I have been remiss in my duties....to introduce you to new players andcharacters in the never ending restaurant soap opera. Besides the factthat we have had a couple waitresses get pregnant, take time off, anddutifully return to work, we have had several comings and goings staffwise. Keisha, the white ghetto fab waitress chick, and a good friend of mine, left a few months ago because she was unab
IMPERDIBLE ! Si nunca los viste no dejes pasar esta oportunidad, si ya los viste no dejes de volver a gozar un espectàculo lleno de magia, fantasia y lujo . Este espectàculo es una selección de los mejores cuadros de "Segundo Piso Ascensor" y "Konga" -sus espectáculos anteriores- a los que adicionaron entre otras sorpresas algunas insinuantes canciones e inquietantes y eróticas imágenes surg
les follies du 2008!mmore e romolo tortutano ettore (su you tube il video)ride e ettore in stato comatosommore stupra ettore ( e rida fa il terzo incomodo)ettore ke s intenerisce avanti a 1mungoromolo e lia guardano ettore ke se rotolail culo d romoloettore falegname (cm cristo!)
The only two demons left stood in a hell they had been unaware of until now. A reversal of the Adam and Eve story; for with the consumption of the rotten apple of knowledge, the seeded fruit of acumen, came the realisation that they were not naked. They wore the weighted-garments of burden. And stripping down to free themselves meant an overpowering guilt. A remorse; as if the universe had convinced them of the ridiculous notion (similar to what those "far from real" family shows with too many smiling faces are based upon), that just pretending to love and support each other wasn't enough and that they should actually be (now try to keep a straight face as i say this), loving and supportive. Unease followed close after, for with a revelation that makes God proud also comes the albatross of
It's getting more entertaining by the minute on the Presidential Election front.Clinton's camp must be getting ape-shit desperate. Their latest attack on Barack Obama is to accuse him of plagiarism.PLAGIARISM?What is this, folks? The seventh grade? That's when I first started hearing that plagiarism was The Eighth Deadly Sin, at least according to my schoolteachers, all of whom did not seem to have anything better, or wilder, to get themselves all worked up over. I remember thinking way back then that the LAST thing I could countenance getting freaked out about was plagiarism. Some of them were like broken records. Plagiarism, plagiarism, plagiarism, they'd moan, over and over and over, carrying on as if the fate of the world was hanging in the balance if any kid dared to borrow a li
Weeks ago, I dipped into Orhan Pamuk's Other Colors: Essays and a Story, as I said I would. I start in the middle and find myself driven forward, wondering what happens next, and finally it occurs to me to ask what came before.Sampling these essays at random, it turns out, is not the best approach. The preface holds the key. (Sadly I was not forced to read the preface when first I opened the book.) Pamuk has arranged these ideas and fragments deliberately, into a continuous narrative.I have always believed there to be a greedy and almost implacable graphomaniac inside me — a creature who can never write enough, who is forever setting life in words — and that to make him happy I need to keep writing. But when I was putting this book together, I discovered that the graphomaniac would be
Here are a few pics from the Esther's Follies show that i saw in Austin Texas 2 weekends ago. The show is on 6th Street in downtown Austin and it has been running for 30 years. I had never heard of the show and when i was younger would not have enjoyed it but now I really loved the show and the funny skits and magic tricks that were preformed. The players were top notch and they all had a very political slant to the comedy! If you are ever in Austin, I STRONGLY recommend going to see the show! You will not be disappointed!!! The pics are not the best as i used my Cam Phone to take them.Ray Anderson He IS TOP NOTCH!!!Ray Anderson, Austin’s nationally renowned magician has been caught up in the tornado that is Esther’s Follies for over fifteen years. Deemed “best spellbinder” by the Austin Chronicle, Ray perplexes both audience members and curious 6th Street revelers peering through Esther’s trademark windows. Whether as himself or his “Amazing Frank” alter-ego, Ray uniqu
Some of you may recall a post I wrote in September 2006 that chronicled the details surrounding the then President of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Thomas M. Stevens, inability to sell his own home.At that time, the house had an unchanged listing price of $1,450,000 and had been sitting on the market for just over 350 days.Obviously, this was a bit embarrassing for both Stevens and the NAR as was made perfectly apparent during both a Washington Post article and a subsequent CNBC interview."Who knew last September how long this down trend was going to continue, … You need to adjust the price. . . . But I didn't do that. And my house is still on the market.""What I should have done, was listened to my agent and cut the price by $50,000 to $100,000 early on, and the property would have sold last October. … I should have listed it a month earlier,"Stevens, who is also the Senior Vice President of NRT, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage, continued to
I wouldn’t have said it as bluntly myself as I have a definite bias here, but Mike the Mad Biologist explains How to Build a Healthcare System That Kills People. He begins by posting the response by Atrios to the Republican idea of “a radically different kind of medical marketplace, in which families armed with specific information about the treatment success and prices of hospitals and doctors can shop at will for the best quality and most affordable care.” Atrios wrote, “We pay doctors to make these decisions for us because most of us haven’t been to medical school. I know this point is simple and obvious and everyone makes it, but as I said before our elite discourse is so fucking stupid.”
Mike discussed this point further, writing:
One of the most ridiculous ideas to come down the pike is the notion that most people, who are woefully ignorant of medicine and biology (e.g., the massive misunderstandings a out antibiotics and infectious disease), w
The other night I had the worst food I have ever paid to put in my mouth. This is doubly disappointing because I had this food at the restaurant that is right across the street from my new house in Accra's swanky Osu neighborhood. I hate that my first post about an Accra restaurant is going to be negative, because there are quite a few really fine restaurants here. But I will walk you through
My son's football team is doing very well so far this season, with 3 wins and no losses. I've previously written about the youth football experience, but today I want to post an addendum about music as a motivator, because I just compiled a CD of "pump-up" music to fire him up before a game.
Lots of athletes use music to get them in the mood for competition. He and I have fallen into the
My 12 year old son plays on a youth football team and I care way too much about how well he and his team do. I know in my heart of hearts that it's no big deal if they win or lose (and I especially repeat this to myself over and over when they lose). Still, I am very happy for him when they are victorious.
This past weekend his team, the "Vikings" won their season opener 21 - 0. With
July 19, 2007, 8:33 am
By Floyd Norris, New York Times
Imagine how George Bailey — the Jimmy Stewart character in “It’s a Wonderful Life” — would react if he arrived via time travel to read Washington Mutual’s announcement of “new, industry leading subprime mortgage lending standards.” For that matter, what would Henry Potter, the mean banker, have had to say?From now on, WaMu tells us, it will not make sub-prime loans without checking to see whether the borrower is lying about his income. It will require that borrowers have escrow accounts to pay taxes and insurance. And “we will offer industry leading disclosures and enhanced outreach efforts, including pre-closing contact by WaMu with the borrower.”
The idea that it was news that a banker would actually meet with a borrower before sending the money would leave both Mr. Bailey and Mr. Potter wondering what had become of our financial system.
They would simply be perplexed by WaMu’s pledge not to make any more
What are the creationists up to these days?
Well, Casey Luskin is blaming cancer on Darwinism. Really, he’s claiming that the “failure to recognize function for introns” resulted in delays in the discovery of the causes of colon cancer. The “failure to recognize function for introns” is, of course, all the fault of the neo-Darwinian paradigm.
Luskin’s argument is yet another incarnation of the somewhat silly, but very popular among creationists, argument that “scientists have been wrong before so they must be wrong now about… um… stuff we don’t like.” David Heddle made the same spurious point sometime back when talking about Carl Sagan. Jonathan Witt made the point as concerns Percival Lowell. I myself have asked, “Stupid scientists! Why can’t they see the truth?”
To Heddle, I wrote:
Some of what Sagan said has turned out to be wrong, but Sagan was no maverick. Where he was wrong so were many of his cont
Why are some people Catholics while others are Protestants? And why are some people Buddhist, while others may be Hindus, animists, Jains, Baptists or any of the other hundreds of religions we have in the world. Why do some people vote Republican rather than Democrat, or Conservative, or Centre, or even Centre-Right, while still others vote Red, or Green or some other colourful political line. Moreover, how come some people think abortion is wrong while others profess that it is the right of the mother to choose, or how do you explain the cultures that dicate that adulteresses should be stoned to death, while others believe that killing even a bug is wrong. I propose that our beliefs for the most part are the product of our environment and sheer happenstance, since as someone so poetically
It really is not surprising to know that FOX News Channel does not respect minorities at all. As Fox News was covering one of the biggest corruption cases in US history, they apparently felt that all black Congressmen look alike. While reporting on the story of Democratic Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson’s indictment of 16 counts [...]
The US government is now giving your tax dollars to the Mexican government so that government can improve its ability to tap telephone calls and emails.
From the Los Angeles Times report:
Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country’s conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with U.S. on law enforcement.
The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend Mexico’s constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge’s approval in some cases.
The fact that the US federal government continues to support countries that violate liberty should come as no surprise, considering similar such violations domestically too. Although such a program would obviously be considered repugnant by people who love liberty, simply opposing this measure alone only scratches the surface of the real problem.
As the wise saying goes, “it’s
Who says that weekends are all about sleeping in and relaxing. RUBBISH, I say!It wasn't even 7am, and I felt Princess nudging me. GO BACK IN YOUR ROOM, YOU EVIL SPAWN! Is it SO hard to give Mommy and Daddy a few more minutes on the weekend? It's Saturday morning - noone has to go to work or go to school. Even the dogs are still hanging out on the rug, programmed to get excited ONLY when Mama here sits up and puts a scrunchy in her hair. Swear to GAWD.So I shoo-d Princess back to bed. A few moments later, I hear both Pumpkin and Princess talking. I got up, walked out into the hallway and directed both of them to go BACK into their bedrooms and relax for a while. Shoot, they have enough toys in their rooms. What is so hard about maybe sitting and drawing quietly? Hey, why don't you check out some books? Yeah, what a novel idea, right?So I climbed back into bed. Dogs were watching me, but not going nuts yet. I was still in a zone when I could get back to sleep (and if I w
The US government is now giving your tax dollars to the Mexican government so that government can improve its ability to tap telephone calls and emails.
From the Los Angeles Times report:
Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country’s conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with U.S. on law enforcement.
The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend Mexico’s constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge’s approval in some cases.
The fact that the US federal government continues to support countries that violate liberty should come as no surprise, considering similar such violations domestically too. Although such a program would obviously be considered repugnant by people who love liberty, simply opposing this measure alone only scratches the surface of the real problem.
As the wise saying goes, “it’s
(A Poetic Justice Photomontage) From Betmo at Life's Journey.One million blogs for peace:"The United States Congress passed a bill last week limiting war funding and calling for substantial withdrawal by next March.President Bush is expected to veto. It is also expected that there are insufficient votes to override this veto, and this will lead to negotiations on a compromise bill. Do you trust those who are against the war in the US Congress to stick to their policies and stand up for peace? If not, do you find any wholly political solutions likely or viable for the short-term in ending the Iraq War?"~As we all now know, Bush vetoed the bill. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The dems knew he would veto and sent the bill anyway- and bush vetoed. I wouldn't want to be a GOP candidate anywhere but a pure red district this election cycle. The neo cons are bringing down the very platform they used to put themselves in positions of power. Talk about biting the hand that has sustaine
Of Follies and FallaciesWe had a bull session in class. Homeroom. It's a good thing that Ms. R was more or less liberal about things. The last adviser I had was more biased against me. It was degrading for my mental health.But I have him to thank because I wouldn't be close to o9 if it weren't for him.Anyway, hardly half the class said anything. But the some of the people who had to say something were people who just had to proclaim how perfect they were. Not literally of course, but the way they said it just goes to show that people can't accept being wrong at times. Especially when they're just going against one person with a strong defense mechanism built only to equate the defense mechanism they have formed because of number and ego.High school is the time when people are at their worst.「おわり」~+~
Citigroup wants to get further into the banking business in China. Citi wants to put $3 billion into large Chinese bank Guangdong Development Bank. Citi keeps saying "yes", "yes", "yes". Chinese regulators say "no". As a matter of fact, they insist that the answer is "no".
What is Citi doing in China trying to buy a mid-sized bank anyway? Hasn't Citi CEO Charles Prince read the papers. The company's huge retail businesses are not doing as well as management had planned. One of the large financial services company's largest investors, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has said "The grace period is over", referring to Charles Prince's time at the helm of the company.
Citi has underperformed rivals Bank of America and JP Morgan in the stock market. It would appear that investors are increasingly tired of the bank's globetrotting. They want to see some improvement in retail banking at home.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities
