just me?

Or does the Republicans voting down the finance bill because Nanci Pelosi said they were reckless and irresponsible not smack of reckless irresponsibility?

Obama meets the West Wing

There's an amazing piece of dialogue in the NY Times for anyone who was a fan of the West Wing, here's my favourite part:

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

Great stuff!

A long way left to fall?

With the stock market withering like a plant in the desert sun, and commentators everywhere beginning to genuinely ponder the idea that the financial crisis could be as bad as the 1930's, it seems time to ask ''how bad is it going to get''?

I'm not an expert on stock markets by any means, but there is an interesting fact that could have relevance to today's crisis. The reason that people buy shares is, fairly evidently, for a share of the company's profits. In the long-term, shares need to give a higher return that the rate of interest in a bank. Otherwise, there'd be no reason to buy them in the first place. Historically, the rate of return on shares that the market has settled at means that people make their money back in 14.5 years, in other words an interest rate of 6.89%. That's a reasonable return, and enough more than putting your money in the bank to make the risk of buying shares worthwhile.



As the above graph shows, the prices at the moment are still well above that level. At the moment, the price of shares is around 25 times the annual earnings, or an interest rate of around 4%. Given that you can get a rate that's higher than that from a lot of banks' saving accounts, and the current market turmoil, there is every chance that share prices will continue to fall.


Notes: 1. I wrote this before the announced bailout, but think it is still relevant

2. The inspiration for this came from the Undercover Economist, a book I'd highly recommend

a sunny day!

There was a lovely sunny day for once, and luckily I was out with my camera and managed to grab a couple of shots so I can remind myself that the weather really can be nice in the dreary months to come!

Aisling and Fergus

Aisling

Stephen's Green Lake

Me, taken by Aisling

Stephen's green evening sunshine

Fresher's week '08

Brian after his shift at the grind

Ian and the (sadly non alcoholic) Kopperberg

Ciaran looking happy with Cranley's sticker...

Don't mess with the auditor during fresher's week!

Susan leaves her mark...

...and shows off her hemming skills!

James on security detail

Shane maintains that he was neither to fat, nor too ugly to model for Ralph Lauren, they just wouldn't pay him enough

Gregg being all busy and important.

Click to enlarge any of the images

L&H porn debate

The L&H's annual porn debate was last night, so I brought my camera along. The lighting in the theatres is always really tricky, so these are a mix of flash and natural ones. Bouncing the flash off the ceiling normally gives a much nicer look than pointing it straight at people (because the light looks more natural instead of the overly bright/ shadowy look you get with a normal flash). The problem in those theatres is that the ceiling is brown, so if you try that you get very brown people (and not in the way that fake tan attempts to make them!


The Rabbi

The philosopher

The auditor

Conor and The crowd (the guy to his left doesn't count)

Dwarfed by history!

Mags takes the hecklers down

The pastor

Sheehy and Janine

Daithi in pauses for laughs

Ian getting his porn talk on

Aengus' debs

It was my brother's debs during the week, so I snapped a couple of photos before he headed off!

First debate of the year

The first L&H debate of the year was last night. I brought my camera along to record to occasion!

It's a large hadron collider!


Mags in one of her two (wonderful) speeches!

Jarlath, as seen on tv3

Mary before the debate

Aisling and me

Conor gets his verbosity on

Shane posing

Dec speaking