Though I was busy finishing up Winter A for the past week, it doesn’t mean I haven’t kept up with the world. (Sage RSS sidebar = a favorite of mine.) So here’s a burst of opinion:
My newest senator Roland Burris grows more as an embarrassment each day, but what’s even more embarrassing is the way the Senate was originally going to block his appointment, yet instead completely rolled over and let this dude sit with the nation’s foremost legislative body. Lame. And now proven so!
Next topic of choice is Rick Santelli, a reporter for CNBC who went on a tear about subsidizing foreclosable homes via the stimulus package:
I was reading this NY Times Opinionator roundup of people’s take on the matter, and naturally there’s absolutist sentiment on either side: either the nation is only angry at people who took out bigger mortgages than they could afford and put the country in this predicament, or they are solely angry at the traders and capitalist machinery that went beyond common business sense and put the country in this predicament.
First off, nobody outside the financial community watches CNBC in the first place, so this is hardly cause to nominate the reporter for president. (For real, I mean there’s hyperbole, and then there’s hyperbole.) Secondly, those traders in the video do seem to be completely ignoring their and their bosses’ own role in the mess, but I think if the country’s angry at anybody, it’s angry at both groups. Plus, the thing that both have in common is a desire to live beyond their means outside the bounds of rationality, so you’re really talking about two sides of the same coin.
“I think they’ve always been a good value to consumers,” Ettinger said of brands like Spam, Dinty Moore stews and Hormel Chili, which all grew in the quarter ending in January. “Our company really prides itself on being a leader in value-added meals that feature meat.”
Goofy b-school terms are often running through my head while I eat meals, so I’m proud to now put the rest of you in the same predicament.
During this wacky job-hunting Winter A quarter I forgot that I was going to have finals. Now one is Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. and there are two more the following day. Whoops.
Whatever you think of immigration, you can’t deny that the Latin American migrants who come to the U.S. are some hard workers. (It’s usually not white dudes up there on the rafters hauling Quikrete bags all day.) I’d say they’re near the top of the list of hardest-working people in the U.S.
New Orleans, meanwhile, may be a charming city with its own weird appeal, but never have I been to a city in the U.S. that shirks work and enjoys laziness as much as NOLA. Now we have these poor guys down there working their hardest to rebuild the city, only to get robbed and killed for their efforts. What is the justice in this?
Happy 200th birthday to Honest Abe, the greatest President the United States has ever had and namesake for my ‘hood in Chicago. I probably shouldn’t use the term “hood” to describe arguably the most yuppified area in the country, but that’s how we do it in streetz of LP — Chads and Trixies fo’ life.
There’s been a lot written about how every generation reinvents Lincoln as an ideal President for today’s theories and challenges, and that often requires a pretty huge leap in logic. But as this Salon article points out, it’s really a stretch when the modern G.O.P. tries to claim that the tall lanky dude would fit in well with today’s Republicans:
The author sums it up best himself in this paragraph:
Can anyone believe that a contemporary Republican politician who refused to join a Christian church, who was described by friends as “an avowed and open infidel,” who had written a book mocking the miracles in the Bible, who described evangelical voters as “priest-ridden,” and was a “warm advocate” of evolutionary theory, could be nominated for president by today’s Republican Party?
I’m gonna go ahead and answer “no” to that question.
So, some background on this: all MBA1s do a MAP as the last quarter of the first year. At the end of December, the list of available projects comes out; about half of these are international, and this year there were projects in India, Ireland, Peru, Brazil, France and several others, as well as a bunch of domestic projects all over the U.S. Our top ten list of preferences was due in early January, and the school formed teams of 4-6 people based on preferences. I was lucky enough to get my number one pick: helping out these guys as they launch their mobile device in India, getting market feedback and other stuff useful to the company.
I’ll be gone from mid-March to mid-April, so I promise as much India blogging as I can find time to do. I gotta keep yinz updated on what it’s like to eat curries for breakfast, yo. Good times and ghee for all.
I was grooving to this remixed Christian Bale flipout today while doing operations calculations. (Probably want to turn down the audio if you’re at work.)
Hey readaz.