What Would a U.S. Debt Downgrade Mean? - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

What Would a U.S. Debt Downgrade Mean? - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

Easy question, they would have to rewrite all of the introductory finance texts that assume that the US debt is risk free.

What I'm Reading Now

Amazon.com: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition: Books: Jancis Robinson

This is a simply amazing wine book. It is a dictionary of terms relating to wine, grapes, and regions.

One minor quibble. There is an article in this book on
Gorbachev. It focuses mostly on his crackdown on alcoholism in the USSR. It fails to mention that he has a port-wine staim birthmark on his forehead. IN A BOOK ON WINE. Wouldn't you think people would want to know that?

Useless Book of the year

I saw this in CVS today. I thought dummies were reproducing like rabbits.

I won't go schizo, will I?

It's a distinct possibility.

Today is Guy Fawkes Day

Guy Fawkes was part of the Gunpowder Plot to overthrow King Edward and restore Popery to England (I'm summarizing). As a penalty he was drawn and quartered. The part where they spool your intestines on to a dough roller seems really severe.

I thought they just tied your four limbs (quarters) to a draft horse (drawn) and let them do their stuff. Having seen the draft horses at the American Royal for several years, I thought this could hurt. But that emasculation stuff and gibbeting. Well that is going to make for some bad Karma.

Kansas City-Independence School Boundaries

As a graduate of Van Horn High School, class of '75, (boy I feel old) I can tell you why I think you should vote to move Van Horn into the Independence schools. When I went to Van Horn, I felt like a bastard. The Mayor of Independence didn't really give a Rat's A$$ about VH and neither did the Mayor of Kansas City. William Chrisman and Truman, now they were real Independence residents. At Van Horn we were somehow, unclean.

Kansas City has had decades to get its gear stowed and has declined to do so. It is time to let the municipal boundaries dictate where the kids go to school.

BTW, I have no dog in this fight. I now live in Overland Park. I finally live in one of the best public school districts in the country, and my step-daughter goes to private school. Go figure.

Maybe They called Hitler's Bedroom...

...The Gas Chamber.

I won't go Schizo will I?

It's a distinct possibility.

Two years later I wonder what I was writing about. Who knows?

I'm Back; But I'm Gone.

I am back to the blog. None of my goals got accomplished but I did get selected to attend the Naval War College in Newport, RI.

New England is pretty cool but they drink this shit.

Video: A Message From The Iraq Resistance

Could have been made by Michael Moore or the Democratic National CommitteeVideo: A Message From The Iraq Resistance

More Supression of Thought in John Ashcroft's AmeriKKKa

Ben Stein tells what its like to live in John Ashcroft's AmeriKKKa.

""Hmmm," said a man who had recently been the star of a sitcom but who had seen his whole life crumble under the weight of some truly horrific family violence. "Republican Jew. Republican Jew. Republican Jew who's famous. Who lives in Beverly Hills. Republican Jew who has more stuff than I have. I don't like it.""

F' You Jacques, You and Your Whole Stinking Country.

Backing Bush has won you nothing, Chirac tells Britain

Why waste a perfectly good fire extinguisher.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Man Sets Himself Ablaze at White House

A man set himself afire Monday just outside a White House gate and repeatedly yelled "Allah Allah"

Mini clash of civilizations

Arnaud De Borgrave explains why you should thank all that's holy that Kerry didn't win.

"What Dutch filmmaker and columnist Theo Van Gogh saw as the shabby treatment of females throughout the Muslim community led him to produce documentaries that portrayed Muslim men as tormentors of women, especially their wives. One recent scathingly critical Van Gogh film's carried the message that Islam promotes violence against women. Last week, Van Gogh, a grandnephew of the painter, was shot as he cycled to work. He managed to get up and stagger across the street to his building where he collapsed. The assailant followed him and slit his throat before pinning to his chest with a knife a five-page manifesto that called on Muslims to rise against the "infidel enemies" in the West."

Kerry didn't get this, neither did Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, or Clinton. GWB does. Thank God.

You Read What this Guy Says...

... and you think about what might have been. Clear thinking on the election by Bill Clinton.

He could have sent the GOP into permanent minority status.

But for his personal failings. BTW, right before Monica, when he got Buddy, I was starting to warm up to him.

NAFTA, GATT, Welfare Reform. If the Dems want to look for a place to regroup, look there.

From Disgusting Lardbuckets Brain to Osama's Mouth

Michael Moore seems proud that Osama is a fan.

"There he was, OBL, all tan and rested and on videotape (hey, did you get the feeling that he had a bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in Afghanistan?)"

Michael Moore embodies everything there is to hate about Kerry, Liberals, and the Democrats in that order.

The hulking bastard seems proud that Osama bought his arguments wholesale.

Mark Steyn: Justifications for backing Kerry fall flat

I wish I could write like Mark Steyn.

"But Kerry's version of this story undermines the Kerry view of the war -- or, at any rate, the most recent Kerry view of the war. That's the best clue as to the resolve he'd show as President: He has no internal conviction of his own, and so his campaign has run on incoherent reflex oppositionism, as, indeed, his Senate career has -- if America had followed the positions advocated by John Kerry, there would have been no Reagan arms build-up, and the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact would have lingered on, and their clients in Grenada would have destabilized the rest of the Caribbean, and Latin America would not have been democratized, and Saddam Hussein would still be in power and still controlling Kuwait."

Sort of says it all.

BTW, where I work, the next few years is all refurbing programs that Kerry voted nay on the first time. Think he'll want to extend their life? I didn't think so either.

Impermissible Mixing of Religion and Politics

Tom Harkin channels the BIG GUY and says He's for Kerry.

The Daily Recycler: The Choice

Just watch it.

Teddy Roosevelt vs. Teddy Ruxpin
Johnny Cash vs. Air Supply
Let's Roll vs. Let's Sue

And my all time favorite:
Michael vs. Fredo

Watch for W's one fingered victory salute at the end.

'My Pet Is a Blessing': Beliefnet members share spiritual stories of their cats, dogs, birds, animal companions, Jesus, Bible -- Beliefnet.com

'My Pet Is a Blessing'

You say you're not hitting Belief Net regularly? Well, check it out. Whatever floats your spiritual boat, its there.

I myself liked the Belief-O-Matic. I scored 100% on Catholic and Greek Orthodox and 97% on mainline to conservative Protestant.

Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.