This is an Open Thread. Scream All You Want
October 21, 2007 archive
Oct 21 2007
Docudharma Times Sunday Oct. 21
Oct 21 2007
So, does this political document get me banned at DKos?
The full quote, sans links, from a current Presidential candidate goes (my formatting of text):
I am introducing a comprehensive piece of legislation to restore the American Constitution and to restore the liberties that have been sadly eroded over the past several years.
This legislation seeks to restore the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers to prevent abuse of Americans by their government. This proposed legislation would
• repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and
• re-establish the traditional practice that military commissions may be used to try war crimes in places of active hostility where a rapid trial is necessary to preserve evidence or prevent chaos.
It continues:
Oct 21 2007
Iglesia …………Episode 3
She palmed the Bio-Scan at the entrance to her Burbclave (she had heard the term was invented by a sci-fi writer way back in the 20th) and they rolled through the gate. Half an hour ago they were in inner city Philadelphia, now they were in a whole other world. Sure it was the cheapest clave around, and built on land of questionable toxic lethality, but it was what she and Paul could afford. Even though she still found it mystifying how the designers thought that making a replica of a London neighborhood in the 1930’s…..just before it got bombed into smoking rubble by Hitler, was a good marketing idea. What with the current state of the world as it was. But it was nice, in a sort of gruesome way. Plastic brick house fronts that looked almost real, with stoops and plastic street lamps, cobblestones and neatly trimmed green hedges behind black faux cast iron fences, window boxes and London mail boxes and piped in birdsong and all.
Oct 21 2007
Plot? We Don’t Need No Stinking Plot…Or Do We? (Run Up to NaNoWriMo)
Aiseirigh is the Name of the Ship. One of its various meanings is Awakening.
According to the Iron Oak community, it is also “a dramatic and surrealistic portrayal of death and reincarnation. It is a statement that the cycle of life includes death and from death there is again life.
Dramatic? Cycle of life? Going from static space to dynamic space and on to static space?
Where’ve I heard that stuff before?
Oct 21 2007
Did I just feed somebody?
How many grains of rice is a meal, does anyone know? Thanks to Crashing Vor in the Dkos OT for linking to this site, FreeRice.com
It is a vocabulary thing, multiple choice, and for every word you get right, they’ll donate 10 grains of rice to an international aid agency. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word. It is no gimme! I got five or six wrong on the way to donating 500 grains….is that a meal?
Fun stuff!
Oct 21 2007
How We Should Understand the Relative Calm in Iraq
One of the saddest things about US political discourse is that both ends of the political spectrum have been afraid of Iraqis actually securing a peace for themselves in their country. The right has been afraid — correctly — that the current outbreak of peace might merely show the American people that we are not needed there. But the left has been afraid, too: afraid that calm in Iraq automatically equates to a victory for the Republicans; a technical knock-out for Bush and “the surge”. But the left only thinks this because the left is convinced of the overpowering ability of the right to shape narrative.
The truth is that the right-wing in the US doesn’t have a clue why Iraq has entered a period of relative calm. They want to credit, in some vague way, “the surge”, but at the same time they are wary of doing so, for fear that Democrats will then start saying, “Hey, we succeeded, let’s go home.”
But none of that is correct. In what follows I discuss the recent calm, the reasons for it, so far as they are understood, and what we on the left should be saying about it.
Oct 21 2007
Psssst… Make Big Money Betting Against America
It was a wild ride in the markets last week. By Friday, the stock market plummeted nearly 370 points in a single day; oil reached an intraday high of $90 per barrel; gold hit its all-time high, the Dollar reached its all-time low against the Euro, Pound, and most other world currencies; and China, Japan, and other nations dumped U.S. Treasuries at an historic pace. Oh, and I’m making money hand over fist by betting against America.
As the global economy grows stronger, countries become more tightly linked to one another. And that link is based entirely around money changing hands — or, in other words, foreign exchange. What follows is an investment tip from one of my paid advisors. The reason I’m writing about this is not so much about making money — but about the rationale expressed for for the investment strategy.
Everyone in the world knows the information that follows (except for Americans, of course). Because currency-based trading is a zero-sum game, in order to make money, someone has to lose money. From the world’s point-of-view, the losers should be the people behind the most dangerous rogue nation in the world. You know, the “voters” who elected the oil-fascist cowboy-imperialists twice in a row. It didn’t have to be this way, but it is. And, you don’t have to be one of the losers, either.
How bad is the situation in the U.S. financial system? Well let’s put it this way: Jeopardy, the popular TV quiz show, is about the only place you could make money by taking shares of the United States.
“I’ll Take ‘Shares of United States’ for US$500, Alex.”
The appeal of the U.S. is fading fast. At the end of last year, the fundamental backdrop for the U.S. included depressing figures like:
• Trade deficit of US$765.3 billion
• Current account deficit of US$856.7 billion (a not-so-small 6.5% of GDP)
• A gross national debt of US$8.5 TRILLION and still rising
• Exploding supply of money and credit
Okay, that’s the set-up. Below, is the investment strategy:
Oct 21 2007
Pony Party: Seattle-est Edition
I must be a west coast person deep in my soul, although I have never been to NYC. I just liked the vibe of Seattle in the same way I loved San Diego and San Franciso. Funny how I like places where the house prices are out of this world and I live in a place where housing is cheap. Of course, the west coast would be even further from my family than I already am.
- 1
- 2