Tom Faranda's Folly

Great article on AIG; must reading

This is from this morning's NY Times.

If you have any interest in the financial mess and/or are wondering why the Company wasn't put into bankruptcy, read this. Not just the excerpt - hit the link.

As the feature states, most of the AIG subsidiary companies are very solid (Full Disclosure: I have LOTS of client money in AIG insured products, and it's completely safe - regardless of the travails of the parent company), but oh, that London "financial practices" division. ...

Talking Business - Desperately Protecting A.I.G.’s House of Cards - NYTimes.com

When you start asking around about how A.I.G. made money during the housing bubble, you hear the same two phrases again and again: “regulatory arbitrage” and “ratings arbitrage.” The word “arbitrage” usually means taking advantage of a price differential between two securities — a bond and stock of the same company, for instance — that are related in some way. When the word is used to describe A.I.G.’s actions, however, it means something entirely different. It means taking advantage of a loophole in the rules. A less polite but perhaps more accurate term would be “scam.”

As a huge multinational insurance company, with a storied history and a reputation for being extremely well run, A.I.G. had one of the most precious prizes in all of business: an AAA rating, held by no more than a dozen or so companies in the United States. That meant ratings agencies believed its chance of defaulting was just about zero. It also meant it could borrow more cheaply than other companies with lower ratings.

To be sure, most of A.I.G. operated the way it always had, like a normal, regulated insurance company. (Its insurance divisions remain profitable today.) But one division, its “financial practices” unit in London, was filled with go-go financial wizards who devised new and clever ways of taking advantage of Wall Street’s insatiable appetite for mortgage-backed securities. Unlike many of the Wall Street investment banks, A.I.G. didn’t specialize in pooling subprime mortgages into securities. Instead, it sold credit-default swaps.

I have posted a few times in the last several months about AIG. Here's one of them from September, which also features a NY Times article. Good article on the collapse of AIG

The Times has done a very good job covering the AIG debacle.

Of Tea Parties, and demonstrations against the "stimulus package"

I only learned about "Tea Parties" yesterday. Tea Party - wazzat?

Michelle Malkin has a big posting

Michelle Malkin » Tea Party photo album: Fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture

Here's part of an email she published:

My husband is an immigrant from Australia having arrived in 2005. He was interviewed by several reporters and his message is “I entered this Country legally, was turned down for a home loan and car loan because my credit rating didn’t follow me from Australia. I have had to start all over building credit and now I have to do it while paying everyone else’s debt. When do I get a bailout?”

NY Post on the Robin Hood budget

Here's a pretty neat set of graphs -

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272009/photos/news011.jpg

And here's are two pretty good (short) columns from the Post

BAM'S BUDGET - New York Post

EXPLODING DEBT LOAD FOR BUNCH OF FREELOADERS - New York Post

And ... their editorial

SPENDAPALOOZA - New York Post

Capuchin Archbishop Chaput on politics and faith

The Capuchins are a branch of the Franciscans. Instead of New Archbishop of NY is Timothy Dolan, currently in Milwaukee Chaput would have been my choice to take over in New York, but the Pope didn't ask me for an opinion.

Perhaps he'll be appointed in Los Angeles, where Cardinal Mahony is approaching retirement age. Or replace Cardinal George in Chicago.

Or maybe Charles Chaput is just too controversial.

Go here and follow the links -

LifeNet: More from Capuchin Franciscan Archbishop Chaput on politics and faith

Tea Party - wazzat?

I was talking to a client of mine in South Carolina - a young woman - transplanted New Jerseyite - and she asked me if I was going to a "Tea Party" today.

Huh?

Well, here's a Tea Party -

The new economic reality in one simple picture -

With thanks to Don Luskin's blog ...

  

$3,000 in, $2,500 out ...

New bumper sticker! An instant classic

Four for Friday; on the economy

Here are four excellent articles in the Wall Street Journal from the last several days. They are all worth reading in full, not just the excerpts I've posted. So hit the links.

First, on taxes and soak the wealthy -

Barack Obama's Expensive Domestic Agenda Will Cost America's Middle Class - WSJ.com

President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans..."

This is going to be some trick. ...

>>>>>>

Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.

Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.

But let's not stop at a 42% top rate; as a thought experiment, let's go all the way. A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.

And there's this, described in the sub-title as an "Obama not to do list" 

 Holman Jenkins Says Barack Obama's Ideas on the Environment, Social Security and Taxes Are Democratic Indulgences - WSJ.com

Put away childish things, President Obama said during his inauguration. He couldn't have found a theme more suited to the moment. The preoccupations that he and most politicians are used to running on, and that still characterize too many of his administration's utterances, are being exposed in the global economic disaster as the soppy indulgences they always were.

>>>>>>

Put away Ponzi welfarism. The day is gone when politicians could have hoped to have begun and ended their careers before the public ever faced the implosion of redistribution programs that depend on the workforce growing faster than the retired population.

Put away the idea that more government control is the cure for health care. We already bribe, through supremely asinine tax policy, the most affluent, capable consumers on the planet not to use their smarts to make sure the system returns value for money.

Let's fix this -- by eliminating the tax subsidy for employer-provided health insurance. Then it might actually become economically feasible to subsidize health care for the needy.

Put away class warfare tax politics: Only a flatter, less distorting tax code is compatible with the kind of growth needed to get us out of the debt mess without inflation.

Another hard-hitting op ed with the sub-title "A Radical Presidency." I have no trouble with the term "radical", since it really means getting to the root of things. It's when "radical" ideas are dumb that I get worried ...   

Daniel Henninger Says Barack Obama Will Radically Bind Americans to Government - WSJ.com

This was just the prelude. Notwithstanding the daily nightmares of the economic crisis, now is the time to "boldly" rebuild the nation's "foundation." The U.S. budget he released today isn't just a budget. "I see it as a vision for America -- as a blueprint for our future." With it, Mr. Obama becomes the economy's Architect-in-Chief.

>>>>>>

Mr. Obama acknowledged that this spending -- which in the public sector's new vocabulary is always "investment" -- will be costly. His read-my-lips moment was that no family with an income under $250,000 will pay a "single dime" in new taxes to support the construction of this new federal skyscraper. If that's still true in 2015, Mr. Obama will be walking back and forth across the Potomac River.

He told Congress he does not believe in bigger government. I don't believe that. It's becoming clear that the private sector is going to be demoted into a secondary role in the U.S. system. This isn't socialism, but it is not the system we've had since the early 1980s. It would be a reordered economic system, its direction chosen and guided by Mr. Obama and his inner circle.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's postspeech reply did not come close to recognizing the gauntlet Mr. Obama has thrown down to the opposition. Unless the GOP can discover a radical message of its own to distinguish it from the president's, it should prepare to live under Mr. Obama's radicalism for at least a generation.

And lastly Karl Rove comments on something I find extremely galling in Obama's utterances - his creating of straw men by crediting those who disagree with him, with views they don't hold 

Karl Rove Says Barack Obama's Speeches Address Positions Republicans Don't Hold - WSJ.com

Even in an ostensibly nonpartisan speech marking Lincoln's 200th birthday, Mr. Obama used a straw-man argument, decrying "a philosophy that says every problem can be solved if only government would step out of the way; that if government were just dismantled, divvied up into tax breaks, and handed out to the wealthiest among us, it would somehow benefit us all. Such knee-jerk disdain for government -- this constant rejection of any common endeavor -- cannot rebuild our levees or our roads or our bridges."

Whose philosophy is this? Many Americans justifiably believe that government is too big and often acts in counterproductive ways. But that's a far cry from believing that in "every" case government is the problem or that government should be "dismantled" root and branch. Who -- other than an anarchist -- "constantly rejects any common endeavor" like building levees, roads or bridges?

 

Wow - check out this deep sea fish

Neat. A minute and a half long.

NY Times rallies; one share now valued at more then single copy price of their Sunday edition.

The Times got it's stock price back above $4/share - the cost of their Sunday edition - today.

Priced closed at $4.20, up 24 cents.

Probably because of this news - UPDATE 1-NY Times Co says has enough cash for 2009 | Reuters

You can't make this up - the President's Recovery Plan includes curing cancer

Whew. Am I glad to hear that. And I know lots of other people who will also be very happy. And to think I voted for the other guy.

Having not watched the speech, I only found out about this reading Donald Luskin's weblog. Here's the quote:

Our recovery plan will...conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time.

It's in his speech! The White House - Press Office - Remarks of President Barack Obama -- Address to Joint Session of Congress

I thought Nixon already did that?

Anyway, this from the National Cancer Institute -

Cancer Facts and the War on Cancer

After more than three decades, the "War on Cancer," declared by President Nixon in 1971 with the enactment of the National Cancer Act, is still going on in this country. The Question is: "Are we winning the war?"

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to the question. The good news is that since Nixon's initiative, there have been incredible advances in cancer detection, prevention, and treatment. Since the mid 1990s, the cancer death rate has been decreasing steadily. As one cancer experts puts it: "It's just amazing those that are making it and are living, whereas 10 years ago these same people would not have lived." A diagnosis of cancer once was the virtual equivalent of a death sentence. Today, nearly half of all cancer patients can expect to live for five or more years after the diagnosis of cancer.

However, scientists are still not able to pinpoint a "cause" for cancer. Instead, cancer researchers now believe that cancer can be triggered by many factors, such as our genetics, diet and occupation. We know that our chances of developing cancer can be significantly reduced if we choose to live a healthy lifestyle, not smoke and avoid certain foods.

Finally, while a "cure" for cancer has not yet been found, scientists are more confident than ever that further breakthroughs in cancer detection and therapy are not far away, allowing us to effectively control the disease.

So President Obama may not be the Messiah, he just may be Nixonian.

A short metaphor for the stock market, or AIG, or Citigroup, or the NY Times ...

The dive - 

How to start each day with a positive outlook

All my friends are comedians these days.   This one is from Theresa.

How to start each day with a positive outlook.

1. Open a new file in your computer.

2. Name it "Barack Obama".

3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.

4. Empty the Recycle Bin

5. Your computer will ask you "Do you really want to get rid of Barack Obama?"

6. Firmly click "Yes!"

Feel better?

Good! Tomorrow do Nancy Pelosi.

First hand account by a passenger in the Hudson River plane landing

This was sent to me this morning by my friend Thea.

Riveting. Since it's out in public already, I figure it's OK to post.

Subject:  Passenger on Flight 1549 > > This is a first-hand account from a passenger on Flight 1549. It is an > internal memo to the members of his firm. It is very well written, is > descriptive, and gives this man's honest reactions to the events around > him. It's from a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive recruiting > firm, who was on Flight 1549. Gerry McNamara (New York/Charlotte) was on > US Airways Flight 1549 last week. Here is his account of the event: > > Thursday was a difficult day for all of us at the firm and I left the Park > Avenue office early afternoon to catch a cab bound for LaGuardia Airport. > > I was scheduled for a 5pm departure, but able to secure a seat on the > earlier flight scheduled to leave at 3pm. As many of us who fly frequently > often do, I recall wondering if I'd just placed myself on a flight I > shouldn't be on! > > Just prior to boarding I finished up a conference call with my associate, > Jenn Sparks (New York), and our placement, the CIO of United Airlines. When > I told him that I was about to board a US Airways flight, we all had a > little fun with it. > > I remember walking on the plane and seeing a fellow with grey hair in the > cockpit and thinking "that's a good thing... I like to see grey hair in the > cockpit!" > > I was seated in 8F, on the starboard side window and next to a young > business man. The New York to Charlotte flight is one I've taken what seems > like hundreds of times over the years. We take off north over the Bronx and > as we climb, turn west over the Hudson River to New Jersey and tack south. > I love to fly, always have, and this flight plan gives a great view of > several NY landmarks including Yankee Stadium and the George Washington > Bridge. > > I had started to point out items of interest to the gentleman next to me > when we heard a terrible crash - a sound no one ever wants to hear while > flying - and then the engines wound down to a screeching halt.10 seconds > later, there was a strong smell of jet fuel. I knew we would be landing and > thought the pilot would take us down no doubt to Newark Airport. As we > began to turn south I noticed the pilot lining up on the river - still - I > thought - en route for Newark. > > Next thing we heard was "Brace for impact!" - a phrase I had heard many > years before as an active duty Marine Officer but never before on a > commercial air flight. Everyone looked at each other in shock. It all > happened so fast we were astonished! > > We began to descend rapidly and it started to sink in. This is the last > flight. I'm going to die today. This is it. I recited my favorite bible > verse, the Lord's Prayer, and asked God to take care of my wife, children, > family and friends. > > When I raised my head I noticed people texting their friends and > family....getting off a last message. My blackberry was turned off and in > my trouser pocket...no time to get at it. Our descent continued and I > prayed for courage to control my fear and help if able. > > I quickly realized that one of two things was going to happen, neither of > them good. We could hit by the nose, flip and break up, leaving few if any > survivors, bodies, cold water, fuel. Or we could hit one of the wings and > roll and flip with the same result. I tightened my seat belt as tight as I > could possibly get it so I would remain intact. > > As we came in for the landing, I looked out the windows and remember seeing > the buildings in New Jersey, the cliffs in Weehawken, and then the piers. > The water was dark green and sure to be freezing cold. The stewardesses > were yelling in unison: "Brace! Brace! Brace!" > > It was a violent hit - the water flew up over my window - but we bobbed up > and were all amazed that we remained intact. > > There was some panic - people jumping over seats and running towards the > doors, but we soon got everyone straightened out and calmed down. There > were a lot of people that took leadership roles in little ways. Those > sitting at the doors over the wing did a fantastic job...they were opened > in a New York second! Everyone worked together - teamed up and in groups to > figure out how to help each other. > > I exited on the starboard side of the plane, 3 or 4 rows behind my seat > through a door over the wing and was, I believe, the 10th or 12th person > out. I took my seat cushion as a flotation device and once outside saw I > was the only one who did....none of us remembered to take the yellow > inflatable life vests from under the seat. > > We were standing in 6-8 inches of water and it was freezing. There were two > women on the wing, one of whom slipped off into the water. Another > passenger and I pulled her back on and had her kneel down to keep from > falling off again. By that point we were totally soaked and absolutely > frozen from the icy wind. > > The ferries were the first to arrive, and although they're not made for > rescue, they did an incredible job. I know this river, having swum in it as > a boy. The Hudson is an estuary - part salt and part fresh water - and > moves with the tide. I could tell the tide was moving out because we were > tacking slowly south towards Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, and The > Battery. > > The first ferry boat pulled its bow up to the tip of the wing, and the > first mate lowered the Jacobs ladder down to us. We got a couple people up > the ladder to safety, but the current was strong pushing the stern of the > boat into the inflatable slide and we were afraid it would puncture > it...there must have been 25 passengers in it by now. Only two or three > were able to board the first ferry before it moved away. > > Another ferry came up, and we were able to get the woman that had fallen > into the water on the ladder, but she just couldn't move her legs and fell > off. Back onto the ladder she went; however, the ferry had to back away > because of the swift current. A helicopter arrived on station (nearly > blowing us all off the wing) and followed the ferry with the woman on the > ladder. We lost view of the situation but I believe the helicopter lowered > its basket to rescue her. > > > > As more ferries arrived, we were able to get people up on the boats a few > at a time. The fellow in front of me fell off the ladder and into the > water. When we got him back on the ladder he could not move his legs to > climb. I couldn't help him from my position so I climbed up the ladder to > the ferry deck where the first mate and I hoisted the Jacobs ladder with > him on it...when he got close enough we grabbed his trouser belt and hauled > him on deck. We were all safely off the wing. > > We could not stop shaking. Uncontrollable shaking. The only thing I had > with me was my blackberry, which had gotten wet and was not working. (It > started working again a few hours later.) > > The ferry took us to the Weehawken Terminal in NJ where I borrowed a phone > and called my wife to let her know I was okay. The second call I made was > to Jenn. I knew she would be worried about me and could communicate to the > rest of the firm that I was fine. At the terminal, first responders > assessed everyone's condition and sent people to the hospital as needed. As > we pulled out of Weehawken my history kicked in and I recall it was the > site of the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. > Thankfully I left town in better condition than Mr. Hamilton who died of a > mortal wound the next day! I stayed with my sister on Long Island that > evening, then flew home the next day. > > > > I am struck by what was truly a miracle. Had this happened a few hours > later, it would have been pitch dark and much harder to land. Ferries would > no longer have been running after rush hour and it would not have been the > same uplifting story. Surely there would have been fatalities, hypothermia, > an absolute disaster! > > I witnessed the best of humanity that day. I and everyone on that plane > survived and have been given a second chance. It struck me that in our work > we continuously seek excellence to solve our client's leadership problems. > We talk to clients all the time about the importance of experience and the > ability to execute. Experience showed up big time on Flight 1549 as our > pilot was a dedicated, trained, experienced professional who executed > flawlessly when he had to. > > I have received scores of emails from across the firm and I am so grateful > for the outpouring of interest and concern. We all fly a great deal or work > with someone who does and so I wanted to share this story - the story of a > miracle. I am thankful to be here to tell the tale. > > There is a great deal to be learned including: Why has this happened to me? > Why have I survived and what am I supposed to do with this gift? For me, > the answers to these questions and more will come over time, but already I > find myself being more patient and forgiving, less critical and judgmental. > > > > For now I have 4 lessons I would like to share: > > 1. Cherish your families as never before and go to great lengths to keep > your promises. > > 2. Be thankful and grateful for everything you have and don't worry about > the things you don't have. > > 3. Keep in shape. You never know when you'll be called upon to save your > own life, or help someone else save theirs. > > 4. When you fly, wear practical clothing. You never know when you'll end up > in an emergency or on an icy wing in flip flops and pajamas and of > absolutely no use to yourself or anyone else. > > And I'd like to add: Fly with gray-haired pilots!

 

Ash Wednesday today, as Lent begins. The penitential season.

And who doesn't need to do penance?

I always try to do some good reading during Lent. Serious stuff.

Since finding an article by a very talented writer, Jennifer Fulwiler, in America magazine, the Jesuit publication and than posting about it here  A remarkable story; one women's journey from pro-choice atheist to pro-life Catholic  I have been receiving her more or less daily email that she sends around. 

It's quite interesting. Mostly taken from her blog, which you can find here - Conversion Diary - The diary of a former atheist .

A couple of days ago she asked readers to send her suggestions for Lenten reading, and I obliged. Here my full email toJennifer:

Ahhh, I love books. He Leadeth Me is great.  

 

I know you're a little busy right now - but here are a few excellent ones

 

Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) -  Behold the Pierced One -- I can't believe there's only one review of this up on amazon.

 

Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth  - Now in paperback i think. Amy Welborn's late husband has the lead review on amazon; mine is buried somewhere in there.

 

Fr. Neuhaus - Death on a Friday Afternoon - I have review up on amazon and somewhere on my own blog.  Very good for a relatively new Catholic.

 

Benedict Groeschel - virtually any book; but especially two older ones -
"Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones" (again good for relatively new Catholics) and "The Reform of Renewal"

 

This is wonderful for Lent - "In the Arms of Mary", also under the title "Praying self-Abandonment to Divine Love". Profound spirituality  - by a polish physicist! I have a review on amazon and here's the review on my own blog posted two years ago 

 

Tom Faranda's Folly: Latest read – Praying Self-Abandonment to Divine Love

 

If you like Prison books, Joan Andrews book "You Reject Them, you Reject Me, the prison letters of Joan Andrews" - well it's great. Very difficult to get but I can send you a copy. Had a profound effect on the pro-life movement in the early 90's.

 

Von Balthasar is great ("Prayer" and "Dare We hope that All Men May be saved?") but heavy.

 

If you are only going to read one, do the Polish physicist, or Ratzinger, or Neuhaus.

 

Haha. If you got this far -  You're probably inundated with suggestions ...

 

Tom Faranda

She is "a little busy right now" as she'd due to have her baby induced in the early part of March. The baby will be her fourth child.

Haven't heard back from her.

Women drivers - now this is funny...

UPDATE: Uh oh, they "disabled embedding by request", so you need to double click on the image to go to youtube. It will then pop right on.

My new rookie humor consultant Antoinette sent me this -

ABC's polling maven on Obama's poll results

I taped, but haven't watched yet, Obama's speech last night and LA governor Bobby Jindal's Republican reply. And I may just watch the highlights (lowlights?) on the news this morning and delete the whole thing.

Here's an interesting analysis of Obama's poll ratings -

The Numbers

We have approval ratings for each of the last nine elected presidents after their first month in office, back to Dwight Eisenhower. (We’re leaving Johnson and Ford aside.) There’s been a healthy range, from a low of 55 percent for George W. Bush after the disputed election of 2000 to a high of 76 percent for his father 12 years earlier. (I’m using ABC/Post polls since Reagan, Gallup previously).

But the average? Sixty-seven percent. And Obama’s? Sixty-eight percent, as we reported in our new poll yesterday. His initial rating, then, is strong – but it’s also generally typical for a new guy.

An increasing factor, though, is partisanship. I’ve previously described a steadily rising correlation between political party allegiance and ideology over the past generation. It shows up in presidential approval, too. The gap between a president’s rating in his own party vs. the out party has been markedly wider for the last three officeholders compared with their six elected predecessors.

Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were the last two presidents of the less-partisan era. Reagan started with 89 percent approval among Republicans, 71 percent among independents and 56 percent among Democrats. Bush’s first-month approval ratings from these groups were 90, 74 and 64 percent, respectively. Those are 18- and 33-point gaps for Reagan, 16- and 26-point gaps for Bush.

If you're a politics junkie, hit the link "for the rest of the story" ...

Pushing the limit: high altitude running

This morning the NY Times had an interestgin feature on high altitude distance running, featuring the current king of the genre.

I found it fascinating, and there's a good four and a half minute video embedded in the article.

Pushing the Limit - At 44, Matt Carpenter Is Again the King of High-Altitude Distance Running - Series - NYTimes.com

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. — The course follows old Ute tribe trails 20 miles up, down and around Pikes Peak, a narrow, gravelly passage rising 7,815 feet to crest 14,110 feet above sea level. Tourists with respiratory ailments are cautioned against making such an ascent, even by car. Motorists on nearby roads are advised to employ manual transmission. Promotional materials for the summit warn of altitude sickness, lightning, hypothermia, rattlesnakes and wild animals carrying bubonic plague.

Matt Carpenter expected to run it in about three hours.

At 44, Carpenter is known as the grand paladin of high-altitude distance running. In 1993, he set record times — still standing — for the 13.3-mile Pikes Peak Ascent and the Pikes Peak Marathon, races he won again in 2001 and 2007, both times on consecutive days. He has also set speed marks in a high-altitude flat-surface marathon, a 50-mile race and a 100-mile race.

In 2002, after his marriage, the loss of his sponsorship and the birth of his daughter, Carpenter was considered a champion in eclipse. Nearing his 39th birthday, he won only the familiar Pikes Peak Ascent, with a time 22 minutes behind his own record, and placed 33rd at another mountain race.

But as the milestones of fleeting youth have given way to the slipstream of middle age, Carpenter has returned to form. Last year, he won six long-distance races, setting two course records. And he is training for the Teva Mountain Games in June in Vail, Colo.

“Whenever we race, I know it’s going to be a good competition — unless it’s at high altitude, and then I don’t stand a chance,” said Uli Steidl, 36, who placed second behind Carpenter at a 50-mile race in San Francisco in December.

In part, Carpenter has owed his prowess to his physiology. His resting heart rate has been measured at 33 beats a minute, lower than those of Michael Phelps and many astronauts. In a test at the United States Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Carpenter’s VO2 max, a gauge of the body’s ability to process oxygen, registered at 90.2, perhaps a record high for a runner. (Only Bjorn Daehlie, a Norwegian cross-country skier, has scored higher. Lance Armstrong recorded an 81.)

Still, cardiorespiratory capacity can take an athlete only so far. Carpenter runs at least three hours every other day. On alternate days — rest days, he calls them — he runs an hour and a half. Though weather seldom impedes him, he owns a $10,000 220-volt treadmill with three motors capable of providing an impossible pace of 3 minutes 20 seconds a mile on a 27 percent grade. And he lives here, at the base of Pikes Peak.

Before we forget a classic: Senator Schumer

Nice photoshopped picture here of one of my representatives in the Senate, the Honorable Charles "Chuck" Schumer, (D) NY.

He earned this picture with his embarrassing commentary a few days ago -

The irrepressible "Little Johnny" finally caught on film

Another from my humor consultant Ellen - I love this one ...

Remember all those jokes about "Little Johnny", the kid who the teachers are afraid to call on ... because of what he might say?

Well, we now have him on film. See if you can pick him out in this picture, where the kids were all told "Make a Funny face," ...

GI pleads guilty to murdering his officers in Iraq; then found not guilty by military jury

From the NY Times last Friday. This is quite something.

After Guilty Plea Offer, G.I. Cleared of Iraq Deaths - NYTimes.com

The verdict demoralized Army prosecutors. The widows of the two officers appeared devastated, convinced that a guilty man had gone unpunished. And last month, Sergeant Martinez was honorably discharged and returned to civilian life, having publicly proclaimed his innocence and sense of vindication.

However, documents obtained by The New York Times show that more than two years before the trial, while prosecutors were still gathering evidence against him, Sergeant Martinez signed an offer to plead guilty to the murder charges. He offered to be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, and thereby avoid the death penalty.

“This offer to plea originated with me,” Sergeant Martinez said in the plea offer. “No person has made any attempt to force or coerce me into making this offer.”

The offer was swiftly rejected by the general responsible for prosecuting the case.

>>>>>>

“The horrible nature of the crime created a lot of conflict about whether to take the plea,” he said in an interview. But given the outcome at trial, Major Benson said, “I wish that the guilty plea had been accepted,” adding later, “I don’t think there can be any doubt whatsoever as to his guilt.”

>>>>>

In December, the government’s six-week trial concluded. Prosecutors argued that Sergeant Martinez had not only a motive to kill Captain Esposito but also had access to the rarely used mine that killed them.

Defense lawyers accused the Army of fixating on their client very early on, with only circumstantial evidence to support their arguments. They also attacked the credibility of Sergeant Harlan’s testimony that she had given Claymore mines to Sergeant Martinez, pointing out that she initially had not mentioned to Army investigators that she had given him any mines.

On Dec. 4, after two days of deliberations, the 14-member military jury at Fort Bragg proclaimed Sergeant Martinez not guilty. To convict at trial, a military jury requires a two-thirds majority.

>>>>>>

... Major Benson said ...“A strong opposition to death penalty was a definite factor among some of the panel members,” he said. “It’s quite possible that they were not able to separate the conviction from the punishment.”

The internet strikes again - Philadelphia newspaper consortium goes into bankruptcy

Why pay for news and opinion and sports and humor, etc, when it's free online?

Philadelphia newspapers' owner files for bankruptcy | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/22/2009

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday in a bid to restructure its $390 million in debt load.

The company, bought by a group of Philadelphia-area investors for $562 million in 2006, said the voluntary Chapter 11 filing would not interrupt its daily operations.

"This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations," chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney, who led the group that provided about $150 million of the purchase price three years ago, said in a news release.

"Our operations are sound and profitable," said Tierney, referring to operating profits before interest and certain other costs.

"Sound and profitable?" Why'd they go chapter 11?

CNN story on a mortgage foreclosure

This is two minutes long. An $800,000 house, now worth $675,000. She is a bus driver - they don't say what here husband does.

Seems to be a very nice woman. She blames the mortgage originators. So should taxpayers bail her out? See this also - If you support the stimulus package, you need to have an answer for these people - "The spending on bailouts and stimulus works out to the equivalent of $11,000 for each of the nation's approximately 160 million tax filers."

New Archbishop of NY is Timothy Dolan, currently in Milwaukee

UPDATE: good article from a Milwaukee news outlet -

Dolan's Going to New York | Newsradio 620 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin News, Talk, Sports, Weather | 620 WTMJ eNews Alerts

Here'sthe official announcement -

Archdiocese of New York - Press Releases - Archbishop Dolan Appointed Archbishop of New York Retirement of Cardinal Egan Acce...

and here's John Allen's take, obviously produced ahead of time. Dolan was the rumored successor for a couple of weeks

Archbishop Timothy Dolan headed to New York | National Catholic Reporter

I would have preferred Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, but my opinion was not solicited...

If you support the stimulus package, you need to have an answer for these people

From the Boston Globe. I already wrote about this here The housing mortgage rescue plan and "moral hazard". Or: Why bother playing by the rules?

This is a good feature from the Globe, with lots of statistics laid out in an easy to understand fashion. hit the link to read the whole thing, it's not too long.

Many wonder what's in stimulus bill for them - The Boston Globe

Brian Carpenter bought his Woburn home in 1980, and 29 years later, he has never missed a mortgage payment. It wasn't always easy. With three kids, it meant driving old cars, clipping coupons, and brown-bagging it to work.

Now, he sees the federal government committing nearly $1 trillion to bail out banks and struggling homeowners, and nearly $800 billion to offset economic damage caused by reckless lending and borrowing. What's in it for him? Probably $13-a-week, the middle-class tax cut in the stimulus bill.

"What about people like me who are playing by the rules, who got a mortgage we could afford?" said Carpenter, 52, who programs building management systems for MIT Lincoln Laboratory. "Maybe I'm too old school, but you sign on the bottom line, and you're responsible for it."

Carpenter is among the vast majority of Americans who work, pay mort gages, borrow responsibly, and now find themselves facing the bill to bail out those who didn't. Over the years they lived within their means. Now they're asking: What for?

The anger underscores the dangers government faces in private sector rescues. While such interventions aim to benefit everyone by preventing severe damage to the economy, they also risk encouraging irresponsible behavior in the future. Economists call this "moral hazard."

In other words, if homeowners believe the government will lower their payments if they fall behind, they won't have as much incentive to keep paying mortgage bills on time.

"We're telling individuals, 'Go ahead, buy a bigger house than you think you can afford because the government is going to bail you out,' " said Dan Mitchell, economist at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. "If you're responsible, if you do the right thing, then you feel like a sucker."

The spending on bailouts and stimulus works out to the equivalent of $11,000 for each of the nation's approximately 160 million tax filers. The total costs, however, are expected to decline when the government sells its bank stakes after the system stabilizes. But most Americans, 67 percent, don't expect this spending to improve their financial positions, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted last week.

Randy Schmid, 50, of Worcester, is one of them. A self-employed consultant, Schmid and his wife Dominika are renters. They looked into buying a home a few years ago. They hoped to find a house they could afford on a single income, so if one of them lost work, they could still meet their obligations. They didn't.

"If we would have lived beyond our means," he said, "we would have gotten a handout."

The "American Issues Project" ad opposing the pork in the Stimulus Bill

This is pretty good. one minute long.

Bernie Madoff's operation was a Ponzi Scheme since at least 1993

I posted about Madoff three times so far - here are two of them - The Bernie Madoff fraud & A plausible explanation for how Madoff kept his scheme going for so long and I speculated that Madoff probably started as a legitimate operation, and then when he lost client money, started paying off old clients with new client money (the essence of a ponzi ...) all along hoping to make back the money.

Well, looks like I am wrongo! At least going back almost 15 years. Both the Washington Post  Madoff Didn't Buy Stock for Clients, Investigators Find - washingtonpost.com and the NY Times had good coverage in their Saturday editions of the Bankruptcy court hearing on Friday.

Here's the NYT -

Madoff Never Made Supposed Investments - NYTimes.com

The court-appointed trustee who is winding down Mr. Madoff’s business said on Friday that his team had searched records going back almost to 1993 and found no evidence that any securities were bought for investors during that time.

That pattern probably stretches back even further, according to the trustee, Irving Picard of the law firm of Baker Hostetler. But his team, operating in a crime scene “under the watchful eyes of the F.B.I.,” simply has not yet been able to dig back any further in the Madoff archives, he said.

His report, delivered at an emotional public meeting of creditors on Friday, demolishes the theory that Mr. Madoff was an honest man driven into fraud by the relentless market strain of recent years. And it raises the question of how all those fake statements and trade confirmations were generated in the absence of any genuine trading.

Mr. Picard said his team now has “a pretty good idea” of how that happened, but his lawyer, David J. Sheehan, said they could not disclose any of those details because of the continuing criminal investigation into whether others participated in the crime with Mr. Madoff.

Monday AM joke

humor consultant Ellen -

*An elderly gentleman… had serious hearing problems for a number of

years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted

for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.

The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor

said, 'Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that

you can hear again.'

The gentleman replied, 'Oh, I haven't told my family yet.

I just sit around and listen to their conversations.

I've changed my will three times!'

OSN - NY Giants coach Tom Coughlin to retire from family to spend more time with team

This is important news for Giants fans -

More on Eric Holder's unhelpful comment - Americans "are a nation of cowards" on race

I wrote about it here Eric Holder the new U.S. Attorney General - his comments on race are incredibly unhelpful, and then yesterday I was in the gym watching the news, and Democratic pundit Kristen Powers made the very good p9oint that holder (who is six months older than me) is removed from how young people treat race. She made the point that IT'S NO BIG DEAL to them.

And that is certainly my experience. No one is going to mistake my two sons as white kids, and they have absolutely no issues interacting with anyone. In fact, if our experience with Tim -if anything, black is cool.

I admit, that a case could be made that the two of them have a different environment - they are living in a mostly white community, with white parents. So? What's that mean - they are culturally white? The whole point is, our community cultural issues are not racial, they revolve more around class problems - issues of education, broken homes, etc.

Holder knew his comments would create controversy (well, they sure did) and it was either he's out-of-touch with the way things are, who it was a political ploy.

Some humor from the NY Times as they have a feature on jobs for ex-Wallstreeters

Like many liberal publications, the NY Times takes itself over-seriously (or humor efforts by people like op ed writer Gail Collins just aren't funny...) but I enjoyed this.

I excerpted some - hit the link to read the whole short article

Career Options for Ex-Wall Street Workers - NYTimes.com

Ross Baltic, a managing partner with Mercury Partners, a headhunter in Midtown, said the simplest transition might be the most straightforward: Analysts for investment banks might leap to the industries they analyzed, traders might move to the companies they bought and sold. “They may know the pharmaceutical industry, they may know aerospace and defense,” he said. “You may have skill sets and be able to transfer those to those sectors.”

But while Mr. Baltic said laid-off Wall Street workers had been calling ... “We’re long on candidates and short on jobs,” he said.

Now here's the humor -

While many of the tens of thousands of masters of the unemployed universe would most likely happily return to doing what they know, others may be looking for a change of pace.

Lead walking tours amid the ruins of your past life. Who better to show people around the financial district than someone who has worked — who has bled — on the very spot?

Maybe, said Seth Kamil, founder of Big Onion Walking Tours. But Big Onion tour guides must have advanced degrees in history. ...

Become a butler. “Somebody coming from the Wall Street arena typically would have management background,”

It can be a handsome living. “Butlers are starting at around $70,000 on the low end, to upwards of $150,000 a year,” Mr. Greenhouse said. “I’ve got to tell you, the salaries are terrific. A really good nanny could make $100,000-plus a year, plus benefits. That’s a top nanny.”

Of course, there is the possible awkwardness of a man used to having someone light his cigar for him suddenly finding himself on the other end of the match. But Mr. Greenhouse said he was used to riches-to-rags sorts crossing his threshold: “Divorcees coming in who were married to multimillionaires. All of a sudden they need to go to work and they come to us looking for a personal assistant job: ‘Oh, I know about this because I’ve had the rich lifestyle myself. I know how to take care of rich people’s affairs.’

Sell cigars. Great idea, said Anthony Cee, manager at Florio’s in Little Italy, which contains the Three Little Indians Cigar Shop. The image of the Wall Street big shot, the Gordon Gekko type, is exactly what his store likes to project. ...

Shred documents. No one knows sensitive paperwork like a Wall Street veteran. Just ask Al Vari, a salesman with Code Shred, whose service area includes Lower Manhattan.

“I spent 25 years on Wall Street, and now I’m in the shredding industry with two friends of mine,” he said. “It’s not an easy business. ...

Entertain small children. Because even sad clowns are a hoot at a birthday party, said Gary Pincus, owner of the Send In the Clowns Entertainment Corporation, which plans parties in the metropolitan region. ...

“We’ll hire clowns from Wall Street,” he said. “No problem.”

From the Washington Post - a sneak peak at the Obama budget plans

This afternoon's online WaPo:

Obama to Unveil an Ambitious Budget Plan - washingtonpost.com

In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation's economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.

>>>>>>

Obama faces the long-term challenge of retirement and health programs that threaten to bankrupt the government years down the road, as well as the more immediate problem of deficits bloated by spending on the economy and financial-system bailouts. His budget proposal takes aim at the short-term problem, administration officials said, but also would begin to address the nation's chronic budget imbalance by squeezing savings from the federal health programs for the elderly and the poor.

Even before Congress approved the stimulus package earlier this month, this year's deficit was projected by Congressional budget analysts to approach $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of the overall economy, the highest since World War II. With the stimulus and other expenses, some analysts say the annual gap between federal spending and income could approach $2 trillion when the fiscal year ends in September.

Obama proposes to dramatically reduce those numbers by the end of his first term, cutting the deficit he inherited in half, said administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the budget has yet to be released. His budget plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion in 2013 -- still high in dollar terms, but a more manageable 3 percent of the overall economy.

To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on "overseas military contingency operations" throughout Obama's presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year.

Obama also seeks to increase tax collections, primarily by making good on his promise to eliminate the temporary tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 for wealthy taxpayers, whom Obama defined during the campaign as those earning more than $250,000 a year. Those tax breaks would be permitted to expire on schedule for the 2011 tax year, when the top tax rate would rise from 35 percent to more than 39 percent.

Of course, the devil is in the details ...

Parking in a tight spot

My humor consultant Ellen has been feeding me lots of stuff!

30 seconds -

The rules of gunfighting

Full disclosure: i don't own a gun, never have owned one, and wouldn't know how to use one if you handed me one.

But this is amusing. "Drill Sargeant Joe B. Fricks" offers a list of 26 rules for a gunfight, and one rule for un-armed combat. The one rule for un-armed combat: "Never be unarmed."

Petzal: The Rules of Gunfighting | Field & Stream

 

The White House responds to CNBC reporter Rick Santelli - with a personal upbraiding

Evidently it's quite unusual to go after a reporter by name, but the WH press secretary Robert Gibbs certainly does -

Go here for the video --  WH lashes out at CNBC's Santelli - Josh Gerstein - Politico.com

The Santelli video is here -  The housing mortgage rescue plan and "moral hazard". Or: Why bother playing by the rules?

The AMA undresses the Stimulus Package

This was forwarded to me by my friend Joan.

The Allergists voted to scratch it, and the

Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the

Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve, and the

Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception. The

Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted. The

Pathologists yelled, 'Over my dead body!' while the

Pediatricians said, 'Oh, grow up!' The

Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the

Radiologists could see right through it, and the

Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing. The

Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the

Plastic Surgeons said, 'This puts a whole new face on the matter.' The

Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the

Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water. The

Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the

Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no. In the end, the

Proctologists left the decision up to some assholes in Washington!

Militant atheist saved by "a miracle"?

Heheh. For the complete story hit the link at the bottom 

This commentary and excerpt is from the Wall Street Journal's opinionjournal.com -

Lawrence Osborne has an intriguing report from the streets of Beirut:

Three of our "scoop" brigade--Jonathan Foreman, Michael Totten and Christopher Hitchens--got involved in a street brawl with some thugs of a Syria-loving skinhead party called the SSNP after Hitchens rather gallantly insulted their swastika flag. On our way to a meeting with Minister of State Nassib Lahoud, Hitchens showed me the gashed knuckles and bruises suffered during the punch up. The attackers had apparently come out of nowhere on posh Hamra Street, where they had gone to buy shoes. "I was on the ground," Hitchens said, "and getting it in the head." It was a miracle they didn't pull Kalashnikovs.

Hitchens is author of the book "God Is Not Great." If Osborne's account is accurate, God intervened to save the hide (though presumably not the soul) of a professional atheist. The Lord does work in mysterious ways. Maybe he just figures there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Perhaps "Hitch" should try the Bible: Mark 1:15 "...repent and believe the good news."

Weekend In Lebanon: A Dispatch From Beirut - Forbes.com

The housing mortgage rescue plan and "moral hazard". Or: Why bother playing by the rules?

Here's a good piece by CNBC reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, on the administration mortgage plan. I agree with her assessment.

And below it, see the CNBC report early yesterday morning. It's by their reporter, the very experienced Rick Santelli, from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, making the obvious point that the taxpayers, renters, and everyone else who played by the rules are going to be screwed, while those who screwed up get the benefits.

Housing Plan: A Break For Those Who Least Deserve It - General * US * News * Story - CNBC.com

The new Obama housing plan is going to give a break to those who least deserve it: people who bought more house than they can afford. It will reward those who made all the wrong decisions.

I've written about this before, but I have to readdress it here because I'm absolutely gobsmacked.

Think this through for a second. Your home value, along with all your neighbors, has gone down in the last year. But now your neighbor, who bought above his means and can’t make the payments, because of a reset to the REAL monthly cost of the loan, is suddenly going to get a gift.  Well what about you? You did the right thing. . You didn’t buy more than you could afford. But you don’t get a break.

>>>>>>

The proponents say you have to stop the decline in housing prices.  Why?  We get e-mails every day from frustrated savers who believe now is there time to be rewarded—with a home, or investment property they can finally afford. But the government wants to do everything to punish those people, and keep them out of the market, even though they did the right thing.

Instead, they are going to have their taxpayer money transferred to someone who made bad decisions.  $1,000 for the homeowner, $1,000 for each modification. That's $2,000 per loan of YOUR MONEY being given away.

There are other options. They aren’t great either but they are less likely to  cause  terrible moral hazard and induce other homeowners to try and get a break on the back of  other taxpayers.

Here's the Santelli piece - "the revolt". If the youtube copy doesn't open Hit the link or paste it into your browser.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

Please don't email me to say what a mean-spirited SOB I am, and how I want people to lose their homes and live out on the street. Hit the Caruso-Cabrera link and read the end of her report for more sensible options.

 

The "Did you Know?" technology video that's sweeping the internet

This is really interesting. Less than five minutes long ...

Mayor Bloomberg and tax hike common sense

The Mayor wises up. New York City has 8 million residents. Albany, and some NY City councilpersons want to raise the maximum tax on wealthy people living in the city, but the top 1% of NYC residents already pay 50% of the city income tax! Only something like 40-50,000 people provide half the city revenue. What if a further tax rise drives them out of the city? There goes all of their tax revenue.

Michael Bloomberg Objects to Income-Tax Hikes for New York Households - WSJ.com

Eric Holder the new U.S. Attorney General - his comments on race are incredibly unhelpful

Why do leftist Whackos have to keep BRINGING Up race? They should just shut up and ignore race. The only POSSIBLE thing it accomplishes to to stir up political agitation.

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his "I Have a Dream" speech said to not judge "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

That's a far cry from this jerk.

Of course you're not allowed to criticize this kind of stupidity - if you do you're a R-A-C-I-S-T

Holder: US is nation of cowards on racial matters

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder, nation's first black attorney general.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

Wrong, wrong, wrong. We talk too much about it. Or rather, horses asses like Holder do.

Why I won't be climbing Mt. Everest

Well, besides the fact that I don't have four months to take off, or can afford it, there's also this -

Older Climbers Face Uphill Battle On Mount Everest

The overall chances of dying on the mountain were 1.5 percent, but they more than tripled to 5 percent for climbers 60 and older.

Of course I'm not 60, but still ...

Then there is this -

Why Climbers Die On Mount Everest

So I guess I'll stick to places like this Tom and Joe's Sunday climb up Sugarloaf and this Yesterday's amble up Breakneck Ridge

The sling shot man

Pretty amazing skill here. Better not let Joe or Tim see this.

Watch when you have four minutes.

Latest Read: My Private War

About three months ago I was reading a small weekly local newspaper, the Express, that ends up every Thursday in my driveway - along with a bunch of ads.

95% of the time I just immediately toss it into the recycling, but for some reason I decided to have a quick look, and came across an article about a local Hudson Valley resident who'd written a memoir.

Norman Bussel had been a nineteen year old on a B-17 over Germany in 1944, when his plane was shot down. He was a POW for about 13 months. The memoir is about his wartime experiences and his subsequent decades-long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It sounded very interesting, so I ordered his book from amazon, and promptly mis-placed it. I'm glad I found it, because it was an absorbing and emotional tale.

In the first chapter, Mr. Bussel describes being shot down; he parachuted out through the bomb bay, and was the last crewman to get off the plane alive. Four of his fellow ten man crew died.

The first two-thirds of this 300 page memoir describes his joining the Army Air Force, his training, and then his experiences as a POW. I found it really quite riveting.

There are 25 short chapters, and chapter nine, describing his bailing out and capture in Germany is aptly entitled "Germany: A Descent into Hell". As he was in his parachute descending he wisely tossed away his dogtag, which had the letter "H" for his religion. He is Jewish. Bussel was then nearly lynched by German farmers, before being picked up by soldiers.

The treatment of POW's in Germany was beyond brutal. Denied medical care, denied food, denied warm clothes, along with witnessing the murder of some prisoners. And a few beatings thrown in for good measure. Bussel lost 65 pounds during his imprisonment, weighing only a bit more then 100 pounds when the camp was finally liberated by the American army.

The last one third of the book deals with Bussel's post-war career and struggle with PTSD. His alcohol problem, quickness to anger, claustrophobia, a failed first marriage. Mr. Bussel seems to have turned a corner in 1980 when he, without counseling, gave up alcohol and stopped smoking, and shortly afterwards began to go to counseling sessions at the Montrose NY, VA hospital.

Chapter 21 is entitled "POW's Healing POWs" as Bussel discusses what a revelation it was for him to meet other POW's who shared many of his same problems.

Norman Bussel had a career as a writer, and editor, but utimately working with POW organizations became his avocation. For example, he became president of the American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation.

It took Mr. Bussel years to write his memoir; it sat unfinished in his computer for years. After his granddaughter read the manuscript and urged him to complete it, "My Private War" was published last year. Norman Bussel is in his mid-eighties now.

Thank you Mr. Bussel, for your riveting and thought-provoking book. 

Italian secret of a long marriage

Another from humor consultant Ellen -

THE ITALIAN SECRET FOR A LONG MARRIAGE
 
At St. Mary's Catholic Church they have a weekly husbands marriage
seminar.

At the session last week, the priest asked Giuseppe,who was approaching his  50th wedding anniversary, to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he had managed to stay married to the
same woman all these years...

Giuseppe replied to the assembled husbands, 'Wella, I've atried to
treat-aher nicea, spenda da money on her, but besta of alla is, I tooka
her to Italy for the 25th anniversary!'

The priest responded, 'Giuseppe, you are an amazing inspiration to all the husbands here! Please tell us what you are planning for your wife for your 50th anniversary?'

Giuseppe proudly replied, 'I'm agonna go get her.'

The NY Times opines on Republican excesses in NY State politics

I posted this a couple of days ago New York Republicans; another reason to not belong to a political party about Republican decades-long control of the NY State Senate.

The NYT had this to say yesterday in a short editorial - hit the link for the whole thing -

The idea that the party in power controls the goodies is not new in Albany. But Democratic aides who are still looking under rocks and poring over documents have found something close to an alternative political universe off limits to all but the Republican Party.

>>>>>> 

Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York, should immediately start investigating whether public funds were spent illegally. And instead of becoming a guidebook for Senate Democrats now in control of the money trough, this cache should be the state’s last.

New York Times stock price vs. New York Times Sunday edition cost

Amazing. It now costs less to buy one share of New York Times stock, then it costs to get the Sunday edition of the Times.

Today the common stock of the Times closed at $3.77.

The Sunday NYT costs $4.00. Or $5.00 if you live outside the NY metropolitan area.

I believe that eventually the Times will be taken private by the Sulzberger family, who control the majority of voting common stock.

Great feature about a Nun who is also a surgeon - and in the Army!

Sr. Deidre Byrne - "Sister Dede" - a member of the Little Workers of the Sacred heart community.

Washington Times - Nun serves God and Army

The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged her habit for a helmet and uniform: She spent three months in southern Afghanistan, serving as a doctor (while treating patients, though, she wears scrubs) and reservist in the U.S. Army.

"We were there to support our U.S. soldiers, coalition forces and civilians," Sister Dede says. Turned out that most of her and the other medical staffs' effort and time were devoted to mending civilian lives and limbs.

"The Taliban is out there every day trying to wreak havoc," she says. "One day, the Taliban bombed a village, and we had 17 patients — flown in by helicopter — in our 10-bed hospital."

While gruesome and heart-wrenching, she says of the experience in Afghanistan: "I was happy to be at the healing end of things."

>>>>>>

She's a healer, and in her unique position as a nun and general surgeon (she also is board certified in family medicine) she's concerned with life here on Earth — and the hereafter.

"I'm not just a pro-life doctor, I'm pro-eternal life," she says. "God makes it very clear that he is working through me. … God gave me the opportunity to be a physician, and he creates the miracles."

How to escape a sinking car

This is from Canada. 7 to 10% of drownings involve people trapped in their car.

Trapped in a sinking car? Manitoba researcher knows how to escape

When a car lands in a body of water, it sinks below the surface in about 60 seconds, he said.

>>>>>>

Although it may seem counterintuitive as an escape strategy, Giesbrecht recommends not trying to open the door of a sinking car.

"Most of the time, it will be impossible anyway," he said.

"If you try early on, it is possible to muscle the door open, but then you take a vehicle that would float for maybe 60 seconds, and it's going to sink within five to 10 seconds, because as you open the door, the water comes in, the vehicle sinks faster."

He says you need to open the window to get out. That's after you take off your seatbelt and free any children.

Hillary's successor as NY Senator keeps guns under her bed

Full Disclosure: Just checked and we keep old knick-knacks and shoes under our bed.

This is strange -

Gillibrand removes guns from under bed -- Newsday.com

Gun-control activists questioned the safety of placing guns under a bed where children can find them and burglars look first. The National Rifle Association said it is up to gun owners to safely store weapons.

Gillibrand disclosed she had guns under her bed in an interview with Newsday last Thursday. A Newsday story on the interview ran Monday, prompting reactions by advocates for gun rights and gun control.

Gov. David A. Paterson, Sen. Charles Schumer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg declined to comment through their aides.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), a gun-control activist threatening a primary challenge to Gillibrand over her pro-gun stance, said Friday said she does not criticize legally owned guns. McCarthy added, "I hope the guns didn't have bullets in them."