APOLOGIES, DEAR READERS, IF YOU HAD PROBLEMS TRYING TO ACCESS THIS BLOG THIS AFTERLUNCH FOR AWHILE thanks to another of BlogDrive's unannounced server shutdowns for maintenance or whatever.

This was a situation outside of my own direct control, understand, and I regret any inconvenience suffered.

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TALK ABOUT JUST HOW DESPERATE THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY HAS BECOME: In selling a load of crushed aluminum cans from the motel I do for this morning--117 lb. worth, to be exact--the end price was $29.25, which worked out to 25¢/lb. in the end.

As per usual, I got a 40% cut ($12 worth, to be exact), which, with some $15 I already had, was enough to buy me a few more makings for French bread pizza.

Which didn't necessarily come out all that bad.

In contrast, Motherdear tells me on the ameche that, down where she lives (Caledonia, MN, to be exact; it's about 40 mile to the south of Winona, as the crow flies), aluminum cans are now selling for 10¢/lb. @ the local recycling collection centre.

(Meanwhile, Iowa charges a 5¢ deposit on otherwise nonreturnable beverage containers, the better to encourage recycling.)

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EDMUND BURKE COINED THE TERM "THE FOURTH ESTATE" IN REFERRING TO THE PRESS GALLERY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT back in the 19th century; such would eventually become synonymous with print journalism in certain circles.

The Canadian Broadcorping Castration, for its part, would expand on the theme starting around 1970 with their weekly magazine show the fifth estate, itself regarded as a close rival of 60 Minutes in terms of its investigative approach--all the while remaining distinctly Canadian.

With that in mind, is it about time to regard the Greater Blogosphere and online journalism as "the Sixth Estate," so to speak?

Discuss it in the comments section, as you like.

NO WONDER ARROGANT HUBRIS FILLS THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS MINDS OF THE SO-CALLED "FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY" which Fox Prolefeed and their conservative propaganda ilk claim to represent the "best interests" of, and in the classic Communist/Fascist "big lie" stylee when you get right down to it.

Especially so in the face of further layoffs being announced by Panasonic (15,000 jobs worldwide, divided equally between its home country of Japan and overseas) and Hawker Beechcraft (3,200 jobs affected) ... and General Motors announcing where it was offering its hourly employees contract buydowns to further cut costs and remain viable.

Come to think of it: Who would be left working for GM or its several nameplates the world over (including its overseas brands of Opel, Holden and Vauxhall) if all its hourly workers "wholeheartedly" accept such buydowns so offered?

And how would these once-proud "Fundamentals of the Economy" be expected to wisely invest said buydowns when their knowledge of investment options, by and large, is likely tainted by latent anti-Semitic canards and prejudices expected to be held as "patriotic"? Wouldn't this be opening the door to rank exploitation (and debauched, @ that) by the likes of such selling what amounts to Unregistered Securities packaged as "High-Yield Investment Plans" (the whole officially to be explained as "private placement" exempt from Securities and Exchange Commission registry, or so the patsy will run)?

Of course, we know what Fox Prolefeed will say--such "made unwise investment decisions all along," yet claiming to be on the side of the workers, Communist-stylee.

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AND WITH THEIR NOTORIETY FOR HOLDING "ELITIST" CULTURE, ART AND LITERATURE IN CONTEMPT for "reckless and utter disregard for Traditional American Values" (expected to be seen as those of the "Fundamentals of the Economy"--as in the working-classes, essentially on a par with Communist or Fascist ideology and the propaganda expected to so reiterate), how do we know that Cultural Conservatives aren't really calling for the "wholehearted" development of an idealised American "people's culture" which, come to think of it, ranks up there with the Socialist Realism school officially endorsed by Communist regimes in their heighth of deluded excess)?

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NOW IT CAN BE TOLD DEPARTMENT: The new history-making chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steele by name, actually has a dark secret which he (and, by extension, the GOP's "Great Within," as it were) doesn't want you to know about.

John Nichols with The Capital Times (cyberspace, via Madison, WI) exposeth it to the best disinfectants known, air and sunshine, thus:

When Michael Steele ran for Maryland's open U.S. Senate in 2006, his backers hired 300 mostly poor African-Americans from Philadelphia -- most if not all of them unemployed, many of them homeless -- fed them doughnuts and then packed the crew onto Trailways buses for an Election Day trip that would make a bit of political history.

The buses, which were draped in banners for Steele and Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich, headed across the state line into Maryland, where the day laborers were dispatched to predominantly African-American neighborhoods of the city of Baltimore and populous Prince George's County.

They spent Election Day handing out glossy fliers headlined "Democratic Sample Ballot" or "Official Voter Guide." The fliers employed the phrase "Ehrlich-Steele Democrats." And they featured images of prominent African-Americans, such as former Democratic congressman and NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume, above the words: "These are our choices."

The implication that Mfume and other popular Democrats in the state were backing Steele and Ehrlich was hard to miss.

But Mfume wasn't backing the "Ehrlich-Steele Democrats" ticket.

Steele and Ehrlich weren't running as Democrats.

Both men were Republicans. And, despite what the group Progressive Maryland described as a campaign of "Lies, Dirty Tricks, and Fraudulent Fliers Designed to Deceive African-American Voters," they both lost.

Now, however, one of them, Steele, is the new chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The former lieutenant governor of Maryland, who has long been a favorite Republican commentator on Fox News and other conservative programs, won the backing of committee members who gathered in Washington Friday after promising to renew the sagging Grand Old Party.

Steele, an arguably able political player who has for many years been one of the GOP's highest-profile African-American leaders, pitched himself for the chairmanship by suggesting that he could put a positive face on a party that has seemed in recent years to be more interested in circling the conservative wagons than in attracting new voters.

Steele promises to engage in "outreach."

But what will the outreach look like?

What sort of politics will Steele practice as RNC chair?

If past is prologue, this 2006 article from The Washington Post may prove instructive.

As Post writers Matthew Mosk and Avis Thomas-Lester noted: "Republican leaders have defended the Election Day episode as an accepted element of bare-knuckle politics. But for many voters, it shattered in one day the nice-guy images Ehrlich and Steele had cultivated for years."

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley was blunter: "I think it's pretty low that Ehrlich and Steele would print up a fake ballot and bus in unemployed people and exploit them. It doesn't get much lower than that."

To use a Clinton Administration-vintage bumper-sticker slogan popular among conservatives worthy of reuse among Secular-Progressives in these presumably "enlightened" times, "So where's the outrage?!"

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AND HOW MUCH LONGER BEFORE THE TREASURY HAS TO START RESORTING TO BLACKMAIL AND INTIMIDATION to get banking-houses to start making loans and credit available on reasonable terms to especially small businesses and the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" if they want to receive public financial assistance towards such ends?

(And no, we're not talking about bundling such loans en tranche for sale to aftermarket loan brokers who can then resell them @ handsome profits and "consulting fees" to finance companies and Morris Plan-type lenders. Which, it turns out, are financed through equity issues marketed exclusively in "private placements" to so-called "High-Yield Investment Plans" targeting especially so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" not expected to know the fundamentals of the finance markets or the banking system beyond latent anti-Semitic platitudes such have long been conditioned to accept as fact--excused all along as "cultural heritage" in case questions start being asked, among other "tools and answers" available to the Neoconservative propaganda confraternity.)

RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS LOVE TO HOLD UP PURITY AS VIRTUOUS in their supposed defence of the "moral superiority" of the United States.

However, how do we know they're not really confusing purity with "goodthoughtfulness" (Orwellian Newspeak for practicing orthodoxy to the prevailing official Party line as it were second nature), which can really be counsel to ignorance and gross stupidity under the right circumstances?

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ALTHOUGH I HAVE YET TO HEAR OF ANYTHING TO THIS EFFECT BEING PROMOTED IN CONSERVATIVE CIRCLES OF THOUGHT (OR FACSIMILIES THEREOF), you'll never guess what they'd like to see when it comes to providing tax-preparation help for such among the Lower Classes ranking among their beloved "Fundamentals of the Economy:"

Videlicet, replacing the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) scheme with vouchers to help with obtaining tax-preparation services from the private sector "to develop a healthy respect for free-market capitalism with American characteristics" in otherwise "enslaved and misled" elements of the community--or so conservative thought would like you and me thinking.

Especially when such tax-related businesses accepting vouchers trick their Kankerdom clientele into taking Refund Anticipation Loans @ obscenely high rates of interest--and are actually encouraged to do so in the belief that the Lower Classes "are too dumb to know these things anyway," especially since most of the income taxes they pay (if @ all) are likely to be clawbacked.

That, and expecting such among the Lower Classes getting work to consider obtaining Advanced Earned Income Credit (as in a pay supplement) from their employers to encourage wasteful spending binges @ Wally World ... and "advising" (requiring, more than likely) children of "welfare basket case" families to participate in School-to-Work programmes as are really nothing more than drunken lectures repeating Neoconservative/Fascist talking points about creating a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life (rooted, it turns out, in poverty, fecundity and stupidity) seeing a "pure" free-market form of capitalism (excusing cartel behaviour, it turns out) as Great White Father (so to speak). Guaranteed, it emerges, to cause serious emotional harm as results in those participating collecting disability benefits.

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"WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAKE LEMONADE" DEPARTMENT: Having leftover rice from Sunday dinner (as I did) was enough to inspire me to heat it up in the microwave and have it topped with some tinned chicken a la king heated on the stove top for dinner just a little while ago.

(BTW, to heat up leftover rice in the microwave, add a tablespoon of water per cup of rice and heat it for 1½-2 minootas on full power, stirring same about every 45 seconds.)

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THE KIND OF LEGISLATION WHICH THE ELMER GANTRY CROWD WOULD LOVE TO SEE IMPLEMENTED IN OUR "MORALLY SUPERIOR" NATION, and in the name of "protecting the Sanctity and Purity of Marriage," according to Right Wing Watch:

APOLOGIES THERE, FOLKS, FOR A BRIEF POWER CUT HERE @ MY FLAT IN WINONA as Xcel Energy, the local power supplier, installed new-stylee electric meters on my apartment building.

Said meters are the kind as transmits information automatically through the power grid to the billing section, thus negating the need for meter readers coming by every month.

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IS IT JUST ME, OR IS THERE A SENSE OF DESPERATION ON THE PART OF ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN TO SEEK THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION all the more in the 2012 Presidential elections (let alone on the GOP's part and parcel)?

No wonder the GOP, notwithstanding its having chosen its first-ever Chairman of colour, must be all the more desperate in "winning of hearts and minds" all the more among the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" (as in the Working Classes) back to the GOP's "low taxes=jobs=social stability and order" agenda seeing nothing less than a "pure" form of free-market capitalism (self-regulated to the point of excusing State-sanctioned cartel behaviour) being their Great White Father, so to speak.

Equally bizarre is the likelihood that Governor Palin will be "advised" to study and emulate a certain Eva Duarte Peron (1919-1952) in the interest of distracting attention through extravagant wardrobes in the hope of "shaming" working-class voters to the GOP agenda. And yes, expect a repeat of the shameful debauches of wardrobe expenditure out of party funds, excused all the while as "winning of hearts and minds" in case questions start being asked, when much the same stylee of outfit could be had for much less @ the likes of Kohl's, Target, H&M, Lane Bryant, Filene's Basement, Mode O'Day and--don't laugh--Wally World.

In other words, expect the GOP, in developing its 2012 Presidential election strategy, to borrow from the same playbook that the first Juan Peron regime in Argentina used in using "Evita" to distract the attention of the poor working-classes from The Big Picture.

(And, to a lesser degree, that of North Korea in presenting "Eternal Leader" Kim Il Sung as a superdivine.)

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SPEAKING OF NORTH KOREA, Japanese and South Korean intelligence channels hath it that suspicious-looking trains have been seen close to the Chinese border with components suggesting where Pyongyang, in desperation since rumours began surfacing about "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il being seriously ill or otherwise near death, if not dead already, may be about to test a medium-range ballistic missile.

Such is what you get when you deliberately neglect your own people, aided and abetted by gross mismanagement of a centrally-planned economy, poor weather conditions (and ensuing harvests) several years running and a quasi-religious Cult of Personality being manipulated for distractionary purposes.

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MEANWHILE, THE SO-CALLED "ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN" IS ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL REBUKE for using medium-range missile technology in launching what Tehran claims to be its first-ever satellite, which (officially) will be used for "scientific and telecommunications" purposes--as in spying upon Israeli troop movements against the possibility of Holy War seeking the "complete and final destruction" of the Jewish State, methinks.

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NO WONDER CONSERVATIVE ARTICLES OF FAITH SHOW A RECKLESS AND BLATANT DISREGARD FOR JOURNALISM AS OPPOSED TO PROPAGANDA, especially so "Big Lie" and kin, in the presumed belief that the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" "can't handle the truth" because of "failed and failing public education," "unhealthy tolerance for Socialist or otherwise un-American beliefs," "disrespect for Healthy Patriot Love" (especially so the xenophobically jingoist sort which can quickly backfire to the point of inducing disloyalty), and so on and on in their rather pathetic stylee.

Case in point: Bobbie Frank, who runs OReilly-Sucks.com, a daily exugenesis of Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly @ Fox Prolefeed, posted onto Buzzflash some while back "The Bill O'Reilly 21 Spin Tips" as show insight into how Conservative Propaganda works in its relentless attempts @ "winning of hearts and minds" among so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" not expected to know better:

1) Adamantly declare your show a "No-Spin Zone" and repeat this often. Soon it will appear that your spin is not really spin!

2) Make as many vague general statements as you like because:

a) if they don't pan out, who cares?
b) if they do, then you can take credit for being FIRST to tackle the issue!

3) Go for the easy targets: politicians and celebrities, and if they don't know who you are or decline to appear on your show, then portray them as being "afraid" of you because they know they're "wrong".

4) Always refer to yourself as a "reporter" and to your show as a "news program," no matter how sensationalistic the topics you have chosen.

5) Label everyone who doesn't agree with you a "liberal", and use as many colorful adjectives as possible when describing the left wing. Label everyone and everything--you can never label people enough!

6) However, never use colorful adjectives when describing your position or that of other conservatives. Portray your position as scientific granite-hard fact!

7) If you say "I only deal in facts" with enough proud anger, you will easily offset anyone who questions you and they'll be less likely to demand your proof. Or just lie and take the high road.

8) In the rare instance someone does pursue proof of your "facts," just bulldoze them with questions and opinions to create an air of 'you-must-be-crazy-to-believe-otherwise.'

9) If someone continues to demand cited facts, then say "Everyone we've talked to says so." Then book a few selected inconspicuous guests in the future to come on and back your statement. You can easily represent any group's opinion in any way you want by doing things this way!

10) Pick several obscure fringe issues to bring up during each show. It's, of course, a breeze to be right when ranting about them and this scores easy sensational-points.

11) The more questions you can fire at a guest without giving them a chance to answer, the more "authority" status you gain and the more credibility they lose. AKA The O'Reilly Master Method.

12) Whenever you get into trouble during a debate just align yourself with the working class. In fact, you can pull out your "hero-for-the-struggling-people" act for any tight spot you may find yourself in. Never underestimate how powerful it is to exploit this! A related and untouchable spin is the "hero-for-the-little-children" act.

13) If you have a guest who is beating you in debate, simply overpower them with questions, demands for facts, or just change the subject with the segue "Ok, look, let's get back to the issue," and then bring up a new issue. Remember, it is extremely easy to make an unprepared guest look bad.

14) In-between questions make little comments, unfinished question fragments, or subtle sarcastic quips that express what you really think, then quickly interrupt yourself with your next scripted question. These little remarks are pure golden spin!

15) If you have ever been to a foreign country always bring that fact up, especially if you've been to one where violent conflict was occurring (or at least nearby). This is a great defense if ever your 'journalistic integrity' is threatened or if you need to interject some patriotism to throw off a guest.

16) When all else fails, make a face of pity and say something religious like "Well, I know God blesses you," or "I don't think Jesus would do that, but...."

17) At the end of every interview just say "We'll let the viewers decide." This nicely removes your responsibility for most of the things you've just said.

18) Always take your position to the extreme when dealing with simple mundane issues. This keeps the sensationalism ball rolling.

19) Bring attention to ALL press you receive, good or bad. Also talk about press that is NOT about you as if it IS.

20) End your show with a humble-pie slice of criticism from your viewers, but always remember to follow each little run of bad opinions with one or two of praise. This end-spin is useful in many, many ways.

21) Portray all newspeople as 'afraid to ask' the 'hard-hitting' questions that you do, and tout that you get 'serious answers' even if most of your show is factually impotent. This effective spin is called the 'Viagra Tactic.'

Which, in the end, could mean the potential for conservative "spin" unwittingly getting out of control to the point of "Big Lie"-stylee recklessness under certain circumstances--requiring all the more vigilance on the part of REAL Right-Thinking Americans.

And challenging such who, in their claims of representing True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command (and want it "spun" accordingly), may (un)consciously cross the line into disloyalty--and will stop @ nothing to prevent Kankerdom from knowing this for fact, let alone the Secular-Progressive Blogosphere. Especially when it emergeth that such "spin" is really a repackaging of apartheid South African propaganda expecting White South Africa to "wholeheartedly" support, and without question or reservation, the cause of apartheid as one with G-d, Country and Racial Honour.

Especially the sort of challenge as sends the purveyors of "spin" to their own alcohol-fuelled demise (and recall that one of Fox Prolefeed's "heroes" in this regard, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, would succumb to cirrosis brought on by his enslavement to Al Cohol in 1957. Cirrosis aggravated by his own excesses of anti-Communist ego crashing into the brick wall of Reality when his hastily-summoned Army-McCarthy Hearings came to a sudden, yet abrupt, end when asked "Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of Decency?" on national television--and his refusing to accept the bitter aftertaste of defeat).

Come to think of it: Maybe it was time to ask the Conservative Propaganda Masheen for once "Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, @ long last? Have you left no sense of Decency?"--and see how they react.

Especially after the tabloid news shows pick up the juicy details, helped by the Secular-Progressive Blogosphere in its "irresponsibility."

WITH QUITE A FEW PRECIOUS-METALS DEALERS STARTING TO EXPLOIT THE CURRENT SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITION, AND RELATED PARANOIA, to push gold as a "safe haven" investment in difficult times, you have to wonder for yourself if many such as are more blatant in their paranoia have connexions to the weird and unwholesome element.

Especially so the Extreme Right, whose articles of faith call for the "complete and final" reinstatement of pre-1933 monetary policy linking the dollar to gold--preferably without the "unbearing interference" of the Federal Reserve System, based on flimsy Constitutional Arguments.

Not to mention such scare tactics to market gold as a "safe" investment targeting especially the ignorant and unsophsticate.

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WITH RECYCLABLE MATERIALS (AS IN PAPER, CARDBOARD, ALUMINUM, STEEL, GLASS AND PLASTICS) NOT GENERATING MUCH OF A PROFIT among recyclers and such sponsoring recycling-collection schemes thanks to declining prices and the current socioeconomic situation, such may be starting to lose value for money. (Case in point.)

Next thing you know, expect the likes of so-called "Wise Use" groups looking for some "Fundamental of the Economy" stupid enough to parrot their slogans and platitudes according to script to file a Taxpayer Lawsuit challenging the legality of mandatory kerbside recycling collection schemes as "contrary to the Natural Law" and, therefore, unlikely to "generate taxpayer value" under current circumstances--same seeking a suspension of recycling collections until such time as market conditions and prices stabilise to ensure viability thereof.

Only it turns out that such exposes the farce behind the whole agenda of the "Wise Use" Movement--based, by and large, on doublethink and The Big Lie, both deliberate, with intent to mislead and confuse especially the ignorant and unsophisticated--"Fundamentals of the Economy," so to speak, expected to see Fox Prolefeed as the only credible source of news and information. Especially so its resort to "dog-whistle" code suggesting nothing less than waste, inefficency and cartel behaviour generally as part of "United Front" campaigns among the pro-business element holding "undue and unnecessary regulatory burden" as one with hindering prosperity and "freedom" (which, in right-wing thought, is really closer to enslavement to State-protected cartel behaviour).

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AND TALK ABOUT UNFAIR DISPARAGEMENT, ESPECIALLY SO THE KIND TARGETING THOSE NEEDING HELP WITH SUBSTANTIAL DEBT-RELATED PROBLEMS: John "Transforming Debt Into Wealth" Commuta has started running adverts for his "system" suggesting that counsellors with "not-for-profit" debt-counselling agencies (among them the Consumer Credit Counselling Service) are really in the employ of credit-card issuers, thereby raising "conflict-of-interest" issues contrary to the (supposed) best interests of those needing help with their debt issues while (on the one hand) wanting to maintain good credit-bureaux records and (on the other) avoid recourse to filing for bankruptcy protection.

Or so he wants you and I believing.

Unfortunately, Basic Principle 2 of the Advertising Code of the Council of Better Business Bureaux hath it that "Advertisements which are untrue, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, falsely disparaging of competitors, or insincere offers to sell, shall not be used."

And Basic Principle 3, op. cit.: "An advertisement as a whole may be misleading although every sentence separately considered is literally true. Misrepresentation may result not only from direct statements but by omitting or obscuring a material fact."

Come to think of it, "debt negotiation/settlement" services could likely be making (howbeit subtly) much the same insincere or disparaging charges of the aforementioned John Commuta vis-a-vis not-for-profit credit-counselling agencies by their suggesting exclusive access to "secret debt-reduction strategies most credit-card issuers don't want you to know about"--but why call them "secret" in the first place when they may be subject to trade-secrets registration which they're likely to contend is "undue or unnecessary regulatory burden," parroting the line of pro-business Zealots and True Believers as are probably among their best and dearest droogs?

(What's more, the "secret strategies" they're pushing turn out to be such as discourage further contact with creditors and, instead, pay the "debt settlement" companies who, it turns out themselves, pocket all the money without any good faith effort to contact creditors in the name and behalf of their clientele ... and, in the end, the creditors turn over the past-due accounts to collection agencies for approriate legal action, credit ratings are compromised, and those thus targeted are reduced to seeking bankruptcy protection.

(Put simply, "debt negotiation" companies are using projection as a scaremongering tactic to pander to Kankerdom, by and large their dominant target clientele.)

Is this any way to pander to current circumstances when it's emerging that bankers are still deploying tightened lending and credit-issuance standards to the extent where the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" have little recourse for finance beyond fee-based "loan brokerages" and Morris Plan-stylee lenders?

IF THE OLD SCOTS-GERMAN SUPERSTITION IS TO BE BELIEVED, IT LOOKS AS IF THE EAST AND MIDWEST WILL SEE six weeks more of winter according to Punxsutawney Phil and Sun Prairie Jimmy, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the Northeast Corridor, Staten Island Chuck and Malvern Mel concurred in predicting the imminence of an early onset of spring, having not seen their respective shadows this morning.

And across the South, General Beauregard Lee, outside Atlanta, predicted an early spring for Dixie by virtue of not seeing his shadow.

(The prediction of Punxsutawney Phil, however, should be approached with the proverbial grain of salt: The Groundhog Club, which sponsors the annual ceremony on Gobbler's Knob outside of the Pennsylvania hamlet, determines the annual prediction in advance.)

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ONCE AGAIN, WE ARE REMINDED OF THE FACT THAT THE SAME KEITH RUPERT MURDOCH BEHIND FOX PROLEFEED IS LIKEWISE BEHIND THE BRITISH SUNDAY GAZETTA NEWS OF THE WORLD, which published yesterday supposed photographs of Olympics swimming champion Michael Phelps smoking cannabis from a crudely-designed bong.

The which, no doubt, is likely to result in a number of companies invoking their Morals Clause in endorsement deals with Mr. Phelps, essentially cancelling same as a Morals Risk; this notwithstanding Mr. Phelps having regretted the lapse in judgement and apologising.

Which brings up the question of whether the photo in question was really staged or otherwise Photoshopped using a lookie-likee to deliberately discredit Mr. Phelps for the eventual benefit of Fox Prolefeed exploiting same for their own propaganda ends about America's Great Moral Lapse.

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THE GREAT PEANUT BUTTER SCARE OF 2009 TAKES A NEW TURN with this morning's announcement by Kroger, with supermarkets in 31 states under its own name--and other prestigious regional names like King Soopers, Ralph's, Fred Meyer, Hilander, Fry's, Dillon's, Smith's, QFC, Gerbe's, Baker's, Scott's, PayLess, JayC, Owen's and City Market--announcing the recall of cookies and cakes containing peanut butter from its in-store bakeries because of the danger of salmonella poisoning.

Not to mention Kroger's house-brand peanut butter, itself subject of a previous recall announcement. (FYI, Peanut Corporation of America, the company @ the heart of the scare, also produces own-label peanut butter for a number of supermarket chains across the country.)

Already, some 850 cases of salmonella poisoning have been confirmed nationwide since the scare first broke around the holidays.

(Incidentally, most of the leading brands of jar peanut butter, among them Peter Pan, Jif, Skippy and Smucker's, are still safe to consume.)

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HOW DO WE KNOW IT WASN'T REALLY THE HUGO CHAVEZ REGIME USING GOON SQUADS INVOKING ITS NAME AND AUTHORITY that was behind the desecration and vandalism of a Jewish synagogue in Caracas @ the weekend, replete with graffito spray-painted throughout calling for Jews to leave Venezuela posthaste?

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BEIJING, MEANWHILE, IS GETTING RATHER SCARED TO THE POINT OF PARANOID ABOUT THE CURRENT SOCIOECONOMIC CRISIS translating into Social Disorder and Rioting Affecting the Power and Authority of the Communist Party in this its 60th year of power in China, what with newly-issued Labour Ministry reports showing where some 20 million migrant workers no longer have jobs and have been forced to return to rural areas whence they originally came from.

Especially complicating the situation is the fact of the recently-completed Lunar New Year/Spring Festival holidays, when many traditionally return home for family reunions, finding many millions of migrant workers without jobs to come back to in the cities ... and the rural areas whence they originally came from not having much in the way of job prospects, come to think of it.

The whole, no doubt, conspiring to create a scenario as threatens to undermine the Communist Party's monopoly on power by way of civil disorder and unrest among the newly-unemployed, for which there may be grave difficulties trying to control.

A situation which may bear watching as the year wears on.

MAY I BE SO KIND(?!) TO ASK CERTAIN CONSERVATIVE TYPES (AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) where they get such Mickey Mouse ideas as:

• only white European-American Low Church Christians being truly capable of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command;
• free-market capitalism in its "purest" form being the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes (when what they really want is nothing short of Government-Protected Cartel Behaviour, with major detrius ensuing to both businesses and consumers alike);
• anyone subscribing to "liberal" or "Secular-Progressive" views should be looked upon in the same league as Communists when, in fact, Liberalism and Secular-Progressivism are ideologically imcompatible with Communism; and
• there should be conducted Loyalty Reviews on especially "welfare basket cases," "troublemakers," "liberal" Congressmen and media types, "heathens" and other "dubious types"--same to be excused as "preemptive" based on flawed or flimsy rationales, hearsay evidence and other deceptive strategems.

AS ONE OF THE GREAT SILENT MINORITY (SO TO SPEAK) HAVING NO INTEREST IN THE SUPER BOWL OR ITS BYPRODUCTS, Your Correspondent thought it might be interesting to fix some turkey curry in the slow cooker for his, shall we say, "lupper" today.

Over rice, as a matter of fact.

The aforementioned curry being made using Patak's Mild Curry Paste and organic diced tomatoes picked up @ the local groceries cooperative on Friday on a whim. (Think of curry paste, as it were, as a concentrate, to be added with water, tomatoes, meat--and heated.

(Even if it requires stirring up the curry paste to get it into the proper form for cooking. Which can sometimes happen when it's been on the shelf for quite awhile.)

Come to think of it, doesn't the smell of cooking curry have that sort of whimsical quality about it?

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THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES NO LONGER HAS THE GLOBAL MONOPOLY ON RELIGIOUS ATTRACTING ATTENTION for equating major natural disasters with Divine Wrath and Judgment: Pope Benedict XVI has elevated Austrian parish priest Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner to the post of Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Linz (eventually becoming full bishop once the Holy See has confirmed the retirement of the outgoing such).

Yes, the same Rev. Wagner who made headlines in Austria shortly after Hurricane Katrina's devastation upon New Orleans in 2005 with remarks in a local Catholic gazetta suggesting that same was a show of Divine Retribution upon The Crescent City for tolerating homosexuality, abortion and sexual licence.

Which puts him in good company--as in Rev. Fred "Westboro Baptist Church" Phelps, Pat "700 Club" Robertson and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, all of whom equated Katrina's devastation upon New Orleans as one with Divine Wrath and Judgement Upon America, as if suggesting that G-d was Withdrawing His Special Protection Upon America for Straying From Divinely-Ordained Will.

Back in Austria, not everyone is pleased with the papal appointment; as per the Associated Press via Yahoo News:

Hans Padinger, spokesman for the Upper Austrian priest's council, told the Oberoesterreichische Rundschau newspaper that he was "not very pleased" with the pick because it gave him the general impression the Vatican made no attempt to communicate with the Linz Diocese about the matter.

Upper Austrian priest and church dean Franz Wild said he was "appalled" by the decision and that he found it astonishing that someone with such extreme positions could be appointed to a post that was meant to unify.

"I hope it's clear to the church that we're living in the 21st century and that it also has to live there," the newspaper quoted Wild as saying on its Web site.

Franz Guetlbauer, head of a Catholic men's movement, described the appointment as a "extremely conservative sign." The organization "We are Church" predicted that the appointment would push people to leave the church.

Upper Austria Governor Josef Puehringer also weighed in, describing Wagner as a "very conservative cleric" and telling broadcaster ORF that the pick suggests the Vatican does not have a realistic picture of the diocese.

(But on the other hand, Phelps, Robertson and Falwell, among others of that ilk, have never been very kind to the Catholic Church, believing as they do that American Christian Heritage must always be based on Low Church teachings and disciplines.)

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STAYING ON THE RELIGION FRONT FOR A MOMENT, ANOTHER MORALLY-CONSERVATIVE RELIGIOUS FIGURE THAT THE ELMER GANTRY CROWD IS SURE TO LOVE would have to be the newly-enthroned Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, himself the former Metropolitan (read: deputy) to the late Patriarch Alexy II.

Patriarch Kirill makes history himself, being the first Russian Orthodox Patriarch to be enthroned since the collapse of the Former Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the church operating clandestinely thanks to Communist objections to religion as "the opiate of the masses;" this on top of his being the 16th such in its history.

When you get right down to it, however, Patriarch Kirill's social and moral stands are likely to be especially attractive for the sake of moral agreement among Fundamentalist and Primitive Christians here in our "morally superior" United States: His Eminence has spoken out highly against acceptance of, and tolerance for, abortion, homosexuality, multiculturalism and church-state separation, not to mention supporting a xenophobically nationalist vision of Mother Russia having "distinctive cultural and national identity and values" cf. "civilised" Western societies thus seen as "morally and spiritually bankrupt," and has called for religious instruction to be included in the public-education syllabus.

What strange bedfellows the Religiopolitical Right must have in Patriarch Kirill ... which will no doubt be worth watching in the coming weeks.

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IS IT JUST ME, OR ARE THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY'S ARTICLES OF FAITH BORDERLINE DOUBLETHINK? I ask this in view of this article @ the Wisconsinology blog, which points out just how contradictory the Bircher agenda vis-a-vis the Greater Conservative such, when you get right down to it, happens to be.

Especially considering where John Bircherdom still prefers to conduct its mission of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command (or so they see things) in utmost Freemasonic secrecy, not to mention playing the same tactics pecuilar to Communist propaganda for "winning of hearts and minds" purposes in seeking (to use its motto) "Less Government, More Responsibility, and--With G-d's Help--a Better World", never mind where its early notoriety in the late 1950's and early 1960's may have led to its going all the more Freemasonic in its operations, tactics and strategems.

Rather ironic for a group which has long been rather uneasy with Freemasons and Freemasonry supposedly being part of a Greater Conspiracy Threatening Our Holy and Beloved Nation and Her Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity, howbeit absent credible documentation apart from forgeries. Not to mention proving all the more attractive to the same weak-minded, vulnerable and easily-led audience as Fox Prolefeed.

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NEWS CERTAIN TO PLEASE THE XENOPHOBE AND THE NATIVIST BELLYACHING ABOUT "REAL AMERICANS" ALL THE MORE UNABLE TO FIND JOBS under the current state of socioeconomic uncertainty: The Associated Press hath it that many of the larger banks obtaining Federal bailout assistance had super-secret designs on importing foreign "guest workers" to handle backroom operations with reckless and utter disregard for unemployed Americans needing work.

Expect such to be the hot topic (and then some) within measurable distance on "patriot," nativist and racist websites, weblogs and "news portals" for no purpose other than to pander to latent and @ once primitive racist and nativist arrogance in Those Who Should Know Better.

(Not exactly related, but in much the same vein, is where refinery workers in England staged an unofficial protest Friday @ a refinery owned by French oil company Total Elf Aquatine in response to rumours that Polish "guest workers" would be brought in to fill positions without due regard for unemployed British workers needing jobs.

(And there are those, no doubt, forever suggesting that Roe v. Wade is to blame for "serious labour shortages" in our supposedly "morally superior" society, as if suggesting that reversal thereof would save American jobs, industry and Our Soverignty and Soverign Identity....)

I'M NOT THE SORT AS WOULD BE CONSIDERED A SPORTS FAN, OR--FOR THAT MATTER--A TV WATCHER; in fact, I gave up on the vidiot's lantern of Diogenes some years back as a complete and utter waste of time.

In any case, tomorrow's Super Bowl came up when I called up Motherdear on the ameche this afterlunch, and she, in her 87-year-old, Great Depression-influenced mindset, fretted and feigned outrage over the excesses of money spent by many on Super Bowl-watching parties and the food for same.

Especially considering the current socioeconomic situation forcing many to cut back all the more on their spending.

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MEMO TO SUCH WHO STILL INSIST THAT ANYONE PROMOTING "UN-AMERICAN" VIEWPOINTS IS SOMEHOW A CLOSET COMMUNIST, especially so the Fox Prolefeed crowd:

• Have you any evidence to substantiate your claims?
• Do you have any basic understanding of Communist ideology and belief, especially so its key article of faith calling for the use of force or violence by the workers--er, "Fundamentals of the Economy"--to seize, eventually controlling, the means of production?
• Since when did America=The World, and vice versa?
• How do we know you're not secretly admiring the propaganda tactics of apartheid South Africa with an eye towards adopting them to conservative American ideology, or reasonable facsimile thereof?

THOUGHTS WHILE CRUSHING ALUMINUM CANS @ THE MOTEL I DO FOR earlier this morning: Racist and white-supremacist groups, in the interest of "winning of hearts and minds" across the Information Stuporbahn--especially so the easily-influenced and vulnerable juvenile--have been taking to offering video games with subtle propaganda messages justifying race war or other forms of Extreme Ultraviolence against especially National Minorities.

Which, as it turns out, are probably illegal in Canada, certain European countries and Australia, where prevailing legislation requires video-game publishers to submit such to the local ratings and review board (and, on top of that, further prohibits sale, distribution or marketing of unrated video games and gaming software, under pain of fine and/or penal servitude); this over and above laws proscribing Hate Literature, Holocaust Denial and Promotion of Violence Against Identifiable Minorities--hence, forcing such hatemongering video games "under the counter" when it comes to retail channels.

Meanwhile, here in our presumably "morally superior" society, such racist video games are unlikely to get approval from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), an industry-sponsored review panel--about the only way such can be sold through mainstream outlets based on their ratings system:

• EC (Early Childhood)
• E (Everyone)
• E10+ (Everyone 10 years and upwards)
• T (Teen; i.e., 13 years and upwards)
• M (Mature; i.e., 16 years and upwards)
• AO (Adults Only; i.e., 18 years and upwards)