Let's run the numbers

On Hiatus For the week of Christmas. Heading home to spend time with family. See you all in a week.

Robert Novak is amazed by lack of accountability Even Robert Novak is amazed by the lack of accountability in the Bush administration, and said so today in a Washingtonpost.com chat . Washington, D.C.: What can you tell us about the role of the 3 wise men (Wolfowitz, Dov and Feith)in DOD in the fiasco? Robert Novak: They put together the CPA, and they ought to take responsibility for the chaos. Unfortunately, this administration doesn't work this way. In nearly half a century of reporting, I never have seen an administration [less] willing to allocate responsibility for any fiasco that it perpetrates. Bob, little hint. If you want to foster accountability in this administration, spill the beans on whoever outed Valerie Plame. Otherwise, don't bother saying things like that. It makes you look bad.

Why do I read the MS Global Economic Forum too late? After I wrote the previous piece, I stopped to see if the Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum had anything to say about the USD/EUR exchange rate. Why didn't I read this before? Rick Bremer sees things mostly positive, but not completely. Note that Rick Bremer tends to be optimistic, although he's been at least partially right of late. The Dollar and the Economy Notwithstanding that the dollar's 20% traded-weighted decline over the past 28 months has been orderly, that US asset markets have outperformed most other big markets in local currency terms this year, and that the dollar's benefits for the US economy make dollar-denominated assets more attractive, worries persist that the dollar's decline will turn vicious and raise interest rates as investors leave our markets. It's not hard to see why many analysts are concerned: Our huge budget deficits and unprecedented dependence on external so

The Dollar continues to drop This is really worrying me. As the dollar sinks further and further, there is a risk that foreign investors will not only reduce investment in US debt, but will start selling what they do have, causing a full-blown currency dump. Remember Asian markets in 1999? Even if that doesn't happen, a continued slow and steady decline of the dollar will mean that interest rates will have to go up to continue to attract enough cash for our demand for a current account deficit. Low interest rates are one of the only reasons that we have a marginally growing economy, and higher rates would strangle the recovery in its cradle. How much has the dollar lost? Roughly 6 percent since I was in Ireland in mid-October. 17 percent over the year. Many economists thought the dollar needed to drop 15-20 percent to get it back to fair value. But I'm afraid we may overshoot and the decline may become disorderly. Stocks End Near Flat After Dollar Sinks

NPR versus the Washington Post Am I better informed when I drive to work, and listen to NPR "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered"? Or when I read the Washington Post on the Metro? Both have their benefits. In support of the paper, I can get much more in-depth through 24 paragraphs of a story, whereas on the radio it would be more limited, more like three or four paragraphs. And I definately get more "local" news, local being Alexandria, VA, and Fairfax County, VA, not just general happenings of Washington, DC, which gets more play in the national media, but has less relevence for me. Plus, the comics, Get Fuzzy and others, and the crossword puzzle on the way home. It's a race to see if I can finish the puzzle before the train reaches my station. On the other hand, NPR covers a lot more news items, so I have information about a lot of different issues and news of the day, but not as deep a knowledge. This can give you a broade

NPR on an MP3 player I could sign up with Audible.com, and pay $70 a year for Morning Edition and $70 for All Things Considered, and be able to download the programs into a portable MP3 player. Hmmm...maybe that would be a valuable promo for my public radio station to give away for a donation. Something to think about, WETA 90.9 and WAMU 88.5. If people start paying for NPR programs on Audible, then they're less likely to donate to their local station, which will start the decline of local programming on public radio. As people get used to paying for content on the net, this problem will only get bigger. So, it might be good to nip it in the bud, and let NPR sell MP3s of the programs through affiliate stations webpages, so the affiliate and NPR get a cut of the action, rather than NPR cutting the affiliate out of the action.

On obligations of citizenship Other than jury duty and taxes, is there another obligation of citizenship that requires a person give up personal time for society? I don't think so. We have laws that tell us what we cannot do. Some of these laws do require positive action from the citizen, such as building permits or driver's licenses. But these do not appear to be a requirement of citizenship. If you don't want to get a driver's license, don't. And if you've never built or added on to a house, or other structure, you've never had to get a building permit. I've never required one. Granted, these days to receive maximum benefit from citizenship, you do have to get some form of government ID. But it's not a requirement. Maybe signing up for Social Security is a requirement, at least to work, and to conduct commerce. All of your financial transactions require Social Security numbers these days. These are the things I was thinking a

Did we capture the real Saddam Hussein? I'm inclined to think so. Why? He had US$750,000 in hundred dollar bills with him.

When will the grown ups take over? Just heard this on Marketplace on public radio. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that only countries who supported us during the war would be allowed to have contracts on rebuilding Iraq. Thus, no French companies, no German companies, no Canadian companies, and no Russian companies will be allowed to get contracts on the rebuilding. At the same time of this announcement, President Bush was calling Russian leaders, asking them to forgive Iraqi national debt. The Russians turned him down flat. Did the administration really expect anything otherwise? What the hell were they thinking? Were they thinking? Great god, I never thought I'd be glad to see James Baker working for this administration, but he may be the only grown up available.

Daniel Davies is brilliant Two pieces he's posted lately bear reading. One on his own blog, and one on Crooked Timber. The first one he deals with American leadership, and our questioning of it. D-squared Digest -- A fat young man without a good word for anyone : ...I never qutie understand why the pro-war crowd, left and right, seem to think that injecting the phrase 'Bush is a moron' into the debate is in some way unsportsmanlike, unmannerly or evidence that one's opposition is partisan or not serious. It's an entirely germane point in considering the costs and benefits of a war whether or not it's being run by a moron, and it is by no means established that the option of a war not run by a moron was completely out of the question. The benefits of waiting could have been considerable; we might have had a significantly better-planned war and post-war. And I'd argue that the costs were not so great; although Saddam was indeed a dictator or the varie

Perverse Consequences Dept. This is a continuation of the last post. Am I the only one who sees in Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean a hidden blessing for Joe Lieberman and the rest of the Democratic field? This way, Rove & Co. have a front-runner to attack, attack, attack, while the remaining Democratic field is shielded. Then, one of the shielded ones can pop out if the attacks, investigations, and innuendo get to be too much for Dean. The loss of credibility would put a serious dent in Al Gore's future political prospects, however. And I don't think Al is that selfless.

Boy, is Lieberman pissed! The Gore endorsement of Howard Dean is a major boost for Dean, and a nail in the coffins of the other candidates. Sharpton and Kerry have had some harsh words, but Lieberman is the most annoyed. Lieberman is saying that he is the logical standardbearer of the continuation of the Clinton years of moderate Democrats. The only problem with this is that Dean is not that liberal. More liberal than Lieberman, but I don't think he's more liberal than Clinton was. The only point where he breaks with moderate Democrat orthodoxy is on the war in Iraq, which a lot of us now say was a fuckup (see Senator Kerry's comments in Rolling Stone). Oh, and Dean's stance on guns. He's against gun control. So, he's more liberal on one thing, more conservative on another. He believes in fiscal restraint, balanced budgets, and individual liberties. One commentator even went so far as to call him a Rockefeller Republican. I think that's a

Now, if we cut their health insurance, we make more money quicker How would you feel if your employer took out a life insurance policy on you as a tax dodge? As you probably know, proceeds from life insurance policies are tax free. So this is just a tax dodge. Unless they cut the retired teachers health benefits and start collecting quicker. HoustonChronicle.com - Top Democrat urges Perry to abandon 'death business' Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN -- The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party on Friday called on Gov. Rick Perry to terminate discussions to have the state purchase life insurance policies on thousands of retired teachers in order to earn the death benefits. 'It is outrageous that Rick Perry would try to put the state of Texas into the death business,' said Charles Soechting. 'You don't fund state government by taking out life insurance policies on retired teachers and cashing in upon their death.' P

While you're there... And while you're reading the previous post on Orcinus, read this one too. Good god, this is chilling. But it is also good analysis. Reminds me of reading Krugman quoting Kissenger about revolutionaries, but more intense. Because this time it is personal. Go, read. Orcinus-The Political and the Personal : When the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Bush v. Gore, (which I will discuss in more detail sometime this week), it became clear to me that not only had the conservative movement grown into a dogmatic ideology, it had metastacized into a power-hungry, devouring claque of ideologues for whom winning was all that mattered. I also knew, of course, that not everyone who participated in the movement was like this -- but they were all too willing to let those who were run a steamroller over every basic principle of democratic rule -- especially its core of equity and fair play -- in the name of obtaining the White House.

I should link to David Neiwert more often Unfortunately, I didn't have him blogrolled until now. And he's often horribly depressing. And too often correct. Orcinus-Why domestic terrorism matters : Apropos of last night's post abouth the white supremacists who had put together a lethal poison-gas bomb that they planned to detonate somewhere in the United States: At least one weapon of mass destruction -- a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud -- has been seized in the Tyler area. This means, of course, that we have now found more weapons of mass destruction in Texas, in the hands of domestic terrorists, than we have in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Notably, this is the second such case already this year, and both have been cracked due to sheer blind luck. Another recent domestic-terrorism attack was prevented because relatives and friends grew concerned. One has to wonder how long we're going to stay lucky.

Truth? What is truth? They've apparently never practiced it. Wasn't this administration supposed to bring honor back to the White House? And they impeach a president over one lie about a little (censored)? Note also that this article does not actually detail the farrago of bullshit that surrounded the "Mission Accomplished" banner. First, it was all the ship, honoring the president, and the White House had nothing to do with it. Then, it was just the ship, saying that their mission was accomplished. Finally, the admission that the White House put it up, but it didn't mean that the Mission was actually Accomplished, just that Major Fighting had ended, or had been accomplished for the crew of the carrier, or some other nonsense. Yahoo! News - White House Changes Story on Bush Plane Incident : Wed Dec 3, 4:44 PM ET By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another White House correction, the Bush administration on Wednesday changed its sto

Yes, my computer is back up and running After a low-level format to the hard drive. Which means it wasn't the drive hardware, but the ease of damage of the Microsoft operating system. Wasn't XP supposed to be much more robust?

Unemployment and Disability This is interesting. This makes this current recession's unemployment statistics not directly comparable to previous recessions. So, a 6 percent unemployment rate is more like 8 percent plus unemployment. And to get us out of this hole, we'll need much more economic growth than we're getting. Also, if we follow this to its logical conclusion, we could say that a lot of jobs that were displaced by NAFTA in the early 1990's resulted in uncounted unemployment because the unemployed went on disability. I would love to see some disability statistics that break down by region or state. I'll go looking for them tomorrow. The Unemployment Myth (New York Times, November 30, 2003) : The government's announcement on Tuesday that the economy grew even faster than expected makes the current 'jobless recovery' even more puzzling. To give some perspective, unemployment normally falls significantly in such economic boom times.

Happy Thanksgiving My parents and brother are coming up, so we're cleaning and cooking fiends today. My computer has been giving me problems here, hence the paucity of postings, and with company I doubt I'll be able to catch up this weekend. So, I'll take a break and see you all next week sometime.

They're trying to expand the Patriot Act Well, here they go. Let's hope that a few moderate Republicans in the Senate will help the Democrats stall this thing out. Since they started charging strip-club owners with the Patriot Act, I know something has gone wrong. And if they pass these provisions, they could seize the records of the strippers to see who put one dollar bills in each girls g-string. Yahoo! News - House OKs Intelligence Bill, But Not Easily The provision in the intelligence bill that became contentious would allow the FBI to execute warrants without court approval to follow suspected terror finances through pawnshops, casinos, travel agencies and other venues not traditionally considered financial. The FBI can now take such action with traditional financial institutions like banks. Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who approved the bill, said the votes against it were due to a misunderstandin

The sad, scandalous state of the National Parks And privatization is supposed to help? And why am I reading about this on a travel site, not in a major news magazine or paper? This is a scandalous waste of our natural resources, letting them deteriorate like this. Endangering our National Parks: An editorial The Bush Administration has targeted the Department of Agriculture - which oversees the National Parks and Forest services - to be analyzed for the first round of "Competitive Sourcing." That is another term for privatizing, turning over to outside contractors what are currently government payroll jobs - 1,700 of them, in the case of the National Park Service. The Administration has claimed this will produce a savings of 20 percent for taxpayers. Since when was adding a layer of middlemen a way to save money? The idea is that government will pay private companies to manage park resources, and those companies will in turn hire and pay workers to do

My father reads my blog, and is mad at AARP Why would I pick this particular time to make a comment about my dad and the AARP newsletter? And then it turns out they're just as venal, just as avaricious and scheming as the Republican Party? I'll write more about this soon, but I'm surprised that they endorsed the Medicare Deform Bill. I shouldn't be, they're a big organization, and their head did write the forward for Newt Gingrich's book. Oh well, more to come.

My father reads my blog And frequently makes suggestions on things to post. I presume they came from his AARP newsletter, but it does often improve my output. Plus, it keeps me from writing about our scandalous dinner parties here at Maison Datanerd, where we might even open a second bottle of wine! The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog : MINNEAPOLIS, MN—In a turn of events the 30-year-old characterized as "horrifying," Kevin Widmar announced Tuesday that his mother Lillian has discovered his weblog. "Apparently, Mom typed [Widmar's employer] Dean Healthcare into Google along with my name and, lo and behold, PlanetKevin popped up," Widmar said. "I'm so fucked."

Interesting results of the RIAA lawsuit strategy The uptick in sales may only be a coincidence of releasing more new albums and the economy in general increasing. So sayeth Salon.com, an online magazine. And the general impression of the industry has been damaged by the lawsuits. Ars Technica: Are the RIAA's tactics working? : Last week the Recording Industry Association of America filed another 80 lawsuits against suspected music pirates. These 80 were part of a group of 204 who were greeted by thugs with baseball bats ...er...notified they would be sued unless they contacted the RIAA about possible financial settlements. The remaining 124 settled by paying penalties ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 each. As part of the settlement, the signees were required to delete copies of illegally obtained copyrighted songs and refrain from badmouthing the RIAA in exchange for no admission of wrongdoing. The RIAA claims their lawsuit strategy is working since the majority ran for th

Brad DeLong finds this strange Wal-Mart is calling for cool sales in the quarter. People are spending on paydays mostly, and going for the cheapest things. Even the Labor Department was saying last weeks unemployment claims number was possibly a statistical abberation, and this weeks number was higher. Are we finally seeing the consumer spending recession that has been feared but so far unrealized? Strange Third Quarter News From WalMart: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal : Strange Third Quarter News From WalMart WalMart doesn't seem to have seen the same third-quarter spending boom that the NIPA estimates did, which is quite strange. Something seems to be wrong with our collective visualization of the Cosmic All: Forbes.com: Wal-Mart dumps cold water on U.S. economic bulls : CHICAGO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Economists and politicians giddy about prospects for U.S. economic growth got a dousing of cold water on Thursday from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(nyse: WMT

Alan Kreuger is Unhappy At least, I think he is unhappy. I think he's trying to warn us about our lack of educational attainment in the United States, and how the slowing of growth of the workforce will result in fewer jobs. Also, our tax policies have been more focused on increasing consumption instead of putting people to work. But I could be wrong. The New York Times: November 13, 2003 ECONOMIC SCENE Why Jobs Were So Late By ALAN B. KRUEGER THE latest reports from the Labor Department suggest that what might be called the Energizer Bunny recession in the job market - it just keeps going and going - might finally have come to an end. If sustained job growth has indeed arrived, why did it take so long? Although there are no definitive answers, it is possible to piece together some plausible stories and to rule out others. A popular explanation for why it has taken at least 20 months from the official end of the recession for job growth to resume - seven and a

Eric Alterman is in high dudgeon I'm glad he's able to say this. I could say the same thing, but I wouldn't have the extensive sources he has. Eric Alterman: Altercation Liberal wimpiness is the far-right’s best friend. Take Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has done magnificent work in bringing the crisis in Africa to the mainstream, demanding that liberals lay down and die before the hard-right steamroller that is the Bush administration. The comparison he makes between Bush-hatred and Clinton-hatred is fallacious on so many grounds one hardly knows where to begin. Here are just a few salient points. Since I’ve been identified by the Wall Street Journal as a prime example of the latter, permit me to point out a few significant differences. 1) Bush “haters” talk about policy not personality. 2) Bush “haters’ support the country and its soldiers in wars they believe to be misguided 3) Bush “haters” do not accuse the

Another attack, another reprisal I don't like getting shot at, and I don't like American troops getting shot at. But it seems like we're taking a page from the Israeli playbook, with attacks and reprisals. And it hasn't been a very successful play for them either. We need some new ideas. U.S. Forces Destroy Building in Iraq NASIRIYAH, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives at an Italian paramilitary base Wednesday, killing at least 26 people. The United States struck at the Iraqi insurgency hours later, destroying a building in Baghdad in an assault that thundered across the capital.

Tennessee 10, Miami 6 That's the way to play some football. You know, when the Pride of the Southland Band comes through campus playing Rocky Top, it brings a tear to your eye.

The way to deal with annoying questions Is to not take any more, apparently. At least that's what the White House has decided. White House Puts Limits on Queries From Democrats, Friday, November 7, 2003 The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers. The decision -- one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual -- was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the "Mission Accomplished" banner for President Bush's May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled "congressional questi

Bush's New Coalition Al Kamen has such a wonderfully developed sense of irony. He doesn't always hit you over the head with things, he lets them slip in subtlely. In the Loop, Friday, November 7, 2003 "Bush's New Coalition" There is concern these days that some members of the Iraq "coalition of the willing" might be having second thoughts about hanging in there. Problem is that withdrawing would leave them dangerously coalition-less. Not to worry. President Bush has got a coalition for you. He's formed a new coalition -- a kind of Third Way -- called the "Coalition of the Peaceful," which he announced last month on the eve of his Asia trip. Bush, in an Oct. 14 meeting with Asian journalists in the White House, talked about efforts to defuse the ongoing nuclear threat from those wacky North Koreans. He mentioned that the four countries working with Washington in trying to persuade North Korea to back off were "making pr

Today's Washington Post This will teach me. I only got to page A27 this morning on my ride in. Turns out all of the juicy bits were on page A29. Here's one from Al Kamen's column: In the Loop, Friday, November 7, 2003 "Someone to Watch Over Me . . ." Ever get the feeling someone is watching you stroll along the Mall? That's because someone is -- from atop the 555-foot Washington Monument. Seems four surveillance cameras were installed there back in March to keep an eye out for terrorists and other evildoers. Where visitors had eight windows -- two in each direction -- to survey the vista, now there are four. The cameras, likely mounted on tripods, are hidden in small plywood closets and look out the other four. The cameras have attracted the attention of Hill folks, including Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, (W.Va.), ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee. Rahall wrote National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella, asking whether the camera

Molly Ivins is outraged at the mutual funds She's mad, and justifiably so. And she hits on one of the big points I've been trying to make to my friends: If regulation is so bad, why in the hell did we start doing it? Its because, when unregulated, these companies will take advantage of the American people. We don't like that, and we as a people need to realize that these conniving bastard Republicans want to take our money and put it in their pockets, under the guise of "free markets". Molly Ivins 11/4/03: Mutual fund fleecing AUSTIN, Texas -- I'd really like to know: What were they thinking? What did the traders, directors and managers of mutual funds think they were doing? Did they think, "Everybody does it?" Did they figure, "It's not really stealing; not actually taking money away from someone, it's just that they won't make as much as they might have?" Did they think the big customers were entitled to more? W

Election Day It's Election Day here in Virginia, anyway. Seats up for election include our county board of supervisors, and state house and senate. There were lots of people at my polling place this morning, more than were there last year for the congressional races. I think this is due to a great deal of interest in the board of supervisors chairperson seat which was up for grabs, after Kate Hanley decided not to run again and instead challenge Jim Moran next year in the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress. But anyway, we have beautiful weather, so I came home early and took the dog for a long walk. That's a good way to spend some time outdoors.

Two Knives and a Blowfish make a sushi bar This is good, very very good. News media consumers could use a lesson on leaks [H]ere is a modest proposal for clearing up the confusion these stories often create. Why don't news outlets start using a set of standard warning symbols to accompany any news story based on leaks? Every such story would come with a graphic icon of a leaking water tap, and would include a legend to define other key symbols that would be inserted to flag leakers' self-serving motives: Knife -- Warning: The purpose of this leak is to hurt or destroy the source's political enemy. (Mr. Novak's CIA agent disclosure needed such an icon.) Pointing finger -- Warning: The source is attempting to shift blame to someone else. (This icon would have been suitable for the rush-to-war leaks cited above.) Blowfish -- Warning: The anonymous source is puffing up himself or his boss. Be skeptical. (This icon should be used for virtually ev

That tricky tricky liberal media Goddamnitall, the Republicans are working the referees in the media again, and CBS is caving. Go read the whole article. And if all of Hollywood was liberal like they say, do you really think they'd be able to suppress a fictionalized portrayal of a president? UPDATE: CBS cancelled it. It may run on Showtime. Cowards. But there's a good side as well. Josh Marshall puts it well on his blog. 'The Reagans': Too Hot for CBS to Handle? (washingtonpost.com) Sunday night, CBS executives attending the network's 75th-anniversary celebration in New York laughed out loud as Dick and Tommy Smothers recounted how CBS had caved in to complaints from conservatives and scrubbed their politically charged '70s variety show. Yesterday morning, some of those same CBS execs were working on how best to scrub their upcoming biopic on Ronald and Nancy Reagan after receiving a letter of complaint about it from the Republican National

Jobs growth and GDP growth Richard Berner at Morgan Stanley has two articles recently on the GDP growth number of 7.2% annual rate for the Summer 2003 quarter. He's been fairly bullish about the recovery. These articles take a bit more subdued tone. The thing to watch this Friday, November 7, will be the Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This will tell us if the September uptick in payroll employment continued into October or not. If it did, we may be on the way to a slow, slogging, but sustainable recovery. If not, and the "job-loss recovery" continues, we may be into the very bad side of things that Brad DeLong forecasts. "[T]he longer the disjunction between fast output growth and stagnant employment continues, the less likely this smack-in-the-middle forecast becomes. Things are very likely to be either significantly better or significantly worse than the current consensus forecast--but we have no idea which." Fr

Notes from Ireland II Monday Night: Headed up to Christ Church area to try restaurant near there. It turned out to be much too expensive, so we instead went down to the River Liffey and visited the Brazen Head pub, supposedly the oldest in Dublin (this pub was founded in the 1750's, but a pub had been on the location since 1172). The pints were expensive, and the food mediocre. Mrs. Datanerd and I decided to have our own pub crawl, hitting every one on the list from the Top Ten: Dublin guide. Of course, the Brazen Head was on this list as well, so I suppose it was the triumph of hope over experience. First stop: The Stag's Head pub, just off Dame Street. Every guidebook said, "Look for the mosaic in the sidewalk by the alley." The mosaic in the sidewalk on Dame Street was not to be found. Instead, after walking back and forth several times, we cut down South Great George’s Street and down a small street from there to find it. A wonderful pub, mainly loc

Notes on camera In my travel across Ireland, we had two cameras, a Minolta Freedom Explorer EX film camera, and a Minolta Dimage S414 digital camera. After we got back, I uploaded the pictures from the digital to Wal-mart.com, and for 26 cents they printed them onto photo paper. Shipped, we had 97 photos for around 27 or 28 dollars. I cannot tell a difference in the quality between the film camera and the digital, with one exception. The digital has a few pictures where the exposure wasn't adjusted as accurately. Whether this is because of the printing process I do not know. Otherwise color and contrast was pretty good. I may buy one more film SLR camera in my lifetime. But I don't think they'll be around 10 years from now. Overall I'm incredibly impressed by the digital. Once they can make it focus and shoot as quick as the smaller, lighter film camera, there will be less need for the film camera.

Notes from Ireland I (NOTE: These are the notes I e-mailed home to parents and family. Names of the Datanerd and Mrs. Datanerd changed. The rest of the details are fully factual.) I read in the Irish Times that "Confidence in Economy Continues to Climb", and I know I'm not in America. Friday and Saturday: Galway Caught every break possible, plane landed early, caught express bus, and was in Galway by 10:30. Spent the day decompressing, then took Mrs. Datanerd out for a birthday dinner. She had mixed grilled seafood, I had mussels. Mussels here are amazing. Saturday we took the city tour on a 1960's vintage double decker bus (Leyland Diesel). Took around city, rode to Salthill, a seaside resort town. Rode around once, stopped and had lunch of cheese and bread from local weekend market. Picked up bus again to go to Salthill. Salthill reminds me of a coastal Maine resort town. Very pleasant. Stopped in pub. Apparently this joint was the local a

This is excreable I'm not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, this could have a chilling effect on people speaking their minds. On the other hand, the request is totally without merit. This could have the effect of finally totally and utterly discrediting Donald Luskin in the conservative blogosphere. Luskin, in my opinion, is becoming as unhinged as Bill O'Reilly, in my opinion. Luskin made a dreadful mistake. By siccing a lawyer on Atrios, he alienated a large part of the blogosphere, even the conservative ones. Perhaps I should say especially the conservative ones, the ones who see lawsuits in general as a nuisance of good bidnesses. Oh, and remember, Luskin titled a post on his blog "We stalked. He balked." Eschaton : JEFFREY J. UPTON October 29, 2003 “Atrios” Author and Publisher of “Eschaton” Weblog Dear “Atrios”: This firm represents Donald L. Luskin, a Contributing Editor to National Review Online and author and

The Capitol, not the White House I work a block away from the Capitol. Report: Capitol Was Sept. 11 Attackers Fourth Goal (washingtonpost.com) : BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. Capitol Building, not the White House, was the fourth target of the Sept. 11 attackers, a German magazine reported Sunday citing results of interrogations of suspected al Qaeda leaders." (snip) "The fourth plane, according to bin al-Shaibah's questioning, should have hit the Capitol, the U.S. parliament ... U.S. authorities long suspected that it should have hit the White House. Only bin al-Shaibah's statement corrected the error," the magazine reported.

Back I'm thinking of posting a bunch of my travel notes on here. Tell you about it later.

On Vacation Might try to post while in Ireland. I'll send you all a postcard if I can.

Columbus Day For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary October 13, 2003 Remarks by the President on Columbus Day THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all, please be seated. Thank you all for coming. I'm honored to join you in observing Columbus Day and to celebrate Columbus Day in the District named after him. My fellow Americans, today we honor a man who helped shape our world's destiny. A man of science, a man of research, a man of discovery. Using the scientific principals of investigation, he found new things where people said they wouldn't be. He listened to others, but in the end knew he had to make his own decisions, and they turned out to be momentus. America is a stronger and finer nation because of his influence. And so, on this day, we celebrate the man, and Peter Falk who played him on TeeVee. Who else could have solved so many crimes in one hour, even with that cheese-eating surrender monkey car? God bless you, and may God continue to bl

Economic status and obesity This is interesting. Even with the same diet, poor people (not just kids) gain more weight than rich folks. Further, in countries where the social system changed, such as the former East Germany or Lithuania, poor people have had an increase in body mass index and cardiovascular risk factors. And it seems to be based on the level of inequality, not on the absolute level of income. Of course, the skinny nazis would say that the poor should just eat less to compensate for their body producing too many stress hormones. Even better yet, take control of their bodies and tell their bodies to quit producing so many stress hormones. To which I reply: quit being rich and taking up so many scarce resources, crowding me out of the market. Then I might not be so stressed out about where I'm going to live when starter homes are going for $200,000 in the DC metro area, and who's going to pay for schools, and who's going to pay for retirement. It