Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, davidlevine.

2/21/09

Mt. Fuji in Uptown?

In Memory of Capricons Gone By

In the long ago, when zeppelins still plied the earth, Geri Sullivan was Fan Guest of Honor at Capricon, and Geri, Mizz Laura Jean and I hosted a Minicon party at Capricon. We had everything Minnesotan: Land O' Lakes butter, Hormel Spam, kottbullar med dill, food on sticks, peeps, pickles and picklehats. During the party at some point, we flambéed the Spam. Then we dumped water on it to put out the flames -- it was on a glass table after all. By the time we closed down the party at 4:30 am, the Spam was gone... 

Frank Rich

What We Don’t Know Will Hurt Us
By FRANK RICH
Published: February 21, 2009

AND so on the 29th day of his presidency, Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill. But the earth did not move. The Dow Jones fell almost 300 points. G.M. and Chrysler together asked taxpayers for another $21.6 billion and announced another 50,000 layoffs. The latest alleged mini-Madoff, R. Allen Stanford, was accused of an $8 billion fraud with 50,000 victims. More

A Nice, Cowardly Piece on Faggot Marriage

A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage
By DAVID BLANKENHORN and JONATHAN RAUCH
Published: February 21, 2009

IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road. The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now. More

Sweden! Sweden! Sweden! The Grey Lady Speaks

The Government and the Banks
Published: February 21, 2009

Bank stocks plunged last week on fears that the government will have to take over battered institutions like Citigroup and Bank of America. That would wipe out the banks’ shareholders — hence, investors’ rush for the exits — and put the government in control of a swath of the financial system. More

Gasp! Socialismus!

After Losses, a Move to Reclaim Executives’ Pay
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

SHOULD executives get to keep lavish pay packages when the profits that generated their compensation go up in smoke?

As the financial crisis deepens, what might have been a philosophical question is now the topic of the day. With losses mounting at the nation’s largest financial institutions, years of earnings have been erased, investors have lost billions, thousands of employees have been let go, and taxpayers have been tapped to rescue the financial system. But executives who helped set the problems in motion, or ignored them as they mounted, are still doing fine. Humbled, perhaps, but well paid for their anguish.

Executives at seven major financial institutions that have collapsed, were sold at distressed prices or are in deep to the taxpayer received $464 million in performance pay since 2005, according to an analysis performed for The New York Times. Almost half of that consisted of cash compensation.

Yet these firms have reported losses of $107 billion since 2007, a result of their own missteps and the ensuing economic downturn. And $740 billion in stock market value has been lost since these companies’ shares peaked in 2007, just before the housing bubble burst.

Against that landscape, a growing chorus is demanding that executive compensation snared shortly before problems emerged be given back. More