by Herb Ruhs, MD
Saturday, August 2, 2008 PERMANENT LINK
One need not take a moral or ethical position in opposition to oligarchy or plutocracy or any other system of enfranchisement of the powerful at the expense of the rest. It is sufficient merely to note that never in history has such a system been shown to work.
Excerpt: Research has demonstrated the association between vaginal orgasm and better mental health. Some theories of psychotherapy assert a link between muscle blocks and disturbances of both character and sexual function. In Functional-Sexological therapy, one focus of treatment is amelioration of voluntary movement. The present study examines the association of general everyday body movement with history of vaginal orgasm.
Although this may be a somewhat entertaining reference for men, I must say it seems awful questionable for anyone to be spending money and effort on research like this, compared to lots of other matters.
OH! I just noticed this is research done in Europe, where they've already solved lots of the problems America faces today. I.e., they have vast fleets of tiny gas sipping cars and scooters, plus affordable mass transit, plus universal healthcare and better balanced budgets than America, since they don't flush so much down the military toilet. So I guess those folks can afford to do more 'fun' research like this, compared to us throwbacks of WWII.
Excerpt: Even before Congress and Bill Clinton repealed the law, the Federal Reserve had aggressively cleared the way by unilaterally authorizing Citigroup to cross the line. Wall Street proceeded, with accounting tricks described as "modernization," to re-create the same scandals from the 1920s in more sophisticated fashion. The financial crisis began when these gimmicky innovations blew up.
I believe the term is "bunko".
Excerpt: The same legislation also repealed the federal law prohibiting usury -- the predatory practices that ruin debtors of modest means by lending on terms that ensure borrowers will fail. Usurious lending is now commonplace in America, from credit cards and "payday loans" to the notorious subprime mortgages. The prohibition on usury really involves an ancient moral principle, one common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam: people of great wealth must not be allowed to use it to ruin others who lack the same advantages. A decent society cannot endure it.
Who said America was a decent society??
Excerpt: The nation, meanwhile, is flirting with historic catastrophe. Nobody yet knows how bad it is, but the peril is vastly larger than previous episodes, like the savings and loan bailout of the late 1980s. The dangers are compounded by the fact that the United States is now utterly dependent on foreign creditors -- Japan and China lead the list -- who have been propping us up with their lending. Thanks to growing trade deficits and debt, foreign portfolio holdings of US long-term debt securities have more than doubled since 1994, from 7.9 percent to 18.8 percent as of June 2007. If these countries get fed up with their losses and pull the plug, the US economy will be a long, long time coming back.
I find it interesting that an article on the BBC site business section states "US economic growth stays positive " and further down in this piece it quotes "I think the most troubling thing out of all the numbers this morning is the (jobless) claims number. If that doesn't convince people we're in a recession, then nothing will," said Robert Macintosh, chief economist at Eaton Vance Management in Boston." In other words the government is cherry picking data to support this spin. (No surprise there) and Wall Street does not seem to buy it either. I know the general populace does not. So who are they trying to bull shit?? The only people who they are kidding are them selves.
But still Washington and the FED keep hanging on to their delusion of being able to grab this turd by the clean end. Why ?? Because like the drowning man, if they let go they are dead. The men in the water after the sinking of the Indianapolis had a better chance of surviving the sharks than our economy has of surviving Washington.
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