Matt Ulman » New York

When rules are dumb, rules are ignored

matt — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:47:49 +0000

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.

ATP NY ’09

matt — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:11:47 +0000

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.

Questions for Mr. Geithner

matt — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:33:27 +0000

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.