Taibbi on religion

Taibbi responds to the Newsweek piece and the fallout.  

Killer line: 

It’s the same problem all religions have: none of them can be right unless whoever doesn’t believe it is wrong.

My bet is their all wrong.

The entire last paragraph is fucking hilarious.

Ebert/O'Reilly

Roger Ebert owns Bill O'Reilly in his latest column.  

What's the FBI got on you?

If you'd like to get a copy of your FBI file (which not everyone has), print out, notarize, and mail this form.  I'm considering doing it, just in case...

Glenn beck is a fucking moron

Yes, Glenn Beck has incited anti-society type views during normal program and today he just went nuts.  This guy is crazy even by the standards of Fox News.

Is the bull market back?

I think at this point we are getting into Bull territory.  The market was up for March and is up quite a bit in April, led by (gasp!) Bank of America, Citigroup, and even Ford has had a nice recovery.  

Meanwhile, GM is teetering very close to bankruptcy, and public opinion seems to support a chapter 11 filing.  I don't disagree, but I fear that this action would likely cause the market to tank for at least a week.  We'll know soon, they do only have 60 days to get together a plan.

Textron about to become Kuwaiti owned?

Textron, which was highlighted yesterday as one of the most anti-Obama companies around, may be about to be taken over by a consortium of Middle Eastern investors, based primarily in the UAE and Kuwait.  Shares are up about 50% on the news. 

 

Overall, I don't really care who buys this firm, which has made about as many bad bets as the auto industry.  But it is interesting news, and we'll see if there's any backlash, since people (not fairly) fear foreign takeover of companies, even though it is likely that less jobs would be cut here with the takeover than without the takeover.

 

Just for the record, Textron makes Cessna planes, serves the auto industry, makes some DOD products, and has a really bad financial arm.

Immigration reform possible in the fall

Immigration has been a contentious issue for the past few years but has been on the back burner since the meltdown happened.  It looks like this autumn, we could see some real immigration reform, including a path for illegals to become legals, which I support.

At this point, there are probably a majority of Americans who agree with Lou Dobbs and would like to send every illegal back home.  But that is not logistically feasible, and even if it were, it would be very expensive both in the cost of rounding everyone up and shipping them out, and also in lost revenues that we get from their work.  A better solution is to have them pay some kind of tax and then get to the back of the line.

The new anti gay marriage talking point

There's a new ad out regarding gay marriage.  The new talking point among the bigots is that gay marriage somehow infringes upon the rights of straight people, by taking away their "special" right to marry.  

This is complete bullshit.  

I am married.  To a woman.  If two people get married and they happen to be the same sex, great.  It does not affect the relationship that I have with my wife, nor does it affect anyone except for those two people.

Their argument also suggests that gay marriage will somehow change the institution of marriage.  It will.  But so what?  100 years ago, divorce was as rare as gay marriage is today.  500 years ago, women were property.  Marriage has evolved with our culture and this is no different.

I suggest that those of you who read this blog who care about individual rights go here.

A "Post-Christian" America

Jon Meacham has an interesting article in Newsweek regarding the lessening influence that religion has on our everyday lives.  The fastest growing religion is non at all, at least not of an organized variety.  

Many on the right wing will tell you that this country was founded on "Judeo-Christian" principles.  That is complete bullshit.  First of all, despite what you may hear, Jews are not Christians.  They believe in different gods, although the the Christians do incorporate the backstory provided by Judiasm.  However, they choose to ignore it, which is why George W. Bush eats pork.  Second, the founders of our country were deists, men who may have believed in a higher power, but certainly not Christians.  

The fact of the matter is, religion causes problems in our country, both minor (alcohol forbidden to be purchased on Sundays in some states) and major (denying children the right to quality science educaiton).  I for one hope that the end of "Judeo-Christian" influence within the United States is on the wane, and eventually we will be a country that uses principles grounded on logic, not on myths.

I'd also point people in the direction of this book.

Hope for the best...

but prepare for the worst.

A once unthinkable idea is nearing implementation: a GM bankruptcy.

Schools gone crazy over pills

In my neck of the woods, it is apparently a more serious offense to carry birth control pills to school than heroin.  Seriously.

Ford cuts its debt and share rise

Today Ford cut its debt by $9.9B.  This respresents about a third of its debt and will save Ford about $500M in payments per year.  

Likely bad news for GM, and Chrysler since Ford is definitely calling the shots with what types of capital structure and labor concessions can be undertaken.  Ford's agreements with the UAW set the tone for GM and Chrysler.  

On a related note, Ford's stock* was up a huge amount today. 

*I'm long F-S

A world without nukes?

Today President Obama urged the world to abandon nuclear weapons, something that I support.  These are weapons that are never needed, and we have enough to destroy the world several times over.  The first steps would be for us to sign a ban on testing.  We don't test nukes anyway, and we need to lead by example.