Ali G and the NBA (2006)

Berkshire Hathaway (2009) Live Blogging Link [UPDATE: LINK NO LONGER WORKS]

I can't believe I didn't see this link before:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10622671 [UPDATE: LINK NO LONGER WORKS]

Click on the "replay" button in the middle of the screen, and you'll get a live blogging report from the 2009 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.

According to the blogger, Charlie Munger made a comment about the subjectivity of bank earnings:

General accounting principles allow banks to show high earnings based on foolish investments. Munger says that kind of accounting should not be allowed.

War and its Consequences

I hate showing pictures like this, but it's important to see what "collateral damage" really means:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/20095672330997508.html

A US led air strike in Afghanistan is believed to have killed as many as 100 civilians, including many women and children.

This is why war should always be the last resort--no matter how careful anyone is, women and children usually end up paying the price for governments' grand schemes.

On a somewhat related note, President Obama is refusing to release pictures of detainee abuse. It is true that the pictures will be used to recruit terrorists and to fuel fire against American troops, but once the information is made public, America can begin to address the causes of the inhumane conduct and prevent them from happening again. Without disclosure, we look hypocritical when we complain about human rights abuses in other countries. We also run the risk of implicitly condoning inhumane conduct and government secrecy. The worst part is that President Obama switched positions on releasing the pictures, which makes it seem as if the evidence of abuse is so terrible, once the President actually saw the pictures, he thought better than to release them.

Pierluigi Oliverio: My Kind of Politician?

San Jose District 6 voters are lucky to have Pierluigi Oliverio as their representative. He has recognized the need to cut spending and talks about the issue in a sensible manner. He has a blog:

http://www.sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/pierluigioliverio

Update on October 13, 2009: I recently spoke with someone who is familiar with Pierluigi Oliverio. This person indicated that Pierluigi Oliverio said all the right things, but may not necessarily have the respect or consensus on the Council to garner enough support for his proposals. She did, however, praise Sam Liccardo and Chuck Reed.

Update on October 27, 2009: Mr. Oliverio recently voted against government transparency. Sam Liccardo, bless his soul, voted for government transparency. See here for more.

Update on November 10, 2010: perhaps my contact within the City issued a premature judgment about Mr. Oliverio. Mr. Oliverio helped support Measures V and W, which passed with overwhelming support.

Bonus: here is President Obama's ASU commencement speech. An excerpt:

In recent years, in many ways, we've become enamored with our own success - lulled into complacency by our own achievements.

We've become accustomed to the title of "military super-power," forgetting the qualities that earned us that title - not just a build-up of arms, or accumulation of victories, but the Marshall Plan, the Peace Corps, our commitment to working with other nations to pursue the ideals of opportunity, equality and freedom that have made us who we are.

We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us there; but hard work and smart ideas -quality products and wise investments. So we started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas and products that improve our lives.

All the while, the rest of the world has grown hungrier and more restless - in constant motion to build and discover - not content with where they are right now, determined to strive for more.

I love President Obama's emphasis on complacency. America has become too complacent--we spend and spend and forget at some point, the bills need to be paid. We used to have the younger generation as our conscience, but we've loaded them with so much educational debt, they've become part of the establishment out of financial necessity. That's a shame. The road ahead will be long and hard, but America has fought through worse battles before and emerged stronger.

Random Thoughts: Tucker Max and Watergate

Random Thoughts:

1. Tucker Max is basically a frat boy version of Hunter Thompson. Am I right or am I right?

2. The song, "Sweet Home Alabama," contains these lyrics, which seem to condone Nixon's Watergate:

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

Well, to tell you the truth, it bothers me that my government engaged in campaign fraud, burglary, improper tax audits, and illegal wiretapping. I know the song is supposed to promote its own brand of rebellion, but this just seems to go too far. I can't enjoy this song now that I actually studied the lyrics for the first time. Yet another instance when curiosity killed the song. Sigh.

The Wire: Simon's 2008 Letter

As a fan of HBO's The Wire, I don't know how I missed this. Here is David Simon's 2008 (closing) letter:

http://www.hbo.com/thewire/finaleletter/

We are a culture without the will to seriously examine our own problems. We eschew that which is complex, contradictory or confusing. As a culture, we seek simple solutions. We enjoy being provoked and titillated, but resist the rigorous, painstaking examination of issues that might, in the end, bring us to the point of recognizing our problems, which is the essential first step to solving any of them.

Oh, the agony and the ecstasy of the truth.

Susan Faludi, 9/11, and the Military

I was wondering what Susan Faludi was up to these days. Turns out, she's written a new book, on 9/11. She also has her own website:

http://www.susanfaludi.com/index.html

She currently lives in S.F., so perhaps one day I'll get to meet her. I loved reading Backlash and Stiffed.

Surprisingly, the NY Times trashed her new book, The Terror Dream, which I haven't read. Ms. Faludi's main thesis seems to be that 9/11 caused American culture to revert to the old-fashioned paradigms--men as protectors and women as helpless beings needing male protection. I think Ms. Faludi makes a good point, but my angle would have been that fear became a big business post-9/11, which negatively impacts both genders.

When the culture is in a state of fear, it's easy to finance war and more difficult to speak up for peace. For instance, our deficits require us to cut spending, but the 2010 defense budget will be at least $533 billion--a 4% increase over 2009, and the largest expenditure in the 2010 budget when funding is viewed by department. Advocating defense spending cuts doesn't mean you also have to cut soldiers' salaries. It's possible to give America's armed forces a pay raise and still cut the defense budget substantially.

To put the Dept of Defense's $533 billion budget in perspective, the Dept of Homeland Security will receive $42.7 billion in 2010; the Dept of Treasury gets $13.3 billion; and the Dept of Transportation gets $72.5 billion. More stats can be found here.

At least President Obama got rid of the costly F-22 project, for which he should be lauded. Some other defense items were also cut, including a program called a "transformational satellite" (TSAT). "The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that the revised date for the launch of the first satellite was 2019 -- almost four years later than previously scheduled."

Random fact: 227,500 men and women from California serve in the military.