ESPN's online magazine, Grantland, has a great column wondering why American pro sports teams don’t have European-style advertising-laden jerseys. (The auto racing world is already there, of course, as is golf, both individual sports, of course.)
I’ve wondered that myself for some time, in the nation that claims not only to be the land of liberty but the home of free enterprise.
I think the Grantland story is right in that the NBA will be first, then the NHL. The ad style fits with the bling-and-Twitter image of the NBA. The NHL just will take money wherever.
The NFL and MLB will both claim “purity,” I’m sure. Also, in the NFL, more than MLB, revenue-sharing issues will raise a dogfight over this. So, contra ...
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From my Goodreads review: In “Passage of Power,” the fourth volume of his ever-expanding, five-volume-to-be biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Robert Caro maintains the same standards of excellence of the first three volumes and more.
The book covers the era from late 1958, when, despite his denials, LBJ first looked at running for president, through Jan. 8, 1964 and his first State of the Union address, with brief glances past that to passage of the 1964 civil rights bill, the first moves in Vietnam, and the Warren Commission. The bulk of LBJ as President, though, will be in volume five.
The title refers, of course, to the passage of power from LBJ to JFK, as Johnson, after having vastly expanded ...
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 | | "I did not have financial relations with Jamie Dimon." | In a blog post yesterday, I asked, " How much can President Obama fellate Jamie Dimon?" (the JPMorgan CEO who appears almost willfully clueless about his bank's losses on derivatives trades). Turns out Obama the person, not Obama the presidential candidate, has at least $500,000 reasons to "show his gratitude" to Dimon and JPMorgan.
Just what is a "JP Morgan Chase Private Client Asset Management Checking Account," anyway? And, does it buy you a London Whale hunting license? That's not a total joke. Yes, it's a checking account, but, beyond the dollar amount, it's not like one you or I have. First of all, with more than $500K, it's not fully covered by FDIC ...
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After JPMorgan's $2 billion fiasco (and who knows, it may wind up being more than that), and after financial reform and consumer protection architect Elizabeth Warren said JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has no business serving on the New York Federal Reserve, Dear Leader, President Obama, has shown where his heart campaign finance wallet lies, when he says JPMorgan is so well managed. I said last week this is a test of how much Obama is in thrall to the banksters. If Dimon won't, out of embarrassment if nothing else, resign his NY Fed seat, then, will Obama lean on him? And, we have our answer. It's not just "no," it's a resounding "no." Expanding support of gay rights is all well and good, but continuing to support a Big ...
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A lot of people are familiar with the classic psychological game theory game of Prisoner’s Dilemma. In multi-round versions of the game, people who are knowledgeable that the logical response is for both persons to cooperate.
Of course, that would theoretically be the logical response with two political parties, too. But, evolutionary biology, as well as human social psychology, point out that there are incentives for “cheaters” to abound in a game like Prisoner’s Dilemma.
That said, there’s a simple response to “cheaters” in a multi-round version of something like Prisoner’s Dilemma. It’s the old childhood action of “tit for tat.”
Sadly, somewhat with Slick Willie Clinton, and even more with ...
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Just don't call it Sweden if it is. Americans, by a good margin, say they want the same relatively low level of economic inequality as Sweden has today. But, to riff on an old conservative pot-boiler, “None dare call it Sweden.” Behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely takes a close look at the cognitive dissonance and disconnects behind this. And, how bad is the disconnect? This bad ... even Tea Partiers must want to live in Sweden, given overall percentages: In Dan Ariely’s study (with Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School), 92 percent of us Americans want to live Swedish-style instead. Women (93 percent in favor of the Swedish model) are a ever so slightly more ...
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Ahh, May. Besides spring heading toward summer, or, in much of Texas, already entering it, it reminds me of one of the more objectionable facets of television: May is one of the four "sweeps" months, in which Nielsen ratings get extra advertising scrutiny.
Could you imagine what newspapers would be like with that? In New York, the Post would probably borrow from its Murdoch cousins across the pond and start the custom of Page 3 girls. Bristol Palin first, then Meghan McCain, eh?
Smaller communities with multiple papers, or metros with a daily plus an alt-weekly, would probably be weirder yet, staking out local government officials and agencies on a "corruption beat." The alt-weeklies might try to out-Craig Craigslist on their ...
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Elizabeth Warren is right. After JPMorgan's $2 billion fiasco (and who knows, it may wind up being more than that), its CEO, Jamie Dimon, has no business serving on the New York Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, GOP Sen. John Thune is now making the loony arguments that this means we DON"T need more financial regulation. No, what this really means is this is a test of how much Obama is in thrall to the banksters. If Dimon won't, out of embarrassment if nothing else, resign his NY Fed seat, then, will Obama lean on him? Expanding support of gay rights is all well and good, but continuing to support a Big Five bankster when the top five banks, since 2007, have upped their share of the banking monetary pie from 43 to 56 percent is in ...
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In what world, other than that of the RAND report it uncritically passed on, does the Government Accountability Office believe 30-60 percent of shale oil on the Western Slope is recoverable? Ohh, maybe at $300/bbl oil, and the wet dream of southwesterners of tapping the Columbia River, the Great Lakes, or both for water. Short of that? Not a chance. 
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With the 2012 presidential election now set to pair the incumbent, Barack Obama, aka Dear Leader for Obamiacs, vs. Mitt Romney, aka Etch-a-Sketch, even in the political world, for anybody who knows politics, it led me to wonder what some of the worst presidential campaigns in American history have been.
I’m going to break this into a two-parter, and start from 1904, with Teddy Roosevelt being, arguably and with the partial exception of Abraham Lincoln, the first modern president. Plus, the first party primaries came into existence early in the 20th century, so that’s another good reason to make this a break point.
I’m not going to reference every campaign, just the worse ones, along with some interesting ones. ...
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