Heaps & Barrels: Edition 2
January 23, 2008
TOP OF THE HEAP
Runner-up:
Eli Manning, East Rutherford, NJ Giants QuarterbackRewind to about 16 months ago for the NY Giants: the team’s star running back Tiki Barber seemed more interested in leaving football and pursuing a broadcasting career, coach Tom Coughlin’s job is on the line, and the famously vicious New York media wanted Eli and Tom Coughlin gone.Now to the beginning of the season: Coughlin is still the coach but he’s on notice, Tiki Barber (now a football analyst on the hideous NBC pre-game show) is declaring Eli Manning not much of leader, and the sports media pretty much declared Manning an average quarterback and nothing more.
Well surprise surprise, the Giants are in the Super Bowl, beating the two best teams in the NFC (Dallas and Green Bay) and doing it without tight end Jeremy Shockey and running back Brandon Jacobs. Eli Manning has been playing flawless football for the pst 3 months, and almost won the their final game of the regular season, against the now 18-0 New England Patriots.
That’s Eli’s next challenge, beating those same Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. He received high praise from more celebrated brother Peyton. Eli solicited advice from Peyton, and Peyton told Eli that he could offer him no advice since he has surpassed the point where Peyton could give him advice. If you’re keeping score, Eli made the Super Bowl in just his fourth year; Peyton reached the Super Bowl in his ninth year.
It’s about time the sports media, the New York media, and Tiki Barber lay off Eli. In fact Tiki, more and more it looks like you caused the Giants to flame out at the end of last year. Hope you enjoy rating fashion on the Today Show, while Eli and your former teammates play in the Super Bowl. For perserverance, Eli Manning is the runner-up to the Top of the Heap.
Top of the Top:
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman
On January 22, before the markets opened for the week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke took the bold step of reducing the federal funds rate by 3/4%. Recognizing that individuals and businesses are having an increasingly difficult time obtaining credit, Bernanke and the Federal Reserve lowered the funds rate to loosen the flow of money. Doing so will make loans more affordable in the hopes of stimulating the economy.
Recall several years ago right after 9/11, Alan Greenspan pursued a similar strategy to keep the economy from a more severe recession. Greenspan brought the funds rate down to 1%, which combined with the 2001 tax cuts, helped keep the 2001 recession shallow and strengthened the economy for years to come.
The downside to the Greenspan strategy is since credit was so cheap, it contributed to the housing bubble in the early and mid-2000’s, and when inflation increased (due to soaring energy prices), the funds rate had to be greatly increased to tighten credit and keep inflation in check. That caused the housing bubble to burst, and now housing valuations and construction are dropping precipitously.
Bernanke’s move will attempt to jump-start lending, which will jump-start the housing market and consumer spending, which will stimulate the economy. The problem is this rate decrease will not work its way through the economy for 6-12 months, and a recession may already have taken hold by then. Bernanke is using all the tools at his disposal to keep us out of a recession and doing so expeditiously. For that, Bernanke is at the Top of the Heap.
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Runner-up:
John EdwardsDoes anyone really buy this guy? Does anyone truly believe John Edwards genuinely wants to help the poor and downtrodden? Give me a break!John Edwards is exactly what’s wrong with politics today. His common theme is this “Two Americas” B.S. where he pits those with not-so-much against those who have much in order to generate anger in the electorate. This, he hopes, will give him votes, or at least favorable press.
The truth is, he could care less about those less well-off than he. Not only that, he knows he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the Presidency. He garners just enough popularity to be a factor in the eventual nominee’s campaign. In 2004, John Kerry felt compelled to bring Edwards on the ticket, because Edwards sold himself as someone who could balance the ticket. Fast forward to today. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a bitter campaign, and now John Edwards is positioning himself as the one person who can help either Clinton or Obama to win. Beware to them; Edwards is looking for a quid pro quo, the high-level position in a Clinton or Obama administration.
But wait, there’s more. Edwards has the gall to say he feels like a victimized minority because of all the attention Clinton, a woman, and Obama, a black man, receive in the media, and Edwards can’t get a word in edgewise. What a slime! Any other week he would take up residence at the Bottom of the Barrel, but…
Bottom of the Bottom:
Center for Public Integrity Report
The headline “Study: Bush, administration made 935 false statements leading us to Iraq War” was plastered all over print, TV, and internet media. Sounds like an indictment on President Bush and how he distorted information to lead us to the Iraq War. The statements Bush and members of his administration made from 9/11 to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 regard Iraq’s alleged WMD stockpiles and links to Al Qaeda.
Unfortunately, things are not all that they appear with this study.
Let’s start with the time frame of the study, as it starts with 9/11. Starting with a date of 9/11 factors out all the faulty intelligence gathered prior to 9/11, in fact going back into the 1990’s when Bill Clinton was president.
Speaking of faulty intelligence, the study also neglects to mention this same intelligence was corroborated by numerous intelligence agenices all over the world, and had been since the 1990’s. Including these facts would not fit the study’s premise of painting Bush as a war-mongering liar.
Finally, the author of the study is an organization called “Center for Public Integrity.” This organization is far from an unbiased observer of ethics in government and public policy. In fact, this is another organization funded by billionaire smear-merchant George Soros, who has turned out to be a master manipulator of the mainstream media. The Soros link to the study is never made in the mainstream media.
Shame on the mainstream media for not looking deeper at the premise and flaws of the “study,” but for George Soros and this shadow faux-watchdog agency, they are truly at the Bottom Of The Barrel.
Heaps & Barrels: Edition 1
January 19, 2008
TOP OF THE HEAP
Runner-up:
The internetI’ve never done a true blog until now, where I can express my opinion, and allow others to agree or disagree with that opinion. I thought coming up with a blog that points out a couple of good news or personal items, combined with a couple of rotten items, would be something interesting to write about once in a while.The internet has also been my lifeblood for about a decade now. I have been working as a software engineer for 18 years, and my most prosperous years have been during the prominence of the internet.
I am also convinced that, when unrestricted by governments, that the free flow of information afforded by the internet will increase freedom around the world. Oppressive governments tend to restrict information, and the internet makes information easy to obtain. It is up to the individual to disseminate and scrutinize such information.
Top of the Top:
Fatherhood
Let’s start on a good note here — I was married for over 13 years before I was blessed with a child. The story I like to tell people is that when my wife took one of those home pregnancy tests and it came up positive, I told her that she was dreaming and come back to bed. Well that dream did indeed come true, and my kid is the most precious girl on earth.
Having a child of my own has definitely changed my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s cool to have perfect strangers come up to you when we’re in a restaurant or a store and compliment us on how cute or how well-behaved our daughter is.
As a scientist, I’m fascinated by her growing awareness of herself and her surroundings.
Are there challenges? Sure there are, but fathers have it easier than mothers, starting at conception! Being a daddy is most definitely at the Top Of The Heap.
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Runner-up:
President Bush’s $145 billion stimulus planThere’s no doubt the economy is slowing down. Some legitimate organizations believe the U.S. is already in a recession, while other agenda-driven organizations, led by the mainstream media, have been saying for years that the U.S. is in bad shape in order to shape opinion.One item that is causing the U.S. economy to slow down is the high gas prices we all have had to pay for the last four years. Money paid at the gas pump means less that can be paid for other expenses.
More recently, credit is now harder to obtain, due to irresponsible lending practices during the big housing boom earlier this decade, combined with the raising of interest rates. This is affecting consumer spending at all levels.
Now that it’s an election year, President Bush obviously wants the Republican party to remain in the White House and pick up seats in Congress, so he has proposed a $145 billion stimulus package composed of $100 billion in tax “rebates” and $45 billion in business tax breaks.
Here’s the problem: these “rebates” have been done before and proven not to stimulate the economy, this is straight deficit spending, the rebates will be given to those not paying federal income tax, and the rebates will not be given to people making “too much” money. In other words, this is a horrible waste of money, and is classic pandering during an election year.
What should have happened is more comprehensive tax reform, both at the corporate and individual level, should have occurred while the Republicans were in control of Congress. Instead, the President and Congress were spending money like it grew on trees. This stimulus package and its true intention, a vote-buying scheme, is a runner-up to the Bottom of the Barrel.
Bottom of the Bottom:
Kirk Mellish, WSB-AM Meteorologist
WSB-AM is one of the premier news-talk stations in the country, flanked by nationally-syndicated hosts Neal Boortz and Clark Howard. So how can such a station carry nationally-syndicated disgrace Michael Savage and employ fraudulent weather-caster Kirk Mellish?
Kirk Mellish reads the weather for Atlanta news-talk station WSB-AM. He predicts the weather in terms of a “Mellish Meter.” Nobody knows how that meter reading is calculated; one would have a better chance of figuring out what a Wang Chung is.
The Atlanta area had a snowstorm and subsequent icing this past Thursday. For days and even hours before the storm hit, his prediction was light rain and that was all, citing his own “models.” He went on to state this was his hardest forecast in 10 years. Most other meteorologists had forecast light snow and a gradual warming overnight to light rain. We ended up with about 1/2 inch of snow at the Atlanta airport, about 1 inch just north of the Perimeter (I-285), and 3-4 inches in the mountains, all occuring until midnight, then rain after that as the temperatures climbed above freezing.
What puts Mellish at the bottom of the barrel? He had the nerve to state the weather had turned out exactly as he predicted, by citing the light rain during the morning rush hour. Not only that, other WSB-AM talent propped him up as a great predictor of the weather (which included Boortz, who claimed that TV meteorologists routinely copy Mellish’s forecast. Sorry, not buying it). Blind arrogance, combined with inaccuracy, puts Mellish at the Bottom of the Barrel.
