We've done it again boys. Garcon! Mount #4's taxidermied head in the hallowed hallway of Jet misery. Put it dead center - right in between Doug Brien's foot and the floor plans of the Manhattan stadium.

The buzz today is focused solely on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's financial stability plan. My quick verdict is that the plan is woefully inadequate on details, and I just don't understand the rush to announce this plan without a more specific framework for implementation.

Elkhart, Indiana, is a city of just over 50,000 people. Over its history, it's had a few key industries, but none so important as trailer and RV manufacturing that has been recently devastated by high gas prices and lack of credit for people still willing to buy. It's a city of hard-working, salt-of-the-earth types, most of whom vote Republican. It's middle America at its best and its worst. And it's not so very different from cities of its size all over the country. 

Monday 2/9. The MS Wall Fox Times, a joint news venture created by various prominent media organizations, has revealed that President Barack Obama is not Jesus. A probing collaboration by numerous reporters, pundits, and editorial assistants has determined that Barack Obama bears little physical resemblance to the celebrated hero of Christian faiths worldwide and cannot walk on water.

OK, I don't know how many people actually listened to my first attempt at the Daily Buzz, but two people commented they liked it (with reservations), and that's all the encouragement the vain Deadman needed to continue the process.

The big night is almost here and everyone is wondering: Will they go ridiculously overboard in stimulating the economy or will the show be more circumspect in an acknowledgement that average America isn't buying up Harry Winston diamonds like we used to?

I'll leave these important questions to others while I go out on a (short) limb and make some predictions, starting with Best Picture. I'll do my best to get to the other categories as well, but that leaves me with 8 movies to see in two weeks, so no promises.

OK, so Obama's tough talking apparently worked.

The administration got three moderate Republican senators to agree to support the stimulus package and prevent a filibuster. In return, some $100 billion in spending from the package was removed while some Republican proposals for tax cuts and credits were adopted (most notably a $15,000 credit for homebuyers).

Like some of you, I've wondered if Karl Rove really is some sort of evil genius.  However, I've seen some new evidence that gives me cause to question this conclusion in the form of this link.  As the explanation goes, Obama read some choice, in-character lines for the audio book version of Dreams From My Father (not Dreams for my Father).

Ok, so I am totally going to risk extreme personal embarrassment by doing this, but I decided to experiment with a little video rundown of some of the day's top stories as indicated by Yahoo Buzz!, which is a Digg-like service at http://buzz.yahoo.com. I basically put on my Unabomber/Deadman outfit, recap the top articles that interested me, and throw in a little commentary for good measure.

The following passage is from one of my all-time favorite books.  The book is Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, which was published the year that he passed, 1996.  The passage is found in the book's second chapter, Science and Hope.  In my edition, it begins at the bottom of page 36 and continues onto page 37 thusly:

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, publicly asked the government to raise his taxes in a NYT op-ed today. His position was not that of Warren Buffett, who has argued that taxes are unfairly low for the super rich. Rather, Hastings argued that higher taxes offer a more effective way to limit CEO incomes than pay caps. And he's right. To see why, we need to first understand why CEO salaries have gotten as high as they have.

The first time I remember seeing a Reddi-wip can was on a camping trip during a high school summer when some of my friends tried to get high by snorting the nitrous oxide gas inside it. Even back then, a 'whippit' sure looked like a stupid, only mildly effective, thing to do.

From the Eccentric_Billionaire++ department:

The 2009 TED talks are going on this week.  Apparently, during his talk on fighting malaria, Bill Gates unleashed a jar full of mosquitoes genetically engineered to implant nano-bots in their victims.  Gates laughed maniacally and revealed the details of his plot, phase one of which involves the nano-bots infecting their hosts with a fanatical devotion to Windows Vista.

So, I'm doing my typical morning thing, which includes staples such as black coffee and Google News.  I like Google News for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the sort of "smart" aggregation that can sometimes lead to interesting or amusing juxtapositions.  It would be fun if someone did a more Burroughs-Gysin style news presentation.  The technology is there.  I'm just sayin'.

Ready or not, here comes Valentines Day! You've only just finished breaking your last New Year's resolution, and now you have to find a sincere way to express profound sentiments of passion to your significant other.

To say that George Bush and Barack Obama don’t have much in common is an almost laughable understatement. About the only thing they share is the fact that each has two daughters. After Obama’s mea culpa yesterday, I was thinking about what different examples the fathers have set.

From watching their father in action, Barbara and Jenna Bush learned some interesting lessons:

Currently, sitting atop the Turkish Pop Chart is a singer called Murat Dalkilic, singing Kasaba.