Sunday, December 30, 2007

SAR #7365

Remember: on this planet, extinction is the norm.

American Idol: Since Reagan the commandment has been stand aside and let the invisible hand omnisciently distribute goods and capital to the maximum the benefit of all. Well, we've seen what the invisible hand does when there are no regulations and little taxation. Untethered market forces lead to the disasters of thoughtless greed and Ponzi schemes. The invisible hand has hair on its palms.

Guard! We see these lopsided statistics for how many Americans - mostly black Americans - are in jail - mostly for non-violent, victimless drug crimes. And we are appalled. Unless we are the Republican Right, then we understand that incarcerating lots of harmless folks is not a problem of our War on Drugs, it's a success. Even though funny-colored-people are no longer the principle users of drugs, they remain principle targets of drug busts. And yes, for-profit prisons depend on a large inmate count for their profits.

Don't Touch That Dial: The recording industry now claims you can't copy your CDs onto your computer - or make a disk to use in the car while safeguarding the original. They're also asking for a cease and desist order preventing people from skipping tracks.

Peak-smeak: Columnist Warren Brown, in Sunday's Washington Post explained the doomsters' problem: "Peak-oil theorists, those people foolish enough to believe that a nonrenewable resource is eventually exhaustible ... " I'm exhausted.

Democracy in action: Pakistani newspapers have already published the detailed counts planned for the Presidential elections. Bhutto was going to lose 65-35%, showing how fair Musarraf's re-election was.

Magic: In May 2004, Gambian President Jammeh announced the discovery by a Western company of "huge reserves of oil" off-shore. Funny thing. Seems there was no Western oil company and there is no oil. Never was. It is reported, however, that Jammeh received several nice gifts from prospective oil firms, wanting in on the discovery. The gifts are undoubtedly non-returnable.

On Deck Circle: After al Qaeda and the Taliban were driven from Kabul and the Bora Bora mountains, al Qaeda’s grand strategy has centered on Pakistan. Mainly because Pakistan had nukes, no control of the NW Frontier area, and little control over the population. Because the MSM reported nothing, or little, of the deteriorating situation, we felt the problem was under control. No such luck.

Goose, Gander: If our government can legally torture foreigners - and the occasional citizen - how long before 'enhanced interrogations' begin popping up in the back rooms of police stations? Used only in really heinous crimes, of course, where the suspects are black and the victims white or famous. Reminds me that in Turkish the word for the accused, 'suҫlu' is remarkably similar to the word designating the guilty, 'suҫlu'.

Definition: Home ownership is a vastly different thing than housing as an investment. People who "own" a house with no money invested (thus no emotional stake) are not home owners as much as speculators. When borrowers have no skin in the game, they have little interest in sticking around when things get tough. Keys in the mailbox, bye.

Don't worry, management has lain in a sufficient supply
of Sarcanol for the new year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bookmarked this. Thank you looking for sharing. Positively worth my time.

Anonymous said...

This is a superior article as they all are. I tease been wondering about this as some beat now. Its great to grow this info. You are fete and balanced.