Debt and Taxes

Paul Krugman with a great down-to-earth comparison of what Bush's proposed tax cut would mean if a regular family adopted it. I enjoy his writing more and more with the passing weeks.
- posted by levinson @ 2/28/2001 07:23:00 AM

 
Salon.com Books | Assault on evolution

This IDT (Intelligent Design Theory) crap is fantastic. Ask a bunch of questions of evolution that aren't easily explained, or are unusually complex but have a conventional, albeit erroneous, explanation in pop culture and then draw the conlusion that there must be a supernatural master genius behind it all. "We detect intelligent design in events that are highly improbable (thus complex) and that also correspond to some independently given pattern (thus specified)." Something (to our knowledge at the time) is improbable and yet winds up being specifically organized; we must therefore conclude that it was designed by a supernatural being. It's important to test the accepted theories of science, but this doesn't come close. IDT reminds me more of an episode of Star Trek:The Next Generation I saw last week when the crew discovers that all the species of the galaxy are decendant from a single entity which evolved long before everything else in the universe. Upon the realization that they were dying out, they sprinkled their genetic code throughout the worlds that had life-supporting potential. They also encoded a message in the code that revealed a wonderful message once all the genetic strains were brought together. Undoubtedly this is why there is evidence of a life supporting atmosphere on Mars. Now I'm all off topic.
- posted by levinson @ 2/28/2001 07:09:00 AM

 
Sorting Out the Pardon Mess

I'm continually seeing terms like "outrageous abuse of the pardoning power" being used in the media. This is really the only thing I object to in the condemnation of the pardons. They certainly seem to have been misguided, but with very little evidence showing that the Clintons personally benefitted from any of the pardons, it would seem that these pardons are poignantly minor in the context of the pardons of Clinton's predecessors. One pundit, in response to the attempted placing of the pardons of two financiers in context with those of Caspar Weinberger, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Hoffa, said simply, "that doesn't make it any better." No, dopey, it doesn't, but the fact remains that none of these pardons can compare to the sheer ass-saving of the pardons of Weinberger and Hoffa. The pardon of Weinberger and six others ended ongoing investigations of government officials invovled with the cover-up of the Iran-Contra affair; investigations that threatened to reach the white house had they been carried fully through. Certainly the former head of the CIA knew something of the covert actions of his country while he was vice president. The Hoffa pardon is a prime example of direct and illegal quid pro quo involving pardons. The mad-man Nixon pardoned Hoffa not just in exchange for money, but in order to get himself the union votes he needed for re-election in the wake of his refusal to end the Vietnam War, and, of course, his gunning down of student demonstrators; an act that bears remembering when we point our sanctimonious national finger at other countries and declare in our living rooms that, "it doesn't happen here."

In light of these acts by his predecessors, I have trouble seeing the Clinton pardons as, "outrageous abuse of the pardoning power" as the Times calls it. They were misguided and he should disclose all documents related to his decision making and begin repairing the political damage done by his once again over zealous political enemies. After all, were it not for Clinton's damaging pardons, the front page today may have carried something more about the fact that Bush's recollection of his stopping all money to family planning organizations goes something like this, "the money from Mexico, you know, that thing, the executive order I signed about Mexico City." Direct quote piped in to the press room.
- posted by levinson @ 2/23/2001 07:31:00 AM

 
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Eminem steals the show

A blow by blow account of the Grammys. My favorite line is, "8:25 p.m.: Steely Dan confuse the country by winning a Grammy 26 years after they should have."

It seems that the media are either shocked or relishing in the fact that Eminem didn't win the album of the year award. As if it was expected. I think with his performance last night, his appearance in court (if you see the pictures you'll see what I mean), and the fact that he brought out a new band that he's promoting during his acceptance speech, that we can safely say corporate America has MC Hammer'ed Eminem. He had two strong albums (which is more than one can say for Hammer) and now I expect him to gain as much weight as Kid Rock did this past year and break up/reunite with his wife once more. His two albums are among the strongest in rap, on a par with Wu Tang Clan and Paul's Boutique. Somebody stop me before I move my offices up to 125th street.
- posted by levinson @ 2/22/2001 10:45:00 AM

 
Salon.com Life | Court says fetus' death not a homicide

A fairly morbid advocation of abortion rights. Don't expect any of these judges to be up once the Bush electors decide to start retiring.
- posted by levinson @ 2/22/2001 10:22:00 AM

 
Fowl Play

The New York Times has a great and extremely telling pair of op-eds today. The link above is to Paul Krugman's regular Wednesday piece. Just above it (on the website at least) is a piece by former VP candidate Jack Kemp. One is an economist with MIT, the other is a former Buffalo Bills quarterback (before, it should be noted, they did all that horrible chocking in the Superbowl, though I don't know if any of Kemp's teams made it to the Superbowl).

Anyway, Kemp seems to feel that Bush should/could have proposed a tax cut twice the size of his current bid. My favorite line is, "[a]nd, high tax rates do not promote growth; they stifle it." Has this guy been living in a cave for the past 8 years? Clinton rose taxes to spur growth. Those higher taxes are one of the reasons we had growth so extreme that the Fed had to spike interest rates, slow that growth, and move us into this current "tech-correction" as I like to call it. As my brother put it, how much does it suck that these guys are back in the White House?
- posted by levinson @ 2/21/2001 07:00:00 AM

 
CNN.com

Okay, so now we're bombing Iraq. It's one thing not to hold a press conference yet (Clinton didn't have his first until late March) but you don't start attacking a sovereign country for the first time when you've just left the country and with not even a prepared statement to release to the public. I'd love it if some reporter would spring the question on Bush right now to see if he even knows that we've just attacked Iraq.
- posted by levinson @ 2/16/2001 10:45:00 AM

 
Well, I put up all the pictures from the walking tour I took around Park Slope in Brooklyn. Click on pictures to take a look.
- posted by levinson @ 2/16/2001 09:57:00 AM

 
Salon.com Politics | Reaganomics redux

The nonsensical shit wafting off this interview is amazing. A nice interplay of "I think"s, "you should"s, and "people might"s to mask the frightening shredding of the economy this tax cut would achieve. I'd love it if a congressman would start asking (shouting from the rooftops if necessary) why we should buy this lump of shit voodoo economic plan when we've already lived through its consequences.
- posted by levinson @ 2/15/2001 08:18:00 AM

 
Question Time

This is the second time Safire has come down hard on the Bush administration. Certainly as the battle over tax cuts heats up (would be nice if some democrats in Congress would start harping on them) he's going to need to answer some questions. Also, any time you're compared in any sense to Nixon in the New York Times, you've got to act quickly lest the comparisons become more frequent.
- posted by levinson @ 2/15/2001 08:01:00 AM

 
Doing the Wrong Thing

A pretty strong rebuke of all things Greenspan 2001. It seems that Alan wasn't quite ready for the consequences of his testimony. Even when told (at the time) by the members of the committee that what he had said would unleash a feeding frenzy rarely seen, he refused to withdraw any measure of his comments. Apparently in this session he also refused. Not only has Robert Rubin, part of Time Magazine's "Committee to Save the World," and former Treasury Secretary, come out vehemently against the tax cut, now some of America's wealthiest are as well. Buffet's comments are the most compelling in my mind, "[w]ithout the estate tax, you in effect will have an aristocracy of wealth, which means you pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit."(emphasis added) One can only hope that the democrats in congress mount a vehement offense and make this a hanging issue for the year.
- posted by levinson @ 2/14/2001 10:47:00 AM

 
Player Rankings

I just love fantasy sports. Baseball has been the sport I've had the most success with (had the 1st pick in last year's draft) though I wasn't too shabby in football the last two years. Also, the Sox are the only good Boston team right now. I can't wait for the season to start.
- posted by levinson @ 2/13/2001 02:23:00 PM

 
Salon.com News | Pardon for peace?

Joe Conason brings a new angle to the Rich pardon that has yet to be taken up by the media. He poignantly mentions that the possible influence of closing a peace deal in the middle east does not excuse the misguided pardoning of financial criminal who fled the nation to escape justice. Nonetheless, he makes the point that such a pardon made in the name of peace needs to be examined in a different context than one made in exchange for years of dutiful campaign finance.
- posted by levinson @ 2/13/2001 06:56:00 AM

 
Page2 - Mad cows and sick sports

Amen Dr. nothing, absolutely nothing worse than February.
- posted by levinson @ 2/12/2001 02:32:00 PM

 
CNN.com - New e-mail virus preys on Anna Kournikova fans

The old law firm got hit with this today. Email is still down. The first guy to get it was a partner. I find it funny that, upon receiving an email with an attachment titled "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs" all men by-pass the extensions at the end and just start impulsively double-clicking. The second person to launch it around the firm was a woman. Not sure what that says.
- posted by levinson @ 2/12/2001 01:12:00 PM

 
Napster: Hanging by a thread
It's too bad that the free stuff will be gone on Napster. Of course, there's the Gnutella et al. group so no big loss on the free market. I'm still willing to pay for Napster so for me the ruling isn't that big a deal. I do find Salon.com's picture of Naptser sinking funny though:


- posted by levinson @ 2/12/2001 12:58:00 PM

 
The New York Observer

Cover story of the observer has a bit about some mid-twenties folk who are hoping for a recession. Largely it seems their speculation is that a recession will make people, "nicer." What??????? That's right, living hand-to-mouth not able to find a job, etc., that makes people nicer. Anyone who was in the city then (I'm not one of them, I'm in my mid-twenties and the only thing I want is another boom) thinks these people totally insane. Nonetheless, we see some of the slaker-ness creeping back in to the culture, only now it's not the gen x-ers who made slacking look so cool when they were our older brothers and much-revered seniors in high school and college, but rather it's the children of the boom. Those of us who were children under Reagan, but grew up under Clinton. We seem to be fantasizing that the early 90's actually was cool, that people did enjoy graduating and moving back in with their parents simply because there was no job out there to be had. Call me a traitor to my generation (whatever you want to call the one after x, I've heard lots of variations), but I rather like how things are/were and I'd like them to continue.
- posted by levinson @ 2/12/2001 11:35:00 AM

 
I've been trying to lose about 10 lbs since the New Year. I've kept to a healthy diet, except on overnights and on weekends, and had very little success. In an effort to lose the weight, I've joined Weight Watchers and am going tcut back on the alcohol. I only drink on weekends and the odd week-night, but W.W. counts that fairly heavily on their "point" scheme. One bottle of wine is about 13 points (I get 25-27 per day) and I had one bottle on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Also, on Saturday I had a couple of beers. So, not the best on that front. I do think, however, that if I cut that out, I'll see some pretty solid results. Also, I found out that the breakfast of a bagel and orange juice that I have most weekend mornings packs 12 points. Needless to say, I'll be looking into alternatives there. It's been very educational so far, and we'll see how long it takes before I break down and have a whole large pizza to myself (I'm thinking around two weeks tops).
- posted by levinson @ 2/12/2001 10:06:00 AM

 
Mud masks and, "Way of the Gun." An elegant Sunday night.

- posted by levinson @ 2/11/2001 06:51:00 PM

 
Well, I have arisen after a nap that was significatnly longer than anticipated. Nonetheless, I am now eagerly anticipating the airing of both Survivorand SportsNight. I have a great love for SportsNight and simply can't understand why ABC pulled it, especially after it won a few emmys. They sure as hell never promoted it. As for now, I have Notting Hill to keep me company. I really liked this movie and it's one of the few that I don't mind cable stuffing down my throat for a month here and there.

While we're doing the whole TV review thing, HBO did a great piece on the Miracle on Ice that I was able to tape and makes nice addendum to the game, which I also got off of ESPN Classic.

Lastly, here I am, freshly showered, not shaved (I have 3-day weekend after all). I didn't want to go the web-cam route with the re-design, but the site isn't re-designed, and I slept away the rest of the daylight.



- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 04:19:00 PM

 
The Simpsoffs - Hell, d'oh, Bart must go. by Seth Stevenson

This blathering milk-sop has obviously a) not been watching this season and b) never heard of George Meyer. Someone, perhaps this idiot, wrote something similar about the Simpsons on CNBC a few months ago. The show has changed, there is no doubt, but this clown can cite no particular episodes which note the decline of the show. I'm getting tired of media types who used to watch the show, have caught a few episodes here and there and now think the show stinks. Shut your trap fool! That's right, I've been up all night and I'm pissed (about a TV show, oh god).
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 06:11:00 AM

 
The 'New' Sharon?

My reaction on this has nothing to do with the Israeli election, but rather Safire's assertion that "warlike circumstances impel[led]" the American people to elect Richard Nixon. I can take only so much revisionist history, but I draw the line when it comes to that letch. Nixon committed treason and, as an un-elected, non-official, convinced the South Vietnamese that they would be better off if he were President, and they should therefore not attend the Paris peace talks and scoff at the bombing halt that President Johnson had ordered. The direct result? Five more years of war. Why five? Well he had to get re-elected you know. The evidence on these issues has driven them well past historical theory into unassailable fact. What remains to be seen is what other illegal clandestine operations Nixon partcipated in or orchestrated in contempt of his country and for his personal gain.
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 06:00:00 AM

 
All right, into the home stretch here. Hoping now to not be sent home until I can get tomorrow off as well. I don't have much work for the rest of the week and I'd love to have a 3-day weekend, plus, I need the time to figure out my picks for survivor tonight.
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 05:14:00 AM

 
That's the last time I check a TOA with some wet-back new associate. Upon getting their degree, every 3L ought to get a muzzle strapped on them for good measure. Mouth closed, ears open. For at least their first three years. Until then, none of them knows squat.
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 03:58:00 AM

 
Well it looks like the brief is finally ready to be gone over again. Not much to report this hour except that it's extremly hard to remain thin while working here as they give us free soda and Pepperidge Farm cookies 24/7. No matter what you can always have some kind of soda and cookie/cracker whenever you want. It's great, but fattening.
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 01:19:00 AM

 
Just noticed that I skipped an hour between 1 and 3. That was taken up with our first substantial fuck-up. It was a small error that took about an hour to fix, because we had to generate a new page, copy it, and insert it into 9 copies. That with three separate docs. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it takes a while to fix. Anyway, that was what took the time for that hour. Time for a few zzzzz's (if I'm lucky).
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 12:36:00 AM

 
This is the beginning of the difficult part of the night. The six hours between 3:30 and 9:30 are the hardest because everything has ground to a halt in the outside world. All is dark and slow. To compound it tonight, there is precious little to do right now. I'm going to catch as many winks as I can at this point, but I hope to have the brief soon so I can put in the pagination. (That was legal jargon for those who know what I mean, for those that don't, it's dumb and would bore you to tears to hear about it.) Anyway, I just got the word that I can send another of my team home until morning (it's become my team now according to the associate, and that's okay with me except of course, as he put it, "you're the captain, so you go down with the ship" (I wonder how many actually do, they never seem to in the Aubrey/Maturin novels that I'm reading)). So that's where we stand until 4:30 or so when I hope to blog again. All in all, though, this is the smoothest brief I've yet worked on that's had to go all night, a credit to the associate even if he is a hopeless worry-wart. Hopefully things will continue along these lines through to tomorrow.
- posted by levinson @ 2/08/2001 12:25:00 AM

 
Trying to get one of the four members of the team to go home. She wants to stay partly out of guilt over an honest mistake that she made earlier today. Her end of the project isn't needed until next week and any hand she can lend is best given tomorrow when she's fresh. She brought up an interesting point regarding the guilt factor in a job. I used to have trouble sleeping when I was on various projects because I was concerned about a potential error or that I wouldn't wake up in time, or whatever. I felt that way until I royally fucked some stuff up a couple of times. I then realized that it only took a couple hours to fix those errors and have been able to sleep soundly ever since. Had I not made those errors, I wonder if I would have developed a dependence on that anxiety as keeping me on my toes and helping me to make fewer errors. I wonder if others are that way. I suspect the partner I'm working for is that way. I'm sure of it. I'd like to get one more person to go home in an hour or so, and then have the third person nap until at least 7am or so.

I need to look up in the "How To" section of the Blogger site to see how to easily add pictures to the blogger. I know I can just throw in the img tag, but I want to add it as a cell on a table so I can put text next to the image. I'm excited about the redesign, although I'm going to have to find an effective and safe way to carry my camera around. The case I have is a little too bulky. Hmmm, perhaps those GMAT study aides in my briefcase can go on the shelf and make room for the camera.

Got another finalized document ready. The wheels are turning.
- posted by levinson @ 2/07/2001 10:25:00 PM

 
Currently on an all-nighter at work. Normally I try to email Jess every hour to give her updates after midnight as to what/how I'm doing. Tonight, for a twist, I'll try and do it with the Blogger. I don't expect it to be too link-intensive, unless I get hit with some really bad down time (like now, but this is the lead-in so no links).

I'm currently mentally redesigning the site. I've noticed that the Blogger gives me a great way to keep the site updated and pertinent, but beyond that, the other links are just little posters with pictures. Great, but I want to move beyond that and have those be more like weekly visual updates of what's going on. Pics of the commute on the cattle herder (read 6 train in Manhattan) and other things. Don't want to go the web-cam route because I'm not looking for lots of pictures of me sitting down. Anyway, comments welcome.
- posted by levinson @ 2/07/2001 08:43:00 PM

 
Yahoo - Electricity Deregulation Succeeding in Pennsylvania

Although this links to a story from November, it's the best I can do on this issue. The reason is that the New Yorker isn't on-line. Anyway, their financial page this week has a story on how power deregulation is succeeding in Pennsylvaina (as opposed to California), and the small differences that have made for the huge contrast in the two states' experience.
- posted by levinson @ 2/07/2001 07:28:00 AM

 
CNN.com - Barak upbeat despite polls - February 6, 2001

This kills me. I love it, but it still kills me. Barak upbeat. Okay pal, who the hell are you kidding? You're getting slaughtered. I love political rhetoric. It's like bad radio.
- posted by levinson @ 2/06/2001 08:12:00 AM

 
megnut 2001 - menu changes seasonally

Just terrible stuff happening out in the dot-com world. This is the closest I've really been to any of it. Blogger is one of the best uses of the 'net that I've ever seen and it's a shame that it's been dealt such a blow. I don't know how long Ev can hold on doing it all by himself, but hopefully he'll get some money from somewhere.
- posted by levinson @ 2/05/2001 10:57:00 AM

 
ESPN.com - Page2 - Cameron's Craziest

Page2 has some good stuff on the Duke/Carolina rivalry. Most of it is about the Duke's faithful. This page is some of their best stuff over the years. Very funny.
- posted by levinson @ 2/01/2001 11:02:00 AM

 
Kentucky cashier falls for fake Bush $200 bill

This guy has to be up for a Darwin Award. My favorite part is that the bill is so fake that the cops can't prosecute for counterfieting.


- posted by levinson @ 2/01/2001 10:21:00 AM