USA Shows Some Promise

That's right all you Landon Donovan haters out there. The US not only made it to the final of the confederations cup but showed some spirit on the way there. The broke the record making winning streak of the Spaniards and led 2-0 at the half against the Brazilians. Not too shabby.

(photo via cleveland.com)

The Moon Rising Over Tiger Hill

Darjeeling: Early morning, Sunday, February 22nd 2009

You can click on the link for a bigger version of this image.

Another Prediction Winner

First check any sports website to see who won the NBA championship last night. When you're finished, check my December 1, 2008 prediction. Please note the time difference between prediction and reality. Thank you - and GOOD MORNING.

Roots of Financial Disaster

This is from a post today by Andrew Leonard:

"Countrywide's example makes a mockery of the idea that government pressure to expand low-income and minority housing can be blamed for the housing boom and bust. Countrywide watered down its underwriting guidelines and gave mortgage loans to anyone who could sign a piece of paper for one reason, and one reason only -- to generate revenue...Growing market share kept Countrywide's stock price high. Wall Street's appetite for securitized mortgage products meant it could unload whatever bad loans it had made as fast as it could repackage them. Government mandates to increase homeownership hardly appear to be a significant factor in Countrywide's sage of greed and stupidity."

Cats

Readings: Market Fundamentalism

According to market fundamentalism, all social activities and human interactions should be looked at as transactional, contract-based relationships and valued in terms of a single common denominator, money.

-From The Crisis of Global Capitalism by George Soros

Barcelona Win the Champions League '09

What a great game that was. And believe it or not, Wayne Rooney proved himself to be incredibly gracious in defeat: "Barcelona are a brilliant team and in my opinion Andres Iniesta is the best player in the world. Against a team like that if you don't take your chances, they will punish you. That is what happened. It is very disappointing and the feeling at the moment is not a good one. We are hurting. But we have to forget it and look forward to next season."

It should be easy to be gracious when you've already won the premier league and the carling cup but it's clear that many Man U players believed that they should be European Champions regardless of the loss to Barca.

Danger from South of the Border

The swine flu? OMG that is so two weeks ago.

Seriously, what is it with people in the US and freaking out about things crossing our southern border. If it's not some disease, then it's people, or criminals or even bees.


Killer bees that is.

(image via percussivity)

Artifacts of Racism

Just wanted to take this opportunity to remind people how overt racism in the US just a few generations ago.



These "licenses" were very common in the 40's and were not a joke. Race relations really used to be that bad.

Globalization: Boom and Bust in Saipan

I had a couple of comments to add. First, Adam Yamaguchi's comment, "this reminds me of Detroit" was on point. I lived in Michigan for years and even before the housing crisis much of Detroit and other manufacturing towns had already been abandoned.

Second, do most Americans even know that Saipan is part of the American territories? Saipan is in fact the capitol of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

Third, gender doesn't seem to be addressed much in this video. The garment workers as you can see are largely female. The massive influx of female garment workers has completely thrown off the sex ratio of the island.

Forth, Saipan and its efforts to circumvent US trade laws were directly involved in the Jack Abramoff scandals. Remember that guy?