Well, the Chameleon-Elect is delivering on his promise of change. We can be thankful for years and years to come of trillion dollar deficits. With next year's projected $1.6 trillion deficit, I think I could do with a little less change and a little more spare change. Mr. Obama's colors seem to be showing a little bit more now. He seems to believe that if the massive federal government is just run by slightly smarter people, it will work really well. That certainly is one form of audacity.
Since when is it the federal government's job to create jobs? Speaking of Jobs, Steve has seen better days. This guy's health is causing the stock market to fluctuate. Maybe he should find some distance from Apple like Bill Gates did from Microsoft.What else is in the news? Oh yeah, there appears to be a little disagreement in Israel over some land and some water. Maybe we should get involved. Yellowstone National Park is also apparently at risk. A bunch of little quakes and such are suggesting that maybe or maybe not a giant volcanic eruption may be around the corner.
I did notice that the helmet laws recently instituted in Nigeria have been mostly rejected by the people. Whether it's unfounded fear, lack of money or the fact that most folks don't like being told what to do by strangers, many motorcyclists are apparently resorting to hollowed-out fruit shells to trick the cops.
IL isn't the only state with one U.S. Senator. In a reversal of fortune (as is currently measured by lust for power), Norm Coleman has found the short side of the margin of error. They used to say it's not over until the fat lady sings. Now, it's not over until the lawyers collect their fees. I'd say the people of MN couldn't care less -- over 450,000 voted for a no name Independent just because both Coleman and Franken ran nasty, despicable campaigns. We'll get a schmuck in the Senate either way.
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Interesting analogy of Jobs to Gates. I think Apple is still a growth company though. Microsoft had gotten stagnant, and I think Gates figured he'd find his life a lot more rewarding by sinking it into his charitable foundation rather than battling the EU and others with endless lawsuits.
Jobs still has work to do. Apple is cool, but its coolness is starting to plateau, and they still have a lot of market share to gain. If his health is truly as he reports (i.e. if he can still handle the job), Apple needs him way more than Microsoft needs Gates.
Regarding Yellowstone... wow. I knew all about the caldera, but didn't know about the recent grumbling. The last explosion was some 630,000 years ago, and it has typically erupted every 600,000 years. The previous blast covered Nebraska in 7 feet of ash. Aside from a meteor hitting the earth, I'm not sure if there is a bigger potential disaster that is still realistic.
Yet, there is nothing to guarantee that another will occur (to the contrary of the linked article). Volcanoes of any size can go dormant.
Fun thoughts.
Ryan, those are some sweet Nits!
Another Nit could have been how the Utah Utes whooped up on Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and the Utah Attorney General is thinking of challenging the BCS as an Anti-Trust violation. It's not that I don't trust the BCS, I just think their goals are misguided.
Coov, your pic cracks me up. Rollz, your pic cracks me up too, but if I look at it very closely, it really freaks me out.
The whole Jobs/Gates thing came up in conversation the other day as well. We realized a major difference is that Jobs originally left Apple, the company almost went out of business, then he came back and seemed to single-handedly bring it back to prominence.
That's something that not even Bill Gates has done with Microsoft.
Heard a lot of crazy Nits last night at Trivia:
What drug is the CIA using to bribe folks in Afghanistan?
A recent poll in Russia asked to name the most celebrated historical figure from Russia of all time put Joseph Stalin at: A) 1st, B) 2nd, or C) 3rd?
After China, India and the U.S., what is the most populous country?
What U.S. Official received the most donations from foreign sources in 2007?
1) Viagra
2) Brazil
3) 1st
4) Obama
Tim, did you look those up or just guess them....i was going to try and answer them, but then i realized that i agreed with all of your answers(with the exception of you mixing 2 and 3 up)....and to my surprise Brazil was fifth, behind Indonesia in fourth...I definitely would have missed that....i don't know if Obama was right, but would have been my guess....our tie breaker was to name the nine countries that start with "I" in the world in 90 seconds...
Yeah, Coov, those were our same guesses too, except we guessed Bill Clinton instead of Obama.
Here are the sources I found to backup the right answers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
(not shocked by Indonesia, but shocked that Pakistan comes after Brazil)
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013534584
(so will the taliban notice if the harem is smiling more often?)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/22/condoleeza-rice-gifted-31_n_152941.html
(shakey question... but I think this is what they were talking about)
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/12/200812131205875296.html
(more to the poll, those mysterious russians)
Those were all off the top of my head. The Viagra one took me a bit but I looked none of them up.
Quick post: if there are three components to the economy - the consumer, private investment (private companies), and govt spending - and the first two absolutely went off a cliff beginning in Sept (like in a 100 yr storm type way - just trust me), how does the economy get back on track in the absence of a more pro-active govt?
If not an increase in govt spending, isn't there a cost to the the additional time it would take for the economy to begin expanding again (vs the scenario in which the govt takes a more pro-active role).
And for the record, Obama hasn't spent a dime yet (yet). The $1 trillion deficit was rung up on Bush's watch (and the dem congress).
Jobs/Apple desparately need a succession plan.
And I knew Indonesia. Largest muslim country in the world.
They just showed some Oklahoma marching band member crying after their loss. Awesome.
Jim, I'm still working on the way I write News Nits. Trying to just post interesting news bits without injecting too much commentary, still working on it.
I'm definitely not blaming O'Bama for anything. As you've noted, he's not even in office yet. But the debate on what to do with this situation is happening now and will be implemented under the new Democratically controlled government with him at the helm.
If our elected officials were responsible with our money -- if we had been saving money during the profit years and controlling spending, I'd be a lot more open to record breaking spending to try to get us through a "rainy day."
But there is no rainy day fund, it's the opposite. And the projected deficits are not attributable to Bush admin alone either, his record setting $400+ billion deficits are nothing compared to the $1.6 trillion being proposed by the CBO and OBama. Trillion dollar deficits are a brand new thing, starting next year.
The audacity of the situation is in the idea that we want to get "back on track" in terms of business as usual. Obviously, not all debt is bad. If it's an investment in education, infrastructure, etc, it should pay back. But if it's an investment in consumption (which made up 70% of our inflated GDP), then it's just pushing this depression farther into the future.
This depression has been building since the late 70's and furthered by every administration since. It is caused by dishonest politicians who refuse to allow a healthy downturn to cycle through under their watch.
We are heading towards an even more enormous central government, which should not be the center of our economy. Whatever successes O'Bama and the Congress achieve will be undone in the near future when today's solutions become tomorrow's bureaucracies.
In other news, I almost cried when Oklahoma lost too. I had 25 cents riding on the game.
P.S. I'm hoping people will add to the News Nits section when y'all find stuff you think is interesting.
I missed the fact entirely that there were pretty severe riots in Greece in the middle of December. Anyone?
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html
I guessed Indonesia myself. Didn't get Viagra though (nice one Coovo). Also guessed Obama. And of course, Stalin is 1st. Giants fans still cheered for Barry Bonds (please don't take the comparison seriously).
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