I printed this article today so that I could hang it on my file cabinet.

Two types of people may understand the hidden meaning: A) those that have read Ayn Rand and were not terribly swayed by her persuasive arguments; and B) those that have read Ayn Rand and drool over everything she ever wrote or uttered.

"Three New York City construction officials indicted and arraigned on Dec. 22 in connection with a fatal fire at a vacant Ground Zero high-rise being cleaned of asbestos and demolished posted bail and will reappear in court in Manhattan on Jan. 7."

~snip~

"Indicted were Bovis official Jeffrey Melofchik, lead project-safety manager; Mitchel Alvo, abatement director for The John Galt Corp., the Bronx, N.Y., demolition subcontractor; and Salvatore DePaola, a Galt foreman and believed to be a member of laborers’ union Local 79 in New York City. The Galt firm also was indicted."

~snip~

"The indictment accuses the defendants of being aware of or causing an inoperable building standpipe and not reporting it. The situation hampered firefighting and rescue efforts. The defendants face up to 15 years in prison on two manslaughter charges, up to four years on two negligent-homicide charges and one year on the reckless-endangerment charge."

~snip~

Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 12/31/2008 is -43.8%

That's good, right?

Last week, I saw this item regarding criticism of the SBA in Buffalo Business First:

"Fred Hochberg, a leader of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for the SBA, makes the case for cabinet-level status in Change for America, a compilation of advice for the new administration collected by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the New Democracy Project."

~snip~

"As for specific programs, Hochberg thinks the agency needs to reduce fees on SBA-backed loans, consider increasing the amount guaranteed by the government and look at increasing the maximum 7(a) loan amount to $3 million. The SBA also needs to assess its tolerance for risk in its loan programs, he writes."

Today, in the same paper, I see this item where the empire, er SBA, strikes back:

"The Small Business Administration blasted President-elect Barack Obama’s SBA transition team leader for writing a “largely inaccurate, outdated and misleading” analysis of the agency’s record during the Bush administration."

~snip~

"The SBA’s press office responded Dec. 11 with a three-page “news release/fact sheet” that refuted Hochberg point-by-point. The agency’s budget hasn’t shrunk, it contended, if one excludes congressional earmarks; disaster loan funds, which vary year-to-year; and the $120 million that formerly subsidized 7(a) loans. That loan program is now self-supporting through fees on borrowers and lenders – fees that Hochberg contends are too high.

SBA lending was down in fiscal 2008, the fact sheet conceded, but the agency still approved 30 percent more loans than it did during the Clinton administration’s best year."

Oooo! Policy fight! Popcorn?

Ever.

It is TUESDAY! Here's some things to ponder...

1. So, chances are, you are one of the majority of people that at some time have valorized your caffeine addiction.

I've done it. Becky's done it (Mountain Dew and M&M's, anyone?). Louis has done it (Coca-Cola). Lisa's done it (I want an espresso maker!). Sya, not so much. Why do you valorize the addiction to caffeine? Why are you proud that it takes a gallon of coffee to make it through the day? Alternatively, why do people valorize the addiction to anything? Video games? Chocolate? Or, what's your favorite kind of tea.

2. There are two daily newspapers in Detroit. Today, the Detroit Free-Press and the Detroit News both announced that they are going to a home-delivery schedule of only three days a week. Is this the way of the future for newspapers? Is there nothing that can save daily dead-tree media? Are weeklies next?

3. Which was worse to live in? Czarist Russia or Soviet Russia? I ask because I ran across a story which had a situation where a shady sort of character felt oppressed by a policeman. A colleague to the shady character made a comment that it was like living in Russia. That's not so odd, except that the story was set in 1875 and was written in the early nineteen hundreds.

If you choose to play, leave your answers in the comments or a link to your answers on your own blog. Stay warm!

Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the larger law firms are not hiring as much and their summer intern programs are down 20 percent or so.

It is kind of overdoing it as far as blogging software goes, but it does a lot of things I wish other systems would do. When I log in, it tells me that a new version is available if one's available. The user settings seem to work, and I think I have two real users and a bunch of would-be spambots that haven't read their email to finish signing in yet. Louis looks like he was caught in that too, and if he was, he could just email me. Or call me -- so long as it's not past 9PM on the west coast! I'm interested in the perspective of the, what, five people that read this blog on how Drupal is working for you folks. Comment here, if you can, or mail me using my first name at this domain.

Ectophensis is now at version 6.8 of Drupal. I've also changed the settings to allow registered readers to set their own site templates. I don't think anonymous users can do so, but I really don't know.

This is just a test to see if I place a particular time in the authoring information of the post, whether drupal will hold the post until that time. Nothing to see here.

No, not me. My brother.

Earlier this week, I told my brother that I'd be able to help him move after 8PM on Saturday. Lisa has a bonafide work-from-home part-time job that she needs to do and a lot of her hours come in on the weekend. Augie's bedtime is 8 PM, so I'm not really available before that for anything, unless Augie comes with. On the one hand, he's a pretty strong kid for his size, and strength is always useful when moving my brother's personal branch of the Seattle Public Library (27 cubic feet of books doesn't sound like a lot, until you realize that 27 cubic feet of books is a cubic yard of books, and you buy dirt in bulk by the cubic yard), but seeing as my son can't walk yet, he's not likely to be much help.

In my brother's new building, we sent the books up the elevator in thirds, because we didn't want to chance the weight limit of the elevator.

But the assload of books that my brother owns really isn't the point of this post. The point is that we had phenomenal timing in planning this move. At 8 PM, as I was walking out the door, it had just started to snow. And I'm recovering from a nice head cold that's now settling in my chest.

But it was fun all the same.

After we got done, I told him that he's not allowed to get rid of any of those books. We laughed about that, and later on he mentioned that it might be time for him to finally get a library card.

*blink, blink* Hmm. Driver's license couldn't hurt either, if you ask me.