The New York Times

Comment on: Seeing Red Over R-Rated Trailers on 3/26/2010

It's been over a year since the Halicarnassian has seen daylight long enough to get a message out - but a new epoch has arrived, knowledge is still power, and the future still needs us to channel our history.

Today's commentary is on a bit of filler news: the debate over mainstream movie trailer on the internet. A self-regulated industry, arguing over Hollywood decency standards is irrelevant at best - but telling in this case.

The man at the forefront of the argument for increased controls (supposedly for viewer age) is John Aristotle Phillips. The kind soul who forwarded the article my way was able to dig up more relevant facts that the paper of record did not see 'fit to print' - about the man who's company (Aristotle, Inc.) stands to gain most.

The casual reader would assume that as CEO, Mr. Phillips is a business-minded purveyor of social technology, albeit technology that restricts access to information and media. But Aristotle, Inc.'s core business is political data, and perhaps because it is decidedly non-partisan it does not seem to be choosy about its clients or mission. Can web viewers at regulated sites like MySpace really expect the company to put aside the interests of the politicos in pushing solutions on internet distributors? Do MySpace and others have any reason to believe that more invasive age verification will benefit their audience and the business model?

I cannot definitively say more. But consider that behind closed doors, high profile content providers will ask Mr. Phillips more about who wants tough age verification and why. If the MySpaces of the United States do move to tighten the reins, we can expect that they found allies worth the insult to visitors.

To govern or not to govern

Comment on: AIG, an insurance giant, is bailed-out by America's government | A lifeline for AIG | The Economist at 9/17/2008 9:03 AM EDT

Let's not slide half-truths into the news. The American people may bear the costs of this bailout, but it's hardly the government that is responsible. The Fed is a quasi-governmental institution. And I still can't ID a meaningful decision by the Treasury since 1913. Don't they chase after counterfeiters (i.e. protecting the Fed's monopoly)?

It's telling that Senate Banking Committee's Chairman, Christopher Dodd, has complained about being left out of the loop... or that McCain and others near-totalitarians choose to preach free market so long as the decisions remain clearly outside the control of government.

As an INTP, I realize that I'm naturally more precise with language than 99% of Americans. Yet there is reason to be careful with words that travel widely.

The dollar on the margins

Comment on: American finance | Still bleeding | Economist.com at 8/21/2008 10:10 AM EDT

Lehman Brothers is a full-service investment bank in the same way Arthur Andersen was a full-service accounting firm before we discovered Enron. As sacred keepers of the money, people at companies like this have every reason to be reckless. For example, well-connected college interns made over 25,000 USD per week this summer as 'consultants' for Lehman. Would you risk being seen giving undergraduate sophomores bribe-like compensation?

I'm not one to say whether decisions like this hurt or helped their bottom line, but it indicates just how much less marginal value the dollar has for players like Fannie, Freddie and Lehman than it does for those outside the investment class. Perhaps more importantly, it illustrates how power over cheap money can cloud one's judgment. Recent losses may spur on some cosmetic changes at big-name corporations, but let's not expect anything less than restructuring at the Fed & US Treasury to save the financial system.

My two cents -- Bring back the Greenback!