Rolling Stone v. Hudge and Gudge?
Interesting stuff over at Rolling Stone: Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again. It features one of the best opening lines in magazine-writing history: "The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
The writer then goes through five bubbles that Goldman influenced, then tops it off with the coming bubble: Cap and Trade. I'm shocked to see someone from Rolling Stone rail against this obscenity, but this writer does:
If cap-and-trade succeeds, won't we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe - but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it's even collected.
It's a lengthy article. I have to admit, I've only skimmed it so far. I plan to print it out at the office tomorrow (on a high-speed printer, as opposed to my one-page-per-minute inkjet in my basement) and read it during upcoming vacation time.
Wonder Woman in the Middle East
This headline grabbed my attention: "DC Comics' superheroes join forces with characters inspired by Allah." The first line says it all: "They are superheroes battling injustice and fighting evil the Islamic way, and they are teaming up with some of the west's biggest comic book icons. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are among those joining forces with The 99, who personify the 99 attributes of Allah, according to Islamic tradition."
Of course, Wonder Woman wears a veil, has to walk ten feet behind The 99, and gets pimp-slapped if she accidentally glances at a guy, but other than that, she's pretty tough.
Related
[T]he store was bombarded with angry customers and Muslim groups who said their "Run Hadji Run" fireworks were flat-out racist.
The $30 fireworks package features men in traditional Muslim attire riding camels as a fighter plane flies overhead. On the back of the package, Uncle Sam is yanking the beard of another man dressed in traditional Muslim attire.
