Caveat lector

NewMexiKen assumes no responsibility for money lost as a result of any recommendations or predictions made on this website.

Good team. Stupid name.

Report from the Los Angeles Times: Team Name to Be ‘Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’

Are you white trash?

Link via FunctionalAmbivalent.

Told you …

that Garrett takes great photos. How about his snow-crusted rose remnants?

Guess where I went today

Observation: If there’s a hell it involves dental work.

Did you know …

20 Amazing Facts about Voting in the USA

Stingy

Altercation —

The governments of Sweden and England contributed $8.40 per citizen. The government of the wealthiest country on earth, the United States of America, originally offered twelve cents per citizen, here.

Now we’re up to a buck twenty. Japan, a country a fraction of ours and with a relatively tiny population, is giving more than is our government.

The Social Security Fear Factor

The New York Times publishes a strong, informative editorial —

For a society to be functional and humane, it’s not enough that some people have a chance to be rich in old age. Rather, all old people must have the dignity of financial security, and that requires universal coverage.

You are encouraged to read it in full.

Tonight’s game

In case you were wondering, take Virginia Tech over Auburn tonight. The Hokies will win.

I am not alone in thinking this. The spread has dropped from seven to three since Wednesday.

Joseph de Veuster …

was born on this date in 1840. Known as Father Damien, the Belgian priest spent the last 16 years of his life ministering to the leper colony on Molokai.

“This is my work in the world. Sooner or later I shall become a leper, but may it not be until I have exhausted my capabilities for good.”

With King Kamehameha, Damien’s statue is one of the two chosen by Hawaii to be displayed in Statuary Hall in the nation’s Capitol.

Source: Hawaii State Government: Father Damien

J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien …

was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on this date in 1892. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-1955).

It’s the birthday

… of George Martin. The man who produced The Beatles’ records is 79.

… of Dabney Coleman. Franklin M. Hart Jr. is 73 (that’s the boss in Nine To Five).

… of Bobby Hull. The hockey hall-of-famer is 66.

… of Stephen Stills. The rock and roll hall-of-famer is 60.

… of Victoria Principal. Pamela Barnes Ewing (Dallas) is 59.

… of Mel Gibson. Old Blood and Guts is 49.

Alaska …

was admitted to the Union on this date in 1959, becoming the 49th state.

Best films 2004

The 13 Best Movies of 2004 by David Edelstein —

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Sideways
3. Hero and House of Flying Daggers
4. Bad Education
5. The Incredibles
6. Tarnation
7. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
8. Moolaadé
9. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
10. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
11. Spanglish
12. Team America: World Police
13. Collateral (FIRST HALF ONLY)

He says Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is “an inexhaustible masterpiece and, by a wide margin, the best film in many years.”

Most admired

From Gallup —

George W. Bush leads Gallup’s annual survey of the “most admired man” for the fourth year in a row. Hillary Clinton tops the most admired woman list with Oprah Winfrey close behind. Republicans overwhelmingly say the president is the most admired man, and also name first lady Laura Bush and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice as the most admired women. Democrats, meanwhile, are most likely to mention Bill and Hillary Clinton as the most admired man and woman.

This year’s quarters

California
Minnesota
Oregon
Kansas
West Virginia

Source: The 50 State Quarters Program of the United States Mint

The con

Josh Marshall has a must read posting on Social Security. You should read the whole thing, but here’s a key point —

After 1980 we started borrowing money big-time to finance our deficits — in large part because of tax cuts on high-income earners. However you want to slice it, we started spending substantially more than we were taking in in tax revenue.

So where’d we borrow the money?

This is from memory, so I may have the numbers a bit off. But I believe about $4 trillion of that debt was borrowed on the open market — individual Americans have them in their investment portfolios, or pension funds hold them, or the Chinese, Japanese and the Saudis and others have them in bonds.

But about $3 trillion of those dollars we needed to fund the 1980s and 1990s deficits we managed to borrow closer to home. We borrowed it from the Social Security (and a few other government) trust fund(s).

Almost the entirety of President Bush’s Social Security phase-out plan comes down to a simple proposition: finding out how not to pay it back.

Now, admittedly, this is an approach that the president is rather familiar with from his own business career at various failed energy companies. But it is, in so many words, a straight up con — one of vast scale, and one which virtually no one in the media ever frames in just these terms.

The perfect game

Chris Dufresne wonders if This Could Be the Best Ever … No, Really:

It’s a perfect game, featuring perfect teams, in a perfect setting.

In how many title-game run-ups has it been possible to write:

Oklahoma will win because it has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, a running back who can break a defender’s kneecaps with a hip swivel and a standout defensive lineman named Cody — not to mention a coach who has won a national title and is coaching in his second Orange Bowl.

And write:

USC will win because it has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, a running back who can break a defender’s kneecaps with a hip swivel and a standout defensive lineman named Cody — not to mention a coach who has won a national title and is coaching in his second Orange Bowl.