En Passant

Amazing how CNN commentators repeatedly brand the Fort Hood killer as a loner,

while FoxNews commentators repeatedly brand him as a terrorist.

In one New York weekend --

Halloween, the Marathon, and the World Series.  Wow.

I'm in Costco Heaven.

I can see Costco (in Long Island City) from my Manhattan apartment, I can drive to Costco in 10 minutes from my summer home near the Canadian border, and a new Costco is opening this month in Manhattan within walking distance.  I no longer have to take the subway to Brooklyn.

With Google trading at about 550,

the media are ooh-ing and ah-ing a buy recommendation this morning, with a target of 700.
Yet if Google were trading at 55, with the same market capitalization, no one would marvel at a target of 70.

Because he pushed through a health plan as governor,

Mitt Romney will never become President of the United States.

This may be the first time the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded

to someone for not being George W. Bush.

Jimmy Carter has done the impossible.

He's shown that he could be worse as a former President than he was as a President.

Hard to believe

that the Empire State Building is lit up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communism! 

The videos of the schoolchildren singing the praises of the President

look like something from the times of Stalin or Kim Il-sung or Chairman Mao.

Imagine the TV news coverage

if Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson had died at the same time.

So how does 'The Paper of Record' play the Lockerbie story?

While The Wall Street Journal and many other papers rightly have a page 1 (above the fold) pic of the Lockerbie terrorist getting a hero's welcome, The New York Times today plays the story on page A4, with no homecoming pic, and only a one-column-inch reference on the bottom left of page A1.  Also, while The Journal and other papers refer to the convicted terrorist as a "terrorist," The Times refers to him as "the Lockerbie convict."

I don't care if he's terminally ill.

Scotland's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber is a travesty.  How much compassion did he show his 270 victims?

Any member of Congress who refuses to meet publicly with his or her constituents

should be voted out of office.  And any constituent who disrupts such a meeting should be arrested.

Fairway's gazpacho is perhaps the best in Manhattan

Compared to Citarella's, Fairway's is twice the quality and half the price.

Since when did America's representatives

become America's aristocracy?

The Law School 100 ranking of the nation's best law schools

is now available on the iPhone and iTouch.  On your PC or Mac, click here.

Headline on NYTimes.com sums up today's economy

Halliburton 2Q Earnings Plummet, Beat Expectations

Thank you, Sarah.

If it were not for Sarah Palin, CNN and FoxNews would have been 100% Michael Jackson this weekend.

Better (and less expensive) than an iPhone

is the combination of an iTouch, a Verizon Mi-Fi, and a Sprint cellphone.

Was there ever a more ridiculous political speech

than the one given tonight by Alaska's Sarah Palin?

South Carolina's Mark Sanford has proven

that a Governor can be stupider than Eliot Spitzer.  At least Spitzer knew when to close his mouth.

The New York Times did not publish info about its kidnapped reporter

because, the paper said, it feared for his safety. 
Yet The Times has no problem publishing photos that clearly identify the Iraqi men and women who are challenging the legitimacy of their government.

There will be a Republican mayor of Chicago

before there's another Republican President of the United States.

"Bing" is a great name for Microsoft's search engine.

And a major improvement over "Live Search."  So why so many critics?

What ever happened to

MySpace?

How can the people who caused the problems

solve the problems?

Now that Portfolio Magazine has finally got it right,

its publisher, Conde Nast, is closing it down.

I miss the competition

between Best Buy and the late Circuit City.

Brilliant comparison between The Law School 100 and U.S. News

Just click here.

Eliot Disner beat Bar/Bri,

but, unfortunately, he couldn't beat Lou Gehrig's disease.  Click here.

Demeanor

is one of Barack Obama's biggest strengths and is Tim Geithner's biggest weakness.

From today's New York Times:

"Isn't that like giving bonuses to the arsonists who started a fire because they alone know what kind of accelerants they used to start it?" -- Maureen Dowd

Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

Jon Stewart won.  Full Episode.  Outtake.

Remember when

a trillion dollars was a lot of money?

No Speaker of the House

has ever clapped better than the current Speaker.

One can only imagine how the media would have reacted

if George W. Bush, instead of Joseph Biden, had said, "Do you know the website number?"

The Washington Post gets to ask one question in this time of crisis,

and its reporter wants to know the President's reaction to Alex Rodriguez's steroid use?
BTW, the question sounded like part of the Saturday Night Live fawning-over-Obama skit during the campaign.

I wish The Wall Street Journal would be less like The New York Times

and more like The Wall Street Journal.

Remember

the two-party system?

Quote of the Day for Today

Click here for the three-second video.

There ARE Two Americas

There's the America where, if you break the law, you go to jail. 
And there's the America where, if you're powerful and you break the law, you apologize and get confirmed.

Actual Headline on Online Edition of Today's New York Times:

Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow; Winter to Continue

What ever happened to

bipartisanship?

Imagine how different today's Inauguration would have been

if the Democratic nominee had been Dennis Kucinich.

George W. Bush's biggest legacy:

Barack Obama.

Today's Hudson River miracle

shows the value of experience.

It will be a crime

if President Bush fails to pardon, or commute the sentences of, former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.

The weather outside is frightful,

but the economy is worse.

Why is it that when a company advertises one thing and does another,

that company is often the object of litigation, but when a politician does a similar thing, his or her statements are dismissed as merely campaign rhetoric?

Do diligence?

Individual investors should be faulted for failing to diversify, by putting the bulk of their savings with Madoff or with an intermediary.  But they should not be faulted for failing to do due diligence.  When I buy a municipal bond from Merrill Lynch, should I do due diligence with Merrill?  When I buy GE stock through Charles Schwab, must I (or my agent) personally inspect Schwab's books?  Some things in life just have to be taken on faith.