tragedy + time = comedy

Iraq war 'caused slowdown in the US' | The Australian

but what does joseph stiglitz know? i mean, other than winning a nobel prize and being a VP of the world bank.

the linkage between the war and the subprime mess is interesting. and depressing.

3.3 trillion, for those who won't click through. that's how much it's cost us.

Canada's Toxic Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth

O! Canada!

why?

tar sands oil from western canada--tied with monstrous new coal plants in china for the coveted "world's most devastatingly deadly idea" trophy.

canadians are just as bad as americans when it comes to lacking forward-thinking leadership, and this cements that fact.

Time is up for coal: environmental analyst | Environment | Reuters

goodbye, coal world.

don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

maybe, just maybe, we can a) save appalachia while b) stopping some of the effects of global warming while c) promoting other energy technologies and efficiencies while d) paving the way for china and india to find alternative sources of energy.

or we can kill ourselves, pretty much.

tough choice. to paraphrase bill hicks: "anyone here work in the coal industry? (applause) great--go kill yourself. seriously. now."

if you are a coke addict, bluefields, nicaragua is the town for you!

i know the following sounds strange to say, but jim cramer is talking sense. and he's not just talking sense--he has put together, in one monster rant (while a couple of incredulous hosts look on in horror) one of the great takedowns of late stage capitalism ever. marx would be proud.

Hullabaloo

blah blah tristero at digby's blog blah blah. i'm right-er than him anyway. but not more right. if you know what i mean. kakutani's review is here, and as lousy as you would expect. she's the kind of person who walks down a wide boulevard that has been nicely cleaned by the rains the night before, but still somehow manages to find a pile of shit to step in. then she smears it all over the damn sidewalk and inevitably you step in it too.

so...

two things:

one: don't go crediting Kakutani with anything. she is a terrible writer, a mediocre thinker. i don't give a shit about her reviews of larry mcmurty or richard ford--reviewing fiction is a meaningless enterprise for serious humans, but it does help or hurt sales, and about that we should care not ne whit. however, when she writes about politics, she is invariably shallow and asinine in her thinking. she never rises above a combination of ninth grade thinking mixed with nasty and vicious rich-person-dinner-party social observations. she did it to clinton and several others. she is not an ally. it's like people cherry picking chris matthews--look, he was really good here!!!!! and ignoring the fact that he is a fuckwad. she is too.

two: you can't take fukuyama seriously, ever. he is like james cramer--36,000 dow forever? no? ok, get off the public stage, your pundit card has been revoked because you are stupid. period. end of history? fuck off, dude. you wrote that shit in 92 and oh...my...god...were you wrong. embarrassingly so. but we keep giving asshats like this credence--so don't be surprised when he helps lead us into a fucking war of fucking choice like the idiot he has proven himself to be.

and kakutani, loser that she is, falls right into the "because he was one of them it is particularly important" trap. wrong. because he was one of them he was wrong and stupid. and evil.