SAR #13363

The unexamined life is not worth living, the examined one often isn't any better.

Shut Up And Suffer: The first 1.3 million deadbeats have been kicked to the curb, with another three million to follow in the months ahead. It's for their own good, since – according to the GOP – as soon as they're flat broke they take any job available at any pay. Never mind that there are 3 seekers for every job opening or that those unemployed for over 27 weeks have only a 12% chance of finding a job. And if they do, they are likely to make about 40% less than they did previously, before Wall Street killed the economy. That's why they are more likely to drop out of the employment pool altogether, lowering the unemployment rate. How are they going to feed their families or pay the rent? Nobody cares, at least nobody in power in Washington. 
 
Ante Up: The great Las Vegas housing recovery has had a relapse; with house sales falling 15.4% m/m and 14.6% y/y – to a rate lower than any November since 2008.

Oops: One of NSA's justifications for scooping up all of our phone calls is that they have to in order to catch those who are talking to overseas terrorists. Haven't they ever heard of caller-ID? Yeah, turns out they have known all along, even before 9/11. And intercepted lots of calls the terrorists made about what planes to hijack and how to fly them into buildings. 
 
Brides of Frankenstein: Phil Robertson's gay tirade and endorsement of slavery were not caused by the effects of too much celebrity on too small a brain, the brain was too small to begin with. Witness his prior devotion to getting girls to cook, carry and marry at age 15. And the Bible, rather presciently, also gave Americans the right to hunt. 
 
Secret Ingredient: Not only are they reading your email and monitoring your internet use, they also know what you're doing when you're not on line. How? By intercepting computers (laptops, etc) after they've been shipped, spiriting them of to secret locations, installing spyware that allows the government to monitor and control the computers remotely. The infected computers are then put back into the delivery system and on their way.

The Dog Ate It: Iraq's Oil Ministry has asked the Kurds to explain where 106 million barrels of oil has gone, who got the money, about $10 billion, and where's Baghdad's share. Well, the Kurds get to keep only 17% of the cash from the oil exports they report, and...

Confusion: The US is arming the Shiite government in Iraq to kill al Qadea/Sunni forces in Iraq's northwestern desert that are funded by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while just across the border in Syria the US is arming the Sunni forces (also al Qaeda among other things - the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" operates in both countries) to overthrow the Shiite Assad government. Iraq, of course, also supports Iran as best it can and is the source for about 80% of the supplies reaching Assad. Ever since Ronnie thought arming the jihadis in Afghanistan was a Good Idea the US has chosen the wrong bunch of zealots nearly every time. 
 
Finger Pointing: Big promises followed by poor execution and massive disappointment, frustration and anger. Just goes to show that the private sector can screw up, too. Talking here about Christmas deliveries, not Obamacare. 
 
Secret Santa: American corporations have been raking in incredible amounts of cash as their profits mount. Trouble is, they can't find anything useful to do with the stuff. Expanding their production lines is a non-starter because there are not customers out there with any money. So they are giving the cash back to their shareholders by buying back shares and thus driving up prices. Last year they spent $445 billion buying back their own stock. That's nearly what the Pentagon's budget pretends to be. And that's what is behind the continual rise in stock prices - outrageous profits spent on driving up the price of shares. Ah, greed always finds a way.

Porn O'Graph: How many more?

The Parting Shot:

 Main square, Coimbra, Portugal