Yesterday’s data on the sales of existing homes in July — such sales were down 27 percent from June, to the lowest level in 15 years — are another troubling sign that the economy is not recovering. Realtors say that sellers are being stubborn about prices, and buyers are reluctant to buy now because they [...]
Archive for August, 2010
When A House Is More Than Just A Home
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged America, economy, House Sales, Housing Market; Foreclosures, retirement on August 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
How The Ratings Have Fallen
Posted in America, TV, tagged America, CBS Evening News, Huntley & Brinkley, Katie Couric, TV, TV News, Walter Cronkite on August 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Last night the CBS Evening News tied its all-time low for viewers in a week. Only 4.89 million viewers tuned in. For that same week, about 19 million Americans — only a miniscule fraction of our total estimated population of 309 million — watched one of the three network nightly news shows. This is a [...]
The Innate Studliness Of Eyeglasses
Posted in Growing Up, Humor, tagged Eyeglasses, Glasses, Growing Up, Humor, Spectacles, The Ohio State University on August 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Every once in a while a news story announces the results of a study and the results are so outlandish, and so contrary to normal human experience, that you wonder whether there was some problem with how the study was designed or conducted. So it is with a new study, funded by the vision care [...]
Trek On!
Posted in Movies, tagged Movies, Star Trek, Star Trek sequel on August 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Last week a story cropped up about a leaked email purportedly from Paramount Studios indicated that the next Star Trek movie is a “go” and will begin filming next year. Unfortunately, there’s not much real news about the sequel, such as filming schedules, confirmation of cast members, and so forth. The only thing Star Trek [...]
Hard Times And Hardship Withdrawals
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged 401(k) Plans, America, economy, Hardship Withdrawals, recession, retirement, retirement funds on August 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
CNN has a story about hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans reaching the highest level in 10 years during the second quarter of 2010. Fidelity Investments, which manages $844 billion in retirement funds, disclosed that, as of the second quarter, 2.2% of 401(k) participants had made hardship withdrawals over the past 12 months. I’m not sure [...]
Death South Of The Border (Cont.)
Posted in America, World, tagged America, Mexican Border, Mexican Drug Wars, Mexico, World on August 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The news from Mexico keeps getting more chilling. I’ve noted in several posts — see here and here — the escalating violence in our neighbor to the south and the resulting risks for our country. Time now has a story about the recent assassination of Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of Santiago, Mexico. The assassination of [...]
Obscure Bands And Great Songs: ? And The Mysterians And 96 Tears
Posted in Music, tagged 96 Tears, ? And The Mysterians, AM Radio, Music, Obscure Bands and Great Songs on August 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
What can you say about a band whose lead singer is identified by a punctuation symbol? A band that was known as one of the greatest garage bands in history? A band that recorded a song that many critics view as the first true punk rock song? Why so many questions? Because the band was [...]
Please, Don’t Mess With The Game!
Posted in sports, tagged Big Ten, Big Ten expansion, Big Ten football, Buckeye, Michigan vs. Ohio State, Michigan-Ohio State, Ohio Stadium, Ohio State, Ohio State vs. Michigan, Ohio State-Michigan, sports, The Big House, The Horseshoe on August 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The post-expansion rumblings from Big Ten headquarters are troubling because they indicate that conference officials may decide to mess with The Game. The latest article quotes Michigan’s Athletic Director as making comments that raise serious questions about whether Ohio State and Michigan will continue to play their end-of-season showdown game. Michigan’s AD says he [...]
A Few Words From The Veep
Posted in Politics, tagged 2010 Election, Democrats, Politics, Vice President Biden on August 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the Democratic National Committee on Friday to urge Democrats to shake off their pessimism about the upcoming midterm elections. I’m not sure that Biden has a lot of credibility in general — I think he may have come up with the unfortunate phrase “Summer of Recovery,” and he confidently [...]
Roll On, Big O
Posted in Growing Up, Ohio, tagged advertising jingles, Big O, Human Brain, Lawson's, Ohio, TV Commercials on August 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The human brain is weird — or at least, mine is. I may have trouble remembering the name of a person I met last week, but I can recall with crystalline clarity the lyrics to The Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Today as I was driving home, for some unknown reason, I thought of the ’60s [...]
Another Reason Not To Trust “Stimulus” Statistics
Posted in America, Columbus, Ohio, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Columbus, Congress, economy, Ohio, Politics, President Obama, stimulus, stimulus bill, stimulus spending on August 20, 2010 | 1 Comment »
You’d think that the Obama Administration and Congress would have realized by now that it is pointless and counterproductive to try to convince Americans that the “stimulus” bill was a huge success, but they keep trying anyway. Earlier this week, for example, President Obama visited Columbus and cited the work of one local architecture firm [...]
The Steady Drip, Drip, Drip Of Bad News (Cont.)
Posted in America, tagged America, bankruptcy, econom, Politics, Unemployment on August 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Sigh. As I’ve noted recently, the bad news just keeps coming. Yesterday the troubling story was about personal bankruptcies reaching a five-year high. Today it is reports of another “surprise” increase in new filings for unemployment benefits, which reached the highest weekly total in nine months. When every day seems to bring a fresh sign [...]
Smell The Smoke, Hear The Jazz
Posted in Art, Music, tagged Art, Herman Leonard, Jazz, Music, Photography on August 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Herman Leonard died recently. An accomplished photographer, he is best known for stunning black-and-white photos of jazz performers like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dexter Gordon (pictured at right) among many others. His vivid photographs allow the viewer to almost smell the ever-present smoke, hear the clink of highball glasses in the hushed audience, and [...]
Was It Worth It?
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Commuting, Los Angeles, Political Fundraising, Politics, President Obama on August 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
As I noted recently, the President has been on a three-day bender of fundraising and campaigning, sufficiently leavened with “non-political” events to justify the taxpayers picking up most of the tab for the trip. Monday night he was in Los Angeles to attend an upscale fundraiser at a Hollywood producer’s house that netted a cool [...]
Enough With The Mosque, Already!
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged 9/11, Afghanistan, America, economy, Ground Zero Mosque, Iran, Iraq, Mosque near Ground Zero, New York City, Politics, recession, Unemployment on August 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I haven’t commented on the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” on this blog because UJ has already discussed it and I’m not sure there is anything left to say. I think the Muslims who want to establish the mosque have every right to do so, although if they truly are interested in building bridges they would [...]
