Puffin’s Place

If you are not following Paulson and the Treasury Department’s proposal for an extensive revamping of the country’s financial regulatory procedures, it may be wise to do so. You can read prelim info here in the Washington Post.
I am no financial scholar but it appears that Bush may be taking the present economic downturn as [...]

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What do you think makes for an effective television ad?
The bottom line for me is that the ad not promise something it does not deliver. A really excellent ad is the Geico Gekko ads that promise no more than visual and aural memorability. We watch the Gekko and grin in wonder at the way his [...]

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Well, well, the US government can bail out Bear Sternes but, according to Republican presumed candidate McCain, will surely not attempt to lend a hand to careless middle class home owners who signed on for mortgages unprepared for gas tank fill-ups at $3+ a gallon and job layoffs thanks to the economy of an administration [...]

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Today in cruising the Los Angeles Times site I ran across Michael Meyers’ column, “Obama Blew It.” If you are an Obama supporter, I urge you to read it.
The crux of Meyers’ thesis can be found here: “He [Obama in his Philadelphia speech] should have presented us a pathway out of our racial boxes and [...]

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Well, good for Barack Obama. He has managed to not just respond to those who would equate his beliefs for those of Rev. Wright, but he managed to also deliver one of the most honest and eloquent and level-headed talks on race in the US that has ever been delivered.
The nit-pickers are already lining up [...]

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Just a word to those of you who take the time to add a comment. I have the moderation filter on only so I can strip out spam.
I just realized that the spam filter has stripped out a few comments which, I think, should be appearing soon. I’m still figuring out how to do housekeeping [...]

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According to some commentators, once we have heard the Rev. Wright twist in one of his diatribes we also know all we need to know about Barack Obama.
I do not think so.
If you want to know what Obama says about his faith and hear the pastor who is taking Wright’s place, go here.
If you don’t [...]

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Who would Jesus vote for?
An equally gripping question: Who would Harry Potter vote for?

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I hold no brief for Eliot Spitzer and have always thought him something of a self-righteous prig. In his current situation, I feel for his family. But I am amazed that sleeping with call girls can galvanize constituents when those same people have made neery a move to impeach George W. Bush despite his trashing [...]

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Ever see two movies in a short space of time and find them curiously related in your thoughts as you revisit them?
This happened to me in the last couple of days when I watched In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. Both are films that [...]

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