Building a Fence to Keep the American Dream Out

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

"Ship of fools" - very eloquent explanation of how the GOP is destroying itself

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12...

I could not have said it better myself. This very eloquently sums up
all my issues with the current incarnation of the GOP. Furthermore, if
they continue to believe that the solution to their declining
popularity is to move further to the right, especially on social
issues, the party is doomed. Sadly (for them) I think this is the
direction they're headed (if Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et al are any
indication). They seem to think that their problem is that they

Kiss Your Currency Goodbye?

The mainstream media won't report this kind of thing, and you have to get
your news somewhere. Anyway, I found this today:

http://benbittrolff.blogspot.com/2008/10/really-scary-fed-charts-oct-now...

Honestly, this is so bad, I thought it had to be a hoax. You know,
like the kind of scare tactics so often employed by short sellers to
get the market action they want? Sadly, it is not. Here are the same
charts again:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DISCBORR

Courtesy of the St. Louis Fed. Honestly there are no words to

Welcome to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Greetings Comrade Reader! No, but seriously, it looks like we are well on our way to a Communist America, with this latest round of financial bailouts by the Government. It’s not the bailouts that are so problematic, per se, but the fact that the U.S. Government now owns (or has warrants to own) significant portions of the financial and credit system in this country (Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG are new; the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the FDIC are old news).

What?! I agree with who?

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

from this article,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1001/p09s01-coop.html

American got ENRONed, except we can't send Wall Street to jail

So this rant was spurred by this article on the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/socialism-for-the-rich-na...

There are strong echoes here of Lewis’ previous post on the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, although he didn’t finger the Keating Five specifically.

Apple & Microsoft: Please Stop Advertising

I'm a Mac, no wait, I'm a PC too. What, you can use both?! You sure can and I'm completely comfortable with that. If I could afford it and could justify the need, I would own both. I guess that makes me some sort of crazy computer-bi-sexual freak. Deal with it. That aside, I know for sure that it makes me is completely annoyed by the add campaigns of both companies.

First, Apple.
Shut the F*** up about how you're so much better than PC's because in many ways you are not.

What?!? I'm a LIBERAL?!?

OK. Deep breaths. Let's start at the beginning. I was reading dear ol' Reddit, and happened across this video post from TED:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Being a Sociology major (among other things) I found this pretty fascinating. It also has the ring of truth to it, which makes me like it even more.

Disclaimer: I know this two party view of the world is somewhat oversimplifying things, but I don't think it invalidates the ideas put forward.

We Have Learned NOTHING

Well, as we so easily forget history in this country, we are now likely doomed to repeat it. Lehman Brothers is bankrupt, and by this time Wednesday, AIG probably will be as well. And how did this whole subprime mess come to be in the first place?

BEGIN RANT

You can really point to one main issue: how freaking STUPID our government is.