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Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with World News Update!

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 A-Rod reportedly tested positive for steroids

Associated Press

14 mins ago

NEW YORK – Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in his MVP season of 2003 with Texas, according to a report by Sports Illustrated.

The New York Yankees star failed a drug test for two anabolic steroids, four sources told the magazine in a story posted Saturday on its Web site.

His name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in a 2003 baseball survey, SI said. He reportedly tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone while playing for the Rangers.

So much ignorance

Sigh.

There are those who will dismiss this as yet another Obama bashing rant, but unlike Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans he leads I really would like Obama to succeed.

I understand Rush.  I am hyper partisan.  I never accepted W as my president even during the smoking pile nobody could have anticipated bin laden determined to attack in the US bullhorn bullshit 95% of YOU! you willfully ignorant accessories to war crimes times you thought he was the bees knees.

I want to grind your nose in your tortures and murders, your common thefts and lies and pederasty and perversion that you accepted by your complicity.  Up against the wall motherfuckers.  Were I not fundamentally opposed to the death penalty you might hope to provoke me to a quicker relief from your shame and degradation than the lifetime in Spandau I think your pissy pants craven cowardice and oathbreaking deserve.

Obama has never been a liberal.  The DLC assumed he was one of theirs until he disavowed them.

The reason progressive Democrats deluded themselves is that Obama was consistently anti-Iraq.  For them the real game is whether we meet the 16 month deadline and the Odierno – Petraeus – McArthur axis are doing what they can to impede it.  No nukes in Korea.  Get the troops out or find another job.

Frankly if he satisfies that minimum requirement Obama need fear no challenge from the left, for the most part they will be co-opted.  Those of us who care about little things like the Geneva Convention and the Magna Carta and the US Constitution can hope they get carried along on the tide but…

We are the 5%ers and proud of it.

Still who knows?  The level of ignorance about simple dimple economics astounds me.

These Chicago School Free Market Fundamentalists, these Randian Hard On Libertarians, these Friedmanite (Milton and Thomas) Monitarist Morans refuse to recognize that we have efficiented ourselves out of business.  We don’t make anything except conmen who will sell you a lump of wood and call it nutmeg.

Tulips.

Keynesian denial seems to have permeated our discourse and people no longer understand that it’s possible to over supply demand.

Supply side economics is a lie.

It doesn’t matter how much you can produce if nobody is buying.  Prices fall into a deflationary spiral and you have an economy with excess capacity.  Cars rotting on lots, high inventory, job cutting, fall in demand.

DUH!

You need to reduce inventory and create scarcity- plow under those debts and fuck the creditors.  You need to create demand and re-inflate.  This is basically spending, but if you were wise and responsible you’d spend it on stuff that was valuable and would last, still spending alone will do because of the multiplier effect.

If I pay you a dollar it doesn’t just go to you.  It goes to your Starbucks barrista and from them to their Chiropractor and Aroma Therapist (you stand on your fucking feet all day and it doesn’t fucking matter).  Eventually your dollar ends up in the pocket of someone who decides to invest it in something like a Credit Default Swap and with less stimulative effect than a bet on 24, odd, black when the ball comes up 00 the coupier rakes it in.  Sucks to be you.

In the mean time someone got coffee which made the coffee people happy and the barrista stands a little straighter.

Fuck you, you tightfisted greed heads.

Puppy Bowl V! Updated and BREAKING!!!

Pepper the Parrot sings the National Anthem.  Better than Roseanne Barr he is (though he misses the “land of the free” high notes).

Let the Puppy Bowl begin!

I understand some sports teams are playing, the Steelers and the Cardinals.  I thought the use of blunt objects was a penalty.

Super Bowl XLIII: Histories Of The Cardinals, Steelers

By DOM AMORE, The Hartford Courant

January 25, 2009

With Super Bowl XLIII between the Cardinals and Steelers a week away (Sunday, 6 p.m., Ch. 30), here’s a look at the history of the two franchises.

Other things you can watch-

PBS- Faubourg Treme: The Untold Stoy of Black New Orleans A&E- The Sopranos
ABC Family- The Chonicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe AMC- Death Wish
BBC- Dr. Who- Turn Left (TEH AWESOME!) Bravo- Law and Order: Criminal Intent
Cartoon- Chowder CNN- Fareed Zakaria:GPS
Comedy- Scary Movie 4 truTV- World’s wildest Police Videos
Discovery- Touchdown Jesus: The Untold Story Disney- Phineas and Ferb
E!- Bring it On: All or Nothing ESPN- World Series of Poker
ESPNC- College Basketball ESPN2- Autralian Open: Single Finals
Food- Food Network Challenge FNC- Fox News Sunday
FX- Maid in Manhattan, 13 Going on 30 Golf- Golf Central
Hallmark- I Love Lucy History- American Eats: History on a Bun
HGTV- Designed to Sell Lifetime- Like Mother, Like Daughter
MSNBC- Predator Raw: The Unseen Tapes National Geographic- Blow Down
Nick- True Jackson, VP Vs.- World Extreme Cagefighting from Jacksonville Fl.
Oxygen- America’s Next Top Model SciFi- Ghost Hunters
Spike- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Style- Clean House
TBS- What Women Want TCM- It’s Always Fair Weather
TLC- DATELINE: Real Life Mysteries TNT- The Closer
Travel- Carribean Beach Resorts TVLand- Leave It To Beaver
USA- House

Truth is I only watch the Super Bowl for the advertisements, even last year when my Jints beat the undefeated Patsies.

This year’s ads are not up on teh intertubz yet but here are some past years-

  • 2008, cost $2.7 million per :30
  • 2007, cost $2.6 million per :30
  • 2006, cost $2.5 million per :30

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Americans save just when economy needs their money

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

38 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Americans are hunkering down and saving more. For a recession-battered economy, it couldn’t be happening at a worse time.

Economists call it the “paradox of thrift.” What’s good for individuals – spending less, saving more – is bad for the economy when everyone does it.

On Friday, the government reported Americans’ savings rate, rose to 2.9 percent in the last three months of 2008. That’s up sharply from 1.2 percent in the third quarter and less than 1 percent a year ago.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Super Bowl ads promise glitz, guffaws, groans

By DEBORAH YAO, AP Business Writer

Sat Jan 31, 9:24 am ET

It’s time for that annual winter ritual where people gather before their TV screens to whoop and holler as they gobble down unhealthy treats. Yes, it’s Super Bowl time. And Sunday’s NFL championship wouldn’t be complete without a look at its uber-expensive advertising, which is priced at an all-time high.

On Friday, NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., said it was in talks to sell the last two of the 67 spots for the game, which have gone for between $2.4 million and $3 million per 30-second slot.

“Considering the state of the economy in the United States, we couldn’t be any more thrilled,” said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

News Special

An Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama calls Obama calls $18B in Wall St. bonuses ‘shameful’8B in Wall St. bonuses ‘shameful’

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

29 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it “the height of irresponsibility” for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers. “It is shameful,” Obama said from the Oval Office. “And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility.”

The president’s comments, made with new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side, came in swift response to a report that employees of the New York financial world garnered an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. The figure, from the New York state comptroller, drew prominent news coverage.

Yet Obama’s stand also came just one day after he surrounded himself with well-paid chief executives at the White House. He had pulled in those business leaders and hailed them for being on the “front lines in seeing the enormous problems in our economy right now.”

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Evolution war still rages 200 years after Darwin’s birth

By Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon Jan 26, 11:55 am ET

WASHINGTON – Two centuries after Charles Darwin’s birth on Feb. 12, 1809 , people still argue passionately about his theory of evolution.

Was Darwin right? Should schoolchildren be exposed to contrary views in science class? These two controversies continue to rage, partly because both sides are evenly matched.

Most scientists and courts that have ruled on the matter say that overwhelming evidence backs Darwin’s explanation of the origin and evolution of species, including humans, by natural selection.

Historical Empathy

A Stars Hollow Gazette

You know, some people don’t read.

It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they read for information only.  They don’t care about the plot and don’t identify with the characters.  Metaphors or a felicitous turn of phrase are wasted on them.

You can feel the same way about history.

I’ve always seen it as a ripping yarn that has the benefit of not stretching your imagination much because it’s all true.  As I’ve developed my understanding I’ve recognized that it as much written by real actors with a real axe to grind as anything else.

The past is not dead, it’s not even past said Faulkner.

Aristotle was not stupid.  Many of his ideas were wrong because of the limitations imposed by his environment, but some also because of his personal attitudes and positions.  Most of the ones that were right have been misinterpreted and abused.

If you just look at the facts and time lines and don’t understand the man you’re missing more than half the message.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 AP IMPACT: Lobbyists skirt Obama’s earmark ban

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

19 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn’t mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won’t be able to funnel money to pet projects.

They’re just working around it – and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.

The projects run the gamut: a Metrolink station that needs building in Placentia, Calif.; a stretch of beach in Sandy Hook, N.J., that could really use some more sand; a water park in Miami.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Top chefs push Obama to improve food policy

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jan 24, 10:05 am ET

WASHINGTON – Visiting one of his favorite Chicago restaurants in November, Barack Obama was asked by an excited waitress if he wanted the restaurant’s special margarita made with the finest ingredients, straight up and shaken at the table.

“You know that’s the way I roll,” Obama replied jokingly.

Rick Bayless, the chef of that restaurant, Topolobampo, says Obama’s comfortable demeanor at the table – slumped contentedly in his chair, clearly there to enjoy himself – bodes well for the nation’s food policy. While former President George W. Bush rarely visited restaurants and didn’t often talk about what he ate, Obama dines out frequently and enjoys exploring different foods.

News Special

An Open Thread.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Citing US values, Obama will close Guantanamo

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent

12 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Breaking forcefully with Bush anti-terror policies, President Barack Obama ordered major changes Thursday that he said would halt the torture of suspects, close down the Guantanamo detention center, ban secret CIA prisons overseas and fight terrorism “in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.”

“We intend to win this fight. We’re going to win it on our terms,” Obama declared, turning U.S. policy abruptly on just his second full day in office. He also put a fresh emphasis on diplomacy, naming veteran troubleshooters for Middle East hotspots.

The policies and practices that Obama said he was reversing have been widely reviled overseas, by U.S. allies as well as in less-friendly Arab countries. President George W. Bush said the policies were necessary to protect the nation after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks – though he, too, had said he wanted Guantanamo closed at some point.

Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy!

When last we chatted.

Slay bells ring, are you listenin’

In the air, snow is glistenin’

A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight,

Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland.

Santa Claus Rally.  Or maybe not so much.

12/2 Tuesday +270.00 8,419.09
12/3 Wednesday +172.60 8,591.69
12/4 Thursday -215.45 8,376.24
12/5 Friday +259.18 8,635.42
12/8 Monday +298.76 8,934.18
12/9 Tuesday -242.85 8,691.33
12/10 Wednesday +70.09 8,761.42
12/11 Thursday -196.33 8,565.09
12/12 Friday +64.59 8,629.68
12/15 Monday -65.16 8,564.53
12/16 Tuesday +359.61 8,924.14
12/17 Wednesday -99.80 8,824.34
12/18 Thursday -219.35 8,604.99
12/19 Friday -25.88 8,579.11
12/22 Monday -59.34 8,519.77
12/23 Tuesday -100.28 8,419.49
12/24 Wednesday +48.99 8,468.48
12/26 Friday +48.07 8,515.55
12/29 Monday -31.62 8,483.93
12/30 Tuesday +184.46 8,668.39
12/31 Wednesday +180.00 8,776.39
About as high as it gets 1/2 Friday +258.30 9,034.69
1/5 Monday -81,80 8,952.89
Almost as high 1/6 Tuesday +62.21 9,015.10
1/7 Wednesday -245.40 8,769.70
1/8 Thursday -27.24 8,742.46
1/9 Friday -143.28 8,599.18
1/12 Monday -125.21 8,473.97
1/13 Tuesday -25.41 8,448.68
1/14 Wednesday -240.42 8,200.14
1/15 Thursday +12.35 8,212.49
1/16 Friday +68.73 8,281.22
Boom. 1/20 Tuesday -332.13 7,949.09

Madam Zelda, Madam Zelda- Do The Markets Lie?

No, the markets are perfect and flawless indicators.

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