I know I should write something about the $920 million London Whale fine, but I desperately need to get on a more normal sleep cycle, so that will have to wait.
Rover challenges Mars life theory BBC
Google may ditch ‘cookies’ as online ad tracker USA Today (Lambert)
Protecting the open Internet may require defunding the ITU. Here’s how to do it. Washington Post (Chuck L)
Super Typhoon Usagi on path of destruction towards Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong Raw Story
Axe comes down on climate body The Age (skippy)
French lawmakers ban child beauty contests The Local
Pope Says Church Is ‘Obsessed’ With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control New York Times (Lambert)
WE SPENT LAST NIGHT WATCHING GREEK ANTIFASCISTS CLASH WITH THE POLICE Vice
Nazi Murders – and what to do about them Yanis Varoufakis
US denied Venezuelan president travel through its airspace – Caracas RT (Deontos)
Syria:
Do Syrian Rebels Have Sarin? Consortium News (furzy mouse)
Quick Turn of Fortunes as Diplomatic Options Open Up With Syria and Iran New York Times. But what would happen if we were no longer at war with Eurasia?
Syria deal holds a lesson for Barack Obama – talk to Iran Financial Times
What will happen to America’s credibility, and that of the West, if the Syria agreement falls apart? Project Syndicate
How to Dismantle a Chemical Bomb Foreign Affairs. Shows it’s not easy.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch:
Brazilian hackers confuse Nasa with NSA in revenge attack Telegraph (1 SK)
Will Eric Holder guarantee NSA reporters’ first amendment rights? Guardian. Um, we already know the answer to that question.
In Wake of Revelations about Corruption and Coercion, OCC Wails about Bank Cybersecurity Marcy Wheeler
Snowden disclosures prompt warning on widely used computer security formula Reuters (Lambert)
DeLay’s laundering case overturned BBC
Two concealed carry permit holders shoot and kill each other in Michigan Daily Kos (furzy mouse)
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Tells Customers To Leave Guns At Home Forbes
Obama’s Fed drama James Galbraith, Los Angeles Times (Dan Kervick). A sort of weird piece, but clearly says that the big difference between Summers and Yellen is stylistic, not substantive.
My “Idiotic” Insistence on Being Fair in Criticizing Larry Summers Bill Black, New Economic Perspectives
To Taper or Not to Taper…
Fed’s Guidance Questioned as Market Misreads Signals Wall Street Journal
Shorter Federal Reserve: The Economy Breathes Sort of OK if We Keep it On Life Support Ian Welsh
Further Post-Mortem Tim Duy
Stocks pause as rally stalls Financial Times. Fed euphoria was short-lived.
Income, Poverty, and Healthcare 2012: The Patient Did Not Get Worse But Remains Seriously Ill Hugh
$104 Million To Be Given To UBS Whistleblower Joy of Tax Law (Deontos)
Homebuilder and mREIT stocks nosedive HousingWire
The Era of Cheap Gasoline is Over OilPrice
Occupy the bookshelf: #OWS turns two FT Alphaville
Antidote du jour:
And a bonus. My cat Gabriel needs to take lessons from this dog:
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Comments are closed.
A reaction from Tim Flannery, one of the members of Australia’s Climate Commission, to its elimination: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/climate-commission-tim-flannery
I watched that dog video the other day. Whoever is stupid enough to leave their dog in a kitchen all day is even stupider for leaving such a small gap for her to hang herself on. I’m just glad it appears the dog wasn’t hurt.
So it’s tl;dr for this description of the video?
“my friends dog kept mysteriously getting out of the kitchen so he set up his laptop to see how he was doing it, the following happened…
EDIT: The dog’s name is Bandit and has severe separation anxiety, to the point where he destroys carpets, chews wires, and cuts himself trying to get out of his crate. The kitchen was the most “baby proofed” area in the house, so I began blocking him in there so he wouldn’t hurt himself, as a trainer suggested. After seeing what Bandit goes through trying to get out everyday, including almost killing himself, my friend gave him full access to the house and IS NOT a shitty or abusive owner.”
Well, I’ll assume that these people had good intentions, but were a bit misguided when they set up the “experiment.”
Our Springer “medical rescue” suffers from severe separation anxiety–which we were unaware of when we adopted him. He has been examined by a veterinarian neurologist, who pronounced him to be “hardwired.”
The first “sign” we had was when I had left our home to walk another dog, just days after we adopted Bailey.
I was standing in a field with Murphee, when I looked up and saw a dog running full speed down the street in our subdivision–only to realize [in a few seconds] that it was our newly adopted dog!!
Having shut the door and locked it when I left the house–I was absolutely dumbfounded.
Turns out, Bailey escaped though an upstairs window that I had left cracked.
The window screen was laying on the holly hedge beneath the window when I got back to the house.
Miraculously, he was not injured.
We just celebrated “his sixth birthday with us.”
The cure: Like an American Express Card–we never leave home without him. ;-)
[Or he goes to “doggie day care” when we must!]
we also serve, who stand and wait
(not sure what those animals are, but one of them has a collar of some kind).
Meerkats
thnks
tracking collar……..
He’s a meerkat of interest.
Thus the saying among meerkats: Don’t be too interesting.
I wonder if the meerkat with the collar is Flower (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8rbMCs9BvqE). I miss that show.
I tuned into Meerkat Manor twice. The first time, it was the episode featuring the tragic death of Mozart following a few moments of fleeting happiness. So sad.
The second time, I got the same d*mn thing.
Regarding the Fed’s decision “Not to taper”. we are now being treated to the corporate media spin that “Wall Street was shocked” by the Fed’s decision not to “Taper” QE. Wall Street wasn’t shocked. They have transferred a boatload of money from the American people to themselves from this carefully and artfully choreographed and executed scam.
But much more importantly, in our very own “Life in Versailles” moment, the House yesterday voted to cut the food stamp program. “Let them eat cake.”
Angry, Disgusted, Frustrated
Published on Sep 18, 2013
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) discusses the economy on the floor of the Senate.
http://youtu.be/ADhMKzDZ6Q8
In reality, what the House GOP are saying is, “Let them find jobs.”
Hmmm… 49 million Americans on Food Stamps, including lots of kids. The stark reality of “globalization” and “free markets”. Wonder if the coal mines are hiring?
Last I read, the proposed reduction in the food stamp program would “save” the government around $30 billion per year. Meanwhile, the Primary Dealers are continuing to receive $85 billion per month under “Quantitative Easing”.
It’s all about the numbers, eh?
” The bill, written under the direction of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, would cut $40 billion (of projected $700B) from the food stamp program over the next 10 years. It would also require adults between 18 and 50 without minor children to find a job or to enroll in a work-training program in order to receive benefits.
It would also limit the time those recipients could get benefits to three months. Currently, states can extend food stamp benefits past three months for able-bodied people who are working or preparing for work as part of a job-training program.”
F*** those Walmart workers. After three months, the suckers can starve……. so four of the Waltons don’t lose their place on Forbes Top 10 Richest in the US (with Christine the only woman), and effective corporate taxes, at 27%, can remain among the lowest in the world.
Predictions are that 4 million will lose food stamps next year…… which exceeds the numbers of job openings nationwide.
The House Rep. for Owsley Co., Ky, Hal Rogers, voted for the bill. This is the poorest county in the country, in Appalachia, with 40% of the county living below poverty level, 52% on food stamps, and 12% unemployment. The median income is $19K and the county is 98% non-Hispanic white. Hal Rogers won his 16th term by a 84% majority in 2012. In fact, 70% of the 227 counties with the highest concentration of SNAP recipients have GOP representatives in Congress.
How do you get people not to vote against their own interests?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/house-passes-bill-cutting-40-billion-from-food-stamps.html?_r=0
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-14/food-stamp-cut-backed-by-republicans-with-voters-on-rolls.html
Maybe younger white working class people vote less than their parents and their better off contemporaries. Can’t blame them for completely giving up on the system
A little voice: take the money away from imperial adventures and science research projects on better, more efficient ways of killing or spying, and spend it on small people.
Do that before raising the debt limit.
No need to raise the debt limit before we stop funding the imperialists.
Take money away from science research projects on developing better and more efficient ways of killing and spying and give it the small people.
Don’t be silly – weapons are about the only things we export anymore. Think of the balance of payments, man!
What happened to pop music?
We longer export that or that’s listed under cultural weaponry now?
I know we exterminated a lot of indigenous cultures with that and our TV shows/movies in the past before.
Except they’re not *paying* for it, a problem they hope TPP will take care of.
So you’d put off relieving misery today till the taxes can collected from the filthy rich? Assuming they can be from various hidden, offshore accounts?
Why not instead impose an inflation tax on the filthy rich by giving new fiat to every citizen but them?
This sort of reasoning will just the mess to go around in circles, endlessly.
‘Put it off. We will go after them later.’
And then we forget or lose the will or what not.
The inflation tax hits them TODAY. It’s your plan that is uncertain.
Dividend Loans for Buyout Firms in Europe Double to $5.5 Billion
Charterhouse Capital Partners, KKR & Co. (KKR) and other private-equity companies are raising the most loans to pay themselves dividends from their European corporate investments in more than five years.
Companies owned by the buyout firms borrowed 4.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion) for payouts this year, more than double the 1.8 billion euros raised in 2012 and higher than any year since 2008, according to data compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ Leveraged Commentary and Data. Visma Group, a Norwegian software maker majority-owned by KKR, increased its loans to 8.1 billion kroner ($1.39 billion) to help fund a shareholder payment while U.K. retailer Card Factory Ltd. is seeking a 165 million-pound ($265 million) term loan for a dividend to Charterhouse, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Private-equity companies are extracting income from the businesses they own as borrowing costs from the U.S. to Europe to Japan are held at record lows and their investments are changing hands at the slowest rate since 2009. The firms have sold $29 billion of European companies this year compared with $57 billion in the whole of 2012 and $94 billion in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Banks are more willing to allow sponsors to take dividends from the business,” Jonathan Guise, a London-based partner at debt advisory firm Marlborough Partners, said in a telephone interview.
“Investors will be wary about these types of transaction given the higher default rates seen in dividend recap transactions syndicated pre-crisis,” said David Milward, London-based head of loans at Henderson Global Investors Ltd. “I expect this trend to be on-going. The pricing and structures look okay for the moment.”
“Sponsors are increasingly looking at using holdco PIK debt to achieve the desired outcome due to strong demand for high yielding PIK or PIK toggle securities,” Sachdev said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/dividend-loans-for-buyout-firms-in-europe-double-to-5-5-billion.html
wonder how much this plays into income inequality? …especially when they will drop the hammer on the workers in the not too distant future.
It’s used to be that for you and me to make $1, the 0.01% had to make $50.
Now, for us to make $2, the rich have to make $1000.
But that’s good right, because you are making $2 now, whereas your parents could only make $1. It’s a win-win for humans. We only have to kill more animals and cut down more tress. But hey, look at the beautiful GDP chart of the last 1000 years!
And once in while, you stumble and make only $0.9, even though the 0.01% are making $5000.
Don’t worry, we will cut down more trees and kill more animals, and will get you back up to $2 in no time. It’s noblesse oblige, you know.
Hopefully, this is not a double-post.
It’s used to be that for you and me to make $1, the 0.01% had to make $50.
Now, for us to make $2, the rich have to make $1000.
But that’s good right, because you are making $2 now, whereas your parents could only make $1. It’s a win-win for humans. We only have to kill more animals and cut down more tress. But hey, look at the beautiful GDP chart of the last 1000 years!
And once in while, you stumble and make only $0.9, even though the 0.01% are making $5000.
Don’t worry, we will cut down more trees and kill more animals, and will get you back up to $2 in no time. It’s noblesse oblige, you know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charterhouse
Go ahead. Have a field day.
Why the American Economy Is a House of Cards
The American economy today is a house of cards, wherein each added layer of cards at the top increases the pressure on the lower tiers and threatens the stability of the entire structure. The higher the edifice goes, in fact, the more likely it becomes that the whole thing will come crumbling down at some point.
The reason for this is not the expansion of our economy itself but the inequality, exploitation, corruption, and injustice that are accompanying this expansion at every step. The economy may be growing, but it is doing so at the expense of its foundation — the working class Americans who make all economic activity possible.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sanjay-sanghoee/killing-wall-street-putti_b_3880475.html
Economy is not jobs.
It’s not ‘it’s the economy, stupid.’
It’s not quite ‘It’s jobs, stupid.’
It’s ‘let’s GDP sharing, stupid.’
Will Eric Holder guarantee NSA reporters’ first amendment rights?
Ahhhh, so we redefine “doing his or her job”? Barrett Browning is not only being prosecuted right now, but also is under a gag order preventing him from discussing the case. Assange would have been prosecuted if only he’d been caught.
Will rights be respected? In a 2012 decision on the legality of the mass collection of phone metadata, Judge Claire Eagan, on p. 21 of her decision wrote, in clarification, that
but instead because
Well surely we can’t expect the wolves to keep an eye on the foxes…
The word of the day: Tsurt.
Tsurt is trust backwards.
In that case, does ‘you tsurt her’ mean
1) you don’t trust her
or
2) she trusts you?
Does the government ‘tsurt’ you?
‘But what would happen if we were no longer at war with Eurasia?’
This seeming jest is an utterly serious question.
Remember the ‘peace dividend’ when eastern Europe slipped its traces in 1989, followed by the Soviet Union itself in 1991?
It didn’t take long before the World Trade Center and the Murrah building were bombed, along with U.S. embassies in Africa, and NATO authorized its first (utterly illegal) ‘out of area’ operation in the former Yugoslavia.
Enemies aren’t hard to find, especially when you run an ‘insurgency incubator’ to create them. Doubtless our best minds in Washington are grappling with this looming problem even now, with Report From Iron Mountain as required background reading material.
We have an international incident with Russia brewing in the Arctic as we type. Heavily armed Russians have boarded the Greenpeace icecutter via helicopters and ropes in international waters and held the crew at gunpoint, arresting 28.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/20/environment-greenpeace-arrests-oil-russia
When will the Russians learn that non-violence, such a belief, in say, neoliberalism or some other thing, among innumerable ways, is better for intimating and killing?
The Isrealis got away with it, why not the Russians?
Because the Israelis are “exceptional”?
They have short school buses?
The Russians are not gullible. They look for the motive beneath the mask.
More Snowden/Syria blowback.
There would have been fuck*in uproar on NC if the Russians had pulled a stunt like that a year or two ago, am I right?
Now we, and a broad swathe of leftist opinion, are going to cough and look the other way.
RIP, middle class: 1946-2013
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there, weep our sad bosoms empty.
History may or may not repeat itself.
When Mohammed XII left Alhambra for the last time, his mother said, before they left for North Africa, something like this: “Go ahead weep like a woman for you could not defend like a man.”
In all fairness, ‘defending’ is something you watch football players do, not something the Modern Man does.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Well I think you could say that about any world power.
Just when I thought there was justice somewhere in this country, that slimeball psychopath Tom DeLay’s prison sentence is overturned…..after several years.
The ultimate freeloaders
September 18, 2013
Have you ever thought about starting a new religion or perhaps a hometown franchise of an old one? Perhaps you’re just looking for a career ladder in a religious enterprise that already exists. No? Maybe you should.
Religion is big business. There are lots of options ( over 30,000 variants of Christianity alone), and if the scale is right it can pay really, really well. Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church, has an estimated net worth of $27 million. Benny Hinn comes in at $42 million. Squeaky clean tent revival pioneer Billy Graham bankrolled around $25 million. Even Eddie Long who has been plagued by accusations of sex with underage male members of his congregation can count his bankbook in the millions.
You say you don’t have star power? No worries. Millions of ordinary ministers, priests, missionaries, religious hospital administrators and other church employees earn solid middle- or upper-middle-class incomes in the God business. The pay is good, and for most positions it doesn’t matter what race you are or what grade you happened to get in chemistry.
That said, starting or expanding a religious enterprise doesn’t come cheap, even in an established religion that transforms ordinary members into volunteer outreach staff. Christianity spends an estimated $16 billion annually on the kind of marketing-service blend traditionally called “missionary work.”
Missionary work may include disaster relief or education with recruiting in the mix. An earthquake survivor might receive a solar-powered Bible to go with his rice and beans and sutures. A Hindu child might get free schooling, pencils and paper included, along with the message that the gods his parents worship are actually demons. Among people who are less desperate, the offerings can be more nuanced and less expensive. For example, a lonely student might get offered kindness and dinner by someone who is paid to live near campus as a friendship missionary. Sometimes mention of heaven or hell is all the enticement needed, though even then there may be costs associated with print materials and distribution. Soldiers in Iraq gave out Jesus coins and a little cartoon book showing that when an IED killed a Muslim, he or she went to hell, a fate that could be averted by conversion. – snip
http://www.alternet.org/belief/holy-freeloading-10-ways-religious-groups-suck-public-purse
skippy… now where was the first coin operated vending machine of water (holy) located at. Sound like?
Religion, unfortunately, is a business….just read American Fascist by Hedges.
Religion is a front for many things….
Re: Graham…wonder what the cost of this “sit down” was?
In 1957 Time magazine wrote a brief[2] about Mickey Cohen meeting with Billy Graham. Cohen said, “I am very high on the Christian way of life. Billy came up, and before we had food he said—What do you call it. that thing they say before food? Grace? Yeah, grace. Then we talked a lot about Christianity and stuff.” Allegedly when Mickey did not change his lifestyle, he was confronted by some Christian acquaintances. His response: “Christian football players, Christian cowboys, Christian politicians; why not a Christian gangster?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Cohen
I admire people that live out their adherence to the principles of their faith…others not so much….and definitely not those that do it for the money.
Become a for-profit Prophet…yeah, I’ve thought about that. People do seem awfully willing to give money to some guy in a robe or a collar. And if the missionary work isn’t cutting it, you can always use your connections and reputation to sell fake securities. Take this guy for instance:
Pator’s Co-Defendant Testifies in Securities Fraud Case
Hanlon strikes again…
You know I love you skippy but I have to correct your lead about the religious folks being the ultimate freeloaders.
Just like Beard ranting about the bankers as the ultimate evil, the bankers and the religious owe their existence to the global plutocrats that created and maintain the class system we live under with them at the top, their puppets of bankers, religious leaders, and other syncopates serving them and then the rest of us.
The ultimate freeloaders are the global plutocrats.
One’s intention makes a difference, in a lot of things we do.
When one guy says banksters are evil, one wants to restore democracy.
With another guy, when he/she says banksters are evil, he/she means to impose theocracy.
Are you implying I want to impose a theocracy, Beefy? Come right out and say it then.
Btw, slander is a sin too and not a minor one, I’d bet.
Actually, any careful listener would have learned by now that YOU’RE the closet theocratic but since you’re not one of those awful Christians, you get a pass?
If I meant you, I would have said so.
Like you say, let people decide themselves.
..I want to impose a theocracy?
Why wouldn’t you Senior Beard?
Because I don’t think anyone is qualified* to run one except God Himself in Person plus those glorified saints found worthy** to be co-heirs and co-rulers.
*The example of the Spanish Inquisition sickens almost every Christian, I’d bet.
**I doubt I’ll be one of those. Too lazy for one thing.
those glorified saints found worthy**
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317965/
My Mother’s Smile (2002)
“L’ora di religione (Il sorriso di mia madre)”
Ernesto is a successful artist who has his life turned upside down by his family’s wishes for the canonization of his murdered mother. His extreme dislike for her ignorant ways brings about a greater connection with his insane brother who killed her, while his other brothers favor her beatification. There is a struggle of wills and will power. Written by Sujit R. Varma
Since way back… three things have shaped our world since Ag. At the apex is the heredity based leadership cults (sometimes a blend of 1&2&3), followed by the religious cults (mental coercion – distraction – concern), then the force cults (physical coercion – distraction – concern), in that order, one cannot survive with out the other.
It cracks me up that some lose the plot over banks, that getting rid of them would free humanity with out addressing the issue of the three cults. If you get rid of banks you are still left with the power base, so no real change will occur, as it is their function to support each other. Would have getting rid of the grain silos, run by the priest cult in Egypt, changed a thing.. eh?
For all the horrors in establishing America, it seems there was an attempt to break this sticky problem. No great force projection, priests put out to pasture (free range), separation of powers, but, it seems all the chickens have come home to roost. World getting smaller problem ie past, present and future timelines compressing.
Umm… it does seem that the three has gone Jupiter again… bad sign if you as me… I see red faces everywhere.
skippy… for you and the mob a musical vid…
Ylvis – Jan Egeland [Official music video HD]
Ahh.. what the hell… bonus vid for the mob…
Work It – Ylvis [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO] [FULL HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369FGAb1iI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn-oemgzlEU
And then there is the sin of pride.
My favorite radio pastor is J Vernon McGee whose annual salary was $40,000 but he lived in California where the cost of living is higher so I forgive him.
You’d best repent early skippy, lest you get senile dementia and start sending money to Benny Hinn in your desperate old age.
BTW, are you trying to bring on a road to Damascus experience by demonstrating to God how zealous you are? But you see, Saul of Tarsus actually believed in God; it was Jesus he did not believe in. You’ve got a great deal more ground to cover than Saul.
You need to go on another one of those weekend retreats where they teach you how to be more judgemental.
In point of fact, all “Christians”, by definition, want a theocracy. You want a deity to do your thinking for you and relieve you of the responsibility. That’s what the “Second Coming” is, after all, that which your predecessors have been waiting for in vain for two thousand years, wilfully unable to admit to the fraud for what it is and permanently enthralled by your fears.
What you will get instead is a miserable dystopia at best, and soon, one where you are at least useful for your spare body parts. Assuming humankind doesn’t succeed in exterminating itself, which is a very poor assumption.
If “God” exists, and is benevolent, he will forgive the unbeliever. Walter Map
Forgive him for denying that he is a sinner? Or for failing to seek a cure for his sin? Despite the damage it causes?
There are non-believers I am fond of and have hope for because they are at least wise enough to not be against God.
But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” Luke 9:50
“There are non-believers I am fond of” – beardo
skippy… everyone should have pets… its suggested to increase empathy… just remember its not a Job… that messes it all up thingy.
Pet’s?!
He who despises his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding keeps silent. Proverbs 11:12
No. It’s more likely that you are the one who despises fellow humans. Certainly Beefy does and Walter Map probably does too.
But consider children. Whom do you find more pleasing? Those with good brains or those with good hearts? Do you think God is different in that respect?
“He who despises his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding keeps silent. Proverbs 11:12” – beardo
skip here… Do foreigners count as neighbors[?] this needs granulation methinks.
Foreigner may refer to: Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.
Foreigners
alienage: the condition of being an alien.
androlepsy: Law. the seizure of foreign subjects to enforce a claim for justice or other right against their nation.
nativism: the custom or policy of favoring native-born citizens over immigrants, as in the awarding of government jobs. See also philosophy. — nativist, n. — nativistic, adj.
naturalization: the process of assuming or being granted citizenship of a country, usually a country other than that of the person’s origin.
peregrinism: 1. the state or quality of being foreign or of having come from abroad.
2. something typical or characteristic of a foreigner. — peregrine, adj.
skippy… are you laying claim to sovereign nation state status wrt your belief?
Fully granulated:
Foreigner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_(band)
Do foreigners count as neighbors[?] this needs granulation methinks. skippy
I thought you said you read the Bible?
Then you tell me.
Indecipherable boilerplate legal insurance contracts should not be wet’ed until a complete review of its vacuous opines and a study done of its users customer experience rating reviewed.
BTW those that feel fully insured have a bad habit of doing risky stuff… which might endanger others not insured, by no fault of their own.
skippy… question… who are the counter party’s in case of insurers default, do you get your money back, does someone take possession of responsibility and does the individual get an option (in – out) on the new indemnifier.
BTW those that feel fully insured have a bad habit of doing risky stuff… skippy
I agree but then I’m not a Calvinist.
do you get your money back, does someone take possession of responsibility and does the individual get an option (in – out) on the new indemnifier. skippy
No, you just stay dead along with any awareness of having been cheated. It’s called Pascal’s Wager.
No offense Senior Beard, but I don’t get the fixation on such a vindictive version of God.
Why would such cognitive entity really give a flying fk who believes in him/her/it, which version and which ever dimension he/she/it may exist in.
I am a puny mortal and I don’t give a rats ass who may or may not believe I “exist”!
This notion of everlasting damnation for such trivial point seems rather venial, no? Seems like if he/she/it had such an overwhelming fixation on this recognition issue, he/she/it would be quite apparent rather than all this nonsense about degrees of “faith”. What’s the point actually?
At best fear is the wrong reason to do the right thing, it’s all a grand manipulation.
It makes sense to me. God can’t very well allow predators to roam free in Paradise, can He?
So then, why not just euthanize them?
Because they might better serve as object lessons of the wages of sin to keep the more susceptible inhabitants of Heaven safely warned? So they can be safe even with a free will?
It makes sense to me. God can’t very well allow predators to roam free in Paradise, can He?
I don’t get the intersections on that Venn Diagram Senior Beard.
1.) Predation and belief in God are Mutually Exclusive? I Don’t think that’s right.
Therefore this does not seem like a valid justification for God to be hissy on this seemingly trivial point “belief”. Some people just prefer to operate with more information, no dishonor in that in my book.
2.) BTW What actually constitutes Predation in Paradise? not sure how that would work.
Predation and belief in God are Mutually Exclusive? optimader
Well, as someone once said, C.S. Lewis I believe, you maybe a pretty nice guy now but if untreated what will your minor character flaws today be like in a million years or even a 1000?
2.) BTW What actually constitutes Predation in Paradise? not sure how that would work. optimader
Not just predators will be excluded but ALL who offend.
But have no fear, the Lord will see to our cleaning so that we DON’T offend but the cleaning process won’t necessarily be pleasant* if we’ve been neglectful or disobedient.
*Have you ever been seriously embarrassed? Like one of those dreams where you are wearing only your underwear and are desperate to get some clothes? It might be something like that only worse.
At best fear is the wrong reason to do the right thing, optimader
It’s not all that noble but it’s not wrong.
I consider it exploitive, therefore immoral. On the part of the exploiter not so much the exploited, the later is jus ta victim of ignorance IMO. (Former is Predator latter is Victim would be a way to consider it.)
Ultimately we are all victims of how we were raised.
Where’s the exploitation? It costs nothing to be a Christian.
And if one interprets the Bible for himself, he can tell the Pope or Benny Hinn to “take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut” or at least ignore them.
skippy, who do you think is their boss? Why else would they be so rich?
Here’s something on the elections in Germany. It will be a very close race (though the most likely outcome is a grand coalition anyways):
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/latest-poll-shows-governing-coalition-has-narrow-lead-ahead-of-election-a-923483.html
http://gqjftw.blogspot.de/2013/09/german-elections-on-sunday-will-be-very.html
Snowden’s disclosures reminded us of what everybody knew six years ago: NIST is infested with secret police.
Well, at least we found another Stasi proprietary, Lancope of Alpharetta Georgia. Their mischievously-named ‘steath’ solutions use only the NSA-sabotaged random-number generator, they sell to emerging markets and China, and most damning of all, they wormed themselves into Ciso’s platform exchange.
Guess ferret-faced shyster Eric Holder should add another hundred years to Barrett Brown’s sentence because the Project PM guys are going to eat this up.
Starbucks’ ‘leave guns at home.’
What happened to ‘Bring and turn your gun in and get a free Latte?’
It’s always about money with these guys, isn’t it?
Whenever anyone invokes America’s credibility as a reason to do something, you know they are full of shit. Credibility is the language of empire, and as here, it is being promoted by someone who does not have to bear its costs.
Joschka Fischer seems all bent out of shape by Syria’s chemical weapons and is all for getting rid of them. Well, if that is the case, why then does Israel’s possession of 150 to 200 nuclear weapons not even rate a mention?
As for dismantling a chemical weapon, I pointed out several days ago that, depending on the type of chemical, it can be a difficult, often dangerous, and time consuming process, requiring special secure facilities.
Also as a I pointed out a while ago, stupid, blundering, aggressive action by us in Syria could torpedo the best chance we have had in years, with the election of Rohani, to reduce tensions with Iran and in the Persian Gulf.
It would be a shame if people started to doubt the credibility of President Obama. You know, the guy who said he was against stupid wars, who promised to whip for single-payer, who said he would put on walking shoes and march with people in Wisconsin if they went on strike, who vowed not to continue the Bush tax cuts, and who told us he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Reduce tensions with Iran? Ha! After the Obama-Kerry regime’s spectacular failure to launch into Syria:
“Don’t Be Fooled, Says Israel, Bomb Iran Instead. Israeli official: ‘No more time for negotiations’ with Iran”. With exactly the same groundless and dogmatic certainty that Obama claimed in Syria, Yuval Steinitz (Israeli Minister of “Intelligence”, International Relations and Strategic Affairs) declares:
Whose carriers, Steinitz, the broke-ass Americans? And what about the Russian fleet?
With the usual supreme hypocrisy, the kettle urges war on the pot, and the Israeli tail wags the US dog. Iran has always been Israel’s primary target; Syria was merely the pretext that would guarantee wider escalation. Following the Obama/Kerry “diplomacy” debacle, the Neocons are becoming increasingly shrill and belligerent. They want their war, dammit.
Well, if that is the case, why then does Israel’s possession of 150 to 200 nuclear weapons not even rate a mention?
Reason # 10.) because treasonous sworn public servants would have to concede the nuclear material to produce these weapons was stolen/illegally obtained, and that’s only the domain of Rouge Nations and Terrorists, not Cough Cough “allies” , QED…
Why not just evacuate Israel and let the Palestinians have it? What’s world peace worth?
Worldwide lines for new Apple idol to worship.
But this idol is not made of real gold 100%, so, maybe it’s not so bad.
Maybe, maybe not………..
Homeless Being Paid To Camp Out For iPhone 5C, 5S
PASADENA (CBSLA.com/AP) — Several homeless people were being paid to stand in line Friday in Pasadena for the release of the iPhone 5C and 5S.
The phones went on sale at Apple and other retail stores at 8 a.m.
Pasadena police told KNX 1070′s Jon Baird that many people in line at the Colorado Boulevard store were recruited from downtown Los Angeles.
“I was asked yesterday if I would be willing to sit in line for someone so they could get a phone. I said ‘Sure, I’ve got nothing else to do.’ So I’m here,” Mickie, who was driven from the Midnight Mission area along with 10 others,said.
It was unclear how much Mickie was being compensated, however, others in line said they were being paid as little as $35 to wait in line for hours.
“They dropped us, sit in line, get the vouchers and then we’ll be paid,” she added.
Vouchers were given out at 6 a.m. to those in line.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/09/20/apple-fans-camp-out-in-anticipation-of-iphone-5c-5s/
rich, the Mind Control Project is an unmitigated success. Those “sexy” Apple products work on Americans like opium on the Afghans.
Durbin/Feinstein bill would restrict who is defined as a “journalist” and given constitutional protection:
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/09/free-flow-of-information-act-targets.html
USDA guts Organic labeling standards:
http://consumersunion.org/news/u-s-department-of-agriculture-guts-national-organic-law/
Are you suspicious?
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_24135780/civil-rights-groups-call-an-end-collection-government
Are the 0.01% going to start buying their own manorial farms to guarantee their own food safety?
If so, they’re going to need serfs.
You know, the fallback program for the poor when food stamps are discontinued.
Probably, I’ve heard some already do.
It was probably a BIG mistake to subsume state organic standards under national ones (at least for the states that had them). Now they are monopolized, subsumed, and soon to be destroyed. Because the Fed gov is near entirely bought and sold. And so everything, absolutely everything, including a standard noone is forced to follow anyway but that exists just so consumers can voluntarily make informed choices, is destroyed in the name of profits.
So as a possible counter to this: maybe we should move back to having state organic standards that exceed the national ones. It’s possible. California could do it. It has it’s own state EPA afterall, greenish sympathies, and a lot of agriculture.
Devo, dealing the death blow to blogs while they’re at it. Feinstein’s a traitor in two OBVIOUS ways lately. She’s an AGGRESSIVE traitor (well rewarded, surely).
Gotta love those Constitutional right stripping democrats! DiFi needs Snowden to tell her what her Intel community she’s overseeing has been doing, but hell, why not protect them from future Snowdens so she can remain in the dark?
What passes as “moderate” revenue? Is $1 salary sufficient?
Does this mean our dear Yves has no Constitutional protections?
So Yves won’t get free press protection? That seems odd. Or not. Thanks, DiFi!
In case you’re wondering what constitutes “suspicious activity” (spoiler: activism and being middle-eastern)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/government-spying-you-aclu-releases-new-evidence
It depends on where you live. Different rules for different places.
Greater NYC rules:
Rule #1: Being Muslim and MiddleEastern or EurAsian, doesn’t automatically imply a terrorist, but watch anyways, there invariably up to something no good.
Rule #2: Ignore any Russian Intel tips about Chechen terrorists making trips back to the homeland.
Rule #3. Young men who hear voices and complain about microwaves emanating from his hotel walls are safe for military clearance….. as long as not Muslim.
Rule #4: Men from rule #3 are cleared for installing new PC’s and software immediately in the wake of the defection of the Russian defector whose traitorous lips will get us all killed by jihadists, as such men in rule #3 have demonstrated they never contemplate smuggling jump drives through security
The question is not how to scale back Bernanke’s 85$ billion a month QE. It is “How do you taper the bubble in stocks and commodities it has created?” How do you taper a bubble? The short answer is you can’t.
I’d put it terms of addiction. How does a nicotine addict stop smoking? He stops, then his body and brain scream, he drives to the gas station at 12:30 at night to get another pack. He pours water on the last of his pack, then heads to the gas station again the next day.
The addicts won’t let go, and Mama Bernanke feels sorry for her boys.
“I caught you knockin’
at my cellar door
I love you, baby,
can I have some more
Ooh, ooh, the damage done”- Neil Young
Can’t put off relieving that craving for more spending on the military-security-financial-agricultural-industrial complex.
That would be misery.
And every junkie’s like a settin’ sun…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t0EW6z8a0
Is it the spending? Or is the 1% watching the value of their assets evaporate, and on their phones to their 24 hour fix-it men in DC?
Which is why there will be no taper anytime soon.
How do you taper a bubble? The short answer is you can’t.
Actually you can, but in doing so you deflate the bubble, if you’re careful and very lucky, or burst it, if you’re not. The underlying real economy is little better off than it was in 2008, so the DJIA alone is a bubble on the order of 8,000 points.
The spectacular economic error of the Obama administration has been to inflate the financial markets while doing next to nothing to restore the real economy that supports it. This would have required investment in infrastructure and bringing back U.S. manufacturing, which in turn would have required taxing the rich and paying workers more to increase consumption and demand. None of which is on the table.
Instead, the real economy has simply been cannibalized to finance giveaways to the rich, allowing them to extract trillions from the U.S. economy and sock it away in overseas tax havens. One tally said $12 trillion, and that was four or five years ago, and it’s gotten far worse since then. Even two years ago a selection of U.S. corporations were reportedly sitting on $2 trillion in overseas accounts and not investing it in the U.S., for the simple reason that there’s no point investing in an economy undergoing cash-cow liquidation.
The failure to increase the pay of workers on productivity increases breaks the Virtuous Cycle: no pay increase, no increase in demand, no reinvestment.
Once QE does stop and the waters of wasteful phony “stimulus” recede, the U.S. economy will be exposed as the wreck it really is. Until then, the bubble will somewhat conceal it. Even Bernanke realizes it can’t go on indefinitely, which is why he floated the taper idea.
Obama has accomplished practically nothing except to delay the reckoning and make the inevitable that much worse.
How do you taper a bubble?
I thought it sounds like flatulence… with a strange but funny vibration emanating from the orifice… as the gas is slowly released.
Then you have the whole “smell it… dealt it” uncomfortable social conundrum.
Mick Jagger for Fed Chairztian spoke person I say!
skippy… front row seating would bring back punk rock gigs memory’s… ah… Vine st… moshing the seated front row is a fav… then its off to Okie dogs and punker fries!!!
PS. the police used to cordon of that bit stretch… warm embrace.
Wonder if the coal mines are hiring?
Chauncey, that’s the free market spirit! You’d be Freidman’s poster adult.
Why can’t we just all get with the program? Same as CPI. When will we learn to get with the program and forsake peanut butter for dogshit on a shingle?
BTW, the BBC really bollixed the Tom DeLay Appeals Court decision to overturn: it in fact WASN’T a US Circuit Court, but the “Texas Third District Court of Appeals”, a strictly state judicial agency. Prosecutors said that they indeed will appeal to Texas’ highest criminal court.
Oh, yes, “The Hammer” was at a meeting of “religious conservatives”, who were reportedly “on their knees praying” when the good news came from God…er, sorry, the Appeals Court.
Tom DeLay: Was a douchebag, is a douchebag, will forever be a douchebag.
The 1 weird thing you need to know about Janet Yellen.
Thanks for the posting.
It may be time to start yelling about Yellen but my voice is strained from all the Summers yelling….and didn’t we get Obama as the lesser of the two evils…what could possibly go wrong with the lesser of evils?…[/snark]
Don’t drone me brother Obama…..
This important link to an Ellen Brown article was mentioned recently by jrs..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/19/the-armageddon-looting-machine/
“”Shadow banking comes in many forms, but the big money today is in repos and derivatives. The notional (or hypothetical) value of the derivatives market has been estimated to be as high as $1.2 quadrillion, or twenty times the GDP of all the countries of the world combined.
This gives repos and derivatives extraordinary super-priority over all other claims, including tax and wage claims, deposits, real secured credit and insurance claims.
All other creditors – bond holders – risk losing some of their money in a bankruptcy. So they have a reason to want to avoid bankruptcy of a trading partner. Not so the repo and derivatives partners. They would now be best served by looting the company – perfectly legally – as soon as trouble seemed likely.
That means the next time we have a Lehman-style event, the banking system could simply collapse into a black hole of derivative looting.
We should be directing where the credit goes and collecting the interest. Banking and the creation of money-as-credit need to be made public utilities, owned by the public and having a mandate to serve the public. Public banks do not engage in derivatives.
Change happens historically in times of crisis, and we may be there again today.””
James Galbraith’s endorsement of Yellen is a textbook case of the cognitive dissonance of the Establishment liberal. It is replete with the old boy-ism (extended of course to Yellen).
Just like Krugman can’t criticize Bernanke because Ben got Paul his job at Princeton and made his career, or Stiglitz supports Yellen because she was a student of his, Galbraith can’t criticize Summers very much because Larry was nice to Jamie around the time his dad, John Kenneth, died.
All these guys belong to the same club and members of the club get judged, if at all, a lot more gently than non-members. It is their class, the elites, which along with the rich for whom they work, is looting us. And ultimately their allegiance is to their class. Hence the cognitive dissonance. They criticize some aspects of our being looted but they support those doing the looting. The looters are their people. They, the looters, are the ones who got them their jobs. They are their students and their teachers. They are the ones they hobnob with, see at parties and conferences, even attend funerals with. The Galbraiths, Stiglitz, and Krugmans of this world are never going to rebel against their own.
Full Show: Inequality for All
September 20, 2013
This week marks both the fifth anniversary of the fiscal meltdown that almost tanked the world economy and the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the movement that sparked heightened public awareness of income inequality. Yet the crisis is worse than ever – in the first three years of the recovery, 95 percent of the economic gains have gone only to the top one percent of Americans. And the share of working people in the U.S. who define themselves as lower class is at its highest level in four decades.
More and more are fighting back. According to Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor: “The core principle is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome. We want to make sure that there’s upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy.”
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-inequality-for-all/
“We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome”
In the neoliberal kleptocratic world, “equal opportunity” is the way the rich and elites justify the massive inequality in wealth we have now. It’s basically “You had your chance, and we won. So stop your belly-aching and go die in a ditch.” Politicians like Obama talk about “opportunity” all the time. It is so much easier than talking about results. Outcomes are, in fact, important. Reich is just putting neoliberalism in a new wrapper. He can blather on about “not equality of outcome” after every American has decent shelter, healthcare, education, and income at all stages of life. When that happens, we can discuss how much inequality we are willing to tolerate.
The current system is NOT equal opportunity. Instead, the so-called creditworthy are allowed to steal purchasing power via bank loans simply because they can return the purchasing with interest.
Anthony Bourdain in Israel/Palestine