Mainstream media doesn’t think this is news?

in Afghanistan and Iraq

For the thousands upon thousands of Protein Wisdom fans who are looking for the interview he did with Pundit Review Radio this weekend, we ask for your patience.

Because of some ongoing “difficulties” at our station, WBIX, we will be delayed for a day or so before we can post the interview. Here is a good update on those “difficulties.

Thanks for your patience.

UPDATE: It looks like it will be Thursday, much later than usual. Sorry for that.

Boston Globe,

BANKING ON KERRY Actor Matt Damon tells Diane Sawyer tonight that
supporting John Kerry was, “financially, the stupidest thing that [he] could
do,” but the election was about more than money. Interviewed with his “Ocean’s
Twelve” costars on “Primetime Live,” Damon says he doesn’t need or want the fat tax break he’s getting from the Bush administration. “I personally would like to give millions of dollars back,” he says. “This guy — this president — is giving me millions of dollars. Do you think I need that?” (No, as a matter of fact, we don’t.) Damon also credits his parents for instilling a strong work ethic in their kids: “My mother, because she was a professor . . . never made as much money as she deserved to make, but she loved what she did. And my father, who went and took a job to make enough money to provide for us, but never loved his job,” he said. “So both of them said, ‘Boys, whatever you do, make sure that you love to do it. Unless you have children to provide for, in which case you have to suck it up and . . . do whatever you need to do.’ “

Hey Matt, didn’t your mother teach you that only phony blowhards talk the talk without walking the walk. I’m pretty sure you can afford a pen. Shut up then if you are soooo outraged and write the damn check. Let’s see it. SHOW ME THE MONEY! Another Hollywood blowhard, clueless, out of touch and insulting to us, the little people.

It was only five weeks ago that the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in eighty-six years. It was a great moment for everyone associated with the game, even Yankee fans. Somehow, baseball is never satisfied with success and they have to go out and screw things up. Instead of a player strike, they have now given us a massive scandal involving performance enhancing drugs and the game’s best players.

Got Juice? Major League Baseball does.

Tim Kurkjian of ESPN is claiming that what Pete Rose did is worse than that of baseballs juice guys. The guys at TalkingBaseball.com disagree,

I am in no way excusing Pete Rose’s behavior. But what these men have done over
the past few years is much worse than betting. They used drugs, illegal ones at
that, to cheat and gain an edge. That is, in my mind, all there is to it.

BaseballMusings.com however, agrees with ESPNâ??s Kurkjian,

Betting on your own team to win is a form of cheating, because Pete didn’t bet
on his team in every game. So he sent a message to gamblers on days he didn’t
bet on the Reds that the Reds were going to lose. He also very well may have
managed differently with money on the game or not. It’s not a victimless crime.

Personally, I think the difference is in how the sport addresses the issues of gambling and drugs.

Baseball is forever scared because of the 1919 Black Sox scandal in which nine players were paid to throw the World Series.

Because of this scandal, there is a sign posted in every major league clubhouse which states that gambling is the cardinal sin in the game and would lead to permanent banishment.

Pete Rose is such an unsympathetic figure not because he has never shown any remorse, but because he never thought the rules should apply to him.

Players have taken illegal drugs for decades. You could even say the Babe was taking illegal drugs when he was boozing during prohibition. Anyway, the problem of performance enhancing drugs is a relatively new one. Until 2001 the game did not even acknowledge them. Even today, the penalties are absurdly light.

The sad fact that the most powerful union in the country represents people who make an average of $2.3 million per year.

When the steroid problem hit the papers a year ago, Jonathan Leshanski of AtHomePlate.com made a great point,

The truth is that everyone in baseball, with the exception of the clean
athletes, benefits from this illegal use of supplements and stimulants. The
owners get more home runs, more records being broken and more star players,
which will put fans into the seats. The agents want huge numbers and huge
seasons so that they can negotiate bigger and longer-term contracts for the
players and make bigger commissions for themselves.

Perhaps the biggest factor however is the fans – the average fan does
not care that someoneâ??s production jumps 50% from one season to the next or that
a player puts on 40 lbs of muscle during the offseason. They love to see 73 home
runs, 300 wins and other records being shattered. Only the purists, those who
really love the game, are concerned about tainted records and artificial numbers
that are not in line with a playerâ??s lifetime production.

I guess that makes me a baseball purist.

Drudge had a headline today that read “Wal-Mart to Launch Advertising Blitz To Salvage Season“.

TheStreet.com says, Holiday Blues

Instapundit has been pushing the theory that online shopping is behind the weak retail numbers,

Hmm. Maybe all my talk about the growth in online shopping this
Christmas season is right. Just saw a segment on Kudlow & Cramer saying that
online shopping is way up, and that it may be partly responsible for the
softness in other retail sales. And apparently a lot of women are shopping
online for the first time this year

This is a trend that will only get stronger over time, especially as more people get broadband connections and the price of PCs continue to plummet. It’s just so damn easy to shop online. No nasty people, parking troubles or crowds but most importantly, no sales tax. The impact of online shopping is really huritng states ability to collect sales tax. For example,

Ohio says it’s loss for the state’s 88 counties could be about $100 million
and Michigan officials estimate their state will fail to capture more than $200
million in the current fiscal year.

The states don’t like to see their mothers milk taken away and they are plotting their strategy,

The states — united under the banner of the “Streamlined Sales Tax
Project” — are building the legal and technical foundations for a system in
which online merchants would be required to collect taxes on all Web sales and
forward the money to the state where the buyer lives. The states are working to
harmonize their tax laws in effort to convince Congress to overturn a 1992 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that said such a plan would overburden out-of-state sellers
with a confusing patchwork of tax regulations.

Keep in mind that when you buy something over the Internet, even though
many online retailers don’t collect taxes at the point of sale, you probably are
still required by law to report the purchase to your state’s bean-counters. Most
states have so-called “use tax” laws on the books that require citizens to
report and remit taxes on items they buy out-of-state and online, but such laws
are notoriously tough to enforce and very few consumers bother to comply with
them.

No kidding, people aren’t volunteering to pay more taxes? John Kerry was on to something.

This could turn out to be a great fight between the great unwashed (us) and the politicians (them) desperate for more of our money. Pressure from the public is behind the recently renewed three-year ban.

Red Herring, Dec. 2004

Online spending will surge 23 to 26 percent over last yearâ??s holiday shopping
season, consumer research company comScore Networks predicts, as web sites are
expected to make more than $15 billion during November and December this year.

Given the factors cited above, in three more years the amount of online shoppers will really be huge and the states will be even more desperate. If we don’t keep bitching, they’ll keep pinching.

When Tom Ridge resigned as Secretary of Homeland Security, the reason was that he wanted to of course, spend time with his family, but he was allegedly telling associates that he wanted to go out into the private sector and make some money for his family. Good for him. Twenty years of honorable government service, not including his heroism in Vietnam. Go for it. And thank you for a job well done.

His replacement rumored to be ex-NYC police chief Bernard Kerik. Most of you are familiar with him from his role during 9/11 and his more recent work training the Iraqi police forces.

Whereas Ridge is leaving to make some money, perhaps Kerik knew he was heading back into government life as he recently sold 306,498 shares of controversial stun gun maker Taser (Nasdaq: TASR). The estimated value of that sale is $11 million dollars according to Barron’s. That should take the sting out of his $145,000 salary as Homeland Security.

Kerik is on the Board of Directors and his filing is available for all to see. I have no problem with Kerik making moeny in the private sector. Taser has been a wildly successful stock this year, up 378.96%! Why not sell some?

Taser is rather controversial and their CEO does seem like a loose cannon. If there are any corporate governance skeletons in the closet, Kerik may have to answer for that, and his fat compensation, during his comformation hearings.

Here they go again. Another member of the pajamahadeen has embarrassed and humiliated the New York Times. Another blogger is catching them red handed literally parroting Democrat talking points. What a great job by Patterico’s Pontifications.

Professor Bainbridge describes it this way,

Instapundit said,

IT’S NOT PLAGIARISM when you repeat stuff from a press release without checking it — but it’s not journalism, either. It’s not even very good punditry.