SAR #12065

The US now views assassination as a form of statecraft.

Perspective: Rush Limbaugh is a bully and disgrace. But he has gotten rich being a disgrace and a bully. The problem is not Limbaugh, the problem is the size of his adoring audience. He does us a service by reminding us just how many of our fellow citizens are grievously warped.

Streamlining: When taxes don't cover US government expenses, the Treasury issues bonds . When the Fed wants to stimulate the economy or save the banks, it just prints up some money. Why do we bother with a tax system at all, why not simply print what we need? And how much different is that from what we're doing now?

Sporting Chance: The New Orleans Saints have been caught paying bonuses to players who injure opponents. Let's start a pool on which team gets named next.

Playbook: There has been no Greek credit default called because so far Greece has not defaulted on any principal or interest payments. They will, later in March, but until they do the "no default" call is correct. But it won't get that far. By Wednesday, March 8th, Greece has to have in hand pledges from 70% (or 90% or some similar number) of their private investors agreeing to take a 75% haircut. They are not going to reach that goal. And if they do not, they will not get the second round of bailout cash, which makes the March 28 deadline academic.

Sunday School: Sanctimonious Rick says he believes that women who have used birth control have done "a grievous moral wrong." He has not revealed his plans to halt this sacrilege.

The Way We Are: Are the 1.5 million American children now living in cars, tents, and in the storm drains under Las Vegas being Left Behind? Is it right that more than 50% of elder households in America do not have enough money to cover their basic living expenses? Should the 20% of US adult workers who earn poverty-level pay receive no support? Is the US social safety net too generous?

The Source: From 2000 to 2007 there were only 9 cases of suspected voter impersonation - the thing that the voter ID laws are supposed to stop. Yes, there are instances of GOP operatives registering their dogs to vote, but no dog has actually walked up to a polling place and asked for a ballot.

Not All Sales Are Final: While GM and the others claim all sorts of improved car sales, what has really ratcheted up is the number of cars sitting on dealers' lots. (GM has 667,000 vehicles sitting around, up 29% from a year ago and 59% from two years ago.) To GM, that's a sale. To the car dealer it is a huge inventory carrying cost. The pipeline is full. That's why the Volt electric car production has been mothballed - "to maintain proper inventory,” and to give them time to figure out what to do with all the unsold ones.

Step One: A judge in Illinois has ruled that a law prohibiting citizens from recording police is unconstitutional. Step two requires you to tell this to the angry cop who is stomping on your iPhone.

Plop Plop Fizz Fizz: The Earth's oceans are acidifying at the fastest pace in over 300 million years due to the CO2 emitted by the coal and oil we've burnt. CO2 absorbed into the oceans becomes carbonic acid, which dissolves calcium carbonate. Which doesn't sound bad until you list the things that make their shells out of calcium carbonate: shrimp, oysters, crabs, corals, and so on, down to the tiniest creatures at the bottom of the food chain. And when they lose their shells and skeletons, they die. Then, after a while, so do all the fish. Etc.