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Football -v- Palin: It All Depends on Your Priorities

Thursday night, I will be in Charlottesville VA, en-route to Richmond VA for a gathering of Tesla-coil builders, nuclear fuioneers, and other odd, assorted, esoteric high-tech geeks.

My dilemma is, where will I watch the the Biden-Palen VP debate? I would like to watch it in the company of others, as opposed to alone in my hotel room at the Omni Hotel near the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville.

So I called the hotel to see if the debate would be on any public TeeVees there.

"Well," the concierge told me, "if there are no football games, you might be able to watch in our restaurant...."

So, let me get this straight: the fate of the free world could be sliding into the hands of a bimbo from Alaska, but I only get to watch the debate at my hotel if there's no football games on?

Sometimes, you just have to think, if that's where America's priorities lie, maybe we deserve whatever fate befalls us as a nation.

Go UVA! Go Sarah!

Bells Bend

At sunrise. The light is doing nothing for me.

But Please, Don't Give Up "Hope"

From The Daily Reckoning, a contrarian financial commentary:

"The next administration's fiscal options are vanishing before our eyes. Somebody should tell the candidates and the country."

I'm sure Sarah Palin understands completely. 

Jeezus, the barbarians are at the gates and this is who we have to listen to???

john.he.is

This has been around for months, apparently.  OK, so you didn't exactly see it here first...

How Much is A TRILLION?

I don't generally care for Thomas Sowell's knee-jerk conservatism, but so far he's the first pundit I've read who has even attempted to wrap his head around the idea of "a trillion dollars:"

Many people have trouble even forming some notion of what such numbers as billion and trillion mean. One way to get some idea of the magnitude of a trillion is to ask: How long ago was a trillion seconds?

A trillion seconds ago, no one on this planet could read and write. Neither the Roman Empire nor the ancient Chinese dynasties had yet come into existence. None of the founders of the world’s great religions today had yet been born.

That’s what a trillion means. Put a dollar sign in front of it and that’s what the current bailout may cost.

Hell, a trillion seconds ago, I don't even think the first Homo-Sapiens had yet to stand upright.

McCain: Condescension.... or Racism?

This is the big takeaway from last night's debate for me.  Not ONCE in the entire debate did John McCain even LOOK at Barack Obama, despite Jim Lehrer's repeated appeals for the candidates to engage each other on stage. 

Add to that McCain's repeated claim that "Senator Obama just doesn't understand... just doesn't understand... just doesn't understand..."  What is that but the old "be very afraid" tactic. 

In my estimation it all adds up to one very simple conclusion:  John McCain thinks we should be very afraid of Barack Obama.  Because he's black.

Oh well, at least they were standing at lecterns and not seated together at a table.

A Snowball Fight on the Titanic?

From Jim Sinclair, one of the very few commentators who understands the "shadow banking" system well enough to have seen this entire upheaval coming down the pike months -- if not years -- ago:

Rumor has it that when the Titanic first hit the iceberg, some passengers engaged in a snowball fight on the deck...clearly missing the message.  Today is not so dissimilar.  Many authorities, particularly politicians, seem to be blind to the simple reality.  The reality is that the financial system is in grave danger. Instead of trying to cover up the problems and allowing their banking institutions to lie about their big problems, the authorities of every major country must act to recapitalize the banks of the world in order to keep the world economic system running.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whether you like him or not, is one of the world's experts on the Great Depression of the 1930's, and he understands the problem all too well. He called Treasury Secretary Paulson (who was afraid that a bailout plan would not be easy to get by Congress) and said we have to do it now before it is too late.  Chairman Bernanke is correct.

The blame belongs to all politicians and the system of government that exists in the U.S. and Europe which allows powerful interests on the political right and on the political left to manipulate politics, and allow wrong behaviors to continue (sometimes for many years) when the miscreants happen to be big donors...and Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, AIG, and Wall Street firms were big donors to both major political parties in the U.S.

The rest of the piece endorses the "bailout" (i.e. recapitalizing the banking system with taxpayer funds) and suggests where to park your ass(ets) while waiting for the crew below to re-seal the big gash in the steamer's bow.

Tom Kimmel

Performing at the TCASK benefit. In his Tyne Blvd home.

The Unabomber's Brother

David Kaczinski, speaking to a benefit for the TN Coalition to Abolish State Killing. A very moving story.

Palin = Eagleton Watch

Conservative columnist and former Palin fan Kathleen Parker weighs in:

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

  Time for an entirely different kind of bailout.  You have to wonder if they'll dump her, or just go down with the ship.