Honduras does it right

From Honduras come the presidential election results giving 58% of the vote to Partido Nacional candidate Pepe Lobo who beat Partido Liberal candidate Elvin Santos. Both candidates supported the removal of former president Manuel Zelaya whose fanciful delusions of grandeur I have documented extensively on this blog.

Good for Honduras. Regardless of what Lobo's presidency turns out to be, Honduras did what was right under its constitutional law and stood tall amongst all of the international meddling which denounced its actions in removing Zelaya from office for violating articles Articles 373 and 374 of the Honduran Constitution.

Honduras' actions, in remaining true to its vision of democracy, has cost it dearly in funds and political capital, but the small country did the right thing. It has shown that it has very responsible ruling authorities which stand for the good of the Honduran people as opposed to the special interests of a select few.

Here is the WSJ article on the election by Mary Anastasia O'Grady who has been cogently covering this story since it began.

Happy Birthdays

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Happy birthday Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain.

and...

"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."

Happy birthday Sir Winston Churchill.

It's Monday

And we all know what that means. Time for another MOTW, Manager of the Week. To work successfully with this next manager all you really need to learn to do is utter the following phrase, "I'm sorry for your loss," in a convincing manner.

MOTW: Extended Family Manager

Related to last Monday's Fragile Health Manager and on rare occasions one and the same, this manager boasts a family tree that would confound the world’s most renowned genealogical historians should they attempt to trace it. Extended Family Manager’s maternal grandmother has conveniently died six times within the last calendar year, allowing for long bereavement trips during critical periods. Typically, within a short time of his/her return from this sorrowful debacle, another obscure family member falls critically ill, creating the need for Extended Family Manager to be able to absent himself/herself at a moment’s notice for additional mourning duties. Extended Family Manager is staunchly opposed to the advent of cryogenic technology, as this will seriously hamper his/her opportunistic machinations.

Mad TV: Job interview

I like Mad TV, always have. I have found that their comedy is consistently funny and holds its own over time. Here is an older video lampooning job interviews which is just as funny today as it was when it first aired.

Weekend Haiku

One human being,
one fly,
in a large room.

Issa (1763-1827)

A great way to stir people to action

This is a Chilean video. The sign reads, "I didn't wear my seat belt either."

Show business versatility

Who is the only female performer to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and an Oscar. Aswer after the jump.

Rita Moreno.

Happy Thanksgiving

For all U.S. readers, have a wonderful, safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.

Scams running amok?

What a difference a year makes. Or perhaps, maybe not. In January of this year I wrote this post titled "All Ponzi all the time." There were quite a few scams going on at the time with predictions for more to be uncovered. Now the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District is saying that white collar crime (a fancy term for scamming) is running amok. He should know, after all New York is one of the financial centers of the world right? Actually it is more like one of the Ponzi scheme capitals of the world it seems and the authorities are having a hard time catching up with all the schemers.

What can we bring?

The big question around holiday time. You are invited to a party and ask, "What can we bring?" The host says you don't have to bring anything. Bringing a bottle of wine is typically a safe bet. The duo as the WSJ give you some ideas about what to bring in this article so you don't have to put a lot of thought into it.

The Mummer's Dance

Loreena McKennitt performs The Mummer's Dance in concert. Everyone in the band is so talented that this version, although a little hurried, is very fine.

Should he stay or should he go?

Mommy lost her cool at a Joint Economic Committee hearing last week and Kevin A. Hassett says this is an indication she should go. After Giethner deflected criticism of his performance so far by saying that the present administration inherited an economy falling off a cliff Hassett provides this gem in his article.

"It is an iron law of Washington that policy makers lose their cool when they are on shaky ground in terms of substance. Geithner must know in his heart that he, far more than Brady or Burgess, is responsible for the financial crisis. That's why minor political theater sets him off.

Look at the facts. Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the five years leading up to the financial crisis. The crisis occurred, in part, because Wall Street firms spun out of control. The New York Fed is the cop charged with patrolling Wall Street, the eyes and ears of the financial regulatory system. It fundamentally failed on his watch."

Read the whole thing.

Belle du Jour

Now that she has outed herself, Freakonomics Blog interviewed Belle du Jour aka Dr. Brooke Magnanti, a neurotoxicologist at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health about her experience as a high class call girl and blogging about it.

The Blind Side

Since the movie is out, here is a review of Michael Lewis's book . The review is written by George F. Will for the NYT. I am in the process of reading the book right now and the first 80 pages have me hooked. The author is the same guy who wrote Liar's Poker.

Nerdcore

Ze Frank goes off on a stream of consciousness, albeit with a point, at TED in 2004. This is funny stuff. Check out the mouse pad haiku towards the end of his talk.

It's Monday

And we all know what that means. Time for another MOTW, Manager of the Week. This next manager is an interesting specimen and in some medical circles may have been diagnosed as a hypochondriac. Without a medical degree it is impossible to tell however. Suffice it to say that his/her illnesses also cause you to have discomforting symptoms, in your job performance and career.

MOTW: Fragile Health Manager

This manager has myriad ailments, practically all of which are impossible to discern by merely looking at him/her. These illnesses have incredible timing, suddenly manifesting themselves when things begin to look grim in the office. This allows Fragile Health Manager to repeatedly disappear when things are at their worst, leaving the staff leaderless and without recourse when dealing with looming crises. During periods when things are going smoothly however, he/she is the picture of health and could model for the cover of Good Living or any other magazine that depicts stress-free, healthy lifestyle choices.

Don't Miss Video

This is the best recreation of flight 1459 that I have seen to date. Check it out.

Weekend Haiku

For you fleas too
the nights must be long,
they must be lonely.

Issa (1763-1827)

The Dollar Dominatrix turns 40 today

Happy birthday Meredith Whitney. I'm sure Uncle Vik won't be sending you a card anytime soon.

Dolphins beat Panthers

The Miami Dolphins improved their record to .500 by beating the Carolina Panthers in their home stadium last night 24 – 17. Playing on essentially three days rest, Ricky William had a banner night with three touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving. Chad Henne is maturing in a hurry and when given time to set up and throw is delivering some good balls on the numbers to Bess and Ginn Jr., both of whom came up with clutch receptions.

The down side of the game had to be the decimation of our offensive line which at one point had lost not only our starting center, but the backup as well. On the defensive side, our nose tackle went down with what I suspect by the look of it on film, will be a long term injury. All in all, Miami played a good game against an opponent which came into the game riding a three game winning streak. The only bright side to the injury report is that since we played on Thursday night the players now have ten days to rest up and heal.

Miami now stands second in their division. This will now be one of those crazy weekends coming up where as a Dolphin fan I have to root for the Jets to win their game because they are playing the Patriots. Go Jets! Arghhh, it feels horrible even writing those two words.

"Mean" Joe finally gets his CLIO

I have written about this commercial before on this blog. Thirty years later "Mean" Joe Green finally gets his CLIO award for it. Nice to see.

Ronnie Brown done for season

Noooooo! Do you hear that sound? It is the wailing and gnashing of teeth of Dolphin fans around the sports world. Miami has been competitive in all of its games this season and kept its slim playoff hopes alive last week by beating the Bucs. A primary reason for this was the steady play of Ronnie Brown, our starting tailback who was also the skipper of the Wildcat offense. After the Bucs game I wrote that Ronnie Brown had been hurt, but since no one knew the extent of the injury at the time, I said I could safely predict he would not play in tonight's quick turnaround game against Carolina. That was an easy prediction. Heck, even the healthy players don't want to play on three days rest.

What I didn't realize at the time was how serious the injury was. Now I do. Ronnie Brown has been put on Injured Reserve and is done for the year. This is a huge blow to the Dolphins prospects of making the playoffs. It means the ball carrying load will fall on Ricky Williams, who is no slouch, but we will see how effective he will be as the primary ball carrier for the rest of the season. Provided he doesn't get hurt too, heaven forbid.

No surprise with new Human Rights Watch report

No one should be surprised by this report. Did we really need a 123 page report to tell us what we already knew? Nothing has changed under Raul Castro. Living in South Florida as we do we are constantly hearing of desperate Cubans in rickety, decrepit rafts braving the 90 mile shark-infested stretch between their island and Florida trying to reach this shore and the freedom it represents. Raul Castro's regime is simply more of the same Fidel's Cuba.

A political science professor of mine in college once said to understand whether a nation has problems you apply a simple "gate test." If more people are trying to go out the gate of a country to leave it than are trying to get in through the gate, then that nation has problems. This is the case with Cuba. The island is a repressive country where basic human rights are violated every day. People are poor, hungry and desperate to get out.

At Guantanamo there is a monument where some of the most ramshackle rafts which Cubans tried to sail to freedom are kept in their original state, depicting the desperation of the Cuban people. I am still searching for a similar monument in the U.S. for the inverse, Americans desperate to reach Cuba to revel in its socialist glory. There is no such monument. The "gate test" remains intact.

I agree

I saw a bumper sticker while driving my boy to school today which read,

"Stop spreading my wealth. Spread my work ethic instead."

Carnival

Natalie Merchant performs Carnival live.

What about her job performance so far

I received a NYT news alert email today and the header read as follows,

"Clinton Makes Unannounced Visit to Afghanistan."

Immediately the question that popped into my head was, "Which Clinton?" Common sense says it has to be Hillary, but I guess the fact that I had that moment of doubt says something about her performance as Secretary of State for me up to this point in her tenure.

The Singularity is coming

Now what? Glenn Reynolds' conclusion, "faster please."

Citi raises salary of some seniors, Uncle Vik dissed

Citi substantially raised the salary of some executives, among them CFO John Gerspach as well as James Forese, but Unlce Vik did NOT get a raise and will be paid a base salary of $1.00 this year. The bank did not request a raise for him.

As Van Halen once said, "Right now, better turn this thing around."

The severance economy

This is an interesting article. We have cut back quite a lot, but some in the article did not do this soon enough. It just stands to reason that when you have less income, you should spend less. In our case it seems that when we have needed to cut back the most, unexpected expenses, some quite large, have become the norm which has not helped at all.

Gore met by protesters

This happened literally a stone's throw from our house. We live right across the street from Mizner Park and Gore presented at the amphitheatre there.

Plus, the guys over at Powerline Blog are not so impressed with Al Gore's scientific pedigree and musings.

The Prisoner's Dilemma and U.S. Foreign Policy

Bill Whittle examines U.S. foreign policy through the lens of Game Theory and specifically the Prisoner's Dilemma. He also makes mention of David Axelrod's book, The Evolution of Cooperation, which I have read. It is good reading.

A new biography of Ayn Rand

The WSJ interviews Anne C. Heller, an author who has written a new biography of Ayn Rand, who seems to be in vogue these days with all that is going on in our economy.

Dolphins beat Bucs, now at 4 - 5

The Miami dolphins beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 25 – 23 on a last minute field goal to move their record to 4 – 5. In reality the game should not have been as close as it was and had its share of sloppy play on both sides of the ball. Ronnie Brown hurt his ankle and as of yet there has been no report on the severity of the injury. Miami plays again this Thursday on a quick turnaround against Carolina and I think I can safely say that Ronnie will not be playing in that game. On the bright side, The Jets, Bills and Patriots all lost yesterday so we are now second in the division. Hopefully after Thursday we will be at the .500 mark, but Carolina can be tough.

Does he know something we don't?

John Paulson, the hedge fund manager of Paulson & Co., has bought an additional 300 million shares of Citi while selling the fund's entire holdings in rival Goldman Sachs. He has also lowered the stake in JP Morgan Chase. Hmmm.

Accountability can be refreshing

Depending on perspective. From The People's Cube, Local Man Claims Responsibility For Own Problems.

It's Monday

And we all know what that means. Time for another MOTW, Manager of the Week. You may have had a manager like this next one at some point. These are the types of managers one may want to try and save from themselves, but usually can't.

MOTW: Quixotic Manager

Generally a good-natured person, Quixotic Manager pursues initiatives and projects that are doomed to fail from the very outset. Convinced of his/her ideas he/she perseveres in these quests even after being given myriad reasons why they won’t work and being repeatedly told not to continue. Eventually Quixotic Manager loses the respect of Senior Management, peers, subordinates, even the cleaning staff and fades into obscurity following several of these escapades. Quixotic Manager’s fate is the stuff of legend and usually involves rumors of relocation to the mailroom of the Lagos, Nigeria branch.

An experiment

People who read this blog from time to time know that on Saturdays I have a recurring theme where I post Weekend Haiku, a haiku from one of my three all time favorite haiku masters, Basho, Buson or Issa. Today, I thought I would give one of my own a shot just for fun. Do not worry. This will not be a recurring thing. Here it is.

The pond surface ripples;
A floating beetle
Clings to life.

Another million for his victims

It is a drop in the bucket compared to what he swindled his victims out of, but yesterday some of Bernie Madoff's possessions were auctioned off, netting about 900,000 dollars. There will still be two more auctions, including the sale of his boats.

Weekend Haiku

The old man
cutting barley-
bent like a sickle.

Buson (1716-1783)

Facebook status update provides an alibi

In this case Facebook provided an alibi for a robbery suspect, but I must admit the first thing that popped into my head is this nugget from the article.

"Mr. Reuland acknowledges that, in principle, anyone who knew Mr. Bradford’s username and password could have typed the Facebook update, but he regards it as unlikely in this case."

Good news for wine drinkers

Bad news for grape growers. The recession is hitting grape growers hard, which means that bulk wines should be the recipients of some very good grapes, making cheap wines actually pretty darn good for next year's offering, according to this report.

I Will Survive

Move over Gloria Gaynor. Cake performs I Will Survive in concert.

Blackouts are the people's fault

Hugo Chavez, that bastion of perplexing annoyance to the U.S., has laid another whopper on his populace. Despite being energy-rich, Venezuela has been suffering from frequent blackouts.

Given Chavez's ludicrous and bombastic style, it is no surprise that instead of being accountable for these problems as the head of a government which has been completely incompetent managing the country's infrastructure, Mr. Chavez is blaming the power failures on his population's over-consumption.

Indeed, he is mocking them and challenging them to take shorter showers, calling them obese and telling them to buy generators if they don't like the situation as it stands. Please.

Santas receive training

It used to be that all Santa needed was some industrious elves, a good sleigh, some No Doze and reindeer with stamina. Nowadays Christmas has gotten a little more complex. With all the high-tech gadgets kids want and the acronyms they go by things may be a bit more challenging for the venerable Mr. Claus this Christmas season.

So some British Santas have taken advantage of an offer from PC World in the UK and are receiving extensive training in today's electronic offerings for kids. This training program, along with an email helpline, should help Santa interpret what kids are asking for when they mention they want a PSP, and hopefully it's not some street drug they are asking for, but rather the toy made by Sony.

Treating the Pain Epidemic

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. As someone who has been inside the circle of chronic pain I can attest to this article's veracity in terms of this quote.

"Instead of receiving effective relief, patients with persistent pain often find themselves in an endless cycle, seeing multiple health care providers, including many specialists in areas other than pain, who are not prepared to respond effectively. They often endure repeated tests and inadequate or unproven treatments. This may include unnecessary surgeries, injections or procedures that have no long-term impact on comfort and function."

Chronic pain brings with it an accompanying host of problems too numerous to mention here. Suffice it to say that in my experience the medical profession has fallen far short of understanding, treating and assuaging a chronic pain patient's suffering.

Heat downs Wizards

The Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards 90 - 76 tonight at the American Airlines Arena and improved their record in this young season to 6 - 1. Dwayne Wade scored 41 points to lead the way for the Heat. It is only the second time in the Heat's 22 year history that they have begun the season with 6 wins and only 1 loss. Nice to see. Go Heat.

Painfully honest commercials

Now that's what I'm talking about. If I was in the market for a mobile home I would certainly buy one from this guy because I know he wouldn't be selling me a load of you know what. In my world all commercials would be like this one.

Will the makeover work?

Sandy Beall, the founder and chief executive of Ruby Tuesday's, has been hard at work trying to redo the restaurant's image and menu. The jury is still out about whether the makeover has been successful or not and for a while the restaurant flirted with going dark, but the stock has rebounded and operations seem to be going well.

We eat there from time to time. In the past we used to go quite a bit as it was a favorite of my eldest son's who called it Ruby Tuby's. In fact, both the boys seem to enjoy the food there. We always had good service and food for the price they charged, so my hope is that the makeover works out so we can continue to eat there from time to time.

A doubles round

This past Saturday I showed up to play with the regular Saturday morning gang. There were 8 of us so we decided to play some random draw doubles to speed up the round and have some fun. My partner and I played pretty well. The wind was blowing hard which made for some interesting holes, but we ended up tied with the other leading team at 6 under par after 18 holes. We didn't have a single bogey in the round which was good considering the way the wind was howling. We played off for three more holes before the winner was decided and alas, it was not us. We gave it away because on the prior two playoff holes we had putts to finish off the round and neither of us could deliver. It was a great morning of throwing plastic and enjoying the camaraderie which is disc golf. It would have been nice to sink that putt for the win, but I guess that will have to wait until next time.

Dolphins now 3 - 5 at the season's halfway mark

Yesterday was rough. I thought it would be a tall order to go into Gillette Stadium and beat the rising Patriots on their home turf and it was. The Dolphins lost to New England by a score of 27-17. Brady and Moss are hitting their stride at this point in the season and it is tough to stop a team that has all day to throw. The Dolphins pass rush was non-existent so Brady was able to pick and choose his spots to surgically take apart the Dolphins’ secondary primarily using Randy Moss and ex-Dolphin Wes Welker to do it.

While the Dolphin offense is typically a ball control offense which generally does a good job of realizing time consuming drives which tend to culminate with some kind of score, it all goes for nothing when the defense can not stop the other team. This has been the case when the Fins face quality opponents such as the Colts, Chargers, Saints or now the Patriots. If the Dolphins don’t do something about putting more pressure on opposing quarterbacks it is going to be a tough second half of the season.

Next up, the lowly Buccaneers which may just be what the doctor ordered although they are on a one game winning streak.

Here is the NYT's take on the game.

It's Monday

And we all know what that means. Time for another MOTW, Manager of the Week. We have all seen or heard talk about this next manager. Somehow they manage to thrive although everyone knows them for what they really are. One can only hope that karma will eventually catch up with them at some point in their careers.

MOTW: Do Nothing Manager

This manager’s name figures prominently on the masthead of any successful presentation ever given to Senior Management. However, the only thing he/she ever contributed to the effort was showing up late at an occasional project meeting. Do Nothing Manager is coated with Teflon, so nothing sticks when responsibilities are assigned for specific project tasks and milestones. He/she has an eel-like ability to dodge all serious accountability and thus contributes only marginal effort (if any at all) to the task at hand. When the time comes for recognition however, Do Nothing Manager blends in effortlessly with those team members who actually did the work and basks in the limelight, flourishing in the extensive praise received from Senior Management.

Oh Thank Heaven!

It will finally be here soon. 7-11 will be selling its own brand of wine in about a week or so. This is no joke, so if you are out in the wee hours of the night and need a bottle to bring to some unsuspecting host, pop in to the convenience store and pick up a bottle of Yosemite Road Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. It's pretty inexpensive and has the allure of being the only wine you can buy in the same store that also sells the famous and oh so delectable slurpie. No word on whether they will soon be offering wine slurpies as well.

Weekend Haiku

The squid seller's call
mingles with the voice
of the cuckoo.

Basho (1644-1694)

An alternate view on Gladwell's work

I have written about Malcolm Gladwell before on this blog, reviewing his book Outliers: The Story of Success here. Overall I liked the book and thought it had something to say. From The Nation, here is another view on Gladwell's body of work, entitled Gladwell for Dummies. As you might infer from the title, the article is not so enamored of Gladwell's copious literary output.

Quote for today

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.

Ogden Nash

Or as is the case this year, the swine flu. I don't have the swine flu (at least I don't think I do), but I am suffering from a pretty rough cold right now.

SuperFreaking out over SuperFreakonomics

Remember this post where I mentioned that the chapter in SuperFreakonomics on Global Warming or Climate Change, whichever way you want to look at it, was already creating quite a ruckus? Well, here is a commentary on the flap by Ronald Bailey (Science Editor at Reason Magazine) over at Reason.com. It is pretty interesting. The last line in his commentary sums it up very nicely.

"Although flawed, in SuperFreakonomics, Levitt and Dubner have done citizens and policymakers a real service by breaking the taboo on discussing the feasibility and risks of climate engineering in public."

A moment of Zen

Archery that is. Zen archers practice in Manhattan.

Why you can't get swine flu vaccine...

Very, very interesting.

Mathemagic

This is fun to watch. The video flies by. Arthur Benjamin engages in what he calls Mathemagic. He races calculators and does lightning fast calculations which boggle the mind. This guy is really incredible and unlike magicians in general, at the end of his act he shows you how he does it. Not only that, the man is funny too.

Another Mommy special

The effect of the CIT bankruptcy on the taxpayer, thanks to the Treasury Department.

End game for Honduras

The small nation of Honduras has struck an accord which will likely let the U.S. save face for its erroneous meddling up to this point. In this article by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, who has cogently been covering this mess from the very beginning she states...

"Finally the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) have agreed to step aside and allow Honduran institutions to decide if Mr. Zelaya is to be reinstated. Without international meddling, it is quite likely that Mr. Zelaya will be refused the presidency once more."

Let's hope this is the case. The U.S. really needs to step back and examine its recent actions of stiff-arming its allies and coddling its adversaries. No one thought a small, beleaguered nation such as Honduras could stand up to so many meddlers, but it has. So, once and for all, let the Hondurans decide what is best for Honduras and let them continue on their path towards a peace-loving, democratic nation.

11 famous people who overcame dyslexia

The one who surprised me the most on the list, was number 10, Agatha Christie. Growing up I read all of her stories and enjoyed her plots and the sleuths (be it Tommy and Tuppence, Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot) who solved the mysteries she concocted. She was such a prolific author I just can't imagine her having this disorder and writing as much and as well as she did throughout her career, but she did.

Dolphins are now 3 - 4

And we owe it all to Ted Ginn Jr. Two kickoff returns of 100 yards or more for touchdowns in the same quarter. That is just sick but that's what he did and boy did the Fins need it. The special teams and defense were responsible for 18 of the 30 points the Dolphins scored to beat the New York Jets 30 - 25 yesterday. No player has gone from the coach's doghouse to coach's adulation faster than Ginn did on Sunday. Benched because of his poor play the week before Ginn redeemed himself in a stellar manner. Miami is now 3 - 0 in the division and 0 - 4 elsewhere. Next up, the Patriots at Gillette stadium.

Can Citigroup carry its own weight?

Uncle Vik says yes. Others are not so sure. Sleeplessness and a global presence has its price. Citi has been trying to get ahold of some Slimfast lately by selling some business units, but is still bloated with hoarded cash. Perhaps it should pay back the TARP money.

It's Monday

And we all know what that means. Time for another MOTW, Manager of the Week. Ah yes, this next manager is an abundant species. Numerous articles have been written about him/her under many different names and with much advice on how to deal with this difficult character. Our advice is very simple. Give him/her the widest berth possible.

MOTW: Prima Donna Manager

Must be seen and heard constantly. Tends to communicate in a forceful, blustery manner and takes credit for everyone else’s work. Undertakes infinite projects at once and works 24/7 on marketing his/her carefully crafted image to Senior Management. Subordinates are tolerated only to the point where they make him/her look good.

Hummingbirds and I Feel Love

Venus Hum performing Hummingbirds. Enjoy.

Also, check out Annette and Venus Hum here kicking it with The Blue Man Group doing I Feel Love. This tune rocks!