Tough one

23 - 20 in overtime on Monday night in Pittsburgh. Before the game, I honestly thought this might be another blowout, but the Ravens really looked good until late in the 3rd quarter, and stayed in it.

I continue to be impressed by Flacco. He's going to be very, very good. The defense let us down a little, giving up a couple of big 3rd down plays that allowed the winning field goal.

I'm 3 for 3 on my game predictions, and the Ravens are where I predicted. A tough group of games coming up. I do think the loss last night takes some pressure off; this is an 8-8 team, had they won last night, they would be expected to make it to the playoffs.

They sure are fun to watch.

Hand Of Doom

I'm in my kitchen, making Caprese Skewers for a wine tasting party, drinking Chardonnay, blaring Black Sabbath's Paranoid on my Sonos.

Seriously, how cool am I?

Change

Barak Obama will absolutley not use the full force of government to curtail free spech, in direct opposition to the current Administration. This is Change. We promise.

The Obama campaign disputes the accuracy of the advertisement, which is fine. It has also threatened regulatory retaliation against outlets that show it, which isn't fine. Instead of, say, crafting a response ad, Obama's team had general counsel Robert F. Bauer send stations a letter [pdf] arguing that "Failure to prevent the airing of 'false and misleading advertising may be 'probative of an underlying abdication of licensee responsibility.'" And, more directly: "For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement."

Yahoo!

Encouraging

Apparently, there are a couple of people in Washington who are not Socialists, as the negotiations on the bailout seem to be faltering.

"That agreement is obviously no agreement," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the banking panel's ranking Republican, after he left the White House. Like many conservatives, especially in the House, Shelby has opposed the rescue effort.

I wonder how long they last before they get paid off.

Election law, who needs it?

Coming as no suprise, Bob Barr loses his Texas lawsuit. With no explaination.

When other people say it well

Just link to them.

Unfortunately, the same isn't true for money. Its supply is determined consciously by a board. Unable to know and adjust to changes in people's demand for money - and subject always to political pressures to grease the economy with the snake oil of easy money - the Federal Reserve distorts the economy with its inevitably mistaken decisions on the supply of money. Asset bubbles are part of the price we pay for this primitive way of supplying money.

Economics is cool

Problems with wording

This is an outstanding example of why the government isn't good at lots of things. The GAO has determined that kids on medicare can not get dental care.

Nationwide, only one in three children covered by Medicaid had received any dental care in the year before the survey was carried out, the report found. 14.8 percent of Medicaid recipients said their children had not gotten necessary dental care because their dentist refused to accept Medicaid, the report said. About one in eight children reportedly never sees a dentist, while more than half of children with private health insurance had received dental care in the prior year, it adds. More than 5% (1.1 million children) of Medicaid children reported to have dental conditions like tooth fractures, oral lesions, chronic pain. The percentage is 4 times higher than the number of children with private coverage that had urgent dental conditions.

Medicaid is the joint federal and state program that provides health care coverage for low-income, blind and disabled people.

“We estimate that 724,000 children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid could not obtain needed care,” the report added.

That's rediculous. Of course they can get care. They just didn't. Dentists are remarkably easy to find... many even have a picture of a tooth in the window. Making an appointment just takes a minute or two. So they can get care. That many don't doesn't indicate a failure of the health care system, or even a failure of Medicare. It doesn't mean dentists are greedy mean people in it just for the money (my neighbors D and R are both dentists, and both donate their time for people in need.) Not accepting Medicaid doesn't mean they don't provide care. I'm pretty sure there are dentitsts that do take Medicaid, you just have to find them.

It seems just as likely to me those kids aren't getting dental care because their parents never take them to the dentist. I bet lots of those parents have cable. Lots of them have HBO. Lots of them smoke cigarettes. But they don't have the money to get their kid to the dentist.

Clown

Honesly, you can't criticize someone who is this much of a clown. You just have to assume no one takes him seriously.

Freedom to Fail

I have some thoughts on the current economic 'crisis' and the US government response.

The causes of the boat we are all in are myriad, but one thing is clear to me: going back to the late 70's, I can find instances of the government interfering in the market, and the majority of that interference (from making mortgages 'easier' to get to Sarbaines Oxley) has had a net negative effect. Certainly not the only issue, but part of the problem.

The solution, in my opinion, is NOT a bailout. People must have the freedom to fail. Failure helps set prices, and helps the market learn from mistakes. Bailing out companies and individuals who made poor choices will harm everyone long term, given there is no incentive to make a good choice in the future.

My wife put it very well to me last night over a glass of very good inexpensive Pinot Noir. For some context, it was 8pm and we were sitting down to eat. I had just returned home after being gone for 12 hours - I had an all day meeting in Philadelphia, left my house a little before 8am, got home at 8pm, because that is what successful people do. She had been working all day to build her business. She said: "I am a little tired of all of it. We make smart choices, we work hard to take care of ourselves, and we are always the ones everyone comes to for a bailout."

It's so true.

We further discussed that this isn't about not helping people who can't help themselves, or people who get down on their luck through things that are out of their control. Heck, I'm willing to help people who make dumb choices and end up destitute. I don't want anyone to be hungry, I want everyone to have a nice place to live, a car, to be able to enjoy all the things I enjoy. I'm better off if they do, because they will be buying the things my wife and I work to produce or provide. But if you can't make the payment on your $1 Million dollar house because you got an ARM and make $150K a year, you need to suffer the consequences. And if you are the bank who made that loan, you need to suffer the consequences. Otherwise, you'll do it again.

Paulson said he understands taxpayers aren't going to be happy about footing the bill, but the government bailout will be less painful than the alternative recession. I'm not convinced that's the case. We don't know what's going to happen, and we certainly have history on our side thinking the government plan will fail. Glenn Beck said yesterday: "A failed Administration, a failed Congress coming up with a plan to fix a failing market... this can't fail!"

Trust the calm people. If you just hang in there, everything will work out OK. We all need things, we all can produce things other people need, there is no way a free market system can collapse. It may change, but we'll all make it.

Unfortunately, we must do something, even if it's the wrong something.

Woooo-hoooooo

Ravens dominate the Browns 28-10.

It is pretty hard to not be excited. The Ravens have started out 2-0 twice. Once they went 13-3, the other they won the Superbowl.

Yes, the wins are against the Browns and the Bengals, both of whom are 0-3. But the defense looks unbeatable, and the offense can succeed at not losing games. Flacco looks like the real deal, and the running game is solid.

I'm not changing my 8-8 prediction yet as I thought they could start out 3-0. But it's still fun to have a better record than the Patriots and the Colts.

I guess I'm not patriotic

Biden says it's patriotic to take money by force from rich people and give it to other people.

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Biden said wealthier taxpayers would indeed pay more under the proposals of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Under his plan, people earning more than $250,000 a year would pay more in taxes while those earning less — the vast majority of American taxpayers — would receive a tax cut.

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said. Of those who would pay more, he said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

I think he's confused about what 'patriots' are. He's the idiot of the day.

Old School Liberal

I am normally not judgemental about what other people do with themselves, their things, or their money. It's theirs - I may think what they are doing is stupid, but it's their life.

I'm certainly not going to make a big deal about how much time or money one gives away to charity. I know what I do, and that's what matters to me. I know lots of people can't afford it, lots of people see what gets taken by force out of thier paychecks and figure that's enough. It's up to the individual, in my opinion.

However, if you want to use the full force of the government (ie. gunpoint) to take people's money and give it to other people you think are more deserving, shouldn't you be doing the same with your own money?

Have a looksee at what Joe Biden's tax returns say.

Now THAT is someone who cares about the poor, the indigent, the homeless, etc.

The best part, given Biden and his wife's income is pretty similar to my wife and mine:

Wade also suggests that Biden, who is famous for being the least wealthy member of the U.S. Senate, simply doesn’t have piles of money to give. “Like a lot of families that put three kids through college and have an aging parent move in with them, the Bidens aren’t divorced from the realities of everyday life,” Wade says. Still, Wade continues, “finding ways to give back is important to them.”

Yet he and Obama have decided I can afford to pay more taxes. I guess 'every day life' only applies to him.

Along the state owning you theme..

A nice post from The Superfluous Man on the subject.

You get your rights from the state, you need the state, you will work for the state.

Scary stuff

Boy does this stuff scare me. Even more than Universal "Free" Healthcare, and more than the expansion of the warfare state. This is plain old slavery.

Talk about a tax increase...

Pizza

I hear over and over that Pasta Mista is the greatest pizza, ever.

I tried out a couple of slices last night. I don't see what all the fuss is about. They did have a couple of specialty pies I want to try.

Elle Em Ay Oh.

They act suprised

Revenues are down after raising sales and income taxes? Really??

I wonder how that happened. Maybe, just maybe, everyone not on the tax more spend more Left was correct when they told you this would happen.

If you raise my taxes, I don't produce as much, because the incremental value of the additional production is reduced, often to the point that I choose not to produce. Likewise, increasing the sales tax increases my prices, subsequently affecting the supply and demand curves. So I buy less stuff, or I buy less expensive replacement stuff.

Maybe, just maybe, the way to get out of a fiscal problem is to quit spending so much on things that are wasteful or not in the government domain.

Over and over and over again we see these policies don't work, and over and over and over again we elect people who implement the same policies.

Ocho who?

17 - 10!!!

With Flacco as the default starter, the Ravens' offense looked good. Defense looked unreal.

Two fumbles, one a rookie mistake, and one from Todd Heap, who really just doesn't look good. Hopefully it's just not being in game shape.

I was just the Bengals, but that was a pretty encouraging start to the season. Next week at Houston, who gut crushed by the Steelers today.

Night out

Had dinner at Abacrombie last night. Fantastic! If you are in Baltimore, you should eat here.

I had macaroni and cheese and steak frites, J had pork confeit. We shared dessert, which was a brownie in a puff pastry with chocolate and mascarpone. All of it was just unbelievably good. Food 10 out of 10. Ambiance 8 out of 10.

Then went to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Meyerhoff. I didn't have high expectations. I was very pleasantly suprised - his hour and a half was pretty darn funny.

TV Review

Raising The Bar is terrible.

Unwatchable.