What the bailout means to you

It's a gross oversimplification, but then so is everything else in this ridiculous farce of an election year.



tagged: politics, economy, graph, bailout, policy

Friday Blogthing: Raptor schmaptor

I could survive for 1 minute, 19 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor
tagged: Friday, blogthing, velociraptor, quiz, blog, meme

B-Day

130,981 People

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

People who died on September 23, 1970 (the exact day you were born)

• Bourvil, French actor and singer

Natural disasters in 1970

• 1970 Bhola cyclone
• 1970 Ancash earthquake

People who died on September 23 (various years)

• 2006 - Etta Baker, US-American blues guitarist (b.1913)
• 2006 - Sir Malcolm Arnold, English composer and professional trumpeter
• 2005 - Roger Brierley, English actor
• 2005 - Filiberto Ojeda, Puerto Rican revolutionary
• 2004 - Billy Reay, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 2004 - André Hazes, Dutch singer
• 2003 - Yuri Senkevich, Russian TV anchorman
• 2002 - Vernon Corea, Sri Lankan broadcaster
• 2000 - Carl Rowan, US-American journalist
• 2000 - Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican Major League Baseball player
• 1998 - Mary Frann, US-American actress
• 1994 - Madeleine Renaud, French theater and film actress
• 1994 - Robert Bloch, US-American author
• 1994 - Jerry Barber, US-American golfer
• 1992 - James Van Fleet, U.S. Army general
• 1988 - Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer
• 1987 - Bob Fosse, US-American dancer, choreographer, and actor
• 1981 - Chief Dan George, Canadian actor
• 1978 - Lyman Bostock, US-American baseball player (murdered)
• 1974 - Cliff Arquette, US-American comedian and actor
• 1973 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1971 - Billy Gilbert, US-American actor
• 1971 - J. W. Alexander, US-American mathematician
• 1968 - Francesco Forgione, "Padre Pio", Catholic saint
• 1950 - Sam Barry, US-American basketball player and coach
• 1944 - Jakob Schaffner, Swiss novelist
• 1943 - Elinor Glyn, English author
• 1939 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist
• 1935 - the first two victims of the Cleveland Torso Murderer
• 1929 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1917 - Werner Voss, German World War I pilot
• 1900 - William Marsh Rice, US-American philanthropist and university founder
• 1889 - Wilkie Collins, British author
• 1877 - Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician
• 1873 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer
• 1871 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, French Canadian politician
• 1870 - Prosper Mérimée, French author
• 1850 - José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan hero
• 1846 - John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia
• 1844 - Alexander von Benckendorff, Russian general and statesman
• 1835 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer
• 1789 - John Rogers, US-American Continental Congressman
• 1773 - Johann Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and botanist
• 1764 - Robert Dodsley, English writer
• 1738 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician
• 1728 - Christian Thomasius, German jurist
• 1675 - Valentin Conrart, founder of the Académie Française
• 1605 - Pontus de Tyard, French poet
• 1573 - Azai Hisamasa, Japanese warlord
• 1571 - John Jewel, English bishop
• 1535 - Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg, queen of Gustav I of Sweden
• 1390 - John I, Duke of Lorraine
• 1241 - Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet, and politician
• 79 - Pope Linus

tagged: Iran, Europe, nuclear, Wall Street Journal, EU, Bush, environmentalist

Friday Blogthing: Our Man Flint

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Flint

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

tagged: Friday, blogthing, Pirate, name, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, quiz, blog, meme

Pirate haiku

In honor of ITLAP Day:

I be more pirate
yer salty hide can't outdo
my two eyepatches



tagged: humor, haiku, Talk Like a Pirate, poetry, Arrrrrr

Galtian response

I was having a virtual conversation with a couple of guys the other day after the So-Called Government announced the $64 brajillion bailout of AIG.

I was going off on an irrational rant (as I am known to do) about how the So-Called Government is always bailing everyone out and that’s why people had no problem borrowing more than they could even unreasonably afford knowing that the So-Called Government would be there to buy them out if when the financial shit inevitably hits the fan.

This guy rightly pointed out that most people didn't "know" the government would bail them out of their mortgages, although the banks probably knew the So-Called Government WOULD bail THEM out.

This is true, and I forgot to give props for that. So, Bull, yes. You’re right that most people didn't consciously and premeditatively go into their super-balloon payment ARM mortgages with the idea of ripping off the bank and the taxpayer.

But I guess what I and an unfortunately small minority of others are so frustrated about is this on-going and really unacknowledged dependence that the American Public has developed on the So-Called Government.

Run your auto company into the ground? Don’t worry, the So-Called Government will fix it. Airline tanking? Don’t worry, the So-Called Government will give you some money.

Did your bank lose a bundle in a mortgage pyramid scheme? Hey, no problem, the So-Called Government is buying mortgage companies this week.

You say your house was destroyed in a hurricane because you built it below sea level? Let the So-Called Government help you rebuild it under sea level again.

Look people, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking we don’t live in a socialist republic. Hell, I'm not even so sure about the "republic" part anymore. Everyone is on the public dole, from the richest corporate CEO’s to the rural beet farmer.

And the majority of people seem to think that’s okay.

Years ago I read Atlas Shrugged. Now, I know the pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand has been roundly debunked, but I can’t help feeling like we’re living the plot of that (at times tedious) novel. How long before the few, productive members of society just get sick of funding the moochers.

In the book, the So-Called Government took over more and more industries – banking, steel, mining, transportation – for the good of the people of course. Finally the productive people said “fuckit” and started their own country in wild and unexplored Colorado.

Reading the novel, I remember thinking Rand was a passable writer and the concepts are interesting food for thought on a conceptual level. The characters were pretty melodramatic, one-dimensional and not very complex, so I never really attributed any real-world significance to them.

After the last few months, I’m not so sure.

Anyone have any unused ranch land in Colorado for sale?

tagged: economy, politics, culture, America, government, Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

YouTube Tuesday: I just wanna Fly

The year was 1986. A gallon of gas cost 89 cents, and Mikhail Gorbachev was the second-most popular Mikhail in America. The Bangles taught us to Walk Like an Egyptian, while Robert Palmer (R.I.P.) was Addicted to Love.

America was in recovery after the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger. We were introspective, searching for a return to simpler times, and veteran film director David Cronenberg was doing his part, taking a classic mad scientist movie and updating it for the glamorous '80s.



The Fly was one of my favorite movies from the period (sure, some of my contemporaries are nostalgic about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, but I found Freddy to be just a bit too one dimensional when compared with the multifaceted complexity of Seth Brundle).



Anyway, now in the midst of a national malaise, Cronenberg returns again with a new adaptation of The Fly -- on stage at the Los Angeles Opera. The Fly The Opera features original music by the film's soundtrack composer, Howard Shore (who also did Lord of the Rings), and is conducted by Placido Domingo.

I'll be checking this out next time I'm in LA-LA Land.



tagged: 1986, The Fly, movie, video, YouTube, pop culture, opera, David Cronenberg, Howard Shore

Man Grabs a Log III

Hey everybody! It's that time of year again! Back for its third annual installment...

It's (cue the Monty Python theme music...)

Emawkc's 3rd Annual Blog Anagram Game!!!
Yes sir, you heard right. It's the most popular 3rd Annual Blog Anagram Game!!! in the blogospheriverse.

If this is your first time participating in the 3rd Annual Blog Anagram Game!!!, then you are in for a treat. Here's a quick recap of the rules:

Below is a list of 10 blog titles in anagram form (anigramified, if you will). Your assignment, should you choose not to puss out, is to decode the anagrams and leave a comment with the answer.

Each time someone correctly decodes a title, you get a point. I'll link to the respective blog once its anagrammed title has been decoded. The commenter with the most points will win bragging rights, link love and lots of fabulous prizes**.

But wait, you say you suck at word games? Don't worry my friend, this game is designed to put the odds in your favor. All of the animgramified blogs below are listed in the blogroll to the left.

And as if giving you the answers doesn't make it easy enough, here's another hint: None of the blogs used last year or the year before are used this year.

I don't know how it could possibly be easier. And it certainly couldn't be more fun (unless you were naked).

Okay, here are this year's anagrams. Good luck.

1. A blended severed snout
2. Amiably OK poser
3. Let Evil Deb tow lines
4. Gabbling fur troll drumming
5. Fleeciness moon grunting hymn
6. Heathendom's vim tit
7. Her gallant beer
8. Pitch mole
   
9. Satanic egg club
10. Trolls go gab

*Yes, the title of this post is actually and anagram for "blog anagrams" -- I'm so fricken clever I scare myself.
**As usual, no actual prizes will be given. You should know me better than that.
tagged: blog, game, anagram, fun

spyder spyder burning bright

For some reason, this makes me think of this.

tagged: spider, Flash, game, web, fun

Friday Blogthing: Rainy Day Women Sept. 12

This one seemed particularly apropos today.

What Your Black Umbrella Says About You

When faced with adversity, you respond with authority. You don't let problems faze you. You are naturally powerful and commanding. People look to you to take charge. You are elegant and classy. You know how to always say and do the right thing. While you stand out, you also fit it. You thrive in a variety of situations. On a rainy day: you carry on as normal - a little bad weather isn't going to get in your way!

The Umbrella Test

tagged: Friday, blogthing, rain, umbrella, black, quiz, blog, meme