From the Press of Atlantic City:
Bottom Lines: List ranks New Jersey the worst for business, again
New Jersey has missed its last chance this year to be something other than the worst state in America for businesses and taxpayers.
In the Small Business Survival Index 2009, released this month by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, New Jersey again ranks 50th – worst among the states.
Only the District of Columbia has worse conditions for small businesses, thanks mainly to its very high crime rate and exceptional number of government employees.
In September, the Tax Foundation’s annual study of state tax and regulatory environments also found New Jersey was the worst place for businesses.
Numerous lesser surveys typically place the Garden State at or near the bottom whenever taxes and business conditions are the main considerations. Chief Executive magazine, for example, this year ranks the state 47th as a place to do business.
Do you still recieve a prize for being First ???
And it begins………
Greece defies Europe as EMU crisis turns deadly serious
Euroland’s revolt has begun. Greece has become the first country on the distressed fringes of Europe’s monetary union to defy Brussels and reject the Dark Age leech-cure of wage deflation.
Were we to believe that a country in the grip anarchist riots and prey to hard-Left unions would risk its democracy to please Brussels?
Mr Papandreou has good reason to throw the gauntlet at Europe’s feet. Greece is being told to adopt an IMF-style austerity package, without the devaluation so central to IMF plans. The prescription is ruinous and patently self-defeating. Public debt is already 113pc of GDP. The Commission says it will reach 125pc by late 2010. It may top 140pc by 2012.
If Greece were to impose the draconian pay cuts under way in Ireland (5pc for lower state workers, rising to 20pc for bosses), it would deepen depression and cause tax revenues to collapse further. It is already too late for such crude policies. Greece is past the tipping point of a compound debt spiral.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6804156/Greece-defies-Europe-as-EMU-crisis-turns-deadly-serious.html
We’re #1! We’re #1!!!
Ireland, Greece May Leave Euro, Standard Bank Says
Greece and Ireland are among countries in an “intolerable” economic situation, which may lead to bailouts or even an exit from the euro area by the end of next year, according to Standard Bank Plc. The absence of a mechanism to permit so-called fiscal transfers within the 16-nation region may undermine the exchange-rate system, said Steve Barrow, head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at the bank in London.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a3SIOdqSGOtE
Was out of country for one week and come to find out this in my town.
Bridgewater school is declared safe after bomb scare arrests
What is happening to NJ’s best schools in Nation pitch? This is definitely scary stuff. NJ is loosing its appeal at this stage.
NJ really never had “appeal”….I think most people ‘end up here’.
cobbler (152, previous thread)-
Yep, I have a cousin who is an osteopathic surgeon in France. He and his family (3 kids) live in a 2 BR, 2 BA condo in a grungy suburb of Paris. However spartan his living sitch, at least he didn’t graduate med school with deep six-figure debt.
Put a young doctor here on 100% Medicaid, work his ass off, bomb him with gubmint mandates and pay him 100K/year…and I’ll show you a future leader of one of my revolutionary brigades.
The post after yours was great. Liberalism really is a mental illness. And what you suggest lies philosophically somewhere between Lenin and Stalin.
“Yes, doctors can have 100% Medicare and stay in business – they just need to downsize their offices, office staffs, and do billing themselves. If they don’t feel like it the taxpayers could employ them as salaried professionals; 100K a year is still more than the average doc gets in any other country in the world.”
#7 schumpter,
I’ve actually gone to a few doctors like this. The podiatrist I went to his wife answers the phone, and does all the billing. Same thing with an ear, nose, and throat doctor I went too. Both believe in treating patients with the simplest, most cost efficient treatments first, before doing more complex tests. What a novel concept.
safe (8)-
How much student debt do you think those two docs need to pay down?
The student debt scenario for any kid is staggering. Public universities ‘should’ be affordable, mine was. And later in life I got satisfaction from beating Ivy MBAs for jobs — go figure.
#9
I’m guessing little to none.
I’m surprised young US doctors don’t just default on their debt and move overseas. Lower income but zero debt would probably be the same if not higher quality of life.
cobbler from prev thread “Those opposing the health reform with mandates, public option, etc.: do you realize that the guy in the post #66 could be you?”
This is known as false choice (“socia$ism or death”). The “reform” dems are pushing would bankrupt the country and still leave tens of millions of people out of coverage. Also, it would discourage new R&D and permanently alter the relationship between the state and citizens.
Why can’t we just take some simple steps first:
– increase competition (e.g. allow interstate insurance)
– tort reform: Move to European style malpractice system. This would make health care cheaper, and free resources (doctors, nurses and lab time) for cases where there is a actual medical need. It would also increase supply ie more doctors (e.g. retired docs could work part-time – now it is impossible because malpractice premiums).
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1114313420091211?type=marketsNews
“24 millions would be without insurace,…nation’s medical costs will actually grow faster under the new bill than.”
11 “I’m surprised young US doctors don’t just default on their deb”
You can’t get rid of student debt by default. Well, at least not if you ever want to visit US again.
10-One year’s tuition, room and board, books, fees at Rutgers Univ. New Brunswick is now about $21,000. Compared to the $50,000/year price-tag of the higher ranked private colleges this is definitely “affordable” but everything is relative. I don’t understand how NJ families making less than a 6 figure income can even afford Rutgers. Especially if they have more than 1 child to send to college. Yet, people seem to find ways to do it. I guess commuting is always an option, but only possible if you live w/in commuting distance.
14. When I looked at grad schools I checked out “Ringling” School of Design in FL….at $23k a year it scared me away. I “settled” for USF…and never regretted it. Though I would have loved to have seen how my work would have been affected by a real design school……fact is sticker shock is real and the fact that Rutgers is that expensive is consistent with everything else in this overpriced state.
FDIC, OTS Not Cooperating with Media Investigations
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/fdic-ots-not-cooperating-with-media-investigations/
This one is a classic:) We pay these people’s salaries:)
London starting to slip as a financial center?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_8410000/8410722.stm?
“loosing is appeal”
NJ tends to appeal to those of us who grew up here (and for many of us, for whatever reason) can’t think of anyplace else worthy of living (the other places are too far from NY, too rural, people have funny accents, whatever), and those who have to come to NY to work but are put off by living in NY (either because of cost, or lifestyle).
I have not met many people from outside these groups (or the spouse or child of someone in these groups) who has a warm spot in their heart for NJ.
speaking of education:
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/cgi-local/content.cgi
“Yahoo, Verizon: Our Spy Capabilities Would ‘Shock’, ‘Confuse’ Consumers”
http://tinyurl.com/y9l99u3
On C-Span right now is Jim Carr the COO of the Nat’l Community Reinvestment Coalition (?huh?) saying that he was disappointed that Congress did not pass the legislation which would have allowed judges to void the mortgage contracts of homeowners in trouble. Carr said it would have gone a long way in resolving the failures of the real estate market. They really should start having both sides presented, other than call-ins from the audience. It seems to me they used to have more of that.
Re the cost of Rutgers – the cost has been out of whack for ages. Back in ’91, I headed down to UF because it was cheaper for me to go there than to stay in-state. My honors scholarship waived out-of-state tuition and we paid about $56/credit hr. My share of the rent was never more than $230/month and when we lived near the football stadium, we were usually able to cover 2 months worth of rent by charging people to park on our lawn.
In addition to much cheaper tuition, Florida had much more generous scholarship programs for state residents – my friends on Bright Futures scholarships got free tuition and books and the state also had a big pre-paid program that allowed parents to lock in tuition and room/board payments as early as birth.
All I got from Rutgers for graduating in the top 10% of my class with high SATs was a $1,000 scholarship. I could have gone to Trenton State for free (and in fact my dad threatened to send me there after my first speeding ticket). At least in Florida, their top students still got generous scholarships to the flagship state schools, where in NJ they tried to push you into lower tier schools.
18 – That is so true. Yesterday we were with friends who have lived in NYC for years.They were shocked that it took us more than an hour to get from Jersey to her apt. downtown. I had to explain where we lived. My friends eyes kind of glazed over and I could tell she was thinking she would never want to live here. I asked if she had any other friends or family who lived in NJ and the answer was no. She made no response to our offer to have her visit us in NJ. Her loss?
Has the world gone mad? Ron Paul to co-host Squawk Box tomorrow?
Has anyone else been reading the commercial real estate stuff over at ZeroHedge?
Some of the cases are absolutely heart stopping and make Sutytown look sane.
Well spent last week in London and Paris which was fun.
Paris seemed like city where folks had least money. The cars were not as swanky and people did not seem to spend like crazy. Most folks live burbs with 2 bed condos. The cab drivers are horrible.
Are Americans a Broken People? Why We’ve Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of Oppression…
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
http://tinyurl.com/yd5gmds
#1 Hey, Roy. It’s been awhile.
regarding student loans…
Not sure if this is still the case, but a few years back, a college prof. of mine told me that repayment rates on student loans were HIGHER by people in the fine arts than that of the well paid professions: doctors, lawyers, etc,
Think about what is means if people in such”potentially lucrative” professions, such as sculpture and painting, are more responsible about paying back debt!
Perhaps some of these professionals feel entitled after finishing “professional boot camp”?
(29)-
Wouldn’t surprise me. Talk to anyone that leases medical equipment. Doctors have a bad reputation when it comes to payment.
Tosh
just imagine if banks actually had to mark-to-market there “assets”.
We are wile e coyote who has run ver the edge of the cliff and desperatly trying not to look down
tosh (25)-
I start my day with a quartet of NJRER, ZH, Reggie Middleton and Mineset.
Amazing I don’t head straight back to bed. I think Mineset keeps my spirits up.
I just came back from Germany, makes me want to move, free lunch, free medical, free parking, everyone rents house that actually have a form of rent control and there is govt sponsored childcare. I actually think the free lunch at work for employees is a great thing, afterall they had those huge ovens left over from the war so why not use them to cook lunch for 5,000 people at a time.
SG says:
December 14, 2009 at 8:32 am
Well spent last week in London and Paris which was fun.
Paris seemed like city where folks had least money. The cars were not as swanky and people did not seem to spend like crazy. Most folks live burbs with 2 bed condos. The cab drivers are horrible.
#32 – Amazing I don’t head straight back to bed.
You know, the older I get the more I realize that there is just no valid reason for getting up early. Especially if you read or watch the news with your coffee.
This headline from the Shreveport Times struck me as funny, and (in a different context) it could apply to Trenton, Albany, Sacramento, etc:
Dense fog covers Louisiana
John welcome back. It is good to see you are as PC as ever.
Dubai gets bailed out!!!!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dubai-gets-10B-from-Abu-Dhabi-apf-3358167649.html?x=0
The interesting thing about Big Pharma R&D is they never seem to come up with anything that doesn’t have bad side effects, or even fgure out why they are causing them. Birth Control Pills are a clasic example, after 60 years they are still warning you about blood clots, stroke, etc. How about real R&D that finally gets it right, safely. R&D seems to create pills that target standardized lab test results, with little regard to the patients health and well being.
[27] new in nj,
For me, that epiphany was reinforced by one of the subplots in “Videodrome.”
schump [7]
Put a young doctor here on 100% Medicaid, work his ass off, bomb him with gubmint mandates and pay him 100K/year…and I’ll show you a future leader of one of my revolutionary brigades.
You mean, if we had an opportunity to pay al-Zawahri (one of al-quaida leaders) well when he was a young doc in Egypt, he would still have lived in a mansion instead of a cave?
Seriously, many young doctors will be happy to have salaried jobs in the low 100s range coupled with gradual loan forgiveness programs. This is how the medical eductaion in Singapore works: govt sponsors the student in exchange for a 6-year stint as an employee post-graduation. Actually, theirs is one of the world’s best healthcare bsystems.
Increase fines if they challege or fight you and then when all else fails just shut the lights off and call it a day.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/cities-shut-off-streetlamps-to-save.html
confused [38]
Everything has side effects. Drink a couple of gals of water in 1 hr and you will die. Drugs by definition are more potent than water; the question is if the expected benefit is greater than the expected loss. If a drug extends life of 99% of the people by 5 years, and shortens it for 1% by 20 – society as a whole will gain, but there will be aplenty of lawsuits…
[29] WHYoung
Years ago, during my last year of law school, I worked for a small 2 attorney firm in Northern N.E.
The junior partner (nephew of the senior partner) told me of his plan to discharge his ivy league law school debt in bankruptcy. I told him that such debt was not dischargeable. He disagreed, and told me of a way he thought it could be done. I don’t recall what it was, but I was of the opinion it wouldn’t work. It was a long time ago, but I think his premise was that it was uncollectible, and would be written off, so the nondischarge thing was essentially a farce.
What he fails to consider, however, is that the debt stays around for awhile so he has to order his life accordingly.
Another concern is that state bar authorities have a lot of power. So much so, in fact, that he could be disbarred for refusing to pay lawful, nondischarged debts. Would this state’s bar do that? Possibly not, but I am pretty sure every jurisdiction where I hold a law license (2 states and DC) would disbar me for that.
Several years after leaving that small firm, the senior partner died. I wonder if junior had to rethink his strategy, now that he was left with a successful practice to run?
cobbler (40)-
I’ve got it…your brain is made of Swiss cheese.
The al-Zawahri thing ranks with Frank’s Mexican quant want ad as one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read.
However, I will give you this one, as I could see it happening in about another 10 years, as all of us gradually succumb to gubmint and corporations, living in an umber twilight of narcoticized numbness:
“Seriously, many young doctors will be happy to have salaried jobs in the low 100s range coupled with gradual loan forgiveness programs.”
I can’t wait to have a doctor who’s been completely educated, developed and financed by the gubmint. Nothing like being treated by a guy who’s more beholden to the Motherland than to me.
re: #7 – lookup Johnny Hallyday – “the French Elvis” had a botched surgery in Paris, and is now at Cedars-Sinai in LA.
The French Doc Dr Stephane Delajoux, who botched the slipped disk surgery was attacked the other day too, and he is really a “quack” and has been in the French papers many times for all kinds of Fraud.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article574000.ece
Too bad that was Johnny Hallyday, not David Hasselhoff.
[21] house whine
NCRC’s offices were around the corner from mine in the District. They are among the more boisterous groups advocating more free help for poor homeowners. We butted heads with them a few times. At least they were open with their redistributionist goals, and I respected that. The dem politicians backing them were considerably more opaque concerning their similar goals.
My NCRC story: One of my paralegals left our big, bad, banking practice to work there. She later told me that, at a board meeting, one of the NCRC board members (himself a well known gadfly for banks), asked her about me and picked her brain for information. That is when you knew you had arrived, when you showed up on Matthew Lee’s or NCRC’s radar as a member of the oppo.
[40] cobbler
“Seriously, many young doctors will be happy to have salaried jobs in the low 100s range coupled with gradual loan forgiveness programs.”
I think you are right, but that is not what we have here, at least I don’t think we do except for some rural doc program. Right?
I said it before, and will say it again. The proposed gov. takeover programs will create either (a) a two-tiered system (admittedly similar to what we have, but with an major shift from private to public level care), or (2) a completely socialized, government run system, where your health care providers are government employees (and good luck suing the government for that botched surgery).
Confused 38
2 reasons.
1) that would cost a LOT more money and take a lot longer. The market as it currently exists rewards the first one to patent and release the drug. So by taking the time and expense to minimize side effects your competitors are likely to beat you to the punch by ignoring side effects and pushing the drug to market.
2) Due to a surprising array of differences in human physiology, the same drug will have different effects on different people. Some peoples bodies simply process drugs slightly differently or they can interact with different receptors (some people have modified or different versions of cell receptors that drugs interact with). Genetic technology was heralded as the gateway to personalized drugs, where they could use a genetic profile of an individual to tailor a drug to their specific physiology, or at least a subset of physiologies that you would be close to.
The problem with this is that it would be very expensive if you tried to do that based on the current pharma infrastructure. (i.e. there isnt enough profit at this point).
genetic profiling based medicine would be a pandora’s box in todays corporate and regulatory environment. Once insurance companies or employers get access to an individuals genetic profile what do you think they would do with it?
Confused
the funny thing about the birth control pill is that J&J simply tweaks the hormone dosage every few years in order to extend the patent, when the patent should have expired decades ago.
They also alter the packaging slightly and a few other tricks that allows them to essentially make the patent permanent.
schump [45]
I can’t wait to have a doctor who’s been completely educated, developed and financed by the gubmint. Nothing like being treated by a guy who’s more beholden to the Motherland than to me.
These doctors (completely educated and financed by the govt) are the ones taking care of the U.S. Presidents at Bethesda Naval Hospital (they are Navy docs with most educated at the taxpayer expense).
Nothing like being treated by a guy who’s more beholden to money than to me…
vodka (50)-
Er, use it to deny treatment and coverage?
“Once insurance companies or employers get access to an individuals genetic profile what do you think they would do with it?”
cobbler (52)-
Too bad the closest most of us get to doctors like that will be in our dreams.
One of the neat things about soci@list systems is that the elite somehow get the best of everything. And, those below the elite are so brain-dead, they actually go along with the deal. Another symptom of liberalism as mental illness (Stockholm Syndrome?).
Honestly, have you even read a chapter of Animal Farm? You’re embarrassing yourself.
“These doctors (completely educated and financed by the govt) are the ones taking care of the U.S. Presidents at Bethesda Naval Hospital (they are Navy docs with most educated at the taxpayer expense).”
Schump,
Its not liberalism itself that is the problem. Its the rejection/fanatical fear of failure.
If we refuse to allow failure, whether its social failure, financial failure, or academic failure, the end result is that you cannot have excellence.
Until we get over our Disney fantasy of the lions living peacefully with the gazelle, romping through the savanna as butterflies dance about.
Its possible to compete with compassion, but it much harder to control a population that is used to and effective at competing for resources of any sort.
All of this “No Debt Slave left Behind” BS is simply about controlling the herd.
At one point we were more of a nation of philosopher warriors then placated simpletons.
re #49 – NPR did a hit piece the other day on Sen Max Baucus and the former heath care lobbyist he hired to write the Senate version of the heath care bill for him. The left leaning NPR excoriated him for his lobbyists plan which is a “private” network of health care co-ops.
Baucus this year is on a roll, he has had loads of doctors and nurses removed and arrested for “disruption of Congress” for wearing t-shirts advocating a single payer system.
Bacus is a big fan of cronyism too. Last February he submitting the name and résumé of his girlfriend and former staffer, Melodee Hanes, as one of his three nominees to be U.S. attorney for Montana, saying she was “highly qualified.” At that time it was not publicly known that the two were involved and living together.
Kettle are you saying that Woody Johnson of Johnson and Johnson fame just tweeks the NY Jets now and then to make it look new yet year after year it is really the same loser team?
kettle1 says:
December 14, 2009 at 10:07 am
Confused
the funny thing about the birth control pill is that J&J simply tweaks the hormone dosage every few years in order to extend the patent, when the patent should have expired decades ago.
They also alter the packaging slightly and a few other tricks that allows them to essentially make the patent permanent.
“Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition found – reached three times before – in six months of polling.
Perhaps more significantly, 46% now Strongly Oppose the plan, compared to 19% who Strongly Favor it. ”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform
(In CNN poll, 61% oppose nationalized health care)
vodka (55)-
You have hit the bulls-eye. In the liberal’s world, personal judgment and making distinctions are also not to be trusted. We are all the same, no matter what. The range of possible outcomes must be narrowed to “include” everyone in the happy collective of “shared” good fortune.
sean (56)-
If I can’t get Larry Summers executed live on TV for Xmas, I’ll settle for Max Baucus.
here, here, got to agree with the Schumpman. Animal Farm is the model of where we’ve landed. Look at the fed employees comp, bennies. see many similarities to our southern neighbors in havana. cronies get all the percs and the rest are bagholders
Tiger Woods anecdote for the day.
I went X-Mas shopping for Golf equipment for deal old Mom. Golf Galaxy on Rt 17 in Paramus was loaded to the gills will Tiger Woods gear for the Christmas Holiday. Tiger Woods collection of golf wear, Tiger Woods beginner clubs for children etc.
I asked a person working there how that stuff was selling, he pointed to the head covers for drivers and there was a big unsold stack of those famous orange and black striped one Tiger uses, and a stack of Nike hats with TW on them and Nike balls. The Tiger woods gear which was merchandised prominently in front of the store looked to be not selling too well for a Saturday afternoon.
Gonna be a blue Christmas for Nike.
I read 55 with an eye to TARP; i.e., the banks are now playing with the house’s (read: taxpayers’) money. Zero moral hazard and massive bonuses. No wonder they’ve spent $350M lobbying against regulation this year…
Speaking of Bridgewater,
Besides the bomb threats to the HS, does anyone have an opinion about life in Bridgewater. Wife interested in a house there, on a development that branches off Mountain Top road. I work in Somerville, so the commute seems close, but I wonder how messed up the mountain roads get in winter, and how congested those roads get in general. Clearly not as upscale as Warren, Basking Ridge, and the HS is huge. But the home prices are lower, as the few people with money for upgrading have been focusing on only the “best” towns it seems.
If you have limited resources, you can’t have unlimited benefits. So, the choice is between some (gradually declining because of the increasing costs) part of the population getting excellent health care, and the rest (gradually increasing) getting bad to non-existent one – or everyone reluctantly coming to a conclusion that we will not treat pneumonias in late-stage Alzheimer patients, etc. For-profit system can’t make this choice.
Schumpeter says:
December 14, 2009 at 10:16 am
cobbler (52)-
Too bad the closest most of us get to doctors like that will be in our dreams.
One of the neat things about soci@list systems is that the elite somehow get the best of everything.
Clot- How is this different in the conservative world? In fact, I think it’s worse in the conservative world.
We are a nation of whimps. I don’t support handouts at all. But the bottom line is that politics has become a game of polarizing the masses around ticky-tack issues so that the powers that be can jam their own agenda in the back door.
Nearly 650,000 are long-term jobless in California.
Californians who lose their jobs continue to be out of work longer, with 646,000 in October unemployed more than six months, according to state Employment Development Department data.
Typically the newly unemployed — those out of work less than five weeks — make up the largest pool of the jobless, but the length and depth of this recession has turned the usual experience upside down.
A year ago in October, 32.6% of the 1.2 million Californians who were unemployed had been out of work less than five weeks, the most of any category based on duration.
Now the largest group is those who have been unemployed 27 or more weeks — 32.5% of just under 2 million total without jobs. (Twenty-seven weeks is important because regular unemployment benefits end after 26 weeks and the unemployed must rely on Congressional approval for extensions beyond that.)
Nationwide in November, 38.3% of all the unemployed in the U.S. — 5.9 million people — had been out of work more than six months. (November unemployment numbers for the state and Orange County will be released Friday, Dec. 18.)
http://economy.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/14/nearly-650000-are-long-term-jobless/
And those jobs arent coming back. Hope you can buy groceries with IOU’s. Who’s up for a bailout of the worlds 5th largest economy? Count me in. Tear it all down so we can get back to living our lives even if it ends up as serfs for the almighty state.
#52 Cobbler
Not so sure about who takes care of the president. My college roommate’s dad was the anesthesiologist for Reagan’s surgery after the assassination attempt. Some secret service guys showed up at the hospital and pulled him out of surgery and flew him to DC (from New Orleans). Poor guy had no idea what was going on and his family was not informed. His friends at the hospital thought he was being arrested and called his wife to see if they could be of assistance.
He’s never been in the military but was a big Reagan supporter.
Ellen,
Reagan or not, it’s sort of hard to believe that they would delay the emergency surgery for at least 4 hrs so that the anesthesiologist from nola could show up. I’d have a grain of salt with this story.
[65] cobbler
“For-profit system can’t make this choice.”
The public one won’t be able to either. This is the “death panel” argument, and by demonizing the folks who raise it, the dems foreclosed it as an option.
In this instance, whether she intended it or not, Palin, et al., baited the dems into making a de facto policy statement that they will have no choice but to backtrack on (kinda like the “not one thin dime” of new taxes quote). When this gets pointed out, they will have to deflect and differentiate with the “we weren’t talking about the same thing” defense that they have been using on taxes (e.g., eliminating a middle class tax deduction is not a tax increase).
Cobbler 65.
We need global birth control.
add a 100% tax for every child born after the 1st one. In about 20 – 30 years we will have substantially more resources available per person.
As politically incorrect as it may be. The lower income and lower education a family is the more children they statistically have. Thats a bit of a problem.
if we really want to address limited resources the ultimate solution id population management
[69] ellen
Gotta agree with cobbler on this one (rare but it happens).
From inside accounts, Reagan was in bad shape from the wound (he was very fit which helped him survive, but a more frail person would have likely died), and I find it hard to believe that they would have held up emergency surgery because of some misgivings about the quality of gas passers at Bethesda.
It wasn’t any 4 hours. Military jet got him up there in about an hour. I’m not sure if surgery had already begun. I know there were at least two other anesthesiologists involved. And it is true. I heard it from the man himself(as well as his daughter). Had handwritten Christmas cards from RR as long as the old guy was able to write them. Prominantly displayed them each year. Guy was a Lebanese Christian and a passionate Reagan fan.
#73 Not sure they held up surgery, but the guy was defiitely flown in for it. And Reagan considered him part of the assassination surgery team – I think surgery took 3 hours.
ok, you guys
I’m baffled as to why Tiger Woods, who has a beautiful wife (just married in ’04), 2 beautiful kids, and a billion buckaroos at stake would be so unwise as to fool around with that many women and leave electronic trails all over the place.
Explain, please, from the guy perspective.
Given our range of contributors, I think this will make for interesting insights.
Scribe 76
Alpha personality. A big dog lives for the challenge and the rush of winning. Your wife is a sure thing. The c0cktail waitress is dangerous, in that you are challenged to keep the event hidden and to successfully whoo her (not so much of a challenge). Its most likely not so much about the s3x as it is about the adrenaline rush of “living on the edge”.
His wife could be a world class seductress and it wouldn’t change the picture. It goes bad when he gets sloppy and greedy after successfully pulling off the first few liaisons.
No world class competitor will ever be happy with the status quo regardless of how good it may be. They live to compete in one form or another.
That’s funny :)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8410489.stm
Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests.
why he fooled around with all those women? because he could. why he left an electronic trail? how could you possibly schedule all those mistresses, golf, children, and a wife (in that order)without a blackberry?
nom [71]
Public system’s rules are more enforceable and more transparent.
Personal anecdote: my insurer (BCBS) wouldn’t pay for a procedure, telling they never pay for this and their rules don’t allow them to. After HR person called them, they paid for it in no time.
Long time lurker here. I’d like to, if I may, make a comment about limited resources that was mentioned earlier.
What it comes to limited resources I think we’re worried about two things: how to allocate the resources we have and how to choose a system where there’s more resources to allocate. There are many way we can allocate scarce resources. We can allocate by price. We could have people stand in line; we don’t have enough of a particular thing, but people who are first in line get it. We could allocate by lottery. We could allocate by authority; experts have studied the problem and have concluded that person A needs it more than person B. We could use favoritism, which most of us probably think is a bad idea, but most of the schemes we come up with unintentionally increase the amount of favoritism in allocating resources. Or we can allocate by setting up a rent seeking contest, whereby whoever works hardest to acquire the resource gets it. What bothers people, I think, about using prices to allocate the resources we have is that it doesn’t seem fair because we think the rich just get more. It violates our moral intuition. But the nice thing about allocating by price is that the amount of a particular resource is very responsive to price, so allocating by price has the advantage of often increasing limited resources.
[74] ellen
“It wasn’t any 4 hours. Military jet got him up there in about an hour.”
Did they strap him into an F-15? Whatever it was, to go door to door in an hour meant that the damn thing was firewalled from takeoff.
“The 12 Months Of Default Song” (Christmas Song)
http://blog.youwalkaway.com/?p=471&source=patrick.net
[80] cobbler
“Public system’s rules are more enforceable and more transparent.”
I may not have been clear before, but I don’t see how this relates to the idea that the public system will have to (for lack of a better word) ration health care by making hard choices on who gets treatment and who doesn’t. I agree that in a transparent system, the rules are known in advance, but how does that differentiate it from a system where the rationale for a denial of coverage isn’t well known, or known in advance? Either way, it is rationing; either way, it is a decision made to withold care that is deemed less worthy of expenditure. The fact that the public criteria may be more public is a distinction without a difference.
“For-profit system can’t make this choice.”
And politicians can do better?
Whoops, pi$$ed off a majority of the population by suggesting breast exams may be scaled back.
Reverse course!!!
I love it!!
How Presidential the Chosen One looks staring into a speaker phone.
Some banking execs got delayed on their commercial flights since our keepers have determined private travel is verboten. Two points for the Proselytizer-in-Chief.
Nom Ellen
I take no sides here, but here are some facts:
straight line distance form NO to DC: 1,046 miles
to make it in about 1 hour you would have to travel supersonic the entire time. This would require a military fighter jet at the time it would have most likely been an f-15.
If the trip takes 2 hours then a handful of private jets are capable of making the trip at full throttle the entire time (about 550mph cruising speed).
either way the its a tough trip.
TAG says they’ll stick with tiger Woods as an endorses. Apprently he’s never late to an “Appointment” cause he wears TAG.
Terc,
Good post reminding people that price the most efficient resource allocation methodology, particularly because high prices tend to incentivize more supply. It doesn’t violate my moral intuition, however. Asking some people to pay for other people’s medical services, without asking and without gratitude to those paying, violates my moral code.
He married a nanny from Sweeden whose second language is English whose head is empty. I dated a girl that smoking hot in college for awhile. Lived with her parents, did not work or go to school yet I had to battle to get her big time. Once I had her and I admit it took around a few months for the new car smell to wear off I was on the prowl again. Unless the girl has the total package it is hard to keep a man too long. Remember what Larry Flint once said, “show me a beautiful women and I will show you a man sick of f&cking her”
I wonder why he married her at all. Jeter bangs them all and it is all good as he is not married and only does one at a time.
scribe says:
December 14, 2009 at 11:43 am
ok, you guys
I’m baffled as to why Tiger Woods, who has a beautiful wife (just married in ‘04), 2 beautiful kids, and a billion buckaroos at stake would be so unwise as to fool around with that many women and leave electronic trails all over the place.
Explain, please, from the guy perspective.
Given our range of contributors, I think this will make for interesting insights.
Kettle 55
Not bad for a Janitor!!!!
kettle, RayC
makes sense
but I think there’s another element … that part of the brain that says: What if I get caught and lose everything I’ve worked for?
I think the guy has a missing link .. the part of the brain that’s self-protective so that you don’t take obviously, excessively foolish risks …it’s just not there as it would be in normal people
#82 – I’m too far removed from it to know or remember if I ever did know.
What I can definitely remember is that this guy was an expert in whatever it was Reagan’s condition was. Maybe anesthetizing elderly patients with lung punctures or something along those lines – I can’t remember for certain. But he was the head anesthesiologist during surgery. He was in contact with the people in the OR the entire time.
2 months since i looked at this last. the deterioration between then and now is, well, staggering. you can scroll over to nj and that has also deteriorated markedly. nothing like a visual to put all the numbers and posts here into perspective.
link to #95
http://hotpads.com/search/foreclosure#lat=40.75661990450192&lon=-73.51020812988281&zoom=19&topListingZoom=12&listingTypes=foreclosure&pricingFrequency=once&loan=30,0.0525,0&visible=new,viewed,favorite&areaBorders=heatMapForeclosurePerHousehold
Jeter bangs them all and it is all good as he is not married and only does one at a time.
John,
They’re much more fun in groups. I’ll take 3 average young mediocre COSTCO chickens over a single Perdue. Unless you experienced it you don’t know what I’m talking about.
From the WSJ:
Fairfield Files for Chapter 11
Fairfield Residential LLC, one of the nation’s largest apartment owners and developers, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, the latest casualty of the turmoil engulfing the U.S. real-estate market.
Fairfield, which has built some 64,000 apartments, condominiums and off-campus student-housing units throughout the country, failed amid an inability to refinance debt or sell investment properties. That left the private San Diego, Calif., company with a litany of near-term maturities on debts related to various development projects and other investments.
Fairfield filed for Chapter 11 late Sunday afternoon in Delaware and listed assets of $958 million and liabilities of $834.9 million as of the end of September. In addition, Fairfield noted that many of its properties are worth less than their loan balances. That contributed toward putting Fairfield in violation of certain financial covenants with two main lenders: Wells Fargo & Co.’s Wachovia and Capmark Financial Group Inc., the big real-estate lender that recently filed for bankruptcy itself.
John,
What would you consider “the total package” ?
And, I agree with your point – I wonder why he married her. As a single guy – there would be no controversy and he wouldn’t be out all the endorsement loot.
RE: “I don’t understand how NJ families making less than a 6 figure income can even afford Rutgers.”
Home equity loans for all.
Roubini:
Five Reasons the “Barbarous Relic” Gold Is Going to Tank
Posted Dec 14, 2009
From The Business Insider, Dec. 14, 2009:
Nouriel Roubini’s nickname is “Dr. Doom,” but unlike other noted doomsayers who warn about massive debt and deflation, he’s a Keynesian. So his views are more in line with the likes of Paul Krugman — more spending, please — than many of the uber-bears with whome he’s frequtnly lumped in.
And like other Keynesians he’s not a gold bull. Remember, Keynesians believe in the curative power of paper money.
On Friday he dropped a roundhouse kick on the gold bulls with a post at Roubini.com about “The New Bubble in the Barbous Relic that is gold.”
Via ZeroHedge, here are his five reasons why gold is toast:
First, the dollar carry trade may at some point unravel, popping the global asset bubble that this carry trade has fueled.
Second, central banks will eventually need to exit quantitative easing and effectively zero policy rates, which will put downward pressure on risky assets including commodities.
Third, bouts of global risk aversion may occur as the global recovery may turn fragile, anemic and subpar, thus leading to a rise in the U.S. dollar that would drive down prices of commodities and gold in dollar terms.
Fourth, since the carry trade and the wall of liquidity are causing a global asset bubble, some of the recent rise of gold is also bubble driven by herding behavior and momentum trading, pushing gold higher and higher. But all bubbles eventually crash and the bigger the bubble the bigger the eventual crash.
Fifth, the effect of rising sovereign risk on gold prices is ambiguous, as the events of recent weeks suggest. A risk in such risk could push up the price of gold if it leads to expectations that central banks will eventually monetize those fiscal problems. But in practice it has weighed on the price of gold because it has increased investors’ risk aversion and led to a rush into a different (and more liquid) asset than gold—e.g. the U.S. dollar—thus pushing gold prices down. In general, gold always competes with fiat currencies and anything that is dollar bullish—like repeated bouts of global risk aversion—tends to be gold bearish.
RE: “The interesting thing about Big Pharma”
An expectation of prefect medicine is unrealistic. We’re still groping around in the dark, and only a couple of generations away from when doctors sawed off limbs with rusty saws and unwashed hands.
[90] A. West
I agree with you. Somehow, though, we live in a world where people who want to keep what they earn are regarded as selfish and greedy and people who want to take from others are perceived as selfless and enlightened.
Re Tiger Woods… monogamy is unnatural.
John (91)-
As usual, a definitive answer, complete with appropriate Larry Flynt reference.
Subject closed.
Random question:
If china is so worried about us printing money and hyperinflating their treasury bond values away, why dont they just buy TIPs instead?
This is what makes this country great.
Sure, she’s made some mistakes. But now Ashley Dupre, the former escort who brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer, is sharing what she’s learned in her new sex, love and relationship column — exclusively in the New York Post. Is your husband cheating? Is your daughter on a dangerous path? Our readers asked — and Ashley fired back with her no-nonsense advice.
Scribe, finding the perfect girl is like the lost city of atlantis. Plus most men even if they encounter it they will be in their early 20’s and too stupid to pull the trigger.
I dated 4 girls who had all had at least two of my five major requirements of perfection.
Drop Dead gorgerous. Meaning every room you ever enter you have the hottest woman, doesn’t matter if there are 5 people in room or 80,000 in room. Heck even at a movie your girl is better looking than the one on the screen.
Amazing in bed, nuff said.
Marriage Material – Great Cook, good with kids, sews, right religion, parents love, can throw thanksgiving for 50 people and make it all look way too easy.
Low Mileage. Virgin is the gold standard but under 10 partners still is good girl club. Don’t know why but 10 is the dividing line between low and high milage for your first marriage. Kinda like 100K miles on a car. 99,999 miles and 100,001 miles may be one two miles apart but they seem like a much bigger difference.
Old Money/Rich Parents and In-laws that love you and will give you the world.
If you had a girl who met all this you would be set. Tiger’s girl barely had one qualification. Hot.
scribe says:
December 14, 2009 at 12:25 pm
John,
What would you consider “the total package” ?
And, I agree with your point – I wonder why he married her. As a single guy – there would be no controversy and he wouldn’t be out all the endorsement loot.
John,
Tiger has been a calculated dude since he arrived on the golf scene with “Hello, World”
This marriage was for his immage, publicity and endorsments. A clean cut married, family guy who’s greatest of all time on his sport, broke color barriers and made the sport young, and hip. A sport that’s sinonimous with “OLD MONEY”
The possibilities were limitless, do you think it’s a coincidence that he made a Billion dollars and less than half came from Golf course prize winnings.
It blew up in his face the minute the babysitter caught feelings and derailed from her role. It wasn’t about cheating on your loved one. He never loved her to begin with, she was just a calculated business move. I’m sure this wasn’t the exit stategy they both had in mind.
John,
Odd to see the “good girl” stuff. I thought that concept became obsolete decades ago.
ChiFi, this is all yours…..
Depeche Mode “Sounds of the Universe” Deluxe Box.
$34.99 ($65% off)
39% Claimed
http://www.amazon.com/Sounds-Universe-Deluxe-Box-Books/dp/B001UE276A
Click the “View Gold Box Offer” button on the right to see the sale price.
39% claimed, won’t last long…..
64-living in Bridgewater. Obviously an easy commute to Somerville and you have the easy access to 287 and 78. Commuting can be problematic on some of those icy, hilly roads but as I recall it was only a problem 2 or 3 times/winter. There are so many different sections of Bridgewater and as I can recall you can get a home there with a nice wooded lot if that’s what you are looking for.
Qwerty says:
December 14, 2009 at 1:34 pm
ChiFi, this is all yours…..
Q: That is some deal…I actually bought it when it was first released in March, but I have forwarded this link along to others…..
To anyone who bought SOTU and has not heard Light, The Sun & The Moon & The Stars, Ghost, and Oh Well!, these disks are worth it just to have high quality recordings of those tracks. In fact a number of people have remarked that these four tracks are better than any of the songs on the proper album.
Also, there is a whole disk worth of demos which are great.
Reagan surgery timeline:
2:30pm shot
3:24pm surgery starts
6:46pm wheeled out to the recovery room over
8:50pm had regained consciousness and was talking to Nancy
I would not discount the possibility that an anesthesiologist was flown from NO. There were things to do after the surgery and always the possibility of another surgery.
John –
Amazing in bed
& Low-mileage
Contradiction. The virgin is low-mileage but will likely be a train-wreck in the sack the first dozen or so runs.
You can have one or the other here. Not both.
50.kettle1 says:
December 14, 2009 at 10:05 am
Confused 38
2 reasons.
My old Brooklyn neighborhood buddy always use to say, my father saw a doctor twice in his life, the second time they killed him. He made it to 87 though, without pills, still chomping his cigar. Died of hospital aquired pneumonia, while recovering from a broken hip fall.
scribe says:
December 14, 2009 at 11:43 am
ok, you guys I’m baffled as to why Tiger Woods, who has a beautiful wife (just married in ‘04), 2 beautiful kids, and a billion buckaroos at stake would be so unwise as to fool around with that many women and leave electronic trails all over the place.
Explain, please, from the guy perspective.
scribe: just to add to the others who pretty much nailed it (no pun intended)….You also have to consider extrapolating from his behavior as a sportsman. I am not an avid follower of golf, but I know enough. I also (used to often) play the game. To be honest, in the “gentlemen’s game” Woods has always been a wholesale c0ck. He violates all manner of courtesy rules and treats the public with disdain. He has always been bulletproof with the media as well, who never call him on his ridiculous behavior. It is a double-standard. He obviously felt that his sports standing and its customary behavior could carry over into his personal life. The rules for everyone (even those professional athletes and similar celebrities) do not apply to him.
Scribe 93
but I think there’s another element … that part of the brain that says: What if I get caught and lose everything I’ve worked for?
That element certainly does exist and is the entire point. The rush that highly competitive and successful people get from taking the “big risk” is exactly due to the very real possibility of losing big time. If you take away that real risk, then they would not be taking part in that behavior.
Consider that men, by nature, tend to be much more risk tolerant then woman. Then consider that people like Tiger Woods are probably much more risk tolerant then average given their drive to win.
homeboken says:
December 14, 2009 at 2:01 pm
John – Amazing in bed & Low-mileage
Contradiction. The virgin is low-mileage but will likely be a train-wreck in the sack the first dozen or so runs. You can have one or the other here. Not both.
hb: don’t make a blanket statement; your logic makes sense, but you application is too broad….
Fortget mileage,
its all about attitude. a real go getter wet behind the ears is preferable to an experienced veteran who performs half hearted.
chifi – take the broom out of your a$$ and stop analyzing light-hearted blog posts.
Compare the Tiger Woods media feeding frenzy against the John Edwards locked-in-a-hotel-bathroom-with-cameras-outside non media coverage.
Tiger was dead meat in 24 hours, yet Edwards wasn’t covered for months by “mainstream” outlets.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-edwardstimeline9-2008aug09,0,5843252.story
[67] AlGore
I have quoted Norman Thomas here in the past. He said the same thing, but being an American, he said it in a more relevant way.
They were also pithier quotes.
Interesting take from Sheila Bair that goes a ways toward confirming something I had surmised at the outset: That the FDIC and gov. knew they had to close a lot of banks, but would do so systematically and over an extended time, so as to not let the body of the banking system drop onto the sidewalk from 15 stories up.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34415057
Grim – You’ve got mail…
plume (126)-
Pretend and extend has been the gubmint’s official policy on all financial matters from the get.
Albert Hung buys 15% of Cleveland Cavs. First Chinese investment in US pro sports.
Fire away.
[124] qwerty,
Funny how the National Enquirer gets credit for breaking the story. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut now and then.
Reminds me of McGreevey; I was still living in Philly when that story broke, and it was subsequently disclosed that beat reporters in Trenton and Philly knew what was going on, but did not report it.
I also recall it led to a (very brief) dust up in the Media over whether or not it should have been reported, and whether there was a double standard in reporting on the sex foibles of democrats v. republicans.
[122] kettle
“a real go getter wet behind the ears is preferable to an experienced veteran who performs half hearted.
Wet behind the ears? Bit kinky, isn’t it?
What is your magic number? The good girl stuff is always the rule. Just depends how liberal you are. My over/under is ten. Ten is not a hard line in the sand. But come on at some point no one wants a high mileage bride. I know a girl who hit the 200 club. That is crazy. You could fill the whole wedding with her ex’s. Her biggest brag was a weekend in Hawaii where she did Don Ho and a guy on his honeymoon on the same night. Also men still have that rule they don’t want a girl with a higher body count then they have. So a girl with 18 notches on her bedpost is not marriage material for a guy with 4 notches but may be for a guy with 30 notches. Also guys don’t want girls who have nailed friends in their circle. That is creepy. Girls have same rule. Creepiest of Creppiest was buddy was dating girl who was getting married and night before wedding he had a booty call with her at 4am as she wanted some of him inside her on the alter as she thought that would be hot. Yikes.
scribe says:
December 14, 2009 at 1:26 pm
John,
Odd to see the “good girl” stuff. I thought that concept became obsolete decades ago.
“grudgingly” even
[123] homeboken
Ease up on Chifi. He went to Cornell, where the Men were Men and the Women were Few.
Tiger – married to have kids and for the “look” of things.
Jenny Sanford is pretty cool.
Shlt. I just read about Obama meeting with the damn banks and trying to tell them what the hell to do. This man is a power hungry dictator and now wants to take over the damn banking industry after taking over the damn auto and health industries.
Guess what Mr. President (I use that term loosely because he doesn’t have a birth certificate)? You’ve not succeeded in forcing a damn car, a house and health care down my damn throat and I refused your stinking stimulus money. AFTER ALL THAT, IF YOU THINK YOU’RE GONNA FORCE A DAMN LOAN DOWN MY THROAT, YOU GOT ANOTHER THINK COMING.
I’d rather give up flipping altogether than to take your stinking money.
Clot,
So, what you are saying is that the owner of the Cavs is Hung?
Isn’t he that terrible singer from American Idol?
Schumpeter says:
December 14, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Albert Hung buys 15% of Cleveland Cavs. First Chinese investment in US pro sports.
Fire away.
Lisoosh,
Jenny Sanford and Tiger’s wife (Ellen?), should take up with each other. They have a lot in common, and expect that at this point they have had it with men.
Clot,
Or hung with a capital “H.”
BC,
You have mail.
#76 scribe
Tiger was playing golf 24/7 for the first 20+ years of his life and he doesn’t come off (to me) as a chick magnet…
within a very short time he went from zero to hero – made a few $100 mill, was titled the worlds greatest golfer & most important had girls throwing themselves at him. Add to this a wedding band and a couple of kids, the guy was a time bomb… his mistake was getting married.
That’s really too bad. Not that it really matters, but I wonder where New Jersey has ranked for the last few years prior?
Anyone ride the express bus to Port Authority out of Springfield? Tolerable?
within a very short time he went from zero to hero – made a few $100 mill, was titled the worlds greatest golfer & most important had girls throwing themselves at him. Add to this a wedding band and a couple of kids, the guy was a time bomb… his mistake was getting married.
Yea, I can appreciate Tiger’s damn problem. The damn women just can’t get enough of me and that was even before I starting flipping houses. They’re just smitten with me and can’t leave me alone.
cooper 144- Youth is wasted on the young.
Nom- With respect to McGreevy, it would not surprise me if some sort of cover up happened to insure access to the office. This probably happens on both sides of the aisle. I suspect it was more of a case where suspicions were confirmed after the fact.
You give the guy with the wife and small child every benefit of the doubt, unless you catch him in drag, singing at the Birdcage in Miami Beach…
The high inflation/high int rates of the 70’s started with high food prices. Remember, there is no inflation today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aBYSp0.XfXZs&pos=14
“The damn women just can’t get enough of me and that was even before I starting flipping houses.”
50.5,
Are they lowballing you?
Clot,
I love John’s Larry Flynt quote. Very John-like.
John,
How would anyone know how many notches on the belt someone else had? One of those things where someone could underestimate or, conversely, exaggerate wildly.
My guess is that these days, it’s either a little or a lot, with not much in-between.
When I was in high school, it was virgin or non-virgin, and lots of guys were still virgins. They were too scared about getting “into trouble” and “having to get married.”
Chi,
Didn’t realize he behaved like that, but then again, I don’t know nuthin’ about golf and correct behavior.
Years ago, my brother’s friend won the right to play a round of golf with OJ in a charity auction. He said he was incredibly foul-mouthed – couldn’t stand him.
BC Bob,
Look, I know some guys would like to have my problem, but it becomes a damn hassle sometimes. Before that damn Obama messed things up, the women were begging to take their damn money to buy houses. They were impressed with my damn genius and ability to make some damn money. They appreciated my damn prowess at that and “elsewhere”
[148] d2b
What I understood was that it went beyond suspicion to common knowledge in a small circle of semi-insiders. Mind you, it used to be common not to out the foibles of a politician.
I do get the sense that there is a double standard, but I am sure that anyone wanting to make the argument can dredge up examples where GOP infidels were not outed. I am not interested in having that argument here, mostly because it is trivial.
Also, FWIW, one of my attorney friends represented the McGreeveys in a past life, and he had some interesting stories. Suffice it to say, anyone involved who claimed to be surprised by his (or her) behavior is not to be fully believed.
[153] reinvestor
and apparently, they liked to hear the word “damn” every 4 seconds!
50.5 [153],
You’re still OK. The front door is still wide open. However, they are probably too damn stupid to realize the back door is now sealed shut.
Re McGreevey – this was known much further than “it went beyond suspicion to common knowledge in a small circle of semi-insiders”. I have friends that are mildly active in Garden State Equality. They all knew before the story broke. I knew way before the story broke and I am far from a “semi-insider”. It was very much an open secret.
“They’re just smitten with me and can’t leave me alone.”
50.5,
You better keep on flipping. Mama needs some cabbage.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9ZzZquaXrR8/SyUfOcxq1LI/AAAAAAAAFM0/YK4YskFdCJM/s1600-h/Sopr_Bada_Bing1.jpg
Gator,
My family is from Woodbridge Township.
Some of them say it was well known that McGreevey would show up at the local high-end gym with his entourage of young boys.
McGreevey was outed 5 years ago. We have seen a media explosion in this country and I think the exposure to politics in general has a lot to do with it. The other day I saw a banner add that said ‘help defeat Harry Reid’ on a webpage.
You are right about the double standard. But, I believe that Republicans are more newsworthy because of the background of their party. It’s more newsworthy to cover those that come from a conservative, christian, family-values perch than the anti-god sinners that occupy the left side of the aisle. Many of those fallen GOP stars were the ones throwing stones at sinners and that makes their transgressions front-page stories.
John (132)-
The man comes back, firing off nothing but all-time classics.
We are not worthy.
The New York area is composed of many small social cirles, Professional Hindus, Greek Orthodox, guidos from Brooklyn, Hamptons and NJ Shore Crowd, NYC Wall Street Upper East side bar crowd etc. Any girl who slept with a single guy in a circle of friends every man knows about it. If a girl wants to marry an IB banker from the Northshore of LI who is catholic good looking and went to the right college the choices are few. Pick a few of the Mr. Wrongs in that circle and sleep with them by the time you hit Mr. Right it is too late. A girl I know when she met a man who met all the qualifications she was really really tough on as she knew if she hooked up and it didn’t work she was damaging her chances in that circle. However, some good looking slep garbageman in club med could have that girl with a wink of an eye.
That is also why counting is tough, lots of girls go off line to do the nasty in Club Med or out of circle hook ups.
scribe says:
December 14, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Clot,
I love John’s Larry Flynt quote. Very John-like.
John,
How would anyone know how many notches on the belt someone else had? One of those things where someone could underestimate or, conversely, exaggerate wildly.
My guess is that these days, it’s either a little or a lot, with not much in-between.
When I was in high school, it was virgin or non-virgin, and lots of guys were still virgins. They were too scared about getting “into trouble” and “having to get married.”
People used to keep things secret. Back in the day Malcom Forbes used to pull up to the Kit Kat Club in NYC all in his leathers on a Harley with a new boy toy on his back each week and no one mentioned a word of it.
Merv Griffin was another, I liked when a guest would say something interesting he would go OOOOOOOHHHHHHH and make a sound like he was re-positioning his ben waa balls.
That doesn’t even begin to explain the mess that is Steve Forbes.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
December 14, 2009 at 2:40 pm
[123] homeboken Ease up on Chifi. He went to Cornell, where the Men were Men and the Women were Few.
nom: You support my point to homeboken (I appreciate that he wasn’t fully serious). One of my ladies was a former gymnast and was taking ballet classes…..I was in her presence when she ripped some knee cartilage…I leave it at that….she is a law school professor now…..Booya as it were…
Wow and I thought spanking the monkey make me nearsighted but turns out it is this damm blog.
Texting, Web-Surfing Spur Nearsightedness Surge, Study Suggests Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Ellen Gibson
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) — The rate of nearsightedness in the U.S. increased 66 percent since the 1970s, according to a study that researchers say suggests parents should limit the hours kids spend texting and Web-surfing.
The prevalence of myopia rose to 41 percent in a survey done from 1999 to 2004 from 25 percent in a study completed from 1971 to 1972, according to research by the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
It costs $3.8 billion a year to treat poor distance vision, a tab that rises by $1 billion for every 12 percent increase in the rate of nearsightedness, the study said. The likely cause is less outdoor time and more activities requiring close-up viewing such as text-messaging, playing hand-held video games and Web surfing, said the study’s lead author, Susan Vitale.
“Kids these days are spending less time at recess and play,” said David Friedman, a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore who wasn’t involved in the study. “That lack of outdoor time may be taking its toll. Kids like to be outside, so get them outside to play.”
People with nearsightedness, or myopia, can see clearly close up, but objects in the distance appear blurred. That’s because an elongated eyeball or too-curved cornea causes light to focus in front of the retina, instead of on it.
“It’s an easy disease to treat, but it ends up costing a lot,” Vitale said. The condition is corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or surgery, she said.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest health products company, generated $2.5 billion from vision products such as Acuvue contact lenses last year, more than double sales of $1.17 billion in 2002.
Lend? To whom?
Got demand?
“There you have it. 85.5% of banks responding to the survey have lending standards that basically remained the same yet 44.6% of banks report moderately weaker demand for loans, with only 8.9% reporting moderately stronger demand for loans.
There is plenty of money available for lending. However, there are fewer businesses wanting loans, and fewer still credit worthy businesses who want loans. That is what the data shows.”
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/sheila-bair-begs-for-more-bank-failures.html
John,
When I was in high school, I had a definite sense that some of my friends who were dating older guys – college boys – were doing “it,” but we didn’t talk about it. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
However, right after high school, I started dating a football player. He was telling me all sorts of tidbits about who was doing it and how – i.e., this one had a girlfriend who was on the pill; that one, they did it only when she was – ahem – indisposed so she wouldn’t get knocked up …
…which led me to the conclusion …NEVER do anything with this guy …cause the whole team would know it!
#
kettle1 says:
December 14, 2009 at 11:50 am
Scribe 76
Alpha personality. A big dog lives for the challenge and the rush of winning. Your wife is a sure thing. The c0cktail waitress is dangerous, in that you are challenged to keep the event hidden and to successfully whoo her (not so much of a challenge). Its most likely not so much about the s3x as it is about the adrenaline rush of “living on the edge”.
His wife could be a world class seductress and it wouldn’t change the picture. It goes bad when he gets sloppy and greedy after successfully pulling off the first few liaisons.
No world class competitor will ever be happy with the status quo regardless of how good it may be. They live to compete in one form or another.
#
Kettle,
you missed it completely. Your theory would make sense if he was married to and going after peers. He isn’t and doesn’t, he scrapes the bottom of the barrel for the most unaccomplished and desperate.
He is a textbook narcissist. He surrounds himself with the weak to make himself look strong. He is insecure, exploitive and sociopathic. The results of hot housing by daddy, he would have been like this even without the success and millions.
re #170 – Banging the Perkins manager in the parking lot in the back of an Escalade before breakfast is scraping the bottom of the barrel?
I am still waiting for the Tranny prosties to make it onto The View to tell their stories to Sherri Shepherd before I pass Judgment.
For som non-se-xu@l news:
http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/apples-next-surprise-for-radio-records.html
All I know is that all this talk about Tiger’s sex life is making me wish I took up golf in jr. high school.
[166] chi fi
Booya indeed.
Ah, memories. They are the little smiles on my face that my wife can’t figure out.
Found two old girlfriends on FB (actually, they found me, though one hasn’t friended and I can’t blame her), and they look pretty darn good.
Everyone else from my old h.s. class looks like dogsh1t. Even the smoking hot chick—no idea what happened to her, but she got beat with an old stick or something. And some chicks that were pretty good, and that I would have jumped, now look old enough to be my mom. Ewww.
why’d we give these banks all this tarp money if they’re just giving it back?
i confess to not paying much attention to this today. i did like BO’s quote last night: “These bankers on wall street still don’t get it.”
down with the banks!
“These bankers on wall street still don’t get it.”
Yikes,
Theatrics.
Sorry O, the bankers do get it. Can’t say the same for some of the adminstration nor the sheeple.
Yep, the bankers get it. Keep robbing us blind; keep giving us the plunger handle in the rear.
O thinks he’s gonna make these guys lend to small business? Well, where the hell are the applicants? And, doesn’t the act of applying in itself DQ those applicants? It would in my book.
Nom,
At this point, everyone in my HS class is a lot older than our parents were back when we were in HS.
Well,
A decade older, anyway.
176.
We gave them clean money with our tax dollars and in return we got toxic assets. Its a giant money laundering scheme.
re#177 – Schump – we covered this, SBA loans, they are increased the limits 3 million for goods and services and $5 million for manufacturing.
http://www.newsday.com/business/cit-group-to-waive-fees-on-sba-loans-1.1652668
Barb 170
I know nothing about tiger besides he is apparently good at golf and made a few bucks through sponsorship.
I make my guess based on a few highly successful and accomplished guys I know
garrrrryyy I have a house for youuuu!!! Listed at 285k. Short sale subject to bank approval, prior sale 392k in June of 2005. blue ribbony train town too.
#183sorry gary here you go
http://www.njmls.com/cf/details.cfm?mls_number=2950851&id=999999
(179) Shore
That makes two of us. Where I get freaked out is seeing their kids’ pictures. Mine are 6 and 0.9 years old. They have their kids wedding photos up.
At least that makes them look older. And while they were being dutiful parents, I was hitting the Boston area bars and getting some.
“We gave them clean money with our tax dollars and in return we got toxic assets. Its a giant money laundering scheme.”
AG,
That’s correct. Exactly, the bankers game plan. Once the Rubinites were appointed, the “new” outcome was predetermined.
Hope and change? We have slid down the slope of hope with a little change in our pockets.
Nom 185 – Don’t get so c*cky. Pretty soon the rest of your classmates will be off enjoying their empty nest freedom, and you will still be slaving away in big law dealing with teen angst and putting Les Deux Petites Noms through college. :)
I have a friend who got kn*cked up at 19. Her kids are teenagers now and she and her husband are enjoying watching the rest of us struggle with toddlers while reminding us that their freedom is just a few short years away.
Fastest Food Inflation Since Riots Means Milk Up 39%
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aBYSp0.XfXZs&pos=14
kettle1 says:
December 14, 2009 at 11:35 am
Cobbler 65.
We need global birth control.
add a 100% tax for every child born after the 1st one. In about 20 – 30 years we will have substantially more resources available per person.
usually you’re sensible, but kettle, this is nuts. i hope it was sarcasm.
are you an only child or something?
I usually encounter a compelling argument for eugenics by noon every single day.
sean (181)-
There’s points galore still embedded in those SBA loans. They’re the biggest screw job going…not to mention the fact that they take forever to close.
I would pay good money to never be in John’s circle. But I did think post 91 was on target. John is still a functional retard.
Low Mileage. Virgin is the gold standard but under 10 partners still is good girl club. Don’t know why but 10 is the dividing line between low and high milage for your first marriage. Kinda like 100K miles on a car. 99,999 miles and 100,001 miles may be one two miles apart but they seem like a much bigger difference.
i thought when reading this you ran with me and my friends on our 20s. we discussed this TONS. we discussed it with some girls, too – never ended well.
my only problem with ‘hot’ john – the grass is always greener. all playaz know that.
re: #187 – NJGator – Cumon now, I can afford a nanny, and do things like take trips most of my high school friends can only dream of. I will be on a long vacation visiting family and then off to Colorado skiing for the Holidays while everyone else will be driving to the inlaws for a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation. There is allot to be said for delaying family for education in our society, especially when most of us don’t have extended families willing to help out other than the occasional babysitting.
I am enjoying my young infant son now more than I would have if I was 22 and financially insecure. Less stress, and more fun in my opinion.
Much more fun. As a first time dad with a 5 year-old….this is one of the best times of my life…we have an idyllic life. I am 43.
NJGator: She can be kidding around, but she really screwed up bad. Hopefully she won’t be a 40-ish adolescent. It’s over…..you are never young again….honestly if the father is her current husband, it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets the hell out of dodge….it would be the pattern…
187.NJGator says:
December 14, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I have a friend who got kn*cked up at 19. Her kids are teenagers now and she and her husband are enjoying watching the rest of us struggle with toddlers while reminding us that their freedom is just a few short years away.
The X factor is the brain. Meet a gorgeous woman with a great mind and a model’s face and body, then you know you can never let he down. Cause she will rebound way better than you will. No matter what is in your wallet. I have no doubt most married people are unhappy. That is their problem.
re: #191 Schump points? Cumon if you need a business loan and you have to go to the SBA don’t you think it should cost more for the risk?
At 19 I dated a college cheerleader. A die hard Baptist. That would have been a really bad match long term. Glad as hell it never came to that.
The public option is dead…Good.
What recession?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aEowwW4qh7dI
Chifi 196 – Yeah, they screwed up. But they were a couple of good Catholic kids that stuck together and somehow made it work. They are still together…and yes, they are the exception rather than the rule.
I never said they are better off than had they waited. They did their hard time while we were goofing off and having fun….now they’re at the point where they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
174: Nom, as long as we’re reminiscing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUt6yFkBppo
The Ascent of Money now playing on channel 13.
grim, #171 ..in mod
“garrrrryyy I have a house for youuuu!!! Listed at 285k. Short sale ”
Isn’t that one of the houses where one can jump out of a window onto a passing train?
Whats the benefits to Whitening my Teeth?
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