TGIF! Silly songs from my childhood

Posted on February 24, 2012 by msjs0315

My dad had a couple of Tom Lehrer albums that were off limits to the kids.  Naturally, I memorized the lot by age 6.

 

Imagine a 5-year-old singing this to a group of her parents’ friends at a cocktail party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTfuGeKPsZM

 

Or skipping in the park singing this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-eIgFJg4w&feature=related

 

And what parents wouldn’t be proud of their youngin singing this one in Sunday school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDeRYmB4t6Q

 

Enjoy the weekend!

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Intent and Murder Charges

Posted on February 24, 2012 by novahockey

There’s a localish murder trial that’s been getting a lot of attention due to the nature of the crime and those involved.

Basically, an on-again, off-again relationship between two rich attractive UVA athletes ended with him beating her to death.

You can read about the trail here.

He was convicted of 2nd degree murder and I’m pissed about it.  The jury decided that he didn’t mean to beat her to death.  Just beat her.   He received 25 years for the murder charge and 1 year for stealing her laptop after the fact.  (I don’t remember why he did that).   They opted for 2nd degree instead of 1st degree (life in prison) because of the intent.   Granted, I was following this mostly through radio broadcast updates when the alarm when off in the morning or on the ride home from work, so I don’t know all the details.   But my concern is more general anyway.

How is kicking in a door and beating your girlfriend to death, if you went there just to rough her up, any different that waiting for a shot at 500 yards with a scoped rifle?

In my opinion, there isn’t one.  Not any meaningful one anyway.  He wanted to hurt her and his actions resulted in her death.    I don’t understand why his intent is somehow a mitigating factor.   The intent was to cause harm.

I’m sure I’m missing something here.

 

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Morning Report

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1365.3 2.4 0.18%
Eurostoxx Index 2519.3 11.2 0.45%
Oil (WTI) 108.3 0.5 0.44%
LIBOR 0.4906 0.000 0.00%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 78.505 -0.130 -0.17%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.98% -0.02%

Slow news day.  Stock futures are up slightly as bonds and oil continue to rally. No economic data this morning until 10:00 when we get Michigan Consumer Confidence and New Home Sales.

Radar Logic released its December Monthly Housing Report yesterday. The report notes that prices declined 6.8% while transaction count increased 19.6%. While the transaction count was boosted by technical factors relating to the homebuyer tax credit expiration, there is a sense that sellers are becoming more realistic and are willing to hit bids from bargain-hunters. Is this is the beginning of the Great Capitulation? The report notes that the recently-listed RPX futures are indicating the bottom is here and that prices should start rising in summer of 2013.

A tiff between Bank of America and Fannie Mae? The bank will no longer send new originations to Fannie Mae and will either send them to Freddie Mac or retain them on their own balance sheet. Fannie Mae’s lawsuit regarding shoddy origination at Countrywide presumably drove this decision. Does this mean we are finally going to have a national discussion over the American Dream Commitment?

A slew of important economic data will be released next week with Durable Goods, Case-Schiller, Consumer Confidence, GDP, Personal Income, Personal Spending, Construction Spending, ISM and more.

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