McCain has no legitimate chance of winning the presidential election.  Check the poll average graph at RealClearPolitics.  Obama’s been ahead in the poll average fully 90% of the campaign, with leads over McCain as high as 7.5 points.  McCain, in comparison, has only managed a lead in the polls on 5 short occasions in the last year.  Those meager leads quickly fade.

Link @ RealClearPolitics

US elections: Barack Obama’s team believes he can win by a landslide – Telegraph

An artist has built a temple of worship for practitioners of reason and science; a stake in the heart of traditional ‘fairytale’ religions.

Link @ Wired

Bankruptcy Reorganization > Bailout? – CNN

Bailout marks Karl Marx’s comeback – Financial Post

Sweet New Splitter Phone Shown Off By NTT DoCoMo at CEATEC:

KDDI au, not to be outdone, is showing off some sick mobile phones too:

Lookbook.nu: Like Wardrobe Remix on steroids

Today’s market decline was the 9th worst in history, in terms of percent loss of the benchmark index (the S&P 500).

However, the market isn’t yet as distressed as you would think.  Less than two weeks ago, on September 17th, the S&P 500 was within 0.5% of where the index stands today.  It was at the same level in October 2004.  So really, this decline is not the end of the world.  It’s erased stock market gains made since 2004.  Is that so bad?

The S&P is down some 29 percent from its peak reached roughly a year ago.  The Shanghai Compositite Index is down more than 62 percent!  We should consider ourselves lucky.  Imagine how much personal wealth would be lost had our markets fallen as much as China’s!  I guess it’s still conceivable that US markets have further to fall, but as of right now, it’s (comparitively) not so bad.

As the Financial Timesreported Thursday: “Citigroup estimates that hedge funds have now placed $600bn in cash, and that $100bn of this is held in money market funds.” The BSDs are investing like grannies who survived the Great Depression [Ed. note: I count myself among those grannies]. Riding out the storm by parking assets in cash is a smart strategy for a hedge fund that has already scored big gains for the year. But most hedge funds haven’t. Earlier this week, it was reported that, globally speaking, only one in 10 hedge funds is earning performance fees—i.e., the 20 percent of the fund’s gains that the managers keep as compensation.

Hedge funds, who have kept the finance industry afloat by hiring so aggressively, are going to slow down their frenzy and perhaps let some people go. How can they maintain hiring amid a fee squeeze? No fees = no bonus pool.

The End of the ‘BSD’, Wall Street: Goodbye to conspicuous consumption – Newsweek

From Newsweek:

Among investment banks, Goldman Sachs was the ultimate big swinging d*ck, the firm that could do no wrong, that was more profitable than anybody else, that was just better. But this week, Goldman, needing cash, turned to Warren Buffett, the biggest of the big swinging d*cks. He agreed to help but extracted pretty onerous terms: 10 percent annual interest rate plus an equity kicker. In other words, Goldman is paying a double-digit interest rate and giving up a piece of the house in exchange for a measly few billion dollars. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, lord of the big swinging d*cks, is now a subprime borrower.

The End of the ‘BSD’, Wall Street: Goodbye to conspicuous consumption – Newsweek

Ron Paul speaks out about our proposed bailout billed to the taxpayers; it’s a zero-sum game. Inaction > action.

Engadget just pointed out that netbooks now take up nine of the top ten sales slots on Amazon.com’s in their Laptop Computers category. The white Apple MacBook, at $1,278, is the only traditional laptop that manages to stay on the list. It’s easy to tell why the netbooks are destroying the legacy machines: they’re 1/3 the price ($329-$479).

Mark my words: the disruption caused by the netbook will cause Sony to stop selling laptops altogether, and will force Dell to scale back its operations significantly.

The computer market will never be the same.

Well, 8 years ago:

The New York Times reports:

[Obama] persuaded a clerk at the car rental agency to overlook the unpaid balance on his credit card, and he made his way to the festivities.

Blogger DrunkTrader comments “…Obama’s personal finances were in such disarray a mere 8 years ago that he had difficulty renting a car at LAX. My Guatemalan housekeeper could rent a car at LAX and she is addicted to Vicodin.”

I just challenged my mom, a staunch liberal, to come up with one good thing that she likes about both John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin.

It remains to be seen if she can undo decades of liberal programming and be objective, seeing McCain as just another man instead of “the enemy”.

John McCain is a great American: his stance against pork spending, his ability to cross the aisle to get things done in the Senate…I could go on.

I’m not going to vote for him (though I would’ve voted for him over Gore in 2000).

I think it’s key to have the objectivity to praise politicians for their fine qualities, even if you don’t plan on voting for them. I challenge each and every one of you to expose yourself to more objective media: just say no to FOX News, Air America, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and liberal bastions CNN and MSNBC. Say yes to the wire services: AP, Reuters, and UPI, where you can get undigested reports and make up your own mind; or, if you prefer a slightly more subjective material, check out the BBC, Christian Science Monitor (I swear to god this is the most unbiased news organization on Earth and I have no idea how they ended up like that), and The Economist.

I also challenge you to find some positive characteristics in an opposition candidate. It’s through understanding like this that we can break the partisan system that strangles our reasoning abilities and paints everything in black and white, friend and foe.

My girlfriend is a nurse, and we’re constantly integrating all of the sample medications she gets at work into our cuisine.

Next time you need to whip up a fantastic dessert, try making Mylanta Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

There’s also a Pepto Bismol-flavored ice cream. Highly recommended.

I’m thinking about cooking with Tylenol. Acetaminophen-coated brownies are at the top of my list.

Recipe will be up soon.

After leaving Los Angeles on Sunday, I think it’s rained every single day here (in Seattle).

Sad trombone.

An old university buddy of mine sent me a cryptic note yesterday that only an economist would understand:

“Keynes vs. Hayek 2008?”

He was referring to the pending government bailout of financial institutions, which economist Friedrich von Hayek would surely denounce as socialist and anti-freedom. John Maynard Keynes, on the other hand, would surely favor the bailout. He reasoned that the economic instability brought on by a prolonged recession could birth another Hitler or Stalin via social upheaval. Such an outcome would be infinitely more damaging than a government bailout worth a measly 1/20th of our annual GDP.

Keynes’ philosophy of planning and action to circumvent financial crises was definitely in favor among politicians in the 20th century. Friedrich von Hayek’s laissez-faire economics had its tradition carried on by conservative economists such as Milton Friedman, and they became became popular among libertarian-conservatives throughout the world in the late 20th century and remain popular today.

Commentators have compared this battle of ideas — action versus inaction — to an ideological war in which we will see one victor. The truth is, neither idea is correct. The world is not always so black and white, right or wrong. The ideal solution lies somewhere between the two extremes, and not exclusively in one or the other.

Every once in a while, the market does require government action to circumvent recession. However, these actions need to be measured so as to only support the market system, and not overly interfere with the market’s function (in this instance, the market’s essential function is to punish banks and investors for taking undue risk, and punish homeowners for buying more home than they could afford). This process must play out in order to revive stability in the long term. If we don’t change the system, we’ll be struck again and again by the same problems further in the future.

The current government bailout under consideration is too large, and places too much emphasis on health of the banks. Some of these banks SHOULD fail!

The Treasury is listening to Keynes, and pretending Hayek doesn’t exist. Why don’t you listen to both dead economists, Mr. Paulson?

Here’s the long version of how we got the words sabotage and saboteur:

The son of a French silk weaver, Joseph-Marie Jacquard had a thriving business operating looms. But to meet the demands of discerning customers for interesting patterns, he needed weavers to lift or depress warp threads before each pass of the shuttle of the loom. This was painstaking work so output was slow and expensive. In 1801, Jacquard came up with an automated loom that operated with a set of punched cards. If there was a hole in the punch card, a spring-loaded pin and corresponding warp thread would be depressed. On the other hand, if there were no hole in the punch card, the pin would lift the warp thread. Jacquard even figured out how to create a loop of punched cards so patterns could repeat. A Jacquard loom was destroyed in the public square in Lyon in 1806. It didn’t stop progress – by 1812, there were an amazing 18,000 Jacquard looms in France. Fashion anyone? Jacquard was awarded a lifetime pension by Napoleon and unlike anyone else in this story, Jacquard has a pattern named after him. Jacquard looms made their way to England in the 1820’s and by 1833, there were more than 100,000 working Power Looms. Surprise, surprise, not everyone was excited about this development. Disgruntled weavers in England burnt many a Jacquard loom. Others learned to shut them down by throwing a wooden shoe, known as a sabot in French, into the loom, and so became known as saboteurs.

From Andy Kessler’s How We Got Here.

The G1 on T-Mobile USA has been formally unveiled, check the video:

T-Mobile G1 Launch Site

Here’s a trailer for a new documentary on religion starring Bill Maher that I’m surely going to see on opening night:

Religulous – LionsGate

I really hate beggars. Something needs to be done about them. Perhaps more laws against their presence in public coupled with more rehabilitation and job training dollars. Atlanta just installed little banks on the street in which to give money to support the needy instead of giving directly to the homeless. Seattle and Portland NEED to do this.

Atlanta Cracks Down On Panhandlers – NPR

Nutjob Critic Roger Ebert Answers Your Questions About Creationism (Hilarious)

Baskin Robbins Heath Bar Shake has 2,300 calories (92% of the RDI for men, 115% of the RDI for women), HALF A POUND of sugar (SERIOUSLY), 3 times the recommended daily intake of saturated fat. Call it the Death Shake?

Baskin Robbins Death Shake Has 2,300 Calories – Consumerist

Point-Counterpoint

How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis – Bloomberg (Great Read)

Loan titans paid McCain [campaign manager] nearly $2 million – IHT

Lesson: Both major political parties are responsible for the banking mess, as are the investment banks who sold the securitized mortgages, as are the real estate investment promoters on late-night tv who sold the public on the home price boom, as are the banks for buying the sludge, as are the people who bought the homes they really couldn’t afford.

Edit: John McCain denies that his campaign manager received money from Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, noting that Mr. Davis left his former firm in 2006 and has not received a penny in distributions from the firm in that time, nor does he hold an equity stake.