Month: November 2010

Apparrently, I Am Not the Only One Who Thought This………

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Blah, blah, blah!

I saw this at the Wholefoods Market™, and I saw this.

It’s called the “Buddha’s Hand Citron”, but I immediately dubbed it the “Cthulhu Fruit.”

I did not catch the name, but when I got home, I searched for “Cthulhu” and “Citron” on Google™ images, and this Flicker Stream was, not kidding here, the first image up, which shows that something are universal, at least for aficionados of the work of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

There are a lot of people who call this “Cthulhu Fruit”.

Our Annoying World

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My old Palm OS™ phone is wearing out, the keyboard is no longer working, so I got an upgraded phone, a Samsung Epic.

Now I have to teach myself a completely new OS, android, for my phone, and figure out how to sync it with Outlook.

It’s an impressive phone though.

It happens every time I upgrade my phone.

About Damn Time!

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The Commercial, but the music is better than average

When I was working at BAE Systems on the FCS-RMV, one of the systems that we needed to place on our vehicle was the so-called “Active Protection System” (APS), Raytheon’s “Quick Kill, a hit-to-kill interceptor intended to neutralize RPGs, ATGWs, and long rod KE penetrators.

One of the problems with this system, at least as if fed down to us doing the design, was that it never worked properly, which was surprising, considering that the Israelis had a system, Trophy, which worked, and was far less expensive than the APS.

Of course, because of the need for generals to find lucrative consulting gigs in retirement, Trophy was fought tooth and nail by the army, with their refusing to test the system on Strykers in Iraq.

Well, what goes around comes around, and with Raytheon basically dead, the US army will finally try out the system on a Stryker:

Next month a Stryker combat vehicle will arrive in the US equipped for testing the Israeli’s Trophy active protection system. The Army has pursued active protection for years, most recently abandoning the Future Combat System’s active protection system developed by Raytheon. We understand at least one M-ATV will also get the radar– directed system. The M-ATV integration is more challenging, given the vehicle’s design.

Seriously, it’s been something like 6 years that the Pentagon has refused to test the system, instead holding out for a system that was never near ready because our defense procurement system is that broken.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

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And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Gulf State Community Bank, Carrabelle, FL
  2. Allegiance Bank of North America, Bala Cynwyd, PA
  3. First Banking Center, Burlington, WI

Full FDIC list

So, we haven’t hit 150 failures yet this year, but it’s pretty clear that we will, even though it seems to be trending down a bit over the past few months.

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):

I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I’m keeping it here for historical purposes.

I Am So Glad That I Do Not Live 15 Miles Further East

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Because if I did, the biggest wanker in Congress would be my Congresscritter:

A conservative Maryland physician elected to Congress on an anti-Obamacare platform surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.

Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.

“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

Andy Harris campaigned non-stop against government run healthcare, but that’s only for people who aren’t him, I guess.

Trials Work

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Ahmed Ghailani, accused of being complicit in the embassy bombings in Africa 19 1998, was acquitted of all but one of the almost 300 charges against him:

White House officials said Thursday that the acquittal of Ahmed Ghailani on all but one of more than 280 criminal charges in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa would not undermine their effort to try former Guantanamo detainees in civilian court, even as the mixed verdict reignited debate over that policy.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ghailani – the first former detainee to be tried in federal court – will receive a lengthy prison sentence for his conviction on one count of conspiracy.

Of course, it lazy investigators had not tortured him at Guantanamo in the first place, and instead used their brains and skills, they probably would have gotten dozens of convictions, but even with the sloppy work, the get a conviction.

There is no need for torture of military kangaroo courts. We can use our judges and our laws, right here in the United States.

Of course, we won’t because Barack Obama and Eric “Place” Holder are to wimpy to stand up for our values.

Signs of the Apocalypse, Steny Hoyer Showing Guts Edition

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You got that right, Steny fracking Hoyer is finding a damn backbone:

Steny Hoyer, the number two in the House Dem leadership, told Democrats at a caucus meeting this morning that they would get to vote this year on just extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, a senior Dem aide tells me, signaling support for a confrontational move towards the GOP that liberals have been pushing.

Asked if Democrats would definitely get a chance to hold this vote, the senior aide responded: “Definitely.”

Hoyer’s declaration comes as Democrats have been debating the way forward on the Bush tax cuts, and another aide tells me that “more than half” of the Dem caucus supports this course of action.

I approve, but I wonder just who the hell had Steny’s testicles, and why they decided to give it back to him.

Raising taxes on people making more than a ¼ of a million dollars a year is excellent policy, and excellent politics, so it surprises me that Democrats are even thinking about doing this.

Doubtless, they will find a way to screw this up, and I’m sure that Heath Shuler will be leading the way, but I’m still getting a heavy duty umbrella, just in case it starts to rain frogs.

Economics Update

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It’s jobless Thursday, and initial claims rose slightly last week, up by 2000 to 439K, beating expectations, and remaining below the 450-485K range where the number has meandered much of this year, so this is good news.

Additionally, the 4-week moving average dropped to a 2 year low of 443,000 and continuing claims fell fell by 43K to 4.3 million, though extended emergency claims rose by 12K to 4.93 million.

Good news though, the extended claims number drops to 0 on November 30, thanks to the ineptitude of Congressional Democrats.

We also have Philadelphia Bank of the Federal Reserve, where its general economic index exceeded forecasts by a factor of 4, jumping to 22.5.

On the down side, as always, is real estate, where foreclosures are ramping up again, as banks tweak their fraud and corruption fine tune their foreclosure programs and documentation.

Speaking of Mind Blowing Stupidity

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The hed says it all, “The White House, Chamber Of Commerce Attempt Rapprochement.”

What the f%$# are they thinking?

I know that Barack Obama thinks that he is so awesome that people can’t help liking him, and that they like him so much that they will work together for the good of the country, but that is stupid and delusional:

On Wednesday, the intricacies and oddities of the relationship were on full display. For the second time in as many weeks, a member of the Obama cabinet met with Chamber officials. It was not to discuss the sharp elbows thrown during the campaign, when the White House, in no uncertain terms, accused the Chamber of subverting the democratic process by refusing to reveal its donors. Rather, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with the group’s board of directors to “discuss the state of the economy, jobs, and administration priorities ‘for supporting the competitiveness of American businesses’.”

The Chamber of Commerce has always been a very conservative organization, but it is no longer that: It is now an explicitly partisan player whose goal is the defeat of Obama in 2012 by any means necessary.

They are not the opposition they are the enemy.

And little Timmy Geithner is playing footsie, no doubt with Barack’s approval.

<Facepalm>

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And the Award for Lame Losers Goes to ……

You know that recovery that we seem to be having, well expect it to stop, suddenly, in just a few weeks.

Why, because somehow or other the House Democrats managed to lose a vote on extending unemployment benefits extension, meaning that roughly 5 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits on November 30.

That’s 5 million Americans who will be unable to make car or house payments of buy much of anything at all.

Figure about $1.5 billion pulled out of the economy a week, or a little bit over ½% of GDP that would just go away.

Not only did they not manage to pass the bill, but it was only a 3 month extension that they managed not to pass, so they failed on a lame half measure.

For some reason known only to God, they tried to pass it under a “suspension of the rules” requiring a ⅔ vote, which it failed, by 258 to 154.

OK, I do know the reason why the Democrats tried to pass this under a procedure requiring a 2/3 vote: If it passes by a simple majority, then people can make a “motion to recommit”, which could kill the bill, and would not pass, or a “motion to recommit with instructions”, where it is sent back to committee with instructions to make amendments, which doesn’t kill the bill.

The problem is that the Democratic Caucus discipline is so lax that if the Republicans try to attach something that Democrats fear might be used in a campaign, like, for example, banning felons from getting UI benefits, then many of the Democrats, fearful for being cast as soft on crime in the next election, will vote for the measure and against the party, and the country, because they have no damn guts.

Of course, the reason that the Dems lost on November 2 was because they have no damn guts, so their solution is even more gutlessness.

Cthulhu on a cruller, it’s lame.

Economics Update

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Well, if you think that the run up to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (printing money) might lead to inflation, you thought wrong, with inflation at 0.2% in October, and the core rate at 0% for the 3rd straight month, and the year over year change was an anemic 0.6%.

The problem is that there isn’t enough inflation.

We also have real estate news, all bad, with housing starts falling, house prices in the US falling 2.8% in September (down 0.8% in the UK), mortgage applications falling, and the AIA’s: Architecture Billings Index, an indicator of future commercial construction, falling in October.

Buh Bye Bean

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Melissa Bean has conceded the election to her Republican opponent Joe Walsh, and honestly, it makes me happy.

I’d feel different if she were the margin for control of the house, but she isn’t, and she is arguably the worst Democrat in Congress, because she sold her soul for campaign donations to the financial industry, and she was the most effective force on Congress for gutting financial regulations.

While she is (until January) was a member of both the Blue Dog and New Democrat Caucus, she was always about raking in the campaign dough from banks, pharma, etc. so that they can stay in office, which shades her more toward the New Dem side, as opposed to the Blue Dogs, who tend to be motivated more by their own misguided philosophy or a desire to appease constituents.

Give me an honest reactionary over a pseudo-moderate careerist any day.

In related news. Lisa Murkowski beat Joe Miller in her write-in bid.

In your face, Sarah Palin.

Speaking of Saroff’s Rule

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If a financial transaction is complex enough to require that a news organization use a cartoon to explain it, its purpose is to deceive.

Williambanzai7 at zero hedge finds this description of how mortgage securitization works from an auditor by the name of Dan Edstrom.

The gentleman, “Performs securitization audits (Reverse Engineering and Failure Analysis) for a company called DTC-Systems.”

Of course, Saroff’s Rule does not strictly apply here.

This is not the product of a publication that is generating graphics for the edification of the reading public.

This is a visual aid to a Securitization Workshop for Attorneys, and it is what happened to his own mortgage.

This is not some theoretical mortgage that he looked at. This is his mortgage.

It took him a full year to track it all down, and his business is to do mortgage securitizations.

This happens because complexity is the enemy of transparency, and without transparency, the opportunities to profit by cheating and defrauding your counter-parties increases.

George Soros Implies Support for a Primary Challenge

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Or maybe not, since his people are walking it back a little bit:

According to multiple sources with knowledge of his remarks, Soros told those in attendance that he is “used to fighting losing battles but doesn’t like to lose without fighting.”

“We have just lost this election, we need to draw a line,” he said, according to several Democratic sources. “And if this president can’t do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else.”

……

While Soros’s comment gave some attendees the impression that he’d cheer a primary challenge to the president, the point, sources say, was different. Rather, it is time to shuffle funds into a progressive infrastructure that will take on the tasks that the president can’t or won’t take on.

“People are determined to help build a progressive infrastructure and make sure it is there not just in the months ahead but one that will last in the long term,” said Anna Burger, the retired treasury secretary of SEIU. “Instead of being pushed over by this election it has empowered people to stand up in a bigger way.”

“There was frustration,” said one Democratic operative who attended the meetings. The main concern was about messaging. I think they are frustrated that the president isn’t being more direct. But I did not get the sense that anyone’s commitment to the progressive movement was wavering… The general consensus is that support has to move beyond being about one person and more about a movement. I don’t know if we’ve moved beyond there.”

So, it could be that Soros is saying that he thinks that liberals should disassociate themselves from the Obama political operation, and go back to funding people 3rd party political operatives, because you can’t trust the Obama team to fight for you, or to fight period. (true)

It’s been well known that the Obama administration, and the associated political operation, has been tremendously hostile to 3rd party political operations, both out of a need to micromanage the message, and because of their ceaseless focus on process at the expense of results.

I think that the message, particularly as put forward by a billionaire, is a shot across Obama’s bow.

I think that there was the intention to tell the Obama White House that if they kept trying to veal pen and defund independent groups, then there is a billionaire out there who is willing to dump a significant chunk of change on making his life difficult in 2012.

For myself, I support a robust primary challenge.

Obama’s weakness, and his eagerness to please the malefactors in this situation (do nothing Republicans, dishonest bankers, etc.) while casting his behavior as liberalism could cripple the party, and the solutions that our country needs, for decades to come, much as Herbert Hoover crippled Republicans and conservatism for a generation.

The difference is that Barack Obama’s PPUT (Post Partisan Unity Schtick) is a refutation of liberalism, while Hoover’s activities were an endorsement of conservatism.

Let There Be No Kings……

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In 1997, I was reading Usenet,* and my wife rushed in, and told me that Diana, Princess of Wales, was in a serious car wreck, and I paraphrased the words of George Washington† to her, noting that the affairs of the British royal family is really not a proper for Americans to exhibit the level of fascination that it does with the subjects of the crown.

Well, I now learn that Prince William and his long time girl friend Kate Middleton will get married, and so I feel compelled to add both of them to my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.

Unlike many of the other denizens of the list, I do so without malice.

I have no knowledge of any specific wrongdoing from either of them, and I wish the happy couple the best.

I just never want to hear about them.

That being said, in homage to our founding fathers, who thumbed their nose at the British crown, I feel an obligation to engage in a snark before consigning them to the list, and the good folks at The Awl found what is likely the best snark on the internet:

In any event, welcome to the best Internet comment ever, from here: “Her parents can’t be overly happy. She has been largely unemployed since she left school and is now marrying someone who has been on welfare most of his life. With the new government’s promise to cut housing benefit and force those who repeatedly turn down work into manual labour I do worry for them.”

Heh.

In any case I have no interests in toothless constitutional monarchs.

*Yes, remember Usenet? It was a wonderful way for people with common interests to get together, but eventually, the trolls, spammers, and the rest of the tragedy of the commons, drove most of the useful dialogue to other technologies.
†Actually, his response to the suggestion that he be king was far more eloquent and evocative:

To Lewis Nicola

George Washington

Newburgh, May 22, 1782

Sir: With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment I have read with attention the Sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War, has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army as you have expressed, and I must view with abhorrence, and reprehend with severety. For the present, the communication of them will rest in my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the matter, shall make a disclosure necessary.

I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my Country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable; at the same time in justice to my own feelings I must add, that no Man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice done to the Army than I do, and as far as my powers and influence, in a constitutional way extend, they shall be employed to the utmost of my abilities to effect it, should there be any occasion. Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your Country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your Mind, and never communicate, as from yourself, or any one else, a sentiment of the like Nature. With esteem I am.