Dear Senator; Please carefully consider both the practical cost and the precedent the US Government would be setting by passing HR 3221 or "The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008". A vote for this bill is a vote for a blank check estimated to add an additional $800 Billion to the National Debt and many analysts and economists including our own Comptroller General David Walker have noted that the Federal Reserves response has already effectively given an estimated $300 Billion to the housing industry. As Congressman Ron Paul put it, this would be "the mother of all bailouts". The US Government's policies and pressures on the banking industry throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and the Federal Reserve's slashed interest rates are directly responsible for creating an environment of artificially minimal risk for banks, which then extended lines of credit to people who would have never previously qualified - yet now the very same government is blaming "corporate greed" for the problems we are now facing. It's time for Washington D.C. to learn that the meddling of legislature into the market has dire consequences for all involved by mitigating risks which directly contribute to poor judgment on the part of major institutions. We, the American people, cannot afford this bill's passage. We cannot afford the $5 trillion dollars in foreclosure debt, we cannot afford to add to the already extreme national debt, nor can we continue to subsist on the Keynesian mindset of the Federal Reserve and of politicians at large. Practically speaking, this bailout is likely to be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. But also from a moral standpoint, companies under American law were always intended to be treated effectively the same as individual citizens. When individuals and companies take on risks, and they pay off - they should be able to reap the benefits of their gamble. But also they need to bear the consequences for their failures. An analogy I used today is quite appropriate actually: From time to time, I buy and sell commodities on eBay. When I purchase an item that I think I might be able to resell, I am taking a risk - if I spend $200 but am at last only able to resell that item for $100, I have taken a loss. But I cannot go to my neighbor and demand that she pay me $100 to make up the difference at gun-point. I would be arrested for that behavior. Yet that is PRECISELY what congress is attempting to do for Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae - and what it has already done for Bear Stearns. Unfortunately, where my analogy is a scant 100 or 200 dollars, this bailout is Billions, even Trillions - forcibly taken from the American taxpayer and funneled straight into the hands of giant banks. Surely you cannot believe that this is an acceptable moral position... Not only does it force those of us who didn't buy into the idea of cheap money and variable interest rate home-ownership to pay for the mistakes of those of us who did, it also shields the banks from having to learn from their mistakes. The passage of HR 3221 would send a message to every bank in America that no matter how stupid a thing they invest in, no matter how poor their lending review process is - the US Taxpayer will always be there to clean up after them. The excessively risky lending behavior of the past 10 years will be but a drop in the bucket compared to the tsunami that will be forthcoming as a result of this legislation. Furthermore, I can't even begin to address the 270 amendments filled with the most egregious pork-barrel spending/legislating imaginable... What business, for example, do dozens of amendments related to energy policy have in a bill labeled the "Foreclosure Prevention Act"?? Honestly, the whole thing should be rejected outright on those grounds alone... I personally fear that this bill will almost single-handedly bankrupt the United States and annihilate the value of our currency - which has stood so strong in the world for over 200 years and is now crumbling with each passing day. Please, PLEASE vote NO on HR 3221. Let the banks and individuals pay for their own mistakes... and in doing so let's begin to salvage what we can of the dollar. The market will correct itself without your help if you let it. It might hurt for a year or two, but that is nothing compared to the damage that this bill will do to the United States in the long term. Please vote NO. Thank you, Sean W. Malone W. Hollywood, CA
Of course... it's all too late. The bill has passed through the Senate. No response yet from Boxer or Feinstein... as if I will ever hear back from them. "Representative government" my arse! This couldn't be worse for the American people or our economy. The tree of liberty needs refreshing...
I went to see the mega-hit film, "The Dark Knight" this past Monday. I haven't done a film review of any type for a while, so I think it might be appropriate for this one.
Of course Heath Ledger gave an amazing final performance that blew everyone away... the writing was good, the directing was excellent, Bale's Batman continues to be kickass in all it's Frank Miller-style glory. It had action, adventure, mayhem, a Joker that rivals anything Mark Hamill ever voiced, fabulous new toys and a bigger scale than Batman Begins... plus the fact the whole cast of the first returned tells me that Nolan did a lot right by his people. On top of all that, I'm not a very big fan of Hans' (though I am of James Newton-Howard), and I think the score was well done and did what the movie needed it to do... not that it will be recorded as one of the greats.
But the thing I really loved about the film, was that it provided a premise about humanity that wasn't at all cynical!
Batman is really becoming one of my favorite heroes in the comic book lexicon... He is a human with no special powers, but uses his body and his mind to stand up to those initiators of aggressive force who will always threaten the lives and liberties (and subsequently happiness) of his fellow citizens. He's in a position to administer some justice, so he does. He doesn't kill, but he does step over the line in some cases... I have this love-hate relationship with superheroes as it is anyway. As much as I love the idea of justice being appropriately meted out by individuals acting righteously, I also hate the idea of concentrated power - or really any situation where one person is assuming the moral authority to decide what right and wrong are in all cases. Especially when so many superheroes have no solid philosophical core.
Superman has basic midwestern "decency" as his guide... Batman, "crime"... But heroes like The Flash? X-Men? Nothin... I mean really...
Anyway, that's neither here nor there... the point I want to make about the film is that somewhere towards the end, a choice must be made. Not by Batman, or any representative of government... but by ordinary individual people. The choice is a great little piece of game-theory actually:
There are two ferries loaded with people (no gay jokes please). One is full of prisoners. The other full of law-abiding citizens. Both ships are wired with explosives which are set to detonate at 12-midnight. The gaffe is: Each ship also has a detonator wired for the other ship... if one ship blows the other up before midnight, then that ship will survive. Will the criminals decide to blow-up the citizens? Citizens blow up the criminals? Or will neither act aggressively and accept their own deaths?
Such a great game isn't it? Criminals on the first ship would be "expected" to just take over and blow the other people up... and the law-abiding citizens immediately dehumanize the criminals suggesting that maybe they don't deserve to live anyway.But ultimately... each ship was prepared to accept the loss of their own lives over being responsible for taking someone elses'... Of course it's a film, of course it's hyperbole... but it's the humanistic and optimistic position. Makes me really happy...
The whole film has terrible villains, mobsters, and a glut of corrupt government officials and cops enabling the criminals (just like it is in reality... hooray!) - but at no point does it make the statement that humans themselves are evil. It's the individuals, the average citizens and the people inspired by Batman's example who are all heroes... and thus, give Mr. Wayne something always worth fighting for.
Well done Nolan... Well done.
The Dark Knight:
Ohhhhhhhh..... Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh!Man I had a great weekend. First off... I got to see 10 friends I haven't seen in over 3 years - 5 of whom have been my best friends forever. Hanging out with Rob, Zach, Tim, Wes & Frank was such an awesome thing. I've missed all those guys a lot.
Living in NYC and Los Angeles (and Portland!) has made keeping up with friends' activities a little tricky sometimes... Worse, I'm still too poor to travel on my own dime for my own reasons, typically.
Sooo.... when Rob told me he was getting Married - I was really excited for him (his soon-to-be wife is awesome and they've been dating for what... 7 years?), but I also knew it was going to be almost impossible for me to fly to Nebraska to visit them. Then, as if my prayers had been answered by an all-benevolent and super-intelligent purple space-squid, they decided to have the bachelor party in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada!!
Well, Las Vegas is not only an easy, breezy 4.5 hour drive from Los Angeles, and apparently I can get there on less than one tank of gas - Hoorayy for the Honda Fit :) - but also... it's a hell of a fun place to be.
So I got there last Friday at about 5pm... to the Tropicana... which, let's be honest, was cheap. It's at the end of the strip and thus isn't a great location, but when you don't plan to spend much of your weekend actually *in* your hotel, who cares really? Shortly after I arrived, 6 of us (me, Rob, Zach, Tim, Rob's brother Ryan, and Geoff) went to the Brazilian restaurant "Samba" inside the Mirage. We went specifically for the rodizio and had sooo much meat we all about exploded. Some great pictures from the end of the meal in the linked album... Check those out.
Several hours, and way too much food later we proceeded down the strip to meet the rest of the group - stopping first at the Rockhouse for massive quantities of alcohol (a half yard for me, full yard for some) and then again to enjoy the Bellagio's fountains (more pictures available of that!). Finally acquired the rest of our group and proceeded to the "Treasures: Gentleman's Club & Steakhouse".
In case anyone's wondering, I didn't order a steak. ;)
Actually I'd never been to a strip-club before so it was a different experience for me... but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Mostly we did the obligatory bachelor party things for Rob - embarrassing him quite a bit at first I believe, which is always good - and then Wes and I spent the rest of our time there enjoying the atmosphere and conversing with each other... had a really fabulous time actually. Also, I might note that one of our party shocked us all by dropping an estimated $400.00 on public & private lap-dances... notably not a rich man, but apparently a very dissatisfied man, this perplexed me some.
Anyway, that was a lot of fun... and we didn't make it back to the Tropicana til about 3:30am. Then Wes and I got up "early" (9am) and went with Tim to get tickets for Penn & Teller's show that night.
The rest of the day was spent ambling about in the 115 degree desert heat, enjoying the Monte Carlo's fine buffet and walking through the Venetian. Soon enough... me, Wes, Tim and Frank were at the Rio, All-suites Hotel and Casino walking in to the Penn & Teller theatre.
I don't even know where to begin to describe the show... many bits I'd seen, some I hadn't... all were worth seeing in person. Highlights for me were Penn's cold-reading demonstration where he "psychically" read people's minds and told them what jokes they had selected from randomly chosen and completely real (I looked through one myself) joke books... all the while explaining how evil it is to claim psychic powers and play on the emotions of grief stricken, emotionally charged people. It was so brilliant. And... a variant on Houdini's metamorphosis where Penn did close-up magic for a selected audience member who was asked to hold a video camera and after an extremely funny sequence of plastic cows appearing out of "thin air", the actual trick was that the man from the audience was inexplicably replaced by Teller, though there was no apparent change in either the way the camera was focused or on the person himself on-stage from the perspective of the audience....
Jesus those guys are good at what they do.
Then.... After the show... I actually got to talk to them both for a little bit :) Penn a little longer than Teller. Meeting heroes is the coolest thing ever... especially when they are the coolest people ever. They are both exactly how they present themselves... pardon the reference, but there's no Bullshit there at all. Gracious and brilliant people, both a little nutty (but certainly no worse than me) and fundamentally honest. Moxie & Zoltan are lucky kids, that's all I've got to say.
I've emailed Penn a bit, and gotten kind responses, perhaps at some point I can hope for a bit more than that... I could live in Vegas ;) Maybe... holy shit it was hot...
Anyway... I think the main point here is that I had a fabulous time. I got to see some of my best friends, enjoy a spectacular environment complete with naked women and meet two of the greatest people in the world.
It was a good weekend.
