I was reading a bit about the new National Socialist experiment America is conducting during the last months of the Bush administration (without all the Aryan superman stuff that so fascinated the German mind of the 1930s, of course), when this thought occurred to me:
The $850 billion bailout plan just passed by Congress now allows the government to acquire part ownership of the financial institutions it is bailing out (for example, it owns some 80% of AIG). But the government also regulates these institutions--that is, the government regulates the businesses it partially owns. Isn't this the very definition of "conflict of interest?" Isn't this a crime? How can the regulator honestly regulate himself? Shouldn't the government begin a criminal investigation of itself? Maybe it will indict itself, try itself, convict itself, and sentence itself to federal prison where, in yet another conflict of interest, it will guard itself.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wow! Essential reading from Chris Hedges
Read this piece by Chris Hedges and despair. What a world we have made for ourselves!
Chris Hedges is one of the wisest people writing today. His books on war are indispensable--because as a 20-year war correspondent he lived on the front lines and saw, heard, felt, and smelled war daily. Despite its frivolous title, his "Losing Moses on the Freeway" is one of the profoundest treatments of morality I can recall reading. Powerful and, again, indispensable.
And he is above all a man of genuine courage. He gave a commencement speech at Rockford College in May, 2003, that came within a hair's breadth of setting off a riot. Why? Because he dared say that war was wrong and disastrous to an American audience enraptured by Bush's glorious war of liberation in Iraq. Would to God we had listened to him then!
Read his piece here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/
Chris Hedges is one of the wisest people writing today. His books on war are indispensable--because as a 20-year war correspondent he lived on the front lines and saw, heard, felt, and smelled war daily. Despite its frivolous title, his "Losing Moses on the Freeway" is one of the profoundest treatments of morality I can recall reading. Powerful and, again, indispensable.
And he is above all a man of genuine courage. He gave a commencement speech at Rockford College in May, 2003, that came within a hair's breadth of setting off a riot. Why? Because he dared say that war was wrong and disastrous to an American audience enraptured by Bush's glorious war of liberation in Iraq. Would to God we had listened to him then!
Read his piece here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/
It's come to this?
You know things are truly bad when the Post Office expects to layoff 40,000 employees. If it happens, it would be the Post Office's first layoff ever. Holy cow!
Read it here:
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=9247633
Read it here:
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=9247633
Three cheers for Mr. Olympia!
Governor Arnold does what craven Democrats won't do: He encourages California gays to keep fighting because they will win eventually. Can you imagine any Democrat anywhere in California (except possibly San Francisco) going on the record with unequivocal support for the right of gays to marry? And he's Republican! That spineless oyster Dianne Feinstein wouldn't do it. She made an ostensibly anti-Prop 8 TV ad in which she opposed "discrimination." Girl, opposing "discrimination" takes as much courage as opposing bad smells. Gays getting married, not "discrimination," was the issue on the table. And don't let her sister senator/oyster, Barbara Boxer, off the hook, either; she didn't even bother to make a TV ad because "she wasn't asked." Oh please, woman, even you can think of a better lie than that!
Goodness knows that the schmuck Arnold replaced, Gray Davis, never let such words pass his lips. Gays got domestic partnerships out of Davis only because he was in the throes of fighting the recall and desperately needed every vote he could buy; in calmer times Gray Davis would certainly have thrown gays under the bus and vetoed domestic partnerships because that conniving bastard had his eyes on a run for the White House and didn't want any gay baggage to weigh him down. Liberal Democrats--they are men and women of principle, each and every one of them (and they will go hoarse telling you so), right up to the very moment when they have to risk voter displeasure, and then down the toilet go the principles--and until now, the gays as well.
Arnold gets my respect. Screw the religious right before which every other Republican politician bows and scrapes; he's siding with gays and human rights. If the Republicans have any hope to save their shattered party from dissolution, they'd better model themselves on Arnold's example and boot the holy rollers and Elmer Gantrys out on their fat butts. The Republicans must reorient themselves as the party of modern secular conservatism and quit being the party of the bronze age, Yahweh, and the book of Leviticus.
Read here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest10-2008nov10,0,4939340.story
Goodness knows that the schmuck Arnold replaced, Gray Davis, never let such words pass his lips. Gays got domestic partnerships out of Davis only because he was in the throes of fighting the recall and desperately needed every vote he could buy; in calmer times Gray Davis would certainly have thrown gays under the bus and vetoed domestic partnerships because that conniving bastard had his eyes on a run for the White House and didn't want any gay baggage to weigh him down. Liberal Democrats--they are men and women of principle, each and every one of them (and they will go hoarse telling you so), right up to the very moment when they have to risk voter displeasure, and then down the toilet go the principles--and until now, the gays as well.
Arnold gets my respect. Screw the religious right before which every other Republican politician bows and scrapes; he's siding with gays and human rights. If the Republicans have any hope to save their shattered party from dissolution, they'd better model themselves on Arnold's example and boot the holy rollers and Elmer Gantrys out on their fat butts. The Republicans must reorient themselves as the party of modern secular conservatism and quit being the party of the bronze age, Yahweh, and the book of Leviticus.
Read here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest10-2008nov10,0,4939340.story
Sunday, November 9, 2008
We should have listened better
Just in case you thought all that "socialist" talk during the campaign was just partisan noise, please read this report about Congressional Democrats holding hearings on how the government may (will!) seize IRA and 401k accounts--for the protection of the account holder, of course. Is this the way the government will try to stave off the inevitable bankruptcy of Social Security? Spread the wealth around, said Mr. Obama, and millions envisioned themselves fingering the billions of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Who knew that it would be your wealth being spread around? Want to rerun the election yet?
The article:
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=5081
The article:
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=5081
A party of cads
The trashing of Sarah Palin continues. Embittered McCain operatives tell any preposterous lie about her, and the media happily report it as "news." Mr. McCain remains silent while his thugs mug her in an alley. What a noble fellow! Not only are reason and principle extinct among Republicans, but so are gallantry, courtesy, and chivalry. How long will this vile spectacle continue? To her credit, Governor Palin is fighting back (but alone since no Republican "leader" will stand with her). I thought she was ill-qualified for the federal executive, but she didn't doom the Republicans; John McCain, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et. al. doomed their party by their wicked wars, their lying, their reckless disregard of the Constitution, and their fiscal madness. Sarah Palin is showing that she's more of a man than all these wimps strung together. She's tough and resilient. I like that, and I'm starting to like her.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Proposition 8 in California
I'll be writing a lot on this topic in coming days, but I want to deal with one facet of this issue right now. As exit polls indicate, some 70% of blacks voted against the equal rights of gay people. The vote of no other ethnic or racial group was so lopsided. This deplorable vote highlights a well-known but largely ignored fact: anti-gay bigotry is rife among blacks. This bigotry is not limited to the marriage issue; a similar number of blacks opposed civil unions in California. This bigotry blights the lives of black gays and lesbians. It is deep and ugly, and it roils and festers almost entirely because of the anti-gay hostility that permeates black churches and that is kept alive by black clergymen.
For far too long gays have kept quiet about this locus of anti-gay prejudice. The aura of victimhood has shielded blacks from just and proper scrutiny on this issue. Well, after Proposition 8 there should be no more free rides for bigots. Anti-gay bigotry should be exposed and stigmatised wherever it is found--and there's a huge load of it in black homes and churches. America has risen above its shameful past and elected a black man on his merits as a man. It is now time for black Americans to confront their anti-gay prejudices, rise above them, and accord gays and lesbians their human rights as men and women--including the right to marry.
For far too long gays have kept quiet about this locus of anti-gay prejudice. The aura of victimhood has shielded blacks from just and proper scrutiny on this issue. Well, after Proposition 8 there should be no more free rides for bigots. Anti-gay bigotry should be exposed and stigmatised wherever it is found--and there's a huge load of it in black homes and churches. America has risen above its shameful past and elected a black man on his merits as a man. It is now time for black Americans to confront their anti-gay prejudices, rise above them, and accord gays and lesbians their human rights as men and women--including the right to marry.
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