It's just my opinion, I could be wrong

Cool page: http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/data Basically it's the real monetary numbers for the US (adjusted to counter the political driven skew which has been increasing for the last 20 years or so). For example, the CPI calculated assuming you bought the same quality goods over the entire period (instead of the current calculation, which assumes you buy cheaper stuff when you have less money, making the official CPI pretty worthless for measuring actual inflation). It's beyond my understanding of economics and data manipulation to estimate if the fake (official) CPI will ever "catch up" to the actual CPI, and thus reflect actual inflation, but I'm guessing not. Anyway, it's always good to know the real numbers, knowledge = power and whatnot...

So every state wants to have their primary 1st, and all the "we're first" states are engaged in a childish game of oneupmanship to see who can be the last person to set a date for their primary and "win". Soon, primaries will be so far before the actual elections, you might as well schedule them at the same time as the previous election; at least it's a good minimum. Hey, I got a solution for all you geniuses in the various states who want to be competitive for the right to have politicians actually care how your state votes in its primary. Instead of playing leapfrog with all the other kids, pass a law which sets your primary date as the same day as the earliest primary held by any other state. Once you have 20 or so states with this law/procedure in place, it won't matter which of the "we're 1st, nah nah" states actually gets the first primary date, cause half the nation will automatically also vote at the same time. Moreover, it cuts th...

I can't help but think how appropriate that saying is to the current Congress and their effect on the next presidential election. In my mind, there could be no more effective campaign propaganda for republican candidates than the liberal media filling the news mediums with endless stories of Congress' partisan, childish, pointless wastes of time and money whining about partisan crap. We (the American people) get it: you don't like Bush, or any republicans. We got it 6 years ago. We understand that you will condemn anything any republican does. We get that you will stop at nothing, and leave no option unexplored, in your quest to damage republicans just because they are republicans. We get that there's no substance or reason behind any opinions you have, other than they are the opposite of the republican opinions. Your motivation is only to hurt republicans. You don't give a rat's ass what happens to the country, as long as the republicans suffer. You have made a...

The study: There's a correlation between people who drink soda (regular or diet) and people who have heart problems. The idiotic news media interpretation: There's a causality between drinking soda and having heart problems. The restatement of the study conclusions, for the slow people who might otherwise come to (and write about) a totally incorrect interpretation: Fat, unhealthy people are more likely to drink soda than healthy people. Now, anyone who wouldn't read my restatement of the study conclusions and say 'duh...'? Funny how couching something that simple in scientific jargon like 'correlation' and rearranging it causes a stirring of the stupids.

So I heard a funny commercial, promoting why you should work with a Realtor to buy your next home. Among the selling points was how Realtors understand the market and can guide you in making a smart decision. This was followed shortly by how rates are still low, there are lots of properties available, and it's an excellent time to buy. ... It would take a special kind of moron to think that this is a good time to buy a house in Southern California, what with the bubble in the process of popping and prices about to go through the proverbial floor. I can't imagine a worse thing to tell people to promote yourself as a valuable asset because you understand the market. Just... wow.

Today's thought: There should be a new category for movie classification: the Distortumentary. A production in documentary format which intentionally distorts the facts, accounts, theories, and information presentation to serves a personal or political interest. Recent pioneers of the field would be Michael Moore and Al Gore, although I'm sure there are many more in the history of film making. So many, in fact, that I think these artists deserve their own category for their bold and occasionally creative mix of fact, fiction, and spin.

Bush's approval rating: ~35% Congress' approval rating: ~14% Just lending credence the the idea that no matter what the republicans do, the democrats will find a way to do something more ridiculously moronic. Way to hit a new (all-time) low guys. Oh, and I'd like to reiterate my prediction of Thompson in '08. With the way the democrats are behaving in Congress, I'd probably bet on a trained monkey if the republican's ran one. Which is sad, cause it would be nice to steer the country more towards the center. Maybe by '12 someone will get the lunatics away from the controls of the democratic party... don't count on it, though.