Month: October 2007

ABC News: 20 Years Later: Could Stocks Crash Again?:

Twenty years ago today, the U.S. stock market suffered its worst one-day drop ever: the Crash of ’87. The Dow Jones industrials plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent, as waves of selling swamped the New York Stock Exchange. It was a market dislocation so intense that some pundits predicted another Great Depression.

I was a freshman at NYU, rooming with a finance major, and I heard what had happened– and wondered how bad it was going to be. I was up late that night, and walked out of my dorm on 5th Avenue (Rubin, if you must know) wondering how the world was going to change as a result.

And I was looking to the north when I saw the lights of the Empire State Building go out.

I was pretty new to the city, I didn’t know they turned out the lights every night. And only a few months earlier, I had read Atlas Shrugged, which ends with the lights of the Empire State Building and New York going out.

Brrrrrrr.

But then I looked to the south, and I was reassured– the lights were still on down there, at the World Trade Center. Everything was going to be okay.

Amazing how things can change in a few years, eh?

There’s a lot of debate going on in the House and Senate about making changes to FISA, allowing illegal acts of wiretapping and surveillance programs conducted in the past to retroactively become legal.

Don’t fall for it. Pass no such laws.

If George W. Bush thinks it’s so damn important, then he can issue a Presidential pardon to the telecoms and take the political heat for doing so. But don’t let him try to trick you into doing his dirty work for him. Let him take it on the chin. Don’t enable his lawbreaking.

Or do you agree with Richard Nixon when he said that if the President does it, that means it’s not illegal?

Playbill News: Clay Aiken to Make Broadway Debut in Monty Python’s Spamalot:

“American Idol” finalist Clay Aiken is scheduled to join the Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Monty Python%u2019s Spamalot in the role of Sir Robin.

Aiken will be making his Broadway debut in the role originated on Broadway by David Hyde Pierce. His stint begins Jan. 18, 2008, and is scheduled to continue through May 4.

Brain found in bag near Va. apartments – USATODAY.com:

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) %u2014 A brain was found in a bag near a Virginia apartment complex Tuesday morning, but it was not clear if it was human or animal, police said.

It was discovered next to a suburban apartment complex under construction and near a mall, Richmond police spokeswoman Karla Peters said.

The state medical examiner was examining the brain, she said. It was not clear how long it had been there.

“We’re waiting for the medical examiner to determine how we should proceed,” Peters said.

Now all we need is to find Dick’s heart and the press corps’ courage.

(Via ectomo.)