JP Fitness Forums - Current Events

So... I suppose we should profile these guys, right?

tkinsley — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:03:15 GMT

Freedom of speech! Let it ring!

This crap is getting out of hand. Maybe the groups and individuals that fund this type of thing should be put on a terrorist/domestic terrorism watch list, huh?

Friday Link

NotForLong — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:12:28 GMT

http://www.advisorperspectives.com/n...l_Problems.pdf

Came across this link while reading a finance blog I enjoy. The author is a professor of finance at Columbia, so I imagine he is somewhat intelligent on the topics he discusses.

As I have tried innumerable times to explain, I hardly think that issues in the economy are mortgage backed led, nor, frankly, even investment banking led. Hopefully for those that only know how to finger point at Goldman this article can serve to provide a backdrop for the greater reasons of our recession.

Or, perhaps, it is just greedy wall street guys who hate their wives. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, afterall.

The Forgotten People

OldGuy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:14:28 GMT

It's sad, really. Millions of viable people, willing to do anything, and there is nothing for them. For some their best hope is they'll be able to park and sleep in a place that's warm and barter for a little grace.

And in between sight seeing trips to Asia and Copenhagen, the effect of which won't be felt for decades, there'll be a jobs summit (at least photographers should be doing well). Well, talk is cheap considering there's not much going around.

Hope and change were the hallmark ideals of the campaign. Change is non-existent and hope, well that appears to be waning too.

That Palin Dude

kuri — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:13:25 GMT

You know, after watching this on Oprah I'm starting to appreciate that Palin dude.

Can anyone reconcile... Glenn Greenwald

diamondpete — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:54:38 GMT

"What I'm absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and our legal traditions and the prosecutors, the tough prosecutors from New York who specialize in terrorism" -- Barack Obama, yesterday.

"Holder said five other Guantanamo detainees would be tried by military tribunals. The five include Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri, who is accused of masterminding the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen; and Canadian Omar Khadr, accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan" -- NPR, yesterday.

"'Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military commissions . . . . and about 75 more have been deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted because of evidentiary issues and limits on the use of classified material' . . . If true, that means that there are 75 so-called 'Fifth Category' detainees who might be subject to indefinite detention without trial" -- The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, yesterday, quoting The Washington Post.

* * * * *
Glenn Greenwald of the left leaning salon.com asks:

Can anyone reconcile Obama's homage to "our legal traditions" and his professed faith in jury trials in the New York federal courts with the reality of what his administration is doing: i.e., denying trials to a large number of detainees, either by putting them before military commissions or simply indefinitely imprisoning them without any process at all?

Interesting commentary:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/gl...ald/index.html

Obama really is something special...

3sweeties — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:44:46 GMT

he saved jobs in nonexistent places. LOL Probably nonexistent jobs too.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-...ory?id=9097853

Quote:

The reporting problems are not limited to Arizona, ABC News found.
In Oklahoma, recovery.gov lists more than $19 million in spending -- and 15 jobs created -- in yet more congressional districts that don't exist.
In Iowa, it shows $10.6 million spent � and 39 jobs created -- in nonexistent districts.
In Connecticut's 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs created with zero stimulus dollars.
The list of spending and job creation in fictional congressional districts extends to U.S. territories as well.
$68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
$8.4 million spent and 40.3 jobs created in the 99th congressional district of the U.S. Virgin

Abortion in Gov't Supported Healthcare

Charger — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:25:40 GMT

This post is not to get into a abortion is right/wrong argument.

I'm trying to understand why abortion that is not required to save a woman's life would need to be a part of any gov't program. We obviously have limited funds, so I would think money could be spent on medical procedures, medicines, etc. that save lives.

Even if you believe abortion is morally OK, do you also believe it is required even when the woman's life is not in jeopardy? Pregnancy is very tough on a woman's body, so is that the rational for abortion provided by a gov't run program? Would abortion be offered as a life improvement medical procedure, similar to offering a prosthetic leg or an insulin pump (which is easier than insulin injections)?

Again, this is not a thread to discuss the morality of abortion.

Closing the Circle

OldGuy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:05:13 GMT

Look who's getting aid now!!

Quote:

But tucked inside the law was another prize: a tax break that lets big companies offset losses incurred in 2008 and 2009 against profits booked as far back as 2004. The tax cuts will generate corporate refunds or relief worth about $33 billion, according to an administration estimate.

Before the bill became law, the so-called look-back on losses was limited to small businesses and could be used to counterbalance just two years of profits. Now the profit offset goes back five years, and the law allows big companies to take advantage of it, too. The only companies that can�t participate are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and any institution that took money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Among the biggest beneficiaries are home builders, analysts say. Once again, at the front of the government assistance line, stand some of the very companies that contributed mightily to the credit crisis by building and financing too many homes.

And the best part..they don't even need it.

Quote:

When Mr. Obama signed the law, his administration said the tax break would help �struggling businesses.� But as Ms. Zelman pointed out, many large home builders are sitting atop mountains of cash. Pulte Homes, which will receive refunds exceeding $450 million under the new law, has $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, according to its most recent financial statement.

Hovnanian Enterprises is another big beneficiary of the tax break. It anticipates a refund of $250 million to $275 million next year. It had $550 million in cash in its most recent quarter.

Smaller recipients include Standard Pacific, which is poised to reap cash refunds of $80 million under the new tax break. According to its most recent financial filing, Standard Pacific held $523 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Finally, Beazer Homes told investors that it expects to receive a refund of $50 million. The company reported cash and equivalents of $557 million at the end of September.

Some of the home builders poised to receive tax refunds have even more cash today than they did last year. D. R. Horton, for example, has $1.966 billion in cash, up 45 percent from September 2008 levels. And some are healthy enough to have retired significant amounts of debt from their balance sheets this year. Pulte has bought back $1.93 billion in debt in 2009.

Gotta love those lobbyists

Quote:

Much of this year�s lobbying expenditures were focused on arguing for the tax loss carry-forward, documents show.

Among individual companies, Lennar spent $240,000 lobbying while companies affiliated with Hovnanian Enterprises spent $222,000. Pulte Homes spent $210,000 this year.

That�s some return on investment. After spending its $210,000, Pulte will receive $450 million in refunds. And Hovnanian, after spending its $222,000, will get as much as $275 million.

That's a helluva return. Goldman must be jealous.

Some new guidelines

Lou Schuler — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:05:22 GMT

We've all spent an inordinate amount of time running in circles on CE lately.

Mods spend way too much policing arguments that devolve into name calling.

Posters spend way too much time pointing out the flaws and fallacies in each other's arguments.

If I didn't know that we are all intelligent adults who come here to discuss the issues of our time in a reasonable fashion, I'd swear our most prolific posters come in multiple times a day looking for a fight with specific individuals.

Okay, we get that some of you don't like each other. We get that some of you think your debating style is superior to those of the people you don't like.

But the arguments are getting too personal, too repetitive, too vitriolic, and too distracting.

So from this moment forward, let's consider these the temporary rules of the forum:

1. No name-calling (actually, that's a permanent rule).

2. No sarcasm directed at another poster or the material he or she posted. If you think it's stupid, please explain why. Or, better, just ignore it. It's surprisingly easy to do.

3. No telling other people they aren't arguing right. If I see a post that uses the phrase "straw man," unless it refers to an actual representation of a person that happens to be made of straw, I will delete it.

In other words:

1. Discuss the ideas or events or material in question, not the person who presented it.

2. If you're going to disagree with someone's post, make your points about the substance of the post, not how it was presented. If you feel someone is guilty of a categorical syllogism or some other deductive fallacy, you can make the counter-argument without belittling or provoking the person by pointing out exactly what they did wrong.

Or, to make it even simpler:

If the only possible effect of your post is to make someone angry, don't post it. One of the mods will delete it anyway, and if we find we're deleting too many posts by the same individuals ... well, you know what happens then.

So there is comparable freedom in Europe, eh?

rwmct — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:56:23 GMT

Anybody see the article in today's Times entitled "Two German Killers Demanding Anonymity Sue Wikipedia's Parent" ???

Apparently, in Germany, once you have done your time, you have a legal right to silence public mention of you as having been convicted of a crime.

Now, it is one thing to erase public records of certain criminals, such as sometimes done in this country with juvenile convictions. (I think it is terrible policy, as government records should NEVER have truthful information erased, the very idea is Orwellian). But to silence private entities from publishing truthful information like murder convictions?

This bespeaks a legal regime that, with respect to freedom of speech, is not different in degree from ours, but very different in kind, IMO. And, IMO, much more dangerous to freedom.

Edit: anybody have any idea why "degree" in the above ended up being a link? I have no idea myself. Did I do something by accident?

I'm sick of politics too, ya know!

Sarah Palin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:34:03 GMT

Which is why I resigned as governor of the great country of Alaska.

I see the pain in the words of you regular Americans. Like OldGuy, who fantasizes about me at night rolling around in the Alaskan forest with a bunch of wolves. Or PowermanDL, who really wishes he was fighting for our country, instead of living off of the socialistic values of Australia. Or NotForLong who has infiltrated Wall Street to rid it of crime and greed and corruption and spread his seed all over Carrie Prejean. Or avocado, who I really don't know about because I've got no tootlin' clue what an avocado is!

Take TKinsley for example. She is out there, on the front lines, fighting four our freedoms. She sees the pain and the suffering of the Afghans every day, and they even taught her to crochet! Or JC1947, who deadlifts that barbell with the passion of a team of Marine snipers about to topple yet another statue of Saddam.

This is what America is.

We have become a nation of brilliance, too smart to realize that we're outsmarting ourselves. We allow those smarter than us to tell our daughters "Trust me, I'll pull out" instead of taking the proper precautions. Have we pulled out yet? To me, it seems like we're in there thrusting away deeper than we ever have been since we started.

Which is why I'm passing the buck like a point guard poised to bicycle kick the ball over the fence.

We need to take America back.

We need to go rogue.

The Glass Steagall Act

GqArtguy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:41:14 GMT

This clip follows a little bit about the history of this bill, its repeal, and the subsequent effect:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoung.../0/vky9cz3Usls

You've got to be kidding me

3sweeties — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:15:19 GMT

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...face-trial-ny/

Quote:

WASHINGTON -- Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

$700 Billion for TARP

OldGuy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:19:41 GMT

$4 billion for schools. And they have to compete for it.

Quote:

The $4 billion is the most money Washington has ever given to overhaul schools.

I wonder what this country could become if we gave $700 billion to schools.

Carrie Prejean and President Clinton

gregl515 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:44:07 GMT

Carrie Prejean says that a video of her pleasuring herself for her boyfriend is not a sex tape. It gives new meaning to, "I did not have sex with that woman!"