Rambling Reading

A couple thoughts about what I've been reading lately:

- Jigga's got a new album dropping this winter .

- eBay's stock price is blowing chunks (more to come on this next week).

- Israel still denies it's collaborating with the US to take over the world.

- News flash: Home sales are down. Someone clue in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Read More: Jay-Z, Israel, eBay, Housing

Republish Humpday: MySpace Tom's Porno Past

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WWIII

I spent a lot of time over the weekend contemplating the latest drama in the Middle East involving Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, et al. Some of the questions that I've been asking myself are mostly rhetorical in nature, however I think they are valid. Some examples:

-Why is Israel reacting the way it is? Sure, initially it had two soldiers brutally kidnapped and seven soldiers killed, never a good thing, but is right for them to retaliate in the manner that it did? I put my country in its shoes - if the US had two soldiers kidnapped by Iran (which it had), would the United States respond by bombing them? I can honestly answer that question no. Granted, bombing Iran in such a scenario would definitely be an option, but I think that we (the US) would respond with more diplomatic measures before becoming so hostile.

-What are the long-term implications of the Israeli action? There was an interesting interview on NPR this morning (sorry no link) that asked a similar question. And the respondont answered that because of Israel's action, the status quo in Israel could never return. I disagree. Although Israel's retaliation in this situation is a bit harsh, I think that the situation could be quickly diffused Israel stopped the bombing, and the hostages were immediately returned.

One of the most interesting questions that was asked over the weekend was asked on a Sunday morning talk show to Senator John McCain. The question was whether or not Sen. McCain believed we were in the middle of World War III. He answered that given the number of countries involved in conflict, and the fact that there is no end in sight, that yes, history will ultimately refer to this as WWIII.

In my opinion, this 'war' is small potatoes compared to WWI and WWII. Essentially you, there are no more than 10 countries that have actually exchanged gunfire (though the words Cold World War, would be very applicable). Could the violence in the Middle East explode into a legitimate World War? No question. The reference to the Middle East as a powder keg is no coincidence.

Rocky Balboa

Not sure if you have seen this, but the new Rocky movie looks fantastic!

No Surfing For You!

In Boston, cafe owners are getting quite upset at the locals who are taking advantage of WiFi access in coffee shops, but not purchasing much while they surf the web. Some have even gone to the point of shutting off their WiFi or kicking web surfers out of their shops.

I understand that nerds taking bandwith from legitimate (read: paying) customers is cause for concern, but owners shouldn't get their panties in a bunch over the issue. I'm fine with the fact that customers much purchase something in order to use the WiFi that's available, but I think they're going a little overboard if they're kicking customers out of the store who spend a couple hours surfing the Web.

The fact that people are at your store (instead of say, Starbucks) should be a cause for celebration for you - and give you some sort of sense of entitlement. Let's face it, people in your stores are a hundred times more likely to buy something from you than someone who is not in your store.

Einstein the Player...Not the Hater

Today it was revealed that Einstein was not quite the loner that he made himself out to be. Besides providing us with all of our modern wisdom on relativity, and space, time and matter as we now currently understand it,he was also busy hooking up with some of Europe's finest ladies.

Good for him. Until this came out, I thought all he did was sit around trying to figure out ways to make our society better.

Cha Cha Changes...

A story that received far too little attention today was the fact that Jeff Jordan walked away from eBa -- err PayPal --err one big online marketing company today. Jordan was with eBay since 1999 and recently was given the task as President of the PayPal unit.

There is rampant speculation as to why Jordan is leaving. Could he not handle the heat from Google's new payment/checkout feature (along those lines, great story today from AuctionBytes about how eBay won't allow sellers to use Google Checkout)? Is he really leaving to spend "more time with his family." Jordan was speculated to have be CEO-in-training for the time when Meg Whitman decides to call it today.

ex-CFO Rajiv Dutta takes over for Jordan at PayPal (interestingly, after only 2 months as president at lackluster Skype).

After approximately one week of having a legitimate threat to it's (cough, cough monopolistic) online payment system, two words describe how eBay is taking it's new-found competition: not well.

Who Killed Kenny? Enron

As to be expected, Enron frontman Kenneth Lay had a major heart-attack today. Why this was a big surprise in the news is very curious to me. This guy was facing life in prison, was convicted of several felonies, and is only five years removed from fumbeling away almost $60 Billion dollars and destroying thousands of lives in the process. A heart attack in this case should have been expected.

Looking back at Enron, it's kind of amazing that the whole thing unfolded under all of our noses the way that it did, without anyone doing much about it. Sure people knew about it, but ultimately money kept them quiet. I'm not trying to sound naive - I understand that money makes the World go 'round - all I'm saying is that it's unfortunate that we as a society have sucommed to sacraficing our ethics in exchange for a few extra zero's in our pay check.

Forgive me as I am in a bit of a philisophical, cynical and fatalistic mood tonight. I would be interested in hearing the comments of Plato, Socrates and others on the current plight of our society. We pay athletes millions of dollars, all so we can be entertained for a couple hours. Yet, at the same time, a teacher somewhere in America just finished spending 11 hours trying to teach American Civics to a bunch of unappreciative high-school students, and is trying to figure out how in the hell he's going to pay for the Prada bag his wife just purchased on a whim.

Don't get me wrong, normally I'm a capitalist who whole-heartedly believes in every last word that Adam Smith wrote, however, I believe that somewhere along the lines we may have missed the point when it comes to who gets paid what in our society, and those who pirate money shouldn't always get away with it.