Second prize is a set of steak knives

The Baldwin 'Leads are Weak' speech from "Glengarry GlenRoss" is that good. If you've ever had a sales job, you should check out this film.

My first job out of college was as a stockbroker - 300 phone calls a day, hoping to yield eight to ten prospects. Every month end, try to pitch 'em a stock of the month. Worst. Job. Ever. The only guys who succeeded were salesman from appliance stores or crooks. I quit after a few months, and worked construction from May till year end just to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Interestingly, many of those guys eventually got bagged - I worked with five of the guys noted on this link. Considering how much money these characters grifted over the years, the fines are ridiculously small.

The McDermott brothers were darn good high school wrestlers - but you should not have bought stock from them!

Thank You Mask Man

I haven't seen this video in years. Funny Lenny Bruce stuff -was very controversial - seems tame, today....

Fresh Threads for the Little Ones

I must thank Lileks for bringing this one to my attention.

If you dress your kids in this stuff, it is my opinion that you are stupid.

Am I the only one that finds it curious that they offer sets for basketball but not chess?

It's hard enough to deal with dirty diapers, vomit, and misbehavior as they get older. Now, if they wear their "baby beater", they may get a cap in their ass.

Swell.

Where is the Teachers Union when you need them?

OK - perhaps the slap at the union is gratuitous, but what the heck. I've got my UFCW withdrawal card, and paid my dues, so I can poke at the unions if I want to.

But getting back to this news story, do you get the sense that whether the U.S. was wrapped up in this military activity in Iraq or not, there would still be this kind of stuff going on? The big difference is, we would never hear about it. Will the students be intimidated, and toe the line, or will they stand up to the terrorists?

Final point - you can love or hate Bush, favor or oppose our involvement in Iraq, drive a Prius or an Excursion - I don't care - but if you think these teacher killers are anything but verminous terrorists, and that they deserve anything less than extermination, I think you are a fool and a traitor to humanity.

Banging Out the Business Cycle

Reading this article in CFO, I paid special attention to the graphic that they put together from information available from the National Bureau of Economic Research. That graphic outlines the dates and durations of periods of contraction (recession/depression) and expansion since WWII.

What struck me was the general ugliness of the economy in the seventies and early eighties. I recall, as a kid, so much gloom and doom talk, things like books encouraging the stockpiling of guns and ammo and precious metals. TV shows like Little House on The Prairie and The Waltons seemed to exist just to make you feel better that your crops didn't just get destroyed by locusts and that you didn't have to crank a tin lizzie after rolling out of the bed you shared with your two brothers. I remember Carter in his sweater, hostages in the middle east, bomb shelter signs, and being genuinely scared that things were going badly. It made me feel good then, as it does now, to know that my home was equipped with a low tech wood burner - just in case.

Hence the origin of Bang It Out and Paint It - just the ingrained fears of a kid raised in the seventies expressed in a medium of the oughts.

Careful with that Libertarianism, Eugene

I read Taranto in the journal most every day, and more often than not, I find his observations hit the mark. He is usually a bit harder on the general notion of Libertarianism than I, but in the 4/11/06 column he makes a valid point:

...far libertarianism to be pretty much indistinguishable from the far left and the far right.

Extremism rarely reaches intended goals, though it does polarize - look at all the Ayn Rand haters. You just need to take it a bit less literally - that's for you, Jimmy Burns. Though, JB, I do agree she drones on and on and on.....

I tend to lean Libertarian, but recognize the need for someone to build highways, defend our nation, and lock up the dirtbags out to hurt my kids. Think Reagan, not Bush. If we could just start to cut back on some of the other overhead, the country might have a fighting chance.

If you fear for the future of the U.S...

and you have a few minutes, check out the Bruce Sterling short story that Manifest Destiny links to. The minor Rutgers reference is an added bonus!

Tip of the hat to The Angry Engineer.

More spicy Italian!

This stuff is priceless. If Berlusconi loses the election, he might be fun to have as U.S. President in 2008. Seriously, would you rather have Hilary? I'm not sure what she's eating, but I wouldn't laugh as much watching her eat it.

Check out the links - tip of the hat to Cruel.com.

Frigging pervert

This is starting to really piss me off. Something is seriously wrong with these people. I don't care about his politics, his socio-economic background or any other nonsense. This clown, and anyone else caught in this type of behavior, needs some jail time - state pen with roommate Bubba, not Club Fed. Second offense - castration - then twice the play time with Bubba. If we need to make room in the prisons, fine, let some of the pot-smokers out - they're too lazy to chase young girls.

"Cogliones," said the Queen,"If I had them, I'd be King!"

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is keeping Italian politics interesting. As an American of Italian descent, I get a big laugh at his graphic use of language to make a point, and I can identify with it. My relatives, friends, and even, occasionally I, myself, can be similarly expressive when trying to make a point, and I generally appreciate the efficiency of such use of language.

American Politics could take a lesson here - I for one think that anyone who voted for McGreevey for Governor in NJ back in the day was a great big ... kitty cat. Dissapointing, eh? - If only I had Berlusconi's cogliones.