It's just my opinion, I could be wrong

Some things which desperately need to be made: - Single, unified database for purchases indexed by credit card identification sharing purchase information with all subscribed and participating stores. Participation requirements include a provision to provide the maximum consumer discount for purchases based on membership requirements (ie: paying with your credit cards works like using a membership discount card, in discount and purchase tracking). Company makes money by selling aggregated purchase information from all stores/vendors to specific stores/vendors. - Single sign-on for all useless web sites which want independent registration (eg: all online forums, blogs, news sites, etc.). There are more, but those are ones which are bugging me today.

Ok, actually, lots of times, but who's counting. Most recently, the government raised the limits on the size of home loans which could be purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pseudo-public companies created and supported by the government for the purpose of increasing home ownership by Americans. I'm just curious, but what part of the trillions of dollars of home loans currently being defaulted on by people who were allowed/encouraged to buy houses they clearly couldn't afford suggests that we need more irresponsible home buying by Americans? But that's a side note... The real thing I fail to understand is why Congress decided to raise this limit right after one of the companies posted a record 3.6 billion dollar loss for the quarter. Huh? Normally, in business, you expand and accept more risk when you're doing well, or the business climate looks good in the coming months, or some combination of those. In this case, the business is doing awful, and the business...

Nader is a funny guy. In some ways, he's representative of all the left-wing wackos who spew anti-business and popularism BS to promote their own agenda. In other ways, he's a self-absorbed figurehead with a large ego and a voracious appetite for self-promotion. In many ways, he's just another democrat running for office with a slightly further-from-the-middle platform. Rarely do I find an instance where I agree with left-wing or right-wing zealots; the further from the middle the less likely I have found. However, on rare occasion, they do take a stand I happen to agree with. For example, from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080224/D8V0QN100.html : "If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form," Nader said. Bravo, Ralph, I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. If the Democrats can't win this election by a landslide, they really need to rethink the whole "p...

Real inflation, as calculated by the CPI metric before the government changed it to be intentionally and deliberately incorrect, was just below 12% for February, on an annual basis (ie: compared to one year ago). See: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data That's the highest inflation has been since 1981, when it was coming down from the 15%+ peak in the late 70's. Pretty interesting (and bad), if you ask me. I wish more financial sites would report the real inflation rate instead of the bogus one which is commonly reported, so more people would be aware of the problem, and maybe politicians would have to actually try to do something about it.

The whole Kosovo situation is kinda interesting, IMO. Both because of the particulars, and the interesting international "law" ramifications. First, the particulars. In a surprise to nobody, each country had on opinion which was entirely reflective of their own political situation and what would benefit them the most in reference to it, and 0% reflective of what would be best for the world in general. This should serve as a good example of why the UN is doomed to failure: every country does what best for their own political situation, always, and not what's best for the world. Specifically: - China condemned it because of Taiwan - Russia condemned it because of Georgia separatists - Spain condemned it because of their separatist movement - The US welcomed it because of their strategy in Afganistan/Iraq/elsewhere - Several UK countries welcomed it because they are in NATO and have been defending its independence already - etc. Now, the more interesting longer-term question...

So there's an op-ed piece in the NYT from an Obama supporter conjecturing that an Obama victory in 08 would be a signal that the GOP is on it's way out: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/opinion/17rich.html?em&ex=1203397200&en=2427f7c3cc6ed0d0&ei=5087 I guess the question I would have for the author is: If McCain wins the election, does that spell the end for the Democratic party? I mean, if I follow your rhetoric, McCain is old, white, and representative of people who support slavery (way to play the race card in proxy, btw). Meanwhile, Obama is great, wonderful, supports whatever version of his nebulous promise of change is convenient for the listener, and should win in a landslide. The problem I see for your theory is fundamentally the same reason Kerry lost to Bush in 04. It's not like the country liked Bush; over 50% of the people disliked him, I'd say. But Bush was the evil people knew, and Kerry was the candidate promising the nebulous "not Bush...

You might want to save a link to this post, cause it might not come again in my lifetime, and it certainly wasn't intentional. But, whether motivated by partisan politics, political grandstanding, posturing, or an unlikely hint of actually representing the Constitution and the interests of the American people, in failing to renew the "warrant-free spying on citizens" bill with the "get out of jail free for gross illegal and unconstitutional actions" provision, Congress actually did something right. Yes, I said it. No, the sky is not falling. I don't want to overstate it; it was only the House that did something right (the Senate was quick to fall into the Constitutional abuse congo line), and they didn't actually block it, just delayed the vote to renew it. But, in an endless sea of bad laws, bad decisions, corporations buying votes, partisan bickering, and practically every other imaginable way Congress could set an example for how the country is not su...

Because it's so poignant, I'd like to point at what I consider to be one of the strongest examples of self-serving political greed evident at the moment. Huckabee, the right-wing religious nut and poster-child for everything wrong with the Republican party, emphasized today that he's going to stay in the race for the nomination, keep draining money from his supporters, and keep alive efforts to divide the Republican party. Now a smart man would look at the whole situation, and evaluate. For example, such a man might conclude that as Hillary drives moderate voters toward the Republicans, right-wing religious nuts drive voters toward the Democrats. The same man might also note that the more the Republican party appears to be fighting the idea of anyone with reasonably moderate views as their nominee, the more they turn away intelligent voters. A truly insightful man might even realize that if Huckabee were to, by chance, actually win the nomination, it would virtually assure ...

Amidst all the calls for government bailouts, economic stimulus packages, and investigations into the evil, corrupt corporations which forced people to buy homes they couldn't afford, let's not forget the root cause of the housing bubble, burst, and eventual fallout: greed. Greed drove the housing bubble, primarily the greed of individuals with limited means and education, who saw an opportunity to get rich by trading up as the housing market shot up like a drug addict after a score. Greed was also evident on the part of the hedge funds, looking for better returns at higher risk; financial companies, making millions packaging bad mortgages as securities; banks, lending to people and reselling to wall street for a quick buck; and everyone involved, taking the money while they could and expecting the government to bail them out if/when it went south. Greed also caused the burst, in a more subtle way. Greedy for fame as the architects of the "new economy", the regulators...

After watching Hillary on Letterman last night, I come away with the impression that the overwhelming problem in America, which dwarfs all others in consequence, is the lack of education and intelligence among the citizens. If we could solve this problem, and teach people to actually think, so many other problems would just go away. I mean, first I was kinda upset because what Hillary was saying was so stupid, so brainless, I couldn't imagine how anyone could want her running a lemonade stand, much less a small business, and god help us our country. But it occurred to me that she's not an empty-headed drolling retard, so the only logical explanation for her empty-headed drolling retard ideas is that she's saying what her constituents want to hear, and appealing to her base. Which brings me back to the education problem; apparently the education and intelligence of the people in this country is far worse than I had estimated, in my naivety. I can't really explain how 30%...

I had an interesting thought this morning: which religious cult is worse, Global Warming or Scientology? Let's go to the tape... In this corner, the "religion" founded by a science fiction writer to prove the point that there were enough dumb, gullible people in the world that even a religion based on totally ridiculous beliefs could flourish, Scientology has gained a worldwide following. It boasts a tiered internal structure you buy your way up through, buys and manages help hotlines so they can get access to the most mentally unstable people to brainwash into the cult, bullies anyone who publicly criticizes them with multi-million dollar legal actions, cuts people off from their families while draining their life savings, and is generally despised by intelligent people. In the other corner, Global Warming was founded by scientists eager to get grant money from politicians eager to get votes for opposing big business. Based on distorted, inaccurate, or totally bogus pseu...