…and also in the news

We’re still at war, by the way. Does anyone know with who?

Oct 232010

The “Ground Zero Mosque” debate (which, by the way, has all but died as we approach election day) continues to have its effects seen in televised topical conversation, melted into a gigantic pot that contains general hatred of all Muslims and the heaviest ingredient – the world since 9/11.

The most recent blowup in this never ending discussion came from The View, where two of the hosts walked off the show in disgust after Bill O’Reilly of Fox News said “Muslims attacked us on 9/11″. Vague and generalizing, such a sentiment doesn’t do much of anything to advance discussion and peer into the why behind the why behind the why – a process typically called “understanding”. Such foreign concepts are usually a good idea to research if one would actually like to understand why a conflict is going on and, better yet, how to end it.

The discussion is nowhere near that. The discussion is a lot closer to the link above. There are well thought out rebuttals that make huge strides toward actually understanding the roots of conflict, but they’re typically left to obscurity – since reason and thought aren’t good for ratings. Still, thankfully it happens (skip ahead to about 2:45 for something of relevance):

Intelligence like this, sadly, winds up tossed to the wind of the discourse, as all the mature people stand on the sidelines – trying to live their lives – hoping the day will come when the windbags of fear and broad-based discrimination finally blow their selves out.

There’s a slight chance that the Senate is wasting time

Site Related & Meta No Responses »

Jun 142010

Stephen Strasburg's MLB debut: 7.0IP, 4H, 2ER, 14K's, and a topic of Senate conversation?

June 9th, 2010. Major events impacting America that day were led by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – in its 49th day by that point. Dark clouds were looming over policy for the 2nd half of the year as more economic indicators have begun to turn negative, hinting at the chance that America could slip back into recession. Bankstas are still roaming the highest perches of American business society, and are still making more in an hour than many make in a year. With a full and chaotic plate served up, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stepped up and got right on down to the business of the country.

Mr. President, as a little sidenote, because we have 5 months to campaign all over the country, including Nevada, I want to take a pause and think about some of the things going on in the country.

What was Mr. Reid about to unload upon the Senate? What matter of importance was he about to lead off with? Issues are happening left, right, and center – not to mention it’s a good time to look good with an election campaign looming for this year. Now is the time to be serious, be concise, and do some good.

One of the things going on in the Nation’s Capital is tremendously interesting to me…

Things going on in the nation’s capital? Well there’s been protests here and there – people protesting against BP, tea partiers protesting against the existence of government, the few anti-war people that still hang around in front of the White House, and so on. Maybe he’s referring to one of those…

One of the things going on in the Nation’s Capital is tremendously interesting to me, and that is baseball.

Be warned, rolling of eyes is about to occur.
Continue reading »

If the Bank is Offering Something, it’s Probably Bad For You

Site Related & Meta 9 Responses »

Jan 062010

These thin bits of plastic got us into a lot of trouble

In 2009, the Obama Administration got new regulations passed on the banking and credit card sectors that bring to an end business practices that were mainly set up to fleece as much money as possible out of consumers. As a consumer, you’ve come to know these practices with late payments on credit cards sending that advertised 7 – 9% interest rate to one of 30+% overnight. The Wall Street Journal had a good summary on what is to come:

For plastic, the new rules go into effect in February as part of the Credit Card Act of 2009. The rules will limit some interest-rate increases, require more disclosure to customers and prohibit banks from raising interest rates on current balances unless a customer is at least 60 days behind in a payment.

The amount of money that banks and credit card issuers made on these sorts of schemes of fine print lay somewhere between impressive and sickening:

Credit-card issuers collected $22.9 billion in penalty fees—such as those assessed for late payments—in 2009, up from $19 billion in 2008, said Robert Hammer, who runs a credit-card consulting firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

That is a year-over-year increase of 20.5%. Not much of anything business and/or profit related has risen by 20.5% in the last year. Impressive how one of the few things that actually does has a direct impact on the struggling consumer, thereby prolonging the recession and delaying the recovery even more.

Tasty Ammonia-treated Pink Slime in your Meat: for 3 cents of Savings!

Site Related & Meta 5 Responses »

Jan 052010

Lip-smacking E. coli!

From the “Things you might have missed over the holidays” category…

One of the longest standing debates in a world full of enough dichotomies to keep talking heads talking for the next few lifetimes is one that is old as the concept of Capitalism itself – can The Free Market, can that famed Invisible Hand, take care of anything and everything – can it meet the needs of the people at safer and more efficient rates than what the government can provide? We are taught, we almost have it rammed into our heads these days, that The Free Market is the end all be all, it and it alone is what made us great, and the Invisible Hand of that market can, and will, take care of us – assuming that taking care of us is in The Free Market’s best interest.

I am of the opinion that it will not, that left to its own (i.e. the Ron Paul fantasy world), the Invisible Hand will hurt us and harm our lives, because profit is more important to it than safety and the well being of customers. Please, though, don’t let me pontificate, let’s look at the latest slime-filled evidence from the New York Times.

Eight years ago federal officials were looking into ways to stem E. coli outbreaks that were occurring in the meat food supply. The free market first/ask questions later Bush Administration through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) eventually decided upon a process developed by Beef Products, Inc. That process included parts of beef that were formally deemed not fit for human consumption:

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, …

Video: Tea Baggers get… insert your own creative phrase here.

Site Related & Meta No Responses »

Apr 172009

Short followup to my most recent posting follows.

A progressive blogger (wish I had a link to his actual blog) decided to attend one of the awesomely-named Tea Bag parties where a small segment of middle and lower income workers protested the burden of tax being shifted off of them and onto the rich.

Entertainingly enough they didn’t see it that way, but this guy sure did. Enter the video:

Nothing quite works like a little bit of honesty.

The dollar value of a revolution

Site Related & Meta No Responses »

Mar 102009

A protest in France in January of 2009

The economic crisis – which will probably have some sort of formal name by the time it’s finally over – is entering it’s third year as we move on through 2009 (depending on when you start, I pick the fuzzy date of early 2007). The casualty list of this crisis is too long for anything but a history text to cover, but it includes worldwide the loss of millions of jobs, the plunging into poverty of millions more, countless companies of all sizes, and – so far – two governments.

Fortunately the two governments that have been brought down by this crisis – Iceland and Latvia – look to be heading the normal political route to resolution of their governments in crisis, that is to say they will be voting to choose a new government. So far there hasn’t been mass-scale violence, but the simmering is out there even in the cold months of this winter.

There have been clashes in Iceland stemming from government handling of the crisis.
Hundreds of thousands protested in across France in late January
Greece was shut down by a nationwide strike in late February
Protests bordered on rioting in Lithuania
Communists dared to speak out across Putin’s Russia, seeking the ‘stability’ (however false) of the Soviet days
In China, where they aren’t even in a recession – just a period of slower growth – there have also been protests

The crack about it being cold is not at all meaningless – it is statistically much easier to draw a larger, more annoyed crowd in the summer than it is in the winter. With what is sure to be an economically-charged May Day still weeks away, and a long hot summer coming up after that, one has to wonder exactly how far this could go.

Iceland shows off the “worst case scenario” in the current economic crisis

Site Related & Meta 1 Response »

Nov 102008

Iceland is by no means a third-world nation, but recent events have left it on a trajectory toward poorer days as it becomes the first national casualty of the current world economic crisis – all along serving as an example to the world why no matter how much teeth must be gritted, short-term unpopular policy (bailouts) must be adopted to stave off the “worst case scenario” – known as Ireland today.

Iceland is the current, and probably soon-to-be former, holder of the #1 spot in the UN’s Human Development Index. Among the factors included in the ranking’s calculation, GDP per capita, is what will more than anything else move Iceland down the rankings. Since it’s arrival to the #1 spot, the Icelandic economy has in no over-stretching sense of the word, collapsed. The country’s broadest stock exchange traded at a valuation of ~8,200 points as recently as the middle of July, 2007. Since then the market has lost 89.15% of its value, trading as low as the 890 level within the past week – including a remarkable trading session (October 14, 2008) that saw the stock market lose over 2/3 of its entire value at once. The country’s currency, the krona, exchanged at a rate of 58 to the U.S. dollar as recently as a year ago, but now in violent and thinly-traded sessions finds itself at a rate of 130 to the U.S. dollar and still rising.

The Icelandic public is left, not surprisingly, dazed and confused over this entire turn of events. Continue reading »

Halliburton: Fleeing the sinking ship

Site Related & Meta No Responses »

Mar 132007

Everyone’s favorite company to rag on for being a front for evil in many ways, shapes, and forms – Halliburton – announced over the weekend that they are moving their headquarters from Houston, Texas, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The company claimed that the move was a response to going where the oil-related action is. I’m sure that the lack of tax has nothing to do with it much like escaping American law wouldn’t have anything to do with it either. Although unlike most tax havens, Hallibuton is not moving over there with a mailbox, the executives of the company and all are moving to the region as well. Perhaps they’ll get one of the shiny new buildings rising out of the empty desert that make up the city’s skyline.

It is, perhaps, the final and greatest prize for a corporation that has profited like no other early on in this new century. Driven by contracts relating to the Iraqi War, many of which “won” without a bid allowed from anyone else, Halliburton has made untold amounts of profits, legally and illegally, and will continue to do so for the remainder of this war, and whatever other one it may lead us into. Billions of dollars have flowed out before this company and yet they nickel and dime the best they can to make sure they have a firm grasp on every last cent of it. Whether it be the recent examples of the company serving our fighting men and women in Iraq spoiled food, or exposing them to contaminated water or for running up excessive charges on anything it could come up with in the past four years, Halliburton has and is milking the war effort for every last dime it can get.