"Well, Enron went bust," Mr. Bush said. "Shortly after the report was put out, Enron went broke, and it went broke because, it seems like to me — and we'll wait for the facts to come out — it went broke because there was not full disclosure of finances." Oh? Is that what it is?

A company does not go broke because it's books are not fully disclosed. A company can go broke for many reasons, but I think it's abundantly clear that a great deal of money went through Enron and into the pockets of all the higher ups. Even the labors of the peons were extorted via the ESOP and further fed the hungry pockets of the executives. The whole purpose of hiding one's books is to cover up theft.

Bush quote from the NYT. Link requires free registration.

Per James Taranto today:

The latest idiotic Taliban comparison comes from one Salim Muwakkil of the left-wing magazine In These Times, who writes in the Chicago Tribune: "Just as the Taliban forbid music, kite flying, close shaving and female education purely in the service of religious fanaticism, America adheres to an anti-drug dogma that similarly defies logic. The U.S. and the Taliban may be mortal enemies in the war on terrorism. But in the war on reason, they are soul mates. American policies demonizing marijuana are nothing if not an attack on reason."

I actually agree with Mr. Muwakkil on this one, though I normally don't agree with him. I'm familiar with his other work because In These Times was my liberal rag of choice. I agree with other things that Mr. Taranto wrote in his column today, but I sure don't agree with his condemnation of Mr. Muwakkil.

At this point, the Afghan economy requires them to harvest the poppies they planted back when we first started dropping bombs. It would cost the U.S. one hell of a lot less money if we just ignored that whole activity. The only other way to handle that is to go destroy poppy fields and pay the farmers what they would have gotten for their crops, but I think we've tried that one before. Pretty soon, the crops wouldn't actually be destroyed and the CIA would be selling heroin...

My stupid RealOne software, a piece of shit if ever there was one, is trying to tell me that if I like Husker Du, I'll like R.E.M. Ummmm...other than timing, these bands have nothing in common.

If they give recommendations like that, their marketing synergies will never form! Gasp!

Has anyone out there bought RealOne? Does it come with a patch for all the bugs if you actually pay for the product, or is it just as bad?

In the first two weeks of testimony, the plaintiffs' lawyers have established through Monsanto memorandums that the company was aware of the level of its discharges and that it at least partly understood the risks as early as the mid-1960's, if not earlier. But it did not begin improving pollution controls until 1970, a year before it stopped making PCB's in Anniston. The company continued to produce PCB's elsewhere until 1977, two years before the federal government banned them. Full article here, requires free registration.

I'm not really the environmentalist type, but my libertarian values are brought to the fore by this sort of thing. A large part of the public seems to think (liberals in particular) that in the libertarian world, we'd be living in an Ayn Randian universe, burning brown coal and experiencing acid rain on a daily basis, but I think they might have missed the point, possibly because of Atlas Shrugged.

Monsanto has profited from the destruction of large swaths of land, but the cost of this has not as yet been borne by them. In the libertarian ideal, one cannot rob people of use of their land without compensation, so I hope these people get something out of this.

Apparently, now that Gen-x is spawning, we ARE a target market. As parents, we are expected to instill the value of hard work, taught to us by our parents, who are NOT boomers. I love this paragraph from a larger article at Inside.com:

Smith says that one way in which Gen Xers seem to be bypassing Boomer values is their emphasis on teaching children the value of hard work. The general assumptions that work and obedience were important qualities in children dominated until the 1960s, when family became more about independence and equality between parents and children. But the General Social Survey found Gen Xers are returning to the earlier emphasis on hard work in that they are likely to say that a strong work ethic is the most important characteristic for a child. In a 1997 survey, the five values most important to impart in children, 24 percent of Gen Xers said hard work is the most important, compared with 17 percent of 45- to 54-year-olds and 15 percent of 55- to 64-year-olds.

Ha! (You have to imagine that in an Edna Crabapple voice).

It seems like all these stories come out of Virginia. This man was denied examination of DNA evidence on a more-or-less arbitrary basis. I like a lot of things about Virginia, but our justice system is constantly throwing awful things at me.

We don't, however, get up to this kind of nonsense on our side of town. I think they didn't see the news that the major second-hand smoke study has been debunked. Of course, neither has California. I agree that cigarette smoke is unpleasant for non-smokers, but I can't believe that it's actually harmful to others, at least not in any normal situation.

I normally like James Taranto (link requires free registration), but this is just too precious. This is such a amazing assumption that I don't even know where to begin: "Of course, the real problem was exactly the opposite: Enron cooked the books to hide the fact that it didn't reap the profits it was claiming."

It doesn't seem to occur to Mr. Taranto that there is an enormous potential for fraud when it's come to the point that the auditors are shredding documents. Where, exactly, does he think the money went? Squandered on Moon Pies perhaps.

I think it will become clear that a goodly portion of the money that Enron "lost" through it's business activities is in Switzerland or the Caymans or some place that banking is still private, if you get my meaning.

Heh. Not really, but I just wanted jump on the bandwagon.

What really happened was that my debit card number was stolen and used to purchase many on-line accounts, presumably to do something else illegal, like spam us with unwanted email about Viagra and H0T T33N S3X. It's been inconvenient, in that it required a trip to the bank to sign affadavits and it required hours on the phone with online services to cancel the accounts. I will say that all three services (A0L, Earthlink and Prodigy) were equally friendly and helpful.

What I don't understand is why the bank still hasn't given me my money back. I suppose I should check into that.

I think what scares me the most is that I will turn into one of these people. Last night at the grocery store, I wanted to swat this couple for being so in the way and so oblivious. I know why they need the SUV -- it's to have somewhere to put that fucking land yacht of a stroller. In addition to the people who blocked aisles repeatedly, we also had some 3-year-old (I'm guessing) under foot whining egregiously (literally whining) whenever dad was around. No matter where that kid was he was either annoying or in the way.

Today I have arrived at work (in the pouring rain) to find that the last primo parking spaces in our lot are now labeled "Parking Reserved for Expectant Mothers." Two of three spots were empty.

This is very sweet, I'm sure, but did anyone even consider that this building is a NOC and has and 10:1 ratio of men to women in it? It's comical out there right now. Seven of the ten handicapped spaces are empty. Two out of three "Expectant Mother" spaces are empty (and a newish Expedition is in the one that's taken), and the motorcycle parking area is empty (this is about 5 parking spaces carved out of the best parking area), and still the rain pours down.

Of course, the motorcycle parking might be a mass-transit system, and we probably have enough obese people to fill up the handicapped spots, if they decide to apply for the tags.

I suppose this would normally provoke a mere eyeroll, but after last night, I have a grudge. One should also be aware that this is the first day this week that I have driven to work, having chosen to walk the two miles on the other days. It's not laziness, I swear. I just can't handle all the "children are our future" shit any more. Children are not as valuable to society as adults are. Potential is not earnings power and is not productive. Get over yourselves already. Anyone with the right functioning equipment can have children -- it's not even a notable thing to do and YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL.

OK. I feel a little better now.

It seems that Enron hasn't paid any taxes and have still managed to receive refunds. I wish I could figure out how to do that.

The New York Times (news/quote) reported last week that Enron paid no taxes on its profits in four of the last five years and was eligible for $382 million of refunds. Enron created 881 partnerships in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens, most of which also have strict bank secrecy laws, actions the Finance Committee plans to examine in hearings that may begin as soon as March.

I'm sure Ralph Nader will enjoy this.

Scintillating headline, no? I think it might be important.

Many governments have been working to keep gold prices level, but with this change, many Japanese are pulling out their money and putting it into gold. This means that the gold dumping by various governments will have to increase...but can it?

Just when you thought Japan's economy couldn't get worse.

After 9/11, the gubmint came up with a package for the airlines. As it turns out, they (the airlines) were really only interested in the free money, not in the loan guarantees.

Now, they are again threatening bankruptcy, but apparently are not serious enough to apply for those loans. Perhaps someone should be checking up on what these clowns say about their dire financial situation.

It's remarkable that Southwest has actually had to hire people and yet the airline business is so slow that a pilot strike may bring the big airlines to bankruptcy. Perhaps it's the business model of the big airlines that's at fault here.

While this is notable just because one of my favorite words, mayhem, was used in the headline, it's got a bit more going on than that.

The gist of this is that violence has occurred near cybercafes, and this is being blamed on cybercafe-ers playing violent video games on the net. These crimes happened to these people because they were gang members and this is where they happened to be at the time, and yet the Garden City City Council seems to feel that the cybercafes are responsible for preventing these crimes in the future.

Never let it be said that liberals will pass up an opportunity to complain about the dangers of combining young people and Violent Internet Games. Blame someone or blame the internet and quick!

I'm especially disgusted this morning because I am watching FoxNews right now. Their coverage is pretty good, but if there were another choice that didn't have a title bar RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN, a logo, some random headlines and a crawl all interrupting my talking head coverage, I'd be watching THAT instead.

I think it's abundantly clear that no one likes the new look of TV news. It's bad graphic design. It makes their message hard to see. Who, exactly, likes the parade of logos and shitty "design elements"? The advertisers? The network executives?

What about the customer? You know, the people who PAY for cable TV? AAARRRRGGGHHH.

Jesus Christ boxcutters. No, seriously.

In spite of the clear approval of our Lord, Jesus Christ, these are not permitted on airplanes.

link courtesy of misterpants.com

They do paid appearances and give motivational lectures; they were contestants together on "Weakest Link"; and, with the exception of Ann B. Davis, who now lives a life of contemplative prayer in a Texas religious compound, make themselves available for documentary reflections on their lives as Bradys. (Even the home movies they shot with Reed's gift of cameras were repackaged into a TV special in 1995.)

Religious compound? Freaky.

This article is mostly about why Robert Reed is airbrushed out of everything now.

Apparently, Enron explored the market for soft-core porn over their network. I can't figure out whether that NYT article (which requires a free login to read) is trying to shame them or not.

Let's face it: sex always equals money. I think they had a pretty good idea...except that I suspect the market for porn has gotten a lot more sophisticated than Penthouse in the last few years, what with the web and all.

The Dallas Police are having to drop cases because, as it turns out, the drugs seized in 24 cases have turned out to be groud up gypsum from wallboard. How embarrassing for them. < snort >

NYT story here (requires free account).

It's the world's smallest violin, playing a dirge for that precious, fragile, wilted flower, institutionalized international mutuality.

I admit it. I read Best of the Web every day. It's my conservative dose of political wacko.

Just like What Really Happenned, it's too over the top, but it still has a valuable place in my news reading hierarchy. Frankly, I wish What Really Happenned was as funny as that quote above.

Back in late June, I was hiking in Central Virginia with Rob, and the gas station where I bought gatorade had cassettes for sale. I noticed that they had a tape of Truck Driving Songs, and I wanted to buy it, but did not. As soon as I walked out the door I was sorry I didn't buy it, so I resolved to come back for it.

You know what happened. When I came back for it, it was gone.

Now, it appears that there is a revival of sorts in the world of Truck Drivin' Music.