War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
A side effect of continuous bad news on the doorstep. This morning in the New York Times: The recession seems to have a sweet tooth. As unemployment has risen and 401(k)’s have shrunk, Americans, particularly adults, have been consuming growing volumes of candy, from Mary Janes and Tootsie Rolls to Gummy Bears and cheap chocolates,…
Gail Collins, who writes for the New York Times editorial pages, has penned a right-on, nail-’em-to-the-wall piece this morning on the AIG/banking/finance clusterf**k of a freakin’ mess. Collins is way-pissed: Angry. So very, very angry. Unable to speak due to mega-anger washing over every pore and fiber of my being. Anger is in. (Hope’s so…
The new normal for Republicans exemplified by such goings on: Inverness Police say former Cook County Republican Chairman Gary Skoien admitted having two prostitutes in his children’s playroom when his wife walked in on him early Sunday morning. The allegation is in a domestic battery report from Skoien, 55, against his 36-year-old, 5-foot-4-inch, 110-pound wife.…
Last graph in Al-Jazeera‘s report on Tuesday’s shooting in south Alabama: “The right to own guns has been fiercely defended in the US since the country’s civil war in the 19th century, and they are widely available for purchase for reasons of self-defence and hunting.” (Residents of Samson, Ala. Illustration found here). Samson, Ala., Mayor Clay…
This dream-like, can’t-believe-my-eyes presidency continues: “And I think it’s fair to say that had I not been a Stevie Wonder fan, Michelle might not have dated me. We might not have married. The fact that we agreed on Stevie was part of the essence of our courtship.” (Illustration found here). And the bare-armed, kick-ass First…
“Why ain’t they turning?” — Frederick Fleet, in the crows nest of the Titanic. (Illustration found here). As President Obama prepares for a major speech tonight to a joint session of Congress — a State of the Financial Union, if you will — on the mysterious horror of our economy, he might pull a spin…
Today has been what’s most-definitely called a big news-event day, from all things financial — the ongoing stimulus package finally passed Congress, bank CEOs were grilled on Capitol Hill, more fallout came from yesterday’s unveiling of Bank Bailout Two and Bernie Madoff’s old lady snatched $10 million from a brokerage firm the day before the…
“When it comes to backs, nobody knows anything.” — Peter Paul ‘Paulie Walnuts’ Gualtieri, The Sopranos One of the most-frightful aspects of this extremely-current financial meltdown is its seemingly incoherent complexities, made worse by dumbfounded, clueless financial people: “I don’t, in all candor, understand a lot of it,” conceded Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern…
This morning a note on words misplaced by right-wing, wingnuts suffering intently from schizophasia in a most non-oblique fashion. An ex-Detroit Lions coach had to apologize for being nasty and petulent last month after saying “Good-bye, ladies,” to three male Detroit sports writers. Reminds one of California’s Governator proclaiming members of the state legislature as…