7/7     The Failures of Neoliberalism:
        http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=14905 (Stiglitz)

7/7     Study: Gays in the military don't undermine unit cohesion
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_gays
        \_ Well heck, the Greeks knew it helped.
        \_ Study funded by gay activist group.
         \_ Those goddamn fags

7/7     Mother, age 70, is thinking about putting money into fixed
        annuity. I have absolutely 0 experience with annuity, and
        I'm guessing they should be better than CDs since compounded
        interest is tax deferred. Does anyone have old family members
        who have annuities? Are they good? Are there other products
        similar to annuities in terms of safety and slightly higher-than-CD
        interest rates?
        \- general/theoretical problem with annuities is it is a textbook
           case of asymmetric information/adverse selection. [FYI: The classic
           paper on adverse selection was by UCB Dept Econ professor GAKERLOF.
           In a bit of a coincidence, he co-won with JSTIGLITZ, the economist
           two threads up].
           \_ useless advice. why even bother to write it?
              \_ It's not advice.  It is an observation and some trivia.
                 I'm not going to give somebody I dont know financial advice
                 via the motd. BTW, if you know what "adverse selection" is,
                 it is pretty obvious there will be some suboptimal pricing.
                 (i.e. if somebody is selling you health/annuity-type
                 income insurance with limited medical info).
              \_ Have you not seen psb's posts before?
                 \_ I'm not the op, but psb's posts are usually in the
                    following format:
                    "There is an academic topic related to this"
                    "It is interesting, I've read a little bit of it"
                    <Stick some material and KEYWORDS in the thread>
                    "I am cool and smart and if you are like me, you'd
                     read it too."
                    (optional) ok thx
                    \- "Results 1 - 10 of about 97,600 for (annuity
                       "adverse selection"). BTW, yesterday [?] the FRESH AIR
                       program had a short discussion about annuities and
                       adverse selection (without using the term "adverse
                       selection" i believe), and sort of spells out why
                       individually negotiated annuities may be "a priori"
                       suspect due to overpricing.

7/8     Congress approval in single digits for first time ever
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/5d496t
        \_ The Democrats in Congress are considerably higher, though
           still quite low, at 21%:
           http://www.pollingreport.com/cong_dem.htm
           \_ The trick is, the Republicans are also 21% favorable.
              "Congress" is too amorphous a body to have a meaningful
              approval rating.  -tom
              \_ Also meaningless because generally people like their guy.
                 And since you can only vote for your guy overal approval
                 rating is really just a indicator of how fucked up people
                 think the country/economy is getting.
              \_ But the comparison to previous congresses is valid.
        \_ The way this congress handled issues like war spending, Farm Bill,
           and the upcoming FISA bill make me want to vote out pretty much
           every incumbent senator and congressman out of office regardless
           of party affiliation, starting with Nancy Pelosi. This congress
           has not attempted to resolve any issues that they were elected
           to work on, and for the last 12 months they had been for the
           most part engaging in election year politics and pandering to voters.
           most part engaging in election year politics and pandering to
           voters.
           \_ Totally agree.  Didn't we elect them to remove the rubber-stamp
              practices?  I don't get why Pelosi doesn't stand up to Bush
              the way she did when first elected, telling the President he
              needed to calm down.  Since then, every confrontation the
              democrats have caved.  Almost all the slightly controvertial
              legislation they have passed has been vetoed, why does Bush
              have any credibility or sway with them anymore?  Its getting
              pretty annoying that the republicans vote in a complete block
              but the democrats can't come to a cohesive position... ever.
              \- i'm willing to wait and see what kind of hearings we get
                 about cheney and the other liars and theives and tortures
                 after the election. i can see being risk averse if it looks
                 like you will cruise to victory.
        \_ Not exactly:
           http://preview.tinyurl.com/5n4kc2 [yahoo news]

7/7     The Failures of Neoliberalism:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/6xwgsg
        \_ That link goes to the Reiser-body article.
           \_ http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=14905
              Someone must have "edited" it.

7/8     FREE HANS
        \_ It seems like he has a decent chance of getting out in 15 years.
           Would they let him use computers in jail?
           \_ CA pretty much doesn't give parole to murderers anymore.
              And I suspect his computer use will be pretty much non-
              existant.
           \_ Only 15 years for strangling his wife?
              \_ 15 to life.  Parole no sooner than 15 years, though the state
                 doesn't tend to grant parole to murderers.
                 \_ I know what the minimum sentence is, but I disagree with
                    the "decent chance of getting out in 15 years" comment.
                    \_ Ok, I made that up. Nevermind.
                 \_ Can't he get 1/3 off for good behaviour? He might be
                    out in 10 years!
                    \_ he won't behave well.  -tom
                 \_ he's being sentenced to 15-to-life, instead of 25-to-life.
                    I don't think it matters at all.  it just means in 15 or
                    25 he is eligible to apply for parole.  So he applies for
                    parole.  The Parole Board makes a decision.  That decision
                    is 'sorry'.  Even if they agree to let him out, the governor
                    has to sign off on it. no CA governor since Pete Wilson
                    has parolled a murderer.  ok i think maybe Arnold just released
                    a woman who killed her rapist abusive husband 30 years ago.
                    I dunno why we even have a goddamn parole board if they don't
                    let anyone out.
                    is 'sorry'.  Even if they agree to let him out, the
                    governor has to sign off on it. no CA governor since Pete
                    Wilson has parolled a murderer.  ok i think maybe Arnold
                    just released a woman who killed her rapist abusive
                    husband 30 years ago. I dunno why we even have a goddamn
                    parole board if they don't let anyone out.
                    \_ We let people out. Just not murderers. Do you think
                       you can rehabilitate a murderer? Some, probably.
                       Most, I wouldn't take a chance on. What's sad is
                       that a lot of sex offenders do get paroled and then go
                       out and repeat offend.

7/8     Economic data fudging by the government:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ol574 [madconomist.com]
        \_ I liked this: Soviet Collapse Lessons
           http://preview.tinyurl.com/6gw4ax
           \_ I liked this one as well.
        \_ Where does this site come from?

7/8     Can I carry hand grenades or rockets for defense?
        \_ How else are you going to overthrow a tyranical government?
        \_ Only if you open carry.
        \_ no.. they are not common weapons
           \_ true but they protect people from a bunch of gangs with
              guns. Another question is how easy is it to get grenades?

7/8     NSFW: is it too soon for wall-e porn?
        http://g.photos.cx/walle-9c.jpg
        \_ It will never be time for Wall-E porn.
        \_ Ugh. I'm really tempted to click that just to see if the Internet
           actually went there, but I'm at work.
           \_ Yeah, the Internet really went there, but I would not consider
              it unsafe. Depends on where you work, I guess.

7/8     I want a REAL war sim
        http://www.cracked.com/article_15660_ultimate-war-simulation-game.html

7/8     Hey tom, what do you think of my carrying a gun on my bike?
        \_ isn't there a law wrt to gun in the vehicle?
           \_ I have a CCW permit