"The storied movie critic responds in kind to a reader’s question, it’s funny as #ell. This is way better than when William Safire tries to tell us how the kids today talk."
buzzfeed
Apparently at least some oversight and rules are going to accompany this bailout. seems Congress and the President agreed earlier today to place limits on the CEO pay and bonuses for the companies that the taxpayers will be buying up.
Hopefully the final product will have some additional thot and care and it won't just be a give-away to the already wealthy but irresponsible CEOs who created this disaster.
The emphasis on getting cheap credit flowing (hence more debts) might not be the best long term idea. I think throwing credit around too easily for too long is part of the problem.
I do think doing nothing at this point would torpedo what remains of our economy but I just want to feel like whatever steps are taken are reasonable and responsible as possible. I'm not necessarily against rules and regulations - without any the free market would not survive the greed and callousness of a few. I think governments can play a role in encouraging certain industries and controlling the negative impacts of other areas of the economy. It does worry me that the party that fundamentally believes that the government can't do any good is now being handed the responsibility to regulate and rescue an industry (wall street) that they have spent the last 20 years trying desperately to de-regulate.
I guess the next few days will give us more details.
Finally, the request by John McCain to cancel the first presidential debate on Friday night, and then actually saying he has "suspended his campaign" in order for him to "work on the economy" ... I'm a bit baffled ... it strikes me as desperate and weak and probably won't do him any favors, especially if he ends up doing the debate anyway. We need a President who can handle more than one issue at a time. In a crisis would McCain need to take a time out from all of the other responsibilities of being president in order to deal with it?
The weather has cooled down but the political temperature sure has kicked up dramatically over the last few days.
"In order to live in New Jersey one must be at least one of the following; Italian, German, Jewish, Irish, Asian, Latino, Black or Catholic - exception: Indians may live in central Jersey only. If you meet none of these standards then you are to be whacked. New Jersey has a curiosity called the Jewtalian - Italian girls who could pass for a Semite and who act Jewish. (Jewtalians are also deathly afraid of bears) When Jewtalians travel to other parts of the United States, they are almost always mistaken for Jews. Many Jewtalians, who average 4.5 feet tall, can be seen arriving at the Short Hills Mall in cream colored Cadillac Escalades. All Jersey residents hate New Yorkers, because they ordered the whacking of Oscar Wilde.
Another little known fact is that all people from New Jersey know where Jimmy Hoffa is, who killed Kennedy, where to get a good meal at three in the morning, and where to get drugs. New Jersey is divided into the north and the south. The North is the land of pollution and crime and the south is farms, Wawas, the shore, and a dumping spot for corpses. All people in New Jersey live in fear of three things; the mafia, the Jersey Devil, and car insurance. South Jersey people also know how Mexicans fit twenty people into the front cab of a truck, because they have done it with them. New Jersey residents also have been to every business shown on the Sopranos. The only way New Jersey residents are able to survive the taxes is through their Mafia connections.
Moreover, it is important to mispronounce certain words : water as "wudder", garbage as "garbitch", etc. You also are required to live within one half-hour of a mall, within .5 minutes of a Wawa (in south Jersey), and within 500 yards of two Dunkin' Donuts locations. The number of Dunkin' Donuts franchises was required to provide sustenance for the largest police population of any of the United States. However New Jerseyites agree that Wawas are substantially better than Dunkin' Donuts. "
New Jersey has a rich culture in the arts, including but not limited to strip clubs inhabited by middle aged strippers and men in trucker hats, and has been the birthplace of such hit motion picture masterpieces such as "Jersey Girl" and "Gigli".
Amongst the things to do in New Jersey:
* Engage in self-loathing and general misanthropy
* Go to the mall
* Have your job given to somebody in Singapore
* Sit in traffic
* Attempt to swim against a rip current at the Jersey Shore
* One of the many St. Patrick's day Parades w/alcohol
* Shopping
* Do many various drugs
* Flipping off random people
* Curse your fellow man
* Curse your government
* Curse yourself
* Suicide
* Go "down the shore."
* Pay $4 for a slice of pizza at the shore, and then realize you could've gotten one for $2 down the block
* Get shot
* Go to Camden for drugs and then get shot
* Go to Camden and die instantly (you were shot)
* Tailgating
* Volunteer for the Army
* See the sights of Camden, really.
* Various tickets for made up driving offenses
* Dream of better places
* The "Is this Governor secretly gay too" game
* Get harassed by drugged up girls at Wawa (South Jersey only)
* Ride the Riverline, the slowest public transit in the entire universe
* Pay 20% - 30% more for cigarettes than neighboring states, and then not be allowed to smoke them indoors.
* Watch any of the hundreds of absolutely pointless road construction projects unfold.
* Enjoy a traffic light density 3,000,000% above the national average.
* Enjoy red lights while no cars pass for 5-10 minutes.
* Pay tolls
* Make a left turn using a jug-handle
* Circles in the road... that magically turn into triangles... which amazingly are harder to navigate than the circle.
* Order "Coiffee".
* Nothing.
[edit] Places in New Jersey
* ... Bagel Shops.
* Wildwood
* A nuclear power plant in a swamp
* Atlantic City
* Camden aka "Most Dangerous City in the United States of America."
* Wawa
* Doldrums (Lacey Township)
* The Sunken Ruins of Old Jersey
* South Jersey (not related)
* Fair Lawn (The ultimate in suburban living)
* Route 130... a place for hookers, strip clubs and black people
* Parking lots (Everywhere else).
* Every other Wawa
Roads in NJ
Interstate 95 is a road that defies all logic in Jersey. Notice the mile numbers. Notice how they randomly go up and down. Notice how if you are on I-95 North, somehow you end up on I-295 south and if you are on I-95 South you end up on I-295 North? Also in on the Route 295 Conspiracy is Route 130, which randomly joins with Route 295 in the southern area to try to have a four-way orgy with Route 40 and the Jersey Turnpike at the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Route 73 contains one of the more amusing circles in New Jersey lore, known as the Marlton Circle. Many years ago, New Jersey's founding fathers drank a whole lot of corn liquor and invented the traffic circle. Later, soberer administrations decided that the circles were not the way to go, and bulldozed the living hell out of them and replaced them with humongous intersections where left turns are not allowed. Or are allowed, depending on the circle and the level of drinker's remorse the legislature had been feeling that day. Anyhow, when the Marlton Circle's turn came, the powers that be had apparently fallen off the wagon, for rather than replace the circle with a normal, or even Jersey-style incomprehensible intersection, they decided to run (why not?!) Route 73 straight through the circle.
Route 42 has a freeway section that is meticulously kept to the same maintenance standards as the surface of the moon. You will never see it, however, as for some inexplicable reason, it is just about impossible to re-enter the highway once you have exited it. Just about every road that has an interchange with this freeway will allow you to exit OR enter, but if you want to do both, you are jolly well screwed. An uncyclopedian who has spent his whole life living less than ten minutes from this abomination once tried to find a way to get on the highway. His efforts were unsuccessful and he had to slink home cursing his government (see things to do in New Jersey). The government's theory apparently was that "Wherever you might wish to go, you're already there!" This philosophy was reinforced when the state decided to render 295 North inaccessible from Rt. 42, thus leading to the slogan, "It's either there, or Delaware!" for if you wish to go anywhere else, you are once again jolly well screwed. This road is also in on the Route 295 Conspiracy (see Interstate 95, above) in that motorists wishing to access Rt. 42 must engage in a series of preposterously dangerous curving, weaving, and merging movements. This feature is intended to drum up business for the Camden/Gloucester county auto body shops
New Jersey Translations
* Down the Shore: Go to the beach. Note the absence of the word "to".
* Wooder: Water
* The Parkway: The Garden State Parkway
* The Turnpike: The freeway
* What exit?: What people say when they find out that someone is from NJ
* Mook: Loser/Asshole used to describe a foreigner to the state.
* Cawfee: Coffee
* Jug Handle: Overly complicated traffic thing. "
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey
"Proper Use and Care Of Your Irishman
An Irishman's hair should be treated daily in a solution of Kool-Aid and egg dye to preserve colour. Combing their long manes with a little brush, and thinking of ways to smite the British. Although most functioning Irishmen have brown or black hair, a disproportionate number of 'broken' Irish Americans have red hair due to improper solar exposure and a viking tainted genetic background. Skin may be bleached, as there isn't any colour to be washed anyway, and those freckles definitely aren't going anywhere.
Apart from the red haired or 'broken' Irish, all other flavours are in fact solar powered. When in it's natural cloud covered, rain soaked, cold, sodden, damp, dour, grey, briar dragging, bog covered, mud soaked misery of an environment the Irish is somnabulant and despairing, prone to alcohlism, sporadic violence and misery. Stick one in a country with regular exposure to sunlight and they become "great workers", "tanned", "cheery" and rich. Plans are afoot for a trial swap of small towns in Ireland and Mexico starting with Ballingarry and Guadaljara (soon to be renamed Guadal O'Hara). By 2057 full transplantation will have taken place.
CAUTION: Store your Irishman in a cool, moist space, and DO NOT EXPOSE TO SUNLIGHT. If exposed to sunlight, red discoloration is normal. Pickle in a solution of aloe vera and vitamin E for several weeks before returning to normal activity. If your Irishman experiences trembling, loss of appetite and general unpleasantness, get him drunk. When properly restored to his normal cheeriness, your now inebriated irishman will let you know by speaking to you in a secret Irish language composed of the moans, grunts and other guttural interjections or drunkards across the world. (see Gaelic)
WARNING: You should not use your Irishman if you are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. Do not use your Irishman if you are on medication, such as MAOIs, COX-2 inhibitors, or crack. Consult your doctor before using an Irishman if you are suffering from liver disease or advanced renal failure. Irishman may cause mild side effects, such as dry mouth, dizziness, insomnia, children, sweating, and, in the case of Northerners, often death. See a physician for more details. "
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Irish
"It is the home of the Philadelphia Iggles, the San Diego Padres and some other sports teams. And due to the horrible diction of its inhabitants, Philadelphia is the only place on Earth where you can enjoy a cheesesteak "wit" fried onions and wash it down with a nice, cold glass of "wooder". Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. This may account for the racial violence that is exhibited from time to time. Center City is a great place to visit if you like rich snobs, clothing stores, and large buildings. (NB - If you plan to stay longer than 20 minutes be sure sure to carry excessive amounts of cash with you because you will invariably be taxed or fined for something) Have you ever watched any movies or music videos about gangstas and thought to yourself, "Wow it would be so awesome to be in a gang surrounded by daily violence!" Well then head down to South Philly west of Broad Street. You'll find too much of it. Point Breeze makes North Philly look like a nice suburban neighborhood in comparison. This area includes the Art Museum. Look around for a bit, it looks a lot like a certain French city. The Parkway which leads all the way up to the Art Museum, is shamelessly ripped off of Paris' Champs-Élysées. Around the area are many other museums as well. Why is the area famous? For starters, Rocky immortalized it by running up the steps of the Art Museum. Also Live 8 was held there. Behind the Art Museum is the Schuylkill River, where people row and ride their bikes. Of course riding your bikes on the bike path next to the river is only recommended if you enjoy other cyclists who don't understand the concept of "family bike path" and how it differs from a "race." Also you may need to have a high tolerance for people who simply don't understand that the term "bike path" actually implies bikes are permitted to be ridden. If you plan to drive to Plymouth Meeting along the Schuylkill River highway, make sure it's not at quitting time on a Friday. Especially if your dad is driving you to a date that was just moved to the Plymouth Meeting Mall at the last second, but that was full so they moved it to the "great" northeast. The typical North Philadelphia house has distinctive wooden boards over the windows, holes in the roof to let in the breeze in place of air conditioning (and guess what? There's no carbon footprint!), and has not been inhabited since the time when Sylvester Stalone was actually considered cool. And that's just North Philadelphia west of Broad St. You should see the scary neighborhood east of Broad St. Okay, I've lied. North Philadelphia is not only synonymous with black people. It is also synonymous with Irish people. Kensington Avenue (especially where it meets Alleghany Avenue) is a great place to pick up hookers. Or get shot. Watch out for the angry drunk Irishmen and Puerto Ricans there. Aren't we a great city? Stereotypes, sex and violence. In defense of North Philadelphia, those Center City minivan moms can get pretty violent as well. Along with those Mercedes driving rich guys who nearly hit me that one time because they don't understand the concept of a traffic light. Originally named for the distinct rotten fish smell that permeates the area, Fishtown is now the "Up and Coming" neighborhood of Philadelphia. It's called that because when you get there, you're "coming up" on Kensington, and it's about time to turn around before you get shot. Fishtown strives to be Northern Liberties, a bustling neighborhood full of artists, bars, and empty blocks. In that respect, it's doing pretty well, except it doesn't have any artists. Until then, Fishtownies can continue to tell everyone how much it's "up and coming", because nobody will know they're lying, since nobody has any good reason to go to Fishtown anyway. The Little Poland of Philly. You can get some Polish kielbasa and perogies, just avoid Polack jokes...or some crazy huge Polish dude named Czeslaw and his local pub buddies will pummel you. City Hall and the surrounding areas are a commonplace for everyone. Subways, people, everyone bustling around, it's one of those places where a lot of people end up. A lot of stores are around along with some hotels. The stores are generally Dunkin Donuts, department stores, jewelry stores, or stores which sell brands of clothing such as Rocawear and Sean Jean. Stolen, or fake jewelry is abundant on the street along with real jewelry in the stores. This area is also home to The Gallery, a big urban mall where it's common to hangout. Only instead of it being a hangout for suburban private school students, it's where public school students from all over come to gather. The Gallery, like most malls, drains you of your serotonin level when entered, but it is quickly regained when you realize you won't be around a bunch of annoying white, gothic, suburban, teenage mallrats. It also helps that there's a GameStop. This is also where Love Park is, you know the place where people skateboard. Or used to. The sport was killed by the government and the year 2000. Many decry the fact that it was the MOVE cult headquarters that was bombed from the air and not the gallery. Current proposals to seal the Gallery an hour after school lets out and flood the entire building with nerve gas are being considered...but the city's already blown its budget for mass murder of its own citizens, so it's a distant shot. The place where millions of Asians don't get the fuck out of your way. Right nearby the Gallery and its surroundings is Chinatown. What makes Chinatown so good? Two words: Wing Wang's Peking Duck House (9th and Winter, right near the Vine St Expressway). Well that's five words but most people only refer to it as Sang Kee so you can keep your comments to yourself. Also it's just a cool place to get imported Asian things, Like syphilis. Or opium. Yay opium! Now with a booth in the Reading Terminal Market. Chinatown is an excellent place to poison yourself because your drunk, incapable of making informed decisions regarding what you're eating and Chinatown has the only places open. Contrary to popular belief and empirical fact, University City does not actually exist (except on maps, street signs, city government records, and the records of the University City District). The area known as University City successfully seceded from West Philadelphia to establish their own edutopia, led by the University of Pennsylvania and its comic sidekick, Drexel University. There are a bunch of things you might expect to find at a college campus such as food courts, tennis courts, bookstores, and movie theatres. There is also a place where you can buy cereal, only cereal (this is actually true). Now that's clever and alternative enough to attract preppy college kids - oh and lets not forget the stoners who have the munchies and thick wallets! Unique for having been bombed from the air by the city government in 1985 (this is actually true), West Philadelphia is famous for being the home of the University of Pennsylvania and the birthplace of Will Smith and Wilt Chamberlain. The local diet consists of halal, cheesesteaks, and babies. Visiting is not recommended due to a very high probability of getting shot, raped and murdered. Recently the area has been infested by a variety of Crust Punks and other lower primates. While friendly, these creatures sadly lack the ability to communicate vocally. Instead, use a stick. If you don't get shot in the North, then you're sure ass hell to get raped here. Now, one can only assume that this "neighborhood" was named out of sarcasm. If you go out far enough, this looks like some run down blue collar suburb. But it isn't a blue collar suburb, it's the Northeast. It's a fun place to drive to if you feel like a nice one hour drive to somewhere not even outside of your own city. Otherwise known as the "N'East" by residents or ex-residents. The neighborhood is also known as "N'Easty", a word denoting a propensity for comfort with strip malls, bleak futures, row-homes, and winding, unnavigable roads. Northeast Philadelphia frequently discusses breaking away from Philadelphia proper, making it the Quebec of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Northeast's primary product is boredom and a crippling inferiority complex regarding its relation to the rest of the city, i.e. the parts someone gives a shit about. The Northeast is also home to many, many upstanding policemen who were chosen to be among Philly's finest for their aptitude at being white guys from the Northeast. Mount Airy is famous for being the third most Jewish place on Earth, and created quite a stir a few years back when it actually seceded from the union to join Israel. Famous for having fairly large, nice houses with two kitchen sinks, one for meat, one for dairy products. Home to a few nomadic tribes of black people. Also home to a trolley car diner, which is quite nice if you happen to be a connoisseur of deep-fried rat. Psssst--There are no Germans here! Yes, they were forced out when North Philadelphia invaded circa 1967. This neighborhood is one of the nicer residential options for black people, as it has a nice big park where people still occasionally come across skeletons and unexploded ordinance left over from the American Revolution. It is also home to those Jews who for whatever reason do not live in neighboring Mount Airy. Home to more Nation of Islam Mosques than Las Vegas is home to Casinos. The WASP capital this side of Nantucket. Chestnut Hill is home to several crazy old street people, many more wealthy alcoholics, gourmet dog food stores, bead shops, used record places, tiny family-owned grocery stores, coffee shops, and 97 places to cash a check. The rowhouses are all several centuries old, and the other houses are all the size of a small village. Also spelled Olde City by pretentious mispellers, this is the area of Philadelphia where everything historical seems to have occurred. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are located here. There are plenty of small shops, museums and historical sites to visit and a fun day can be had by all, old and young, in this area. Of course that was before the day would be spent waiting in more lines than Disneyland due to newfound security measures in place. Now it's just boring. There are horses though, with carriages. This is amazingly awesome the first time you see it. Then it's just another site, with the added bonus that it produces feces capable of being stepped in. The most famous resident is the legendary guy-who-dresses-up-as-Benjamin Franklin. At night this mediocre tourist trap for families is transformed into a mediocre nightlife trap for girls from New Jersey with bad hair. Do not approach them. They all have herpes. Every single one. This is a fairly upper middle class neighborhood near Old City and The Gallery area. Its unnatural darkness at night, illuminated only by yellow street lamps is enough to give someone the creeps and haunt their dreams. Brick is the building material and mugging weapon of choice in this area. At the southern end of this district they have erected a gate ostensibly to keep out the residents of the rest of the city. The Inscription above the gate reads "Here thar be yuppies" in olde yuppish (latin). What can be said about South Street? It's a place you can walk around and buy stuff. This is one of the only places in the city where you run a pretty low risk of getting shot and bumrushed, since the city's abundant deranged violent crackheads are scared off by local Starbucks, yoga shops, rastas, and all that other sissy stuff. Besides, the emo alternative goths or whatever the fuck are real wusses, despite their "badass" tattoos and collars and the rest of Hot Topic products. This relative safety ("relative" is as good as it gets anywhere in Philly) has resulted in making the place one of the city's most popular tourist destinations. Now your choices on items include tattoos, CDs, sex toys, wiccan paraphernilia, skateboards, alternative clothing, and yogic knick-knacks. At night you can get drunk at the bars, and meet beautiful women. It's Philadelphia's mainstream fauxhemian area. There is also frequent flashers, mooners, and sunners. South Street also has the city's highest concentration of cops, since here they are almost safe from being shot at, slept on, bitten and/or begged for change. Also known as Two Street. If you call it 2nd street, you're a terrorist. Quite popular with out-of-towners for its convenient existence as I-95."
There's a ton more on the site but here is an excerpt covering the different neighborhoods:"Neighborhoods
[edit] Center City
If you want a smaller version of one of New York's many shopping districts than look no further! Clothing store after clothing store, you'll never have a problem finding clothes! This section of the city was once very rundown, however real estate is now booming and everyone wants condos! You know Liberty Tower, those two huge blue buildings synonymous with Philadelphia's skyline? They are built on the remains of a porn theatre. Liberty Tower is great for anyone who wants to buy clothes, or eat in a food court. Center City is now stigmatized as being a "rich neighborhood" because it's been cleaned up a lot since the 1980s and everyone wants REAL ESTATE! The Rittenhouse Square area, for example, is extremely expensive. Fifteen years ago, Rittenhouse Square was a place you'd go if you had a fetish for being beaten up and mugged, or if you made a living panhandling while pretending to be disabled. Now, you go to Rittenhouse Square if you want to eat in an overpriced outdoor restaurant and sneer at people walking on your sidewalk. Damn pedestrians. The area is also popular for weird 20 year olds who stand around trying to get people to vote or join their commune. They'll ask your age and when you say that you aren't 18 they'll call bullshit and ask for the year you were born. Unless you're a math whiz, or actually are under 18, you won't be able to answer immediately because you'll be trying to calculate a year which works. When travelling around Center City it is best to have a year already planned in the back of your head. 
Center City is home to many thriving shops.[edit] South Philadelphia
Have you ever watched The Sopranos and thought to yourself, "Wow it would be so awesome to be in the Mafia!" Well then head down to South Philly. Every single Italian stereotype is pulled from there, or Brooklyn, the Bronx, or North Jersey. Now you can be around authentic REAL Italians with tough accents! Imagine that! Yous all could be actin tuff in da neighborhood wit da fam'ly! Get some pizza and cheesesteaks to top it off! Get some "wooder" to wash it down! Your suburban WASP friends will never believe you. Home to a massive open-air market where you can buy, among other things, live goats. Topics not suggested for discussion: 
One of South Philadelphia's famous Italian eateries.[edit] Art Museum Area
[edit] North Philadelphia
What's there to say about North Philadelphia? It successfully became synonymous with black people and it's now the area you don't want to park your car in or drive through at night all. Since Philadelphia police laugh hysterically when people get mugged, Temple University must maintain its own air force and army just to protect its students from the hostile gang members. That's the city of Brotherly Love for you.[edit] Kensington
[edit] Fishtown
[edit] Port Richmond
[edit] City Hall and the Gallery
[edit] Chinatown
[edit] University City
[edit] West Philadelphia
[edit] The Great Northeast
[edit] Mt. Airy
[edit] Germantown
[edit] Chestnut Hill
[edit] Old City
[edit] Society Hill
[edit] South Street
[edit] 2nd Street
Thanks L for sending me the link :)
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia#Philadelphia.27s_Greatest_Contribution_to_the_World
Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind.
...actually 2 months and left just before bootcamp finished. this is nescessary to know because the following story is all about me and the usmc and an errant flip flop...
already - an errant flip flop - it makes me giggle...
{longest blog ever - matt's note}
USMC or DHS please let me know if this post violates ur rules or whatnot...
im sure there are details that made it sparkle when told fresh and new when it first happened that i will leave out - please, if you heard the first telling of the flip flop story leave some comments below if i left anything essential or even mildly interesting, out ok?
so here goes.
at one point in the 1990's i thought it would be a good idea to join the military - learn what they had to offer, do my duty and move on. Well, it wasn't a good idea for me - or at least it wasn't a good idea to join the Marines. I was warned by several old and crusty marines that it wasn't a good idea and i shouldn't show up for my intake. I had a great boyfriend at the time, he was former air force military police - so he thought it would be a great idea and encouraged me - as did all other air force and navy folk... see who encouraged and who didn't and take a hint...
at my testing session - like the SATs but for the military so there is a lot of "rotate this object in space" etc questions - i did surprisingly well, in fact i was in second place of all the 200 guys who took the test that day. Interestingly this was my downfall...
"How?" do you ask - well my original, somewhat more rational idea was to join the marines, experience boot camp, and then do the reserves. I applied to fill planes with fuel. What you apply for means nothing, and especially when you get some super score and they decide they have all sorts of other things in mind for you.
after my results came out of the little machine i was taken immediately back to my recruiter. he had a whole speech prepared for me: i could do the refuel/reserve thing or i could take advantage of my score and become an NCO. An NCO is a Non-Commissioned Officer. Usually you have to have a degree beyond high school to be an Officer, but due to my scores I could be an Officer even without college. Total flattery number one. total flattery number two was that i could fly. FLY! in the marines.. it's actually really hard to be able to actually fly in the Air Force let alone the Marines, so my recruiter laid out this whole scenario where i could go to Florida and spend 2 years becoming a pilot and then 3 years with them and then i could fly a plane for a living.
well, i fell for it....
i arrived at boot camp in the middle of the night on a bus and we sat in the dark....
then the dude came on, smokey bear hat and all...
he started yelling and we started obeying and obey i did until the very end.
to our arrival on paris island: we were marched first out of the bus onto the famous yellow footprints that are laid out - miraculously for the same number of people on the bus. We were abused verbally (who would not expect such on joining the USMC?) for a few minutes and then led into a building that looked like a typical big town high school -
inside we waited in single file to have our hair shorn off one by one, to turn the corner to the barber was a big deal - mine was already buzzed so i found this uneventful. then we were led off to this conveyor belt where we received our "new clothes and shoes and toiletries" - this was a horrible experience as we had to strip naked and leave everything we had brought along with us behind in brown paper bags (which much to my surprise i did receive back in the end) with our names on them to be reclaimed at such time as we left boot camp. this is where the number one problem came in for me:
my boots did not fit - at all...
my boots were at least two sizes too small and i had to wear sneakers which led to my eventual banishment from the drill squad because of course - i looked like a dork - the only one in sneakers out of all the squad - duh!
anyway- we went from this room with the conveyor-belt-of-new-belongings out to a "staging area" where we were made to wait... for hours - and i am not exaggerating - hours.... - with our backpacks full of all our new stuff.
after these several hours STANDING with our backpacks full of our new gear in silence and in pain we were led into a room where we were seated at desks. we had not been to sleep in over 48 hours and they did not intend, in any way shape or form, to allow it now.
we were informed that the USMC knew everything about us and that if we did not 'fess up' now we would be in jail or whatnot. there was a huge line of people who had former illegal activities or other impediments to joining the marine corp who went up one by one and explained what it was that they had done wrong. in today's military environment 90 percent of them would have been fine (research changed military rules in the last two years), back then? i don't know how many passed?
i did go up. i said - i should never have joined - "this is completely wrong for me and i made a completely wrong decision."
i was laughed at and sent back to my desk (exactly the desk u imagine - a high school desk - all in one unit).
after some weeks in boot camp..................................
i had become used to the usual morning toiletries - we had 3 (yes th
ree) minutes to run nude from our bunks - into the showers - and then back nude to our bunks to be yelled at for some random reason (u r never praised in the USMC boot camp - no matter how good you do).
and THIS is where the flip flop story actually starts:
as per all shower times; we were (all 30 or 40 of us) ordered as per usual to remove all of our clothes immediately and without warning, then we were suddenly shouted at to go to the showers - by this time knowing that we had an unreasonably short time to clean our bodies.
t
he only item we were permitted to wear into the showers were our "united states marine corp official flip flops".
first of all the very sentence "united states marine corp official flip flops" is an absurdity in it's own rite.
but none the less i had done it before and i would do it again.
the problem came when exiting the showers.
there was basically a herd mentality when the three minute whistle blew. 30-40 naked men in flip flops all came raging out of the showers trying to get to their place at their bunks. of course the last to arrive would be ridiculed and made to do some terrible exercise until the very moment of death and then allowed to return to their bunk. i wanted no such thing so i moved with the heard and even in front of it - however....
midway through the barracks-herd heading towards my bunk my left flip flop fell off.. i found this horribly funny at the time given the immense pressure of the entire situation. i stopped and laughed. this was not the correct response.
one of the three drill instructors that we had for our platoon noticed this massive faux pas. he stopped me - mid-herd - and said (or shouted with spit flying all over my face) "Is something funny recruit?"
We were required to call ourselves by the third person - never say you - always say "this recruit"
so i responded "THIS RECRUIT LOST HIS LEFT FLIPFLOP SIR!"
and of course - ..... it seemed all the more absurd once i said it, so i laughed again.
it was not received well, but i was able to turn around - post herd - and retrieve my flip flop and make my way back to my bunk. i'm pretty sure someone else was ridiculed at the bunks because i don't remember being ridiculed at that time and i remember being ridiculed two or three more times - ask about the boot through the footlocker story! to come soon! :) it's also a good one.... sorry anyway....
so - thats the flip flop story - i always felt you needed to be there but apparently it was a great hit after i returned from boot camp.
i left shortly after we did "pugil sticks" - - i did really bad at pugil sticks :(
(why did i return from boot camp without entering the marines?* - Official explaination "not fit for the USMC at this time." real reason - ask me later)
if you arrive from the dhs or the USMC and wish me to retract any of my statements - well, in light of the current political situation i suppose i will - free speech withstanding. love u all.
if you remember my first telling of this story at wolf ave please remind me of anything i may have left out!
* if it has the word MARINE in it you should figure water will be involved! however, while i was there i heard of two drill instructors committing suicide in the last 6 months as well as recruits who died. one recruit i met when we were already in the "decompression" troop told me he had just gotten up one day and started walking into the middle of the firing range during rifle practice. he just didn't vare anymore. this was one of the deep southern accent guys. i felt really bad for him because where ever he went back to probably wouldnt have the bemused reaction all of my jersey family and friends had when i came home early.
however - props where props are due:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y90UPLLo6nY
and finally some good old marine corp marching cadences:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y90UPLLo6nY
ley-o ley-o ley-o riagh!
(update - for a post on modern "final restoration" thought in American protestant theology see this post - http://favoritematt.blogspot.com/2009/03/this-american-life-heretics.html)
Eschatology and final restoration (apokatastasis) {meaning all will be saved - matt's note} in Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximos the Confessor
Andreas Andreopoulos
Penn Humanities Forum
School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pennsylvania
The problem of the fate of evil in the last things and the question of whether the post-Apocalyptic equilibrium will allow for the restoration of the Devil, have been recurrent and quite controversial throughout Patristic tradition. The last judgment and the Second Coming of Christ signify the final victory of good over evil, but it is not always clear how this victory will take place. As several theologians keep repeating, it is always good to avoid narrow definitions for things we have no explicit knowledge or revelation about. The fairly recent discussion on the ancient view of the toll-houses has shown exactly the nature of the problem.
Nevertheless, the problem of the restoration of all is too important to put aside, even if it has to fall under speculative theology. This issue is closely connected with the views on the nature of evil. According to most accounts by the early Christian Fathers th
at have written on the nature of evil, (Athanasios, Basil, and Gregory of Nyssa for instance, but also Augustine), evil does not have a real existence of its own, even more so in the eschatological future; it exists as a deprivation or perversion of good, born from the exercise of the free will, and the jealousy of Satan. At any rate, evil was not created by God, and the final state of the cosmos cannot be compromised with the post-Apocalyptic existence of evil. At the same time, Christian and pagan writers alike, such as Origen, Plotinos, Gregory of Nyssa and Proklos, have described the tendency of the fallen creation to return to its original state in almost identical terms, pointing towards a future that will be even better than the original Paradise. Therefore, the fate of humanity and the fallen angels at that time is rather problematic.
Alexandrian theology in the second/third century starts a particularly Eastern theological strand of eschatology that leads all the way to Mark of Ephesus in the fifteenth, one which differs from most Western views if not necessarily and officially on the eternity of evil, at least on the question as to where this evil is to be found and therefore comes from – in doctrinal contrast to the views of Western theologians such as Abelard, who saw the torments of hell as a punishment very often more cruel than the sins that warranted it, in a place that had specifically been created by God for this purpose, as it was believed after Augustine. The ancient as well as the late Byzantine position, certainly before the Western influences on Greek and Russian theology after the Renaissance, was that nothing evil can come from God, not even punishment. The punishment and torments of hell are only inflicted from ourselves, both in this world and in the next one. Hell and its fire is not different, essentially, from the benevolent energy of God, when experienced by the sinners. The restoration of all, at best an interesting and possible speculation though not a doctrine, is an idea not too far from all this.
Origen, the writer most commonly associated with apokatastasis panton, although not the first one (Clement of Alexandria was the first Christian writer to speak of the fire of Hell as a "wise" fire, the means by which sinners are purified and, ultimately, saved), saw an end to the cycle of successive worlds, predicting if not a final restoration, from which there would be no Fall, at least the possibility of it. Origen's cosmological scheme starts with the creation of the logikoi who, falling away from God undergo an ontological change to psychai (souls), and ends with the return of (all) the souls to God.
In De Principiis 1 VI 3 Origen argued that even the logikoi most remote from God can ascend to the human condition and from there to the angelic. He did not explicitly say that everybody will eventually be saved, but it seems he believed so, from statements like "you, reader, must judge whether this portion of the creation [the evil men and angels] shall be utterly and entirely out of harmony even with that final unity and concord, both in the ages that are seen and temporal and in those that are not seen and eternal." And further down "every rational nature can, in the process of passing from one order to another, travel through each order to all the rest, and from all to each, while undergoing the various movements of progress or the reverse in accordance with its own actions and endeavors and with the use of its power of free will."
Origen's position follows naturally after two assumptions: that the power of free will remains to the soul after death, and that God has not created an eternal place of damnation. Augustine, on the other hand, believed hell to be eternal and also created specifically for the punishment of the sinful, and influenced, probably unfortunately, the entire Western Christian tradition. Origen saw the entrapment of the logikoi in matter, as well as the flames of hell, both as a punishment and as a means of rehabilitation, so that they can be "encouraged" to return to God. Furthermore, he writes elsewhere (De Principiis 2 X 8) that hell is not eternal. "There is resurrection of the dead, and there is punishment, but not everlasting. For when the body is punished the soul is gradually purified, and so restored to its ancient rank. For all wicked men, and for demons, too, punishment has an end, and both wicked men and demons shall be restored to their former rank." The whole system was recapitulated by Origen in the triad becoming, rest, movement. Nevertheless, Origen's system, at least as it was known from the works of his enemies as well as from his admirers, allowed for the return of all the fallen souls to God and their salvation, even the salvation of Satan, although it is not certain that these souls would not turn their attention away from God once more, and their fall would not be repeated again and again.
Gregory of Nyssa in On the Soul and the Resurrection 7 and in the Catechetical Oration 26 followed Origen in that the fire of hell has a purifying role and is, therefore, not eternal. He goes even further in his argument however, positing that since evil has no real existence, its "relative" existence will be completely annihilated at the end of time. According to how much the souls are attached to the material condition, purification may be instant or long and painful. Gregory compared purification by the fire of hell to the chemical purification of gold by fire, and to a muddy rope that is cleaned when passed through a small hole. Although his images seem dangerously dualist, we should not forget that evil for Gregory has no real existence, and therefore what he presents is no more than the destruction of everything that was not created by God in the first place. In both writings mentioned above, he stated his belief in the final restoration of all: "When, over long periods of time, evil has been removed and those now lying in sin have been restored to their original state, all creation will join in united thanksgiving, both those whose purification has involved punishment and those who never needed purification at all" (Catechetical Oration 26).
The main role of divine judgement, according to Gregory, is not to punish the sinners. Instead, it "operates by separating good from evil and pulling the soul towards the fellowship of blessedness" (On the Soul and the Resurrection 7). More than merely "separating," the purifying fire will melt away evil so that what is left is only good. We have to keep in mind that in several of the writings of Gregory of Nyssa on the Fall and the nature of evil, Satan is not presented as the adversary of God but as the adversary of man. In that sense, the "relative" existence of evil does not diminish God's power or goodness. Evil is directly connected with the pain experienced by sinners after the last judgement, when they are given to torture "until they pay back all that they owe." Then they will "enter into freedom and confidence" and "God will be all in all."
Gregory put forward a view of the universe, where the cosmos was created "so that the wealth of divine good things might not be idle." Our bodies are the receptacles of "good things" and as they are fed thus grow and require even more divine food. Participation in the divine is likened to a growth with no limit, nourished by God's limitless supply of goodness. This is the divine plan, and the attachment to the "material condition" is only a hindrance for this growth. Gregory, moreover, sees the final restoration in a resurrected body, made "from the same elements, but not with its present coarse and heavy texture, but subtler and lighter." This is quite important, because Gregory's metaphors often give the impression, on a first reading, that they hold matter in contempt, sounding almost dualist at times, but his view of evil and matter is decisively different from this. The "material condition" he often mentions is a condition of the soul rather than an inherent property of body matter. Gregory had an interesting view of the "material condition", or the "condition of the flesh", which is not directly associated to the original body of Adam and Eve. After the Fall, he argued, God gave Adam and Eve "garments of skin", that correspond to the fallen body and the bodily passions, but the natural, original condition of the human being is still part of the human nature, which will eventually return to it. This way Gregory maintains the ascetic ideal, but combined with a deep respect for matter itself. The ontological transformation of the body, both before the fall and after the end, are consequences of the movement of the soul away from or towards God. In that, Gregory differs significantly from Origen, whose theory of beginning and eschatology has no place for matter and the body.
Nevertheless, Gregory does not accept the restoration of all and the subsequent forgiveness of all as an inescapable necessity. Nobody will be saved without going through repentance, cleansing and forgiveness, and his view of the apokatastasis is merely the belief that everyone will be able to see truth as it is at the end, and everyone will be given the chance to repent. He never wrote anything to the effect of a blanket forgiveness of everyone, but he seems to believe that since everyone will see and understand the truth and everyone will be given the chance to repent, everyone will, most likely, do just that.
Now, we have to realize that although the idea of the restoration of all is a part of the Eastern spiritual tradition (even if as a hypothesis), the Church could never accept it as a doctrine because, if nothing else, its perceived determinism can lead to spiritual apathy. The theory of apokatastasis has unofficially cost Gregory of Nyssa for many centuries recognition as a theologian of the rank of Basil, Gregory of Nazianzos and John Chrysostom, and was one of the reasons Origen was anathematized. Yet in some ways it can also be found in the theology of Maximos the Confessor, a Father of the Church who has often been considered the measure of orthodoxy in doctrinal matters and the summit of Orthodox theology.
The ideas of Maximos can be connected to the concept of apokatastasis in three different ways. First, he has written some passages that pertain explicitly on the apokatastasis. Second, some issues examined in his writings can be connected with the 
apokatastasis, and this association has been drawn by certain scholars, but Maximos refuses to discuss them in detail, in the apophatic expression he borrowed from pseudo-Dionysios, "honoring the truth by silence". Third, Maximos' entire theological system of cosmic salvation and his views on what exactly is restored in the kind of apokatastasis recognized by the Church, can give us a good insight to his views on the possibility of a final restoration of all.
Maximos, in Questiones et Dubia 19, commenting on the notion of apokatastasis as found in Gregory of Nyssa, writes that the Church knows or recognizes three kinds of restoration: The first meaning applies to the restoration of the individual through virtue; in this case restoration means the return to the primordial condition of man's goodness. The second meaning applies to the restoration of the whole nature of man during the resurrection of bodies: the ontological condition of paradisal incorruptibility and immortality is restored. The third, and here Maximos refers specifically to Gregory of Nyssa, applies to the restoration of the powers of the soul to the state they were created, before they were altered by sin. This kind of restoration presents an interesting point for us: to what extent did Maximos share Gregory's (and Origen's) view of final restoration of all as an eschatological certainty?
First, Maximos seems to compare the restoration of the soul to the resurrection of the body: that would mean that this kind of restoration applies to all and not only to the ones who have progressed sufficiently in the course of virtue. It is an ontological restoration then, something like a consequence of the resurrection of the body. Second, restoration of the souls seems to suggest the annihilation of evil, because the effects of sin are healed. This will be achieved by the expulsion of evil from the souls in the continuation of the ages. Finally, all restored souls will come to know God and see that he is anaitios tês hamartias, not responsible for the existence of sin, which is the same as saying they will know the true nature of good and evil. The "perverted" powers of the soul will then cast off the memories and the effect of evil, and in a way similar to the thought of Gregory of Nyssa, this involves punishment and purification. Maximos leaves the issue there: His restoration account goes as far as to state that every soul will have knowledge of "good things" (agatha – probably the energies of God), but not necessarily participation in them. It is for this reason that he is sometimes thought of as not suggesting the inevitability of restoration of all. Apparently, the step after knowledge of the energies of God is left to the free will of God's creatures. Salvation of all is not an ontological necessity, although it seems to be strongly suggested as the rational consequence of the restoration of the powers of the soul. This seems to be corroborated by Maximos' writings on the transformation of man's gnomic will as a result of restoration:
[Transformation of man's gnomic will will happen] because of the general change and renewal which will take place in the future, at the end of the ages, through God our Savior: a universal renewal of the whole human race, natural but by grace.1
This point deserves a closer examination, and we shall return to it. Modern commentators of Maximos, such as Brian Daley and Polycarp Sherwood, have located, in addition to the passage where Maximos writes directly on the apokatastasis, three other passages from the Questiones ad Thalassium, which most likely imply Maximos' belief in the final restoration and forgiveness of all. Two of those comments refer to the two trees in the Garden of Eden, a theme connected to the apokatastasis since Origen, and the third to the victory of Christ over evil through his crucifixion. In these passages Maximos states that there is a "better and more secret explanation, which is kept in the minds of the mystics, but we, as well, will honor by silence".
Modern commentators see this honorable silence as an implicit support of the idea of apokatastasis, that remained silent mostly for pastoral reasons. Nevertheless, Maximos never gives his clear support to the idea, and with the exception of the writings cited above, he never engages it at length. Sherwood has also noted the absence of any lengthy criticism on it, in contrast to other Origenist ideas which gave Maximos the language and the chance to develop his system. It is true, on the other hand, that there are many passages in Maximos' work that discuss the situation after the Final Judgment and speak of eternal punishment for the ones who "freely used the logos of their being contrary to nature".
Modern scholarship has mined the thought of Maximos in pursuit of direct or even implied support of the concept of apokatastasis rather successfully, but has perhaps overlooked one aspect that seems to take us further inside Maximos' understanding of the last things. As we mentioned previously, the third kind of restoration known by the Church, according to Maximos, the one he connected with Gregory of Nyssa, has to do with the restoration of the powers of the soul before the fall, and it is common to all people, just like the resurrection of the body. We also saw that in the passage from Expositio in Psalm 59, Maximos names will as at least one of the powers of the soul that will be restored. Does that mean that gnomic will (the deliberative will particular to the fallen nature) will be transformed into natural will? If so, and that seems most likely to be the case, this is the boldest statement in support of the apokatastasis that we can find in the writings of Maximos. How can it be possible not to repent and to beg for the forgiveness of God in the most profound and sincere way, once our will has been restored to the natural will which is subject to God's will? Maximos' explicit account stops at the moment when every human being has knowledge (epignosis) of God, even if not everyone could participate in his energies. This condition however, is going to be brought about for everyone, and has little to do with the spiritual struggle towards God. Now, how can we understand the restoration of the natural will in the human being, with everything this entails about the passions and the soul? Is it possible for human, angelic and even demonic souls at the moment of their bodily and psychic restoration to repent, be forgiven and be accepted in the kingdom of God, since they cast off their deliberative, gnomic will, and should be able to see the difference between good and evil, or will the return be restricted to the ones who repented during life on earth? This is the big question. Maximos, however, is talking about a clear knowledge of God, a disembodied, objective knowledge, which is not necessarily accompanied by a "movement of the soul", something that not only cannot be forced, but that requires the restoration of the virtues, probably necessary for salvation.
What are the problems that such an understanding of Maximos' theology would entail? First of all, if the ontological restoration of the body and the soul were to lead to forgiveness so easily, automatically perhaps, there is no point in trying to do good in this or the next life, something pointed out by most Fathers who wrote on the last things. There would be no judgment, just a blanket forgiveness to everyone. Second, if free will, gnomic or natural, is preserved after the Second judgment, there is a danger of a second fall, in an Origenist fashion, starting a new cycle of events. Maximos, quite emphatically, modified Origenist cosmology, correcting the Origenist triad of becoming, rest, movement, into becoming, movement, rest, indicating precisely that the final situation has to be a cosmic balance, a stable conclusion. In Ambigua 65 he writes about the ogdoad, the eight day or the age to come, which will be the "better and endless day", which comes after "things in motion have come to rest", and he does make the distinction between the fate of the righteous and the fate of the wicked. It is possible then, that the restoration of the natural will is not sufficient to guarantee that there will be no second fall. It is no surprise that the discourse on the apokatastasis is traditionally connected to the original fall in the Garden of Eden, and the Fathers of the Church saw the original sin not as an ontological fall but as an illness that will nevertheless be concluded in a condition better – and therefore more stable – than the beginning.
How can this be compromised with the restoration of all? On the one hand Maximos foresees the restoration of the natural will and speaks of the purifying fire of the Second Coming, something that implies an end to the purification, but on the other hand he emphasizes the final rest. Perhaps the answer can be found in a comment from the Questiones ad Thalassium 22, where Maximos draws a distinction between the present age, the "age of the flesh", which is characterized by doing, and the age of the Spirit that will be characterized by undergoing. This suggests that the final rest will not necessarily be a static rest, but that some kind of activity is conceivable. Moreover, it is not specified if the activity of that age is limited to the righteous only, the analogy to the age of doing suggests the opposite. Is it possible then, that with the mysterious phrase "aeikinetos stasis" (ever-moving rest) that appears in his writings, Maximos envisioned a rest similar to the unification of the soul with God as described by Gregory of Nyssa, where the soul moves infinitely towards God without ever being able to reach the end of infinity, but experiencing and participating increasingly in his energies. The "undergoing" of the sinful souls then might be translated into the contrition and repentance they never had in life, which could perhaps even then bring them closer to God, while the righteous advance in their blissful participation of the divine. Something like that would be consistent with the possibility of a final restoration of all and with Maximos' views on the rest. This active rest would have to be understood as an unchangeable condition in spite of the movement or undergoing of the souls, something that would satisfy its position at the end of the Maximian cosmological triad as the conclusion. It would also mean that there won't be an ontological difference between the righteous and the wicked, as there is not one now.
Eschatology is one of the most precarious aspects of theological thought, because it tries to explain things that have not happened yet, and even when they do our language and understanding might be too limited to fathom them. The apophatic "honor by silence" in Maximos' writings, seems more correct than any treatise on the subject. The restoration of all however, a valid possibility according to the Church, although not a doctrine, has a special place in the hopes of saints who pray for the redemption of their enemies, and it expresses our hope for the charity of God. Possibly the honorable silence expresses this hope, which in spite of the danger of determinism, becomes almost a certainty in this light: If even one human being is able to forgive and pray for the salvation of the entire cosmos, wouldn't God's providence find a way to make it happen?
Notes:
1 Maximos the Confessor: Expositio in Psalm 59, PG 90, 857 A4-15
Eschatology and final restoration (apokatastasis) in Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximos the Confessor
Andreas Andreopoulos
Penn Humanities Forum
School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pennsylvania
unless she does something ridiculous in the next few weeks before the election this will be my last mention of s.p.
"Sarah Palin is ruining my life
I rant about her; I can't stop thinking about her; I cannot stand to look at her; I'm possessed by her!
By Cary Tennis"
"Leave Palin Alone!!!!!!"
"Ryan wanted to order new Comcast service but balked at their request for a Social Security number. When he asked why they needed it, the Comcast chat rep said "The Patriot Act" required it. That doesn't sound right to us, or to Ryan. His story and full screenshot of the chat, inside..."
of course the tshirt is borderline learning-disabled, but i'm vehemently pro free speech so i would say it's a FAIL for the school - not the kid....
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7490636&version=6&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/times_online_tv/?vxSiteId=d8fa78dc-d7ad-4d5a-8886-e420d4bc4200&vxChannel=Times%20Online%20News&vxClipId=1152_timesonline1312&vxBitrate=300
"A Finnish student who killed ten people in a college massacre today had been questioned by police only yesterday about a YouTube video showing him firing a pistol on a shooting range.
The student, identified as Matti Saari, a 22-year-old trainee chef, walked into the catering and tourism college in the remote western town of Kauhajoki at about 11am (0800GMT) and started firing at both fellow students and staff.
Some 90 minutes later he turned the gun on himself, but survived and died of his injuries five hours later in a hospital bed"
Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.
Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, an Italian-headquartered manufacturer of car parts, died of severe head wounds on Monday afternoon after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4810644.ece
http://www.bloggingtips.com/2008/09/01/breaking-the-mold-12-remarkable-blogger-designs/
example one:
also:
The Top 10 Blogger Template Resource Sites
and:
Here is a complete list of all the tutorials posted on Blogger Buster, organized by category.
Update 1: Think the $700 billion in the bailout plan is based on actual need? Think again. A Treasury spokeswoman tells Forbes.com: “It’s not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Update 2: My post on the Bush Bailout speech
Update 3: My 2nd post re: McCain's request for a time-out and letterman's response to that
"President Bush wants Congress to give his Treasury Secretary (Henry Paulson, a former Wall Street executive) $700 billion to bail out wall street with no congressional or court oversight. That amounts to $2,000 for every single American.
Would it help families struggling to keep their homes? NO. Do taxpayers get any share of the firms we're bailing out, so we can benefit from any eventual profit? NO. Would the firms we're bailing out be required to stop paying their executives multimillion-dollar salaries? NO.3 This is a pure giveaway of epic proportions.
Even some Republicans are admitting this is crazy. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) asked, "Just how long can the poor beleaguered taxpayer be expected to bear all the losses and bear all the risk?"4 Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) said, "I'm getting a lot of calls from my district, with people saying, why are you bailing out the big guys and not us?"
Main Street before Wall Street petition can be signed here
This will be the largest intervention in the U.S. economy by the government since the great depression. They are hoping to have the legislation passed within the next few days.
"Decisions By The Secretary...Are Non-Reviewable...And May Not Be Reviewed By Any Court Of Law Or Any Administrative Agency"
Outrage Over $2.5 Billion Bonus For Lehman Brothers' New York Staff - Lehman Brother's is one of the Companies who are going to be bailed out.
Good ol' Ron Paul's take.
If you are in New Jersey you can call our members of congress:
Here's where to call:
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Phone: 202-224-3224
Senator Robert Menendez
Phone: 202-224-4744
Congressman Robert Andrews
Phone: 202-225-6501
Actual Audio - Paulson on the bailout - including the U.S. bailing out
foreign banks:
"The Daily Show's" Generic Off: The Candidates Responses To The Financial Crisis:
Daily Show: the economy and you - wall street collapse:
"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself," - Republican Party Platform, 2008.
Casper Star-Tribune Online - Obituaries
"Jim, who had tired of reading obituaries noting other's courageous battles with this or that disease, wanted it known that he lost his battle. It was primarily as a result of being stubborn and not following doctor's orders or maybe for just living life a little too hard for better than five decades...
...He was sadly deprived of his final wish, which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a date. True to his personal style, he spent his final hours joking with medical personnel, cussing and begging for narcotics and bargaining with God to look over his loving dog, Biscuit, and his family...
...In lieu of flowers, he asks that you make a sizeable purchase at your favorite watering hole, get rip roaring drunk and tell the stories he no longer can...
...Gorman Funeral Homes - Converse Chapel of Douglas is in charge of the arrangements. "
from my sitemeter traffic records:
dhs.gov 8:21am 1 pageview 0:50 minutes
whatever it was they were interested in they didn't seem to stay very long.
Click anywhere on the cartoon or the link below for the larger original