The Serenity of Reason: The Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

14 comments:

BAWDYSCOT said...: Anybody else here think with all this talk about our financial...crisis, that we are blaming a system instead of the supposed smart people who made the bad bets and the ones who were supposed to look for people who were making bad bets with tons of leverage.

Blaming "mark to market" accounting is a fucking red herring. Having to price your assets accurately by using what the rest of the market would pay for them at that time sounds reasonable to me. What is unreasonable, is blaming sanity for mistakes educated people who cannot control their greed are liable to make when their reasoning powers are diminished by the dollar signs in their eyes.

I haven't a problem with anyone who makes more money than they can spend in a lifetime. I have a problem when someone shoots for the moon but shoots everybody else in the feet.; October 4, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Anonymous said...: I agree with you, Bawdy. The word "crisis" gets thrown around too easily these days... usually in an effort to bring in some kind of horrible legislation that would NEVER be accepted otherwise.

Making decisions based on the fear of what MIGHT happen is rarely a good idea. At first, they were pushing immediate passing of this bailout... claiming that we might not have ANY financial system on Monday if we don't. Well, Monday came and went, and we were fine. Turmoil in the markets, yes. But it wasn't the end of western civilization.

I read an interesting commentary by Michael Reagan comparing this situation to the stock market plunge in the 80s when his father was president. That market crash was actually FAR worse (as a percentage drop) than even the nearly 800 points the other day. What was Ronald Reagan's response? Basically, let market forces take care of it... don't intervene. And everything worked itself out over time.

This whole situation was going to be a much needed correction in the market. Housing prices have been artificially high (due to increased demand that resulted from the govt's little "affordable housing" plan). Interest rates have been held artificially low for some time now. But everything was sailing along while the housing market kept moving forward and upward. But oops, there will ALWAYS be downturns. And this one brought all the problems into focus. With this bailout, the market correction will probably end up being worse, but pushed a little bit into the future.

My hope is that the people of the US will vote out EVERY member of congress that voted for this behemoth. But I'm guessing it will once again come down to "MY congressman is ok, but everyone ELSE should vote theirs out."

To me, it's very telling when you have the likes of Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich vehemently opposed to this bailout. Love them or hate them, they are fiscal conservatives who DO have an understanding of economics.; October 4, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Ceroill said...: Well said, Bawdy.; October 4, 2008 at 6:11 PM
coreydbarbarian said...: this just in...

"As for other newcomers, David Zucker's right-wing spoof An American Carol from Vivendi Entertainment opened decently for this genre of pic at No. 9 with $3.8 million from 1,639 locales. By contrast, Bill Maher's left-wing satire Religulous directed by Borat's Larry Charles for Lionsgate opened on Wednesday and is doing far better proportionately at the box office, making $3.5 million this weekend despite playing in 1/3 as many venues as American Carol (just 502). Even more telling, Maher/Charles' per screen average was a robust $6,972 compared to Zucker's $2,325 -- good enough for No. 10."

...now back to your regularly-scheduled freemarkets worship session... ;); October 5, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Anonymous said...: You can almost picture the Hollywood studio execs scratching their heads. Kirk Cameron stars in "Fireproof," a new film by the Kendricks brothers whose proceeds for the film go to their church.
(Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films)

A film that was made for $500,000, relied more on word of mouth than television and print ads, and is headlined by an actor best known for a 1980s television show, opens at No. 4 in the country and rakes in $6.8 million in ticket sales. Fireproof the film exceeded even the filmmakers' expectations. They were hoping to make $3 million or $4 million and crack the top 10 when the film opened last weekend. Instead, they topped the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, in its third week, and Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna," which made only $3.5 million in its opening weekend.

Even more impressive, "Fireproof" opened on only 839 screens, which makes its per screen average of $8,100 second only to last weekend's No. 1 movie, Shia LaBeouf's critically panned "Eagle Eye," which was in 3,500 theaters.; October 5, 2008 at 1:41 PM
BAWDYSCOT said...: So we are to make judgments about what is happening to our existence here in this country and on this planet by comparing box office takes? This is the same exact shit I see everyday when watching a politician, any politician, try to explain away the real problems, blame the other side and try their best to spew their favorite sound bites. Pandering is as pandering does and nothing gets done.; October 5, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Ceroill said...: As to Fireproof, one big reason for the impressive response might be the huge plug Dr Phil gave it on his show. Of course, without mentioning any religious connections of the star.; October 5, 2008 at 9:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I saw Fireproof and it was a very well done movie. Some of the acting was not great but it didn't seem to matter since it was well written. Its sort of a chick flick but it had a good number of comedic parts.

Sometimes it is good to just stand back and laugh and then Sometimes it is best when nothing gets done.; October 6, 2008 at 8:02 AM
coreydbarbarian said...: another factor in fireproof's favor: many, many churches had organized trips to the theaters to see this film. i'm not saying that's bad or anything, just that fandango's early ticket sales went through the roof on this one.

glad you enjoyed fireproof, mousey. : ); October 7, 2008 at 8:52 AM
BAWDYSCOT said...: Just got done watching the "town hall" deflates. I made derisive comments about both candidates as I watched. My wife did too. When they were over, I had only one thought...

"Man, are we in trouble."

I thought a little longer, rubbed my eyes, tried to find some mitigating circumstances but could only come up with...

"Man, are we in trouble."; October 7, 2008 at 11:27 PM
BAWDYSCOT said...: And one more thing, csm, I don't see how Obama loses; I don't think that will happen, but I can see a dozen ways the country loses if either get in.; October 7, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Ceroill said...: This time I managed to wade through an hour of it. Sigh. It did seem to me that rather than actually answering the questions put to them, they spent most of the time lambasting each other and crowing about their own record/plans. Sadly unsurprising.; October 8, 2008 at 2:08 AM
Anonymous said...: Election considerations:

In just one year. Remember the election in 2006? Thought you might like to read the following. A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Since voting in a Democratically controlled Congress in 2006 we have seen:

1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity
value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

America voted for 'change' in 2006, and we got it!

Remember it's Congress that makes the law; not, the President. He has to work with what's handed to him.; October 8, 2008 at 12:06 PM
BAWDYSCOT said...: tj,

And what was handed to him(GW Cushy) were a set of regulations which if followed could very well have kept us from the precipice we are now looking over. I am not a huge fan of regulation, but I am smart enough to realize that at the right level, they can be advantageous to the markets. Will the Democrats go overboard with new regulations? Probably, but whose fault is that. The fault lies at the feet of the Republican Congress' we had before 2006, Congress' which if they(Republicans) had stuck to their knitting, could very well still be a Republican Congress.

Also the seeds to all the woes you have listed were planted before 2006. To blame the Democrats without equal blame for the Republicans is pure idiocy. And you can ask any of the regulars here, I am no fan of either Party and hold both in contempt.; October 8, 2008 at 12:44 PM

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