culture, politics, commentary, criticism

Friday, September 23, 2005
I'm taking a few days off. See you Tuesday.

Good luck to all in Rita's path.
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
An ounce of anthrax prevention. Why did Leahy decide to vote for Roberts? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the person(s) who mailed weapons-grade anthrax to him and fellow Democratic senator Daschle in 2001 were
never identified.

The curious lack of a perpetrator in the anthrax mailings — mailed exclusively to Democratic senators in powerful positions — is in some ways even more alarming than the fact that the same administration also managed not to catch Osama bin Laden. At least we know who he is and approximately what his motives are.

But why would an unknown quantity try to murder two Democratic senators? Would it be because of their strategic importance to the Judiciary Committee and the nomination process during an administration expected to name multiple nominees to the Supreme Court?
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Roberts: "Unbalanced." Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts is also an
unbalanced multimillionaire (Marketwatch):
John Roberts, the Supreme Court nominee, is like many Americans in at least one respect: His investments aren't diversified enough to reduce risk and boost returns.

Roberts, in response to a Senate Judiciary Committee request, disclosed his finances in early August. His investments as of Aug. 1 included $1.6 million in stocks, $1.7 million in mutual funds and $1.4 million in cash.

Using the "X-Ray" portfolio-screening tool from investment-research firm Morningstar Inc.'s Principia database, MarketWatch analyzed Roberts' stocks and funds, and a combination of the top 50 holdings.

Several financial advisers were then asked about the results. They didn't know at first who they were judging, only that the subject was a 50-year-old father of two, with a house in an upper-class suburb and a professional career.

Their unanimous verdict: Roberts is overly concentrated in specific stocks, owns too many mutual funds and hasn't spread his wealth across different investment categories.

Plus, he has a lot of idle cash, no bonds and little international exposure.

"It's a very unbalanced portfolio," said Kevin Ellman of Wealth Preservation Solutions in Ridgewood, N.J. "It's a typical thing where people put together a high number of investments and they confuse that with diversification."

[...]

"The allocation doesn't make a lot of sense," said Roy Diliberto of RTD Financial Advisors in Philadelphia. "I certainly wouldn't have all that money concentrated in five stocks, all of which are very similar in nature and are going to plummet or rise at the same time."
The crucial importance of diversification — the most basic lesson in investing due to the hazards of overconcentration — also applies to the Supreme Court itself. All Justices who are "very similar in nature" will certainly "plummet or rise at the same time."

The Supreme Court is the American portfolio of justice. If we load it up with several ethnicities and genders but just one ideology, we are confusing superficial variety with true diversification of opinion.

This is the very essence of why neither party should pack the courts.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Marijuana possession is equivalent to stealing a half billion dollars. There was much media chatter about yesterday's sentences of Tyco's CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski who, with his sidekick CFO Mark H. Swartz, managed to loot find nearly $600 million among the belongings of Tyco shareholders.

The Wall Street Journal's Question of the Day
poll ("What do you think of the prison sentences given to former Tyco executives Kozlowski and Swartz?") was answered with Too Harsh 12%, Too Lenient 42%, and Just Right 45% as of this writing. The Journal's opinion page said, "...the outcome strikes us as just. Not because of their greed -- there's no law against lavish living yet -- but because of their crimes." The implied but unspoken fear is that such harsh treatment of American executives could eventually extend to other useless, parasitic devotees of lavish living: the ruling class of American media.

To any objective observer, it's obvious that the Tyco verdicts were not nearly harsh enough. Kozlowski was sentenced to a minimum of 8-1/3 years. The relative harshness or leniency can be determined by a simple comparison with other nonviolent crimes — take marijuana, for example. Though marijuana possession sentences vary widely by state, even today the average sentence for just having (not selling) marijuana in a state like Alabama is 8.4 years.

Let's review:
Victimless crime: 8.4 years
Stealing $575 million: 8.3 years
Using marijuana possession with its number of affected parties (one) as the basic unit of sentencing, shouldn't Kozlowski's crime with its number of affected parties (thousands, at least) mandate a sentence of at least 8,300 years?
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Greatest Hits · Alternatives to First Command Financial Planning · First Command, last resort, Part 3 · Part 2 · Part 1 · Stealing $50K from a widow: Wells Real Estate · Leo Wells, REITs and divine wealth · Sex-crazed Red State teenagers · What I hate: a manifesto · Spawn of Darleen Druyun · All-American high school sex party · Why is Ken Lay smiling? · Poppy's Enron birthday party · The Saudi money laundry and the president's uncle · The sentence of Enron's John Forney · The holiness of Neil Bush's marriage · The Silence of Cheney: a poem · South Park Christians · Capitalist against Bush: Warren Buffett · Fastow childen vs. Enron children · Give your prescription money to your old boss · Neil Bush, hard-working matchmaker · Republicans against fetuses and pregnant women · Emboldened Ken Lay · Faith-based jails · Please die for me so I can skip your funeral · A brief illustrated history of the Republican Party · Nancy Victory · Soldiers become accountants · Beware the Merrill Lynch mob · Darleen Druyun's $5.7 billion surprise · First responder funding · Hoovering the country · First Command fifty percent load · Ken Lay and the Atkins diet · Halliburton WMD · Leave no CEO behind · August in Crawford · Elaine Pagels · Profitable slave labor at Halliburton · Tom Hanks + Mujahideen · Sharon & Neilsie Bush · One weekend a month, or eternity · Is the US pumping Iraqi oil to Kuwait? · Cheney's war · Seth Glickenhaus: Capitalist against Bush · Martha's blow job · Mark Belnick: Tyco Catholic nut · Cheney's deferred Halliburton compensation · Jeb sucks sugar cane · Poindexter & LifeLog · American Family Association panic · Riley Bechtel and the crony economy · The Book of Sharon (Bush) · The Art of Enron · Plunder convention · Waiting in Kuwait: Jay Garner · What's an Army private worth? · Barbara Bodine, Queen of Baghdad · Sneaky bastards at Halliburton · Golf course and barbecue military strategy · Enron at large · Recent astroturf · Cracker Chic 2 · No business like war business · Big Brother · Martha Stewart vs. Thomas White · Roger Kimball, disappointed Republican poetry fan · Cheney, Lay, Afghanistan · Terry Lynn Barton, crimes of burning · Feasting at the Cheney trough · Who would Jesus indict? · Return of the Carlyle Group · Duct tape is for little people · GOP and bad medicine · Sears Tower vs Mt Rushmore · Scared Christians · Crooked playing field · John O'Neill: The man who knew · Back to the top






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