The More I Understand, the Less I Get

I will start by saying that I have no formal educational in Economics, financial investments or Politics. I grew up being told that Republicans stood for small government, fiscal responsibility by the individual, and “trickle down economics”. Democrats were for big central government and government-managed retirement, and social programs as “safety nets”. Yes, I know that has changed. I follow the news with a mix of humor, despair, cynicism, knowing more bad news is reported than good, and the reality is that most of it will never affect me. I am not the smartest person I know, nor the dumbest. Considering myself as neither Republican nor Democrat, rich or poor, tall or short, young or old; I am a statistically average American Citizen.

So the more I learn about the “credit crunch” or the “bank bailout”, the more I wonder if really don’t understand things as well as I think I do. Why does the Government need to buy up to 700 Billion Dollars worth of shares to save private financial institutions? So, to keep things a little more simplistic I would like to refer to the following two articles linked off CNN to Time.

The first is “The Credit Crunch: Where Is It Happening?” By Barbara Kiviat. It talks about how the money has slowed in flowing down, the credit card companies has sent out less credit card applications, student loans will be harder to find and how that may affect ‘main street’. Please read the article, I will wait.

The second article is titled “Let Risk-Taking Financial Institutions Fail” By Ari J. Officer and Lawrence H. Officer. This touches on how the banks got into the situation and they use a phrase that I am very fond of. Follow the money. Please read the article, I will wait once again.

Why do I point out these articles? Well, as Steve Martin is quoted; "Let's face it, some people have a way with words...other people...uhhh...ohhh...not have way". But in a simplistic one page article I feel both of these sum up what is really going on better than I can. One article is talking about how these bank failures might affect you--what could happen if it gets worse. It is well written and connects on a personal level. The second article is about the facts of the issue and gives the reasons why the banks should be allowed to fail. The second article also mentions if it does get worse and the money does stop ‘trickling down’ then the government can still step in.

But Bush wants action, or else. Why? In my opinion, to save political face. Bush has been saying for years the economy is strong. The economy is strong, but all markets go through corrections. (I remember the early 80’s with Reaganomics with bank corrections and out of control government spending.) Not to mention the fact that the real people that will be affected by this are the people with the money invested that flows both ways between Wall Street and DC. That’s why both presidential nominees want this bailout.

But then again what do I know about Economics, Financial investments or Politics? I am a statistically average American voter.

China's First Spacewalk

"Three Chinese astronauts arrived Monday in Beijing to a homecoming parade after completing China's first spacewalk and putting the country closer to building a space station and landing a man on the moon."
China wants to send people to the moon by 2020. The last time anyone stepped foot on the moon was 1972. I wonder if the space race will be back at full speed by then.

Paul Newman 1925-2008

One of the first movies I saw that made an impression on me was "The Sting". I was only about 10 at the time but I still remember it making me interested in not just the cinematography of a movie but the acting of the people involved.
I also love his cookie. "Fig Newmans" have been a family favorite for a long time at our house.
RIP Paul Newman.

Bank Notes, and a Light Note

I once thought I understood the world, at least at a high level. In my cynical eyes, money runs the world. To a point, money buys everything. Power wins most everything else. So what happens when the people with money and power abuse it, misuse it and give it away for sub-prime mortgages? Then when they screw it all up, the people with the power say forget about it, 700 billion dollar do-over?
Rant done.
Seriously, I don’t understand why the government needs to bail out the largest and richest banks in the world. And then those failed banks give the executives million-dollar payouts because their contract said they deserved it. Seriously, if someone can please explain all this to me I would appreciate it.
Oops, did I say rant done?
On a lighter note, a co-worker told me today about a new t-shirt, found on an auction site:

Damn Rebellion.

Oil and Drugs and Sex Oh My

I will always be amazed on what topics stay in the news, and what topics don't. Any topic with anything to do with crazy celebrities saying or doing dumb things seem to stay in the news. If an issue comes up that is actually newsworthy and should be a campaign issue, it seems to disappear very soon.
"... the department's inspector general released three reports detailing how officials at the office had accepted gifts, steered contracts and engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees of energy firms." Why doesn't this get more press? There are very few articles about this since this news was released, compared to other news posts.

I Guess I Was Not Clear On My Point

Forgive me if I was not clear in my post about Palin's email. Let me try to express my point again.
I am not complaining that Palin uses email. Good for her, welcome to the 90's.
I am not complaining that hackers got her into email. For better or worse, that is what they do.
I am not complaining that Palin emailed at work from a personal account. Its called work/life balance.
I am not complaining that Palin uses a free email like Yahoo. Who doesn't use free email; but you get what you pay for.

I am complaining about Palin refusing the turn over emails that she was subpoenaed for, which had to do with the current legal inquiry against her. (I know little of the inquiry so I will not comment about that at this time.) The reason was the same as Karl Rove's, when there was an inquiry about his emails sent a few years back. Rove never used the White House email systems. Instead he always used the Republican National Party's email systems and therefore maintained that the email was outside the subpoena.
I personally do not like much about Rove, but I do respect his intelligence. He used a secure email system.

I personally do not know what was in the emails that were stolen, but if there was any confidential State documents I hope that is at addressed at some level. I know of people fired for less.
I also hope that the people who did break into the account are exposed. I know of people jailed for less.

Hackers Access Palin's Personal Yahoo email account

I would be amazed by this if I didn't see this every day.
"A group of computer hackers said yesterday that they had accessed a Yahoo e-mail account of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, publishing some of her private communications to expose what appeared to be her use of a personal account for government business."
This does not surprise me, people use their personal email accounts everyday for business passing confidential and private information. Email is not a secure means of communication.
My favorite line in the article is the following;
"McLeod's Anchorage attorney, Donald C. Mitchell, said Palin declined to comply with a public records request in June to divulge 1,100 e-mails sent to and from her personal accounts, citing executive privilege."

Indian Woman Convicted of Murder By Brain Scan

I saw this on Slashdot.org and it just makes you think.
"Neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan claims his Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test is so accurate, it can tell whether a person committed or only witnessed an act. In June, an Indian judge agreed, using BEOS to find a woman guilty of killing her former fiancé. Scientific experts are calling the decision "ridiculous" and "unconscionable", protesting that Mukundan's work has not even been peer reviewed. How reliable should a test have to be, when eyewitnesses are notoriously fallible? Does a person have a right to privacy over their own memories, or should society's interest in holding criminals accountable come first?"

Busy at work means slow to update

I know, not many posts lately. Heres some pictures.

Baltimore Inner Habor

Bees

Flower

Comcast Caps Internet Downloads

Comcast has announced that in October they will officially limit customer downloads to 250 GB a month. It has been rumored before that Comcast has unofficially had download limits before and cut customers off for too much downloading. I think in this age of the Internet and downloadable media, the policy is very short sighted.
Verizon FIOS is my area, but dealing with them is worse than Comcast. At least I have some options. Lots of people don't have options for Internet access.

Viruses In Space

"Computer virus infects International Space Station laptops: A malicious computer virus that steals passwords has been brought on board the International Space Station, NASA has confirmed." As usual, the virus was passed between people sharing files. NASA also said that this was not the first virus in space.
You would think that the screening process was a little more strict to go to space.

Obama, I Really Want To Like Him

In case you missed it, Obama has picked a running mate, Senator from Delaware Joseph Biden. Now this causes me to look at Obama again because I personally like what I have seen of Joe Biden. I have seen him on several news shows and the most memorable are appearances he has made on Bill Maher show on HBO. Everything I have seen and read about him I tend to like. He does have a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, but he also tends to speak more honestly than most politicians that I have seen on TV. Trying to speak honestly in politics will always get you into trouble.
So once again I must think about voting for Obama. If I could only trust someone on some level of politics I would feel so much better about the whole political BS. If McCain can remember how many houses he owns I might vote for him.

Sometimes Things Look Too Real

So do you think this is a real person in this video or a computer drawing?

There May Be A Solid Connection Between Things And Cancer

Beware of moisturisers, Cell phones, electricity, oil, gas, cigarettes, coffee, plastic, smoke, red meat, chemicals, and everything else. Those things may cause cancer. And other things may cause cancer, or they may not.
I'm not making light of cancer. I am making light of the way media talks about possible cancer causing agents. Science knows about a lot of chemicals that can promote cancer growth. Any chance the Media gets to print a snappy headline about some everyday product that may promote cancer growth they jump on that.
At the end of the day, the best way to protect yourself is stay way from known cancer agents, eat a healthy diet, live an active life style, get a yearly physical and have a good laugh at least once a day. If you can laugh at yourself once a month that helps too.

Amazon.com Prime

(Disclaimer: This post is intended to be informative, but I also am part of the Amazon.com associates programs, so I do get credit for any sales when you click these Amazon.com links. If you don't like me, don't follow the links. I do have Amazon.com Prime service. I like it and use it frequently.)

I always liked shopping at Amazon.com. Back in the mid 90's I thought it would be awesome to be able to go to one website and order anything you needed. Amazon at that time sold mostly books. Back then e-commerce was in its infancy, you could not find everything that you wanted, search engines were slow and less accurate and web pages were just text with no video being viewable over slow dial-up modems.

So fast forward to today. Google indexes over 1 billion web pages, every page now seems to contain video and flash animation, and e-commerce is booming. Amazon.com now sells almost everything. But the the biggest down fall of ordering online is shipping costs. Some places cost shipping & handling fees that cost more than the product.

So when gas prices started to rise it made even more sense to shop online, but I hated the high shipping costs. I saw an advertisement about the Amazon.com program where, for a yearly fee, you get free 2 day shipping, and 3.99 for one-day. Being a frequent shopper to the website, I read about it and decided to try it.

Now every deal has its problems. The only two issues I found are:

- The yearly cost is a little high, 80 bucks a year. Amazon.com is offering a free month trial, but make sure that you use the service to get your money out of it.

- The free 2-day shipping only applies to Amazon.com-sold products. These means you still pay shipping with third-party sellers.

This service has been very useful, especially when gas prices were so high this summer. At the highest point in gas prices, it would cost us 10 dollars in gas to go to the local Target, but with free shipping through Amazon.com , we only had to wait a day or two.

No criminal prosecution For Former Justice Department Employees

For those who don't know about the Justice Department selectively hiring people, read here.
The Justice Departments Inspector General and its internal ethics office have found that officials at the Justice Department rejected candidates with possible liberal backgrounds for what were supposed to be non-political jobs and hired conservative Republicans.
If you want to read about the technical stuff, the search they used is talked about here.
The Attorney General has rejected the idea of criminally prosecuting anyone. From one article I read the following;
“Where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute,” he said. “But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” he said. As the inspector general’s report acknowledged, the hiring violations were such a case, because the wrongdoing violated federal civil service law, but not criminal law, he said.
Lemony and I argued this question but I will pose it to you. Is it not the definition of crime to violate the law?