Category: Thoughts

From the TTS Blog: I know it’s a crowded field– Obama and Hillary and Mitt Romney and so forth– but I know that with your help, I can make a difference. I’m announcing my candidacy for the greatest office in the land: Anna Nicole’s baby’s daddy. Every other dude who’s ever been to the Bahamas seems to have his hat in the ring, I don’t see why I couldn’t be a candidate too. I’m in, and I’m in it to win it!

Support our troops: bring them home and give them health care. Bush cuts benefits even as wounded and mentally damaged vets stream back from his boondoggle in the desert. I don’t see how he manages to maintain even 30% approval ratings.

We spent a lot of time walking up and down Ocean Drive looking at people and being looked at.

You know what’s dark and cold? Boston in February. So six months ago, Megan and I decided to go somewhere warm for a few days, wherever we could get cheap tickets and good food. That turned out to be South Beach, the land of the fifteen dollar cocktail, the twenty-five-dollar appetizer, and the automatic eighteen-percent tip. We diverted ourselves by counting Hummers– over fifty in just three days– and watching news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith. All in all, I had a lovely time and am glad to be back here where it is cold and dark.

I leave you with this short clip from a news program in which the host mocks the recently deceased:

Proposal requires kids for marriage. Following the family-values crowd to its logical, Quiver-Full extreme, a gay-rights group has proposed a law that would require married couples to have children within three years.

Now, that’s a great joke, but should it be turned into a genuine ballot initiative? Is it really a good idea to take a one-liner and put it on the ballot, risking idiots turning it into law? What if it actually passes? Do old lines from the Simpsons (“Bart, marriage is a three-year commitment!”) suddenly become prophetic?

This has to be the most mesmerising video I’ve seen on YouTube in quite some time: drummers break into an apartment and make all kinds of weird noises. For ten minutes. That’s really about it, but it’s great.

I don’t read all 151 feeds in my BlogLines feed reader every day. Some of them are decidedly back-burner. But I’ve upgraded Long or Short to a regular read because it mixes financial news with humor and a sense of self-deprecation that I haven’t seen in the financial press before. Two stellar examples from awhile back: Piratery fka Piracy: Primer to Investing in Cutlasses, Rum and Pillaging and Long: Death Squad Start-ups (think Piratery but with more murder and less rum.)

Is that funny to anyone but me? Maybe not. Perhaps instead you will be interested in their dividend policy.

But it feels good. In reference to this recent bit of proposed legislation I sent this:

Senators Joyce and Jehlen:

Sen. Joyce recently filed a bill to give recent graduates a financial incentive to stay in Massachusetts. It’s a bad idea. Here’s why: it helps a few people to buy into the overpriced market, but it doesn’t solve the root problem of Massachusetts being unaffordable. In fact, it contributes to that problem by adding to inflation.

The bill also seems unfair. I make less than 135% of the median wage in these parts and graduated from college. If I threaten to pull up stakes and move somewhere cheaper, would you give me ten grand?

Instead of paying people to stay nearby, you should focus on making the area more attractive for everyone. Start with an increase in the amount and variety of housing available (i.e. cut back on construction delays and NIMBY roadblocks), improve transit and public safety, and work to foster community relations between locals and universities so that people have friends and social networks to keep them in town.

I encourage you to scuttle this bill and focus on something more useful to the commonwealth.

Thank you for your time.
Yours,
Aaron Weber
Somerville, MA

What is the world coming to? Headlines: Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study… After a public school teacher was recorded telling students they belonged in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior, the school board has banned taping in class without an instructor’s permission… and worst of all, the Secretary of State has issued a statement that she thinks the Colts will win the Super Bowl.

I think there’s some kind of sarcastic statement in here, but as usual I’m just going to stick with “wtf?”

In reference to the annual Philadelphia Wing Bowl: “It’s all about Philly,” said the event’s commissioner, former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce. “Where else at six o’clock in the morning will you get 20,000 drunk guys?””

Well, possibly Boston on St. Patrick’s day.