Awww.

The recession, or whatever it is supposed to be called, killed one of the best bookstores in the Bay Area (if not in the country). Stacey's will be no more in a few months.

I can't say I was a "regular" customer, but anytime I was in SF and had some time to kill on Market, I'd pop into Stacey's. It's huge but not impersonal, has a great selection, and overall just seemed so inviting. Plus, it is much easier to navigate than the cramped aisles of that other, more famous SF bookstore, City Lights.

So -1 point, Bay Area. It has not been a good year for you, thus far.

You Know You're Boned When...

...running as a conservative, even George Will thinks you're a crackpot.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

(from The Post)

I will confess to not having the business know-how to completely grapple with the current economic crazytimes. I am glad that I'm not in a financial-sector job, though am fully aware that it's all interrelated and that eventually my own profession will suffer if the economic outlook isn't improved.

That being said, why bailouts? I'm pretty damn liberal, and hold many case-specific opinions that socialism is not a universally bad idea, but this seems completely unnecessary. I mean, when you have a liberal telling you to let the capitalist market correct itself, aren't you being more than a little reactionary?

I realize it has a trickle-down effect, and it sucks that poorer folks are getting screwed out of their housing loans. I am on-board with assistance programs to try and stem this tide of foreclosures. I am not on-board with bailouts of massive Wall Street firms that should have known better. Joe Homeowner may have as much fiscal smarts as me; Jim Stockbroker is a damn professional. This is like the government giving my firm a pass for committing insurance law violations. It's our job to know that stuff.

I know this is all fluff, even more so than usual because I really, really don't know much about the markets. But it's nice to see that smarter men than I (George Will is very, very smart) feel the same way.