[poorgradstudent]

[quote=Nor-LA-SD-GUY2] Oh for you exberb-Phobic’s I was just reading on this, leaving out the drive time factors etc…
assuming you could get 25 miles a gallon, and assume you could save 200K, 50 miles is still finically better than 5 miles -200K. (it’s like a little over 1.5K per year difference in gas).[/quote]
Assuming your time is worthless, which is a huge assumption. There actually was a study not too long ago that showed shorter commutes are better both for one’s physical and mental health.

Responding to the Original Post, we’re still a ways off from the record high of $4.64 a gallon on June 13, 2008. Gas prices have only really held above $4 lately (The average I saw online today was $4.18 for regular). It’s also pretty easy to point to a cause: Iran, and to a lesser extent, Syria. Prices are certainly high for February and have gone up a lot. I’m expecting prices to drop a bit soon as increasing prices cause demand to dip a little. Don’t get me wrong, prices are still quite high, but again, not at the levels they were the last time there were serious complaints.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=markmax33]Don’t be naive, should he be impeached for signing the NDAA?[/quote]
Absolutely not. The President has the authority to sign laws passed by Congress. If they are not constitutional, that is for the Supreme Court and not “experts” on the internet to determine.

Let’s face it, it would be extremely strange for congress to impeach a President for signing a law they passed, don’t you think?

[poorgradstudent]

awesome summary!

[poorgradstudent]

Leaving race out of it, it’s pretty exciting to see some Harvard grad totally school Kobe. I hate Kobe. So hard.

[poorgradstudent]

Well, Greece passed its austerity bill. Obviously Europe isn’t out of the woods, but the current outcome is superior to a Greek Default or Greece leaving and destabilizing the Euro. The debt crisis is still worth watching.

The Average weekly jobless claims for unemployment insurance continues falling every week, especially the 4 week moving average which is viewed as the most reliable barometer. Manufacturing and construction are both growing http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manufacturing-grows-at-fastest-pace-in-7-months-as-new-orders-rise-employment-dips/2012/02/01/gIQA32BfhQ_story.html

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=markmax33]There’s nothing moderate about the Republicans or Obama. They are all extreme at this point. Obama won the noble peace prize and is dropping bombs, or warring in 6 countries right now. 3 of them or more are new under his watch. Our debt is extreme. They are all the same, and don’t even moderate-ly consider the constitution before making decisions.[/quote]
I shouldn’t take the bait, but here goes:

“Moderate” is defined by the political positions of the voters of a given country. In the US, Obama is a moderate leftist, but in Canada the same positions would make him a moderate rightwinger. A “moderate” Iraqi politician would almost certainly be a far, far rightwinger in the US. In 2012 the policies Ronald Reagan enacted would be called moderate and he would be a “RINO”, although compared to the overall voting electorate he still would be right of center overall.

Admittedly the left-right continuum is rather simplistic at times. It can be useful to split support of social freedoms and support of liberal markets into two separate categories. Obama and Romney are still both moderate left and right wingers respectively on those issues, falling neatly into the “classic” Democrat/Republican divide. Gingrich and Paul are more extreme on economic issues, both generally believing free markets fix everything. Santorum by far is the most against social liberty of the Republicans but closer to Obama on economic issues (although still right of center). Obama by far a bigger supporter of social liberty and social freedom than the Republicans.

You’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. If everyone else looks like an extremist to you, you’re probably looking at everyone else from a far extreme position.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=flu]OWS is dead.[/quote]
Well, Occupy Oakland sure as heck isn’t dead, although it’s more about police brutality and abuses at this point than it is about economic equality.

The Occupy movement made a conscious decision to change strategies after the American public grew tired of them. Some Occupy San Diego folks tried to citizens arrest the mayor after the whole Dragonfly/Qualcomm debacle. The national news media has moved on, but I do expect OWS to be in the news again once the Republicans pick their nominee and the General election really picks up.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=walterwhite]Schoolkids can’t ski every day. But they can climb the rope do 20 pullups. Pushups and jump about.

America would be less nervous if we were each more powerful.[/quote]
Maybe *you* could climb the rope and do 20 pullups. Some of us were bookish nerds!

But yeah, jumping and running around are good. Unfortunately one downside of No Child Left Behind has been a decrease in time spent on physical activities in order to spend more time on math and science instruction.

[poorgradstudent]

Based on this thread, here’s my Piggington Sentiment Indicator:

Number of posters who are:
Bullish: 2
Slightly Bullish: 5
Unsure/Holding: 3
Slightly Bearinsh: 2
Bearish: 1

Counting strong bulls as +2, weak bulls as +1, unsure as 0, slight bears as -1 and bears as -2, then dividing by total posters, this comes to an index of +0.39. This very slightly bullish value sounds low, but Piggs are a pretty doom-and-gloom, bearish bunch as a whole, and I imagine this is much higher than it would have been a year or two ago!

[poorgradstudent]

The Washington Times is a truly terrible “news” “source”. I would note that slightly expanding the authority of local law enforcement might be something you disagree with and could be a bad idea, but it’s not an impeachable offense.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=briansd1]Could Santorum eventually end up as the VP candidate of the Republican party? He did pretty well yesterday.

Santorum had a great night, Romney, Paul and Gingrich all had terrible nights. Romney no longer looks nearly as inevitable (although he’s still winning the silent money primary by a lot). Paul did ok in MN, but hasn’t won a state yet, and caucuses are supposed to be his strong area. Gingrich finished in last in Minnesota and barely squeaked out 3rd in Colorado.

So far, Republican voters aren’t looking that inclined to just settle for Romney. But none of the other candidates have been able to consolidate support.

[poorgradstudent]

“Yeah, that really is a good report.”

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/taking-apart-the-january-2012-nfp-data/

If you are a bear, the only way you can spin the numbers is argue the trend won’t continue. Seasonally adjusted numbers allow apples-to-apples comparisons between months by factoring out noise that otherwise would make it look like happy times are here again every holiday season and the end of the world every January. It’s the same reason Rich posts both the raw numbers and seasonally adjusted data on this site.

Minimally, pretty much all the economic data coming out right now is good. Recoveries can falter, but overall things really are looking up.

[poorgradstudent]

In March 2011 I was unemployed.
In April 2011 I landed a mediocre job.
In October 2011 I started my current, much better job. So my personal financial picture is far, far stronger than it was at this time last year.

I have a friend who was just laid off, but another in the same industry who has been out of work for a while and is in the late stages of the interview process for a decent position.

My wife’s company is struggling to find a qualified applicant for a temp position they are advertising. I feel like a year ago they would have had several over-qualified applicants by now. My wife’s company also announced their biggest bonuses to date this year.

So yes, while it’s been a little bumpy, from where I sit, the economy does “feel” like it has improved a lot in the past year.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=temeculaguy]Unfortunately the good weather of the West comes with a different type of city (much to the dismay of some pigs) but most people don’t raise kids in the city. You can either walk to a store/bar/coffee shop or you can walk to a good school, rarely can you do both at the same time, and when you can, you can’t buy for 500k.[/quote]
We’re still struggling with this fact. Sadly we’re probably going to have to throw in the towel and go with safety and good schools over character and culture. Hopefully in 7-10 years we can afford that 600k price point.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=paramount]After President Obama signed the NDAA on New Years Eve, I can’t imagine why ANYONE would vote for Obama. Regardless of political leanings…[/quote]
Do you think Romney or Gingrich would have vetoed it?

In a two party system where both options agree on an issue, it’s not an issue.

[Author]

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