American Television over the past 10 years has seen a Renaissance in specialty channels and innovative TV productions. However, the 4 major networks in contrast are stuck grinding down to the lowest common denominator of low gear values. Two of the worst offerings this Fall are many-year repeats, so you know they have gained at the […]
The Bachelor vs Hells Kitchen: Which is Worse? Read More »
Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock, passed away at 83 last Friday and captured the collective conscious in unexpected ways. Marketwatch, the blog of Wall Street, published a bulletin reserved for big Bull or Bear market movements on the day. The news captured headlines at the NYTimes, Entertainment Weekly, Toronto Globe and Mail, TheGuardian, Sydney Morning Herald,
The Passing of Logic, Science, and Mr. Spock Read More »
The Vinyl Cafe Storyland is one more proof that the best humor writer in America is Stuart McLean by way of Toronto and Canada. This notion is typical MacLean humor – self-effacing, off-the-wall, but bright as a Nova Scotia Valley day. But we also enter Testosterone Country, a familiar McLean Mantra – in short no laughing
The Vinyl Cafe Storyland Read More »
This Ted talk by Don Tapscott on the fundamental attributes of Openness is illuminating: Don waxes highly hopeful about an Open Future. But there are stark counter-examples right now. Spain,much of Southern Europe and the MidEast have 40% or much higher youth unemployment. The crux of the problem is also covered in the lecture. Note
Openness: 4 Principles and a Deviant Read More »
Count on the Bo tale to take another twist – a small melodrama of days gone by but very telling. It has tinges of Mao Red and is told by a Chinese expatriate. Check it out for a keen insight into the veritable telo-roman that is Bo Xilai and company. After taking, Bo is now
Bo Takes and Gives Read More »
This morning I had a strange encounter with two women from the WatchTower organization. They came to the door holding the Bible and asking me if I believed in the Bible while quoting from Scriptures. Now to put this situation in context, I am rushing to finish some computing work for a later meeting about
What are the Marks of Class Warfare? Is it the fact that Occupy Wall Street is fundamentally right about Class Warfare perpetrated by an Elite 1% of the population who can afford to spend $5billion to purchase access to politicians and policy making venues and thereby get their way. Is it the fact that popular
The Marks of Class Warfare Read More »
The respected and non-partisan CBO-Congressional Budget Office in a just released report has confirmed the basic chart and message posted below. Indeed the rich have gotten a lot richer while all other major income groups have lost income in the past 30 years. And in the hard battles to “lower our cost structure substantially” =
Occupy Wall Street Message: Update Read More »
If Pastor Rick Warren can say “Half of America Pays no Taxes, Zero”- you better believe it! But Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast has helped to uncover some data that refutes this notion easily. The Pastor is beginning to sound like Senator John Kyl of Arizona who was caught damning Planned ParentHood(“90% of its services are abortions”
“Half of America Pays No Taxes, Zero” Read More »
In a city blessed with self-declared supernatural beauty and host to a slightly damp but most civil and memorable Winter Olympics just a year ago, what was behind the Vancouver riots after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup Finals to Boston? Was this a case of professional nihilist and hooligans as advanced by the Vancouver
Vancouver Riots June 2011 Read More »
Craig Stephens has been writing some rather salty stories for the Marketwatch in the past few months. Craig does more than watch the Chinese markets and economic machine but in fact keeps the whole SouthEast Asian world in view. The latest story about the salt frenzy in China is like a tiny Confucian parable. There
Salty Chinese Investment Stories Read More »
England’s Royal Opera House is featuring the life of Anna Nicole Smith – and its a smash hit. At first blush this is The English falling for Entertainment Weekly or TMZ titillation. Or sort of reverse update of the movie Shakespeare in Love. But as it turns out opera has always loved a fallen Woman
The Royal Opera Presents Anna Nicole Smith Read More »
When Time magazine was rumored to make the Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg its Person of the Year, Ye 5th’s Editor thought that another Media “Academy Award” was a little too much. But with the revolt in Tunisia and the outbreak of dissent and protests in Egypt, both largely organized and propelled by social media including Facebook
Revolutions through the Web Read More »
In fighting specifically for the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy and then Estate Tax Cuts that also accrue to the wealthy , Republicans rebranded themselves yet again as the Banksters’ Boyz. With these moves the Republicans moved back and away from anti-gays [oops, GOP delivered here by ignoring military top brass and saying once
Republicans as the Banksters’ Boyz Read More »
The NYTimes has done something about the US Budget and its huge deficits that is most commendable – it has made the sprawling size and growth of the US Federal Government budget understandable. Not Business Week, not Forbes, not the Wall Street Journal nor any other of the Titans of the Business Press have done
The Press:Look Who is Naughty and Who is Nice Read More »
Heaven and OpenSecrets.org know the Democrats have succumbed just as whole-souledly as the Republicans to the DarkSide of Money Lords, Campaign Funding and Special Interest Lobbying. For example, the just concluded Midterm elections cost $4B and saw outside spending by Liberal/Democratic groups increasing by 100% and Conservative Republican groups by 700% to a new high
Banana Republicanism Read More »
The New York Times has an intriguing story about an major art exhibition in Vienna of over 200 pieces from the North Korea Art Gallery Pyongyang. “North Korea you say … what art do they have ? -Its is all propaganda.” And you would be right as this slideshow demonstrates – the picture above is
North Korean “Art” Read More »
Marketwatch’s Paul Farrel is at it again – speaking his mind. Paul has taken former Ronald Reagan Budget Director David Stockman’s article in the NYTimes and played it back again and has come up with the most popular posting on Dow Jones Marketwatch today. Paul minces no words, just like David Stockman: Stockman is equally
Reagan Republican: How GOP Destroyed the US Economy Read More »
Will the Creative Disruption that will be taking place in Scrabble this late Spring be gaga-allowed or Lady Gaga – now allowed too. This all comes about as as Mattel, “Makers of Scrabble” [Hasbro is so far saying “no thank you” for its North American edition of the game], changes the rules of the game
Scrabble Gets Bonked Read More »
UPDATE2: Washington Post calls decision a watershed, Android is delayed on China Mobile, etc. UPDATE: Google moved its search site to HongKong where it can deliver uncensored searches.What is uncertain is how China will react. China already blocks YouTube will it do the same for Google Maps, Apps, and Voice? What happens with Google Android
China vs Google: the Denouement Read More »
UPDATE: Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not the Mensch the US seeks. Netanyahu declares that Israel would not stop Jewish settlements around Jerusalem. Yet again the New York Times reports of this macabre dance in Israel: Israeli Troops Kill Two Palestinians in West Bank This is the same damned dance of death that
Israel’s Toden Tanz Read More »
Update: NYTimes reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu Offers Apology, but No Shift in Policy This blog has mixed no metaphors in saying that the Jewish Settlement Policy on the West Bank and in Jerusalem has been one of the greatest detriments to US Foreign Policy in the important Islamic World. The current map of Israeli
Israel Missteps Grossly Read More »
Who pays what in taxes is about wealth and whether it pays its fair share of taxes – leave aside the question of whether the distribution of income and wealth is equitable. Here is the distribution of wealth in America as of 2007: Here is the distribution tax payers in the US as of 2009:
Who Pays the Taxes ? Read More »
The US Health Care debate has turned on a curious combination of compexity and obscurity. But the bitter reality is that current health rules of the road are quite complex, the resulting care quite variabl[this is a must read link] and the costs keep escalating. Kaiser, one of the major players in health care provision,
Health Care: Pre-existing Conditions and Cross State Insurance Read More »
Here is the recruiting poster for Islamic Terrorists that is a sure fire success throughout the Middle East: This is the map of the Palestinian West Bank with the Israeli “settlements”. No, no lets not call them incursions because that would imply the Israelis are squatters on territory that is not theirs – the final
The Al-Qaeda Recruiting Poster Read More »
ABC – that is the Australian Broadcast Corporation has published a story in which BRIC – i.e. India, acting in concert with Brazil and China [no word on Russia], scuttled the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Now by “doomed” is meant that no target date, no target levels for emission reductions , and no financing mechanism were
BRIC Throws the Brick that Doomed Climate Talks Read More »
Now that the Swiss government, the US Internal Revenue Service and the major Swiss bank, UBS, have agreed to dislose up to four thousand US tax evaders names and details who have secret accounts in Switzerland in order to avoid paying US taxes – the Ship Hits the Fan. Unlike in the case of Financial
WSJ: Fess up or Keep Silent? Read More »
US Congressmen are fanning out across the USA to listen to their constituents. Bill Maher has a column about this at the Huffington Post. What Bill Maher does in this column is tell us what a harrowing process talking to Americans can be. The title of the column, New Rule: Smart President != Smart Country
Listening to America Read More »
Illustration for Frank Rich’s Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack, a superb op-ed piece. This is just another example of how Barry Blitt has been producing some of the most trenchant illustrative comentary(=politcal cartoons??) today. They certainly carry clout and sly humor as below: Now what could this possibly be about? This is
Barry Blitt:NYTime Editorial Cartoonist/Commentator Read More »
There are two books that I am “reading” and they have an intriguing confluence. One is the Tale of Two Cities in audiobook format. This is Charles Dickens’ alternately brutal and romantic tale of the French Revolutionary Times – it might be thought of as one of the first thriller novels. This audiobook reading of
A Tale of Two Books Read More »
Settlers against a settlement is the title of the article in the Economist October 18th 2008 issue page 56. Here is a map of those settlements: Here is the population trends: Jewish population 1948 1966 1972 1983 1993 2004 2006 West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) 480 0 1,182 22,800 111,600 234,487 282,400 Gaza Strip 30 0
One of the arguments on how society got itself into the Boom-bust Business of blowing highly disruptive Financial and Economic Bubbles every 10-15 years is because our collective societal view is far too short. “Next quarters financial results” driven stock markets. Or advertising fashion changing every ratings blitz. Or political stature being poll driven. This
