For the first time ever I think, I agree with the conservative columnist Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a conservative point of view in San Francisco, but if there is one, Debra Saunders is their voice. Her column on the Homeless and Proposition N - Care not Cash was excellent.

Many of my very liberal friends agree with me for once. Something has to be done about the homeless problem in San Francisco, and Proposition N - Care Not Cash, while not ideal in any sense, at least challenges the status quo on the homeless in San Francisco. A status quo that has not been working for a long time. San Francisco spends more money on the homeless than virtually any city in the country, yet our homeless problem instead of diminishing, seems to grow exponentially every year. Something is not working with our homeless program.

If Rudy Guiliani was able to cleanup NYC of the homeless, a city with an even bigger homeless population in San Francisco, there's no reason why we can't.

Challenging the status quo on the homeless in San Francisco will get you the same kind of treatment Prez Bush received from that german politican - you'll be equated with the Nazis. I find it fascinating that homeless advocates in San Francisco insist that their way of dealing with the homeless is the only way and the right way, when countless of other cities our sizes and larger have managed the problem better and with fewer tax dollars spent to boot. I am instantly suspicious of any group who says that their way is the only way and the right way, as if their truth was set in stone.

Tim Rutten on a LA Time article on left wing thinker Christopher Hitchens Departure from the Nation wrote the following:

"The left's propensity to treat changes in opinion as apostasy always has lent its fallings-out more than a whiff of rancor." This attitude is especially true in San Francisco, where any deviation from the extreme left wing party line will brand you as a card carrying closet republican. The advocates for the homeless who are against proposition N definitely take this attitude.

Another excellent article from the LA Times on George Orwell, Misfit by Conviction, touches on the subject of idealism versus pragmatism in the politics of the author.

I've always loved George Orwell, especially his novel Brave New World. Orwell is still so very relevant today, according to the LA Times, because he never let his idealism blind him to the facts. The extreme left would do well to take Orwell's advice, because sometimes in San Francisco it just feels they are becoming increasing irrelevant and unnecessary to public policy.

I'm spending the afternoon getting caught up on the news from the various boards I visit, and linking interesting articles on the bloggie. There are so many things happening in the world right now, it's impossible for one person to pay attention to it all. The boards are great for getting caught on on the news.

The MIT free online learning is very interesting to me. MIT has such a great reputation for engineering, that I'm curious to see how they fare on courses like Economics, History and Political Science. These are the courses I will look at. For all my interest in politics, history and my job in finance, I never took these courses in college.

My interest in Politics came from my dad. He's a dyed-in-the-wool democrat, who participated in several union political campaigns while I was growing up. Finance and economics only interest me because it was part of my job for several years. When you work for a Planning and Analysis group, you learn economics on the job. History I'm starting to love because I'm finding out, once you understand the history of something like Middle East politics, it takes to a whole new level of understanding and complexity. Once you understand history, you start to see both sides of an issue and although it's harder, it forces you to rely on your own judgment regarding any issue. When you watch or read the news, it's also interesting to see how people distort facts for their own purposes, for their own spin.

And god, I love SPIN!!! It's the public relations side of me coming out, who just loves SPIN and all the many ways you can tell the same story, depending on your agenda. I have so much fun listening to the commentators after political debates, and what they have to say. Sometimes it makes me wonder whether I was watching and listening to the same event as some of these spin doctors. You can just see the BS dripping from their mouths sometimes, it's hilarious. You can also tell who's a biased journalist and who's not.

On September 30, MIT will starts its Open Courseware Pilot Program. Interesting idea huh? Free online learning courses from MIT.

These are the sample courses MIT will offering.

Anthropology
Biology
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Economics
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
History
Linguistics and Philosophy
Management
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Ocean Engineering
Political Science
Urban Studies and Planning

An unexpected economic effect of the war on terrorism -
No terrorism insurance bill risks property bonds. I wonder how the economy will be affected if Moody's, Fitch and Standard and Poor's downgrades these bonds.