"Ben and Beth Bailey sat in the back and clapped politely, but they remained unpersuaded. They said they were likely to break from their tradition of voting Democratic and might well not vote at all.
Obama "just doesn't seem like he's from America," said Beth Bailey, 25. Ben Bailey, 32, noted that Obama's middle name is Hussein, "and we know what that means."" - Rebecca Sun
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This article makes me sad, although God bless the stalwarts in that county who are pushing for truth. I feel like I could say a lot of things, like maybe this 25-year-old girl shouldn't have the right to vote, but I know that's not helpful. I also feel very helpless, because I don't personally know ANYONE like this... and that's kind of the problem. - Rebecca Sun
Yeah, the helpless feeling is frustrating. If you actually knew someone like this, would it help? I mean, could you help, even? - Dan Hsiao
"Their times and personalities are vastly different, of course. But J. Pierpont Morgan’s role in the Panic of 1907 has its echo in Warren E. Buffett’s actions during the current financial troubles." - Dan Hsiao
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I'm betting that the next 12-24 months will be bad all around for the exotic car companies and the car industry in general. - Alex "Maverick" Scoble
Really Alex? Many of the truly exotic cars sell in the hundreds per year. Do the few thousand at the top of the economy really need credit to buy them? On the other hand, I can imagine the merely high-end manufacturers having trouble - I suspect a lot of Porsches and BMWs are bought on credit. - Robin Barooah
Ferrari sales in China rose 25 percent to 200 cars in the first nine months, Chief Executive Officer Amadero Felisa said in an interview at the Paris Motor Show. Lamborghini's Chinese orders jumped 60 percent to 45 cars and sales in the Middle East grew 52 percent. The U.S. showed a 5 percent decline. (bloomberg 10/3/08) - david A
What's next? Lamborghini crossover SUV with 18 cupholders, seating for 6, and 2 DVD players in back for the kids? - Amit Patel
"The immense Bolivian site is the rock face of an outcropping on a slant of 73 degrees, 80 meters high and 1.2 km long. There are more than 5,000 tracks of 294 different dinosaurs made during the second half of the Cretaceous period. [...] There is such an impressive amount of tracks that some of the researchers said this place seemed to be a dinosaurs’ dancefloor." - Christopher Sacca
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Congratulations Kevin!! :) P.S. Where are you guys? (I think i spot some Highland Park trees) Rochester NY is the East Coast hub of FriendFeed! hehehe! - Susan Beebe
We were at Mendon Ponds Park, specifically the Cobblestone house in the park. Its about 15 minutes from where I grew up (and where my parents still are) Bloomfield, NY. Basically right at the beginning of the fingerlakes. And thank you everyone!! - Rachel L Fox
Man....getting married twice is cheating! I shoulda thought of that! And heck, if I'd known I'd get to wear my dress again, I might have had to rethink my travel plans! Glad you guys are having such a great time! - Alessandra Novak
It certainly puts the size of the earmarks into perspective. It's the same when politicians moan about the rising costs of drugs when they represent a very small piece of the overall health care pie. - Sally Church
Loved this bit: "Second, Obama has a list of 61 Nobel Laureate scientists, including many of my favorites: Harold Varmus, Don Glaser, Eric Kandel, Leon Lederman, Craig Mello, and Burton Richter. Wow. Obama also has four Nobel economists. The words "Nobel", "Economics" and "Scientist" do not appear on McCain's page. Third, Obama has the endorsement of 13 foreign political leaders. The only foreign endorsement for McCain is Norm McDonald, the former Saturday Night Live comedian. He's Canadian." - Dan Hsiao
"At one point, in 1985, Pixar, losing money fast, was nearly sold to General Motors and Philips Electronics, which wanted its computer-graphics modelling tools to help design cars and transform medical scans into three-dimensional images. Even when Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple, came to the rescue, Pixar was still in danger. Its pretence to be a computer company was going badly: sales of the Pixar Image Computer were slow. The only significant way the company was earning money was by making cartoon advertisements to sell other companies' products." - Bret Taylor
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I just saw Wall-E last night, and compared to other Pixar movies, was kinda disappointed. In contrast and captioned above, Ratatouille was awesome. - John Lam
I agree. Wall-E was ok, but not great. - Sheila Taylor
I think the Pixar movie after Incredibles,like Cars,Rat,Wall-E are not so great,maybe the bar had set by themself is too high to reach. - Steve
Haven't seen Wall-E yet, but you gotta think that after so many really good films (not just animated films) they are bound to have a 'so-so' flick in there...The Incredibles was the best imo - Jake Tapia
Monsters Inc., Cars and Ratatouille are my faves. Looking forward to seeing Wall-E when on DVD. - Kol Tregaskes
jake, I thought the same thing, but Wall-E was great too. I am still waiting for a Pixar flop to let me know we're all fallible. - Aaron Krug
On the other hand, I think Wall-E was better than the Dark Knight (which was pretty darn good too) ... Cars is the only one I didn't like, but it was still watchable. - Deepak
That is the sneakiest way, taxing benefits. Seriously, when have we done something like that before? Taxing options before they vest? I can't imagine the Republicans getting around that, so why taxing health benefits? And it's going to hurt the poor & middle class the most. - anna
I'm glad they finally started bringing this up. This is a HORRIBLE policy that will end up with millions more people without health insurance. - Jason Carreira
They want to tax benefits because they want to encourage individuals to disengage from employer plans and shop on the individual policy market...their plan is all about the presumption that an explosion of competition in the individual market will bring costs down. And that it will lead to general adoption of higher deductible plans and less "frivolous" exams, procedures, etc. There are all sorts of problems with this, of course...but I think that's the gist of the case for the plan. - Chester
They are not making that case (mostly because it's a huge gamble with my health insurance and $5k wouldn't really be enough to balance it out) - Jason Carreira
They're not making the case or they haven't successfully convinced you of their case? Two different things. - Chester
They are not making the case that they will somehow bring down costs and definitely not that they want to disengage health care insurance from employment. They try not to talk about it, because it won't work well with the middle class. - Jason Carreira
@banana Unemployment benefits are taxed as income. - Kevin D. White
I disagree. If you read their official campaign statements, they clearly are presenting the credits as sufficient for affording individual plans...and even talk about how leftover money could be deposited into a Health Savings Account. The idea of competition driving down costs is part of a larger campaign to reduce health care costs through deregulation and efficiency measures. Reducing costs as part and parcel to increasing competition and increasing options is the foundation of McCain's plan: http://www.johnmccain.com/Info... - Chester
But the fact is that a family health insurance plan is like $1500 / month. Unless they can somehow cut that down by a factor of more than 3x, it's not going to work, and they know it. - Jason Carreira
Yeah...that's just ridiculous...you can't get healthcare for $5k a year. - Alex "Maverick" Scoble
I thought the whole point of employers having group plans is that it's cheaper -- a large employer has more bargaining power than an individual. - Gabe
@Chester one point I've heard from an economist on Fresh Air is that it will benefit the average low/middle-income employed person initially but the cost of medical services will grow faster than the inflation rate, or so he explained it, screwing us in the end. I also don't think a private insurnace market benefits us, as they are like the HMOs and striving to cheapen and compete with lower medical costs - anna
I like "taxing options before they vest"....the government's gonna owe me a helluva lot of money.... - Glen Campbell
@Kevin re: taxation on unemployment benefits, we only get taxed on the usage of it, I believe, not on setting it aside (unused) - anna
Chester, you are correct about the motivation. In a stable environment, with stable healthcare costs, the plan actually has long-term merit, but neither of the above is true, and the rising cost of healthcare will immediately outpace the $5k per year tax break. - Shout out 2Jody
I wasn't trying to say that the rationale for the McCain health care plan is sound...I was just trying to describe what I perceive the rationale to be...to explain that they are not hiding the tax on benefits or "sneakily" slipping them in. That aspect of his health care plan is out in the open. I think it's wrong, but I don't think it's hidden. - Chester
I thought the (effective) tax deduction for employer-provided medical was a way to benefit the middle class (who have employer-provided health insurance) and not the poor (who have to pay for health care out of pocket). - Amit Patel
Group plans are essential as they pool risk, and also spread the burdens of pre-existing conditions. My personal opinion is that health insurance costs and health care costs should never be taxed in any way, to companies or individuals. - £ogical €xtremes
Dear Obama campaign: Please license the Who's "I Can't Explain," cut up a loop, and make this commercial pop. Thanks. - Chris Baskind
1. I clicked through thinking that the Who song would be the soundtrack to the ad. Very disappointing. - Benjy Weinberger
several problems w/ the McCain approach: 1) tax credits only work if you've *already* spent $5k- millions of people can't afford that; 2) taxing benefits as income only works if you have an employer offering a plan - millions of people don't have that; $5k does not come close to covering the costs of an annual medial plan; 4) McCain has already committed to not raising taxes. - MikeAmundsen
2. The McCain plan is even worse than the comments describe, since the discussion of how much health care you can buy on the private market for $5K assumes that you got the full tax credit. But many of those with little or no healthcare earn too little to pay that much in tax. To pay $5K in tax you have to earn something like $37K a year, I believe. - Benjy Weinberger
The tax credits are refundable, so if you don't make a lot you still get them $. (But it's still an awful plan.) - Larry Greenfield
Is there a time frame? Friday night is quiet. Let's say I post a story/link for friends again, 24 hours later? 48? etc? Thanks a lot! :) - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
also makes monitor duplicate apps in the apps room 10x easier! - Zee from WeDoCreative
“I found it very strange to bump into my 10-year-old daughter on Friendfeed. "Alex, how did you sign up and stuff?" "Aww, Dad. Once you've signed up on Gaia, you can sign up pretty much anywhere." I've been put in my place. ;-)”
"But Alex, how did you find the FF article with Vera the Enormous Spider?" "I Googled it, of course. It was the top hit" Sure enough, it is. ;-) - Chris Baskind
Rochelle: Yes, it's like MySpace for Tweens. My son, James, used to use it before deciding he was ready for the big leagues (he's 15). But they sucked him back in by making him a beta tester. - Chris Baskind
wohaa. Gaia Online... Yeah. If I would be 10 I'm sure I would love it too :) - ※Fu※
Mona: I have helped spawn the next generation of Facebook users. And may Odin have mercy on my soul. ;-) - Chris Baskind
You're much more easygoing about this issue with your kids than I am with mine. I'm afraid some skanky internet ho is going to corrupt my poor little baby boy! LOL. - Trish R
Does Gaia start to teach the kids about Internet safety? I hope so. - Ontario Emperor
They're frequently observed, and are constantly nagged about the various dangers of being a kid online. There are no computers in bedrooms. And James knows I browse the router's IP log. ;-) - Chris Baskind
"When Larry Levine helped prepare divorce papers for a client a few years ago, he got paid in mackerel. Once the case ended, he says, "I had a stack of macks."
Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California's Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex. Like other federal inmates around the country, they found a can of mackerel -- the "mack" in prison lingo -- was the standard currency...There's been a mackerel economy in federal prisons since about 2004, former inmates and some prison consultants say. That's when federal prisons prohibited smoking and, by default, the cigarette pack, which was the earlier gold standard." - bob
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Great article. "Another problem with mackerel is that once a prisoner's sentence is up, there's little to do with it -- the fish can't be redeemed for cash, and has little value on the outside. As a result, says Mr. Levine, prisoners approaching their release must either barter or give away their stockpiles." Reminds me of the parable of the rich fool... http://www.biblegateway.com/pa...; - torque
"The Bureau of Prisons views any bartering among prisoners as fishy." Oh, Wall Street Journal, you're so funny. But I wonder why it's considered an advantage that nobody actually wants it. Is it better for a currency if there is no actual demand for it? People certainly wanted cigarettes. - ⓞnor
Awesome. I love how in any society, some form of currency arises. Fascinating. - Rob Schonberger
With fried onions, white pepper, and steamed rice, mackerel is awesome and nutritious. Rich with protein and cyanocobalamin (the last vitamin isolated, B-12), Mackerel also has the most omega-3 fatty acid of any fish. Too bad no one, not even prisoners, eats mackerel. - John Lam
