LOL
* * *
Massive vote fraud reported in Massachusetts.
We really, really, really need to require a photo ID to vote, damn it.
* * *
The Fed's set to buy $600 billion worth of US federal debt and there's a point I wanted to make, of which I was reminded by this:
Bernanke has talked openly of his desire to raise inflation expectations, and that in combination with lowering interest rates could make America a less attractive investment option. If so, the dollar could depreciate, increasing US competitiveness in traded goods and services. This could boost exports and depress imports.Look at those last two words: "depress imports".
I want you to understand something important: when imports decline, GDP rises regardless of the prevailing economic conditions.
At its core, this is nothing but a scheme to make the economy look as if it is improving. Nothing more, nothing less.
Bernanke et al are still apparently clinging to the belief that if they just talk up the economy enough, it'll magically get better--well, the people down in the trenches can tell the difference between a good economy and a poor one, which is why this trick hasn't worked so far.
It's also why the Democrats lost so spectacularly last week.
* * *
NSFW: Japanese get the concept of "Barenaked Ladies" wrong...or right, depending on your perspective. Certainly I'd be more inclined to see the group depicted in those photos than the rock band Barenaked Ladies.
* * *
I've gotten eps 1-10 of ToraDora! onto DVD, and now I've got the opening theme (which I don't like much) stuck in my head.
Re-watching Kanamemo, fansubbed DVD rips, I got to ep 5 tonight: the sento episode. (Public bath.) How disappointing: most of the censorship was still present.
I didn't mind it in the case of Kana and Rika and Saki; but the other girls are all over 18. And it wasn't consistent: Haruka was censored sometimes and not others. Yume rubbing Yuki's boobs wasn't censored at all, yet when they're just sitting next to each other and talking, there's fog all over the place.
It's like the animators said, "OMG we can't show a buttcrack because it's a pretty adult girl's butt! And we can't show a sideboob because we'd have to re-re-render the entire scene!"
For the fan of fan service, it's frustrating as hell. It's not as frustrating as the TV broadcast version was, because that one had so much fog (and view blocks!) you could see the characters' heads and that's about all. But since they did re-render entire scenes to cut the amount of fog--and since it is, after all, a fan service show!--why the hell didn't they let us see more of the good stuff?
(Incidentally, the scene were Yume is soaping Yuki's breasts was utterly omitted from the broadcast version. No surprise, that. There's just no way to sanitize that kind of scene for TV.)
* * *
While I was dubbing ToraDora! tonight, though, the torrent of the Uchuu Senkan Yamato live-action movie finished. Heh heh heh!
...I'm saving it for this weekend.