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Archive for September, 2008

Teen parenting sucks

Adorable Child and her friends frequently tell Polimom stories about incidents and interactions in their middle-school (and high-school) worlds.  Sometimes the stories are funny… but far more often — and ever-more frequently — they’re not.
I can’t remember ever sharing such tales with my parents (or my friends’ parents), so I have no idea what they’d […]

NFL Picks Week 4

I’m getting this out even later than I did last week, thanks to the increasing madness in the presidential election.  (I’m a raving political junkie these days, I guess.)
First, a summary of last week.  Because I differed so widely from The Golden Coin (TGC), I predicted that either the Coin or I was going to […]

“McCain is Right” Ad: A Major Misfire

Before I’d even taken my sandy-eyed, exhausted self off to bed last night, the McCain campaign came out with a post-debate ad.  (You can view it here.)  In it, he quotes Obama’s several “McCain is right” lines, and spins himself dizzy.
Agreeing with one’s opponent as a segue into the rebuttal is a common debate tactic.  […]

The Debates, Round One

Having placed myself back “on the fence” a couple of weeks ago, I really enjoyed tonight’s debate.   Watching them side-by-side was an interesting exercise.
I posted a few post-debate thoughts at TMV, here.  In a nutshell, though?  I think this was a good night, overall, for Obama.

Mark to Market for the non-economist (like Polimom)

Polimom is not an economist.  But if you’re having trouble understanding why there are liquidity problems in the banking world, you may as well start with the mark to market rule:
Let’s say Bank A and Bank B each own an asset, for which they each paid $100. For the sake of simplicity, assume it’s the […]

Don’t play in the street

Parenting is a tough job.  One has to find a balance between letting kids learn life’s lessons through painful experience (natural consequences), and keeping them safe.  The parental path through the child-raising wilderness is not always well-marked.
Fire is hot.  Should we let little Janey touch a flame so she learns that it’s dangerous?   Guns can […]

Some pity for Palin

Reading and watching the slowly-emerging Sarah Palin via rare, much-coveted interviews, I’m growing very sad for her.  It’s been too much, too fast.
She’s been a small town mayor and the governor of a state with unique needs;  she hasn’t spent much time thinking about national or international policy.  And it shows.
There’s a reason she’s been […]

“Save us, John!”

Oh dear.  Negotiations are apparently not going well on the bail-out, and it’s the  Republicans who are leading the charge.  (Or not)
But according to Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, who attended the meeting, “we will not have a deal.”
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, who also attended the meeting, said Thursday that the meeting was contentious and blasted […]

McCain Reaches for his Mavericky Hat

Having wrapped his last mavericky impulse in bubble-wrap, John McCain has clearly decided he needs a new game-changer.  From the campaign email:
Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have […]

Collusion and Sexism

CNN’s Campbell Brown:
“Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she’s ready to be one heartbeat away from […]

How Congress approaches the financial crisis

I’m suffering a slight crisis of confidence in our leaders.

And no.  It doesn’t help that they haven’t a clue what they’re doing.