Unfair price for vegetable

Today for the first time I took note of the cost of tomato that I just purchased in Stop-and-Shop grocery store. Bill reads as follows(for one tomato)

Vine Ripe Tomato $2.99/pound $1.44

What motivated to take notice is FOOD Inc movie. In that movie, Micheal Pollen talks about alarming price difference between fast-food and vegetable He says collieflower costs more than $1 while burger at McDonald costs just 99cents.

Seriously this pendulum needs correction. I do not mind paying more for burger. Let us pay fair price and tackle obesity.

TBTF or Too complex to handle?

Simon Johnson is campaigning to eliminate TBTF but Paul Krugman is not that against TBTF(based on his blog posts).

My own though is TBTF leads to complex web and makes it hard to tell where the investor's money is landing. We start to see same thing with different wrapper without adding value to customer. We are not in market utopia, so as companies grow fairness comes down.


I think not having TBTF is a pragmatic solution.

Someone got to pay for that...

Heard a passer by say "Someone got to pay for that...". He was obviously talking about Health Care bill.

Line "Someone got to pay for that..." is a bill board statement, projects the speaker as a responsible citizen. Are these genuinely responsible?. May not be because many such speakers do not ask
"Who pays for defense bill?"
"Why am I paying so much for health insurance company?"
"Who contributes to monsterous TARP?"

Run away away!!

Referring to beaten Obama's interview to ABC network, in which 0bama expressed plans to move towards right, Paul Krugman says to liberals Run away away

Personally it is a great disappointment. I had not never taken any politician so seriously. Looks like I was as naive as Mr Obama.

It is time to say Good night to him...

Stockholm syndrome or Hyper Nationalism

Once in a while, Americans and Chinese readers use street fighting language while responding to article in Newspaper or Blog. Supporters of America draw attention iron fist of Chinese Govt. while Chinese argue that they are happy to grabbed.

Now the Google has refused to censor news in China. In response to this news, majority of Chinese readers have fiercely expressed solidarity with Chinese Govt. I do not understand the logic behind Chinese reader's response, whatever Google is doing, at least at the face, is good for Chinese public. To me it seems Chinese readers are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

What surprises me is that over the years, it has been close to impossible to find one Chinese reader who's response is moderate. They seem to take even the hint of criticism from western media as grave insult.

After spending all my life is democracies I do not trust Govt. completely; Govt. and God are not same. This mindset makes hard for me to understand Chinese defense.

Thing impossible for Obama to fake...

Obama may end up passing flimsy health care reform still make it to history book. There is no specific way to measure the effect of this reform so even a toothless one is also a reform.

Unemployment number are not so kind to Obama. Nothing short of genuine economic reform is going to improve job market. This time, bad job numbers are definitely going to expose the facade of GDP, Growth.

Wall-street is the biggest sucker, and is driving the greed and by-products. Without fixing this sucker, nothing is going to change, definitely not this time.

These numbers are going to nail him.

"What is for dinner" style of politics

Obama has left many of those who rooted in support of him disappointed. I followed his election from the beginning, much before Iowa primary. He sounded sincere. I have seen probably the most corrupt democracy on the planet, in India. With that mindset, Obama appeared to me like once in a life time leader, way above politics. I was not alone, millions did the same; people who had withdrawn from democratic process, due to hopelessness, came out to support him; students worked for his campaign like volunteer work. I heard on radio about a girl who went to night clubs in Pennsylvania, at wee hours, to do voters registration.

Is he fighting?
No. Obama has not demonstrated the grit that was required for implementing his promises. He is more like water, fit work in school, no way he can lead nation. I can not bank on him and hope he would fight for me.

Is he sincere at least?
I doubt his sincerity too. He hired same individuals who sowed the seeds of financial crisis. Given that Obama is smart so aware of history of his appointees, why did he hire same crooks?. Or Why not fire them at least now? Why did Obama extend Ben Shalom Bernanke term for FED Reserve?

Mentally, Obama has lost the game already. Parasites of political system know that President can be cultivated or transformed, and will not allow Obama to make significant change. Now only thing that can save Obama's grace is a honest apology.

I hate to say this because I really believed in him but Obama is going to end up like Jimmy Carter.

Is rationality the best selling point for atheism?

Having rational ideas is harmless but it may not be sufficient to convert believer in to atheist. To take my own example, I did not
become atheist after seeing lab-report :-).

There was a temple on the way to school which I used to visit often. Saying that I grew among a sea of believers is indeed an understatement. I used to go to temple at least two or three times a week.

From there, I gradually stopped believing in god, and years later came to know that this phenomenon is called as 'atheism'. So this conversion was not based on any anti-religion literature or one life changing event :-). I think years of reading current events in magazines, Newspaper developed this conviction, so it was an unconscious change.

Based on my experience, I think no amount of science can make believer an atheist. We can use scientific argument to make a kill if the target is already leaning towards atheism. I am not completely in favor of this method of sale. This method may not be sustainable on the long run; such converts could run back to God if there is any personal tragedy. And if this person happens to be loud mouthed celebrity, atheism gets bad press. Like democracy, for atheism to survive it should be borne out of inner pondering.

I heard of Mr Dawkins for the first time in 2006. I think, it is possible to realize absence of God on our own.