I’m boycotting the Beijing Olympics and I urge everyone else to join in doing so. And, join the Facebook Group.

From the AP:

The New York Fed has announced modifications to its new Term Securities Lending Facility (TSFL). The TSFL auctions will now allow schedule 2 collateral, instead of the schedule 1 collateral previously proposed. Schedule 2 collateral will now include collaterized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and AAA rated commercial mortgage-backed securities

In other words, they will take any kind of worthless security the banks and security dealers want to pawn off on them.

I need to buy a new laptop, so Mark Evan’s post on Are MacBooks Just Trendy? really resonated with me. I think the answer is yes they are trendy, but also they are good.

So, the stock market rallied today based on S&P’s affirmation of MBIA’s AAA rating. What was their justification for affirming the rating? That MBIA was able to sell notes at 14% interest to raise $2.6 billion of capital. Name me any other AAA rated institution that is forced to pay 14%. Guess what? You won’t be able to find one. 14% is what junk bonds pay, not AAA rated bonds. Read the details at The Big Picture.

Can anyone give me a single, good reason for the existence of Valentine’s day? Other than commemorating St. Valentine, that is.

Today is Trent Lott Appreciation Day. According to The Mississippi Press, it’s a “well-deserved honor.” They also note:

Today’s honors may not be as fancy as receptions held in Washington, D.C., but it is very likely Lott is among more friends here.

It’s hard to argue with that. On a related note, January 24th was National Compliment Day.

As always, I urge a write-in vote for William Howard Taft. A policy of trust-busting, dollar diplomacy, an increase in the corporate income tax, and strong tariffs is just what the times demand! It was right in 1908, and it’s right in 2008. So, get out and vote!

I was down at the local Honda dealer getting my oil changed today. So, I wandered into their showroom, where I found a dark blue Mugen Honda Civic SI. It’s a sharp looking car, but who really wants a $30,000 Civic? Also, why the hell did they do this to a four door instead of a coupe? Anyway, here’s some pictures:

You can see larger versions in this Facebook gallery.

I normally avoid political discussions. But, after reading Terry Chay’s post on Ron Paul, I felt compelled to post something. I sympathise with Terry’s frustration with doctrinaire libertarians. Like unreconstructed Marxists, their insistence on finding the solution to all problems in a single principle is a relic of the nineteenth century: a time when the idea of a scientific explanation of society was new enough to excuse this reductionism. Like Marxism, Libertarianism is an excusable enthusiasm in the young, but at some point we all have to grow up. As Terry points out, we have had over one hundred years of development in economics since the nineteenth century, and libertarianism ignores all of them.

In the past, I have compared Ron Paul to Cato the Younger, and I still believe the comparison apt. Like Cato, Paul has never compromised, even when it would have cost him little. It was Cicero’s judgment that Cato’s unwavering commitment to principle did as much, if not more, to destroy the Roman Republic as it contributed to the effort to save it. Similarly, Paul’s intransigence has harmed his cause even as it has led to an unprecedented (for Libertarianism) success. I have no doubt that, should Paul, by some miracle, be elected, he would be an ineffective president. Yet, despite this, as you have probably already noticed, I have a Ron Paul banner in the right-hand column of my blog.

The reason that banner is there is that I believe all politics is contingent: when the house is burning down you don’t advocate pouring on more gasoline. The United States is on a path to bankruptcy, the dollar is debased, and continued foreign interventionism is supported by every major candidate. Paul is the only candidate whose positions would do anything to address these problems. So, in the rather vain hope that he might possibly influence the future path of the country, he has my support.

So, the Parade magazine that came with today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a cover story about Benazir Bhutto. Unfortunately, the magazine went to press before she was assassinated, so the story was all about how she was the U.S’s best hope against Al Qaeda, and that she was expecting to win the election on Tuesday.  Just more evidence that newspapers are completely done.