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POPSSpeculators Chase the Money not Make the Money
I have a couple concerns about this story. One, even though it's a very small incident that had a negligible impact on the markets, I have a feeling politicians are going to use it as an example to introduce laws prohibiting or reducing oil trading. This despite the fact that there's even more research out there that says trading has not artificially inflated prices. It's supply and demand people - demand is greatly increasing, while supply is staying flat - of course prices are going to skyrocket. Second, it uses the correlation between the increase in oil price and the amount of money going into oil futures. Yet another basic market principle people - investors are going to chase hot items. Oil starts to go up, people anticipate it continuing to go up due to supply/demand issues, investors invest in it to hopefully make a profit. Finally, don't forget the dollar - people use oil as a hedge against inflation, which his been going up due in part to the weakening dollar.
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POPSDo Your Homework People I don't get this one either. If you're with a mortgage broker and they're offering you a rate of 7.5% on an ARM, why would you just accept it and not reach out to other banks or brokers for better offers? If you went to a car dealership looking for a car and they offered it to you for more than MSRP, would you just say "ok, I guess I have to pay it?" Or would you say "thanks for the offer, I'm going to shop around and see if I can find a better one?" If you'd just take the offer you didn't like, I'm sure there's plenty of salespeople out there who'd love to meet you.
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POPSBeating a Dead Horse I've commented on this topic many times over the past months, so why not give it one more go. There are two groups responsible for the mortgage mess - the individuals who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, and the financial institutions who sold them those mortgages. I understand we can't let the system fail, but I see no reason why my tax dollars have to go towards helping bail these two groups out. They made terrible decisions. All a bill like this does is reinforce stupid behavior, because if we fail, the government will bail us out. If you had your home re-possessed, it's because you couldn't afford it in the first place. If a financial institution is going down because of all the write-downs they've had to take on bad mortgages, it's because their leadership authorized bad decisions. Are there some exceptions to the above - sure there are. But those aren't the situations that this bill is addressing.
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POPSWhy is it Only About Race and Only About Whites? To me, this article represents just how ingrained not just racism, but bigotry is in our society. The article focuses mostly on white people, but white people aren't the only ones who are racist. True in America's history, it was white people who enslaved blacks. But today, it's not only about black and white. Yes, some Caucasian-Americans are still racist. However, we can't neglect the fact that some African-Americans are racist, some Latino-Americans are racist, some Asian-Americans are racist. What's the commonality in all of these? "American." And it's not just about race. There are many people in our society (and not just in this country) that are discriminatory against people who are different from them, whether it be religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc. Is racism a problem - yes. But we need to focus on the bigger problem, which is that people in America have become far to afraid of and discriminatory against people who are different from them.
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POPSSan Jose Leading the Way I'm very proud to see San Jose leading the way on this effort, being the first major city to implement electric car charging stations. Because not everyone has easy access to power outlets in their homes - especially people who live in apartment complexes - this type of system will help make electric cars more of a reality.
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POPSIf An Oil Man is Saying It... It has to make you think just how out of touch our government is with reality, when a "big oil" tycoon is telling Congress we need to invest more in alternative energy to ween ourselves off of foreign oil. Maybe Bush will listen to one of his own. Or maybe that's putting too much of an assumption on Bush being intelligent, which is a BIG assumption.
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POPSWhy Does The Government Keep Protecting People from Their Stupidity These credit rules are just the latest in a long line of our government feeling the need to protect consumers from their own ignorance and stupidity. I'll be the first to admit credit card rules and fees are difficult to understand. But consumers should be smart enough to know this, and not get in situations where they spent more than they can afford on their cards and end up paying these fees. Pay your bills on time and late fees aren't an issue. Don't charge more than you can afford to pay back at the end of the month and finance charges aren't an issue. There's no need for additional government legislation around this. If the gov really wants to spend our taxpayer money wisely, spend it on education programs to teach people how to be smart with their money.
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POPSWhy Am I Being Punished for Being Responsible I understand there's a crisis in the financial sector, and we can't let financial institutions go under due to poor decisions around mortgages. But when I read about legislation that will put borrowers who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, into more affordable loans with a reduced principle, it makes me mad. I was responsible when I got my mortgage. I did my homework, got into a fixed loan on a house I knew I could afford. Could I have done an ARM and gotten a bigger house - sure, but I was responsible and only got into what I could afford. Now, people who weren't responsible are having their mortgages reduced and their rates permanently lowered. Why isn't this available to me? If this is the plan, I say require people to pay back the reduction in principal and interest from any money they make when they sell their house. Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad behavior knowing the gov will save you if you make a stupid decision.
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POPSNas Keeps it Real I like what Nas had to say in this article. I think people in today's society get so caught up on words and images, they lose site of the intent and the realities behind what those words represent. For example, "nigger." People spend so much time focusing on the word. If it's said by a politician, in a movie, in a song, etc. They lose site of the real issue - that there's still racism and inequality in this country. People should focus more on the realities and the intent, than trying to find every little phrase that might be said somewhere by someone in a public setting that could potentially be interpreted by some people as potentially being somewhat derogatory.
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POPSYet Another Reason for Alternative Energy It amazes me when Bush talks about how committed he is to national security - with middle east countries being the biggest targets - but does nothing to reduce our reliance on oil. Bush continues to rely on countries he considers part of his "axis of evil" when he does nothing to further research into alternative domestic energy sources. His answer - let's try to drill for more oil here while maintaining a military presence in the middle east that's costing this country billions and ultimately trillions of dollars. No dumb ass, if you invested even a tiny portion of what you've spent on "securing" Iraq, on a domestic alternative energy policy, we wouldn't be in the economic trouble we're in today.
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POPSListen to the Governator Environmental and energy policies are two things I tend to agree on with Schwarzenegger. Drilling for more oil will do nothing to lower current or even near-term energy prices. That's because finding new oil sources is not the issue. Demand far outpacing oil supply is the issue. We need to find new energy sources - not more oil. Any extra oil to be found would get soaked up by the market immediately, doing little if nothing to oil and energy prices. Finding alternate, large-scale sources of energy is the only thing that will keep prices in check, let alone save the environment.
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POPSLowering Interest Rates Would Be A BIG Mistake Everyone knows the economy is in trouble right now, but not raising, and even lowering interest rates would be a BIG mistake. Because of inflation, people are spending more and more of their budgets on basic necessities like food, fuel, clothes, etc. While lowering interest rates might keep mortgages more accessible and affordable, if inflation keeps rising, even if mortgages are down to 5% people won't be able to afford them, because all of their money will be going to their basic necessities. We need to curb inflation so that people can still afford to live in general, before we start worrying about keeping big ticket items like houses more affordable. And as far as banks go, isn't a free-market system supposed to allow some institutions that aren't performing or are making bad decisions fail? By continuing to bail some of these banks out that were making horrible decisions, you're just reinforcing bad behavior.
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POPSAnother Reason Why Bush and the Republicans Must Go Being a "big oil" man himself, of course President Bush's answer to soaring oil prices is to drill for more oil. The reality is, while this MIGHT provide some very minor, very short-term relief, it will do nothing to address the real issue. The amount of oil on this planet can not support the world's energy needs as we continue to grow. Instead of drilling more, we need to invest in making alternative, renewable sources of energy more feasible and readily available. Only then will we be able to address the energy crisis. We've got the sun, wind, algae, and many other resources that are almost infinite, but we choose to continue focusing on oil that has a very finite supply. I'll never understand it.
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POPSRacial In-sensitivity or Over-sensitivity? This is an example of how overly-sensitive and conservative American society has become. It seems like people are always on the look-out for what could possibly be interpreted as a potential negative connotation against a particular race, color, religion, etc. Could you interpret this character's features as mocking black people - sure. But it's a cartoon character - they are often over-exaggerated to make them more engaging. The story of the cartoon means no disrespect, but because some racial leaders interpret it as offensive, it's being removed from stores. I think we go overboard more often than not in these types of situations. Is the cartoon saying black people are bad - no. Does the character exaggerate some physical characteristics black people tend to have - it looks like it. But why is that offensive?
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POPSWhy We Need a Domestic Energy Policy Instead of spending so much money and wasting so many innocent lives getting involved in military efforts in the middle east, to keep the supply of oil open, why don't we focus more of our resources on being energy independent. Hmmm - let me see, if my options for securing energy resources are: A) Using military force to get involved in battles with unstable leaders and militant religious groups in the middle east to secure access to oil. B) Invest in research and development of alternative energy sources we can control within our own borders. I can't see why anyone would choose option A. Oh wait, our president is heavily tied to big oil companies that are buying their way to influence our government policies. Spend our money and lives on energy independence, not securing the middle east!
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POPSCandidates' Approaches to Energy I'm glad to see both candidates very focused on energy policy - it's something this country has been lacking for a very long time. I have to agree with Obama on this one, with one big caveat. That he doesn't earmark the money brought in for more wasteful government spending. No public interest programs, or doing colleagues favors by funding their efforts. Use that money to reduce our deficit, fund research into alternative energy, and give the rest back to the taxpayers. I'm a democrat, but one of the things I can't stand about many democrats is government spending. Let's reduce the amount of government programs and give more of that money back to taxpayers.
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POPSSave a Little Gas Great article with some great tips. The biggest one - DRIVE SLOWER. I have to admit I started doing this and I'm absolutely amazed at how much gas I'm saving. I log one 50-60 mile trip each weekend plus about 10 miles each weekday back and forth to work. With that driving, I'd have to fill up about once a week or week and a half. What did I change? - I set my cruise control to just below 65 MPH when on the freeway. - I go much easier on the accelerator when starting out. - When coming to a stop sign, traffic light, or exit ramp, instead of hitting the gas until I get close and then immediately breaking, I just coast. - Same with pulling into my garage, parking lots, etc. I used to drive pretty aggressively, always flooring it out of a stop to get around people, and driving pretty fast. Now, with these changes, I'm filling up every 2 weeks with the same amount of driving. It's been huge!
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POPSIt's So Simple But People Won't Do It People talk a lot about wanting to save energy, lower oil/gas prices, and be more environmentally friendly, but most of it is just that - talk. People want to appear like they want to make a difference because it's become socially unacceptable to appear not to care. But when it comes to taking action, if it impacts people's current lifestyle in any way - even the smallest bit - most people won't do it. Consider driving 60-65 MPH on the freeway instead of 75-80, and going slower on the accelerator. If everyone did this, the savings would be HUGE - but of course people feel they have to get where they're going 30 seconds sooner and need to show of the power of their engines, so they won't do it.
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POPSThank God for Genetics Man, you don't know how happy this article made me. If all else fails, I NEED my chocolate supply to be sustained. I'd gladly get on this project to help make sure I never run out of chocolate!
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POPSCalifornia Leads the Way Again It's amazing how much of a leader and innovator California is when it comes to many things, but particularly government regulation and environmental issues. I'm happy to see this moving forward - I think we'll be able to set an example and act as a proof of concept for the rest of the country.
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POPSOne Area I Actually Favor McCain I'm all about Obama in the upcoming election, but one area where I think he could take some pointers from McCain is on taxes and government spending. I'm in full agreement with McCain that the answer to our current deficit isn't necessarily raising taxes, but significantly reducing wasteful government spending. I think if Obama focused more on this than what new taxes he needs to raise, it'd be much more effective. We already have a lot of our money taken away, and the Federal government has shown time and time again that they're not good at managing our money, so take it away from them. That said however, Obama still gets my vote - not even close.
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POPSGet Me a Milkshake Wow I have to say I love this approach. It's a great way to get people to see why their rules are a bit ridiculous and to see they really can and should be doing something else.
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POPSDifficult Situation, But I Agree With American Airlines I definitely feel for the mother in this situation. Having an autistic child is definitely challenging. And it's not her or the child's fault necessarily that a "fit" can occur. However, I believe AA did the right thing in this case. If a child - whether they have autism or not - can not be controlled and follow the rules on a plane, even if they have a disability that is causing it, they should not be allowed on the plane. Rules are there for a reason. It's the same when parents bring small infants on a plane and the infant literally cries and goes into a fit the entire flight. While I feel for the parents in that situation, there are several hundred other people on the plane that their child is impacting. It's selfish to tell everyone else they just need to deal with it because it's a child or the person has a disability. If an individual can't follow the rules and keep the environment comfortable for everyone on the plane, they should plan alternate transportation.
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POPSThere's Not Enough Oil I keep feeling like people aren't wanting to talk about the elephant in the room. While some industry people are saying we've reached maximum oil production, others are saying there's still more oil to be found to meet increased demand. What they aren't considering is that most of the world today is under-developed. As these developing nations grow, oil usage is going to grow exponentially like nothing we've ever seen before. Instead of figuring out how to make oil cheaper, we need to find new energy sources that can pick up the slack. I unfortunately don't think we'll ever replace oil, but if oil can become just one of many options that maybe makes up less than 10 or 20% of energy consumption, we'd be on the right track.
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POPSIsn't that Ironic? Wow, how funny that a conservative Christian leader is chastising Obama saying he's distorting and mis-interpreting the bible. Isn't that what these conservative, radical Christian leaders do everyday? They treat some passages in the bible as law directly from god, and others as not being applicable in today's world. They also translate the original language of the bible differently to represent the views they want to present in the time. Translating some words to mean one thing, even though historically they may have meant something else. Again, it's fine if you want to believe your religious views - no problem with that. But when you start trying to use the law to enforce your rules on people who don't hold your same beliefs, that's where I have issues. I think Obama made a great point with his statements. And by the way for Mr Dobson - Jesus didn't discourage slavery in the New Testament, and actually referenced it several times. Or is that one of those passages you s
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POPSWhy is he Being Charged Anyway? Granted this article doesn't give a lot of details, but it sounds like a man in Florida is being tried for offering pornographic material on a website. Why should this be a crime? If someone wants to search for a website that has porn, and view that porn in their own home, and even pay the site owner for the service, why should that be an issue? Too many people in this country have gotten caught up in "moral" and "religious" values. If you want to consider some material offensive and not consume it, no problem at all. Just don't view it. But it's absolutely ridiculous to pass laws banning availability of that material. Now child pornography is one thing, because children aren't old enough to really consent and understand what's happening. But presenting pornographic material with adult models should not be a crime.
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POPSMilitary Leading the Way? Similar to the Internet, GPS, and many other technologies we now use everyday as consumers, I'm hoping this is another one that gets its start in the military and move to consumer use relatively soon. If we could figure out an efficient way to turn trash into fuel, we produce so much trash in this country, I don't think we'd have any problem weening ourselves off of oil.
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POPSI Love Living in California California continues to lead the way in sustainable energy. This announcement by PG&E shows it is possible. PG&E and other major power providers in CA have many separate initiatives going on like this. It's based on the idea that there won't be one "green" source that will replace oil, but by incorporating many different green sources of energy into the portfolio, we can begin to ween ourselves off of oil.
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POPSHeaven Forbid Parents Should Talk with their Kids Being gay, not only does what happened here piss me off, but the reaction of some of the people does even more. The argument is that some people are uncomfortable seeing gay people kiss in a public setting because they'll have to explain it to their kids. Well dumb-asses, as parents you have to explain most things to your kids. Kids are inquisitive. If they see something they haven't seen before or don't understand something, they're going to ask. If they see a handicapped person, they'll stare and either ask the person or their parents what's wrong with that person. They want an explanation. There's nothing wrong with that. If the argument is that parents shouldn't be forced to explain something to their kids, should we not allow anything that a kid might ask about to be done in public? Why does that man have one arm? Why do we have to stop at red lights? Why is the sky blue? If this argument holds, should we basically keep kids in a little dark box so they can't s
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POPSFriggin Ridiculous Today's act just emphasizes what the Danish depiction of Muhammad was doing in the first place. This Muslim militance is completely out of control. It's great if your religious law prohibits depiction of a prophet - no problem at all. If you are a part of that religion, then don't do it. But when a religious group feels they can attack another country for breaking one of its laws, when that country is not governed by those laws, that completely crosses the line. Should we - the US - be allowed to bomb any country that depicts Bush, the American flag, etc. in a derogatory way? I don't think so. This is no different than the crusades where non-Christians were killed/persecuted for not practicing Christianity. That was one of the great atrocities of world history. If we don't stop these religious fundamentalists, it could turn out similarly.
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POPSGotta Love the Catholic Church For a religion that supposedly promotes love and acceptance, and that is struggling to attract more people in this day and age, they sure do seem to take some stupid actions. Just because a person is a woman, apparently that means they aren't allowed to become a leader in their faith. And the church wonders why it's no longer relevant in today's world.
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POPSGood for New York, Shame on the Reverand I'll never understand how Christian groups can feel that they're living the word of god when all they do is promote hatred and un-acceptance. If they don't want same sex couples to get married in their churches because their religions do not condone it - fine, I'm ok with that. But whatever happened to separation of church and state? Why do these Christian groups feel the need to impose their beliefs on others through our government? If you want a religious state - go create your own - don't try to influence and impact our secular government!
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POPSOh Hell No I can handle spiders, roaches, mosquitoes, etc., but ants are probably my only natural enemy - I can't stand them! I'd have to burn my house down if I got these.
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POPSAbsolutly Ridiculous Are there some people out there who won't vote for Obama because he's black...sure there are. Just like there are some people out there who won't vote for Clinton because she's a woman. If you want to pull the racism card, you have to counter with the sexism card as well. Both democratic candidates are at a disadvantage because of stereotypes and some form of bigotry. The argument about this being the first time white Americans have had the opportunity to vote for a black person is ridiculous as well. It's also the first opportunity for men of any color to vote for a woman. If I'm a white man and vote for Obama, does that mean I'm not racist but I'm sexist? C'mon, give me a break. People for the most part are voting for who they think will make the best candidate. Are some white people not voting for Obama because he's black...sure. Are some men not voting for Clinton because she's a woman...sure. But give people credit - there's a lot more people who are looking at the
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POPSI Hope it Happens While being a big Hillary supporter, I've been coming to the unfortunate realization that Obama is very likely to win the democratic nod over her. Obama is alright, but Hillary is by far more experienced and has greater leadership qualities that will make her a better president. Obama is more personable, but he doesn't have the experience to be president. If he and Hillary can put aside their differences, having Hillary's experience to fill the gap for Obama, combined with his eloquence, they'd be a perfect combo. I'm still not convinced it can happen - Hillary will not be 2nd to anyone - but if Obama does in fact win the nomination, here's hoping it does.
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POPSTry Spending Less I'm tired of hearing state and federal government officials talking about how they need to bring more tax revenue in. Instead of trying to get more money out of us that they'll just waste on useless programs anyway, why not spend less to get budgets into shape. Oh yeah, to do that, we'd likely need less government officials to manage it all, which means they may be out of jobs. I guess it's too much to ask that elected officials do what we elect them to do (represent the needs of their constituents) vs what's in their own best interests.
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POPSAre You Serious - I Actually AGREE with Bush??? I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once I actually agree with something Bush is doing. Filling up our oil reserves is a great idea. He's taking a very small amount from the market that wouldn't have much of an impact anyway, and ensuring we have oil supplies in case a conflict or other political event limits or eliminates our supply of oil. Think about it - if a government or coalition could eliminate our oil imports, we'd be completely screwed. Keeping a back-up supply would give us enough resources to take care of any conflicts while still keeping the country running. It's like if you don't make much money, but you still sock away $50 or $100 a month into a savings account. It's not a huge deal, and if something major happens, you now have some reserves to fall back on.
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POPSI Say Get Rid of It It's costing more to make a penny and a nickel now than what they're worth. Why not at least get rid of the penny. It's worthless anyway - the only people who really care about them are collectors. Who wouldn't happily get rid of all their pennies and not have to worry about them anymore?
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POPSGood Points While I hate how much gas prices have risen, and I hate to see how much money the oil companies are making, I have to agree that it's not necessarily fair to impose a windfall tax on them. Their margins aren't high, they just sell a product that has the most global demand by far. And if there were an additional tax, our government would just throw it away on ridiculous programs that don't have any impact, so it would just be a waste. I say let's have the government take in less in taxes and significantly cut it's spending. They obviously are not good at managing budgets.
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POPSI Agree! I'm a HUGE believer in free speech - in fact I think the media is too sanitized in this country in many cases. However I completely agree with Brady. One of my other pet peeves is that people don't take accountability for their actions. If you want to say something, you should be able to say it in any format/outlet. However, you should also "own your voice." Just like many people wouldn't stand outside and shout hysterics because people would see them (what if someone I know walks by and sees me), people should be linked to their "voice" online as well.
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