I love the movie Rio Bravo, and I actually never knew anyone else enjoyed it as much as I do. So today’s Wall Street Journal article by Allen Barra took me by surprise. Here is a snippet:

French director Jean-Luc Godard called “Rio Bravo” “a work of extraordinary psychological insight and aesthetic perception.” British film critic Robin Wood wrote, “If I were asked to choose a film that would justify the existence of Hollywood, I think it would be ‘Rio Bravo.’” Quentin Tarantino, whose “Pulp Fiction” was also both popular and hip, told an audience at a 2007 Cannes screening of “Rio Bravo” that he always tested a new girlfriend “by taking her to see ‘Rio Bravo’ — and she’d better like it!”

And here is the link: Rio Bravo

The blog, Audacious Epigone, has a very interesting post describing a study showing that “Liberals do not consider cheating on taxes to be as morally problematic as conservatives do. This presents an obvious moral quandary of its own, as, putatively less surprisingly, liberals are more likely than conservatives are to favor greater amounts of taxation and wealth redistribution.”

See the whole study:

Liberals and Tax Cheating

In one instance the regulators asked her about her role in preparing the Stanford International Bank quarterly report. She replied it was her job to edit the report, checking the report’s pie charts “to make sure they equal 100.”

Pie chart comment

Great pictures from Boston.com on dog sledding. Check it out:

Dog sledding

The following is an amazing real time recreation with the voices of air controllers and USAir pilots. I am even more in awe of Captain Sullenberger now than I was before. You realize how calm he was and how fast he had to react. All we hear are his conversations with air traffic controllers and not the crew or his co-pilot. Kudos to the computer design team that put this together as well.

There is a great oped piece from Niall Ferguson on how best to combat the financial crisis and all I can say is that I absolutely agree with his analysis. Here are two snippets:

The harsh reality that is being repressed is this: the Western world is suffering a crisis of excessive indebtedness. Many governments are too highly leveraged, as are many corporations. More important, households are groaning under unprecedented debt burdens.

and this:

The delusion that a crisis of excess debt can be solved by creating more debt is at the heart of the Great Repression. Yet that is precisely what most governments propose to do.

The whole thing here: Niall Ferguson oped

I highly recommend that everyone who has HBO, watch their latest movie, Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon. It is one of the most moving and emotional movies I have seen in a long time. The movie is about an officer in the Marines escorting a Marine’s remains (Chance Phelps) home after he died in Iraq in 2004.

I had no idea what happens when a soldier dies. The beauty, respect and dignity that the military gives to each fallen soldier was eye-opening and inspiring. There is no violence shown in this movie or disgusting pictures, and the power of the movie is that much greater for it.

This movie is a true story and it was an official selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, deservedly so. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I feel honored to have watched it.

Here is the trailer:

At times like this when the financial world seems to be ending, I think its important to have a bit of humor. I just got an email from someone saying to prepare for the end of the world. It reminded me of this scene from Ghostbusters:

File this story under Bizarre (this one deserves the capital “B”). This credit crisis continues to unearth ridiculous behavior.

Beauty contest for mistresses