SAR #14136

Climate scientists would be overjoyed to be wrong. But they aren't, more's the pity.

The Bell Tolls: The three Democrats on the FCC have voted to neuter the Internet by letting Internet Service Providers (for which read ATT, Comcast, etc) sell preferred, faster and more reliable delivery to big money users (which means they will in turn charge you more to use their sites and services) while shunting the little people, like me, to a slow and bumpy second (or third or fourth) class future. They call this Net Neutrality. In a similar vein, Comcast announced plans to put data caps on all users and charging progressively higher rates to those who actually want to use the Internet.

Naval Gazing: If possible, we know less about Ukraine now than we did before – a lot like a couple of other places over there somewhere geographically and economically vague. And a lot like those other places, our continued ignorance and increased misinformation is not accidental. The sanctions game of tit-for-tat continues, civil war appears inevitable, and a great-nations dustoff seems more likely than not. 

 

Box Score: US 10-year Treasuries are back below 2.50%, a continuing negative interest rate, as are 30-year notes at 3.30%. Don't celebrate, it is not good news. Industrial production fell sharply, the CPI continues to rise, the S&P is back in the red for the year, but – magically – initial unemployment claims are the lowest since May 2007.

Protecting And Serving: Police in Daytona Beach, FL are forcing people who have been providing free meals to the needy to stop practicing Christianity. This is part of the city's effort to force the homeless to line up, show ID cards and submit to biometric scans and drug testing before getting a 'free' dough-nut. Tugging forelocks will still be voluntary.

Celebration: President Obama led the nation in wallowing in self-pity at the opening of a museum celebrating commemorating 9/11. He did not mention that since 2004 – and mostly under his benign reign – US drone strikes have killed over 3,200 Pakistanis, less than 2% of whom have been high-profile Taliban or al-Qaeda leaders and most of whom have been merely collaterally damaged.

Fathers Forgive Them: In Chile, as recently as 2005, Roman Catholic priests stole new-borns from single mothers and gave them to “traditional Catholic families.” Church leaders now admit they have known about the scheme for at least ten years, but continued to hide the crimes. Is stealing a child less evil than sexually molesting one?

Big Bad Wolf: Wal-Mart would like you to believe that people who ran out of milk during this winter's cold spells didn't (a) rush out beforehand and stock up or (b) get to the store after the roads were ploughed and thus its first-quarter earnings fell by 5%. It also wanted sympathy for having to pay some taxes. Yet the fools fought their way to the malls throughout the winter to push JCPenny's sales up 6.3%. Always the excuses, always.

Onanism: US plans to give $1 billion in foreign aid to Iraq, so it can pay $1 billion to US war profiteers for new arms needed to kill Iraqis who are of the wrong religious perversion.

Lake Woebegone: Most Americans know they are smarter than most other Americans (no, the survey wasn't taken at Wal-Mart, but it could'a been). Only 4% had sufficiently low self esteem to admit that they were not smarter than the neighbors. Those who make more over $100,000 are convinced that the rest of us are not nearly as clever as they are.

Hear Comes The Sun: The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. In Idaho a federal appeals court put a temporary stay on gay marriage while the state fights the inevitable. Same-sex marriages are now legal in 17 states.

Porn O'Graph: Defense against what?

The Parting Shot: