Bastards.
I'm still clean though.
Abstract:In all seriousness, WalMart does some pretty abhorent things, but the company isn't all evil. Sam Walton would have been disgusted at the human resources practices that have gotten the company in trouble in the last decade. But in shaking their fists at big corporations, people tend to forget that they have pretty big benefits. The fact that WalMart makes a ton of stuff affordable to people with lower incomes is NOT trivial.
We estimate the impacts of Wal-Mart and warehouse club retailers on height-adjusted body weight and overweight and obesity status, finding robust evidence that non-grocery selling Wal-Marts reduce weight while grocery-selling Wal-Marts and warehouse clubs either reduce weight or have no effect. The effects appear strongest for women, minorities, urban residents, and the poor. We then examine the effects of these retailers on exercise, food and alcohol consumption, smoking, and eating out at restaurants in order to explain the results for weight. Most notably, the evidence suggests that all three types of stores increase consumption of fruits and vegetables while reducing consumption of foods high in fat. This is consistent with the thesis that Wal-Mart increases real incomes through its policy of "Every Day Low Prices," making healthy food more affordable, as opposed to the thesis that cheap food prices make us eat more.
I realize, of course, that she's totally unqualified to be President at this point in time. If McCain were to die in February 2009, I hope Palin would have the good sense to appoint someone who is more ready to be President to be her Vice President, on the understanding that she would then resign and be appointed Vice President by her successor. (Lest anyone say that this is an absurd, unconstitutional or undemocratic scenario, recognize that this is pretty much what would happen in a Parliamentary system where, if the head of government dies, a successor is chosen by the party.) Palin is absolutely not ready to be President now, but that is a problem that is very easily dealt with if she is and the governing party want to do so.
As midnight approached, it was announced that Wolves vice president Kevin McHale still was working on 'a deal' and wouldn't be able to make an appearance in the pressroom for some time. We all groaned. His deals usually suck. No one put it past him to trade Mayo in the middle of the night. As it turned out, we were right. His deal sucked. He traded Mayo in the middle of the night. There is no hope for this franchise.For the background, the Timberwolves drafted O.J. Mayo, a player who scores a lot but kind of sucks (you all know by now that scoring lots isn't as important as scoring efficiently, right? And that scoring a lot very inefficiently is even worse than not scoring at all? Right?), with the third pick of the draft, then traded him, Antoine Walker (another guy who scores a lot very inefficiently), Marko Jaric (the most overpaid player in the league), and Greg Buckner (who?) for Mike Miller (a guy who scores a lot very efficiently....HMMMMM....), Kevin Love (a guy who scored very efficiently in college, and grabbed a ton of boards...HMMMMM....), and some other dudes with big contracts that cancel out Jaric and Buckner's bad contracts.
[Senator McCain] has shown increasing disdain for any economist who questions his policy prescriptions. Earlier this month, he lashed out at critics of his proposal for a summer gas-tax holiday.Where to start. So much stupidity. Make him stop.
"You know the economists?'' McCain said June 12 at Federal Hall, near the New York Stock Exchange. "They're the same ones that didn't predict this housing crisis we're in. They're the same ones that didn't predict the dot-com meltdown. They're the same ones that didn't predict the inflation that's staring us in the face today.''
This passage from P.J. O'Rourke sounded like a conversation I have often had with my children:Let's try to apply this to Kobe. Bear with me because it's going to be really hard to find all the things that are similarly "unfair" for Kobe. Oh, wait, I mean it's going to be really hard to limit the unfair things to several.
I have a 10 year old at home, and she is always saying, "That's not fair." When she says that, I say, "Honey, you're cute; that's not fair. Your family is pretty well off; that's not fair. You were born in America; that's not fair. Honey, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you.
Steve in the WSJ:At this point I have to say...what the hell?
Like philanthropy, saving is an act of self-denial that enriches your neighbors (by leaving more goods available for them to consume). But unlike philanthropy, saving is punished by the tax system (via the taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains and inheritance). That's nuts. When you tax saving, you encourage people - wealthy people in particular - to spend more and grab a larger share of the consumption pie. "More consumption by the rich" should not be among the primary objectives of the tax code.
The alternative is to tax consumption....you can easily implement a consumption tax with a Form 1040 that says: "How much did you earn this year? How much did you save? Now pay tax on the difference." And you can make that tax as progressive as you like.
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: "Mitch Richmond knows: The single greatest common thread between Jordan and Bryant is their ability and hunger to destroy every opponent in their paths. Belittle Bryant's cold arrogance all you want. Call him selfish. Rail about his sense of entitlement. But you can't deny that Kobe and Jordan are the only two guards who have played the game like this. 'Both guys, when they've got you in a cage, they're going to keep you in there,' Richmond said this week. 'They're going to kill you and keep killing you until you're dead.'"O RLY? The "only two guards in the game" who were ever ridiculously cut-throat competitive?
It's not competition based on merit. It's competition based on improper inducements. I think it's an abomination.No, Dave, it's competition based on PRICE. You may think it's an abomination. Well, of course you do, just like American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall, who famously got caught trying to fix airline prices with his competitors.