Frequent Citations

Where Do I Sign Up To Be A Bank Holding Company?

I could use a few billion dollars right now.  I'm willing to bet big I'd make better use of it than the current recipients of the bailout, and I'd be willing to provide a lot more transparency about what I do with it.

I wouldn't post pictures of my lingerie purchases, to everyone's enormous relief I'm sure.  But I'd tell you all about how I used the bailout money to pay for the still unsold millstone lovely vintage flat in our old city, and my law school tuition, and not one but two college educations at high-falutin' criminally expensive outstanding institutions.  And then there's all the other stuff, which is a shudder-inducing amount. 

I wouldn't object to a bailout.  I'll buy each and every one of you a candy bar if I get it, too.  So write to your congressman today and express your support for allowing Frequent Citations to become a bank holding company and receive billions--or even a few hundred thousand--of federal bailout funds.  Really, I think this plan would work out well for everyone.

Engine Failure

It's looking grim for the Motor City, isn't it?  And by that I mean, so much grimmer than usual, which has been bleak for a long time.  I must say that while I'm not crazy about every move the union's made over the last 60 years or so, I think it's a bit much to be demanding more of them than we are of banks. 

I personally am not quite at the point of engine failure, but it's been fairly high revs around here for a while and looks to be for quite some time.  It's never been so good to be busy.

Hope you all are doing ok out there.  I think of you often, even if I'm not writing much.  Kids are in finals now, so here's wishing them luck.  And let's hope the rain stops soon, because it's messing with my sinuses and annoying Dogness.

I Do Love Me Some Politics

I confess that it doesn't matter to me who won--I would be glued to the political news today either way.  The gory details coming out of the campaigns, the rumors of who will take what jobs in the new administration, the late late late results (looking at you, North Carolina) all are political crack to me.  I did manage to bill a few hours at work today, but it took massive self-control.

I'm not missing the political commercials on the boob tube.

My friends on the left are elated, emotional.  My friends on the right are resigned and quoting poetry.  Me, I'm just soaking it all up.

I Rest My Case

You make my point by missing it.  You sadden but do not surprise me.

Fair warning right now: any further diatribes about abortion in the Comments will be promptly and ruthlessly deleted.  Rational comments on the subject may also be deleted, just because.

After numerous attempts to respond to the misreading of the last post, and one scolding email (sent by me, I'm afraid, not to me), I've decided that I have a limited interest in and tolerance for one-sided conversations.  Now that might strike you as a wee bit ironic, given that a blog is basically all soliloquy, but never mind.  In my own tiny little mind, I can imagine that a reader might react and respond to what I write, and come away informed of, at least, the trivialities of my life and random thoughts, and on rare occasions prompted to rethink some things.

The problem with writing about anything political is that people very, very rarely give genuine thought to the issues beyond asking which party takes which side.  You can talk yourself blue in the face, you can write prose as eloquent as Shakespeare (I can't, but theoretically one could), but people often aren't really interested in the sort of honest discussion where one holds oneself open to being persuaded by a better argument.

So phooey.

I shall get up in the dark tomorrow morning, and leave the house at a quarter to six to go cast my vote.  I'm hoping I won't have to wait for hours. 

No One Has A Clue

These two headlines were immediately next to each other:

• CBS/NYT: Obama Up Comfortably
• FOX: Race Tightens Significantly

Yeah. No one has any idea what's going to happen Tuesday.  So go vote or you can't complain about how it turns out!  And if you have to wait in line for a while, spend the time pondering how fortunate we are that we have the opportunity to choose our government.

Or bring cards and set up a poker game.  Whatever, just go vote.

"Exceptionalism"

That's all I have to say.

Actually, it's not. But that's all I'm going to say here.

In happier news: we have chocolate sorbet in the freezer. Yummmmm.

The Wisdom And Silliness Of Crowds

I'm not a big believer in the theory of the wisdom of crowds. Why?

The Crusades.
The Inquisition.
Tulip Mania.
Lotto.

And on and on. People will jump over a cliff if lots of other people are jumping too.

Once in a while, though, people will rear up and show a little horse sense. They ditch the king, they march in Selma, they . . . ok. I'm sure there are other examples.

So which was it this time, wisdom or idiocy? Well take your pick is what I say. We absolutely need to get credit flowing again, yeah--the Great Depression did a good job of proving that theory.

But what moron thought "Wall Street Bailout" would be a hot-selling item? And the whopping three-page plan? That was a royal stinker. Royal, as in it made the Secretary of the Treasury king, and stinker as in it was nothing but coprolytes from start to finish. That's right, I just called the big rescue plan a heap of fossilized poop. Y'all are sleep-deprived and freaked out over being wrong, wrong again, and flamingly wrong, but still--c'mon, Treasury guys. You're supposed to at least be good with the finance stuff.

In other news: current affairs are keeping me off the streets and out of trouble (meaning I'm too busy to shop). I've learned how to work the DVR and now have a recording of Casablanca. On Sunday TFL and I saw a 20 foot shrimp dancing in the street--I really can't tell you why. And we have Bonnie back with us! Time to explore!

Political Confusion

Excuse me, but where are the Republicans?

When I was a kid I was taught that republicans are for small government, free markets, fiscal responsibility. And now?

Huh.

I Heard There Was A Campaign, But I'm Reading Property Outlines

I'm assuming the campaign will still be going after I take the Bar. If I have any brain cells left, I might be interested.

In the meantime, here is my favorite blog that I'm not looking at much these days. I don't care which candidate it favors (and it does favor one)--it's all about the numbers! It's got to be the geekiest political blog going, where people get all excited about new models and I don't mean cover girls.

You sort of get the impression that the creators and commenters are appreciative of these little campaigns we have from time to time that provide them with so many lovely data to play with.

Some of my data for you: 24 essay questions behind. Yeah, baby. Obviously I'm counting the essays assigned instead of writing them.

For The Love Of Wheels

TFL brought home the Smart Car from work yesterday, and is using it to fetch GirlChild back today. It's pretty darn cute, and at 45 mpg it's one heck of a lot more economical than anything except Bonnie.

The other day TFL and I were waiting to cross the street to catch the bus when I heard this amazing, gorgeous engine just as TFL said, "Look--it's a Lotus." Oh my, but that engine sounds sweet. I'm imformed it's an extremely stiff ride. It's nothing but a race car, with no concessions to creature comforts.

And so what? With an engine sounding like that, you better be more about the driving and less about the riding.

Yeah, I grew up with dinner table conversations about cars and engines, and my nickname was Mario when I started learning to drive, and I've never veered from my preference for a stick shift and weakness for a car with excellent handling on a hilly and winding road.

But it looks as though engines are an endangered species. When Mercedes says it's doing away with petroleum based engines, well, that's it. It's all over but the shouting. And the Big Three had better get off their rear ends and get on the (fuel cell/electric) bandwagon.

It's been fascinating, from a social and economic perspective, to watch the rapid changes the price of oil is forcing in people's behavior. This isn't cigarettes, where a sin tax doesn't do much to discourage people from smoking and has no effect on the millions who don't smoke at all. The price of oil affects every darn thing in our lives, and the price of gas has a profound and immediate impact on the budgets of most families.

When I see one of my brothers, who typically drives those enormous SUVs in which you can haul around a football team and all the equipment (I swear, one of them is only slightly smaller than a semi), orders a non-American hybrid, that's when I know the excrement has really hit the air circulation device. People are beginning to regret living in remote suburbs, the roads are less crowded, the cost of everything airline-related is soaring while the market is tanking. It's a mad world but, as I said, a fascinating one.

I've long been baffled with American auto companies' intransigence regarding fuel efficiency and alternatives. It's as though they're in a race to see who can progress the least. This dynamic is truly odd, because the engineers who work for these companies are often flat-out brilliant. They're thick on the ground where I grew up, and I'm confident that they could engineer pretty much anything they wanted. But the manufacturers just haven't seemed willing to tap into that talent pool. Maybe that's changing now. It had better.

I admit, however, to a nostalgia for cruising, and a visceral love of high-performance cars and their marvelous gas-guzzling engines. I guess, like hot-fudge sundaes and deep-dish pizza, they just can't be an every day indulgence any more.