Friday, October 31, 2008

The Friday Bacon

A special Halloween offering of Friday Bacon.

The Friday Bacon: Bacon Grease Makes the Best Patina


There is a cup in the refrigerator. It sits in the back. Nobody knows it's there, and that's how I like it. The cup is filled with bacon grease. When I make eggs and pancakes I like to use the best thing possible: a cast iron skillet. When I bought the skillet I thought it was a miserable thing. Everything stuck to it. They sell patina oil in the camping stores. I tried it, and I don't think it is very good. I also have a cast iron dutch oven. Every year Dave and I make a corned beef brisket in it on St. Patrick's day. The dutch oven has a beautiful gloss on it. I can make stews, potatoes, cheese sandwiches, and nothing ever sticks. So why was the dutch oven so much better than my skillet? BEEF FAT. I realized you need to melt REAL fat on your skillet to give it a patina (not some oil in a boutique store). Now whenever I make my bacon I render the grease into my cup. When I make eggs and grilled sandwiches I start with a little bit on bacon grease to help the thirsty pan keep its lovely patina. And when cooking eggs and such it tasted better than butter or oil, too! When I am done cooking, a paper towel usually does the trick to clean it up. This is why bacon grease makes the superior choice!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Urban Shaman


In days long past and in parts of the world untouched by the corporate monoculture there are psychopomps and shamen who know the spiritual secrets of the Earth and can walk between the worlds. These men and women gain access to a spiritual dimension through chanting, ritual, drugs, or raw spiritual power. They walk in a dangerous world in between life and death where they are alive, yet not. Where they walk among the dead and the not-yet born. They are able to pass through this liminal state of not-being without loosing their soul because of their wisdom and spiritual power.

It occurs to me that airline travel has become one such a dangerous liminal state in this post 9/11 world. In a world where one can be apprehended and shipped off to a foreign country or secret prison to be tortured based on faulty intelligence, mistaken identity, or no evidence at all, airline travelers face a very real danger. When one enters an airport they pass within a barrier that the public cannot penetrate. The traveler only enters into this parallel land by performing arcane rituals and by passing the arbitrary and ever changing tests of the gate keepers. They pass into a world where names and shapes are familiar but strange. The worst part is that no one knows whether you will come out on the other side.

The difference is that air travel isn't like this because of the immutable laws of nature and of the spirit but because of the actions of wicked men.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Prop. 8


I am not a citizen of California, so I have not been following the news surrounding Prop. 8. I don't even know the technical wording of what it does. I recently read this article, and it reminded me of something I have tried to address in previous postings. The idea that there can be a status equivalent to marriage for homosexuals that simply uses a different word. I have explained before that separate is not equal and that there are technical differences in the law that would be difficult to account for in creating a parallel civil institution.

I would like to try to address the underlying argument that if homosexuals are allowed to marry it somehow damages the sacred unions of heterosexual marriage. To me this seems like saying that every time I have a bacon cheeseburger, it harms every Jew that keeps kosher. Sure they might feel left out at a BBQ, but bacon is still delicious. OK, so the analogy needs work. I have yet to hear any reasoned argument behind the bare assertion, other than a veiled suggestion that the purpose of marriage is to produce future taxpayers. That upsets me as a Libertarian, but as a moral human being this concept throws me into a foaming rage that a human child is being valued only as a walking wallet. I think it shows that these people who claim to be for morality and the family are really the most cynical and selfish, if you only press them beyond their memorized talking points.

Personally I find it hard to argue with Mormons on the issue of family because they have such a strong family ethos and make it a central tenant of their religion. My bone of contention with them is that their conception of "family" is so narrow, it excludes and even rejects some of the diversity on Earth and in society that must be a part of God's plan. A faith that has a de facto exclusion of the childless and infertile, and an outright hostility to homosexual families seems to me to be directly rejecting the spark of divinity inherent in every part of God's Creation.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Walk of Shame: A Shameful Roundup


Saving the best for last.

First, a new study shows that half of all American doctors prescribe a placebo to their patients, and most of them that do, do not inform the patient that the medication will not do anything for their condition. The study goes on to say that doctors usually use pain medication, vitamins, or stress medications rather than the sugar pill one usually associates with placebo.

This throws into question medical ethics and the doctrine of informed consent. It would be possible to meet the standard of informed consent and still get the beneficial effects of a placebo. It also raises questions of further wasting money in the already inefficient American medical system.

This strikes me as similar to the use of tazers since in both cases a professional with a fiduciary duty to the people is using a device as a shortcut around dealing with the psychological difficulty's of the individual they are faced with at the time. It's lazy. It's laziness that has harmful consequences.


Second, the McCain campaign volunteer who claimed to have been attacked and beaten by a black man who carved a "B" into her face to signify Barrac Obama, admitted to lying about the attack. Apparently the woman is mentally unstable and probably did it to herself.


Lastly, we have the Maryland police spying scandal. The state police went to public meetings of politically left protest organizations and entered the names of participants in a database of persons suspected for involvement in terrorism. So essentially what we have is a law enforcement body labeling as terrorists, U.S. citizens who are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed first amendment rights without any evidence that any crime had or would be committed.

The ACLU were the ones credited with this story seeing the light of day because of an information request. This week the state started sending out letters to people who's names are on the list. There are varying accounts of what the letters say or what their purpose is. Questions need to be answered like; why were these people targeted, was it because they were politically liberal, why not investigate groups like the KKK which is already listed as a terrorist group, what prompted this spying, will the victims be able to see what is in their file, what criteria are used to determine someone is a terrorist, how does someone get their name off the list, is it possible to remove someones name?

This again gives an answer the question, "if you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to fear?" These people were not doing anything wrong. One officers reports even showed that these people were not planning on doing anything wrong. Yet they were labeled as terrorists. At this point we still do not know why. Again, most people don't concern themselves with the draconian methods of dealing with suspected terrorists since 9/11. Except we have been repeatedly shown that one does not need to do anything wrong to be labeled a terrorist and be subjected to torture. But then again, this woman seems to think that protesters, or anyone that is vocal about their political opinions deserves to be given the third degree.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Friday Bacon: Bacon Rage

I have a friend that has Bacon Rage.
All night diners like Denny's, Perkins, and Bob Evans are the kind of place that suburban teenagers begin to flex their growing independence by staying out late and paying for their own food and hanging out with their friends. (they serve breakfast all day long!) During this adolescent period my friend, with some others, went to one of these restaurants and ordered some breakfast combo. It did not come with bacon. Like most sane people my friend wanted some bacon so he ordered a side of bacon.

The bacon came on a separate plate. There were two pieces. Two overcooked pieces. Two small overcooked pieces of bacon on a separate plate. Sitting there, alone. Stark in their presentation and insignificance. This alone is an insult to the god of bacon if there was such a thing. Surely anyone craving bacon would only have their appetite increased rather than satisfied by this paltry offering. He ate the bacon and by all accounts it was a pleasant meal.

Then the bill came.

$6.00. The cost of the paltry serving of bacon was six fucking dollars. And this was in 1995, before people would mortgage their house to buy a TV. Some words were exchanged and things escalated. By the end of the night half of the town was engulfed in flames. If you think that is a bit extreme, you must not like bacon. Or justice. What's wrong with you?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tasings Lead to Collateral Damage, Like Careers


It's been a while since we've covered the controversies surrounding Tasers and their use. However, these two stories seemed fitting. 

In the first case, brought to you from Eustis, Florida, a police officer was hosting a birthday party with alcohol for himself and 50 other partiers, 20 of whom were underage. Apparently, 15 year old Tyler Davis said he wanted to know what being tased felt like, and the former officer Dan Nesmith complied, and even issued a brief safety warning. Thankfully, the Taser used was equipped with a computer chip that allowed authorities to know when it was discharged. For the incident, Mr. Nesmith has been fired from his position. 

In another case from Georgia, Deputy Sheriff Tonya Gross allegedly discharged her Taser inside the Fulton County Courthouse. Apparently the former deputy was surrounded by two women who were aggressive when going through the security checkpoint that is now ubiquitous in our post-9/11 world. Ms. Gross feared for her safety and aimed her taser, allegedly at the head of one of the suspects, but failed to hit either. The Fulton County Sheriff, disregarding the opinion of a retired sheriff's supervisor, fired the deputy for violating policy. 

It's good to know that when a Taser is deployed for fun or irrational fear, that some people in positions of authority won't tolerate such behavior. 

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Friday Bacon: Endorcement


As someone who enjoys bacon and has tried many kinds, I have to say I am not that particular about my bacon. I have tried smoked, cured, unsalted, low sodium, pickled, "all natural," and a dozen or so different brands and some from a couple of family farms. Because I am from Madison, Wisconsin where Oscar Mayer has a plant, for my stand-by bacon I always have on hand I have to go with Oscar Mayer, the one that says "Americas Favorite Bacon" on the package. It cooks consistently regardless of the method you use unless you are a klutz with a stove. Non stick skillet over an electric range, or over gas, in cast iron on the camp fire, or in the George Foreman grill, this stuff outperforms other brands when faced with heat.

The Walk Of Shame: Paulson


It looks like Paulson's greatest career attribute is the ability to beg. Perhaps that is how he got installed as the ineffectual treasury secretary. He got down on one knee to beg Nancy Pelosi to support the $700,000,000,000.00 BBBBBBBBBBillion Bailout, and on Monday he begged the banks not to horde the cash he is handing them. He is doing this while expressly stating that there are no strings attached. Paulson said,

At a time when events naturally make even the most daring investors more risk-averse, the needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it.
The free market has been dead since FDR, but the Bush administration has found a way to revive the same trickle down economics that got us into this recession, distract everyone by saying you are resorting to socialism. The awful truth behind that scary buzz word is that they are socializing the financial industry's losses in order to insulate their profits from market forces.

The Walk Of Shame


Apparently the House seat for Florida's 16th congressional district is like Spanish fly. It must be the holding of this office. Why else would the man that ran against Mark Foley then become embroiled in his own sex scandal?For those of you who don't remember, Mark Foley lost his reelection bid when it was revealed that he had traded explicitly sexual text messages with male teenaged congressional pages. Now Tim Mahoney, who campaigned on a platform of returning morality to the capitol has been exposed as having hired and then fired his mistress to his staff.

You could say that this is ironic. I am more cynical. I am inclined to believe that most people who run for national office have a pathological need to be loved that causes them to engage in self destructive behavior when they are given power. But I am no psychologist.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Ben Franklin Report: Pessimism Abounds


With renowned economist Nouriel Roubini of NYU predicting the worst economic contraction in more than 40 years, author Bill Bonner predicting the Dow Jones will fall to 5,000, and some very interesting analysis about the role of credit default swaps in creating some of the worst excesses of the real estate market, it's easy to understand why investors would want to avoid assets in the United States. What's particularly important about the aforementioned analysis, is that it reports that there is a provision in the recently approved $700 billion bailout that allows the Federal Reserve to pay interest on collateral held in exchange for loans. Under this scenario, the financial institutions can give take a loan out at the Fed, offering equity or some of the worst financial derivatives that mathematicians can imagine supported by some of the worst lending since the 1920's as collateral. Then, with the Treasuries or cash that the institution has borrowed, earn profit, and also earn more in interest than the derivative might be worth, thanks to the end of mark-to-market accounting. Which, in summation, amounts to one of the subtlest giveaways in an era of high-priced socialization. 

However, one doesn't need to be an investor to feel worried about the economy. Simply talk to state and local employees and the citizens who rely on their services, in places such as Chicago; King County, WA; Iowa; Maryland; and Massachusetts. In other news, the federal government announced a $455 billion budget deficit for Fiscal Year '08, which doesn't count Treasurer Hank Paulson's commitments to the financial industry, which will push the deficit in '09 even higher, in addition to whatever additional economic stimulus is passed in the coming months. 

There's even more pessimism in whether the announced $250 billion equity binge on nine of the largest financial institutions in America will have any effect on their behavior whatsoever. Despite the investments, up to $25 billion in some cases, the Treasury didn't receive the right to make policy decisions, such as board appointments. So other than hold more meetings and perhaps more begging on one knee, the Treasury's hands are tied.

Update on the RNC Arrests


Max Specktor, a cultural studies student, will have a hearing, along with the other RNC 8 in November. Mr. Specktor, a self-described community activist, has said that he plans to plead not guilty to conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism, among the first times that Minnesota's version of the Patriot Act has been used in criminal prosecution. 

What is particularly loathesome about the entire affair is that the group had been infiltrated by paid informants for the FBI for over a year. Regardless of the difficulties of obtaining inside information on an allegedly terrorist group, this practice of buying information from those who might serve as agent provacateurs should end as a matter of policy. When there is money involved in a transaction of information, the seller has less and less reason to be truthful in the information transmitted, if the perceived value will result in a higher price. One must ask, at what point does such an infiltration become a frame up of otherwise innocent Americans?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Ben Franklin Report: Leave the Spigot Open


While workers in GM's Janesville, Wisconsin SUV plant are getting a lesson in freemarket economics, Ron Paul is trying to spread the word about an economic malady of a slightly different nature: the ballooning and out of control federal debt that we've been covering here on the Fringe Element. As if the near vertical climb that is growth in the monetary base weren't already enough, the Federal Reserve is going to go ahead and provide unlimited amounts of funding in return for collateral to central banks from around the world. One could say that this is a very selfless act of a benevolent and intelligent Chairman, but more likely, this is an effort to return monetize US Government debt as Dr. Paul points out in the above article. This move by the Federal Reserve will have, perhaps, unintended consequences, as Central Banks return bonds originating in the United States, such as those issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to our shores. After all, in a liquidity crisis, why would an institution choose to hold onto assets that are, at best, potentially troublesome?

The rest of the world is also responding to the crisis in ways similar to the United States. After weekend meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C., financial leaders from around the world agreed to initiate a coordinated response, and the markets seem to be enjoying the show. In Japan, the Central Bank is ready to assist any effort negotiated by the IMF, but has so far not announced any support of particular amount of money to domestic banks and financial institutions. In Europe, markets surged amid a flurry of announcements from various national governments laying out plans to guarantee their financial sectors in various degrees, ranging from total guarantees of interbank lending and capital infusions in Germany to bond lending programs in Portugal. In China, the weather is a little less rough, with currency reserves recently surpassing $1.9 trillion in value, the People's Bank's chief Yi Gong, while promising cooperation with the other members of the IMF,  has expressed full confidence that China will weather the financial turmoil. Perhaps not coincidentally, the central government in the same weekend announced plans to double rural disposable income by 2020 to create a domestic consumption base as a way to offset falling exports to the U.S.

While some lament the appearance that Capitalism has become the newest whipping boy in the arena of economic philosophies, Treasurer Henry Paulson took bold steps in ushering in a whole new era of American socialism, essentially seizing portions of the nine largest lending houses in the United States.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Walk of Shame: Palin


This is a pretty detailed article on the whole affair. The bottom line is that the legislative investigation found that Sarah Palin violated the public trust in her office as Governor when she allegedly pressured for the firing of a State Trooper that had been married to her sister. In these cynical times it is hard for me to explain how serious a violation of the public trust is other than to say that even lawyers are required to be more ethical than this.

Once again this raises the question of how well Palin was vetted before she was picked as the VP nominee. Her ability wink and to segue into memorized talking points during the VP debate does not reassure me that she is more intelligent than the Couric interviews have shown her to be. Now there is this report detailing how she wasted no time in becoming corrupt after being elected as Governor of Alaska. Its probably a testament to her Orwellian campaigning that she was originally billed as a reformer.

The most telling part of this story is the reaction of the Republican party and the Republican presidential campaign. When the eye of justice was turned on them they immidiately and vigorously began attacking the integrity and nature of the investigation. What they were doing was analogous to if one was a murder suspect, arguing that the police did not have the authority to look for the murder weapon.

It makes me wonder if any other Alaska Republicans will be found guilty of corruption in the final weeks before the election.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Gay Marriage In Connecticut


It should be obvious that anyone that is against gay marriage holds such an opinion because they don't like the idea of gay sex. Although we joke in popular culture that sex and marriage have nothing to do with each other, you won't see any significant principled division between the people who object to homosexuality and those who wish to deprive homosexuals of their civil rights.

Today Connecticut's supreme court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violated that state's constitution. Effectively becoming the third state to allow homosexual marriage.

Something that is often glossed over in discussions of gay marriage is the issue of civil unions. These are often touted as being the same as marriage but with a different name. Gay rights groups often do a good job of pointing out that "separate is not equal," but it gets a bit more technical than that. There is a certain deference that is given to the status of marriage in American law that would not transfer over to any artificial legislative construction. You can make a statute that gives persons in a civil union the same tax benefits(penalties), the same visitation rights, and same property ownership as marriage and these are the rights typically cited by people discussing the issue, but there are a number of other rights that most people don't know come from marriage. You can have joint ownership of property but what about inheritance? What about the "Marital Privilege" where your spouse can not be forced to testify against you in court? There are a number of others but the point is that the status of marriage is so ingrained in our culture that a legislature would have to rewrite its entire civil code to create a substantially similar civil status to marriage.

Which still leaves the question of motive. Why would you go to all the effort to create something exactly like marriage just for the gays if not to keep them separate? I have yet to have heard a coherent explanation of why conservatives believe that it somehow harms their marriage if homosexuals are allowed to marry. My wife and I may have had less sex, or poor communication on the week California first allowed gay marriage, but I guarantee you it was not the cause.

The Friday Bacon


xkcd has a commonly posted comic about bacon.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Friday Bacon: A Bonus Bacon!


If we can't send bacon to our congressmen as an insult, then the terrorists have won.

The video is less hilarious than it should be.

The office of House Minority Leader and Ohio Representative John Boehner was evacuated on Monday because of a box of bacon. Apparently an angry constituent sent this as a commentary on the pork laden Wall Street Bailout. I wonder how many more taxpayer dollars will be wasted on overreactions to imaginary threats.

America Keeps Inching Back Toward Justice

There have been some gains for freedom and for the American people lately that have been overshadowed by the free fall in the stock market. The important thing is that these small steps show that our system still works, even if it draws its inspiration from molasses.

The Justice Department has completed its investigation into the firings of the nine U.S. attorneys and decided that since the Bush administration refused to cooperate with its investigation, Justice would appoint a special investigator. Whether this new investigator will have the power to get the information required to get to the bottom of this remains to be seen, and whether any power given will be effective is a whole other question.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the release of the Uighers into the United States. What is significant about this ruling is that last part about being released into the U.S. These are Chinese Muslims that were captured in Pakistan during the early days of the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. government has not considered them "enemy combatants" for some time now but will not release them into the United States and will not send them back to China. So the Government has been looking for, and failing to find, any country that will take them in. As with any promising ruling, there are still many appeals to go through.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Surveillance





























I just thought I would try to document all the cameras I pass in a normal day. There were twenty three that I noticed but was unable to get pictures of. I could use this series of images to try to make a point about how we have become so desensitized to constant surveillance that it should not have been surprising that few people were outraged by the warrentless wiretapping. One thing I would like to point out is that these images were taken in Ohio during "golden week" where voters could register and vote in the same place at the same time a month early, and that some of the cameras that I noticed but was unable to get pictures of were in areas where people were exercising this right.

The Ben Franklin Report: The Bailout Settles In


Just in case you need a reference point to how much the bailout was, consider the number to the right, the cost of the War in Iraq thus far. Yes, the bailout that was passed last week surpasses the amount of money spent on that mistake by leaps and bounds. So, when history is written, how should this period be judged? Where were our priorities? Did we ensure that every child in America had access to primary health care? Were we more concerned about finding a cure for cancer, or spending money on making sure that phone calls and emails didn't contain terrorist-related content?



The bailout and its effects in the market place, in a nut shell. Apparently, today the chaos continues as the first market to open after Bush's signature, the Israeli Tel Aviv Stock Exchange tumbled like a rock going down a sheer slope. 

The fundamental source of the entire financial crisis has been the opaque nature of the books of the biggest financial institutions. The fact that they refused to value assets which, if shown in the light of day, would be revealed to have little revenue potential, will probably end up costing the companies billions in dollars is only being papered over by the bill that the various branches of the federal government approved on Friday. This is further reinforced by new rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that corporations no longer have to price these assets on a 'mark-to-market' basis. That is to say, they no longer have to value them at the price they would likely fetch in a free and open market, but rather can just pencil in whatever they want and use these assets as capital, or as collateral for the various short-term lending programs offered by the Federal Reserve. However, the hanging $55 trillion question in the air is what happens when the Credit Default Swaps start becoming unbundled. For instance, you may remember A.I.G. which met its fate and an $85 billion bailout from the Federal Treasury because of these insurance policies, but has yet to sell a single asset, despite blowing through $61 billion of the money provided in the bailout. Yet their executives party like Nero in Rome. Party on, Wayne. Why worry when none of those responsible for the lending practices will ever be prosecuted

So, with some banks saying that they won't even participate in the No Bank Left Behind program and banks that will still fail regardless of their participation, what are we left with? A budget problem that will hamstring the domestic and foreign policies of the next President, whoever it may be, an IRS with undercover investigative powers which will be on the prowl to make sure that every dollar Uncle Sam has coming is brought to the Treasury, and good, old-fashioned rage almost everywhere other than Wall Street. 

Friday, October 03, 2008

The Friday Bacon


Here we see pilfered bacon. Bacon that was snuck behind my back. Certain trecherous people waited until I left the house and then cooked up themselves a bacony breakfast even leaving a piece on the floor for the cat. Taunting me. Saying, "look, even the cat gets bacon but not you."

Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Ben Franklin Report: Talking Points and the MSM


It was interesting to me to observe the tone of media coverage regarding the Bailout over the last week. Prior to the rejection of the first bill by the House the coverage was neutral with most coverage being directed at explaining just what the legislation was supposed to do but there was almost no coverage of popular opinion which was vastly opposed to the measure. After the shock subsided from the precipitous drop in the stock markets following the vote by the House, and it was found that the sky had not fallen and business continued as normal, the MSM started covering the vast negative public sentiment. This was mainly as a means of explaining why the Representatives voted as they did and attached to the old adage that the House is the more populist body. Suggesting that the real people of the country are only actually represented in government at the national level in the House of Representatives.

Until this morning the MSM was freely using the term "Bailout" to describe this massive gift of taxpayer dollars to the greedy rich motherfuckers that got us into this crisis in the first place. However this morning, the MSM has started referring to the bill as the "Rescue Plan." Yes, the Bailout that passed the Senate in the dark hours of the night when noone could see their shame has been spun. Instead of being a colossal failure of leadership, this is now a plan. Instead of being a giant burden of over $10,000 on every taxpayer, this is being called a "Rescue."

How long will this kind of transparent bullshit go unchallenged? Where is the voice of the American people? We, the people of the United States are overwhelmingly opposed to this legislation but if you look at the MSM you would think that we all accept this bill as a necessary evil. This is exactly the same failure of the media that got us into Iraq. Where are the pointed questions? Where are the experts holding the feet of the members of congress to the fire? Why is Kucinich the Keebler the only person that sounds sane? It takes a vegan who thinks he was abducted by aliens to raise concerns about the artificial haste with which this bill is being forced through congress? What about the old adage that the Senate is the more deliberative side of the Legislature?

Where was the thought process yesterday? It was clouded by fear and greed. Fear that there is an imminent catastrophic collapse in the future, and greed motivated by all that money. Why think about rational solutions when you can slip in a rider that directs funds back to your pet projects? If you are going to alienate millions of people by voting "yes" you might as well buy the votes of a few back home.

Like 9/11, this is another crisis that was easy to foresee but once it materializes people in government are using the ignorance of those that did not see it coming to create an unjustified panic in order to gain unfettered power. I cant' believe that exactly the same trick is working on the same people just six years later. I guess Lincoln was wrong.

I wish that was all I had to say about this but I want to highlight the behavior of the presidential candidates and I want to single out a particular economic pundit who has been causing me great personal outrage for the last three weeks.

The H-pod has been getting increasingly aggravating with his constant reliance on the trickle down theory of economics as if it is still a valid method of thinking. As if trickle down hasn't been clearly disproven by the recent recession. As if he isn't just fattening us up for the slaughter. Velshi is just trying to keep the taxpayers calm and encourage acceptance of the vastly flawed Bailout.

As for the candidates, they have both failed to show leadership in this crisis. Neither candidate has even attempted to deliver a strategy for solving this problem. Neither candidate nor their VP nominees have given concrete examples of things they would do if elected that differs from anything they have been saying since June of '07. To me its painfully obvious that they could follow FDR and his lead that propelled us out of the last Great Depression. They start a massive public works project. How about one that creates energy independence? Then you solve two national problems at once. OK, its four problems is you include oil wars in the middle east and energy's impact on the environment. Massive building projects that create super solar farms in the sun belt, wind farms in the great lakes and off the Atlantic coast, factories that produce the new solar power generating windows. The government can spend some of the seven hundred fucking billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer rape on investing in our technology future. The U.S. is falling behind. It was the lack of foresight of congress that caused the Large Hadron collider to be built in France and Belgium.

Both parties have failed. Both houses of Congress have failed. The Bush administration has failed. Local governments have failed. Wallstreet has failed. Individual investors and property buyers have failed. Foreign governments and corporations have failed. There is plenty of blame to go around but little understanding of the full scope of the failure. This colossal failure of leadership is not likely to be cured by panic and a rush to pass the first piece of legislation proposed by an administration that has showen itself to be power hungry and incompetant. We need to vote every one of these selfish beureaucrats and politicians out of office. We need to finish the job of cleaning house that we started in 2006.

Throw the bums out.

The M.I.C. Rumbles On

With another new week comes another new round of notifications to Congress from the DSCA about new arms sales to various countries, mostly friendly, but others perhaps less so. Moral questions abound surrounding the sales of military weapons to various regimes throughout the world, not the least of which being whether a country can afford the expenditure, but perhaps more importantly, whether the weapons will be used to crush opposition, as may be the case in Kenya. It might also be the case that the 33 T-72's were bound for South Sudan, for the purpose of re-newing the civil war. Interfering with the transfer of arms, of course, is a dangerous game, and will probably not end well.

In Taiwan, the lack of arms sales are much more of a controversy. The Taiwanese government is being vexed by inter-department review in the Bush Administration of its desired arms package. Currently, the brouhaha is boiling down to a game of fingerpointing between the GMT and the former ruling party the DPP. Either way, this type of arms sales, including heavy duty equipment such as attack helicopters and surface to air missiles would certainly force the People's Republic of China to take notice and be concerned.

A Little More Bacon Makes the Medicine Go Down


Unfortunately, the professional politicians of the Senate, including Sens. and presidential candidates Obama and McCain, voted in favor of a revised version of the bailout. Now, with some tax breaks and other pork barrel spending to enhance the bill's chances to pass through the House, and of course extra flavor. This delicious bacon costs an addition $100 billion, which is far more than I would ever pay for it, no matter how delicious it is. In addition, there are other sections that have been added to the bill, and you don't need to worry anymore about your children's wooden arrows being taxed at an exorbitant rate. One may argue that it passed through the Senate because only a portion of its members have to worry about re-election, which may or may not be the true reason. However, if one feels that this bill is overtly socialist, consider the opposition of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, who describes the bailout as unfair.


Also, I would like to see the opinion polls that Americans are more confused than opposed to the bill. I'm sure Mike Shedlock would have something to say about that, in between falling asleep at his computer, leading the charge against this horrible piece of legislation.


For those who need this explained, one has the choice of either the illustrious Dr. Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, or if you need to have it put into perspective with examples, this Opinion piece by Jonathan Weil is a must-read.


I wish that I could believe that this bailout is just an inefficient piece of legislation written in a system that didn't suffer from the systemic failings that went through Sweden's financial system in the 90's. But, even with, or should I say despite, the benefit of the experience of Sweden's former Finance Minister, the legislation is going forward in the worst way possible. When these banks are able to price these horrible pieces of financial wizardry that are currently befuddling their balance sheets at a price dictated by a former head of Goldman Sachs, the economic crisis will continue unabated, as the underlying fundmental economic problems remain. People will still be losing their jobs and inflation will be destroying the purchasing power of the dollars that are still being earned by those fortunate enough to have employment. This is a very dangerous game, with even more money being wasted on tax breaks that aren't substantiated in any significant way.