February 8, 2009 - February 14, 2009

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Week of February 8, 2009 - February 14, 2009

11. Thou shalt not commit hypocrisy.

February 14, 2009, 1:28PM

Maybe ten was a nice even number; five on one side, five on the other. Maybe there was an emblazoning smudge and God was a real neat freak.

Whatever the reason, it is becoming definitively clear that by the time Moses descended Mount Sinai, his stone tablets were missing a commandment.

Thou shalt not commit hypocrisy.

As Republicans take to the airwaves, it's not hard to imagine God reflecting upon this deeply regrettable omission, no doubt recalling that one angel who kept saying "Dude, no bigy, don't sweat it!".

You know, the angel who got kicked so hard out of heaven that he vowed to start his own version of the place.

members of "knuckledraggers anonymous".

February 13, 2009, 2:31PM

Anti-science. Anti-progress. Anti-intelligence. Anti-alternative energy. Anti-evolution.

Who are these Grand Olde Knuckledraggers and how did they survive? One word; collectivism.

Whatever Republicans do they do as a collective body. As one organism. They do everything unanimously, then duck and cover in anonymity. They are members of a very exclusive club called knuckledraggers anonymous.

They all voted against the stimulus bill. By doing so, they were able to escape individual accountability. No one gets blamed. That's how they get away with it. No individual knuckledragger in the public eye is held responsible.

They block collectively.

They complain collectively.

They recite talking points collectively.

They're all the same.

While it's true that Eric Cantor often speaks for knuckledraggers anonymous, he very rarely says anything that reflects an original thought. This is the golden rule for one-celled organisms with two hundred heads.

How does this organism survive? When something threatens to stick to one head, for example, Eric Cantor's, that head hides. Case in point; the recent union commercial spoof that was released by his office, making fun of those who work in the union. The union didn't like it very much. So instead of personally apologizing for it, Eric hid his own head for protection and issued an apology from the office of Eric Cantor.

Take John Boehner, another member of knuckledraggers anonymous. He is certainly outspoken and while he may be one of the head heads of the two-hundred headed one-celled organism, he never says anything that hasn't been said before by past heads of the knuckledraggers.

And it's been going on like that since the dawn of man; an entirely different species altogether.

Here's another example. Judd Gregg pursued the position of Commerce Secretary and withdrew from being considered for the position of Commerce Secretary; note that Judd was never required to actually take a position. This is a clever way for a member of knuckledraggers anonymous to appear to be a separate individual entity, but we have learned that that is a biological impossibility. Judd was destined to rejoin the collective.

It was only a matter of the announcement. And that it does very well, for it has deft motor skills so it can gather expeditiously for a press conference.

They've done it so often. But never to express individuality.

More recently, some have stepped out of the shadow of master knuckledragger Rush Limbaugh but have instantly recoiled back into the darkness.

There is no "I" in GOP. Which seems, on the face of it, unselfish. But there is no "you" in it either. It is only about them. The knuckledraggers collective.

Even with two hundred heads, none stand out.

Oh, the anonymity.

If justice is optional now, can I opt to skip jury duty?

February 11, 2009, 11:07AM

The judicial branch, not unlike Pluto, has been deemed too insignificant to play a major role in our universe.

Nope. No more judicial branch. Gone. It has ceased to be.

The decision to get rid of it, first made by the Bush administration, seemingly ratified by the Obama administration, is really starting to sink in now that I'm on jury duty. It's a good thing I have three days here because I'm confronted with three of the most profound questions mankind has ever pondered.

1) Why am I here?

2) What is my purpose?

3) Is this all there is?

If justice has been cancelled permanently, the Federal Government could have easily sent me the proper notification in the mail, and signed it off with "Justice. Who were we kidding anyway?"

Instead it's as if they're still trying cases. It's as if they're still holding people accountable for breaking laws. They haven't done that for nearly a decade now. They can't even get someone to show up for a subpoena. Subpoenas. What a silly concept. I just throw those out with all the other junk mail I get. I have a right to privacy you know. I'm on the do-not-call list, there ought to be a do-not-subpoena list too.

I've been waiting in the juror pool for over a half-day now, none of us have been called. None of us. With no justice, what purpose can we possibly serve? We should all just go home.

Because there is nothing at all even remotely judicial going on in this entire building.

Looks like they're doing construction across the street. I bet that demolition ball has the name of this court building written all over it.

They should at least give us enough time to exit the building.

RE: CNBC vs Reality. must-see interview

February 9, 2009, 5:37PM

CNBC interviews Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb. Here's the link.

Originally posted by Josh and JC, this interview is a great summation of the fundamental misunderstanding of this financial crisis.

CNBC just cannot grasp the concept. It gets more desperate as the interview continues. Roubini and Taleb are discussing a systemic failure, the likes of which we've never seen, and CNBC is looking for a stock tip.

The part that really infuriates me is how disrespectfully everyone treats Roubini and Taleb. I actually think that CNBC owes these guys an apology.

New energy section in WSJ

February 9, 2009, 12:31PM

Here's a link to a new energy section that WSJ is featuring online. (They should have done this 10 or 15 years ago, but that's another story).

I mention this because it demonstrates that large media companies have three paths to follow these days--diversify, specialize or die.

Providing news in general is no longer a sustainable business model. Either you're serious about delivering news, or you're just one of the Pentagon's printing presses.

I would advise MSNBC to create a show entirely about energy. Not just one show, or a "special investigation" that ends after a few segments. It's got to be every week. It must be international in scope. It must separate between fact and fiction. It must feature engineers and architects who have already designed alternative energy structures, residential and business. It must have futurists. If it does have politicians on--talking points are not allowed.

The biggest myth it must bust, and I believe it is a myth perpetrated here in America especially, is that alternative energy is decades away from becoming a reality.

It is alive and well in other countries. In fact, when people come to America from Asia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and others--they feel like they're visiting a country that's stuck with the old infrastructure of the 20th century industrial age.