Bandarlog


	Pitch Perfect... Self Parody Following up on the Onion NYTM parody cover, I call your attention to an NYTM advertisement which, though it may look like satire, appeared toward the back of the magazine last week touting a (yawn) new luxury development on the Upper East Side(hat tip: Curbed). Now, I understand that advertisers often try to sell a product by making its purchase seem like an affirmation of the buyer's identity, real or aspirational. However, slapping potential buyers in the face with a potent satirical twenty-word reduction of their identity seems like more of an insult than a marketing strategy. I mean, "Tyler"? It's like the slap of a gantlet across a well-moisturized face. If they turn this campaign into a television ad, what's the background music going to be? X-Ray Spex's I'm a Cliche? [Ben H.: 12/1/05 08:51]


	Doug, the Onion is always and ever perfect -- it's a platonic form. No apologies needed. [Ben A.: 11/30/05 00:56]


	Also, can I just defend my theft of that Onion "Magazine" cover? I posted it because I'm still in awe of their satiric sharpness. The cumulative thousands of words we've hurled against the NY Times sunday magazine have not, I submit, had more effect than this one knockout image. It makes you feel how thin the veneer of intellectual adventurousness is that overlies the NYTSM's devotion to its readers' vanities and snobberies. [Doug: 11/29/05 22:35]


	They brought Jayson Blair into their nefarious scheme? At that point in the story I thought it might be a joke. Who'd they get as a replacement after they fired him? G. Gordon Liddy? [Doug: 11/29/05 22:15]


	Big Pharma: The Bumblingest Evil Cabal Of Them All It embarrasses me to be associated with these idiots. [Ben A.: 11/29/05 16:28]


	The answer is clearly Jainism. In fact, I am surprised Jainism has never managed to become the "of-the-moment" religion in Hollywood -- its most famous precept reads like a celebrity diet avant la lettre. "The reason I was coked up within an inch of my life was to stay true to ahinsa." The its-all-good relativism seems like a pretty natural fit, too. Now, if only they could do something about that whole chastity number, I think the Jains could give the Kabbalists a run for Madonna's money... [Ben H.: 11/27/05 23:09]


	Stolen Content ... [Doug: 11/25/05 13:58]


	Unreasonable Sanctions Meet Reasonable Doubts You've heard me rail both on blog and in person against Eliot Spitzer. My central complaint is that Spitzer short-circuits the justice system by wielding wildly disproportionate powers of corporate punishment in order to extort settlements from naturally risk-averse companies. For, say, an insurance company, corporate indictment is tantamount to a summary death sentence. Facing that prospect, public company boards have almost a fiduciary responsibility to hang employees and managers out to dry. I noted that Spitzer has rarely made headlines actually trying criminial cases, let alone winning them. Well, a few brave souls have decided to put the Lord High Executioner's criminal trial skills to the test. So far, they are winning. First came a case against a Bank of America employee, Ted Siphol, implicated in the "market timing" case. Several mutual funds agreed to fat settlements with Spitzer over supposedly allowing inappropriate "late trades" on the part of certain institutional clients. While the behavior was in certain cases demonstrably unethical, in very few did it ever break any established law or rule. While Siphol's employer opted to capitulate rather than risk death from the barrel of Spitzer's Martin Act shotgun, Siphol himself stubbornly refused to settle. A jury acquitted him of all but 4 of the 34 counts in the indictment, and on these last four it hung due to one hold-out who refused to acquit. Incredibly, Spitzer announced he would retry those 4 counts! A few days ago, very quietly, he dropped the charges. Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that Spitzer will not move to criminally indict Maurice Greenberg, former head of AIG. Spitzer bullied AIG into firing Greenberg over supposed "accounting irregularities" at the company. These accounting issues relate to so-called "finite risk" insurance, a complex but nonetheless accepted form of risk-tranfer. While AIG followed the same course at Bank of America -- dump the CEO rather than run in his defense the high risks Spitzer's powers can impose -- Greenberg himself defied Spitzer and counterattacked. Round one goes to Greenberg. Spitzer can still pursue civil charges... stay tuned. [Ben H.: 11/25/05 08:10]


	Black Friday Early Report On my way to work this morning, as my cab shot up Fourth Avenue, something unusual caught my eye. A line of huddling figures stretched down the sidewalk -- typically deserted at the very early hour I pass by -- swelling into a mob at the corner of 14th Street. The head of the mob pressed against the doors of Circuit City. What do you suppose is going on there? Discounted Xbox? [Ben H.: 11/25/05 07:54]


	Happy Thanksgiving I've spent most of the morning working, alas. On behalf of a group of creditors that have been getting the run-around from the Russian Ministry of Finance, it was decided that I should write a letter to the minister that we'll all sign. Russian bureaucrats can be at once craven and vindictive. You need to strike just the right tone: scare them too little and they decide they can get away with ignoring you; treat them too harshly and they decide that they have no choice but to retaliate. The happy medium is a tone I characterize as "minatory obsequiousness." Unfortunately, this does not flow easily from the pen... [Ben H.: 11/24/05 13:23]


	Real Estate Marketing You never know. "Triangle of Death" could attract a wave of punk-rock homesteaders. Get them in the door and the yuppies are only about a decade behind. [Ben H.: 11/24/05 13:16]


	Real Estate Bummer It can't help your house's resale value when people start referring to your neighborhood as the Triangle of Death. Iraqi realtors need to get on the ball and come up with a new name for this undervalued, up-and-coming area. "TriODe"? "The Elysian Wedge"? "ThanaGon"? "Styxville"? [Doug: 11/24/05 12:34]


	Lowell Salary dump is what it looks like to me as well. What should we conclude about players who suffer precipitous drops in production (.140 in slugging percentage?!) immediately following the institution of league-wide steroid testing? I suppose until we see another year i the trend, we should suspend judgment. If the Red Sox get the 2003 Mike Lowell, the trade moves from good to great. Also, you guys will surely hate it, but for the benefit of our readers who do not despise pop, I link to Nth Degree. (and Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing likes it too..) [Ben A.: 11/23/05 19:22]


	Beckett The only thing I can figure for the Lowell piece of the deal is that Beckett can't earn "market" until 2007 and that Boston agreed to help Florida monetize Beckett's below-market salary by absorbing Lowell's above-market contract. Lowell + Beckett at something like $14mio combined for next two years sounds about right. It's just that in terms of value provided, the split is probably the reverse of what their relative individual salaries would suggest. But overall, I agree with you, Ben. Good deal. Becket is a good acquisition; given his youth, it seems appropriate to pay for him with prospects. Two promising AA prospects for one proven 25-year old pitcher sounds like about the right ratio given the probability adjustment one needs to apply to AA results. [Ben H.: 11/22/05 12:56]


	Josh Beckett Any thoughts on this deal, Ben H? It earns a guarded thumbs up from me, if only because I steeply discount the value of AA pitching prospects. Beckett is a solid pitcher, and even if his early record does not suggest David Cone potential, he ranks among the top 5-7 young pitchers in the game. That is more than fair compensation for a top positional prospect. The Mike Lowell throw in at $9mm/year doesn’t fill me with good feelings, but we can only hope 2005 was the aberration. [Ben A.: 11/22/05 12:26]


	Only You Can Prevent Milan Kundera The fact that I have never read The Unbearable Lightness of Being will not stop me from linking this very funny assault. Hat tip: Tim S. [Ben A.: 11/21/05 17:48]


	Weird indeed. Given its insect origins, it occurs to me that "shellac" may come from the word "lac", whose acceptability in Scrabble was recently derided by Ben H. This turns out to be true. Still playing too much Scrabble here in France. On a losing streak. Only good bingos recently were HIRSUTE, SYNOVIA and CROUPIER. [Doug: 11/20/05 17:12]


	Getting Shellaced Did you know that shellac is derived for the secretion of an insect, and when alcohol (say scotch) spills on a shellaced surface, it functions as a solvent and leaves a milky white patch? The world is so weird. [Ben A.: 11/19/05 11:50]


	My Neighborhood Has Terroir... OK, Terror While I was at work yesterday, I missed a fun scene in my hood. A high-profile fugitive was spotted in a coffee-shop around the corner from my house (Doug: you commented on the dumb name of this coffee-shop last weekend), setting off a huge police sweep of the surrounding blocks. [Ben H.: 11/18/05 07:19]


	Paris Real Estate Update I've seen upwards of ten apartments here already and nothing really stands out. One seemed pretty good for the price, but then we got a critique of its neighborhood from Dao's CEO Yann at dinner. It was a classic untranslatable French put-down. Good neighborhoods, he says, have some determinate character -- either they're rich, or bohemian, or working-class. The neighborhood in question, however, was built up over many decades by different kinds of people who moved into it. The lamentable result: C'est une espèce de truc. (You must imagine this being said after a disdainful puffing-out of lips and cheeks.) It's a sign of how deep the French need is for things and places to have terroir, because Yann has no time for most other idiosyncratic predilections of his countrymen. [Doug: 11/18/05 05:26]


	Goldbricking Taken To New Level Or, since it is happening at the UN, maybe we should call it Uranium-bricking? According to the New York Sun, the UN now estimates that its proposed renovation of the organization's New York campus will cost nearly $2 billion. When the bloated project plan called for a mere $1.2bio I found it ridiculously overpriced. Think how many more third-world diplomats' garages will fill up with luxury cars on the extra $700mio of rake-offs. Kofi Annan's attempts to justify the expense will sound a bit hollow coming a few short after he reinstated Joseph Stephanides, a UN senior official fired for helping to rig contractor bids in the oil-for-food program. Think what wonders an experienced bid-rigger could do with NYC construction contractors! [Ben H.: 11/17/05 21:31]


	Bill Maher's Life Not Entirely Worthless His I-tunes celebrity list draws my attention to the excellent Ms. Dynamite track Dy-Na-Mi-Tee. Also, David Duchovny (!) busts Coolio's thievery. [Ben A.: 11/17/05 00:58]


	Jealousy Damn, but you have an interesting job, Ben H. The closest I get to scoundrels that magnificent are ... members of my own company. (kidding!). Actually, I will be moving closer to carnival ledgerdemain and hucksterism in the next few weeks, when I leave my current gig for a job in venture capital. With any luck, I can identify the next Sam Waksal. [Ben A.: 11/17/05 00:40]


	Noga Update Arrest order on the paintings has been released. [Ben H.: 11/16/05 16:36]


	Noga You've asked the right guy. We came very close to buying the claim that is being foreclosed on. Our plan was to come to a negotiated settlement with the Russians. The story behind this debt is pretty amazing and very convoluted. I can go into it in detail if you care. However, the thing to note is that the Shylock in this case, Nessim Gaon, is hardly a darling of the Swiss establishment. IN fact, the Swiss government has been somewhat uncooperative in helping Gaon execute on his arbitral award. Gaon has pulled a few capers in the past. He impounded the Russian entry in a French "tall ships" exhibition, trapping the young student crew aboard while the legal fight played out over a couple of days; he tried to seize Russia's entries in the Paris Air show (after which we put the French lawyers who managed the stunt on retainer). Over-under on how long it takes for the arrest order to get lifted: 3 hours - 2 days. Probability Gaon gets his money by seizing the paintings: 0%. Gaon knows it, too. He's just trying to harass the Russians into a settlement. With respect to Swiss hypocrisy, bank secrecy is not what it used to be. The Swiss have cooperating in tracking down and returning hundreds of millions of dollars in Abacha loot and nearly as much in Marcos boodle. "But that's after they were dead and gone!" you object. True. But the Swiss are also proving helpful in an enquiry about illegal rake-off on the part of President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. Gaon is a Saudi (!) Jew who emigrated to Switzerland in the 50s and built up both a hotels business and a trading business. Both went bust, leaving several Swiss Banks holding the bag. In fact, the Geneva public prosecutor opened a case against Gaon for mismanagement and accounting irregularities. As his financial world was caving in, Gaon used his arbitral claims as collateral against his mountain of loans from the Swiss banks. However, the way the collateralization was done, the arbitral awards can't be settled without Gaon's permission. The Russians would settle for a reasonable amount of money (in the context of how other creditors fared post the '98 default), enough to cover mst of the amount Gaon owes to the banks under the loans in question. However, Gaon would be left with nothing. Therefore, Gaon steadfastly refuses to settle for anything less than full reimbursement of his claims. The Russians, naturally, have rebuffed him. And the Swiss banks remain unpaid, sitting on a valuable claim that they are unable to realize. When we were interviewing Swiss counsel to help us evaluate the situation, we asked the guy we wound up hiring if he knew Gaon. "A scoundrel!" he thundered. Apparently, he had been involved in some bitter litigation against the old man. Although this seemed like a great coincidence, the lawyer informed us that practically everybody in the Geneva business elite has wound up either suing or being sued by Gaon over the years. Charming guy... [Ben H.: 11/16/05 14:25]


	Switzerland Repos Russia's Paintings Ben H (a.k.a. "sovereign debt guy"), what's your take on this story? My reaction is that it's kind of rich for Switzerland, the world's leading abettor of kleptocrats around the world, to get so punctilious when they're the ones being ripped off. The message is: We'll help you rob your own countrymen, to the point of mass starvation if it pleases you, just make sure you pay our bill when it arrives. [Doug: 11/16/05 14:16]


	"This is an Ex-Parrot! Then again, maybe he's just pining for the fjords. [Ben H.: 11/15/05 14:44]


	Another Reason to Admire Peter Costello Peter Costello has served as Australia's Treasurer for the last decade, during which time he has led the country's impressive fiscal and structural reform efforts. Having steadfastly advanced the cause of economic liberty, he is not keen to allow the infiltration of an Islamist fifth column to threaten a free and prosperous Australia: "If you are somebody who wants to live in an Islamic state governed by sharia law you are not going to be happy in Australia, because Australia is not an Islamic state, will never be an Islamic state and will never be governed by sharia law," Mr Costello said. "We are a secular state under our constitution, our law is made by parliament elected in democratic elections. "We do not derive our laws from religious instruction." Mr Costello said anyone who was alienated by Australia's form of government, judicial system and civil rights and wanted something else "might be better advised to find the 'something else' somewhere else". "There are Islamic states around the world that practise sharia law and if that's your object you may well be much more at home in such a country than trying to turn Australia into one of those countries, because it's not going to happen," he said. Hat tip: Powerline [Ben H.: 11/13/05 11:45]


	Abramoff: The Fun Begins As Ben A. predicted a while back, the Abramoff indictment gives us a peek -- infuriating, disgusting or amusing, depending on your your philosophy -- at the way Washington lobbyists operate. My favorite tidbit, described in today's NYT, regards Abramoff's work for Gabon president Omar Bongo. Abramoff charged Bongo several million dollars in order to set up a meeting for Bongo with President Bush. You have to give Abramoff credit for understanding the mentality of corrupt third world kleptocrats. For Bongo and his ilk meetings with presidents are a negotiable commodity. Bongo could hardly imagine that he might get a meeting with the President by simply have his embassy ask for one. He very likely assumed that most of the money paid to Abramoff would go to Bush. Of course, in the U.S., the President will as a matter of course meet with other legitimate heads of state. And gold medalists in rhythmic gymnastics. And boyscout troops. Bongo no doubt is fuming today as he realizes Abramoff took him for millions. [Ben H.: 11/10/05 16:33]


	Scrabble Frustration Playing Scrabble online last night, I had OUGUIYA but my opponent took my spot to play it. I could still have played OUGUIYAS but it wasn't recognized as a valid word! (My OSPD fourth edition lists the plural as valid, but apparently the third edition, which the online site uses, does not.) In another game I was able to play LARDOON and GASOLIER, but it was small consolation. [Doug: 11/10/05 12:06]


	An Evening of Democratic Senators The other night, my old friend J caged me an invite to see the local airing of the Joe Biden 2008 trial balloon. Appropriately, the event was hosted by a lawyer who hit it big in the asbestos lawsuits, and who now deploys his beautiful Beacon Hill brownstone in the service of major Democratic fundraising. This was only my second close-up experience with a big time politician, (I attended a small McCain fundraiser in 2000) and again I was impressed by the energy a pro like Biden can produce, and the ease with which he carried a room: never seeming like a blowhard, never seeming false, and talking without ceasing. In the trade lingo, Biden did good retail work, although he’s a bit of the theatrical Irishman., kneeling down to clasp the hands of old ladies and quoting Seamus Heaney from memory. We will see how it plays in Iowa. What about the substance, you ask? Well, as much as these events are not about substance I learned that Biden is happy to chide elite Northeasterners for distaining the American flag bumper-stickers, and for offering people “programs not dignity.” He wants to bring the Reagan Democrats back to the party, and that’s admirable. Negatives? The perennial ‘invest in education’ spiel was in evidence, and Biden’s keystone proposal is more chuckleheaded than most. He proposes expanding compulsory education form 12 to 14 years. Yes, that’s just what the American education system needs, 15% more time to apply its efficient human capital building techniques. The only revealing moment came in Biden’s response to the first question of the night: “It seems that we can either leave Iraq immediately, save many soldiers’ lives, and watch Iraq disintegrate, or stay another 5 to 7 years and have a chance at a much better outcome. Which should we do?” Biden essentially prepared the audience for his, and his party’s, collaboration in a dispiriting rout. The American people, he suggested, would not tolerate a longer stay in Iraq unless Bush came out with a responsible plan -- which, for Biden, was some version of a loose Peter Galbraith federalism. Unless the administration mended its ways (probability zero), we would have no choice but to leave. He predicted a serious exodus of troops, followed by chaos, before the end of next year. This, needless to say, is not what hawks like me – and insofar as I serve as a proxy, Biden’s Reagan Democrats – want to hear. I didn’t stay for the check writing, but I had another uplifting interaction with the American system later in the evening, when John and Vanessa Kerry took a nearby table at our restaurant. What an amazing country America is. A year ago Kerry missed out on the presidency by 100,000 Ohioans. Now, instead of sitting in the White House surrounded by an army of guards, he and his daughter can enter a restaurant unaccompanied and enjoy $8 dollar burgers unmolested. America rules. [Ben A.: 11/8/05 03:12]


	Argentina Until somebody comes up with a structure for sovereign bond issuance that allows me to lend to some Argentines and not others, making country generalizations will not only not get me fired, but will earn me good money (assuming I don't generalize poorly)! [Ben H.: 11/7/05 20:48]


	I still don't have much by way of explication of the riots in France, but am surprised that they continue to get worse. One quesion that "imposes itself", as they say, is whether these riots are any less rational than the 1968 ones whose (white) authors are still venerated in France today. Back then, they were rioting against conformism, or consumerism, or sexual repression, or generalized ungrooviness. At any rate their goal was no better defined, and their methods no more apt, than today's hooligans'. If the French cultural elite isn't celebrating today's rioters, it's because they're less likely to read (or at least own) books by Sartre, and perhaps also because -- did I mention this? -- they're not white. [Doug: 11/7/05 10:31]


	Classing Up the Joint If Ben H can attack the entire populace of Argentina, surely I can link to this high-toned item. I don't know what's best about the story: that it reads like a 14 year-old's fantasy, or that it completely fulfills my prejudices about Southern Florida. The only shock is that the club pressed charges instead of adding $40 to the cover. A friend comments "wow, generalization about a whole country! It's very 19th century ... are you trying to get fired?" [Ben A.: 11/7/05 09:07]


	So Glad I Am Going To Argentina The presence of George Bush has such a deranging effect on leftists that people in Argentina -- who have tolerated clientelism, corruption, a dirty war, and progressive immiseration -- have chosen this moment to riot. As you know, I support the President. I recognize that there is a good-faith case to be made against some of his policies, though I don't agree with it. One would reasonably expect that case to concern principally Americans. Given that the debate over Bush has, despite its polarizing effect, not yet spurred civil disorder in America, it seems strange that Argentines will take to the streets over his presence. For the most part, the Bush Administration's attitude toward the Southern Cone has been one of benign neglect, punctuated by efforts to force the IMF to disburse money against its better judgment and in the face of outright insults from the intended beneficiaries. Oh, yes, and taking action to protect Argentina from countries itching to retaliate on behalf of angry bondholder citizens stiffed by the Argentine government and national-champion companies suffering contact violations at that government's hands. Countries like France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Japan. But by all means, riot against Bush, amigos. To a student of Argentina, you see, their behavior makes perfect sense. Consider the salient characteristics of their national character and you'll see how the Argentine could hardly act otherwise. They are notorious ingrates (example: privitized entities that cleaned up notoriously bad public service companies wound up the targets of protests as soon as the economy turned down). They are cowards (they allowed the military to murder 20,000 fellow citizens and didn't manage to dislodge them until the British dealt a death blow to the dictadura in the Falkands War). They are bullies when they think they can get away with it (example: the Falkands War). They are self-deceivers (read Uki Goni's "The Real Odessa" to see how the country observed a conspiracy of silence over their anti-semitism, links to the Nazis, and efforts to shelter escaped Nazis after the war). The Mar de Plata riots arise from this national character. Railing against the guy who did the most among the G7 to help Argentina when it fell into economic crisis: ungrateful. Attacking who you know can't and won't hit back: cowardly. Using street violence to thwart discussion instead of joining the debate: bullies. Striking a heroic pose as you protest another country's leader, after allowing administration after administration in your own country to loot the public treasury, destroy institutions and spread poverty: self-deception and bad faith. I note that Diego Maradona took the podium next to Hugo Chavez and denounced Bush as a "fascist." Pretty rich coming from someone whose country harbored real fascists and whose national hero (Peron) could probably be classed likewise. Diego Maradona is a jumped-up little meatball of a man, a cokehead and a cheater. Not that anybody in America gives a shit (or should). After all, he's an appropriate avatar for his country. [Ben H.: 11/4/05 18:21]


	Tardy Response I was totally going to respond to your Halloween question but was a bit too worn out -- from travelling and from the accumulated work I had to deal with when I got back from Michigan. Your first observation was the one I was going to give. The three-and-a-half-year-old I went trick-or-treating with was kind of overwhelmed and had to be prodded to take stuff. The older kids were much more purposive. On the French rioting issue, I think your comparison to the late 60's riots is the best one to make. In both cases the complaint is not statutory discrimination. (That phase of the civil rights struggle was basically won by the 60's.) It is instead the social marginalization and economic stagnation of the group in question. I really haven't the faintest idea what the French should do about these people, and I don't know what lessons they should draw from the American experience of the 60's riots. Was our own reaction an unqualified success? In Michigan, the reaction was to cede the entire city of Detroit to the black radicals, who were predictably incapable of governing it. The whites have looked on ever since with some degree of satisfaction at black-run Detroit's utter decrepitude. I suppose the French could take this approach, and evacuate the few remaining white people from the "quartiers chauds" of Seine-St.-Denis, and just let the Muslims stew there in abject misery. (I guess you'd have to build high walls along the RER B line that connects Paris to the Roissy airport; the train was attacked yesterday.) But the Muslim factor might make this impossible -- today's hard-core Muslims aren't content to pursue crime in their own neighborhoods; they like to take it to the infidels. So maybe a concerted push of affirmative action is needed, to bring the rioters into the bourgeois fold. Mass deportations would be impractical. Like I said, I don't see any good solution. [Doug: 11/4/05 11:25]


	Halloween Post-Game Follow-up OK, so nobody's biting. Your overwhelming show of uninterest will not stop me from reporting my pseudo-scientific findings! - It appears bad behavior is learned and not inherent. Rousseau had it right, at least with respect to Halloween. The most salient predictor of behavior was age. Younger kids rarely took more than a single candy. Older kids tended to grab whole handfuls once they understood I would not stop them. It is possible that the younger kids' behavior had a more Pavlovian grounding. They often didn't know how to react to a proferred candy bowl. They expected to be handed candy and my behavior deviated enough from their expectations that they couldn't figure out how to act and simply froze. - The anonymity of the crowd frees people to behave badly. When approached by larger groups of trick-or-treaters, I wound up very often presiding over an accelerating grabfest. If one person snatched a whole handful of candy then others would start doing the same. If the candy bowl looked like it might empty completely, the grabbing became even more ferocious. This latter effect showed similar dynamics to a bank run. Individual trick-or-treaters or pairs rarely took as much. Perhaps they were reluctant to put one over on someone looking them right in the eye; perhaps without the prospect of all the candy disappearing before they could lay their hands on any they did not feel pressure of scarcity. - Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice... therefore they need sugary candy less? Boys were much more likely to make a greedy grab than girls. - Elaborately costumed trick-or-treaters behave better than average. Perhaps wearing the costume reveals a preference to use Halloween for performative display as opposed to the hoarding of free candy. Certainly kids who go out without having made the least attempt at dress-up are clearly after nothing more than candy; it is no surprise they will throw etiquette aside to get more of it. Also, it seems to me that someone willing to put in a lot of time on a costume has showed an ability to defer gratification; and probably could afford to just buy candy if he or she were really desperate for it. [Ben H.: 11/3/05 20:16]


	More Riots Doug, as our resident anthropologist of Frenchness, what do you make of these riots? Would it be uncharitable to suggest that Seine Saint Denis has become a quagmire and that the French should withdraw and call upon the UN and the Arab League to take over? The United States has had its own problems with rioting on the part of a poorly assimilated minority. And after Watts and Detroit and Newark, we had the Kerner Commission and redoubled efforts (some worthwile, some misguided) to more fully integrate that minority, suppress invidious discrimination against its members, and to compensate for past discrimination. Do you think France will take the same approach? Would a similar approach work in the case of the Muslim "excludeds"? In a few important respects, the French face a more daunting challenge. Muslim culture is, properly speaking, alien to France, while black culture has been a part of the broader American culture since almost the instant of the European settlement. The idea of "returning" black Americans to some other country would have been inherently absurd, in that they are American by history, culture, right, and self-identification. Can the French say the same about Muslims, many of whom are first generation immigrants, others who are French-born but still bound in culture and allegiance to foreign lands? The temptation to say "out with them" must therefore be much greater for the French. That is not to say that a better solution to the French problem necessarily exists. It's just that it easier for them to justify not looking... [Ben H.: 11/3/05 20:02]


	Brooklyn Halloween Post-Game Making a public prediction is the surest way to bring about the opposite result. After a posted earlier that I stocked up on Halloween candy because last year's experience taught me I would run virtually no risk of getting stuck with leftovers, I discovered that a Monday-night Halloween requires a smaller stock that a Sunday-night holiday. I only got home from work around 7pm, at which point a lot of the trick-or-treating seemed to have finished already. Sitting on my stoop waiting for kids to come by, I decided to make use of the evening for an amateur social psychology experiment. Instead of handing out candies, one by one, to trick-or-treaters, I filled up a small bowl with treats and proferred it to each group. I wanted to see how kids would behave given no direction on how much I would allow them to take and to figure out how the behavior varied by age, gender, costume type, etc. Rather than give away the game, I'll let you guys first try to guess what patterns I noticed. While I await your brilliant sociological speculations, allow me, Ben A., to express my sympathy for your loss of the man you rightly identified as a Jewish baseball geek folk hero. I must object, however, to his timing. Why couldn't he have stormed off before Steinbrenner abased himself before Cashman, persuading him to stay on. The Yankees could use a GM who knows enough sabremetrics to realize that Tony Womack is somebody who should have to pay you to play on your team. [Ben H.: 11/1/05 21:46]


	Devil Quotes Scripture? "Lucchino's a chameleon. Just wait. You'll see." --George Steinbrenner [Ben A.: 11/1/05 21:27]


	Liberation Theology Disaster has stuck Red Sox nation as wunderkind General Manager Theo Epstein tendered an unexpected resignation yesterday. The issue appears to have been his working relationship with CEO Larry Lucchino, and we can expect an orgy of Kremlinology over the next few days as outsiders try to reconstruct how the partnership soured. My quick take: this loss will substantially damage on the field performance. The Red Sox leadership already suffered a blow this off season, with assistant GM Josh Byrnes taking the top spot in Arizona. Decapitation strikes work, and Boston has just lost the top two men in baseball operations. Expect disarray. [Ben A.: 11/1/05 10:36]