Party On! Wall Street

One of the 'old school' metaphors for the function of the Fed is to limit excesses in the economy by taking away the punch bowl when the party got started and definitely before it got out of hand. Well, that was about 4 years ago. The party goers have been feeling queasy for a while now.

Today, the clueless ones (formerly known as the fed) announced a desperate measure to keep this economy from tanking further. Details remain fuzzy, but that may be a hangover from the heady days.

I have a simple, fun suggestion: The fed fills a big punch bowl with credit cards guaranteed by the US Govt and invites only those with debt exceeding $1b to the party. Bring us your tired loans, your poor investments, the stinking refuse from your crowded loss sheets, yearning to be forgiven. Strictly black tie, special themed shuttle flights from NY (another reason to avoid the expression ‘bail out’). Keep the rabble out. They don’t know how to behave with credit.

eek!-onomy

A sampling from John McCain’s “sound economy”:
Ouch!
Yikes!
Eeek!
OMG!

Inside the circus known as the Administration, Ringmaster Cheney canceled a fundraiser and clown prince W was grounded to maintain appearances.

Country First...

The Repugnican Party convention motto is “Country First”. Let's complete the thought:
* Country first, then drinks on the veranda.
* Country first, “Golden Oldies” second.
* Country first, a Country for Old (White) Men.
* Country first, because that's what Halliburton bills.
* Country first, Spouse second (maybe). Answers the question, “screw who?”

Let's get the country out of reverse (R) and put it in drive (D). Or First.

It's Official

Rush Judgment

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III recently signed a contract paying him $400 M over the next 8 years. Pretty impressive! I don't doubt the market so I am sure his paymasters anticipate making even more off his labors. But that led me to think... who listens to this guy? For myself, sure, I suppose I could listen, sometimes, but I couldn't do my job if I were paying any attention. I certainly couldn't listen regularly, really listen, to some guy on the radio. Nobody with a thoughtful job could waste time listening to “talk radio” during the workday. Are his advertisers pitching stuff for dummies?

No wonder the liberal alternative “Air America" failed; the liberals are all too busy doing real work. You know, the kind of work that requires thought and attention.

Incidentally, apparently the guy's a prescription drug addict, been divorced 3 times, has no kids, and is currently unmarried. Thus, he is a perfect propagandist for the “pro-family” Repugnican agenda. [Note: he's the 'scion' of a family that named 3 generations of boys “Rush”.]

Georgia on my Mind

The errorist Bush administration boasts 2 'experts' on Russia: Rice and Gates. Oh-oh. Not surprisingly, Russia has gone from a friendly democracy in 2000 to a hostile, belligerent, surely dictatorship in 2008.

Now we have a crisis close to Crimea. We have a Coast Guard ship on the Black Sea? This is the logic that sends the National Guard to Iraq. It all depends on whose coast and whose nation you really care about. There's oil in them there hills in the Caucasus and Iraq.... hmmm.

I predict that John McCant and the desperate Repugnicans, together with their propaganda organ Faux Snooze, will use the Georgia crisis to trigger racial divides. When Reagan said “state's rights”, he meant to old Southerners “I won't meddle on your plantation (real or imagined)”, but that dog won't hunt no more. Watch for Georgians to become 'Caucasians', which is technically correct. Watch for the Russians to become 'Slavs', which is technically correct. Watch for the short 'a' of Slav to be slightly elongated.

As John McCant might say, bottled rage threatening to spill out, “look, pal, are you for the Caucasians or the Slavs?” He won't even notice.

Faster, Higher, Stronger... Oftener

The motto of the modern Olympics is "Citius, Altius, Fortius". Michael Phelps won 8 Gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, with 7 of them world records and the other an Olympic record, surpassing the record 7 Gold medals and 7 world records won by Mark Spitz in the Munich Olympics of 1972.

8 G (7 WR + 1 OR) > 7 G (7 WR)

Two of Phelps' victories – one relay and one individual – were literally almost unbelievable, when he or his teammate out-touched the 'sure' winner by 1/100th of a second. Interesting coincidence that whereas 7 is a lucky number in the west, the number 8 is auspicious in China (which is why the games started on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008). Spitz won in Germany, where his last name means 'peak' or 'top'. Maybe there's a Chinese homophone for Phelps meaning 'gilding the lily'.