Oct 21 2009
Random Rants
Things I posted somewhere else but worth recording …
Rants against Daniel Snyder and the Redskins’ front office -
Winning, to Snyder, takes too long, requires too much investment, which distracts operational focus and thus incurs too much uncertainty. That is no way to make a quick buck.
Take a minute to ask yourself, why does Snyder choose to endear himself to LaVar Arrington, or Clinton Portis, but never to his QBs? If he cares about winning, wouldn’t he bond with his franchise players first? But why LaVar and Clinton, the perennial underachievers? Does Snyder have a whole lot in common with those two dudes? Did they grow up in the ‘hood together? Or were LaVar and Clinton present at his bar mitzvah?
Or is it because those two are “characters” and their jerseys move faster than others?
Can’t you see, people?! Go ahead, call yourself a true Redskins fan and go on talking about Campbell’s throwing action or why the blocking scheme doesn’t work for Portis, if that makes you feel so much a football insider. Or go on talking about why free agency wasn’t the way to go but building from draft choice is, as if Snyder is so dumb that he still hasn’t figured it out after so many years.
In fact, every free agent he brought in is just a billboard in the stadium. Every one of you who think you have an insight to the game is just a pixel in his demographic bar chart.
Enjoy the game. Life is too short to worry about someone else’s business.
My thoughts on the financial industry, excess compensation and the cause of financial crisis:
What is the mission/nature/function of the American financial industry – to make the overall economy more efficient or constantly generating liquidity for liquidity’s sake?
Why do we need so much liquidity for the economy to function at all?
Isn’t excess liquidity the root of our over-borrowing, over-spending and speculation?
Does any one think this tax-payer funded bailout will change the financial industry’s “reason-for-being”?
Does anyone really think there exists a set of regulation that can reign in the creativity of the financiers on the Wall Street?
If I have to pay sales tax for buying a hot dog or selling a used car, why are the financial transactions not taxed? What makes selling and buying derivative contracts so beyond taxation?
For those who decry such a tax would cost every Joe investor – did Joe investor get rich from not having to pay any tax? Was he able to escape from the financial ruins for not paying any such tax?
The more I live, the older I am, the more absurd a world I feel I live in.
Remember in a Jon Lee Anderson article he described walking in a neighborhood in Kabal, Afghanistan talking to people he can barely comprehend, then a guy walks up, speaking to him in English and telling him what a nonsensical world he’s living in. Then disappeared after that. That scene left a deep impression with me, although I didn’t know why then.
Now, I feel the same way as that guy does.