SAR #14114

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It is in our nature to attach meaning to chance events, either taking the credit or laying the blame.

Traveling Salesman: Obama, having completely screwed up a chance to have a national single-payer health system as his legacy, is now trying to make his mark by forcing Asian nations to hand their sovereignty over to international cartels, by labeling anything that cuts into the potential profits of the world-wide corporate masters 'trade barriers'. Let's hope he fails at this at least as badly as he did with healthcare.

Point of Order: Globally March was the 4th warmest March on record. It was also the 349th consecutive month to be hotter than the 20th century average for that month. That's 29 straight years of warming.

Asked: If 10 million homeowners are still underwater, how long will the recovery take?

Nailing It Down: Some commenters suspect that part of the slowdown in the housing sector is due to houses becoming unaffordable by the general population. Over half of existing home sales are made by investors, intent of making a profit by renting them to people who can't afford to buy them. It is obvious that housing will not save the US economy. 
 
Asked & Answered: Is a state that adheres rigidly to low taxes, right-to-work laws and a minuscule minimum wage typically a high-growth economic state? No, why do you ask?

Finely Printed: A lot of student loans have cosigner covenants that cite the death of the co-signer as cause for calling the loan. So children who have just buried a parent are forced to sell of whatever inheritance they get and convey it to the bank. Immediately.

More Is Less: The Labor Department reports initial unemployment claims jumped 24,000 last week, to 329,000. Yeah, recovery! Must have snowed somewhere, or something.

My View: The Magnificent Seven, or at least a controlling majority of them, have decided that whatever a majority of voters endorse is prima facie acceptable and constitutional. In ruling that Michigan's banning of affirmative action was not decided on the basis of whether or not affirmative action was needed, necessary, a social recompense for previous sins, the right thing to do, or any of that, they duck the essential question of generational justice. The very essence of the decision is that the voters can overrule the Constitution point by point and if the voters decide that some people who have made a bad choice in ancestors are to stay poor and uneducated, well the people have spoken.

Inquiring Minds: Without abundant and cheap petroleum, can we grow enough food to avoid a severe dieback of the human population? No, and why would we want to?

Protecting and Serving: In Virginia, state narcs executed a drug-related search warrant on the wrong apartment, tied up a 75 year-old woman while they searched her place. She was, of course, guilty of being black. In Texas a cop who came to take a report of a burglary got annoyed at the victim's dog for barking at him, so he shot it. Only wounded it. The report says the owner was forced to strangle the dog to end its misery. Hard to believe, but Texas is the place that's proud to say that 19 heat-related prisoner deaths does not warrant installing air-condition in the prisons. And the Black Robe gang has ruled that your local cops can stop and search you based solely on an anonymous call to a 911 line. Homeland Security baked a cake.

Tooth Fairy: Hard to believe, but most Americans still think owning a home is a good idea.

Porn O'Graph: Recovery, the bitter end.

The Parting Shot: