You Better Watch out for Barrow Wights: Russian Warriors Tomb Uncovered

I hope they went into the tomb with silver weapons at the ready because as you know Barrow Wights are immune to normal weapons.

Hidden in a necropolis situated high in the mountains of the Caucasus in Russia, researchers have discovered the grave of a male warrior laid to rest with gold jewelry, iron chain mail and numerous weapons, including a 36-inch (91 centimeters) iron sword set between his legs.

That is just one amazing find among a wealth of ancient treasures dating back more than 2,000 years that scientists have uncovered there.

Among their finds are two bronze helmets, discovered on the surface of the necropolis. One helmet (found in fragments and restored) has relief carvings of curled sheep horns while the other has ridges, zigzags and other odd shapes.

The archeologists were then killed by undead warriors streaming out of the tomb to cut down the luckless researchers. Valentina Mordvintseva, a researcher at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology, who barely escaped with her life, was cursed with a wasting sickness by the angry Barrow Wight King. Authorities are contacting a cleric to cast Remove Curse on her but he was out of 3rd level spells for the day.

Here is one of the Barrow Wight Kings treasures taken from the site. I think this Brooch protects one from Magic Missiles but researchers have yet to cast a Legend Lore on the item to be sure:

Titan International CEO Blasts French Workers: Um, Bring the Jobs Back to the US Then

Well it seems that making tires in France might not be such a good idea.

Titan International's Maurice "Morry" Taylor, who goes by "The Grizz" for his bear-like no-nonsense style, told France's left-wing industry minister in a letter published by Paris media that he had no interest in buying a doomed plant.

"The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three," Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English addressed to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg.

Then take tire production out of France and bring it to a southern state that does not have as much union control. All this "Grizz" character needed to do is say "France does not meet our cost criteria so we are shuttering the plant" and announce a new plant that is opening in Tennessee or somewhere similar.  

McCain Takes on Angry Anti-Immigration Town Hall

Well it seems that his constituents are now shouting at their Senator.

"There are 11 million people living here illegally," he said. "We are not going to get enough buses to deport them."

Some audience members shouted out their disapproval.

One man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.

McCain urged compassion. "We are a Judeo-Christian nation," he said. McCain's other town hall meeting took place in Green Valley, south of Tucson.

One thing I never understood about the anti-immigrant sentiment on the right is their view that 11 million people can somehow either "self-deport" or we can somehow kick them out of the country. Some of them have been living here for 20 or 30 years and have raised families. I'm pretty sure that in a Judeo-Christian nation you would not want to break up families simply because you want all the "illiterate invaders" thrown out.

Also the idea of shooting illegals like that one guy advocates is just so crazy that it doesn't need to be addressed. The funny part is that the longer illegals are treated as "invaders" the longer they will reflexively vote for the non-Republican. You can't appeal to any voter if you are seen as wanting his grandma thrown out of the country at gunpoint.

Samsung Invades Silicon Valley

It seems that Samsung is going big in the US.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Samsung has been aggressively expanding its presence in Silicon Valley recently by building its own innovation center, by launching a $100 million venture fund for Silicon Valley startups and by building “a massive new semiconductor campus with a distinctive design destined to compete with Apple’s proposed spaceship-like campus for the title of Silicon Valley’s most distinctive architectural landmark.”

I think they just want to be close to any innovation coming out of the Valley so that they don't have to be so reactive to tech changes. It still seems like destructive innovation is what will be happening between Samsung, Apple, and Google for years to come.

Vulcan pulls Ahead in Pluto's Moon Voting

Well it seems Shatner is pushing for Vulcan and the Trekkers have heeded his call.

Once Shatner proposed "Vulcan" to be a Pluto moon name, fans rallied. As of now, "Vulcan" -- a fictional planet in the "Star Trek" universe -- is winning by a landslide. "Cerberus" and "Styx" are battling it out for second place.

Although I think Vulcan would be better suited to a planet that is really close to its sun. Kind of like those hot Jupiters that seem to be popping up in front of nearby stars.

Apple wants to Control Your Home! Well That Might be a Good Thing

Wow Apple is serious about making the TV the centerpiece of a so-called iHouse or a iApartment.

Apple is evolving into an ecosystem, a network that connects to and controls everything from your home to your car to your office. This has the potential to be as impactful as the iPhone and iPad. Today I use iOS apps to control my stereo system (the Sonos) and central air (the Nest). Both work beautifully, and there are more iThings on the way like this incredible door lock.

It seems that the iTV coming out later this year might be the centerpiece of this new way of life:

Most of all, I want my television to be part of that Apple ecosystem: a thin glass hub integrating cable series, movies, endless utility and gaming apps, YouTube videos, music, photos, e-mails, FaceTime, social media feeds, and more. I want the TV to be my alarm clock, turning from 'Sleep' mode to awaken me with sweet music, a weather report and news, through an app like the newly launched Winston (which is already optimized for Airplay).

It would be very cool to have an iTV wake me up with music and then tell me what my stocks are doing and maybe a little news on each company if I want that. Something like "This just in from the Street.com JP Morgan is interested in buying out US Bankcorp do you want to hear more?" Then you say Yes and it reads the article to you.

Maybe you could have a toaster App that connects to the iTV that automatically cooks a bagel for you. All you have to do it take it out of the toaster and put cream cheese on it. You find that you are out of cream cheese and the iTV asks if you want to add it to your iOS reminder app. If you want you can link it to Amazon Prime and once your list reaches a certain size you can have it automatically buy the cream cheese along with several other things you want.

Another cool feature I would like to see the iTV do is answer questions you have on what you are watching. Like you see Sheldon wearing a cool T-shirt on Big Bang Theory. You just say "iTV where can I get a shirt like the one Sheldon is currently wearing?" Then it links you to the Hot Topic site in a small popup window and asks if you want to purchase it. You say "yes buy it in Large and send it my apartment" and the order is placed after you confirm it with a code word you type into an iPad. Or maybe it will use voice recognition software to prevent other people from buying things if your iTV is on.

16 Year Old Actress Day Trades on the Side

Hopefully she isn't using all of her acting money to do something like this.

Rachel Fox isn’t an ordinary 16-year-old. She's already graduated from High School and has been a working Hollywood actress for years, appearing in shows like Desperate Housewives as evil Kayla Scavo and in the film Dream House with Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts. When she’s not on set she can often be found on stage, singing and playing guitar in an indie rock band.

That would be a packed schedule for most of us, but Rachel has another activity that’s a real passion. For the last year-and-a-half she’s been actively day-trading stocks with her own money. She says she's been racking up stellar returns, claiming a 30.4% gain in 2012, versus the benchmark S&P 500 which gained 13% for last year.

That is not a bad gain but lets see how she trades in a down market. In any case if she has discipline and uses like 20% of her invested capital to day trade then it shouldn't be a problem. If she is using all of her acting money to chase stocks up and down day to day then she is a fool.

Iran To Upgrade their Centrifuges: World Doesn't Seem to Care

Well it seems that the Iranian bomb program is running full blast even though they have "sanctions" against them.

In first announcing plans to update last month, Iran indicated that It could add more than 3,000 of the new-generation centrifuges to the more than 10,000 older models it has at Natanz turning out low-enriched, fuel-grade uranium. About 700 of the old machines at Fordo, another site, are churning out higher-enriched material that is still below — but just a technical step away — from weapons-grade uranium. Iran says it needs that higher-enriched level to fuel a research reactor.

I'm sure the UN will condemn a nuclear cloud rising over Tel Aviv in the "strongest possible terms."

Pentagon Creates Drone Warfare Medal

I guess this is going to be similar to an achievement unlock in Call of Duty.

The new blue, red and white-ribboned Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded to individuals for "extraordinary achievement" related to a military operation that occurred after Sept. 11, 2001. But unlike other combat medals, it does not require the recipient risk his or her life to get it.

I know there should be a way to reward drone pilots who kill insurgents or provide close air support but a medal similar to the bronze star doesn't seem to be the way. Maybe a drone pin or something would have been more appropriate. 

Also the first thing I thought of when I read about this was "I wonder if you get a special cluster whenever you extra-judiciously kill an American Citizen?" Maybe you get a little Obama "O" symbol added to the blue, red and white medal.

Why Was Wrestling Removed from the Olympics? Americans are Good At It

Well the recent decision to get rid of one of the first Olympic sports and one that stretches back to the ancient games is pretty stupid.

As such, both freestyle (somewhat similar to what you see in American high schools and colleges) and Greco Roman, each of which dated back to the 1896 Games in Greece, will soon be history. Wrestling can try to get back in, but the odds are long. 

This is a poor decision and it would be only slightly less poor of a decision if it was modern pentathlon (a five-event competition of fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting) that got the boot instead. 

You can tell why they kept that sport in instead of wrestling. Americans have won only one 9 medals total in modern pentathlon since 1912. (I am counting the team medals as one medal) We have also never won a gold in the competition at all. 

Americans have dominated wrestling since it was introduced in the Olympics. We have won 47 golds alone in freestyle wrestling since it entered the games in 1904. You add to this the fact that Americans can easily dominate women's wrestling as well going forward. There are just too many American medals coming out of wrestling for a biased and corrupt organization like the IOC to tolerate.


I'm sure the IOC figures that anything that makes it harder for the US to win the medal count is okay with them. I am sure they will try to limit the amount of swimming medals while increasing the amount of diving medals in their next move.

US Energy Independence Might Happen in the Next 5 Years

What is good news for our country will be pretty bad news for people that hate us that happen to live on top of vast oil reserves.

Citigroup's Edward Morse, in a new report, projects a dramatic reshaping of the global energy industry, where the U.S., in a matter of years, becomes an exporter of energy, instead of one of the biggest importers. 

The shift could sharply reduce the price of oil, and therefore limit the revenues of the producing nations of OPEC, as well as Russia and West Africa. Those nations face new challenges: not only are the U.S. and Canada increasing output, but Iraq increasingly is realizing its potential as an oil producer, adding 600,000 barrels a day of production annually for the next several years.

It will be nice to know that whenever I fill up gas it is from oil produced in the US or Canada and not Venezuela. The report also goes on to say that Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, and maybe even Russia might become unstable because of the US going independent of oil.

I mean they lose their biggest source of revenue so they will have to find something else to export or there will be a crisis. You can't pay for all the socialism of Dear Leader Hugo if America no longer buys his top product. This might also hasten the fall of the Mullahs as well. I mean they already have a crisis due to sanctions and shutting down refining capacity. Imagine what $70 oil will do to them if they are losing money on every barrel they pull out of the ground?

Also the report goes into how a natural gas boom will create new opportunities in manufacturing and transportation that was not there before. The idea of retrofitting our truck fleet for natural gas will create quite a few new jobs. I could also see trains running on natural gas based fuel instead of diesel fuel as well. It will be nice to get some of our heavy industry back from Japan and China and create a new generation of industrial jobs.

In any case the report says that energy independence will be paying dividends as early as this year. As more oil pipelines are being built and more oil flows in from Canada we will be importing less oil from everywhere else. West African crude shipments might start to become unnecessary by the end of the year. That is bad for OPEC and Nigeria but it will certainly be nice for the American consumer.

Time to Vote for Plutos Two New Moons

Well even thought the ass-grabs from the International Astronomical Union demoted it to dwarf-planet status they discovered two new moons. Here is a ballot for naming the two moons.

Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 revealed two previously unknown moons of Pluto. So far, we have been calling them "P4" and "P5", but the time has come to give them permanent names. If it were up to you, what would you choose?

By tradition, the names of Pluto's moons come from Greek and Roman mythology, and are related to the ancient tales about Hades and the Underworld. Please pick your favorites on the ballot below. 

Most of the names are kind of dumb but the ones I liked were Cerberus (the three headed dog guardian of the the Underworld) and Styx (the river that led into the Underworld that Charon the Boatman crosses.) I voted for them.

Wow there Might be Billions of "Alien-Earths" in Our Galaxy

It would be interesting to know what level of technology (or lack thereof) for the various races that live on these "alien-earths?" Also it would be cool to find out how many of them are sending out radio waves.

Taking this into account, about 6 percent of red dwarfs in the Milky Way galaxy should host Earth-like planets, the astronomers said.

Since about 75 percent of the galaxy's 100 billion stars are red dwarfs, this translates to an estimated 4.5 billion "alien Earths" spread throughout the galaxy. The research team stressed, however, that this is a tentative figure because the distribution of stars varies widely.

The chance of life only being on our planet out of these potential 4.5 billion planets is just ludicrous.

Post Office Cuts Saturday Delivery

I'm willing to bet that this won't be the last time a day of the week will be skipped for mail delivery.

Ending the Saturday delivery of mail is "just one step in a plan to resolve our finances," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview on CNBC. "Going forward we still need legislation to address a number of things."

This plan is supposed to cut $5 billion from the Post Offices expenses. They also plan to make changes to the Postal Workers health care that is supposed to save another $7 billion. I would be willing to bet that Friday delivery or maybe Wednesday delivery will probably be next. I mean each day you cut is $5 billion in savings so you might as well cut a little more.  I can stand not getting advertising flyers and useless catalogs for another day of the week.

GOP Finally Acknowledge the Existence of Minorities

Well at long last the GOP is learning that minorities vote and are worth courting unless they want to become a regional rump party.

Party officials on Wednesday announced the creation of The Future Majority Caucus, a group of Hispanic politicians who will advise the party on its efforts to recruit more state-level minority candidates. The caucus will be co-chaired by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Now they need a GOP Woman's Caucus and they will be all set. Maybe they should get Romneys binders full of women and turn them into a group. 

Budget Deficit Drops Below $1 Trillion for the First Time in Years

Well I guess that is good news.

The Congressional Budget Office analysis said the government will run a $845 billion deficit this year, a modest improvement compared to last year's $1.1 trillion shortfall but still enough red ink to require the government to borrow 24 cents of every dollar it spends.

It seems like the CBO is projecting this deficit getting better as we go along.

The report predicted the deficit would dip to $430 billion by 2015, the lowest since the government posted a $459 billion deficit is former President George W. Bush's last year in office. That would be a relatively low 2.4 percent when measured against the size of the economy.

Maybe with a few targeted cuts or an uptick in the economy we might even get this number positive by 2015. Know Obama and the Dems though they just can't live without running up the nations credit cards.

Corporate Bonds Might Be Headed for Dangerous Waters

It seems that the bond market has changed in the past few years and it might be much more dangerous than ever before.

Mikkelsen estimates that a 2.5 percent yield would lead to what he would consider an orderly move out of the market, but a continued trek higher past 3.0 percent would be the game-changer.

BofA is not alone in its aversion to fixed income - Wells Fargo recently cautioned its clients about fixed income amid dangers from rising rates, and advised shifting 5 percent of their bond positions into stocks.
What this guy is afraid of is that mutual funds and ETF hold trillions in bonds and a "disorderly" run for the door will trigger big redemptions that will take bond prices lower. I can see it happening if interest rates surge as many have said. Many investors will sell their bond ETF holdings and get into stocks. The ETF companies will have to sell their bonds to give these people their cash and it becomes a vicious cycle taking bond prices lower. It might be time to sell my junk bond ETF and get back in after the dust clears.

61% of Facebook Users Take a Multi-Week Break: That is Bad News

Well the media doesn't seem to think that this is a problem but I really think this is a bad deal for Facebook.

A report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project found that some 61 percent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus of at least several weeks for a myriad of reasons, whether they were weary from an onslaught of gossip, or for the more pious, the arrival of Lent. 

I am sure that many of those hiatuses are permanent. When I still had a Facebook account I just never understood what people did on it for so long. I know playing Farmville was one of the big drivers back then but Facebook games are dying much to Zynga detriment.

I think people are just getting tired of hearing about other peoples lives in a long stream like that. Most of the stuff that is posted on there is just not very interesting. I mean the important events of peoples lives are still shared by close friends in a different media. So if your sister had a baby you probably would have known about it from a different source than Facebook (probably a text depending on her age.) If the girl you barely knew from Chemistry class 20 years ago had a baby then you probably would have heard about on Facebook.

So this fairly useless stream of information coming from Facebook is just not something people want to keep up with in their daily lives. This is especially true if the person has lots of friends who are actively posting things. This is the so-called Facebook spam that people talk about. It just seems that people are finding better things to do other than following the lives of people they barely know.

 At least with Twitter you have the added bonus of reading about world events as they are happening. Those hashtags actually keep everything together so you can read all about a certain event. I still have Twitter but I never look at the personal feed because it is a waste of time.

Yet Another Nail in Microsofts Coffin: HP Chromebook

Well it seems that Windows 8 might be a bigger mistake then some people believe. It seems that HP is now going to release a Chromebook.

And now, HP (HPQ_). Perhaps this is Meg Whitman's turnaround plan? 

According to this document on HP's Web site, HP is set to launch its first Chromebook on Feb. 17. It's a 14-inch laptop, price yet to be set, but something close to $299 to $349 sounds reasonable.

I think Chromebooks will be what some companies will be refreshing to going forward. I mean most of a mobile business persons job is spent interacting with Web apps so there really isn't any reason for Windows 8 to get in the way. You add to this the fact that it is very hard to have viruses and trojans to infect a Chromebook due to how its processor is built it is perfect for IT departments. A company can buy a bunch of these and give them to their sales staff and they don't have to worry about them.

The price is comparable to an iPad but you get a keyboard and a form factor that is easy to do work on. iPads are good for consuming media and browsing the internet but its hard for some people to make a change to the business plan on Google Docs or bang out an email on a virtual keyboard. You can buy a keyboard peripheral but that is another $50 to $100 added on to the $400 price tag. If a company can save a full $100 per salesman with a Chromebook then those savings can easily add up.

I'm certainly going to buy a Lenovo Chromebook when they come out in order to see how they stack up. 90% of the time I am using something attached to the web on my laptop (Steam, Gmail, Browsing etc.) so it shouldn't be much of a change I should think.

The Yuru-Kyara of Miyagi Prefecture is a Living Musubi?

That last video makes me curious about what Yuru-Kyara represents Miyagi Prefecture. It happens to be a living rice ball man wearing armor named Musubi-Maru. I guess he is the Musubi Retainer to Date Masamune judging from the symbol on his kabuto. I guess he can also be known as Musubi Masamune or maybe Date Musubi-mune.

There is also a plastic soft-cream cone in the right of the picture. That is the Japanese symbol meaning tasty ice-cream is being served at this shop.

Japanese Mascots Set a World Record for Weirdness

Wow these are some weird-assed freaky looking mascots:



The terrible staring eyes of that black bear thing in the front row would keep children up at night hoping it isn't lurking just outside of their windows.

Obama Offers Half-Measure on Syria

Well at least he is doing something other than ignoring what is happening.

Under fire for not doing more to help Syria’s rebels, President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that he's sending opponents of strongman Bashar al-Assad another $155 million in humanitarian aid and defended his handling of the bloody conflict. Obama said the aid sends a message to the world.

That is a drop in the bucket. Just go "all-in" and start arming the rebels. You have a much better seat at the table once Assad falls if you have given the rebels the tools to win their freedom. I guess since Hillary is out at State we won't be seeing any actual backbone out of the White House. I mean she actually helped Libya kick out Ghadaffi. Instead Obama is just sending some cash and hoping for the best.

Conservative Hispanic group Tell Lawmakers to Clean up Immigration Language

This seems like a good idea if you eventually want to get Hispanics to vote for your guy in the next election.

The talking points, published by BuzzFeed, went out to Republican lawmakers on the Hill as momentum builds for an immigration bill that would legalize most of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants. The memo urges lawmakers to call them "undocumented immigrants" and to avoid terms such as "aliens" or "illegals," which are seen as offensive and dehumanizing. Another phrase to avoid? "Send them all back."

They also urge lawmakers to not talk about "amnesty" and instead use the term "earned legal status" which actually sounds more apt. I mean you are requiring the prospective citizen to pay back taxes, a fine, and take an English test in order to qualify. If a person jumps through those hoops then they are actually earning that legal status.

Then the GOP needs to fill the gap by helping these undocumented immigrants figure out their tax bill and help them pay it and raise money for their fine. Then use some federal money going to the Department of Education to start up some English language schools. In other words help these people become citizens instead of demonizing them.

In fact undocumented immigrant is a mouthful. I would advocate the use of the term prospective citizen. That is what they are trying to achieve so you might as well call them that. I mean if it is just a matter of a few thousand dollars an English test and some waiting period they will be a citizen so that term would fit better.

Cantor Looking for a Softer GOP: Less Debt Fights More Helping People

This is a great idea for the GOP going forward.

After lying low for several months, Mr. Cantor is reasserting his presence in the Capitol, even as Speaker John A. Boehner continues his struggles to maintain Republican unity. In the coming weeks, the majority leader plans to lay out a second, softer track for his party beyond the constant cycle of budget showdowns and deficit talks. 

Notably, that track will include a new push for private-school vouchers for underprivileged children, health care options beyond the old fight over the president’s health care law, new work force training initiatives and a renewed push for science, technology and engineering visas for would-be immigrants.

All of that stuff sounds perfectly suited for a GOP that cares about the common man. The idea for private-school vouchers is exactly how the GOP can start inroads into the inner city. This is an idea that the Dems hate because it hurts teachers unions who hate the idea of getting kids out of failing schools.

Also I hope someone has finally found out that killing off something like Planned Parenthood or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would just save a few billion but cost the GOP in political capital. The idea that they can just spend the money more efficiently or take away the abortion part of PP without hurting the "helping the woman in the poor community" part of it are hopefully what the GOP will do.

The GOP that cares might be a much better way to sell then lets cut everything and see what we have left.

Senate Immigration Reform Seems Reasonable

Well at least there is a framework for negotiation that can be advanced. Doing nothing is not helping things and creates an unnecessary wedge issue.

—Creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.

They don't say what "securing the border" is supposed to mean but tracking people on visas would be good start. I read somewhere that an illegal just needs to pay a fine and some back taxes or something and they can start on the path to citizenship. Maybe there needs to be a residency requirement as well. Maybe living in the country for 5 years or something.

—Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.

This needs to have been fixed already. We want PHD candidates and things to stay in the country after college and contribute to the workforce. There should also be a path for these people to obtain citizenship if they stay and work for a certain period of time.

—Creating an effective employment verification system to ensure that employers do not hire illegal immigrants in the future, including requiring prospective workers to verify legal status and identity through a non-forgeable electronic system.

Sounds like a good enough plan. Make this similar to a LexisNexus search on the prospective employee

—Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn't recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.

As long as we can keep track of these low-skill workers then I have no problem with this. Have the department of agriculture keep track of this stuff. 

GOP Finally Wises Up: Ditches 47% Rhetoric

Well I guess the dude with the funny name is going to be GOP chairman for another term. At least he is finally using some inclusive rhetoric for now.

"We want to be Republicans for everybody. We have to take our message of opportunity where it's not being heard," Priebus said. "We have to build better relationships in minority communities, urban centers and college towns. We need a permanent, growing presence. It doesn't matter where you live, who you are, what you look like or what your last name is. Because we will be a party for everyone, everywhere."

Hopefully this will go into practice by creating minority outreach with a GOP message of lower taxes and more opportunity for everyone. Hopefully the "rich, white guy party" will have died with the 2012 election. 

New Recap for Girls Season 2 Episode 2

This episode was pretty crappy but I am still watching the show.

Texas to New York Gun Owners: Come On Down!

Well it seems that Texas wants any New Yorkers that are fed up with the their just passed gun laws.

One ad says in classic Western script: "WANTED: Law abiding New York gun owners seeking lower taxes and greater opportunities."

Clicking on the ad leads to a Facebook page touting the virtues of Texas, including the fact that the state has no income tax so "you'll be able to keep more of what you earn and use that extra money to buy more ammo."

It seems that Texas is getting better and better to quite a few law abiding Americans.

Obama Tries a 50 State Gun Control Play that Using Unions

I think they are just getting desperate now.

Fifty or so gun-control groups, labor unions and others are working together to go after lawmakers — including moderate Democrats in the Senate and House Republicans in districts won by Obama. These lawmakers will be lobbied by constituents to support Obama's plans.

The NRA, in turn, is activating its base of supporters to oppose the Obama proposals.

So union thugs are going to intimidate lawmakers into gun control? I would love to see them try it in the deep red states. I guess someone in the White House said executive orders aren't working and most gun control won't make it through the Congress so this is Plan C. The only problem is that I'm pretty sure that only in the deepest of blue states will even come close to the draconian bans that came out of New York. There might be some lip service but I'm pretty sure an assault weapon ban or limiting clip sizes will not be passed anytime soon. 

Manti Te'o Was Supposed to Sit Down With ESPN's Jeremy Schaap but Backs Out

I have a feeling that Jeremy Schaap would press him hard. Deadspin seems to agree with that assessment.

First, Jeremy Schaap fancies himself a hard-hitting interviewer, and wouldn't let this sit-down go by without asking specific, pointed questions that leave no wiggle room for non-answers. Te'o's statement contains facts that don't mesh with what's been reported, so it would be very easy for Schaap, if he wanted to, to pin Te'o down on a lie. Much better for Te'o to find another, softer interviewer. Like, say, Oprah.

The first question that needs to be answered is that Te'o talked with this girl on the phone for hours and supposedly fell asleep next to the phone on several occasions. Who was this girl he was talking to? She is in on the hoax and needs to be exposed for sure. He met her on Nov 28, 2009, after the Stanford Notre Dame game, and she finally fake died on Sept 12, 2012. So she fooled him for like 2 years. There has to be phone records to someone for those calls. 

Sports Illustrated Had some "Small Red Flags" On Te'o's Fake Dead GF

I have to say that these are anything but "small red flags."

And what were those "small red flags"? He couldn't find an obit for her online, he said. He couldn't find a death notice. He couldn't find a record of her on Lexis Nexis. He couldn't find "her brother's name to spellcheck it." So he wrote around it. (This is what an ESPN reporter did as well.) He tipped off his editors about this stuff.

Those editors didn't say "wait a minute she isn't coming up in a Lexis Nexis search?" That should have been a pretty big red flag to say the least. She also was supposed to have graduated from Stanford but they have no record of her going there. This is reporter 101 stuff and it seems that the higher-ups at SI decided to bury the flags instead of throwing cold water on a feel good story.

Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend all a Hoax?

Oh this has to be one of the lowest things I have ever seen out of a Hawaii athlete if it proves to be true.

A friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told us he was "80 percent sure" that Manti Te'o was "in on it," and that the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. According to the friend, there were numerous photos of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te'o together on Tuiasosopo's now-deleted Instagram account.

The sheer quantity of falsehoods about Manti's relationship with Lennay makes that friend, and another relative of Ronaiah's, believe Te'o had to know the truth. Mostly, though, the friend simply couldn't believe that Te'o would be stupid enough—or Ronaiah Tuiasosopo clever enough—to sustain the relationship for nearly a year.

The Deadspin article if very well sourced and gathers information like one of the best investigative reporters in the business. Lennay Kekua's pictures were actually from another Facebook user that the reporter contacts. There is also no record of her being at Stanford or graduating, getting a bone marrow transplant, or even dying. She seems to have been made out of whole cloth either to fool Te'o or to add a layer of myth to his Heisman candidacy. This part of Te'o's statement sounds weird if this stuff was true:

This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.

Supposedly the hoaxter who is this Ronaiah Tuiasosopo guy was talking to Te'o on the phone nearly every night? The hoaxter was also supposed to have joined Te'o in Hawaii at least on one occasion. Did the hoaxter pay or trick some girl into calling him every day? That doesn't make any sense. Oh man this can only end badly for our so-called "Golden Boy."  

Dennis Kucinich Heads to Fox News

Well it is nice to see liberals pop up on Fox News.

“I’ve always been impressed with Rep. Kucinich’s fearlessness and thoughtfulness about important issues," Roger Ailes, Fox News' chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "His willingness to take a stand from his point of view makes him a valuable voice in our country’s debate."

Kucinich noted that throughout his career, the network—popular with conservatives—has given him a place to air his views. "Through 16 years in Congress and two presidential campaigns, FOX News has always provided me with an opportunity to share my perspective with its enormous viewership," he said.

It is good to hear voices from outside of the echo chamber from time to time to keep Fox News viewers honest. 

Facebook Graph Search Receives Big Shrug from Wall Street

Well it seems that Facebook's big announcement was just a damp squib to investors.

The new feature, dubbed "Graph Search," allows Facebook users to search their own network of connections for people, places, photos and interests that have been shared on Facebook. For example, users will be able to search for "friends who live in my city," "photos of the Eiffel Tower," or "music my friends like."

Facebook first announced the event last week, but was vague in its media invitations, calling for reporters to "Come and see what we're building." But investors appeared to be unimpressed with the announcement. Shares of Facebook (FB) fell 2% Tuesday afternoon.

I would be unimpressed as well because this is pretty much a search engine of your friends stuff. If your friends don't have a lot of stuff shared then it would be nearly worthless to anyone else. I'm not sure how useful a photo of the Eiffel Tower taken by your friend will be or why I would need to search for it.

Also it would be impossible to monetize this thing in any meaningful way. If you search for "music my friends like" will a Pandora or an Amazon link pop up where you can listen to or buy that music? It probably will just say your brother-in-law likes Coldplay as if you didn't know that already. I guess it will be useful if you have 1000s of friends that you don't know really well.

Obama's Gun Control Executive Orders Seems Reasonable Enough

Unfortunately they would not have stopped Sandy Hook or any other massacre but it certainly a nice feel good measure.

The steps could include ordering stricter action against people who lie on gun sale background checks, seeking to ensure more complete records in the federal background check database, striking limits on federal research into gun use, ordering tougher penalties against gun trafficking, and giving schools flexibility to use grant money to improve safety.

I guess that seems reasonable. Maybe matching some of those safety grants with some funds from the Department of Homeland Security of something similar would be a nice touch. What was funny is that will those "tougher penalties against gun trafficking" apply to Eric Holder and the other idiots who perpetrated the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scheme?

Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists bother man who helped kids

I blame the media for pushing this guys story so vigorously early on.

Rosen took the four girls and two boys—students of slain teacher Victoria Soto—into his home, gave them toys and comforted them while he tried to reach their parents. He spent the days following the massacre telling his story to the swarming media that invaded the small Connecticut town in the wake of the shootings.

I hope he isn't found dead now that people are going after him. The media used him for their own agenda and all he did was a good deed. I really think the conspiracy nuts need to lay off of him because he is just a normal guy that tried to do something positive for some scared kids. 

Girls Recap Up on my Personal Site

I decided to do more reviews and such on my other site. I'm starting with a recap of Season 2 Episode 1 of the show Girls on HBO.

Biden Uses Gun References in Remarks

Biden needs to have his own comedy special with all of these unforced errors.

Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday he was “shooting for Tuesday” to get President Barack Obama his recommendations on how to battle an epidemic of gun violence and warned “there’s no silver bullet” to stop the killing.

He is right that there is no "silver-bullet" when it comes to stopping the killing. Even if there was an assault weapons ban that kid with the shotgun at Bakersfield, CA still would have run amok. He supposedly shot a bully but might have gun down his classmates as well.

Bond Yields Creep Slowly Northward: Debt Bomb Now Armed

Well I think we need some serious fiscal restraint because these numbers are really quite scary.

The national debt would also be affected.  Using the CBO baseline calculations at a blended 2%, the 2022 national debt will have grown to $31.4 trillion.  A simple reversion to the mean historical interest rate of 5% would grow the national debt to $40 trillion by 2022, assuming that spending is frozen at current levels.

That "frozen at current levels" is funny when you look at how the government spends money like it is water. Our GDP is $15 trillion so debt would exactly double our GDP. In other words we will become Japan by 2022. The scary part is that the GDP of the entire world is $69.97 trillion so we would have more than half of the worlds GDP in debt alone. In other words I'm pretty sure there aren't enough buyers to cover upwards of $25 trillion in added debt.   

Secular Bull Market? Sounds Good to Me

Well the Alabama Indicator came through other pundits believe there was a different indicator that was hit on January 2nd and 5th.

To wit, last Monday we experienced a 90% Upside Volume Day that was followed by another 90% Upside Volume Day on Wednesday.  Ninety percent Upside Volume Days are when 90% of total volume traded, both “up” and “down” volume, comes in on the upside.  Such back-to-back sessions are pretty rare, especially at the beginning of a New Year.  In fact, my notes show that the last time we saw such an occurrence was on January 2, 1987 (Friday), and again on January 5, 1987 (Monday), setting the stage for a rally that would peak on April 7, 1987 after a 24.5% “run.” 

Sounds good so far.

The history of back-to-back 90% Upside Volume Days was highlighted in our technical analyst Art Huprich’s comments Thursday afternoon, noting that according to the Sentimentrader, back-to-back 90% Upside Days tend to lead to a gain of 6.1% (median) one month later 83% of the time; and gains of 12.8% (median) three months later 100% of the time.  (For more information, see Art’s report here.)

I like the idea of a 100% chance of 12.8% gains in three months. The only bad part is one of those back to back 90% upside days that Minyanville talks about occurred in 1987 when we had Black Monday. The Dow peaked in August of that year at 2722 after opening the year at 1895. In other words "Sell in May and Go Away" might be worth considering if you believe in these sorts of omens.

Moderate Republican Group Gets Rid of Republican in their Title

I guess the GOP is just getting too extremist for its moderate members.

The organization's board of directors voted Tuesday morning to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as "The Main Street Partnership." The group's new president, former Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette, told Yahoo News that he plans to begin conversations with Blue Dog Democrats and centrist groups in the coming months.

"The goal is to try and fill the void that is the middle," LaTourette, who resigned from Congress this year, said. "The American political system is like a doughnut: You've got sides, but you don't have anything in the middle, and it would be my goal to work with Republicans and Democrats who want to find the path forward to getting things done and compromise."

Lets hope they can form a viable middle of the road alternative to the firebrands on both sides of the aisle. I hate both the liberal extreme and the conservative extremes and think a middle of the road solution is what this country needs. There used to be moderates in both parties but now the fringe has taken control. Hopefully this middle group can actually compromise.

Alabama wins 42-14 Time for the Market Rally

Well lets hope we climb a wall of worry on the various debt ceilings and budget deadlines coming up the following months. I am definitely selling in May and going away though. I think dysfunctional Washington is going to run the market for a while.

Small Investor Index Released by TD Ameritrade

This seems like a very interesting way to figure out what the small investor is doing.

Backtesting of the TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index (as it will be called) seems to prove Quirk right.

At the start of December, as markets treaded water on fiscal cliff fears, the indicator shot to its highest reading since January 2012. So despite all the headlines, the active retail investor was ratcheting up risk, buying equities, options and ETFs–in some cases with leverage—that stood to benefit from a solution to the "fiscal cliff."

If you believe the retail investor is "buys high and sells low" you can fade the market whenever this index goes higher. I would love to see academics test this index to see how well it works as a predictor a few weeks or months out. This other feature that TD Ameritrade is putting out seems interesting as well:

The next iteration for TD Ameritrade, sources at the firm said, will be for users to be able to see which individual stocks and ETFs others hold. Also, that data will be aggregated so traders can see how their portfolio stacks up to others.

For example, you would be able to enter someone with your same age and risk profile and see which stocks and funds they own. Perhaps even track their moves.

The social networking arena is the next big push for online brokers like TD, as they strive to get more traders, especially younger ones.

It will be very interesting to compare these aggregated small investor holdings to the portfolios of the big-time investors like Seth Klarman and Leon Cooperman that you can get on GuruFocus. I would bet on the pros of course but it might be interesting to see if they are actually beating the small investor by very much or not. 

Rooollll Tiiiide!!! I want the Stock Market to Go Up!

Well I guess I will be rooting for Alabama according to this article.

When 'Bama reigns, the market, in fact, rises an average of 1.95 percent - modest, to be sure, but better than the average 1.38 percent loss it posts when the Irish wear the crown, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

The Tide have won 14 championships as opposed to Notre Dame's 11. (Read More: Notre Dame vs. Alabama, Likely Most Wagered BCS Game)

In recent times, the disparity has been even clearer.

For the past five times Alabama has won, the market has risen each year with an average return of 10.2 percent.  

Oooh, I love a 10% gain. So its "sweet home Alabama" for me. Plus I have always hated Notre Dame since I was in high school.

Time to Buy an Orange Cup to Drink Hot Chocolate In?

Now this is one strange quirk in the human brain.

To see how hot chocolate enjoyment was affected by cup color, Piqueras-Fiszman and her colleagues asked 57 participants to rate samples of the same delicious beverage in four colors of plastic cup: white, cream, orange and red. (All cups were white on the inside.)

The participants said the drink was more flavorful when served in a cream- or orange-colored cup. Interestingly, participants rated the orange- and cream-colored cups of cocoa tastier despite the fact that participants didn't say there were any significant differences in sweetness or aroma between the colored cups.

I wonder if the dark brown of the hot chocolate and the orange of the cup formed some sort of connection in the brain. Also it would be interesting to see what other cup or dish colors enhance flavors as well.

Bicholim Conflict Finally Comes to an End 400 Years Later

Well it turns out the Bicholim Conflict was actually a hoax put onto Wikipedia that stood on the site for 5 years.

“From 1640 to 1641 the might of colonial Portugal clashed with India's massive Maratha Empire in an undeclared war that would later be known as the Bicholim Conflict. Named after the northern Indian region where most of the fighting took place, the conflict ended with a peace treaty that would later help cement Goa as an independent Indian state.”

Amazingly, the article was even nominated for the site’s Featured Article of the Day, a Wikipedia stable that highlights some of the site’s best-researched and written articles.

I have a feeling that more and more of these hoaxes will appear on Wikipedia as people start to become more ignorant of history in the coming years.

Psy Ends Gangnam Style: Disappears off the Face of Earth

Well it seems that Psy is done with Gangnam Style.

"The song became too popular, and so you start to have some concern about its life period," he said. "I'm really working hard on a new single right now, and I'm not saying ['Gangnam'] is ending on Dick Clark — I still have a lot of invitations to perform it . . . I'll be in Paris, and in February I got invited to perform in China, and I've still got to do promo. So let me say that in America I need a new single because 'Gangnam Style' got too popular, so I've got to write a new single."

I'm pretty sure that his "new single" will not be as catchy or as world beating as Gangnam Style. He will still be big-ish in Korea but I have a feeling that "Gangnam Style" has just joined the "Macarena" and "Who Let the Dogs Out" in the "Remember-When?" File.

2013 Predicitions: Entertainment and Sports

Well time to try my hand at the lighter side of the news:

Entertainment:

1. Reality TV starts to grate on the public as American Idol has its lowest rated season ever. People talk of cancellation but it is still renewed for 2013. Many other reality TV staples are cancelled to make way for more Mad Men style adult dramas.

2. The Jersey Shore miscreants disappear from the national consensus as their 15 minutes of fame fades. This ignominious fate befalls Honey Boo boo, Dog the Bounty Hunter, the Storage Wars cast, and any American Idol not named Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood.

3. New Shows of 2012:
  Renewed: The Following, How to Live with your Parents, the Carrie Diaries, Cult
  Cancelled: Goodwin Games, Do No Harm, Save Me, Deception, 1600 Penn, Hannibal, Zero Hour, Red Widow, The Family Tools, Mistresses

4. Top 10 Movies for 2013 in any order:

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Thor the Dark World, Iron Man 3, Star Trek into Darkness, The Hunger Games Catching Fire, Man of Steel, Monsters University, Kick-ass 2, Despicable Me 2, The Lone Ranger

Sports:

College Football National Title: Alabama
College Basketball National Title: Indiana
NFL: Denver Broncos
NBA: LA Clippers
MLB: Los Angeles Angels
NASCAR: Kasey Kahne
NHL: none season cancelled
Premier League Title: Arsenal
Bundesliga Title: Bayern Munich

  

2013 Predictions: Politics and the Economy

Well I might as well do my 2013 Predictions now since we are at the last day of the year:

Politics:

1. There will be another fight over the debt ceiling with the GOP getting blamed for stalling and "holding the country ransom."  They will eventually cave and we will be put back on debt downgrade watch again. This time we are not downgraded.

2. Benghazi disappears into the woodwork as we slowly ease out of Afghanistan. Most of our foreign entanglements are finished by the end of the year. America's robust foreign policy on the early 2000s takes a backseat to new actors such as the Turks, the Russians and the Chinese. Europe moves further into the drivers seat of world affairs again.

3. Bashar Assad's government falls and he flees to Russia. The new Syria emerges out of the rubble and Lebanon returns to an active peace. General tensions ease in the Middle East and a relative calm falls over the region by year-end. Some of the Arab Spring governments become Islamist but it does not affect their relations with Israel.

4. The world will become a somewhat more peaceful place with much less warfare and death on the front page. People start looking inwardly and fixing some of their long running problems. The news becomes focused on solar panels in Africa and micro-transactions in Brazil and less about wars in the Middle East.

5. There is less partisan infighting as America tires of the whole "political divide" that has typified Washington for the last few years. No new gun laws are passed through the Congress and Sandy Hook unfortunately becomes just another footnote.


Economy:

1. There will be 3% GDP growth by the end of the year as companies have more of an idea of what their taxes and hiring costs will be. Obamacare is not the debacle as many fear and its pull on the economy is not felt by many Americans. The $800 Obamacare Tax Penalty will quietly be repealedwith changes to the bill tacked onto a different piece of legislation.

2. Banks will have record profits during 2013. Having large cash hordes and an incentive to start loaning money out will bring billions of dollars in profit into the banks. Many banks will be enriched by the same things that made them money before the bailout. Private banking will flourish in 2013.

3. Hedge Funds lose quite a bit of their luster as their outsized gains disappear. There are record redemptions as rich people pull their money out and chase after tax free yield. Municipal bonds and Master Limited Partnerships become very popular since they avoid higher capital gains tax rates that come out of Washington deal-making. Dividends become less popular and stock buybacks soar.

4. The Apple TV becomes the most talked about new tech product of 2013 as it challenges the idea of Internet connected TV. Saving TV shows to ICloud and viewing movies from the Apple Store challenges Netflix and Amazon. People cancelling their cable becomes even more widespread than before. Windows 8 is a dismal failure and hastens the demise of the desktop as we know it. A big screen attached to a tablet or a smartphone becomes the new PC form factor of 2013.

5. There will be a Facebook and Twitter backlash as many people tire of having to update their lives and document it for people they barely know. Saying "I don't have Facebook" becomes a new way of being hip instead of being luddite. The social revolution hits a definite snag in 2013 as people cease to see the point.

6. Here are the end of 2013 numbers:

Dow: 13400
NASDAQ: 3210
S&P 500: 1410
Eur/Dollar: 0.84
10 Year Bond: 2.58%
Gold: $1640 an ounce
Oil: $85 a barrel

2012 Predicitions: Entertainment and Sports: A Recap

Well lets see how I did for the 2012 world of entertainment and sports.

Entertainment:

1. Well it seems that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are still together and seem happy enough. Jennifer Aniston is now engaged but hasn't married yet.

2. Kardashians TV show is still on TV. Our long nation nightmare continues.

3. Renewed: Missed Napoleon Dynamite and Luck, got Lost Girl, Touch, and Apartment 23
    Cancelled: Missed Smash, Fashion Star, Scandal, all the rest from my list are in the TV graveyard.

4. The movies that didn't make it into the Top 10 in Box office were: MIB 3, Expendables 2, Wrath of the Titans, and World War Z was pushed back to 2013. The movie industry was also 6% better by a revenue standpoint as well.

5. My Sports Predictions were pretty dismal as well. Correct answers in blue

College Football National Title: LSU (Alabama)
College Basketball National Title: Ohio State (Kentucky)
NFL: Green Bay Packers (New York Giants)
NBA: Miami Heat (hey got one, Miami Heat)
MLB: Texas Rangers (San Fransisco Giants)
NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson (Brad Keselowski)
NHL: Chicago Blackhawks (Los Angeles Kings)
Premier League Title: Manchester City (hey got 2, Manchester City)

2012 Predictions Poltics and the Economy: A Recap

Well it is that time a year again so I'm looking back at my predictions for 2012 and seeing how I did.

Politics:

1. Yup Romney won the GOP nomination but Obama won the election. However Obama didn't win in a squeaker and actually won fairly convincingly. The GOP didn't win the Senate and it seems that not much will be done.

2. There was no real budget fight per se but the fight was over raising the debt ceiling instead. There was no real compromise and the thing was punted so we have the "fiscal cliff" now.

3. Obamacare actually was proved constitutional and it will scar the landscape for years to come. Missed this one.

4. No civil war in North Korea. It seems Kim-Jong-Un is consolidating power and firing off long range missiles. Missed this one.

5. Iran was hit hard by sanctions but there was no revolutions. It turned out that Syria was the place for the government to gun down its people. Although the UN is not stepping in at all due to Russia.


Economy:

1. Nailed this one. More green shoots plus a housing recovery with Europe taking more then its share of ink on its woeful situation. Missed high oil prices but nailed a slowdown in India and China. Worldwide growth also slowed in the second half of the year and parts of Europe did enter a recession.

2. The market was fairly decent and oil prices stayed fairly low. Also there was a rally of sorts after Obama was re-elected. Companies still hold vast cash reserves and the GDP is growing at only 1.7% at the end of the year and not at 3%. However, we avoided a recession for now.

3. Unemployment did stay in the 8% range and was slightly better by the end of the year.

4. Facebook's IPO was a debacle and may have a few lawsuits to settle before all the smoke clears. However, no "Facebook is dead" articles have been published yet. Whoops missed this one.

5. SOPA did indeed fail spectacularly.

6. Here are the numbers for the various indices that I predicted vs the actual numbers :

Dow: 12800 (13104)
NASDAQ: 2850 (3019)
S&P 500: 1320 (1320) Wow perfect guess!
Eur/Dollar: 0.98 (0.76)
10 Year Bond: 2.10% (1.76%)
Gold: $1310 an ounce ($1722 an ounce) Missed this one by a lot
Oil: $113 a barrel ($91 a barrel) This one too

Clueless Anti-Gun Group Politicize Oregon Mall Shooting

I wonder if these people look at each of these mall shootings as a golden opportunity to push their message?

"Santa Claus could have been shot in the mall," said Penny Okamoto, executive director of Ceasefire Oregon, in an interview with the Portland Tribune. "If you're sick of this, you should call your legislators to tell them to fix the laws so that assault weapons don't end up in the hands of felons."

Nicely politicizing there Ms. Okamoto. First of all this killer did not seem to be a felon so that would not have prevented it. He also apparently stole the gun from his friend so that precluded all legal ways of preventing him from getting the gun. So other then having the government confiscate every gun you really couldn't prevent an insane person from shooting up the mall.

Also even if they did ban assault weapon and made owning them totally illegal it still would not prevent someone from buying a pistol and doing something similar. I mean the Virginia Tech shooter had two pistols. Also in the Aurora shootings the guy could have done about the same damage with just the pistols and the shotgun he had.

I think what people did in this Oregon shooting was perfect. They ran from the fire and hid in stores and waited for police and SWAT to kill off the shooter. Two people died and one was injured but it just seemed like bad luck that it happened to them. I think treating every " hearing firecrackers or popping balloons when there shouldn't be"  incident as a potential mass shooting might save quite a few lives.

NBC Might Pay the Price for Making Zimmerman Look Like a Racist

I think it would be difficult to defend the fact that NBC was trying to provide a narrative on this case and edited the 911 call to reflect that.

The call viewers heard was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police, with no prompting, that Martin was black: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."

But the portion of the tape that was deleted had the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person who had raised his suspicion was "black, white or Hispanic," to which Zimmerman responded, "He looks black."

Someone made an editorial decision to remove the 911 dispatcher so NBC could keep the narrative as "evil racist guy kills innocent black kid in cold blood." They did not wait until facts were available but just rushed to judgement.

MIT professor Philip Greenspun Hates Windows 8 and I Agree

Oh Windows 8 is such a piece of crap you don't even know. It seems that this famous computer scientist from MIT seems to agree with me.

“The only device that I can remember being as confused by is the BlackBerry PlayBook,” Greenspun wrote on his blog after using Windows 8 on a Dell (DELL) XPS One All-in-One desktop PC. The acclaimed computer scientist noted that Microsoft omitted all of the best features from the most popular touch-focused platforms and instead created a user interface he describes as a “dog’s breakfast.”

Imagine using that awful experience on a regular PC without a touch interface and then removing the Start button for no good reason. I had to work around that by creating icons of things like Control Panel and Office 2010 apps like Outlook and Excel directly from the Programs Files directory. I couldn't figure out any other way of getting to my Outlook easily. I guess I could fiddle with the worthless and ugly Metro interface but the less I saw of that the better. In any case if an MIT professor has trouble using Windows 8 then I would hate to be a person that learned Windows by using XP and then tried to use 8.

Fresh Eyes Identify Earliest Known Dinosaur

This is a pretty interesting find.

The creature was about the size of a Labrador dog and has been named Nyasasaurus parringtoni after southern Africa's Lake Nyasa, today called Lake Malawi, and Cambridge University's Rex Parrington, who collected the specimen at a site near the lake in the 1930s.

"It was a case of looking at the material with a fresh pair of eyes," Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum, who worked on the study, told Reuters. "This closes a gap in the fossil record and pushes back the existence of dinosaurs."

It is pretty cool that a fossil found in the 30s and studied in the 50s finally enters the fossil record in 2012. I think a fresh set of eyes need to go over more findings from the past. Maybe even more knowledge can be uncovered from that sort of thing.

Anti-Tax Conservatives Kicked off of Budget Panel

I guess this might be the GOP moving slowly back toward the center.

Two of the most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives have been kicked off the House Budget Committee, a rare move that could make it easier for the panel to advance a deal with Democrats to cut fiscal deficits.

I think this is Boehner flexing his muscles and trying to play the Tip O'Neil role in reverse. I think he has done the political calculus and figured that if we go off the cliff or bungee jump (go off the cliff and fix it when they come back from recess after Jan 1) the GOP is going to get hammered.

I figure there will be a 30% sell-off in the stock market if we go off the cliff and the GOP does not want that pinned to them because of two congressmen that won't listen to common sense.

Religious Right Softens Image Declares Peace in War on Religion

I guess Romney losing is putting some sense into the religious right.

Between the rise of the unchurched and the moderation of young religious conservatives, experts say, a smaller movement may emerge — one that retains its current zeal but carries less sway over the selection of GOP nominees. Or the movement could retain its power by successfully diversifying and coming up with a new way to talk to voters.

"We plan to reach out with a softer, pro-family agenda—less emphasis on the sexual points, more talk about family," Marx of the Faith and Freedom Coalition said. He also said activists would develop a "forward-looking" policy agenda akin to President George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism."

Also they need to back away from social positions like the earth is a few thousand years old and that global warming is fake. It might be a good idea to just keep Creationism and Intelligent Design in parochial schools as well. 

What a compassionate Christian Rightist needs to be talking about is that all schools need to be improved instead of trying to shoehorn their beliefs into the classroom. Instead of fighting a war in the classroom let all classrooms prosper. Do good works and people will flock to you. Don't try to change minds by forcing your beliefs on anyone.

Finally, the sexual issues need to be taken off the table entirely. So no talk of rape or abortion from any GOP candidate going forward. If a GOP candidate is asked about abortion they can just say this is my deeply held belief and has no standing on how I would govern.

Obama Proposes Tax Hikes Now but Rate Cuts Later (Maybe)

I guess he just can't live with the idea of rich people getting away with 3% more of a cut then other Americans.

"Let's let those go up," Obama told Bloomberg Television in an interview, referring to tax rates for the wealthiest Americans.

"And then let's set up a process with a time certain, at the end of 2013 or the fall of 2013, where we work on tax reform, we look at what loopholes and deduction both Democrats and Republicans are willing to close, and it's possible that we may be able to lower rates by broadening the base at that point."

In other words when those talks break down in 2013 he will have his rate hikes in place already. Pretty sneaky way of ramming through tax hikes. It does give Boehner some wiggle room to say that the GOP will bite the bullet and allow tax hikes in exchange for cuts in 2013. Whatever the case negotiating by brinksmanship is a crappy way of doing business.

Well At Least they Won't Hike My Taxes: Middle Class Tax Cuts Might Pass

At least I'm not going off the cliff according to the GOP Doomsday Plan.

Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling.

This is the ultimate can kick. No consensus on anything other then messing up the middle class with a tax hike. If they make them permanent though I would support that move. If I can lock in 15% dividend taxes and 25% short term capital gains taxes for 2013 then I would take it for now. However, any meaningful tax reform should make these rates 0%. The idea of capital gains and dividend taxes for middle class taxpayers are anathema to me.

Steel Coins Might Be Coming

I kind of like the idea of steel coins and it seems to be a way to save the mint a few million.

Several lawmakers were more intrigued with the idea of using different metal combinations in producing coins.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said a penny costs more than 2 cents to make and a nickel costs more than 11 cents to make. Moving to multiplated steel for coins would save the government nearly $200 million a year, he said.

I mean you could then melt the coins together and make various things out of them. It would be interesting to see a steel penny not be copper colored. It would kind of be like what they did in WW2 when copper was used in the war effort.

Windows 8 Phones Plagued By Reboots

I guess Microsoft just can't get out of its own way when it introduces new products.

Microsoft has reportedly acknowledged it has discovered that some Windows Phone 8 early adopters are experiencing random reboots. Microsoft experts say they've located the problem and will be able to offer a downloadable solution in the next few weeks. 

So they know of the problems but it will take weeks to fix it? I guess all of their engineers are on vacation or something. That's about par for the course for MSFT. Release a product to compete with Apple several years too late and execute it poorly. Why is Balmer still CEO at that company?

Grover Norquist Does Not Make Sense

I just don't understand how this guy became so prominent in the GOP establishment that people were scared of him when he says things like this.

"When you got married did your wife understand there was an expiration date on that promise? When you borrowed money to buy your house did you say, 'Oh geez. That mortgage? That was 10 years ago. You're still asking me for money?' You make a commitment, you make a commitment," says Norquist.

Did he just compare not hiking taxes to a marriage? Also that mortgage comment doesn't make sense when circumstances change. For instance a person would be a fool to keep the same mortgage as they had 10 years ago if it was possible to refinance it. If economic conditions change then you have to change with them. If taxes need to be hiked then just do it so it doesn't effect the vast majority of Americans. It is better than building up trillions more in debt.

Obama Hits Campaign Trail to Push Tax Hikes

Why can't he stay in town and simply sit down with lawmakers and lead the country? Instead he is constantly fleeing Washington in order to make photo ops.

The president's visit to a small business in Hatfield, Pa., that makes parts for a construction toy company will cap a week of public outreach as the White House and congressional leaders seek a way to avoid the tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

He already won Pennsylvania's electoral college votes. Why does he have to hang out at some construction toy company? Obama wants tax hikes so just make them palatable to the GOP and solve the problem. If they don't want hikes on people making more than $250K then push for people making more than $500K or a $1 million something. In other words sit down and lead and not rush off to mug for the cameras.

Senator Saxby Chambliss Turns Back on "No Taxes" Pledge

I guess getting hided in the election is bringing some realism back to Capitol Hill.

"I care more about this country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ on Thursday. "If we do it his way, then we'll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that."

A vast majority of elected Republicans have signed the pledge Norquist created in 1986, which commits them to voting against tax increases, and it became a type of litmus test among U.S. conservatives.

I mean you cannot even negotiate with the Dems if you cannot raise taxes ever. Maybe there will be some wiggle room on raising taxes on people making over a million or something. As long as they can avoid the fiscal cliff by letting tax hikes go on the table as long as they aren't too excessive and do not target the middle class. I just don't agree that someone making $250K a year should be called rich.

GOP "Get Religion" on Immigration Reform at Long Last

It is funny to see how the GOP is starting to "evolve" on immigration reform.

"This issue has been around far too long," Boehner said. "A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I'm confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all."

Just two years ago, Boehner said it was worth considering amending the U.S. Constitution to end birthright citizenship, because he said it might discourage people from illegally crossing the border. Boehner was also opposed to President George W. Bush's attempt to pass immigration reform.

Bush was prescient on this issue and it took losing the Latino vote by 70% in two strait Presidential elections to have them see the light. You can't treat 20 million people like hunted criminals and hope to get their friends and relatives to vote for you. The GOP needs to stop any "your papers please" laws going forward because they infringe on personal liberty which used to be a big deal in their party. 

Also Bush understood that speaking Spanish and reaching out to Latino communities might pay off for the GOP as well. Latinos seem to have quite a bit in common and might vote Republican much faster than Blacks or single women. Actually, all the GOP needs to do is split the Latino vote 50/50 and they have a better chance of winning Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico again.

Even Though I Don't Like Gingrich: What he Says Resonates

I usually think Gingrich is a huge bloviating moron but these words are spot-on.

"The question is do they want to, in a disciplined way, create a schedule and a program and include people who are not traditionally Republican?" Gingrich said during a Wednesday interview on CNN's "Starting Point With Soledad O'Brien." "The difference between outreach and inclusion, is outreach is when five white guys have a meeting and call you," he continued. "Inclusion is when you're in the meeting."

Yeah the GOP needs to not be 5 white guys in a room making decisions.They need to throw that tent wide and make sure there are Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and women in that room from here on in.

The Biggest Winner for the 2012 Election: Math?

Well, I didn't believe Nate Silver but he shows that a mathematical analysis might be the way to go to handicap election's in the future. All that gut-feeling stuff is not the same as cold-hard math.

This year, according to all projections, Silver’s model has correctly predicted 50 out of 50 states. A last-minute flip for Florida, which finally went blue in Silver’s prediction on Monday night, helped him to a perfect game. 

A caveat: Florida has not yet been called officially, but Obama is in the lead with 98% of precincts reporting. If anything, Silver’s placing of Florida on a knife edge makes him look even more prescient. No wonder one of the night’s more popular tweets suggested that he was actually from the future, working from old newspapers.

I think his idea of taking all the polls and weighting them for historical accuracy is a very sound one. The idea that all the polls were used is what took some of the bias out of the equations. So you can have some polls (CNN) oversampling Democrats but others (Wall Street Journal) may have under-sampled them. Then he weighted them according to accuracy. That seems like a sound plan because the electorate seemed very much the same as in 2008. So if the poll was right in 2008 it should have been right in 2012.

The GOP made the mistake of thinking the electorate had changed from 2008 to 2012 and that did them in. I guess Silver needs to pick stocks next because I would love to see if his algorithm will work on Wall Street. Maybe he can use a mix of research Buy/Sell/Hold calls and newsletter picks as his "polls" for each stock to see if they hold up.