Tuesday, June 8, 2010

SAR #10159

The technical term for those who believe without proof is “fools.”

This Just In... Even the MSM is beginning to suspect that BP has lied consistently about the volume of oil spewing out of its hole in the Gulf, and with good reason.  They have been.  Still are.

As Expected:  US house sales have not so much declined since the tax-bribery ended, as plunged.  Some markets are showing declines of 25% to 30%.  Anyone who had the slightest inclination to buy a house did so in the last few months.  That doesn't leave many customers for the rest of the year.

Stopping the Leak: In an attempt to stop information from leaking into the internet, BP has bought up the search phrases most likely to be used to find out what's going on, then paid Google and Yahoo to direct searchers to BP propaganda.

Down by the Station:  The Association of American Railroads reports that May 2010 rail traffic was up 16% from 2009 but still down 12% from 2008.  Hard to tell when to get excited.

Where's Waldo? Or rather, “Who's Waldo?” if Waldo is the a person or bank that is holding a few hundred billion in bad paper from Greece, Spain and Portugal.  Someone is going to take a big haircut, but no one seems to know which banks are holding the relatively worthless paper.

Speak Slowly and Clearly: The Financial Crisis Investigating Commission asked demanded Goldman Sachs provide documentation of their trades during the crisis period.  The subpoena was vague, so Goldman gave them 2.5 billion documents.

Democracy:  David Cameron, the UK's new Prime Minister says the new UK budget contains deep spending cuts that “will hurt every single person” in the UK.  Fair's fair.

True Costs:   "It's going to cause very substantial and noticeable damage — marsh loss and coastal erosion and impact on fisheries, dead birds, dead turtles we'll know what that is. It's the things we don't see that worry me the most.”  Ed Overton, LSU.  Crude oil gunks up a fish's gills and suffocates them.  Think marlin, snapper, grouper, bluefin tuna.

Inquiring Mind:  The one-time intelligence clerk who allegedly gave Wikileaks the videos showing US troops killing civilians has been arrested. Wonder when the people who leaked Valerie Plame's identity will be... Oh. Right. Too big to jail.

Government Healthcare:  Doctors at Guantanamo studied the physical responses of torture victims in order to gather information that could be used to improve waterboarding and other techniques.  Socialized medicine is bad for you.

Porn O'Graph:  Been down so long, looks like up...

****** Inquiry ******

I will be spending some time in Portugal soon & would appreciate those who've been there recently to email suggestions for the local color places you may have stumbled upon. If you would, to ckm3 at bellsouth dot net. Thanks - ckm

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marvao (medieval mountaintop village)

Evora

Sintra (Pena Palace)

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

Footnote to "True Costs" (Newsweek article re environmental impact of subsurface spilled oil) - the author of this article, Sharon Begley, is also the author of the book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, erroneously condemned by Paul Farrell as a "neuroeconomics" book in something you linked to a few days ago.

rjs said...

im surprised this hasnt gotten more coverage:

http://www.eutimes.net/2010/05/toxic-oil-spill-rains-warned-could-destroy-north-america/

(A report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources)

speculation on another blog this may be related:

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-mystery-crop-damage,0,187535.story?track=rss