Saturday, October 09, 2010

World Ending Soon: The Words "Crony Capitalism" Appear In Print In WaPo

Janet Tavakoli On The "Biggest Fraud In The History Of Capital Markets" | zero hedge: "T: Yes, but I wouldn’t say crisis. This can be done with a resolution trust corporation, the way we cleaned up the S&Ls. The system got back on its feet faster because we grappled with the problems. The shareholders would be wiped out and the debt holders would have to take a discount on their debt and they’d get a debt-for-equity swap. Instead we poured TARP money into a pit and meanwhile the banks are paying huge bonuses to some people who should be made accountable for fraud. The financial crisis was a product of our irrational reaction, which protected crony capitalism rather than capitalism. In capitalism, the shareholders who took the risk would be wiped out and the debt holders would take a discount but banking would go on."

Because The Are America

Gonzalo Lira On The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy | zero hedge: "If a big enough proportion of the populace—not even a majority, just a largish chunk—decides that it’s just not worth following the rules anymore, then that society’s days are numbered: Not even a police-state with an armed Marine at every corner with Shoot-to-Kill orders can stop such middle-class anarchy.

Brian and Ilsa are such anarchists—grey-haired, well-dressed, golf-loving, well-to-do, exceedingly polite anarchists: But anarchists nevertheless. They are not important, or powerful, or influential: They are average—that’s why they’re so deadly: Their numbers are millions. And they are slowly, painfully coming to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it anymore.

Once enough of these J. Crew Anarchists decide they no longer give a fuck, it’s over for America—because they are America."

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Vote Dane Brandt for Colorado State House District 53 - Fort Collins

Click the link and donate. I just did...
Dane Brandt for Colorado State House District 53 - Fort Collins: "As a citizen concerned about his community, Dane is ready to work to bring back fiscally responsible, business-minded representation to Colorado's House District 53.

Dane is for:

Lower Taxes
Less Regulation
Personal Choice in Health Care
Economic Stabilization
Personal Responsibility
Helping businesses create jobs
Tort Reform
Colorado's 10th Amendment rights
Smaller government
I-25 Expansion"

Lost In The "Wilders"-ness Of Europe

Power Line - A Warning From London, A Speech In Berlin: "There is a certain irony here. Wilders is being prosecuted for 'hate speech' because he says that Islam is a violent and totalitarian political creed. At the same time, he is given police protection because radical Muslims are trying to assassinate him. Truth, apparently, is not a defense to the charges that are lodged against Wilders. He continues:
I have been dragged to court because in my country freedom can no longer be fully enjoyed. Unlike America, we do not have a First Amendment which guarantees people the freedom to express their opinions and foster public debate by doing so. Unlike America, in Europe the national state, and increasingly the European Union, prescribes how citizens - including democratically elected politicians such as myself - should think and what we are allowed to say. ...

In my speech near Ground Zero in New York on September 11, I emphasized that we must stop the "Blame the West, Blame America"-game which Islamic spokesmen are playing with us. And we must stop playing this game ourselves. I have the same message for you. It is an insult to tell us that we are guilty and deserve what is happening to us. We do not deserve becoming strangers in our own land. We should not accept such insults. First of all, Western civilization is the freest and most prosperous on earth, which is why so many immigrants are moving here, instead of Westerners moving there. And secondly, there is no such thing as collective guilt. Free individuals are free moral agents who are responsible for their own deeds only. "

A Bakery Education

Smarter Than You Think - Aiming to Learn as We Do, A Machine Teaches Itself - NYTimes.com: "When Dr. Mitchell scanned the “baked goods” category recently, he noticed a clear pattern. NELL was at first quite accurate, easily identifying all kinds of pies, breads, cakes and cookies as baked goods. But things went awry after NELL’s noun-phrase classifier decided “Internet cookies” was a baked good. (Its database related to baked goods or the Internet apparently lacked the knowledge to correct the mistake.)

NELL had read the sentence “I deleted my Internet cookies.” So when it read “I deleted my files,” it decided “files” was probably a baked good, too. “It started this whole avalanche of mistakes,” Dr. Mitchell said. He corrected the Internet cookies error and restarted NELL’s bakery education.

His ideal, Dr. Mitchell said, was a computer system that could learn continuously with no need for human assistance. “We’re not there yet,” he said. “But you and I don’t learn in isolation either.”"