Matt Ulman

Nothing I can say more than this, reminds me of when Bob died – living the life we loved them for living and it killed them:

Dear Frank Vandenbrouke,
I was a loyal member of your posse, and I will miss you. You were my rider. You were the one I wanted to see in the break away. Your courage and willingness to suffer inspired me, and your inability to live outside of that suffering broke my heart.

You were a cheater. There is no denying that. You doped, both for performance and for absolution. Personally, I don’t blame you for seeking glory, and neither do I blame you for chasing oblivion. I spend the better part of each and every day doing both. I don’t know what is worse. Feeling the pain… Or feeling nothing… If I could take a drug that would make me write like Samuel Beckett, I’d do it. I’d do it no matter what it cost me.

We asked you and the rest of the peloton to do the impossible. We asked that you not only ride 200 kilometers a day with your ass up and your head down, but we demanded that you do it without weakness, without faltering and without complaint, day after day, year after year. We asked that you do it for our pleasure, and for our entertainment, and when you buckled under the pressure, when you gave in and used drugs to improve both your ability to recover and your ability to perform, we crucified you.

In the end, I don’t think it was the drugs that made us turn on you… The cycling world is full of heroes that use dope. It’s not the cheating that bothers us. What bothers us is that you got caught.

Your wife left you. You got depressed. You drank too much. You took drugs, and now you’re dead. I, for one, think the world is a poorer place for it. Rest in peace Frank. I’m drinking whiskey tonight in your memory.

Punk rock is as punk rock does,

Gypsy

When will the ‘Powers that Be’ learn that stupid rules are ignored, and the more rules that are ignored the less important the rules are? If the people who write the rules don’t take them seriously, then how/why would anyone else?

No zoom?  Leave your phone at home.  Arrive an hour early?  Not sure they’d let me in then.

Spending a lot of time at the Garden this year, and all in all a decently run place.  They do a good job of keeping the place clean and the staff friendly, but can’t wait for the renovation.

At The Garden

As a reminder, we ask you to arrive early, one hour prior to game time. We ask that all guests travel light and avoid bringing unnecessary/excess items as all persons and bags are subject to search. MSG may utilize metal detecting hand wands, walk-through metal detectors or other devices. Bags that have passed inspection must fit comfortably under your seat. Oversized bags are prohibited. Amongst items that are prohibited from MSG are: weapons, laser pens, outside food and beverage, cans, bottles, alcohol, drugs, video cameras, monopods, tripods, audio recording devices and cameras with telephoto or zoom lenses. You may bring in a disposable, 35mm or digital camera (with no zoom or telephoto lens), however, flash photography is prohibited. For a complete listing, click here.

Nothing much to say – not as good as last year, but probably enjoyable on the whole.

Nothing sums up the Flaming Lips live like this photo, stolen from brooklynvegan:

There were actually _two_ sets of Yetis on stage.

Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, Bill turned to the audience letters. From Peter in Canada: “Has anyone noted that life expectancy in Canada under our health system is higher than the USA?” Bill wasn’t phased, but he did use some creative math to answer. “Well Peter, that’s to be expected,” he said, “we have ten times as many people as you do!”

Kenny van Hummel crossed the finish after the climb of the Verbier this Sunday with a fistpump and a loud scream. The rider on Skil arrived in time only to start again after a rest day. “Today I literally ate my handlebar. I didn’t care if I was gonna make it in time or not. I’m tough, I’ll quit when I fall off my bike. A lot of sprinters went home already, but Kenny van Hummel is still here. And I’m proud of that.”

It’s so easy to forget these guys as we all focus on the front, but the race in back is no less hard:

My immediate take on this contrast was, Bush is really gone.

It’s not supposed to be about politics in a crisis like this, but getting us out of this means that we frame the debate a certain way, and that is politics. His turning attention to people doing the right thing, and asking that we do the right thing, rather than distracting us with some sort of feel good circus (not to take anything away from Sullenberger et al) makes me think we might have a chance.

Really, how does something like this get published? He doubts the multiplier and uses as proof the fact that consumption declined during WWII. I’ll admit to not having first hand knowledge, but I’m fairly certain there were programs in place to limit personal consumption during the war. Rationing, etc, and we weren’t borrowing from abroad, we were borrowing from us. Anyone who’s watched It’s a Wonderful Life knows more about what went on during the war than this guy.

Yes, these are ok and I had fun on the train this morning playing “how would I answer”.  Maybe that’s what you’re always supposed to do, but today was the first time I caught myself doing it.

They’re all pretty straightforward;  answer according to party lines, etc.  Probably a grasp of economics helps, hopefully.  I might not have that, or maybe, but a lot of them are political questions from political people.  Mitt’s questions were particularly dumb and we really dodged a bullet there.  I hope I get around to writing down my ideas about ‘our ability to compete globally’, or I might be too busy trying to put my portfolio back in order.

But moving on:

President Obama supports the estate tax. Why should a person who leaves his money to his children pay more in taxes than another person with the same lifetime income who spends all his money on himself? — N. GREGORY MANKIW, a professor of economics at Harvard

The attribution  fails to mention that “From 2003 to 2005, Mankiw was the chairman of Ex-President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors“, according to Wikipedia and my own recollection.  (as an aside, typing that ‘Ex’ made me smile)

As I got off the train and walked the couple of blocks to work I was thinking about that (the question, not the fact that we’ve been waiting for 1/21/09 for 7+ years).  I liked the way he phrased it, and for a second I agreed.  But then I realized there’s nothing wrong with fighting against an accumulation of wealth.  We’re not fighting the American Dream, we’re not saying that you can’t acquire wealth.  We’re just  trying to stop some people from getting too far ahead, so we can all compete on a level surface.  Do they hate competition?

So that’s not particularly profound, but I started thinking about it again with the Kennedy thing.  I wish that the fact that she’s, you know, unqualified meant that we’d get some scrappy fighter from the Bronx.  We won’t, but unless they appoint Bush we’re ahead.

I’m afraid this is correct.