Lou Minatti

The two sides of Charles Johnson

2009-12-18T06:47:00.003-06:00

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is currently in the bag for Al Gore. But just a few years ago, Johnson linked Gore's theories to Osama bin Laden.

Hmm.

Chrome Mining

2009-12-17T22:32:00.002-06:00

I like these ads a lot, but they don't convince me to install Chrome. I like to keep data mining to a minimum.

Belgium: The Michigan of Europe

2009-12-17T06:54:00.002-06:00

This article on Belgian Waffles is fascinating.

Wallonia is described through its own similarly graphic metaphor: as Britain without Thatcher. That the income of Flanders overtook that of Wallonia sometime in the mid-1960s is not just an accident of natural resources. It had political causes too. The heavily unionized South, with its rigid system of wage bargaining and a lavish welfare state won through uncompromising labor agitation, was totally resistant to change. For all the attention Flemish nationalism has received, the Walloons also gave an impetus to the breakup of Belgium, for their own economic reasons. They wanted to seize control over national economic policy in order to protect their dying industries. Wallonia would be an economy of coal, iron, and steel or it would be nothing. It wound up nothing. "In contrast with e.g. Glasgow or Bilbao," Buyst writes, "a successful reconversion to tertiary activities never materialized."

That scared foreign investors, particularly American ones, who were pouring into Europe in the decades after World War II. Already by the 1960s, 80 percent of the foreign companies present in Belgium were in the Flemish north, according to the Ghent university political scientist Carl Devos. Wallonia is now a basket case. Charleroi, the regional hub, shows a lot of the outward signs of a city run by a Socialist party machine: 30 percent unemployment, life expectancies that have receded to their levels in the 1950s, municipal council members sitting in jail, and a tendency of helpful locals to describe it as "our Detroit."

And I thought everything was copacetic in Euroland. Wasn't socialism supposed to put a stop to this?

Hypo

2009-12-16T19:34:00.004-06:00

Over at The Big Picture,

The Austrian government has nationalized the insolvent bank Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA). The financial institution, which has 40 billion Euros in assets, is the country's sixth largest bank. But, in relative terms, this is a very large bankruptcy using GDP at purchasing power parity, an American HGAA would have assets of $2.5 trillion, larger than any of the American banks. So, this is a very big deal and it speaks to the size of Austrian banks' international exposure, renewed risks in banking and the possibility of contagion.

Think about that. The equivalent of a $2.5 trillion US bank... and it's only Austria's sixth largest bank. That is the definition of too big to fail... but it still doesn't sound right. $2.5 trillion? Ed explains further:

When I wrote the figure $2.5 trillion, I was thinking more Iceland or Switzerland than the U.S. initially because they also had/have outsized banking sector. But, the fact that this was the sixth largest bank and is the equivalent in assets to economy of Citigroup in America should tell you they will have major problems if asset prices in Eastern Europe fall.

That's a relief. TARP for Austria!

(Ahh... the days of trolling.)

How bad are things in San Francisco?

2009-12-16T07:30:00.003-06:00

This bad. And it's self-inflicted, despite all of San Francisco's natural assets.

Think and Grow Rich with Global Warming

2009-12-14T22:04:00.006-06:00

Uh oh. Some information about Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Link 1
Link 2

"Global warming" is like everything else. Follow the money. For those who sneer that "deniers" are paid for by "Big Oil," you may want to wipe those smug looks off your faces. A lot of people are getting rich and they're picking your wallet clean. The global warming hucksters are not any different than the banksters, really. Except the global warming hucksters want us to fork over even more cash. And at least the banksters don't hide their activities behind the wall of "social justice."

Liening South Padre Island bubble condo imploded

2009-12-13T22:16:00.002-06:00

From the Chronicle,

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Demolition crews have imploded an unfinished, leaning 31-story South Padre Island condominium tower.

The Ocean Tower was to be a 151-unit luxury project slated for a spa and other amenities. Construction began in 2006 but stopped last summer when it became obvious the tower was sinking faster than attached parking garages, causing cracks in beams and columns.

I can think of some other liening bubble condo towers around Houston that need implosion.

Gaygaygaygaygaygaygay

2009-12-12T22:08:00.003-06:00

As expected, Annise Parker is the new Mayor of Houston. Our second gay mayor. Her sexual inclination didn't amount to a hill of beans, nor should it. Now, can we move on?

Europeans are Obese

2009-12-11T22:37:00.002-06:00

We're told that only Americans are lardasses, but I see a lot of waddling European tubbagoos in Copenhagen.

Captain Euro is on it!

National policies should encourage and provide opportunities for greater physical activity, and improve the availability and accessibility of healthy foods.

"Healthy" foods are available in great quantities, so this is nonsense. My theory has always been the link to cigarettes. Americans quit the death sticks before Europeans and picked up fast food to fill their vice. Europeans were about 10 years behind us in quitting cigarettes, and now it is catching up to them.

Annise Parker will be Houston's second gay mayor

2009-12-11T07:01:00.003-06:00

Glenn has a post up about this. Folks are trying to drum up controversy, but the local ads have been pretty civil, just the usual "my opponent is a tax cheat" kind of stuff. I don't care what inclinations or skin color the new mayor has, as long as they don't replicate Leepee.

Astrology is even nuttier than I thought.

2009-12-10T22:14:00.001-06:00

These two men are serious.

Dubai's Underwater Palm Island

2009-12-10T21:49:00.003-06:00

In Dubai, they take underwater real estate deals literally (h/t Noodles):

One of the crown jewels of its real estate empire, The Palm Jumeirah, is literally sinking into the ocean, one scientist told the Wall Street Journal.

The man-made island, which was dredged from seabed and shaped into a palm for luxury housing, is sinking by an average of 5 millimeters a year, an executive at leading European ground survey company Fugro NPA told the paper.

I am crying for David Beckham and Brad Pitt. How will they cope?

DENTISTS RECOMMEND DAILY GUM MASSAGE!

2009-12-10T19:23:00.002-06:00

It makes a great gift, but the AC power cord is alarming.

Disaster Porn

2009-12-09T22:54:00.003-06:00

I was 8. Things were tough all over. Disaster porn was in vogue.

Lots of big-name stars! I remember being absolutely terrified by the elevator scene. It gave me nightmares. Now it looks really cheesy. Still, I like seeing Walter Matuschanskayasky dressed in 1970's pimp wear while sitting in a bar, oblivious.

Where's the 2009 disaster porn? That retarded 2012 movie looks like a bust.

Oh Holiday Tree, Oh Holiday Tree

2009-12-09T21:58:00.003-06:00

I'm one of the many losers who play FarmVille. I just noticed this tonight.

I've never heard of a "Holiday Tree." However, it does look a lot like a Christmas tree. What's up with that, Zynga?

Will the last person in Dubai please turn out the lights?

2009-12-07T22:31:00.004-06:00

Last Days of Rome:

The Emirate has been struggling for many months, and if you scratch the surface the pain in this new and gaudy metropolis is palpable. Ross, who asked not to be identified, is one of countless expatriates who have been caught out by the collapse in Dubai’s once-booming property market.

Like many he bought a flat off-plan in what was a red-hot property market. Today he is trapped, his passport confiscated until he repays bank loans he used to invest in a property that may never exist. If his work dries up before he can clear his debts he will go to jail.

Time of Transition:

On a recent walk around the car park at Dubai Airport, there were more than two dozens cars that looked completely abandoned by their owners.
Some people have taken to writing little messages on the layers of sand that have gathered on the vehicles.
One says "Gone 4 Ever", and another says "He will return. Inshallah".
"Many people leave cars like this," said an airport worker. "Maybe they have a loan from the bank, maybe their jobs have been terminated. That's why they have left their cars here and gone."

Nobody saw it coming.

"If there's one thing you can trust, it's Dubai," Khalid al-Malik, the CEO of Tatweer, a separate government-owned developer behind some of Dubai's most ambitious projects, said during an interview in April 2008. "Just like what the Americans did with their reputation, we are people who can deliver."

Dubai's biggest deadbeat is Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Why is he not in debtor's prison, along with the stupid greedy Europeans who flipped and flopped?

Let's ride our limo to the airport and hop on our private jet and save the world

2009-12-07T21:34:00.001-06:00

Geez. Haven't these people ever heard of WebEx?

Bailout Ben app

2009-12-07T07:30:00.003-06:00

Just $0.99 on iTunes.

Freeze

2009-12-05T09:47:00.004-06:00

It looks like a neutron bomb went off in my garden. All of my tropicals are ruined. The oranges, which were just about ready to pick, will likely be mush once everything melts.

A coworker asked, "What do you care? You're moving." Well, I've nurtured this place for 15 years, and while I can't take it with me I still don't want to see it all trashed.

CSU official received more than $150K in improper reimbursements

2009-12-03T21:52:00.005-06:00

California state worker is busted for $150,000 in improper reimbursements (he had an overseas travel fetish), but the state probably spent twice that on the investigation. Here's the very detailed report (PDF file), completed by:

ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
State Auditor
Date: December 3, 2009
Legal Counsel: Steven Benito Russo, JD, Chief of Investigations
Investigative Staff: Russ Hayden, CGFM, Manager of Investigations
Siu‑Henh Canimo, CFE
Beka Clement, MPA
Richard Fry, MPA
Justin McDaid, CFE
For questions regarding the contents of this report, please contact
Margarita Fernández, Chief of Public Affairs, at 916.445.0255.

Outside of a very few people at the very top, I am not sure that any state employees should be reimbursed for out-of-state travel. Most trade missions are a fat waste of money. Politicians are just taking advantage of these junkets to travel and get away from the spouse. I can understand why law enforcement may require occasional travel. But the guy in question worked in IT. Maybe he never heard of WebEx.

By the way, CSU disagrees with their findings.

The university disagreed with our finding that the official's travel appeared to offer few tangible benefits or advantages to the university. The university broadly asserted that the official's trips and associated activities were part of an effort to protect, maintain, and enhance the university's investment in software.

As you write those fat checks to send your kids through college, keep CSU in mind. It's happening everywhere.

23 degrees in Houston

2009-12-03T20:50:00.003-06:00

For a place that receives maybe a trace of snow every 4 years on average, tomorrow should be interesting.

Amazingly, it seems likely Houston will see snow Friday, the city’s earliest ever white stuff. Forecasters are still hedging their bets given all of the puzzle pieces that must fall into place for it to snow in Houston, but now say the most likely scenario is 2 to 4 inches of widespread snowfall beginning Friday afternoon. Some areas may get half a foot.

23 degrees tomorrow night. Houses aren't insulated against cold weather, so there will be lots of busted pipes in attics and garages come Saturday morning. Plumbers, drywall repairers and insurance companies will be busy. And if the forecast comes true, I'll say the NWS did an amazing job of pegging this storm 5 days in advance.

Note to myself: Turn the water main off in the morning and get ready to kiss half my plants goodbye. Hope my orange trees make it.

Grapes of Wrath, 2009

2009-12-03T06:29:00.000-06:00

H/T Julia6.

Got Paranoia?

2009-12-02T19:42:00.004-06:00

Mish readers do. By the bucketfuls. Reading the word salad contained in these responses I can only conclude that George W. Bush is the smartest, cruelest, most conniving man ever. Bumbling and mumbling? It's all a smokescreen! And Barack Obama? He works for Bush! Bush and Obama and Osama Bin Laden PLANNED THE 9/11 ATTACKS in order to build pipelines in Afghanistan (that's why Obama is sending more troops), but there were no attacks in the US and those planes we all saw were just mirages. False flag! WTC and the Pentagon were bombed by Halliburton and Unocal. And all of them report directly to Dick Cheney!

Speaking of word salad and Dick Cheney, here's Allena Hansen again. Can someone please explain what Allena is babbling about now?

What is fairly certain, however, is that this time there will be no AIG bailout for Halliburton. With the House Oversight Committee breathing down the neck of the Fed, not even Helicopter Ben will risk the wrath of a chastised Barney Frank and an enraged American public.

Then there's Charles Johnson. Have any doubts about manmade global warming? DENIAR! You're a fundy Jew-hating right-wing kOOk neo-Nazi who works for BIG OIL AND BIG TOBACCO. There is nothing to "Climategate." The word "trick" means a different thing to scientists than it does to stupid dolts like you. You probably want to hang census takers and write "FED" on their shirts!

Sigh. Blogs I have followed for years have degraded so much. Everybody's so different. I haven't changed.

Emirates sale to Etihad Airways

2009-12-01T22:55:00.006-06:00

Me, January 1, 2009:

Dubai collapses, dragging down the other Emirates which are frantically trying to prop it up. Tens of thousands of formerly wealthy European speculators will be wiped out. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum will be forced to unload his prized airline to Abu Dhabi. Emirates will then be merged with Etihad. A380 orders will be canceled or deferred.

UK Guardian, November 30, 2009:

Dubai's flagship airline, Emirates, has emerged as a potential pawn in the city state's scramble for financial stability.

But financial experts believe the airline's future could be determined by Dubai's sister emirate, Abu Dhabi, which could demand ownership of the company for bailing out its neighbour if the troubles at Dubai World worsen.

It's fun to guesscast, and I think I am a pretty good guesser. The difference between me and other guessers like Gerald Celente is he takes his brainfarts seriously, choosing to ignoring his many failures. Plus, he is good at bullshitting reporters who lack skeptical brain cells.

Tiger Woods explained

2009-12-01T22:13:00.003-06:00

Animation from Taiwan. Watch the whole thing.