Posts from — December 2008

The light blue/cyan and white areas are what is known in the weather business as “snow”, even though the city is New Orleans. The fluffy white stuff was in Houston last night. It’s not unknown along the Gulf Coast, but it is not a common winter occurrence.

They will be fishing the unfamiliar out of the bayous if the temperature stays down low enough for any of it to stick to the roads.

One of the reasons I was certain we were in a recession last year was my informal survey of Christmas merchandise in stores last year. I noticed there wasn’t as much stuff, and it was obvious because the aisle displays weren’t in use at stores. In 2006 you could barely move with all of the stuff filling space in the aisles.

This year PoP at Morning Martini noticed a further reduction, the road side tents selling Christmas trees are missing from her area. Once she said it, I realized she was right, the normal places where various groups have been selling Christmas trees for years are empty. The tents that shift from Christmas trees to fireworks on the 26^th are not up. They were there last year, but not this year.

First the sort of good news. the Bank of America has blinked in the Republic Windows and Doors affair and the workers should be receiving what is owed them under the law. Obviously the BofA didn’t want to get cut out of any of the free money the Hedgemony is handing out to banks because of bad publicity.

I’m not even sure that the tribulations of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich even qualifies as news. I would have thought that every newspaper in the state would have a fill-in-the-blanks boiler plate story about the governor being arrested for corruption. They should just have all newly elected governors post bonds, designate criminal defense attorneys, have their prints and mug shots taken, before being sworn in. It would save a lot of time.

Daniel Gross of Newsweek has an informative little piece on the life and times of the once king of leveraged rag-picking, Sam Zell. Sam would have been fine if the bubble hadn’t burst before he could break-up and sell off the Tribune empire.

The BBC’s Malcolm Brabant has a nice background piece on the rioting: Rebellion deeply embedded in Greece. The end of the piece is a pretty good summary by a Greek:

One of the wisest observations has come from Nikos Konstandaras, the managing editor of Kathimerini, one of Greece’s more sober and respected newspapers.

In an editorial entitled “Anger’s teen martyr”, Mr Konstandaras wrote that Mr Grioropoulos’ blood would be “used to bind together every disparate protest and complaint into a platform of righteous rage against all the ills of our society.

“It will quickly become a flag of convenience for anyone who has a grudge against the state, the government, the economic system, foreign powers, capitalism and so on.”

“If Greece had already appeared difficult to govern, it will now be out of control.”

If someone is getting ready to throw a Molotov cocktail [petrol bomb] that is very definitely a “shoot”. If you had ever seen what a bottle of gasoline with a wick can do you would understand why.

When I spent a lot of time in Europe in the late 60s and early 70s Spain and Greece were under very repressive governments, but that is no longer the case, and hasn’t been for decades.

Over at CBS a bit of recognition: Nobelist: Blogs Might Have Stopped Hitler

(AP) The spread of information on the Internet has given the world a new tool to forestall conflicts, Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio said Sunday.

In his Nobel lecture to the Swedish Academy, the 68-year-old Frenchman said an earlier introduction of information technology could even have prevented World War II.

“Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler’s criminal plot would not have succeeded – ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day,” he said.

Are you ready for LOLHitler? Accompanying the story is a picture of Hitler with the caption: “I can has Sudetenland?”

The CBC is now reporting Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion will step down on Monday. This is to apparently allow a new leader to take over the Liberal Party and be in place when the parliament reconvenes in January.

The comments on the article are getting a little extreme. One person actually suggested that Canada move to the same system that the US has. “My friends”, look at the last 8 years and tell me: do you really want this system in Canada? Trust me, the ability to get rid of an unpopular government with a minimum of effort is a right to be cherished.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports on what happens when there are bad zoning decisions: Two dead, two missing in University City jet crash.

They allowed residential housing to be built at the end of a military runway, and when something goes wrong, people die. This is new housing, not an old, established neighborhood and MCAS Miramar was there for a very long time before the houses were built.

Apparently the engines failed [the FA-18 that crashed has two] and there were no options for the pilot other than ejecting. Without altitude or power you have very little control over an aircraft like the FA-18.

The remarkable thing is that these accidents are so rare, not that they happen.

1940-1980

This is the most popular graphic today, the chart of employment from 1999 to 2009. This shows why we are in for long hard spell in the US economy – we don’t have any jobs in this country as we add 150K new people every month and people can’t afford to retire. The problem is simple:

[Read more →]

CNN tells that Israeli PM: Settlers’ actions tantamount to ‘pogrom’

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opened his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday with sharp words for Jewish settlers who opened fire on Palestinians last week, saying their actions constituted a “pogrom.”

“We are the children of a people whose historic ethos is built on the memory of pogroms,” Olmert said. “The sight of Jews firing at innocent Palestinians has no other name than pogrom. Even when Jews do this, it is a pogrom.

“As a Jew, I am ashamed that Jews could do such a thing.”

[Read more →]

“a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that normally features local survivors of the attack.

They have their own license plates:

New Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.