SAR #11053

Democracy didn't used to mean “every man for himself”.

Bring Out Your Dead... Libya's capital is littered with corpses, Gadhafi's object lesson in the costs of hope.

Egress Eager: The administration is going through a series of 'speed-dating' meetings, trying to find a couple of senior Afghan Taliban officials willing to sit down and be bribed enter into formal peace talks.

A Map of the Territory: The GOP's Wisconsin attack is part of a larger strategy they have aimed at splitting the middle class from the workers, pitting unionized workers against non-unionized workers, trying to set the general public against the demonized government employees, dramatizing the gulf between benefit seeking oldsters and younger workers and to set the working middle class against the poor. Why? To distract the 90% from the rapine of the uppermost 10%.

Decisions, Decisions: As Germany prepares to dump Ms. Merkel, the choice between greater integration of the European Monetary Union or the eventual disintegration of it swings toward the “no more bailouts” side, which is not good news for Portugal and the rest, including us.

Evidence Evidentially: The Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) knew that it did not have the legal standing required in foreclosure proceedings, admitting that it was not the Owner & Holder of the Note and only actual physical possession of The Note was required. So why did they continue? Fees.

Noted: Saudi Arabia's oil exports fell 4.9% in December, m/m. And that was before...

Economics 101: Mainstream economics teaches that rational people always put self-interest first and that the world would be a far better place if everyone was self-centered. Certainly goes a long way to explaining who we are and how we ended up here.

Points of View: While BP maintains that the oil-munching microbes in the Gulf of Mexico have done a great job in disposing of the oil from the BP blowout, scientists report that the microbes have only digested and dispersed about 10% of the total spill. The remainder is still down there, killing the sea-floor's creatures.

Real Estate Humor: “Residential real-estate prices dropped in the 12 months to December by the most in a year, a sign the U.S. housing market is struggling even as the rest of the economy recovers.”

Fill In The Blanks: The CIA carried out ___ drone attacks in Pakistan in 2010, costing a million bucks each and killing ___ “militants” (including wedding parties, etc) of which a total of __ were “high-value” targets. (Answers: 118, 581, 2).

Poor Me... Saudi Arabia claims that it needs assistance from the $100 billion climate aid fund, because as the world shifts to clean energy sources they will lose income from providing oil to the polluters. Big Coal should take notes.

What's For Dinner? As the global population grows from 7 billion next year to 9 billion in 2050, , "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000 years."

Porn O'Graph: The target.