argus

Welcome, Comrade! Steps are simple, as you will see. In Soviet Russia, we had similar process — only without all of media coverage. But I am of the thought that makes it more exciting, yes?

1. Spend hundreds of millions of dollars to overturn 80+ year old banking regulatory legislation (Glass-Steagall Act)
2. Merge several massive companies into one ginormous financial behemoth under the newly-liberalized regulatory environment that you just purchased (yay!)
3. Use the combined lending/borrowing capacity of this new ginormous conglomerate to leverage your ass — and everyone else’s — to the moon and back, several times over
4. Cash out (but under less-alarming euphemism, “moving on”) while the hogs are fat, buy island/jet/concubines/personal army
5. When the deleveraging starts, have your poor-sap replacements demand that the government bail you out since you’re “too big to fail” (nevermind the fact that you paid off the government to let you get that big in the first damn place) — gotta keep those stocks riding high and paying dividends
6. Profit!!!!11

See, comrade? Is easy, yes? If you are a CEO or have access to a CEO, you too can be the next Citigroup [insert non-specific name for frighteningly-large-yet-struggling financial institution here]! Welcome to future of “capitalism”, yes? Ha ha! “Cha-ching”! Ha ha!

(actual timeline of real-world events here)

Discussed today at the office: Moonshine found in truck stopped for weaving

Why exactly is this noteworthy? From the article:

Guffey told authorities he parked his truck with nearly $3,000 inside it in Flag Pond, took a walk and came back to find it full of moonshine.

He said he has been buying whiskey like that in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina for a decade.

Honesty FTW.

For many many moons, my beloved Nichole has talked & dreamed about making & selling hair bows for little girls — as a hobby interest first, but also to see if a little bit of money could be made while she was having fun ;) Now, I’m happy to bring you the news that her dream has finally been realized! The Silly Bug Boutique (”clothes, bows, and more for your little ladybug!”) is open for business.

PS: The name (as I’m sure you’re wondering) comes from one of our nicknames for Audrey, “Bug” — “silly Bug”, of course, when she’s being extra-cute & playful.

Her acceptance speech Wednesday night at the RNC was a home run. Better than that. Bigger. Brighter.

As I said to Nichole not 10 minutes into Gov. Palin’s speech, and as I saw on Twitter, on The Corner over at NRO, and various other sites around these here intarwebs: regardless of what goes down in 2008, methinks we’ve just been introduced to the first female President of the United States. Dang, Martha, mah knees be weak! Wooooot! :D

An excerpt from a comment I left at one of my regular reads, wizbang:

What I think is really sending liberals’ reason spiraling around the bowl is this: she’s the anti-Hillary in all the right ways. Even at this admittedly-early-hour, it’s very, very conceivable that Gov. Palin, not tag-a-long Hillary, will become the first female President of the United States. And when that happens, a large number of liberal heads will simultaneously explode — it’s ideological doctrine, after all: “Hillary is Supposed To Be The First Woman President”, just like “Global Warming Climate Change Is A Real Threat”.

So to properly celebrate all of this (even just these possibilities!), I did what any sane person would do when they found themselves excited to be excited again about saying, “NO-bama” in November:
I made t-shirts!

I’m proud to say the design is 99% original. Parts that look official were inspired by some official logos/signage I found online; the only part that wasn’t created from scratch is the star-n-bars. What’s on these shirts is a combination of (1) a close approximation of actual McCain logostuffs, painstakingly recreated by my own hand/mouse, and (2) my own ideas as to what I wanted :)

The text, however, is all mine baby: “Sarah Palin may have stolen my heart, but I’ll give her my vote.”

Obamatron: bring it. Yo’ sorry, “Hopey McChangey”, empty-suit self just got dropped off at the dry cleaners :D

iNumber (http://www.inumbr.com/) offers a free service where you can create a temporary phone number — customizable to your area code, even — and forward it to your real number. As if this capability alone isn’t cool enough, there are several options available for how it works:

• Don’t accept calls from blocked Caller IDs
• Don’t accept calls from suspected telemarketers
• Forward all calls directly to voicemail
• Do not disturb from 9PM to 8AM
• Turn off call screening
• Activate voicemail for missed calls
• Email my incoming call history

While not exactly a new service (they apparently launched in 2006), it seems that it’s finally bubbled around long enough to reach critical mass.

First application I thought of: yet another trick-o-the-trade for eligible club-goers. Cook up a number before the weekend’s outings and give it out to your would-be pursuers. You can still actually receive phone calls (albeit with screening if you so desire), and at the end of the expiration period, the number goes dark for good (prior to which you should have passed on your actual digits to any callers that you, ah, wish to remain in contact with).