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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Spitzer's Fall From Grace

As the NY Daily News reports, Elliot Spitzer's strong arm, intimidation tactics seem to have caught up with him, prompting Spitzer to write an apology in this morning's NY Times. Too bad the Feds didn't investigate his actions while he was Attorney General.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Global Warming: To Rain or Not To Rain

In the UK, everyone's confused. Last year, we had a beautiful summer - very atypical for the UK, and not much rain. The guardian wrote on July 22, 2006 that in the UK, because of global warming,

Rainfall will decline in the summer and the increased deluges in winter will struggle to replenish thirsty reservoirs because much of the water will run off the baked ground.


Now let's fastforward to today. Summer 2007 is very rainy. Yes, it rains a lot in the UK already, so we're seeing more than normal. The guardian's sister newspaper, the independent writes almost exactly one year later, on July 23, 2007,

It's official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate change...Global warming is likely to lead to higher rainfall because a warming atmosphere contains more water vapour and more energy.


So which lefty newpaper is correct? They both are of course. Global warming causes everything in the UK - it just depends upon which year you're in, or which mood you're in, or which side of the bed you wake up on. After reading these brilliant articles, sounds like global warming can be chalked up to a good coin flip. C'mon guys - let's get your story straight. It's hard to save the world, when pseudo science like this is thrown all over the media.

The Damage Caused by Sarbanes Oxley

Foreign companies are continuing to leave the US as a result of Sarbanes Oxley and its enormous cost of compliance. Can you blame them? Not if you're a capitalist, which evidently, none of our congressmen are. I recently had the pleasure of listening to a very respected financial man, a Democrat, from the US who indicated that SarbOx has not caused companies to leave the US. The data in this article would say otherwise.

At the beginning of this week, 428 non-U.S. companies traded on the NYSE, 9.5 percent fewer than in 2002, according to the exchange's Web site. The exchange's non-U.S. listings have dropped every year since Sarbanes-Oxley was signed in 2002. Twenty-three foreign companies have dropped listings so far this year, the fastest pace since 2002, according to the NYSE's site.


Our congress knows that SarbOx is hurting the US economy. Sarbanes and Oxley themselves have admitted that it's done more harm than good. So why do these regulations stick around? Just look at FDR's legacy. People get used to the pork (in this case accountancy companies) and they come to depend upon it.

The Surge - Results!

According to Strategypage.com,
Since the surge offensive began four months ago, Iraqi (military and civilian) deaths have declined by more than 50 percent, and American casualties are down by over a third.

But, what does the military know anyway? Let's ignore them and listen to Harry and Nancy.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Does GW Deserve Any Credit on North Korea?

So the North Koreans have shut down their nuclear reactor. I'd say the Bush administration at least deserves a little credit for the efforts in dealing with North Korea. First, when the rest of the world had their heads in the sand, it was the Bush administration who first uncovered and declared that they were working on nukes. The rest of the world hooed and hollered and emphatically declared that it wasn't true - until that is, until Kim Yong Il admitted it.

Then with N Korea looking to go nuclear, the rest of the world wanted diplomacy but results - a near impossible task when dealing with madmen. Guess what - they got em. Hey, whether Kim dupes us again, who knows - all I'm saying is one of the three original axes of evil seems on the way to being dismantled.

Is it a mammoth achievement? Maybe, maybe not. But, if mammoth means a Nobel Prize - then yes - Mr. Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Prize for thinking he had accomplished what GW is now doing. Jimmy, would you so kindly drop your prize off at the White House? GW just cleaned up your mess.