Tom Faranda's Folly

Francona out as Red Sox coach

Makes not a lot of sense, except you need a scapegoat. Francona did lead Boston out of the wilderness to two World Series championships.

 

A shovel-ready Tom Friedman book

Friedman, a NY times op ed writer, who I admired after 9/11, but who has gradually gone off the deep end in the last several years. Why and how? I posit that in supporting the invasion of Iraq and dispatching of Hussein (and he did support it), he violated Liberal Orthodoxy and feels he has to make it up to his NY Times-reading base.

His most recent book is "'That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back", and I've seen him promoting it on Imus and a few other outlets. I also posted this little exchange he had, a couple of weeks ago. NYT Tom Friedman vs. CNBC's Rick Santelli on whether social security is a ponzi scheme.

Anyway, a bit over a week ago the Wall Street Journal had a review of Friedman's book (which he co-authored) and I thought it was great. I put it aside to post, and then forgot about it.

But I was reminded a couple of days ago when a friend of mine sent me an 8 page summary of Friedman's "important new book."

Here's the WSJ review -

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back" is a landmark in American popular literature: It is the first book by Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times columnist and mega-best-selling author of "The World Is Flat," "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and so on, in which an alert reader can go whole paragraphs—whole pages, in a few instances—without fighting the impulse to chuck it across the room.

As a writer, Mr. Friedman is best known for his galloping assaults on Strunk and White's Rule No. 9: "Do Not Affect a Breezy Manner." "The World Is Flat" & Co. were cyclones of breeziness, mixing metaphors by the dozens and whipping up slang and clichés and jokey catchphrases of the author's own invention. ...

******

In "That Used to Be Us," the method has been slightly altered. It would be going too far to describe the writing as "subdued," but its relative readability marks a break with its predecessors. How to explain it? My guess is that we can thank Mr. Friedman's co-author, Michael Mandelbaum. A close friend of Mr. Friedman, he is the author of many normal, un-Friedmanlike books, including "The Meaning of Sports." ("Delightful"—Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times.)

******

To be sure, I should insert a "to be sure" paragraph here. ...

******

"Faced with era-defining challenges," he writes, "the country has responded with all the vigor and determination of a lollipop." One chapter is called "Homework x 2 = The American Dream." He advocates "empowering powerful breakthroughs" and notes that "the cloud . . . is driving the flattening further and faster." (Pointless alliteration + runaway metaphor = Friedmanism.) Certain phrases crop up so often that they must have been rejected book titles: "Average is over" is one of the new ones, if you want to give it a try. (You'll be hearing it on "Charlie Rose.")

Mr. Friedman can turn a phrase into cliché faster than any Madison Avenue jingle writer. He announces that "America declared war on math and physics." Three paragraphs later, we learn that we're "waging war on math and physics." Three sentences later: "We went to war against math and physics." And onto the next page: "We need a systemic response to both our math and physics challenges, not a war on both." Three sentences later: We must "reverse the damage we have done by making war on both math and physics," because, we learn two sentences later, soon the war on terror "won't seem nearly as important as the wars we waged against physics and math." He must think we're idiots.

******

If the authors' frustration is unoriginal and ill-defined, their optimism is terrifying. America will rebound—we will become the us that we used to be again, you might say and Mr. Friedman does—when we regain our ability to do "big things" through "collective action." Collective action is a phrase that means "the federal government." Among the big things that we will do are rework American industry, through regulation and taxation, to drastically cut carbon emissions. Another one of our big things is a big increase in the gasoline tax. We will also impose on us a new big carbon tax. We will use revenues to create a "clean energy" industry with millions of "green jobs" like the ones that were eliminated earlier this month at Solyndra. Readers will wonder, like the early environmentalist Tonto, "What do you mean 'we,' kemo sabe?"

Conclusion:

You're welcome to it, but do remember to bring a lot of shovels.

 

 

2011 markets on schedule for a 2008 style collapse?

The chart is ominous.

It's not just that we're at that point in the calendar, but even the actual direction of the market, with this latest up-blip, is aligned!

ABC news on the Red Sox collapse

A quick analysis on their nightly news show. I really hate the term "choking".

ABC doesn't allow embedding of their videos.

Red Sox Loss: The Science of Choking

Good column on Herman Cain

I love the guy. would vote for him in a minute.

Taking Cain Seriously

The time is overdue to plumb the mystery of Herman Cain's "interesting, but" candidacy. Let's start at the top—in the top-tier candidacy of Mitt Romney.

Though he's got the governorship credential, Mr. Romney's emphasis in this campaign is on his private-sector experience. It's good, despite the knock on Bain Capital's business model. But measured by résumés, Herman Cain's looks deeper in terms of working on the private sector's front lines.

The details of his career path are worth knowing.

******

Pillsbury sold Godfather's to Mr. Cain and some of his managers in 1988. He ran it until 1996 and served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association from 1996-1999. This June, Mr. Cain visited with the Journal's editors and put the issue of health-insurance availability inside the context of the restaurant industry. He said the restaurant association tried hard to devise a health-insurance program able to serve the needs of an industry whose work force is complex—executives and managers, full-time workers, part-timers, students and so forth. Any conceivable insurance system would require great flexibility in plan-choice and design.

It's from this period that one finds the famous 1994 video, now on YouTube, of Herman Cain on a TV screen from Omaha debating Bill Clinton about his national health legislation during a town-hall meeting. After the president estimates the profitability of Mr. Cain's company, suggesting he can afford the legislation, Mr. Cain essentially dismantles the Clinton math, in detail. "The cost of your plan . . . will cause us to eliminate jobs."

None of this can be put across in the televised debates' explain-everything-in-30 seconds format. Nor is there any chance to elaborate his Sept. 7 debate remark that he admires Chile's private-public social security system. Or his flat-tax "9-9-9" proposal. (Or any of the candidates' policy ideas for that matter.) So voters get nothing, and Mr. Cain flounders.

The whole essay - worth hitting the link and having a read.

The Red Sox collapse

From the Washington Post. The extent of the disaster for Boston fans; it really has to be read to be believed. And it all happened in two games, in the space of three minutes.

When September dawned, the Red Sox had the best record in the AL. They were 31 games above .500 (83-52), led the Yankees by 1 1 / 2 games in the AL East and the Rays by nine games for the wild card. The website coolstandings.com, which calculates teams’ playoff odds by running millions of computer simulations of the seasons, had them at a 99.4 percent lock to make the postseason.

BALTIMORE — The Boston Red Sox hadn’t even had time to stagger back to their lockers, at a minute past midnight, their 162nd game in the books, the sting of losing still as fresh as a gushing wound. There were still expletives to hurl and inanimate objects to destroy as they entered the visitors’ clubhouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They thought they had just experienced the most excruciating feeling in baseball. And then they caught sight of the televisions.

Some 900 miles to the south, and perhaps two minutes after the jarring end of Boston’s own game, the Tampa Bay Rays secured a walk-off victory that gave them the American League wild card. There the Rays were on TV, dancing and bouncing and screaming. And here the Red Sox were, too exhausted and defeated to have much of any reaction. Someone quickly turned off the TVs.

******

The season ended for the Red Sox with a pair of crushing blows: their own 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, in which closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a one-run, ninth-inning lead on Robert Andino’s RBI single, followed minutes later by the Rays’ 8-7 win in 12 innings over the New York Yankees — a finish the Red Sox said they witnessed as it occurred on their clubhouse TVs almost the instant they entered the room.

******

And what happened to the Red Sox was, literally, unbelievable. No team in history had ever blown a lead in September as big as the one the Red Sox did at their peak — nine games. The Red Sox pulled off that feat, losing the wild card to the Rays on the final day of the season, by going 7-20 for the month, by failing to win back-to-back games the entire month, by failing in pretty much every facet of the game during that stretch.

Hit the link and read the whole thing. Really amazing. The Bosox were, to use an old expression, snake-bit.

Tim knee update #2

For how Tim hurt his knee, go here - Tim football: playing well; then a fluke injury on the sideline

We are going to Answorth Allen MD, the NY Knicks Orthopedist, on Friday to get a second opinion on his knee injury - thank yous to Jim and Ceil for steering me to Dr. Allen.

However, it does look likely that Tim is going to need surgery on his Lateral Collateral ligament - the one on the outside of your knee. It's torn where it joins the fibula. It will mean six weeks no weight bearing on the right leg after surgery, and a total of three to four months before he can engage in any sports.

Obviously, wipes out his football season. We are pretty upset about it, but we are coming to grips ...

Good op ed on Ben Bernanke and Fed Reserve policies

By Alan Blinder, who served under President Clinton. I agree with most of this. lots of republicans and conservatives are blaming Bernanke for bad policies - "printing money", artificially low interest rates, etc, etc.

However Bernanke has to play the cards he's dealt, and he's been dealt horrible fiscal (think budgeting) policy by the Obama Administration. Repeat - horrible. That's where the blame lies (Of course, Blinder doesn'tpopint this out ...). Considering this, the loose monetary policy seems to me to be the only thing he can do to prevent an even worse economy.

Here's Blinder's op ed - it comes with a Wonkiness Warning.

Ben Bernanke Deserves a Break

Tampa Bay in playoffs; Boston out

Boston blew a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth as their closer gave up two runs after there were two outs.

Bottom of 9th - 2 Runs, 3 Hits, 0 Errors

Gathright in as designated hitter.

Papelbon pitching.

Ad.Jones struck out.

Mar.Reynolds struck out.

C.Davis doubled to right.

K.Hudson pinch-running for C.Davis.

Reimold doubled to center, K.Hudson scored.

Andino singled to left, Reimold scored.

Baltimore 4, Boston 3

Tampa Bay rallied from down 0-7 against the Yankees in the 8th, to win 8-7 with homer in the 12th.

Bottom of 12th - 1 Runs, 1 Hits, 0 Errors

B.Upton struck out.

Longoria homered to left on a 2-2 count.

Tampa Bay 8, New York 7

 

Amazon's Kindle taking on Apple's iPad

Here's a good article on the coming war. The Kindle upgrade was expected, and I know what I'm getting for Christmas.

Tim will probably also get one - he can put his textbooks on the Kindle and use it for his schoolwork. Stepinac HS is really into the ebook technology.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced the Kindle Fire at a lavish event in New York City, where he described it as “an unbelievable value.” “We’re building premium products at nonpremium prices,” he said.

The Kindle Fire, which will ship Nov. 15, boasts some clever touches, including a speedy new Web browser that Amazon’s engineers invented.

Amazon in the past has downplayed its rivalry with Apple, saying that Kindle and iPad were meant for different kinds of users.

But now the battle has shifted into open warfare, with Bezos even mocking Apple for forcing users to sync their iPads by connecting the device to a computer with a cable, calling that “a broken model.”

In other words, make no mistake: this is war. And the stakes could not be higher. Amazon and Apple are fighting to see who will control the world of digital media.

Rugby World Cup: USA vs. Italy

The USA's best overall performance in any World Cup, despite winning only one match.

This should get you to the highlights - Italy 27, USA 10

and here's a pretty good article -

Eagles leave with pride intact

USA won just one of their matches at the World Cup, a 13-6 victory over Russia, but like their opening 22-10 defeat to Ireland, the Eagles players gave a spirited display against Italy.

Although Italy dominated up front, USA kept them out with resilient defence and on three occasions they denied the Azzurri from scoring a try with the assistance of the television match official.

Captain Todd Clever said he was proud of his side's performance.

"We gave it all we had. At the end, it wasn't enough against a strong Italian side," he said.

"I'm just super proud of the guys. We played for each other. We played for the fans and we played for all the Americans back home. We're going to be a great team in the near future," Clever added.

Tim knee update

Not good news. Looking for second opinions. More to follow.

Sunday's weirdest football play

"With 1:09 left in Sunday's game and the Packers holding a 27-17 lead over the Bears, Green Bay's Tim Masthay punted from the Chicago 46. The Packers' coverage team converged on Devin Hester, the Bears' extraordinary return man, who seemed to be preparing to field the kick."

BUT ... 

Subject: Current salaries

From my friend Ellen -

Subject: Current Wages

Salary of retired US Presidents .............$180,000 FOR LIFE

Salary of House/Senate .......................$174,000 FOR LIFE

Salary of Speaker of the House ............$223,500 FOR LIFE

Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders .... $193,400 FOR LIFE

Average Salary of a teacher ................. $40,065

Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN $38,000

I think we found where the cuts should be made!

An interesting feast day today - Saints Cosmas and Damian

I don't generally look up the Saints on their feast days, but  I noticed the name Damian, and since I have a good friend named Damian (and an incredibly faithful Democrat!) I looked up these two, who share the day.  

Turns out they were brothers and doctors, martyrs in the third century. Check out the excerpt below the link -

Saints Cosmas and Damian 

Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803)^[6] reported that, among the wax representations of body parts then presented as offerings to the two doctor saints at Isernia, near Naples, on their feast day, those of the penis were the most common.^[7] They were in fact venerated as patrons of "young girls anxious for a husband, and married women desirous of children."

Yikes! If you hit the link, you'll find many other interesting things about the two of them.

 

Elizabeth Warren may be too much of a leftist whacko even for Massachusetts

So says the Washington post here

She's planning on running against Scott Brown for the Senate up there.

Here's her ad

Tim football: playing well; then a fluke injury on the sideline

Ugh.

Below is Tim's last play on Saturday, as he lead blocks for a successful two point extra point run. Tim is # 40.

After the score, Tim headed for the sideline to get the kicking tee (since he kicks off) - and then he injured his knee when his foot got caught in the webbing of one of the ball bags.

Sounds absurd, but he really hurt himself; serious pain, couldn't continue to play, and could barely walk. I took him to the White Plains Hospital ER (the game was played in Marine Park in Brooklyn, against Xavier HS) where he was X-ray'd (negative for a break), given a knee immobilizer wrap, and crutches.

His knee has moderate swelling - on the outside primarily, and he's been icing it and taking Advil. I was given the names of orthopedists who specialize in knee stuff, and will be calling them first thing Monday AM. Could be a sprain, or torn ligament(!), or cartilage damage - we'll have to find out. Even in a best case scenario he'll be out for most of the rest of the season. A worst case would be surgery and months of rehab. Double ugh!

He is feeling a bit better now, hobbling around. Tim was quite distraught yesterday; when you are 14 years old and involved in a sport, an injury is crushing. Of course Brigid and I felt terrible.

So we'll see - here's his last play. He lead blocks into the end zone - # 40 - ignore his excited father calling out at the end -

 

Gym Jones: "The Cult of Physicality"

An eye-opening look at a gym that trains athletes, special forces (some who were among the 30 men killed in the copter crash recently in Afghanistan), and actors, including the cast of "300."

Very interesting. Oddly, it was in the Fashion & Style section of the Friday NY Times.

A must-read for fitness buffs. Some great links to the Gym Jones website and to Men's Health for the "300 workout." 

 But probably a bit much for people who graduated from high school in 1969 to actually handle!

The Twights generally require an interview or a referral from a current Gym Jones client, the completion of a written application that’s more of a fitness SAT than anything and, if you pass that step, a workout with Mr. MacDonald, a world champion mixed-martial-arts fighter. “If I’m surrounded by substandard people, I’m not going to work that hard myself,” Mr. MacDonald said. Again, it’s right there on that full-of-itself Web site: “We choose clients. Clients don’t choose us.”

Gym Jones has another reason to guard its privacy: its military customers like it that way. Although the Twights refuse to talk much about this side of their business, which occurs inside the gym and in the nearby mountains, it appears to be considerable and to involve people who are supposed to be invisible. Six of Mr. Twight’s former students, for instance, were among the 30 Americans — most of them Navy Seals, including members of the team that killed Osama bin Laden — who died in Afghanistan in August when their helicopter was shot down.

But don’t push for more details: “ ‘No’ is a complete sentence,” Ms. Twight said. “I don’t need to give a reason.”

Bonus! Here is the "300 workout", as oulined in Men's Health magazine. Want Hollywood muscle? Try this 300-rep Spartan workout—used by the cast of the movie—for a full-body transformation

I'd never even heard of a "floor wiper" until I saw the "300 workout".

Rugby World Cup: New Zealand vs. France

The anticipated top match of pool play.

You can find the highlights here -

New Zealand 37- France 17

The case for Mariano Rivera as not just the greatest closer, but the greatest pitcher overall of the modern era

And it's a pretty strong case, made two weeks ago in the Greater New York section of the Wall Street Journal.

"Is He the Best Modern Pitcher? Stats Make a Compelling Case"

For Rivera, the save is not. For that, it takes other numbers to truly do justice to this unique pitcher—and to assess his rank among the greatest of all time.

First among these is earned run average. Relievers often have deceptive ERAs. When they enter in the middle of an inning and give up runs, those are assigned to another pitcher. In the same way, they are often bailed out by other pitchers.

But ERA is the yardstick for measuring pitchers, and no one in the game today has a better career ERA than Rivera's 2.22. In fact, no one in the last 90 years has an ERA even close to Rivera's. Rivera is 13th all-time in ERA, and none of the 12 pitchers ahead of him pitched after 1927. They come from a different time, when the ball was literally constructed differently. In the post-dead ball game, the next best pitcher by ERA is Hoyt Wilhelm, who retired with a 2.52 career ERA in 1972.

There are ways, however, to account for the differences across generations.

Partially to account for the disparity between the modern era and the dead-ball game, statisticians created a formula, ERA+, to measure how a pitcher fares across different time periods. A low ERA in a period when fewer runs were scored is worth less than a low ERA during the steroid years, for instance, when offense dominated and ERAs were high.

An ERA+ of 100 is considered average. Anything above that is good. Cy Young, for instance, has an ERA+ of 138. Tom Seaver has a 128.

However, no one is better than Rivera, who has an ERA+ of 204. No one else is even close. The next best figure, Pedro Martinez' 154, comes from another dominant pitcher in an offensive era. But no one can duplicate Rivera's astounding success.

It's generally argued that who starters are more valuable than relievers because they log more innings, and must go through a lineup multiple times. That rings true to manager Joe Girardi, but he still sticks to the statement that Rivera is the best he's ever caught—and this is for a man who caught Roger Clemens, among others.

Another number is even more impressive.

The primary job of a pitcher is to keep runners off base. The fewer walks and hits they allow, the better. There's no simpler way to gauge this than by measuring walks and hits per innings pitched. And that number reflects Rivera's true dominance. He is third all-time in WHIP, allowing exactly one combined hit and walk per inning. There are only two pitchers better—Hall of Fame dead ballers Addie Joss and Ed Walsh.

There are more. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is fifth best in baseball history. He's allowed fewer home runs per nine innings (0.48) than any active pitcher. Heck, his fielding percentage (.983) is ninth-best in history for a pitcher.

And here's a stat they don't keep. Who has more broken bats per inning then Rivera? An amazing athlete.

Five question quiz on the Constitution

It only takes a minute. Put together by some conservative group. I got one wrong (first one).

It is debatable as to whether we even have a Constitution today; we do have Constitutional law, which is whatever five Supreme Court justices say it is. In fact, question #3 will soon be decided by the Supreme Court and very possibly on a 5-4 vote.

The quiz:

see if you can answer five questions about what is written in our Founding Document.

 

Rugby World Cup: Australia vs. USA

Big win to the Australians.

highlights are here - may take a moment to load - Australia 67 - USA 5

See also this Rugby World Cup: Mike Petri, USA Eagle and Xavier HS (NY) grad

and here's highlights from the USA win over Russia in which Petri scored the only try.  USA vs. Russia

Which team - Yanks or Red Sox - has the worst $80 million pitcher?

The Wall Street Journal in it's Personal Journal section sports column asks the question, and offers an analysis of who is worst; AJ Burnett ($82.5 million for five years) or Bosox John Lackey (same amount).

Will the Worst $80 Million Pitcher Please Step Up?

According to Baseball-Reference, Lackey's current WAR, a measure of how much better he is performing than a basic replacement player is -1.4 compared with a 0.6 for Burnett.

Lackey also has a slightly higher ratio of walks and hits to innings pitched, 1.6 vs. 1.5. He's allowing more hits per nine innings—11.6 vs. 9.1—and has given up 115 runs in 154 innings compared with Burnett's 113 runs allowed in 182.1 innings.

Then again, Lackey is giving up just 1.2 home runs per nine innings compared with 1.4 for Burnett. And in the ultimate pick your poison: Lackey has hit 19 batters and thrown 11 wild pitches while Burnett has hit nine but has thrown a league-high 25 wild pitches.

So who do you pitch in a game you absolutely must lose? Probably best to go with the hot, or rather, cold(er) hand. Lackey allowed eight earned runs in just 4.1 innings against Baltimore Monday. That same day, Burnett lasted four innings but allowed just four runs. Of course it could be worse. The teams could have signed the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano, who was set to earn nearly $18 million this year, but ended up on the disqualified list.

A tough call, but hopefully Lackey.

Coulter: "Liberals' Views of Darwin Unable to Evolve"

A typically amusing Ann Coulter put down ... I love the title.

I suppose I have to issue a disclosure that no, I don't believe the earth is only 10,000 years old, and yes, yes, I do think that evolution theory is the best scientific explanation for the biological diversity we see around us.

BUT, in the same way that newtonian physics has been displaced by relativity theory/quantum mechanics as the best explanation for the physical world, some day evolution theory will be replaced by a better, more all-embracing biological theory.

So I don't "believe" in evolution (but I do believe in Jesus!).

Amid the hoots at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry for saying there were "gaps" in the theory of evolution, the strongest evidence for Darwinism presented by these soi-disant rationalists was a 9-year-old boy quoted in The New York Times.

Rugby World Cup: Mike Petri, USA Eagle and Xavier HS (NY) grad

Very interesting, from an Australian website.

Petri plays scrum half, the same position I played. Like all most scrum halves, a very bright guy.

Bond of brothers drives States trooper Petri

TEN years and two weeks after the September 11 attacks that changed the world forever, Mike Petri still remembers the sirens, the chaos, the sadness. Yet when the Brooklyn-raised 27-year-old takes the field for the American Eagles against the Wallabies tonight, he'll have in his heart the memories not of that day in 2001, but the decade anniversary this month when a compatriot, John Lugano, flew all the way from New York to New Zealand to hand the No.9 his jersey.

''His brother, Sean, also a rugby player in my school at Xavier, was killed on 9/11 in the attacks,'' said the vice captain, who was in a lock-in of the Manhattan school when the second tower was hit.

''I play with their youngest brother, Mike, at the New York Athletic Club. So although I never directly met Sean, I still feel very connected to that family through my high school, Xavier, and the club.

The Boston Herald newspaper on the Boston Red Sox collapse

Whew. Boston is 5-16 this month. This came to me from a diehard Sox fan in Boston.  

After this 3-7 homestand, the lasting impression left behind by these Sox is of a beaten team slinking out of town with its tail wrapped protectively around its thoroughly kicked behind.

An interview with biologist and strident atheist Richard Dawkins

Dawkins, an original thinker in the field of evolutionary biology, but out to lunch when it comes to discussions of God and her (non)existence, or existence.

The interview is from Tuesday's NY Times and ranges from evolution to religion. Dawkins wrote a well-known book in the mid 1970's, The Selfish Gene (still unread on my bookshelf ... some day ...) with new theories on how biological evolution occurs.  

I've posted a few times about Dawkins - here's one An Interesting Debate on Irish Radio and if you plug "Richard Dawkins" into the search engine above, you'll find at least three more.

The NY Times - Richard Dawkins, an Original Thinker Who Bashes Orthodoxy

He has written a string of best sellers, many detailing his view of evolution as progressing toward greater complexity. (His first children’s book, “The Magic of Reality,” appears this fall.) With an intellectual pugilist’s taste for the right cross, he rarely sidesteps debate, least of all with his fellow evolutionary biologists.

Yanks win their division

And they should end up with home field advantage through the playoffs (but not the World Series.)

Jorge Posada broke a 2-2 in the eighth inning with a two run single. And of course the Red Sox have had a collapse in the last six weeks.

Posada's clutch hit delivers AL East title

Rick Perry ad: taking on "President Zero"

Trying to sound like Reagan? A reminder of Carter vs. Reagan?.

 

A Nun joke

My friend Jeanne Marie is absolutely the last person on earth I'd expect to receive this sort of joke from ...

CATHOLIC JOKE

Two nuns are ordered to paint a room in the convent, with a warning from the Mother Superior not to get even a drop of paint on their habits. After conferring about this, the two nuns decide to lock the door of the room, strip off their habits, and paint naked. In the middle of the project, there's a knock at the door. "Who is it?" calls one of the nuns. "Blind man," replies a voice from the other side of the door. The two nuns look at each other and shrug, both deciding that no harm can come from letting a blind man into the room. They open the door. "Nice boobs," says the man. "Where do you want the blinds?"

 

 

The "Buffett Rule" and other nonsense

A couple of excellent articles on the dishonesty of claiming Buffett pays less in tax then his secretary. I previously posted about this three times - find them here - when his op ed was published by the NY Times.

Buffett's math is off a little

All told, after combining corporate taxes and capital gains taxes, Buffett forked over about 45 percent of his earnings

Then there's Kudlow

Obama's Bizarre Tax Attack

Pause a moment on the Buffett Rule. Almost all of Warren Buffett’s income comes from capital gains taxed at 15 percent. He only pays himself $100,000 a year, which would be taxed at the top rate. Most of his wealth is untaxed as unrealized capital gains. So his effective income-tax rate is lower than his

So what?

The vast majority of millionaires pay a 35 percent current tax rate on personal income from salaries, bonuses, and small-business income. Their effective tax rate is around 30 percent, much higher than the roughly 20 percent effective rate for the so-called middle class (depending, of course, on how you define the middle class).

Remember that the top 1 percent of income-tax payers shoulders 40 percent of all income taxes. They are paying their fair share. Then remember that 50 percent of income-tax filers don’t pay any income tax at all.

And lastly the AP (Associated Press) does some fact checking. Loads of tax data. As a few pundits ointed out yesterday (Limbaugh, et al) it says something that even the AP is prepared to contradict the President withthe facts.

FACT CHECK: Are rich taxed less than secretaries?

The latest IRS figures are a few years older — and limited to federal income taxes — but show much the same thing. In 2009, taxpayers who made $1 million or more paid on average 24.4 percent of their income in federal income taxes, according to the IRS.

Those making $100,000 to $125,000 paid on average 9.9 percent in federal income taxes. Those making $50,000 to $60,000 paid an average of 6.3 percent.

Obama's claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15 percent. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35 percent, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

With tax rates that high, why do so many people pay at lower rates? Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official scorekeeper on revenue issues.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

secretary’s.

 

 

 

WSJ editorial on HUD's attack on Westchester County

This is of interest to me because A) I live in Westchester and B) I know Rob Astorino, the County Executive.

Why is Westchester being targeted?

Social Engineering In suburbia

Even the activist group that filed the original lawsuit couldn't show any pattern of discrimination, which is why it filed a false claims suit instead. According to the 2010 Census, Westchester is the fourth most racially diverse county in the state, trailing only Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and tying Manhattan.

Ahhh, here's the reason!

The Obama Administration acknowledges that its demands on Westchester—which include rezoning—fall outside of the settlement, but the White House is determined to make an example of the county. "We're clearly messaging other jurisdictions across the country that there has been a significant change in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and we're going to ask them to pursue similar goals as well," said Rob Sims, a deputy secretary at HUD at the time of the settlement.

The time lapse video from the International Space Station - one cool minute

Already seen over a million times since it was posted on September 15th.

"A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy." 

Mariano Rivera sets the record! Save #602

I love it!

Mo sets all-time saves mark

Go here to the "video corner" to listen to three commentators, especially the last guy in Spanish.

Rivera 602nd save

UPDATE: Good column 

"You know what's coming," former Royals first baseman Mike Sweeney once said, "but you know what's coming in horror movies, too. It still gets you."

Demographic changes and stock market valuations

Here's an interesting chart, which may indicate that the increasing number of over 60's vs. people in their 40's does not bode well for stock prices.

A Simple Demographic Chart That Says Market Valuations Are Going Down

Of course, no one can say for sure whether it's a coincidence or there's something to it.

An interesting look at "Converts vs. 'Cradle Catholics'"

From the Wall Street Journal "Houses of Worship" column over the weekend. Very interesting.

Excerpts below, but hit the link - it's only 12 paragrpahs.

Do converts to the faith make better evangelists than "cradle Catholics"? Pope Benedict XVI seems to think so. Christians since childhood should "ask forgiveness," the pope told a group of his former theological students recently, "because we bring so little of the light of [Christ's] face to others, and emanate so feebly the certainty that he is, he is present and he is the great and complete reality that we are all awaiting."

But are Catholics "by birth"—or any believers raised in a religious tradition—indeed less-convincing witnesses, or less motivated, than are converts? Do they have a greater responsibility to live up to the tenets of the faith since they have known Christ from their earliest years? And are they a bigger disappointment to the Mother Church—and the world—when they come up short?

******

Conversions can also be routine, and Americans today are switching religions so often that the coin of conversion may have become devalued. A study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life found that Americans who have switched faiths or joined a faith are only slightly more religious in belief and behavior than those who remained in the faith of their childhood. For example, while 62% of nonconverts say religion is very important to them, the number only rises to 69% among converts. Half of converts (51%) attend worship services at least once a week, compared with 44% of nonconverts. And so on.

Other recent studies show that, contrary to popular belief, sudden conversions like St. Paul's represent only a small portion of all religious transformations, and that the "crockpot" model of a steadily developed spiritual insight is more common and may be more effective in building up a stable religious community than the "microwave" version of rebirth.

******

The truth is, as the sociologist of religion Peter Berger has long noted, that religion today is a choice, and we are all converts to one degree or another, choosing among a variety of religious experiences rather than having them given to us, as in days of old.

Stepinac football: varsity goes 2-0, beats Chaminade

Being somewhat biased, I'm more interested in this game Tim's first Stepinac freshman football; a 28-6 win! "Lets go to the videotape." but an excellent varsity result for Stepinac, who have now won 14 games in a row.

The battle of two Catholic league football programs with something to prove ended appropriately at Chaminade High School Saturday afternoon: with a Hail Mary.

Mariano Rivera one save from the record

As he notched #601 to tie Trevor Hoffman yesterday.

...the Yankees were just happy to get out of Rogers Centre on Saturday with a victory. With the Red Sox's 4-3 loss to the Rays on Saturday, the Yanks' magic number to clinch a postseason berth is four, and their magic number to clinch the American League East title is eight.

The Yankees were down 6-1, but rallied to win 7-6.

CBS News virtually in mourning over the President's approval ratings

CBS doesn't allow embedding of videos, so you'll have to go here -

Look at the long faces ...

http://youtu.be/fLcNbousPMY

Rugby: World Cup - Ireland shocks Australia

Big upset. All kicks.

Ireland 15- Australia 6

And also here.

 

Tim's first Stepinac freshman football; a 28-6 win! "Lets go to the videotape."

Over Cardinal Hayes. Stepinac lead 20-0 at halftime.

Tim started at fullback, and linebacker, AND he punted, AND he kicked off!

The freshman team has 50 players, and Stepinac looked very good. They dominated the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage and have some gifted running backs. The quarterback is a fast runner, and connected on several good receptions (there were a few drops by receivers). Tim right now at fullback is strictly a blocker - the only running plays they currently have are for the tailback and QB.

Here are three videos from this AM's game, none of which is more then 19 seconds long.

Here's the first Stepinac touchdown - check out Tim's block leading the tailback. The vid is short and Tim's hit is 5 seconds into it.

Here's Tim's second kick-off (he had five) and it's a squibb kick, which is the coaching plan. Takes a nice high hop.

Lastly, Tim's one punt, which carried 25-30 yards over the line of scrimmage, with no return. Quite decent.

 

Off to the BIG football game in a few minutes

That, of course. is the Stepinac vs. Cardinal Hayes freshman game, where Tim will be starting at fullback, linebacker, and punting, and kicking off!

Senator Casey (D) PA, running for re-election in 2012, says Obama jobs plan won't work

Ahhh, with election pending, he sees the light. What a coincidence.

Says the Obama Plan should be broken up and bits voted on separately.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey says the president’s legislative strategy won’t work.

Casey was one of the first Democrats to endorse Barack Obama, but now he thinks the president’s jobs bill needs to be broken apart, he told KDKA Political Editor Jon Delano.

“I’m afraid if we tried to pass one big bill, I think there’s a lot of skepticism about big pieces of legislation with all kinds of different component parts. We should break this up.”

NY Post article on Stepinac football

Meanwhile, Tim will be playing Saturday morning in the freshman game against Cardinal Hayes. The frosh have 50 players and Tim will be starting at fullback and linebacker, as well as doing the punting and kicking off.

INSIDE THE CHSFL: Rejuvenated Stepinac excited for return to 'AAA'

Mike O’Donnell can't help but notice the growing excitement around his Archbishop Stepinac football team.

The coach has watched his Crusaders win their last 13 games, including a CHSFL Class AA title a year ago. Saturday they make their return to the league’s 'AAA' division, where they were picked fifth by the league’s coaches in the preseason poll.

“There is a lot of excitement here,” O’Donnell said. "I’ve been here a long time so I’ve been through ups and downs. We have more kids in the program than we ever had. Even with our 650 students we have about 140 kids playing football right now."

The Solyndra Green Jobs fiasco

The Heritage Foundation has a good posting this morning on the whole Solyyndra mess.

Solyndra, the Company that got over $500 million in taxpayer money and was not too long ago lauded by the President as a leader in the new economy, creating green jobs.

But instead ...

“[W]e can see the positive impacts [of the stimulus] right here at Solyndra,” Obama claimed when he spoke at the company’s newly unveiled factory in May of last year. He was correct that the results of his stimulus would be on display at that factory. But he was wrong that those results would be positive. Little more than a year later, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to lay off more than 1,000 employees. 

The Solyndra factory where Obama spoke was built after the company received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department as part of the stimulus’s green jobs push. “Through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations,” Obama noted. “This new factory is the result of those loans.”

But “everyone knew that the plant wouldn’t work,” according to a former Solyndra employee. So why was the President so sure of the plant’s success when he spoke there? What’s more, the company was built on “a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and sell it for three dollars,” according to an industry analyst. That would normally be a red flag for investors. So why did the President claim that “the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra”?

The answer to both of those questions: The government’s decisions are driven by politics and ideology and are divorced from economic reality.

AND it 's even worst - there's a damning email from an OMB staff memeber, essentially saying that if the Company is going to default, it's better for them to default now, rather than during the election season. Just hit the link, it's there. ...

What are these people thinking? But thankfully, James Carville says it's time for his Party (Democrats) to PANIC!

Inflation worries (through money printing) don't always push up the price of gold

UPDATE: Here's a more comprehensive explanation  for the Central Bankers actions.

The big banks in the USA and Europe have agreed to supply increased liquidity (money!) to the struggling European banks.  

Increased money supply usually pushes up the price of gold, but not the last few days or yesterday; gold has dropped substantially. in thel ast week.

Here's what happened yesterday - hit this link for the completely rational reasoning.

Gold Plunges On Day Of Massive Global Money Printing

 

 

 

Rugby World Cup: USA vs. Russia

The game the USA felt they had to win.

This game will be shown several times on Universal Sports (cable network owned by NBC) over the next few days.

The one try was scored by a New Yorker ...

The USA held on for a 13-6 win over World Cup debutants Russia in an enthralling encounter in New Plymouth on Thursday.

Here's the video USA vs. Russia off the World Cup website.

 

James Carville says it's time for his Party (Democrats) to PANIC!

On yesterday's CNN website. Carville essentially said the same thing talking to Don Imus on the radio, a few days ago.

Rush Limbaugh was all over this story at the start of his radio show yesterday, as I was driving from Pelham Manor to White Plains. Thanks to my friend Melinda for sending me the link.

Carville to White House: Panic!

We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations. Have you talked to any Democratic senators lately? I have. It's pretty damn clear they are not happy campers.

This is what I would say to President Barack Obama: The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed.

I don't know how else to break this down. Simply put:

1. Fire somebody. No -- fire a lot of people. This may be news to you but this is not going well. For precedent, see Russian Army 64th division at Stalingrad.

Carville then goes on to make three more suggestions. Hit the link forthe whole thing, plus a video.

Amish farmers jailed over buggy violation

Kentucky. How dopey is this - they couldn't cmoe up with a compromise so they jailed them?

Nine Amish men were ordered to jail for not paying a fine for refusing to display an orange reflective triangle on their horse-drawn buggies

The men, who owed $158 in fines and court costs, said paying the fines would amount to complying with a Kentucky law they believe violates their religious strictures against wearing bright colors or trusting in man-made symbols for their safety, the newspaper says.

District Judge Deborah Hawkins Crooks ordered the nine to serve three to 10 days in jail. The Mayfield jail had special-ordered dark-colored jumpsuits out of respect for the men's likely aversion to wearing the usual orange jumpsuits, says the Courier-Journal.

The men, who belong to an especially strict sect known as the Old Order Swartzentruber, sought permission to use lanterns and gray reflective tape rather than orange, but the state and courts have said that wouldn't be as effective in daytime.

Huh? Why do you need an orange triangle in the daytime?

Ed Koch on message to the President after Republican captured Weiner's congressional seat

The former mayor supported the Republican Turner.