Wednesday, August 31, 2005

LIST OF CHARITIES

INSTAPUNDIT has a list of charities for the people affected by hurricane Katrina.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 8:18 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

IN PRAISE OF JERSEY

ILYA SHAPIRO has a great post over at TCS praising New Jersey.

Moreover -- and in case you're wondering why I'm writing this without remuneration from the state tourist bureau -- New Jersey is a quintessential purple state. Not that I'm revamping my thesis -- Purple America is more about states of mind than states -- but of all the states out there, which (on the whole) better combines cosmopolitan tastes and the spirit of free enterprise? There are strong arguments to be made for places like Florida and Arizona (though the former is polluted by stodgy retirees and the latter by even stodgier Californians) but certainly no state outside the Sun Belt has come closer to embracing globalization while maintaining a sort of live-and-let-live individuality. Maybe New Hampshire -- in the parts easily accessible to Boston -- but I just wouldn't be able to stand the winters there.


Read the whole thing.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:41 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 29, 2005

HOTTEST FEMALE GUITARISTS

Here is a list of the top 12 hottest female guitarists ever. I would have put Jewel as #1.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 26, 2005

TITANIUM JEWELRY

An article in the NYT highlights a new trend. Imitating MLB players, many people are starting to wear titanium jewelry. It's supposed to work by enhancing your body's natural electric currents and will help with sports performance and all around health. Doctors and scientists are skeptical of such claims. This reminds me of a trend from a couple years ago where golfers would wear copper bracelets to ward off arthritis.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

POP-TOP BEERS

The WSJ has an article about how more and more upscale beers are being delivered to consumers in cans. Among the reasons given are cost, storage, and the ability to have the product in such places as airplanes, that require cans.

Scott Maitland, for one, is convinced the can has a bright microbrew future. Founder of Top-of-the-Hill Restaurant and Brewery in Chapel Hill, N.C., he launched two canned lines in May after being frustrated that he couldn't find craft beer on the golf course. When he sold 60 barrels (about 800 cases) in the first five weeks, a lot of them to a local supermarket chain, he knew he was on to something. "The consumers actually get it better than anyone in the craft-beer industry," says Mr. Maitland, who expects his canned output to grow to about 600 barrels of his Leaderboard Trophy Lager and Ram's Head India Pale Ale a year.
The article includes a taste test that concludes that being in a can does not affect the taste of beer.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 6:28 AM 1 comments

Thursday, August 25, 2005

BASE CLOSINGS

MICHAEL BARONE on BRAC base closings:

These decisions will also increase the already high likelihood that Congress will not reject the final regulations. They will be rejected only if both houses of Congress vote to do so within 45 days of submission of the final list. Maine's senators may still vote no because Brunswick Naval Air Station remains on the closure list, but New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island will face only minor losses—probably not enough to prompt their senators to vote no.
I think that closing Fort Monmouth is a very poor decision. A great deal of important work happens there. (Disclosure: I work at Ft. Monmouth)

UPDATE: I have thought of another argument against closing Ft. Monmouth. The government will need to spend money now to close the base in order to save money later, but the federal government is running a deficit. This means that any monies spent now will be from a bond that interest will have to be paid on. I am certain that this factor was not used in deciding the fate of these bases. The Pentagon and the BRAC commission probably looked at the savings just in terms of the DOD's budget not in terms of the entire federal budget.

UPDATE2: Fort Monmouth may have an out. The commssion passed an amendment that said the facility could not be closed until the Army proved that the move would not hurt military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 11:57 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 22, 2005

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 4:06 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 20, 2005

MIDLIFE ASSESMENT

Well I turned 41 this year, my health is pretty good, i'm a little overweight and my diet sucks but i'm really glad I don't have this 41 year olds problems.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:23 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 19, 2005

REAL ESTATE vs STOCKS

An article in today’s NYT explores the idea that stocks are actually a better investment than real estate in the long run. It states that after counting for inflation, improvements, taxes, and interest, that stocks will make you more money in the long run. The article also notes the difficulty of cashing out your real estate profits because you will need to buy another place to live in.

Since 1980, for example, money invested in the Standard & Poor's 500 has delivered a return of 10 percent a year on average. Including dividends, the return on the S.& P. 500 rises to 12 percent a year. Even in New York and San Francisco, homes have risen in value only about 7 percent a year over the same span.

That does not mean real estate is a bad investment. It is often an important source of wealth for families. But its main benefit is what it has always been: you can live in the house you own.



I agree with the article, it reminds me of a debate I had with a friend in the 80's about the price of a seat on the exchanges vs real estate. I think the caveat here is that investors need to be disciplined and mostly invest in low cost index funds.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 1:13 PM 4 comments

Thursday, August 18, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN

JAMES LILEKS has his thoughts here and here on Cindy Sheehan.

The hard left in America needs to realize a bald, cruel fact: Anyone who sees no moral distinction between Israel and the mullahs of Iran, or sees the U.S. attempt to set up a constitutional republic in Iraq as equivalent to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, suffers from incurable moral cretinism. The more the fervent anti-war base embraces these ideas, the more they ensure that no one will trust the left with national security. Ever.

Will they learn the lesson? Even money says Sheehan will be sitting in the Michael Moore seat next to Jimmy Carter at the '08 Democratic convention.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 7:47 AM 1 comments

100 DOLLAR BEER

WINS has a story about a bar in the East Village that has a beer going for $100. The beer, Utopia by Sam Adams, is a super strong beer, way past what a barley wine would be. At a whopping 25% alcohol it is stronger than some liquors and most wines. Perhaps this is a sign that the economy really is back on track.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 7:17 AM 0 comments

PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGS

The WSJ has a good look at some personal finace blogs here.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 7:15 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

UNFREE UNDER ISLAM

AYAAN HIRSI ALI in the WSJ on womens rights and Islamic law.

Canadian women are told that the Arbitration Act of 1992 was passed in order to provide citizens with the opportunity to resolve minor conflicts through mediation and thereby save valuable court time. They are reassured that Muslim women in Canada have nothing to fear because parties must enter into arbitration out of their free choice, and that there are enough limits to safeguard the rights of women. The Muslim women's arguments that "free choice" is relative when you are psychologically, financially and socially dependent on your family, clan or religious group seem to fall on deaf ears. The populations of battered Muslim women in "tolerant" Canada's women's shelters seem to be ignored. In Canada, battered Muslim women say that their husbands told them that it is a God-given right to hit them. If the current Iraqi constitution goes through, Iraqi wife-abusers will be able to add "It is my constitutional right to beat you."
UPDATE: Roger Simon has his thoughts on her op-ed here.








posted by Long Island Bob @ 11:47 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 15, 2005

WORLDS UGLIEST DOG

The LAT has a story about the worlds ugliest dog. You won't believe the picture, it looks like something from a horror movie or a cloning experiment gone bad.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:30 AM 0 comments

BIG GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVES

The WaPo has an editorial rightly criticizing President Bush and Congress for spending money like liberals used to.

The nation is at war. It faces large expenses for homeland security. It is about to go through a demographic transition that will strain important entitlement programs. How can this president -- an allegedly conservative president -- believe that the federal government should spend money on the Red River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Louisiana? Or on the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan?
Read the whole thing

posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:20 AM 0 comments

MCDONALDS DIET

There is a story at CNN about a woman in North Carolina, taking a cue from the movie "Super Size Me", went on a diet just eating McDonalds for 90 days and lost 37 pounds. I wonder how much I could lose just eating Buffalo wings ?


posted by Long Island Bob @ 10:11 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 14, 2005

MULTICULTURALISM IN EUROPE

DAVID RIEFF in todays NY Times Magazine examines the issues of Islamic alienation in Europe.

The multicultural fantasy in Europe -- its eclipse can be seen most poignantly in Holland, that most self-definedly liberal of all European countries -- was that, in due course, assuming that the proper resources were committed and benevolence deployed, Islamic and other immigrants would eventually become liberals. As it's said, they would come to ''accept'' the values of their new countries. It was never clear how this vision was supposed to coexist with multiculturalism's other main assumption, which was that group identity should be maintained. But by now that question is largely academic: the European vision of multiculturalism, in all its simultaneous good will and self-congratulation, is no longer sustainable. And most Europeans know it. What they don't know is what to do next.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 4:31 PM 0 comments

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 9:10 AM 0 comments

IMMIGRATION REFORM

DAVID BROOKS on immigration reform.

So here's the bottom line for the guy in San Antonio: Everybody's expecting a big blowup on this issue, but we've got a great chance of enacting serious immigration reform. It won't solve all problems. There will still be wage pressures and late-night parties. But right now immigration chaos is spreading a subculture of criminality across America. What we can do is re-establish law and order, so immigrants can bring their energy to this country without destroying the social fabric while they're here.
Read the Whole thing.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 9:06 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 12, 2005

BEER TASTING

The WSJ has conducted a taste test a various lagers, imported and domestic. American craft beers did well, but rather surprisingly Heineken took the top spot.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 7:40 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

TIPPING

STEVEN A. SHAW has an op-ed in todays NYT about how we should get away from the practice of tipping:

For their part, restaurateurs believe it is their right to have consumers pay servers, so they don't have to pay their employees a living wage. They prefer the current system because it allows them to have a team of pseudo-contractors rather than real employees.

But that too is shortsighted. Over time, as in any service-oriented business, waiters loyal to the restaurant will perform better and make customers happier than waiters loyal only to themselves.

In this, the world's most generous nation of tippers, most restaurants don't even offer service as good as at the average McDonald's. While it lacks style, service at McDonald's is far more reliable than the service at the average upper-middle-market restaurant. This is not because the employees of McDonald's are brilliant at their jobs - it's because they are well-trained and subject to rigorous supervision.

And come to think of it, at McDonald's there is no tipping.
I think that he is right since I have been to other countries where there is no tipping and the service was better there. I wish that he included bar service in his article as well.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 11:28 AM 0 comments

IN DEFENSE OF DATA MINING

Mickey Kaus of Slate has an interesting article which explores the issues involved in 'data-mining' for terrorists. Data-Mining is a process of extracting useful information from large amounts of data. It is used in many industries but it’s use in military and law enforcement has been controversial. Apparently, before 9/11, the DOD discovered through data-mining that some of the 9/11 terrorists were in the country, but did not share that information with law enforcement.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 8:32 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 08, 2005

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 11:20 AM 0 comments

TECHNOLOGY THAT IS MISSED

CNET has a list of the top 10 technologies that are missed. My favorite is the LP, I still argue with my friends that albums sound better than CD's.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 9:49 AM 1 comments

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

ISLAMIST VIOLENCE AND THE ECONOMY

Over at the Becker-Posner blog, they have a thread examining the issues of the economy, immigration, and Islamist violence. They compare the US economy to Europe’s and both come to the conclusion that the greater economic opportunities and better assimilation in the US have worked to lesson these tensions as compared with Europe. Here are Gary Becker's thoughts on the issue:

There is an ongoing debate among economists over whether social mobility is greater in the United States or Europe. The general evidence on this does not offer a definitive answer, but there is little doubt that most immigrants believe opportunities for themselves and their children are greater in the United States. This is why America is the first choice of most immigrants whenever they can choose where to go, and it also explains the different attitudes of immigrants in Europe and America. As Posner emphasizes, most immigrants, non-Muslim as well as Muslim, feel far more accepted in the United States than in Europe, are less segregated here in both their living arrangements and employment, and appear to advance more easily toward higher level jobs. As a result, they are less promising material for radical Islam, although clearly radicals are operating and planning in the United States as well as in Europe.
I think they both ignore the history that Islam has with the West, and the fact that the Cold War and the World Wars helped suppress these tensions.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 1:24 PM 0 comments