Archive for the 'Stupid' Category


We’ve secretly added bird flu to your vaccine… 0

Can you tell the difference?

If you’re a ferret, you will…because you die.

Thankfully this never made it to human subjects. But WTF?

via George-o-matic

Scary Numbers 1

The logical disconnects some people go to in order to be ‘safe’…

Via Mr.George

What’s Your Share? 0

I’d been wondering what I end up paying for all the BS and bloviations about the bailout, so I was pleased when Nick Johnson did the math for me (text from near bottom of post):

What’s Your Share?

Assume we have something like 120 million families or living units in America. (I’m going to use 100 million to make the math easier.) Assume all accumulated debt ($55 trillion, plus $11 trillion, plus, plus) is near $70 trillion headed for $100 trillion. The interest on $100 trillion, at 5%, is $5 trillion a year. Your family’s share? How’s $50,000 a year — just for the interest alone — sound? Your family’s share of the entire debt? About $1,000,000. So what’s happening is that these folks who’ve come from, and will be returning to, the Wall Street financial community, have decided to give you responsibility for paying off the mortgage on a one-million-dollar home — but one you’ll never get to see or live in (not incidentally because they’re already living in it).

Should I just declare bankruptcy now?

In all seriousness, how do we say ‘no’ to this crap? At some point the market will need to be allowed to punish all those morons that mis-mananged, deregulated and over-leveraged their complex/completely bullshit financial fairy-tale by allowing them and their companies to be completely wiped out. That the fools at Citi get to keep their shirts AT MY EXPENSE makes me want to puke.

No wonder people go for stuff like this.

Score? 0

This made the front of Digg. From the StarTribune:

While the Iowa Hawkeyes were scoring at will on the field Saturday night, two fans from the Hawkeye State were scoring elsewhere in the Metrodome.

Police say a man and woman were “having relations” in a bathroom stall as a crowd cheered them on.

Ross M. Walsh, 26, of Linden, Iowa, and Lois K. Feldman, 38, of Carroll, Iowa, were cited for misdemeanor indecent conduct. Walsh was released to his girlfriend and Feldman to her husband, police said.

A security guard came upon the scene in the handicapped stall, police said. Police were summoned, and they separated the two.

Both were intoxicated, said University Deputy Police Chief Chuck Miner.

Wow.

Really? 0

Lieberman Keeps Homeland Security Chairmanship

Dems keep reminding me why I de-registered as a Democrat. It’s beyond stupid that they’d keep him on, especially in a senior position.

It’s as if it never should have existed… 0

Market seems to be doing what markets do…correcting.

From AP/Yahoo!

According to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, Wednesday’s paper losses amounted to about $600 billion. By that measure, the stock market has shed $9.1 trillion since the index’s Oct. 9, 2007, peak.

This is coming some from the news that the US Treasury isn’t doing what it originally said it was going to do. I guess they’re on the ‘Change’ bandwagon?

Bailing on the Bail 0

Just scroll down the page for Part 1 of this probably endless series of lunacy that is the Great Bailout, That Must Happen IMMEDIATELY, of Really Dishonest and Stupid Investment Banks of 2008.

Part 2 is where the executives of the Really Dishonest and Stupid Investment Banks decide they may not want the money due to compensation restrictions.

Yes, you read that right. Read the rest at The Guardian.

Late Update – Part 3 seems to be where the crisis goes global.

Bailed 1

The ‘free market’ costs people that won’t profit from it $700 Billion. Largest transfer of wealth ever.

From a different article (I received this over IM):

Edmonds said Jackson was changing his vote because “he received assurances from (Sen. Barack Obama) that, if elected, his administration will aggressively use authority in the bill to prevent foreclosures and stabilize the housing market.”

I’ll keep on watching for that one…

Fucking wankers. Welcome to your Corporate Representative Democracy. Please shut up and continue consuming while your CEOs and investment bankers find the next way to pick your pocket.

Agora Financial (site struggling under digg/reddit effect) breaks it down:

What started as a three-page “blank check” request for $700 billion to buy “toxic” assets on Wall Street, has now passed the Senate as a 451-page pork-laden piece of detritus. Ian sifted through the table of contents for tax exemptions and picked out a few of his favorites:

Sec. 101: Extension of alternative minimum tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits.
Sec. 102: Extension of increased alternative minimum tax exemption amount.
Sec. 201: Deduction for state and local sales taxes.
Sec. 202: Deduction of qualified tuition and related expenses.
Sec. 203: Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Sec. 204: Additional standard deduction for real property taxes for nonitemizers.
Sec. 205: Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes.
Sec. 304: Extension of look-thru rule for related controlled foreign corporations.
Sec. 305: Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements; 15-year straight-line cost recovery for certain improvements to retail space.
Sec. 307: Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property.
Sec. 308: Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 309: Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 310: Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 311: Extension of election to expense advanced mine safety equipment.
Sec. 312: Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
Sec. 314: Indian employment credit.
Sec. 315: Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations.
Sec. 316: Railroad track maintenance.
Sec. 317: Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
Sec. 318: Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
Sec. 319: Extension of work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.
Sec. 320: Extension of increased rehabilitation credit for structures in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
Sec. 321: Enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions.
Sec. 322: Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 323: Enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.
Sec. 324: Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
Sec. 325: Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
Sec. 401: Permanent authority for undercover operations [as related to tax provisions].
Sec. 402: Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities [as related to tax provisions].
Sec. 501: $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 502: Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503: Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Sec. 504: Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Sec. 505: Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as five-year property.
Sec. 506: Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer’s liability by tax return preparer.
Sec. 601: Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
Sec. 602: Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.
Sec. 702: Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados and flooding.
Sec. 704: Temporary tax-exempt bond financing and low-income housing tax relief for areas.
Sec. 709: Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters.
Sec. 710: Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 711: Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property

There’s a lot of good stuff at that link, so stop over.  I can’t help but do one more grab:

“The bottom line is that the U.S. is now at the edge of an economic Tsushima,” writes Byron King. Tsushima?

“That was the epic battle fought at sea in May 1905, when the Japanese navy annihilated a Russian fleet off the shores of Korea. It was a defining moment of the last century, when the rest of the world realized that Europeans and their weapons and policies could be defeated. Many of the ‘liberation movements’ of the 20th century (from Indochina and the Philippines to Persia and Egypt) trace their roots to the symbolism of Tsushima.

The soon-to-be dollar’s comparative worth:

New Meaning to Local Control… 0

I do not cosider this a positive development. From DemocracyNow!:

Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations

Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.

Try not to get yourself ‘considered dangerous’.

Because It Can’t Be Repeated Too Many Times 0

Read this whole thing if you need to start understanding what’s happening in the financial markets and another reason to be anti-McCain.

Just read below if you want the kicked-in-the-genitals part:

How big did this market become? Here’s business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media’s Marketplace from back in the spring.

BOB MOON: OK, I’m about to unload some numbers on you here, so I’ll speak slowly so you can follow this.

The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.

The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.

The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.

OK, you ready?

The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.

KAI RYSSDAL: That’s a lot of money, Bob.

As in three times the whole US gross domestic product, Bob. And the truth is that Moon probably underestimated. The unregulated and poorly reported credit default swaps may have actually passed $70 trillion last year, or about $5 trillion more than the GDP of the entire world.

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