The Undomiciled Sophisticate

2009-01-07T20:44:00.001-06:00

2009-01-07T20:41:00.000-06:00

check me out on tumblr

2008-12-18T18:42:00.003-06:00

i'm trying something new (for me) over on tumblr. Here at ensanguination lay humor and lightheartedness, here at exsanguination lay dark humor, politics, news, and other depressing shit. Choose your mood!

i'm hoping to make it so that any of these url's will lead easily to the same content, but we shall see.

hartman on smoking

2008-12-14T10:51:00.000-06:00

Talk about a backfire.

2008-12-13T15:01:00.003-06:00

Study Reports Anal Sex on Rise Among Teens
Lack of Sex Education, Virginity Pledges, Ignorance Contribute to Risky Behavior
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

Dec. 10, 2008 —

Carry -- a Colorado college student who had been in a steady relationship for months -- was recently cajoled by her boyfriend into some sexual experimentation.

He wanted to try anal sex, and even though the 20-year-old said she was "OK with the idea," she nervously downed several drinks before their lovemaking began.

Within 15 seconds, Carry -- not her real name -- said she was "crying and asking him to stop."

They never did it again. But experts say that as social mores ease, more young heterosexuals are engaging in anal sex, a behavior once rarely mentioned in polite circles. And the experimentation, they worry, may be linked to the current increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

Recently, researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center in Rhode Island suggested that anal sex is on the rise among teens and young adults, particularly those who have unprotected vaginal sex.

Experts say girls and young women like Carry are often persuaded to try such sexual behavior for the wrong reasons -- to please a partner, to have sex without the risk of pregnancy or to preserve their virginity. But many don't understand the health consequences.

"It really is shocking how many myths young people have about anal sex," said Judy Kuriansky, a Columbia University professor and author of "Sexuality Education: Past Present and Future."

"They don't think you can get a disease from it because you're not having intercourse," she told ABCNews.com. "They can actually recite by rote how you get AIDS, but it doesn't transfer to their personal behavior."

The study included a comprehensive questionnaire about adolescent sexual and other risk behaviors. The participants self-reported their answers, which scientists say can skew the results in this type of study. To compensate, researchers used audio computer-assisted self -interview technology, allowing participants to enter their responses directly into a computer, rather than having to report to an interviewer.

"Given the subject matter, it is likely that the numbers reported may actually be an underestimate of the prevalence of these behaviors," said Celia Lescano of Brown University, the Bradley Hasbro study's lead author.

More than one-third of new HIV infections in the United States occur among people between the ages of 13 and 29 and can be attributed to the mind-set among youth that they are not at risk of contracting the virus, according to the Kaiser Foundation.
Young Women at Risk

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also report that young women, especially those of minority races or ethnicities, are increasingly at risk for HIV infection through heterosexual contact. They are biologically vulnerable, don't recognize their partners' risk factors and are often unequal in relationships.

And when women engage in anal sex, tissue may tear, more readily causing direct blood exposure to infected fluids.

"There is no doubt that teens lack information about STDs and the safety of different behaviors and they they are engaging in more sexual experimentation," Lescano told ABCNews.com.

"That is why studies like these are so important to conduct," she said. "We need to know what teens do and do not know, what behaviors they are engaging in, and what information we need to provide to them so that they can make decisions that will help protect their sexual health."

Even though the topic of anal sex is often considered taboo, Lescano urges "open discussion" of its consequences in doctor's offices, within sexual relationships and with parents.

Anecdotally, young adults confirm the reports of a rise in anal sex, including the perception that it is safe.

"I know some teens who did it just to try, and some who didn't have a condom available," said one 18-year-old Californian who did not want her name used.

"I think that it's less taboo simply because people are more open to trying new things," said her 23-year-old sister. "The younger crowd might be scared by the idea of getting pregnant, so they assume it's safer."

"It takes a great amount of trust to try something new with somebody that you may or may not like," she said. "I'd consider it if there was a ring on my finger. Otherwise, I feel I'd be losing some of my dignity as a woman."

One recent graduate of a New England college said one of her classmates was a "hard-core" Catholic who was rumored to have engaged in risky behavior.

"She only had anal sex with her boyfriend until they were married because that technically kept her a virgin," said the 25-year-old who wanted to remain anonymous.

Indeed, another well-publicized 2005 study using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health found that teenagers who take "virginity pledges" were more likely to engage in oral or anal sex than nonpledging teens and less likely to use condoms once they became sexually active.
STDs Same for Pledgers, Nonpledgers

Conducted by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, the study found that although teens who made the pledges had sex later than those who had not pledged and had fewer partners overall, both groups had similar rates of sexually transmitted diseases.

In the Hasbro study, females who had anal sex were more likely to be living with their partners, to have two or more sexual partners and to have previously experienced coerced intercourse. Males who engaged in this behavior were more likely to identify themselves as being homosexual, bisexual or undecided.

"These findings suggest that the factors associated with anal intercourse among females in the study relate to the context and power balance of sexual relationships," Lescano said. "We must teach teen girls and young women how to be assertive in sexual relationships, such as refusing unwanted sexual acts and negotiating for safer sex, whether it's anal or vaginal."

Megan Carpentier, who writes about politics and women for Jezebel.com, said girls negotiating with boys for their attention is as old as time.

"Young women are concerned as much about being liked and loved as getting pleasure out of sex," Carpentier, 31, told ABCNews.com. "It certainly was going on when I was in high school: 'Do this if you love me.'"

"Putting it out there -- either oral or anal -- is not a consolation prize," she said. "You are giving up something."

Carpentier said the dismantling of comprehensive sex education programs in the public schools is to blame for teen ignorance about the hazards of anal sex. And it is unrealistic to expect doctors to talk to teens about this touchy topic.

"How many times do teens go to a pediatrician, not a gynecologist?" she said. "And when I was 18, my mother was still in the room."

According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, rising rates of anal sex among teens is reflected in the general adult population where anal sex rates have doubled since 1995.

"Somewhere around 2004-2005 an overused, initially funny and hard-to-attribute quote proclaimed that 'anal sex is the new black,'" wrote sexuality educator Cory Silverberg on About.com.
Pornography Fuels Sexual Interest

Anal sex statistics indicate that a generational change has occurred, where people born in the 1980s and later may be more comfortable admitting to or showing interest in anal sex. Silverberg attributes interest in the behavior among heterosexuals, in part, to the proliferation of pornography in the 1990s.

"I have been having sex for only 12 years, so I don't know if it was just something I didn't talk about when younger," said Tracie Egan, 29, who writes about sex and pop culture for Jezebel.com.

As with other sex trends, girls are more open to experimentation because pornography has become so easily accessible on Web sites like XTube and YouPorn, she said.

"Porn makes people more adventurous with their sex acts," Egan said. "Anal sex is sort of always considered the last frontier, pushing the envelope."

Raised in the 1990s, Egan was exposed to sex-laden MTV, documentaries on gay lifestyles and television shows like "Sex and the City."

"We were raised in a different way," she said. Girls of her generation, the so-called third wave of feminism, she said, were able to have sex with multiple partners and could detach themselves "socially and emotionally."

Still, Egan said that when she had anal sex with a boyfriend for the first time at 26, she was drunk, used no condom -- they were monogamous -- and didn't even know how to clean herself.

"Lack of sex education in school is really bothersome to me," she said. "Even I don't know about a lot of the biological issues."

Columbia's Kuriansky, author of "Generation Sex," has been hearing questions about anal sex from her college students for at least a decade. "Is anything wrong with having anal sex?" is the most common one.

"No," she tells them. "Except if you're forced into it or can't enjoy sex any other way."

Another question she often hears is: "If I want it, or like it, does it mean I'm gay?"

"Not necessarily," she answers.

Girls Now Express Interest in Anal Sex

What's changed in this decade is girls are now expressing an interest. "On college campuses it's escalated," Kuriansky said. "There's more talk, more books, more videos."

One speaker on the college circuit -- Tristan Taormino, author of "The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women" -- is gaining new ground with young women.

But, Kuriansky said, with fewer educational media outlets and less sex education, young girls are clueless about hygiene, possible bladder or vaginal infections and life-threatening diseases like AIDS.

"We are more open, but there's less information," Kuriansky said. "There are real myths and real efforts to be cool and people running around saying how great it is."

"But it's not just rubbing elbows," she said. "Anal sex is a serious public problem."

Prop 8 - The Musical

2008-12-03T18:06:00.001-06:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

World of Warcraft vs. My Girlfriend

2008-12-03T14:32:00.001-06:00

from McSweeney's:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT VS. MY GIRLFRIEND.
BY TYLER CURRY

I've had a lot of time to think about our last conversation, particularly since you ended it by ramming a keyboard through my monitor. I understand that we were both upset at the time and perhaps we said some things we didn't mean. Well, maybe you more than me, considering I mostly just listened to you shriek and cowered in the corner.

I do not think I am, as you so eloquently screamed, "addicted to World of Warcraft." I have, however, made a number of unfortunate mistakes, for which I would like to apologize.

I'm sorry I was so late picking you up from the library. I didn't know they locked the doors at 8, and I'm sorry you had to stand outside alone for two hours. If it makes you feel better, despite its reputation to the contrary, that portion of the city does not have a violent-crime rate significantly above the national average.

You have to consider the position I was in. I was healing for a party with five players in it, all of whom were counting on me to help them defeat Mekgineer Thermaplugg and liberate the Gnomish city of Gnomeregan. Those are the needs of five people, in contrast to just yours, alone. (Note that I'm not even counting the needs of the Gnomish people here, Ashley.) As Spock once famously said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one." You were that one.

Had I looked outside and noticed the freezing rain, I may have made a different decision. Probably not, though.

I'm also sorry I posted those pictures of you on my guild forums, the ones I took when you were passed out. I had no idea they could Photoshop your bra off. That was poor judgment on my part, and I freely admit it. I also should have told you before the chain letter went out. On the bright side, you hated working there anyway.

I also have some things to say that I think you should hear, and, since you forgot to pause long enough for me to speak before your charming little bout of property damage and subsequent stormy departure, I would like to say them now.

Ashley, you have never been willing to accommodate my World of Warcraft needs, or even to compromise the slightest bit.

Last month, when your mother was in a car accident, you called and not only demanded I drive you to the hospital but insisted I stay there to provide "emotional support"—despite knowing full well that I had booked that evening off to fight forest trolls in Zul'Aman. When I suggested you take a cab and that I join you in three to four hours, you unleashed a string of expletives that even my therapist found disturbing. You also refused to wait until we finished off the eagle boss, the one who drops the helm piece I have been trying to get for months.

For the record, she turned out fine anyway. Many paraplegics lead rich and rewarding lives.

Also, what you stumbled upon me doing with that Level 64 blood elf in the back room of the Silvermoon City Inn was neither "sick and perverted" nor "cheating on you." We were role-playing. That I called you by her character's name later that evening was just a weird coincidence. I do not wish your body looked like that. You and I both know that it's physically impossible for humans to have those proportions, at least while retaining all of their internal organs.

However, in the midst of your raging diatribe, sandwiched between the curses and the flailing limbs, you made some very good points. In fact, the words you spoke about commitment, loyalty, and "being there when someone needs you" have sort of inspired me.

Ashley, when I gave you that ring and pledged to spend my life with you, what I didn't mention was that, eight months prior, in the Level 10 quest "For the Horde," I had already pledged eternal fealty and service to Warchief Thrall.

Now, with the gates of Ahn'Qiraj opening and the threat of the Silithid invasion looming over Azeroth, the call has gone out for all able-bodied members of the horde to band together in the great war effort. An event like this only happens once in a server's life, and I cannot honorably abandon my online brethren in this hour of need. I understand that you need me to be there for you, but, Ashley, the truth is, right now, the horde just needs me more.

lunch

2008-12-03T10:52:00.002-06:00

again, reddit makes me lazy.

tom waits on the daily show

2008-12-01T08:49:00.000-06:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Tom Waits

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Marijuana Nation

2008-11-27T05:36:00.004-06:00

this is a new show coming out on National Geographic about the war on marijuana users. the interesting thing she points out here is the 'military hardware' being used to wage it, as though you can lock up millions of people without having to be violently oppressive. on the flipside, if we tax marijuana now, maybe that money could help save the economy that bush and the rest of the drunks ~~have pillaged~~ are pillaging.

atlantis hotel dubai fireworks display

2008-11-24T08:26:00.001-06:00

just a tad ostentatious.

anti-prop-8 billboard

2008-11-23T03:41:00.002-06:00

cruise ship in high seas

2008-11-22T11:54:00.002-06:00

Never get on the boat.

Skip to 1:30 and 5:30 for the epic failure in forethought.

edmonton police dash cam video of a meteor

2008-11-21T14:20:00.001-06:00

grammar fail

2008-11-20T15:31:00.002-06:00

from the 'hood:
Interestingly, it kinda looks like the sign was professionally made, like from a template. "Professionally."

roasted raccoon

2008-11-19T15:37:00.003-06:00

from gourmet magazine:

Roasted Raccoon
The Way We Cooked: Vintage Gourmet
October 1950

Skin and carefully clean a young raccoon, removing the kernels from the small of the back. Hang it for several frosty nights in the open air. When ready to cook, parboil for 1 hour in salted water with 1 onion stuck with 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf, 2 pods chili pepper seeds and veins removed, and 1 carrot, sliced. Bake the raccoon as for roasted opossum and garnish with candied yam.

you know, as for roasted possum.

motha fuckin' chili time

2008-11-19T13:59:00.002-06:00

As far as I can recall, this is the first chili I have ever made solo. Although, I did lots of shit during my whiskey days that aren't exactly fresh in my mind. Regardless, there are 6 kinds of peppers with pork and ground sirloin and some random bean mixture, and despite not having a recipe, add time to the above ingredients and it smells pretty hard to fuck up.

Did I mention its fucking ball-shriveling cold outside?

bunch of rocks

2008-11-17T08:25:00.002-06:00

Reddit makes this shit too easy.

dmx - aint no sunshine

2008-11-15T12:55:00.003-06:00

Steven Segal's cameo in the video is ~~an added bonus.~~ unfortunate.

bill withers - aint no sunshine

2008-11-15T12:43:00.000-06:00

the other bacon

2008-11-15T09:10:00.002-06:00

Although the roads to human power and to human knowledge lie close together, and are nearly the same, nevertheless on account of the pernicious and inveterate habit of dwelling on abstractions, it is safer to begin and raise the sciences from those foundations which have relation to practice, and to let the active part itself be as the seal which prints and determines the contemplative counterpart.

–Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, bk ii, aph iv (1620) in: The Works of Francis Bacon vol. 1, p. 169 (Spedding ed. 1877)

stoled from harper's

church sign wars - free dog souls with conversion

2008-11-12T08:12:00.008-06:00

link

Google Flu Trends

2008-11-12T05:56:00.003-06:00

Fascinating. Google has developed a new tool called 'Google Flu Trends' which they say is capable of identifying influenza outbreaks 7-10 days before the CDC based on the aggregate search data for symptoms. That is some cool shit, but it really just reminds me of the 'terrorism market' to predict major world events based on letting people wager on the outcome of news results, which was potentially much cooler.

qotm

2008-11-11T16:30:00.002-06:00

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

- Oscar Wilde

at the cottage of messer violi

2008-11-10T08:25:00.002-06:00

this guy, paul violi, was a professor of mine back at NYU. I like his style.

Paul Violi

At the Cottage of Messer Violi

The mailbox, painted dark blue,
sits atop a tilted cedar post.
It has a little red flag on one side
and it is altogether remarkable.

The Toyota in the driveway
is very old and is said
to have come from Japan.

There is in the hallway
an immense dogfood bowl.
It is made of iridescent pink plastic.
It is, as I have said, immense
and it is hideous.

In the kitchenette is a statuette
of Ceres, Goddes of Wheaties.

The dishwasher is a Kenmore
and altogether worthy of praise.

In the foyer the over-sized painting
of a porkchop provides
visitors many opportunities
for conversation.

In the servants' quarters
there are many impressive works
that stress the imminence of death
and the probability of hell fire.

Placed on the broad maplewood table
beside bottles of cognac
there is a recording device
with a silver megaphone
into which natives are often
invited to shout
the oral histories of their people.

We whose hearts have been gripped
by life, scoff at the idea of art
as mere ornamentation: So they
seem to proclaim,
the three statues that adorn
the neighbor's lawn, plaster deer
with real bulletholes in them.

obama acceptance speech time lapse

2008-11-07T03:18:00.001-06:00

Edit: decided to link it instead, the embed code is flawed. Worth the jump.

colbert weeps

2008-11-06T01:53:00.000-06:00

world reacts to obama victory

2008-11-05T11:51:00.002-06:00

link

World reacts to Obama's victory

Obama's victory was celebrated around the world, and not just by Americans [AFP]

Barack Obama: [To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, congratulated Obama on his US election victory, saying it took the world into a "new era".

However, Karzai said Obama should aim to prevent civilians in Afghanistan from being killed and injured by the US military.

"Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," Karzai said.

"This is my first demand of the new president of the United States - to put an end to civilian casualties."

Iraq

Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said Washington would not adopt a "quick disengagement" policy with Baghdad under the presidency of Barack Obama as a "great deal is at stake here".

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Zebari said: "I think it [Obama's election] was a major, major change ... although as far as Iraq is concerned I don't believe there will be any changes overnight. And there won't be any immediate disengagement because a great deal is at stake for everybody.

"I don't think there is much difference between the Iraqi government position and President-elect Obama's. He is contemplating withdrawing US forces within 16 months. We may have some difficulties with that time-line, but we also, in the status of forces agreement, set the date of 2011 as the date for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. So really the differences are not very wide."

Pakistan

Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, congratulated Obama on his victory, saying he hoped the Democrat would promote "peace and stability" in the region around Afghanistan.

"I hope that under your dynamic leadership, [the] United States will continue to be a source of global peace and new ideas for humanity," he said in a statement, directed at Obama.

"I look forward to more opportunities to discuss ways to further strengthen Pakistan-US relations and to promote peace and stability in our region and beyond."

Obama has riled Islamabad in the past, pledging that the US under his leadership would "take out" al-Qaeda and Taliban bases in Pakistan.

Palestinian Territories

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, congratulated Obama and urged him to speed up efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

"President Abbas congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama in his name and in the name of the Palestinian people and hopes he will speed up efforts to achieve peace, particularly since a resolution of the Palestinian problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict is key to world peace," Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas's spokesman, said.

"President Abbas hopes the new administration will continue to make the peace efforts one of its top priorities."

Meanwhile, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, urged Obama to learn from the "mistakes" of previous US administrations in dealing with the Muslim and Arab worlds.

"He must learn from the mistakes of the previous administrations, including that of Bush which has destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine," said Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman.

"He must improve US ties with the rest of the world rather than wave the big American stick.

"We want him to support the Palestinian cause or at least not to be biased towards the Israeli occupation. We have no problem establishing normal relations with the United States to explain our just cause."

Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas senior political member, hailed the vote as historic.

"We [Hamas] do believe that if America's political equilibrium is to be restored, this political election should be the turning point.

We hope that Obama will address the Palestinian issue in a fair and honest way. The Palestinian question is the mother of all issues in the region – it concerns 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world.

"During the political campaign in the US, people used a lot of rhetoric … Obama said a lot of things to please the Jewish community, looking for their votes and money. We understand that. But all that rhetoric will be changed because looking at the list of Obama's advisers, I believe that they have a better understanding of the conflict in the region."

Israel

Israeli-US relations face "a bright future", Ygal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said in reaction to Obama's election to the White House.

"Israelis congratulate the two great friends of Israel, John McCain for his great campaign, Barack Obama for his historic victory.

"We are certain that Israeli-American friendship faces a bright future."

Tzipi Livni, leader of the ruling Kadima party, recalled Obama's visit to Israel in July and said that "the people of Israel felt he [Obama] is a man who is deeply committed to Israel's security and peace".

"Israel hopes to pursue close strategic cooperation with the new administration and the new US president, and hopes to further tighten the unshakeable ties between our two countries," she said.

Iran

Iran's official news agency quoted a leading politician as saying that Obama's election win was a rejection of the policies of George Bush, the current US president.

"Obama's victory is... evidence that Bush's policies have failed," Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said, according to IRNA.

"Americans have no option but to change their policies to save themselves from the quagmire Bush has created for them."

The government daily newspaper Iran said in an editorial on Wednesday that McCain's failure to take the presidency lay with Bush.

"Defeat for the Republicans is the price they pay for Bush's strategic and tactical blunders," the newspaper said.

Mohammad Hasan Aboutorabi-Fard, Iran's deputy parliament speaker, called on Obama to make good on his promises to bring change.

"Obama is expected to learn from Bush's failed policies and correct America's wrong policies in the Middle East," IRNA quoted him as saying.

latest obama ad

2008-11-02T13:17:00.000-06:00

Pretty good stuff.

prank call to Sarah Palin

2008-11-01T17:48:00.004-06:00

This counts as funny enough to post for sure. OMFG! Sarah Palin gets nailed by a Montreal radio team. Topics covered: "the documentary Nailin' Palin'," killing little animals from a helicopter, Carla Bruni is so hot in bed, you can see Belgium from his house.

Brilliant. So good, that I almost feel embarrassed for her. Almost.

if it's in the bible

2008-10-31T09:51:00.002-06:00

god bless german teachers, and hungarian administrators

2008-10-31T02:03:00.007-06:00

I, really, am just happy this kind of sexual frivolity is out in the open. Its when people try to hide the fact that they are sexual beings that real perversions come to the surface: a German teacher in Hungary strip-teased for a class party, and got to keep her job (link, with video):

FURIOUS parents have called for a saucy teacher to be sacked after she put on a saucy strip show for her 15-year-old pupils.

The German minx was supposed to be supervising a start of term party.

But things got out of hand as the pretty teacher put on her own s-extracarricular activities for the teen pupils.

She seductively stripped down to her underwear – to the joy of her howling students.

And she only stopped her X-rated High School musical when another teacher forced her to cover up.

But one goggle-eyed pupil filmed the show on his mobile phone.

The teacher is seen peeling off her top to reveal her bra and then starts to undo the zip of her trousers before another lecturer covers her in a tablecloth.

"It is disgusting. What kind of teacher acts that way in front of her pupils. She should be in a lap dancing bar, not a school," said one angry parent.

"The children were playing truth or dare and making bigger and bigger dares for each other and she decided to join in.

"When they dared her to do some pole dancing she just started taking off her clothes. She's a pretty woman in her 20s and the children couldn't believe their luck.

"The worst thing is that teachers weren't even supposed to be taking part in the party - they were supposed to be supervising it [is that really 'the worst thing?']," they added.

But the school's headmaster in Zalaegerszeg, western Hungary, has refused to sack the unnamed mistress despite pressure from parents and other teachers.

"I was forced to give the German teacher a warning, but I will not dismiss her because she is a valuable teacher for our institution," said head Sandor Rozman.

He claimed she had shown no more flesh "than you would see on a beach."

You see, FORCED to give her a warning! Up to him, he would have tossed in a few deutschmarks, sly old fox.

Colbert on Obama

2008-10-30T10:00:00.001-06:00

Colbert has a running exemption to the politics ban.

current events

2008-10-29T20:01:00.004-06:00

1) Gretchen and I are moving (together, for those who are wondering) to Manhattan. Our rent is paid through February, which will be the end of our Brooklyn experiment. Aside from being general outcasts in our neighborhood, the five or so kids hanging out on the stoop today--at an impromptu shrine to their friend that was killed last year--challenging each other to 'do something with that gun' was the straw that broke the camel's back.

2) We are moving somewhere that will show up here.

3) The contractions in the media seem to make most people in it nervous. They should be. IMHO, most of the content that has been coming out for the past many decades has been gradually devolving into the Wolf Blitzer-style soul-selling death spiral that we see now. These are the same goddamn people who are supposed to protect the public interest, why shouldn't they be held accountable for the mess we're in? I, not being a part of it yet, am not so worried. Fresh voices will, by necessity, fill the gap.

4) There was something else I was going to put here, but for my life I can't recall what it was.

mushrooms and onion.

2008-10-29T10:43:00.003-06:00

I don't know why, but I love this picture. It later became mushroom soup.

every music video ever?

2008-10-29T10:27:00.003-06:00

Viacom's flagship MTV has started a new site, MTV Music, which claims to hold "every music video ever." Pretty crazy shit. And you can even embed them!

Queen |MTV Music

Edit: I should have figured this, but apparently its every commercial music video ever. I have yet to find any of the underground artists on there, even though I have seen their videos on MTV in the past. Oh well.

historical political advertising archive

2008-10-29T10:00:00.003-06:00

for both the political geek and the advertising geek, comes "The Living Room Candidate," political advertising from 1952 - 2008. Some of this stuff is pure gold. My favorite so far is this 1976 Gerald Ford ad. I mean, who knew people in 70's outfits could take themselves so seriously? I always figured everyone was running around, smoking shwag and snortin' blow while dancing to Gloria Gaynor. Like Starsky and Hutch and shit.

worst set of economic indicators since the depression

2008-10-29T09:58:00.000-06:00

from bloomberg:

Mortimer Zuckerman, co-founder of Boston Properties Inc., the largest U.S. office real estate investment trust, said the U.S. economy is in a recession and there's no sign of a recovery.

``We are looking at the worst set of macroeconomic conditions since the Great Depression,'' Zuckerman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``I don't know where the bottom is. The federal government's going to have to do a lot more to contain what I think is the potential of a perfect storm.''

Employers are cutting jobs and demand for housing is tumbling. On March 7, the Labor Department said payrolls fell by 63,000 in February, the most in five years, after a revised decline of 22,000 in January.

U.S. economic growth slowed to a 0.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2007 from a 4.4 percent rate in the prior six months, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The share of economists in a monthly Bloomberg News survey predicting a recession rose to 50 percent in February from 40 percent in January.

``The most dangerous part in my judgment is what is going on in the housing world, where we're now running foreclosures at the rate of 2 million a year, where 9 million homes, according to the government, just slightly under 9 million homes, have either no equity in them or negative equity,'' he said.

``That will go up to 15 million if housing prices continue to go down this year as they've done last year,'' Zuckerman added.

``We are clearly heading down. We are in a recession even if it's not technically a recession. The February unemployment numbers were terrible,'' he said.

my recalcitrant sphincter submits to reason

2008-10-28T21:28:00.006-06:00

This blog was never intended to be mostly political. In fact, politics depress the living fuck out of me, especially with the--however unlikely--prospect of Sarah Palin, one of the single dumbest fucking people--see, I'm not sexist--on the fucking planet, coming within a hair-trigger-heart's distance of the Great Throne.

It is so bad, that it must, out of absolutely irrefutable necessity, be discussed. It must be analyzed to every last goddamn depressing detail. But I have come to realize recently, I am not going to be the one to change a fucking thing, at least not this election cycle.

So distraught with the state of affairs am I, that I made a list of what it will take before I even consider getting neck deep into politics again: legalizing marijuana, removing us from Iraq, stopping the degradation of African politics, feeding and providing health care to the world, killing Usama bin Laden (Usama is what the fucking FBI calls him in their wanted posters, so I'll take that as official), prosecuting the Bush administration for Guantanamo and extraordinary renditions, and Obama shooting a perpetual technicolor rainbow out of his ass for the next four years. Oh, and Obama has to survive to become an old man.

I think I can reasonably hope for none of those things to happen. The permanent bases being built in Iraq are called 'permanent bases' for a reason. Decriminalizing marijuana, if done poorly, could unleash 600,000 people (fucking criminals!) from the federal system alone onto our streets, the mere specter of which will prevent that very necessary legislation from ever seeing light. The rest of it, well: Fuck. Me.

So, I am shifting. I am no longer going to post the incredulous and shameful of our political season, unless it also happens to be so funny as to make hot coffee shoot out of my nose, in the evening, when I don't even drink coffee. Usually.

Putting this depressing shit behind us is what the country needs. More than we need what Obama has to offer, we need to be rid of Palin, McCain, Bush, Rove, Wolfowitz, Kissinger, and the rest of the baby-boomer fuckheads that have been allowed to live respectable lives at the cost of others' liberty for far too long. They all need to go.

But, what am I going to do? Too many shitheads want to tiptoe through the fucking tulips with these destroyers of life and democracy. I, myself, refuse to play the game, at least any longer. So much of my life has been squandered by giving these people the effort of thought and consideration. Never again.

So, if you will, check back for shit that isn't politics. And don't be shy about checking out my literary blog, ripshaw, for literary writings old and new, bad and good, but, obviously, not about politics. Unless its funny.

Your W-2G's are Showing

2008-10-28T09:51:00.003-06:00

A group wants John McCain to disclose his gambling winnings, which he hasn't done since at least 2000

The request by the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) cites several media reports describing McCain as an avid, high-stakes gambler. The group questions why the Arizona senator has not included any gambling winnings on his disclosure forms.

“Given Sen. McCain’s history of gambling on a regular basis over many years, it is nearly impossible to imagine that he never won over $200, the amount that triggers the reporting requirement,” wrote CREW executive director Melanie Sloan.

The complaint notes that none of his financial disclosure forms between 2000 and 2007 list any winnings, while other lawmakers, such as Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), did note winnings on their forms. Gregg won $800,000 in lottery awards in 2005, while Boehner won $2,700 from slot machines and Kanjorski won $19,500.

The complaint, sent to committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and vice chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), asks for a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice if the ethics panel finds evidence of guilt.

Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), recently released from prison, was tripped up by reporting false disclosure forms. Ney admitted to doing favors to businessmen who had given him $50,000 in gambling chips for use in private casinos. Ney admitted in plea documents that he intentionally concealed the gifts, partly by filing false disclosure forms.

I mean, I'm fucking broke, and even I have won more than $200 gambling in one sitting this year. If my wife was worth a couple-hundred mil, you can rest assured that the stakes would be a hell of a lot higher than that.

marjiuana law reform - for mexico

2008-10-28T09:42:00.003-06:00

The United States Drug Czar John Walters has come down in favor of Mexican proposals to decriminalize marijuana posession for personal use:

On Oct. 22, The New York Times reported Walters’ public support for a drug decriminalization proposal by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, quoting Walters as saying, “I don’t think that’s legalization.” Under Calderon’s proposal, individuals caught with small quantities of marijuana would receive no jail sentence or fine and would not receive a criminal record so long as they complete either drug education or, if addicted, drug treatment. Unlike proposals supported by MPP, the Mexican president’s proposal would also decriminalize possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.

“It’s fantastic that John Walters has recognized the massive destruction the drug war has inflicted on Mexico and is now calling for reforms there, but he’s a rank hypocrite if he continues opposing similar reforms in the U.S.,” Kampia said. “The Mexican proposal is far more sweeping than MPP’s proposals to decriminalize marijuana or make marijuana medically available, both of which John Walters and his henchmen rail against.”

In a March 19, 2008, press release from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, deputy director Scott Burns called a New Hampshire proposal to impose a $200 fine rather than jail time for a small amount of marijuana “a dangerous first step toward complete drug legalization.”

Story. Marijuana Policy Project.

West Virginia Vote Flipping

2008-10-28T09:28:00.002-06:00

This video doesn't even get into network security, which is a whole 'nother level of clusterfuck, but its scary enough. Considering my dad still doesn't know how to connect his DVD player, I have a hard time figuring that the 50+ crowd will have the patience or understanding of touch-screen calibration needed to not get scammed. Wouldn't they look like fools coming out and having to ask if there's a problem? What if they have racist neighbors? WTF.

kangaroo parkour

2008-10-28T09:07:00.000-06:00

Ridiculous.

wassup' obama '08

2008-10-25T04:38:00.000-05:00

Dear Red States

2008-10-23T16:16:00.000-05:00

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot
Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

From reddit via craigslist. link.

Palin Rocks the Donkey (Scarf)

2008-10-22T11:53:00.005-05:00

Maybe she's thinking that if she switches parties now, she may have an ice cube's chance to win it all. Amazing that her handlers didn't say something, like, "uh, Sarah, that s a very cute scarf, but, maybe we should go with a color that hides your vacant stare a bit better?"

I'd love it if this thing turned out to be part of her $150,000 shopping spree. Or, if the money to buy it went to the DNC. That would mean that she supports terrorists.

McCain Couldn't Agree With Obama More

2008-10-22T08:42:00.001-05:00

Trainwreck of the year? Nah. Still good stuff tho.

rep. brad sherman - the bushies are threatening martial law

2008-10-21T17:32:00.002-05:00

from Robin. A link for whom I do not have. More on the end of America here.

quote of the year?

2008-10-20T10:53:00.005-05:00

""[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

- MN GOP Congress Woman Michele Bachmann

~~I think this makes her qualified only for teaching Sunday school.~~ Actually, Jesus wouldn't have died until, what, 1973 or so years ago? 2000-1973=Michele Bachmann is a fucking moron.

From treehugger

holy jesus - michele bachmann hardball trainwreck

2008-10-19T13:01:00.002-05:00

Matthews: "How many members of the United States Congress are anti-American?"

Bachmann: "Well you'd have to ask them."

$70Bn in bonuses and salary for the execs of three walls street firms

2008-10-17T18:08:00.002-05:00

Absolutely Outrageous.

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup will pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted widespread criticism. The government cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay will be curbed.

Pay plans for bankers have been disclosed in recent corporate statements. Pressure on the US firms to review preparations for annual bonuses increased yesterday when Germany's Deutsche Bank said many of its leading traders would join chief executive Josef Ackermann in waiving millions of euro in annual payouts.

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and - most controversially - bonuses appear to bear no relation to the heavy losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.

al-jazeera at mccain/palin rallies in ohio

2008-10-17T08:52:00.006-05:00

It is amazing that al-Jazeera is the only network I have seen give this embarrassment air time. Most of the world, in my experience, is racist. But these aren't rural Chinese peasants; these Ohio-ans squandered their unique opportunity to join the world community in favor of narrow-mindedness and Wonder Bread. Palin supporters must be the dumbest fucking people on earth. Then again, how smart would I be if, I too, spent my life jamming hangers up my nose to try and scratch out the constant smell of pig shit.

This is what a Palin-pusher looks like.

Obama's Alfred E. Smith Dinner Roast of McCain

2008-10-17T08:07:00.001-05:00

wall street journal poll has mccain winning 3rd debate in landslide.

2008-10-16T14:59:00.007-05:00

I couldn't help but notice the insanely skewed results of this WSJ poll. This proves at least one of three things: people who work in finance are fucking morons. They shouldn't be expected to be able to control a market without heavy regulation, let alone differentiate between the next leader of the free world and a crotchety septuagenarian barely held together by a heavy regiment of "herbal supplements" (i'm guessing cocaine and a mild barbiturate, which I think is a 'lo-ball', depending on where you're from); the journal is extensively read by the michelle-malkin-model hate-bloggers as the last vestige of the legitimate right (I mean, even Sarah Palin wouldn't cite Sean Hannity); the WSJ has bots skewing their poll results.

This pic is from yahoo news, i believe it has not been photoshopped. Also, this guy is on fucking drugs.

Trump: Bush impeachment would be a wonderful thing

2008-10-16T04:59:00.002-05:00

Also of note, Trump calls Wolf Blitzer "intelligent" and "young." 1/3 ain't so bad I guess.

Joe the Plumber - Uncut

2008-10-16T02:49:00.003-05:00

this guy sho' is famous. the only thing in this video the mccain camp could be latching on to is the fact that this Joe Wurzelbacher guy looks like their 'angry white-guy' demographic. But I guess its hard to get a clip of Obama that doesn't end in cheering.

anchorage paper lays into Palin

2008-10-14T17:25:00.002-05:00

Its good to know she's even losing fans in Alaska. link.

story:

The Anchorage Daily News' angry editorial today was topped with the headline: "Palin vindicated? Governor offers Orwellian spin." It opens: "Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

"She claims the report 'vindicates' her. She said that the investigation found 'no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.'

"Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian."

An excerpt follows.
*

In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That's the charitable interpretation.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn't claim "vindication" with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired."

In fact, the report concluded that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Palin's response is the kind of political "big lie" that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

How to get students in a dorm to vote.

2008-10-09T14:56:00.003-05:00

good stuff. link

credit to reddit.com, which is like digg, but better.

fellow prisoners?

2008-10-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

Some states drop two voters for every new registration

2008-10-09T13:01:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the "Help America Vote Act," more people are being removed from voter registration rolls than added, in a year when record numbers are registering. This means, doesn't it, that record numbers must be being removed, right? What a clusterfuck. We all know by now that any bill introduced under Bush/Cheney mean the opposite of what it says: The Patriot Act which violates our civil liberties, No Child Left Behind which leaves all American children left behind the rest of the world, and, the coup de gras, the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which, as you could guess, makes it quite difficult for people to vote.

States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and remove the names of voters who should no longer be listed; but for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows.

The six swing states seem to be in violation of federal law in two ways. Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote.

Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters.

In addition to the six swing states, three more states appear to be violating federal law. Alabama and Georgia seem to be improperly using Social Security information to screen registration applications from new voters. And Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of voters after the federal deadline for taking such action.

Of course, we all knew this would happen in Ohio. And with Diebold voting machines, it wouldn't be a shocker if McCain took the rust belt in a landslide.

Article.

oops!

2008-10-07T11:31:00.008-05:00

I don't know anything about this Jerome Corsi fellow, but he seems like the type that could benefit from unsupervised detention in a Kenyan prison--preferably with a 6'8" farmer named Mbutu doing 5-10 for violating cattle. Reason being, I'm guessing, just guessing, that his angle is rural white fear, pandering to those thinkin' this black guy will be--god forbid--good for Africa. Or that he's Muslim.

The Palinites seem to think we can be insular and isolated and elect someone with zero knowledge of and respect for the rest of the world. But I'm tellin' ya, that kind of thinking will get us all fucking killed. Or, even worse, prison raped.

McKeating: McCain, the Keating 5, and lessons McCain didn't learn

2008-10-06T14:15:00.002-05:00

Palin/Biden

2008-10-05T12:32:00.000-05:00

explaining Joe Biden, and a stat shot on the polls

2008-10-02T08:33:00.010-05:00

Click the images to enlarge.

I love a good stat shot:
Most notable, the 5-point plus swings to the left in Ohio and Florida, and 13-point swing in North Carolina and a whopping 18-point swing in Indiana towards Obama. If the GOP loses Indiana--home of the Klan--well, sufficed to say, I will celebrate. Jubilantly.

Also of note, CA, NY, and MA:

Obama has 12.6 and 13.6 fewer points than Gore did in 2000 in NY and MA, respectively. California shows Obama with 1.5 more points than Gore in 2000.

The delta shift between NY/MA and California from Gore in 2000 and Obama '08 is, therefore, 14.6-points. What demographic does that represent, exactly? My best guess is that 14.6-points is Northeastern organized labor, who would rather vote for any white guy if they can't have one in their own party. Enter, Senator Joe Biden; fan of women (authored and sponsored the Violence Against Women Act), pro-union Northeast (Delaware is on the Mason-Dixon, so he's not so northern as to be a Yank) Democrat.

Lastly, the disproportionate shift between voter intentions in CA v. the Nordeast can't be explained by Nader, since he received 4.1% in CA and 4% in NY.

iTunes 8.0 "Genius" side bar

2008-10-01T08:58:00.004-05:00

Wait, what?Um, how 'bout you go fuck yourself.

paul davidson - midnight rider

2008-10-01T07:40:00.002-05:00

pretty sure youtube wasn't quite designed with playing videos of spinning records in mind, but oh, what the hay.

the fundamentals of what economy, exactly, are strong again?

2008-09-29T14:35:00.005-05:00

Below is the one-year returns on major global equity indices:
I found it pretty interesting that, despite the Olympics and all, China's national newspaper Xin-Hua's index is down over %60. Canada's S&P and Mexico are off by the smallest numbers.

Commodities:
Energy:

Metals:

Ag. & Lumber:
Needless to say, energy companies are making a killing, and the Weyerhauser's and Cargill's of the world are doin' just fine themselves. Everyone else? You're fucked. Especially if you're the type that likes to eat, or whatever.

my new favorite politician: Marcy Kaptur, Democratic Rep. of Ohio

2008-09-28T01:11:00.001-05:00

cafferty on palin

2008-09-28T01:05:00.000-05:00

john dewey fo' that ass

2008-09-27T14:18:00.002-05:00

"Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis."

"Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind."

"The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs."

"To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness."

"Time and memory are true artists; they remould reality nearer to the heart's desire."

-John Dewey, yes, that John Dewey.

cities with a larger population than alaska

2008-09-27T13:39:00.005-05:00

1) New York, N.Y. 8,143,197
2) Los Angeles, Calif. 3,844,829
3) Chicago, Ill. 2,842,518
4) Houston, Tex. 2,016,582
5) Philadelphia, Pa. 1,463,281
6) Phoenix, Ariz. 1,461,575
7) San Antonio, Tex. 1,256,509
8) San Diego, Calif. 1,255,540
9) Dallas, Tex. 1,213,825
10) San Jose, Calif. 912,332
11) Detroit, Mich. 886,671
12) Indianapolis, Ind. 784,118
13) Jacksonville, Fla. 782,623
14) San Francisco, Calif. 739,426
15) Columbus, Ohio 730,657
16) Austin, Tex. 690,252
17) Memphis, Tenn. 672,277
18) Baltimore, Md. 635,815

Alaska 626,932

So, using the logic of the GOP, there are at least 18 mayors in this country with more political responsibility than Palin. And, if you look at the numbers by metropolitan area, Alaska ranks just above #82, the sprawling megalopolis of, wait for it: Greenville, South Carolina. What, you haven't heard of it? Me neither, except once on the food network in a show about Carolinian BBQ.

So much for experience. Not to mention the fact that she has only held the job for 21 months.

Besides, anyone that makes rape victims pay for their own examinations and rape-kits deserves to be brought out back and shot; and then field dressed, like a moose. Don't know who would be left to do it though, cause according to fred thompson, she is--without fear of contradiction--the expert on the matter.

sarah palin vlog #1

2008-09-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

i wonder how the markets will react

2008-09-26T05:19:00.001-05:00

China banks told to halt lending to US banks
Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:52pm EDT

BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

The Hong Kong newspaper cited unidentified industry sources as saying the instruction from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) applied to interbank lending of all currencies to U.S. banks but not to banks from other countries.

"The decree appears to be Beijing's first attempt to erect defences against the deepening U.S. financial meltdown after the mainland's major lenders reported billions of U.S. dollars in exposure to the credit crisis," the SCMP said.

A spokesman for the CBRC had no immediate comment. (Reporting by Alan Wheatley and Langi Chiang; editing by Ken Wills)

QOTM

2008-09-26T02:06:00.002-05:00

"Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

credit default swaps and the american dream

2008-09-24T08:51:00.005-05:00

1) Applebee's in Bed-Stuy is the best Applebee's ever. It still sucks though.

2) Ben Bernanke says that the only way to properly bailout all of his rich asshole friends in the now defunct investment banking industry is to pay them what their investments would had been worth had they not been horrible, worthless investments:

"Bernanke Signals U.S. Should Pay More for Bad Debt

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled that the government should buy devalued assets at above-market values to make its proposed $700 billion rescue package most effective in combating the financial crisis.

``Accounting rules require banks to value many assets at something close to a very low fire-sale price rather than the hold-to-maturity price,'' Bernanke said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today. ``If the Treasury bids for and then buys assets at a price close to the hold-to-maturity price, there will be substantial benefits.''

Bernanke's remarks, an unusual departure from his prepared testimony, come as lawmakers and the Bush administration negotiate a rescue plan aimed at easing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed chief said paying prices higher than the bad assets would fetch in the open market would help ``unfreeze'' credit markets and aid the economy.

Analysts said Bernanke is essentially advocating that government use a pricing model that assumes that the debt will be paid in full over a long period of time. That is different from the mark-to-market model used by investment banks that prices assets at what they are worth on a given day.

The risk is that the model does not provide transparent pricing of the assets taxpayers are taking on, said Ann Rutledge, partner at R%26R Consulting in New York, a firm that specializes in structured finance. Many of the securities ``are not going to pay at maturity,'' Rutledge said."

What a fucking asshole.

3) But who am I to say this Paulson guy is full of shit? Paul Krugman:

Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson’s $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system “cash for trash.” Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force, the infamous bill that gave the Bush administration the green light to invade Iraq.

There’s justice in the gibes. Everyone agrees that something major must be done. But Mr. Paulson is demanding extraordinary power for himself — and for his successor — to deploy taxpayers’ money on behalf of a plan that, as far as I can see, doesn’t make sense.

Some are saying that we should simply trust Mr. Paulson, because he’s a smart guy who knows what he’s doing. But that’s only half true: he is a smart guy, but what, exactly, in the experience of the past year and a half — a period during which Mr. Paulson repeatedly declared the financial crisis “contained,” and then offered a series of unsuccessful fixes — justifies the belief that he knows what he’s doing? He’s making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us.

So let’s try to think this through for ourselves. I have a four-step view of the financial crisis:

1. The bursting of the housing bubble has led to a surge in defaults and foreclosures, which in turn has led to a plunge in the prices of mortgage-backed securities — assets whose value ultimately comes from mortgage payments.

2. These financial losses have left many financial institutions with too little capital — too few assets compared with their debt. This problem is especially severe because everyone took on so much debt during the bubble years.

3. Because financial institutions have too little capital relative to their debt, they haven’t been able or willing to provide the credit the economy needs.

4. Financial institutions have been trying to pay down their debt by selling assets, including those mortgage-backed securities, but this drives asset prices down and makes their financial position even worse. This vicious circle is what some call the “paradox of deleveraging.”

The Paulson plan calls for the federal government to buy up $700 billion worth of troubled assets, mainly mortgage-backed securities. How does this resolve the crisis?

Well, it might — might — break the vicious circle of deleveraging, step 4 in my capsule description. Even that isn’t clear: the prices of many assets, not just those the Treasury proposes to buy, are under pressure. And even if the vicious circle is limited, the financial system will still be crippled by inadequate capital.

Or rather, it will be crippled by inadequate capital unless the federal government hugely overpays for the assets it buys, giving financial firms — and their stockholders and executives — a giant windfall at taxpayer expense. Did I mention that I’m not happy with this plan?

The logic of the crisis seems to call for an intervention, not at step 4, but at step 2: the financial system needs more capital. And if the government is going to provide capital to financial firms, it should get what people who provide capital are entitled to — a share in ownership, so that all the gains if the rescue plan works don’t go to the people who made the mess in the first place.

That’s what happened in the savings and loan crisis: the feds took over ownership of the bad banks, not just their bad assets. It’s also what happened with Fannie and Freddie. (And by the way, that rescue has done what it was supposed to. Mortgage interest rates have come down sharply since the federal takeover.)

But Mr. Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached — no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out. Why is that a good thing? Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency,” and this adds up to an unacceptable proposal.

And to think, I was pissed about the $700 mil for the fucking Twins stadium. . .

4) pics new york:George Washington Bridge approach to Manhattan
G on the balcony with Black.

thirsty thursday

2008-09-18T11:03:00.003-05:00

1) Obama-McCain Electoral Map from the LA Times:

2) Like cherry blossoms in gentle spring rain:

3) Bed-Stuy ATM:

two short paragraphs and some pictures with half-assed credit

2008-09-16T12:11:00.007-05:00

1) Julia Allison and the two other ho-bags on her site are obnoxious to the point of making me feel stabby. No, i will not be linking them; if I link them here, then the terrorists have won.

2) On the nytimes website you can double click on almost any word and it will give a definition or encyclopedic history, which works almost as well as the highlight-right-click-google method. good for archaic words though.

3) railroad bridge in mpls:

top two photos courtesy some guy from Buenos Aries whose name I think is Horacio and apparently loves Shakespearean humor. maybe.

how dare you

2008-09-16T12:09:00.000-05:00

In the 7th Year

2008-09-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

if you haven't seen it, a great op-ed from roger cohen and the times:

And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.

For the wreckage begat greed; and it came to pass that while America’s young men and women fought, other Americans enriched themselves. Beguiling the innocent, they did backdate options, and they did package toxic mortgage securities and they did reprice risk on the basis that it no more existed than famine in a fertile land.

Thereby did the masters of the universe prosper, with gold, with silver shekels, with land rich in cattle and fowl, with illegal manservants and maids, with jewels and silk, and with Gulfstream V business jets; yet the whole land did not prosper with them. And it came to pass, when the housing bubble burst, that Main Street had to pay for the Wall Street party.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did neglect husbandry.

And he took his nation into desert wars and mountain wars, but, lo, he thought not to impose taxation, not one heifer nor sheep nor ox did Bush demand of the rich. And it came to pass that the nation fell into debt as boundless as the wickedness of Sodom. For everyone, Lehman not least, was maxed out.

So heavy was the burden of war, and of bailing out Fannie and Freddie, and of financing debt with China, that not one silver shekel remained to build bridges, nor airports, nor high-speed trains, nor even to take care of wounded vets; and the warriors returning unto their homes from distant combat thought a blight had fallen on the land.

So it was in the seventh year after the fall of the towers. And still Bush did raise his hands to the Lord and proclaim: “I will be proved right in the end!”

And around the whole earth, which had stood with America, there arose a great trouble, for it seemed to peoples abroad that a great nation, rich in flocks and herds and land and water, had been cast among thorns and Philistines; its promise betrayed, its light dimmed, its armies stretched, its budget broken, its principles compromised, its dollar diminished.

And it came to pass that this profligate nation, drinking oil with insatiable thirst, could not cure itself of this addiction, and so its wealth was transferred to other nations that did not always wish it well.

Wherefore the balance of power in the world was altered in grievous ways, and new centers of authority arose, and they were no more persuaded by democracy than was the Pharaoh.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation, and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did neglect the costs of wanton consumption. And he believed that if the Lord created fossil fuel, fossil fuel must flow without end, as surely as the grape will yield wine.

Therefore, in the seventh year after the fall, with 1,126 of the slain still unidentified, their very beings rendered unto dust, their souls inhabiting the air of New York, it seemed that one nation had become two; and loss, far from unifying the people, had sundered the nation.

For the rich, granted tax breaks more generous than any blessing, grew richer, and incomes in the middle ceased to rise, and workers saw jobs leaving the land for that region called Asia. And some fought wars while others shopped; and some got foreclosed while others got clothes. And still Bush spake but few listened.

Behold, so it was in the seventh year, and it seemed that America was doubly smitten, from without and within.

And, lo, a strange thing did come to pass. For as surely as the seasons do alternate, so the ruler and party that have brought woe to a nation must give way to others who can lead their people to plenty. How can the weary, flogged ass bear honey and balm and almonds and myrrh?

Yet many Americans believed the exhausted beast could still provide bounty. They did hold that a people called the French was to blame. They did accuse a creation called the United Nations. They did curse the ungodly sophisticates of Gotham and Hollywood and sinful Chicago; and, lo, they proclaimed God was on their side, and carried a gun, and Darwin was bunk, and truth resided in Alaska.

For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his righteousness that he did foster division until it raged like a plague. Each tribe sent pestilence on the other.

And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought — but not how the damage would be undone.

7 years later, still not a fucking clue

2008-09-11T09:48:00.004-05:00

1) The propaganda that goes along with today's 9.11 anniversary is absolutely disgusting. Days like today are the reason I don't own a television: i fucking hate commercials, and propaganda is just nationalistic marketing.

2) Today would be a good day to count all of the things we are thankful for 9.11 having brought us: two terms of george w. bush, the patriot act and patriot act II, halliburton profiteering, blackwater, soaring national debt, the iraq war, the squandering of the world's good faith, decreased global status, the dismantling of habeas corpus, the ruin of the reputation of the fbi and justice department and the deliberate destruction of its merit-based hiring scheme, the appointment of radically right-wing judges, john mccain as a viable candidate, record oil company profits, record gasoline prices, record electricity prices, record heating oil prices, a fallen bridge in a major metro area, increased trade deficit, increased money borrowed from china, the president begging opec to increase production (or anybody for anything for that matter), 4,155 dead troops in Iraq, the bombing and raiding of pakistan, saber rattling towards iran, a failed mission in afghanistan, the mortgage crisis, the weakest dollar in history, and, to top it all off, we are no longer the world's largest economy. So, heckuva job, you fucking cocksuckers. And now people will actually vote for this Palin bitch and interminable piece of shit McCain? Where's the line for renouncing citizenship? I need a witness, asap.

3) Today is also my brothers birthday. I managed to send him an email before the towers fell and cut the phone lines, which must have been odd for him.

4) Dudes with mullets that will probably vote for mccain are making a serious fucking racket at the new twins stadium outside my window. wtf, yo.

God bless America, land of the Freedom Mullet.

pipelines are made in god's image (of alaska)

2008-09-09T00:14:00.000-05:00

stewart on palin coverage

2008-09-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

bush v. mccain is a zero-sum game

2008-09-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

this bitch is krazy

2008-09-05T05:36:00.005-05:00

and despite fierce opposition from oil industry lobbyists . . . we broke their monopoly on power, and resources. As governor I insisted on competition, and basic fairness, to take control of our state, and return it to the people."

Not only is she bat-shit crazy, she also sounds a lot like a wealth redistributer.
Also of note: there are enough bizarre and bewildered looking people in this crowd to impress P.T. Barnum. And, I gotta say it, my gaydar is screaming about that hunk of a first-husband of alaska.

most disturbing propaganda yet

2008-09-04T02:08:00.001-05:00

What the fuck, exactly, does this have to do with the fucking RNC?

rage against the machine at target center 9.3.08

2008-09-04T00:47:00.002-05:00

best. concert. ever.

i'm beached bro

2008-08-30T08:57:00.001-05:00

oh, NOW he wants to take the high road

2008-08-28T20:59:00.003-05:00

I have no respect for John McCain for one (well, many, really) simple reason: Karl Rove destroyed him and viciously attacked his family with Bush's consent in a republican senate primary, cause he was too liberal. Now, he's proving he's just a political windsock wafting in the jet stream of neo-con fear hyperbole.

and then there's this ad:

What a disingenuous prick.

weather channel infographic

2008-08-27T17:58:00.003-05:00

phil hartman audio clips

2008-08-27T00:51:00.004-05:00

One funny bastard. I heard recently his wife was a sleep-deprived coke-head, is that true?

Link.

crazy mccain ad

2008-08-26T22:57:00.005-05:00

Really though, I guess it's not too much of a stretch from a party whose slogan is "country first."

Edit: This breaking headline just came across my computer by way of the top feed from the official GOP convention site: 2008 Republican National Convention Names LG Electronics Official HDTV Provider (I know!! I couldn't believe it either!)

So, yeah, big important stuff happening over there at GOP HQ.

the route

2008-08-26T20:36:00.006-05:00

It's 1,201 miles from 55401 to 11216. I'm gonna be able to do this drive with my eyes closed by the end of September.

bill maher at the dnc

2008-08-26T19:08:00.002-05:00

I'm not really a huge Bill Maher fan, but this clip is pretty good.

diplo - rhythm

2008-08-25T21:36:00.001-05:00

this week in paradise

2008-08-25T13:49:00.005-05:00

1) Getting an apartment in NYC is a serious pain in the ass. Especially after spending all of your money in the city unsuccessfully looking for an apartment.

2) Chuck Klosterman has a really good blurb in the latest esquire about the decline of American culture through mass media. Courtesy Stephen Hero.

3) What the fuck is with people who pose for celebratory pictures in front of Ground Zero? Have you no fucking shame what-so-ever? The next time I go to Kentucky or Tennessee or Italy or France or wherever the fuck these people are from I am going to make a point of taking pictures of myself dancing on graves of people's families. Hell, its a fuckin' party yall.

4) What would Roger Sterling do? Answer.

5) Things younger than John McCain: its a never-ending list.

6) This Wanderlust project is pretty damn cool. It shows the routes of major historic expeditions and adventures, from Kerouac to Magellan, in a nifty little interactive map. stolen from BoingBoing.

7) Papercuts on your nipple hurt. Bad.

8) Women of the Israeli Army:

david carr on minneapolis? mm, not so much.

2008-08-16T22:29:00.003-05:00

This article "36 Hours in Minneapolis-St. Paul" is probably the one article in the times that I disagree with more than all of the others ever written:

Be prepared for a profusion of hats, buttons and bad T-shirts, because worlds will be colliding as the Minnesota State Fair winds down and the convention takes over. There is a depth of cultural amenities to Minneapolis, and its not-so-twin city St. Paul, that will surprise a first-time visitor. And please remember, when they ask you at the coffee shop, “How you doing, today?” they really want to know.

What? Minnesota is the one place you can be absolutely certain that when someone asks you "How ya doin," they could really give two shits. I would ask David what planet he was from if i hadn't just met him, I'd say I'm 90% sure he's human.

wtf ever

2008-08-15T11:20:00.007-05:00

1) I can't really figure out why people don't believe me when I tell them I've been 86'd from Palmer's. Supposedly people have been disarmed there and been allowed to stay, getting their weapon back on the way out. Yet I still managed to outshine them all. There's a reason I don't drink dark liquors.

2) Contrary to popular belief, Irish people cannot hold their booze.

3) When I was a wee lad, my first real job was at Bruegger's Bagels on Plymouth Rd. across from Ridgedale Mall. Every once in a while this guy, Don Shelby, a local newscaster, would show up. He was consistently such an asshole that he would make the 15 and 16 year old girls I worked with cry, demeaning people for not being able to read his fucking mind. When he walked in some people would leave the line and go count cream cheese in the walk-in cooler or pretend to have sudden scheduling problems. So, last night he's at this party for David Carr's latest work about the valiant triumph of sobriety, and, I gotta say, he still seems like a complete dick. He'll actually do that move that always starts fights in the movies, when you join a conversation and then angle your shoulders to leverage somebody out of it, like cutting in on Ralph Macchio's shower-curtain two-step. In real life, Don Shelby is the Bad Guy from the Karate Kid. Some people just never change. Although, if he was hanging out with David Carr back in the day, maybe he was just always jonesing fuckin' hard. That may explain a few things.

hump day

2008-08-13T15:01:00.004-05:00

1) Sitting in a cubicle sounds like the worst possible thing on earth at the moment.

2) Reading articles about how there is no dialogue about race and how race will play a large role in the elections is both confusing and depressing. Not that Obama would be an ideal president, but the phrase "President John McCain" will make me denounce my citizenship and move to Argentina. And, seriously people, if you don't think racism is virulently rampant in this country, its time to wake the fuck up and smell the slave-labor. Time to quit pretending this is a country of adults who are willing to take advantage of this unique moment in history. But maybe I'm just being pessimistic.

3) I am slightly obsessed with Mad Men, makes me wanna bust out my suits.

4) Football season is back, baby. I really hope they tone-down the AMERICA=GOD+COUNTRY+FOOTBALL rhetoric this year, what with things going so horribly overseas. Ever since September 11th it feels like Lenin's troops parading around Red Square every time a team joins the field. Yankee Stadium is the worst for that shit, with the F-18 fighters overhead in a sea of idiots from Queens gurgling out patriotic hymns between beer-belches. Ugh.

5) Tarvaris Jackson, t-jack to his friends, has a make-or-break season ahead of him. Vikings fans seem surprisingly optimistic about this guy, and for reasons I'm not really sure of, so am I. But if he doesn't "get it" this year, he will be riding the bench for the rest of his career.

6) January Jones as Betty Draper:Seriously Badass. This week's lesson? Home-Ec, of course. And, how to look good smoking.

QOTM

2008-08-12T18:25:00.002-05:00

"Brilliant, I'll tell you what brilliance in advertising is
- 99 cents. Somebody thought of that, Campbell."

- Roger Sterling, Mad Men
This John Slattery guy nails his role in Mad Men. Some pretty ingenious writing helps too.

Akon's entourage power hierarchy and the virtue of a good night's sleep

2008-08-10T14:05:00.006-05:00

It goes without saying that when you've been sharing your bed with someone, every night, for any period of time, your sleep patterns will change dramatically when they're no longer around. And so it was this past weekend; G left for New York, and all prior notions of breakfast and dinner and a recognizable sleep-cycle went with her. Suddenly, I couldn't remember my dreams as well, not that I did before, and I was just as likely to go to bed at 3 pm as 3 am.

So, who do I blame? What is the best method for identifying the problem and then associating blame on some cause in a situation that is utterly blame-less and causeless for anyone other than myself? I could be pissed at g for selfishly leaving me here and flying off to nyc to greedily achieve success, or any of my long list of friends that owe me money and for some reason still give me shit about how I manage mine, or maybe I can blame society. Yeah, society, what a bunch of fuckers.

Running on 2 hours of sleep over 2 days, I was pondering all this shit on my way home from Pizza Lucé at 2:15 last night. There was a cavalcade of rented Bentley's and an Aston Martin parked across from touring-buses draped with posters that said "Akon" and "Konvicted" typed up in drab, Word-standard fonts with silhouettes of ghetto-ness in the background. At this point, you may or may not be wondering, how do I know the cars were rented? Minnesota plates. With no vanity "BLNGDOUT" or "RUFFRYDA" or something equally ridiculous. Akon is Senegalese from Jersey City, Jersey. And besides, if he's from here, why was he staying at the Ivy with Michael Jackson? (or why was anyone staying with Michael Jackson at the Ivy, may be more to the point.)

I have kind of a thing for Aston Martins. The DB9 is probably the one material object I want more than any other on earth. So I walked in the street, away from the club crowds, towards the DB9, Pizza Lucé box dangling in my hand in a half-assed attempt to keep it flat, like you're apparently supposed to.

"Beep Beep White Boy! Beep Beep Motha Fucka!"

I ignored it.

"Hey White Boy! I said Beep Beep Motha Fucka!"

A twenty-something asshole in a ripped do-rag and white t-shirt was threatening to run me over with his tattered, fading mid-80's Buick LeSaber. The white of his reverse lights reflected off my toenails as I paused, sized him up, and kept walking.

Again. "Man what the fuck d00d, I said Beep Beep white boy you gonna get run the fuck over!"

I stop. Turn around, arms stretched out to the side, pizza box still dangling, "So fuckin' hit me!" He lurched once, the back-end of his shitty car lurching into the air and undulating on the weak shocks and tell-tale Buick struts. All four people in the car stared at me, not sure what to think, I just stood there, eyeballing the driver. I would have happily fucked him up, I figure I had more friends in front of Sound Bar than he had in his car. Then it occurred to me, he's probably armed.

"Heeeyy! Tyler!!" Stacey, a girl I met only a few nights before, was just to my right about 3 feet above me on the elevated sidewalk, oblivious to the epic standoff she was witnessing. I bee-lined to the railing and swung myself up, abandoning my ground.

We talked briefly, I had heard it was her birthday, but it was really Wednesday--back to the Aston Martin. The cocksucker in the Buick had to abandon his ground too, since he was too fucking dumb (or, uh, too fucking nervous?) to park in the spot that could fit a fucking semi and was worth running me over for.

The Bentley and the DB9 were surrounded by dudes in red and black t-shirts and tacky necklaces probably made of white-gold: the entourage. The alpha of the group was angry.

"Who got the keys to the fuckin' Bentley?!"

The next-biggest guy: "Dre, yo Dre, what'd you do with the key to the Bentley?"

Dre, to the next biggest guy: "Hey T, man, this is unacceptable dude, what'd yall do with the keys to the Bentley?"

T to a small crowd of blingy, red-shirted, very dumb-looking guys: "Hey, what the fuck are yall thinkin man, this is unacceptable yo, yall lost the fuckin' keys to the Bentley god, go fuckin find 'em."

A couple of them ran off into the club, apparently anxious to step-up and play the role of problem-solver. I checked out the DB9 a little closer, everyone ignoring me, random white dude with cop-hair pawing a $150k car in a crowd full of angry drunk thugs and thug wannabes. Overall, a pretty fucking badass ride, but these vents over the front wheel wells evoke too much BMW Z-class for my taste. Still, I would tear that shit up.

The two that ran into the club came out, kind of listlessly, as though they hadn't been aware that there was anything to do in the first place, trying to avoid eye-contact with the bigger dudes.

The Alpha: "Man, I can't fucking believe yall man, this is un-fuckin-acceptable dudes."

Dre: "Yeah, What the fuck is yall thinkin man, this is un-fuckin-acceptable."

I can only wonder how long it went on like this, I probably could have stolen the Aston Martin one part at a time without anyone noticing. This is probably why I never found HBO's Entourage interesting, because deep down I know that the reality of it is so much fucking dumber than what's written.

However, I came away from that night with a better understanding of who to blame for my insane sleep schedule and inability to comport to a logical rhythm to my day: anybody I fucking want. Today, I blame Lynne Cheney. Un-fucking-acceptable, dude.