2009 archive
Downsized 3
Their cookie is goosed:
Popular cookie varietiessuch as Thin Mints, Do-si-Dos and Trefoils now contain from two to four fewer cookies per box. And the Lemon Chalet Cremes, which last year were rectangular, now are round and slightly smaller.
And they were already, ounce for ounce, the most expensive cookies normal folks buy with any regularity.
Trucked 3
Back when lived in Arlington, Va., I used to see a monster vehicle that, rather than a truck body, waaaay up there above those huge tires, eight or ten feet in the air, had the body of a Chevy Vega.
But that does not beat this.
Profanity Fails Me 0
Please read Mr. Cole’s observations.
Brendan sums it up:
And why not? after all, it’s only the little people who suffer.
Another More Dustbiters (Updated)
0
The fundamentals of the economy are sound(ing hollow). Follow the link and S-E-C for yourself (emphasis added):
Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank has agreed to assume all of FirstBank’s deposits and purchase roughly $17 million of the failed bank’s assets, the FDIC said.
Federal regulators shut down a bank in Southern California and another in the Atlanta area on Friday, bringing the number of U.S. failures this year to eight, while marking the 33rd collapse since the recession began.
McDonough, Ga.-based FirstBank Financial Services and Culver City, Calif.-based Alliance Bank were seized, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank has agreed to
assume all of FirstBank’s deposits and purchase roughly $17 million of the failed bank’s assets, the FDIC said.
In other news, the green line is Bush 43’s:
Addendum:
The little indie pizza place across from the restaurant where I ate supper has given up the ghost.
The little sewing store just up the road has ditto.
One of the little businesses in the office building at the foot of the street ditto.
All within the past few weeks.
Republican Economic Theory works. It does, indeed, make the poor poorer.
Must Be That Pesky UAW Again 0
Toyota said its operating loss will likely widen to 450 billion yen ($4.95 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 31. In December, the Nagoya-based automaker forecast a 150 billion yen operating loss.
The operating loss is Toyota’s first since the end of World War II.
Oh.
Wait.
Keynes 101 0
Atrios (emphasis added):
Allocating money to build SUPERTRAINS would be smart spending, IMHO, though potentially (depending) not a super-effective stimulus.
So ideally you have projects which are both smart spending and good stimulus, but spending is the stimulus.
Food for Naught 0
More possible toxic “assets,” resulting from the “free hand of the market’s” allegiance to greed over moral conduct (emphasis added):
The kits were shipped to Arkansas and Kentucky to help feed some of the 1.3 million people left without power for days at the height of last week’s ice storm. No illnesses have been reported, but several people consumed the suspect plastic packets of peanut butter.
Note that there is no evidence that the products in question are dangerous.
It could be that dangerous food is being removed from circulation (a good thing) or that good food is being wasted (a very bad thing).
Once again, we see moral bankruptcy of Republican Economic Theory: the “free hand of the market” is amoral and does immoral things if left unwatched.
“. . . they have failed” 0
The Republican motto seems to be “go wit’ what brung ya.” But look where it brung ya, for heaven’s sakes.
Failed war, homelessness, hopelessness, torture, unparalled greed, unmatched incompetence, and venality (I could go on).
No nitpicking. Cut to the chase.
Do you honestly want more of what we’ve had for the past eight years?
We’re not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that in eight short years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin. We can’t embrace the losing formula that offers more tax cuts as the only answer to every problem we face, while ignoring critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil, the soaring cost of health care, failing schools and crumbling bridges, roads and levees. I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV – if you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction.
No one with any sense can expect anyone to be perfect.
But, Dear God, I would just settle for normal.
We haven’t seen that in national governance since the Republican Party put its contract on America (and, boy, did they ever!)
Addendum:
The Booman’s terminology is somewhat more temperate than mine.
Stray Thought 0
Politics is classically defined as the art of the practical. Republicanism is the art of the intractable.
Stray Thought: Talent Flight Dept. 2
If Mr. Obama tried to appoint me to something, I’d never survive the headlines.
I’ve been filing income tax returns for 40 years. I’ve made three or four mistakes. All have been resolved with no hard feelings (I won some, I lost some), but my public career would already be toast.
Why the hell any person of honor is willing to subject him- or herself to the pie-throwing contest that passes for public discourse is beyond me.
Bushonomics: Bushies Can’t Count Dept. 0
Since Republicans know that wealth equals virtue, giving the wealthy more than they deserved simply makes them more virtuous. Doesn’t it?
Warren said that Treasury spent $254 billion to purchase assets whose actual value was only $176 billion, “a shortfall of about $78 billion,” she said.
Warren said Treasury failed to “price for risk,” and used a metaphor to explain: It’s as if Treasury was looking at 10 paintings and promised to pay $1 million for each, even though “one is a Picasso, one is a Rembrandt” and the other eight are not.
H/T Karen for the link.
Bushonomics: The Hangover 0
Up! Up! and Away!
In addition, the number of people staying on the jobless benefit rolls hit a record high late last month.
Duncan on how we got here:
C. B. 0
Not CBRS. Chthulu Baccalaureum.
The local NPR station is running its winter begathon. One of the gimmicks in every begathon is the “Campus Challenge.” Persons are challenged to make pledges in honor of their alma maters; the winners are announced at the end of the morning news broadcast.
Miskatonic University has one two pledges (and, yes, the announcer knew of it–he loves his craft).
Sounds More like “Taking the Fifth” to Me 0
’nuff said:
In response to Mr. Vollmer’s refusal to answer questions, Mr. Ackerman asks three times whether the Bush holdover was hiding behind executive branch immunity.
“Yes, in part,” he finally answered.
Stray Thought 0
To hear the Republican Party prattle on about “fiscal responsibility” as if it were something that the party actually understood is sick-making.
Delaware Liberal has another take.