Faux news caught red-handed

They were showing Sarah Palin vice presidential campaign rallies and presenting them as crowds of book buyers. Shame, shame, shame everyone knows your name. Unfortunately many don't care.

Animal cruelty (Graphic)

Although the subject matter is chickens, this is no different than what they do with Turkeys. Not to say cattle. And calves. We are a sick society.

On Thanksgiving, turkeys and native peoples.

Here's an interesting article.

What did the Europeans give in return? Within 20 years European disease and treachery had decimated the Wampanoags. Most diseases then came from animals that Europeans had domesticated. Cowpox from cows led to smallpox, one of the great killers of our people, spread through gifts of blankets used by infected Europeans. Some estimate that diseases accounted for a death toll reaching 90 percent in some Native American communities. By 1623, Mather the elder, a Pilgrim leader, was giving thanks to his God for destroying the heathen savages to make way "for a better growth," meaning his people.

A native american points out that

It is estimated that there were between 7 million and 10 million indigenous individuals inhabiting what is now America at the beginning of European contact in the early 15th century. By 1900, there were only about 230,000 of us left.

A defender of animal rights says that some 45 million turkeys will die every Thanksgiving Day.
While John Marshall has his own take on the event. By the way, I'm a vegetarian, so I'm not eating Turkey.

Found: Le juge et l'assassin

I remember the movie from many moons ago. But more than the movie itself is the scene of the French working class in revolt. I could not remember the film's name or the cast. Only the lyrics.

Sans doute, mon amour, on n’a pas eu de chance
Il y avait la guerre
Et nous avions vingt ans
L’hiver de 70 fut hiver de souffrance
Et pire est la misère
En ce nouveau printemps...
Les lilas vont fleurir les hauteurs de Belleville
Les versants de la Butte
Et le Bois de Meudon...
Nous irons les cueillir en des temps plus faciles...

La Commune est en lutte
Et demain, nous vaincrons...

Nous avons entendu la voix des camarades :
« Les Versaillais infâmes
Approchent de Paris... »
Tu m’as dit : « Avec toi, je vais aux barricades
La place d’une femme
Est près de son mari... »
Quand le premier de nous est tombé sur les pierres
En dernière culbute
Une balle en plein front
Sur lui, tu t’es penchée pour fermer ses paupières...

La Commune est en lutte
Et demain, nous vaincrons...

Ouvriers, paysans, unissons nos colères
Malheur à qui nous vole
En nous avilissant...
Nous voulons le respect et de justes salaires
Et le seuil des écoles
Ouvert à nos enfants...
Nos parents ne savaient ni lire ni écrire
On les traitait de brutes
Ils acceptaient l’affront...
L’Égalité, la vraie, est à qui la désire...

La Commune est en lutte
Et demain, nous vaincrons...

Les valets des tyrans étaient en plus grand nombre
Il a fallu nous rendre
On va nous fusiller
Mais notre cri d’espoir qui va jaillir de l’ombre
Le monde va l’entendre
Et ne plus l’oublier...
Soldats, obéissez aux ordres de vos maîtres
Que l’on nous exécute
En nous visant au cœur
De notre sang versé, la Liberté va naître...

La Commune est en lutte
Et nous sommes vainqueurs...
texte de Jean-Roger Caussimon, musique de Philippe Sarde

La commune est en lutte - Isabelle HUPERT
Uploaded by Petite-Pince-Sans-Rire. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

The unraveling of the Obama presidency

The man's in deep Number 2 and, what's worst, seems totally oblivious to it. The seeds of American Fascism are organizing around the Tea Parties (formerly Teabaggers), Glenn Beck and a stronger than ever Sarah Palin. Crowds are loud, unruly and increasingly large. That spells electoral trouble (maybe a whooping??) for the 2010 Congressional election.
Even more ominous is the Afghanistan dilema (major speech at West Point is scheduled for next week), with a growing reluctancy on the part of the allies to commit -- it's not just the French, but the Brits, and the Germans.
Add to that the constant drain of allies -- whether political groups or columnists. As a voting block, Latinos can no longer be counted as safe in the Obama camp. Clauses in the health bill that prohibit undocumented workers from getting insurance have created a major rift with the White House. And now Maureen Dowd of the New York TImes lambasts the president as ungrateful to his backers. She uses the case of former White House counsel Greg Craig as a case in point of a detached and selfish Obama willing to let them twist slowly in the wind.
And so we start to witness how what seemed too good to be true indeed proved too good to be true.

Finish the job in Afghanistan? or finish his presidency

He's getting in deeper and deeper, I'm afraid. And things are starting to look pretty bad. The New York Times reports Obama is preparing to make a major announcement. The question is not whether to send more troops or not. But how many. President Obama is reportedly going to announce an increased military presence with an "exit strategy". Doesn't look very good to me. For some reason, I keep remembering an ad for Roach Motels: Roaches check in but don't check out.

How to waste 1 trillion dollars

Interesting stuff.

On dialysis treatment, Afghanistan war and greed

The October 4 closing of a Dialysis center in Atlanta has thrown over 50 undocumented immigrants into a life or death limbo as they struggle desperately to figure out what to do, The New York Times reported. These patients received life-sustaining treatment at Atlanta's Grady Center, a tax-payer supported safety-net hospital that provided dialysis to anyone regardless of immigration status. The shutting down of the facility left 51 people with few alternatives.

[For] the dialysis patients, the sudden end to their reassuring routine has prompted a panic.

“We didn’t know what to do,” said Ignacio G. Lopez, 23, who had been sustained by the clinic for more than three years. “We can pass away if we stay like two weeks without dialysis. They were just sending us out to die.”

They work as janitors, housemaids, boss boys and day laborers. All are undocumented and none can afford health insurance. The cost of providing such care per patient is about $50,000 a year. That's a substantial amount, considering that it could finance 20 soldiers in Afghanistan, at $1 million each; or be 1/100,000th (one hundred thousandth) of the $5 billion bonus pool for taxpayer-bailed-out Goldman Sacks to reward stellar employees.

Panty-dropping charisma

That's what James Franco exudes and the reason behind his nomination as Salon's "Sexiest man living in 2009." His Milk performance opposite Sean Penn was masterfull. Now he's working as Allen Ginsberg on Howl. That should be worth watching. As much as I'm impressed by him, somehow I feel he's cheated me out my place in that Pantheon of Sexyness.

The state of fear in America

Prompted by yet another "Americans fear..." headline, I decided to google "Americans+Fear." Result: 43,600,000. That's pretty scary stuff. So, I repeated the exercise switching "Happiness" for "Fear." Result: 13,000,000. That's sad. My totally non-scientific analysis concludes that Americans are three times as afraid as they are happy. Sad and scary.

Now what do Americans fear? Well it depends on the media-prompted-headline-driven "fear-du-jour." Tops today was "Rise of Muslim extremism", (stemming, no doubt, from the Fort Hood incident). Most recently, we've seen the Swine Flu. Unemployment. Swine flu vaccine. "Obamacare." Losing in Afghanistan. Winning in Afghanistan. Identity theft. Trying 9/11 defendants in New York City. Bird flu. Bans on gun sales. High budget deficits. Big government. Iran. Nile Virus. Suggestive lyrics. Sexually transmitted diseases. Halitosis. Nile virus. Drugs. Big butts. Raoe, Sharks. Cancer. Online theft. Environmentalists. Cancer screenings. Uppity minorities. Small breasts. Teenage pregnancy. Gay marriage. Commies. Immigrants. Progress. Library taxes. Cyber predators. Atheists. Failure. Wrinkles. Razor blades in apples. Interracial marriage...Please add your own fear in the silence of your heart.

But my favorite was fear of "losing their quality of life." If fear is three times as prevalent as happiness, I'm afraid that means that Americans fear losing their fear. And that is nothing less than not fearing fear itself.

Thank u for having lived Jeanne-Claude

Not a whole lot of people knew how important her contribution was to Christo's mind-blowing work. The New York Times reports the passing of Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, married to Christo since 1958.

At some point in their collaboration, they chose to brand the name Christo, and for a while Jeanne-Claude didn't get proper recognition for her collaboration in Christo's early work. Of course, by the time masterpieces such as The Gates were inaugurated in Central Park in February 2005, her name would resonate along that of Christo.

The work that most impressed me was the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in the mid-80s.

On September 22, 1985, a group of 300 professional workers completed the temporary work of art The Pont Neuf Wrapped. They had deployed 40,876 square meters (454,178 square feet) of woven polyamide fabric, silky in appearance and golden sandstone in color, covering:

The sides and vaults of the twelve arches, without hindering river traffic.

The parapets down to the ground.

The sidewalks and curbs (pedestrians walked on the fabric)

All the street lamps on both sides of the bridge.

The vertical part of the embankment of the western tip of the Ile de la Cité.

The esplanade of the "Vert-Galant".

The fabric was restrained by 13,076 meters (42,900 feet) of rope and secured by 12.1 metric tons (11.8 long tons) of steel chains encircling the base of each tower, 1 meter (3.3 feet ) underwater.

I remember reading an interview with Jeanne Claude as she responded to the perennial question "Why?" Her answer? "Because we think it will be beautiful." Plenty convincing to me.

On fera des voyages mon amour, si t'es sage

Je suis ton Roméo
Et tu es ma Juliette

Most movies are crap

Over a decade ago, I stopped going to the movies. I simply got tired of paying to sit through an hour and a half of boredom. And I didn't go for years and years. Lately, I've decided that perhaps I was wrong. So I've gone back to the movies. Not much has changed, with few exceptions. I usually go, watch for a few minutes, and then quietly fall asleep. It's a great way to take a mid-afternoon, refreshing nap. Content, while far more advanced technically than a decade ago, remains pretty bad. Senseless. Boring. Crap. Now I've come across this bit of information that proves that perhaps I'm not that dumb.

A Wikipedia user put together a list of the 50 highest grossing movies of the decade; only nine of them are not sequels or adaptations, The Wrap points out. And, at a generous estimate, only five are not terrible.

Here's the list,

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line; 2003) $1,119,110,941
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Disney; 2006) $1,066,179,725

3. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.; 2008) $1,001,921,825

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Warner Bros.; 2001) $974,733,550

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Disney; 2007) $960,996,492

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.; 2007) $938,212,738

7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.; 2009) $929,022,922

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line; 2002) $925,282,504

9. Shrek 2 (DreamWorks; 2004) $919,838,758

10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.; 2005) $895,921,036

11. Spider-Man 3 (Columbia; 2007) $890,871,626

12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.; 2002) $878,643,482

13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (20th Century Fox; 2009) $878,615,229

14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line; 2001) $870,761,744

15. Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar; 2003) $864,625,978

16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox; 2005) $848,754,768

17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount; 2009) $833,229,011

18. Spider-Man (Columbia; 2002) $821,708,551

19. Shrek the Third (DreamWorks; 2007) $798,958,162

20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros.; 2004) $795,634,069

21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount; 2008) $786,636,033

22. Spider-Man 2 (Columbia; 2004) $783,766,341

23. The Da Vinci Code (Sony/Columbia; 2006) $758,239,851

24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Disney; 2005) $745,011,272

25. The Matrix Reloaded (Warner Bros.; 2003) $742,128,461

26. Transformers *DreamWorks/Paramount; 2007) $709,709,780

27. Ice Age: The Meltdown (20th Century Fox; 2006) $655,388,158

28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney; 2003) $654,264,015

29. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (20th Century Fox; 2002) $649,398,328

30. Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks; 2008) $631,736,484

31. The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar; 2004) $631,442,092

32. Hancock (Columbia; 2008) $624,386,746

33. Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar; 2007) $623,707,397

34. The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket; 2004) $611,899,420

35. Mamma Mia! (Universal; 2008) $609,841,637

36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks; 2008) $603,900,344

37. Casino Royale (MGM/Columbia; 2006) $594,239,066

38. War of the Worlds (DreamWorks/Paramount; 2005) $591,745,540

39. Quantum of Solace (MGM/Columbia; 2008) $586,090,727

40. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.; 2007) $585,349,010

41. Iron Man (Paramount; 2008) $585,133,287

42. Night at the Museum (20th Century Fox; 2006) $574,480,450

43. King Kong (Universal; 2005) $550,517,357

44. Mission: Impossible II (Paramount; 2000) $546,388,105

45. The Day After Tomorrow (20th Century Fox; 2004) $544,272,402

46. Madagascar (DreamWorks; 2005) $532,680,671

47. The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox; 2007) $527,071,022

48. Monsters, Inc. (Disney/Pixar; 2001) $525,366,597

49. WALL-E (Disney/Pixar; 2008) $521,268,237

50. Meet the Fockers (Universal; 2004) $516,642,939

I think it's simply pathetic that a movie's success is measured by the box-office.

Disparate thoughts about food

More than 49 million Americans -- one in seven -- struggled to get enough to eat in 2008, the highest total in 14 years of a federal survey on "food insecurity," the U.S. government said Monday November 16.
Another number: about 72 million Americans are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Meanwhile, at Masa an exclusive Japanese restaurant in the Time Warner Center, the price range for a prix-fixe meal is $300-500 prix-fixe. Only a maximum of 26 people get served daily.

Willing to die for Rock 'n Roll

"I have never seen anyone die for the ontological argument," states Camus in Chapter 1 of the Myth of Sisyphus as he argues for giving meaning to life through rebellion. And life, meaning and rebellion is the stuff that made me enjoy Richard Curtiss's Pirate Radio. It's a historic tale about life in England in the early 60s, when the BBC broadcast a meager 2 hours a day of Rock 'n Roll, leaving a gargantuan gap and some 25 million britons begging for their country's main export. Rock 'n Roll was delivered 24/7 by Pirate Radio stations beaming from ships right outside British territorial waters. The stations had massive audiences built around their DJs, all of whom lived permanently on the ships. The government sought to shut down stations, but the rockandrollers eluded them and continued to broadcast, facing death as the ship hit an iceberg in the Nort Atlantic Sea. With a simply amazing soundtrack -- that includes Stones, Kinks, Who, Cat Stevens and others-- the movie is rich in material: Animal House humor, with unfaithful lovers, betrayals, loss of innocence; estranged Father-son findings; Titanic-type scenes of chaos and sinking vessels, the arrival of a D-day type flotilla that saves the rockers and ushers in a happy ending -- even a Bollywood dance routine. A thoroughly enjoyable movie. Makes me wonder if Camus was exposed to Rock 'n Roll. Rebellion and Rock 'n Roll give meaning to life: make it worth living.

Inner savage more embraceable than ever

The savage beating of Miguel Cotto by Manny Pacquiao Saturday night in Vegas may signal a renewed interest in boxing. Pacquiao won his Seventh world Title in as many divisions making boxing history by pounding another human being for 12 rounds of 3 minutes each. According to The New York Times,

As the fight wore on, Cotto’s left eye kept swelling, until it looked as if a golf ball was attached. Pacquiao landed punches with both hands: jabs, hooks, upper cuts, a punishing variety.

Cotto never quit, but he made a habit of dancing backward. In the ninth round, Pacquiao backed his opponent into the ropes, again and again, until he had rendered Cotto’s face a bloody mess.

The Times noted that Cotto's wife and son walked out of the fight, while his mother went into the ring to console her bloodied son. In addition to boxing, Pacquiao is an international superstar, singer of two Platinum songs and movie actor. He's as mean, bad and committed to destroying his opponent as anyone's ever been. The hero of over 90 million people across the globe. What does that say about us as human beings?

Thus spake our politician(s)

Their words on the health care debate were eloquent, spirited, some loaded with personal anecdotes that gave them that extra touch of credibility. They were published in the Congressional record. And, although signed by individual members of Congress, they sounded strikingly alike. It turns out, The New York Times reports, that the speeches were crafted by wordsmiths, mercenaries of the pen, hired by the pharmaceutical lobbying firm Genentech. Totally bipartisan in their manipulation: one set of talking points for the Republicans; another one for the Democrats. Ça ne m'etonne pas du tout!

Hunger kills one personevery 3.5 seconds

That is about 25,000 people a day. The saddest part is that these deaths are preventable.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.

Insane priorities

The lion’s share of this money is not spent by the Pentagon on protecting American citizens. It goes to supporting U.S. military activities, including interventions, throughout the world. Were this budget and the organization it finances called the “Military Department,” then attitudes might be quite different. Americans are willing to pay for defense, but they would probably be much less willing to spend billions of dollars if the money were labeled “Foreign Military Operations.”

The Billions For “Defense” Jeopardize Our Safety, Center For Defense Information, March 9, 2000

The cost of war

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
~Benjamin Franklin

So we never forget

That they got the world into a war based on lies and deception. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people, created a mess in the middle east and cost trillions of dollars.

Socialism, nazis, coins and crack

The governor of Texas accuses the Obama administration of leading the country toward socialism, reads in red a Drudge report headline. Talking about red-baiting -- the best McCarthyite tradition. In the meantime, the teabaggers tea parties accuse Obama of being a nazi. There you go, the wingnuts are all over the spectrum, never mind that their extreme are polar opposites -- if it sounds scary, lets affix a label. On the other hand, Sarah Palin talks about bizarre conspiracies to change the placing of "In God we Trust" on coins. And Sean Hannity is forced to agree on the air that Faux news had in fact doctored a story by showing video from a larger demonstration. Those are the people who hear a calling to run our lives. By the way, has anyone heard lately of Joe the Plumber? He was my favorite: his name wasn't Joe and he wasn't a plumber but for the crack of his ass.

Labioplasty (vaginal makeover)

I remember the first time I received a penile enlargement spam in my email box. I thought it was a joke. Who'd be so stupid to do such a thing? Now it turns out there's something even sillier, more dangerous and far more exploitative of your insecurities. (Or your craziness.) It's called labioplasty and the $5000 price tag is not stopping women from requesting it.
What is it? Well it is butchery plastic surgery of the vagina. I'll let the BBC explain it. (I"m a bit shy).

Women are undergoing surgery to create perfect genitalia amid a "shocking" lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says.
Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals.
Operations to improve the appearance of the sex organs for both psychological and physical reasons are on the rise.

Wonder what'll be next.

Adios to a demagogue

Lou Dobbs, architect of the "blame-Latinos-for-everything-movement" was fired resigned November 11. He had become an embarrassment for CNN. He won't be missed

Murdering a murderermakes us murderers

John Muhammed, the DC sniper, convicted of a killing spree that terrorized the capital beltway in October 2002, was put to death yesterday. He was administered three lethal injections and pronounced dead at 9:11. pm. Present at the execution, according to reports, were relatives of his 10 victims as well as an AP reporter and others. Mr Muhammad had been arrested, tried and convicted of murder.
However dangerous he'd proven while at large, at the time of his execution, Mr Muhammad posed no threat to society. Most people had forgotten about the incident and therefore no one could claim that his execution would deter copycats. So it was then payback. An eye for an eye. Retribution. Sadism justice.
Despite his crimes, at the time of his execution Mr Muhammed was unarmed. Killing an unarmed man is murder. Mr. Muhammad was murdered. Whether by a sniper's bullet, or the executioner's injection, murder is murder. Witnesses, whatever their reasons, participated in a sadistic voyeuristic ritual.

Like falling into a black hole

A tourbillon sans issue. A cul-de-sac. A dead-end. A morass. A quagmire. Tangled. Collective suicide. I fear that's what Afganistan is becoming. Despite everything. Every warning -- from Gorbachev on to others. To the region's history. To recent failures. It's a mess that don't seem to get better and, I pray that I'm wrong, seems to be turning into a Vietnam. And turning the Obama presidency into a one-term failure. Let's get out before it is too late!

The untouchables

They are rich. Influential. The object of popular adulation. And, more often than not, above the law. They've been called geniuses, compared to Renaissance artists, praised and rewarded endlessly. They are the so-called Celebrities. Now one of them sits in jail in Switzerland for raping a 13-year old and running away from justice. And big names have flocked to his defense. Yeah, it's the case of Roman Polanski. A petition supported by French intellectual (read media darling) Bernard Henry-Lévi decries the "lynching" of Polanski. It has been signed by some 100 people.

Il est honteux de jeter en prison un homme de 76 ans pour un détournement de mineure - la seule charge retenue, aujourd'hui comme à l'époque, par la justice californienne - commis il y a trente-deux ans.

Such garbage amounts to believing that they are better than us. And therefore allowed to do as they wish. Never mind he drugged a 13-year old girl, took her into a jacuzzi and had sex with her. He was convicted of drugging her and sodomizing her.
I've loved every Polansky film I've seen. I admire his talent. Chapeau. His ordeal as a holocaust survivor moves me. But as a father and a human being who's had to battle his own demons, I hope that justice is done. Maybe he should bring a camera to prison and he just might become the star of "Polansky does the Penitentiary." Perhaps it was fated that he should receive payment in kind.

Separated at birth

Eunice Kennedy Shriver (RIP) and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. Identical twins, separated at birth by life's unfortunate accidents. By the looks of Mr. Tyler, soon to be reunited in the hereafter.

A good soldier

A young man gets caught in a really bad situation and participates in the killing of innocent civilians. Upon realizing the atrocity he's committed, he speaks out. Few listen. I'm conflicted about it: part of me tells me he should be tried (by whom???) and pay for his crimes; the other part admires his courage to come forth. It was a touching piece, as everything Bill Moyers.

Gorbachev: US out of Afghanistan

He should know. After all, he presided over the self-destruction of the former Soviet Union.

Unrepresentative democracy

Politico reports that 237 members of congress are millionaires. That's 44 percent of our representatives. What's worse is that less than 1 percent of the US population falls into that category. This means that 99 percent of us are represented in Congress by people who simply have no idea of what we go through to feed our families, put a roof over their heads and provide the basics. And we call that representative democracy. But if political unrepresentation is marked, the economic inequalities are simply mind-blowing.

Far more equal than others

So Wall Street fat cats, it seems, are cutting the line and getting the coveted swine flu shots ahead of normal folks, Reuters reports November 6.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City health officials scrambled to explain themselves on Thursday in the wake of media reports about bankers who got scarce H1N1 flu vaccines through their employers.

Wouldn't it be far more newsworthy if it weren't so?

Claude Levi-Strauss 1908-2009

What a life and what a mind! The world is better because of him. The Guardian's obituary.

Can the average Joe learn from Islam?

Here's some interesting news regarding financial institutions in the Muslim world.

LONDON, Nov 05, 2009 (AFP) - Banks that comply with Islamic Sharia law are thriving despite the global financial crisis, thanks largely to a "conservative approach to risk," according to a new listing published Thursday.

The latest research by The Banker magazine reveals that assets held by fully Sharia-compliant banks or the Islamic units of conventional banks rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollars (550 billion euros) in 2009, up from 639 billion dollars (430 billion euros) in 2008.

The New York Times, on November 2, carried an extensive article on Islamic Finance.

Islamic financial products comply with Koranic prohibitions against charging interest and investing in morally dubious industries, such as alcohol and pornography, and lending is based on profit-sharing. At a time when Western banking and financial models have been thoroughly discredited, Islamic finance is enjoying an enviable reputation as a more reliable way to invest.

That doesn't sound that bad to me at all.

Churchill was an opportunistic chump

Winston Churchill is credited with stopping the nazi invasion of England and therefore contributing to the preservation of western civilization. Those who subscribe to this view believe that his contribution was heroic and the result of his charisma, leadership and unwavering valour. More than that it was a case in point of the old adage, "History is written by the victors."

Quite soon after the defeat of the 3rd Reich, Churchill set out to write his memoirs, a masterful piece of self-propaganda where he conveniently overlooks his mistakes, screw ups and deep racist arrogance and contempt for others ("I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion"), white washing war crimes, like the role his army played in the 1943 Bengal famine. He basically writes his story and calls it history.

Now why do I even mention him? Because there's a new bio, reviewed by the Head Butler. It made me wonder how much does the reviewer know about that cigar chomping chump. Like Gallipoli? Regarding people's opinions of Churchill, the rule of thumb is if you believe that empires have rights, you like him. If you believe in the self-determination of nations, you despise him. Having said that, there's the element of sheer competence. And he scores pretty low here: an undeniable fact is that when he was elected to power, Britain ruled the waves. By the time he left office, the British lion was almost irrelevant in the world stage.

As a lover of French wines

This is one that must be shared.

For Al Gore, greed is green

It looks like the Nobel-Prize-winning former Vice President of the USA has been profiting big time from global heating. And big time could be an understatement, according to the New York Times. The Times couldn't nail a figure, but:

Mr. Gore’s spokeswoman would not give a figure for his current net worth, but the scale of his wealth is evident in a single investment of $35 million in Capricorn Investment Group, a private equity fund started by his friend Jeffrey Skoll, the first president of eBay.

In his defense, the man who was cheated out of the 2000 presidency by George W. Bush and his cronies says he's put his money where his mouth is. His critics claim that he stands to benefit from every piece of legislation (and investment of public funds) steering the nation away from carbon-based fuels. Not bad for the man whose last net worth disclosure as the nation's VP put him at a meager $2 million. Wonder what these fellows think about it.

RIP morning (and evening) papers

Newspapers are fast becoming extinct.
According to Megan McArdle in the Atlantic:

I think we're witnessing the end of the newspaper business, full stop, not the end of the newspaper business as we know it. The economics just aren't there. At some point, industries enter a death spiral: too few consumers raises their average costs, meaning they eventually have to pass price increases onto their customers. That drives more customers away. Rinse and repeat .

Sad but truth. I stopped reading them about five years ago and months can go by without me getting a newspaper. I don't miss the sticky sensation newsprint leaves on hands, much less bundling them up, tying them up and carrying to the recycling place. But wait, we have a new use for newspapers: Blaire, a 3 month-old Cavachon puppy my children cajoled me into getting them!

Will Obama get whooped tomorrow?

Looks like the Good Ol' Party is preparing for a big night Tuesday, the first national election after Barack Obama's victory one year ago. Man oh man. President Obama inherited a mess and cleaning up -- from two wars to the economy -- is quite difficult. And his standing has dropped substantially. In my opinion, he would have done a lot more had he not attempted to fix things using the same people who broke them. In both foreign and domestic policies. Making things worse, he's relying on Chicago thug politicians like Rahm Emanuel. Obama, Obama, Obama the dreaming was sweet; the reality is bitter.

Manhattan Guantanamo-like dungeon

It sits in the Village, the corner of Varick and Houston and, according to today's New York Times, few people are aware of its existence. No, people don't go there in pursuit of some fetishistic fantasy. They are taken there by the immigration authorities and held under conditions deemed illegal and inhuman.
This oubliette is part of "A disjointed mix of county jails and privately run prisons where mistreatment and medical neglect have been widely documented, the detention network churns roughly 400,000 detainees through 32,000 beds each year. Any attempt to get support or services for them is stymied because you don’t know where they’re going to end up,” said Lynn M. Kelly, the director of the Justice Center."
Suffering? Untold. Exploitation? Let the Times tell us, "Recurrent complaints include frigid temperatures, mildew and meals that leave detainees hungry and willing to clean for $1 a day to pay for commissary food. That wage is specified in the contract with the Alaskan company, which budgeted 23,000 days of such work the first year, and collects a daily rate of $227.68 for each detainee."
I for one am ashamed

Day of the dead

As many in New York celebrate the Day of the Dead, others celebrate life by running the NYC marathon. Some of us will do a bit of both. I'll remember my dead and instead of running, I'll swim 2 miles.