Tom Faranda's Folly

WSJ: Congress lives up to it's 10% approval rating

A Wall Street Journal editorial this morning. Excerpts below but read the whole thing -

Congress lives up to its 10% approval rating. The Beltway Crash - WSJ.com

The 228-205 defeat reflects badly on all concerned, starting with the Democrats who run the House. The majority party is responsible for assembling a majority vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed in that fundamental task.

Her highly partisan speech on the floor -- blaming "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" for the financial distress -- is no excuse for Republicans to vote no. But it is indicative of the way she has governed for the past two years -- like Tom DeLay without the charm. The cynics are saying Ms. Pelosi deliberately tanked the bill by giving 95 Democrats a pass, knowing failure would hurt John McCain, and given her track record we can see why people would believe it.

House Republicans share the blame, and not only because they opposed the bill by about two-to-one, 133-65. Their immediate response was to say that many of their Members turned against the bill at the last minute because Ms. Pelosi gave her nasty speech. So they are saying that Republicans chose to oppose something they think is in the national interest merely because of a partisan slight. Thank heaven these guys weren't at Valley Forge.

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Members may not believe Hank Paulson, but they ought to pay attention to markets. The financial system has a huge capital hole due to losses on mortgage securities and other assets, and private capital won't begin to fill it without the life preserver of public capital. Before it leaves town to campaign, Congress needs to act to defend and restabilize the financial system. After the last two weeks, and especially after yesterday, the Members also need to act to redeem their own reputations, to the extent they are still worth redeeming.

Good comment by a Democratic Congressman from Indiana, who voted against the bailout

You gotta love it! A great line for his constituents.

"We are now in the golden age of thieves. And where I come from we put thieves in jail, we don't bail them out." — Rep. Pete Visclosky, Democrat.

"Castaway": The Fedex commercial

I just saw this yesterday, but I'm told it was a Super Bowl commercial a few years ago.

If you saw the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks (Hanks works for Fedex and is marooned for five years after a plane crash. Remember?) you'll get a laugh out of this.

A pro-McCain march in Manhattan gets a salute on the upper west side.

"Free speech for me, but not for thee", to quote the title of a Nat Hentoff book.

This reminds me of the inaptly named "March for Women's Lives" in April, 2004 in Washington. I was there, along with my whole family and about 800 other people. The difference was, 250,000 walked past us giving the middle finger salute and screaming obscenities - and worse.  

Did Nancy Pelosi's wild partisan attack cause the bailout legislation to fail?

I'm sure it didn't help.

Why would she give this sort of speech when a bipartisan effort is what the Congressional leadership said they were aiming for?

This is pretty amazing. It's all Bush's fault. I posted the House voting on the bailout legislation below the video.

My Congressman John Hall (D) voted "aye."

H R 3997 RECORDED VOTE 29-Sep-2008 2:07 PM

AYES
Democratic 140
Republican 65

NOES
Democrat 95
Republican 133

NOT VOTING
Republican 1

TOTALS

AYES 205
NOES 228

So it's back to the drawing board. And I'm glad. There was too much power vested in one unelected man (the Treasury Secretary) and not enough protections for the taxpayer.

Obama and his advisors think he can win in a landslide

From the UK Telegraph

Barack Obama's top team believes he can win White House by a landslide - Telegraph

Their optimism, which is said to be shared by the Democratic candidate himself, is based on information from private polling and on faith in the powerful political organisation he has built in the key swing states.

Insiders say that Mr Obama's apparent calm through an unusually turbulent election season is because he believes that his strength among first time voters in several key states has been underestimated, both by the media and by the Republican Party.

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Mainstream pollsters on both sides of the aisle last week called the election as a dead heat. Mark Mellman, who was John Kerry's polling guru, said the 2008 election is "increasingly resembling the real map of 2004" and Matthew Dowd, a top strategist on Bush's re-election campaign, added: "States that were reliably red are reliably red, and states that were reliably blue are reliably blue."

But Mr Obama's campaign team reject that analysis. Their confidence that good organisation will more than compensate for latent racism will be reassuring to some Democrats, who were concerned by a poll last weekend that found Mr Obama would be six points higher in the polls if he were white.

New! Pre-fab basic treehouse

With thanks to Ann Althouse, who refers to this as "The "lazy man's treehouse"

Tim's latest football

His team defeated Ardsley, 22-0.

Tim played very well - he is really consistent.

His number is 77 - they accidentally sewed his name onto 77, rather then 70, so that settled that.

 

And one more

Obama and the bracelet - turns out the soldier's family asked him NOT to wear it

Update: See the comments below; the story is not so cut and dried.

I posted about the fact that Obama had to read the bracelet to get the soldier's name. Tom Faranda's Folly: Obama and his bracelet which is bad enough.

But it's even grosser - Family Told Obama NOT To Wear Soldier Son's Bracelet... Where is Media? | NewsBusters.org

After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.

Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son's name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.

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Jopek began by saying that his ex-wife was taken aback, even upset, that Obama has made the death of her son a campaign issue. Jopek says his wife gave Obama the bracelet because "she just wanted Mr. Obama to know Ryan's name." Jopek went on to say that "she wasn't looking to turn it into a big media event" and "just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself." Apparently, they were all shocked it became such a big deal.

But, he also said that his ex-wife has refused further interviews on the matter and that she wanted Obama to stop wearing the reminder of her son's sacrifice that he keeps turning into a campaign soundbyte.

Good article on the collapse of AIG

AIG (American International Group) is a Company I know very well. I have dealt with them for life insurance and annuities for my clients for 25 years. Very competitive products, although the Company has a bit of a reputation for being difficult to deal with if you are a general insurance broker.

It's important to realize that through all of their recent travails, their insurance policyholders were completely protected. Even if the holding company had declared bankruptcy, their insurance subsidiaries had all the statutory capital reserves required; and these are sacrosanct, beyond the reach of creditors. In fact, the subsidiary companies would have continued doing business pretty much as usual even if the holding company was bankrupt.

Anyway, here's a front page story from the NY Times today. They were sunk by one subsidiary.

Behind Insurer’s Crisis, Blind Eye to a Web of Risk - Series - NYTimes.com

As the group, led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., pondered the collapse of one of America’s oldest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, a more dangerous threat emerged: American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, was teetering. A.I.G. needed billions of dollars to right itself and had suddenly begged for help.

The only Wall Street chief executive participating in the meeting was Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Mr. Paulson’s former firm. Mr. Blankfein had particular reason for concern.

Although it was not widely known, Goldman, a Wall Street stalwart that had seemed immune to its rivals’ woes, was A.I.G.’s largest trading partner, according to six people close to the insurer who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. A collapse of the insurer threatened to leave a hole of as much as $20 billion in Goldman’s side, several of these people said.

Days later, federal officials, who had let Lehman die and initially balked at tossing a lifeline to A.I.G., ended up bailing out the insurer for $85 billion.

Their message was simple: Lehman was expendable. But if A.I.G. unspooled, so could some of the mightiest enterprises in the world.

A Goldman spokesman said in an interview that the firm was never imperiled by A.I.G.’s troubles and that Mr. Blankfein participated in the Fed discussions to safeguard the entire financial system, not his firm’s own interests.

Yet an exploration of A.I.G.’s demise and its relationships with firms like Goldman offers important insights into the mystifying, virally connected — and astonishingly fragile — financial world that began to implode in recent weeks.

Although America’s housing collapse is often cited as having caused the crisis, the system was vulnerable because of intricate financial contracts known as credit derivatives, which insure debt holders against default. They are fashioned privately and beyond the ken of regulators — sometimes even beyond the understanding of executives peddling them.

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In the case of A.I.G., the virus exploded from a freewheeling little 377-person unit in London, and flourished in a climate of opulent pay, lax oversight and blind faith in financial risk models. It nearly decimated one of the world’s most admired companies, a seemingly sturdy insurer with a trillion-dollar balance sheet, 116,000 employees and operations in 130 countries.

“It is beyond shocking that this small operation could blow up the holding company,” said Robert Arvanitis, chief executive of Risk Finance Advisors in Westport, Conn. “They found a quick way to make a fast buck on derivatives based on A.I.G.’s solid credit rating and strong balance sheet. But it all got out of control.”

Hit the link above for the whole story.

My friend and business associate Judy Anderson written up in "Catholic New York"

A very nice article. Go here for link to the whole thing.

LifeNet: HVCL co-director Judith Anderson featured in current issue of Catholic New York

Paul Newman

Certainly a great actor. It's hard to believe "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" came out almost 40 years ago.

I thought he had lymphoma, but the reports said he died of lung cancer.

My Way News - Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.

And here's another nice article about his charitable endeavors.

FOXNews.com - Ailing Paul Newman Turns Over $120M to Charity - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

UPDATE: A little "Cool Hand Luke"

Obama and his bracelet

I said here that Obama's dud moment was when he said "I have a bracelet". Tom Faranda's Folly: McCain had an ad out quoting Obama in the debate before the debate was over

But I only heard the response over the radio. What actually happened was worse - he couldn't remember the name of the soldier on his bracelet! He had to look at the bracelet to see his name.

I think that's awful. Let's face it - the only reason he was wearing the bracelet was so he could say so at the debate. Crass exploitation. Shameful. It's at the end of this video piece.

This is the financial arrangement (bailout) I would go for

A Wall Street Journal op ed

The Public Deserves a Better Deal - WSJ.com

The Treasury plan to buy illiquid financial assets has been widely criticized as being unfair to taxpayers, who will have to bear losses ahead of shareholders of the institutions that will be bailed out.

There is a better alternative to stabilize the markets: Invest the $700 billion of taxpayer money in senior preferred stock of the troubled financial institutions that pose systemic risks. Let's call this the "Preferred plan." In fact, it is the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac model -- which the Treasury Department has already endorsed and used in practice. It is also the approach Warren Buffett used for his investment in Goldman Sachs.

There are major problems with the Treasury plan. First, by buying banks' worst assets at above-market prices, taxpayers take an immediate economic loss -- while transferring wealth to shareholders and executives of the very institutions that brought on the financial crisis.

Second, this plan puts too much discretionary power in the hands of Treasury officials. ...

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Under the Treasury plan the taxpayer pays the price. Under a Preferred plan, the shareholders of the firms who created the problems bear the first loss. Who do you think should pay?

The NY Times on dubious Obama ads

The McCain camp's vociferious criticism of the Time's bias in favor of Obama may have paid off. Tom Faranda's Folly: McCain campaign has just discovered that the NY Times "is a pro-Obama advocacy organization" Note that I am not suggesting that all of McCain's ads are accurate. I'm sure his campaign is also quite willing to stretch the truth.

Dubious Claims in Obama’s Ads Against McCain, Despite a Vow of Truth - NYTimes.com

— Two weeks ago, Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign gleefully publicized a spate of news reports about misleading and untruthful statements in the advertisements of his rival, Senator John McCain. Asked by a voter in New Hampshire if he would respond in kind, Mr. Obama said, “I just have a different philosophy, I’m going to respond with the truth,” adding, “I’m not going to start making up lies about John McCain.”

Yet as Mr. McCain’s misleading advertisements became fodder on shows like “The View” and “Saturday Night Live,” Mr. Obama began his own run of advertisements on radio and television that have matched the dubious nature of Mr. McCain’s more questionable spots.

Here are some examples from the article:

A much criticized Spanish-language television advertisement wrongly links the views of Mr. McCain, who was a champion of the sweeping immigration overhaul pushed by Mr. Bush, to those of Rush Limbaugh, a harsh critic of the approach, and, frequently, of Mr. McCain.

The advertisement implies Mr. Limbaugh is one of Mr. McCain’s “Republican friends,” and quotes Mr. Limbaugh as calling Mexicans “stupid and unqualified.” Mr. Limbaugh has written that his quotes were taken out of context and that he was mocking the views of others.

In all, Mr. Obama has released at least five commercials that have been criticized as misleading or untruthful against Mr. McCain’s positions in the past two weeks. Mr. Obama drew complaints from many of the independent fact-checking groups and editorial writers who just two weeks ago were criticizing Mr. McCain for producing a large share of this year’s untruthful spots (“Pants on Fire,” the fact-checking Web site PolitiFact.com wrote of Mr. Obama’s advertisement invoking Mr. Limbaugh; “False!” FactCheck.org said of his commercial on Social Security.)

Some Democrats expressed concern that Mr. Obama, in stretching the truth in some of his advertisements, was putting at risk the “above politics” persona he has tried to cultivate.

McCain had an ad out quoting Obama in the debate before the debate was over

UPDATE - This ad may turn out to be more important then the content of the debate. You can bet it wil be shown all over televsionland and the internet, and will shape people's judgement of the debate.  One of the comments on Michelle Malkin's website about the ad - "O ... is finally showing good judgement... he's agreeing with McCain."Michelle Malkin » Rapid response: McCain debate ad quotes Obama, “McCain is right”

Wow. I guess all credit to the McCain rapid response team! The ad below was out on the internet on Michelle Malkin's website at 10:33 - so it  must have been up on youtube and McCain's website before that.

 I heard most of the debate on the radio, as I was at my office trying to get my laptop, which crashed today, to function. The advantage seemed to go back and forth. I thought Obama sounded better on taxes, and McCain sounded better on foreign policy.

McCain generally had better points, but Obama delivered his points better.

McCain dud line - "I don't have a presidential seal yet"

Obama dud line - "I have a bracelet too"

Rove on the debates: first one could be decisive

Now that the first debate si on in a few hours, here's what Karl Rove thinks:

The First Debate Could Be Decisive - WSJ.com

Presidential debates are important -- and the first debate is the most important of all, establishing an arc of opinion that persists unless jarred loose by big mistakes or dramatic events.

So whether this year's first presidential debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain is Friday night or postponed a few days, it may be the fall's most critical event. In the nine first debates since 1960, the perceived winner of the debate averaged a 4.2 point net swing in the Gallup poll.

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Mr. Obama has more recent debate experience, and he's wise to have spent three days in Florida resting. Mr. McCain, by contrast, has campaigned with little rest and rehearsal. This is dangerous. Mood and countenance matter as much as command of issues.

A debate tie goes to the frontrunner. With that now being Mr. Obama by a slim margin, Mr. McCain must emerge the clear winner, or his prospects of being the next president will dim.

Good essay by historian Victor Davis Hanson on the deep down cause of the "meltdown"

Reminded me of the famous John Donne line: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

Dr. Frankenstein’s Wall Street by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

All that remains of this Ponzi scheme is the election-year blame game. Republicans charge that important financial firewalls were dismantled by the Clinton administration while insider liberal senators got shady campaign donations in exchange for aiding Wall Street. Democrats counter that the laissez-faire capitalism espoused by Republicans for two decades encouraged financial piracy while tax policy favored the rich speculator over the middle-class wage earner.

But no one dares to ask what really drove the wheeler-dealer portfolio managers. Who re-elected these shady politicians of both parties? Who fostered the cash-in culture in which both Wall Street profit mongering and Washington lobbying are nourished and thrive? We citizens did — red-state conservatives and blue-state liberals, Republicans and Democrats, alike. We may be victims of Wall Street greed — but not quite innocent victims.

Let me explain. The profiteering was not just the result of a few thousand scoundrels on Wall Street or in Washington, as greedy and as bonus-hungry as many of them no doubt were. Look at the housing market as a sort of musical chairs in which everyone profited as long he grabbed a seat when the music stopped. Then those left standing — with high-priced loans and negative equity when the crash came — defaulted and stuck taxpayers with debt in the billions of dollars. But until then, most owners who had sold homes cashed out beyond their wildest dreams.

Another interesting brief article on St. Paul

I just realized that I posted a catechesis by the Pope on St. Paul yesterday Tom Faranda's Folly: An interesting catechesis by the Pope on St. Paul , I am posting this one, and today is the anniversary of my brother Paul's death (see the prior posting).

Is this a coincidence, or as my friend Fr. Norman Weslin likes to say, "A Divine setup."?

Here's the newsletter article from Karl Keating, a Catholic laymen who runs an evangelizing apostolate:

Whose conversion to Christianity was more important, that of Paul or that of Cornelius? “Why, Paul’s, of course,” you say. After all, who talks about Cornelius nowadays? Paul gets all the press—and for a good reason.

But let’s think this through. I believe one can argue that Cornelius’s conversion was the more important. Let me explain by turning to Luke’s Gospel, chapters 9 and 10, and looking at what happened to each man.

First of all, each had a vision, Paul having perhaps history’s most famous as he was on the road to Damascus. A light flashed around him, and he was knocked to the ground (whether from his feet or, as in traditional artwork, from a horse we don’t know). He heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” The voice was Jesus’. Saul, now blind, was told to go into Damascus and to await further instructions. Meanwhile, in Damascus a man named Ananias had a vision, the Lord telling him to restore Paul’s sight and to baptize him.

Now let’s switch to Cornelius. He lived in Caesarea and was a Roman soldier—in fact, an officer commanding a century, which was a subdivision of a Roman legion. One afternoon Cornelius had a vision of an angel. The vision at first terrified him (an unsurprising response, I would think). The angel told Cornelius to send men to Joppa and to have them bring Peter to Caesarea. The phrasing indicates that Cornelius did not know who Peter was, but he obeyed at once, sending one of his trusted soldiers and two of his personal servants.

While the three were on their way to Joppa the next day, Peter himself had a vision, the one in which a giant sheet contained all sorts of animals, clean and unclean. In the vision Peter was told to eat the animals, but he protested against eating the unclean ones. The voice told him that it was God, not Peter, who would determine what was clean and what wasn’t. After the vision concluded, Peter sat thinking about it, and just then the men sent by Cornelius showed up. The next day Peter set off with them for Caesarea.

At the house of Cornelius Peter gave an address, and, as he ended, “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word,” with graces coming even to the Gentiles. Peter asked, “Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Then the Gentiles—Cornelius included—were baptized.

Later Peter reported on these events to the other apostles, and they said, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life.” (Keep in mind that Jesus had neither baptized nor authorized the baptism of Gentiles; the apostles here accepted Peter’s determination of what should be done.)

Let’s summarize. Paul and Cornelius received visions that resulted in their conversions. Paul was baptized by Ananias, a man of such little importance that he disappeared from Christian history, as though he had only a walk-on part. Cornelius, by contrast, was baptized by the first pope. Paul was brought into the Church in order to bring others in; he would become the first great missionary. What later became of Cornelius is unclear, but he and those with him were the first non-Jews to become Christians, which means that he was the prototype for most of us.

Which conversion was the more important—the one that opened the faith to the large majority of mankind (everyone who was not a Jew) or the one of the man who would begin the task of bringing in those people?

Fr. Vincent McNabb put it this way eighty years ago, “Paul’s conversion prepared the worker for the harvest; the call of Cornelius prepared the harvest-field for the worker.”  While Paul’s conversion was “fateful for the Church, [it] was not so fateful as that of the centurion who, when he entered the flock of Christ, brought with him the world of Gentiles.”

This is not to say that Cornelius ended up the greater saint, of course, but it does suggest that we may profit from looking at biblical events in slightly different ways.

Third anniversary of my brother Paul's death

At 47. After leading a "noble life" (my brother Jim's phrase) filled with illness. Here's the posting I put up about him a few days after he died. I had just started my chemotherapy a few days earlier.

Tom Faranda's Folly: Paul Faranda, 1958-2005

And here's a picture I've posted before, of Paul with Brigid and I when he came to visit us in 1980, when we lived on Grand Cayman. A little blurry, but I love this picture!

  

By the way, Brigid points out that we still have the cooler, and it hasn't changed "but we have..."

An interesting catechesis by the Pope on St. Paul

I enjoyed reading this off the ZENIT email newsletter.

It's sometimes claimed that St. Paul actually founded the Christian Church. The Pope teaches otherwise.

Paul Is No Inventor of Christianity, Says Pope

Notes Apostle's Faithful Transmission of Tradition

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The importance that Paul gave in his letters to sacred Tradition proves false the claim the Apostle invented Christianity, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this today during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, which he dedicated to a continuation of his series of catecheses on St. Paul. Some 15,000 people gathered for the audience, including several groups from Eastern Europe and Oceania.

The Holy Father spoke about St. Paul's relationships with the Twelve, which he said were "always marked by profound respect and by the frankness that in Paul stemmed from the defense of the truth of the Gospel."

He particularly stressed the relationship with Peter, noting that the Apostle to the Gentiles stayed with the first Pope for 15 days to learn about Christ's earthly life.

During Paul's time with the Twelve, the Pontiff explained, he received teaching on central elements of the Christian tradition. He then transmits this Tradition faithfully. Benedict XVI particularly noted passages from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians where the Apostle explains the Christian faith on the Eucharist and the Resurrection.

"The words of Jesus in the Last Supper really are for Paul the center of the life of the Church," the Pope explained.

And the "other text, on the Resurrection, transmits to us again the same formula of fidelity," he continued.

"The importance that [Paul] bestows on the living Tradition of the Church, which she transmits to her communities, demonstrates how mistaken is the view of those who attribute to Paul the invention of Christianity," the Holy Father contended. "Before proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he encountered him on the road to Damascus, and met him in the Church, observing his life in the Twelve, and in those who had followed him on the roads of Galilee. [...]

"The mission received on the part of the Risen One in order to evangelize the Gentiles must be confirmed and guaranteed by those who gave him and Barnabas their right hand, in sign of approval of their apostolate and evangelization, and of acceptance in the one communion of the Church of Christ."

The Pontiff concluded by affirming that faith is born from an experience of the risen Christ.

"The more we try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth on the roads of Galilee, so much the more will we understand that he has taken charge of our humanity, sharing in everything except sin," he said. "Our faith is not born from a myth or an idea, but from an encounter with the Risen One, in the life of the Church."

 

ONN on Obama plan to save American jobs from going abroad

Fair is fair, since I posted this one Tom Faranda's Folly: Report on McCain economic plan: "Everyone marry a beer heiress"  yesterday.

"Just asking for an opportunity to work our fingers down to the bone for very little money  ... and work 12 to 14 hours a day".

Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

President of the American Medical Association (AMA) and his fight against pancreatic cancer

An excelletn short article. Pancreatic cancer, of course, is a bad one.

Patient Voices - Armed With Knowledge, Doctor Is Driven to Fight Pancreatic Cancer - NYTimes.com

Pancreatic cancer often invades the body so surreptitiously that it causes no symptoms of note until it spreads to other organs. By then it is usually too late. While other cancers are far more common, pancreatic cancer is the nation’s fourth-leading cause of cancer death, killing 34,000 people a year, compared with just 37,000 cases over all.

For Dr. Davis, 52, the statistics are a motivator.

“I know the survival statistics for someone with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” he said at a recent lecture to the medical association’s House of Delegates. “But if the five-year survival is 5 percent, that’s not zero.”

Breast cancer: Shorter radiation works as well as longer radiation for some

From the NY Times health section:

Shorter Radiation for Cancer of the Breast - NYTimes.com

Three weeks of radiation treatment work just as well as the usual course of five weeks or more for women with early-stage breast cancers, Canadian researchers have reported, after monitoring a large group of patients for 12 years.

The results, presented Monday at a conference in Boston, provide some of the strongest evidence yet that radiation schedules can safely be shortened to make life easier for patients and to let clinics reduce their waiting lists and treat more women without buying more machines.

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But Dr. Zietman cautioned that the results applied only to women with early cancers like those in the study, which were removed by lumpectomy and had not spread to the lymph nodes. Often, women with such early cancers do not need chemotherapy.

Other major changes in radiation are also in the works. Doctors are experimenting with ways to treat just part of the breast rather than all of it, and to make the treatment safer, they are trying to avoid exposing the heart and lungs to radiation.

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Dr. Park, who is studying partial breast irradiation, said: “We’re learning who we can treat appropriately with these more limited treatments. We may not know exactly right now, but people should watch. In the next 10 years, we’ll really change the number of things we can offer for breast cancer.”

Report on McCain economic plan: "Everyone marry a beer heiress"

From ONN - how to get rich 

McCain�s Economic Plan For Nation: "Everyone Marry A Beer Heiress"

Moment of ovulation captured on film

Here is a really neat article with pictures, that I set aside meaning to post awhile ago. There are  four pictures in the article.

BBC NEWS | Health | Ovulation moment caught on camera

A human egg has been filmed in close-up emerging from the ovary for the first time, captured by chance during a routine operation.

 

Joe Biden tells Katie Couric how FDR went on television to explain the stock market crash of 1929.

You can't make this stuff up. Here's what he said a minute and a half into the interview, which is in full below: 

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Couric didn't point out to him (maybe she didn't know?) that:

1) There was no Television in 1929

and

2) But if you did own some experimental TV set in 1929, Hoover was President

Obama and Biden: Quayle Lite X2.

Washington Post - new surgical technique allows for no incisions - but does it make sense?

Of course, not everyone might be happy with the idea of their gall bladder removed through their mouth.

This is an interesting feature in WaPo. And it includes a video.

Scarless Surgery Uses Body's Own Openings - washingtonpost.com

"I kept thinking, 'What if it gets stuck in my windpipe?' " said Pagliuca, 45, who lives outside Chicago. " 'What if I choke on it?' "

After doctors guaranteed that would not happen, he agreed, becoming one of several dozen Americans who have undergone experimental procedures that could take minimally invasive surgery to a new level ...

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Many surgeons are enthusiastic about the possibilities, but some question the need for the new procedures when safe, only slightly invasive alternatives exist. And they fear that doctors will rush ahead before they have perfected their techniques and made sure that the benefits are worth the risks.

"That's exactly what's going to happen," said Ira J. Kodner, a surgery professor and a bioethicist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Those who haven't been trained are going to go out and do it. They are going to take a weekend course and start offering it. It's going to happen. I guarantee it."

David Cronin, an associate professor of surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, is especially concerned that non-surgeons will start doing the operations. He said: "Not every idea is a good idea. I've been following this one with clenched teeth."

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"If it proves to be risky, which I don't think it will be, or of limited benefit, then we'll stop doing it," said Marc Bessler, director of laparoscopic surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia. "So far it doesn't seem to be risky, the patients definitely have a cosmetic benefit, recovery seems to be better, and they seem to have less pain. If we can get to recovery-free, pain-free and scar-free surgery, that would be a revolution."

The right way to weigh yourself

From one of my humor consultants who's going nameless on this one!

I'm so glad I found out about this, and please spread the word -

 

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years

McCain campaign has just discovered that the NY Times "is a pro-Obama advocacy organization"

Well, duh. What did they expect? Journalism?

McCain campaign savages New York Times

"Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization," said Schmidt on a conference call with reporters.

"It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.

"This is an organization that is completely, totally, 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate, which is their prerogative to be, but let's not be dishonest and call it something other than what it is."

"It is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity and tradition to advocate for the defeat of one candidate -- in this case, John McCain."

The McCain campaign complaints were reminiscent of comments by the campaign of former Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, which claimed the media was giving Obama an easy ride and not properly "vetting" his candidacy.

Of course they are 100% correct. Here's a posting I put up last Monday Tom Faranda's Folly: The New York Times attack on McCain and Palin begins/continues

And here's their most emailed articles & features list - so you know that many NY Times readers are lapping it up Most E-Mailed New York Times Articles in the Past 24 Hours - The New York Times

Bonus! A two minute audio of the conference call to reporters from campaign manager Steve Schmidt.

Here's the counter-statement by Obama campaign in which they list 42 "probing stories" the NYT did of Obama. The list is at the end of the article, and lots of it looks lightweight to me (#1 is "In law school, Obama found political voice")  

McCain aide: NYT not legit news source - Mike Allen - Politico.com

Last night's last game at Yankee Stadium

Yesterday I posted about this Tom Faranda's Folly: Yankees last game at the (old) Stadium tonight

Here's the NY Times coverage as the Yankees won, 7-3.

Jose Molina will go down as the last person to hit a home run at the stadium - and it was only his third of the season!

Yankees 7, Orioles 3 - Yankee Stadium Receives a Long Ovation After an 85-Year Run - NYTimes.com

And here's the NY Post

YANKEES BID FAREWELL WITH VICTORY - New York Post

and Daily News

Yankees close out House That Ruth Built with 7-3 win over Orioles

(Office) Politics - young people are apathetic - But "Rock the Corporate Ladder' is working on it.

It's all here -

Study Finds Young People Remain Apathetic About Office Politics

Phyllis Schlafly responds to feminist attacks on Palin

Schlafly is a mother, lawyer, and activist (sounds like the definition of a feminist) who decades ago successfully fought against the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). At 84, she is still very active in what would be viewed as politically conservative causes.

Feminists against Palin - shame on you

... Feminist anger against Sarah has exposed the fact that feminism is not about women's success and achievement. If it were, feminists would have been bragging for years about self-made women who are truly remarkable achievers, such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, or former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, or Sen. Elizabeth Dole, or even Margaret Thatcher. Feminists never boast about these women because feminism's basic doctrine is victimology. Feminism preaches that women can never succeed because they are the sorry victims of an oppressive patriarchy. No matter how smart or accomplished a woman may be, she's told that success and happiness are beyond her grasp because institutional sexism and discrimination hold her down.

>>>>>>

The feminist tirades against Sarah are mostly so tiresome, but one line of their complaints is really funny. After 40 years of telling wives and mothers to get out of the home (which Betty Friedan called "a comfortable concentration camp"), put their children in day care (tax-funded, of course) and join the workforce, these same feminists now tell Sarah to stay home with her children.

Sarah doesn't need feminist approval for her lifestyle; the only person whose OK she needs for her double career as mother and politician is her husband's, and he seems very happy with Sarah.

Yankees last game at the (old) Stadium tonight

UPDATE: Here's the resultTom Faranda's Folly: Last night's last game at Yankee Stadium

Game is at 8:15. Andy Pettitte will start and Mariano Rivera is going to pitch the ninth innning, regardless of the score. The game will be shown on ESPN, and there will be shows all day on the Yankee network (YES) and on ESPN about "The house that Ruth built."

Here's a discussion in the NY Times, which also has the results from yesterday's Yankee win. It is weird that the Yanks will be missing the play-offs for the first time since 1993.

Yankees 1, Orioles 0 - Before Stadium Finale, a Final Day in the Sun - NYTimes.com

Tim's latest football

Well, after leading 14-0, they lost to Bronxivlle 24-22. It turns out that if you get up by two touchdowns, you have to substitute out your first stringers, which I suppose makes sense at the 5th/6th grade level. So they are now 1-1.

Ossining really has a good program - they run three teams at the 5th/6th grade level, while most towns only run one. Tim's team has about 20 players, while Bronxville had 35. So more Ossining players actually get to play, rather then sitting on the sideline.

Tim had another good game - he is very consistent. His jersey number was changed to 77 just for this game.

 

Is she fit and qualified to be the VP?

Here's an excerpt from an email I received from a friend of mine in Croton -

• I am under 45 years old,
• I love the outdoors,
• I hunt,
• I am a Republican reformer,
• I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
• I have many children,
• I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.
• I believe the President is a "steward of the people" who should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution,

 

Did you guess?

.

.

. 

. 

I  am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900!

Which Congresspersons have been recent big losers with their Wall Street inestements

Lots of pain over AIG -

Pelosi, Kerry May Share Investor Pain as AIG Stakes Evaporate Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers' aides didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics. ...

My Obama-supporting friends just don't want to face up to who they're in bed with

Here's just one example.

"Comedienne" Sandra Bernhard. Not included in this commercial is Bernhard's line about how if Sarah Palin comes into New York she'll be gang-raped by some of her (Bernhard's) big, black, brothers.

This video breaks my normal rule of only GP rated stuff. Lots of four letter words.

AIG commercial - this is funny

 

As a matter of fact though, no one covered by an AIG insurance product was ever at risk of losing coverage, or of losing any of their money. Even in bankruptcy, if it had come to that, the subsidiary companies wuold have continued functioning as normal and the policyholders were completely protected.

But it's still funny.

News about Nick Springer's Mom

This is very sad. She died as Nick and the rest of the family were on their way back from China, after Nick had won a gold medal in the paralympics.

The Nick Springer story is quite amazing.

One last gift for Mom: Victory | lohud.com | The Journal News

"I was standing there in China, and I was watching him, and I was so hoarse when they put the medal on him," Gary Springer said. "I was so proud. It was one of the greatest moments. But I was also thinking that the games were over. And now I have to go tell him that we have to leave in the morning because his mother is in a coma."

>>>>>>

Nick Springer, who grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, lost his arms and legs after contracting meningitis at a summer camp when he was 14. Nancy made it her mission to raise awareness about the rare disease and help her son be independent and successful despite it.

He went to college in Florida. He became a competitive athlete. He began training with the U.S. Paralympic team in preparation for the Olympics. She was a mother, and so she beamed.

Really odd Microsoft ad campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld gets sacked

A week and a half ago I posted this odd ad Tom Faranda's Folly: A really weird commercial, with Seinfeld and Bill Gates .

Now the ad campaign has, thankfully, been pulled. But look what they paid Seinfeld ...

No more yada yada: Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ads are ending | Technology | Los Angeles Times

... The ads have been largely panned as a strained effort on the software giant's part to not only promote Windows but also portray Microsoft as cool and in touch with regular consumers -- basically, to counter the stodgy image painted in Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads.

Seinfeld, who reportedly received $10 million for his efforts, was a superstar in the 1990s with his hit show. Using him now, in 2008, only added to Microsoft's image as being behind the times, critics said. Some viewers, such as the writers on Ars Technica, said the ads just left them scratching their heads. (If you can't easily find the ads on YouTube, Microsoft provides them on its site).

Joe Biden on how it's patriotic to pay higher taxes

This guy is a loose cannon in the Obama campaign. Listen carefully to the video below, as he explains how it's patriotic to pay more taxes.

Biden is very generous with taxpayer money. Meanwhile, he earned over $2.4 million in the last ten years and donated all of $3,690 to charity.Tom Faranda's Folly: VP nominee Joe Biden releases ten years of tax returns, showing he gives virtually nothing to charity.

Hey! What a guy!

An idea being kicked around: a new Resolution Trust Corp.

Remember the Resolution Trust Corp., which was a federal agency created in the late 1980's to wind down the insolvent Savings and Loan Associations (S & L's)?

Many people are saying a similar agency is needed to orderly unravel the current "toxic real estate paper".

It's a safe prediction that this will happen, regardless of who wins the election...

Resurrect the Resolution Trust Corp. - WSJ.com

Such a stabilizing mechanism would accomplish four much-needed tasks:

- First, by buying paper that otherwise is effectively not trading, it would help restore liquidity to the marketplace and help markets to function more fluidly again.

- Second, by warehousing the troubled paper for a longer period than, for instance, the Fed's discount window typically should or could, it would allow for a more orderly liquidation of this paper, and the chance for much of it to recover a portion of its value.

- Third, by giving the agency the ability to manage mortgages with flexibility to keep people in their homes and businesses running, it should lessen the number of foreclosures. This, in turn, would help moderate the decline in real estate values and the deterioration of neighborhoods, thus supporting house prices that in fact lie at the heart of the crisis.

- Fourth, where necessary, like the RTC of the 1980s, this new mechanism can assist the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in resolving sick institutions that are so clogged with the troubled paper they cannot continue as independent entities. However, we would hope that purchasing the mortgage-related paper will minimize the need to provide emergency, short-term assistance to solvent banking institutions.

Here's where Lehman's and Merrill's value has skyrocketed

On Ebay.

One Market Where Lehman's, Merrill's Value Is Up - washingtonpost.com

By late afternoon Tuesday, men's large T-shirts were selling for as much $73. Bids for a tie decorated in hundreds of tiny Lehman logos reached $102, more than doubling the initial asking price of $49.99. A plethora of Lehman-related domain names, including LehmanCasualty.com and LehmanPlunge.com, had gone without buyers.

>>>>>>

A smaller, but still thriving, market for Merrill Lynch souvenirs has also sprung up. The brokerage agreed Monday to sell itself to Bank of America to avoid insolvency.

Overall, though, it appeared that Lehman gear was fetching a higher premium. By late afternoon yesterday, bids for some Lehman baseball caps surged past $65. Merrill caps topped out at $26.

>>>>>>

Perhaps the single most successful item of the day was a stock certificate issued to Lehman for shares of White Star. After three hours and 28 bids it was commanding more than $300. White Star, of course, owned the Titanic.

AIG and financial turmoil

Thought I'd give my 2 cents on what's going on in the financial markets. But of course to discuss the whole thing would require a book length posting, so I will just stick to the AIG situation.

Bear in mind, that my opinion is worth exactly what you are paying for it.

Parenthetical to this discussion, there are millions of people in the U.S. who own various insurance or annuity products with AIG subsidiaries. No individual with an AIG insurance product is or was ever at risk of losing their money. The assets and capital backing these contracts is not available to the AIG holding company and by statute can only be used to pay these insurance obligations. Even if AIG had declared bankruptcy, contract holders were safe, and in fact the subsidiaries would have continued conducting business as usual.

AIG is a huge company - at one time the biggest insurer in the world, with fingers in many countries (over 100) and many different markets. And most of these businesses are very profitable.

Their huge losses stem from credit default swaps (CDS's), and their inability to borrow money to finance their short term cash needs. They own loads of good assets, and many good subsidiary companies, but they were unable to borrow against those assets to pay their short term obligations.

So now the company has essentially been taken over by the federal government, and by extension, the taxpayer.

  U.S. to Take Over AIG in $85 Billion Bailout; Central Banks Inject Cash as Credit Dries Up - WSJ.com

The U.S. negotiators drove a hard bargain. Under terms hammered out Tuesday night, the Fed will lend up to $85 billion to AIG, and the U.S. government will effectively get a 79.9% equity stake in the insurer in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. The two-year loan will carry an interest rate of Libor plus 8.5 percentage points. (Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a common short-term lending benchmark.)

The loan is secured by AIG's assets, including its profitable insurance businesses, giving the Fed some protection even if markets continue to sink. And if AIG rebounds, taxpayers could reap a big profit through the government's equity stake.

"This loan will facilitate a process under which AIG will sell certain of its businesses in an orderly manner, with the least possible disruption to the overall economy," the Fed said in a statement.

It puts the government in control of a private insurer -- a historic development, particularly considering that AIG isn't directly regulated by the federal government. The Fed took the highly unusual step using legal authority granted in the Federal Reserve Act, which allows it to lend to nonbanks under "unusual and exigent" circumstances, something it invoked when Bear Stearns Cos. was rescued in March.

This is probably going to turn out to be a good deal for taxpayers - a big two year interest rate and 79.9% ownership in a huge and mostly very profitable international insurer. Over the next several years parts of AIG will be sold off to pay for the losses  and repay the taxpayer.

The big losers are stockholders of AIG. Not only is the stock trading at around $2 a share, their ownership has now been diluted by the government taking 80% ownership in the Company. The owners (stockholders) are down the drain as far as their AIG holdings. And the many mutual funds holding AIG (almost all U.S. stock funds would own at least some stock) are also taking the hit.   

While this is an unsettling situation, the intermediate and long term outlook is OK for everyone else. Obviously the federal reserve and treasury department viewed a government conservatorship (takeover) to be the lesser of two evils, compared to an AIG bankruptcy and then an effort to do an orderly unwind of AIG's successful subsidiaries while satisfying their debts.

 

Latest Read: Render Unto Caesar

One of the more outspoken - and sensible - Bishops in the U.S. today is Charles Chaput, the Capuchin Francisican Archbishop of Denver. One can only hope that when Cardinal Egan retires from the New York Archdiocese that the Pope will move Chaput to New York.

In any event Archbishop Chaput has a timely and excellent book, with the sub-title "Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political life".

It's timely, of course, because we are now in the political season, and the controversy continues about the role of religious belief and practice in the public arena.

And it is excellent, as Chaput lays out an approach for religious people in general and Catholics in particular, to weigh in on the great issues of the day. The book is a quick read, at 235 pages and 12 chapters. Each chapter is peppered with historic examples and backed up by biblical quotes and church teachings.

Here are some examples: chapter three titled "Why We're Here" starts with a brief analysis of Victor Frankl's classic book "Man's Search for Meaning" and then discusses the role of the Church and Catholic laity in bringing Catholic values into the arena of public ideas.

Chapter seven is entitled "What Went Wrong" and offers 21 pages about the reforms and problems which arose from Vatican II, with Chaput feeling that some reforms did not go far enough and others were hijacked by people with their own agenda. 

Chapter nine is entitled "A Man for All Seasons" as Chaput discusses the jurist and advisor to Henry the VIIIth, St. Thomas More. in 19 pages he discusses More, brings in President Kennedy, and then analyzes two relatively contemporary Catholic governors, Mario Cuomo and Robert Casey (I will leave it to your imagination as to who Chaput thinks come closest to emulating More...).

So anyone interested in the confluence of religion, politics, and contemporary issues will profit from this book. And it will be very useful for anyone in a variety of lay ministerial positions, and clergy, both Catholic and non-Catholic, as a source for homiletic material.

A brief but comprehensive work.

Obama and McCain: who is more bipartisan?

I suppose there's all sorts of ways to spin this, but here's a Washington Times analysis that says it's not even close. A good feature well worth reading -

Washington Times - Records show McCain more bipartisan

Whether looking at bills they have led on or bills they have signed onto, Mr. McCain has reached across the aisle far more frequently and with more members than Mr. Obama since the latter came to the Senate in 2005.

In fact, by several measures, Mr. McCain has been more likely to team up with Democrats than with members of his own party. Democrats made up 55 percent of his political partners over the last two Congresses, including on the tough issues of campaign finance and global warming. For Mr. Obama, Republicans were only 13 percent of his co-sponsors during his time in the Senate, and he had his biggest bipartisan successes on noncontroversial measures, such as issuing a postage stamp in honor of civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

>>>>>>

Bipartisanship is a frequent issue on the campaign trail, with the McCain camp and surrogates such as Mr. Graham arguing the standard is how often someone takes leadership on an issue in defiance of his own party - a measure by which Mr. Obama falls short and Mr. McCain clearly excels.

He even revels in his stances, telling the audience at a values forum at Saddleback Church in California last month his list is extensive: "Climate change, out-of-control spending, torture." He could have added campaign-finance overhaul, immigration, a patients' bill of rights, gun control and tax cuts as other areas on which he's broken with the majority of his party.

At the same forum, Mr. Obama said his major break with Democrats came on congressional ethics, when he sponsored a bill to curb meals and gifts from lobbyists.

Tina Fey does Sarah Palin on SNL - very funny!

I never heard of Tina Fey but she sure is a dead ringer for Palin

UPDATE: Phooey, the original video "is no longer available". Probably a copyright thing with NBC. So try the second video for a taste of the skit.

Here it is -

How to hide the fact that you don't care about the election

In 2004 60% of the electorate actually voted, which means 40% didn't. And the 60% number was the highest participant level since 1960. So if you're one of the 40% plus ... this is for you -

Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election

The New York Times attack on McCain and Palin begins/continues

With their candidate Barack Obama exposed for what he is, the Times must feel it has no choice but to make a concerted, open, effort to bring down McCain and Palin.

The gist: Palin is a dumbbell and McCain has sold out to the "culture war" right wing.

Here are the top seven most emailed articles on their website Sunday:

1. Bob Herbert: She’s Not Ready
2. Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes
3. Editorial: Gov. Palin’s Worldview
4. Frank Rich: The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket
5. Thomas L. Friedman: Making America Stupid
6. Maureen Dowd: Bering Straight Talk
7. Paul Krugman: Blizzard of Lies

Also, Dick Cavett had a column attacking Palin, as did Judith Warner.

"All the News that Fits."

It does start to get tedious.