Fucking Royals
mikethemadbiologist | November 2, 2008I think this quote by Nell Minow sums up what most people feel about bonuses for employees at bailout-receiving investment banks:
"I'm just flabbergasted that the financial community has failed to show any sense of leadership on this issue and doesn't seem to understand how angry people are at them,'' said Nell Minow, editor of Corporate Library, a Portland, Maine-based corporate-governance research firm. "They are just a bonus away from having the villagers come after them with torches.''
Actually, I think some people would like to skip the 'bonus away' and go straight to the torches…
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2008If there were ever an argument for high income tax rates on large incomes (i.e., greater than five million), AIG is making it. The arrogance of its executives, even after a bailout, can only be called by its true name--corruption (italics mine):
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group, the insurance giant that drew fire for executive "golden parachutes" and an ill-timed junket even as it receives a massive taxpayer bailout, has agreed to mend its ways.
AIG promised to recover executive payments and other compensation, cancel perks and institute reforms one day after New York…
mikethemadbiologist | August 13, 2008
This displeases us greatly.
I received an email from ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford that Reed Elsevier had excerpted one of my posts. No problem there--I like it when people read my stuff....except for one thing:
The fuckers copyrighted my words.
MINES!!!
Lookee:
(click to embiggen)
Mike Dunford lays out why this is such a fucking shitty thing to do:
This blog, like almost all blogs, is an open-access publication. There's no charge to read this blog. If you've got an internet connection and time to waste, you can scroll through the things I've written to your heart's content. The thing is,…
mikethemadbiologist | May 24, 2008I had no idea how deeply involved nepotism was in the New York Times' decision to hire William Kristol as an op-ed writer. From the Greenwald:
The NYT should be very proud of itself. Of course, Kristol was hired at the NYT because his dad, Irv, was really good friends with former NYT Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal, whose son, Andy, currently runs the NYT Op-Ed page. Andy and Bill followed in their dad's footsteps by becoming good friends (and in every other sense), and Andy then hired his friend, Bill (son of his dad's friend), as the new NYT Op-Ed writer. So this is typically what one gets…
mikethemadbiologist | February 22, 2008I think Republicans want to be cast as cartoon villains. In California, Republicans have twice prevented a Democratic measure (supported by Republican governor Schwarzenegger) that would fix a loophole that allows yacht owners to avoid paying their sales tax.
Really. Keep in mind this isn't an additional tax (a luxury tax), but simply applying the same sales tax that most people who can't afford yachts pay on other goods. Dday writes:
You have the Republican Party prioritizing the interests of yacht owners. Is there any better expression of the conservative movement in our new Gilded Age?…
mikethemadbiologist | September 10, 2007This quote from Fred Kaplan's Slate article has left me gobsmacked:
At the same time, nearly all politicians, including most Democrats, have come out against a total withdrawal and have recognized that we will have some military presence in Iraq for a long time to come.
Hold that thought, because I want to remind you of some polling data I discussed a couple of weeks ago:
From Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm:
4. Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months? (Republicans Only)
Yes 51%
No 39%
Undecided 10%
Not beginning a withdrawal…
mikethemadbiologist | August 5, 2007
(from here)
While reading this NY Times article about houses in Newport, RI, I saw the above picture and thought, "That would be a really nice house to live in." Then my head exploded as I read the caption:
Topsy Taylor uses her stone bungalow at a former fishing club on Gooseberry Island, R.I. as a place to entertain and take naps.
Some people have a 'nap chair' or a 'nap sofa' that they like to take naps on. Some people even have a nap room. But Topsy has a fucking nap house.
A house for napping.
Tax her.
mikethemadbiologist | July 4, 2007Go read Hunter now. Here's a taste:
Eighteen months from now, on some mid-January day, Libby will of course be lauded for his great service to the nation -- that service in no way being the remarkable ability to keep his mouth tightly shut in face of a criminal investigation into activities at the White House, perish the thought -- and fully pardoned. Bush's statement about respecting jury opinions will be recast once again, this time to the effect of "I respect the jury opinions, but Scooter has had quite the rough time of it lately, what with all these investigations and indictments and…
mikethemadbiologist | July 3, 2007...and are you in any way, shape, or form surprised? Has anything in the last six years suggested to anyone in the Coalition of the Sane that the Bush/Cheney Administration has any sense of shame or propriety? Of course not.
It should be clear that this administration will do anything and everything it can get away with. Bush now appears to have 'accepted' his 28% approval ratings, and won't try to do anything to raise them.
The group that I'm truly disappointed in is the Democrats. They still seem to think that if they point out El Jefe Maximo's outrageous and illegal behavior that the…
mikethemadbiologist | March 29, 2007How can the DLC-wing of Democratic Party, including Rahm Emanuel, continue to claim to know what's best for the Democratic Party after they've been so badly schooled? By other Democrats (italics mine):
It isn't just Ford who wanted to take us down a different path--it is the entire neoliberal, neocon, triangulate from a point of weakness, liberal-hating, Michael Bloomberg and Joe Lieberman loving, DLC-nexus of Democratic Party aristocracy that wanted Dean out. For example, I think it is pretty clear, at this point, that one of the "top Democrats" who was opposed to Howard Dean continuing on…
mikethemadbiologist | March 8, 2007
(from here)
Much has been written about the Scooter Libby verdict, so I don't have much commentary to add. However, I will make a prediction: Bush will not pardon Libby. Here's why:
The lord of the manor does not sacrifice himself for the serfs.
Underneath all the 'jus' people' duds, Bush is an aristocrat. He possesses the aristocrat's overweening sense of entitlement combined with a feral cunning used to preserve that prerogative. Little Lord Pontchartrain might actually feel for Libby, but he has been taught his entire life how to avoid becoming upset over the little people's problems…