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:

Act of Man?

I am currently reading the book I referenced in an earlier post, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Thomas L Friedman.  

As Hurricane Ike makes its way towards the Lone Star State, we must ask if this is a natural storm, or one that was made by us?  The answer is we simply don't know.  When Katrina hit New Orleans, it gained power in the days leading up to that strike from warmer than average waters in the Gulf of Mexico.  Is the warming due to climate change?  Very likely.  

I'm not saying that the hurricane was formed due to climate change, but warmer waters in the Gulf definitely can make them stronger.  So as Thomas Friedman says:

When hurricanes and other natural disasters hit, insurance companies and the general media often call them "acts of God."  Have we introduced so much CO2 into nature's operating system that we no longer know where nature stops and we start in shaping today's weather?  We no longer know..."

And that is what is truly scary.

Foreign policy credentials my ass

Sarah Palin, whose foreign policy experience to date is limited to shooting caribou who have immigrated from Canada, said today that the United States should go to war with Russia over Georgia, if necessary.  She also said that the attack on Georgia was "unprovoked."  The attack could have been a bit lopsided, but it is universally accepted that Georgia conducted some hostile actions towards the Russian citizens in South Ossetia. 

Palin should stick to managing hockey games.  If McCain is elected, and he becomes incapacitated in office (I'd give 50/5o odds to that), we will be stuck with the female version of Dan Quayle.  

How 9/11 became 9/11™

Tomorrow we mark the seventh anniversary of one of the largest terrorist attacks in the history of the world. What was once a national day of memory has since become a rallying cry for one side of the argument. Watch Keith's special comment below on this issue, if you wish.

The questions to ask: "Who was the president on September 11, 2001? Who was the president for the 9 months prior to September 11, 2001? Between Barack Obama and John McCain, who is most like that man who went on vacation for 96 days in 2001 prior to 9/11?"

Don't give in to the fear.

Pigs and Lipstick

Yesterday Obama compared McCain's speeches to "putting lipstick on a pig."  McCain immediately played the gender card and said Obama is using this to attack Sarah Palin.

Can't we rise above this crap?  This is a saying that I, myself have used, and when I used it I was not referring to men or women either but ideas.  McCain needs to grow up and stop hiding behind Sarah Palin.

 

Note that McCain used the exact same phrase when talking about Hillary Clinton a few months ago.

Does Sarah Palin Speak in Tongues? And a new scandal

Sarah Palin just may belong to the looniest part of the fundamentalist Christian movement.  It is now being reported that she is a pentecostal, a group that is known to speak in tongues.

They also believe in faith healing.  Maybe she'll bring some snakes to the Whitehouse too!  Yes, Pentecostals are that same religious group that handles snakes.  This would extreme to even Pat Robertson.

Regardless of whether she speaks in tongues, it seems that she always speaks corruption.  She has been billing the state for her kid's trips.  Now, I understand that when you have 5 kids, you might want to keep some of them with you while you travel, but that should be on your own dime, not the taxpayers'.  She also billed the taxpayers to pay for her meals while she was in her own house.  I thought she was supposed to be a fiscal conservative!

Idiot of the Day

A man was arrested for carrying an AK-47, a bunch of ammo, and even a grenade in the vicinity of the US Capitol.  How was he caught?

He asked a cop for directions.

Sarah Palin, Jews, and Jesus

The news never seems to be positive with regards to Sarah Palin.  Yesterday, it was reported that she attended an anti-Jewish sermon by the founder of Jews for Jesus, an oxymoron of a religion.  

Some evangelicals embrace Jewish people, but I suspect they have an underlying motive.  To them, a Jewish person would be the ultimate convert.

Some history: the first Christians were all former Jews, as was Jesus (though I don't think he renounced the religion, just turned into a new one).  The conversion started around this time, AD 025, and eventually Christians gained in numbers.  To someone like the founder of Jews for Jesus, or for Sarah Palin and I suspect most evangelicals, there job will not be done until all of "God's People" are converted to Christianity.  To them, J4J is a good stepping stone in what they feel is the "right" direction.

But it doesn't stop there.  Lots of religions (albeit not Judaism) actively convert people.  David Brickner, the founder of J4J, went a step further by saying that terrorist attacks against Israel is because they have not accepted Jesus and the attacks are God's "judgment of unbelief."

If I were Jewish, I'd stay the hell away from Sarah Palin and look to someone like Joe Biden instead.