Internal Monologue

It bugs me how US debate about withdraw from Iraq and how long it should take, etc. ignores the fact that there's a binding agreement that dictates when US troops have to be out. Many proponents of a longer occupation seem to ignore the SOFA : However, what Petraeus, Odierno, Ricks and (to a lesser degree) Sullivan seem to be ignoring is that certain Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) entered into by the US and Iraqi governments this past summer, which committed the US to remove all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 (with an earlier timeline for removing troops from Iraq's cities). Further, their discussion of alternative timelines completely ignores the national referendum to be held on the SOFA in Iraq in July of this year (the referendum is thought to have been required by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who insisted that the SOFA must have broad support to receive his ultimate blessing). If Iraqi voters reject the SOFA in the referendum, US forces would have a twelve month timeli

I thought something like this would start happening. These two guys are buying up distressed mortgages and making money doing so: Former hedge fund manager Raj Bhatia and mortgage broker Albert Behin are convinced they can make money buying "toxic assets" — the stuff that's killing banks' balance sheets. Bhatia and Behin buy pools of mortgages that are "underwater," meaning the homes are worth much less than their mortgages. "We got together and basically said, 'You know, there's going to be tremendous opportunities buying some of this residential debt that I basically helped create over the past six, seven, eight years,'" Behin says. Apparently they drive around in a car and look at the houses on an individual basis and see what they could get the mortgage for, and how much the house is actually worth. Often, there's a big differential (because the owner of the mortgage is desperate to sell and there are so few buyers) and thus a

Here's the article . Here's a post about it. I'm not surprised that red states purchase more online porn compared to blue states. But maybe it isn't for the religious puritanical reasons one would expect. Maybe people in red states are just not as good about figuring out how to get their online porn for free.

From comments on my status update : Zachary is trying to develop an algorithm to help him choose between: status update, blog post, tweet, nobody wants to know about that. AM: Why are you telling us this? :) ZD: Because that's what Facebook status updates are for! :) I think "Why are you telling us this?" is the question that may cause Facebook and Twitter to suddenly implode. AM: Why can we now like status updates but can't dislike them? I want to disapprove of people's status updates. ZD: Well, you'll just have to indicate your disapproval with a comment. Still, allowing one-click approval but requiring typed-out disapproval does tilt the landscape in a "niceness" direction. Similarly, why does Facebook allow you to have friends, but not enemies? If you had enemies, then you could click on your enemies and see a list of their enemies. Then you could test out the proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" by sending those people friend

At long last . My worry is that those with a vested interest in keeping up the occupation will somehow convince people that "we can't leave". Of course we can leave. We just have to be willing to accept the consequences of leaving. I, for one, am willing to accept that our leaving may unleash more violence in Iraq. If we're not occupying the country, then violence in Iraq is a much less our problem. Certainly we need to support those trying to negotiate a viable political solution to the myriad problems there. But that "support" need not take the form of a military occupation.

I will work for any corporation or entity in any capacity that gives a bunch of custom Lego people business cards that look like me. From Alexander Kjherulf via Dean Blackburn on Facebook .

I think this blog is suffering from competition from my other outlets of electronic expression. Back when I started Internal Monologue , it was the only outlet I had for wacky random thoughts or political grievances. Now, a lot of the brief thoughts come out as Facebook status updates, and the random Quinn stuff goes on Love and Survival with Fragile X. I even have a Twitter account, though I don't use it much. Perhaps my unemployment will allow me more time to post here, though I find I don't have nearly as much time as I thought I would have. I'm spending a lot of time with Quinn, which is fun but tiring. I want to properly tackle the whole "covering Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley"" problem that excited me a while back. Anyway, I think there's definitely still a place for Internal Monologue , but like all publications it will be affected by the proliferation of new media outlets. Today the newspapers, tomorrow the blogs. I'm sure someone's ou