Yeah, we should all feel real good that this person could be the vice-President to a 72-year-old who's already had four cancers.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:34 PM on September 25, 2008

Today I began moving about 10% of my assets into a risk-free mattress-based fund. Literally, I have a wad of 20s under my mattress and will have more tomorrow because if I'm doing this I might as well put it in the lulzy stereotypical place.

Given that the US government is about to create $700B of new money by issuing a fuckload of t-bills (bailout draft, section 7), I shouldn't think that putting your money in US dollars is a terribly wise investment.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:14 PM on September 25, 2008

Platinum suppositories remain a safe investment...
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:23 PM on September 25, 2008

Ah, if only it were as easy to know whom to vote for as whom to vote against...

I can only advise to hold one's nose and vote for whoever has the best chance of defeating the Conservative opponent in your riding.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:32 PM on September 23, 2008

Back in 2001 or 2002 I was talking with a friend of mine and he seemed of the opinion that the plan for the Bush administration was to spend such astronomical sums of money that the country would be basically bankrupt and rife to be bought piece by piece for pennies on the dollar. The idea seemed absurd to me at the time...
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 2:02 PM on September 21, 2008

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Why bother having a debt limit at all if it keeps being raised whenever the debt gets to the theoretical limit?..
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 2:05 PM on September 21, 2008

I should also have included there that the $85B bridge loan made to AIG might not be enough to save the insurer after all.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:58 AM on September 19, 2008

It's more an instance of the conventional wisdom that said that because of the nature of the goods it insured, AIG was not really at risk.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:08 AM on September 19, 2008

I was thinking about this while having a smoke just now -- if Paulson does create this weird "federal clearinghouse for bad debt" I would think that he's also triggering two derivative effects:
in the short term, CDS issuers and bond insurers (is there a difference between the two?) are getting a free ride on currently-valid contracts, because the bailout mechanism will mean that bonds will not fail.
in the long term, CDS issuers and bond insurers are toast... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:29 AM on September 19, 2008

Maybe there should be a "send your credit card bill to Hank Paulsen" day event in the near future...
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:32 AM on September 19, 2008

Stan O'Neal walked with $161M in his pockets after Merrill lost $1B while he was CEO. It's not too hard to see where the money went.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 1:11 PM on September 19, 2008

I think the best we can expect out of this election is another minority government. For that we can all thank the Liberals who, again, have managed to pick a leader who is liked neither in Quebec (because of his visceral and unnecessarily-personal attacks on sovereignists) and in the rest of Canada (most Canadians speak English, why can't Stéphane? Gilles Duceppe's English is vastly better).

The result? Tepid support for the Liberals all around, and surging support for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 7:26 AM on September 18, 2008

If you want a Liberal majority, vote for the Conservatives.

If you want the War on Drugs, the DMCA and a gradual end to reproductive freedom in Canada, vote for the Conservatives.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 9:45 AM on September 18, 2008

It's actually amazing to see people silly enough to believe anything the Conservatives tell them. Harper lied about his intention to steal the party from the Progressive Conservatives (when he was only the Alliance leader), he lied about not appointing people to the Senate (Fortier), he lied about not appointing unelected people to Cabinet (Fortier again), he lied about "fiscal responsibility" when the 2008 budget was tabled (it's been a veritable bonanza of spending since August) and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 4:44 PM on September 18, 2008

It's pretty obvious that you two don't belong together.
posted to Ask Metafilter by clevershark at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2008

Where's magret de canard on that list? Duck fat is soooo tasty... really.

Heck, I do cardio almost every day so I don't have to do silly things like count calories and weigh everything I cook in one of those silly kitchen scales. I think I'm the better for it, all in all.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 2:29 PM on February 11, 2008

Try as I might I can't find the old flash vid "Jesus: wrong for America". Does anyone have a link to it?..
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:17 AM on February 11, 2008

Having had a look at day 90, I can only proffer the traditional advice which I imagine is practically currency in the Something Awful forums: it's down the river and not across the street, lady.

Well what, it's practical advice! I actually wondered whether I should write this or not, but since she's made up her mind and not willing to reconsider it'd be a shame if she were to botch it up. I'd hate to be driven to suicide -- and an extraordinarily public one at that --... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:42 PM on February 10, 2008

Maybe she can be brought around and back to appreciating life by experiencing the crisp, refreshing taste of Pepsi Blue(tm)!

I think the consensus is that it's either simple attention-whoring or the most appallingly tasteless viral ad in history.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:56 PM on February 10, 2008

Each day could have a little Edward Gorey-style drawing, depicting a ghastly suicide.

Are there 90 Bunny Suicide drawings? I personally prefer that minimalist style to Gorey's.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 4:00 PM on February 10, 2008

If 65913 people favorite this comment, I'll get drunk and dance naked on my porch then pass out.

Oh come on, you were going to do that anyway.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 4:19 PM on February 10, 2008

Frankly if this is a fundie viral I'd find it very hard to fight the temptation of putting a rock through one of the involved church's windows were I to find myself near the building. "Bearing false witness", and all that.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 4:44 PM on February 10, 2008

Well, I flagged that blog. Let the Blogger people deal with this as they see fit.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 5:59 PM on February 10, 2008

My money's on: Research for a Sociology grad student's thesis.

I hope the working title of her thesis is "People on the internet are cynical and distrustful".
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 8:59 PM on February 10, 2008

What are "reavers"? Is that something I would have to have seen a lot of movies to know about?
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 7:53 AM on February 11, 2008

She hasn't exactly been a resounding success in either of the public-sector jobs she's had so far. "National Security Advisor on 9/11" isn't exactly something good to advertise, and as Secretary of State she's made more of a splash with her outfits than her relevant accomplishments (although on the plus side she hasn't really been in the spotlight enough to embarrass herself). And her foreign-policy opinions (as one of the Vulcans) are what's directly led to the current President being... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:31 PM on February 10, 2008

Oh, and I can recall her musing out loud: "Who would ever have thought that our enemies would ever attack us with suicide airplanes?"

It's hilarious considering that EXACTLY this scenario was considered in the Atlanta Olympics security plan, as is related in Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:48 PM on February 10, 2008

Rice is an mean spirited opportunistic wanna be with no principles at all

I knew there had to be a reason President Cheney picked her to be on the team...
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 5:45 PM on February 10, 2008

I was thinking of Bush's image as a guy people might wanna have a beer with, and then sort of that John Bolton might be fun to drink with in that funny cynical asshole kind of way

Come on now. You just know that Bolton would be exactly like Begbie in Trainspotting -- an asshole's asshole.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 6:11 PM on February 10, 2008

The vitriol here makes me want to vote for her just to spite MetaFilter.

Whenever I read something like that I'm glad that people who (claim to) use this sort of logic when voting generally don't even bother to vote at all.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 7:02 PM on February 10, 2008

Maybe she should hook up with this guy, I mean he has the ritzy condo, the Beemer, and he's single! (warning: page contains appalling conceit, tacky pictures and also background music)
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:20 PM on February 10, 2008

Perhaps I'm an outlier, but people who focus on fucking, and talking about fucking when they're not doing it, are precisely the sort of people, of either gender or any persuasion, that I find crude, offputting, self-absorbed and infantile, and do my best to stay the hell away from.

Point taken, but where do I meet women like that?

I have this friend who might be interested.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 6:18 PM on February 10, 2008

I feel terrible at not previously being aware of National National Awareness Month Awareness Month. I will make sure to be aware of my awareness or lack of awareness of it in the future.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 6:07 PM on February 10, 2008

Hadrian's Wall was not intended to keep out immigrants, of course, but rather as a defensive measure against foreign incursions...

So it was built by the Scots then?..
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 6:21 PM on February 9, 2008

When you look at what's been happening in the USA in the past few years it's getting easier and easier to get confused about who actually ended up winning the cold war.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 3:42 PM on February 9, 2008

So he's a philanderer. Good for him, I say. We're jealous as hell, but then it's only "promiscuity" when someone else is having all the fun.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 5:23 PM on January 28, 2008

Is there a website that helps execs manage dozens of relationships in various area codes and time zones?

That's the entire business model of my "CEOhelper.com" web 2.0 venture.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 8:13 PM on January 28, 2008

This is exactly the sort of video that rewards my misanthropy -- if I didn't live a hermit's life I would risk running into those people.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 5:35 PM on January 28, 2008

Imagine a world where the doctor determines what his patients should take as a prescription... ah, I'm just being an idealistic fool here.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 5:28 PM on January 28, 2008

This gives a new meaning to "taking a dump in the blue".
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 1:24 PM on January 27, 2008

So. It's fine-and-dandy for the police and the prosecutors to misinform the public and attempt to sway public opinion of the accused outside of a courtroom, but heaven help you if you let the facts of the case speak for themselves.

That's just the way police and prosecutors generally are, though, and clearly this is not just in the US but just about anywhere. This lawyer has embarrassed them, so now they're going to use everything in their power to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 11:49 AM on January 27, 2008

Hilarious... the original review has now completely disappeared from townhall.com.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 4:15 PM on January 26, 2008

Every once in a while I come up with a product or marketing idea, but I always end up dismissing it because I think it's too stupid and it wouldn't work.

Maybe I shouldn't be too quick to dismiss them. In a world where an otherwise reasonable person will pay to have his/her anus bleached, I'm clearly overestimating the potential market.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:21 PM on January 24, 2008

I think this guy was in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. Unless I happened to see someone else with no legs who uses a skateboard to move around (which doesn't seem very likely). It's hard not to do a double-take when you see someone like that, it's so unusual.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:15 PM on January 22, 2008

Is that Eastern or Pacific time?
posted to MetaTalk by clevershark at 6:34 PM on January 21, 2008

Actually, the whole "charging into battle buck naked" tactic is something the Scots are famous for, but it's probably one that's been used for thousands of years.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 2:08 PM on January 21, 2008

The six hour workweek sounds good, until you remember it's six hours in the freezing noontime dark filleting herring so Danes can feast on roll mops while they drink cheaper beer and tut-tut about Norwegian suicide rates.

Wouldn't that be Finnish suicide rates? I've always heard it was much higher than in practically all other countries.

Also I'm all in favor of a shorter workweek, but 6 hours seems a wee bit short.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 7:39 AM on January 21, 2008

The thing I find frustrating is that I totally disagree with socialism.

It seems that what you actually disagree with is the populist caricature that passes for socialism in the United States.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:54 AM on January 21, 2008

I'm seeing the all-caps, but I think the awesome was replaced by a bunch of Grampa Simpson stories...
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 10:03 AM on January 21, 2008

Given MedFICO data will enable providers to open clinic and hospitals only in the "good paying" areas. Don't think this won't have a palpable effect on the way health care is delivered.
posted to MetaFilter by clevershark at 9:38 PM on January 20, 2008