SAR #8235

Cheer up; how often do you get to watch
the collapse of civilization?

Market Movers: The only possible explanation for the rise in Freddie and Fannie's shares is that everything else looked worse. How is that possible?

Ball, Home: NATO said further ties with Russia depended on Russia abandoning Georgia. Russia responded by "suspending all military ties with NATO." NATO's arrogance seems misplaced: Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Greece and Turkey are dependent on Russia for natural gas. Maybe someone should send NATO a calender.

Ugly Duckling: Even standing in the dim light of a streetlight, Lehman's was unable to sell itself. Can you spell 'desperate'?

Strained Glass: Seems that stained glass, the Medieval kind, were solar-powered air purifiers which removed pollutants from the air. Pretty, too.

Aw, Uncle Dickie! Dick Cheney writes a mean business plan: (1) nominate self for VP (2) have election stolen (3) meet with the other big guys and decide whose oil to grab. (4) get the White House to approve the division of the spoils (5) start a war (6) have the Pentagon to award the spoils to your company (7) pass a law to make war-profiteering tax free both here and there. It's the newest case-study at Harvard Business; Doug Feith and Wolfowitz are team teaching. The text is the Restore Iraqi Oil plan, the White House approved pre-war edition.

Diapers: Even if this happens to be the bottom of the housing market, it's still a bottom.

God Will Know His Own : NYC police do not know who the terrorists are nor how to find them, thus everyone is a suspect. The cops plan on tracking all the people all the time, and have ordered 11 million GPS leg monitors. The law-abiding have nothing to fear. Data will be purged every 30 days, citizens more often.

Duck & Other Foods: The USDA says that once consumers swallow a 6% increase in the cost of food this year, they should be ready for a second 5.5% helping next year.

Occupation to End Indefinitely: The US and Iraq appear to be nearing an agreement that would have US troops withdrawing from the cities in 2009 and relocating to immense permanent bases hidden in the desert from which, for an indefinite period of time, excursions would be launched to support American oil interests and manipulate the puppet government.

Math Quiz: Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, and others need to raise cash. To do so, they will (a) issue bonds paying 10% or more, (b) borrow from the Fed at 2% (c) go out of business. Answer: b, then c.

One if by Land: Homemade Security is now collecting info on all citizens crossing US borders by land, permanently keeping it and using it in criminal investigations. Times change, as do the rights of free peoples.

Economics 101: The free market, where demand elicits supply and the more something costs the more there is of it, only works in an infinite space with infinite amounts of resources. Don't try it with oil, corn, or votes.

Peter Pan & Company: How is it that Fannie, Freddie, GM, Ford, Lehman Brothers, among others, do not get arrested for impersonating real businesses?

Porn O'Graph: I owe, you owe, we owe .