Tonight’s entertainment en route to the Tips comes in the form of some freestyle improvisational trumpeting: here’s Hollywood film extra Hrundi V. Bakshi, played by Peter Sellers, making the absolute most of his limited screen time.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Death: It’s no longer just for the dying
It used to be a slippery slope:
The founder of controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas has said a person whose terminally ill partner commits suicide should also be given help to die – even if they are perfectly healthy.
Ludwig Minelli wants the deadly drug that is prescribed to his clients to be made available to the partners of those suffering from dementia.
At present Swiss law states it is legal to assist only those with a terminal illness.
He said: ‘A change in the law is required to give dementia sufferers and their families more opportunities.
Minelli is fed up with the, er, killjoys:
He has dismissed concerns that assisted suicide should be reserved for the terminally ill as a ‘British obsession’.
Snapshot From Our Travels In Hopeychangyland
The Stimulus, captured on videotape.
Miles and miles and miles of highway construction barrels. Highway construction? Not so much.
Y2Kyoto: Overheard Inside A Spanish Bunker
Investor: “I feel cheated”.
Taxpayer: “Take it. It’s my last cyanide cap.”
Nursery Rhymes Of The Apocalypse
I see England,
I see France,
I see socialism’s underpants…
(Update: Make that a Zombie Apocalypse.)
Charles Adler on Michael Ignatieff and UN Security Council
Another first rate rant.
From the WSJ – “Bravo, Canada”. (Update – Full text)
When All They Have Left Are The Slurs
There’s a lesson in this for conservatives. But I’ll leave you to figure out what it is on your own. (Language advisory).
(text lyrics)
Reader Tips
In tonight’s amusement country music great George Jones, backed by the harmony vocals of Georgie Riddle, performs his first number one hit, a tune written by flamboyant Texan disc jockey/singer J.P. Richardson, aka The Big Bopper. From 1959, here’s Jones singing White Lightning. Don’t try this at home.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Those Moderate Courts!
“An Assault on Canada.” A first rate rant by Charles Adler.
Shariah law, the kind practiced in Iran received more than just lip service in a Canadian courtroom in recent days. It got room service from a unanimous decision by the Ontario Appeals Court that said a Muslim woman in the witness box has a right to wear a veil over her head. They – in a unanimous decision – overruled a lower court judge to insist that she abide by Canadian custom and remove her veil so that she could look the accused sexual abusers in the eye and look Canadian justice in the eye. The Ontario Appeals Court and that’s sky high up in the Canadian Judicial food chain – these are the men and women who get a serious shot at Supreme Court Status – the Appeals Bench was unanimous in giving the lower court judge the back of the hand for making a Canadian decision, one that wasn’t driven by the diversity agenda, the tolerance agenda, the agenda that says every tradition in the world is more worthy of more respect than our own tradition. The appeals court told the judge that not enough sensitivity was being shown to the woman’s religious belief and that a compromise should have been sought, a compromise like perhaps agreeing if she takes her veil off to clear the courtroom of all men even if the judge is a man? Even if the prosecutor is a man?
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Once upon a time, Julian Assange would have been dead before anyone had heard his name. But I repeat myself!
Y2Kyoto: We Don’t Need No Stinking Twisty Bulbs
Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs — by producing them in China, importing them as “small heating devices” and selling them as “heatballs.”
To improve energy efficiency, the EU has banned the sale of bulbs of over 60 watts — to the annoyance of the mechanical engineer from the western city of Essen.
Rotthaeuser studied EU legislation and realized that because the inefficient old bulbs produce more warmth than light — he calculated heat makes up 95 percent of their output, and light just 5 percent — they could be sold legally as heaters.
Just in time for winter…
“They can’t survive without the fraud.”
Your must-read of the week. Particularly if you own property in the US, whether it’s mortgaged or not.
Wells Fargo wanted to foreclose on a condo unit which had multiple mortgages attached to it. Wells Fargo also owned one of those second mortgages. So Wells Fargo spent money to hire a law firm and file suit against the irresponsible lenders at Wells Fargo. Then, Wells Fargo spent money to hire a different law firm in an understandable effort to defend Wells Fargo from the vicious legal attack coming from Wells Fargo. The second law firm even prepared a legal statement for Wells Fargo which called into question the dubious claims being made by Wells Fargo. Sadly, Wells Fargo won the case, crushing the hopes of Wells Fargo.
As business reporter Al Lewis wrote at the time, “You can’t expect a bank that is dumb enough to sue itself to know why it is suing itself.” So goes the unprecedented wave of foreclosures that has swept across the country since the housing bubble popped. Mortgages have been bought, sold, and repackaged so many times through such an opaque process that banks have no idea who owns what. When they foreclose, they simply guess, making up the documents and information necessary to do so.
It gets worse.
h/t Melinda Romanoff
Deep Impact
‘Editor & Publisher’ magazine replaces editorial staff – “The report quotes a release from Duncan McIntosh saying that, “‘Editor & Publisher’ magazine will be utilizing more individuals for the print edition who are experts in their individual fields as opposed to reporters who track down experts and put the expert’s story into the writer’s words.”
And thus ends the Journastic Period.
h/t Maz2
Featured Comment
Another “flash crash” in NY today. This time it involved the “SPY” ETF, which is a proxy for the SP500, and is the most widely traded security on the NYSE. Minutes after today’s 4pm close, SPY dropped 10% in less than 15 minutes (so called “market on close” orders were triggered). The NYSE stepped in and cancelled all trades. How can anyone ask for any more proof that Wall Street, as currently set up, is rigged?
Reader Tips
Tonight’s amusement is a nostalgic look back at some British television news coverage of the Poll Tax Riots.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
G&M: On Second Thought…
The latest fallout from the vile Stephen Marche piece in the Globe and Mail is up at BC Blue;
“The piece was taken off the site either late Friday or early Saturday by senior editors. However we are running a number of letters to the editor complaining about the piece tomorrow and you will see the strong reaction. While we believe strongly in freedom of speech for our writers and our readers both we also felt the piece was offensive in its language. It’s also not what the election should be about.”
Well, aside from the fact that by publishing the piece in the first place, Globe editors took the lead in making the Toronto mayoralty race about just that. (Or, like most Canadians, have they long stopped reading what’s published in their pages?)
(Previous post here).
Hey, Weyburn
Those Moderate Muslims!
“The hills are alivvvvveeee, with the sound of jihad….”*
h/t EBD
Related: Why Israel Needs The Bomb
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Related items from France, here and here.
… and there’s more!
Ratings agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s have been highlighting the lack of transparency in union pension plans. Now Wall Street wants union businesses to be upfront about their liabilities.
[Financial Accounting Standards Board’s ] new rule could effectively wipe out the paper worth of many companies, especially in the trucking and construction industries. Once banks and creditors are aware of these staggering pension liabilities, it will make it nearly impossible for union businesses to get loans, credit lines or bonding.
If forced to report their true liabilities, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of companies will scramble to get out from under their union obligations.
“The blind panic is un-frickin’-believable. [Unions] are flipping out,” says Brett McMahon, a representative of Associated Builders and Contractors and vice president of Miller & Long Concrete Construction.