LSAT Today? Maybe. Recession? Yes. Depression? Probably.

Today is the 23rd, a mere 13 days away from the official e-mail date of my December LSAT scores. the Law School Admisisons Council has this nasty habit of posting the scores on their web site several days before the e-mail date with no announcement. Most everyone I know who took the test with me is giddy with anticipation and historically speaking, it seems likely that today or next mon/tues are the likely candidates for the release of the score! I am kind of nervous, but since I got a 163 last time I took it, I already have a fairly solid score backing me.

Well the question of whether or not the US is sinking into a depression is becoming ever more clear: According to Bloomberg.com, the US housing market is shrinking at almost identical levels as it did in the Great Depression (which is a good indicator of us being in one!) To recap, a depression occurs when there is a sustained economic downturn (loss of money, jobs, homes, credit, etc.) and often times the credit market is the first indicator of this happening. Now, this is no reason to panic really. Historically speaking, since the advent of the glorious, self-destructive idea of total free-market capitalism, there has been a wide-spread depression roughly every 40-50 years. That being said, the economy has been due for another one for quite some time.

Here is some advice for those of you with any semblance of income: invest hard, invest heavy. This downturn has about 4 or 5 years left at the minimum I'd guess, and when it bounces back, you could be sitting on a pot of gold if you plan for the future.

Vladimir Putin announced earlier today that "The era of cheap gas prices is ending". He was speaking at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) about the rising cost of extracting energy and shipping it. Today the GECF agreed on a charter and established a permanent headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The BBC reports fears of this organization turning into another OPEC-like cartel, which will manipulate prices to gain an unfair advantage in the world and reap criminally large profits at the average person's expense. You can read the full article here.

~David

Yay Bush!... Did I Just Say That?

Ok so I know some of you might want to call me a traitor or two-faced for my praising of Bush for his new $17.4bn bailout of the auto industry today. But understand that I am purely a moderate non-partisan type who is siding with Democrats presently because their solutions out our current problems seem to be working the best. But seriously folks, Bush just gave his party a slight repreve when he approved this new bailout after his constituents in the Senate shot down the original plan.

The plan is going to be broken down as follows:

• $14.4bn in immediate emergency loans to automakers
• Another $4bn will be made available in February
• The money is to come from the $700bn in approved funds for the financial industry at the request of Henry Paulson

Read more on this bailout here.

In other news, remember that whole Watergate Nixon scandal in the 70s? Well the man who secretly helped reporters uncover it, Mark Felt, better known as 'Deep Throat', has died today at the age of 95. At the time, he was considered a national threat by the FBI and most of Washington for his apparent lack of discression in hiding the secrets he was entrusted with. However, Felt is now widely seen as a true patriot by many Americans. Here was a man with a lot of power in the FBI who had nothing to gain and everything to lose for uncovering Nixon's skeletons to the world. Instead of backing down or taking a massive payoff to remain quiet, Felt used his expertise in intelligence to help right a massive executive wrong and essentially single-handedly orchestrate Mr. Nixon's oust as President. Mark Felt, you will be forever remembered as an American hero.

Last night was our company Christmas party and it was for sure a blast! We had excellent Mexican food at El Torito and we did an interesting version of a White Elephant gift exchange. Basically, everything is predertmined in this poem our secretary had. None of us knew that the gifts we picked would definitely not be ours at the end, which broke my heart because the gift I initially got was a sweet vodka mixing kit, complete with some nice and expensive SKYY Vodka and another fancy liquor that I dont quite remember. Well at the end of the night, instead of a new addition to my booze cache, I had 'The Terminal' in hand and was quite sad. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the gift and the free dinner. I've just already seen this movie and in my opinion it is meh at best. Maybe one of my friends will want it?

That's all for now!

~David

He Madoff With Our Money!

Well, I am on Christmas break officially now. Not much to report on academic or life wise other than my boss is letting me have next quarter off and she is saving me a position for Spring! I also get to pick up Becca from the airport tomorrow! I am very excited for this holiday season, it will be my first one where I get to spend it in two locations! (Atlanta and Victorville)

Just as things could not seem to get much worse on Wall Street, this whole debacle with Bernard Madoff is just icing on the cake. For anyone who has not turned on their TV or opened a news web page within the past 72 hours, here is a recap: Bernard "Bernie" Madoff, a prominent investor on Wall Street was convicted of around 50 billion dollars of fraud in what is called a Ponsi Scheme (essentially a very elaborate and ultimately doomed pyramid scheme), where he would borrow money from one investor to pay back another. Many extremely prominent people lost a lot of money, but many more lost EVERYTHING because of this crook. Similar things like this have happened before, but not nearly on this scale. There is a bankruptcy case being filed in hopes of getting some money back for these duped investors. However, I think that only the most wealthy investors will get anything back, leaving everyone else with a complete loss. Personally, I believe that these 'A Listers' should take the money they regain from this suit and put it towards reimbursing those less fortunate than them because of this horrible man.

In politics, Caroline Kennedy has announced she is serious about pursuing the soon-to-be vacant Senator's seat of Hillary Clinton. There is some concern whether or not she is qualified to hold the seat because of her lack of public exposure throughout her life. I am still unsure whether or not she will do a decent job, but her track record as an attorney seems pretty solid to me. She is also one of the few Kennedys to not be beseiged with scandal, another plus in my book. Luckily, New York is typically a very political state and they tend to select decent senators. I am excited to see these results in the Janruary!

President Bush had a surprise today, as well, when an Iraqi reporter shouted an insult at him and threw his shoes at him. Everyone seems to be criticizing our secret service for allowing him to get the second shoe off and in the air at the big guy. I think it was a hilarious display, but I recognize the significance. In Islam, hitting something with your shoe(s) is a paramount insult because it is one of the most unclean items you own. In essence, this Iraqi reporter was telling Bush he was no better than dirt and a lot of Iraqis seem to agree with him because they are hailing him as a hero. This event leaves a unique opportunity for Obama to play the hero to both sides. He can choose to go before the Iraqis, and while defending America, he can tout the incident as evidence that he needs to do better for those people. A speech along those lines would be cautiously received, but if he makes good on promises to reduce troops and increase real aid there, it will have resounding positive returns.

That's all for now!

~David

Planes, Trains, and Automo... wait? No more cars?

Earlier today the Senate rejected a bailout of the US auto-industry, saying that the required funds needed stricter limits on what they can be used for. Basically it was a Southern Republican coalition giving a big middle finger out of some sort of fear that saving over 2 million jobs was a Socialist task (and Amuricans ain't no damned Socialists!). If the tone in the last sentence does not convey my feelings on this manner, let me spell it out: I am livid as hell over this failure. I normally have a grudging respect for Republicans because they keep ultra left-wingers from going overboard on social welfare spending. But the events of yesterday and today are too much. When will they realize that saving jobs to protect our economy does not make them Socialists, it makes them decent human beings? If they really want a truly free market, then they can have it! At the rate they are allowing things to slide, we will be in a race to the bottom with South America in the next few years! Luckily, the presidency is now seriously considering using bailout funds, formerly earmarked for the financial industry, to bail out the auto industry in this pinch. Once Obama takes office, I hope Congress is more responsive to society's needs because right now they seem completely deaf, blind, and dumb to the situation at hand.

Yesterday was my last final and all I can say is I completely ROCKED its face off. If only professor Zieger made the rest of the quarter this easy for us (instead of throwing the entire class under the bus with graduate level difficulty tests and papers for a ton of mid level English students!). I am banking on having a 3.5 or 3.7 this quarter, but we will see. If I bombed my Constitutional Law final, I might be stuck at a 3.0 =\. But life isn't all that bad! On Sunday I get to go visit my niece for her birthday party and have a good time with family I haven't seen in over a month! Also, on Tuesday Becca arrives to visit for the holidays! She gets to stay through the 23rd then I go to visit her family on the 26th, should be good times.

I recently tried the new Playstation Home beta and my initial reaction was one of awe at the level of detail and customizability this game offers. After I explored the game thouroughly though, I began to realize it was just a very basic and stripped down version of the Sims that incorporates social elements from Myspace and allows you a limited range of after-market customizations for real world money. The verdict: At its current stage, Playstation Home is a boring waste of time and money. I hope that later releases are more interesting than this.

~David

The End is Nigh

It is now Tuesday and I am official 2/3 of the way done with my finals! Yesterday I had my Constitutional Law final, which I found out is one of the hardest ones in my major, and it pretty much destroyed me. However, today I made up for it in Political Theory, and I can honestly say with absolute confidence that if I get below a 99% on this thing I will be VERY surprised. Now all that is left is my British Literature class, where I will be studying great and boring works like Robinson Crusoe and Jane Eyre for the next couple of days. But afterwards... I plan to not remember much. As for everything else, life is going as normal. My girlfriend is flying out on the 16th and I get to spend the holidays with her till I go back to school! Also, I get to learn how to snowboard on the 18th, so expect pictures of me falling on my ass to be posted then!

An F/A 18 Hornet crashed into a residential neighborhood about an hour and a half away from me yesterday and killed a family :(. Makes one really wonder about what our servicemen are thinking when things like that go wrong? I am not fully aware of the circumstances, but apparently the pilot was trying to land his crippled plane and he lost control, but ejected to safety in time. I would be feeling pretty bad about myself if I knew something I piloted did that to a family and I didnt die doing everything in my power to prevent it. But enough on that, I am sure he did not realize that it was going to do that kind of damage.

Also, in another vaunt of cheery news, the Illinois First Lady and Governor are involved in a pretty large corruption affidavit from the FBI. They were apparently going to auction off Obama's seat in the Senate and have also been involved with bullying the Chicago Tribune into writing the news their way. All I can say is WOW, I did not think it was possible for politicians to be even more stupid in this day and age than the Rove, Libby, and Stevens scandals. Well it just goes to show that power can very easily corrupt people. Other than that, news has been pretty slow recently domestically... Internationally is another story, but that would require a seperate blog for that.

~David

But I Am Le Tired

The hellish days are upon me finally... Nearly everyone I know is busy every hour of every day playing catch up on things we have all neglected for the past ten weeks; namely our studies. That's right, we are nearly done with dead week and are about to go into the gauntlet of test batteries that determine your worth as a human being in the collegiate system known as finals! Even though I was not able to really sleep last night, I have to go home from work today and finish up a term paper for my British Literature course and then go to classes. On top of that, tomorrow I do NOT get to sleep in like I usually do. Instead, I get to wake up at 6am and prepare to take my LSAT for a second time! I'm hoping the curve won't be so rough this time around and I'll be able to pull a higher score....

In other news, the Big 3 auto manufacturers are nearing their goals of a government bailout. Pakistan was bombed...again. The unemployment rate is up to 6.7% (an all new high in 24 years!) and stocks are tumbling accordingly. Mr. Obama seriously has his hands full when he takes office in January. The whole country, and much of the world, is banking on him being a new-age FDR with a whole new, new-deal for us to gobble up. Personally, I don't think he will be able to do as much as people are hoping, but who know? He might bring about so much positive change that congress delegates more powers to him so that he can continue the trend. However, that scenario is HIGHLY unlikely. For now, I think the best advice for people is to just hunker down, try and save at least 25% of whatever you make and invest it if you can (stocks are WAY down, but they will NOT stay there. They have to go up sometime). Our grandparents and great grandparents weathered much worse than we have, we can handle this.

~David

Stolen!

Hey all, so yesterday was a great day.... I went to class for apparently no reason because nothing of importance was covered, my sinuses were going so crazy my head felt like it was going to explode, and when I got out of class yesterday, my beloved beach cruiser was nowhere to be found! That's right folks, UCR is a campus full of thieves with Christmas cheer! I suspect the thief is one of those people you find on craigslist who have over 50 bikes in their back yard that are in decent, but used condition, and are on sale for less than half of their normal price for some reason! I think the Riverside Police would do well to just get a list of registered serial numbers on bikes, go there with a hidden camera and try and spot a couple. I'm pretty sure they wont be disappointed.

In lesser news, Atlanta was just plain amazing. I had so much fun visiting my girlfriend and her family this past week, I just didn't want to leave! Black Friday was great, I got some new Oakleys for half price and even got a few gifts for the family while I was at it!

Obama and Hillary are now formally partners in crime in the White House. Yesterday he announced her as his Secretary of State, adding another powerful addition to our liberal army of evil! The Fed also announced that we have been in a full fledged recession since last year, and that times were looking to get even tougher in the coming months! Predictably, Wall-Street panicked and lost over half of everything they gained last week. It is seriously amazing how fickle and stupid investors seem to be. Nobody has faith in a volitile economic system for a reason right now, but if they were to try and try this thing called saving for a change, things might look better faster! Oh well, we know it will never happen in America, Asia is the only place that can get it right. Just my .02

~David