SAR #14084

We think we are right. All of us. Always.

Buyer's Remorse: We spend all that money on the NSA and they shred the constitution and listen to everyone in the world 24/7 and we still don't know the Russians are going to annex Crimea? How is it Putin made the do not eavesdrop list while Jimmy Carter and Angelika Merkel didn't?

Sky, Falling: Veteran fund manager and all-round grumpy guru Jeremy Grantham says central banks have created an enormous bubble in stocks and he expects that "the next bust will be unlike any other," and that the market will have negative returns over the next seven years.

Credentials: Turkish PM Erdogan, who doesn't "understand how people of good sense could defend this Facebook, YouTube and Twitter" Me, either, but that doesn't mean that those without good sense shouldn't be allowed to amuse each other. Anyone with that poor an understanding of people and their social networks isn't fit to be a leader. Which was their point, and that's why Erdogan has banned them. Or tired to.

Qualification: The US is sending 150 more special operations personnel to Uganda to hunt down the infamous warlord Joseph Kony. More. The first bunch was dispatched back in 2011. Quietly.

How To: Anyone can become rich by following Warren Buffet's example. Step one, put a few billion dollars into... Or not.

Contraband: A joint Germany/Vatican drug sting came to nothing when no one showed up at the Vatican Post Office to claim the 14 condoms full of cocaine. The Germans seized the cocaine, the Vatican the condoms.

Noted: Telling the truth is considered to be naïve. 
 
Snail's Trails: The House Republicans want to overturn a 108 year-old law that lets the President protect and preserve iconic American places like the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon and Arches National Park. Why? Because that black upstart in the White House used it to preserve part of the California Coast near Point Arena and any thing Obama is for they are against. Republicans have killed all legislative efforts to protect wilderness, parks and monuments since the Tea Party takeover in 2010. America is ours for the exploiting, not for wasting tax dollars on, y'know.

Crime's Down, Cop's Up: US crime rates are way down, militarized police forces are way up. If that makes you feel good, remember you are far more likely to die at the hands of a cop than a terrorist.

Housekeeping: A court in Egypt on Monday sentenced 529 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death after a mass trial.

As I Was Saying: The UN's IPCC is set to deliver a new, and very depressing, report on our changing climate. And it is not all about melting ice and stranded polar bears. It's about hunger, disease, drought, flooding, refugees and war, It's about all those things become more frequent and much worse. Okay, go back to sleep now. 
 
The Zombies: The long term unemployed are not ever getting jobs, they are destined for the bottom of the heap. And the increase in this new, downwardly mobile population resulted from deliberate choices made by the austerian debt doomsters.

Familiarity Breeds Indifference? Norway has lowered the incidence of sexual harassment in its army by quartering female and male soldiers together in shared bedrooms. Maybe it leads to friendships, or familial relationships. Or maybe it's like marriage, resulting in the maximization of opportunity and the minimization of motivation.

Porn O'Graph: Where the money goes.

The Parting Shot: