September 2008

In the National Post, Martin Masse writes:

In his Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx proposed 10 measures to be implemented after the proletariat takes power, with the aim of centralizing all instruments of production in the hands of the state. Proposal Number Five was to bring about the “centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

If he were to rise from the dead today, Marx might be delighted to discover that most economists and financial commentators, including many who claim to favour the free market, agree with him.

Indeed, analysts at the Heritage and Cato Institute, and commentators in The Wall Street Journal and on this very page, have made declarations in favour of the massive “injection of liquidities” engineered by central banks in recent months, the government takeover of giant financial institutions, as well as the still stalled US$700-billion bailout package. Some of the same voices were calling for similar interventions following the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2001.

“Whatever happened to the modern followers of my free-market opponents?” Marx would likely wonder.

Amen.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want the economy to collapse. But its kinda funny our fiscal policies look more and more communist. WTF. Seems kinda…well…un-American.

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Don’t get me wrong, she is attractive and likeable…in a hockey mom kind of way. But she is definitely not qualified to be the President of the United States.

This fact isn’t lost on Kathleen Parker of the National Review.

Parker, rightly states that:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

It’s refreshing to see clear thinking coming from anyone these days…especially on the party who believes that the world is 4,000 years old.

But the president of Pakistan said that she was gorgeous. Yeehaw!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html?cnn=yes

AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) is a collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S., and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest in order to explore the process of dying though analysis of out-of-body experiences.

This shit is FASCINATING and potentially paradigm shifting.  I’ll be following the shit out of this study.

Jim Rogers, the CEO of Rogers Holdings said on CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box Europe” that “America is more communist than China is right now,” He went on to say “You can at least have a free market in housing and a lot of other things in China. And you can see that this is welfare for the rich. This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters.”

Damn.  I hear that.

But he kinda has a point.  Seems like our “less government” Republicans are the ones who are pushing us more and more toward the “socialist utopia” that they accuse Obama of proposing.

That’s my beef with the GOP.  They’re a bunch of frickin’ hypocrites.  I’m not saying that the Dems are any better…but the Dems don’t come off (to me at least) as a bunch of “my way or the highway” kind of people.  The Republicans are so black and white on everything.  Life isn’t that simple.

http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080908171808.aspx

I used to think that this song was “cute” and “fun”.  Now all of a sudden, Peter Pumpkinhead isn’t so funny.

Here are the words.  Wow.  Prophetic.

____

Peter pumpkinhead came to town
Spreading wisdom and cash around
Fed the starving and housed the poor
Showed the vatican what golds for
But he made too many enemies
Of the people who would keep us on our knees
Hooray for peter pumpkin
Wholl pray for peter pumpkinhead?
Oh my!
Peter pumpkinhead pulled them all
Emptied churches and shopping malls
Where he spoke, it would raise the roof
Peter pumpkinhead told the truth
But he made too many enemies…
Peter pumpkinhead put to shame
Governments who would slur his name
Plots and sex scandals failed outright
Peter merely said
Any kind of love is alright
But he made too many enemies…
Peter pumpkinhead was too good
Had him nailed to a chunk of wood
He died grinning on live tv
Hanging there he looked a lot like you
And an awful lot like me!
But he made too many enemies…
Hooray for peter pumpkin
Wholl pray for peter pumpkin
Hooray for peter pumpkinhead
Oh my oh my oh!
Doesnt it make you want to cry oh?

____

This would be a GREAT cover…if you really do it right…especially now.  Note to self: Do not do it like the fucking Crash Test Dummies.  Sorry Shifty.  This shit needs to be called out.  It’s a very karaoke performance. (TM Simon Cowell 2001-2008)

And the fucking “base lick”?  Frreal.  Dood.

Anyway.  XTC might be my new old favorite band.

I’m listening to Dear God again right now.

Awesome.  How in the hell can anyone say anything about Obama when this frickin’ woman believes that war is God’s plan and Alaska isn’t even truly America.

WTF!!!!

If McCain wins…and then he dies…which is a 50% chance given his age (actuarily)…then SHE BECOMES PRESIDENT.  Imagine that.

Wow. I’m not sure that I want religious beliefs dictating our country’s foreign policy. Sounds a little like the Christian version of Islamic extremism to me. What’s the difference? We’re on this side of the fence?

NOT good enough.