So we are down to Romney and Gingrich.  Great.  Yawn.  Can anyone really see Newt Gingrich as President?  God help us.  Just the name alone should give us pause.  Is Bill Clinton a presidential name?  Yes.  George Bush?  Yep.  Barack Obama?  Not so much.  Newt Gingrich?  I don’t think so.  One might object that one [...]

It is probably not a secret that I am not a fan of Rahm Emanuel or his brother Ezekiel.  Between them they played a strong role in delivering the outrageous Obamacare nonsense a couple of years ago.  Now as a total asshole, Rahm may in fact be just the kind of Mayor Chicago needs to [...]

The saga of MF Global has faded from the headlines a bit, what with the end of the world approaching in 13 months or so, and societal and economic collapse prior to that.  But one big question I have is why have I not heard any talk about either the US DOJ or some States [...]

The common wisdom one hears these days is that we are in a hard spot because economic growth is stalling, but government debt is so high that resort to additional “stimulus” via government expenditure is unpalatable.   This is of course only wisdom to the extent that you believe that government expenditure is inn fact [...]

Now that our crony-state-capitalist society has devolved to the point where the only people who suffer the ill consequences of bad decisions are the poor saps who are either too stupid or too impoverished to have bought protection from the perma-political class, one wonders when or whether there will be a backlash at some point [...]

As seen on Drudge.  The “President” has put up a new website at http://www.attackwatch.com that presents “the facts” and enlists people to fight “smears” against the “President”.  And it is all done as slick as shiite and presented as if it were some third party group setting it up.  But in fact as the site [...]

Today, Gallup has released a poll showing Rick Perry in the lead with Republicans and right-leaners.  Now it is early yet so many people may not understand that Rick Perry is a populist, a guy who ran Al Gore’s Texas campaign in 1988.   This is a guy who, the week before he announced his candidacy, [...]

If it were not so sad it would be funny.  This is one of Dennis Gartman’s favorite sayings.  The reaction to the May Employment Report by those in Washington would be hilarious if it weren’t so serious.  The reaction of those brain-dead in Washington is “We have to craft better policies to get jobs going”.  [...]

I was just watching CNBC and they did a piece on a new Israeli company called SodaStream whose stock they are likening to Green Mountain Coffee or Netflix. Fad or lasting convenience was the basic question. I have struggled with what to drink for years. If it didn’t have 170 calories per [...]

I always sort of a grimly chuckle when I hear a politician on the tube say something like “Our focus is now entirely on creating jobs.” Politicians may be just about the stupidest creatures on our shared Earth, but they do know one thing. When people feel economically insecure, they tend to [...]

Has anyone noticed that no one in commercials can say “dot com” normally?  I suppose I am crazy.  I watch CNBC all day long every day because I am trading from 7:30 to 4.  Well I do not really watch it but I have it on so I hear it.  If you hear alot of [...]

I did not know Bill Seidman, but my impression is that he was one of the good guys and that the world will be a worse place for his absence.  I am saddened that someone of such obviously genuine good will, tolerance and humor has left the scene.  His impish smile was infectious.  He was [...]

I grew up in Minnesota. We did not even have a yard. Our house was on 5 acres of woods that was itself surrounded by 100 or more acres of woods. Yes, my childhood was very much like Christopher Robin growing up in the Hundred Acre Wood. I even had a [...]

UPDATE 05 March 2009: I would add that in light of what seems an unbelievable overextension of their balance sheet by writing hundreds of billions of dollars or more in Credit Default Swap (CDS) contracts they could not even remotely begin to conceive of being able to honor in the event, it would [...]

President Obama has been using the phrase “the tired policies of the past” quite a bit to refer to supply-side conservative economic ideas.  He should be careful.  These words sound like words that could have been uttered by Reagan in 1980 or by Newt Gingrich in 1994.
The tired policies of the past are precisely the [...]

UPDATE:  02/24/2009 – In his semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony this morning, Fed Chairman “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke weighed in on this issue.  He gave the analogy of your neighbors house on fire because they were smoking in bed.  He said in this case, while you do not condone the bad behavior that led to the fire, you [...]

Why is a guy who made his fortune in lipstick seeking to do in Yahoo!?  I guess he must be offended at how easily Yahoo! slipped out of Microsoft’s grasp?  For my part I am glad Microsoft dropped its bid.  As a guy who used to read RFC’s for fun and to gain a working [...]

As a form of national protest at the high and rising cost of energy and food, everyone in the nation should stay home on Wednesday, June 11th.  This might help get the attention of the idiots in Washington and the ear of fellow citizens who – for whatever strange reason – are not thinking much [...]

I recently read this tidbit about a “legal case” in Saudi Arabia. A Shiite woman who was sexually assaulted by a group of 6 Sunni men was herself sentenced to 90 lashes of the whip for putting herself into the situation and therefore tempting the men (the men were also sentenced to jail terms). What [...]

It is coming to this. The government is trying to change cultural expectations relating to privacy. This story is all over, but I originally saw it on Slashdot here. I was watching Fahrenheit 451 on television last week. In it a government fearful of allowing people to read things not controlled [...]