Well said, Mr. Mayor: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/opinion/28mike.html?hp
In announcing that he isn't running for president, Bloomberg really hit the nail on the head about what's wrong with politicians and political parties. They are too busy fighting for power and to make themselves look better at the expense of others, to enact practical change.
Granted, the luxury of having multiple billions in the bank probably makes it easier for him to be true to his beliefs, but it is very refreshing to see someone actually take intelligent positions on important issues.
Is he a potential VP candidate?
Anyway, that's all the politics for now. The staff at "So...you like, stuff?" (or SYLS as we call it) will get back to posting about the things you care about: what I had for lunch, my chances with Debbie and soccer.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Stuff about taxing oil companies
The House passed a bill recently calling for $18B in taxes on the oil industry (by closing previous tax breaks for them). The tax revenue is scheduled to go to fund alternative energy sources like solar, wind and biothermal.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Energy-Taxes.html
It doesn't seem fair that we should close tax breaks for oil companies. After all, Exxon Mobil only made $40 BILLION dollars in PROFIT last year (a record).
Senate Republicans are going to try to filibuster this and President Bush has said he will veto it. According to the NY Times: "The White House maintains that singling out the oil companies for higher taxes ''would reduce the nation's energy security rather than improve it'' and ''lead to higher energy costs to U.S. consumers and business.''"
It seems to me that the first part of the White House's quote isn't true, and the second part of it isn't the issue. Everyone knows that it will be expensive to develop alternative energy sources, which will result in higher energy prices in the short term. But in the long term, we'll save the environment and make our energy situation more secure by not having to rely on our enemies selling us oil (and then buying weapons with the profits they make from us).
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Energy-Taxes.html
It doesn't seem fair that we should close tax breaks for oil companies. After all, Exxon Mobil only made $40 BILLION dollars in PROFIT last year (a record).
Senate Republicans are going to try to filibuster this and President Bush has said he will veto it. According to the NY Times: "The White House maintains that singling out the oil companies for higher taxes ''would reduce the nation's energy security rather than improve it'' and ''lead to higher energy costs to U.S. consumers and business.''"
It seems to me that the first part of the White House's quote isn't true, and the second part of it isn't the issue. Everyone knows that it will be expensive to develop alternative energy sources, which will result in higher energy prices in the short term. But in the long term, we'll save the environment and make our energy situation more secure by not having to rely on our enemies selling us oil (and then buying weapons with the profits they make from us).
Monday, February 25, 2008
Stuff about corruption in Congress
In case you haven't been following the story about Representative Rick Renzi (Republican - Arizona) you should know that he has chosen not to resign while he fights the indictment for fraud, money laundering and extortion.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/renzi-says-he-wont-resign/
Oh and this guy is John McCain's Arizona state election committee co-chair.
Oh and the original Justice Department prosecutor who initiated the investigation of Renzi was one of the 8 prosecutors who were fired last year by Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush administration for political reasons. What a coincidence!
Here's an article about what Renzi actually did: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/washington/23renzi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=renzi&st=nyt&oref=slogin
To try to summarize: he promised to support federal legislation allowing a land swap between his constiuents and the federal government. Sounds fine, except the condition of his support was that the constituents had to buy land from a secret partner of Renzi's who then funneled the money from those land sales back to Renzi.
In a prior scam, he "embezzled funds from his own insurance company's trust funds in order to finance his first Congressional campaign."
Our U.S. Congress!
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/renzi-says-he-wont-resign/
Oh and this guy is John McCain's Arizona state election committee co-chair.
Oh and the original Justice Department prosecutor who initiated the investigation of Renzi was one of the 8 prosecutors who were fired last year by Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush administration for political reasons. What a coincidence!
Here's an article about what Renzi actually did: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/washington/23renzi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=renzi&st=nyt&oref=slogin
To try to summarize: he promised to support federal legislation allowing a land swap between his constiuents and the federal government. Sounds fine, except the condition of his support was that the constituents had to buy land from a secret partner of Renzi's who then funneled the money from those land sales back to Renzi.
In a prior scam, he "embezzled funds from his own insurance company's trust funds in order to finance his first Congressional campaign."
Our U.S. Congress!
Poll answer from this weekend
So I realized I needed to be more precise in my poll questions. The question was intended to ask what I had for dinner on Saturday night.
The correct answer: Baked Ziti.
However, I will also credit the person who guessed Chicken Parm b/c I did have that for dinner on Sunday night and that is technically a correct answer to the question also.
So there were actually two correct answers to the latest poll. Thanks for playing.
The correct answer: Baked Ziti.
However, I will also credit the person who guessed Chicken Parm b/c I did have that for dinner on Sunday night and that is technically a correct answer to the question also.
So there were actually two correct answers to the latest poll. Thanks for playing.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Stuff about Tottenham
First silverware of the year goes to Tottenham. Huge comeback win over Chelsea (said with Desmond's accent), 2-1 in extra time, to win the Carling Cup! http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=235283&cc=5901
Now it's time to focus on the double by winning UEFA Cup. Juande Ramos has turned out to be a good decision as coach and his Woodgate signing sure looks good right now. Juande can go for three UEFA Cups in a row as he won the previous two with Sevilla.
Totty!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Stuff about the Poll of the Day
I've added a Poll of the Day which will alternate between, "What did I have for lunch?" and "What did I have for dinner?".
The poll will be open for 24 hours and then I will reveal the answer in a blog post.
Please vote and come back tomorrow to find out if you guessed the right answer.
The poll will be open for 24 hours and then I will reveal the answer in a blog post.
Please vote and come back tomorrow to find out if you guessed the right answer.
Stuff about rice (and world hunger)
If you are like me, you love white rice. I can eat a container of it straight (sans sauce or other flavorings) and be happy. Of course it's better with curry.
Check out this website: http://www.freerice.com/ that has an easy vocab trivia game. For every question you get right, the site will donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Sounds like a good thing to do and it takes only 20 seconds.
Firefox is sponsoring it to celebrate the 500 millionth download of their internet browser. They are hoping to donate 500 million grains of rice.
I'm down with rice, and the people who eat it.
Check out this website: http://www.freerice.com/ that has an easy vocab trivia game. For every question you get right, the site will donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Sounds like a good thing to do and it takes only 20 seconds.
Firefox is sponsoring it to celebrate the 500 millionth download of their internet browser. They are hoping to donate 500 million grains of rice.
I'm down with rice, and the people who eat it.
Stuff about celebrities
I'm generally not a huge celebrity gossip person, but this is too good to pass up: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/2620
Note to self: don't throw a birthday party at a club where the bartender has Hepatitis A (for the uninformed, hepatitis A is not the sexually transmitted disease). Hopefully Ashton Kutcher's friends aren't too upset at him. And by the way, Ashton Kutcher is 30?
I predict Socialista is not gonna be popular for much longer.
Note to self: don't throw a birthday party at a club where the bartender has Hepatitis A (for the uninformed, hepatitis A is not the sexually transmitted disease). Hopefully Ashton Kutcher's friends aren't too upset at him. And by the way, Ashton Kutcher is 30?
I predict Socialista is not gonna be popular for much longer.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Stuff about censorship
I saw an interesting documentary last night called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493459/
It's about the MPAA, the association that rates movies (i.e. PG-13, R, NC-17). The documentary's point is that the MPAA is the only organization in the U.S. that actually censors creative work and at the same time does not reveal the identities of the members who actually rate the movies. The director does some investigating and "outs" all of the ratings members and the appeals members. In doing so, he discovers that there are 2 members of the clergy (episcopalian and catholic) on the appeals board who have a vote.
He also points out the already-well-known fact that you can show 150 people getting killed in a movie and get a PG-13 rating if you don't show blood, but if you show a nipple or a sex scene, it's R or NC-17.
Overall, it's a good discussion on movies, censorship and the ratings agency.
On a related note, this editorial about online free speech was in the NY Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/opinion/21thu3.html?hp
It's worth a read if you like the freedom of the Internet.
It's about the MPAA, the association that rates movies (i.e. PG-13, R, NC-17). The documentary's point is that the MPAA is the only organization in the U.S. that actually censors creative work and at the same time does not reveal the identities of the members who actually rate the movies. The director does some investigating and "outs" all of the ratings members and the appeals members. In doing so, he discovers that there are 2 members of the clergy (episcopalian and catholic) on the appeals board who have a vote.
He also points out the already-well-known fact that you can show 150 people getting killed in a movie and get a PG-13 rating if you don't show blood, but if you show a nipple or a sex scene, it's R or NC-17.
Overall, it's a good discussion on movies, censorship and the ratings agency.
On a related note, this editorial about online free speech was in the NY Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/opinion/21thu3.html?hp
It's worth a read if you like the freedom of the Internet.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Stuff on YouTube
This is my favorite YouTube video:
Quite possibly William Shatner's best work ever.
Quite possibly William Shatner's best work ever.
Stuff about MarioKart
MarioKart for the Wii is almost here! They are releasing the game in Europe on April 11th. I haven't been able to find a US release date yet but I'm guessing it's not too far after that.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/gaming/news/2008/02/20/Mario-Kart-Wii-Release-Date-Revealed/p1
It looks pretty dope. There will be a Wii Wheel to drive with and you can play up to 12 players online.
I'll definitely be getting this when it comes out. That might be the death knell for my MarioKart N64 game (which is the best video game of all time, hands down)
http://www.trustedreviews.com/gaming/news/2008/02/20/Mario-Kart-Wii-Release-Date-Revealed/p1
It looks pretty dope. There will be a Wii Wheel to drive with and you can play up to 12 players online.
I'll definitely be getting this when it comes out. That might be the death knell for my MarioKart N64 game (which is the best video game of all time, hands down)
Stuff about sports
I'll read almost anything about sports. I especially like articles about Andy Reid's sons' heroin addictions. I also love reports from spring training. On the flip side, I hate it when all of the NY papers have an article about the same player on the same day, and use the same quotes. Why do we need multiple people covering sports if they are all gonna write the same thing?
On that note, here are two sports-related sites that I have found recently and are worth checking out:
The first is a sports-business blog on CNBC by Darren Rovell. He used to write the business articles on ESPN.com. I find this stuff interesting. For example, his post on the top 20 selling NFL jerseys shows Eli is climbing the rankings pretty quickly. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15837629/site/14081545/
The second is a new startup that has been in the news recently for getting funding. It is a user-generated sports news site clled Bleacher Report.
http://bleacherreport.com/
Enjoy.
On that note, here are two sports-related sites that I have found recently and are worth checking out:
The first is a sports-business blog on CNBC by Darren Rovell. He used to write the business articles on ESPN.com. I find this stuff interesting. For example, his post on the top 20 selling NFL jerseys shows Eli is climbing the rankings pretty quickly. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15837629/site/14081545/
The second is a new startup that has been in the news recently for getting funding. It is a user-generated sports news site clled Bleacher Report.
http://bleacherreport.com/
Enjoy.
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