A New Dialogue: Necessity vs. Vanity

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Monday March 16, 2009 · 4:30 PM PDT

2009/03/16 · 16:30

As our Congress-Critters squabble over executive pay, recklessness, greed and the American Way, the media keeps pumping up the music in the side show. Our President says that this is about fundamentals, virtue, values, but has failed to control the Vandals on Wall Street through his moral authority alone. And in all of this, at the heart of all the sound and fury is vanity. In all of this, the sanctity of contract has overwhelmed the sanctity of human life.

cthulhuology

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Thursday March 05, 2009 · 9:40 AM PST

2009/03/05 · 09:40

I was laying in bed the other night, thinking about jury duty and the legal system, about the economy and the financial crisis. Echoing through my head, the words Financial Engineering and Political Process kept resonating; keeping me awake more than my head-cold. And it struck me, I don't believe in any of this crap. I can't call myself a progressive, or a liberal. I can't call myself a conservative, or a fascist either. Like chewing stale mental gum; all these isms, ments, ives and als just lost their flavor.

cthulhuology

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Tuesday February 03, 2009 · 5:08 AM PST

2009/02/03 · 05:08

Political discussions always seem to be an agonizing process of two people always talking past each other. So I say it is high time we start talking in words the Republicans understand. The specific words I have in mind are "joint stock venture", the basis of nearly all commerce and liberal society for the past 300 years. What most Americans are unaware of, is that corporations are the embodiment of an artificial person. Legally speaking, each company is person, whose decisions and memories are kept in a physical medium known as the corporate books. Decisions made by corporations require, as a rule, multiple people (or in the case of some LLCs and S-corps only a single share holder) to sign off such that the corporation is independent of any one individual. In many companies, some shares give you the rights to vote on those decisions, other shares however, give no such protection.

cthulhuology

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Wednesday October 08, 2008 · 6:47 AM PDT

2008/10/08 · 06:47

When it comes to understanding why we as a people do what we do, mythology matters. Back in 2000, with the y2k crisis in the news, a new millennium, and political pundits talking about the end of history, G.W.Bush ran on a evangelical Christian platform. Our popular mythology held that the Apocalypse was nigh, and G.W. then spent the next 8 years attempting to bring about the end of days. (and getting as close as any president has done so far).

But after 8 years of Armageddon, the American people are looking towards the future and looking for a new shared vision. And while I'm not the first person to say this, they have turned to Star Trek for inspiration, our only shared vision of the future.

Poll

106 votes Show Results

Who would you vote for president?

106 votes Vote Now!

Who would you vote for president?

Mr. Spock

68 votes

Quark

5 votes

Morn

6 votes

Will Wheaton

18 votes

Borg Queen

9 votes

Mark to Market vs. Replacement Value

cthulhuology

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Wednesday October 01, 2008 · 8:07 AM PDT

2008/10/01 · 08:07

I was going to originally talk about McCain's ambition to become Dictator of the United States of America, as he told the editorial board of the DesMoines Register yesterday But I'd rather talk about how utterly stupid we're being regarding the valuation of assets. There are three values we can talk about with regard to real property:

1.) Market Value
2.) Replacement Value
3.) Assessed Value

For any piece of real estate these three are almost always different, but all are indicators of what a property is worth.

cthulhuology

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Monday September 29, 2008 · 2:24 PM PDT

2008/09/29 · 14:24

There's lots of talk about needing to bail out Wall Street firms because of the credit markets, because of housing markets, because of the sky falling etc. But we tend to ignore the simplest solution to these problems.

Main Street would be better served by reversing many of the predatory lending schemes dreamt up by usurious financial industries, and by reducing the risks associated with starting up new businesses.

For example one might:

cthulhuology

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Friday September 19, 2008 · 5:01 AM PDT

2008/09/19 · 05:01

Bob Barr, that "loveable" wingnut has done Obama a solid in Texas by filing a suit to remove McCain and Obama from the ballot. Apparently, McCain missed the Texas filing date, and Barr contends that the rule of law should be followed and have his name removed from the ballot. Barr also contends that Obama wasn't officially nominated before the deadline. However, lucky for Obama the paperwork was filed in his name prior to his official nomination.

cthulhuology

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Tuesday September 16, 2008 · 8:53 AM PDT

2008/09/16 · 08:53

When talking to Republican friends or leaning independents it is important to stress the similarities between the two candidates, who differ far less on core issues than the partisan hacks would lead you to believe. By pointing out their similarities, you can turn some of their positive feelings towards McCain towards Obama as well. And if they feel "well he won't be too bad" you're half way to winning them over. Here's 10 points you can use:

Poll

17 votes Show Results

Which point is your favorite

17 votes Vote Now!

Which point is your favorite

0 votes

1 vote

0 votes

3 votes

1 vote

10 votes

Response: How to Transform the US From a Debt to an Equity Economy

cthulhuology

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Wednesday June 18, 2008 · 10:07 AM PDT

2008/06/18 · 10:07

bonddad wrote a thought provoking piece on how to transform the US from a debt to an equity economy, and came up with a four point plan:

Balance budget

Educate the population

Focus on growth industry

Open up Alaskan and Coastal resources to a gold rush

However, none of these are likely to take the US Economy out of its long term depression. Even combined, they do not address the underlying economic realities:

We have more people (globally) than can be integrated into the economy

Our current energy sources can not sustain continued growth

The design of American society is not conducive to sustainability

All long term economic projections are fundamentally unsound

Poll

191 votes Show Results

What is most important:

191 votes Vote Now!

What is most important:

Continued growth

5 votes

Economic efficiency

6 votes

Sustainable society

161 votes

International competitiveness

1 vote

Short term gains

1 vote

Long term gains

10 votes

Global dominance

7 votes

Trolls: Get your McCain Talking Points here!

cthulhuology

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Thursday June 12, 2008 · 8:19 AM PDT

2008/06/12 · 08:19

As may of you are no doubt aware, John McCain has a useful list of talking points for discussion on sites such ask http://dailykos.com. Tired of stumping for the liberal point of view, how about try stumping with a challenge, take a page from John McCain's stump page. Yes you too can get your very own marching orders! Not only can you parrot for the McCainster, but you also win points! Yes you heard me POINTS!

cthulhuology

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Monday June 09, 2008 · 7:45 AM PDT

2008/06/09 · 07:45

As many people who play poker know, people have certain quirks when they're bluffing. Some people tug on an ear, others smile, some scratch their head, knee, etc. Some get a stupid smirk. Other just play it cool, unusually cool. The question for a poker player looking for an edge is getting a feel for the other guy's "tell". The things about tells, these subconscious projections of our thought processes, is that they are involuntary. One of my past jobs was developing an online poker application, and in the research phase I studied poker players. One of my business partners makes a considerable portion of his income exploiting tells and drunken bravado, and once you learn to pick up on those signals, gambling becomes less of a gamble.

So what does this have to do with John McCain:

RSS

A New Dialogue: Necessity vs. Vanity

The Failure of Imagination

Vote your Shares.

American Mythology: The StarTrek Presidency

Mark to Market vs. Replacement Value

Simple Economic Solutions

Barr sues to remove McCain/Obama from Texas Ballot! (UPDATED)

10 reasons why Obama is like John McCain...

Response: How to Transform the US From a Debt to an Equity Economy

Trolls: Get your McCain Talking Points here!

Poker Players: McCain's "Tell"