Timothy Geithner is the new Treasury Secretary

Timothy Geithner is going to be the new Treasury Secretary. This is all well and good as the market takes an upswing, but this guy is Big Government to the core. He was right in the middle of the recent bailouts as a driving force.

One can hope, but this market enthusiasm for him most likely will not last once his policies start becoming law.

America has to stop being addicted to short-term fixes and at least look at reality before partying.

From CNN:

Stocks surge on Treasury chief talk
By Alexandra Twin
CNNMoney.com
November 21, 2008

Stocks rallied Friday, with the Dow industrials bouncing as much as 550 points, after reports surfaced that President-elect Barack Obama will nominate New York Federal Bank president Timothy Geithner as his new Treasury Secretary.

Here is the Wikipedia article: Timothy F. Geithner

Timothy Franz Geithner (last name pronounced /ˈgaɪtnər/; born August 18, 1961) is the 9th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In that role he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Personal life

Geithner was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Mr. and Mrs. Peter F. Geithner of Larchmont, New York. He completed high school at International School Bangkok, Thailand, and then attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a B.A. in government and Asian studies in 1983. After, he obtained an M.A. in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan.

He is married to Carole M. Sonenfeld, a Dartmouth classmate, and with her has two children, Elise and Benjamin. In spare time he fly-fishes, plays tennis and surfs.

Career

After completing his studies, Geithner worked for Kissinger and Associates in Washington, DC, for three years and then joined the International Affairs division of the US Treasury Department in 1988.

In 1999 he was promoted to Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and served under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.

In 2002 he left the Treasury to join the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow in the International Economics department. He then worked for the International Monetary Fund as the director of the Policy Development and Review Department until moving to the Fed in October 2003. In 2006 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.

On November 21, 2008, it was reported that President-elect Barack Obama had decided to nominate Geithner for the position of Treasury Secretary.

Sarah Palin turkey video

For msnbc, Palin can do no right. Even the traditional pardon of a turkey is used as an excuse for mocking her.

For some reason these people think that killing turkeys is something to be ashamed of. There is no doubt, though, that they all eat turkey on Thanksgiving. They just like their reality sanatized so they can pretend it doesn't happen (between mouthfulls).

That's the only reason one can assume they find anything to mock about killing turkeys for the market.

From the msnbc site (Associated Press article):

Turkeys slaughtered as Palin addresses media

WASILLA, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin has granted the traditional Thanksgiving pardon to one lucky turkey, but the video that shocked some viewers captured what was happening in the background.

As she answered questions Thursday at Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside Wasilla, cameras from the Anchorage Daily News and others showed the bloody work of an employee slaughtering birds behind the former Republican vice presidential candidate.

Mauritania - a friendly place

Some people are saying that terrorism in Mauritania is killing off the tourist industry. Where is Mauritania anyway?

There is a beg stink over there because of the ruling junta. From AFP today:

The European Union will consider "appropriate measures" to punish Mauritania after it failed to take sufficient steps toward restoring constitutional rule, the French foreign ministry said Thursday.

The move to impose sanctions came as a one-month deadline set by the European Union for Mauritania's ruling junta to free deposed president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi expired, with no sign of a breakthrough.

. . .

Mauritania's first democratically-elected president was ousted on August 6, just hours after he issued a decree firing the military's top brass, including General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

Ould Abdel Aziz led the putschists and, since the coup, his junta has taken over the powers of the president and formed a new government with the support of a majority of deputies in parliament.

It has categorically refused international demands to reinstate Abdallahi and has failed to set a date for fresh elections.

Pro-democracy activists held small-scale protests Wednesday but the coup leaders appear secure in power.

Navy advancement - advancement.cnet.navy.mil is down?

I just caught a weird post on the web:

Navy Advancement: advancement.cnet.navy.mil is down

It seems that after trying so many times to visit the official Navy Advancement website we have found that ii is not working, for the time being the site called “advancement.cnet.navy.mil” is down.

The post recommends looking at Navy Advancement Study Guide & Bupers News.

It seems strange for this to happen right when there is a lot of news about Somali pirates. One hopes this is a temporary technical problem and not a hacker attack.

Feral children in England

According to Wikipedia, a feral child is:

... a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.[1] Some feral children have been confined by people (usually their own parents); in some cases this child abandonment was due to the parents' rejection of a child's severe intellectual or physical impairment. Feral children may have experienced severe child abuse or trauma before being abandoned or running away. Others are alleged to have been brought up by animals; some are said to have lived in the wild on their own.

This, like the famous case of Genie, who spent almost all of her first thirteen years confined inside a room (discovered by authorities in 1970), is what people think when they hear the term "feral children.

So what is one to think about the following story in BBC News?

Most adults think children ‘are feral and a danger to society’

Public intolerance of young people has reached such levels that more than half of all adults think that British children are beginning to behave like animals, a poll has found.

The poll, commissioned by the children’s charity Barnardo’s, found that 49 per cent of adults regard children as increasingly dangerous both to each other and to their elders, while 43 per cent feel that “something has to be done” to protect society from children and young people.

. . .

More than half of the survey respondents (53 per cent) said that children were beginning to behave like animals and 45 per cent agreed that people refer to children as feral “because they behave this way”.

Mr Narey said it was appalling that words like “animal”, “feral” and “vermin” were now used daily in reference to children.

Using those words for lots of children is more than appalling. It dilutes our language and opens a crack where it is hard to make correct distinctions. People who exaggerate the language in this manner usually have a political agenda to push. Concern for the actual children is a distant second-place concern.

Sill, violent children is a serious problem. Look at this latest from BBC News:

Teenager attacked man with bottle

David Willis was attacked by the 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after he refused to buy him alcohol in Plymouth, Devon.

The 24-year-old mechanic needed 37 stitches and plastic surgery.

The teenager was sentenced on Monday to 18-month's detention after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding.