May, 2009 archive
Truth. No Reconciliation. 0
DougJ at Balloon Juice.
There can be no “reasoned debate” about torture.
There is no reasoned debate about cruelty and immoral conduct.
Perk-O-Lation 0
One of the greatest honors Louis XIV of France would grant to his courtiers was the honor of helping him get put on his clothes. It served a dual purpose: It exalted his favorites, while reminding them that they were little more than body servants to the vaunted “Sun King.” Not unsurprisingly, despite his love of pomp and ceremony and war, he ruled France with astonishing incompetence, wasting blood and treasure on a series of fruitless wars and frequent defeats, setting the stage for the Revolution two generations later.
These days, he would have been a CEO who received “pay for performance.” After all, he wore expensive suits, looked good in meetings, and wrote nice letters.
From MarketWatch:
“They Shouldn’t Have Applied for Mortgages They Couldn’t Afford” 0
Oh, wait (emphasis added):
“Very few of the ones we’re seeing now are people who were put into loans they couldn’t afford,” said John Allen, a vice president of The Up Center, a Norfolk organization that provides foreclosure prevention counseling. “It’s almost always job loss, or reduction in hours, or something revolving around that.”
I Wondered Why Everyone in Left Blogistan Was Posting This Video 0
Now I know.
The Entitlement Society 0
But, after all, they are Wall Street Executives.
They wear expensive suits, look good in meetings, and write nice memos.
They are entitled.
. . . after a year in which Wall Street firms paid $18.4 billion in bonuses while accepting more than $50 billion in government bailouts, many experts say the system may have finally blown itself apart.
“The system is broken,” said Warren Batts, former chief executive of Tupperware Corp., Premark International and Dart Industries who used to sit on the boards of Allstate Corp., Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Sprint. “It needs some guiding principles.”
Without such guideposts, executive pay has run amok. CEOs made 344 times more the average worker in 2007, according to a survey from United for a Fair Economy, which targets economic inequality. That’s up from less than 150-to-one in 1992.
Read the whole thing.
Gypsum Joint 1
This reminds of the Forensic Files episode about the mold-infested house.
These days, the Dunaways spend as little time as possible in the house.
Two months ago, Jason discovered the walls were built with dozens of sheets of Chinese-made drywall, which has been the focus of complaints in several states by people who say it emits a corrosive gas that damages household electrical systems and causes respiratory problems.
Now, electric fans hum throughout the house in an effort to dissipate the unpleasant odor. Sheets of plastic cover large scars cut out of a half-painted living room wall. And the Dunaways debate moving their children to West Virginia to get them out of the home.
And, in related news in the same part of the world,
Among the allegations in the lawsuit, filed in Norfolk’s U.S. District Court, is that the companies were negligent for selling the drywall and not warning homeowners and customers that it was defective.
Such wallboard has been the focus of complaints in several states by people who say it emits a corrosive gas that damages household electrical systems and causes respiratory illness.
“The heart of the complaint was that these companies installed drywall into homes that was unfit for the purpose and in fact has now caused these homeowners to have houses they can’t live in,” said Richard Serpe, the plaintiffs’ Norfolk attorney.
Bubblicious 0
Pop!
The median price fell 14 percent to $169,000, the National Association of Realtors said today. Prices dropped in 134 of 152 metropolitan areas, with the deepest declines in Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Florida, and the San Francisco and San Jose areas.
When Zombie Banks Walked the Earth 0
and sucked the blood of the polity. Citibank puts its bailout funds to use. From TPMMuckraker:
Obama has been talking about overhauling student loans since at least 2007, echoing GAO estimates that banks had been taking in $15 million a day peddling and securitizing private student loans without taking on any risk, since student loans are guaranteed by the government and cannot even be discharged in a bankruptcy. The “most controversial” aspect of his proposed legislation, according to the New York Times, would cut out the proverbial middleman so all students could borrow directly from the government. Any “controversy,” of course, is likely to be fomented by the banks that make money off the arrangement.
Guess being skimming student loans is easier than honest work.
End Run 0
Somehow, this doesn’t pass the smell test.
What makes procurement “years-long” (if, indeed, it is so) are redundant and cumbersome procedures enacted to protect the purchaser from vendors who try to game the system.
Not that Boeing would ever do something like that.
Oh. Wait.
I Do Not Know Whether To Be Outraged or Disgusted . . . 1
. . . at the continuing attempts of the Republican Party to use faith as a partisan weapon.
l guess I’ll have to be both.
Tempest in a DoubleD Cup 0
I mentioned this brouhardy-har-har (that’s a big brou-ha-ha) the other day.
Barbara Ellen lifts and separates the issues here.
Enlightenment 0
An interesting article on Enlightenment (as in Voltaire) values, creeds, and violence in this morning’s Guardian. A nugget:
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.
I’ll think about y’all while I’m in Virginia.
Recap, Financial Geniuses Dept. 0
There have so far this year been 18 complete weeks.
That’s almost two a week, folks (emphasis added).
And that doesn’t include the zombie banks that still walk the earth.
Skip to the Lulu 0
Over at Skippy’s place.