Fun with telemarketers

I ripped this off from the 1980s comedy, "The Dream Team," but it's still fun:

[Pick up call from unknown number]
Zeke: "Pronto?"
Telemarketer: "Hello, may I please speak with Zeke?"
Z: "No hablo ingles."
T: "Ah...puedo hablar con Zeke?"
Z: "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish either."
[Hang up.]

Canada Needs a Punch in the Nuts

...for banning this ad, a funny promo for the Toronto Blue Jays, featuring Frank Thomas. Seems the Nanooks of the North don't like the overtones of child abuse.

Aging gazillionaire tries to keep the rebel image alive

Keith Richards claims to have snorted his father's ashes.

More for the rest of us

Jewish? Sorry to hear it.

Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, a pro-cannabis advocacy group says, advising Jews who observe the week-long holiday’s special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed.

I don't think Christians have to give it up during Lent, do they?

From AlarmingNews.

Your Party of the People at work

California's petty tyrant legislators don't like the term limits imposed on them by a majority of voters in 1990. They already have gerrymandered districts making it impossible to lose re-election, so the only thing standing between them and an unaccountable, lifetime office is term limits. So they've deceptively put a watering-down of the limits on the next ballot.

Can't fool the people? Career politicians have a back-up plan: get the California Supreme Court to throw out the people's will.

The sleazy peerage-for-lifers behind this plan, Ron Calderon and Fabian Nunez, can be reached at (916) 651-4030 and (916) 319-2046. Publicly or privately, the other Democrats in the legislature support this as well, so feel free to look up a few more of them and give them an earful.

San Francisco in spring

It's the beginning of tourist season in San Francisco.

I've shot three so far.

Bill Gross on the housing bubble

In this month's commentary, Bill Gross hits the nail on the head and gets what Ken Fisher missed:

It will not be loan losses that threaten future economic growth, however, but the tightening of credit conditions that are in part a result of those losses. To a certain extent this reluctance to extend credit is a typical response to end-of-cycle exuberance run amok. And if one had to measure this cycle’s exuberance on a scale of 1-10, double-digits would be the overwhelming vote. Anyone could get a loan because shabby credits were ultimately being camouflaged within CDOs that in turn were being sold to unsophisticated foreign lenders in need of yield as opposed to ¼% bank deposits (read Japan/Yen carry trade). But there is something else in play now that resembles in part the Carter Administration’s Depository Institutions and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Lender fears of potential new regulations can do nothing but begin to restrict additional lending at the margin, as will headlines heralding alleged predatory lending practices in recent years. After doubling over 18 months between 2005 and the first half of 2006, non-traditional loan growth has recently turned negative, and lenders’ attitudes are turning decidedly conservative as shown in Chart 1.

Bulls and bears argue over websites as to the percentage of all lending that subprime and alternative mortgage loans provide but while important, the argument obscures the critical conclusion that tighter lending standards and increased regulation will change the housing outlook for some years to come. As past marginal buyers are forced to sell their home to prevent foreclosures, so too will future marginal buyers be restricted from buying them.