Senator Edwards just admitted that he had an affair. Which is really common place news these days. Maybe I am a cynic and a crank after all.
The real news here, to me, is that the National Enquirer got something right. They broke the story.
Does that mean that aliens did indeed land and inhabit the body of Gary Coleman? Inquiring minds want to know!
Here's another question: a few short months ago, Edwards was running for president. While in the middle of an affair. Is he so naive as to think that that the press wasn't going to figure this out?
Which is why I'll never run for office. I don't want my porno star past to be a public issue for my kids to deal with.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Exxon's profits
Just on a whim, because this kind of stuff is fun to me, I did a quick little analysis of Exxon's profits they announced last week, just to understand how large they were.
Exxon reported over $11 Billion for one quarter, in profits alone. That means, that in one quarter, Exxon made more than twice as much as the entire country of Nicaragua makes in a year.
In fact, if you take Exxon's profits for the whole year (not sales, profits), Exxon would be in the top 65 countries in the world. If you take Exxon's revenues, it puts them in the top 20 countries in the world (i.e. kind of like Sweden). Think about that. Exxon = 106,000 employees. Sweden = 9.2 million people.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/04/28/get-ready-for-exxon-s-truly-gaudy-numbers.aspx
Exxon reported over $11 Billion for one quarter, in profits alone. That means, that in one quarter, Exxon made more than twice as much as the entire country of Nicaragua makes in a year.
In fact, if you take Exxon's profits for the whole year (not sales, profits), Exxon would be in the top 65 countries in the world. If you take Exxon's revenues, it puts them in the top 20 countries in the world (i.e. kind of like Sweden). Think about that. Exxon = 106,000 employees. Sweden = 9.2 million people.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/04/28/get-ready-for-exxon-s-truly-gaudy-numbers.aspx
Jail birds
I am not, as some might try to tell you, typically a crank. I just believe that fair is fair, and bullshit is bullshit. The fact that this means that I generally end up despising the Bush administration - and Republicans that support it - as just a logical extension of my first point. Fair is fair, bullshit is bullshit. Whether Democrat or Republican.
So, along those lines, I've recently become more convinced that we have various people within the administration who are worthy of being tried for war crimes. I base that on the fact that various torture, I mean, enhanced interrogation techniques, that we use have resulted in war crimes charges and convictions at various times in history. Japanese were executed for waterboarding US prisoners in WWII. Germans were executed for torturing "non uniformed enemy combatants".
The interesting thing about those cases is that they all used the exact same justifications for their actions that the Bush administration uses now. These guys don't wear uniforms, thus Geneva conventions don't apply. That is logically false to anybody with half a brain.
I've been having a conversation with my buddy Anna about the ludicrous nature of this administration, and about how, really, you can't make this stuff up. Nobody would believe you, they'd call you a nutty conspiracy theorist. But yet the verifiable truth of how we treat people is so disgusting and un-American as to be worthy of everyone's disbelief and scorn.
Need your scorn level raised? Try these links:
Upright coffins, used as "segregation boxes" in Gitmo:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/07/segregation.boxes/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
Extensive analysis of a Nazi war crimes trial. Money quote:
"The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - 'enhanced interrogation techniques' - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/verschfte_verne.html
Now, would anyone want to argue that we have less respect for human rights now than we did in 48? Back in 48, blacks served in segregated Army units, and were still being lynched in the South. And yet even in that era, we could see these torture techniques for what they were: war crimes.
Until America prosecutes a few key players from the Bush administration for this, we will have no legitimacy to speak to China or anyone else in the world about human rights. None. We should just shut up and get our own house in order.
So, along those lines, I've recently become more convinced that we have various people within the administration who are worthy of being tried for war crimes. I base that on the fact that various torture, I mean, enhanced interrogation techniques, that we use have resulted in war crimes charges and convictions at various times in history. Japanese were executed for waterboarding US prisoners in WWII. Germans were executed for torturing "non uniformed enemy combatants".
The interesting thing about those cases is that they all used the exact same justifications for their actions that the Bush administration uses now. These guys don't wear uniforms, thus Geneva conventions don't apply. That is logically false to anybody with half a brain.
I've been having a conversation with my buddy Anna about the ludicrous nature of this administration, and about how, really, you can't make this stuff up. Nobody would believe you, they'd call you a nutty conspiracy theorist. But yet the verifiable truth of how we treat people is so disgusting and un-American as to be worthy of everyone's disbelief and scorn.
Need your scorn level raised? Try these links:
Upright coffins, used as "segregation boxes" in Gitmo:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/07/segregation.boxes/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
Extensive analysis of a Nazi war crimes trial. Money quote:
"The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - 'enhanced interrogation techniques' - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/verschfte_verne.html
Now, would anyone want to argue that we have less respect for human rights now than we did in 48? Back in 48, blacks served in segregated Army units, and were still being lynched in the South. And yet even in that era, we could see these torture techniques for what they were: war crimes.
Until America prosecutes a few key players from the Bush administration for this, we will have no legitimacy to speak to China or anyone else in the world about human rights. None. We should just shut up and get our own house in order.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Paraguay
Paraguay is always the last to do everything. The had a dictator way longer than most other Latin American countries, and embraced democracy finally in 1989. But since then, the Colorado party has won every election. Hardly a democracy, really.
That all changed recently, and a former liberation theology adherent named Lugo will be the new president. Here's hoping he's the next Lula or Bachelet and not the next Chavez.
Economist Story
For a great read on Paraguay, try The News from Paraguay, and see a fictionalized account of how a 19th century dictator led them into a disastrous war that killed off 90% of the adult men. I'm not exaggerating.
That all changed recently, and a former liberation theology adherent named Lugo will be the new president. Here's hoping he's the next Lula or Bachelet and not the next Chavez.
Economist Story
For a great read on Paraguay, try The News from Paraguay, and see a fictionalized account of how a 19th century dictator led them into a disastrous war that killed off 90% of the adult men. I'm not exaggerating.
I love Obama again
I had fallen out of love with the man. Had nothing to do with Michelle or jealousy, I just wasn't feeling the spark anymore.
But now I'm back deep again. As always, it's the wit that I can't resist. And the ability to cut to the chase regarding the core of any issue. Here's what he said (hat tip TPM)
"So now the Republicans are going around -- this is the kind of thing they do. I don't understand it! They're going around, they're sending like little tire gauges, making fun of this idea as if this is 'Barack Obama's energy plan.'
But now I'm back deep again. As always, it's the wit that I can't resist. And the ability to cut to the chase regarding the core of any issue. Here's what he said (hat tip TPM)
"So now the Republicans are going around -- this is the kind of thing they do. I don't understand it! They're going around, they're sending like little tire gauges, making fun of this idea as if this is 'Barack Obama's energy plan.'
"Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."
Colbert Report tonight
My good friend Holly has a brother who she raves about all the time who is supposedly God's gift to man, the smartest guy ever, blah blah blah. She never shuts up about him. It's rather cute.
Anyway, this guy Devin is going to be on the Colbert Report tonight, Thursday.
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/
Anyway, this guy Devin is going to be on the Colbert Report tonight, Thursday.
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/
Getting going...
First post ever to my own blog. Very exciting. I'm only, like, 10 years late to this craze.
I in fact was well positioned to be one of the first bloggers on the Internet, and instead spent most of my time on booze and women. The rest of my time I simply wasted.
Anyway, I'm posting things now in order to reduce the amount of spam that I generate in emailing these rants to my friends. I hope you enjoy my perspective on things, and if not, I really don't care too much. Not like I'm trying to be famous or anything.
This blog will surely disappear when I run for office, so don't be surprised when it's gone one day.
I in fact was well positioned to be one of the first bloggers on the Internet, and instead spent most of my time on booze and women. The rest of my time I simply wasted.
Anyway, I'm posting things now in order to reduce the amount of spam that I generate in emailing these rants to my friends. I hope you enjoy my perspective on things, and if not, I really don't care too much. Not like I'm trying to be famous or anything.
This blog will surely disappear when I run for office, so don't be surprised when it's gone one day.
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