There’s a good reason why social conservatives celebrate ignorance

When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled

Michelle Bachmann made an ass out of herself again today, this time bragging that if she were President, and Iranians over ran the US embassy the way they did the British embassy this week, she’d wouldn’t pussy-foot around. No siree, she’d shut that facility down. Because nothing says courage quite like running away. What made it hilarious is Bachmann and company were apparently not up to speed on one widely reported fact: [Read more…]

The hard-work lottery and the myth of success

There’s a myth in the US, fanned by agents of the super wealthy, that if you just work hard, keep your nose to the grindstone, you’ll be rewarded with riches. It’s an easy sell all the way around. Regular people want to believe it, and it fluffs the tender feelings of those who are rich. Work hard and you’ll succeed, everyone wins! Good luck, you’ll need it. There are more powerball lottery winners in the US than people who started in the middle class and became billionaires. But even for more moderate winners it’s just not true. I know this for a fact, I’m one of the moderate winners. [Read more…]

Black Friday & pepper spray

I’ve always loved Black Friday. Back in my broker days it was the best day of the year to go to work. An old depression era rule decrees the stock market cannot be closed more than three days in a row, the only time it’s been broken was in the darkest days right after 9-11. So the NYSE and NASDAQ dutifully open for three or four hours, junior floor specialists and a handful of market-makers man the exchanges. In hundreds of broker-dealer offices around the country, like the one I worked in for years, a few sales assistants and maybe a standing compliance officer come to work, the sweet odor of margaritas and egg nog have been known to waft delicately through the empty hallways and offices.
But Black Friday for retail is a whole different story. It’s hustle and bustle, the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Later last night at a Walmart in California one neurotic shopper took that way, way too far. And where do you suppose she got this crowd control idea?

(LAtimes) — Matthew Lopez went to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch on Thursday night for the Black Friday sale but instead was caught in a pepper-spray attack by a woman who authorities said was “competitive shopping.” Lopez described a chaotic scene in the San Fernando Valley store among shoppers looking for video games soon after the sale began.

Newt goes there

Newt Gingrich is being roundly criticized or praised this morning for purportedly showing a heart on immigration. One never knows with Newt, a pretty face or a stack of cash is all it takes for him to break every vow he’s ever made. But there are advantages and disadvantages in what he seems to be proposing on one of the Teaparty’s hot-button issues: [Read more…]

What if we threw a super committee and no one came?

The Super Committee, no doubt meeting furiously in their secret lair which may or may not be affiliated with the Legion of Doom, has reached an impasse.

(ABC News) — The bipartisan 12-member panel is sputtering to a close after two months of talks in which key members and top congressional leaders never got close to bridging a fundamental divide over how much to raise taxes.

[Read more…]

Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these …

Social conservatives, the kind of folks who love killing and imprisoning other Americans while saving microscopic blobs of protoplasm in the name of Jesus, don’t have the heft they used to. But there’s enough true-believing fanatics around that the GOP clownshow had to pander to the fascist wing of the god party, sans Mormons and teh Gay of course. [Read more…]

UC Berkeley doesn’t need a task force

In this image made from video, a police officer uses pepper spray as he walks down a line of Occupy demonstrators sitting on the ground at the University of California, Davis on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Photo: Thomas K. Fowler / AP

The image above is one of many showing police officers, once again strapped down like Dawg-the-Bounty Hunter, needlessly macing a handful of peaceful students. Their crime? Protesting income inequality and student debt as part of the Occupy movement by sitting down in an open mall area on campus specifically created for students and faculty to stroll, chat, and sit: [Read more…]