Links for 2010-09-22

"Real class is what the economic aristocracy of our country has almost entirely lost. The American rich are wallowing in a moral slough, grasping for more and more money they have no clue what to do with, and venting their frustration that climbing over each other to new heights of wretched excess brings no satisfaction by lashing out at every social institution, and at a government whose largesse is never enough for them. Andrew Carnegie may have had his miners shot at Homestead, but he came to regret it and he also said it was sinful to die rich. He walked the talk; there are Carnegie libraries, a university, concert halls, and more all across America, still creating value. (All the Vanderbilts, not so much.) But Larry Ellison has his name on nothing and for all his billions, has absolutely no class and no idea that he lacks it, and a whole class of cowboy millionaires and billionaires have the fatal idea that he is a target to emulate. "

"A squadron of wrathful angels awaits in LaHaye's Heaven -- fingers on the trigger of the apocalypse. They stand ready to open the seals and pour out the bowls of judgment, but -- according to Tim LaHaye -- they cannot do so until Israel signs this peace treaty.

This loophole, this flaw, is the prophetic equivalent of a ray-shielded thermal exhaust port leading directly to the heart of its core reactor. It's just the sort of thing that any real hero would be compelled to try to exploit."

"Obviously we would start hating on them if they landed, but what if we just have the knowledge that they're probably out there, banging their heads against the same technological obstacles being hashed out in the comment thread downblog-do we still give a crap after the initial moment of awe?  Once the cults have finished offing themselves in fear and every "UFO abductee" has had his 15 minutes and Rick Santorum has warned that gay marriage might lead to man-on-alien sex, would we look across the vastness of space and say "Well, that's way too far away to care about-back to hating on each other!"?"