Are You Ready (for Some Football)?

* NFL opener tonight, baby. Raiders and Patriots!

* I'm more interested in the iPod Nano than anything else they have, but still prefer a Treo. Now Sony is going to compete with their latest walkman. But, I don't know. It's the whole "one device" thing. Phone, MP3s, web/chat/email. I don't know why folks even bother with an iPod or Sony anything. Just get a Treo.

* The temperatures are dropping off here, and the cool breezes at night are a reminder that winter is coming. Good Lord, I can't imagine what folks will be paying for energy this year. Me? I keep my thermostat low and wear sweats and sweatshirts. But a lot of folks will gladly pay $500/mo energy bills. That's a car payment, folks. No thanks.

* Most schools offer junk food. Well, the war on big corporate junk food is well underway. At first, they wanted to ban sodas. Did that, but kids are still fat. Now, they're going after junk food. I think the kids will still be fat. And it depends on what your definition of junk food is. (I think meat is junk food. Rare occassions only.)

* Worried about age-related memory loss? It may be diet and exercise related...

* The market? Pretty strong, huh? Well, I'm still long the index and waiting for any weakness to get more aggressive. Same old, same old. Broken record on that the last few weeks. I just am wary of any September head fakes before getting too aggressive concentrating in tech stocks. But, up is good. Nice to see the economy strong, and with who knows how many tens of billions being spent on Hurricane Katrina recovery, the boom may continue.

* Now, Jay-Z is coming out in support of Kayne West in his diatribe against George Bush last week. (Remember, Kayne West said that " George Bush doesn't care about black people." Link. I think those folks are entitled to their free speech, no matter how crazy they are; but, they're probably better musicians than they are political commentators.

* I watched TV's Smallville last night, and they promise that in this next season, Clark Kent becomes a man, and Lex Luther becomes evil. Well it's about time! I mean, the whole Clark Kent and Lana Lang angst thing was interesting in the first season, but then after that it kind of drifted and I skipped last season (but now watching some this summer). Bring it on.

* Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the gay marriage bill. My only commentary is political. Doesn't it seem like the Democrats are setting up their 2006 playbook the same way they set up their previous election year playbooks? That is, they're going to run on gay marriage and tax hikes again. Bush may be unpopular, but he's not THAT unpopular.

* Hiking taxes is pretty much alway a loser. In 1992, remember Clinton ran on a tax cut after Daddy Bush had raised taxes during his term. Clinton then raised taxes, of course. He did cut taxes later in his term, though. Real estate, source taxes, and capital gains taxes... Oh, and the no-tax Roth IRA....