Shocked. I’m absolutely shocked, I tell you.
Longtime GOP Sen. Arlen Specter becomes Democrat

“The cook on the Maersk Alabama who was held hostage for 12 hours after pirates took over the ship on April 8 today filed a suit in state district court in Harris County (that’s Houston, Texas, home of outrageous speculative litigation) against ocean carrier Waterman Steamship Corp. of Mobile, Ala., and shipping company Maersk Line Ltd., of Norfolk, Va.” (link to Texas Lawyer).

He’s suing for — I’m not kidding here — failure to provide a safe work environment. His lawyer suggests that the shipping company could have taken more protective measures like — and I’m not making this up — putting barbed wire on the outside of the ship. The douchebag/attorney is Terry Bryant, owner of Terry Bryant Injury Lawyers in Houston.

In this month’s Atlantic, a former IMF Man compares our current financial crisis to those seen elsewhere.  Here’s what he says about past crises in emerging economies:

Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks… They reckon—correctly, in most cases—that their political connections will allow them to push onto the government any substantial problems that arise.

Yeah.  So you can see where this is going, right?  Well, not so simple.  The U.S. is a republic of a different flavor, after all.  The article takes the view as a given that nationalization and restructuring the banks is the path to recovery and so frames the discussion around this premise.  Still, it provides an interesting look at the  overlapping circles of power around Washington and Wall Street.  Check your naivete at the door.

A fleet of exotics pulled over in Oregon.

Jalopnik coverage expected momentarily.

Well, not yet, anyway.  But wait till they get a load of this!  The whole thing is a mess.  But, you know it could get messier.

The FIA appeal board has rejected the Ferrari/McLaren appeal regarding the double-level diffusers that Brawn GP and Toyota (and Williams?) used in the first 2 races this season. Thus, startup Brawn keeps Jenson Button’s wins at Australia and Malaysia.

So what’s the big deal? Here’s an article that attempts to explain it, but frankly I think it does a pretty poor job doing so. I’m pretty attuned to race car details these days but the text is somewhat vague (or at best, poorly descriptive). A good graphic illustration rather than a photo would clear things up. Anybody around here understand this and also good with MS Paint?

Coming soon.

Anderson is very nearby.

http://movies.yahoo.com/premieres/12767245/standardformat/

The audible portion of Penn and Teller wants to share some wisdom with you. Or at least his intuition about OUR money.
Hit the brakes.

Whether it’s fire walking or knowing that the Earth is round, everyone seems to dig counterintuitive thinking. Many dig it when our president explains we’re going to spend our way out of debt. That’s way against all the intuition we’ve developed in our adult lives. Spending our way out of debt doesn’t work often, does it? It’s crazy talk. Didn’t a lot of people try that spending out of debt thing?

I live in Vegas, and I see people by the side of the road with cardboard signs who seem like they might have tried that spending their way out of debt thing. Or maybe they tried the all too intuitive “crack will make me feel healthy again” thing. I don’t know.