With the recent craziness in the world markets I was looking for a way to keep up with some of the securities in my portfolio with a minimum of fuss. I came across a clever FireFox add-on that does the trick.

FoxStocks, a free FireFox add-on by CleverTech Technologies, allows you to enter up to 10 ticker symbols and see their most recent price in the status bar of each of your browser windows. By default it updates every 60 seconds, but, this can be easily configured.

The FoxStocks website was easy to maneuver and got me where I wanted to go without any hassle. I downloaded the software with the click of a button. The installation was a bit scary. I was reminded numerous times by my computer how dangerous installing software is. I can’t blame FoxStocks for this since we live in a world of malware and viruses, but, I would think they want to become certified somehow to avoid these messages. The add-on required a reboot of the browser which was no problem since FireFox recreated all my browser windows for me.

Using the software is a snap. There is a FoxStock icon in the lower right-hand corner of each browser. Click on it and you can add up to 10 ticker symbols to follow and change the update interval. Financial data comes from the Google Finance site. Right-click on the same icon and you get to change some options. In truth, even right-clicking is unnecessary. Most of the things you can do from the right click can be done from the left click as well. If you click on one of your ticker symbols a browser window is launched with the full details of the security form Google.

The simplicity of FoxStocks is its charm. With virtually no effort I was up and running and watching my portfolio. My only complaint was the lack of a symbol search which is readily available at the Google Finance site.

This is an encouraging image from Liberation (http://www.liberation.com)

Mohamed ElBaradei, our friendly UN nuclear watchdog, received his Nobel Peace Prize today. Upon acceptance he had this to say,

"The hard part is how do we create an environment in which nuclear weapons -- like slavery or genocide -- are regarded as a taboo and a historical anomaly?"

The only problem is that neither slavery nor genocide are taboo in the Sudan.

Here is an interesting article about the rioting in Paris I found over at PowerLineBlog. The most interesting quote for me is

That Islamist may be right. Though fewer than 10 percent of Frenchmen are Muslims, more than 30 percent of those under age 20 are.

Pretty scary if you ask me.

And this map from The Economist tells a much different story than the French media would have us believe.

We truly live in a decadent world.

I finally had the chance to watch Fahrenheit 9/11. Needless to say I was not very impressed so I won't bother to regurgitate all of the classic issues with this 'cinematic entity'. There are many people who have dedicated far too much of this countries productive resources to rebutting the film. It is clearly aimed at those who are most susceptible to confirmation bias.

The thing that struck me as amusing is Moore's love affair with Flint Michigan. He has somehow managed to squeeze a plug for his 'hometown' (he is actually not from there) in every single one of his films. I started thinking about Flint and hit my friend the wikipedia on the topic. It seems that Flint is really poor which I could gather from the movie and that it used to do far better when General Motors was in town.

So I did a little looking into GM and I found this interesting fact. GM has been suffering lately because of their heavy dependence on "gas guzzling trucks and SUVs". With higher oil prices consumers are less likely to buy an SUV and this is hurting GM.

Now it seems to me that lower oil prices would help GM. So I say if we are going to help the disenfranchised of Flint we should do what we can to lower oil prices. I know! How about we go to war for oil. Do you think we went to Iraq so we could give the people of Flint jobs? It may sound crazy but it is certainly no less crazy than the insane premise of Fahrenheit 9/11.

No Blood for Flint!!

At least these women don't have to suffer the humiliation of passing through Zionist checkpoints.

It is a good thing that the world has Sir Richard Branson. I have always complained that Bill Gates is pretty pathetic for a 'richest man in the world'. No sense of adventure really.

Those geniuses back at the lab have done it again. Try a personal google page.

For the past week Haaretz has displayed a banner ad offering a free $100 dinner at Applebee's. Either I have totally misunderstood the Haaretz reader base or this is the least targeted advertising ever.

Thomas Friedman has an insightful article on the 'root causes' of terrorism. In it he makes the dubious assertion that

Many people said Palestinian suicide bombing was the spontaneous reaction of frustrated Palestinian youth. But when Palestinians decided that it was in their interest to have a cease-fire with Israel, those bombings stopped cold. The village said enough was enough.

This is an incredible feat of denial. The reason there has not been a suicide bombing recently is because there is a big frickin wall between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It is a cessation of opportunity rather than desire that has stopped these atrocities.

Tom, perhaps I can jog your memory.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today entitled, Contest Winner Declines 'Free' Airline Tickets. For those of you who do not have access to the WSJ here is the summary.

American Airlines ran a contest where people sent in video collages describing why travel was so important to them. The winners received 12 free round trip tickets to anywhere American Airline flies. The problem is that the IRS requires that taxes be paid on the prize at the time of receipt and that the tickets be valued at their highest possible value.

Jack McCall, a New York resident who won American's grand prize in the video category by submitting a video montage of snapshots he and his wife collected during their travels around the world, estimates that federal, state and local taxes on the prize could amount to roughly $19,000, given the couple's probable federal tax bracket and because they live in New York City, where income taxes are high. That's equivalent to about $800 for each of the 24 tickets.

Jack decided to decline the tickets creating an embarrassing situation for both American Airlines and the IRS.

I think it is a sign of a sick society when people need to turn down presents because they cost too much money. I could not think of a better example of the Laffer Curve if I tried.

There has been a lot of talk about this. Once the guffawing stops I think the parent or parents responsible
should be convicted for child abuse. I am still holding out hope that the story isn't true and is merely a publicity stunt.

Great Moments in Responsible Journalism...

The father of Brennan Hawkins is surrounded by his entire family on his porch with dozens of media people around him.

DAD: We would like to field questions from the media now. Our only request is that you do not ask Brennan any questions.

Off-screen Reporter: Brennan! How are you feeling?

DAD: I just asked you not to ask Brennan any questions.

Reporter: Oh; Dad -- How's Brennan doing?

I think everyone loves the drama of a close election. The image of diligent polling employees pulling vote slips out of a box and tallying the results one by one is made even more exciting when a winner is declared by just one vote. It's a beautiful image but not a very realistic one.

With the possible exception of a heated campaign for fourth grade class president, elections just aren't that tidy. The fact is that votes get lost, miscounted, etc. The reality is that in a largish election such as in the city of Seattle or the largest election, that of the President, there is no way to state with certainty what the exact number of votes for each candidate is. Ignoring for the moment the accusations of fraud just the logistics of aggregating all those votes is bound to cause some lack of exactness.

This 'lack of exactness' or 'statistical error' to use the parlance of our time gives rise to the possibility of a statistical tie even when one candidate has a nominally larger number of votes. It is a standard issue in statistical science that is resolved quite adequately by the science. I think it is time that we started including some of theory into practice.

Every polling system should undergo an assessment of its statistical accuracy. This 'confidence interval' should be made public before the election begins. For a candidate to win they must win by a statistically significant margin -- more votes than the confidence interval. If neither candidate exceeds the margin of error for the polling system used then there is a tie. What to do with a tie is another question but that does not take away the fact that there is a tie.

Here is an article from the WSJ that should be getting some more attention.

With the Memorial Day weekend behind us I had a few moments to think about the purpose of the holiday. Between the beers and the amazing BBQ it is easy to forget that we are remembering fallen soldiers who have fought in past and current wars.

I would like to thank the soldiers who liberated my grandparents from German concentration camps. I have no idea who these soldiers are specifically but still feel grateful for their role in the my life and the lives of my entire family.

With the mass graves that are being uncovered in Iraq today I can't help but feel an affinity with those who survived the genocidal campaigns of Saddam Hussein. To me 'Never Again' means zero tolerance for genocide. I hope the US finds the courage to provide rescue to the Darfuruians although a Commentary article entitle "Can the Sudan be Saved" by Roger Sandall (December 2004) would have us believe that it is not quite possible.

I was hanging out in my classroom this morning a bit early when a classmate of mine asks, "Did you see the Galloway hearing in Senate last week?" I had not and told him so but let him know that I had a gist of what went on. He then asked, "Now why couldn't we have someone like that run for president instead of Kerry." I am assuming he thought I was pro-Kerry based on the nature of his question.

I told him that the Democratic party did put forward some total lunatics such as Dean but they didn't make it past the primaries. He seemed highly confused and went back to what he was doing.

Just amazing...

I was witness to an exciting development on the Subway.

For years I have seen kids troll between cars selling candy for a dollar. Often they start with a prepared speech about how they are making money for their school or for their basketball team. I naturally assumed that this was a scam. I was never sure if the kids were scamming or if the schools were scamming the kids. In either event the whole thing seemed weird.

Yesterday, a kid enters the car and starts the speech. This time there was a twist. "Hello, my name is blahbahblah and I am not selling candy for my school or for my basketball team. I am selling candy to make some extra pocket money. Since the money is for me I have decided to lower the usual price of one dollar to just fifty cents. Thank you for your attention."

I find this amazing for a few reasons. First, the kid is a genuine entrepreneur. It is great to see this level of motivation. More importantly, he made the rather obvious leap to product differentiation based on price. If this is not market economics at work I don't know what is.

The exciting things to watch for are:

• Will this practice proliferate? Will we see a mass defection of candy salesman driven by self interest?
• Will the alleged 'do-gooders' lower their price?
  

Addiction is an amazing thing. It creeps up on you in ways you would never know and then latches onto your brain.

I discovered a few weeks ago that I was a caffeine addict. In a strange way I was the last to know.

I have always eschewed coffee. In my lifetime I have had maybe ten cups of coffee with breakfast. In the workplace I have fended off the endless assault of coffee. I can say with some satisfaction that I have never had a coffee at Starbucks. To me caffeine was the enemy.

To be honest I have always had the occasional espresso. Sometimes after dinner but never more than one or two a month. Like the person who can have one cigarette and then never think about it again I would consume caffeine.

Then came business school. At first it was a Diet Coke with breakfast. Then lunch. Before I knew it I was hanging out with Italians with the hopes of one of them suggesting that we have espressos. Then I found myself suggesting an Italian panini place for lunch just to have the post lunch espresso. Of course I did not know I was doing these things I just was. All along self-assured that I 'had never had a coffee'.

The wake-up call came when my teammate was kidding me about my morning Diet Coke. I meant to object but realized he was right. Within a moment the full extent of my capitulation became obvious to me.

The good news is that caffeine appears to be an easy drug to get off of. I have spent the past two weeks drinking flavored seltzer for breakfast and avoiding Italian people. I think I will probably be safe...

I watch an inordinate number of cooking shows for somebody who barely has time to cook. Over the years I have found a few favorites. Typically I gravitate towards the personality of the host rather than the style of cooking.

First some shows I tend to dislike:

• Emeril Lagasse -- The king of cooking shows this man put the Food Network on the map. The man has his own band and its easier to get Superbowl tickets than it is to get tickets to this show. With all the fanfare I still don't like the guy. His dishes are way to complex. His alleged 15 minute preparations mask the hours of undercover sous-chef work being performed in the background. His rich food will typically kill you within days if not hours. His penchant for New Orleans specialties translates into seafood or ham hocks in just about anything he makes.
• Sarah Moulton -- Sarah is the editor of Gourmet magazine and could be one of the 'whitest' people on television. It is always Christmas/Thanksgiving in her kitchen and her recipes tend to lack any real imagination. She does tend to have some great guests.
• Tyler Florence (Food 911)-- Here is a guy who I am on the fence about. He tends to make great recipes that are manageable in a home kitchen. His 'cooking doctor' motif appeals to my desire to improve my style. The real issue is that he is just kinda annoying.

Now for the people I like

• Alton Brown (Good Eats)-- When I first watched this show I could not believe what a wierdo this guy was. In time though I learned to appreciate his passion for food and his style. The theme of his show is taking the lessons from 'The Science of Cooking' and translating them into recipes. If you like his stuff I would certainly suggest 'Cookwise'. You may not make his stuff but you will be a better overall cook after watching his show.
• Rachel Ray (30 Minutes Meals) -- She is a very unlikely candidate for a cooking show in general and a cooking show that I would like in specific. She guffaws at her own jokes, gives cutesy hints, and creates fairly simple meals. Yet there is something inspirational about someone who can create a reasonable meal in 30 minutes of clock time. Any one of her recipes can be improved upon if you have more time but who does?
• Jamie Oliver (Oliver's Twist) -- It is hard to imagine a show more geared towards my state of mind. Jamie has all the charm of the coolest Londoner you have ever met. His dry wit and no-nonsense style belie the truly impressive dishes he creates. Just about anything I cook can draw some influence from his suggestions. The editing and content of this show speaks volumes about some real cultural differences between Londoners and New Yorker.
  

For the past two years I have been puzzled by just how annoying Paul Krugman is. I know he is a world famous Economist and all but everytime I read a peice of his I just cringe.

The writers over at Marginal Revoltion, one of my favorite blogs, recommended that anyone who is interested in Economics cannot miss Krugman's Accidental Theorist and Other Dispatches from the Dismal Science. I decided to try it. In truth, most of the articles in the book were elucidating. The real problem is not the content but the style. The guy is just downright rude.

After reading Steven Levitt's Freakonomics I am now convinced that you can be both a brilliant down to earth economist and a nice guy.

After reading this its hard to believe the percentage of humans beings on this planet who go to sleep hungry every night.

Of all the evil that Microsoft has unleashed on this earth the one particular misdeed that affects me most intimately is their new menuing feature. It seems like a small thing but man does it bug the hell out of me.

You click on a menu and it only shows a few options, different ones each time, and then forces you to click on an arrow to see the rest. I mean -- what on earth is the value in that. I can possibly understand hiding 'Scenario Analysis' or some such nonsense but to hide 'Print', 'Save', or 'New Document'??

The great thing about a windowing system is that once you learn the interface it is supposed to be easy to use. Now every time I need to do something unusual such as print I have to go searching for it.

If anyone knows how to shut off this feature I will be very, VERY, thankful.

Update: It's a miracle!! Tools->Customize->Options->'Always Show All Menus'

I am not sure whether I am impressed or horrified. A little of both I guess.

(Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution)

I was reading the March 21st edition of the Columbia Spectator and came across the article, "Protesters March On War's Second Anniversary". The article is rather tame but two snippets seemed to jump out at me as just a little ludicrous.

The first was a sign stating "Saddam didn't raise my tuition". I am guessing that a reader of this slogan is to infer that someone who did raise the placard holder's tuition was in fact worse than Saddam. I admire the honesty of this self-centered protester but wonder if (s)he know what Saddam did do.

It turns out that the organizer of this anti-war protest was none other than Nellie Bailey. Nellie's full time job is being the president of the Harlem Tenants' Council. Nellie had this to say

Saturday's protest had far reaching implications, not only for the anti-war movement, but for the black community of New York and beyond. "Today we have raised the bar and debunked the myth that blacks have no visibility in the leadership of the anti-war movement".

Well I for one am glad that we debunked that myth. It had gone on for far to long. What does the Harlem Tenants' Council do exactly?

If you have not used Google Maps yet then you really should. As usual the good folks at Google just do everything better.

Try this:

1. Enter an address such as '101 west 78th street, ny, ny'. Click on Search.
2. Click on Local Search
3. Enter something of interest such as 'Pizza' or 'Kosher'. Click on Search.
4. Marvel at the wonder of Google's genius

I took my Managerial Economics Mid-Term exam yesterday. As usual my genius professor created a new bondoogle. There was the regular test and then there was a 20 point bonus question. It seem to me that if we are all marked on a curve (only the top 12 students get the top grade, the next 36 students get the middle grade, and the bottom 12 students get the lowest grade) then a bonus question is really just a question. All animals are creates equal; some are just more equal than others. For an economist she sure seems to engage in some silly behavior.

But anyway....

I had the chance to think about some fundamental economic principles and how they relate to Judaism. The two things that struck me are the Jewish prohibition on charging interest on loans and the of opening competing businesses (Hasagat Gvul). I will take them one at a time.

It seems to me that if economics are to be believed then every resource carries an opportunity cost. If I can get 10% for my money in some investment I will demand an equal return for an alternate investment with similar risk. If I can get any percentage return on savings then there is a loss of economic value if I invest interest free. As such I may, because of my feelings of deep love for my fellow man, decide to lend someone money interest free but in doing so I am damaging the world in which I live. I have cheated the world of the economic potential of my capital. I have literally destroyed value. Like an Oxford graduate sitting at home watching reality television my money would be literally wasting away. I honestly cannot understand how any mature society is expected to live with this prohibition.

Microeconomics defines two possible states of the world. In the Short-Run the price of a commodity is defined by the push and pull of supply and demand between consumers and producer firms that are already in the business of producing that specific commodity. The defining principle of the Short-Run is that new firms cannot enter. In this state of the world prices will settle somewhere at the maximum possible output of the total universe of supplier firms. If this level of production is below demand then prices will rise.

In the Long-Run however new firms can enter. And they will enter until the price hits the cost of production. This is known as the point of indifference. Producer firms are indifferent to producing the final unit since they will break even. While there is still any profit to be made more firms will enter. Firms that are less productive (meaning that they produce at a cost higher than the new entrants) will cease to produce and have their production taken over by more productive firms. In the end consumers get the best possible price and the best producers serve them products.

This natural progression from the short to long term cannot happen with a prohibition against competing businesses. Many will argue that it is not fair to take away someone's livelihood. But is it fair for a consumer to overpay for inferior goods. How many people have lived in a small Jewish neighborhood and been held hostage to a terrible pizza restaurant run by a rude manager whose only reason for staying in business was the threat of a Hasagat Gvul charge? I think it is clear that anti-competitive prohibition is a damaging one.

Over the course of the past few weeks I have managed to discover an interesting difference between my American and European classmates.

Our statistics class is taught by Professor David Juran. Juran, as his students know him, tends to be quite likeable. He hands out 'Juran's Own Microbrew' beer to students who say clever things. He spent ten minutes one day teaching us all the Columbia fighting song. Most importantly though he approaches his role in our life as getting us to know enough Statistics to 'pass the test'. He realizes few of us intend to become statisticians and develops the material with that understanding.

The American students love this black box approach to the black art of stats. The Europeans hate it. They all complain about how Juran never tells you why a formula works. They complain about being asked to follow a process that they have not been convinced works. Shockingly, the Europeans all complain that Juran is a terrible teacher. "Sure, he reads well out of a book but he never explains anything".

I do not understand this attitude at all. I don't need to understand how a car engine works to hail a taxi. In fact I would rather not know. I like a professor who is not so in love with his own material that he forgets there is a reason that we are learning it.

Eight weeks ago I did not know what a standard deviation was. Today I can create my own regression models and understand the implications of the results. I am truly impressed. The Europeans would rather fixate on details.

Last week I had a chance to perform some public service in the form of mock interviews for a non-profit called I-Prep. In one hour I interviewed two people who were trying to get normal jobs and get off of welfare. It is amazing to me how a simple thing like this can really change a person's life.

My first interview candidate was a woman desperately in need of coaching. I perused her resume and noticed that her major in college was 'mortuary sciences'. In the role of interviewer I said, "Now that was an interesting choice of major. What attracted you to it?". She said she had no idea and frankly it was really creepy. At this point I needed to break from character and tell her that this was a real problem. She agreed to change her major to 'Life Sciences' or something to that effect.

I asked my second candidate, "What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?" He spent 5 minutes (no exaggeration) telling me the ins and outs of speed reading. Everything you could possibly want to know on the topic was revealed to me during the course of this rambling discourse. I finally stopped him. "Why are you telling me all this?" He seemed puzzled by the question.

In the end both candidates needed the same advice. Get an elevator pitch! I worked with both of them to come up with a 2 paragraph 30 second description of themselves. I taught them how to answer any question in 1-2 minutes by referring to the major points in their elevator pitch. I taught them that the answer to "what is your greatest weakness" is not as both of them originally replied "I have no weaknesses".

Its a shame that both of these I-Prep clients graduated high school and college without these skills. Come to think of it, so did I. I was lucky to be surrounded by professionals throughout my life. They were not.

Please answer this case on a single, typed, sheet of paper. Put your name on a separate, attached, piece of paper. It will be discarded after your name is recorded, and before the answer is read. In short, no grade will be given for this assignment.

These were the directions at the top of my first 'Managerial Economics' assignment. You can imagine my astonishment when I received the assignment back this week with both the cover sheet attached and a grade!

When I asked my Professor to explain how this could be she claimed I must have misunderstood her. "Why would I give an assignment that I have no plans to grade"? Good question indeed.

When I asked my classmates what they thought about it I got some interesting responses.

One classmate whose nationality rhymes with 'wrench' told me "I received a good mark with the comment of 'fantastic'. Why would I want my fantastic work to go unnoticed"? I could not seem to convince him that the dishonesty of the whole thing trumps his positive outcome.

Another classmate told me, "Yeah. It was deceitful but clever. How else would she see what we are really like"? I think there is still an opening for president of the Machiavelli club.

After polling nearly fifteen students I could not find a single one who felt outraged by the matter. Am I too much of a purist? Naive? The only person in this whole school who thinks that people shouldn't blatantly lie to you in print and then tell you it was your mistake?

It has been a long time but here goes...

Today is my birthday.

I read a small passage in some Vonnegut book many years ago which had a lasting effect on me. Vonnegut writes about the sad plight of those of us with mediocre talents living in the mass media world of the twentieth century. In the 1800s if you were an above average storyteller, jokester, tapdancer, singer, or anything at all you were well known in your town. Perhaps the whole community got together for a yearly polkathon and declared a winner. Perhaps you won this prestigious honor every year for twenty years straight. People from neighboring villages would say, "Wow that Gary he can really Polka". As undisputed Polka king you had fame and all of the advantages it brought. Then came radio, movies and television and the playing field got much larger. You were no longer competing against your six-fingered neighbor with a drinking problem. You were competing against an entire country or perhaps planet with room for just one polka champ. Other would be town heroes were forced to hang up their leiterhosen and and recognize the greatness of one individual. Legions of people with mediocre talent forced into retirement.

The world has become a tiny place with original thoughts few and far between. No matter what your area of specialty there is at minimum a blog and more probably a trade magazine on the topic. It is increasingly hard to make a difference. This leads to the existential crises of "Why other"? To this depressing question I often think of the works of Victor Frankl. Frankl wrote in his book "Man's search for Ultimate Meaning" that man has a responsibility to live a life in search of uniqueness. By living uniquely you leave an indelible fingerprint on the planet. Frankl suggests the best way to achieve uniqueness is through personal relationships. If you have a personal effect on another person's life then you have achieved a unique position in that person's life and by entangler have become unique yourself.

Nothing makes me feel more mediocre than being at Columbia. Every person I meet is at least as smart as I am an in more cases than not is substantially more so. To break the malaise of my mediocrity I decided to embrace the words of Frankl and have a unique effect on some other person. Today I befriended a complete stranger with the sole intention of having lunch. We talked about not a whole lot in particular but managed to become friendly. I have succeeded in being unique today and at least one existentialist would be proud.

I just finished my first real class. 180 people working on a case study. In just 2 hours I have become convinced that my four years in college was a monumental waste of time. The difference in caliber of student, educator, material and facilities is not to be believed.

I thought Orientation week was going to be a snap. A few dull lectures on no means no, maybe also means no and yes only means yes with the following forms signed in triplicate, notarized and bearing the bursar's seal. Perhaps even a goofy treasure hunt to build teamwork. Man was I wrong. 8AM until 10PM every day from Tuesday until Friday. My actual school schedule is easier.

More later. I am off to a teambuilding breakfast!

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the insightful book "The Tipping Point", wrote an informative article about the life of Stanley H. Kaplan. The article, "Examined Life -- What Stanley H. Kaplan taught us about the SAT", contains this offensive quote penned in 1918 by Herbert Hawkes, then Dean of Columbia University

"We have not eliminated boys because they were Jews and do not propose to do so, ... We have honestly attempted to eliminate the lowest grade of applicant and it turns out that a good many of the low grade men are New York City Jews. It is a fact that boys of foreign parentage who have no background in many cases attempt to educate themselves beyond their intelligence. Their accomplishment is over 100% of their ability on account of their tremendous energy and ambition. I do not believe however that a College would do well to admit too many men of low mentality who have ambition but not brains."

I am commencing an MBA degree at Coulmbia University in just 11 hours so I am forced to think -- Do I have any talent or am I just a "grunt" with ambitions greater than my own abilities?

When I attempted my first GMAT exam I scored at roughly the forty fifth percentile. I attempted a second GMAT and moved into "above-average" hemisphere with a fifty two percentile result. I then enrolled into the Kaplan GMAT course. I studied for 10 hours a day, six days a week, for six weeks. In the end I scored a ninety fourth percentile. My take away from the experience -- the GMAT is 100% coachable and represents nothing about the person that you are or more importantly the person that you can be.

History will reveal if I gamed the system to get into Columbia or if I was really Columbia material all along. Right now I cannot discern the difference.

I have added a link to the blog Angry at Politics which is authored by a rather erudite and currently couchbound friend of mine. In his most recent post he discusses why John Kerry lost his bid for the US presidency. Commentary Magazine has some ideas on the topic as well.

In light of the recent tsunami I have been considering the nature of tragedy. I have been considering the question, "Which is worse -- The loss of innocent life to a natural disaster or to terrorism"?

Clearly, the magnitude of death and human displacement resulting from the December 26th tsunami puts it into its own league of tragedy. My question is really a philosophical one. Removing the calculation of magnitude which type of tragedy should be considered greater.

To further consider this issue I talked to some friends about the nature of innocence. The extent to which the victims of either of these classes of tragedy could be considered less than purely innocent could be a deterministic heuristic in this analysis.

Cultural relativist would have us believe that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." To the US Army the Iraqi Batthist insurgents are terrorists. To Michael Moore they are the Minutemen of Iraq. In this sense the victims of any terrorist attack could be considered less than 100% innocent. It would follow then that the casualties of a natural disaster are more tragic than those of a terrorist attack.

To counter this I would posit that the victims of the natural disaster are not 100% innocent as well. If the planet were completely uninhabited then last week's tsunami would have still occurred. Man, in setting up shop in the path of a pre-destined disaster without any systems in place for warning or any plans for when the disaster arrived, made a losing wager with nature.

I am back where I started.

Whenever multiple societies seek ownership over scarce resources there is bound to be conflict. Within the scheme of this conflict, rules, or more accurately conventions, are likely to emerge. When one of the actors within the conflict is at an overwhelming disadvantage to the other actors there is a logical point at which they will no longer follow the rules. This is the point at which the tactic of terrorism will emerge. There is no society that can bare the social and economic costs of a zero tolerance policy to terrorism. As a result I believe that terrorism is inevitable and its tragic effects cannot be mitigated.

Natural disasters are inevitable as well but their effects most certainly can be mitigated. The costs of setting up early warning systems and proper evacuation plans are well within the reach of the societies at risk to natural disasters.

In the end I feel the tremendous loss of life last week is a tragedy of callousness. The societies most effected did not do enough to protect their most vulnerable citizens. Possible defenses existed but were not taken advantage of. The victims of terrorism are truly defenseless. There will always be people seeking to gain advantage by means of terrorism, no society can realistically protect themselves from it and the deaths resulting from it will be all the more tragic as a result.

I stopped being a regular reader of the New York Times several years ago. Their slanted coverage on the Israeli/Palestinian situation led me to doubt the veracity of their reporting on subject areas I did not follow closely. I found myself reading the NYT cover to cover today when it was shoved under my door at the posh Pennisula Hotel in downtown Chicago. Needless to say not a whole lot has changed.

Their perennial full page article about Israel tells us that "Palestinians Worry About the Cost of Peace". The article proceeds to lay out the story of a family in the Palestinian village of Jayyous and the hardships they face as a result of the wall/security barrier that separates them from their land. Paragraph five of the article tells us about this hardship

"A relative of the mayor, Tawfiq Salim, 57, owns prime land with his brother, Jamil, that is the center of a dispute roiling the village and beyond. On Dec. 10, bulldozers acting for an Israeli company uprooted nearly 650 of their olive trees, some of them 600 years old, he said. The men at the controls said the land, which lies on the Israeli side of the barrier, belonged to the company."

"I depended on my olives for everything," Mr. Salim said. "I have not one inch of land inside the village." He has five sons and two daughters. "How can my sons think of peace when they've paid such a heavy price?"

Then in Paragraph 12 we learn

The head of civil administration talked to both sides and found that a Jayyous resident sold the land to the Israeli company in a deal approved in June 2003. The company had a permit to uproot the trees.

You would think that this article could be entitled "Swindling Liar Wastes Reporter's Time". Maybe tomorrow. In fairness there is this

The Salims, who dispute the accuracy of the Israeli maps, are examining legal options, including a lawsuit. Israeli, Palestinian and foreign peace advocates are planning demonstrations, including a replanting of olive trees on the disputed land.

Where would the world be without foreign 'advocates' trespassing on 'disputed' lands and planting olive trees?

Finally we learn that

Perhaps more important, he says, because of the permit system and the timing of the fence openings, he cannot hire enough regular workers to help him tend his land or bring in any water trucks, because they take longer than an hour to fill.

His son, Muhammad, 25, was arrested and spent 10 months in prison, Mr. Omar said, and so cannot get a permit to cross the barrier from Jayyous to the family's farmland. He has two other sons and four daughters, but he says they cannot get permits either, because "they are the brothers of Muhammad."

No mention why Muhammed was arrested and spent 10 months in prison. He just was arrested. Perhaps jaywalking, tax evasion or aiding a suicide bomber. We will never know. My guess is that it wasn't shoplifting or our fearless reporter would have mentioned it.

How any of this is related to "Palestinians fearing the cost of peace" is beyond me.

The next article that caught my eye was a headline which in the print version had the title "Ohio Recount gives Bush Smaller Margin" (Note: Quoting from memory) but on the NYT website is "Ohio Recount Ends, Shows Vote Closer". The article proceeds to tell us that 8 weeks and 1.5 million dollars later it turns out that Bush was credited with 300 more votes that he deserved. In the end Bush garnered 118,457 votes more than Kerry. The difference between the original number of votes Bush defeated Kerry by and the new number amounts to just two tenths of one percent (0.2%).

Although it is true that the recount did show Bush had a smaller margin it would seem to me that the fairer and more accurate headline would be "County wastes 1.5 million dollars to find out what they already knew" or perhaps the less stinging "Ohio recount confirms Bush Election".

The day was not a complete waste. This moving article is well worth a read and tells you what a paper is capable of when they report the news rather try to invent it.

On a lighter note Martin Gilbert makes the case for Bush and Blair as unappreciated heroes. Nothing short of the journalistic equivalent of Megan's Law could have made The Guardian publish this editorial.

Haaretz reports that residents of Gaza have decided to "...end orange Star of David protest against pullout". They "apologized to Holocaust survivors who were offended by the campaign" but "stopped short of calling on the public to stop wearing the symbol". The actions of those behind this campaign are so repulsive it defies words.

Over the past few years I have noticed a distillation of the Holocaust narrative into bite-size iconography. These single serving chunks of horror have then been further abstracted to the point where the crux of the event, the willful genocidal murder of over 10 million innocent non-combatant citizens, has been made irrelevant. Thus the animal right fundamentalists over at PETA run an ad campaign drawing the world's attention to the rather obvious similarities between animal slaughterhouses and Auschwitz. Left wing Democrats amass this incredible compilation of Bush = Hitler references. The very word 'Nazi', once a synonym for abject evil, has been relegated to the role of adjective defined as 'mean' such as the case of the now famous Soup Nazi.

With the exception of Noam Chomsky, who makes the rather incredible claim that the United States is in fact Nazi Germany, I can't imagine that anyone really believes that Bush is Hitler or that someone with rigid rules of soup distribution is in fact a Nazi. This hyperbole, however insensitive to the suffering of an entire nation, is to be expected from people who were not a direct party to it. For the Israeli citizens of Gaza it is inexcusable.

Last Chanukah I received the curious gift of a first printing of Martin Gilbert's historical work "Holocaust". This book, written more in the format of an shopping list than a narrative, dispassionately recounts what really happens when six million Jews are killed over the course of a few years. It is nothing like not getting soup because you did not have exact change and it is most certainly nothing like being offered full recompense for withdrawing from territory based on a democratic process. I strongly suggest that the Yesha representatives give this book a good read the next time they feel like willingly debasing our nations suffering to score a cheap political point.

Very little can surprise me from a country where even the unemployed threaten to go on strike to get a Christmas bonus (the so-called 13th month). The sense of entitlement evident in this altercation certainly leaves one wondering what other wonders the socialist miracle we call France has in store for us.

Pauvre Santa!

Update: On a more serious note run this Liste des actes antisémites recensés en France depuis janvier 2004 (List of recent Anti-Semitic acts since January of 2004) through your favorite translator (Google has a good one). It is not encouraging.

An article in today's Personal Journal section of the WSJ (subscription required) seriously upset me. It seems that

"Carnival Corp.'s Holland America Line, which had a longstanding "tipping not required" policy, this spring shifted to an automatic gratuity program that charges guests $10 per day, per person, to cover gratuities. Holland's previous policy made it more like luxury cruise lines, which have either kept tipping optional for passengers or included gratuities in the fare. The new Holland America policy means a couple on a 10-day cruise could see a charge of $200 for gratuities on their cruise bill, though they can request to adjust the amount afterward."

I find this policy completely unacceptable. Tipping is the means by which a customer rewards a service industry employee for exceptional service. In fact 'tips' is an acronym for "To Insure Prompt Service." A mandatory tip is no more than just a price increase. Customers wanting preferential service will continue to tip cruise line employees while customers who decide not to tip will inevitably be overlooked.

I was having lunch today with a friend who told me that he has eight doormen who are expecting Christmas gratuities. This got me to thinking about the pervasiveness of tipping in US society and how completely out of control it has all become.

When I go to a restaurant I am expected to tip my waiter between fifteen and twenty percent of the total bill. Good manners requires this level of gratuity since if I don't tip them then they make next to nothing. Restaurant owners are actually exempt from minimum wage laws for waiters. How did it come to pass that a businessman sells me their wares at a massive markup and I need to pay the order taker? Why is the gratuity a percentage of the bill? Does a waitress at a diner work less to write down the words "Hamburger with fries" as a waitress at a steakhouse? I actually had a sushi delivery guy complain to me that I only tipped him three dollars when the bill was sixty. He actually expected a percentage of the bill.

Recently I stayed at a ski resort in Utah. When my friend and I were packed and ready to go I considered the tradition of leaving a tip for housekeeping. I decided against. It seemed like insanity to me.

I can't seem to wean myself from tipping taxi drivers even though it is the perfect example of senseless tipping. If the driver was particularly courteous, helped with a large package or was delayed unfairly because of a slow passenger I can understand augmenting the cost of the fare. For taking me from point A to point B while chatting on a cell phone I can't see why I should pay anything more than the indicated fare. Do I reasonably expect to have this particular driver again and do I hope by tipping him well that he will be courteous to me during that upcoming journey.

There are countless examples of tip creep. Tip jars at coffee places. My mail carrier. I recently found out that the person who cuts my hair does not share my tip with the person who washes my hair. It turns out to be a separate line item!

It all comes down to a few basic rules.

• I will actively tip people who have provided exceptional service where merely adequate service is all I could have reasonably expected.
• I will acquiesce to tip in cases where the policy to do so has been socially implemented and I plan on returning to that situation in the future.
• I will agree to have a tip extorted from me in cases where I reasonably fear that by not tipping my future will be adversely affected. I don't mean in the kharmic sense. I mean intentionally lost mail, misplaced packages, or no heat in the middle of the Winter.

None of these rules apply to the case of the cruise and as such I would not pay the extra charge.

Update: Dash Riprock points out the acronym 'tips' actually spells out to 'To Insure Performance'. I did a bit of research and the general consensus is we are both wrong. I will posit that with the staggering number of pages available to debunk this misnomer if 'tips' was not originally shorthand for 'To Insure Prompt Service' it is now by virture of popular use.

To many people The Gift of the Magi is one of the most romantic stories ever told. To me the story is a sad tale of a dysfunctional couple too proud to communicate their financial difficulties. Odds are strong they will never make it.

This rather incredible story convinces me that there are people in this world who have been sold down the river by such romantic fables.

This from the Washington Post article, "Arabs Reject U.S. Push for Reform "

Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, said in an interview that he resisted
the notion that "reform" was necessary in the Arab world. "I prefer the word
'modernity,' " he said, on grounds that reform means something is wrong and need
to be fixed.

I can't think of anything wrong in the Arab World. Can you?

I am reading a fascinating book called, "The Incredible Bread Machine." Published in 1974 by six young fiscal libertarians the book outlines the case for free markets and shows the catastrophic effects of government economic intervention. A bit Ayn Randian in flavor it makes for great reading even if you don't know much about the field of Economics.

One paragraph in the book really resonated with me. In discussing the nature of inflation the author states,

"... during a period of inflation, wages usually rise to meet the higher
cost of living. A salary raise does not mean that you are making more
money, because you are forced to spend more as well. In essence you are
exactly where you were before the raise, except in one important area: you are now in a higher income tax bracket. In other words, the only beneficiary of your increased salary is the government -- they are receiving more taxes from you."

This analysis of one major side effect of inflation could not have been more prescient. There are many Americans who have suddenly fallen prey to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) but are not expecting Robin Leach knocking at their door anytime soon. By virtue of the AMT not being indexed to inflation it is estimated that one third of US households will now be paying a tax that was intended by its 1971 framers to be targeted at the top 100 taxpayers.

I am not suggesting that we move away from policies of inflation. Anyone watching the havoc that deflation is having on the Japanese economy can tell you that inflation when used correctly is a great economic tool. But with "All boats lifting in rising tides" I fear a trap is set for us as we ascend to the heavens.

With the last day of Chanukah upon us I would like to spend a few paragraphs writing about the special prayer of Al Hanisim that Jews recite repeatedly over the course of the holiday.

The section that I am most interested in is the description of the miracle that occurred

"in your abundant mercy rose up for them in the time of their trouble ... delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous..."

I can easily ascertain the miracle in the weak overpowering the strong or the few defeating the many. The problem I have is the miracle of the pure defeating the impure or the righteous experiencing victory over the wicked. It would seem rather cynical to exclaim as a miracle that the righteous beat out the wicked, the pure beat the impure.

To this seeming paradox I bring the context of the world that I currently live in. In the current existential struggle that Israel finds itself in the 'mediators' of a just solution are called The Quartet. It is called the Quartet because of the four parties, the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Russians, and the United States (US), that it is comprised of.

• The EU has a scandalous record of moral perversion. This BBC article discussing Babies found in Iraqi mass grave has the incredible revelation "... that work to uncover graves around Iraq, where about 300,000 people are thought to have been killed during Saddam Hussein's regime, was slow as experienced European investigators were not taking part.
  The Europeans, he said, were staying away as the evidence might be used eventually to put Saddam Hussein to death. "
• Where do I start with the UN. Perhaps their stellar performance in the Congo, Bosnia, or Rwanda. I of course would want to withhold any judgment on their performance in Iraq until the results of the numerous fraud investigations have a chance to emerge.
• Russia. When they are not busy bungling attempts to fix elections, poisoning the opposition, or murdering their own Muslims by the tens of thousands they manage to find the time to offer Israel advice.

With these people as friends who needs enemies.

It is in light of this reality that I feel the Al Hanisim is not commemorating the miracle of Chanukah as the miracle of the pure vanquishing the impure. Rather, we rejoice in the miracle that for one brief moment in Jewish history there existed the moral clarity to actually tell the difference between the two.

Update: Apropo to lists relating weaklings to bullies this great list comes from the Wall Street Journal's opinion page article, "The Real (French) Thing" (Subscription Required). This quote describes the reason that France's Pompidou center should have exclusive rights to build a modern art museum in Hong Kong and not be forced to be a party to joint venture with the US based Guggenheim:

But [French] Curator Alain Sayag offered an explanation of sorts when he said, "The
Pompidou and Guggenheim are on different levels. We're world class, they're
second class. We're national, they're small and private. We're Europe, they're
U.S."

Hah!

Update: This hilarious coincidence is on a site called of all things http://answering-islam.org.uk

Many years ago I dated a woman who, at the time, was completing her dissertation for a PhD in Psychology. Among the positive benefits of that relationship is my current familiarity with quite a bit of the psycho-babble that I assume comprises my ex-girlfriend's day-to-day life.

A great example is the concept of Projection. This notion is one of the most powerful in the psychologist's toolkit. The Jewish equivalent of calling anyone who is critical of you an anti-Semite, projection allows a psychologist to infer that any accusation you make is really a base unfulfilled desire of your own. "I'm rubber your glue" in layspeak.

In spite of my personal bitterness on the this topic projection is a valid principle. A great example of this behavior can be seen in this laughable expose by CBS News on the topic of bloggers. CBS reveals its own basest fears and desires in the form of an attack on the group they fear most. If one considers Dan Rather's Memogate report on Bush's army service was predicated on patently fabricated documents it is not hard to guess what motivates CBS in issuing this piece. Some money quotes:

"Hypothetically, if The Washington Post discovered that The New York Times had a reporter being paid by the Bush campaign it would report it. If proven, the suspect reporter would be fired and likely never work in mainstream journalism again. Hence, the courts have been satisfied with the industry’s ability to regulate itself. "

"People are pretty smart in assuming that if a blog is making a case on one side that it’s partisan. The problem is when a blog pretends to hold neutrality but is actually partisan."

It is the cry of the tell tale heart and CBS can't stop hearing the screams...

I believe that Economics can explain anything. I believe that these Economists can explain anything to me. I loved this one about a minor passion of mine -- Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Last night at the Yeshiva University Chanukah Dinner my brother-in-law directed me to this eye-opening article in the New England Journal of Medicine. I think the article speaks volumes about the value the United States Armed Forces places on each and every life of their service people. It is extraordinary that any society will go to such logistical lengths to save the lives of their combat wounded soldiers.

A few years ago my wife and I spent a portion of our honeymoon in Vietnam. During that trip we spent three days on Cat Ba Island. After a day on the beach we decided to take a tour of a hospital used during their American War (US readers may be more familiar with this conflict as the Vietnam War). Accesible by a secret entrance and completely inside a small mountain the hospital was hidden from the outside world. No amount of air reconnaisance could have uncovered this hospital. Inside were 20-30 small rooms as well as 2-3 operating theatres. Although there was no direct sunlight a generator provided electric light. A series of vents and fans provided fresh air. After exiting the hospital my first remards were, "Wow! no wonder we lost this war." It struck me that a society that could create such immense infrastructure was ready to win the fight they were engaged in.

When I compare the attitudes of societies that value the lives of their combat troops with the dead-ender societies that preach combat through suicide attacks I can't help but feel that the former have moral superiority. During the cold-war the US and the Soviet Union were bitter rivals. Even within the rancour there was always the underlying trust in the rational pursuit of self-preservation. Each strategic move was predicated on the belief that neither side desired to be obliterated and as a result neither side initiated obliteration. I fear that we do not have the same sort of rational players as adversaries in the current war on terror.

Roughly six years ago I went to India to help my friends U and L adopt a baby girl. After the adoption was complete the three of us, now four, parted ways. U, L, and M headed to Vijaiwada in Andhra Pradesh to meet up with U's long lost family on a rural farm. I headed to Kovalam Beach in Kerala to relax and take a course in Aryuvedic massage.

It was on this beach that I met Steve and Sandy. Steve is from New Zealand and Sandy is Dutch. We became instant friends with me using Steve as my massage lesson victim and Steve vainly attempting to teach me how to surf. The three of us continued our travels together heading north though Kerala as far as Cochi.

A few months later Steve and Sandy made their way through New York and I hosted them at my home for a week or so. Steve's sister Jane lives with her husband Jack in a great ski house in Killington Vermont. I went with Steve and Sandy to Vermont and was once again the gracious recipient of Steve's lessons. After a week or so I was a reasonable skier.

Jack has the rather interesting profession of building ski lifts. This job takes him all over the country and the world leaving Jane to fend for herself alone with her two kids. To ease the burden each year Jane invites someone from New Zealand to visit her for three months. In return for some babysitting and general help the guest gets to hang out in the United States for a while.

It is this arrangements that has created my New Zealander of the year club. No self respecting Kiwi would fly half way around the globe to Killington without being at least slightly curious about New York City. At some point during the three months Jane will call me and see if I can host her nanny/helper.

And so it goes that our Kiwi of the year arrived this past Tuesday in time for us to light the Chanukah candles. She asked what it was all about and we explained about the Jews beating up on the Greeks a zillion years ago and the miraculous oil. Of the entire story she seemed most impressed by the Jewish attention span. It was in this context that I started to think about the Jewish obsession with history. To put it in the words of my Italian friend Marco after I explained to him why I was fasting on Tisha B'av, "Man, you guys really know how to hold a grudge."

But then I read an article about this recent poll of Germans. It would seem that 51% of them think that there is no difference between what the Nazis did to Jews and other minority groups and the situation between the Israeli Defence Forces and the Palestinian people. I have to believe that these people are truly ignorant of their own history to make this comparison. I will no go into details but I think it is safe to say that there is a wide gap between the actions of two peoples fighting for ownership of the same small tuft of land and the workings of a nationalist party convinced that they are a super race killing entire populations in an organized fashion based upon racial differences.

I was more shocked when I read about the complete lack of knowledge exhibited by the English. Here are people that are simply unschooled in one of the seminal talking points of the twentienth century. It is truly hard to understand.

Against this backdrop of historical malaise and malicous revisionism I am thankful that the Jewish people place so much importance in studying and remembering our own history. Without this diligence we would most certainly be in far more trouble than we ordinarily are.

Update: Conservative journalist and blogger Melanie Phillips has something to say on this topic.

A few years ago I had the incredible idea that I would create a cellphone breathalizer. This handy widget would attach to your cell phone and automagically remove key names from your cellphone's phonebook based upon your degree of inebriation. I originally envisioned three levels.

1. Lightly drunk -- Cuts you off from phoning family members
2. Moderately Drunk -- Cuts you off from all long distance service. This stops you from realizing at 2AM that it has been years since you last spoke to your college roommate and feeling the urge to correct that injustice.
3. Heavily Drunk -- Cuts you off from ex-girlfriends. If you need to ask why you have never truly been heavily drunk.
   

Of course I never really expected this idea to come to fruition but it made for great conversation and in a pinch it was great intro verbiage to a post drunken phonecall apology.

It would seem that those clever Australians have stolen my idea . It is pragmatic stuff like this that makes me really love the Australians. This is the same nation that woke up to the reality that nearly all of their citizens spend most of their day in water and as a result came up with plastic currency. All this and an overwhelming voter turnout for John Howard. Vivre le Australian!!

I have always contended that the defining difference between man and beast is the skill of denial. There are no lions skipping across the planes of the Serengeti thinking to themselves "I'm not fat I'm just big boned". Human beings are uniquely qualified at drinking their own Kool-Aid and it would seem that I am no different in this respect.

For years I told myself and anyone else who would pay attention to me that I loved being a middle of the road skier. I was a blue trail man through and through. My shpiel included how I loved the Zen of sliding down a mountain with dextrous calm. Ski fast? Break that amazing sense of oneness with the mountain that can only be achieved with the perfect slalom across fresh snow? I don't think so!

This past weekend I discovered just how full of crap I have been all along. The ski areas out west can really change your perspective on the sport. At 11,000 feet, up to my knees in fresh powder and surrounded by hard-core skiers and riders (snowboarders) I suddenly found myself craving the steepest, fastest, most dangerous path to the bottom. It turns out however that my Zen relationship with the snow was just a cover-up for being a piss-poor skier. Try as I did I could not manage to fly down the ungroomed trails in the effortless manner of my peers on the gondola.

My friend and I decided to take a lesson from the sassy Georgia Dumais. Georgia is Snowbird's star instructor and we quickly learned the power of great technique. She managed to mock us into submission with such a genuine love for the subject matter that we were taking on steeper and steeper patches without noticing. After a fall that was so pathetic that my skis flew up in mid-air and landed many feet away Georgia taught me the word 'eggbeater' to describe my performance.

Sunday was our last day out and we both showed remarkable improvement. I hope to post a few pictures when I have the chance. I look forward to trying out my new skills back home but fear that I have been spoiled by the Champagne Powder of the west.

One last anecdote: While dining one evening I mentioned to my friend how surprised I was by the absolute lack of diversity at Snowbird. And by lack of diversity I meant the complete absence of African-Americans. We spent 10 minutes trying to remember any African-Americans we had seen in the past three days and could only come up with three, one of which was the restaurant's host.

The next morning,while we were having breakfast, the National Brotherhood of Skiers checked into the hotel. At this point hundreds of African-American skiers were on the slopes and we were just amazed that there was a National Brotherhood of Skiers. We met a guy named Albert who was 61 and an avid competitive speed skier. The kicker was that he started skiing at 52 because of his grandkids. Just amazing.

Update: Here are some photos

Special thanks to Dash Riprock for his sage advice on the emotional cycles of the unexamined blog. Frankly I skipped right past Exuberance without even realizing it and I am now deeply enmeshed in Trepidation.

I am off to Snowbird for some well deserved R&R

The West is the best!
-Jim Morrison (The Doors)

Someone needs to take responsibility for this mess...

Last night while packing for my trip to Snowbird I heard a panicked call for help from the fourth bedroom. "My computer is frozen! I didn't do anything and it is just hanging." When I arrived I knew immediately that her computer had been hijacked.

If you are not familiar with this term then you are probably one of the three people on this planet that has escaped the reach of the helpful people at BuddyBar or one of their many competitors. The upstanding citizens at these companies just can't seem to rest until every PC user has a screen filled with context sensitive pop-up ads. Search Google for postage stamps and the Artificial Intelligence Engine(tm) provided to you at no cost will let you know that you can see lesbian kittens fornicate. Looking for the latest book on yoga at Amazon and as if reading your mind 10 to 12 pop-up ads appear on your screen reminding you that amateur pornography is only a click away. Your computer has been rendered useless.

It scares me to think that I share a planet with citizens who engage in this form of commercial activity. It scares the hell out of me that they are successful. There are consumers on this planet that are so easily distractable that they can have their computer hijacked, rendered useless, and will then actually buy pornography.

Leaving all that aside I am looking for a responsible party to pin this on. Three wasted hours of my life spent ridding a machine of malware seems to deserve a little research into the culpable party.

The most obvious party to hate would be the perpetrators of these attacks. The people who write these programs, distribute them through websites, and collect the cash for click-thrus. These people have broken into my home and stolen from me. They should be tried as criminals and fried.

To stop there would be to overlook the real root cause of this problem. As this USA Today article point out a PC with Microsoft Windows XP installed that is simply connected to the Internet can expect to be attacked 341 times per hour. The computer in this article was compromised just four minutes after being attached to the network. Four minutes!

To distribute an operating system this vulnerable is criminal negligence on the part of Microsoft. The security issues that gave rise to this incredible phenomenon have been known since at least Windows 2000 (released in the year 2000) if not earlier. Microsoft has made no credible effort to stop these attacks rather they leave their consumers to download or buy a confusing array of firewalls, virus protectors and spyware eliminators.

I think it is time for a class-action suit comprised of consumers fallen prey to these evil applications to stand up to the folks at Redmond. Your product is dangerous and you need to be held accountable.

Update: It would seem that there is no honor among thieves. Also a quick write-up on the actual malware that hit our computer.

Update: It would seem that Walter Mosberg, the Wall Street Journal's longtime technical columist, agrees with me. (Subscription Required)

Yesterday I had the chance to complete a kharmic circle that began this past Friday. Three occurrences in four days that fit together so neatly I felt like I was a character in an after school special.

It all began Friday morning as some friends and I were getting on the New York Subway to go to the Russian Bath House on 10th street. A friend and I had already made it down the staircase when we noticed that the third guy in our group was helping a woman with a baby carriage. I turned to my friend and said, "You know, I used to help people down with baby carriages but lately I am just afraid that something will go wrong and I will end up getting sued." We all boarded the #1 train and that seemed to be the end of it

Sunday rolled around and my wife and I went out to do a few errands. We had a shopping cart full of stuff that needed to be tended to. As we wheeled the cart past the building where the helpful friend from Friday's encounter lives we decided to stop in. It turns out that we were headed to the same store that he needed to visit so we added his stuff to our cart and we were on our way. We cruised down Broadway to get to the store but laziness got the best of us and we decided to take the subway back. Descending the stairs was easier than I thought it would be. The trip up the stairs was a different story. The cart was quite heavy and my wife and I made our way up the stairs slowly. A stranger appeared and offered to help. Within a few moments we were up the stairs. I commented to my wife that we were cashing in on the good kharma of our friend since I typically do not help people with their stuff. I truly believed that our decision to help our friend with his errand netted out to us getting credit for his good deed on Friday.

On Monday I was walking down the stairs of 116th street #1 station. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I noticed that there was a woman struggling with a massive suitcase. I couldn't resist the irony of the whole thing and carried her bag up the stairs for her. I think I thanked her more than she thanked me. In any event I think I am now +1 on the world.