Communism

A wise analysis: "You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." by Adrian Rogers, 1931. I think this more or less describes Communism. Even this model works hard, no?

Kennedy

"He is finally dead." That's what a lot of people are saying this morning about Edward Kennedy, the much-admired, much-loved, and much-hated Senator. There will probably be a big to-do in Washington, D.C. and Massachussetts. Death is sometimes an enemy, taking from this Earth, some good people (though there is no such thing as a truly good, selfless person.) However, Death is more often a friend, cleansing the Earth of bad people. Bad people often try unceasingly to remake the world in their own image until things explode in a big catastrophe. The irony is that bad, mean, selfish, violent, hypocritical, unjust, ungenerous, unkind people often see themselves as benign, good persons. Figure that one out. In fooling themselves, they fool others as well. Kennedy was a generous person, but with other people's money, not his own. He insisted on justice for others, but he thought he was above the law. Like his father, he could cheat and steal and lie with impunity. I never did like him.

Weirdness

From a recent news story on the internet: “LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson's death a homicide, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, a finding that makes it more likely criminal charges will be filed against the doctor who was with the pop star when he died. The coroner determined a fatal combination of drugs was given to Jackson hours before he died June 25 in his rented Los Angeles mansion, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings have not been publicly released. Forensic tests found the powerful anesthetic propofol acted together with at least two sedatives to cause Jackson's death, the official said. Dr. Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist who became Jackson's personal physician weeks before his death, is the target of a manslaughter investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. According to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday in Houston, Murray told investigators he administered a 25 mg dose of propofol around 10:40 a.m. after spending the night injecting Jackson with two sedatives in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to sleep. The warrant, dated July 23, states that lethal levels of propofol were found in Jackson's system. Besides the propofol and two sedatives, the coroner's toxicology report found other substances in Jackson's system but they were not believed to have been a factor in the singer's death, the official said.” No, no, no – this can’t be right. Even this topless woman knows there is something amiss here. This has something to do with the fact that Jackson’s insurance company has said that death due to the use of drugs was an exclusion in his policy. If, however, it can be shown that he was indeed rendered dead (not to say murdered) by an overdose, then the beneficiaries can collect. The good doctor will probably be charged with involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide, then the insurer will pay up, then the charges will be dismissed for lack of evidence or it will be plea bargained to something like two years of probation. What do I know? Nothing…. I’m just speculating. What goes on behind the scenes, I wonder?

Anonymity 101

From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Canadian model has won a landmark case in a New York court after Google was forced to disclose the online identity of a blogger who anonymously posted derogatory comments about the Vogue cover girl. Justice Joan Madden of the New York State Supreme Court ordered the Web giant on Monday to hand over identifying information about the person who created the blog a year ago using Google's blogger program.” This is nice. I think that if you are going to attack or accuse someone, never do it anonymously – only cowards do that. Please.

Topless Women

This woman is out protesting for the right to go topless anywhere in public - not just at the beach. There is this organization called Go Topless dot ORG that promotes the rights of topless women. Tomorrow, they will have rallies in Chicago and New York and I don't know where else. Not here where I live.

Maybe next year.
I do not understand why women would want to uncover themselves in public. I understand why they would want to COVER up in public. That's what I understand.

This is sort of backward or opposite of what I expect.

They claim that a woman's breasts are not sexual but a man would have trouble comprehending that. Be that as it may, I am certainly not going to get in their way. If they want to show off and claim it is their Constitutional right, so be it. Let the courts decide. In the meantime, I will try not to stare. This woman's sign says: "War is Indecent, not my Breasts." I think she is wearing purple angel wings, too. Please.

Short and long

The media has made a big story out of nothing. It is typical media behavior. It just helps sell ad space in magazines, newspapers, the internet, and wherever else. It has been said that the First Lady was wearing short shorts on her vacation recently and that maybe it might not have been appropriate. It was funny, I thought. First of all, those were not short shorts she was wearing. Secondly, she was on vacation. The American public knows full well that women are now wearing skirts and dresses that are shorter than any short shorts used to be. Really. So, what is the fuss about? Nothing. It is media-created. Please. Look at the photos and compare.

These might qualify as short shorts, though girls often wear shorter shorts than these. Don't let the glasses fool you, this lady is not with the Secret Service.

Inquisitor General

From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says Swiss banking giant UBS will give his agency the details of 4,450 client accounts suspected of holding undeclared assets. The deal to end a contentious international lawsuit between U.S. tax collectors and Swiss bankers was announced Wednesday morning. Shulman said in prepared remarks that the deal will give the IRS thousands of long-sought account names and is expected to provide even more UBS clients who voluntarily disclose their financial details to the agency. The two sides told a federal judge last week they had reached a tentative agreement, but the details were not released until Wednesday.” The most important detail here is the word “suspected.” This is like the Spanish Inquisition. Jews were burned at the stake (after they were tortured into confessing) when they were “suspected” of being fake converts. Their property was confiscated, then the informers shared (with the church) in the confiscated loot. What a nice setup. How many fortunes were made in this way? Hundreds – maybe thousands. All because someone came under suspicion. Nothing more was needed. Sort of like the Salem witch trials, no? Please.

Guns

If you've read the news lately, you know that some people showed up at political rallies displaying guns - one person had an assault rifle. That is downright barbaric. It is within the law, but that does not make it morally right. The only purpose a gun in plain sight might serve is to intimidate someone. Intimidation and coercion are wrong. Thugs do that. Control freaks do that. We have (more than enough) other problems to deal with. Please.

Cheating is Fun

From a recent Yahoo! News story: “SAO PAULO – The founder of one of Brazil's biggest evangelical churches siphoned off billions of dollars in donations from his mostly poor followers to buy jewelry, TV stations and other businesses for himself, authorities charged Tuesday. A Brazilian judge accepted charges from prosecutors alleging that Bishop Edir Macedo and nine other people linked to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God committed fraud against the church itself and against its numerous followers. Sao Paulo state's prosecutor’s office alleged in a statement that Macedo and the others took more than $2 billion in donations from 2003 to 2008 alone, but charged that the alleged scheme went back 10 years. Prosecutors said the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God receives nearly $800 million in donations every year from faithful in 4,500 temples across Brazil. The church claims to have nearly 8 million followers in Brazil and many more around the world. Prosecutors said the church tells its members it needs donations — cash, checks, cars and other goods — to finance new temples and to pay for religious programs on radio and TV. The church allegedly used fake companies to launder the money, moving the assets abroad and then returning them in the form of loans used by Macedo and his accomplices to buy businesses, prosecutors said. Macedo, who founded the church in 1977, owns a large television network, three newspapers and several radio stations. He also owns a tourism agency and an air taxi company.” If one wants to be unjust and corrupt, there is no better place to hide than behind the cloak of the church. Some church ministers are no better than most politicians. Who can stop them? Nobody.

Ransom

From a recent news story: “YANGON, Myanmar – Stung by international outrage over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's ruling generals agreed Saturday to hand an American prisoner involved in her case to a visiting U.S. senator. Sen. Jim Webb was also granted an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief, and was allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi, the first foreign official permitted to see the Nobel laureate since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday. American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside house in Yangon, will be deported on Sunday, Webb said in a statement from his Washington office. The impending deportation indicates "good relations between the two countries and hope (that) these will grow," Yettaw's lawyer Khin Maoung Oo said. Webb echoed the sentiment.” Anyone who knows anything about these matters is laughing heartily right this minute. Even this topless woman is amused. The U.S. paid anywhere between 10 to 50 million dollars for this guy’s release, probably from private donations. Outrage had nothing to do with this.

Greed

From a recent news story: “BOSTON (Reuters) - Taking his private equity firm public paid off big for Blackstone Group LP's Stephen Schwarzman, who became the top-paid chief executive in the United States last year. But the surest route to big bucks was running an oil or natural gas company. Their CEOs represented seven of the 10 highest-paid U.S. CEOs in 2008, according to a report by independent research group The Corporate Library.” Schwarzman was paid $702 million last year. That’s close to two million dollars per day. Does this not seem just a bit odd? How much do sugar cane farmers in Cuba make? I bet you Schwarzman thinks he deserves it. He is beguiled. hehehe. Capitalism is ok, but one annoying problem with it is that NOBODY can ever tell you how much is too much.

Music and Art

“Dave Brubeck, left, performs with Tony Bennett at George Wein's Carefusion Jazz Festival 55 in Newport, R.I. on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. Brubeck and Bennett performed 'That Old Black Magic,' a number they last did together for President Kennedy at the White House.” Brubeck is 88 and Tony Bennett is 83. I’ve never played with Brubeck but I have performed with Bennett. So, I ask myself, why should a life this good have to end? It does not seem fair, but you figure it out. I know nothing.

Robin Hoods

From a news story on the Web: “MEXICO CITY – U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border, the U.S. Justice Department told The Associated Press. Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, the Mexican oil monopoly said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Homeland Security department is scheduled to return $2.4 million to Mexico's tax administration, the first batch of money seized during a bi-national investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect to lead to more arrests and seizures. "The United States is working with the Mexican government on the theft of oil," said Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston. "It's an ongoing investigation, with one indictment so far." I had to laugh out loud when I read this story. While these Robin Hood types steal a little oil, the politicians steal almost all the profits. What do I know? Nothing…

Justice and foolishness

From a Yahoo! News story: “GENEVA – When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole. The world's largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup. But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind's understanding of the universe.” Thomas Huxley said: "You have no notion of the intrigue that goes on in this blessed world of science. Science is, I fear, no purer than any other region of human activity; though it should be." I say, who needs to understand the universe when we so critically need to understand why the world is so unevenly just and unevenly comfortable – too few rich, too many poor, too few healthy, too many sick, too few free, too many oppressed, too few secure, too many afraid. Please. Study that.

Backing down

From a Yahoo! News story: “TEHRAN, Iran – A young French academic and local staff of the British and French embassies stood trial Saturday with dozens of Iranian opposition figures and confessed to being involved in the country's postelection unrest. Iran's opposition and rights groups have condemned the trial as a sham and say such confessions are coerced and scripted. Britain, which seemed caught off guard by the appearance of its embassy employee, called it an outrage, while France demanded the immediate release of its citizen. Reiss has been charged with acting against national security by joining protests, gathering information, taking photos and sending them abroad. The French Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for the immediate release of both Reiss and embassy employee Afshar, saying that the charges against them were without basis. The ministry statement also objected to the conditions under which Reiss and Afshar were being tried, and "deplored" that neither woman was represented by a lawyer. Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed concern over the trials and noted that actions against one EU country — citizen or embassy staff — is considered action against all EU member states.”

Believe it or not, this is the first time in recorded history that a statement like the one made by Sweden, has been made. Put it down on your calendar. This virtually guarantees that Iran will back down – very soon. What do I know? Nothing.

Covering up

From an NPR story: “The federal jury that found former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson guilty Wednesday of 11 felonies, including bribery and racketeering, delivered its verdict four years and two days after FBI agents found $90,000 in his freezer. During the trial, prosecutors laid out five years' worth of deals in which Jefferson wanted payments from business people. The jurors saw a crisp FBI photo of the cash in his home freezer. They also saw a video of Jefferson collecting the money — the moment when the Democratic congressman reached into the trunk of an FBI informant's car and took a briefcase filled with the greenbacks. The informant, a businesswoman, wore a wire during the hand-off and at restaurant meals with Jefferson. She recorded incriminating conversations about business deals in Africa and the payments he expected. The defense case, by contrast, took a couple of hours and argued that Jefferson had been acting as a business consultant, not a member of Congress carrying out official acts.” There is a saying about working for two masters – it can’t be done. There is also a difference between discretion and dealing in cash – discretion is good, but cash is somehow always incriminating. Stay away from it. If you have nothing to cover up, then do everything out in the open. This topless woman knows this very well.

Justice

From an internet news story: “BEIJING – China executed two businessmen for defrauding hundreds of investors out of more than $127 million, calling the scam a serious blow to social stability, state media said Thursday. China puts to death more people than any other country, although last month a high official for the Supreme People's Court, which reviews every death sentence, said the punishment should be used more sparingly. Though usually reserved for violent crimes, death sentences are also applied for nonviolent offenses that involve large sums of money or are seen to threaten social order.” I only have one question: If these men knew they could be executed for stealing large sums of money, why did they persist? And why didn’t they just get out of China and go hide somewhere? And, if they were so good at persuading people to let go of their money, why didn’t they come work in the U.S.? Here, you get about five years for a little crime like that. And the prison food is terrific, along with the minimum security accommodations. Our model has no opinion about this - she is just enjoying her tanning time. Please.