Dear Mr President,

If you're looking for a Democrat with some balls, check out Mr Weiner from NY.

Maybe the Great Minds working in the Whitehouse put him up to it, but I've seen this guy before, and I'm thinkin' he knows how and when to do this all on his own. And I'm thinkin' this level of frustration is partly a result of some weakass shit from Raum Emmanuel and the Dem leadership.

Also too, this is exactly what you and Reid and Pelosi need to do; you need to make the Repubs stand up and vote NO every fucking day on every fucking thing you can come up with.

You ran on some pretty specific issues, and you got elected because 53% of us agreed with a lot of your positions. Put the whole agenda forward and make 'em all vote against every item.



Update
PS) I mentioned that you won the office with 53% support - I need you to stop trying to dig into the numbers to see if that support is hard or soft; or if it can be parsed into so many subsegments or whatever. I'm not Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson or any of those Congress Critters - you don't have to check with me 4 times a day like some 13-year-old on Facebook to be sure I'm with you. Just do the fucking job we sent you there to do, will ya!?!

Crock Of The Week

And then, there was Part 2:

Brawn vs Brain

Contrast And Disconnect

Some politicians make lots of noise about how we shouldn't be in the business of nation-building, and that government just fucks it all up whenever it tries to do something to help straighten out a tough economy, so we should just sit tight and let nature take its course, etc. But somehow these are usually the same guys who're in favor of borrowing billions of dollars and sending that very expensive money to places like Iraq and Afghanistan in attempts to build those nations by investing in their markets and beefing up their infrastructures.

Why do we keep votin' for these guys?

US can't account for $8.7 Billion.

The failure to properly manage billions in reconstruction funds has also hobbled the troubled U.S.-led effort to rebuild Afghanistan. About $60 billion have poured into Afghanistan since 2001 in hopes of bringing electricity, clean water, jobs, roads and education to the crippled country.

The U.S. alone has committed $51 billion to the project since 2001, and plans to raise the stakes to $71 billion over the next year — more than it has spent on reconstruction in Iraq since 2003.

An Associated Press investigation showed that the results so far — or lack of them — threaten to do more harm than good. The number of Afghans with access to electricity has increased from 6 percent in 2001 to only about 10 percent now, far short of the goal of providing power to 65 percent of urban and 25 percent of rural households by the end of this year.

As an example of the problems, a $100 million diesel-fueled power plant was built with the goal of delivering electricity to more than 500,000 residents of the capital, Kabul. The plant's costs tripled to $305 million as construction lagged a year behind schedule. The plant now often sits idle because the Afghans were able to import cheaper power from neighboring Uzbekistan before the plant came online.

-and-

War is Theft (Juan Cole):

The reason is that in the chaotic days after the fall of the Baath government and the collapse of the old economy, Paul Bremer & Co. attempted to jump-start the Iraq market economy by giving out large sums in brown paper bags with no questions asked. They did not understand that the Iraqi market had been killed by decades of government control and that no magic hand any longer existed, so they might as well have taken that money and buried it in the ground. (Actually some of it probably was buried, in back yards in Fairfax County, Va.)

So maybe these two instances seem to illustrate the viewpoint of "conservatives" that
'government is bad', but of course, those same "conservatives" never say that the Military part of the government sucks - it's just all those civilian bureaucrats blah blah blah. Anyway.

Now we get to sift thru a little controversy over dueling estimations of how the Bush Bailouts and the Obama Stimulus either have or haven't saved us from an even worse outcome here at home. Intervention Helped Avert a 2nd Depression is an article in NYT that describes a study by a couple of econ brains.

The paper, by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton professor and former vice chairman of the Fed, and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, represents a first stab at comprehensively estimating the effects of the economic policy responses of the last few years.

“While the effectiveness of any individual element certainly can be debated, there is little doubt that in total, the policy response was highly effective,” they write.

The article (of course) includes a quote or two from a guy at The Hoover Institution who questions their conclusions - he's "surprised" at their findings. Imagine my surprise at his being surprised.  And imagine my surprise that NYT felt the need to find somebody to disagree with the Blinder and Zandi article.

There's something really unhealthy about all this. It's like we're all in this defensive crouch, and that our default mode is Counterattack. We have to figure out what our shared basic assumptions are, and then we have to start getting back to them before our little experiment in self-government blows up in our faces.

The Great Flood Of Aught 10

Here's the first look at photo evidence of the near catastrophe.  Had we been another day or even several hours later getting home, it could've been a lot worse.

As it is, we have a bunch of carpeting that's been ripped up - pad removed - fans blowing under the rug in an attempt to "save it".  So far the net affect is that now the whole house smells of wet crappy carpet, while we wait for a few days to let the claims adjuster guys figure out what to do next.

Ten Years Of Hell

Ian Walsh observes:

Note that rates being so high is a classic case of market failure. The banks are charging more than they need to in order to make a profit. In an actual free market other banks are supposed to step in and undercut them, but that isn’t happening. We could argue about why (they’re a collusive oligopoly or they’re broke being the most probable causes), but in the immediate term, it doesn’t matter, what matters is fixing it.

I think there prob'ly won't be any real effort to fix the underlying problems.  If there's any possible way to spin the fix as an attempt to "set up the government to compete against the banks", the Big Bank Lobbyists will squawk, and their pet politicians will fold under the pressure like a buncha lawn chairs.

They're Pretty Smart, Those Harvard Guys

With Repubs refusing to change their tune even in the face of major rebukes in the last two election cycles, I think we're seeing the usual throes of a governing philosophy that may not be dead or dying yet, but one that's certainly not too healthy.  The effect is pretty much the same as we hear whenever some ideology or another gets pushed aside - "the system didn't  fail; our leaders failed the system."

From Nieman Watchdog:

As we approach another political season one question stands out. Why in the aftermath of the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression are the Republicans advocating precisely the same policies that spawned the disaster in the first place? If they were to succeed in promoting these policies again, do they expect a different result?

It is hard to imagine a more important or relevant question. What is so strange is that no one is asking it. It is as though the very question has been banished from public discourse. It is almost impossible to imagine, for example, David Gregory on “Meet the Press” asking a Republican leader how their present positions differ from those that have gotten us into trouble. And God forbid anyone suggest these policies might get us into trouble again.

Here's the political message the Dems can ride to some big wins:
"Don't vote for Republicans - they're all fucking crazy"

Tea Party Jesus

Who would Jesus hate?

An Alternative Perspective

Click it now and then tell me we're not fucked.
http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/

Olbermann gets a little nuts, so I don't follow him closely, but I think he's articulating something here that has to be taken seriously. When part of the economic equation is out of balance, we can expect lots of real trouble. For a good 35 years, we've seen a steady erosion of people's ability to earn a decent living - we certainly needed to beat labor costs back into shape, but we've tipped back out of balance again in the other direction. People are finding it harder and harder to earn just the few bucks it takes to buy even the cheapest goods we can import from the lowliest sweatshops in the world. Demand shrinks enough and you won't be able give your shit away.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'm Shocked - Shocked...

Why does this come as some kinda news to anybody?  I think the real story here is probably that somebody decided that somebody needed to take a fall and Cramer's the lucky winner.

From The Daily Beast.
Jim Cramer single-handedly created the concept of Dykstra-as-financial genius. Known mostly for his willingness to crash his body into walls or his cars into trees (nickname: "Nails"), the former New York Met and Philadelphia Phillie became an investment columnist for TheStreet.com in 2005, after sending Cramer an unsolicited email. For the next four years, Dykstra made stock picks, focusing on "deep-in-the-money calls"—a way to buy leveraged options—for tens of thousands of followers on Cramer's website.

Here's the basics of how "The Stock Market" works.
1) Some Wall Street guys get together and buy a bunch of shares in some company they really don't give a damn about - and sometimes one that nobody's ever really heard of - and they pay a nice low price.

2) Their networks of Brokers and Dealers spend the next several days on the phones pimping "this hot new issue" to the rubes, saying (essentially) the price of the stock is going to make real progress.

3) Meanwhile, they tip off their buddies in "The Financial Press" that something pretty big might be about to happen - and guess what?  The Money Bunnies on CNBC and Bloomburg et al go on TV and feed the rubes a load of crap about how they've uncovered this possibly fantastic opportunity that the rubes then take as confirmation that the broker guy was right.

4) If it works this time the way it's worked every other time for the last century or so, the rubes rush in; they buy lots of shares; and surprise surprise - the price of the stock goes up.  Wow.  Whooda thunk dem guys was so smart?

This is obviously a very crude sketch, and with the rise of Day Trading and the preponderance of Institutional Investors and Mutual Funds and Hedge Funds, etc, there are now many more layers of complexity, as well as a lot more complicity.  It becomes not just a corrupt system, but a system of legalized corruption.  So when everybody's in on the scam, how do you tell who the bad guys are?

And BTW: It's not possible to practice Free Market Capitalism when the markets are all captive to a few very powerful controlling interests.  What we have here now is called Oligarchy.

Pic Of The Day

Technology can give us a productivity boost. For communities struggling with budget problems, a few surveillance cameras have a force mutiplier effect by putting eyeballs in more places than they can afford to put actual cops.  Generally, I don't have any problem with passive surveillance - Red Light Cameras, Speeder Cams, Street Watch Cams, etc.  It's within the reasonable limits and expectations of government power for the police to see what I'm up to when I'm out in public.  If you don't like getting ticketed, maybe you should try following the rules instead of bitchin' about getting caught.

I do worry a little about the infamous slippery slope tho'.  I don't know if the rest of the world has this trouble, but Americans have a great knack for misunderstanding certain things.  Vince Lombardi says, "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing", and we end up with an attitude that we can get away with anything as long as we're winning.  Maybe it's just the natural inclination for humans to rationalize - I dunno.  I do know that there's a big bunch of people who don't quite get it when it comes to our system of justice.  These folks will tell you, "If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide; so it's OK for government to know everything".  And what's really weird is that most of the people who'd say that are the same ones who'll make all the noise about how you can't trust the government.

So anyway, I saw this picture and it reminded me that's it a good idea to think about what I think about things, and then decide where I should draw this particular line, and then to write it all down.

Ten Years Of Hell

Here it comes, boys and girls.  We have a bad combination of things working against us - like Af-Iraq-Pak (plus the bonus of Israel prob'ly moving against Iran's nuke program soon), Gusher in the Gulf, allowing Unemployment Bennies to lapse, opposition politics, etc - this is all more than we need for the big slide into a real live depression.

From Calculated Risk:
Consumer Confidence Plummets In June

-and-

The Guardian:
Michael Tomasky

I think I understand a few things about what worked in the past to get us out of other tough spots, and while I certainly don't know exactly what'll work this time, I do know this one abiding universal truth:  An economy can spend its way to oblivion, but it can't save its way back to prosperity.

Repubs will insist on cutting spending, but I'll bet dollars to donuts they won't be raising any taxes (unless of course they can do it as regressively as possible).  Anyway, once you take away the huge chunk of demand that government spending creates, the cascade effect should kick in nicely and we'll be circling the drain in no time at all.

The reality of all this austerity talk.

World Cup

Climate Change Denial Crock Of The Week

Wingnut Welfare

From John Amato at Crooks and Liars:

As you know, many right wing hacks receive their wingnut welfare checks whenever they publish their books. They are commonly devoid of facts or any type of intellectual honesty, but are always supported by the right wing infrastructure that passes on book bailout money to help support their wingnuttery to the masses. There is no bigger recipient of the wingnut welfare system than Ann Coulter. You can call it TWERP. 'Troubled Wingnuts Effective Relief Program.' There's plenty of money to be passed around to undeserving conservatives and she's there to collect it with open arms.


BTW - I don't subscribe to the basic notion coming from "the left, &/or Dems" that they need to match the Repubs in terms of sleazy lockstep party doctrine and tricksterism.  So I'm not endorsing any kind of effort "to support liberal authors".  If your book is worth reading, then eventually it reaches an audience - of course, that presumes you have some kind of marketing effort that's at least minimally competent. But that brings us back around to a valid criticism of Cluster Fox as not much more than a booster club for Republican Party dogma.  Sometimes, it all just seems to go 'round and 'round in circles.

Just Wondering

So Obama cans McChrystal, and of course, we need a quick refresher on what our Afghanistan strategy actually is.  And that goes kinda like this: we have to fight off the Taliban while training up the Afghan Security Forces, and we have to try to root out the corruption in Karzai's government; because the Afghan people can only be expected to fight for themselves if they have faith in their government.

Really?

Why does it seem that all the "conservatives" here in the US are going along with this?  What am I missing here?  Why do we have to have Free Market Solutions for everything here, but we have to have Government Solutions in other places?

Could it be that we just call it 'the government' in other places because it provides some convenient cover for the fact that several Mega-Corp companies are actually calling the shots?

And why aren't the know-nothing rubes outraged by all this very expensive nation building stuff?  Couldn't we solve the whole problem over there just by building a couple of Wal-Marts or somethin'?

Ten Years Of Hell

In a previous post (this one), I talked a little about the probability  of seeing a lot more trouble with debt and default, and that it's likely to come from smaller counties and cities that got themselves sucked into the swirl of borrowing loads of cheap money as a way to avoid having to make some tough calls on collecting enough revenue to keep their joints going.

Here it comes.

Harrisburg is among an increasing number of municipalities showing signs of extreme fiscal stress. Squeezed by rising unemployment, plummeting tax revenue and growing employee costs, Vallejo, Calif., filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Jefferson County, Alabama's largest county, teeters on the edge of bankruptcy after a complex interest rate swap on a $3 billion sewer project went awry.

Last month, Central Falls, R.I., an impoverished city not far from Providence, put its finances in the hands of a receiver, who might have to rewrite contracts, cut pensions and restructure debt. Meanwhile, the nation's leading debt-rating agencies have relegated seven cities -- including Detroit, Harvey, Ill., and Woonsocket, R.I. -- to junk bond status, vastly increasing their borrowing costs.

This is just gonna get worse for a while.

From Nil Doctrine

This guy is a new find for me. I think he does it really well - even if I can't quite say exactly what it is he does - vlogging?

We'll Have To Sell Our Way Out Of It

Steely Dan

Third World Man.  Walter's guitar just cries in this one.  Listening closely, I guess I can see why so many have criticized them for being "all about the studio arts", but I saw them live at The Nissan Pavilion a few years back, and there's just no doubt these cats can play.

Sadie's Art

From Nil Doctrine

I like this guy.

Foreign Affair

One more from Mr Waits

San Diego Serenade

From Tom Waits

Lacrosse Backstop Update

Regarding my attempted project (see Lacrosse Backstop), it stood for a tad bit over one month before getting totally trashed - not by the kids, as would normally be the case.  The thing was fine one evening; Irene says she remembers looking straight at it when she got home, and the next morning it was mangled.  My theory is that a deer (or three) got tangled up and in the thrashing scramble for freedom, the backstop took the ultimate hit.

I don't know why I didn't get some pictures, but there ya go.  We're trying to figure out if a Plan B is even possible.  We'll be working on it and I'll let ya know.

Debtors Prison And The Prison Of Debt

I think it's interesting that some law makers and think tankers are fretting over the problem of people "walking away from their financial obligations", "refusing to be held accountable".  The power-holders get all worked up and blame a sense of entitlement that they say is rampant in American society.  They sit there and scratch their heads and wonder why everybody thinks it's OK to screw the poor little old entrepreneurial bankers who're are just trying to make a few bucks helping us realize the American Dream.

A couple of things:
1) most people have every intention of holding up their end of the bargain.
2) most people by now have seen more than a few instances where mover-shakers have either weaseled out of their responsibilities, or actively cheated the consumer.

In spite of our treasured myth of the Rugged Individual, most Americans are followers just like everybody else in the world.  We emulate the examples set for us by the people who are presented to us as leaders.  And since we've heard practically nothing but a steady stream of "all government is incompetent and corrupt, only the private sector works right", our real leaders are the few guys who run the corporations.  And we see those guys going to extraordinary lengths to avoid fulfilling even the basic commitments to the social contract - tax evasion schemes, off-shoring jobs, short-cutting workplace safety, ignoring environmental law and and and - all in the name of preserving capital, cutting costs and boosting profits.  Don't get me wrong; all that preserving and cutting and boosting is a good thing, but not when it comes at the expense of the system that makes the enterprise itself possible.

So anyway, I'm a little off track.  To get back to the point, now we see a lot of "regular people" walking away, saying "fuck the rules and fuck everybody else, I'm gonna do what's best for me and mine right now".  There's no honor in the system we've developed.  One guy's promise is only as good as the other guy's lawyer's ability to hold him to it.

Our "leaders" have shown us the way.  The system is eating itself.

I suspect we'll see more of this kind of thing.

Couldn't Stay Away

Two things came together for me that make me think we're swinging in a weird direction - actually it's very much in keeping with my belief that we're headed back to a system of EconoGovernment that was all the rage in the 18th century.  Everything is owned by a relatively few rich families, and everybody else has to suck up to the power and fight over the crumbs.

First, in January, the Roberts court affirmed the Rights Of Monied Interests in the Citizens United decision.  Now with the primary win of Sharron Angle in Nevada, where most of her support came from out-of-state AstroTurf organizations, we get a look at what happens when we apply Efficient Markets principles to the election of our delegations to Congress.  Suddenly, Dick Armey can raise lots of money and spend it any way and anywhere he wants to make it more probable that we "elect" somebody who'll be sympathetic to the interests of his clients - whoever the fuck they happen to be; while the opinions of people who actually live and sweat and bleed and die as citizens of Nevada are reduced in proportion.

Another side of this is the fact that "Big Union" contributed mightily to an attempt to beat Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas - the attempt failed, but it was way close for a while.  As the forces get more organized, and experienced, we can expect to see more elections being manipulated by remote control.

So here's the payoff:  Welcome to the era of Representation Without Taxation.

BTW) this fits nicely with the way politicians use a selling technique known as the Turn Around.  Repubs, at least most blatantly, are the main offenders.  You have only to consider Palin's recent attempted Turn Around: The BP spill happened because the treehuggers forced Big Oil to drill farther offshore.  It's lame and crude and clumsy, but guess what - the rubes eat that shit up.

Gettin' Back In The Game

It's taking way too long to find a decent job.  Time to get really serious about it and start working harder on my packaging.  So, in order to shape up and look more presentable, I'll have to devote a lot more time to sweating and a lot less to reading and blogging.  Things must change.  I'm not callin it quits, but I have to concentrate.  See ya

The Only Etta James We've Got

Sometimes, it's not until they've been put thru the mill - overzealous producers and handlers and agents who just want a piece of something they can only dream of creating; maybe that's just what it takes for some artists to get home. I wish it could be other.

A New One For Me

Never saw this guy before. The sax style sounds familiar but I can't place the name.

I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You

From the I Robot album.  A personal anthem from way back.

LAX, Brah!

It was good day all around for the Roberts boys.  Luke came home with the championship for a one-day tournament in Williamsburg.  9 goals and a bunch of assists in four games.  Way to go, Lukey!

The Graduate

Way to go, Nicky.  I'm proud of you.

WIth buddies Kyle, Alex and Lizzie.

WIth his best girls Irene and Haley.

Cost v Benefit

It's a given that oil runs the economy; that we're dependent on oil - addicted, in the words of GW Bush.  And addiction is an apt analogy.  With just about any substance abuse issue, you don't start out having problems.  At first, there's a nice high - a good feeling - some kind of benefit, even tho' there's also a cost.  You have a great time drinking too much, and then you suffer some because of the hangover the next day.  You figure "the goin' up was worth the comin' down".  But if you do it too much, over time, the cost starts to outweigh the benefits.

From a story at Market Watch:
Ocean tourism (as opposed to that offered by Orlando theme parks) and recreation are among Florida's main industries, contributing an estimated $20 billion a year to the state's economy, data from the National Ocean Economics Program show. In 2008, 84.2 million visitors spent over $65 billion in Florida, supporting the more than 1 million residents directly employed by the tourism industry, according to Visit Florida, the state's official tourism-marketing arm.

Out of the $65 Billion a year tourists spend in Florida, they spend $20 Billion playing in and around the water.  But now all that beautiful water is about to become a stinking toxic sludge made of crude oil, poisonous detergents, and dead rotting plants and animals.

Here's a nice kicker:  BP has sent a $25 Million "grant" to Florida to assist the state in their PR and advertising campaign.  It seems so perfect.  They won't spend the money on technology or procedures that could prevent the fuckups, but they'll sure as hell spend a boatload of it on efforts to tell us "it's not as fucked up as you think".

The tourists have to have the oil products if they wanna get to their favorite vacation spots in Florida, but if they know the place is trashed, why bother?

Likewise, the shrimpers have to have fuel for their boats, but if the oil spill has killed the fishery, there's nothing for them catch.

There's such a thing as Business Ecology - every enterprise is connected in some way to all other enterprises.  And every business is connected in some way back to the earth.  It's all part of a system in which every part is interdependent on all the other parts.  When do we finally get it thru our thick skulls?  If the air and the water and the land are spoiled, then people don't thrive.  Without a thriving population, you don't have anybody to employ; you don't have anybody to buy anything from; and there's nobody to sell anything to.  And then there's no reason for your business to exist at all.

Yeah - That's What It's All About

There's just nothing else worth anything.

Duke Sucks

I suppose I should try to be a little more magnanimous about it, but I just really wanted to see Duke fall.  They're scrappy and they played smart and they had individuals step up to do great things at the right times and they got lucky - all of which have to happen to win the big one.  So, good on you, Duke - you preppy fucks.

The weekend wasn't a total loss - here's a pic that Irene got of Nick (far right) and his crew in front of USS Constellation at The Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.

Maria Muldaur

A bit of a chestnut, but I never get tired of hearing Amos Garret's amazing riffs at the break.

What About Me?

What Marvin Said

What's Goin' On --Marvin Gaye

Natural Response

Aliens

Close encounters of the fungal kind?

This thing is growing near the tree line behind the house.

The Mosque At Ground Zero

There's a meltdown occurring because the community board in lower Manhattan has approved plans to build a good-sized Mosque/Muslim Community Ctr a couple of blocks away from the WTC site.

The Brain Free Zone (aka Fox News and other Wingnut Media) is going ape shit, yelling about "those insensitive bastards...; it's a slap in the face...; blah blah blah.

I only know two things about any of this:
Fear is the opposite of love, and forgiveness is the opposite of hate.

BTW: the proposed mosque is to replace one that's already within spittin' distance anyway.  If you're opposed to any mosque "on hallowed ground", then you need to have been a little more aware of what's been goin' on all along.

This non-troversy is typical reactionary bullshit and I'm callin' it for what it is.

The Deficit As Hangover

From a post at The New Rupublic, Chait argues that Obama isn't wrong, he's just not right.

Now, I think it's fine for a story to eschew "balance"when one side is making an unsupportable or hypocritical case. But Obama's case isn't wrong -- it really is true that the economic and budgetary problems we're facing were inherited from the previous administration. What's false is the Republican effort to imply that Obama caused the problems -- an argument that collapses upon the slightest empirical pressure. But somehow the standard here is not what's correct but what's polite, and it's impolite for Obama to blame Bush.

God Love The Onion

Wise Words

That's Entertainment

It's gettin' fun now, by golly.

Bombing of a Mosque in Florida.

Joe Arpaio = Sheriff of Nottingham.

Arizona threatens retaliation for boycott.

Yay, Germany - I think

The Germans decided to ban the practice of Naked Short Selling when it comes to European Gov't debt, and a lot of the snakes on streets named Fleet and Wall have their panties in a bunch because of it.

The way I understand it is that short selling is a necessary aspect of keeping the markets "honest" - or at least as honest as some of these assholes are willing to let it be.  But anyway, shorting is a time-honored device that lets me borrow shares of a company's stock, sell them at a price below current market value, and then buy them back when the market price goes down.  Usually, "shorting" is a bet that the market in general, or the price for that particular stock is heading down.  And it's a good thing to have because it can be a safety valve.  Properly applied, short selling can help prevent bubbles.  But if you do it on a big enough scale, you can actually force the price(s) down, and then shorting becomes just another means of manipulation and speculation.  And that's where Naked Shorting comes in.

Naked Shorting (to my mind) is really just a statement that you want the price of something to be a lot lower.  You've not borrowed the stock or the bond or whatever - and so you're not risking your own money- but you're saying you'll sell it at a price well short of the current asking price if others are interested in buying it.  This creates a kind or impromptu consortium of players which dramatically multiplies your market power.

So I'm a little uneasy about shorting because like any other useful tool it can be a weapon of malice, causing undue harm to good companies (and the PEOPLE who make up those companies) solely in the name of turning a few extra profit points for guys who never actually produced anything in their lives.  Don't get me wrong - bankers and brokers are necessary to a healthy economy, but when they elevate themselves above it, they become threats to the system and have to be beaten back.

When you sell something that doesn't belong to you, we call it fraud and you're supposed to go to jail for that.

The Awesome Power Of Rationization

The Pro-Gunners all seem nice and reasonable when it comes to abiding by the law banning all guns in order to attend their convention. I have to assume not all Pro-Gunners feel the same as the people in this clip, but these few say they're just fine with the kind of gun control restrictions at their convention site that their organization went apeshit over when WashDC tried to ban handguns. And the irony is completely lost on them. The real kicker is the guy at the end. He actually says he's more worried that the Anti-Gunners might bring guns and make trouble; and so, in the interest of everybody's safety, disarming everybody is a good idea.

Religiosity

A Catholic nun and longtime administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix was reassigned in the wake of a decision to allow a pregnancy to be ended in order to save the life of a critically ill patient.

The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, who indicated the woman was “automatically excommunicated” because of the action.

Neither the hospital nor the bishop’s office would address whether the bishop had a direct role in her demotion. He does not have control of the hospital as a business but is the voice of moral authority over any Catholic institution operating in the diocese.

The actions involving the administrator, mostly taken within the past couple of weeks, followed a last-minute, life-or-death drama in late 2009. The patient had a rare and often fatal condition in which a pregnancy can cause the death of the mother.

Sister Margaret McBride, who had been vice president of mission integration at the hospital, was on call as a member of the hospital’s ethics committee when the surgery took place, hospital officials said. She was part of a group of people, including the patient and doctors, who decided upon the course of action.

So, if you're a kid-fucking priest, the church takes great pains to protect you and send you from parish to parish to spread your shit.  But if you're a nun who takes a little initiative in an attempt to salvage something less than completely fucked up out of a situation that's nothin' but fucked up, then they come down on you like a truckload of rocks.