SAR #14076

If free market competition produces excellence, how do you explain cable TV?

Usual Suspects: The FDIC is suing 16 banks – BofA, Citi, JPMorgan, etc. etc. - for rigging the Libor rate for years and years and years. For so long they all thought it was their natural right to steal money that way. 
 
Apocalypse How: A NASA funded research paper says that our unsustainable consumption of resources, our excessively large population and the increasing levels of inequality will lead to “irreversible collapse.” This is not exactly a fringe group of doomster conspiracy nuts. The authors cite compelling historical data showing that "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common” throughout history. The main factors leading to civilizational collapse have been excess population, changing climate, high levels of economic stratification, water shortages, agricultural failure and failing energy sources. Sound familiar?

Desperation: Turkish PM Erdogan claims that a 15 year old boy who died nine months after being put in a coma by Turkish police putting down a demonstration, was a terrorist and that his death was an act of terrorism. Or something like that. Naturally, riot police fired rubber bullets as tens of thousands of protesters mourned the dead teenager.

Division Of Spoils: The bonuses handed out by Wall Street in 2013 came to more than all the wages earned by all the minimum wage workers in the nation.

Crime Stoppers: Workers at an Ontario turkey farm were videoed “punching, kicking, and throwing turkeys”, and crushing the birds spines and heads with metal rods and shovels. This is the sort of thing that is against the law in several US states. The videotaping, that is.

The Doctor Is In/Out: Why is it Obama's fault that your doctor's greed led him to chose not to accept your insurance? It's just business; insurance companies send patients to the lowest bidder to keep costs down and make more profits. Not their fault your doctor doesn't think you're worth his time.

Words: 'Recovery' doesn't mean what you think it does. Nor does 'recession'. They're just statistical concepts, having little relevance to reality unless you live in some economist's model. 
 
Striking Back: A federal judge has ruled that Tennessee must recognize marriages legally performed in any other state. Kentucky, Utah and Texas have also been so educated on the responsibilities of being one of the United States. In Arkansas a federal judge has struck down the law banning most abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy as an unconstitutional infringement on a woman's constitutional rights. 
 
What I'm Missing: I don't have a smart phone, so I have to just guess when it's time to go pee.

Smile, They're On Candid Camera: Baltimore's PD, after wasting nearly a quarter million dollars trying to defend a cop who objected to being photographed making an arrest, has told its officers that they cannot object to the public recording them going about protecting the public. Philadelphia is about to pay for the same lesson. 
 
Logically: A Colorado court has ruled that now that the state has legalized pot use, some of those convicted of marijuana possession should have those convictions overturned. In Washington, AG Holder backs reducing sentences for minor drug offenses. Now how are we going to keep the jails filled, like our contracts with the private prisons require?

Squeaky Big Wheels: Turns out that being a loudmouth is a huge advantage in the race to dominate the competition. And it's far easier than actually being good at something.

Do As I Say: The former cop who killed a man in a movie theater for texting, had been texting from the theater just a few minutes earlier.

The Commons: Measles vaccine does not cause autism. Those who want an explanation for the currently unexplainable and those who don't think government conspiracies against us stop with the NSA have brainwashed enough parents that we now – unnecessarily – are facing outbreaks of measles. Parents do not have the right to inflict measles on their children, nor do they have the right to pollute our shared environment through their willful stupidity. 
 
Those Guys: An Arizona Republican claims that slavery wasn't so hard on the slaves and, besides, it was good for the economy. One in Ohio claims that a public education system is a socialist plot and advocates complete privatization of schools.

The Parting Shot:

 Goose-neck Barnacles, Lepas anatifera.