elfs | Sunday's Brains

Pair arrested after large McCain sign torched in Sellwood yard

Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a southeast Portland yard.

I hope the authorities throw the freakin' book at these guys. Political violence is unacceptable, dammit. Arguing that "it's wrong but the other guys do it" isn't the way to win the moral highground. Throw as much anger at these guys as you can; they deserve every shred.

Sarah Palin Still Fighting To Win

Is Townhall implying McCain is not?

Palin booed at hockey game.

America's Hockey Mom apparently not popular with hockey fans in Philadelphia. And the comments at Town Hall are cretinous:

99% of Hockey fans and NASCAR fans are white non minorities. They were bused in to harass her and that's it!!!!!

The woman who McCain had to tell Obama is not an Arab? She still thinks he is!

She says McCain "had to say" what he said about Obama. She says she just thinks McCain "didn't want to say anything against him." But why not? It's either true or false. If it's true, McCain should have no trouble saying it.

McCain rally in Iowa marked by sectarian prayer

At the opening invocation at a McCain rally in Iowa Friday, the crowd applauded as Rev. Arnold Conrad said:

I would also pray Lord that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their God -- whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah -- that his [McCain's] opponent wins for a variety of reasons. Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens between now and Election Day.

Huh. I wonder if Conrad has any idea that the Buddha isn't a god in any sense of the word. Praying to the Buddha is is a bit like playing to Darwin: yur doin' it wrong.

McCain plans cut on capital gains

Here's what I don't get. This is actually probably a smart move, as capital gains in the next few years are likely to be hard gains, in cash and assets for small and medium businesses, rather than soft gains in interest on investments. That's why Obama mentioned it in his acceptance speech, to the head-scratching of quite a few listeners. But it sounds wrong to the bulk of the electorate, who've had it drilled into their heads that "capital gains" are somehow part of the "leveraging" systems that, somehow, magicked $62 trillion dollars that didn't exist into the world's economy. To put it forward as a centerpiece of your economic plan is to invite unfortunate ridicule.

And that's another thing. Where did that $62 trillion dollars come from?

The NY Times documents where the $62 trillion dollars came from, and shows us how we created a system that, in its interlocking electronic trading, ran away from the geniuses who supposedly understood it. We didn't. This is pure evolutionary mechanisms in play: the quants discovered a niche they might inhabit, gorged mightily, and now they've had a predator/prey crash. We're not in the niche. We are the niche.

Meanwhile, Islamic clerics call to replace capitalism with Islamic mercantilism.

Capitalism is still a more efficient mechanism than mercantilism. The only question is, can we get a hold on what "capitalism" is, create friendly AIs interested in staying within some operational bounds, and enjoy the efficiencies of capitalism, without something like this happening again?

The article, by the way, once again confirms the House of Peace/House of War philosophy of Islam that too many people in this country dismiss as religious fringe. It's not. Worldwide evangelizing, by the sword if necessary, is still a part of too much of the collective thinking in the Middle East.