WITHOUT
DELAY
He is not stepping down from Congress out of any
shame or in response to any wrongdoing – he seems certain that he’s doing God’s
work. Meanwhile, there was Osama Bin Laden’s former bodyguard, interviewed in Yemen for this
past Sunday’s “60 Minutes.” Calm, at peace
– quite an appealing fellow, really – until you realized he was talking about
how much he hoped his child would grow up to be a suicide bomber. Not to equate the Hammer and the Bodyguard,
except in the way both are supremely confident they are doing God’s
bidding.
The good news of course is that “our God is bigger
than their God” . . . though this has led
more than one commentator to wonder why, then, Bin Laden is still alive. (Obvious answer: God works in mysterious
ways.)
Do I believe our use of torture is more justified
than theirs? Absolutely. That our shock and awe is more justified than
the shock of their beheadings? Sure. We are the good guys! Still, I’m thinking God may not be really
happy with us either – or even with Tom DeLay.
FREE
SPEECH HAS ITS LIMITS
According to the Alliance
for Justice:
On March 17, the Sixth
Circuit issued a split 2-1 decision allowing
the state of Tennessee
to discriminate
against the political views of some if its
citizens. The two Republican appointees (appointed by Reagan and Bush II)
in the majority said it was OK for the
state to produce "Choose Life" license plates requested by
abortion opponents, but to refuse to
produce pro-choice license plates requested by reproductive rights
supporters.
GAS PRICES BY
COLOR-CODED COUNTY
This is a pretty
cool map. (Thanks, Frank McClendon.)
CORRECTION
Dan Flikkema: “Actually Dick Cheney told his colleague on the senate floor to ‘go fuck
yourself’ not to ‘fuck off.’ A small
difference to most of us perhaps but I imagine it's not an insignificant one
among manly men.”
$250,000
WIDOW
Tobias
Brown: “Regarding
the ‘mother in law’ with $250,000 to invest, you might want to suggest Vanguard
inflation protected annuities, which pay about 20 percent less than
non-inflation protected annuities and may make a great deal of sense for
someone with good genes who may live a long time. I have corresponded with Warren Buffett on the subject of BRK offering an inflation
protection option on their stable of annuities and he has responded that as of
yet they haven’t had any luck structuring something that works for the customer
and for them. So Vanguard is the only sensible option I am aware of. To boot, I think the Vanguard inflation linked
annuity product is widely underpriced.”
Elliot
Raphaelson: “Another option is for her to invest the majority (say
90%) in a high yield corporate bond fund, either PIMCO, or Vanguard. My guess is the income would be almost as much
as the annuity, and she would have more flexibility
and be able to leave an inheritance. The
other 10% could be invested in an income oriented low-cost, no-load common
stock fund. When I retired at age 59, I looked at annuities and found that the
income from a high yield corporate fund (I chose Vanguard) was just as much as an annuity, and I
would still have control of the asset. It’s been 10 years and I have never been
sorry.”
NTMD
Howard: “Don't sell those puts. Click here.”
F This links to a report that Nitromed has laid off 30 members of its R&D team. How can that
not point to a bright future? Meanwhile,
weekly sales figures have topped 1,500 . . . though that works out to
an annualized figure of $13 million against expenses that are probably still
running six or eight times as high. Why
is this company worth more than $300 million?