Patrick’s Rants

Funny name, interesting book. From comparing cheating in Sumo wrestling to cheating on standardized tests (by teachers no less) to asking the questions, “why do drug dealers live with their mom?” and “which is more dangerous to your child, a gun or a swimming pool?” Steven D. Levitt takes economics to a strange place; the study of reality. From developing algorithms that find cheating teachers to figuring out how much your real estate agent cheated you when you sold your last home to postulating about where all the criminals have gone Levitt takes a view of reality that some may not want to see and explains it so clearly that even skeptics have to take a second look. The 207 pages were too short and left me wanting more. Luckily, the book contains copious end notes and Freakanomics continues online with studies, stories and - naturally - a blog.

The book is not neatly tied together in the end, indeed we are warned in advance this will not be the case.
This was a great - and fast - read. :cool:

I was watching a local TV station this past Thursday night when the story switched to this hurricane - Katrina. As I looked at the map I realized that the projected - make that current - landfall would take it right over my mom’s house. Normally when you hear about a hurricane there is all kinds of time to take it in; watching the projected path, the projected doom with a perverted obsession. This time it was like it just showed up. Needless to say I made a quick call to my mom. Yep - it’s blowing like mad… electric lines are arcing off in the distance, the eerie blue-green sparks of electricity and rain in a macabre dance of death. We might lose the call as her power has flickered a few times (she’s using a cordless phone). For now mom still has power, until it flickers again. She calls me back.
(more…)

In an appalling, disgusting, blatently slanted manner, head stones of fallen soldiers have been embalzioned with the names of the “operations” they died in. Names like Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom are boldy engraved on the headstones of fallen soldiers.

Families are supposed to have final approval over what goes on the tombstones. That hasn’t always happened.

Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said “Operation Iraqi Freedom” ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.

Read that again, “without family approval.” Even the company that engraves headstones finds it to be too much.

The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.

“It just seems a little brazen that that’s put on stones,” said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. “It seems like it might be connected to politics.”

Ya think!? Enduring Freedom? More like enduring long hot dirty days in the Iraqi desert trying to avoid car bombs, suicide bombs and ambushes (the only “bush” that will even serve in the military (except Sr.)) [as an aside, if you are willing to commit other people's kids, you should be willing to commit your own as well - perhaps first]
The next paragraph causes the vomit to rise to the back of my throat.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it isn’t. “The headstone is not a PR purpose. It is to let the country know and the people that visit the cemetery know who served this country and made the country free for us,” VA official Steve Muro said.

Come on! Made this country free for us? These “conflicts” or “operations” are stomping on the rights of countries that are no threat to us (re-read Bush’s lies on the time-table including the links to the 9/11 Commission Report )

It wasn’t until the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 that the department instructed national cemetery directors and funeral homes across the country to advise families of fallen soldiers and Marines that they could have operation names like “Enduring Freedom” or “Iraqi Freedom” included on the headstones.

More… this isn’t politics? If it wasn’t then we would have been doing it all along - not when we get into an unpopular war, when the president lied to the country about why we went into Iraq (WMD anyone?).
And to my favorite quote from the article

Mainline veterans groups are taking the change in stride. American Legion spokesman Donald Mooney said the organization hasn’t heard any complaints from its members.

Well. Maybe that’s cause the soldiers who are dead aren’t members. Neither a live nor a dead soldier can complain about his/her headstone.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Troops’ Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans

Everyone knows that the most dangerous hours are the quiet hours. Night Auditors, as they are called in the industry, literally take their chances every time they go to work. The shift runs overnight and is usually a “solo” gig. Unfortunately, thieves are idiots - there is little to no money in the drawer as most people are done checking in before this shift even starts - and think the best time to rob a hotel is in the middle of the night.
Fairfield Inn Night Auditor dead in Scottsdale

New Rule
George Bush must stop saying he owes all his success to Laura. George Bush owes all his success to his daddy, his daddy’s friends, trust funds, legacy admissions, the National Guard, the Supreme Court, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and AA.

New Rule
Gay marriage won’t lead to dog marriage. It is not a slippery slope to rampant interspecies coupling. When women got the right to vote, it didn’t lead to hamsters voting. No court has extended the equal protection clause to salmon. And for the record, all mariages are “same sex” marriages. You get married, and every night, it’s the same sex.

Just a couple of the new rules written by comedian, Bill Maher in his new book by the same name. Bill doesn’t let the Democrats off the hook either saying they need stem cell research to grow a new spine for the party. He wittingly jabs at Paris Hilton, reality TV (you can’t call it Wife Swap if you can’t do the other guy’s wife), politicians and Disney.
The book is written like a good many coffee table books, small snippets that can be read in any order without losing context. Bill has organized the book from A to Z, with each letter getting a few rules listed under it. He also writes a one to two page essay at the end of each chapter to give a little more insight into those rules that cannot be summarized in a single sentence. In some cases the rules themselves require a photo, that photo being worth a thousand words. I read the book in two evenings and plan on passing it around to family members who I think will appreciate it. In the end it will be secure on the shelf with my other books (I don’t currently own a coffee table)
New Rules has a decidedly PG-13 age range.

The latest commercial for Special K cereal asks if you want a snack that doesn’t “blow your whole day”.
They go on to state that “studies show replacing your late night snack with a lower calorie snack has been shown to help you lose weight”. Wait. I’m not sure I heard that right. If you don’t eat as many calories you could lose weight? So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong.
hmm.. two eye rolls for that one: :roll:

I’m picky about my pens (and pencils too but this post is about pens). Yes, stupid little writing instruments drive me crazy. They have to be comfortable and have a slight heft to them. A lightweight pen doesn’t work. PaperMate 1000 dozen for $0.75 doesn’t do it. A solid pen with a non-cushioned grip doesn’t work. Over-priced and over-rated don’t do it either. I have to have a medium point tip - fine points just end up cutting the paper that I’m writing on - I press pretty hard. Large points (if you can find them) leak. (more…)

The world’s falling apart, your 20 minute workout isn’t really and Speed Racer is headed toward the cliff. Don’t worry, I have good news… I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance.
Unfortunately you are still fat and Speed Racer is trapped in the mangled, twisted steel of his car as it lays burning at the bottom of the cliff.

If there was a group of goofy commercials this is it (there is another group that is goofy and stupid and deserves another post).
All the Honey Nut Cheerios commercials are “verge-on-dumb” goofy. The low fat supermarket that only sells the cereal… people are having a hard time deciding what they want - like one thing is a choice. We see the guy standing at the “meat” counter telling the “butcher” that he wants a particular “cut”.
The low fat bistro is another goofy concept - all the freaking menu choices are the same. There is a “shrimp” coctail that is all round shaped cereal, the waiter who shows a carafe of 2% milk as if it is a fine wine. Finally there is the desert, “compliments of the chef”.
I hope they didn’t pay too much for the series.

Renzi sucks up to the party line on Downing Street Memo