CAR LUST: Remembering the 1969-1973 Dodge Polara. I knew a guy who had one of those in high school — everybody called it his “narc car.” Some commercials at the link.
Archive for 2009
January 30, 2009
A BIOFUEL-POWERED Bentley GT.
HMM: Oil rises after better-than-expected U.S. GDP data. Funny, most of the U.S. media reported the GDP as bad news, and you had to scroll way down to see that the data were better-than-expected. I guess the markets pay closer attention to the actual numbers . . . .
UPDATE: James Holloway emails: “GDP of -3.8 was below the -5.5 consensus only because of a buildup in business inventories — ie, stuff that’s gonna sit unsold on shelves and in warehouses. Back out the buildup — a one-time event that won’t be repeated — and GDP was down 5.1.” Okay, so how come oil went up on the news?
CIRCLING THE EAST BY BOAT: “Our Great Loop trip took us from Fort Loudoun Lake to Mobile, Key West, up the east coast to New York City, then across Canada including Montreal, Ottawa, Georgian Bay, the North Channel of Lake Huron, then south across Lake Michigan to Chicago, and down a system of six rivers back to Knoxville. It was a yearlong journey of 6,800 miles.”
PJTV: Leon De Winter on Geert Wilders. Free with registration.
ASKING THE UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS: Reader Cathy Neall writes: “Doesn’t the fall-off in economic growth of the last quarter correspond directly to the gloomy and alarming comments the inexperienced president (president-elect) has been making about the the economy? ‘It’s going to get worse…unemployment could get to 10%!’ We’re all terrified to spend anything – which perpetuates the problem.” Yeah, it’s like they don’t mind the downturn.
COOL: Suntan drug greenlighted for testing. “A drug that stimulates the body’s tanning response — turning pasty skin caramel for up to two months — has been approved for human trials, but not for tanning.”
WHY OBAMA IS TARGETING LIMBAUGH: “Here’s my take: The ongoing bailout of banks and business executives is not only wrong, it is deeply, deeply unpopular. By taking potshots at executives—their salaries, their corporate jets, their redecorated offices—Obama hopes to deflect the unpopularity of his actual policies onto his opponents. . . . Republicans should be the ones making Obama pay for bailing out wealthy business failures with OUR money.”
THE WORLD’S SMALLEST wearable TV set. Its real application will be with wearable computers, though.
HARVESTING ENERGY from human bodies. Hey, wait, isn’t this how The Matrix got started? . . .
HEALTHCARE NATIONALIZATION PROVISIONS in the “stimulus” bill?
MICHAEL STEELE is the new RNC Chair. You can see our PJTV interview with Steele here.
UPDATE: Mary Katharine Ham reports on Steele’s remarks.
ANOTHER UPDATE: That was fast.
We’ve watched the press pretend to beat their breasts for “not asking the tough questions of Bush” in the time leading up to the invasion of Iraq. . . . Now, we’re watching the press show zero curiosity about this “stimulus” package. They don’t appear to even know what is in it, or want to know.
Nope.
MILITARY PLEDGING LOYALTY TO OBAMA INSTEAD OF CONSTITUTION? I’ve been getting email on this for a few days and regarded it as bogus, but Blackfive debunks it.
CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Wall Street bonuses and sweetheart mortgages: Compare and discuss.
Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd has been in typically indignant form this week, opining on the financial crisis. Before his Tuesday hearing on Bernard Madoff, he demanded that regulators get to the bottom of any crime: “American investors deserve an explanation and the responsible parties must be held accountable!” And yesterday the Connecticut Senator denounced Wall Street bonuses and said, “I am urging — in fact, not urging, demanding — that the Treasury Department figures out some way to get the money back.”
Pardon us, Senator, but how about taking your own advice?
We refer to his promise to release mortgage documents for the two properties that he and his wife refinanced with Countrywide Financial in 2003. In June a former Countrywide loan officer charged that Mr. Dodd received preferential rates and had fees waived on those loans as part of a VIP program the company had for “friends” of the company’s then-CEO Angelo Mozilo. Mr. Dodd first issued a denial and then, days later, acknowledged that he was a “VIP” with Countrywide but said he thought it was “more of a courtesy.” In late June he pledged to make all pertinent documents public “at some point.” We’re still waiting.
It has now been 189 days since Dodd promised to release his mortgage documents.
PAGING STEPHEN GREEN: Teetotalers are not quite as successful as moderate drinkers. Why? Oh, wait, they said “moderate.” Never mind, Stephen.
While excessive drinking is of course dangerous and unwise, moderate drinking is, for most people, a lot better than abstinence. There are tangible benefits for health, career and happiness associated with sensible partaking. The benefits are not just personal: Strange as it sounds, moderate drinkers are inclined to be more philanthropic than nondrinkers.
Read the whole thing.
EARLIER TODAY I MENTIONED Netflix streaming via the Roku device, but now reader Denise Stevenson emails: “Amazon just released a beta version of their streaming service on the Roku on Tuesday. Works great, with better selection and quality than the Netflix stuff.” That’s cool. Maybe they can put PJTV on the Roku, too . . . .
UPDATE: Jim Treacher emails: “I got a Roku for Christmas and it’s fantastic. You don’t get the full selection of movies they’ve got on DVD, but there’s a hell of a lot. Waiting for discs to go back and forth in the mail seems silly now. I say go ahead and let the Postal Service go to 5 days a week.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR Polywell Fusion? More on that here.
IGNORING LARRY SUMMERS’ ADVICE: “Summers was proposing bold action, but his concept came with safeguards: focus on the task at hand, prevent the usual Washington splurge and limit long-term fiscal damage. Now Barack Obama is president, and Summers has become a top economic adviser. Yet the stimulus approach that has emerged on Capitol Hill abandoned the Summers parameters.”
That’s because the “usual Washington splurge” is the whole point.
UPDATE: A cynical take: “What’s strange to me is the democrats can’t look 2 years ahead and see this pork bill not only bankrupted this country but did absolutely nothing to employ people. No one can possibly be that stupid. So I wonder if they are pigging out one last time before the whole shooting match goes down?”
CHANGE FOR THE WORSE: “Buried deep inside the massive spending orgy that Democrats jammed through the House this week lie five words that could drastically undo two decades of welfare reforms.”
TEENAGERS ARE HAVING LESS SEX: “How did this turn into another occasion for hand-wringing? Is that a liberal disease? If there isn’t one problem, quick, see another problem, because programs will be needed to solve them?”
Meanwhile, people wonder why teenagers are having less sex, but that’s silly — it’s obviously because of the explosion in porn and videogames over the last 20 years. Which occurred at no cost to the taxpayers!
UPDATE: Okay, in this legislative environment, it’s probably risky to link to anything containing this advice: “The solution is thus obvious — we need a massive government program to ensure that no American teenager goes without porn and videogames Let no child be left behind!” Oh, well, it’s probably already in the bill anyway . . .
IOWAHAWK: It Takes a Proverb to Run a Village.