I was right from the very beginning about “Eric the Sellout”.

Asshole.

Can’t wait for Cynthia Kouril to weigh in on the “illegal vs unethical” question.

Can’t imagine an entire semester of graduate seminar with Summers. Arrrrrrrgh.

Greece debt talks ‘close to deal’
Greece could reach a deal with its creditors over the weekend, according to a senior European official.

LINK.

Homeland Security Wants to Spy on 4 Square Miles at Once

“The Department of Homeland Security is interested in a camera package that can peek in on almost four square miles of (constitutionally protected) American territory for long, long stretches of time.

“Homeland Security doesn’t have a particular system in mind. Right now, it’s just soliciting “industry feedback” on what a formal call for such a “Wide Area Surveillance System” might look like. But it’s the latest indication of how powerful military surveillance technology, developed to find foreign insurgents and terrorists, is migrating to the home front.”

LINK.

Why?

US seeks greater military ties with China LINK.

Obama administration using loophole to quietly sell arms package to Bahrain LINK.

I’m glad people are starting to focus again on the Allen Stanford saga. There is no question in my mind that government contacts helped protect his Ponzi scheme, which in that sense makes it even worse than Madoff, and many of his accomplices remain unindicted.

Why can’t Congress proactively ban arm sales to Bahrain? This sounds like one more case where everybody’s trying to pass the buck.

Michael Greenberg in the latest NY Review of Books:

What Future for Occupy Wall Street?

Yeah, busily trying to pass the buck while Bahrain gets the arms.

This is creepy: Obama and two Bushes.

Speaking of baseless smears, I always felt that Spencer Ackerman when he was at FDL was intolerant of anti-Israel views. Now I see others are starting to pick up on this. Good.

In other news, there was a major flood and landslide combination in Fiji.

Syria is on the brink of a real disaster. Don’t forget it has 1 million refugees and 300,000 persons without country, and is now hemorrhaging 33,000 refugees of its own. The number of possible factions if it disintegrates is large, the ICRC reports that weapons are moving quickly within the country.

Russia turned down the SC resolution proposal (brought by Morocco on behalf of the Arab League) but said it was willing to negotiate on points it didn’t like. This, and not the nuclear tap dance, is where the powder keg is w/resp to Iran, so it might be worthwhile to pay just a little more attention to the people getting shot there. It needs people speaking up on behalf of peace and it needs them now, not when there are loud voices saying otherwise.

Syria is in a sphere of influence that the U.S. has tried to destroy at every turn. The U.S. has no helpful role to play in bringing peace to that country.

On the Mormons; I toured the Temple up in MD before it was officially open. Did anyone know they had wedding chapels for marrying the dead to each other? They had the rolling carts for moving the caskets and everything.

Long story, since non-devouts were not supposed to see past the first floor. (They gutted the floors we toured since we were never supposed to see the insides). Decadent is too weak a word for that place, it makes the Catholic Church look like pikers.

I have to say I have never personally known a Mormon that wasn’t a very nice person (a far better percentage than “Christians”), but that religion is just plain weird.

Maybe, maybe not. But you do.

Here’s a link to that Russia-Syria story, for those who might be interested in pursuing it.

US plans Mid-East ‘mothership’

“THE US military is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East, as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats”

LINK.

After 120 years, Hull House has closed–because they had no money to continue. We have come to this.

(Linking to this source because of the wonderful picture of Jane Addams. You can get to the original article easily.)

On the financial aid to colleges, they do not have a bureaucracy competent or staffed to determine the appropriate level of tuition at individual institutions. This is just another way to ration, i.e., CUT aid. Health “care” “reform” all over again.

The Roots of Christian Zionism: How James Scofield Sowed the Seeds of Apostasy – 1 hr video http://t.co/FA1HB6Ni – good for sharing with evangelicals.

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War,
He’s scaring the crap out of the fabulously wealthy in Davos.

For the first time in his 60-year career, Soros, now 81, admits he is not sure what to do. “It’s very hard to know how you can be right, given the damage that was done during the boom years,” Soros says. He won’t discuss his portfolio, lest anyone think he’s talking things down to make a buck. But people who know him well say he advocates making long-term stock picks with solid companies, avoiding gold—“the ultimate bubble”—and, mainly, holding cash.
[]
He backs the beleaguered euro, publicly urging European leaders to do whatever it takes to ensure its survival. “The euro must survive because the alternative—a breakup—would cause a meltdown that Europe, the world, can’t afford.” He has bought about $2 billion in European bonds, mainly Italian, from MF Global Holdings Ltd.[]

He doesn’t just mean it’s time to protect your assets. He means it’s time to stave off disaster. As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil.” Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether.

So are you saying they dug them up?

I always thought the mormons stuff looked so.. beige.
Catholics have color! colored leaded glass, blood red robes, dark wood, shiny smokey things.