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The most alarming article ever!
by Mr. Chuckles
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
The breakdown of Wall Street alchemy
by Doug Noland, Credit Bubble Bulletin| |
Excerpt from the final paragraph (the only way to read Noland's work is backwards...): Simplifying highly complex circumstances, the various risk models that empowered the greatest leveraging of risk in the history of finance no longer function as expected -- or as required to maintain highly leveraged exposures to a multitude of escalating risks. |
What he is saying here is that hedging is no longer feasible. The GSE's, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are in big trouble if that is true because they leverage their capital 30-to-1 (if memory serves.) And they own or guarantee more than half of all real estate loans in America. If they cannot hedge away their interest rate risks then an abrupt change in interest rates could make them insolvent overnight. Boom, game over! That's really a big deal. Huge, in fact. Massive. Unthinkably large. Bigger than a galaxy. Bigger than anything, ever!
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Another excerpt: As we've been saying for awhile now, confidence in Wall Street finance has been irreparably shattered. Trust has been broken in "AAA" ratings, "mark-to-model," CDO structures, myriad risk models, Credit insurance, counter-party risk, and various instruments and vehicles for intermediating risk in the markets. Moreover, old fashioned lending will not come close to sufficing the demands of a highly imbalanced Bubble economy, especially with bankers nervous and retrenching. |
Get that, "old-fashioned lending" -- that's the old boring kind where the bank has reserves, and furthermore, expects the borrower to pay back the loan?
To keep the bubble going required constant acceleration just to keep going at the same speed. Now it is decelerating and it is almost inevitable that credit of all kinds is going to collapse.
The US could nationalize everything like in Venezuela and watch the U.S. dollar turn into the "Bolivar", with 20% inflation rates (at best.) Or we can see people thrown out of their homes in the millions, and millions more losing their jobs. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground, IMO.
Want to blame Bush? Totally justified! Go ahead. Read this:
Predatory lending crisis: Bush administration knew it was coming and helped it happen
by Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York| |
Excerpt: Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets. ...
What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.
Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye. |
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I'm really not looking for further catastrophes to blame Bush et al for, but I'm a long-time admirer of Eliot Spitzer from his stint as New York's Attorney General, and that article is just, well, the ten thousandth grounds for impeachment.
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Calcium and bicarb
by JS Magruder
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
Re Kidney stones
If you decide to take the preventative route with orange juice, make sure it is not the calcium fortified kind. Calcium is a known culprit with kidney stones (this includes seemingly harmless things like calcium antacids as well).
I can't attest to the pain of childbirth as I had a C-section, but lemme tell ya, passing the kidney stone was no party.
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Yikes... I hadn't made the connection between calcium carbonate (generic Tums) and gallstones. Generic Tums is my preferred medicine for digestive distress (because it's the cheapest over-the-counter med, though generic Alka-Seltzer works better for me) and I also use it as a calcium supplement ... What do you use for a sour stomach?
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I guess it depends how much you use them, and how much calcium is in your overall diet. Remember, you need some calcium, particularly as you age. If the sour-stomach thing is occasional, you probably aren't looking at problems from Tums. For good old fashioned heartburn, some bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a glass of water works as well as Alka Seltzer and is cheaper (again though, it is loaded with sodium so if that's a problem for you check with a pharmacist).
When I had my kidney stone I was in my late twenties and had spent the previous decade as a vegan, so I'm sure it wasn't a build-up of calcium from eating kale that triggered it.
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I've heard of bicarbonate of soda, mostly from my grandma and in old movies, but I've never been sure what it was. I'll look for it. (It's sometimes surprising, even to me, the things I'm ignorant about.)
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Oh hon, that's just baking soda. 19 cents a box at the grocer.
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Really? Really? Bicarb is baking soda? The stuff in the back of my fridge to prevent stinkage? The stuff I pour into the cat's box to let me postpone changing the liter for a day or two? Like I said, it's remarkable how little I know...
I will definitely try stirring a spoonful into a glass of water next time my tummy is in trouble. I might even have franks and sauerkraut for lunch just to speed along the experiment ... Thanks!
Just added it to my shopping list.
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Banana republic
This is Truth:
Upping the inflation dosage
by Peter Schiff, Kitco| |
Excerpt: In perhaps one of biggest ironies to ever to come out of Washington, this week Congress simultaneously pilloried major league baseball players for using artificial stimulants to pump up their performance while passing legislation to do just that to the national economy. Am I the only one laughing?
In reality, the current slump in the U.S. economy is simply the come down from years of financial doping in the form of skyrocketing home values and easy credit. Rather than reaching for yet another syringe, Congress should ask Americans to do what it demands of ballplayers: play within their natural means. Unfortunately in the case of the economy, the patient is already so juiced up that further doses may not only fail to stimulate but may result in a trip to the emergency room. ...
My prediction is that over the course of the next few years, successive doses of even larger stimulus packages will fail to revive the economy. As the recession worsens, the dollar drops through the floor and gold, commodity, consumer prices and long-term interest rates all shoot thought the roof, politicians and economists will look for scapegoats. |
US Presidents openly despise and disparage gold;
Secretly, they are enamored with world's best currency
by Roger Wiegand, Kitco| |
Excerpt: “Bush's White House Tour: Before the inauguration, George W. was invited to a 'get acquainted' tour of the White House. After drinking several glasses of iced tea, he asked President Clinton if he could use his personal bathroom. He was astonished to see that the President had a solid gold urinal! That afternoon, George W. told his wife, Laura, about the urinal. "Just think," he said, "When I am President, I'll have my own personal gold urinal!" Later, when Laura had lunch with Hillary at her tour of the White House, she told Hillary how impressed George had been with his discovery of the fact that, in the President's private bathroom, the President had a gold urinal. That evening, Bill and Hillary were getting ready for bed. Hillary turned to Bill and said, "Well, I found out who peed in your saxophone." ---Unknown
... The credit crunchies are striking out into supposedly more stable paper markets careening down a road to massive ruin. Smart analysts are proclaiming out loud of new dangers in the seemingly endless chain of derivatives, currencies, bonds, insurance and shares imploding on a daily basis. Those boys in New York, it appears, have dug themselves a paper grave, marching to the credit gallows with no apparent escape. Chopper Ben, in his mystical speech market analysis today, told Congress, “Inflation is under control and the economy is sluggish.” Wonder if he buys fuel, eats or, pays for other stuff running wild with inflative prices? Sara Lee, the big baker of consumers’ desserts, is planning a march on Washington to complain about sky-high grain prices.
In our view, we wouldn’t call the economy sluggish but rather an expanding combination of several train wrecks without fire trucks or, ambulances at the scene. Has Benny been inhaling too much stale congressional air or, is he smoking something the kids prefer? The Washington cesspool of liars remains intact as new ones seemingly multiply in the dark. We see no escape plan except to prolong the agony by printing more cash. Think about the German Weimar Republic in 1921-1922 and more recent flurries of hyperinflation in South America. These are not pretty events and its looking more like what arrives in America in the near future. ...
America is broke and going broker. Those New York boys diddling around with struggles in pious selections of the next great stock pick or, other crazy idea to line their brokerage and fee pockets are facing hurricane headwinds as every nasty piece of trash they originated flies back into their faces. Selling new offerings or, more shares is difficult when you personally sell into strength to escape the market’s wrath.
The gold analysts at Merrill Lynch just issued an excellent 15 page report on why they have a more bullish view on gold prices. They told us; “Based upon demand, U.S. Dollar weakness, record oil prices and on-going political tensions, we are substantially raising our 2008-2012 gold forecasts. Notwithstanding the possibility of short-term strength in the U.S. Dollar, higher gold prices should be supported by positive supply-demand fundamentals including stagnant mine production and robust jewelry demand in emerging markets. They went on to say, ‘In 2008 and 2009 we expect gold to average $925oz and $1,000oz respectively (up from $750/oz and $800/oz).” ... |
These articles mirror my convictions -- a) the US is broke and getting broker; b) politicians are trashing the economy, the treasury and the currency (they are vote whores and money whores who give away $1 million in exchange for $1000 donations); c) diversification means holding global assets (foreign bonds, CD's, currencies, land and stocks) as well as precious metals, oil, etc.); d) inflation is here and it is growing like a cancer (there will be hell to pay as money is siphoned from the lower class to our self-styled overlords who reward themselves lavishly for their destructive leadership.)
These trends are inescapable due to group dynamics. Change cannot come without a crisis, probably in the form of a real financial blow-up such as a recession combined with stock sell-offs combined with the US dollar tanking another 25%.
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Laura D.
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"An independent, pragmatic, and responsible policy" --Putin
This article by John Stanton about Putin's Feb. 8, 2008 speech on "Russia's Development Strategy Through to 2020," called extraordinary by Stanton, got me interested in the speech itself. After some searching I found a transcript. The 3 terms in the title were said by Putin to be important in enabling "Russia to strengthen its international authority as a reliable and honest partner."
Sure sounds good to me. Stanton also said that the speech was "astonishingly open." I have to agree. Putin clearly outlined the problems the country faced in the '90s. He then indicated some of the progress made in the new decade. However, his goal was to discuss the long-term. He starts his look into the future this way, "we need to take an objective and realistic look at the situation and take a resolutely self-critical approach." He indicated 3 key problems that need resolving -- "First: give everyone equal opportunities. Second: create the motivation for innovative behaviour. Third: radically increase the economy's effectiveness, above all though raising labour productivity." Then, the speech continues for some time on these subjects. To complete this e-mail, I have included some quotes that Stanton mostly did not mention (using the British spelling used in the transcript).
First off, there are some related to what was wrong with the country and the first steps to recovery -- they remind me of the current problems in the US and the "recovery" it needs.
"A large part of the economy was in the hands of oligarchs or openly criminal organisations. ... The country's finances were exhausted ... Inflation ate away at people's already low incomes."
"Our guiding principle was that Russia's recovery could not be carried out at the expense of the people and at a cost of even further difficulties in their lives."
"We have established a clear delimitation of powers between the federal, regional, and local authorities. ... We have strengthened the material base and the real independence of the courts."
"Our children will no longer have to pay our old debts. The state foreign debt has shrunk to 3 percent of GDP -- one of the lowest ratios in the world."
The rest of the quotes reminded me of other things that should be considered by those in the US.
"We need to ensure that all of our country's citizens, using their knowledge and skills, and with the state's help where needed, have the possibility of receiving quality education, looking after their health, buying a home and receiving a decent income. ... I think that the middle class should make up at least 60 or 70 percent of our society by 2020."
"The 15-fold income gap that we currently have is unacceptable. But this does not mean that there should not be incentives for professional and creative self-realisation."
"The only real alternative ... is to follow a path of innovative development based on one of our biggest competitive advantages -- realisation of our human potential. ... Human development is the main goal and essential condition for progress in modern society. This is our absolute national priority now and in the future."
"We need to work over these coming years to implement a new stage in regional policy aimed at ensuring not just formal but real equality in regional policy. ... I am convinced that only a balanced regional policy will enable us to ensure harmonious development throughout the country as a whole."
"In our work to make our economy radically more effective we also need ... large-scale modernisation of production facilities in all economic sectors. ... In most cases, the best technology is energy effective and energy conserving technology. ..."
"One of the most important areas is that of developing new sectors that are able to compete globally. ..."
"Today's world is not becoming any simpler. ... A fierce battle for resources is unfolding, and the whiff of gas or oil is behind many conflicts, foreign policy actions and diplomatic demarches [maneuvers, proceedings]. ... It is essential to remain steadfast and firm in such a situation, to avoid being drawn into costly confrontation or a new arms race that would be destructive for our economy and disastrous for our country's domestic development. ... Our choice is clear. ... We are interested in mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas -- in security, science, energy, and in tackling climate change."
He concludes by saying "I am absolutely convinced that our country will succeed in consolidating its position as one of the world leaders and that our citizens will live decent lives."
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Marie K.
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To the manor born
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
Evil seems to help, in regards to achieving financial success. And I have tons of third party references to support that notion, of which only a sampling is listed in Your true chances of getting rich and How to change your luck for good or ill.
Yes: in the past, just as today, even the brightest minds required some free time and other resources with which to work to accomplish very much. And the further back you go in history, the more that makes it virtually an imperative that such folks be born into wealth to start with -- for otherwise their talent was likely wasted by deep poverty. Keep in mind a 'middle-class' barely existed anywhere until around the industrial revolution -- which wasn't all that long ago.
Two things have changed about all that over recent centuries: rich geniuses now have far less motivation to use their talents, since technology has vastly increased their leisure options, as well as the power of their wealth to basically enslave anyone with far less money than them. In other words, wealthy geniuses of past eras often did their hardest thinking mainly to alleviate boredom.
The counter to this has been the expansion of a middle-class worldwide -- at least up until around 1990 or so (I'm afraid it may be tipping into a historical shrinkage again by some measures). A large and/or growing middle-class means at least a few natural geniuses there might also get sufficient free time and money to do some good thinking or research and development. Plus still be motivated by restricted leisure options, as compared with the rich geniuses.
As for potential geniuses born poor, they'd almost always be so constrained by poverty that they could never show off their talents, or maybe even develop them in the first place, due to poor diet and education options. Or violence. Etc. That part of all this seems to be much the same now as it was 5000 years ago.
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I'm convinced that 'success' has nothing to do with quality, everything to do with having connections and money. Of course, lacking success, connections, and money, I have a slight bias in reaching this conclusion. And yeah, it has always been thus. The brief emergence of the middle class in the mid-20th century temporarily helped even the odds, but the rich and powerful have been hard at work strangling the very concept of the middle class ever since.
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Not ALL the rich are culprits in the awful pressures being put on the middle-class today: most are likely just variations on Paris Hilton: enjoying their fortunes, and as oblivious to everything else as maybe a middle-class first grader might be at their own birthday party. Then there's a few of the wealthy who actually put in a good word for the rest of us on occasion. Like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates' dad, and George Soros. Sometimes they even spend some of their money to help us! I'm not saying they're angels by any means -- but in regards to our future fate they're much better than folks like Rupert Murdoch and the worst members of the Wal-Mart dynasty!
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By "rich and powerful" I meant "Republicans", cooperative Democrats, and their equivalent in other nations. But yeah, even I like the few gazillionaires who use their powers for good instead of evil. Wish they weren't so rare.
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Helen & Harry
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To be aware
by The Canadian
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
Re Nut case
Sometimes when we travel to places we are not supposed to go, we bring back things that are not supposed to be here.
To be aware of this is not the same as being a part of it.
Perceiving the banality of evil is a gift for the few who have been able to stare it in the eye and walk away.
Peace Dr.
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The Canadian
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Hoovering
the only problem with encrypting emails is pre-exchanging public keys with the people you commo with -- or, posting your public keys to a public key repository.
if someone is already reading your emails and is bothered at suddenly being unable to do so then that would be interesting. more like, the NSA Echelon system is hoovering keywords, so they've pretty much already hoovered anyone talking about the post-9/11 era. using encryption would just mean getting hoovered for a different reason.
phone call encryption requires using computer phoning at both ends, or standalone devices at each end.
with both email and phone encryption, the thing which is most interesting to the hoovers is the traffic analysis -- which is who is talking to whom, and what networks of people manifest when the analyses are summarized. encryption doesn't prevent traffic analysis so the hoovers would still be happy, and would only get really interested if someone in your informal network turned out to be an investigatee.
and none of that helps if they hack your computer and install key loggers.
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Gerry R.
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Payola
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
Clinton and Obama give $890,000 to superdelegates| |
Excerpt: And while it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials who are superdelegates have received at least $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. |
Unseemly my ass. Payola ain't just for radio. It's the way of the world.
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Rocker tells Huckabee to lay off song| |
Excerpt: "By using my song, and my band's name Boston, you have taken something of mine and used it to promote ideas to which I am opposed. In other words, I think I've been ripped off, dude!" |
But Huckabee has God behind him, so, like Bush for the same reason, whatever he does is OK. It's not stealing. If it was wrong, God wouldn't have let him do it.
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22,000 died amid delayed Bayer drug recall| |
Excerpt: The lives of 22,000 patients could have been saved if U.S. regulators had been quicker to remove a Bayer AG drug used to stem bleeding during open heart surgery, according to a medical researcher interviewed by CBS Television's 60 Minutes program.
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Big Pharma is as guilty in their own way as is Bush & Co. in theirs.
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Hormel profit helped by Spam sales| |
Excerpt: Ettinger said he had seen little evidence of consumers trading down to lower-priced items in the wake of rising food prices and a weak U.S. economy. But products like Spam and Hormel chili can appeal to budget-conscious consumers, he said. |
When dog food sales go up as food prices go up, will they still say it's not signs of economic desperation?
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Dead zones off Oregon and Washington likely tied to global warming, study says| |
Excerpt: “We couldn’t believe our eyes,” Lubchenco said, recalling her initial impression of the carnage brought about by oxygen-starved waters. “It was so overwhelming and depressing. It appeared that everything that couldn’t swim or scuttle away had died.”
“We seem to have crossed a tipping point,” Lubchenco said. “Low-oxygen zones off the Northwest coast appear to be the new normal.” |
We're going to hell in a hand-basket.
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Former Houstonian claims he's JFK's love child| |
Excerpt: A Houston businessman now living in Canada claims he's President John F. Kennedy's love child -- and he wants the Kennedy clan to help him prove it.
Jack Worthington, 46, who bears a striking resemblance to the assassinated leader, has appealed to the Kennedys to provide DNA from the former president or from males directly related to JFK's father, Joe Kennedy.
He said Kennedy was introduced to his mother by Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president, but would give no details about his mom. |
Love child? You mean there was love in JFK's philandering? Oh, I see. Love child means bastard.
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Metal pieces discovered in Pokemon candy made in China| |
Excerpt: Judd said the two tainted lollipops were purchased from Dollar General stores near Lakeland. He said the lollipops did not appear to be tampered with and it appeared the metal was baked into the candy in China, where it was produced.
"Our children were put at risk of physical injury because of this," Judd said.
No injuries have been reported and it was unclear whether the metal was intentionally placed in the candy. |
Yet we still buy their crap. Products made in China should be required to tell us that in big letters.
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Doctors group urges easing medical marijuana ban| |
Excerpt: A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses.
Bruce Mirken, a San Francisco spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the ACP position is "an earthquake that's going to rattle the whole medical marijuana debate." |
I guess the CIA makes too much money selling pot to let anyone else in on the game.
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Some criticisms facing Beijing Olympics| |
Excerpt: Athletes have been told to arrive late and leave early to avoid hot, polluted air, and Britain, the United States and other countries are considering supplying their athletes with breathing masks. |
It seems to me one is risking one's health, or even one's life, in competing in the Chinese Olympics.
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Only 18 lawmakers shunned pet projects in 2008| |
Excerpt: "The earmarking process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, one of the few lawmakers who doesn't seek them.
"We have a problem in Congress," Waxman said. "Congressional spending through earmarks is out of control." |
Congress giving up pork? What are the odds? About the same as Bush pulling out of Iraq, and for the same reason: Endless waterfalls of money.
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Years after abuse complaints, priest defrocked| |
Excerpt: The Vatican has defrocked a Philadelphia priest with a long and sordid history of sexually molesting altar boys after plying them with alcohol and forcing them to sleep in his bed, archdiocese officials announced yesterday.
But the decision to cast David C. Sicoli out of the priesthood came three decades after archdiocese officials first received complaints about him and almost four years after they launched an investigation into allegations that he molested at least 11 boys.
Jay Abramowitch, an attorney who represented nine of Sicoli's victims in civil lawsuits, said the archdiocese was an "accomplice" to Sicoli's abuse.
"This guy was one of the worst abusers and they just continually covered his tracks," Abramowitch said yesterday. "If this guy weren't a priest, he'd be in jail for years. Now they finally defrock him and it really means nothing. This guy is walking around." |
It's hard to take the Catholic church seriously any more.
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Overseas work omitted from contract fraud bill| |
Excerpt: A Bush administration plan to crack down on contract fraud has a multibillion-dollar loophole: The proposal to force companies to report abuse of taxpayer money won't apply to work overseas, including projects to secure and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Big surprise. Overseas work is a prime embezzlement method.
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FBI: Employee took 7G trip| |
Excerpt: Curtis Jones of Annapolis, Md., is accused of accepting a $7,500 Caribbean cruise for him and his family after helping a shredding machine company win a $2 million contract. |
Token bust. Will probably be dismissed in court. Considering the multi-billion dollar graft going on, by comparison, this is ridiculous.
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Despite it's jokey bad reputation, Spam is yummy. I've never eaten dog food, but I can vouch that Spam is far better than cat food.
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Every year, in Austin, Texas, they have a 1 day festival called Spamarama, a tribute to Spam. They have Spam cookoffs, Spam Sculpture (the winner one year was an erupting volcano, all made of Spam), Spamalympics (a Spam toss and a Spam relay where the baton to be passed is a piece of Spam), a SPAM®-eating contest known as the SPAM® cram, and a Spam calling contest.
Some of the dishes at the cookoff: 'Queer Pork on a Straight Fork', ' SPAM-ALAMA™ Ding-Dongs'. There are also bands with interesting names, for instance, Uranium Savages, Grupo Fantasma.
Here's some links:
spamarama.com
spamarama links
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I'll probably never get to Texas, but the Spam cookoff sounds yummish indeed. I really do like Spam, either in a cold sandwich with mustard and mayo and an onion slice, or diced and lightly fried and then scrambled into eggs. But tragically, Spam is only an occasional treat, mostly because the going price for a can is usually a buck or so more than boiled and canned meat scraps with seasoning ought to cost, and the generics just always disappoint me ...
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Helen & Harry
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Godless
by Brick Pillow
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
I will live by what I see and reason, not for a pie-in-the-sky possibility of a god's existence and His liking me enough to confer immortality on me for kissing His ass.
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Brick Pillow
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Vote for 9/11 truth
by Virginia W.
| Feb. 16, 2008 |
I thought you might find this interesting: A ballot initiative in New York City, calling for another investigation into the events of 9/11.
New York City 9/11 ballot initiative
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It's an interesting idea, and I'll be amazed if it gets any media attention. But if it does get any attention beyond official sneers, it'll make the ballot and possibly pass.
We don't really need ANOTHER investigation into 9/11. We need AN investigation. Open. Honest. Real. Not at all like the sham "investigation" conducted by the so-called 911 Commission.
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Helen & Harry
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Dialogue for
Friday, Feb. 15, 2008
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Unbelievable sh*t is about to happen
by Mr. Chuckles
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
Bernanke, Paulson and BushCo will trash the Treasury and economy before they leave office, so people want to get rid of their Ameribucks, which are a global joke currency now. ... MORE ...
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Mr. Chuckles
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Nut case
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
Re Mughniyeh's assassination bodes ill"It's good that you do not understand. It means you're not a sociopath."
That's the nicest compliment I think I have ever heard given to anyone.
I am a bit worried about the fact that I think I do understand. But what do I know. I am just a psyched out PTSDer who hides in terror when he hears automatic weapons being fired in the tree line near his house. Obvious nut case.
This is the reason
Doctor says 22,000 died amid Bayer drug recall| |
Excerpt: The lives of 22,000 patients could have been saved if U.S. regulators had been quicker to remove a Bayer AG drug used to stem bleeding during open heart surgery, according to a medical researcher interviewed by CBS Television's 60 Minutes program. |
This is the reason to build and staff prisons. Unlock the cells holding non-violent "drug criminals" to make way for these murderous drug criminals: the executives at Bayer (and no doubt all the other pharma giants), the comfy cozy regulators who let them get away with murder, and of course, the Bush administration hierarchy and compliant Congress that lets unqualified cronies into life-and-death regulatory positions.
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Cathy M.
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Kidney stones
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
U of I study: exercise to avoid gallstones!
There might even be a chance exercising could reduce the risk of kidney stones formation too, I'd guess after seeing this item. And I sure have seen tons of folks around me get gallstones and kidney stones the last 10 years! Enough to scare me into a much healthier lifestyle! Ha, ha. Because everybody says kidney stones rank up there with the most painful experiences of their lives -- maybe as bad or worse than child birth(!) Yikes!
I've seen research saying drinking orange juice daily can reduce kidney stone risk. Minimizing how often you get dosed with antibiotics likely reduces kidney stones risk too -- as the antibiotics kill 'good' organisms inside you which normally prevent stone formation. As of early 2008 I don't think docs know how to replenish those protective bugs after they're gone.
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New study shows the negative implications of No Child Left Behind
Yes, this has been a continuing hallmark of the Bush Administration: either cover up the truth entirely, or simply discard or ignore whatever things make your policies look bad, ineffective, and wrong. Only in this case, their policies are causing those American children in greatest need of educational help to be discarded, in order to make for better looking results on paper.
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Like so many other pieces of Republican legislation -- "Clean Air Act", "Healthy Forests Initiative", "Protect America Act", "PATRIOT Act", etc. -- its very title is a lie... |
Only what 'they' want to report
by Kathy Fisher
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
THE SHOOTING IN ILLINOIS VS THE WALL STREET TUMBLE. GUESS WHICH EVENT RECEIVED THE MOST MEDIA ATTENTION?
IT'S A NO BRAINER. AFTER VDAY AND BASEBALL STEROID DRAMA AND ELECTION COVERAGE AND A SPY SATELLITE FALLING TO EARTH NEWS AND A MAN STABBING HIS SHRINK IN NY CITY, A TWO MINUTE MENTION OF THE STORY ON THE FEDS AND THEIR GLOOMY REPORT FOLLOWED BY TANKING STOCKS ON WALL STREET TODAY. AND AN EVEN BRIEFER REPORT ON THE ST VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE ATTACK IN IRAQ.
SAME OLD SHIT IN SPIN CITY.
Double dog dare
by Angry Annie
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
President Bush is interviewed by the BBC
Read the transcript. I dare you.
There isn't anyone I know -- left or right, bright or dim, lazy or hard-worker, well-educated or high school drop-out, principled or unscrupulous -- who wouldn't have been a far, far better President than this heartless, mindless maniac.
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Angry Annie
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This just in
Republicans walk out| |
Excerpt: Republican leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is giving a press conference on the Capitol steps right now, saying that the decision of the House to debate a contempt resolution involving former White House officials instead of taking up the Protect America Act jeopardizes national security. |
Maybe the Democrats have finally figured out that they have the majority in the House.
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Melba T.
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Diagnosis
by Catherine W.
| Feb. 15, 2008 |
On this video from just a few years before he became President, George W Bush is shockingly articulate. He's borderline erudite compared to the George W Bush of today. My guess is that he has some form of degenerative brain disease?
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There have been reports suggesting that President Bush has lime disease and it's reduced him to a blithering idiot, but it seems just as plausible that his mental deterioration is the result of severe alcoholism. My assumption is that he's still a raging drunk, sloshed out of his skull any time the cameras aren't on him, if only because I can't see any other way he could keep his conscience at bay.
Sadly, if his mental deterioration continues, it could leave President Bush a miserable, frightened, and incapacitated man in his retirement. And I say "sadly" because sadly, that's the closest to justice he'll ever come.
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Helen & Harry
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Dialogue for
Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008
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Hammer of hope
Baby held in locked room at airport dies| |
Excerpt: A 14-day-old infant traveling here for heart surgery died at Honolulu International Airport on Friday after he, his mother and a nurse were detained by immigration officials in a locked room, a lawyer for the boy's family said.
The Honolulu medical examiner's office yesterday identified the infant as Michael Futi of Tafuna, American Samoa's largest village, which is located on the east coast of Tutuila Island. Autopsy findings have been deferred. |
News stories that make me want to castrate government officials with a ball peen hammer and no drugs.
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I found that this article in CounterPunch to be the best description of American Fascism I have read so far. And by someone who would know since he spent time fighting against this despicable form of government. It shows just how ethically bankrupt this country actually is.
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Chris M.
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Mughniyeh's assassination bodes ill
by The Canadian
| Feb. 14, 2008 |
Not sure if you were aware of the significance of this, but it is BIG! All fingers are pointed at Israel and Mossad. Israel has rebutted this, but NOT denied it.
He was #2 in Hez b'Allah. In my opinion this assassination is analogous to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo in 1914, which lit the fuse for the Great War or what later became known as WW1.
Israel is on high alert all over the world and especially along the Lebanese border. ... MORE ...
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The Canadian
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Spying, Sterling, and vibrators
by Michelle M.
| Feb. 14, 2008 |
Another day, another confession from the Bush Regime! News reports are that they admit to massive spying operations -- completely outside of the law and oversight -- on Americans on American soil. Simultaneously the Senate votes to immunize telecom companies for aiding and abetting, and pretty much, to shit on the Constitution, again.
Not surprisingly, I think, most Americans understand why telcos would participate and would prefer to see BushCo officials lynched than watching their pension funds disappear in endless lawsuits which -- obviously -- would never result in convictions of telcos. We're at war, eh?
(((I really do wonder though why Americans still refuse to encrypt their emails and phone calls given the free software that exists. Are we just /that/ stupid? Yep.)))
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In other news, I am re-reading Bruce Sterling's Distraction. My annual ritual. For fuck's sake, if you haven't read this, do so. Published in 1998 and frighteningly accurate in predicting the future, down to broken levees in Louisiana. And more. The quality of the writing is excellent. He is a genius.
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Health insurers probed over reimbursement| |
Excerpt: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday he is conducting an industry-wide probe of health insurers into an alleged scheme to defraud consumers by manipulating reimbursement rates.
Cuomo said he intends to sue UnitedHealth Group Inc and four of its subsidiaries, including Ingenix Inc, the nation's largest provider of health care billing information. ....
A six-month probe found that Ingenix operates a "defective and manipulative" database that most major health insurance companies use to set reimbursement rates for out-of-network medical expenses, Cuomo said. |
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Court overturns Texas sex toys ban| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court has overturned a Texas statute outlawing sex toy sales, leaving Alabama as the state with the strictest ban on such devices.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment on the right to privacy. ...
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between gay couples.
"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the appeals judges wrote. "The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence." |
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Michelle M.
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TV conversion
If you are cheap like me, you are currently watching TV for free using an antenna (i.e. not via a cable company) on an old analog TV. Come early 2009, by law all broadcasts will be digital ONLY. You are screwed unless you purchase a digital to analog converter box. Congress, the idiots who wrote the law mandating digital broadcasting in their spare time when they weren't busy questioning major league baseball players, has come to your rescue by permitting you to get two $40 coupons to help with your purchase of a converter box. To request your coupons, go to https://www.dtv2009.gov/. The supply is limited to however much funding has been provided. Already 4 million coupon requests have been approved.
Over two million requests have been processed totaling over 4 million coupons to date.
More than 250 retailers have been certified with more than 15,000 locations in all 50
states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The coupon distribution process begins February 17, 2008, when Best Buy, Radio Shack,
Wal-Mart and many other retailers should be able to accept coupons and have certified
converters available on store shelves. Thirty-four converter boxes have been certified to
date.
quoted from: www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2008/DTV_020708.html
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We don't use an antenna, we use a bent-up old coat hanger. I've been hearing about this and meaning to apply for my coupons, but you're the nudge that made me do it. It was surprisingly easy, too, with no tough questions.
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Helen & Harry
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Breaking links
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 14, 2008 |
I've noticed lately that CNN links are breaking all over the place, about as frequently as Yahoo news links. I guess they cut a new deal to only 'rent' news rather than own it, same as Yahoo does. But having all your links break after a week or month seems crazy to me!
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Hadn't noticed that, thanks. Some sites flush the news after just a few days, others archive the news indefinitely, and CNN has always been one of the good guys at that. The cost can't be much on their scale, but flushing old news does widen the memory hole and under CNN's current management I think that's one of the goals...
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Helen & Harry
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The basic problem
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 14, 2008 |
The basic problem with civilization is that commercial values, largely the pursuit of profit by any means possible, dominate and expel all other human values.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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CoV(2) emissions
Just a side effect?
Leaked UN report says pollution from shipping is three times higher than previously thought| |
Excerpt: The report suggests that shipping emissions -- which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming -- will become one of the largest single sources of manmade CoV(2) aftercars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tons of CoV(2) emissions a year, just over half that from shipping. |
The "global economy' must go forward. Capitalism says so.
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Wig
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Hey wow, I made the headlines?
by Jason Barr
| Feb. 14, 2008 |
I'm flattered that you linked to my article "Support our troops?" in the daily headline section. I wasn't sure anyone out there actually paid any kind of attention to anything I write.
I try to read your site as often as possible, you always have links to stuff that's too important to wade through a gazillion pages of Washington Post syndicated pages to find. Keep up the good work.
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I'm new to reading your weblog (thanks to JS Magruder, who nudged me your way last week) and I like what you do. Like it enough that you should expect future links as well (there's one already queued up).
I'm just sick of seeing crazies and charlatans as the only "Christians" in the media, and -- OK, sorry, this might sound shallow and schmaltzy, but I mean it from the heart -- it's refreshing to read good writing from the perspective I consider ordinary Christianity: neither fake nor scolding, just an honest effort to reflect a little bit of Christ in day-to-day living. That's the Christianity I grew up in, not the toxic mockery I see on TV.
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Helen & Harry
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Dialogue for
Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008
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So-called torture
Justice Scalia defends torture| |
Excerpt: But a court can do that when a witness refuses to answer or commit them to jail until you will answer the question -- without any time limit on it, as a means of coercing the witness to answer, as the witness should. And I suppose it's the same thing about "so-called" torture. |
"...so called torture" ...
I'm having trouble keeping my breakfast down.
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Wig
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Lebanon
by The Canadian
| Feb. 13, 2008 |
Watch the news this Thursday/Friday. Things are quickly coming to a head in Lebanon and the large 3rd anniversary of the Hariri assassination demonstration organized to take place this Thursday could be attacked and spark escalation leading to a civil war.
Also, Israel's Golani brigade has established bridgeheads & significant Hamas resistance in preparation for the coming large offensive into Gaza. The EU/US have recently given their blessing to Israel. I am sure Egypt does not mind following the Rafah break-out and the threat to the stability of the Suez canal access should Mubarak's regime be destabilized.
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The Canadian
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Nuremberg
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 13, 2008 |
US compares 9/11 trials to Nuremberg
The US better hope nobody actually reads what some of the original Nuremberg judges said back then -- for it could make folks see America as the Nazi Germany of the 21st century. For an awful lot of what the Bush Administration has done in their 'war on terror' was previously done by Hitler before and during WWII: and soundly condemned by the Nuremberg judges afterwards.
Celebrate our decline
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 13, 2008 |
To seek success in an unjust system is to mortgage ones soul. To achieve success in such a system is to undergo foreclosure.
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If it is true that those who lie to children to take advantage of them are held by society in the deepest contempt, why do we tolerate the current activities of military recruitment?
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George Washington warned us about the dangers of a standing army. We ignored him. Now patriots are called upon to defend the country from a bloated and suicidal "defense" establishment. Suffering really is the only cure for stupidity.
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Contemplate this:
At this point in our national history, pretty much everyone who wants to know the facts about our tyranny already knows enough to have become convinced of the need for radical change. The main problem then is not to provide more facts to confront the panorama of propaganda that surrounds us, but rather, to create the motivation for people immobilized by denial to confront the fact that they are being lied to and being taken advantage of.
In this challenge the progressive increase in general suffering is our best ally. Suffering can focus the mind. Comfort and the illusion of security dulls the mind. So we can celebrate our decline.
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If you have an owner, you are a chattel slave.
If you can't afford to quit, you are a wage slave.
If you can't think of quitting in spite of how you are treated you are a mind slave.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Postscripts on cable cuts
Postscripts to ... OR will the Iranian oil bourse open by 2/11?
P. S. 1 -- Regarding the question of how often cable cuts occur, I did consider this topic early on, but I found little except a pretty good report by a guy in the Information Technology Division at CERN. His paper was an overview of undersea cable systems mainly for those in the field of particle physics. He pulled together a lot of info. from a lot of sources in order to assist them in making plans for handling the increasing volume of data in their field.
Of interest, he said that cables are buried to a depth of 1 meter (a yard) wherever “external factors” (nets and anchors) might damage them. They are also armored with one or two layers of high tensile steel strands. He indicated that repair for internal failures of a cable is about ONCE in its 25- |
