Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

THE BLOG OF MAHMOUD

Yes, that Mahmoud. The one who is President of Iran.

During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village of Garmsar . . .

Interesting.

(If you get the Arabic page, there are some flags up at the top which will translate it for you.) posted by Carlton at 6:08 PM

FOREVER BLOWING BUBBLES

From Drum, again, regarding the housing bubble:

This "soft landing" stuff is all the rage lately, and it reminds of nothing so much as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief. It goes something like this:

1. We're not in a bubble. Prices are just recovering from years of underappreciation.

2.It's a bubble, but it's a sustainable bubble because the fundamentals of the market have changed in the past decade. People need to recognize this. (Note: this stage is usually recognizable by an explosion in the popularity of increasingly desperate and bizarre financing options.)

3. Yes, growth is slowing, but we think we'll navigate a soft landing. It's absurd to think that housing in [fill in area where you live] will actually lose value.

4.This is a disaster! Somebody better step in and do something! People are losing their life savings!

5. Buyers have learned a permanent lesson this time. Homeowners need to accept the reality that the bubble of the past five years was a one-time fluke and we'll never see it happen again.

I'm out of this market, but could get back in. I'd be interested to know where all this is going . . . . posted by Carlton at 3:48 PM

WHICH IS IT?

I followed a link at Kevin Drum's place to this post, which suggests an interesting theory:

Anything and everything that reminds Americans that the Iraq War has not done a thing to reduce the terrorist threat against the United States will erode [the GOP] argument, and with it, the GOP's belief that any and all concerns about national security will benefit it at the ballot box.

The conventional wisdom (or ConWis, as it shall henceforth be known on this page) is that "terror" is a winner for Bush in all its forms -- terror events, terror news stories, actual terror plots all help Bush. Every time a TV pundit says "Osama", a Republican angel gets his wings. Or something.

But I wonder. Bush has always used the assumption that he was keeping us safe from terrorism to great advantage. But "keeping us safe" implies that any actual terrorism that shows up is a sign of a Bush failure, not a strength. If we are supporting him (right!) because of his ability to maintain tranquility and harmony in this great land, isn't that like a doctor that you pay to keep you well -- and stop paying when we get sick? I'm sure the doctor would spin it both ways: you pay when you are sick to get well, and you pay when you are well so you don't get sick. No terror means Bush is strong, and evidence of terror means that Bush is strong. People have bought it in the past.

(Illogic of this sort is quite typical of the Bush people, of course. In a boom, we must cut taxes -- and in a recession? Cut taxes. Things are just middlin'? Cut them taxes. Don't get me started about WMDs.)

The real question, of course, is what happens if and when we have another large terrorist attack. Does the nation rally behind Bush and give him unlimited despotic powers? Does the populace riot and pull him out onto the White House lawn in his tighty-whities for a good ass-whuppin? posted by Carlton at 11:06 PM

OK GO

I'm late to this (as with everything), but here's a band that has a novel and cheap idea for creating music videos: turn on the camera and dance. The results are mesmerizing. It doesn't hurt that the songs are catchy.

(Warning: YouTube clips with sound. Work safe.)

Original Recipe.

and

Extra Cripsy. posted by Carlton at 5:45 PM

WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY, IT'S REALLY VERY SIMPLE

According to Crooked Timber, the following is an actual Powerpoint slide shown to the Secretary of Defense to explain the situation in Iraq:



Oh, I see. It's clear to me now. posted by Carlton at 8:57 AM

MY PROMISE TO YOU

Not blogging much these days, but . . . in reading other blogs, I have seen the folly of my ways. Everyone on the earth seems to have fallen in love with YouTube at the exact same moment, to the point where no one is posting anything else.

My promise: I will no longer embed YouTube images in this page, but will instead link to them with a warning. There's a lot of funny stuff on there, but the images make the page load more slowly, they are not very attractive (the frozen image doesn't really make anyone want to view it), and many people can't view them at work.

So there. posted by Carlton at 1:38 PM