SAR #14004

There are three kinds of people; those who understand math and those who don't.

Re-Turn Of The Screw: The IMF now says that much of the Western world will require government to impose haircuts and defaults on their debt, the confiscation of savings and higher inflation rates if they are to escape being economically destroyed by their enormous debt burdens. The restructurings required in Europe's perhiphery will be “far beyond anything discussed in public to this point.” The Western elites still think that the rich countries are immune, but they are not; their debt burden is so overwhelming that they will have to suffer the same austerity programs that have been forced on Greece and Spain. Austerity's critics maintain that imposing extreme measures without offsetting monetary stimulus has been the main reason why imposing austerity alone has only increased government debt. So, the IMF says we're drowning in debt and it's opponents say the only way to avoid even more debt is more debt. Works for me. 
 
Check For the Union Label: Police in Cambodia have gunned down five more garment workers who were tired of making your clothing for $80 a month. Check out the labels in your stuff and see if you are a co-conspirator. 
 
All Fall Down: In November, sales of existing homes – single-family, townhouses, condos and co-ops – fell 4.3% M/M and 1.2% Y/Y. This was the first y/y decline in two and a half years. This on top of October's M/M decline of 3.2%. Realtors blamed it on increasing mortgage interest rates and “tight credit”, by which they mean the suckers can't qualify 'cause the economy is still hanging around the recovery room.

Home Study Program: A conservative candidate for the Maine Senate claims that a decade of arrests, court appearances and convictions for abusing his wife has uniquely qualified him to promote himself as a “pro-family” candidate. 
 
Since You Asked: Yes, the banksters are still running things and, most certainly, privatizing government services is a form of lo0ting.

Corn Maze: Zimbabwe needs to import 150,000 tons of corn from its neighbors to keep an estimated 2.2 million people from starving before the April harvest. Following the confiscation and redistribution of white-owned farms, food production in Zimbabwe has plummeted. The government says the shortfall is due to years of falling rainfall.. 
 
Oiling The War Machine: Syria has signed a guns for oil deal with Russia, which will only upset the Saudis – who are bankrolling al Qadeda's attempt to overthrow Assad – even more.

Reality Check: “Let’s face it: You suck at investing. Your adviser sucks at investing, too.”

Let's Go To The Tape: One, the whole point of the New Testament was to document Jesus and the New Commandments – serve God and love thy neighbor- which were to replace the mean and viscous crap in the Old Testament. If you don't think so, please point out where JC ever told anyone to blame the poor and sick for being poor and sick, to make sure the rich got richer at the expense of the downtrodden, to refuse to pay your taxes and the rest of the gospel according to Rand Paul and the Republicans. Too bad Pope Francis' address to the Third Vatican Council is but a hoax. 
 
PS, The Cat Died: Virtuoso flautists Boujemaa Razgui flew into JFK with 13 handmade flutes, nays and kawalas. Customs, thinking they were bamboo sticks, destroyed them. Because bio-terrorism. 
 
Okay, But Why? Scientists have developed glow-in-the-dark pigs using jellyfish DNA.

Slow Learners: Now a bunch of Democratic South Carolina legislators think they are clever enough to craft a law requiring prayer in school without running full tilt into the US Constitution. Actually, they know they can't win this one, but it is their way of trying to pry a few voters away from the God Fearing Republicans. 
 
Porn O'Graph: Misplaced trust?

The Parting Shot:

 Banded Coral Shrimp, Stenopus hispidus.