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David Sedaris, on undecided voters (via Daring Fireball):
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
Priceless. Andrew Clark, for the Guardian:
The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged “idiots” and thanking “stupid” traders for making him rich.
Yesterday the 37-year-old told his clients that he had hated the business and had only been in it for the money. And after declaring he would no longer manage money for other people, because he had enough of his own, Lahde said that instead he intended to repair his stress-damaged health; he made it clear he would not miss the financial world.
“The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking,” he wrote. “These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government,” he said.
“All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.”
Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse.
In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money.
“I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck,” he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still “glued to their Blackberries”.
The 11th Hour is a documentary film, co-written and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, but don’t let that put you off. This is one of the best environmental documentaries I’ve seen and DiCaprio does a fine job.
Intermingled with a rousing montage of earthly images and audio, the backbone of the film is a series of interviews with over fifty politicians, scientists, and environmental activists — including Stephen Hawking and David Suzuki—who cleverly explain the complex bind we’re in, how we got here and how we might get out of it.
It’s a treasure trove of quotable dialogue, and after detailing the down right depressing situation we’re in and the obstacles we need to overcome, the most inspiring stuff comes in the last segment where we are presented not only with practical ideas and solutions for the future but with a whole new way of looking at our situation; this gem from Paul Hawken:
The great thing about the dilemma we’re in is that we get to reimagine every single thing we do. In other words there isn’t one single thing that we make or system that we have that doesn’t require a complete remake, and so there are two ways of looking at that. One is, like, oh my gosh, you know, what a big burden. The other way to look at it, which is the way I prefer, is what a great time to be born, what a great time to be alive, because this generation gets to essentially completely change this world.
If I was a filmmaker this is the film I’d like to make.
With New Labour’s neo-liberal agenda and long record of socialising costs and privatising profits it comes as a surprise to me that Alistair Darling has turned to Keynes in the face of recession. I had assumed until now that they’d use this recession and the recent handout to bankers as an opportunity to cut back on social spending. Maybe we have the absence of Tony Blair to thank?
While I’ve increasingly been hearing news of architects being laid off over the past few weeks, the firm I’m employed by works nearly exclusively in the social housing sector, so it’s certainly good economic news for me:
The chancellor said housing, energy and small businesses would benefit in his new spending plans.
And I couldn’t agree more with Darling on this statement:
This is a time when you have to support the economy. You will see us switching our spending priorities to areas which make a difference.
It’s just a shame he includes in this the entrenchment of the military-industrial complex and the myopic decision to upgrade Britain’s nuclear weapons.
… plans for two aircraft carriers and a new nuclear deterrent would go ahead.
I might add that a decision to upgrade Britain’s nuclear weapons is a direct violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, something the UK and U.S. governments have been falsely accusing Iran of over the past year or so.
Simon Bowers reported yesterday that Wall Street bankers are to take $70bn in bonuses this year, 10% of the U.S. government handout. It’s a mistake, however, to blame the financial meltdown on bankers and their greed. These people are simply following the rationale of the capitalist system: take as much as you can, irrespective of the expense incurred to others.
If you think it’s scandalous to take such bonuses, especially in the current climate, as I do, then blame the scandalous framework they work within, not them for working within the framework.
I got talking to a homeless guy on the street the other day. He joked to me about how meaningless this crisis is to him, and while the current situation could make his predicament far worse I took his point: for a large number of people on this planet — about 80% of the population — capitalism is perpetually in crisis. Every day. What makes this a “crisis” is that a large portion of the other 20% are getting fucked too.
Sherwood Ross, for Yubanet: Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.
Jonathan Cook on Dr. Shlomo Sand’s new book:
Dr. Shlomo Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation — whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel — is a myth invented little more than a century ago.
In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today’s Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state.
… he predicted a rough ride from the pro-Israel lobby when the book is launched … in the United States next year.
In contrast, he said Israelis had been, if not exactly supportive, at least curious about his argument.
Under the government’s bail-out terms Lloyds and RBS are unable to pay dividends to their shareholders until preference shares sold to the government are paid off. This could take up to five years — something that Lloyds shareholders are particularly angry about, as they are used to receiving healthy twice-yearly payments from the bank.
It’s not good enough that taxpayers are saving their ass, they want to profit directly from it too.
No Right Turn on Rodney Hide’s recent comments about the Maori Party and its potential to influence the next government.
Shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 I wrote this opinion piece, which was published in my hometown newspaper, Hawke’s Bay Today, in New Zealand. It prompted this response, by way of letter to the editor, from Hardie Martin:
After reading his Opinion in Hawke’s Bay Today on April 12, it occurs to me that anyone seeking a Minister of (dis)Information of the same calibre as Iraq’s Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, need look no further than Christiaan Briggs.
I wonder what Hardie Martin would make of today’s occupation of Iraq:
US using debts to blackmail Iraq:
“Baghdad is under pressure by Washington to accept the security deal in exchange for clearing all of Iraq’s debts,” Iraqi lawmaker Mohammed Kamid al-Humedawi told Press TV on Wednesday. The US will be allowed to set up permanent military bases, if Iraq signs the agreement. Under the deal the US forces will also be granted immunity from legal prosecution inside their bases in Iraq.
Iraqi government fuels ‘war for oil’ theories by putting reserves up for biggest ever sale:
The biggest ever sale of oil assets will take place today, when the Iraqi government puts 40bn barrels of recoverable reserves up for offer in London. BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are all expected to attend a meeting at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair with the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani. Access is being given to eight fields, representing about 40% of the Middle Eastern nation’s reserves, at a time when the country remains under occupation by US and British forces. Two smaller agreements have already been signed with Shell and the China National Petroleum Corporation, but today’s sale will ignite arguments over whether the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a “war for oil” that is now to be consummated by western multinationals seizing control of strategic Iraqi reserves.