i can solve the AIG dilemma

this whole kerfuffle about AIG bonuses is just political theatre. the problem is the term "bonus." if payment of a sum of money to an employee is guarenteed in a contract, that doesn't really seem like a bonus, does it? it's just part of their salary that happens to be paid at the end of the year. people who want to make a big deal of this seized on the word "bonus" as a great way to make hay, but I think the answer is clear cut. pay an employer-voluntary sum to an employee -- aw, hell no. honor your contracts -- yes.

i guess the details are a little unclear about whether, in the first place, the writing of the contracts to guarentee the poorly-named-"bonus" was legal. See story linked above. It doesn't both me if democratic Attorneys General and congresspersons and the President want to pursue that angle. But that's not what they're using to attempt to score political points with regular folks.

But to say that AIG was mistaken for deciding that they were obligate to honor those contracts even under a bailout scenario is stupid. As a society, we want employees and employers and governments and parents and spouses and even dogs to honor whatever their contracts are with other beings on this planet.

the idea that they wrote contracts that were not in the interest of shareholders should not be surprising -- generally speaking, we aren't bailing out the companies that have a history of making prudent decisions! so if ANY company is likely to F up like this, i would argue its much more likely to be one of the ones we are bailing out!

I said many months ago (though not on my blog... probably a mistake) that I believe that no company should be too big to let fail. To be clear, you could interpret that statement two ways:

1) we should let any company fail no matter how big or important it is -- there is no company that could possibly be too big or important to let fail.
2) it IS possible for a company to be too big or too important to let fail -- WE JUST SHOULDN'T LET COMPANIES GET THAT WAY

if you believe in the market system OR if you believe that ginormous corporations do bad things, you can get behind me on this. I believe the market system usually works, but there are exceptions. For instance, we already force companies to disband when they have a monopoly. Nearly everyone accepts this intervention in the free market. It also seems clear to me that the free market doesn't work when companies do not fear the consequences of their decisions.

companies that are "too big/important to let fail" do not have to fear the consequences of their decisions.

therefore the free market doesn't work.

I say we pass a law to cause structured breakups of companies when they reach a certain ceiling of bigness/importantness. Defining that ceiling will be hard, but worth it.

michigan, my michigan

i have apparently really acclimated to michigan. even though it's three days until spring and the weather has been 50s and 60s, my dreams last night were (1) a weather forecast for 6-7 inches of snow and (2) the red wings getting into a fight with some other team with graphic profuse bleeding.

seriously though, last thanksgiving jeff daniels ended his ensemble concert with a polyphonic rendition of this song michigan, my michigan that was really wonderful.

i could stay here if it were closer to the west coast.

an observation

i think the new trader joe's toilet paper is narrower, ie, the roll cylinder is shorter. this is a way to avoid raising prices, i guess? i wonder if anyone else who notices will care. fewer trees, more profit, and still just as functional. i'm for it.

a great winter turkey ham cucumber onions pepper sandwich

i'm vaguely inspired to try to blog more again, partially so i can rekindle my blog relationships with melibers and porter and fourmiles and beyond3d and september's scourge, and partially because i had better have something besides whining about movies if i submit to the tbtl metablog.

so back to my roots. a great new sandwich today.

Italian Pane bread (yes, from TJ's), toasted lightly
mayonnaise to taste on both slices
on one slice, layer
fresh ground pepper, then
chopped green onion
rectangles of sweet pepper (i used orange)
romaine or green-leaf lettuce
1-2 slices honey ham
1-2 slices oven roasted turkey

now stop (hammer time)
slice up peeled cucumber medallions 2-3 mm thick, enough to [eventually] liberally cover your sandwich. from a yellow or white cooking onion (not sweet) cut a very thin medallion and chop. in a plastic baggie (the non-zip, foldover kind is probably best), put about half the onion and cucumber slices. pour some red wine and white wine vinegar in the baggie and work the vinegar onto all the surfaces of the onion and cucumber. add the rest of the onion and cucumber until everything is coated.

layer the cucumber on the sandwich. add the bits of onion on top (or onto the other slice of bread, if you find it more convenient). if you don't mind the mess, you can drizzle a bit of the vinegar from the baggie onto the sandwich. close sandwich and enjoy.

seriously, you'll really enjoy it.

saturday night :P

snl is really struggling. luckily i'm way too tired to watch must of this crap. and i don't know why i feel the need to say this in my blog, but man, abby elliott is gorgeous.

this is super cool, especially if you're a politics junkie

apparently a photographer used a robot to take many high resolution images from the side of the inauguration, then used his mac to stitch them together into a giant picture. his blog lets you look at the picture and then zoom in to remarkably high resolution.

i recommend you zoom in to get a good look at obama (keep zooming until the resolution ceases to improve, but that is pretty far!). Then, cruise around the seats behind him to see all the different politicians who were back there. and help me answer the question: what the heck is laura bush wearing? it looks like a mom sweatshirt. and could dick cheney look more evil (he's got a black cowboy hat on)?

http://www.davidbergman.net/blog/2009/01/22/how-i-made-a-1474-megapixel-photo-during-president-obamas-inaugural-address/

i have to get this off my chest

'slumdog millionaire' is really not that great. a more depressing forrest gump? in india? even more obvious than FG? sold!

two miracles in one week???

ok the 2nd miracle is old news but i didn't know it and it is awesome.

on the heroes

i'm still totally stunned by today's non-fatal plane crash in NYC. There's a lot of horrible stuff going on in the world today but you have to thank God for taking 150 people who should be dead and saving them.

For the record, I think the media are not giving enough credit to the non-captain crew. They got 150 people off a plane, after a crash landing, before it sinks??? Unbelievable. Hire that crew to redesign the regular-life airplane experience, too, so we can all get off a little faster.

Also one of the passengers mentioned that the women and children really did get off first. I've never once thought of that when envisioning a crash in an airplane -- seems to me, no matter who you are, "get out and get out of the way" would be most efficient. and yes, help the weak and the old, etc. But are we really in a world where women are "weak"? Not criticizing, just surprised. And very pleased that they made news with it so if it happens to me now i know to not be the jerk who jumps in front of the women.

this rocks my world, and not in the Rock way

so another story by way of tbtl, a writer for the Boston Globe enunciated the sensitive female chord progression. i knew i really had a soft girly spot for allegedly femalely music, but this was a little frightening. among the songs
one of us by joan osboarne (the originator of the progression, and still among my favorite songs of all time)
building a mystery by sarah mclachlan (weirdly, i liked her more before this song than after, but that's not to say i didn't go buy mirrorball when i heard this on the radio)
tonight and the rest of my life by nina gordon (which i was obsessed with and managed to also get our temporary roomate Charity to be obssessed with, and I still think is pretty great)
holiday by green day (which is probably the best song on one of the best CDs of all time)

those were the ones that shocked me; i had no idea why those songes spoke to me so profoundly, or that any were connected to any of the others. apparently the Offspring has used the chords in three different songs, and various people on the radio these days, TI, Rhianna, Beyonce use it also, but since i don't do radio anymore i had to be told this by a non-music radio show talking about a newspaper column.

i guess i say, own it, love your tastes. obviously this speaks to a lot of us and i say let's not be ashamed. and still i wonder, what would you say if you had just one question?

TJ's tries to sabotage the sandwich blog

You will recall that I highly recommend Trader Joe's Just the Leaves pre-washed green leaf lettuce. I found out today that this has been discontinued, now they are only doing romaine.

This is bullcrap. I can't tell you how much better my sandwich life got when i discovered the pre-washed leaves. Totally worth every extra dollar+ I spent on it.

Maybe its not true in the west. Let's do the math: out here, they don't have my favorite hummus, they don't sell sprouts in a bowl for $0.79, and now they don't even sell the lettuce.

You're on notice, east-coast-Joe. Don't make me move west and leave your ass high-and-dry in Michigan. Who's gonna drink all your Dead Guy Ale?

And by the way, i've been occasionally buying the Meijer pre-washed lettuce. for a few months now. yeah, and i stored 'em in your drawer. who's the lunchwrecker now?

why is this OK?

Does it seem odd that the word "orgy" is acceptable in polite company, political discourse, etc.?

this show is freaking amazing

ignore the awful soundtrack to this clip, but watch Whale Wars (animal planet, 9 pm fridays). I'm not even sure I support them 100% but it is absolutely heart stopping television.

it's not the end

it's just the beginning. but a beautiful start it is.

this is it

tomorrow is the day. check out what one swing voter learned about how Obama's campaign is emblematic of a lot of things going on in this country today:

My wife made me canvass for Obama; here's what I learned

It's never been about him. It's about you. It's about us. Vote!

so That's what she's been up to...

hiya

b'lieve it or not, i'm still alive, but unlike the shark i won't die if i stop blogging.

for the record, i'm stealing this web gem from tbtl.net ... but it is topical for my readership... watch to find out which one of the people from our past is apparently starring in a tawdry web show. i mean, you only see her for a second, and the brunette thing seems accurate, so i'm sure it's her...

don't breath. don't move.

heart, stop beating. she'll hear.

a skunk just walked three feet from my head.

i'm 5'9''.

three feet from my head.

generally speaking, the apartment half-sunk into the ground agrees with me. not quite as much light as i'd like, but otherwise it kicks butt. unless you happen to be sitting at your computer and a skunk walks right next to your window which is wide fucking open.

i'm a survivor. s/he didn't seem to find me at all interesting or spray worthy. but how much would that suck to get sprayed by a skunk while sitting in your living room.

by the way, when did skunks become mostly white? is this a great white north thing? and i thought you could smell them coming. is that only if they'd sprayed lately?

i was more fond of the opossum who pulled the same trick while i was washing dishes last week.

is it fucking halloween? now there's a cute little orange-and-white kitten looking in at me.

i really, really don't want to forget

large brown egg boiling experiment today:

started with rolling boiling, unsalted water.

added 10 eggs.

at 5 minutes, took out the two cracked ones. they were delicious, very soft, cooled in a bit of cool water before peeling.

at 12 minutes, took eggs by tongs into cool water. dump out water several times to continue cooling.

sampled 1 egg. just barely boiled enough. awesome.

did you really read this whole post? thought: the US men's volleyball team looks like the biggest group of douchers in beijing. biggest douchers, not biggest group. excuse me. what a bunch of a--holes. actually it just might be the bearded, tatted-up jerktard. maybe the other guys are ok.

is there an emoticon for thumbs-up?

OK, i learned sometime in college that my political commentary abilities are not better than your average bear's. so i've tried to keep politically quiet (as well as everything-else quiet, yes I know i never blog). but this is just ridiculous. Do allow me to tell you why:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080824/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_convention_rdp
McCain ad says Obama snubbed Clinton in VP pick
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
DENVER - John McCain's campaign suggested Sunday that rival Barack Obama snubbed Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate because of her criticism during the battle for the Democratic nomination. Obama's campaign dismissed the claim as the candidate praised Joe Biden, the man he did choose. etc. etc. etc.

Reasons why this is ridiculous:
1. The logical extension of this argument is that Obama Should Have Picked Hilary. Which implies that Hilary is a choice that McCain would agree with, would think is a good idea. So the idea is that there's Hilary supporters out there who are saying "Golly, McCain criticizes Obama for the same major thing I do. I guess he's a guy I agree with about Supreme Court nominations and energy policy." I know I can be pretty cynical about the logic abilities of average americans, but there's a limit. It's actually pretty insulting that McCain would think that would work.

1b. Does anyone really think that the McCain campaign didn't have anti-Hilary ads already cut and edited, the same way they had ones ready for the choice of Biden? If he really thinks Hilary should have been chosen, then I guess McCain's lucky because now he can choose her. (Actually, I think the cleverest thing McCain could do would be to pick a woman as his VP. as far as I know there aren't any high profile female republicans on his radar, but it be a hell of a lot more effective at capitalizing on Obama-snubbed-Hilary sentiment that just saying "hey, obama snubbed Hilary." if this happens credit Ideas by Notafly Aug 24 2008.)

2. Note that his argument is that Hilary criticized Obama too much. 2a So? Welcome to the primaries. 2b The McCain ad broadcasts the quotes of Biden criticizing Obama. So the argument is that Obama made a bad choice because it doesn't give McCain as much ammunition for a gun he's already decided to use?

In the end, the fact that all the criticism of the VP pick so far seems to have nothing to do with the quality of the candidate, I'll take the steak over the sizzle any day.

T. V.

for the first time in 17 months, i have a TV. no cable, mind you, nothing crazy, but i have a few good channels and a remote. so far, not entirely different from life in phoenix (last time i had both TV and my own apartment), but not entirely the same either, which is good.

i would like to make some comments about TV. maybe everybody knows these things, but since it's not about Lost or Battlestar or Bones or House or especially The Wire, my social sphere hasn't been talking about these shows:

(i was going to save the good one for last but realized i might not hold my audience through the 2 negative reviews so i'll start here)
--viva piñata. this is an incomprehensible setting for a show, but here goes. there's a land populated by piñatas that are alive. they eat candy and do all the things that civilized beings do but then some day the highest honor is to be shot out of a cannon to end up at a party in which you are used as a piñata. this seems to make everyone happy but the main character who spends his time avoiding 'the call,' enforced by a small footless frog piñata. it makes no sense at all but is really cleverly written. the main character (fergy fudgehog) gets to say 'fudge' when things go wrong, which while not technically swearing is still amusingly dirty for a kids show. and they are doing some great mockeries of presidential ads. seriously, a great show.

-- the suite life with zach and cody. I was intrigued to watch this show (nerd alert) mostly because of Dan Savage's commentary on it on This American Life. DS finds the show creepy because of its horrific portrayal of heterosexuality vis-a-vis zach (or cody. they're twins.), in which 11-year-old zach (or cody) makes all kinds of advances on the 16-year-old girl who works in a gift shop. while i did manage to see the jumbled up stereotypes mentioned by DS (ditzy asian teen heiress, "meticulous"/flaming black bellman), i couldn't stomach enough to hold out for a storyline involving creepy tween love. thumbs down for being a kids show with apparently no redeeming sociological study value for curious old people like yours truly.

-- hannah montana. it was not until i watched this show that i realized that the entire hannah montana thing happened without me and i have no real idea what it is about. actually some of the schtick was amusing. also it has billy ray cyrus, whose meteoric re-career is a good reminder that miracles do happen and so that's a Good Thing. but i guess the show is so far along that they don't really run with the 'pop star' storyline, so it's just a story about a dad and some kids and their friends. i was at least hoping for an unrelated music video or something, kind of like the monkees. (didn't the monkees also have scooby-doo-like action montages set to monkees music? if not, they should have. and HM should have, too.) the acting was really pretty bad on this show, particularly from this kid who is maybe supposed to be HM's brother? from the commercials i gather he's like a tween phenom who's had a few [i'm guessing dvd-only] movies that exist only to increase his visibility. there was one other strangitude, which i can't categorize i can just explain. in one scene, billy ray is attempting to plunge the sink. the pushing step is clearly getting more muscle than the pulling step. admittedly this is not necessarily common knowledge, but a lot of people do know that this is not the right way to plunge effectively. the pulling step is where the magic happens. pushing is just to set things up for the pulling. OK, that's forgivable. but everybody, Everybody, EVERYBODY knows that when you run the garbage disposal, you run water. this is not a fucking secret. so how is it that the writer, director, actors, stagehands, studio executives found it reasonable to have a garbage-disposing scene in which no water is run?? because kids don't know any better, you don't have to portray normal parts of the real world realistically?

ok, although i will probably have the opportunity for actual adult programming (not that kind, you perv, i told you i don't have internet. actually maybe i didn't tell you. i don't have internet yet.), let's decide right now that i don't need to review TV for everyone. most of you already know its witching ways.