This is so wrong.
Month: July 2009
The Death of the Rock of Boston
CBS Radio is shuttering WBCN to make space on the dial for yet another sports radio station in Boston.
I spent a year in Boston, and woke up to Charles Laquidara’s “Big Mattress”, and was down there nearly every week in my college days.
I know that when I talked with my brother, who still lives in the area, and some of my classmates from UMass, that it was a shadow of what it once was (thanks a lot, Oedipus), but it’s sad to see a part of my youth go.
Doubling Down on Failure
The California state pension fund, CALPERS, has decided that since it lost so much money on risky investments last year, it’s going to invest in even riskier investments this year in an attempt to catch up.
When you do this at a casino, it’s called “Paying the Casino Boss’s Daughter’s Tuition.”
Bush and His Evil Minions™ Good for Syphilis
That’s what the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control has discovered, that under the anti-sex policies of George W. Bush, both Syphilis and teen pregnancy grew sharply.
Hoocoodanode?
Russia Sends Warning of Georgia
Considering the heated rhetoric on this issue, this is pretty mild.
What they are saying is that they will cut military and diplomatic ties with nations that sell Russian built or Russian designed weapons to Georgia.
All in all, this a remarkably narrowly drawn statement, that it will not be offering support or spares to nations that ship Russian, and one would assume Soviet, weapons to Georgia.
Compared to earlier statements made where various government officials appeared to insult each other over parentage and penis size, it’s a major step forward.
New Russian Boomer Goes To Sea Without Boom
Specifically, the lead ship for the Borei class SSBN, the Yury Dolgorukiy finished its factory sea trials a few weeks back.
Unfortunately for the Russians, but not so bad for us folks living in the US, the Bulava missile it is intended to carry is not doing well in tests, sparking a reshuffling of the agency in charge of making it combat ready.
Solid-State Laser Ready for Deployment
The US Navy is looking to place a high power solid state laser abroad selected naval vessels in the nest 12-18 months. (paid subscription required)
It appears that they will be using Northrop Grumman’s JHPSSL (Joint High Power Solid-State Laser), which uses 15kw blocks that can be ganged together to create a more powerful beam, as a basis for the weapon, and its intended target is small boats.
As to how viable the system is, if the Navy deploys it to the waters off Somalia’s coast to fight pirates, then they think that it can be made to work under combat conditions, if not then there is a lack of confidence in the system.
Federal Reserve Consumer Protection Theater
With the Federal Reserve actively lobbying to become the sole protector of consumers in the financial system, it was inevitable that they would have to engage in some consumer protection theater so as to make people forget just how badly they have fumbled this ball over the past 30 years or so:
The Federal Reserve on Thursday proposed sweeping new consumer protections for mortgages and home-equity loans.
The proposals seek to overhaul the timing and content of disclosures to consumers, and to ban controversial side payments to mortgage brokers for steering customers to higher-cost loans.
The cow has left, so now they are closing the barn door, in the hope that they can continue to manage the herd.
The Federal Reserve really does not want a dedicated consumer financial protection agency, because it would engage in real consumer protection, which, based on the record of both the Federal Reserve and its New York bank (*cough* Timothy Geithner *cough*), have not done, choosing instead to pimp for Goldman Sachs and its ilk.
Cracks Found in Pressure Hull of US SSN
Specifically, the Los Angeles class boat the USS Toledo:
Two cracks have been discovered on the hull of the USS Toledo, a potentially fatal flaw that could have led to water leaks and, ultimately, hull failure if the submarine submerged, the Navy confirmed Tuesday.
Toledo crew members on Friday found the 21-inch-long crack in the exterior topside hull under the sail and a corresponding 1-inch crack in the pressure hull underneath.
From the picture, it’s one of the later models of the Los Angeles class, it has bow planes, not sail planes, so it should be well before the fatigue life of the hull is reached, and it was found by the crew, but still, cracks in pressure hull of a sub…Yikes!!!
Hopefully this is a one-off, and not a systemic problem.
Jon Stewart is a F%$#ing Genius, Pentagon Pork Primer
Yep, this one pretty much nails what is going on with the F-22 Piglet Raptor.
Word!!!!
As Sure as Death and Taxes
Is the fact that a high profile indigenously developed defense system developed by the Indian military defense establishment will be completely fracked.
In this case, we are talking about the Tejas light combat aircraft, where we are seeing delays in developing its radar and other avionics, and the Indian Air Force has just rejected a joint venture with Snecma do develop the Kaveri engine, which has been in development for the small fighter for over two decades.
Seriously, the Indians have the US beat hands down in the dysfunctional defense procurement apparatus department.
Chinese Military Unleashes Illegal and Immoral Weapon
See the 3rd eye?
There it is again!!!
It appears that the Chinese Communists are developing genetically engineered furries as super-soldiers.
With no respect for the norms of civilized behavior, they intend to inflict furrie soldiers with mutant 3rd eyes (see top pic) upon an unsuspecting world.
And you know what’s paying for their inhuman efforts?
McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, that’s what.
Every time one of your kids gets happy meal toys, the PLA puts a penny on their evil plans.
They must be stopped!
The Who: Pictures of Lily
Their paean to photographically induced auto-eroticism.
The two things that strike most is just how much studio technology has progressed, and how unbelievably dorky those costumes from the 1960s look:
In Studio
On Stage
Revenge of the FASB
Following the humiliating climedown by the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on mark to market in April of this year, where they re-enabled fantasy accounting, because of pressure from whores Congress and financial services industry, it now appears that the FASB has found its inner punk, and is saying that it might, “expand the use of fair-market values on corporate income statements and balance sheets,” which means that there is a whole lot of the big sh%$ pile that will shortly be valued on balance sheets as, well, sh%$.
This Week in God Fruit
Funny, if slightly sacrilegious.
It’s Bank Failure Friday!
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
- Waterford Village Bank, Williamsville, NY
- Security Bank of Gwinnett County, Suwanee, GA
- Security Bank of North Fulton, Alpharetta, GA
- Security Bank of North Metro, Woodstock, GA
- Security Bank of Bibb County, Macon, GA
- Security Bank of Houston County, Perry, GA
- Security Bank of Jones County, Gray, GA
Great Googly Moogly!!!!!That’s 7 banks in one weekend, though 6 of the banks are all subsidiaries of one bank, Security Bank Corporation of Macon, GA.
There may be a few more further west, but the FDIC is not listing them as of 8:30 EDT.
Economics Update
Something that everyone misses about this economy is that it is really all about jobs. Note that I am currently looking for a job, which makes me more aware of this.
Actually, it’s not everyone who does not get that it’s about jobs, ordinary people get it, which is why consumer confidence fell in July.
In any case, we should glad that we don’t live in the UK, because “The Street”, their version of Wall Street, owns their economy even more than that great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,* Goldman Sachs, owns our economy, and so the UK’s GDP fell by 0.8% in the 2nd Quarter, and 5.6% year over year, the largest slump ever recorded for Old Blighty.
The problem is that without jobs, there is no recovery, and the recovery programs spend a lot of times of the relative health of financial cephalopods,† not the return of jobs.
It’s beginning to increasingly look like real estate will lag any recovery, with major increases in the number of rental units and the vacancy rate, which has spiked to 10.6% as people who cannot sell their homes continue to rise, and US home vacancies hit 18.7 on bank seizures and walk-aways.
Still, the traders are optimistic, which is driving oil up and the dollar down.
*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.
†You know, cephalopods, as in vampire squids, like Goldman Sachs
Too Funny Not to Share
It appears that CNBC’s dissing of bloggers has offended someone who knows photoshop:
Link
Senate Democrats Briefly Show Brain and Spine
They voted down John Thune’s carry your gun anywhere anyway anyhow amendment to the defense spending bill.
1t was 58-40 in favor of the amendment, but with a filibuster promised, it failed.
Needless to say, the Dems, particularly the “Centrists” will be back to their old ways shortly.
$7.25/Hr
The minimum wage went up from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour today.
This may have a greater stimulatory effect than anything done by Obama/Bernanke/Summers/Geithner to this date.