Monday, December 14, 2009

SAR #9349

How many US unemployed have been replaced by child labor?

State Less:   New York's cupboard is so bare it is 'unilaterally withholding' $200 million in school and municipal aid funding due this week. Have you ever tried 'unilaterally withholding' money from the state?

Say It Ain't So, Joe:   Joe Lieberman, the 2004 Democratic VP candidate who wanted to be the 2008 GOP VP candidate, who was pandered to out of desperation by the Dems who needed his vote to cut off GOP filibusters has announced he's a Republican troglodyte after all and will vote with the GOP to kill health care reform if the bill actually contains any health care reform.

Bi-Polar:  Obama claims “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." Well, why does he keep doing it?

No Room At The Inn:  You – many of you – are not needed. The world has become so efficient and so productive that there are not enough jobs to go around – even if you are willing to work for 33 cents an hour in an Asian sweatshop. There's a Nobel Peace Prize waiting for whoever stumbles over a solution to the social unrest this dilemma is going to cause that doesn't include reviving the servant class.

Dangerous Curves:   The gap between the yields on 2-year and 30-year Treasuries is as wide as it has been in 30 years. This is an indication that higher returns are anticipated – either through rapid economic growth, or higher inflation.

Fill in the Blank:   What is the next item in this series: Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq, ______ .

Feeding the Habit:   Mexican drug cartels have stolen a billion dollars worth of oil and 'smuggled' it into the US, where addicts wait eagerly for their next fix.

The One That Counts:   Of all the crises facing us, the worst is our joint failure to take responsibility for causing all the others.

The Road Ahead:   In the next 40 years we will add another 3 billion people will need jobs, food, water, shelter, education, and health care. In the last three years petroleum output has been steady at 85 mbd despite wide swings in price and profit. Assuming production can last at this level, by 2050 there will be half again as many people wanting their share. Try running a major city - subways, water and sewer systems, heat, light, transportation - on solar and wind power. But there'll be slaves. There are now about 27 million humans in slavery, more than ever before. That's a source of alternative energy that'll be around in abundance.

Filler:   If a health care reform plan does not include lowering insurance company and medical industry profits, it's not a plan, it's just a lot of words.

The Winners:   Will those who will not alter their predatory behavior even when the lives of millions are at stake, those to whom added millions of dollars is of no significance, will these people send out cards and go to a Christmas Service?

Progress Report:   The CDC says that 50 million Americans have gotten the H1N1 flu and 10,000 have died from it.

The Good and The Bad:   Canada thinks that along with the oil, the US should take responsibility for the greenhouse gases and ecological devastation that mining tar sands produces. Just add it to our already enormous tab.

Water Is Wet:  Population, pollution, resource depletion and climate change are all facets of the same problem. No one wants to talk about population and talking about solving the others without talking about population is counting angels on pinheads. Population is the real inconvenient truth.

Enlightened Self Interest:   Realizing that the American Dream has turned out to be a money-devouring chimera, many are deciding to rent instead of owning, others are giving up and walking away from their mortgages, while some realize they can simply stop paying the mortgage and take up renting after the sheriff comes around. It all frees up cash for other uses, like buying food.

Porn O'Graph:   Getting there from here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Good and The Bad:

These "oilsands" had always been known as Tar Sands until Canada and the Energy Racketeers got the PR going and started calling them "oilsands". So, call them what they are: Tar Sands.

http://clusty.com/search?query=tarsands&tb=opensearch&

I hope you will also be calling attention to Canada's coming Fascist Winter Olympics with all the usual Global Corporate Mobsters looting the locals and violating their rights. Ask Amy Goodman about the great complicit North:

http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/communications_rights/amy_goodman_and_canadas_olympi2748

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Anony 158 - Right you are. Emendation accomplished.
You may have noted that this column insists on using "house" and not the somewhat greasy "home" in discussing the mortgage collapse problems. We also favor Xmas over Christmas, for we'd like to get the Christ out of christmas.
It's always something...
ckm

OSR said...

There's a Nobel Peace Prize waiting for whoever stumbles over a solution to the social unrest this dilemma is going to cause that doesn't include reviving the servant class.

I'm pretty sure they've got a solution prepared, although I don't think any Nobels will come of it.