New Yorker profile look flattering.

Somewhat surprised that Blago hasn't asked the White House to re-assign all Illinois US attorneys personell to Chicago gang issues.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:34:44 -0000

Captain America:

If 25-33% of America would never vote for a black, and they largely reside in the Republican Party, then the vast majority of Republicans would have to fit your classification. You may hold that perception, but I think your numbers are way, way too high.

My gut is that a lot of these unique characteristics are what makes Obama Obama, and that rather than having the election locked up but for his race, he instead wouldn't have even won the primary.

Either way, I find the characterization of such vast numbers of Republicans as racist ironic given today's discussion of knee-jerk racism accusations, with respect to Davis.

Re: Red meat and money

Greg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:51:36 -0000

Well I hope an Obama administration doesn't import the same Illinois characters we're accustomed to.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:24:11 -0000

Absolutely. Wouldn't administrative funds free up other funds for religious purposes? I don't know, but I assume money is fungible between the church's various programs...

Re: Tribune uncovers dubious grant program; Bernie lays out questionable contribution

Greg — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:15:32 -0000

This should really help convince the populace that the state needs more revenue.

Re: Beyond the pale * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:03:55 -0000

Wow, those two signholders sure do have similar handwriting.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:31:56 -0000

Since so many have already addressed concealed carry, I'd suggest getting rid of the labrynth of firearm laws across the state; we need something more uniform. And I'm not saying this as a backdoor way of loosening restrictions. I try very hard to be a law-abiding citizen, and yet it's easy to find myself in techinical violation of local ordinances.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:18:57 -0000

Oppose. If hapless people want to "almost kill themselves," let's not stand in their way.

Re: Governor’s office leaks angry Madigan memo

Greg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:10:09 -0000

I'm pretty sure the proportion of comments on this site supportive of Blagojevich exceeds the proportion of the state's general population that supports him.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:08:50 -0000

I laugh every time I read about this 47.5MM acre business. The assertion rests entirely on the assumption that every acre leased, by virtue of its being leased, contains accessible oil. And the amount of said oil can be extrapolated from the amount of oil found in the larger surrounding area. Silly season, yes.

Unrelatedly, in the past when we've talked about the rising crude price, I mentioned that it ought to rise until demand gains some kind of elasticity (not that this my novel theory or anything.) Fortunately, that's finally happened...people are using less.

And all this time, instead of playing around with mpg mandates 20 years from now, debating where to drill, rebates, etc, we could tax the heck out of gas and get a much cleaner result. People respond to incentives...whadayaknow.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:14:12 -0000

Snidely, you can charge the market price, you can subsidize like Venezuela or the Middle East, or you can heavily tax like Europe.

So you want to start subsidizing gas? Just when demand starts to fall?

(And don't cheat; you can't charge less without subsidizing; otherwise it would just sell elsewhere)

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:36:43 -0000

Rich, I don't speak for others, but I know that I can dispute the conclusions of the report without resorting to industry talking points.

I would agree that US gasoline exports affect US prices to the extent that we could choose between a trade/no-trade environment. But if we chose the latter, we'd obviously be hurting for the unrefined oil we need. If we choose the former, than since it would be a global market (as it is now), it should have no effect.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:50:09 -0000

Pat:

For 2Q 2008, XOM paid $10.5B of earnings in taxes. After-tax income was $11.7B.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:57:00 -0000

Skeeter, your numbers are way off. Probably should check the 10Q before you dismiss others so callously.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:29:32 -0000

just in q2. Way more in 2007. These guys have effective income tax rates in mid-40's.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:31:40 -0000

Of course, that's not 100% federal income tax. Sorry if I implied it. I don't believe xom breaks it down, but I'd guess its federal income tax rate is 36%ish

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:33:21 -0000

Feel free to link me to your stats. I'm using regulatory filings and analyst reports.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:44:52 -0000

Good thing I'm bored at work today. I don't know the answer to your most recent question, but keep in mind that most foreign companies are national or quasi.

Effective income tax rate can also include state tax. I'm pretty sure xom didn't break it up, but I haven't read every word of their release. Analysts certainly don't care which one (state versus feds) its going to; they just include one line in the spreadsheet.

Because I won't say anything I don't know to be true, I can't claim exactly how much XOM paid in federal income tax, but I have a pretty good estimate. I can say they paid a total tax of $30B last year.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:17:40 -0000

Price controls! I love it. Capping prices ought to get our demand under control. Just look at how well it works overseas.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:38:08 -0000

Skeeter, ignore the article. The numbers I'm using don't include that. I've been giving you the income tax payments.

You're starting to grasp at statistics. Be careful. We've had enough plainly wrong numbers today.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:20:38 -0000

Skeeter, I'm giving you the actual income tax figures, most of which is US federal income tax.

Your initial number was wildly off, and I provided the correct one. I'm not addressing the politics of it. I didn't happen upon a large number; it's staring me in the face right on the income statement. There's no dispute about taxes paid.

I apologize if this is confusing. I cannot easily copy and paste the spreadsheets. I would never provide you all with an incorrect or misleading number.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:28:45 -0000

By the way, I have absolutely no idea what the meaning of gross taxes is. I find it about as relevant as gross profit. I have zero interest in it, beyond correcting at least 2 different wrong representations of it.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:33:55 -0000

You know what, I give up.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:35:52 -0000

That wasn't to you, rich. Basically, I was trying to correct Skeeter's numbers. He says 10.5 is worldwide for 2007, which is nowhere close. XOM alone is 30 for 2007.

I don't care at all about this number. But I absolutely detest rampant misinformation, when all you have to do is look up the edgar filings. It's like you with the state constitution.

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:07:35 -0000

Ok, I better understand what you mean now on the tax front. XOM has a ton of foreign operations as well as most reserves.

How better do you auction land?

Re: Stuff you won’t hear today on the House floor

Greg — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:19:25 -0000

I should apologize. I think I usually do a good job of understanding people's points, but after I re-read the series of comments in this posting, I obviously missed it somewhat. I am a stickler for numbers and mis-read at at least one point skeeter's attribution of a number. Sorry.

Trying to add more substantively to the debate, my main concern right now is actually falling prices. I mean, they're down another 3.5% today. I'm not sure we can keep up this falling year over year demand at this pace.

If the dollar recovers, we're going to be using gas as weed killer again (or at least I will be.)

Re: The conflict never ends * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:14:48 -0000

I think Yogi Berra would much prefer "Rewrite to do Right" over "Blame Before Solutions." The problem with the latter is that I can figure out what it means.

Re: Get ready to rumble

Greg — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:52:06 -0000

Maybe we could bring in some World Bank analysts to help with the capital bill. They're good at ascertaining approximately how large a bribe fund each project requires.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:55:44 -0000

"This t-shirt was all I could afford on food stamps. Maybe a pay raise could at least buy capital letters."

Re: Fresh Emil Jones retirement thread * UPDATED x10 * Jones personally confirms retirement, son’s appointment * Hendon plays super-nice * Jones issues statement ***

Greg — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:20:38 -0000

Doggone: so opposing public nepotism = believing voters are stupid. Huh?

Re: Fresh Emil Jones retirement thread * UPDATED x10 * Jones personally confirms retirement, son’s appointment * Hendon plays super-nice * Jones issues statement ***

Greg — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:26:35 -0000

Ghost, I think the objection relates more to the style of the seat's hand-off, not III's qualifications or right to run for the seat.

All of this could have been settled in a normal primary. For as qualified as the recipient might be, he's still gaining the incredible power of incumbency through the evasion around actual voting.

Re: Newspaper carnage continues

Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:27:53 -0000

Most of my friends and colleagues have top-notch minds and educations, but they don't follow statehouse news. Not minor interest; I'm talking zero interest. They only have the time or energy for the DC stuff.

I'll take everyone's word on Gatehouse management, but I assume that publishers are reacting to the fact that the obituaries receive more attention than statehouse news from just about everyone outside of capitol fax readers.

Re: The legacy

Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:35:33 -0000

After today's Sun-Times cover, money and nepotism will be all of Emil Jones known by the vast majority of Illinois.

Re: The legacy

Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:37:37 -0000

--Itâ€™s also more than double the median amount that two households in his Senate district earn combined, according to 2000 Census data.--

Wow, that's a rough sentence. Can't we just say 4x median household income in district?

Re: Justifying “Threemil”

Greg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:58:36 -0000

Threemil, you're no Robert Kennedy.

Re: Justifying “Threemil”

Greg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:04:09 -0000

Wordslinger, I'd suggest (although I could certainly be wrong) that Chicago is disproportionally plagued with this sort of thing. But I also believe the problem to be worse internationally than in Chicago--most prominently, of course, in the developing world.

Re: Threemil replaces father tonight

Greg — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:51:42 -0000

I like that McQueary includes the time and place of the meeting. If not for the 5:00 start time, I'd love to show up.

Re: Threemil replaces father tonight

Greg — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:59:48 -0000

All of this history just confirms that offspring have sufficient built-in political advantage so as to not require actual installation into office.

Re: Convention stuff

Greg — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:39:21 -0000

So Obama's not gender-friendly?

Re: On Palin and the DC goofballs

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:53:47 -0000

I think the Palin pick is pretty simply understood from a statistical perspective. I think we can agree that McCain's election is an unlikely outcome (not 5%, just not the majority of outcomes if you rolled the dice a hundred times.) Anyway, Palin raises the volatility of the simulation. (Much as Biden lowered it, or Romney would have.) The underdog likes adding volatility; the leader does not.

I say, if you don't care between losing small and losing big, you might as well add volatility, since it adds more positive outcomes to the mix.

Re: About that new TV ad…

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:42:58 -0000

I suppose this is the downside of running for President

Re: About that new TV ad…

Greg — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:21:07 -0000

Thanks, Doggone, for clarifying why many Republicans will excuse over-the-top statements by their side

Re: A spoiled child

Greg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:52:02 -0000

Speaking of America's favorite governor, look who's headlining The Page right now

Re: Rod and Sarah, Part 2

Greg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:52:36 -0000

I hear that Alaska kids often confuse Palin and the mayor of Anchorage.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:21:17 -0000

The quality of life in the West, where I grew up, is helped tremendously by the environment: the mountains, the forests, the whitewater, etc. Midwestern plains--especially crowded, congested plains--make me grumpy and miss home even more.

Re: Poll: Voters blame Blagojevich far more than Madigan

Greg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:52:59 -0000

I'm surprised by the 0% "not sure" showing for Blagojevich. Apparently voters are paying attention to the mess.

Re: Reform and Renewal – Part 64,399

Greg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:11:21 -0000

Good to know, Bill, that we can look to a legislature's inquiries to determine a governor's ethics.

Re: A closer look at McCain’s new “Machine” ad * UPDATED x3 *

Greg — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:56:24 -0000

Emil Jones (alone) would make a better ad for McCain, but then he'd open himself up to the racial imagery issues. We saw those flare up in the Franklin Raines ad. Perhaps the campaign felt the need to make sure most of the would-be scoundrels were white.

Not being from Illinois, I can report that the Daley name outside Chicago is, indeed, pretty bad, especially among gun owners. So I understand why the McCain campaign wanted that name in there.

But he should get a refund for the picture.

Re: This just in… Senate passes guv’s ethics bill

Greg — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:19:57 -0000

Keeping it Real:

Can you submit second drafts of your comments?

Re: Always scroll down * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:37:40 -0000

What a sloppy NYT mistake. And it still hasn't been fixed online?

Re: Bailout roll call… * UPDATED x11 *

Greg — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:28:57 -0000

I think the response so far has been anything but Hoover-like, but rather quite intervenionist. Ignoring AIG, BSC, etc for a moment, consider the short-sell ban. It's a major issue that's received almost no attention. Yet its prohibition (or at least that which applies to the most meaningful names) distorts the market like none other. That step alone is highly, highly aggressive.

PS: The scary thing about the 8% drop today is what would have happened in a legitimate market (ie, you can short.)

Re: Bailout roll call… * UPDATED x11 *

Greg — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:21:51 -0000

Can I ask a very dumb question? (I promise I googled it, but I can't find an answer I trust)

If the House comes back next month but they barely have a quorum (presumably since many are campaigning), does the House need merely a majority of the present congressmen to pass a bill? Or always 218?

Re: Fighting the powers that be * UPDATED x2 *

Greg — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:40:52 -0000

So we're just going to keep debating hypotheticals instead of looking at other states as case studies?

I'm no expert, but I know my home state's hyper citizen/initiative-centric framework hasn't produced a half-bad govt. They go over legislators' heads all the time. We even vote on 1 acre annexations.

Oh, but the con-con COULD go badly! Perish the thought, problems could make their way into Illinois state govt!

Re: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, PART 2 – Judge’s official order on con-con question; Tier One candidate admits to multiple DUIs (Use all caps in password)

Greg — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:29:11 -0000

Yeah, what a sleazy attack. As the Daily Herald commenters would say, shame on the Republicans for this!

As for me, I'll never vote for anyone with any criminal history that I know of, Republican or Democrat. I understand that many will disagree, but I think lawmakers should have superior personal histories.

We can do better than Palin as VP, and we can do better than a guy who drives again hours after blowing a .19.

Re: Students now banned from all campus political activity * Adding: So, were Obama rallies illegal? What about the state fair? *

Greg — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:57:42 -0000

Well I guess the Gov ought to call out the national guard to the campuses.

Insanity.

Re: Dark days ahead

Greg — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:33:15 -0000

An overlooked reason why Chicago is getting the short end of the stick from the federal govt is the useless short sale ban. It's hurting our options trading and some local funds.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:06:06 -0000

Fully oppose. If there's a problem with banks following the law, then there are avenues to pursue and/or stop that. And please don't call me inconsistent, because I have no patience for Goldman or Morgan either. And, man, I hate Goldman!

PS: Supporting this move isn't really "sticking it to the man." The US taxpayer may well be levered to the value of the bond backed by that house now. The rent ain't helping the bond price.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:30:19 -0000

Although I disagree with much of the action advocated by the SEC and Treasury, their authority is coming from acts of Congress. Unlike congressmen, a sheriff is not a lawmaker; he's an enforcer.

To commenters like Sense & Sensibility, how would you like to see sheriffs around the county put their concept of morality above the law? Would this principle still apply in counties with very socially conservative sheriffs?

To make a law, legislate.

Re: Don’t fear the people

Greg — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:19:33 -0000

That state police commander should be investigated for harassment.

Re: Marin stands with Netsch on con-con

Greg — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:07:45 -0000

I saw some small anti-con-con signs up inside a local police station. It's not like they were on the front door, but I thought the fact that I could even see them from the customer service counter was inappropriate.

Re: Marin stands with Netsch on con-con

Greg — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:54:02 -0000

Bill, you shouldn't be making those arguments on a day when most public employees are off. Conversion to defined-contribution plans would be a compelling argument for many of us to vote for a con-con, if it in fact were likely to happen.

Re: Looking past the con-con spin

Greg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:59:49 -0000

I'll vote yes, but not just because I wish the warnings about pension reform were true, but rather because I trust people like Rich over various PACs. You all should stop obsessing about pension reform in public, or you're going to gin up broad support for the con-con.

Re: Looking past the con-con spin

Greg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:50:38 -0000

Never retire,

It's preposterous to argue that by definition a defined benefit system is cheaper for taxpayers. Looking over the study you cite, I assume you're referring to the difference in the plans' management costs.

Re: Looking past the con-con spin

Greg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:04:29 -0000

Bill,

What did I get wrong? All I said was that this doesn't make sense:

"There is indisputible data that shows the stateâ€™s pension systems are cheaper for the taxpayer than the cost of Soc. Security and a 401K match that most have in the private sector."

Re: Voting myths and realities

Greg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:34:23 -0000

Rich, good observation about seletivity bias. I don't think stats back up a Bradley effect. If I presented an analysis based on one datapoint (exit polls versus results in one election) I would be laughed away. There are other problems with the theory, but those are the simplest.

Re: Voting myths and realities

Greg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:40:09 -0000

Adding: I love that media and pundits are pounding away about the Bradley Effect, as if it were a proven, statistically-significant phenomenon, but dismiss so many other reports--political or not--as within the "margin of error," "inconclusive," etc, when they often aren't.

Re: A big, fat goose egg for Blagojevich

Greg — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:42:58 -0000

The great thing about an excellent rating of zero is that the band of statistical significance extends well below zero. So we should not rule out the possibility that the Guv's excellent rating might actually be -3.

Re: A big, fat goose egg for Blagojevich

Greg — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:41:16 -0000

But if you count "poor" as approval, Blago's support is 100%

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:12:44 -0000

I recommend taking a look at high yield and municipal bonds. You'd be buying credit at very low levels--it's pretty ridiculous what you can earn, especially tax-adjusted, on lots of munis.

There are also banks out there trading at less than half of book value, when book shouldn't be written down nearly that much. The "financial" sector is comprised of very different kinds of assets. Some of the better stuff has taken undue hits.

Remember that a lot of the recent selling has been funds bannging out of all asset classes for non-fundamental reasons. When your redemptions hit, you don't have a choice about selling. So the sellers are more than fearful; it's involuntary selling.

Buffet's best line is about cash. That's just locking in a slight negative real return.

Finally, for those of you public employees whose assets are mostly pensions or similar instruments, you should be scooping up inflation hedges left and right. That's your #1 risk.

Re: Mother Tribune opens up its latest poll to us little people

Greg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:24:47 -0000

In stats, error is basically a measure of how much "extra" you need to declare, with a given degree of confidence (usually 95%), that proportion X exceeds proportion Y.

Obviously, a larger sample size is always better, but the size of the sample impacts error less and less as the sample size rises, since it's an exponential relationship. What's probably a bigger concern is the randomness of the sample.

If the sampling is correct, then the probability of the 47% candidate NOT exceeding the 39% candidate, is small but not ~zero (probably about 2.5%, but I haven't done the math.)

Re: Mother Tribune opens up its latest poll to us little people

Greg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:26:59 -0000

oh, sorry, I guess Rich did the math. 82% sounds low to me (don't forget that only one tail matters), but then again I struggle with tip calculation.

Re: Another massive screw-up by voter group

Greg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:37:06 -0000

Princess was in the tank for Obama.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:36:55 -0000

If you think that economic growth depends on your candidate/party's success, then you might be a hardcore partisan.

Re: No bottom on this market, either

Greg — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:32:31 -0000

Rod's market and the stock market share a lack of bottoms, for sure...but only one market is seeing serious redemptions.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:08:13 -0000

Graduated income tax

Re: Murders higher than NY and LA while mayor’s park sucks up cash

Greg — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:38:01 -0000

Daley's right: say "Chicago," and you'll undoubtedly hear:
"Chicago, that's the Millenium Park town, right? The future city with the futurey-park? I remember that park. Yeah, I remember, I was visiting that park, and then I stopped by Chicago..."

Re: “What is this?” open thread

Greg — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:35:07 -0000

But how many times a day does News Channel 20 get misdials from your PO'd subscribers?

Re: About that other poll

Greg — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:53:23 -0000

The governor's office should attack the breadth of these polls. If the polls were nationwide, instead of only Illinois, bad name id would send Blago's disapproval rating plummeting!

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:11:58 -0000

The only vote that I felt 100% pleased to make was my state senate vote for Dan Duffy. I met him on several occasions and came away highly impressed by his intelligence and energy. The IL Republican Party needs more like him.

Re: Special con-con notice thread

Greg — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:10:49 -0000

Jessica,

I hope you pass a more detailed version of the cop incident along to authorities. Hopefully that's not typical behavior.

Re: Afternoon campaign updates and open thread

Greg — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:40:11 -0000

On the one hand, I would think that long lines filter out less energetic voters (bad for McCain). But on the other hand, I'd expect long lines to occur more often in areas of dense population and those experiencing much greater than usual turnout (ie, Obama areas.) These two factors might net out, so long as the former isn't extreme...

Re: Dying off?

Greg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:55:05 -0000

I think the stock price reflects your sentiment. New business model idea: Shut down the paper entirely and just sell the Obama reprints for ridiculous prices.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:49:26 -0000

I've thought for a while that the Republican Party's biggest problem was a lack of very smart leaders. The party has plenty of super smart supporters, think tankers, etc, but always manages to showcase, at the top level, more mediocre IQs. Republicans are tired of holding their breath as their candidates speak, praying they don't ridicule themselves.

Re: Afternoon video

Greg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:22:28 -0000

Was that Hedley Lamarr whispering in the background?

Re: The meltdown cometh

Greg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:02:56 -0000

Rich, I don't think you're being gloomy enough. We have serious concerns about the federal govt's ability to continue its debt service payments in the next decade should treasury rates rise significantly from their present levels (and I'm not talking like 10%...it wouldn't take too extreme a move).

It's not like it's the most likely scenario, but the very fact that I can paint you a quite conceivable scenario of federal default in 5 years is not good at all.

Re: The meltdown cometh

Greg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:17:10 -0000

Right, Pat. A quaint time when the federal government didn't have to choose between eliminating non-discretionary payments (let alone bailouts) and implementing a massively dollar-devaluating print-off of its debt.

I wish the media would discuss this scenario more. It's certainly a bigger threat to each of us than most crime.

Re: The meltdown cometh

Greg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:09:01 -0000

Worldslinger,

Absolutely. Clearly the Civil War, for example, was a greater threat. But all I said was that it's a non-trivial possibility--and that alone should be frightening. It's a risk most people don't discuss (or maybe even know about?), so I'm doing my part.

Credit card debt principal is already being written off in large amounts by banks, and remember that even if banks haven't written down many assets, those of us who invest in them already have. I see a lot written in blogs about it, but I'm not sure the bloggers understand that all debt has been discounted; we can argue about degree, but a lot is presumed gone. (If you think that even 60% of some banks' clients are going to repay, you'd actually want to buy a number of small banks.)

We need constant buyers of treasuries--these auctions are always happening. So it's not enough for owners to not want to sell, we need large, constant, incremental buyers of treasuries.

Finally, although derivatives are somewhat imaginary, capital is most certainly not. That needs to turn around quick.

In the words of SNL: "Fix it!"

Re: A holiday miracle

Greg — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:14:52 -0000

I wish Nate would stick to regression.

Re: Christmas wars come to the Statehouse

Greg — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:14:46 -0000

I wish the broader Republican Party could rediscover Jeffersonianism. There's a lot less conflict when the state neither sponsors nor hinders any religious speech. Not to mention, adding a dose of libertarianism to the party would help its image among younger voters.

VMan, I figured you hated Europe. You prefer their anti-1st Amdnt approach?

Re: Hype reported, specifics unquestioned

Greg — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:56:37 -0000

Carl, I'm sorry BoA wanted fees. fyi, however, it was also one of the few who didn't need a bailout. In fact, it way overpaid for Merrill, which probably would have needed a bailout.

Also, convenants are standard in these loans. (rough example: you have a credit line and a value of X; a judgment of X+1 is entered against you; you are now no longer allowed to draw on it.)

I don't get how this move is at all controversial.

Re: Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody

Greg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:14:00 -0000

Nice pre-inauguration guess, Rich!

Re: Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody

Greg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:44:12 -0000

To find the best quotes in the complaint, I suggest searching for keyword "f---ing" in the adobe search field.

Re: Fitzgerald press conference open thread * UPDATED WITH TRANSCRIPT *

Greg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:04:04 -0000

I agree that the Children's Memorial bit will capture big attention. When Fitz said that, there was a collective gasp around my office.

Re: Statement from the governor’s press office

Greg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:43:06 -0000

Probably not good time to raise the tolls on the Illinois Tollway.

Re: This just in… ABC: Jackson whistled in by the feds, lawyers up, is Senate Candidate 5 * May meet with feds on Friday *

Greg — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:34:12 -0000

Do you all this this expanding crime scene will have significant ramifications for the national party's image?

Re: Get on with it, already * UPDATED x2 – Quinn says start impeachment *

Greg — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:31:33 -0000

So even during a week that should see atypical legislative resolve, this state will receive nothing but political maneuvering? You'd think we could get a brief respite.

Re: Photo of the day

Greg — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:34:26 -0000

Don't worry, the Football is protected by this coat.

Re: Durbin goes full circle

Greg — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:08:37 -0000

"Durbin" and "leader" don't belong in the same sentence.

Re: Durbin goes full circle

Greg — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:30:23 -0000

I liked it better when Bill called him General Burris.

Re: Deb Mell and impeachment – Give her a break * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:50:18 -0000

I don't have a lot of sympathy for a family first mindset in a state with so many clans in office. May I be upset with the speaker in the event he puts family over principle in issues involving the AG or future gov?

Re: New developments in guv’s case and a new poll on corruption

Greg — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:21:46 -0000

Tapping cell phones. Didn't the Patriot Act make that somehow easier? I vaguely recall...

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:25:14 -0000

One word: Secession

It solves everything... But Burris is out of a job.

Re: Good times for Republicans?

Greg — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:41:34 -0000

The outsider with intimate knowledge on how government works. Isn't that politic's answer to Hollywood's proverbial "hooker with a heart of gold?"

Mike Lawrence tells Republicans they need to "attract" people and then refers to people as right wing fanatics. Kind of undermines his message, don't you think? That's very "inclusive" of him at all.

Re: This is why I hate cable news

Greg — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:44:02 -0000

Also, someone forward to Eugene Robinson the complaint--which, if memory serves correctly, includes more allegations that just the senate seat bartering.

Re: He’s at it again

Greg — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:51:26 -0000

It's always depressing to hear journalists discuss matters with which you're familiar only to hear utter nonsense. Makes you question the usefullness of listening to them about anything else. For me, it's a killer to hear 60 minutes talk finance.

Re: He’s at it again

Greg — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:54:31 -0000

btw, why doesn't everyone sign into Robinson's 2pm chat today?

Re: Fresh impeachment trial live-blog * Prosecutor to finish witness list today * CULLERTON: GUV WANTS TO SPEAK ***

Greg — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:26:21 -0000

One of the best books ever written about congressional politics was Mayhew's, "Congress: The Electoral Connection." Every poli sci student who studies american politics has probably read it. The book starts on the premise that every decision made by a congressman is geared toward reelection.

That government actors are self interested and will abuse their power is the reason the federal government has checks and balances. You could fill a library with that idea.

So, how is Blago's formulation any different? Do people believe that politicians are actually a bunch of Mother Theresa's?

Re: The governor speaks * Refuses to resign: “I have done nothing wrong” *

Greg — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:53:00 -0000

Ever notice how eloquent they sound when speaking from the gallows. That was one his best speeches.

And on Rx Drug reimportation... wait...hold on... it's coming... Rich, you know what I'm going to say... here it comes... wait...wait... I told you so.

Re: This just in…

Greg — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:42:02 -0000

Carbon Deforestation has a good point. But I'd expand on the idea: set up a small "Bad state" within Illinois to shoulder it.

Re: Illinois sheriffs back concealed carry

Greg — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:53:41 -0000

I don't know why it would be surprising that sheriffs support it. At the class (in a collar county) I took to qualify for out-of-state ccw permits, the sheriff's office volunteered en masse to assist the instructor.

Re: Illinois sheriffs back concealed carry

Greg — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:57:21 -0000

YDD, if your tests were the tradeoff for this law, I'd happily agree. I do think they make some sense. For example, I don't like the fact that a clean-cut 40 year old who got busted for drugs when he was 18 can't get a FOID card, but the alcoholic who never got busted can.

There's something to be said for subjective kind of tests.

Re: Illinois sheriffs back concealed carry

Greg — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:24:04 -0000

YDD, annecdotal evidence from just about every other state suggests that ccw doesn't trigger voter revolts. Or at least I never saw it where it was legal and expanded under Democratic control.

I imagine 2010's ads and passions will be largely tax and budget oriented.

Re: Illinois sheriffs back concealed carry

Greg — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:26:34 -0000

The New Orleans example is meaningless. Practically every city is a ccw city. And practically every suburb and rural area too.

Re: Cutting ain’t easy, and almost impossible

Greg — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:51:41 -0000

I think Secret Square raises a good point. Sure, it wouldn't save 3B, but it would be nice to cut the redundant levels of local govt. Couple dozen county board members? That's not much smaller than some state senates. Then there are the aldermen...

As for the state budget, the A#1 first step should be hiking the gas tax. If you want, have a provision for automatic suspension when avg price exceeds $4 or whatever.

The gas tax actually creates beneficial distortions, unlike income taxes which come with plenty of deadweight loss. For a tax, it's as good as they get.

Re: Cutting ain’t easy, and almost impossible

Greg — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:50:06 -0000

We can raise the gas tax much more than 10 cents. It could fill a meaningful component of the hole, especially if other states followed suit.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:49:59 -0000

As we now know from this blog on impeachment: To fire a guy we don't need the same level of due process we do in a criminal court.

So much for committed and convicted.

If we can justifiably cap executive pay when they are receiving federal bailout money because it is tax dollars at stake, then we have legitimate right to determine who gets hired and paid with state tax dollars.

Government got into the game of saying who can be hired a long time ago (with good justification, I might add). A consequence of that is government can tell you who you can't hire. It only becomes more so when tax dollars are at stake.

I do agree it is a swipe at Hyde Park liberals. It's a good one, too. ;-)

And does the state have better things to do? Yes. However, there is plenty passed in Springfield with little to no debate and we let them get away with it all the time.

Re: 5th District roundup

Greg — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:55:23 -0000

I love these 5th CD posts. I learn so much about politics. There's but one item I can add, in response to Niles: as a loop young professional whose banker/attorney friends live in the district, I'm quite confident that none of my colleagues could name any of the contenders if you gave them a multiple choice test.

Re: Stimulus, schmimulus

Greg — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:13:05 -0000

There are nobel laureates on both sides of the stimulus. It's just that only one of them is commonly read by non-phds.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:30:47 -0000

Fuel taxes are by far the best option. We should consider a fuel tax that falls/rises as the underlying rises/falls.

Re: Quinn doesn’t like gas tax hike * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:18:00 -0000

Unlike most other taxes, we want and benefit from the gas tax's substitution effects. The tax has to depend on the usage of gas in order to create these incentives and achieve a price that reflects actual cost (govt support). If you want to rebate a portion of proceeds to people, fine, but the rebate could not be proportional to their gas usage without undermining the effect (eg, you could throw on a $2/gal tax and then distribute 75% of the proceeds equally among households.)

Re: Feigenholtz goes negative * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:28:03 -0000

Jerry,

You're embarrasing yourself, and you're making Bill look good. I don't think I've ever read such hotheaded comments--and in a special election primary, for God's sake. I assure you that your commentary does nothing but reduce support for your candidate and your union.

Re: Feigenholtz goes negative * UPDATED x1 *

Greg — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:30:25 -0000

Whoa, charter schools. First person to mention something that evil automatically loses the debate!

Re: Quinn won’t support limiting free senior transit rides

Greg — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:17:37 -0000

Absolutely, wordslinger. Annoying to be a graduate student on the NW metra line, sitting among the Barrington execs who save $10/day.

Re: Special elections by mail?

Greg — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:42:08 -0000

Oregon has had great success with vote by mail. Turnout is not much different, but everyone likes it. And although the two states have very different reputations for election integrity, I don't see how fraud would be more likely in one regime than the other.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:35:45 -0000

You could install a sort of affirmative action type of process: On the assumption that a certain class of people (relatives, in this case) has all sorts of advantages in obtaining the position over others, the selectors must interview and consider X number of non-relative candidates before making a decision.

Yeah, that's tounge and cheek. But only kinda.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:37:27 -0000

whoops, tongue in cheek

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:35:21 -0000

Of course. The requirements narrow the field of applicants. Each city wants to maximize the number of qualified applicants to its agencies, right?

Re: Rhetorical smoke placates headline writers

Greg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:52:15 -0000

I wouldn't say the income tax isn't more stable than the sales tax. Look at states with only income taxes--wild fluctuations.

Anyway, it's real easy. Economically, the solution is a serious hike in the gas tax, since its not burdened with dead weight loss issues and makes up for all sorts of externalities that produce real costs. Whether that's politically feasible or not, well that's for someone else to argue.

Re: Rhetorical smoke placates headline writers

Greg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:54:41 -0000

darn it, I mixed up my first sentence again. Will start reading my posts before sending.

Re: Rhetorical smoke placates headline writers

Greg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:16:07 -0000

Yeah, the last sentence was a joke. Alas, although it enjoys probably near-universal support among academics, I know it ain't gonna happen.

Re: Tax hikes coming * UPDATED x6 * Deficit now at $11.5 Billion * Blagojevich: I told you so * Quinn to skip pension payments ***

Greg — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:45:33 -0000

==Many economists believe that cuts are much more harmful in a recession than tax increases are. And voters are capable of understanding that, if it is messaged well and communicated well.==

huh?

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:42:23 -0000

I'll trade this for a camera in every Chicago politician's office, complete with one of those big boom microphones alongside it. And just like with the US/Mexico border, random citizens can log in and monitor for lawbreaking.

If they're not breaking the law, they have nothing to fear--isn't that how it goes?

Re: Big budget roundup

Greg — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:20:03 -0000

Hike income tax, sales tax holiday, no gas tax...I could not have dreamt up a budget with worse distortionary effects. I thought we wanted to encourage capital and labor, and discourage inefficient energy use. Stupid me.

Re: Bill Daley may be in uncomfortable position as Dan Hynes revs up

Greg — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:31:06 -0000

What's wrong with this writer? JPM took on Bear. That's what the govt wanted. Get a clue.

Re: Chicago’s toxic political brew

Greg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:59:26 -0000

From a revenue perspective, unfilled spots don't indicate non-maximized revenue. But the reverse is true: always-full parking strongly suggests underpricing. I don't know why one would see a "revolt" evidenced by unfilled spots...obviously the more you underprice a good, the more it will be consumed.

But I guess many people want government pursuing goals other than revenue maximization from parking.

Re: The middle class, tax hikes and the GOP

Greg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:51:02 -0000

--And he wants to reimpose the uptick rule, which bans the short sale of borrowed stocks or bonds.--

No. The uptick rule allows for shorting only when a stock price is higher than the last tick that differed from the current price.

As for my opinion on the uptick rule, it could not have less to do with what's happened. It's a complete inefficiency added by people who have no idea what they're talking about, like Kirk or the writer. And if we add the uptick rule, we might as well add a downtick rule, which would ban buying unless the stock is falling.

It's beyond scary that people who can't grasp the uptick rule are determining mark to market rules.

Re: The middle class, tax hikes and the GOP

Greg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:04:30 -0000

One Man,

You're better than that. I mean, the inheritance tax is controversial, but the uptick rule is plain ridiculous. It sounds good to people like Wayne, who assume that everying on an exchange is a scam.

Re: The middle class, tax hikes and the GOP

Greg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:09:39 -0000

Clearly,

I only wish traders could make money so easily.

Re: The middle class, tax hikes and the GOP

Greg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:42:46 -0000

Oh lordy Bill, I agree 100% about the consumption tax. And its incentives are more aligned with what the US generally needs. But how will everyone react when Buffet and Gates's effective tax rates are .0001%?

Also, lest my trader stuff be mistaken for stock optimism, let me make an important point about the so-called long run historical average, borrowed partially from Nasim Taleb: This is an average performance of one country during one period. Oh, and that country and period happens to include the greatest advancement of propersity in the history of the world.

Re: Tribune urges prayer against Stroger proposal

Greg — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:21:19 -0000

Lots of non-religious uses for "pray" as a verb. Plaintiffs pray for relief, right?

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:04:06 -0000

Yes. If we wanted to exempt the poor, then we'd have a means-tested exemption, not a source-based exemption. It's completely arbitrary, and doesn't create any needed incentives that might otherwise justify an arbitrary or "unfair" tax.

We might as well exempt from our income tax all gains from stocks that begin with letters A-F.

Re: Group: Raise income taxes for pensions

Greg — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:48:47 -0000

This debate is too anecdotal, since everyone's utility varies. It's also too narrow: I'd worry more about how higher taxes affect incentives, and thus decisions, among Illinois residents than I would about the number of people who will flee to WA, TX, FL, NH, etc.

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:26:42 -0000

To be honest, I get the "ick" reaction. And while I'm not ashamed that I get that feeling, I try hard to not let it guide my gay marriage stance. I think that's critical to my general libertarian approach--that despite people's ickiness surrounding a given issue (say, prostitution or trans fats), we give deference to individual liberty unless presented with a darn good reason not to.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Greg — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:06:32 -0000

There are a whole lot of people, places, things, and ideas that most Americans couldn't identify, yet still have an important effect on their decision-making and lives.

Ultimately government receipts as a portion of gdp has a tremendous effect, whether regular Joes can describe the rates and rate changes or not.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Greg — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:07:46 -0000

Not that my observation affects the politics of tax changes...

Re: This just in…

Greg — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:54:10 -0000

I'll tell you what, these tea bag jokes never get old!

Re: Question of the day

Greg — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:34:21 -0000

Reading this excerpt gives me GMAT deja vu for the reasons wordslinger mentioned. It's like it was deliberately designed for us to analyze its obvious defects and unstated assumptions.

Even if his argument had merit, I wouldn't expect a ban to redirect spending toward those areas the professor finds more useful (even though spending is most efficiently allocated by the individual consumer, rather than planners.) I guess if one believes the drug laws are pretty effective, then maybe we should adopt this.

Re: Bad news for Giannoulias

Greg — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:15:59 -0000

If that 29% core bond figure is true, then it beats me why anyone with a vague idea of normal investment grade returns wouldn't have immediately questioned the fund's allocation.

AA- you should be pointing out that the higher the return during the run-up, the dumber the treasurer's office looks.

I know how my boss would react to that: "We'll keep the return, but you're fired for bs'ing the risk."

Re: Widespread panic

Greg — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:28:53 -0000

I prefer nonstop swine flu to nonstop susan boyle.

Re: This just in…

Greg — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:51:21 -0000

I don't know much about state politicians--hence my readership--but how embarrassed is the average legislator of this system? I would feel ridiculous for being paid to participate in such a charade.

Re: * UPDATED x3 * Stroger: Tax rollback “dangerously responsible”

Greg — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:53:03 -0000

In Stroger's defense, he probably understood the host's question to be about vitro, rather than veto...could happen to any of us

Re: Governor Quinn’s full “slash and burn” explanation

Greg — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:30:20 -0000

"the majority of the tax increase goes back into the economy. The services, salaries etc are contribute to the economy. This small increase puts billions and billions back into play in the economy. So the tax increase will actualte help the ecnomy, stimulate reveunes, and create buisness opportunity instead of killing it."

I don't know where to start. But I think you may have pushed your supply and demand curves in the wrong direction; that big old triangle is loss, not magic gain. Govt spending can stimulate the economy (obviously at the expense of higher future debt payments) but that's entirely separate from what's facing Illinois.

If we think a tax increase is necessary for social/moral/stability/etc reasons, fine--it may well be--but don't add tortured economic logic.

Re: Sneed: Kennedy is in

Greg — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:54:37 -0000

I just cannot see the President getting involved and choosing sides in a Democratic primary. He has far too much respect for the voters to preempt them by anointing a successor, even a basketball buddy.

Re: Afternoon Leadership Meeting Update

Greg — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:57:56 -0000

Ghost, to not appropriate money is not equivalent to "taking it out of the economy." It's not as if the govt's multiplier exceeds the private sector's.

This isn't to say that some people won't be hurt (and some benefit) if state govt is halved, but your economic conclusion is baseless.

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