Terrorism, security, and liberty

A great dialogue with Bill Maher and Andrew Sullivan about terrorism and security.  Keep in mind that Sullivan is a staunch conservative.  

I couldn't agree with them more.

Mark Cuban outs the racists

Today Josh Howard, a Dallas Mavs player, said something pretty stupid.  He said he didn't celebrate the Star Spangled Banner, because he's black.  Obviously, this basketball player has some racial issues of his own to deal with.  However, the reaction to this shows how bad and hateful some people are, which make Howard's comments look like a children's show.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavs, received a lot of racially tinged emails, complete with many derogatory terms.  And guess what he did?  He posted those emails to his blog, right here, and he even left their email addresses intact.  So now that Josh Howard has outted himself as being somewhat of a racial bigot, so are the people who went after him.  And that's a good thing.  Our country did not battle Hitler in the 40's so that we could institute his thinking nowadays, whether against blacks, muslims, or anyone else.  

Another defender of the constitution

John Bush... I mean John McCain, said today that if he was president he would fire the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for our current economic conditions.  Unfortunately for him, that is unconstitutional...

The Fed and AIG

Many people today, including myself, reacted with shock that the fed was going to bail out AIG with $85B in money.

 

A closer look, however shows that its not so bad, and that the government might even make money off this deal. 

 

How is this possible?  Because the fed is charging AIG a variable interest rate on the money, currently at 11.31% (LIBOR + 8.5%).  If AIG pays this off over a 3 year period (instead of liquidating many of its assets), it will amount to $19 billion in interest.  Not such a bad deal for the fed. 

 

AIG may be playing with the devil's tail in this case though.  Just as borrowing from Tony Soprano has its downsides, if AIG defaults on this loan the feds would likely make a broken knee cap look like a bee sting.

McCain - Palin differences

McCain's campaign is a bit schizophrenic these days.  He is now promising to lift the federal moratorium on stem cell research, at least the federal funding of it.  This is a good thing and one of the few areas in which McCain disagrees with Bush.

His VP, Sarah the Hick, disagrees.  She thinks that using stem cells is the same as killing babies.

She probably is also against vaccines, as polio is "God's will."  Just kidding about that part, but I wouldn't be surprised since she comes from a religion that speaks in tongues and plays with snakes.

Palin think she's above the rest of us

Seriously, Sarah Palin will not meet with the investigator who is investigating her inappropriate firing of a trooper. 

She thinks she's above the law, better than most of us.  

John McCain's Treason

After he crashed his plane in Vietnam, John McCain made 32 anti-American videos to get preferential treatment from the Vietcong.  He also gave radio interviews to other communist states, like Cuba.  

McCain violated the Military Code of Conduct in doing so.

Some may argue that if most were in that situation, they would do the same.  That's probably true.  But most people don't run on an "America first" platform.

McCain is the real life version of the manchurian candidate. 

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_declassified_landing.htm

Burn After Reading - A Quick Review

Burn After Reading is a great new film by the Coen Brothers.  If you liked their other works, such as Fargo or The Big Lebowski, you'll like this one too.  I did.  

A story about some real societal fuckups, who do fucked up things.  Very funny, black comedy.

Starts: John Malkovich, George Clooney, Frances MacDormand, Brad Pitt.  

Trailer below: