9 hours ago
Friday, September 02, 2005
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is mad as hell and he isn't going to take it anymore. In an interview on radio station WWL (linked by CNN), Nagin is at his wit's end and understandably so. His city is submerged under water, oil, and raw sewage. His people are starving, dying, and rioting. But it also seems that the mayor has had one too many hurricanes--and I'm not talking about Katrina. Or perhaps he is just tired of the beat down. Who is to blame? Nagin isn't sure, but it's either the governor or President Bush.
The Future of New Orleans
Nicole Gelinas has a sobering essay about the future of New Orleans that should be read by everyone. The general theme is:
Gelinas's central point is that the disaster of Katrina is merely causing the city's deeper sociological problems to manifest:
Gelinas also argues that New Orleans is a sad city. I'd have to agree.
Permit a personal anecdote: In the fall of 1996, having just finished college, I spent several months driving around the country playing pick-up basketball. (It's a long story and no, you don't want the details.) I played on playgrounds in every one of the lower 48 states. I played in some of the "worst" neighborhoods in America--from Coney Island to Cabrini Green to South Central Los Angeles and, on the whole, my experiences were incredibly positive.
Most of the time I was a distinct minority: a middle-class, college-educated white kid playing in neighborhoods that were frequently poor and nearly all-black. At the risk of sounding patronizing, I would honestly say that the friendliest, most hospitable people I met during those months were almost always in the "worst" neighborhoods.
There were only a thimbleful of exceptions, one of which was New Orleans. I spent a day or two playing at parks in the south end of town and the racial hostility and sense of lawlessness was palpable. Driving through the streets I got ugly looks from nearly everyone I passed. It was one of the only times during my trip that I felt not entirely safe. At one point, a nice fellow from the neighborhood with whom I had been playing, was packing it in for the night; he suggested that I go to another park about a half-mile away since it was next to a police station and he thought I'd be safer there. From my limited experience I couldn't tell you what all of the components were to the hostility I saw, but a partial list would surely include racial segregation and social inequality on a scale that should embarrass any American.
I bring this up not to claim any deep insight into what is happening in New Orleans, but merely to underscore Gelinas's point about the terrible difficulty in rebuilding not just the city's infrastructure but its society. If you've only been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or on an expense account, you have not seen the real city. The real city, as Gelinas points out, suffers from such decay, mismanagement, and inequity that it will be a wonder if it can right itself.
Sure, the feds must provide cash and resources for relief and recovery—but it’s up to New Orleans, not the feds, to dig deep within itself to rebuild its economic and social infrastructure before the tourists ever will flock back to pump cash into the city’s economy. It will take a miracle. New Orleans has experienced a steady brain drain and fiscal drain for decades, as affluent corporations and individuals have fled, leaving behind a large population of people dependent on the government. Socially, New Orleans is one of America’s last helpless cities—just at the moment when it must do all it can to help itself survive.
Gelinas's central point is that the disaster of Katrina is merely causing the city's deeper sociological problems to manifest:
No American city has ever gone through what New Orleans must go through: the complete (if temporary) flight of its most affluent and capable citizens, followed by social breakdown among those left behind, after which must come the total reconstruction of economic and physical infrastructure by a devastated populace. . . .
Thousands of opportunistic vultures have looted stores all over the city, and shot in the head one police officer who tried to stop them. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has posted photos on its website of other police officers joining in the widespread theft from unattended stores. Looters have picked clean Wal-Mart’s gun department downtown. This anarchy is regrettably not all that surprising. Disaster does not make a weak peacetime civil and social infrastructure strong. Unfortunately, New Orleans must now ask for deserved billions in recovery money even as Americans see images of a city that loots itself on its worst day. . . .
How will New Orleans’ economy recover from Katrina? Apart from some pass-through oil infrastructure, the city’s economy is utterly dependent on tourism. After the city’s mainstay oil industry decamped to Texas nearly a generation ago, New Orleans didn’t do the difficult work of cutting crime, educating illiterate citizens, and attracting new industries to the city. New Orleans became merely a convention and tourism economy, selling itself to visitors to survive, and over time it has only increased its economic dependence on outsiders. The fateful error of that strategy will become clearer in the next few months.
Gelinas also argues that New Orleans is a sad city. I'd have to agree.
Permit a personal anecdote: In the fall of 1996, having just finished college, I spent several months driving around the country playing pick-up basketball. (It's a long story and no, you don't want the details.) I played on playgrounds in every one of the lower 48 states. I played in some of the "worst" neighborhoods in America--from Coney Island to Cabrini Green to South Central Los Angeles and, on the whole, my experiences were incredibly positive.
Most of the time I was a distinct minority: a middle-class, college-educated white kid playing in neighborhoods that were frequently poor and nearly all-black. At the risk of sounding patronizing, I would honestly say that the friendliest, most hospitable people I met during those months were almost always in the "worst" neighborhoods.
There were only a thimbleful of exceptions, one of which was New Orleans. I spent a day or two playing at parks in the south end of town and the racial hostility and sense of lawlessness was palpable. Driving through the streets I got ugly looks from nearly everyone I passed. It was one of the only times during my trip that I felt not entirely safe. At one point, a nice fellow from the neighborhood with whom I had been playing, was packing it in for the night; he suggested that I go to another park about a half-mile away since it was next to a police station and he thought I'd be safer there. From my limited experience I couldn't tell you what all of the components were to the hostility I saw, but a partial list would surely include racial segregation and social inequality on a scale that should embarrass any American.
I bring this up not to claim any deep insight into what is happening in New Orleans, but merely to underscore Gelinas's point about the terrible difficulty in rebuilding not just the city's infrastructure but its society. If you've only been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or on an expense account, you have not seen the real city. The real city, as Gelinas points out, suffers from such decay, mismanagement, and inequity that it will be a wonder if it can right itself.
Terror Dome
I confess to watching Katrina from a pub on Monday afternoon and being not exactly delighted by the spectacle, but filled with a pretty large sense of wonder and awe. I assumed, like many others, I think, that we would see a great deal of property damage and some small-scale human suffering, but nothing more. After all, that early in the morning the cable news nets had announced that Katrina had veered off to the east and New Orleans was going to be spared the cataclysm that had been feared on Sunday. Remember the phrase they used: "The best worst-case scenario."
Five days later we have this terrifying quote: "The conditions are steadily declining," said Maj. Ed Bush. "The systems have done all they can do. We don't know how much longer we can hold on. The game now is to squeeze everything we can out of the Superdome and then get out."
Ross Douthat has a useful summary of what I expect most people (including myself) are just coming to wonder: This is the United States of America, not a Michael Bay movie. How can this be happening?
(Douthat also has this intriguing thought about Katrina as the anti-9/11.)
On many levels--from the leadership of our government, to the behavior of looters, to the shocking response of some portions of the American left--the destruction of New Orleans has revealed some troubling traits of our national character. It's sobering to realize that what we saw on September 12, 2001, when American society was the picture of strength, dignity, compassion, and valor, at every level, might have been an aberation, and not the norm.
Five days later we have this terrifying quote: "The conditions are steadily declining," said Maj. Ed Bush. "The systems have done all they can do. We don't know how much longer we can hold on. The game now is to squeeze everything we can out of the Superdome and then get out."
Ross Douthat has a useful summary of what I expect most people (including myself) are just coming to wonder: This is the United States of America, not a Michael Bay movie. How can this be happening?
(Douthat also has this intriguing thought about Katrina as the anti-9/11.)
On many levels--from the leadership of our government, to the behavior of looters, to the shocking response of some portions of the American left--the destruction of New Orleans has revealed some troubling traits of our national character. It's sobering to realize that what we saw on September 12, 2001, when American society was the picture of strength, dignity, compassion, and valor, at every level, might have been an aberation, and not the norm.
"I Won't Contribute to Katrina"
He makes the other guy who's not going to give presents look like a saint:
Patrick Ruffini has more.
Update: This post is, in its own way, even more disturbing:
. . . an employee approached me and said, "Would you like to give a dollar for Hurricane Katrina?"
I said, "No."
First off, I'm offended that the store employees are wandering around fundraising instead of helping customers, especially when it's so obvious that the store conglomerate uses these do-it-yourself machines to cut down on the number of employees necessary to help customers so that the store conglomerate can turn a larger profit while having fewer of those pesky union workers to deal with.
But beyond that, I'm sick of footing the bill for George W. Bush and the rest of his so-called compassionate conservatives. It's been well-documented over the past two days that there were all kinds of warnings about what could happen to New Orleans and that the levees designed to keep out the water were sinking or uncompleted.
What did Bush do? Nothing. Actually, worse than nothing. He was so busy fighting his cowboy war in Iraq (cheers to Hugo Chavez for the analogy) that he actually diverted money away from the projects that might have saved New Orleans because the war was so damn expensive! And now I should pony up to help out? Sorry, Charlie. . . .
You 60 million losers who voted for this loser open YOUR wallets. This president declared war on the poor long ago, and while some of us cared enough to vote for someone who gave a damn, you buried your heads in the sand, babbled about abortion and family values, and voted for the doofus.
And now you want to act all high and mighty and come asking me for a buck or two to help these poor people? Sorry, Charlie. Take an extra buck or two out of the fund you set aside to buy seventeen Support Our Troops magnets to stick all over your car to show how patriotic you are.
You want disaster relief? Impeach George W. Bush.
Patrick Ruffini has more.
Update: This post is, in its own way, even more disturbing:
I'm not going to post the piece I started to write.
My original reaction to the Katrina catastrophe was going to be: "NOT ONE DIME."
For an hour or so, I contemplated the idea of turning it into a crusade: No-one in the blue states (where the money is) should give one dime of aid to the victims of this hurricane, which devastated Bush-friendly regions.
Why did I flirt with such a callous attitude?
Because it should be obvious to all that this tragedy was not just an act of God. Dubya and his diety conspired to transform mere disaster into an unprecedented mega-catastrophe.
Scientists warn us to expect more Katrinas. Global warming -- the existence of which W would prefer to rationalize away -- caused the temperature of the sea's surface to rise in the Gulf of Mexico, thereby transforming what should have been a manageable hurricane into a monster.
The National Guard was off in Iraq stealing oil -- and everything else in that nation -- all to benefit Haliburton and the oil companies. They could have been in N.O. earlier, building levies, overseeing evacuation.
Bush financially eviscerated the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The money went to his Iraq debacle. . . .
So why was I thinking of starting a movement against giving aid to the stricken areas?
Because these are red states. They voted for Bush. These ninnies obviously wanted these policies, and they deserve to live with the consequences of their votes.
A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters. . . .
So, at least, I started to write. But then (to paraphrase the old song) I thought I'd better think it out again.
Many of the victims, the ones who have suffered the most, are poor. The hardest hit were the blue state folk living among the red state maniacs. New Orleans, we should note, went heavily for Kerry.
And that's why we must help. Although it was very tempting to say otherwise.
But let us make one thing clear: We WILL politicize this issue.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Short Cuts
From Brendon:
I just hope Brad doesn't find out that while he was out getting his roots done like some kind of homo, I totally got it on with a picture of his girlfriend. Checkmate, pretty boy.* * *
Of course, between a baby and an STD, STD's are what you have to worry about because, obviously, you can't drown an STD.* * *
"We considered Sharon because she's a good actress and she still looks hot enough at 47 to wear see thru dresses like in the pictures below my quote, but she's also an insufferable bitch and egomaniac who does nothing but complain and thinks actors should rank above nuns who sponge lepers in Calcutta and Batman on everyone's list of international heroes."
My Plan for Sacrifice
From Daily Kos:
I understand that all of this is very serious but isn't this a slight perversion of the core of "sacrifice"?
Click through to read the comments to that post. The people of Daily Kos think this is a bang-up idea.
Right now, with the humanitarian situation on the Gulf Coast already worse than imaginable, anyone who can - anyone with any human decency - must be called upon to make a sacrifice and help out our fellow men and women.
So here's my proposal. I don't even think it'll be that painful. I'm just not going to be giving any holiday gifts when December comes around this year. Instead, I'm going to give whatever I might have spent on presents to hurricane relief efforts instead. Goodness knows that the Gulf Coast refugees need it more than anyone I know needs a new video game or handbag.
I hope you'll consider joining me. I think your friends and family will understand if you explain your decision to them . . .
I understand that all of this is very serious but isn't this a slight perversion of the core of "sacrifice"?
Click through to read the comments to that post. The people of Daily Kos think this is a bang-up idea.
Casualties in Times of War and Peace
Last week John Hinderaker had a very powerful post about casualty numbers, noting that if all you know is the number of dead, and not the context of surrounding events, then almost any military endeavor looks like a bad idea verging on catastrophe:
Hinderaker's point is well taken, particularly when he gets to the matter of casualties in times of peace:
Along this same vein, I received this email the other day:
The source for these figures, my emailer tells me, is Stephen Ambrose's The Wild Blue (page 68). And his point is well taken, too.
One wonders how past wars could have been fought if news reporting had consisted almost entirely of a recitation of casualties. The D-Day invasion was one of the greatest organizational feats ever achieved by human beings, and one of the most successful. But what if the only news Americans had gotten about the invasion was that 2,500 allied soldiers died that day, with no discussion of whether the invasion was a success or a failure, and no acknowledgement of the huge strategic stakes that were involved? Or what if such news coverage had continued, day by day, through the entire Battle of Normandy, with Americans having no idea whether the battle was being won or lost, but knowing only that 54,000 Allied troops had been killed by the Germans?
Hinderaker's point is well taken, particularly when he gets to the matter of casualties in times of peace:
The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. . . .
That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern--any concern--about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996.
Along this same vein, I received this email the other day:
My father served as a B-24 pilot in WWII. I've been researching his service and the conditions under which this 20 year old flew 43 combat missions. During WWII 35,946 airmen died in accidents (other than battle deaths). Even the training is beyond our modern day comprehension. There were a total of 3,502 fatalities in primary, basic and advanced flight training. My Dad was part of the 450th Bomb Group (720th, 721st, 722nd and 723rd Squadrons) known as the Cottontails. Each squadron consisted of approximately 15 planes. During the 18 plus months they were a unit, 1,505 men were killed or missing in action. Could we or would we tolerate such losses today?
The source for these figures, my emailer tells me, is Stephen Ambrose's The Wild Blue (page 68). And his point is well taken, too.
Michael Bay Is Back!
This time, filing an op-ed for The Onion, about March of the Penguins:
Has anyone ever heard of production values? It's one of the most vital aspects of the filmmaking art, and you don't get it by just showing up on an iceberg and filming whatever happens to be in front of you. Frankly, for real icebergs, they looked fake. . . .
What kind of a world do we live in when a futuristic techno-thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as escaped clones on levitating jet bikes doesn't outgross the shit out of a glorified Discovery Channel rerun? Don't people realize how much money I spent?
I know there's an election later this month, but I am still somewhat surprised by the sentiments of the German government with regard to the Gulf Coast disaster. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has now issued two statements of willingness to help, Interior Minister Otto Schily (an old friend of John Ashcroft) has said his country is ready to provide assistance, and just today Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called Condoleezza Rice, telling her the same thing.
Wasn't New Orleans French?
Wasn't New Orleans French?
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
A Shiny Quarter
If you can pick out the meanest insult:
In theory, it still dates Jake Gyllenhall and Bloom still dates Kate Bosworth. And that's where the mystery deepens. Why Orlando pretends to date girls to begin with is confusing, but the thought of him banging Dunst just makes my skin crawl. Despite erotic urban legends to the contrary, sex with a baby-toothed ghost yields surprisingly little satisfaction.
Good Morning!
Who knew the September issue of In Style would feature the interview of the century. I am talking about the special "Top Secrets" section in which celebrities "fess up to all sorts of naughtiness." The historic interview I am referring to involves a Galley favorite, Ms. Jessica Alba:
Sexiest Moment: "When a man looks at you like he can't get enough of you. When you can tell he wants to take a bite out of you because you're so yummy. When he kisses you and you know what it feels like to be desired. When no one else matters."
(I need to catch my breath between typing.)
Boxers or Buff? "In the buff. There's no such thing as an ideal body; that's just silliness. It just has to be a body I want. I've never been into guys who work out three hours a day. It looks ridiculous, and they're usually lacking upstairs."
I limit my workout routine to 40 minutes.
First thing in the morning or last thing at night? "First thing in the morning, which for me is around 11. There's something nice about starting the day with a little loving from your man. And I especially love Asian men in their 30s who write for conservative magazines."
(Okay, I made up that last line.)
Sexiest Moment: "When a man looks at you like he can't get enough of you. When you can tell he wants to take a bite out of you because you're so yummy. When he kisses you and you know what it feels like to be desired. When no one else matters."
(I need to catch my breath between typing.)
Boxers or Buff? "In the buff. There's no such thing as an ideal body; that's just silliness. It just has to be a body I want. I've never been into guys who work out three hours a day. It looks ridiculous, and they're usually lacking upstairs."
I limit my workout routine to 40 minutes.
First thing in the morning or last thing at night? "First thing in the morning, which for me is around 11. There's something nice about starting the day with a little loving from your man. And I especially love Asian men in their 30s who write for conservative magazines."
(Okay, I made up that last line.)
Endlich!
Some parting thoughts on Vienna.
If you are interested in "relics," this place has a few. Inside Peterskirche are the remains of one martyr I believe to be St. Benedict the Martyr (R.C. Galley readers may know better). He is encased in glass on a side altar wearing his vestments but you can see through the gaps his rib cage and his leg bones. His face is covered by a mask, which I am not certain helps his appearance as you are now looking at a skeleton with a face (and eyes looking right back at you). Inside Mariahülf, right on Mariahilferstraße, lies the body of a female martyr bearing no name. She is actually sitting upright behind the glass altar, wearing a crown that sits atop a wig of long, dark, brown, curly hair. She has on a white mask and is clad in robes. Again, was this to make her look better or creep out parishioners (if there were any parishioners)? Meanwhile, in a side chapel inside Karlskirche dangles a finger in glass. I assume this too belongs to a saint or martyr but alas there is no indication whose finger it was. Besides the relics (speaking of which, an excellent site clarifying what defines a relic can be found here), over at St. Augustine's Loreto chapel you will find more than 50 urns containing the hearts of Habsburgs long gone. (Near the entrance are amazing sculptures of mourners on their way to the vault.)
On a much lighter note, we went to a trendy restaurant, Fabios, around the corner from Stephansdom. On the chalkboard behind the bar are printed all the drinks they serve, including Caipirinhas and Mojitos. They also make Cosmopolitans--I asked the bartender who drinks them: "Mostly married women," he told me. "Ever since that show Sex in the City came here, that's all they want to drink."
If you are interested in "relics," this place has a few. Inside Peterskirche are the remains of one martyr I believe to be St. Benedict the Martyr (R.C. Galley readers may know better). He is encased in glass on a side altar wearing his vestments but you can see through the gaps his rib cage and his leg bones. His face is covered by a mask, which I am not certain helps his appearance as you are now looking at a skeleton with a face (and eyes looking right back at you). Inside Mariahülf, right on Mariahilferstraße, lies the body of a female martyr bearing no name. She is actually sitting upright behind the glass altar, wearing a crown that sits atop a wig of long, dark, brown, curly hair. She has on a white mask and is clad in robes. Again, was this to make her look better or creep out parishioners (if there were any parishioners)? Meanwhile, in a side chapel inside Karlskirche dangles a finger in glass. I assume this too belongs to a saint or martyr but alas there is no indication whose finger it was. Besides the relics (speaking of which, an excellent site clarifying what defines a relic can be found here), over at St. Augustine's Loreto chapel you will find more than 50 urns containing the hearts of Habsburgs long gone. (Near the entrance are amazing sculptures of mourners on their way to the vault.)
On a much lighter note, we went to a trendy restaurant, Fabios, around the corner from Stephansdom. On the chalkboard behind the bar are printed all the drinks they serve, including Caipirinhas and Mojitos. They also make Cosmopolitans--I asked the bartender who drinks them: "Mostly married women," he told me. "Ever since that show Sex in the City came here, that's all they want to drink."
Top 10 Dot-Com Flops
Uncle Grambo returns from the dead to give us this link to C-Net's best dot.com disasters.
I'm particularly fond of Boo.com, the creators of which were even more obnoxious than the geniuses who thought up Inside.com (which clearly should have made the list).
I'm particularly fond of Boo.com, the creators of which were even more obnoxious than the geniuses who thought up Inside.com (which clearly should have made the list).
Dust-Bowl Days, Con't.
Continuing yesterday's discussion of the housing bubble, Galley Reader and Redskins Super-Fan P.G. writes:
The dot-com bubble may have burst later than expected, but the point is, it still popped. We did not have Dow 36,000, as some very smart people predicted. We did not have unlimited growth in the stock market because a new economy changed the principles of market physics. And I suspect (hope/dream/etc.) that this housing market is a bubble that must burst, too.
Yes, there is growth in demand and surely in some places prices may be upped by zoning problems, but there are too many non-dense, non-populous, non-"hot" markets that are out of control for zoning regulations to account for everything.
Today I point to posts from suburban Minneapolis and Boise (Boise!) about sky-rocketing house prices. What is at work here is tulip-mania, fueled by low interest rates, lending malpractice, a weak stock market, and a national psychosis about home ownership.
Ok, so Vegas leads the list and it’s got nothing but space to build on. But you’ve missed one component: zoning restrictions. Take CA for example, quite a few cities on your list are in CA, but do you realize how hard it is to build a development in CA? I don’t know what the rules in NV are, but I’m guessing they probably aren’t developer-friendly. Vegas is the fastest growing city in the US, so there is a huge demand for housing and probably a supply that doesn’t match that demand. I live in Loudoun County, VA, and if you drive through it you’d think that there was nothing but space to build. But zoning restrictions limit land use to one home for every 7-10 acres in western Loudoun. Kinda hard to build homes to meet the demand of America’s fastest growing county when you’re limited to building a home on 10 acres. . . . the market is overpriced in many areas around the country. Where wage increases cannot sustain increased home costs you’ll see a correction. But the doom and gloom housing bubble collapse that we’ve been told to expect hasn’t happened and probably won’t happen. Mind you, 2 years ago we were told the rate of increase in home values could not continue and yet in continued for 2 years.
As for Greenspan’s prediction of a bubble burst, he warned of a stock market collapse in 1996, a full 4 years before it actually happened. In economic terms a prediction that comes 4 years early is not excellent foresight, it’s just plain dumb.
The dot-com bubble may have burst later than expected, but the point is, it still popped. We did not have Dow 36,000, as some very smart people predicted. We did not have unlimited growth in the stock market because a new economy changed the principles of market physics. And I suspect (hope/dream/etc.) that this housing market is a bubble that must burst, too.
Yes, there is growth in demand and surely in some places prices may be upped by zoning problems, but there are too many non-dense, non-populous, non-"hot" markets that are out of control for zoning regulations to account for everything.
Today I point to posts from suburban Minneapolis and Boise (Boise!) about sky-rocketing house prices. What is at work here is tulip-mania, fueled by low interest rates, lending malpractice, a weak stock market, and a national psychosis about home ownership.
I understand more than you'll . . . never-know.
My favorite blogger, Brendon Donnelly has a post which is totally pointless except that it furthers a personal feud between him and his former partner at The Superficial. Since I regard Brendon as a genius and The Superficial as a collective of hacks who coasted for too long on Donnelly's accomplishments, I present the following.
From Donnelly, on August 26:
From The Superficial, on August 29:
Update, 10:52 a.m.: An alert commenter notes that "Jenny" wrote that post, not Brendon. I don't know who "Jenny" is, and I refuse to answer.
From Donnelly, on August 26:
"where ladies are tied to train tracks by guys in tophats with monocles and handlebar mustaches as they cackle manically"
From The Superficial, on August 29:
"your next step in life is to tie somebody to some train tracks and laugh maniacally as you twirl your mustache"
Update, 10:52 a.m.: An alert commenter notes that "Jenny" wrote that post, not Brendon. I don't know who "Jenny" is, and I refuse to answer.
"Loser" vs. "Growth"
Two companies in the same business with similarly terrible stock prices--Design Within Reach and Pier One Imports. One stock is a dog, the other might have growth potential. The Wershovenist Pig has the answers.
Bonus: Why ATI's misfortune could be your gain.
Double Bonus: Just a thought, but as the real estate bubble bursts, won't some of that money flow back into the stock market, making this a good time to look seriously at stocks?
(More on that housing bubble later.)
Bonus: Why ATI's misfortune could be your gain.
Double Bonus: Just a thought, but as the real estate bubble bursts, won't some of that money flow back into the stock market, making this a good time to look seriously at stocks?
(More on that housing bubble later.)
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